Dukie-Dukie: Disneyland in December

After a great night's sleep, I was up by 6 am and fully rested.

We were out the door by 8 am. We were staying at the Travelodge Anaheim Inn and Suite which was only a 15 minute walk to the park.

This was the line of car just trying to get into the Mickey and Friends parking garage. I'm glad we walked.

Lots of construction going on for Star Wars Land.

The very long line to get into Disneyland. The park opens at 9 am, but they do allow people in early to shop and linger around Main Street.

I'm not a fan of taking photos. Tammy loves it though, but only on her left side cause that's her good side -_-

The staged was set up for the Candle Light Procession that was held the previous two days. We just barely missed it.

Tammy dropped her ticket and lucky for us someone found it. So I snapped a picture of the ticket just in case she loses it again. I heard that if you lose your ticket there nothing they can do about it unless you have the barcode. So they recommend you take a photo of your ticket so you can recover it if lost.

The first thing on our minds was breakfast.

I wanted to have breakfast at Carnation Cafe and there was a long line. So we waited.

Come to find out that people were not lining up for breakfast, but for hand pulled candy canes that they make a limited batch of and always sell out. So we decided breakfast can wait. We'll get some candy canes instead.

It's one candy cane per person and they give you a wristband for a return time to get your candy cane.

It's a huge candy cane. I tried the candy cane and it's nothing special. Tasted like a regular candy cane to me. So unless you really love candy canes, you can probably skip this.

After we got our candy cane there was still a huge line for them.

By the time we got to Carnations Cafe there was about a 30 minute wait for breakfast. So they gave us a buzzer and told us we could wonder around Main Street until our tables was ready.

Finally breakfast time.

The pictures of lemon is Tammy's doing....her random photography skills.

Country breakfast.

Country fried steak and eggs. It was okay, I've had better.

After breakfast we headed to HyperSpace to grab fast passes.

Then we made our way to the Haunted Mansion.

It was only about a 20 minute wait for the Haunted Mansion.

Pirates of the Caribbean was next.

The staff at the Blue Bayou was having a meeting before lunch.

The Jungle Cruise is changed into the Jingle Cruise for December. This is my first time on the Jingle Cruise.

Time for a snack.

I must say though, Disneyland has some of the best churros.

Tammy wanted to get some ears so we headed to the Mad Hatter.

Then it was time for our fast pass at HyperSpace.

So HyperSpace is a Star Wars overlay of Space Mountain. It was pretty neat and something different from the normal Space Mountain.

Around 1 pm we headed to DCA to grab some drinks at Cove Bar.

As we were walking to Cove Bar, we noticed there were a few shacks selling food and drinks.

So it looks like DCA had a Festive Foods Marketplace. 14 shacks that each served different food and drinks.

Zombie a very strong alcoholic drink. It's off menu.

'
Fun Wheel, a sweet alcoholic drink that's easier to drink and also off menu. I originally thought it was whipped cream on top, but it's actually wild berry fruit foam.

Cotton Candy Lemonade, non-alcoholic and it's delicious.

Lobster nachos are always a hit.

Tri-tip sliders with 3 different toppings. These were pretty good. The tri-tip was tender and not chewy.

The Aladdin show has been replaced by Frozen. I loved the Aladdin show and wanted to see how good the Frozen show was.

The Frozen show was okay. I think the Aladdin show was way better.

After the show we headed back to Disneyland real quick to pick up a souvenir at Club 33 that my friend left for me when he was at the park the day before.

As we walked into the Disneyland we just barely missed the parade and it was packed on Main Street. Took a bit of work to get through.

Back at DCA we had fast passes for Soarin' Around the World.

We had dinner reservations at Carthay Circle Restaurant, but wanted to snack on something to hold us over until dinner.

We tried the Swedish Meatballs $7 and Classic Crab Cake $8, for the price Jack paid and the portion you get it's quite expensive. The meatballs were just as good as the ones you get at Ikea, that's the only Swedish meatballs I have ever had and my only comparison. The crab cake was good too, but nothing amazing. I would really want to try everything at every card, but the price and portions are very deterring.

We tried to get one Toy Story Midway Mania, but it was broken down. I think this would be the first time that I would not get to ride Midway Mania on a visit to DCA.

I have a lot of fond memories playing the horse racing game as a kid when I visited Circus Circus in Reno. I love this game, but only came in third place.

Since Midway Mania was broken we headed to Goffy's Sky School.

The ride was way more fun than I expected.

We tried heading to dinner early, but they told us to return 10 minutes before our reservation.

So we shopped around Buena Vista.

I wonder if it's made of real candy?

We hung out in the lounge at Carthay Circle until our table was ready.

The primary reason I wanted to dine at Carthay Circle Restaurant was for the fried biscuits stuffed with white cheddar, bacon, & jalapeno.. and they didn't disappoint. If it wasn't for the fried biscuits, I probably would have dined at Blue Bayou. I like the atmosphere better. Carthay Circle is a bit on the fancy/upscale side.

Christine had a Manhattan & Jack had the Wild Berry Lemonade. It was entertaining watching Christine drink the Manhattan cause I knew what she was getting herself into, but she had no clue.