Nikki Katz

This weekend we headed up to Disneyland for Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat and Halloween Time at Disneyland Resort. We had such a great time!

Friday we left the house early, knowing it would be a long drive with traffic and heading from San Diego to Anaheim! We left enough time to stop for dinner and to check into our hotel. After some nightmare jams getting into the park, we stopped for our tickets and waited for CA Adventure to open. During Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat they close the park to all regular ticket holders and you have to have your own special pass! It’s a steal at only $29 per person. We were let into the park early, where they had dancing and music at Candy Corn Acres. At 7:30 we were let loose into the rest of the park. The majority of rides were open (except the Grizzly River Run) and we raced through Monsters Inc and Soaring Over California without any lines at all.

Then it was time to hit up the treat stations. And there were plenty! Some areas of the park were open for treat station walks and we filled up our bags with more candy and snacks than you can imagine. Chocolate, Tootsie Rolls, raisin boxes, and even pre-packaged cut up apples (we actually lived on those for about 36 hours!)

One of my favorite parts of the evening was the character meet-and-greets. Instead of the typical characters and princesses, there were a lot of “villians” floating through the park. We had our picture taken with, and got our autograph book signed by, the Queen in Snow White, Anastasia/Drizella/Lady Tremaine and my husband even got swatted on the head by the Queen of Hearts! After a few more rides and the mini-parade, it was time to head to the hotel. A late night at 11:30 for three little kids and their parents!

The next morning we were in Disneyland by 9:00. We headed straight to the Haunted Mansion (which is decorated a la Nightmare Before Christmas). From there we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean, the Winnie the Pooh ride, and Indiana Jones Adventure. For those of you who don’t get to Disneyland early, I advise that you try it sometime. It’s great to just breeze right into some of these rides and not feel so rushed!!

By 10:30 the park was starting to get crowded and lines were forming everywhere, so we headed over to Aladdin’s Oasis for a private venue. The entire weekend was sponsored as a media/blogging event (i.e. free tickets for us!) and this particular venue allowed the children to relax, color pictures, decorate their own pumpkin cookie, and meet-and-greet with Jasmine, Aladdin, and the Genie. We chatted with Aladdin for quite a while and he assured us that he’d be going trick-or-treating as Abu.

After two rides on the train (the baby needed a nap) we visited Toon Town, the Carousel, and then settled down for the parade. The past two times we’ve been to Disneyland we haven’t been able to see the parade. The first time it was rained out and the second time it was due to wind (it was actually during the wildfires last year). So we were VERY excited to see the parade - and we weren’t disappointed! It was beautiful and the girls were in awe of all the characters and floats and music.

We were winding down and a bit exhausted, so we sprinted over to CA Adventure for three rides on Grizzly River Run before heading back to the garage and driving home. All in all it was a fabulous vacation and I’ll definitely make the trip up for Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat next year. Note to self, make sure the kids wear costumes. I think we were the only ones there not dressed up!

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