Halloween Time At Disneyland: Calling All Parents of Teens

It's Halloween Time at Disneyland! Definitely not for the gourd-phobic.

Last weekend we were treated to a day at Disneyland Resort to enjoy their special Halloween Time event. This is where the parks are transformed for Halloween and some of the rides get a scary makeover – Space Mountain becomes Ghost Galaxy, The Haunted Mansion turns into Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas hosted by Jack Skellington and The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror gets a few additional dead souls checking in. And of course no one does Halloween decorations better than Disneyland. (Sorry, Pinterest.)

Lately when I've mentioned to friends with older kids that we're heading to Disneyland I get the same response. Usually it's "Why?," followed by "What are you on?" Let's face it – our kids are getting older and we're – gasp – getting older too, and the prospect of a 14-hour day at Disneyland seems daunting. Crazypants, even.

But I've got some strategies for parents that can make your day at Disneyland and California Adventure just as fun for you as it is for your teens while fitting in some family time, too. Can you say guilt-free date night? And it doesn't involve any illegal substances, either.

Don't cry – you can now get your double-tall-extra-dry cappuccino on Main Street

1. Load up on coffee.
There is a Starbucks on Main Street, people. I think when I first saw this I took off my mouse ears, dropped to my knees and kissed the feet of the barista dressed in old-timey garb. No more waiting for an hour for your cappuccino at the lone coffee cart! (There's a Starbucks in California Adventure, too, but it tends to get mobbed.)

2. Make sure your phone is charged. 
You're going to need your phone for those "I'll give you more cash but twelve churros is enough," calls. Also, how else would you know to meet up at Cafe Orleans for the 9:00 Fantasmic Show, or Instagram your entire day? There are now phone charging lockers on Main Street ($2 per hour – you can see a how-to video here.) I always have spare power with me – I take along 2 Mophie juice packs to get me through the entire day.

3. Go see a movie.
That's right, you have the time to see a movie while your kids are blissfully unaware that you're indulging in 'me' time. Tell them you'll meet them after their tenth spin on the Indiana Jones Adventure, and head off for a cinematic interlude in a dark, air conditioned theater. The AMC theaters in Downtown Disney are really nice, and usually not crowded. We saw Gravity there on opening weekend and the theater was practically empty.

It doesn't have to be all chicken fingers and Cokes.

4. Have a grownup meal. And an adult beverage.
There are so many places within the parks and in Downtown Disney where you can sit down and have a nice meal and a cocktail. California Adventure's Wine Country Trattoria has a great patio where you can dine on Italian food and sip a nice glass of wine, and we never leave without having drinks and appetizers at the outdoor Uva Bar in Downtown Disney. We also love hanging out at the Hearthstone Lounge in the Grand Californian Hotel or on one of the big couches in the lobby. (Also – and not necessarily a grownup, sitdown meal – but I'm a huge fan of the bacon-wrapped asparagus at Bengal BBQ in Adventureland.)

They should rename this the Peace Train because it's the best place to get some peace and quiet.

4. Ride the train. Over and over.
I'm not kidding – if you want a truly peaceful, meditative experience at Disneyland, grab a coffee (see Starbucks revelation above), sit in the back row of the Disneyland Railroad and ride that sucker for at least two trips around the park. You'll disembark refreshed, renewed, and the with the entire script of the dinosaur experience memorized.

If you don't enjoy a good fireworks show you might just be dead inside.

5. Don't miss the fireworks or you'll hate yourself.
Whatever crazy, grownup thing you're doing at around 8:30, make sure you stop and head to Main Street to catch the fireworks. It really is one of the best fireworks displays you'll ever see, and might be one of the few things your teenagers will want to do together with you. Well, that and get coffee. (Did I mention there is now STARBUCKS ON MAIN STREET?)

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Halloween Time at Disneyland Resort runs through October 31, 2013. Click here for more information and details.

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Who says teenagers don't have their priorities straight?

Ah, October. The anticipation of fall is in the air, and the excitement of the upcoming holidays start to buzz around. Then there's Costco, busy as bees setting up their Valentine's Day display.

It's also homecoming time at the high school, and my girls were getting ready. They were both performing at the game and going to the dance the next day. To quote Katy Perry, they were livin' a teenage dream! To add to our festive mood, we received an invitation to check out HalloweenTime at Disneyland, which kicks off their holiday season in the park. But guess what – it happened to be on the very same day of the dance. If there was an emoticon to symbolize feelings of teenage conflict and angst, I'd insert it here.

Actually Kiyomi was pretty relieved – she'd been waffling about going for awhile, and finally reluctantly decided to go with a group of friends. This may have been because I sort of 'strongly suggested' she go in order to have a true 'high school experience.' I get like that a lot, trying to force my teenage memories on my kids. Someday I'll tell you about the time I made her get a perm, put on leg warmers and get disappointed by a cute boy. It was epic.

She wasted no time in cancelling her homecoming plans and whipping out the face paint. Something tells me she wasn't planning on going to that dance in the first place.

But Kira on the other hand was in full homecoming mode. Ironically, their theme was Disney, and she and some of her friends were going together and basing their outfits on Disney Princesses.

I need to just pause right here and address all of you out there with young girls who are hoping their daughters will someday outgrow their 'princess phase,' who might be dreaming of a time when you can stop buying those candy-colored puffy dresses: Sorry, but that day may never come, you'll just have to start buying them in bigger sizes and with lower necklines.

Kira found a billowy yellow dress, a pair of yellow shoes and some accessories shaped like red roses to put together her Belle-derivative outfit. (It all came from Forever 21, which is somewhere you know the Disney princesses would shop if they lived near a mall and had a fondness for knockoff dresses and dollar nail-polish.)

She was looking forward to an evening of mild-debauchery with her friends sullying the Disney Princess image, so you can imagine the conflict when I told her we'd been invited to Disneyland on the same day as the dance. Honestly, I thought she would have a flicker of disappointment, wish us a fun time and then go back to pondering lip glosses. She is 16, after all, and what could be more important than the homecoming soiree?

But apparently a trip to the Magic Kingdom is just more magical than a night in an overheated gymnasium pretending you're in the Magic Kingdom, and after a quick query with her friends on Facebook (who almost unanimously said, "Are you crazy, DISNEYLAND OF COURSE") she decided to blow off the dance. Anyone who thinks that teens have outgrown Disney would be mistaken – within hours of her decision she had sold her ticket and replaced her tiara with a pair of mouse ears.

But she's nothing if not resourceful – she wore her homecoming dress to Disneyland that day.

Find out more about HalloweenTime and our day at the park here.

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Now this is scary

Here it is, a mere ten days before Thanksgiving and I'm doing a post about Halloween. That means I'll get around to writing about Thanksgiving sometime around Christmas Eve, and then my Christmas post will go up sometime in June, 2010. Luckily you all come here for my excellent stock market tips and not for my punctuality.

As you know, I hate Halloween. I announced it on Facebook, Twittered it and yelled it at passing cars and then it found a way to come back and punish me for my curmudgeonly ways. Not only did I have to spend an eternity (and around five paychecks) getting all the pieces together for Kira's Fran Drescher costume (Kiyomi's was easy, an off-the-shelf McDonald's cup - score!), I somehow found myself hosting a Halloween party for the girls and their friends. It was torture, I tell you, kind of like a vegetarian having to host a steak cook-off or an atheist having to help throw a Christmas party. Oh wait - Rigel does that for me every year! No wonder he's so cranky around the holidays.

As usual, everything was saved for the very last minute. Those pumpkins up there were all carved the afternoon of the 31st and I was buying candy and party food at around 4pm. That meant only the really expensive candy was left - I really hate paying $65 for a bag of mini Prada chocolates. Also, that kind of frenzy leads to impulse buys, which is the reason I came home with goodie bags shaped like skulls, packs of tissue printed with candy corn, small bottles of bubbles with Frankenstein on them and cupcakes decorated with eyeballs. Here, in case you don't believe me:



Take a look at the food spread - I think I did pretty good for someone who hates Halloween. This photo was taken about an hour into the party, after four of the six pizzas we ordered were gone. Shocking, but those teenagers didn't like the strips of red pepper and sliced cucumbers I labored over! Those cupcakes were baked by Kira's friend, Sarah - after she brought hers over I was too embarrassed to put out my store-bought monstrosities with the eyeballs.



Just because I'm such a stick-in-the-mud, though, doesn't mean the rest of the family is. Here's some decorations that Rigel and the girls put up. Also note the 'Spells' table that Kiyomi worked so hard on - those are bottles of 'Invigoration Draught' and 'Love Potion.' In case you're wondering, that skull belonged to a kid from last Halloween who took TWO Laffy Taffies instead of ONE like I told him to.



Okay, I hate to admit - I actually had fun, and if it weren't for the exhausting costume prep I would probably have a much more cheery view of Halloween. So I told the girls that next year they have to come up with something that requires absolutely no buying, or ordering, or alterations, or hovering over wig displays. In other words, they'll be going as the half-Asian, teen and tween daughters of a mom who used to hate Halloween. Happy Thanksgiving!

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tags: halloween | thanksgiving | costumes | fran drescher

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