For Thanksgiving this year we had an amazing weekend at Disneyland! It had been too long since we had a little getaway just the two of us, and what better place to spend it than Disneyland. A place that is very special to us. : )
On this trip we got to do a lot of things that we have not done at the parks before. Which made the trip even more special. I'll break our "firsts" down into parts here....
Thanksgiving at the Disneyland Hotel
We started off the trip with an amazing Thanksgiving dinner at the Disneyland Hotel's Grand Ballroom. The room was stunning and the food was unbelievable.
The whole experience surpassed our expectations!
The buffet tables were amazing!
So many wonderful things to sample!!
They had a live band playing and singing Christmas music. : )
How good does that chocolate fountain look? They thought of everything. You could even get bananas foster. : )
I couldn't get over how beautiful (and big) the room was!
They had 4 spots to take photos with characters---and about every 30mins the characters would change.
Fireworks on the rooftop
We stayed at the Paradise Pier hotel (and once you see the view from our room, you will understand why we picked this hotel). Every night that DL has fireworks, the guests at the hotel can go to the roof top, watch the fireworks and the hotel pipes in the audio for you to listen to. It was really fun!!
It was freezing, so Brody grabbed me a blanket from the room. :)
World of Color Room Service
From our room he had the most AMAZING view of California Adventure! It was perfect for watching World of Color, and it was awesome seeing it from up that high. The hotel had a 'World of Color audio channel' that we could listen to the show from our room.
Also when we got back to our room that night, they had left us 4 Mickey rice crispy treats!!
They made for a great viewing snack! : )
(This channel also played the Christmas audio from Disneyland, so we left it on to fall asleep to)
Bottom right photo shows our room from the parks!
One of the photos of the view from our room! : )
Fireworks & Castle/Tree lighting
This wasn't a first, but we had a great view. We actually caught the very first lighting of the tree and castle of the season a couple weeks ago. But we were surprised we got such a great spot for this and the fireworks on such a bust night. : )
The photo to the far left in 'Push', he is a talking, signing and moving trash can in Tomorrowland---This was our first Push sighting. He's really funny!
The photo to the far right are Gingerbread Mickeys with an eggnog dipping sauce. They were SO good!
With our hotel stay we got Fastpasses for World of Color. It had been since summer since we saw it last, and it was great to be given Fastpasses with our stay!! It made seeing the show so easy! : )
A 'Magic Morning'
Also with our hotel stay, we got what is called 'Magic Morning', where we can get into the park and start going on rides an hour before the park opens! It was a blast, and we got 4 rides in and had breakfast before the park opened! : )
Our favorite was Small World, because we were the ONLY guests around!
A rare shot in front of the castle with no one around! : )
A Small World, just for us!!
Breakfast at the Carnation Cafe!
MMmmmmmm......
Our photo's with the Christmas tree! This was Brody's idea, and I LOVE them!!
Wheel house of the Mark Twain
We got to ride up at the top of the Mark Twain with the cast member who is in charge of getting the Twain around the Rivers of America.
On this ride we got to each blow the loud whistle, it was SUCH a fun way to ride---and a perfect first ride on the Mark Twain for Brody! : )
There were photos of Walt up in the same room we were. It was neat to experience these things the Walt loved so much, that we hadn't done before. : )
I got to blow the whistle twice as we came up to the canoes.
Brody got to do it twice, but for longer as we came back around to the docks!
The middle photo was another first, a Dole Whip float! They are SO good!
And of course our Christmas photo with Goofy!
(I am going to miss those letters when they go)
We finally took some time to see a parade! The Holiday one is really cute!
The Lilly Belle
I think this was our favorite part---and we saved the best for last!
This is the Lilly Belle. The Lilly Belle was the Disney's personal car of the Disneyland Train. It was not only named after his wife, but also after the first train he built in his backyard, which served as his inspiration for building Disneyland. This car has not always been open to the public, from what the CM told us, it became open to the public on a very limited basis during the 50th Anniversary, and even today is not always on the tracks. It is still the way Mrs. Disney decorated it, and they only go in to do minor refurbishments.
The photo to the bottom left, is Walt's smoking jacket. And the photo to the right is the train ticket they give you after your ride.
They have Disney family photo albums to look through, and a guest book to sign. We even got to sit in Walt's personal favorite chair!
Even though the public can ride in the car on a limited basis, it is mainly celebrities and major politicians. The cast member who took us around said that Johnny Depps' favorite spot is the bottom right photo.
A full shot of the inside. It is so beautiful!!
Us just outside of the car! : )
We did SO much on our stay at the parks; it was such an amazing weekend and we can't wait for more stays at the resort, we had a blast!!
