AntSol Travel

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Festive Marketplace at California Adventure https://disneyland.disney.go.com/dini… Disneyland Holiday Food Guide https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blo…

When I got my Magicband+ on October 16th, snow was already on Sleeping Beauty’s castle. When I went to record my MagicBand+ video, it was October 28th, and all the stores already have the holiday and Christmas merchandise, days before Halloween. I know it takes time and is a process for cast members to put up the holiday decorations & merchandise, but it was still a bit too early in my eyes. When I went on November 8th, all the decorations were up, but just shy of the 11th when all of the holiday activities are activated. It was raining then, which made it worse. I recently went after Thanksgiving weekend to take in the holidays at the Disneyland Resort. 

I am AntSol, welcome to AntSol Travel, doing field reports on destinations, events, and transportation of Orange County, and greater Southern California. This report is on the holidays at Disneyland Resort! Please note that is a fair amount of research in the eight hours I was there. However, I cannot cover every nook & cranny. If you have anything to add to the holiday items, please comment below. 

As mentioned earlier, Disneyland Resort’s cast members get decorations and merchandise out and ready, so guests are ready to take in the holidays after Halloween, decorations and the retail items only beforehand. Attractions, activities, and the food & beverage departments don’t officially start until November 11th, which happens to be Veterans Day.

I arrived at the Mickey & Friends parking structure at 11 am, due to being in the left lane, and was forwarded to the top level at the time. Then took the escalator down to the tram plaza and then went to the second floor the Pixar Pals structure as it has a footbridge and path to Downtown Disney to the security checkpoint by the former ESPN Zone building. After the security check, I was greeted by the main Christmas tree for downtown, the stage for Christmas carolers, and tables for seasonal arts and crafts. The renovation of Paradise Pier Hotel to Pixar Place Hotel is coming along as they are painting the exterior from light yellow to gray. Artificial trees and garlands dotted the planters. Many of the stores and restaurants have holiday items, especially the Disney Home and World of Disney stores. I did not have time to check any of the restaurants or shops too much, but you can check it out at the link Disney has below.

Link for the comprehensive list of holiday food & beverage items. 

In California Adventure, the Festival of Holidays is a cornucopia of seasonal food, entertainers, and activities, and learn about the fall & winter holidays that it covers, chronologically: Diwali (late October for Hinduism), Hanukka (December 18 to 26 for Judaism), Christmas (December 25th for Christianity), Kwanzaa (December 26th to January for African-American culture), and Three Kings Day (January 6th for Christianity).

All of the lands except Avengers and Pixar Pier were decorated. Entering California Adventure, Buana Vista Street is fully decorated with wreaths and garland, and a giant Christmas tree as well. 

Hollywoodland was decorated with tinsel and street light banners for the Festival of the Holidays, the holiday celebration for the park. The area had Black Panther’s Flavors of Wakanda cart. 

Avengers Campus did not have any holiday decorations. You would think it would be decorative to the extent as Guardians of the Galaxy has a holiday special on Disney+, but that is not the case for now. Try to at least cross-promote the episode. 

The highlight for many is the Festival of Holidays marketplace where they have food & beverage stalls dotted throughout DCA. The stalls, some with punny names based on the holiday food that they serve, usually have two food items. Such as…   

• Holiday Duets: Pork Belly Adobo and Southern Mac n’ Cheese  
• A Twist on Tradition with Curry Mac n’ Cheese & Bagel Chip Nachos
• Visions of Sugarplums with Sweet Potato stuffed corn muffin and Chocolate Bourbon-flavored Tart made with TWIX® Cookie Bar Pieces
• Brews & Bites with Impossible™ Chorizo Queso Fundido with many California brewery beers including beer flights that I’ll talk about in a moment.
• Winter Sliderland with brisket or ham sliders. 
• Grandma’s Recipes has Impossible™ meats Meatloaf (mungbean) with Mashed Potatoes and a Pumpkin Layered Cheesecake
• Making Spirits Bright has Mickey Mouse-shaped Gingerbread Cookie and many wines for individual glass purchases of about $12 each or averaging $18.75 for a wine flight.
• Favorite Things with Chicken Tikka Masala and Hot Cocoa Macaron, and drink a Churro Toffee Cold Brew Latte or as a cocktail
• Merry Mashups with Esquites Carnitas Mac & Cheese or what I got was a turkey poutine.

At each of the carts, you can purchase either Smartwater or Dasani water bottles. There was also a purple Mickey Jingle bell glow cube sold for $6. Guests can buy prepaid pass stubs for the food & beverage items for the cart items and it is the only place to get the Magic Key discount as discounts don’t apply directly to the food cart purchases. Alcoholic drinks and nonfestival items don’t apply to the stubs.

The only food item I got of interest was turkey poutine, with cranberries, sweet potatoes, gravy bits, and turkey. It was like eating a mini thanksgiving dinner, however, it did not fill me up a lot. $8 is quite expensive, but inflation in food prices and labor costs does not help. Most cart items were of this size and cost, making it look less appealing each year.

To drink, I got a beer flight at Brews & Bites cart. It is $17.50 each for four samples from California breweries or around $14 for a 16 oz pour. I got the Festive Favorites flight at about three oz each, I got Two Coast Brewing’s Saint Father Festbeer, Brewery X’s Happy Holihaze Blood Orange Hazy IPA, Allagash Brewing’s Curieux Bourbon Barrel-Aged Golden Ale, and Stone Brewery’s Imperial Stout. Festbeer was good, compares to the Ocktoberfest beers. The Blood Orange IPA has a good orange smell & taste. The golden ale was light and good with hints of bourbon that are not overpowering. The one I did not see when ordering was the Imperial Stout, stouts are strong in taste, flavor, and alcohol content. At that point, I had enough alcohol in me, and the stout was causing heartburn. Gag, sorry Stone Brewing. 

My favorite seasonal churro was the peppermint chocolate churro. The crushed candy canes complement the chocolate & white chocolate syrup, and the cinnamon sugar of the churro. The base churro is $5, and additional amounts are for the seasonal toppings. $6.50 for this churro. 

I was good food & beverage-wise for now and out $17.50 + $8 + $6.50 = $31 for lunch. I am definitely eating dinner at home.

There are many entertainers performing throughout California Adventure. Disney characters are out for meet & greet in their holiday outfits such as with Goofy in his Marachi costume and even Mirabel makes appearances to celebrate the Hispanic side of the Christain holidays in Viva Navidad. There is also the Viva Navidad street party show which features the Three Cabieros, Mickey & Minnie to celebrate the holidays in Central & South America

Carl from up meets & greets by the Grizzy River Run lift hill. The Holiday Toy Drummers are drum corps., they are dressed as toy drummers, playing on the snare drums to music in a coordinated performance. The Mariachi Divas do their Mariachi twist for holiday music at the Pacific Wharf. Mostly Kosher celebrates Hanukkah using their breadth of music genres at Sonoma Terrace. Blue13 Dance Company does a Bollywood dance for Diwali on stage infront of the World of Color viewing area. 

Santa comes to town at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, the course is also decorated for Christmas. To keep the kids entertained while waiting to see Santa Clause, there are rubber duck races down one of the water streams, the ropes course renamed the Jingle Bridge, the tire swing is renamed to Fly with the Reindeer, decorates cookies for Santa, and even meet & greet with Chip & Dale.

There are also kids’ activities infront of the Little Mermaid attraction where kids can learn about the winter holidays.

Most of California Adventure is likewise decorated for the holidays. Buena Vista Street is decorated with the Christmas Tree as the centerpiece of the area. Five & Dime sing their version of holiday & winter tunes of the 1920s. The trolley gets wreaths. Most of the area has garlands. 

Cars Land goes full tilt on decorations for Halloween and the holidays as well. All of the buildings get garland and decorations for Christmas. Garland string across the street has car air filters, tires as wreaths, and wrenches assembled to look like snowflakes. Luigi Rollicican Roadseters & Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree gets holiday tunes sung by their respective characters. Town Hall has the town founder statue of Stanley with a Santa hat and presents sack.

Grizzly Peak at Sorin’ Over the World, trees are decorated with items that park rangers and fire lookouts would have on hand to make their isolative time a bit more festive in the winter months. The trees are strung with a garland of popcorn & cranberries, lit with electric lanterns, ornaments of empty aluminum cans, and bowed by backtracking ribbon. Grizzly River Run has garland on the light posts, and the Grizzly River Run bear has a holiday sweater that lights up at night. 

World of Color gets a seasonal show, Season of Light, however, I left the parks before show time.

The Pacific Wharf has the Festival of Holiday banners and most of the restaurants have garlands for the cuisine they serve. The Pacific Wharf Cafe has garland with bread. Luckey Fortune has Chinese food to-go boxes.

Disneyland is decorated for the holidays as well. Main Street USA is decorated to the nines with the main Christmas tree, garland, and Sleeping Beauty’s castle lit up with snow and ice at night. There is now also a year-round Christmas decor store called Plaza Point, formerly the camera & Photopass store. 

It’s a Small World:  gets a full seasonal overlay for the 25th year, as it first started in 1997. The exterior gets holiday lighting and inside is a massive annual overhaul with Santa Clause and the children of the world wear their winter garb & sing along to Jingle Bells & Deck the Halls.

Critter Country has a Santa meet & greet and some decorations around there.

Haunted Mansion in September gets the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay where Jack Sklelington and the residents of Halloweentown take over the mansion for Christmas. Since it is a Halloween/Christmas movie, overlay stays from September to early January, about a third of the year. 

Celebrate Christmas in the old west with decorations in Frontierland. There also have been pro pin traders trading pins recently by the pin trading store by setting up lit pin displays on the benches. It seems to be okay with cast members as they are trading pins, not selling pins.  

Tomorrowland, Adventureland, and Star War’s Galaxy Edge do not have any holiday decorations. I don’t think Disney wants to acknowledge Life Day, the Wookie equivalent of the winter holidays in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Mickey’s Toontown is still under renovation and set to reopen in March 2023 per Disney Parks Blog.