Our PB&J Adventure Book

From January 21st to February 13th this year, the Disneyland Resort celebrates the Lunar New Year at Disney California Adventure Park. This beautiful celebration shares the New Year traditions from Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cultures. With special food offerings, character sightings, entertainment, merchandise and more, this is quite a fun and festive time of year at the resort.

I want to share my top 5 reasons why the Lunar New Year celebration is so special and not to be missed:

During the Lunar New Year (LNY) celebration, there are 4 Marketplace Booths set up around Disney California Adventure Park. At each booth you can find sampling sized dishes based on Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean inspired recipes. I can vouch that all the food offerings are amazing this year. Some not to miss items include the Tiger Milk Tea with Brown Sugar Boba, the Brown Sugar Bao and the Mickey Purple Sweet Potato (Ube) macaron. Be sure to pick up a "Sip n Savor" pass if you attend. Each pass has 6 tabs that you can use to redeem for menu items at the Marketplace Booths, along with other seasonal food carts and included food places during the celebration. Totally worth it in my opinion and a great way to try all the yummy foods!

I'm BIG on character meet and greets, especially during the Lunar New Year at Disney. This is the one time of year to have the chance to meet some rare and Lunar New Year specific characters. If you head over to the Paradise Gardens area of Disney California Adventure, you can find pals like Mickey & Minnie in traditional Lunar New Year attire, the 3 Little Pigs, Tigger in his Year of the Tiger best, and my personal favorite, Mulan & Mushu meeting together. It's actually become a fun little tradition for our family to don our best Mulan and Mushu style and meet our Disney counterparts at the celebration!

And for 2022, Disney officially added Raya, from Ray and the Last Dragon to the character line up. This is amazing for so many reasons, one of which I'll talk about in a bit. But her overall meet and greet is absolutely stunning and not to be missed. You can find Raya over at the Redwood Creek Challenge trail in Disney California Adventure.

There's a few fun and *free* activities during the LNY celebration that are not to be missed! Be sure to check out the Wishing Wall area where you can write down your own wishes and blessings on Mickey shaped wishing paper and add it to the wish wall. It's a beautiful sight and a fun activity for the whole family to do. Just steps away you can find traditional Chinese calligraphy being done. Artists create a personalized greeting just for you! Over by the Marketplace Booths you'll find coloring stations where the whole family can color and create their own Year of the Tiger fan.

Don't miss the new Mulan's Lunar New Year Procession. This is a short and sweet processional featuring Mulan, Mushu and some familiar Disney pals. There's music, dancing and even a Chinese Dragon dance! It's beautiful and a must see during any Disney LNY visit. The processional doesn't stop, but it does loop around, so there's plenty of places to try and catch it along the "route" from the Paradise Gardens area and in front of the Little Mermaid ride.

There's also a few fun Lunar New Year offerings outside of the park. Over inside the Grand Californian lobby there's a snack cart which features some New Year and Year of the Tiger themed cookies and goodies. Over at the end of the Downtown Disney District there's also a new LNY themed mural that is the perfect backdrop for any photo!

There's just so much to see, do and eat during the Lunar New Year at the Disneyland Resort. This celebration is so special not only in the amazing offerings, but on a personal level for our little family. Being part Chinese it's wonderful to see my heritage and culture represented in so many beautiful ways. With the inclusion of Raya in the parks, my family finally has full representation in the parks! In addition to being part Chinese, I'm also half Filipna. My husband is Thai and that makes our son a mix of Chinese, Filipino and Thai. He now has an event at Disney that celebrates all the beautiful and unique parts of him and his heritage! It's just magical all around.

I hope that you enjoyed my quick take on this year's Lunar New Year celebration at the Disneyland Resort! I hope that you all get a chance to experience this fun festival and I truly hope that the LNY celebration just continues to get bigger and better in the years to come! Until next time... Take care! 💜