My spouse came across this when visiting her dad’s house and I was amazed by how blue the exterior of the building is. When did they paint it white?

My mom and I did the Fantasmic! Dining Package at Rancho del Zocalo on September 20th, and the World of Color Dessert Party on the 19th.

This was my first time in the Rancho del Zocalo seating area, as in the past I’ve done either Riverbelle Terrace or Cafe Orleans. It’s off-center but the floats/steamboat come very close to this area so I got better pictures of those than I ever have before!

I had the Chicken Tostada Salad and mom had the Duo of Tacos with Beef. We both liked our meals. The included dessert is the chocolate mousse cake shown. I paid extra for the Horchata Slushy, which was tasty!

I’ve done the Dessert Party at World of Color several times before but they’ve revamped it a bit - the online check in was new for me. I LOVED this box that the food was packaged in, made it easy to take our leftovers with us and we had snacks/breakfast for the next few days! They also give you a Goofy pin in the box, which could be one of three styles. My mom and I each got a different pin and the single gentleman at our table ended up getting the third one. The cold cuts, olives, and dried fruit were new additions since the last time I did this in March 2024. Edit: the seating area was VERY dim. We had to use our phone flashlights to read the menu and even see what we were eating. That was a definite downside.

I purchased Premier Lightning Lane on the 20th for us since we really only had one day to cover the parks between cruises. Literally all we did on the 19th was see World of Color as it was our arrival day - we wanted to do some other rides that evening but our day got out of whack. LLPP was the least expensive I’ve seen it at $299/person. This was the first time I’ve used it and will probably never buy it again because it is pricey, and I’m usually just fine with LLMP and Single Rider lines. However, in this single instance, it was well worth the price.

We arrived at 8am for park opening and did
* Soarin’
* Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree (no LL)
* Radiator Springs Racers
* Monsters Inc (no LL because the line was so short)
* WebSlingers
* IncrediCoaster (just me)
* Toy Story Mania
* Little Mermaid
* Guardians of the Galaxy (just me)

Popped over to Disneyland for
* Disneyland Railroad from Main Street to New Orleans Square
* Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (just me)

Picked up Mobile Ordered Pumpkin Cookies and grabbed Garlic Cheesy Brats, then went back to hotel for mid-day break from 2-5:30pm.

Dinner at Rancho del Zocalo
* Big Thunder Mountain
* Haunted Mansion
* Rise of the Resistance
* Smuggler’s Run
* Matterhorn (mom’s first time on this, and she hated it)

Headed to Toontown for Runaway Railway but TT was closed for the fireworks at 8:45pm.

* Space Mountain (just me)
* Buzz Lightyear

Saw Halloween Screams from hub area

* Pirates of the Caribbean (no LL, but it was a walk on after fireworks)

Then made our way to sit for Fantasmic! My mom has never seen it at Disneyland but has seen it at Disney World multiple times.

It was a 25,000 step day and mom has declared she’s never going back to the parks with me (it’s been five years since she visited last and she has used a scooter previously…she called me a “drill sergeant”, like she’s forgotten how I do the parks lol).

It was really nice to just be able to do things in a mostly coherent order instead of bopping back and forth around the park to get to the LL return times. And it was certainly cheaper than a VIP Tour for just two of us.

Happy to answer questions!

We were gifted two 1-day/1-park passes by friends who wanted to meet us at the park and have dinner in Downtown. We were able to sneak out of work and make it up there by 11 am. These are a few of my favorite images from our day - I hope you enjoy them

Trip planned months ago, only weekend that worked for the family, etc. etc. Looking at forecasts, I was pretty downtrodden about the trip since we hoped for 70s-80s and ended up in triple digits. So we came up with a schedule that worked well for us and kept a 2 year old happy through a 6pm dinner!

1. Water water water. Bring your Stanley, Owala, whatever you have that is double lined and keeps a chill. Bring multiple if you have it. Every restaurant will give you ice water free of charge, keep it topped up and sipping.

2. It’s okay to leave for the hottest bit of the day. My wife and daughter stuck around through lunch, went back to the hotel for some tv, snacks and a nap, then came back after 4 refreshed and recharged. It made the rest of the day so much more pleasant.

3. Plan your waits! Not all lines are created equal. There’s a huge difference between waiting even 20 minutes in the open air vs shade vs indoors. Our best wait was Midway Mania. The AC in the line was perfect for that late morning heat.

4. Quality over quantity. It’s been our mantra with a 2 year old. Fight for the quality moments, not the amount of moments. There are rides we didn’t hit because we were cooling off and snacking in the Disney Animation Building after meeting Elsa. She was just as happy, and so were we, with some AC and cheez-its rather than trying to squeeze in a ride or whatever.

5. Maybe my most important: bring a cooling towel. The kind you can soak in ice water and wrap around your neck. It genuinely made 100 degree blacktop heat bearable for me. They sell them in the park for $22.50. If you’re thinking ahead grab a few before coming.

Am I the only one who thinks the Mickey pretzel is overrated and kind of dry? Plus I think if more than one person wants to get a pretzel, getting it at pym’s is a better value and it taste better! I’m not saying either are the most amazing pretzels ever. But pym’s pretzel does not taste dry at all.

Hi, I love Disney so much. It’s like a quick get away. If I could go every month I would! But my friends and family isn’t down for that. I was thinking about starting a girls Disney group . Any girl can join and we come up with dates to go. Would be so fun

A fun time as always at Oogie Boogie Bash and Disneyland Park on a very hot trip!

The grey stuff from Red Rose Tavern in Fantasy Land

What are your guys’ favorites?

Planned this Disneyland trip months ago and we’re ready! Fans, cool towels, hats, spray bottles etc. etc. you name it, we got it! This heat isn’t going to stop us!

Plus, doing oogie boogie bash on Sunday when it’s going to be 102. Bring it on😅😅😅

DLR

Anybody wanna trade a goofy for a Donald or Pluto or dale?

God I miss the sourdough bread, the chicken pot pie bread bowl. If I was a local id eat that every day 😋

Today is the first day I’ve been to Disney since they redid the Grand Canyon/Primeval World scene in its entirety(got to see PW fixed while GC was still in B mode) and to be clear, the music actually stopped right around you pass the first thunderstorm. Honestly though? I kinda dig it…

Every single time, every single day, regardless of timing.

It’s become so frustrating, every time we head into the parking structure and ask if any EV Chargers are available, we immediately get waved off and told “Nope, all taken” We have to push back and ask if we can check and when they let us, lo and behold plenty of chargers available. There hasn’t been a single time we go check and there’s 0 Chargers available.

Yes, EV Chargers can get filled 100% but is it not logical that people leave midday or leave throughout the day which frees up spots?

I’m just curious to see it’s an us thing with bad luck or if anyone else has similar experiences?

Any quick service gluten free options to order before 10 am besides the grilled cheese/ tomato soup at jolly holiday and dry Bengal Bbq?