Ep. 733: Holidays at Disneyland Resort, Tiana's Bayou Adventure
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You're listening to Mousetalgia for December 2, 2024. Hang on to them hats and glasses, cause this here is the wildest podcast in the wilderness. This is Mousetalgia. Carpe Kingdom, seize the magic. ♪

Welcome to Nostalgia, your podcast about Disneyland, Disney history, and living the Disney life. My name is Jeff, and I'm here with my two co-hosts for the week, Tina and Julia. Thanks for joining me, you guys. Well, you're very welcome. Hello, everyone. Good to have you guys. So we are going to talk about

holidays at the Disneyland Resort this week. We all had a chance to go down on the second weekend of the holiday time and visit the park and do some stuff. And we did some of the same things and some different things. And so we're just going to give a general holiday trip report, tell you what you can expect if you are going to head down to Disneyland this holiday season.

And maybe give a few reviews, the goods and the bads and the uglies. I don't know if there were any uglies. Maybe there were some uglies. I don't know. We'll find out. We'll see. But there were a lot of goods. Spoiler alert. But before anything, let me thank my sponsor, MEI Mouse Fan Travel. So as you know, Mouse Fan Travel is a fee-free Disney travel agency. So anything you want to do Disney-related, go to

Maybe go to Walt Disney World. Maybe go to Disneyland. Maybe book a stay in a Disney hotel. Book a Disney cruise. Maybe go see the snow at Disneyland Paris. See the snow at Disneyland Paris. You know, I had one of my good friends. Actually, this is just a side note. The mother of the voice of the young dinosaur and the good dinosaur, who's now in college, by the way. Oh, wow. I can't keep up with her kids either. My own or hers.

But her daughter actually is working as a cast member, just started at Disneyland Paris. So super excited for her. Oh, wow. I know. That's awesome. Yeah. She's an amazing performer and she's down there. So yeah, you might be wanting to go see the snow-capped castle top at Disneyland Paris or Adventures by Disney. Whatever you want to do Disney related, go to mousefantravel.com and get yourself no obligation quote and see what they can do for you. Mousefantravel.com. All right, my friends, here we are.

Let's see. Are we going to do a charcuterie this week? Let's do a charcuterie. The Mousetalgia Charcuterie. It's Thanksgiving. It is Thanksgiving. It's a great time for charcuterie. So here's the thing, though. So we were recording this a couple of days ago. It's near Thanksgiving. Yeah. So we were recording this before Thanksgiving. However, I have lots of...

teaching and traveling to Idaho to do before Thanksgiving. So I may not have a chance to mix this in the next 24 hours. It is the season of a good charcuterie board. So what I believe is going to happen is that this will probably be out for Monday, December 2nd. So, but it is the season of eating. So it is Thanksgiving. Why don't we just throw, and it's the whole season of time to be thankful, right? So let's just throw that out there. What is the 2024 Disney season?

happening, item, attraction, event, anything that you are the most thankful for? Tina. I'm glad you called on Tina first. Well, give me no time to think about it, but I think the easiest thing would be is that I'm continuing to be an annual pass holder or a magic key holder that allows me to go to Disneyland like we just did. So as much as

You know, the price has increased. I'm still able to enjoy it and I will continue to do so. So I will say that. Fair enough. That's a good one. I like that.

I, this isn't going to be my final answer, but I am thankful for monthly payments for my Magic Key. And that. What am I most thankful for? Let's go with, and I talk about this probably every month on Pal-A-Round, but the Walt Disney Family Museum has kept us very busy lately.

with great events this year. So I am thankful for all of the hard work of the staff over at the Walt Disney Family Museum and all of the great events that they've had this year.

We first met at the Walt Disney Family Museum, all three of us. We did. Yep, yep, we sure did. On the same day, boom, Tina came over and she's like- About 15 years ago. We listened to you, and I would like to introduce you to my friend who introduced me to you, who is too shy to say hi. And here she is. I was. And here we are. You can see me in the, part of me, in the photo of Kristen penning Tina at the museum. That's right.

I was Peter Pan excited. Way back when. You are going to have to dig through the Facebook Nostalgia Archives to get there. 15 years worth of photos. That's right. So that's right. Okay. So that's good. Yeah. We love the Walt Disney Family Museum. I'm going to say I am thankful that Julia and I became friends.

DVC owners over at the Disneyland Hotel because we have been struggling to use her DVC even though it's, you know, Aulani is a great place to have DVC and it's wonderful, but we struggle to use it in a way that really

It was effective for our Disney touring habits, and the Disneyland Hotel DVC points we have now is going to help a lot. So I am really grateful that we were able to do that. Congratulations. Yeah, well, thank you. And we all have something really, I think, valid to be thankful for. And they were kind of big, I guess, I didn't quite expect this, but those are kind of big ticket items. I mean...

I'm also very thankful for some super tiny, minuscule little things that I... In fact, just today on eBay, I got an autograph for, I think it was $12 or $15. But it's actually the singing voice from Once Upon a Wintertime. Wow. Frances Langford. That's actually really cool. Yeah, she sang Once Upon a Wintertime. And she's done some other... More like... She was more of a patriotic. She was in a lot of those...

GI films and like she traveled a lot with during World War II but she was picked by Disney to sing Once Upon a Wintertime for the you know for what are their names is it they're Joe and Jenny Joe and Jenny right and I I believe there's no words like it's it's Joe and the

And the two rabbits, right? And each of the boys have their girlfriends become imperiled in the broken ice and everyone has to try to figure out what to do. And it's a love story of tragedy, but then victory and romance. It's all in there, right? And we say goodbye, December. Mary bells no longer chime. We'll remember once upon a winter time.

And it's probably time for a watch through. Yeah, I was trying to go check out. It's Mary Blair, of course. I think she wrote it, maybe, but she definitely styled it. And Cullen had some definite color influence there. So once upon a winter time. But yeah, I thought that's really cool. Like, you know how I like to

pin autographs to displays, right? So now I can get a, now I can start a whole Once Upon a Wintertime collection somehow to cycle around this autograph. So that was pretty cool. Anyway, grateful for that too. Keep us updated on what you find. Sure, I will. Here you leave today to hear a podcast from the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy. Nostalgia. The Magic. The Magic.

All right. So let's move on and talk about holiday time at the Disneyland Resort. Now, I will say that my holiday time trip was planned, let's see, 37 hours before we actually went to Disneyland. So it was kind of a quick, like, I mean, I should say, Julie and I kind of, four days before, like the weekend, I guess the end of the week on Monday, I think is when. So we went on

We drove down there Friday and Monday is when I looked at her and said, you know, there's not going to be a chance for us to take the kids to Disneyland this holiday because we were kind of starting to book up things and we were looking at different dates for this and that. And they all have performances every weekend. And we kind of realized this might be it. So then we quickly decided since both of our 12 year olds are born, were born in the same year, I'm in the same month, even though they were from, you know, nothing

Nathaniel was adopted and they're, you know, nothing in common other than now they're part of the same blooded family. They're kind of like twins. So we decided they're going to both turn 13 in December. Let's make this their 13th birthday trip.

So that's what we did. We told Camille because she was the sticky wicket here. If she couldn't break up a bunch of her plans, because you know how 17-year-old seniors are. Like, everything, every minute is planned with events, right? I can't believe she's 17, first of all. I know. I knew she had some... I know, right?

Right. She was just a little a little toddler when you guys met her. But she's still just as cute. But she so she had voice lessons and like two birthday parties. And we're like, can you move some of this stuff around? And she did because she was super excited also to take her sister to Disneyland. So so the five of us rented a Suburban, jumped in, drove down to Disneyland, went

And it happened that you guys were going that same weekend. So I'm glad we could work this out and meet a couple times and have a trip report. It's going to be a great report. So let's start at the very beginning, which is always a very good place to start. Thank you, Becky. Let's talk about the decor. So Disneyland is always gorgeous during the holidays, right? There's just...

Almost nowhere. Some cities, you'll pay $20 to drive through their winter wonderland, and it's a few plywood things lit up with lights, and they decorate a few trees. But you just walk into Disneyland, and the entire place...

seems to be somehow a little bit more magical at the holiday times. So did anything strike either of you about the holiday time decor this year? I have to say, writing It's a Small World Holiday, which we pretty much did not long after we got there, Tina, put me in such a jolly mood that I don't think I have ever felt that good coming off of It's a Small World. Oh, wow. Yeah, I appreciated it.

Okay. It's gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous at Christmas too. So I think they have 50,000 lights on the Small World that are different lights. Like there's always lights, but different lights, holiday lights. We also went on Small World holiday. So I will say as a preface here, we did book the holiday tour and then we thought about it.

And then I talked to Julia about it. And I talked to you, Julia, and other Julia, all the Julia's about it. And we kind of and then we finally talked to Camille and said, hey, this is what the holiday tour is. Do you think our 13 year olds are going to find this valuable or do you think they will think, can't we just be going on rides? Yeah. So we did cancel it. I'm glad you're able to cancel it. Yeah.

Yeah. Like you got refunded and everything? Oh, yeah. You just cancel it and they don't. Okay. So I think there is... I think there's a cutoff, but I'm not certain that it's very...

Very long before. It might even be that same day. I'm not exactly sure. I'm not sure if all the restaurants you can cancel right away. So we kept making reservations for things that we didn't need, like Oga's. We got a dinner reservation there. Disney World now has some sort of foodish looking things there, Oga's. But it hasn't come to Disneyland yet as far as I know. And so there's really nothing. Like a plate of kind of cheese and a weird crackery thing. Mm-hmm.

You know, everything that's supposedly food there is like a little nut bowl. It's really nothing, right? So the kids were not going to be into that. And Julia and I just kind of wanted it because we knew we'd get a table and we don't often get to sit because of the five of us. And we don't often get to sit in a booth there. So we just kind of thought maybe they'll think that's cool. But then we realized, like, no, this is stupid. So we can't.

Well, because you can cancel two hours in advance. So if you wait for that two hour window, then you get charged $10 a person. So, or if you just don't show up. Similar with the Fantasmic Dining. So we did the Rancho de Zocalo Fantasmic Dining package. And I think they have a pretty short cancellation window too, or pretty, like, I think you can cancel pretty close to the moment, but

But I'll talk about that a little bit more when we talk about food. So we decided not to do that. And I think it was probably the best choice for us with 13-year-olds. They were pretty much ready to run as soon as we set foot in Disneyland. So I think that was the best choice. But you guys went on before. Yeah.

Tina, the holiday tour now, it's just is that the ones just on Main Street or is that the Main Street one? That's a totally different one. So that's a totally different. OK, so the holiday one, you still go around the parks, talk about the holiday events and the decorations and history. And do you get onto any attractions?

Small world. I must say, oh, did they? I don't think. You guys didn't go on small world? No, we did. We did. We did. And then it closed down like right after we got off. Oh, that's unfortunate. Yeah. And then it takes you over into California Adventure 2. Yeah. So they walk you around to look at the different things that are decorated. We just kind of figured.

And part of the deal, actually, the thing that kept us the longest is the chance to sit and watch the holiday parade from in front of the train station. Right. So you get a seat and you get to sit for a while. And as it turns out, Disneyland was a little rainier than they expected. The forecast had its bit.

It kind of followed the forecast, but I felt like it was a little more insistent, the rain, than I had been led to believe. Yeah, we kind of brought the rain with us from Northern California. Yeah. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't terrible. It was steady, though. It was steady and enough to keep you just kind of moist and cool, right? Coldish. So, you know, the point of it is that they canceled. They canceled both performances of the parade. But I don't know if the cavalcade was during the first

parade. And the only reason I say that when the first parade was scheduled to happen, because we were watching the second one and the cavalcade came from It's a Small World where we felt that with the second one, usually it goes from the train station down to It's a Small World. And this one came from It's a Small World. So I'm not sure if they had to cavalcade both parades. Okay. Well, why don't we just pause a moment here and why don't you just quickly review the cavalcade for us?

There's not a whole lot to review. I think it was, was it three cars? Three cars. So it was the double decker bus with all of various characters and parade performers just waving at people. And then Mickey and Minnie were in a car waving at people. And then Santa and Mrs. Claus were in another car. There was not even one reindeer? No.

I don't think there were any reindeer. No reindeer, no marching soldiers, no snowmen, no skating snowflakes, none of that. Just the characters themselves. That is a sad replacement. I have to say there was other performance besides the characters because the bakers were on the double-decker. Yeah, they had some of the dancers on there. Yeah, but not a lot of them. Yeah.

It was disappointing a little bit. I mean, it's raining. Obviously, it was slick and dangerous for them. So I totally understand a bit. It was too bad that it didn't go while we were there. The Christmas fantasy break.

Okay. So the long and short of it is, overall, it's way better that we canceled that holiday tour. Julie and I, maybe still to be complete, would like to try that sometime. Although we haven't done the train tour yet either. So we're behind on our tours. But the kids, I don't think that would have been really down their alley. So another thing, speaking of things we booked and then unbooked, was I kept on going to the Disneyland app pretty much every night while...

Well, after we made our quick decision to go until we left, trying to find somewhere to eat or something we could reserve or something. Yeah. And Docking Bay 7 kept coming up for dinner. And I thought, well, that's weird. Isn't it just a cafeteria? So one of them said special dining event, you know, and the options were 730 through 830, something like that. So I quick booked one. And then I told Julia, yeah.

She was sleeping because I do all this stuff when she's sound asleep. So she woke up and I said, I booked this thing. I don't even know really what's going on. And then she said, well, let's look into it. So it turns out that this just started with holiday time, I think, the 15th of November. And you know how Disney has Season of the Force and they changed the fireworks show for –

Galaxy's Edge. Same fireworks, obviously, but they have a different story and a different soundtrack. Do you know that? Do you guys know that? Okay, so people have kind of figured out, like, if you go eat at DocuMaze 7, but you kind of walk across to this place kind of hidden away, you can watch the fireworks and it's really calm and, you know, not a lot of people are there. So that kind of made its way around the internet. And so Disney, of course, got wind of it and then they decided to close it off and charge you, um,

$80 a person to stand there and watch the fireworks. So, so you get a food box, um, but we didn't do it. So we canceled this cause we've also got wisened up a little bit to the fact that the food was just not going to be worth anything, but, um, you get a food box and actually the menu sounded intriguing, but a little slight, um,

For sure better than the, I think, $90 food box that you can buy to sit up on the Tomorrowland.

What do you call that? The terrace. What is that viewing up on? Is it Tomorrowland Terrace? Is that what they call that? Up on top of the... Do you know what I'm talking about? Interventions, yeah. Yeah, we've done that a couple times after. Is it the terrace? Yeah, I don't remember. Yeah, so now you can eat up there. Tomorrowland Skyline Terrace. Yeah, yeah. They say that that's a dinner, but it's a box with cold... It says a cold dinner, and people have said it's literally a...

ham and cheese sandwich and a couple other things. Like, it does not seem to me... And also, I've watched the fireworks from up there. It's fine. Yeah, you can see them, but there's a lot of obstructed stuff from up there. So I'm going to say no to both of these things. Like, a big no to Disney's fireworks standing areas cash grab. Like, they literally want you to either pay them or just stand in the middle of a mob. You know what I mean? They don't let you...

just kind of find your place anymore and it's just I don't know so where were you standing in Galaxy's Edge for the fireworks down below by a Millennium Falcon or up by Docking Bay 7

Where was the viewing area? I think it was kind of down by the Millennium Falcon. They just block off a little bit of it. Well, so we didn't do it, right? So you don't know. So I don't know exactly. But I think it's that same place. That's what I'm led to believe. Wow. Yeah, that's new. So we'll see if that sticks. It is a great firework show, the Star Wars version. I'm a Star Wars guy, so...

If you can find a place to watch it where they're not going to charge you, like, good luck. We talked about going over there and watching the fireworks, but we wanted to hear the Christmas version of it. So, yeah.

We opted to go by It's a Small World and watch it back there. Yeah. And we watched it from Fantasmic because we ended up staying through Fantasmic to see it. So, well, I guess we got sidetracked from the decor, but I mean, that's okay. Like, this is a freewheeling trip report. That's okay. But, you know, as always, Disneyland decor for holidays, that's one of the highlights. I mean, even just looking in at the Candy Palace, looking at the aisles of

amazing treats is worth your time. Do you know what I mean? It's just everything there at Disneyland now is so perfectly holidayized and beautified. And I'm using words like I'm from Wicked. Holidayized and beautified. But it's such an amazing visual time at the park. Okay. So let's talk about, let's see.

Should we talk about... Is there anything to talk about attractions? I know that Haunted Mansion Holiday, you guys finally spotted the elusive thing we've talked about a couple times, at least on the Doom Buggies podcast. So tell us about Haunted Mansion Holiday. Well, there are a couple of changes. I know we talked about this on Doom Buggies, but possibly not here. Not too many changes, but yes, the...

The Bat in a Birdcage is back, which was a Mark Davis design, right? Yeah. Original design that they were thinking about putting in that made an appearance... Oh, geez. Was it last year? It was... During the summer? Yeah, I think it was 2023, right? Yeah, it was a while ago. Yeah. And then it was there and gone. Yeah. But it is back. And it used to be up by the...

The floating handle, what do you call that spot, Jeff? The Endless Hall, yeah. The Endless Hall. So it used to be up there, like right when you were going in, but now they've moved it down further into the Corridor of Doors, where it's much better lit. On the right-hand side. On the right-hand side. So keep an eye out for that. As far as the other change that I noticed, they have moved the jack, the Sandy Claws jack,

a portrait from the left side where the bride usually is when you're coming out of the attic to the right side where the snake eating the naughty and nice list usually was. But they've moved the snake further into the attic and then the portrait of Sandy Claus to the right-hand side. And then on the left-hand side, they have two jack-o'-lanterns. One that has like a jackhead and the other I think is a pumpkin. Okay.

Those were the changes that I noticed, aside from them changing out the gingerbread house. And the outside. The music outside is different. Usually it's that tingly kind of music, which I loved, right? Yeah. And now it's the songs, but in like an eerie sound. Yeah.

Thank you.

And I went back. In fact, I had some GoPro footage from when we were just there for the race. And I was like, was it there? Did it change even there? No, the symbols were there during the race. And now it's the actual song. Yeah. So they used to use the Phantom Matter music box. Is that what it is? Yeah, there's a gazebo where you hear the bride's music box. And that's what they used to use.

And yeah, they've changed that. I'm glad you mentioned that. I didn't really even register that until you said that. Yeah, that's different. So some changes to Unimagine Holiday. So Jillian did get us into the virtual queue for Tiana and we were group number 34. So that was pretty early in the morning. They called up about 11, I think, in the morning. So...

That would have been fun. Wouldn't it have been? That would have been nice. We were so close. We tried. We were kind of debating about, you know, how wet do we want to be? And Tina had a couple, you know, like, she had a couple ponchos. Tina and I regamed for it. Yes, we did.

Yeah. So, um, and through a series of unfortunate events, my wife, Julia could not join us, um, on Tiana. Um, I guess, I guess I can just, uh, explain how do I, how do I say this gently? Um,

Her phone became part of Davy Jones' locker. So she was over at Pirates of the Caribbean trying to unsuccessfully deal with that situation, which is, I mean, you know, when you drop, if you drop your phone in the pirates' flume, that's gone. Like, it's just gone. Like, what are they going to, what are they going to do? You know, they did. They tried. Well, I don't see, that's what I don't know. Did they really try or were they just being public relations-y about things? Like, I think.

I could tell you, like, that nothing's going to happen here. You know, I was kind of getting angry, not at any person, just at, like... The situation. The fate of... The fates that had unsmiled on us. How about frowned on us? How about frowned? The fates that had frowned on us. And so, but they did pull out, like, these water...

you know, like a little grabber thing that a person has to reach, you know, their remote or something or the, you know, curtain rod or something like that thing. Wasn't going to hold a phone. I could tell by looking at it, that's not going to, even if they see it there, it's not going to pick up a phone out of there. So, and then they said some stuff to her, like, well, if there's, if we can release the boats in, in,

in enough of a pattern so that they leave a break, maybe we can look for it or something. But I think all they were, I couldn't imagine, like there's, there cannot be a protocol where someone actually says, there it is, I'm going in. Like that can't be a thing, right? So I figured, I think at that moment they were kind of like, well, maybe we can make sure it's even in there, you know? So all of this was going on and I just was ready to

I knew nothing was going to come out of this. So we went on Tiana and let Julia deal with this. And she also needed a moment to cool her engines because she wasn't thrilled either. So it was a total fluke. She was getting out, and it just slipped out of her pocket. And we heard, boom, plush. And then it was gone. Oh, no. That two-inch slot was just enough for her phone between the dock and the boat. Jeff, we saw a whole adult female fall off.

through that slot. All into it. And it was the scariest thing I have ever seen. How did she do it? I mean, the boat must have tipped the other way or something. Like, how did she fit in there? I think she just missed the handrail. She was getting into the back. She was getting into the back. And she actually fit through. Cause like, I couldn't even see. Yeah. Now, now you will notice there are, there's like a little railing for you to hold on to. That was not there on that day. Huh.

And she just lost her balance as she was getting into the last row of the boat and went right in and did not come right back up. She was upside down. There was a gentleman in the boat behind that jumped in to get her out. It wasn't a cast member. It was a man. Because he knew she was stuck. Yes. She did not come right back up. Yeah. It was the scary, like completely submerged man.

It was horrifying. Every time me and Julie get on there, we just look at each other like, here we go. It was traumatic for everybody. Yeah. Okay. Well, then we'll try not to feel so bad about the iPhone that disappeared. And luckily, so we're on the ride home. We're like, what are we going to do? So Julia is always, we're always buying all the extra plan packages for everything. So I guess in a sense, luckily we had bought that. However, however, we also noticed that we were only three people.

payments away from owning that phone. So $60. So those, those big super payment plans are super great. If you lose your phone after you just bought it and it's still worth a thousand dollars, but you know, so, and so her, and the deductible on losing your phone is $250.

So Julia was like me, just fed up. So she just went home and bought a new phone. So she has the upgrade. However, we're still going to try to get like, so if she can get from Disneyland, if they find it, then we can claim it as being damaged because we still have it. Then the deductible is $99 to get a new phone as it is right now. Even if we just have to call it lost and

and get the deductible of $250. It's still, they'll send us a new or some kind of comparable iPhone replacement to her 13, which we can maybe flip on eBay or who knows. So somehow we hopefully are going to

Get a little bit ways towards buying her new iPhone. But that was just a whole thing. That's just a little story for our listeners out there who could care less about any of this. So that's why Julia wasn't with us. Yes. Like, don't wear them in your back pocket hanging out like the high school girls like to do. Like, don't do that. Put it somewhere safe. Like, Julia, tell the people where they should put their phone.

You should put your phone in a belt bag. Right? I will never make fun of your fanny packs again. Thank you. They're fantastic.

Fantastic. Like I never have to be without my wallet and my phone. It's always right there. All right. It's always right there. Yeah. So, but anyway, holiday tip for all you. There you go. And Julie has a new phone now and everyone's happy. So, but she, she missed Tiana and we all missed Tiana. Cause well, we almost got to the end there. And then like literally when we were about to make the last round to go down the stairs and,

Everything shut down and they said, turn around and walk out the way you came. You have to go. Yeah. So take off your ponchos. Take off your galoshes.

Tina had actual galoshes. She did. Tina had these cool things. Where'd you get those, Tina? Amazon, of course. Amazon. She had these cool little rain jackets for your shoes. And then Julia had thought to bring slides. I brought my Mickey Mouse Crocs. Crocs, okay. So everyone here in this group, except for me, was well thought out and prepared. I was just there in my...

cotton sweatshirt that would have been just dragging me down for the whole day. How wet can I get on this ride? But I guess we'll never have to find out because they shut down. So there's a couple silver linings here. One is that, um,

We were able to use, so they will convert your pass for Tiana into a usable. A multi, a multi-attraction pass. Yeah. So you can pretty much use it on anything that takes, you know, a lightning lane. So we went to, could have been, could have been Haunted Mansion Holiday. No, no, no. Well, you couldn't do it on Haunted Mansion Holiday. We were going to use it on the Matterhorn.

But we used it on something else. And I don't even remember. Oh, Mickey's Runaway Railroad. Yes. So we used it on Mickey's Runaway Railroad. That's a good choice. Yeah. So it was a good choice. So the kids had never been on that yet. So we never forced them. Yes, they loved it. I think they've all been there at least once since it opened. But no one had forced them to do that. And Toontown was off their radar because it was not for them for so long. So they loved it. They were happy to do that. Good.

And we also ponied up the, what is it, $27 each to go on Rise of the Resistance. Was it $27 that day? Wow. Yeah. So once you buy even a one-park, non-park park hopper, which is what we had, just Disneyland only, plus you add Lightning Lane, plus you add $27 to go on Rise, it's a pretty pricey day at Disneyland for the five of us. But that's what you do. It's what we do as parents. Yeah.

Well, I feel it's more important to get those things during that, especially you're doing one day because you are very limited. If you're there a couple of days and you have the time to invest, but you're there for a very short time.

Go for it. Yeah. Money, money cannot be that much of an object unless you just really have mentally prepared for it. Like don't go to, I know nostalgia is mantra. Thank you, Becky. Again, time is pack your patience, but you really have to have, you know, a patience is, is one thing, but I think it's more just make sure you're in the right mental space. If you don't have enough, if you, you know, maybe you're on a budget and you just cannot pay for everything. Um,

Just make sure you are ready for that, you know, and Disneyland is not the land of the free. Yeah.

by any means. It's not even the land of the inexpensive. So you kind of have to be ready to figure stuff out when you're, you know, when you're going to make a trip there. And luckily our kids, like, so Aaron specifically, my 12 year old about to turn 13, she is not going to go to Disneyland again until next summer. And her sister's going in, you know, January with a school trip. Nathaniel's going in March with a school trip. Aaron has no foresee it. Like,

To her, next July might as well be five years from now. There's not a reference for that, right? So she was just really sad. And so she was super excited. We surprised them with this Disneyland trip literally the night before. So they were super excited. But then also the letdown of pirates being not working out and Tiana not working out. She was feeling kind of...

a little bit down about the starter for Disney day. Of course, did you guys actually get on pirates? Like you had completed the ride, right? Yeah. Yeah. Pirates. We went on pirates, but then Julia losing her phone changed a lot of things like plans that we had in terms of, cause we spent quite a bit of time just standing there talking to the people and figuring stuff out. So she was a little discouraged, but luckily after Tiana things turned around and got way better. So that was super good.

All right. We all also had made reservations for Tiana through our lightning lane, right? So you did have a reservation for Tiana other than the reservation. We didn't make a lightning lane for it. We just used our lightning lane, essentially, that they gave us for the...

Unused. You used it the way they wanted you to use it. Yes. Okay. So do you mind, can you give us a brief review of Tiana's, what is it called? Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Before we review the ride, I just want to say, the way it is listed on the Disneyland map in the app right now confused me all day long. I thought it was down all day because...

Of the way it was listed. But now I realize it came back up at some point way earlier than I thought it did. So it reopened and then you guys were able to go on it in the evening. So let's hear about it. Give us a review.

Tina, you start. I have things to say. I want to hear what you have to say first. No problem. So the queue, we didn't get into the long queue, which goes by the flume. So we pretty much entered right out the entrance there. And there is a couple of changes that they've made. There's a little kitchen area and a couple of little scenes that are different as you go into the queue up the stairs and into the queue.

So really cute. The ride essentially is, you know, it's the same. It's a flume ride. You're still using the same logs and everything. But the premise is that through Disney magic or some other magic is that you're going to get smaller to look for, I think it's ingredients for...

Or party or something? I'm lost. I thought we were looking for musicians. Musicians. Yeah, the storyline...

The storyline is kind of muddled, in my opinion. I was talking to Julia about this afterwards. So they're taking the storyline for after Princess and the Frog movie takes place and how Tiana now has a restaurant and is thriving. And while I appreciate that, I think it would have been more heartfelt and more interesting if they had just kept with the movie storyline. Because there is no...

There's no villain. And Dr. Facilier is a great villain. So they kind of remove him. I love that character. Yeah, they remove him from the storyline. So I just wish the storyline was a little different. But I really enjoyed it. The animatronics were great. Lewis is huge. It's beautiful. Yeah, it is nice. And I would definitely go on it again. It's not like, oh my gosh, I hate the storyline kind of thing. I'm not trying to do that anymore.

Because I did enjoy the storyline. I think it would have been more enjoyable for me if they had kept with the movie itself. But I enjoyed it. We got wet. So the second time, so we were talking about how prepared we are. But the second time we went on, we were already over by holiday time.

Haunted holiday mansion or I'm sorry, the Haunted Mansion holiday. Thank you. So I didn't go back to the locker to get my wet gear. So I just risked it and said, you know what? The only thing we're going to do after this is watch the fireworks. And so if I get wet, I'm only wet for a little bit and we can leave. So the whole right side of me got wet.

But it wasn't too bad. But lots of people are wearing ponchos. I...

had all of my wet gear in my backpack so I quick quick changed in the line because I thought this is stupid I have it with me let me just do what I intentionally brought all this stuff for and I just didn't want to be wet like that's that's really what usually keeps me off of the wet rides the only times that I've decided to go on Splash Mountain previously or Grizzly River Run was after I got completely soaked unexpectedly at um

world of color and we were like well let's just go on grizzly river run what's a little more water and then when on a particular particularly rainy day at disneyland when we thought well we're already wet let's go on splash mountain so i brought a poncho and i brought a change of shoes to go on this ride and i think i was too focused on the water

That I completely missed part of the storyline. It's like, okay, why is Tiana so big right now? Did you say big? Big, yeah. Yeah, so you get shrunken down. Yeah, you get shrunken down to the, well, I guess you're supposed to be a frog. Yeah. And then as you go up the slope when you're going to go down the flume, that's when you turn big again. Yeah. Okay. So it was interesting. I didn't, I didn't.

I think the storyline was super engaging. It wasn't engaging enough to make me forget about, oh my gosh, how, what am I going to get on this thing? But will I do it every time? Absolutely not. Will I do it sometimes when I feel like I want to bring stuff to change into? Sure. But that's not going to be every time. And we should, we should note it's the smaller drops.

They get you, it got as much wetter than the large drop. And we were in seats four and five. Now they don't, they're not sitting the last two, those two that sit side by side. They were not sitting those two. So it was just the first five single row seats that they were sitting. And we were in four and five. So four, I got wet.

Julie was well covered. Five I got wet, but only my elbow. Are you telling me that none of the logs, would they sit those seats? None of them were sitting the last two seats. And we specifically said not the front row, too. Huh. Well, so, okay. I don't know. Okay. Uh...

I actually have sat in the front for Splash Mountain many times, and you can pretty much duck all the way to the level of the log and sometimes avoid kind of the worst of it. But you never know. So you had mentioned, Tina, when we were in line, like, man, lots of people have their brain gear for this. And I want to say, like, I'm just going to go out there and be that guy. It seemed easier than I would have thought.

Like, when Rise of the Resistance came out, like, it was a lottery to get on that thing. And maybe you make it. Now, I don't know. Maybe Tiana runs way more people through than Rise. I find that hard to believe. But maybe. Who knows? Maybe we just got really fortunate. But for being day eight, I would have expected...

It'd be a little harder. Harder to get on. They were doing Magic Key previews a couple weeks before. Yeah, okay. So they did all kinds of that stuff for Star Wars 2. So that's one thing I want to say. That's true. Second thing I want to say, the fact that everyone had rain gear on, like, nothing was different about this ride. Like, Splash Mountain...

And this are the same mechanism, the same basic everything. Right. So you get equally wet on Splash Mountain as you get on this. So no one was doing that stuff for Splash Mountain anymore because it had its fans. Right. They they knew they wanted to get wet. So they went on. Those that didn't didn't. People that didn't want to go on it didn't didn't ride it. Right. So there's a lot of people riding this because they wanted to check out the Tiana stuff. Right. So that's those are everyone wearing their rain gear and stuff. I don't know.

And you know what? It's, it's, well, it's not December. It's November. It's winter. I don't necessarily want to be super wet. And maybe that, maybe that's the, why more people were wearing it. Later in the year. Maybe it's just later in the year. So am I, am I just, did I ignore this completely for the past couple of years? Or was it obvious to everyone that they're changing the name of Critter Country to Bayou Country? I,

I don't think you ignored it. No, I knew with the change that they were changing it. I think they made an announcement about that. Did they do that? Mm-hmm. Did they announce that the A23, the ultimate fan experience presented by Lisa? I can't remember if they did it then, but I know there was a tweet or Instagram reel about it. And I feel like it was...

Definitely before Tiana's actually opened. Maybe a couple weeks before the previews, I feel. So Critter Country can encompass, I would think, all these animals and a frog and an alligator. But is the 100-acre wood really now in the bayou? Is that what we're proposing? We are. I didn't think about that. I'm not...

Why did we have to change? I think they wanted to more...

include haunted mansion and all that like i think i don't know i could be just talking about my you know what well i mean they've long said like yeah we're kind of pulling new orleans all the way through right because haunted mansion was technically a new orleans looking building even though it was modeled on a baltimore building or maryland or something you know but but they um

I think it was in Baltimore. Yeah. So they but they wanted to pull the New Orleans vibe all the way through. But I didn't know they were to change the name of Critter Country like that. Yeah. Necessary to me. I feel like Critter Country is the land where they can make changes on a whim.

I mean, this is not the first time. That's right. That's not the first time that that area has been... The name has changed. Fair enough. So will it continue? Did it need to refresh? Maybe they thought it did. And I'll go ahead and say this. I mean, so there was before...

Before Bear Country, there's Indian Village, right? And then there's Bear Country. But all of that area was very themed in with Frontierland and the Rivers of America. Like even Bear Country was clearly themed to the Rivers of America, not to New Orleans Square. So they're really kind of rearranging the theming and everything of that whole side of the park. But they've done that regularly, like you say, Tina. And Star Wars kind of threw that all up.

for grabs anyway. So, okay. Yeah. But I do, I do see how Critter Country would have still encompassed everything. Yeah. Including errors in

Good. Thank you for sharing your initial review. I think Jury is still out on Tiana. We'll see how it shakes out over the next year in terms of popularity. I think it's a thrill ride. People are going to love it. Like, there's some people that just want to ride every thrill ride at Disneyland. And it's one of the few thrill rides in Disneyland. So it'll be popular just by sake of being something people can get a thrill on. So, you know. And we hope for the best for Tiana. Like, I'm not...

I like drama in my attractions. I like story in my attractions. I think the vultures scene in Splash Mountain was brilliant in the way they just kind of had that shadow of Br'er and the mother just mournfully telling the story of poor Br'er Rabbit. And I just, like, that's just, it was a brilliantly executed drop.

from building up the tension. So, you know, I just... There is no tension in Tana. Yeah, it's a really strange without a villain. It just... Like you say, the drama. But can I also say that I really wish they'd take some of this technology...

audio animatronic technology and bring it to Pirates of the Caribbean because Jack Sparrow at the end is looking bad. You know, even just that first animatronic used to look so good and it just doesn't anymore.

You mean the one where he's hiding behind the dress forms? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, let's give everyone a little bit of a fresh note. And I should say, I am not against the idea of them changing Splash Mountain to Tiana. Tiana is a great card. I love, I remember still the day, did you guys go to the,

Yes. Princess and the Frog. Yeah, okay. So I still remember that. Well, I did. Are you talking about at the studios when they were showing it? Yeah. Yeah. That was exciting and adventurous. And to see, like, I was excited about that film. I love the look of it, the art of it, the story of it. It's a good... The characters are great. Yeah. It's a good movie. Like, we're talking here about the effectiveness of this attraction, you know, in its essence of what it's doing, regardless of the theme of it. And, you know, a story...

without a villain, that's kind of tricky. And there've been quite a few Disney kind of... Some of their films lately have hesitated to...

really personify the evil too much. Like Wish had kind of a villain, you know what I mean? But the villain that dies a horrible death at the end, like Mother Gothel or all the wicked witches and queens, like those are hard. I don't know that they're really making that kind of movie these days. So anyway, I'm just rambling here now, but it is, I don't know, the jury is out on this attraction, the effectiveness of it, right? And the

The story being less than dramatic, I guess you could say. All right. Let's talk about food. Let's talk about food. Food. You guys had some interesting things to eat, I believe. Why don't you talk about while we're in bear country. No, critter country. No, bayou country. Bayou country. Why don't you talk about they still call that restaurant the Hungry Bear, right?

It's a Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that. So you guys ate there, right? Yes. We did. So our whole purpose of this trip was to do Tiana and then the Country Bear Barbecue Jamboree. Okay. Yeah. So I got the, just to let you know, the Snickerdoodle Cold Brew because this girl only did some coffee. Yeah.

And so this is according to the website is a cold brew whip topping snickerdoodle cookie duet dust. Sorry, I can't read. I don't have my glasses on. Snickerdoodle cookie.

Snickerdoodle cookie dust and a Snickerdoodle cookie. It was good. It was very good. The Snickerdoodle cookie was nice and soft. But anyway, that one was good. I highly recommend it. And then for my meal, I had the smoked beef brisket sandwich with the beer battered fries. Oh, my gosh.

A 10 out of 10. I'll totally do this again. There was so much meat on this sandwich. I was very surprised. Actually, I didn't even eat all of it because there was so much. It wasn't dry.

You had your choice of barbecue sauce, even though they put some sauce on it. There is jalapenos. I took those off. But this was super, super good. And the beer-battered fries, every restaurant in Disneyland needs to have these fries because, oh, my gosh, they were so good. So I also got the banana pudding, which I love banana pudding. And it was really good as well. So everything I had there just, to me, was...

Was a 10 out of 10, like I said. I didn't know if I was going to like this restaurant or if it was for me because I don't like barbecue. But first of all, for my beverage, I decided to get the sparkling strawberry pickle lemonade. It was great. It was quite refreshing. Yeah. Yeah.

And then I got the plant-based corn ribs plate with coleslaw and beer-battered rice. Okay, stop, stop. Was it shaped into ribs, the corn? Have you never seen corn ribs before? No. So basically they just take a corn on the cob and cut it into four. So you don't eat the whole thing. You eat it basically, you're basically eating like a quarter of a corn on the cob. Okay.

Um, but yeah, they look resemble ribs when you do it that way. So you bought acorn on the cob and it was grilled. Yes. And it had like, um, Parmesan cheese on it and, um, some kind of dressing. It kind of tastes, it tasted pretty much like street corn.

Okay, that sounds actually pretty good. Yeah, it was yummy, and the coleslaw was great, and like Tina said, 10 out of 10 on the new fries. They are probably the best fries in the park. Wow. All right. Yeah. Well, we got a 10 out of 10 here. That's not bad. Not bad. Yep. Okay. Well, we ate at...

And this is not going to be new to anyone, but we hadn't done it before, so I'll mention it briefly. So we ate at the Rancho de Zocalo for the Fantasmic Dining. And so you get a very small menu. I was going to ask, is it a different menu than just walking up? Oh, yeah. It's not even a... You have a choice of...

carne asada, which of course is what I got. Of course. I think chili verde ribs. So pork ribs cooked chili verde style or shrimp tacos. And I think those are your three choices. And then you get that with

I think some black beans, maybe some rice and some, some kind of a slaw. That was actually pretty good. Um, so, you know, um, so it's interesting, um, you know, they had got this, I guess you could call it getting it right. When Aaron and Nathaniel, they both got their plates right from the cafeteria. So you go up to a certain window in the cafeteria and they're ready to go with these options, right? So this is like the special dinner option, you know, phantasmic dining window. And, um,

aaron got the carne asada nathaniel got the shrimp tacos and they both took their plates and almost at the same time said aaron said like wow this is a lot of food and nathaniel said like is this all the food they're gonna give us and so you kind of know it's you know i guess i guess that means they're doing something sort of right i felt like it was a little slight for whatever it was 55 a plate or 60 a plate or something like that you know um

But it was really tasty. I gotta say, the carne asada at Rancho del Zocalo does not fail. I thought it was really, really good. And they have...

I think the carne asada over at DCA is also pretty good. So, you know, maybe they do this well at Disneyland, but it was really good. Tender and wonderful. And you get two slices. Okay. Maybe it's six ounces. Like, maybe. I'm not sure. Two sort of thin slices. Carne asada is usually pretty thinly sliced. So it was pretty good. And like I say, the slaw little stuff was good. It was a good menu. And you get the smallest piece of cake ever.

you've ever seen um maybe called leche cake or something but it was like two inches square uh not like the photo which is a normal piece of cake but that was okay he got some and then you get a fountain drink right so you know okay for a ticket to see phantasmic and so i'm going to say a couple things let's just pause again from the food and talk about phantasmic for a minute so i hate to say this like if you've listened to nostalgia for the 15 years it's been around

Like you've heard my story, right? I used to go to Disneyland to see Phantasm. Like I would get there, I would sit there at three o'clock and

to sit in front and just sit there with my una cards and, and I guess a blanket. I think I, we brought our, just our jackets and we would sit there and wait from three o'clock until six o'clock. And then until nine o'clock, like for six hours writing to see phantasmic. Okay. From the front row. Cause I wanted to be in the front row with my face through the bars. I sounded like Scooby-Doo front row. Um, sorry. This is where I'm at. Um,

I just, I don't recommend phantasmic anymore. I hate to say that. Uh, like Kevin and Jody were instrumental in the, the original phantasmic and along with a slew of other people, like there's some really amazing history to phantasmic. And,

And, you know, Fantasmic as it exists right now, sure, it could be better than anything maybe that Universal has in terms of a live show. Maybe. Maybe I'll still say that. I don't know. Like, I haven't seen Universal stuff recently either, so I could be wrong about that. But for Disney storytelling, it makes me angry when they take and take and take and take from something that they did so incredibly well 30 years ago. Like, 30, it's been a while, right? And, um...

Fantasmic is... So it no longer has... You guys have probably seen it recently, the latest version without the dragon. So the dragon's now gone. But before that, they took away Pinocchio and the dancing girls. There's no longer those. They've taken away Snow White. Of course, that was a while ago. And they added Tiana. I mean, not Tiana. Rapunzel. Which is okay. I can support that. I do like...

What's the name of the song they sing in the boat? See, feel the, see the light, not feel the light. I was like, do they feel light? Can you feel light? See the light, you know? And so I can, I can get behind that, but there's no, the fire, like all these little tiny things. It used to be the fire ignites the, the, the water and you can feel the heat. And then again, at the end, when Mickey says, or when they sing about forces ignite, you know, the night, the fire would come back again. Well, it doesn't come back a second time anymore. And,

almost half the show is now projected onto water, which in the 80s was really a cool trick. But it's difficult to see anything, let's be honest. You can't really see what's going on in that water ever. I've seen Fantasmic enough to say, no, it's not just breezy tonight. It's rarely that you can watch a water screen and really tell what's going on there. But now half the show relies on that water screen. I just...

It's dumbed down bit by bit by bit by bit by bit. And now without the dragon. And then for some reason, they keep changing little things that like it makes you suspicious. Like when they change things that you can't quite understand, they take so much away that I also start to get angry about just insignificant changes. Like the villains. Now there's no more the magic mirror and Mickey converse. There's no more evil queen scene. They took that out.

So it's just the magic mirror and Mickey going back and forth. So is the magic mirror replacing the whole dragon scene? No, no, no, no. So Maleficent is still there at the end. Okay. Okay. But, but there's no, remember when the first part of the villains was her coming out with the cauldron and stuff that's gone. Like it's with so much water screen now, I feel like it's hard to really feel the story. And I don't, and you know, and they've taken a long time ago, they took away Ursula and,

but now they took away the big croc float. There's no, there's no croc. He's a water projection now, which you can barely tell what it is like. It was cute seeing him coming through. Yeah. And it was a real, it was a real show. It was a float, right? It was a parade vehicle basically. So by the way, it premiered in 1992, 92. Okay. Not the eighties, nineties, nineties. So 30, what's that? 33. It was 30 years then. Right. So what were we? 32 years now.

Still long enough, like, to be impressive then and less impressive that instead of getting better with technology, it seems to be just whittling away, right? And so... That's too bad. So I, you know, Fantasmic was the thing I said, like, this is what you go see. Maybe World of Color is what you go see. I don't know.

This is maybe my 57-year-old in a month or two. I'm going to be 57. Maybe this is my 57-year-old butt. But sitting there to watch Fantasmic for even just 20 minutes early, I was literally injured. I felt like I'm never going to be the same forever.

from, from sitting like, cause my leg felt like sound asleep, like to the point of, I could barely stand on it for a few, few minutes. And so, I know. So I'm just, you remember that when they started fantastic dining, you got a little butt pad. Do you remember that? Only at blue Bayou. Yeah. They don't still do that. Do they? Oh,

Oh, they do? They do. I've gotten it at least twice from Blue. Okay. I'm not sure if they're still offering it now that it came back, though. Okay. Well, maybe that's still there. The pad. Yay. Yay. Because use that pad or bring one from home if you want to see Phantasm. Bring the pad. No, no, no. Do you remember when they had the dessert viewing? Did you ever do the dessert viewing? Yeah. Yeah. I did that. Kristen and I did that. It was twice. That. That.

That was amazing. Because you had seats. You had a padded chair. Yeah. You had hot chocolate. You had a box full of. Sweets. Goodies. Yeah.

That was great. The last time I tried to do blue Bayou viewing for a phantasmic phantasmic got canceled because of fog. Oh, one of mine did. Yeah. So you got to pay $90 for, for a lackluster dinner with no plus. Yeah. So I still use my butt pad. So I'm going to say like,

I can't believe I used to complain about the sweets in that box that we would sit at and watch Fantasmic in a chair comfortably. I used to complain about the sweets. How dare you, sir? I don't know if these sweets are worth $30 they're charging us. Yes, they were. The cheese was too. Yeah. So anyway, so I feel horrible saying this. Fantasmic as an entity is legendary and always will be.

But like, stop nickel and diming it. Cancel it. Just if you want to close it, close it. Like put something else in there. Like, don't keep whittling it away to a shadow. Like, it's just, well, and it's, I mean, it is not a horrible show. It's just horrible how I feel that see like, oh, now that's gone. Oh, no,

No, that's gone. Right. Because someone new coming in and never seen the previous versions were probably like, think, oh, this is really cool. But us that we've seen the versions from the beginning, it's like, oh, well, now they don't have this. Yeah. Now they don't have this. OK, maybe. Right. But I'm telling you, with half the show, like these water projections, they're unwatchable. There's nothing there to see. Like sometimes I don't care for me.

Sometimes you can kind of tell what's going on. But usually like, yeah, in 1992, that was cool. Like, wow, look at that. They're using water. Oh, that's amazing. It's not amazing anymore. Right. Water, water, sheets of water to project on. Like that's had its run.

Like, if we can't make that water flat, like, you know, let's find some new... Move on. ...mist or smoke screen or something, right? Okay. I sound really like every year of my 57 cranky, cantankerous years right now. Your butt is still trying to wake up. I'm telling you. It is. So let's think about some of the good things. Let's talk about the weirdly good thing that happened was kind of the understated thing, going to visit Santa at Disneyland. So...

Because you always feel like, am I going to go see Santa? Yes. It's Christmas time. But where is it going to be? They have a whole new section for it this year. It's actually really cool. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but you never know for sure, like, you know, like, where's it going to be and how's it going to go? Because they used to have that back in the Big Thunder Ranch, right? And you could kind of wait in line and stuff. But now they have holiday fun with Santa and friends. So let's talk about that. So it's in the Fantasyland Theater, what some people call the Wonderbra Theater. Still, I think that's still a thing over in Fantasyland. So why don't you guys talk about it a little bit?

Well, we were not successful in seeing Santa. We were in line for Santa. And then the cast member came out and said, the reindeers got lost. Santa is running late. So we are not forming a line for Santa. Oh, no. So we got into the line for Mickey and friends. And it happened to be when we went down there, it was Chip. And I was like, that's weird. Just Chip.

Like not Chip and Dale. It was just Chip. And then we got in line and suddenly Chip left the stage, the little area for pictures because he forgot his scarf. So he came out naked. He was just Chip. Like a Chip and Dale. Yep. He had to go get his scarf on. And then a couple of groups ahead of us, Dale came out. So by the time we were there, it was Chip and Dale, which felt better.

And we got some really cute pictures with them. They have PhotoPass photographer there. And Tina wanted to take a selfie with them. And the PhotoPass photographer got a cute picture of us taking our selfie with them. So, yeah.

Oh, that's kind of cool. You know, that sounds like my, when I took Camille to try to meet Mulan, like that just never worked out. It just never worked out. But Chip and Dale, we got. I remember that story. And we got, and Julia got a really nice picture with Clarabelle. She was out there kind of hanging around. We got a picture with Clarabelle too, yeah. Yeah. And so she kind of wanders out there, right? So, and weirdly, yeah.

um, Julia says she saw goofy there. I saw Pluto, Pluto and Max. So I don't know if I was like, I thought that's weird. Like Pluto and Max are posing together, but maybe it was like a kind of a interstitial moment between goofy and Max and Pluto and just stuff was happening. I don't know, but we didn't actually go stop there for pictures because we did do Santa. So, um, it was the funniest thing. Um, so I think, I think you all know out there listening audience that, uh, Julia, um,

I'm part of a blended family when I married Julia and Julia has adopted a son, Nathaniel and his, so they did a, his, he doesn't know his father. So they did a 23 and me thing and he's got some Nigerian in him and a lot of these different, you know, what's interesting to find out what kind of his racial background. So we were waiting to see Santa and, um,

Santa had to go on a break, right? And we were almost there. We had waited probably 25 minutes, and we were almost there, and then Santa goes on a break. So, okay. But they said, Santa will be back. And then Black Santa came out, and Julia could not have been more excited. And Nathaniel didn't see him. Nathaniel wasn't watching. He was messing around with the fake, goofy...

cut out in a snow drift like pretend goofy skiing into snow drift like a little display and so santa had gone and sat there and nathaniel didn't see that so we were like she's like don't tell him so we um you know got in line and he didn't know until we kind of turned around the corner and santa came out to say you know welcome and nathaniel's face must have been like

His jaw just dropped. Like, he did not expect that at all. So it was super cool. Like, super cool. Like, I hate to be all making a thing about the color of Santa because that's really not a thing. But for our family in that moment, it was a thing, right? So that was really cool. That's awesome. He felt represented, right? Love it.

That was pretty cool. So we had our pictures with Santa for our family Christmas card. Julia, one of her only goals for this trip was to get that picture. So she could not have been more excited when she saw Black Santa come out. Like she just.

Could not have been more excited. So it was really funny. And then we went to... Okay, I guess that's all I want to say. Do you have anything else to say about Holiday Fun? Like, my girls had the best time in there. It's one of those things that you can tell Disneyland, like, let's not spend the most money on this thing, but let's do... I really felt like they did the most...

with what they put into it to make this actually kind of cool, the Holiday Fun with Santa and Friends experience. So did you have any other, did you stick around to watch any of the entertainment or anything like that? Oh, we didn't see much of the entertainment. Two of the hosts, I guess you would call them, came out and kind of gave a little rundown of what was going to be happening. And do you remember their names? No. Mm-mm.

You don't remember their names? No, do you? Do you? Let me make sure it's the same host. Were they a little bit older, perhaps? Yes, a female and a male. So that was Spruce Wayne and Ginger... Are you sure? Yes, Spruce Wayne and Ginger Bredman.

To be fair, in our defense, we were off to the side of them and not in front of a speaker. So they were super hokey and doing basically a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse age style show. But my two daughters. Okay, we didn't see the show at all. These were just like hosts of the area.

Okay, so they were up on the stage and they were basically leading. So on the screen, there was a sing-along. So they were very normal Christmas songs, right? But my girls could not have had more fun. And then they have a little dance-along where they try to get the little kids to dance. But my girls were dancing. It's one of those things where if you are going to make your holiday spirits bright,

you can do it, right? And if you're not going to, you're going to say like, eh, cheesy, right? But it was super cool. And I will say this, it's one of the places in the park where you can get a snowfall. So at the end of their show, so did you guys have a snowfall? We got a snowfall, yep. Yep.

So that was, you probably weren't really paying attention, but were they, there wasn't singing going on? No, they just came in. They were making some introductions, a welcome kind of thing. And then they went off. And then we were there. Yeah, we were there right when they opened. So they said, come on back. You can do, you can have a sing along. We're going to have the Dickens band is going to be here. Yeah. So they just kind of gave a little.

preview of what else you could do. Their letters to Santa's station wasn't open. We were there right when they opened. So probably go a little later in the day. Well, no wonder you didn't get to see Santa. You'll probably beat him there. He was supposed to be there.

but yeah, but you know, Santa, come on, you know, don't tell Santa what to do. So, yeah. So I think, I think for most of the day when the singalong would come to let it snow is when they, the snow came out. Right. So we'd sing the last song of the singalong is let it snow. And then of course it snows all through the,

So there's a few places during the fireworks show that you can get some snow at Disneyland. Main Street, Small World, I don't know. Where are all the places where the snow falls? But also for sure in Fantasyland Theater, it's a pretty fun moment.

when the snow comes. Yeah. I feel like this was a great replacement for what they used to do where Galaxy's Edge is now. You know, used to have that area behind where the petting zoo and stuff was. I think this is a great replacement for that because they also did it during the Pixar Play, Pixar Pal Fest. Pixar Fest. Yeah. They didn't do it for Halloween, but I thought it was fun. They had activities, they had characters, photo ops, entertainment, obviously. So I thought it was super cute.

I mean, granted, I'd like to see a play or a musical like they used to have in there. But in between, I thought this was great. The kids seem to definitely love it. Yeah. Yeah. And even my teenagers loved it. So thumbs up for Holiday Fun with Santa and Friends. Yes.

Oh, wait, wait. We got to go back to our food review. I've been sitting here with pieces of gingerbread in front of me this whole time. Are you doing a live review?

Yes. Okay. I'm actually excited about this. This is the best way to end the show. So Julia is going to actually do... You all right remember, like this goes back in Nostalgia History quite a ways, but you might remember, I think Kristen and I did a candy cane bite off. Like we bought one, a handmade one. And when we bought one of the ones that was just for sale, it was like,

And I believe this is what we did. Yeah. And then we had a taste off, right? Yeah. So Julia is going to do something similar. So set this up for us, Julia. Okay. So right now at Disneyland, you can get a few different versions of gingerbread. Most notably, the Harbor Galley has fresh baked gingerbread cookies. Okay.

The same style as their amazing chocolate chip cookies. You can get fresh baked gingerbread cookies. And you can also get at several locations. I got mine at Jolly Holiday. The Mickey shaped gingerbread man. Which for the last several years has been my go-to. But...

It's quite possible that it is getting dethroned by these gingerbread cookies at Harbor Galley. Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. Now, before you go any further. So we have... Let's add a third option here. So we have the gingerbread Mickey, which I also had one of those from Jolly Holiday, right? And wherever they sell them. You have...

The gingerbread cookie at Harbor Galley. Harbor Galley? Harbor Galley. And then let's also throw in there the gingerbread smell in Haunted Mansion Holiday. So three gingerbread options. Okay, we can throw that in, but it doesn't really affect what's happening right now. Well, it does. Like, the experience of it. Like, how real the experience of it is. Like, we're talking about gingerbread authenticity here, right? Okay. All right. So, Julia? Yeah.

I think I know where you're going to go with this, but who wins? Well, I have to taste it. I have to taste them side by side. So you have to give me them all. I'm not going to have any. She's literally eating these cookies right in front of us. She's literally eating. She's taste testing now. Oh, there goes Mickey's part of his body. First of all, I'm still impressed you have any left because we wanted to eat them on the ride home instead of saving them for our family.

That is impressive. Although I will say weirdly, we have some of Mickey left in a variety of packages. Between the five of us, we had five of them and we ate like four and a quarter. So there's little bits of Mickey laying around. Okay, so now Julia's trying the cookie. So the gingerbread, Mickey and the cookie. And you're just going to have to memorize, remember the smell of the Haunted Mansion gingerbread. So Julia, who wins?

Hands down, Harvard Galley. All right. It has much more flavor. It has much more flavor, especially if it's warm, because Tina and I did have them right as soon as we got them, and they're still warm in the middle. Okay. They're not too gingery, because even though I like gingerbread, I don't really like the taste of ginger. Don't put ginger in anything else, really. But these cookies are soft and gooey and not too spicy gingery.

And how many days out are we like three days since we bought them? They're not stale and I can't necessarily say the same for the Mickey gingerbread man. Okay.

Now that's okay. So he's cute. He's cute. Has spoken. So I will say that the Jolly Holiday and locations, Mickey Mouse, Gingerbread Man is perhaps a little bit more Instagrammable. Yes. Sure. Like if you want to have a Mickey Mouse frosted Gingerbread Man. I also have to mention there were two letdowns at the Harbor Galley that day. A. Oh, no. They.

ran out of, I think the day before we got there. One day. The gingerbread house popcorn bucket. Which was very sad. And two, for some reason the cream cheese frosting was not available on mobile order. So I am just eating this naked. There's no gingerbread. There's no cream cheese frosting on it and it's still quite good. When we go in a cup

I'm going to go in a couple of weeks, Tina. We're going to have to try the cream cheese frosting. Okay. So for Instagram, Jolly Holiday takes the cake. And for your diet and calorie intake, Haunted Mansion takes the cake. Sure. But for overall cookiness, you give it to Harbor Galley. Harbor Galley has the best cookies. All right.

You heard it here. Just get them. That's good. That's good to know. I will say I was I'm all like, we're done. I got to say one more thing. And I maybe I won't. This is not this is not the highest note, but maybe I'll find a high note to end on. But

So I did try in Galaxy's Edge at, you know where Cat Sack is, they sell the kettle corn kind of in the shopping area. Okay. So they have a Coca-Cola frozen Coke right now that they call the Sargent Snow Cap. So it's cinnamon flavoring and Coca-Cola flavoring.

They call it sweet cream cheese and Dalgona crisp. So it sounded great. It looked pretty. Like this was, I think, one of the worst things I've ever bought at Disneyland. I threw it away. About one third of it I drank and I just... There was nothing... Maybe...

It might be for someone, because I feel like I have tried a lot of different flavor profiles, and I feel like I have a pretty broad... Especially of Coca-Cola. ...appreciation for things. Yeah. But the cheese and the cinnamon and the Coke, they bitterly combat each other. This cheese tasted kind of... It didn't taste like sweet cream cheese. It tasted kind of...

So I don't know. It was not my favorite thing. And the Dalgona Crisp is kind of like butterscotch crumble, kind of like that's nothing. What a strange concoction of flavors. Yeah, I think they've maybe sold frozen cinnamon Cokes at Disney World before. I don't know if they've had the cream cheese. I don't know. It wasn't, in my opinion. I mean, now maybe you just got to go try it.

Like maybe you just want to go. But I did not like this at all. You know, I should have just gone with Julia to get her usual Cocoa Puffs coffee around the corner, but this was no good. So I will. So, but I guess on a high note, I'll say they do have chicken gumbo right now over at, I think that's a holiday thing. I don't, do they always sell chicken gumbo over at the, underneath Pirates? Yeah. The Royal Free Veranda. No, I feel like they added a gumbo over there for the season. Hmm.

Yeah, I think they've had clam chowder, maybe, but chicken gumbo. We've had gumbo there before. Yeah. I'm not sure. It wasn't on the menu, but Mobile ordered it, and I thought it was maybe for the holidays. Maybe it's not. But at any rate, I mean, it wasn't on the menu on the sign there, but at any rate, it doesn't matter. It was really good. It's a little spicy. Every time I have that.

Well, I don't know if I've had it before, but every time I guess maybe maybe it's every time I have combo combo. It's always a little spicier than I thought it was going to be. Right. But I kind of like that. Right. So it was it was a little spicy and a little good and a little warm and on a kind of windy, cool day. That was great. And of course, on the highest note of all, I finally got I did not the last trip out to Disneyland. I did not have Bengal barbecue and I've been missing it ever since. So I finally had it.

Banyan beef skewers, which are also a little bit spicier every time I have it. A little bit spicier than I remember, even though I have it every time I go. But still, it's surprisingly like, oh, yay, that's a little bit hotter than I thought, right? Oh, yay. Always excited to have Bengal barbecue. So on that high note of leaving Disneyland with Bengal barbecue and all the magical lights and the glistening snow falling from the

the blowing machines and all the music and all of the glory of Christmas and holiday season.

We hope you get a chance to go to Disneyland and enjoy holiday time. Any last words, you guys? It was magical. Happy birthday to your two almost 13-year-olds. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I will pass that on to them and they will appreciate that. Started with a few hiccups here, but it was really a great time. And we stayed till the last second my 57 years could handle. Julia also. We were both like, holy cow. Yeah.

I don't remember the last time I have. So we didn't close it down, but 1130 ish. Like we stayed long enough that you couldn't turn down pirates like on the way out. I was like, we got to go on pilots because there's no. You made her go back to the scene of the crime. Yeah. I thought Julie going to have like it's either going to be healing or post-traumatic stress syndrome. And it was OK. She she was OK. So we went on pirates like once.

It's one of those things like you can't walk by no line on Pirates. True, true. It's not possible to walk by Pirates when there's no line and not say like, we got to do this again. So we did that and then we took off and it was a great day. So glad we could see you guys there. Yeah, it was great. You know when your DBFS are all synced together when they plan their trips completely out of the blue and they happen to be the same day. And it's the same day, yeah.

That's right. And so I know that you guys have coming up another trip to go soon. Soon you're going to be at down back at Disneyland for another special report. So stay keep keep track of them over at the Pal around podcast. You might hear a familiar voice over there. I might make an appearance here and there. So don't forget to check in on them over there.

And if you want to get in touch with me, you can write to me at comments at Nostalgia.com. I'm always glad to hear what you have to say and try to get back to you as soon as I can. If you want to support Nostalgia, you can go to NostalgiaPlus.com and find ways that you can support me through Patreon. And I, of course, love and admire every one of my Patreon supporters. I thank you so much for all the help you give me to help run this show and keep the ship afloat. And I'll see you next time.

And I think with that, we're going to say, what do they say at the end of Small World? What are some of the sign-offs? Sayonara. Aloha. Adios. Adios. And Carpe Kingdom. And go seize the magic. Bye, everybody. Happy holidays. Bye. Bye.

so