New Year’s Eve used to be a bit different.  There used to be more drinking and debauchery and less kids and 4′ tall mice.  I believe things have improved.

My family, consisting of myself, my wife and our two boys, made the trek across Los Angeles and hunkered down for the remainder of 2006 at the Disneyland Resort.  We checked into the Grand Californian at about noon on the 30th and started the unwinding process.

We weren’t just counting down to a new year, we were throwing off the stresses of lives lived beyond the pale.

We are lucky to reside within two hours of the California parks, which coupled with our Disney Vacation Club membership and Annual Passports, allows for frequent and relatively affordable trips.  Thus, a trip to the Disneyland Resort is to us what it will never be to many that travel further and spend more, it is relaxing.  We have no time-line or pressures of the rat race (mouse race?) that push others through turnstiles and fastpass lines.  No, we stop and smell the roses.  We also smell the kettle corn.

The crowds were as thick as ants on honey, which I assume would be quite heavy.  At one point I found myself pushing the stroller through a sea of migrating tourists flying south for Fantasmic! and becoming further and further removed from my wife and oldest son.  They tried to stop, which as any concert goer/rioter will tell you, is a no-no.  "Save yourself!" I yelled out.  I was confident; I had a room key and a decent sense of direction. The thought of watching my wife and child swim upstream into the mouth of Monstro was more than I was willing to bear.  "Remember me…" I added, but they were gone.  Swallowed by one too many metaphors.

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Read More »Disneyland Resort New Year’s Trip Report: Honea Edition