Day 5 of our California Vacation: Disney's California Adventure

Day 5: Disney's California Adventure

For our 2nd day at the Disneyland Resort we would be going to the resorts newest park California Adventure. We arived at the resort once again a little bit before opening. This time they parked us in the HUGE parking garage called Mickey and Friends and we parked on the 3rd level called Mickey and were lucky enough to park right to the escalaters to take you down to the trams that shuttle you to the parks.

California Adventure opens an hour later then Disneyland does so we went into Disneyland first to kill some time tell California Adventure opened. My wife is a fan of the Enchanted Tiki Room and I had never been in there before so we went there first. We saw we still had about 30 minutes tell the show started so We walked over to Tomorrowland so I could snap some pictures and also maybe ride Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters again until the Tiki Room opened. Unfortuanatly Buzz was having problems and wasn't opened. So we walked around for a short time and headed back towards the Tiki Room.

When we got back to the Tiki Room they were finally allowing people in so we went in and found our seats. I found the attraction interesting. The technology was pretty cool with how many anamotronics and such that are in there. But overall I can only take so much of singing birds and flowers lol. I did like the singing tiki masks and stuff though. I think it lasts the perfect amount of time and it was alright. Not my favorite.

After the Tiki Room was over we decided to go ride Haunted Mansion again. Which we walked right onto. After that we went over to the Train station and rode the Train around Disneyland Back to the Main Street Station so we could head over to California Adventure. I had only rode the Train maybe once before so even though it would have been faster walking I really wanted to ride the train.

We got off the train and then headed strait across the main plaza over to California Adventure. This park was another reason for Us deciding to go on vacation when we did. The last time I attended Disneyland the area that California Adventure sits on was still a parking lot. So I had never seen it before in person. Also last year Disney announced that they were doing a huge rennovation on the park changing almost the majority of things there. So we decided to go when we did so I could still experiance the park how it was originally built. The signs were everywhere that the renovation was underway but I still got the idea of what it must have been like without the construction going on.

When we got into the parks "Sunshine Plaza" we had to decide which way we were going first. Kiera wanted to head into the Hollywood Pictures Backlot and make our way towards the Tower of Terror but since we were right next to it (and the restrooms) we decided to head to Condor Flats and the attraction "Soarin' Over California". This ride we walked right onto with zero wait. It like the Simpsons ride or Star Tours is a motion simulator which simulates like your paragliding over many of the areas that California is known for. I thought it was pretty cool. I thought it was going to have more extreme movment but I guess when your paragliding the movements arn't real extreme. I enjoyed how they had wind blowing in your face and you could even smell the differnt scents of the areas you were going over. The thing I really liked though is that the screen that the movie is being projected onto wrapped underneath you so when you would look down you would see the movie too like you were really looking strait down.

After Soarin' we continued heading down the runway into an area that resembled the backwoods of California. The major attraction here being the Grizzly River Run. Basically its your typical raft ride thru the backwoods of California and around the parks "Grizzly Peak". I was extremely impressed with this raft ride and I have never seen one this well themed or extreme. The ride is long and has two pretty big drops that can give you a pretty good adrenaline rush. This was also the ride where I finally wore my Poncho as well as Kiera wearing hers. And we are glad we did cause we would have got soaked had we not.

After the river run we went to the Challenge Trail. Basically its like a little kids play area thats themed to the Brother Bear movies as well as teaches about nature and animals and things National Park rangers use. We strolled thru here and played on some of the rope next things and bridges and such. I also got what I consider my best picture at the Disney Resort in this area.

The next are we came into had the parks Christmas tree set up as well as a few other decorations. I also got my first glimpse of the Paradise Pier section of the park. Which looked like a baron concrete waistland. Thats because this area of the park is where all the work for the renevation is taking place right now. The lake is drained and the Sun Wheel is hiding behind a bunch of construction platforms.

We headed down towards the west end of the pier first. The first ride we came to was the Golden Zepher. Its a version of alot of the swinging rockets that were popular in the early 1900's. It was different but nothing too exciting. Just think of it as like swings in a rocket. We the went to the Orange Stinger. Which is just a typical Swing ride inside of whats suppose to be an Orange. I guess your suppose to feel like your a bee or something. I don't know. Across from that is the Mulholland Madness Rollercoaster. It was closed at that time but we would make our way back to it later. Then it was onto a ride called the Maliboomer. This being your typical shottower. I'm guessing the theme for it though is that your the ball or whatever it is on one of those test your strength games where you hit the botton with a mallot and see how high it will go up a tower. Anyways these things always give me a rush. Even though this one isn't near as high as the Rocket is at Lagoon. I enjoyed this while I could cause the Maliboomer is one of the attractions being removed for the renovation of the park.

Next we headed down the middle of Paradise Peir where the bulk of the consruction is taking place. As I said the Sunwheel is closed because its being renovated and turned into "Mickey's Fun Wheel". I didn't lose too much sleep over it being closed cause it would have scared the crap out of me anyways. I hate tall Ferris Wheels and then to add too it the cars you would sit in roll around a track. Also have the games were closed cause they were reduing them all to a victorian themed building look. But we then went to the newest Ride in the whole Disneyland Resort. Toy Story Midway Mania. This was our longest wait for our whole 2 days at the Disneyland Resort. We waited about 25 minutes to go on it and we figure it had the longest wait since its the newest ride. They also have a huge Mr. Potato head out front to talk to you and tell jokes lol. But it was worth it. I really enjoyed this ride. Its along the same idea as Buzz Lightyear. Where its a dark ride and you have guns to shoot things to score points. The difference is this ride is done in 3D and instead of having figures to shot at like Buzz you pull up to movie screens that look like you pulled up to a carnival game. Theres 5 different stations you go to and the ride is just a blast. We also liked how the car would spin around as it took you to the next stations. Unfortunatly Kiera really killed me this time. I wish we could have gone on it again but unfortunatly time just didn't allow it.

After getting my butt handed to me at Toy Story we then headed to the California Screamin' Roller Coaster. To our suprise the wait was only about 5 minutes for it. Wow I loved this coaster. It was probably my favorite coaster of the entire trip. I really liked how big it is and it was like all over the place. Running from end to end of the pier multipule times. It starts out as a launched coaster which is always a rush but it also has a lift hill half way thru. It also has speakers in the seats which plays a song while its going. Other then Space Mountain i've never seen that used before and thought it was cool and added to the experiance. However I thought the song could have been better lol. I had so much fun on this coaster that when we got off we went around and did it agian a second time.

After Screamin' we were done with the Pier so we made our way thru the Warf area. This is where I found the preview center for the Calfornia Adventure Redo. Unfortunatly it had just closed but they told us to come back in an hour. So we headed over to A Bugs Land until then. First we stopped at the show "Its tough to be a Bug". I thought this was really cool and had alot of interactions built into the seat. I recommend checking this out if nothing else in Bugs Land. I loved how emmersive the Bugs Land is. It really feels like you've been shrunk down to the size of a bug. They also added some christmas decore in the form of Giant Christmas lights and Ornaments. Bugs Land is made up of pretty much only kids rides so we didn't ride any except for Himlechs cho cho train. basically you just go thru an area with the catapiller finding different food. Its cool cause when you pass by the food thats what it actually smells like. but after that we were done with Bugs Land and headed out and ate our lunch.

After Lunch the Preview center was finally opened so we went in and checked it out. Theres alot of change coming to California Adventure in the next couple of years. It was cool cause they had a bunch of drawings hanging up and also a model of paradise pier. they also had a video playing of what changes are to come. It will be intersting to go back in 5 years after the changes happen and see how much the park has improved. Some of the changes coming is a complete redesign of the enterance to what LA looked like in the 30's including the addition of the theater that Snow White permered in, The 30's theme will continue into the Hollywood Pictures Backlot where it is being renamed Hollywood Land. They are also going to have red trollys moving between the two areas. Paradise Pier is already under way as they retheme all the buildings to a victorian look. The sun wheel is being rethemed as well as the Maliboomer being removed. They are removing the orange from around the swings and rethemeing those to silly simphonys and the Mulholland Madness is being rethemed to Goofys Sky School. They are also adding a huge Little Mermaid ride and in the lake they are doing a big Bellagio type Fountain show. The biggest addition though is the addition of Cars Land. A whole new area based on the Movie Cars where a life size scale version of Radiator Springs will be as well as 3 new rides. One of which is a huge racer type ride based off the technology Test Track at Epcot uses.

After the Preview Center we then made our way to the Hollywood Pictures backlot. This area I though was nicely themed and well done. First ride we went to was the Monsters inc. ride. This was nice but basically retold the story of the movie. Then we went to the parks most popular attraction. The Tower of Terror. I've never been on one of these so I didn't know what all to expect. The Disney World one was under construction when we went there and I remember wishing we had gone later in the year so I could go on it. Anyways this ride didn't dissapoint. It is awesome. It had a few unexpected drops and I liked how it would accelerate you up fast and then drop you fast. The wait wasn't bad for it so we went on it second time right away. We also ran into sulley from Monsters Inc. After that we then went and watched the "Turtle Talk with Crush" which I thought was cool cause Crush from Finding Nemo would actually talk to the kids and answer there questions.

After Hollywood we had some time to kill still so we made out way back to Paradise Pier to go ride the Mulholland Madness coaster. I must say that I was dissapointed with it. I was expecting more of a thrill out of it but it was pretty lame. The Wild Mouse at Lagoon is tons better then this was. So I pretty much don't care to ride it ever again. So after that we went and rode a real coaster. Thats right we went to Screamin' again. We then found a bench to sit on for the Pixar Play Parade right across from the Warf. The parade was pretty cool but It could have been longer. They need to add Wall-e to the parade too. But overall it was good.

After the Parade was over we were done at California Adventure. We managed to spend a whole day in the park. So we decided to head back over to Disneyland sence there was another 2 hours tell that parked closed and so we could watch the fireworks.

We made a plan for what we wanted to do in what little time we had left. Main Street was already packed as people were getting ready for the christmas parade to start. So we decided to run over to Tomorrowland and grab a fast pass for Space Mountain. After we got our Fast Pass we fought thru the crowds again to get to Adventureland. We stopped at the Tiki Room so we could grab a dole whip. These things are so good. I hate Pineapple but I really liked the Dole Whip. But after that it was on to wait for Indiana Jones again. When we were done with Indy the parade was started and cut us off from Tomorrowland. So went the back route thru the castle and Fantasyland and around the Matterhorn (the parade was already over at this end). I didn't know why but Kiera was running the whole way. So we were dead tired by the time we got Space Mountain right at the moment we could use your Fast Pass. After Space Mountain she was running thru the exit and I finally asked why she was in such a hurry. Well she thought the Fireworks started a half hour earlier then they really did. So we waisted all that time running for nothing lol. Since we still had 30 minutes tell the fireworks started we decided to try and get the Matterhorn in. The line moved pretty quick and with about 5 minutes tell the Fireworks started we were loading into our bobsled. But then some kind of alarm went off and they had us exit the bobsled. We waited for a few minutes hoping it would just be a temporary thing. But finally the workers told us something broke and it would be down for 45 minutes. This sucked since we were the next to go but oh well. We decided we wanted to see the fireworks more so we left. Unfortunatly we had no time to get to the front of the castle though so we watched the fireworks from fantasyland. I'm sure we didn't get the full effect of them as we were right in the middle of where the two fireworks were going off but they were still cool. After that the snow came again so we played in that a little and then the park closed. To kill some time after we exited the park we checked out the big disney store in Downtown Disney. And that pretty much ended our day.

I really liked California Adventure. It seemed more Adult to me which was good. However I could see in a way why people say it doesn't feel like a Disney park because a good majority of the rides there are stuff I can do at our Local Amusment Park. However I still felt like there was a small Disney feel there. I look forward to the changes coming to the park and can't wait tell we go back again to visit the Disneyland Resort.