Girls' Trip to Disneyland 2025

In November 2025, my mom, sister, niece, and I took a girls' trip to Disneyland. We spent four days in the parks. We rode all our favorite rides multiple times, but instead of racing from ride to ride like we might on a shorter visit, we took our time. We listened to live music, watched the shows, and took a close look at all of the holiday decorations. I got into pin trading, something Trevor had done when he was young. Mom, Kari, and I got matching holiday sweatshirts. Twelve-year old Allison thought that was cringe. Her loss. Kari introduced me to the concept of collectible popcorn buckets and bought lots of snacks for us to enjoy. One of the many highlights of the trip was taking the 70th Anniversary Holiday Tour, which was so much fun and a whole different way to experience Disneyland. It was a fantastic trip. 

Girls' Trip to Disneyland, 2025 (affiliate link)

When choosing photos for my layout, my main priority was including photos of us. I was really glad that our tour guide offered to take a picture of the four of us together - it ended up being the only one we got. The other group shots are all trios. I mixed the people pictures with photos showing the holiday and 70th anniversary decorations. It rained one of the days we were there, so I made sure to include one of those pictures too. The people in the background are carrying umbrellas and wearing ponchos; we're standing in the rain enjoying Dole Whips. I'm so glad to have this layout in the album. It's full of happy memories. 

Disney Adventure

One of the many highlights of the Southern California trip that Steve and I took in January was visiting Disneyland and California Adventure. We went almost every year when Trevor was little, but that stopped when we shifted our focus to visiting all 50 states. A lot had changed in the 10 years since we'd been there, so it was a lot of fun seeing the new things and enjoying our old favorites. We loved all the Lunar New Year theming at California Adventure and at the Grand Californian. 

Disney Adventure (affiliate link)

I love having detailed blog posts about our trips, because that reduces the pressure to tell the whole story on the scrapbook layout. I chose six pictures to sum up the trip: one of each of us; the castle (from our spot in line at Astro Blasters); the new World of Color show; the Lunar New Year parade; and the Year of the Snake centerpiece at our hotel. I'm happy with this layout and had a lot of fun making it. 

Southern California Travels, Part 4: California Adventure and a Photo Scavenger Hunt

This is my fourth post about our visit to Southern California. I recommend reading the first, second, and third posts before this one. 

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Disney California Adventure

One of the best things about staying at the Grand Californian is the easy access to California Adventure. We were there right when the park opened and barely paused to take a quick snapshot of the iconic ferris wheel....

... before walking onto Midway Mania. We didn't even have to pause! 

There was no line when our ride ended, so we asked if we could just stay on. Nope - we had to walk around and get back on. Which we did. Such a fun ride! And since the line is regularly 45+ minutes, it was a treat to ride it back-to-back without waiting. 

Our strategy was to hit the most popular rides we were interested in early, so Web Slingers (the Spider-Man ride) was next. It's new since the last time we were there. It's similar to Midway Mania, but you flail your arms to fight spider-bots instead of a blaster to shoot plates and whatnot. 

It was fun, but nowhere near as good as Midway Mania.  

Next, Soarin' Around the World. It was Soarin' Over California during our last visit. We enjoyed it, but no more than the California version. 

Monsters Inc doesn't usually have a big line, but it's my favorite ride so we went there next. 

Mickey's PhilharMagic was starting, so we stopped to see that. We'd seen a version of it at Disney World in 2013, but this was updated to include the newer Disney movies. It was a lot of fun. 

More glasses!

We learned to draw Olaf at the Animation Academy. 

Then we walked onto Ariel's Undersea Adventure. 

Ursula is one of my favorite Disney villains. I might color her next...

  

It was a happy surprise that California Adventure goes all out for Lunar New Year. There were decorations all over the place... 

... a LOT of themed souvenirs....

... a special parade...

  

  

... as well as a dedicated area with Lunar New Year themed activities and decor. It was really neat. 

  

Steve was born in the Year of the Dragon. I was born in the year of the... Mouse? 

  

There was also a Sip and Savor Pass available for the dozens of special dishes inspired by Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese cuisine that were for sale. It was really tempting to buy it because everything looked so good, but we skipped it so as not to overeat. 

It's a little weird traveling 350 miles away to learn about Boudin's sourdough when it's so close to home, but I'm never going to skip anything that has to do with sourdough. 

I love Cars Land.

  

  

  

I like the transformation from Paradise Pier to Pixar Pier. 

Headbands were big at California Adventure, too. 

I love the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. 

  

At this point, we popped back to the Grand Californian for a bit of peace and quiet. It's so convenient to take an hour or two to rest before returning to the park refreshed. 

Turtle Talk with Crush is one of the most underrated attractions at the park. 

The whole audience was cracking up when a college-age girl misunderstood Crush's question about her phone and she thought he was talking about her friend. Crush kept coming back to that and it was funnier each time. 

The trolley was making its last-ever run the day after we were there, so I had to snap a final picture. 

Cars Land at night is even better than Cars Land during the day. 

There was a special Lunar New Year Celebration pre-show before World of Color, so we camped out early to get a good spot. 

The pre-show ended with fireworks, then it went straight into the main show. 

It was gorgeous and my pictures don't begin to capture it. 

I actually made a Photo Scavenger Hunt for California Adventure too, but didn't focus on it like I did the previous day at Disneyland. I think I ended up taking pictures of everything on the list at some point though, except the shortest line. Too busy hopping directly onto rides to do that! 

We left Anaheim the following morning for more adventures in Southern California. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.