This weekend I spent a day at Disneyland and it was my first time being there for their holiday celebrations in many, many years. I’ll be recapping this trip and all of the festive feelings, as well as other new experiences I had at the happiest place on Earth.
So us (my brother’s best friend, my brother, and me) being big Haunted Mansion nerds, we decided to have a trio of complimentary shirts for the trip. These shirts actually inspired A Geek Girl’s Tees. And since we are in the 50th anniversary of the attraction, it was even more fitting.
This is the first trip I have taken to the park since Galaxy’s Edge has opened. It is definitely an impressive feat of Imagineering. I am not a Star Wars fan at all since I’ve never seen, or had a desire to see, any of the films. But I can’t deny that the land overall looks really cool. We did not ride the attraction there or try any of the food since we had other plans, but it was worth going through to see how impressive it is.
One thing we did do was explore the Haunted Mansion Anniversary exhibit in the lobby of the Abraha Lincoln attraction. I have never been in that building actually so that itself was new. This exhibit featured sketches from the conceptualizing of the attraction as well as clay models for different characters. For the Disneyland history nerds and Haunted Mansion lovers, this was really cool to see. Also in the lobby is a giant model of the original park layout and the bench that Walt sat at when he dreamt up Disneyland.
This was the holidays at Disneyland and the two things I wanted to do that were specifically for the holidays were the “it’s a small world” lighting and Castle lighting. Of the two, “it’s a small world” was my favorite since you didn’t already know what it looked like lit up prior to the lighting ceremony. The big flash of all the lits turning on is so festive and such a small thing to add Christmas to the park. I do really like the castle lit up and the mini show they had with it was pretty, but the castle was already lit prior to when we saw it so it was not as exciting or impressive.
Overall, the holidays at Disney feel pretty subtle which is nice since we haven’t hit the Christmas season in full swing yet. Before going I wanted a lot more Christmas cheer about, but at the end of the day, the smaller touches were really all that was needed. I do still think that California Adventure got much more of the holiday cheer, especially with food, and I wish more of that crossed to Disneyland as well. Also, it will be fun to see how they dress up Galaxy’s Edge in the future for Christmas since it wasn’t at all this year probably because it just opened.
That was my trip to Disneyland during the holiday season! It was a fun trip, but I am looking forward to going to the park at a time of year where it isn’t themed. Mainly so I can see the original Haunted Mansion versus the holiday version.
Have you ever spent the holidays at a theme park? Tell me about it with a comment.
