Travel Tuesday - Disneyland

Back in December, 2016, we made a trip to California. We ended the trip with a few days at Disneyland. We hadn't been in about 10 years so we enjoyed the changes and seeing what was "to come" in the future.

We stayed at the Grand Californian. It was a beautiful hotel. Our room overlooked the courtyard and we could watch the monorail go by.

I love visiting Disney parks around the holidays. The decorations are out of this world!

This is a gingerbread replica of the Grand Californian.

The tree in the lobby:

Welcome to Disneyland!

Sleeping Beauty's Castle decorated for the holidays:

There's a doorway to the right of this statue behind the castle that leads to a beautiful and amazing display of the Sleeping Beauty story (IN the castle!). Make sure you don't miss it!

Early on our first day we headed for It's a Small World. I am SO glad we did! It was the only time we rode it and it was all dressed up for the holidays!

Our other favorite "holiday" attraction at Disneyland was The Haunted Mansion.

We enjoyed California Adventure too!

Cars Land was AWESOME!

World of Color show at California Adventure was spectacular!

We attended the Dessert Party so we had wonderful views and delicious treats to enjoy.

Let me share the story that goes with this picture.

We went to Disneyland on Friday evening and the park was PACKED! We were standing there debating about heading back to our room because all the ride lines were an hour at minimum. So, as we are about to leave a Cast Member comes up and asks if we are from out of town and where from.

She says I have some VIP seats to fill for the parade, would we like them?

We accepted and were escorted "behind the rope" right across from It's a Small World with an unobstructed view of the parade and the projection on Small World. We got to sit in chairs - very comfortable view of the parade.

It was the Paint the Night parade and it was SO SO cool!

After the parade, the park emptied out a little so we wandered around, rode a couple of rides and found some snacks while we waited for our late dinner reservation.

We enjoyed Disneyland and it will probably be another 10 years before we go back but that's ok!

(I will post another Disneyland post another time - we have TONS of pictures from that trip)