At Home Day at Disneyland
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Are you looking for something kind of vacation to do for fall break but just don’t have the budget for it? Well, today I’m going to share how to make your own at home day at Disneyland.
Last summer, my family took a vacation to Disneyland. Since my daughter is autistic, we have only been twice with her to Disneyland. Once when she was about 2 years old and another time when she was 10. Last year she was 18 and graduating from high school. We asked her where she would want to go and she said Disneyland. We were finally ready to try it again.
Now my two older boys are both married now. And my daughter wasn’t thrilled about the idea of just going with mom and dad to Disneyland. Luckily, my oldest son and his wife were able to make it to work and come with us. I shared all my tips and tricks about our visit last year.
Well, this year my daughter was talking about how fun the trip was and how she wished we could go again. We told her that unfortunately it just wasn’t in the budget. However, I had the great idea of replicating our trip and having a at home day at Disneyland.
I talked with my son and his wife and we coordinated a day that would work. We decided to do it over Labor Day weekend, which happen to be the same weekend we actually went to Disneyland last year.
I told everyone to wear their same Mickey shirts that we wore last wear along with their Mickey ears. I also ordered a background from Amazon for use to take pictures in front of and help create the atmosphere of the park. It only cost $10 and we attached it the the outdoor movie screen we made out of PVC pipe. I also created a playlist on my Apple Music of music you would find in the park. It definitely added to the experience.
Next up was the food
One of our favorite items to get from the park is the corn dogs. So I made the recipe on my site for hand-dipped corn dogs. I served them up along with some fries. Now, I just grabbed a bag of my favorite fries from the freezer isle of the grocery store. Also, I served it in little plastic baskets with paper liners. I really wanted to give it all the feel of take out at Disneyland. Plus, I served it up with cold cans of soda. Since most of the time, when we eat in the Disneyland park we eat out side, we had our food out on our patio.
Additionally, we wanted to have some treats. My daughter in law found those Mickey ice cream bars in the freezer section of her local Walmart. I had been on the hunt for dole whip’s that I had seen on social media. They are suppose to be available in stores.
I even looked on the store locator online for them. It showed that they should be at 3 of my local stores. Alas, none of the stores had them. I had even seen that some Costco locations had them. However, none of my local Costco stores had them either.
So I settled on making an at home recipe. We just whipped it up in the blender and served it right then. It’s more like a drink when you enjoy it that way. If you want it thicker you need to give it some time in the freezer.
The at home recipe was tasty. I have included the recipe at the bottom of this post. However, if you can find the ones in the grocery store, that is definitely the most authentic and easiest to do.
The last main component of the Disneyland day at home is the rides
This is done virtually. There are many YouTubers who film riding all the rides at the park. It’s the closest way to experience the rides at home. I asked each of my family members what their favorite rides at the park were and those were the ones I found on YouTube.
I have included the list of videos I have used. With the rides we picked, it took about an hour to “ride” them all. Part of the fun is getting animated as you get to good parts in the rides etc. Makes the experience more exciting. For example, saying “oh no! We are going up the hill! Get ready!”
- The Haunted Mansion
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- The Incredicoaster
- Grizzly River Run
- Soarin’ Over the World – We decided to ride the original Soarin’ Over California because we could!
- Splash Mountain
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- The Matterhorn
- Toy Story Mania
- Guardians of the Galaxy
Experience all the magic of a Disneyland vacation at home. It will take a little work, but will cost you a lot less. So gather those loved ones, put on your mouse ears, and embark on a whimsical journey from the comfort of your own home!
Homemade Dole Whip
Real Mom Kitchen
Ingredients
- ½ cup pineapple juice
- 1 cup vanilla ice cream
- 2 cups frozen pineapple chunks
Instructions
- Blend all of the ingredients in a good quality blender or food processor, starting with just half the pineapple. Start on low and slowly increasing the speed. Add more of the pineapple as needed. I have a BlendTec blender and just use the ice cream stetting to blend it.
- Enjoy immediately or store it in the freezer for later, but let it thaw on the counter for 20 minutes before eating.
Nutrition
This recipe is adapted from Instrupix.
