October 21st, 2022
Disney Princess Breakfast Adventures
- Price – $125 + tax and tip (free Valet parking included with Dining Reservation)
- Napa Rose – Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel
Location
Our 2 days at the Disney Parks may have been over but we still had one more magical activity before we left Disneyland: Disney Princess Breakfast Adventures at the Grand Californian Hotel.
Despite a very busy last 2 days, I woke up excited to wear the 3rd Outfit I have specially brought for Disney and of course, another Loungefly to complete the look! Tangled was actually the first Disney film Steve and I watched together and being also Blonde, I took inspiration from Rapunzel with a floaty purple dress, a crown made of flowers, and a Tangled Loungefly crossbody including a little Pascal on the zipper. I was ready for breakfast with the Princesses!
The Disney Princess Breakfast Adventure is held in the beautiful Napa Rose Restaurant at the Grand Californian Hotel. We checked out of our hotel and made the 5-minute drive to the Grand Californian. Parking at the Grand Californian is complimentary for those with dining reservations so the Valet took care of our Gigantic car as we headed inside where in the Lobby we were greeted by Oogie Boogie himself
When we checked into the restaurant we were asked to wait in a seating area where they have a violinist playing Disney Songs and Tangled-themed Tic-Tac-Toe to pass the time! It wasn’t long until we were seated at our table.
Food
Once seated, we were handed a mimosa each and a basket of sweet and savory breads to begin our meal. We were told it would not be long until our 1st course of mini starter portions of savory and sweet delights was arriving so I tried not to fill up on the yummy-looking bread! The server offered us hot drinks to go with our food and Steve chose the American go-to of Coffee while I took advantage of being in a restaurant to offer English Tea at breakfast time!
Once we had eaten our starter we were allowed at our leisure to pick hot or cold items from the buffet. With the yummy starter in my tummy already, I chose carefully from the Buffet as I also knew there was a ‘dessert’ course coming! Of course, the Mickey waffles were just calling to me and Steve went more savory and had Steak with Mac n Cheese and asparagus! The server had also left a side of fries on our table which was also begging to be eaten!
Once the server was sure we did not want to return to the Buffet a third time, they brought out the Dessert course of the breakfast. A selection of sweet treats including cake pops and a dessert with candy floss on top of it!
The food was all beautifully presented and freshly prepared by specialty chefs, even the items available from the buffet. There was a variety of foods available to suit everyone while also catering to the hard-core Disney foodie fans with the Mickey Waffles! Where else in the world can you eat Mickey-shaped Waffles if not at Disney?!
Was it $125 worth of breakfast? Of-Course not, it was good, but no breakfast is worth that, the breakfast is all about the experience and of course the Princesses!
Princesses
Now, it’s probably worth mentioning at this point that the Disney Princess Adventure was booked purely for my enjoyment! Steve was pretty much only here for the food and to take the photos. We are both very supportive of each other’s loves so he’s pretty happy for me to dress up, meet some Princesses, and totally get lost in the Disney magic that I have believed in since a little girl (providing he is fed LOL).
When we arrived at the napa Rose Restaurant we were informed by the cast member that we would have the opportunity to meet 6 Princesses during the duration of our meal. I made sure to check that Rapunzel was popping by and the cast member assured me that she was! They explained that we would go to meet the Princesses in between courses and that our server would let us know when it was our turn to go up and meet them.
While we were waiting for our table, Princess Jasmine was outside and we were told that we could go and meet her first. She had lost Abu and was wondering if we had seen him around the hotel- we told her we would keep an eye out for him!
Just around the corner from Jasmine was Princess Tiana, who was taking a break from making beignets all morning for the breakfast. We told her we loved Beignets but I felt a little sorry that she had such a busy morning! We were then seated at our table, having seen 2 Princesses before we had even sat down!
After we had our 1st course (including Tiana’s yummy Beignets), we went outside once again where we met Mulan and Princess Arura. Being a bit of a Sleeping beauty myself, I was impressed that both I and Arura were up nice and early but then again, Princesses don’t wake up like this!
We went back to our table to enjoy the buffet course of our food and before we knew it we were being invited to meet Rapunzel herself! Rapunzel was obviously impressed with my flower crown and dress but had lost pascal and was wondering if I knew where he was. How do these Princesses all manage to lose their cute little animal sidekicks so frequently I wondered???
After Dessert, we had one more Princess to meet and she is one of my OG favorites: Belle. She was so kind and also said how much she loved my dress. Meeting her at last, was the best way to end all my princess meet-and-greets!
Once we decided that we couldn’t possibly eat one more crumb of the delicious food we reluctantly asked for the check, knowing our latest Disney Adventure was over. Our server had one more surprise for us though, a Disney Princess bag, badge, and postcard with autographs from all of the Princesses.
It was the perfect end to our Disney Halloween trip but I was sad to be leaving the magic behind.
As we leave Disney, the next part of the trip was more for him so I will let him Take over…
Saying Goodbye to Mickey and Walt
The next part of our Halloween adventure was going to leave behind the unfilled thrills of a Disney Halloween and start to take on darker and more malevolent activities as we headed to Knotts Scary Farm! This is the premier Halloween Scare Night on the west coast and we were really looking forward to some really dark times ahead.
Still worn out from two days of Dinsey, we took things very easy. We stopped off at a Walmart to pick some bits up including a few drinks for the evening, and then made our way to our new hotel. This had been chosen based on two criteria, Price and Proximity to the park. Unlike Disney, there are pretty limited lodging options in the fairly rough area surrounding the park.
The Colony Inn was one of the few choices that fitted our Proximity target, regardless of budget. It was very cheap and was not exactly a luxury property. But it was clean and spacious and we were only staying a single night. Really the best option is to get a package and stay in the Knotts Berry hotel with day and night access to the park, but this would not work with our schedule.
We arrived at the Colony and the first impressions were not great, but the desk let us check in nice and early and we spent the rest of the morning just relaxing and unwinding from the last few days. It was seriously unseasonably warm and the temperature was hitting the mid 90’s again so we just hid from the mid-day heat in our room and get ready to hit the park later.
Knotts Berry Farm
We had primarily come to Knotts Berry for the Scare Event, but the park is one of our favs and has some really good rides. There is SO much to do at the Scare Event that trying to pack the rides in too is a little much. So we headed to the park early to get a few rides in before things got scary.
The Scare event is a separately ticketed event so if you want to go during the day you need a separate entry ticket and the park closes at 5:30 pm. We arrived at 2 pm so the $99 entry fee was a bit excessive. Luckily we had Go City San Diego Passes to use for the next few days and this got us into Knotts Berry for the day.
As the park was winding down for the scare event the queues were basically non-existent. We walked straight onto Ghostrider the park’s top coaster along with several other top rides. All with essentially no queues.
Ghost Rider – This is the park’s headline attraction and is one of the best wooden coasters in the world. Manufactured by Custom Coasters International it ranks in the top 10 wooden coasters in the Golden Ticket Awards. The initial drop is over 100ft and there is a ton of Airtime and steep banks to make the ride really thrilling. Unlike many wooden coasters, the ride is pretty smooth. It rides far more smoothly than most other wooden coasters and lacks any real harsh crashes and bangs that we usually associate with Woodies.
Calico River Rapids – As the heat was really one we decided to risk the Rapids. This was the only queue of the day and was still only 10-15mins. The Rapids are pretty solid. The theme is basic, but they wind through a nice woodland area. It’s a bit of a gamble as to which guests get a total soaking but we managed to avoid the worst of it, apart from when Kate’s seat got flooded leaving her with a siggy bottom!
Pony Express – a fun launch coaster that requires you to straddle a horse for the ride. The restraints are pretty intricate as your body and legs are pinned to the ride. It’s a short ride with a few big drops but pretty fun. It takes real courage to let go and put your hands in the air on this one!
Hang Time – A fantastic Dive Coaster that offers a 150ft, 96° drop. The Ride car pauses for a couple of seconds at the top of the drop but feels like about 7 hours as your feet dangle into thin air below. Eventually the car drops and the 2198ft track with 5 inversions including a negative-G Stall loop at the beginning that offers incredible floaty airtime before flipping you upside down in mid-air. A really fun ride!
Silver Bullet – We love B&M Coasters, and part of the reason for the next leg of the trip was to catch the new B&M at Sea World San Diego, so it was nice to find one here too. Silver Bullet is a very fine coaster. It’s super smooth and really fluid with six inversions. It doesn’t do anything to really stand out, but it’s just a really nice sophisticated ride. More like a flying coaster in delivery than an inverted one, but that’s not a bad thing.
Unfortunately, Montezuma’s revenge was closed for Refurishemnt, and Xcelerator and Supreme Scream were down due to Mechanicals. With enough thrill rides done, we headed to the Knotts Berry Boo-fet for dinner.
Kotts Scary Farm – Boo-fet
The Boo-Fet is such a great idea for anyone visiting the Scare Event and the Park in one day. As the park closes for an hour to get ready for the Scare Event, there would be very little to do, but with the Boo-Fet you can grab dinner while you wait AND get early entry to the Park. More on that later.
The Boo-Fet is also REALLY good. We were still pretty well fed from this morning’s Breakfast Buffet, but we had skipped lunch so we could work on this one too. There was ALOT on offer from chilled Shrimp, Deviled Eggs, fried Chicken, Prime Rib, Pork Tenderloin, Chicken Wings, Tenders, Chilli, Mac and Cheese (with Takis), Mash, Nachos, Soups, and Salads. It’s an incredible spread, defiantly Home-Style but delicious.
The Dessert station was awesome, it took a lot of willpower to wait until after for it! Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Boysenberry Pie, Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake, Cookies, Big Red Conchas, Bright Green Halloween Cake, and some amazing Purple Boysenberry Mousecakes that were delicious.
Drinks were served in a reusable cup that we could take into the park and refill at any fountain station, which was nice.
Thoughroly Stuffed we headed into the park only to hit a Snafu. Security decided Kates Loungefly Mini Backpack was too large to allow in, and we would have to take it back to the hotel! This was pretty annoying but as we were so close no Big Deal. But could have been a real problem for some people and more annoyingly there were hundreds of people in the park later on with larger bags!
Knots Scary Farm
The highlight of the Scare Event is the opening few minutes. As the gates swing open at 6:30 pm the monsters scatter and interact with the rush of guests entering the park. It’s a horrifying and ghastly few minutes as the scare event really kicks off.
Boo-fet attendees get a whole 30mins in the park before regular guests are allowed in. This may not sound much be we got 4 Mazes in with basically no queues at all in the first 30mins.
Bloodline – 1942 – Vampire themed Maze where you can actually defend yourself from the hordes of bloodthirsty Vamps with a Machine Gun
Dark Entities – Space themed Maze with creepy Grey aliens appearing from nowhere
Waxworks – A really disturbing maze filled with waxworks, corpses, and monsters that really freak you out as they emerge from the shadows and pile of Wax Work Bodies!
The Depths – Great theming and special effects as you journey underwater to be scared half to death. The waist-deep Lazer water effect is really good.
After a really fast-paced 30mins, we needed to catch our breath and people were now flooding into the park. The issue with Knotts Scary Farm it there are no safe zones and monsters roam everywhere, but they seem reasonably good at leaving you alone if you want to sit down for a few mins. After a short respite, we headed deeper into the park through Main Street which was transformed into a seriously ominous place through some great lighting and fog effects.
Origins of Calico – This Maze was witch themed and told the story of Sarah Marshal a Witch sentenced to hang who had magically escaped. There were lots of creepy Pagan iconography and pilgrim sets that lay host to lots of horrible jump-scares!
The Grimoire – This maze features a lot of acting to set the scene and take you through the events. It’s a bit ambitious and we are not sure it worked that well. It starts with a camping trip gone wrong and has a bit of a Blair Witch going on. But honestly, we are not sure what happened, apart from lots of brown touser moments.
The queues were pretty bad for those two mazes and we needed another break after them. To highlight the relentlessness of Knotts Scary, even the Restrooms were haunted. At least we really hope that was special effects!
Mesmer: Sideshow of the Mind – We are not really fans of carnival horror, as it creeps us out even more, so this was a horrible maze with all kinds of bizarre and out-there scares with monsters literally swinging across the room to get at you!
We were hoping that Xcelerator was going to be open but it seemed the breakdown was pretty severe and it was not running all night. Unfortunately, Supreme Scream was open, but our nerved could not tolerate that just now so we headed to the last maze for one last round of horror.
The Pumpkin Eater – This was epically themed but overall lacked some of the scares of the others. Mayne the monsters were on breaks, maybe we were just getting a touch immune, but we found this was a lot of empty walking and anticipation rather than in-your-face scaring.
With the last maze done, we were pretty scared out. Knotts Scary stays open until 1 am but we were pretty goosed after a manic 4 days so headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow would be a welcome change of pace, and we needed a good sleep before a fairly early alarm call.
Walking Total – 17,869 Steps – 9 Miles
While not the biggest day step-wise we still did two full loops of the farm and walked to and from the hotel a couple of times. This would have been fine, but back-to-back half-marathon days had meant our feet were in bits from the off!
Go City San Diego Pass – Day 1
For the first day of using the pass, we only visited Knotts Berry Farm. We had the morning at Napa Rose and wanted a bit of a break before jumping back into a themepark. Really this was not the best use of the pass but we were on a tight schedule for this week. We could have upgraded our Knotts Scary Farm Pass to include the day, but the extra day on the San Diego Pass was only $50 so we did it this way for convenience and to check out how the pass works at Knotts Berry. It was a simple case of scan at the turnstile and you are in.
We sometimes like not using the pass to their full ability to show just how easy it is to save a ton of cash with them.
- No Of Attractions – 1
- Cost of Attractions = $99
Running Total:
- No Of Attractions – 1
- Cost of Attractions = $99
- Cost of Pass – $279
- Total Savings – -$179
Read our Full Review of the Go City San Diego Pass for more details
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