The Holiday season at Disneyland is always a magical time and we recently got a chance to experience the park in its entire Holiday splendor. We had not had the chance to visit the park during the holidays since before the pandemic and have recently made up for lost time with three visits this year to go along with our Halloween event covering during the D23 Expo last year.
We arrived just before opening and made sure to take pictures of the tree as well as great decorations and the castle as we made our way to breakfast before heading to Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge to enjoy Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler’s Run. My wife had never experienced either on our prior visits and it was great to see her enjoying the special attractions as well as the amazing shops and scenery of the land.
As always we were impressed by the amazing attention to detail from the worn look of the Resistance Gear to the sheen of the First Order technology.
Our afternoon included a visit to Big Thunder Mountain, and the DVC Member Lounge but we also took in Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad with all the amazing memorabilia as well as classics like Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty.
A highlight of this visit was getting on Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. We had not been able to experience it since the updates have been added and the enhanced optics and improvements took this classic to a new level.
As evening arrived we made sure to catch the holiday parade which was a dazzling mix of color, music, and lights. We had caught some of it during the day but made sure to watch the evening show as that is where it really shined.
A night voyage on the Jungle Cruise followed along with a visit to the Haunted Mansion which was sadly down when we came to visit. Thankfully we enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean and exited to find a very heavy downpour which soon had water pooling up and guests fleeing for the exits. We attempted to wait it out but sadly had to cut our visit shorter than we planned but still had an amazing time and were able to enjoy the spectacular lights and music as the park transformed in the evening and we made sure to visit several shops to take in the many items available.
I booked a visit over my wife’s birthday in 2024 to visit the new DVC Villas at the Disneyland hotel and we look forward to more magic in the coming year and beyond especially with our next Disney Cruise scheduled for March.
Reservations are required at the parks and guests will also want to make sure to visit California Adventure for more Holiday Magic as well.
