Momentary Pause

CW: brief COVID mention, food, drink, alcohol

I have been remiss and haven’t written for awhile. During the throes of COVID back in June, we had a wild idea of taking a trip. My spouse thought of looking for tickets for Oogie Boogie Bash, a Halloween party at Disney California Adventure, for sometime in the autumn. They usually sell out quickly, so we didn’t think we’d actually get the tickets. However, we were in luck, and were able to score tickets for mid-September! From there, we planned the trip, booking airfare and hotels and such, and of course the tickets for other park days. We haven’t been to Disneyland since 2019, so it was definitely nice to get to go back.

So we had been looking forward to the trip since late June/early July, and basically counting down the days. We ended up making the trip Wed-Sat, which is a slightly odd timeframe, but thankfully we are generally able to take off time whenever we want, unlike when I was a teacher and had to take only the popular times off (spring break, summer, and around the winter holidays). Finally, we got to the week of the trip! I had two days on phones for work, Mon and Tues of last week, which was not ideal, but at the same time, it was helpful since I didn’t have any carryover that would sit over our vacation time. My spouse took the kitties to the cat boarding and dropped them off Tuesday afternoon, and then we set about packing, as we were leaving early on Wednesday morning.

Neither of us slept very well that night, but that was OK, we planned on sleeping or at least resting on the plane. Made it to the airport just fine, with plenty of time to spare. The flight was fine; there was a slight delay in pushing back from the gate, but it was no big deal. We then took a Lyft from the airport to the hotel, checked in, left our bags with Bell Services for safekeeping, then ventured off into the park! Our arrival day was a Disneyland day.

I talked with my mom recently, who actually went with my sister to LA the week before our trip, and they did not only Disneyland but also other stuff in the area in general. She said she was happy just for the atmosphere and vibes at Disneyland, and being there in general, so they didn’t stress too much about getting a bunch done, &c. And that was kind of our ethos on this trip too. My spouse hasn’t been to Disneyland as much as I have; when we lived in Florida, we lived about 1.5hrs from Disney World, so we spent a lot of time there, and they did the same growing up in Florida in general. Regardless, they were OK just enjoying the atmosphere and vibes as well, and having a fun time. I don’t know Disneyland as well as I used to, as it’s changed a lot over the years. My spouse first went in 2015, when we took a trip in early autumn for our honeymoon, and has loved it ever since, but this is only their third time overall going there.

The trip was largely a blur, given that it was very short, and we had a lot planned, but we had a lovely time. We did as much stuff as we could on Wednesday, took a brief pause to get our luggage and get into the room, and then we went back into Disneyland to hang out and enjoy ourselves some more. We called it a night fairly early; I think we got back to the hotel at maybe 10pm or so, even though Disneyland was open until midnight. We were really tired from getting up so early, of course, and it was OK. In the past, we would have stayed from open to close and gotten as much done as possible, but these days we’re a lot more chill about it. The first day was also very hot, so we were grateful for the sun going down, and I forgot how much I dislike reapplying and reapplying sunscreen.

Thursday was the main event, Oogie Boogie Bash. We had a leisurely morning and tried to get into California Adventure earlyish, but not too early. Neither of us had been, especially since it’s a relatively new event. I think in 2015 when we went, Disneyland had a Halloween party that we attended which was fun, and this is the successor to that, but at the other park. We actually didn’t have major plans to do much in California Adventure, since we were mostly interested in food, drink, snacks, and alcohol there. We had also booked a dinner reservation right around 4pm, which would be nice, since the party began in earnest at 6pm. We did a couple of rides there like Soarin’ and the Monsters Inc. ride (which, rumor has it, is going away, unfortunately), but mostly just walked around and checked out the sights and such.

Dinner was pretty good and we had great waitstaff and such, so that was excellent. There wasn’t too much time left before the party after we had dinner, so we strategized on what to do next from there. One thing my spouse really wanted to do is get a picture with the “Sanderson Sisters” (from Hocus Pocus), which in fact was Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse, and Clarabelle Cow. We got in what was already a huge line at probably 5:30 or so, but it was no big deal. We figured we’d wait in the line and then start the party from there. There was cool energy in the line, as people were very excited and having fun, and we certainly weren’t bored while waiting. We ultimately were next and got 3 pictures (we found out they actually gave us 4!) with the characters, so that was pretty cool!

Otherwise, the party focuses on “treat trails” where you can “trick or treat” and get Halloween candy. However, unlike in years past (such as the Halloween party at Disneyland), the treat trails almost all have characters there that you can see and talk with, so that was a cool bonus. Some of them had longish lines, but most weren’t a big deal. We went around to a number of them, and when we got home, my spouse weighed the candy, and theirs alone was 3 lbs, so we got a whole bunch! We’re gonna have what we want of it, and give the rest out to trick-or-treaters, we think.

I was most excited about “Villains Grove,” a reskin of the “nature trail” in the “Grizzly Peak” area that normally looks like a mountain hiking trail. At night for the party, they fill it with fog and laser lights, and every video we saw looked very cool! And indeed it was extremely cool. We waited in a rather long line to get in there, but once we got in I took a ton of pictures and enjoyed all the atmosphere. There was a lot of fog and the laser lights were really pretty, and overall it was a really interesting experience. Unfortunately, it was also super popular, so I felt somewhat rushed going through, as there is only a limited amount of space on the trails. Nonetheless, we had a great time, and afterwards we checked out some more treat trails (Hades, Ernesto from Coco, and I can’t remember what else).

Oogie Boogie was a pretty full day for us, so we again called it a night a little early, but that’s OK. We did everything we wanted to do, and then some, and were happy to get back a little early and relax in the room.

Friday was another Disneyland day (we didn’t get “park hopper” so we just did one park per day), and we tried to do a lot of the stuff we didn’t get done the previous day. My spouse wanted a “Ronto Wrap” from Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge for breakfast, which is basically a breakfast sausage in a pita with sauce and such. They were very excited about it, and there was a limited time to get it, so that was the first stop. We also ended up taking the monorail into the park, which reopened Friday after downtime for refurbishment. A restaurant in Tomorrowland had a soyrizo breakfast burrito, the idea of which made me very happy, so I went to grab that while my spouse went to get the Ronto Wrap. Since the areas are a bit far apart in terms of walking, I ended up eating my burrito there and then meeting up with them afterwards.

Once I got to Galaxy’s Edge, we decided to try to hop on Rise of the Resistance, the premier ride in the area, and arguably the park. It’s really fun and we’d done it once before at Disney World. Normally people pay for a “lightning lane” to skip the line, but we decided to take our chances waiting in line. The wait was supposed to be around 45 minutes, which really isn’t too bad for that particular ride. About 10-15 minutes into the line, they announced that the ride was broken down and they didn’t know when it would come back up. We weren’t really doing anything else that day, so we decided to just wait it out and see what happened. Hilariously enough, many people got out of line and bailed, and the line got shorter and shorter, and eventually it did come back up. We ended up waiting roughly the originally quoted 45 minutes, and got to ride it!

I also tried “blue milk” which was really quite good. It was a bit floral but not unpleasantly so. My spouse got a special cold brew they’ve been wanting, and really enjoyed it.

We honestly didn’t do a ton more in Disneyland after that. We did the Tiki Room which is always one of my favorites, and were unfortunately underwhelmed by the renovation of the Jungle Cruise, but otherwise had a fun time. And we did some stuff on Main Street and looked around in the shops. Really, though, by mid-afternoon we were pretty tired and ready to be done for the day, which was fine. We grabbed our luggage that was in storage at the hotel, since we’d had to check out that morning, and got a Lyft over to our other hotel, which was very close to the airport (we didn’t want to shell out for another night at our first hotel, since it was spendy).

Our hotel by the airport was largely in the middle of nowhere. We just hung out in the room mostly and relaxed, as our flight was pretty early the next morning. My spouse didn’t want to walk too far, given all the walking we’d done the previous days, but we ended up walking to a little strip mall not too far from the hotel to look for dinner. We decided on a delightful Indian place and got a ton of food for what seemed very cheap! I adore saag/palak paneer so I got that and my spouse got butter chicken, and we split some naan of course. Delicious dinner. We got some beers and a bottle of cheap wine and walked back to the hotel to watch bad TV.

The flight out the next morning was very chill and uneventful, and we got the kitties on the way home from the airport. Spent the rest of the day with them, didn’t do much Sunday either, and that was about it.

I’m trying not to do the excruciatingly blow-by-blow stuff I used to do years ago; this veered a little into that but I tried to resist my worst urges on that front. Just wanted to share impressions of our trip and get them down, of course.

It’s nice to be back home, certainly, but I enjoyed some time off and even though it was busy, we were also able to recharge a bit. anyways, thanks for reading, friends <3