Hey there, hi there, ho there! We headed down to the Disneyland Resort for the Merriest Nights event and decided to stop into Disney California Adventure first to partake in the Festival of Holidays food booths before the nighttime events. So come along with us as we taste around the bay.
Getting into the spirit of the season means feeling your jolliest and looking your holliest. These Spirit Jersey ears are the perfect winter wear for this weekend, and while they won’t keep your ears warm, they will keep them festive.
The Festival of Holidays officially begins tomorrow, but the booths opened last night, and we are ready to hit them all this morning. Booths open at 10:30 a.m., so we jumped in line right at 10:31 a.m.
Most of the festival offerings sold from these temporary booths are reused from the Food and Wine Festival in the spring.
We had all the new foods that debuted this year, including this delicious Impossible Chorizo Queso Fundido at the Brews & Bites booth.
The classic Gingerbread cookie was a hit at the Grandma’s Recipes booth, alongside the arepas and berries and crema shake.
The Holiday Spiced chicken wings were a real disappointment at the Merry Mashups booth. The Honey Guava Pisco Punch, below, was really tasty, though.
And speaking of disappointment, the Nashville Hot Turkey slider was the worst of the festival. In a sea of great food, a few things really stand out when they are bad, and this was one of the rare misses from the festival.
On the other end of the spectrum, the stunning offerings from the Holiday Duets booth blew our socks off. This Pabana Cachaça Colada, above, was a stellar cocktail, and the Calamansi Melon Lemonade is a perfect non-alcoholic treat that is just as satisfying.
Over at the Paradise Garden Grill, Viva Navidad has taken over to celebrate the holiday.
The vending carts offer some delicious beef tamales above, and a cute little pan dulce serape, below.
Outside of the festival, we found some cool new Marvel apparel. Remember, Christmas is coming up fast.
Radiator Springs has decked the whole town in Holiday finery, and it’s just beautiful.
Come on… look at that. It’s beautiful this time of year.
Santa has made a stopover visit to Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, where he greets guests and gives out treats.
Disneyland
It’s almost time for the Merriest Nights event, so we headed in to Disneyland just a bit early to see what was going on. We arrived just in time for the Veterans Day flag ceremony. It was a beautiful event with a live singer, the US Marine Band, and a huge crowd of Cast Members and guests. Any of the park Cast Members who are veterans were invited to stand on the Main Street Train Station steps for the ceremony.
After the flag was lowered and folded, it was carried out by Disneyland security Cast Members in a solemn procession.
Following that, all of the Cast Member veterans marched out of Town Square to thunderous applause from the gathered crowd. WDWNT wants to extend its thanks to all veterans here and across the country. Thank you for your service.
As the sun sets, we were getting ready for the Merriest Nights event. Stay tuned for that photo report. We’ll see ya real soon!
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