Come on, everybody get your ears on! It's a good, good, good, good time …
Disneyland Park is rockin’ with DJ Mickey cranking out family-friendly tunes during a dance party nighttime spectacular, frogtastic Mickey and Minnie treats to tickle your taste buds, festive Mickey and Minnie decorations, a new parade float with a giant cake and a whole month of Valentine’s Day fun thrown in the middle. What’s the occasion, you ask? Why, Mickey and Minnie are 90 years young! Our guide to Get Your Ears On — A Mickey & Minnie celebration will make sure you don’t miss a beat of this birthday party. This limited-time celebration is ending soon. Special celebration food is ending May 27, and the last show of Mickey's Mix Magic is on June 6, 2019, so hop to it!
What to See and Do at Get Your Ears On
Walt Disney said, “I only hope we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.” Well, on Nov. 18, 1928, both Mickey and Minnie Mouse were born on the silver screen in “Steamboat Willie,” one of the first cartoons with sound.
These lovable mice worked their way into our hearts and eventually paved the way for Disneyland to come into existence, so it makes sense to celebrate their 90th birthday at Disneyland. Disneyland is certainly my favorite place to celebrate my own birthday, so why not celebrate with Mickey and Minnie for theirs?
When you enter the Esplanade between Disneyland and California Adventure, you will be greeted with celebration banners; then, once you enter Disneyland Park, the iconic Mickey floral “portrait” is decorated in black and red. There are Mickey and Minnie banners and buntings up and down Main Street, U.S.A.
You’ll want to pick up a Food Guide with Mickey and Minnie eats and treats and an Entertainment Guide to determine parade times and Mickey’s Mix Magic Nighttime Spectacular showtimes (or check the Disneyland app).
You might even want to do a little souvenir shopping to commemorate your visit! The party decorations are just in Disneyland park, but you can find the tasty treats throughout both parks and at some hotel locations.
And of course, the sweetest couple (still in love after 90 years) has a Valentine’s Month during the celebration with hearts, balloons, hidden valentines and even more Minnie-inspired sweet treats.
Enjoy Disneyland Get Your Ears on Shows and Entertainment
Mickey’s Mix Magic
Mickey's Mix Magic is a nighttime show/dance party that replaces the regular fireworks show through June 6, 2019. It features projection, lasers, music, and on select nights, fireworks. It features a playlist spun by DJ Mickey with songs such as:
- “It’s a Good Time”
- “I Wanna Be Like You”
- “Ev’rybody Wants To Be A Cat”
- “Friend Like Me”
- “Grim Grinning Ghosts”
- “Un Poco Loco”
- “Let It Go”
- “It’s a Good Time” (Finale)
There are appearances by Mickey and Minnie and their friends, and characters from “The Jungle Book,” “The Aristocats,” Aladdin,” the Haunted Mansion, “Coco,” “Frozen” and more. The most intense viewing is on Main Street U.S.A., where you get the benefit of all of the effects: projection, snowfall, lasers shooting out of the castle and the iconic view of the castle with fireworks behind it. To get the best viewing of Mickey’s Mix Magic, we recommend the Main Street, U.S.A. location around Carnation Café so you can see Gibson Girl and Penny Arcade, as well as the castle in the distance.
Fireworks to enhance the show take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and sometimes other nights (weather permitting), but the show goes on every night (sometimes twice on select weeknights). There are projections on the castle, too, even through the castle refurbishments. For now, you’ll want to stand far enough back so that the construction walls do not block your view if you are going for the castle view. The other viewing location is at “it’s a small world.” The projection is most clear at “it’s a small world,” but fireworks are off to the left and we did not experience snowfall or lasers there. You want a clear view of the area under the clock face. You can watch the shows at the Rivers of America viewing location after the 9 p.m. Fantasmic! show ends.
Birthdays can be full of surprises, and what we love about this birthday celebration is that there are unexpected surprises popping up around Disneyland that you won’t find on any schedule. For example, several times a day, the characters in Toontown start a short dance party to the “It’s a Good Time” song from Mickey's Mix Magic.
You can also dance along with your favorite characters at the Get Your Ears On Celebration Dance Party in Tomorrowland on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. If you feel like you never get enough time with the big cheese himself (and many of his rare friends), this is the place to be. You can teach Mickey how to floss (which Tad loved)!
Mickey’s Soundsational Parade
Jan. 25, 2019 marks the return of this fan-favorite parade. Mickey leads the way on a new float with a giant celebration cake and his buddies, Chip and Dale. There may be one or two parades per day, so check the Entertainment Guide or Disneyland app for parade times.
Try special Get Your Ears on food
Don't froget to pick up a Food Guide from any information kiosk in the park. We got our appetites on and tried a bunch of party foods such as the “Share Your Ears” Cheeseburger at Smokejumper’s Grill (perfect for a parent and one or two tadpoles to share, with one regular cheeseburger and two plain sliders with all of the toppings on the side) as well as the Confetti Cake Shake, which has chunks of actual confetti cake in it! Pop off the lid to find it. You can get your Oreo ears on at Schmoozies! with the adorable Mickey Cookies ‘n’ cream shake with whipped cream, sprinkles, Oreo ears and a cup dipped to look like red Mickeys shorts with yellow M&M buttons.
You can pick up the most festive Mickey or Minnie cupcakes in ToonTown — they are actually chocolate chip cookies filled with buttercream frosting and are almost too cute to eat. Almost.
There are plenty of cake pops and Mickey-shaped treats in the candy shops if you are not too sugar-buzzed from all of the other treats around the parks.
We went for it and shared the Mickey Kitchen Sink Birthday Sundae at Gibson Girl. It has two scoops of birthday cake ice cream with all kinds of cookies and candy and whipped cream and crumbled waffle cone and fruit cereal sprinkles ... it was fun to figure it all out! It’s all that and a souvenir Mickey kitchen sink — Mommy Frog rinsed it out so that we could take it home, and now Lily eats all her meals and snacks out of it.
Mousketeers of all ages will love the Mickey Mouse Club hat chocolate dessert from Jolly Holiday, but we especially enjoyed the colorful Mickey Macaron at Jolly Holiday. There is so much more to eat! Valentine’s month has a special section in the Food Guide with many more Minnie-inspired eats and treats available throughout the season. Let us know your favorites!
Fall in love with your sweetheart again during Valentine’s month
Mickey and Minnie have been going strong for 90 years, so maybe they can teach us a thing or two about how to stay sweet during Valentine’s Month from Jan. 22 through Feb. 18, 2019. Be sure to stop for a “sweethearts” photo op in Town Square!
You can share special foods such as heart-shaped desserts, doughnut sundaes and a strawberry bundt cake (at the Plaza Inn). Blue Bayou, which is the most romantic Disneyland table service restaurant, sweetens things up with a strawberry beet salad and pillow cake during Valentine’s Month. River Belle Terrace serves pork belly sliders and chocolate lava cake on its Valentine’s menu, while Rancho del Zocalo is offering a molcajete platter and a chocolate tamale. You can always count on Hungry Bear Restaurant to come up with a specialty funnel cake!
If your tadpoles love scavenger hunts, you can buy a game board and stickers and let them search for valentines that Minnie has hidden around the park for Mickey. They can present their completed game board for a surprise!
Purchase Get Your Ears On merchandise
Literally get your ears on when you purchase a Mickey’s 90th baseball cap with ears. You will find T-shirts, sweatshirts, cups, backpacks, toys, gifts, snow globes, phone cases and other goodies to take home as party favors.
Some of the items take on sweet flavors, too, such as the Minnie Doughnut ear headbands and even plush items that smell like some favorite treats.
Catch the Mickey Monorail
The monorails are all wrapped up in images of the big cheese himself, Mickey Mouse. Oh boy! This makes your ride between Disneyland and Downtown Disney all the more fun!
Meet Mickey and Minnie
Mickey and Minnie have their party clothes on! They are wearing their new crisp white clothes, with confetti for Mickey and pompoms for Minnie to celebrate their birthdays. Go meet them at Disneyland to wish them a happy birthday and take a photo with the birthday boy and girl!
There is a lot happening in Disneyland this year, between Get Your Ears On, a simultaneous celebration that is a concoction of Potion Purple merchandise and delicious purple foods flooding the park (so much yummy food and not enough time to eat it all — the struggle is real), and come summer, the opening of Star Wars Land.
Use our Guide to Get Your Ears On to make sure you check everything off of your party list!
Here’s a look at all the Disneyland special events coming in 2019.
And remember, there’s nothing better than saving money while you celebrate, so in case you missed it, Undercover Tourist now has discounted multi-day tickets to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, as well as discount hotel reservations for hotels in and around Disneyland and the Los Angeles area.
Now that’s something to celebrate!
It's a good, good, good, good time …
Happy birthday, Mickey and Minnie!
Related: The Best Places to View Disneyland Fireworks and Mickey's Mix Magic
Related: Full Schedule of Disneyland Special Events in 2019
Keep hopping!
