If you renewed for Disneyland MagicKey, December 20, 2022, was the last day before getting blacked out for the rest of the year as even the top pass, the Inspire Pass, is blacked out too. I happen to have a day off that day from work, so I can take in my last day of the holidays before the new year. I also wanted to ride the wave of YouTube viewers wanting to see Disneyland holiday content as the video for Haunted Mansion Holiday has over 5,500 views and It’s a Small World Holiday has over 3,200 views. This is unprecedented for a budding YouTube Channel with now 43 subscribers where most of my content lies in tourism advice for Orange County guests, Disneyland, and rail fanning.
Due to the MagicKey pass blackout during the holidays, many locals with the passes either cannot go to the parks or pay the dynamic rate for a single park + $60 for a park hopper to go to the other park on the same day. I have work & other plans, during the blackout days anyway, so I don’t mind not going for two weeks.
My reservation starts at Disneyland, so I’ll show you how to walk from the convention center hotels to Downtown Disney. First, from the Grand Plaza between the Marriott and the Hilton, go towards the convention center, and then turn right outside the convention doors. Follow the pathway between the Hilton and the convention center, and past the arena, which held the Overwatch Grand Finals back in November, check the card to see my video about the tournament. Crossing over Katella Ave, we get to our subscriber check lodging of the video.
On these Orange County travel advisor videos, I’ll be doing subscriber checks with hotels in the Anaheim Resort area, which is easy to do now with less than five hundred subscribers but will be harder to do thereafter since hotels of over 500 rooms start to dwindle, and to get sparer. The room counts are either confirmed by their American Automobile Association (AAA) listing or on their website. When it gets to 500+ subscribers, I’ll probably do music and sports venues.
With 42 rooms, Alpine Inn is the subscriber check lodging of the video. The Alpine Inn is a long-standing motor lodge with a chalet-style architecture, pool, business center, and a huge perk for the area, free parking, as parking at most hotels in the area is roughly $30 a night. In-room amenities with a mini fridge, microwave, and coffee makers, and seems to be renovated recently as well. It is next door to Alamo Car Rentals. You can see building permits at properties in Anaheim here to see what has been done recently.
From the Alpine Inn, we turn right to go up Katella to walk the length of California Adventure. At Disneyland Drive turn right, and go down the sidewalk. Then you will notice that it starts to curve, as it is one of the largest hidden Mickey, which you have to see on satellite views to see fully. The Paradise Pier Hotel is currently under renovation to Pixar Place Hotel with a more muted gray and color stripe color scheme.
After going through the Downtown Disney security checkpoint, I went to the Disneyland Monorail to Tomorrowland. After entering the park, I wanted to maximize my time and purchased Genie+ with Lighting Lane, which is regularly $30 per person per day or $24 if you are a Magic Key Holder.
My first attraction was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. When I redeemed my Lightning Lane passes, a grandma in an electric mobility scooter ran over my foot lightly with the balancing wheel since I did not see her moving. The grandpa apologized and checked if I was okay, which I was fine since the balancing wheel does not make contact with the ground. They were here with their grandson so they had three people making it one person would go themselves. However, the grandpa was nice enough to ask me to come along with them since I was by myself anyways, and I agreed to come along.
After getting killed by the grandpa playing Astro Blasters, they invited me along for their reservation on Matterhorn. On the way there, the grandma ran over the grandpa’s foot with the scooter’s balancing wheel. Due to the grandma working with a broken back, she could not go on the Matterhorn, but I went along with the grandpa and grandson with their Disability Access Service. To get the service, Disneyland Cast Members talk with the guest to validate that the guest qualifies for the pass, if approved, get a Lighting Lane-like experience for a return ride for various attractions to cut down on wait times.
After going through the queue, the Matterhorn broke down! At least we got a Lighting Lane pass for select attractions, however, it seems like many of the attractions keep going down all day. As Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and more broke down at one point or another during the day. Oh well, just go with the flow and find another attraction. I bid the family thank you and see them later as they had sit-down lunch reservations and I had my Star Tours reservations. They also invited me to see World of Color with them, which I accepted, and I got the grandpa’s phone number to text him when I was on the way to the show.
Then I headed to my next Lighting Lane reservation to Star Tours without a hitch, but I did not film it since it would be a weird place to do so for a 3d attraction. After that was Autopia, where I did a follow-up video of driving one-handed with my GoPro, this time with my new iPhone 14 Pro Max since my iPhone 11 died, more on that in a future post.
Next, Matterhorn went back up, I went back in line and it broke down again! At that point, I just wanted to get more attraction point-of-view content. I went to Mark Twain River Boat, Disneyland Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Big Thunder Mountain. Then I went to California Adventure afterward.
At the Pacific Wharf Cafe, I got my clam chowder bread bowl and a cup of tea to warm myself up. While waiting for my order, the Mistletones, an acapella group, was performing a piece about Kwanzaa when I filmed it.
Afterward, I went to my next Lighting Lane reservation to Monsters Inc. The façade had new artwork which I was not a fan of since there is too much detail that was not needed in comparison to the previous simple artwork. I tried to record the attraction well, but the front of the car, a taxi, was really tall, but I made it work. In the end, one of the characters, Roz, makes a comment about the guest in the taxi, which I was told “oh great, another camera” as many guests film the attraction. Then she complimented me on my glasses since she wears glasses too. Cool, sarcastically scolded and complimented, the guests behind me agreed with me.
Leaving Monsters Inc., it was 8:15 pm, and World of Color started in 45 minutes. I texted the grandpa to see if they could get me into their World of Color seating, and he responded yes and to text when I got there. Then I walked over and texted him, and the grandpa helped me over to their ADA section. I haven’t seen World of Color, especially, the holiday edition, Season of Light, so I was grateful for the family to let me come along. I filmed the show, along with the grandson video chatting his mom the show, who I greeted after the show. The Season of Light show is the holiday season show with classic winter and Christmas music while showing clips from various Disney movies & TV shows that fit the theme of the song.
At the end of the show, we all headed out of the park, the family returned the electric scooter, and then we bid each other farewell. I walked back to work since I parked my car there to avoid parking fees. Along the way, I took pictures of the CVS and Walgreens at Harbor & Katella for a future post about errand tips for guests.
It was a great opportunity to go to the parks as it was calmer today than most weekdays. However, it was consistently hampered by many of the thrill attractions breaking down, which the lines of gusts that would have been in that line, to disperse to other attractions and shows, increasing wait times and attendance respectively.
Many attractions need regular maintenance downtime, as parts and systems wear down over time constantly running 19 hours a day, 365 days a year, parts will wear out and eventually break. That is why regular maintenance for attractions is needed. Similarly for my car as I had to get it a regular oil change, but the mechanic noticed an oil leak, and had to work on it for a couple of days to repair the part, same for theme park attractions. Hopefully, guests are understanding in that respect.
I’ll post the attraction point-of-view videos over the coming days. Thank you for watching and reading my content. Happy Holidays from AntSol Travel! Or Season Speedings! From my previous Disneyland visit.
AntSol Travel 