Our third and final day in Disney began at the Jingle Cruise, we wanted to make sure to get it in first thing in the morning to make sure we didn't run out of time, I would have been really sad if I had missed getting to ride it during the day.
The queue area had cute little hints of Christmas
When we had boarded our cruise boat, we went on a search for a shipment of Christmas decorations that never made it to the dock ....
After our super adorable Jingle Cruise we were lucky enough to see Moana! Isn't she so pretty?!
It was the perfect coincidence running into the newest Disney "princess" right before heading to the Bengal BBQ to get a limited edition Moana Pineapple Parfait. Turns out this super cute and refreshing dessert is SO GOOD! I will definitely be getting it again if it turns into a regular menu item.
Then we took a spin on one of my favorite special holiday rides, The Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion
Peppermint Beignets from Cafe Orleans were a high priority on our treat list so we made a quick stop at the Mint Julep Bar to pick some up to go. These holiday edition of a Disney classic are delectable, they are regular beignets dusted with peppermint powdered sugar so they have just the perfect hint of mint and are a must during the holiday season.
We ate our beignets on our way to the Cove Bar for lunch, we were hitting the eats hard today. The Cove Bar opens at 11 am, and there is usually a long line to get in before it even opens. We made sure we were the first in line! We only had a short, 20 minute wait and then were the first ones seated when they opened for the day. This was a brand new Disney experience for me!
The drinks at Cove Bar are so fun, not only are they delicious, they are decorative too
We got their famous lobster nachos. However, neither of us like lobster, so we got steak instead and man were they gooooooood.
Luckily, the Cove Bar shares restrooms with Ariel's Grotto so we got to see all the super adorable under the sea Christmas decor, major heart eyes.
After lunch we did a little shopping at the charming, old fashioned carousal themed store right across the boardwalk from Cove Bar. I'm sure I have been in this lovely store before, but I didn't remember it being so cute!
I love Star Wars and I love Day of the Dead, thus I fan girled hard over these awesome shirts!
After shopping we took a relaxing Spin on the Micky Fun Wheel and got awesome views of the park from high in the sky.
On our way to the Silly Swings Symphony we were lucky enough to run into this super fun and festive parade!
Then it was time to swiiiiiiiing
Next up was Soarin' Around the WORLD!!! I had been so excited to ride this new ride, it was fabulous! On this aerial adventure guests soar over, the ice fjords in Greenland, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Matterhorn in Switzerland (of course!), Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany (again, of course!), The Great Pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India, the Great Wall in China, Monument Valley in UTAH!, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Sydney Harbor in Australia, the Lau Islands in Fiji, the Iguazu Falls in Brazil and ends with a big finish by flying over the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland!
After we landed from Soarin' over the world, Lex headed to the Hyperion Theater to meet up with Laura and her mother-in-law and to get us a good spot in line to see the brand new, super high tech, live action Frozen production, while I made the rounds to the special Festival of Holidays food booths to pick up a variety of treats to enjoy in line.
The booths had the most darling names and were so cute!
I hit up 5 different booths!
Here is a list of where I stopped and what I got:
Spice Salutations - Cardamom and Saffron Sweet Cheese Tart with Mulled Fruit
Southern Home Holidays - Southern Mac & Cheese with jalapeño cornbread crumble,
Cranberry Sweet Tea topped with berry foam
Winter Sliderland - Praline & Bourbon Whoopie Pies
Yultide Yummies - Sticky Toffee Pudding with Brandied Cream,
Gingerbread Bundt Cake with orange-vanilla sauce
Mosaic Delights - Iced Moroccan Mint Tea
There were 14 booths in all, and each booth had anywhere from three to eleven items, so even though we made a valiant effort in trying all the treats, there were still tons of goodies we just didn't have the time or the room to try. But there's always next year!
These praline and bourbon woopie pies were probably my favorite. They were so flavorful and soft, and were everything you want a woopie pie to be.
When I met up with everyone, I added my collected treats to the sweets Laura had brought to our picnic, we had quite the spread!
The Frozen play is outstanding! The costumes and sets are wonderful and there were fun, outside of the box type special effects. It also made us all teary eyed, it will hit you in the feels.
After the play, we were all on our way to Cars Land to watch the lights get turned on, when Lex and I saw this sign outside the Tower of Terror, we just had to find out what it meant, we jumped in line. After waiting in the exact same spot for about 20 minutes we were getting ready to bail, we didn't want to spend our last night in Disney in a line! As we were looking for a way out of the queue, a group of girls walked up and gave us two special "late check-out" fast passes. We had the BEST LUCK this entire trip, and it just kept coming.
It was fun to have our actual final ride of the tower be special and different. Basically, the only difference was they didn't play the scenes when you're in the elevator. So the doors would open and it would just be darkness and silence. It did make it harder to anticipate when it was going to shoot you up and drop you down, so that was fun.
Then we said goodbye to California Adventure and headed over to Disneyland for dinner at the newly reopened Hungry Bear restaurant in Critter Country. I got a pulled pork hot dog with a side of onion rings. Those onion rings were AMAZING, they were everything I wanted in an onion ring, super crispy and good onion to breading ratio. The hot dog was pretty yuumy too.
Then we said our goodbyes to our friends and the magical world of Disneyland and headed back to our hotel for our last sleep in California.
We walked about 20,000 steps per day, so when we hit our hotel room we were exhausted. I always looked forward to getting my cozy Disney Pj's on and climbing into bed. This sweatshirt is my favorite, it is the softest sweatshirt you will ever feel and it speaks the truth. I also need to be better about checking the spelling on my Snaps...
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