Frolics with Fred: Holiday Security

Dear Readers,

Hi, Everyone! Fred here!

Man, sometimes I'm so grateful to be in the Disneyland Parks...mostly because security is tough. Even when you're a bunny rabbit!

I can't even use my striking good looks anymore! Being 25...well, I'm not as white and fluffy as I used to be.  And my mint green bow...well,...let's not talk about that! I'm distinguished now.

The other day, we came into the parks, and the security who searched Mariah's backpack, Armando, gave us BOTH a funny look.

What's the matter, buddy? You never seen a bunny in a backpack before?

People, these days.

Anyway, go look at all the fun stuff we did! Have a Happy Hoppy week!

Love, Fred
🐰

Kanine Krunchies - The Festival of Holidays!

Finally! We cover what I could get through at the Festival of Holidays.

Just so you, my treasured audience, are aware, I'm a one woman operation. It is not possible for one person to get through all this! Seriously, there is a LOT of food here.

Just to give my general thoughts before you even see the food....this is a tremendously good idea. It's essentially a Food & Wine Festival, but all the food is set to different cultural celebrations of the season.  Disney, are you listening? MAKE THIS AN ANNUAL EVENT!

It's fantastic, and it separates us from getting (while I enjoyed the Food & Wine coming back to DCA) a stepchild of Epcot's Food & Wine. It's a great way to accommodate food needs for the crowds that come in, it was well spread out through the park, and EVERYTHING we tried was fantastic.

So, just to clarify, I came the first time alone to check things out, and went back a couple of weeks later with my family to try out more. And still, it doesn't seem we made a dent.  We plan to return after the new year to see World of Color: Seasons of Light, so perhaps we'll try a little more while we're there, but don't get your hopes up.

Let's dive in!

 The design of the logo and decor for the festival is REALLY cute.  There are a few shirts and other souvenirs for sale with the logo on them.  The objects inside the Mickey head are all iconography from the various holidays celebrated at this time of year.

The attempt to be inclusive really hits the mark, with booths representing many different countries, philosophies, and...ways to celebrate the season.  It is mainly organized geographically, but not 100%, so just infer what the booths are called, and you should be ok.  They try to be subtle.  The "Nosh and Nibbles" booth has more Jewish based food, "Good Fortune's Feast" is Chinese food.  You get the picture.

At several intervals, there are maps available with the food listings for every booth, as well as a menu for each individual booth nearby each booth.

From the Heritage Cottage, we have the Braised Beef Short Rib with smashed potatoes and sauerbraten sauce.  This was a BEAUTIFUL and nicely prepared piece of meat. This really was kind of a meal in itself, another reason why I didn't make it very far in the tasting.  Prices are comparable to the Food & Wine, but portions are slightly larger, it seemed.

From Good Fortune's Feast, we have the Winter Mint Milk Tea.  I'm not big on mint tea or iced milk tea (I don't know why, I just can't get with it, though I like the individual parts.  Go figure.) but this was a great refreshing treat.  Once the Festival is over, it would be nice if this moved over to the Lucky Fortune Cookery on the Pacific Wharf.

Ohh, pretty decorations.

Again, Disney, sell THESE Mickeys! I'd buy them!

This might be my favorite thing at the whole Festival, the Sweet Potato Pie with Pecans from the Southern Home Holidays booth. What a slice of heaven this was! Even the crust was moist and wonderful.

Also, from Southern Home Holidays was the Cranberry Sweet Tea with Berry Foam.  Another guest actually approached me to ask where this was, and he was sitting right next to the booth! It's certainly eye-catching, and another nice non-alcoholic refreshment (for those of us driving home!), but what's with the foam? And this isn't the first drink at the Disneyland resort to have the foam.  What's up? I'm confused.

Another shot of the Diwali dancers. When I came the second time, I went to the booth opposite the dancers, and the Cast Members IN the booth were following along as a Bollywood dance lesson was going on.  If that isn't a sign of what this event does to the spirit of the season, I don't know what is!

Yuletide Yummies had this other standout of the Festival, a Mocha Yule Log with candied chestnuts.  Be warned, its decadent nature is better for sharing.  But it's SO pretty and so much work obviously went into it.  It's a pastry masterpiece!

Again, from Yuletide Yummies was the Mini Turkey Pot Pie with Cranberry Drizzle.  Don't let it's small size deceive you, it's a lovely little main dish.  Everything in it was tasty! And the cranberry drizzle is a great contrast that really set off a great pick!

My mother ate the Chicken Cilantro Tamale with Roasted Tomatillo salsa verde. Now, we're Mexican, so we come from a tamale making/eating family, and I have great-aunts (who are also great aunts!) who are fantastic cooks, but Mom said this was the best tamale she's ever had. Ever.

(And my mother apologizes to her tías for that statement. But...best tamale ever.)

If I recall, these are the Chorizo Bean Sopes with Cotija cheese and fresh crèma. Again, very good.

Last here is the pomegranate margarita, which we all sampled. A nice tasty treat! 🍹It's rated "Excellente"!

I wish I had more...criticism of the food for you all, but let's face it, Disney really hit a home run here. The food is good, the system works, though it would be nice if they implemented a re-loadable card system like Food & Wine, but perhaps next year.

My recommendation is to go with a group of people you like, gets a BUNCH of stuff and share it around.  The portions are big enough if you have a couple of things on your own (an entree, dessert and drink) you will be satisfied with a lovely little meal, but not necessarily full. But one extra thing, and you'll hit your limit. I mean, depending on who you are...I don't know your life!

Next up on the blog will be A Christmas Fantasy, a pictorial spectacular. I hit the parade viewing sweet spot!

Have a good week everyone!

Down the Street, Around the Corner: Knott's Merry Farm

Happy Friday, Everyone!

I hope you all are having a happy holiday season. Today, I'm going to give you a little pictorial of my recent trip to Knott's Berry Farm (Merry for the Holidays). My mother and I took my aunt's three children as a birthday present for the youngest, Olivia.  So, be aware, I was kind of limited in the coverage I got, but I hope you'll find something helpful in here nonetheless.

Here we are! The children are on loan, courtesy of Erika Alvarado...and it's her birthday today.  Happy Birthday, Auntie!

Camp Snoopy had some cute as heck decorations.  I'm already kind of heavy on Peanuts decorations at home, but I'd still grab these if I could!

We loved these little vignettes in Camp Snoopy.

Now, Knott's uses its Ghost Town area for the bulk of its "Merry Farm" stuff. It gives, yet another interesting take on Christmas' development anthropologically, when you put it alongside Main Street and Buena Vista Street in Disneyland and DCA. But in the area here, they have a lot of local artist type knick knacks and activities.  My cousin, Reuben, is not a fan of rides, so while I took the girls on a couple of things, my mom took him to look in the shops and he got to hand dip some candles, which thoroughly pleased him. So, you can definitely find things to do depending on your family's needs and chicken-levels.

This is the original Bottle House, which you might recognize from the queue of Radiator Springs Racers.  That structure is a tribute to this one.

The Calico Mine Train is pretty fun. Longer than I thought. It's sort of a good, old school, Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland kind of attraction.  But, if you're claustrophobic, you might want to skip it. Also, get comfy with your neighbors, no seatbelts, so while you're going uphill a little, you slide RIGHT into the people next to you.  Olivia did NOT appreciate that.

The Christmas show in Campy Snoopy was a great little treat.  I wonder how much latitude the Entertainment people get because it seemed they thoroughly dove into the original Schulz comics to get jokes.  As kind of a die hard Peanuts fan, I appreciated that.

Over in the graveyard (because of course the kids were morbidly fascinated), we came upon this one grave, which gave "good luck" to those who stood on the grave and felt a heartbeat.

This good luck better work!

The highlight of the trip was the "Merry Christmas, Snoopy!" Ice Show. Again, Entertainment here just knocked it out of the park.

The stage didn't seem all that big, but man, did they make use of it!

A LOT of costume changes.

This was a gorgeous little "Old Fashioned Christmas" section.  It was surprising, but really nice.
Bring tissue.

Snoopy got jazzy, but didn't try too hard to be hip.

Santa...?

No! Snoopy Claus and his reindeer!

Dogs CAN fly!

I love this move, and I didn't think they had the space to do it.

An interesting note, at one point, Linus came center stage and recited his original explanation of the meaning of Christmas, pulled from the Bible, as he does in the 1965 special "A Charlie Brown Christmas".  The poignant moment was met with thunderous applause from the crowd.

It was ridiculously moving.  Great job, Knott's Entertainment.

One thing I'd like to note, the attractions don't have wait times listed.  I literally took the girls into the same attraction line twice because we misjudged how long the line was, and we had to bail to see the Camp Snoopy show.  What I can really say about Knott's, in a less positive way, is that it functions so much more like a regional amusement park than Disney.  It didn't feel as organized at all. And it's a real shame because it does a good job in spots of reminding you of the park's roots.

Perhaps in the new year, I'll need to take a solo trip to get a little bit of a better look. Does that sound like a good idea?

Well, that about does it. I'll have at least two great posts in the next week to accompany you on your holiday chores and shopping. Be safe, and have a good weekend!

Holiday Success and Disneyland Fails: A Trip Report

Afternoon, Everyone!

So, my family decided to go to Disneyland yesterday to experience our Holiday happiness in the parks on what TouringPlans.com listed as a 3 out of 10 day, crowd-wise.

And here's where our story starts. (There will be a LOT of pictures to compensate for the complaints.)

We arrived not long after the 10 AM opening time and it took AN HOUR to park...and an additional half hour to get into the park. Now, it took me a while to get into the parks when I was there two weeks ago, but I didn't pay it that much mind...WHAT is going on? Are they not letting people into the parking structure until later? I seriously cannot explain this, and if someone with more expertise could, I'd be grateful.  AN HOUR to get in? Or is TouringPlans off its game?



For those who don't know, TouringPlans.com is a website with crowd calendars and wait times (this is a gross reduction of their work, by the way).  I've always found it helpful and informative, so I hope this was an anomaly of a day. The site often graphs what the projected versus what the reality was, so when I see that, I will create a blog post with a link to it so we could see what happened.

And here is some Star Wars land construction to appease you...

Once in the park, we spent more time experiencing the Festival of Holidays. Again, it will get a post of its own this week, but MAN the food was still good! I tried a few different things, and my family helped cover more ground (Don't try a food festival on your own! You won't make it!).

Also, we (finally) got to experience the lovely street party.  Now, see where we sat? DON'T sit there! It was just too far from the action, but you DO get surprised by a few of the party figures coming in from that end, though I couldn't figure out from where!

We took a little peek into the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, but the long wait to meet Santa took up most of the area (Seriously, children, go to the mall and leave Disney Santa for the grown ups!)

Now, throughout the area, many of the trees had these decorated Mason jars with lights inside. And when i say throughout, I mean it.  This picture was taken while we were watching people board the Grizzle River Run, and as we walked closer to Soarin' we kept seeing them.  But in the daylight, they're just not as visible.  I would LOVE to come back in the evening to see how it looks.

What size sweater do you think this is?

Soarin' has a great little tree apparently put together by the pilots of the area.  The attention to detail, again, is just astonishing.

Admittedly, Fiddler, Fifer, & Practical was a little low on decorations, but it was also hard to find a lot of spots to PUT decorations, so I'll give them a pass.

Clarabelle's has great theming on a regular day...

 In Hollywoodland, in a window connected to Off the Page, this little display caught our attention.

As requested, this picture is for you, Mom.

Elias & Company's tree...

Back at the Jingle Cruise...

OK, now we're going to have a little chat about Haunted Mansion Holidays.....

Part one, this pumpkin is cute, but please look at the children STANDING on the brick behind it.  Parents...WHY?!?! This is not safe! And I can't tell you how many times the poor Cast Member had to politely holler at the parents to get them to come down.  Really?

So, we got in line with a 25 minute listed wait.  As we were heading into the actual Haunted Mansion property (out of the extended queue), it had gone up to 35 minutes.  We were in line a minimum of an hour.  Had the wait time been more accurate, we would have skipped it in favor of getting good seats for the A Christmas Fantasy Parade.

And THEN, as we are walking into the foyer, the Cast Member shouts "AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PUSH AND SHOVE!"

Really?!

You're serious?

Why would a Cast Member encourage that kind of behavior? Even as a joke? We didn't get to get her name, but this Cast Member should not be giving out that kind of instruction.

Third, once through the stretching room, we were stuck for a good 10 minutes in the hallway due to technical difficulties.  I imagine they were having these issues all day because after we eventually saw the parade sitting at the Jolly Holiday, the wait times board listed it as closed due to technical difficulties.

Disneyland Operations is obviously having a MAJOR problem of late.  Once I got home, I saw Big Thunder Mountain also had a lot of problems. What is going on, Disney? Is it bad enough Tower of Terror is in scaffolding, part of Frontierland is closed and the parking lot is half in pieces, you can't take care of what IS up and running?

And now....prettiness....

Again, inaccurate wait time....are we really supposed to get Fastpass+ the way things are lately?

The hippo has been redone.  She no longer has two eyelids that blink on their own.  Am I the only person that constantly took pictures where the poor dear looked drunk?

So, there we have it.  If anyone has experiences to add to what we encountered yesterday, please let us know in the comments.  I should be getting another post up and out quickly.

Have a good week!