Celebrating My Birthday at Disneyland + The Food

For my birthday this year we went to Disneyland! Here’s a post about all of the thing we ate!

“It’s 87 miles to Disneyland. It’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it!” (reference, in case you need it)

[strawberry croissants / $1.40 + steamed pork buns / $2.00]

We left a little after 6am to avoid as much traffic as possible. We still hit traffic once we got into Orange County but by then we were only 10 miles away from Disneyland, so it was fine. We almost didn’t make our regular stop at Cream Pan because of the traffic but Jake decided we had to do it! We started our day off with our favorite Strawberry Croissants and Steamed Pork Buns!

We went the wrong way at first. To get to the parking garage you gotta go up Disneyland Drive. Once we made it through we got our parking pass and were ready to conquer the day. I like they they have the parking pass set up so you can circle your pass to remember where the heck you parked. 

It’s Halloween time at Disneyland so the park is decorated in fall colors with LOTS of pumpkins everywhere! 

I’ve never visited for Halloween before so I was pretty excited to see Disneyland all dolled up for the holiday. 

We hit up a few rides before getting any treats. We started off by going on the light-on-lines rides in Fantasyland – Snow White, Pinocchio, and Alice in Wonderland. Then we swung by to get a fast pass for Space Mountain and then went over to Star Tours (which I loved). We still had a little time to kill before we could get on Space Mountain so it was time for our first treat!

The Little Red Wagon

I took this photo about 10AM before anyone was in line. By the time we arrived for corn dogs, there was a little line. There’s a sign that says corn dogs are $9.50 and include chips or apple slices. For a discount, ask for no sides. The corn dogs were $7 each on their own. 

I had read a few things about these hand battered corn dogs so I was curious to finally try them out. I had never had one before! 

[hand battered corn dog / $7]

I liked that my corn dog was all wonky shaped. To me that signals it truly was hand battered! 

Also – this was DAMN delicious! The corn dog batter is a bit sweet and the taste reminded me a bit of cornbread. The hot dog was thick and quite juicy. A really good corn dog – I can finally see what all the fuss is about! 

Candy Palace

After our corn dog treat, we headed over to the Candy Palace on Main Street. I wanted a little sweet treat! Here are their cute holiday cupcakes!

I was specifically trying to see if they had any Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars – I had seen some on Instagram but sadly there were none to be found that day.

Candy apples!

A few other treats. 

[day of the dead mickey mouse cake pop / $5.99]

My chosen treat? This AWESOME Day of the Dead Mickey Mouse Cake Pop! I loved the colors and style of this one and couldn’t resist it. 

The “ears” were marshmallow and the inside was a deep, dark chocolate cake – it was rich and kind of fudgy, almost like a brownie. Delicious! 

While I was staring at and drooling over baked goods, Jake went to Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlour and got us an ice cream to share! The top is strawberry ice cream and the bottom is coffee almond fudge. The coffee almond fudge had a ton of almonds in so I loved it. He got that flavor for me. Awww. 

The boys and our sweet treats! 

In Tomorrowland, you can buy Tie Fighter Popcorn Buckets. $25 though. Man.

T got one. This thing does NOT hold a lot of popcorn. They know it, too, because they give you the popcorn in a separate container and you gotta fill it up yourself. 

T totally looks like a Popcorn Bucket model right here. 

After Space Mountain, we checked out the “Path of the Jedi” which is where Captain EO used to be back in the day. It’s a 13 minute movie about Jedi’s. Basically we did this so we could sit for awhile. Then we went to get fast passes for the Indiana Jones Ride and headed over to the Enchanted Tiki Room and then hopped on the Jungle Cruise. 

Bengal Barbecue

Time for another snack!

T got his own skewer of spicy beef but we shared all of these skewers and a “tiger tail” aka breadstick. The breadstick was kind of meh. It was a bit too hard. 

[safari skewer / $4.19]

This Safari Skewer had grilled asparagus and bacon! The bacon was a bit thin but it still had a good flavor. A nice treat! 

[bengal beef skewer / $4.49 + chieftain chicken skewer / $4.19] 

I also got the beef skewer which is in a “sweet zulu sauce” (whatever that means) and the chicken skewer is in polynesian sauce. Of the two I preferred the chicken. It was a bit juicer and the sauce tasted better to me than the beef skewer’s sauce. The beef was a bit too chewy for my liking and I thought the sauce was kind of meh. The sweet polynesian sauce had more flavor to me.

[pomegranate piranha lemonade / $4.39]

Jake wanted a lemonade and I got him this Pomegranate lemonade with pomegranate balls in it! 

A surprisingly good treat! It was refreshing and the little balls disintegrated as soon as it hit your tongue! 

After our little skewer snack, we went to Pirates of the Caribbean! 

The French Market

Most of the rides that day took about 30 minutes to get on. It was time for something more akin to “dinner” and we headed over to the French Market.

I love this wreath. 

Sally Coffin Cake! I didn’t get one but it was so cute!

We got a bowl of corn chowder to share. It comes in a sourdough bread bowl and of course they pull the bread out to make it look like Mickey Mouse. The corn chowder was much spicier than I thought it would be! I also thought there would be a bit more liquid but it was very chock full of corn and potatoes. Wasn’t my favorite corn chowder ever since I felt it was a little too thick and much too spicy. 

We also got this New Orleans salad to share between the three of us. This reminded me of a BLT but with salad! They hand toss the salad when you order so it is freshly made. There are also, surprisingly, potatoes in the salad as well. The dressing on top makes it feel like you’re partially eating a potato salad as well. It’s kind of weird but in a delicious kind of way. I really enjoyed the salad and the dressing was great! 

Jake got a mint julep which he loved. I thought it was way too minty. I like lower doses of mint. 

For dessert we got beignets! I was really excited that the beignets were Mickey Mouse shaped! 

They have two different styles available right now: regular powdered sugar or butterscotch powdered sugar! Jake figured we should try both. He’s smart.

They put the beignets into a paper bag and then you need to SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE em to get the powdered sugar all over them.

Then they look like this! This is the butterscotch one. It’s slightly tanner than the regular one.

Both beignets were pretty damn tasty. It’s hard to go wrong with fried dough covered in sugar. The butterscotch one had a light butterscotch flavor which I enjoyed. 

Beignet eaters! 

You can get the Mickey Mouse Beignets from the Mint Julep Bar which is right outside the French Market.

The Haunted Mansion is all done up for the holiday with a complete makeover Nightmare Before Christmas style. 

When it gets dark, the whole house is lit up and halloween music starts playing! 

In New Orleans Square they sell these awesome glow in the dark Zero popcorn buckets!! They are $17 bucks and totally worth it! Plus the popcorn is INSANELY GOOD. It’s buttery and salty and just about perfect! 

To end the day, we stopped by the Jolly Holiday Bakery near Main Street. I wanted a couple of “to go” treats that I could enjoy the next day. I got the “Matterhorn Macaroon” and this cute Mickey Bat sugar cookie. I loved the macaroon – the white chocolate topping is delicious with the coconutty macaroon! 

And there’s my recap of my awesome birthday spent at Disneyland! Stay tuned for my Free Birthday Roundup which will be coming very soon!