We were all exhausted after our long day at Disneyland, but that didn't stop me from waking everyone up early again to get an early start for our Disney California Adventure day. With only one day to experience each of the parks, I really wanted to make the most of it. We again ate a quick breakfast in our room and were on our way to get in line around 7:00.
Although I bought Genie Plus again for our day, I REALLY wanted our family to ride Radiator Springs Racers, which is the premier ride in Cars Land that doesn't take Genie Plus. Our early morning and wait paid off as we had a low wait for the ride. It ended up being down for a portion of the day later on, resulting in large wait times the remainder of the day, so I was so glad we got to do it first thing in the morning.
Cars Land was amazing!! It is probably my favorite of any themed Disney land in any of the parks. And the ride was great! It was one of my top 2 favorite rides at DCA. We rode in a car that took us on a fun tour of Radiator Springs and ended with an actual race against another car full of people. (Much like Test Track at Disney World, but way better.) I liked a lot of the rides at DCA, but this ride had amazing theming and very cool effects and was just a lot of fun. We had hoped to do it again at the end of the night, but the line was prohibitively long due to the extended down time so I'm so glad we started our day with it.
We all really enjoyed our day at DCA. We used Genie Plus to ride Spiderman: Webslingers, Toy Story Mania, Incredicoaster, Guardians of the Galaxy (twice), The Little Mermaid, Monster's Inc, and Soarin'. There were a lot of fun and novel rides at this park that we all really enjoyed.
We also did a variety of other rides that had low wait times. We did Grizzly River Run multiple times in a row as we did it earlier in the day when the temperatures were cooler. It might not have been the best time of the day for getting wet, but it was definitely the best time of the day to avoid the line. The girls ended up doing it 4 times in a row, Briggs and I joined in for 3 of those times, and Zach did it once. We also did Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, Jessie's Critter Carousel (Adelie and Briggs), Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, Silly Symphony Swings (twice for Briggs and I), Turtle Talk with Crush, Toy Story Mania (4 times for at least some of us), and Ariel (twice for the girls and I).
We really enjoyed just walking around and taking in some of the entertainment. There were lots of free roaming characters to see/meet in all the lands around the park, and we saw several cool action sequences in Avenger's Campus with a cool robotic Spiderman flipping through the air, Wakanda warriors, Black Panther/Black Widow/Falcon fighting bad guys, a dance off with Star Lord and Gamora, and Zach saw Dr. Strange's mystic show while the kids and I did the Incredicoaster.
I was really proud of Adelie and Briggs for trying the Incredicoaster. It was a really fast roller coaster that had a loop and was the biggest coaster they had ever been on. They were both nervous but were willing to try it. They decided that they didn't love it and both felt a little woozy afterwards, but I was proud of them for facing their fears and giving it a try. Staley and I both really enjoyed it.
Guardians of the Galaxy might have been my favorite ride in all of DCA (although it's a really close call with Radiator Springs Racers). It was essentially the Tower of Terror ride redone with Guardian's of the Galaxy theming. It had a funny pre-show, a cool animatronic Rocket, music that can change with each ride (although we got the same song twice), fun thrills, and great show scenes during the ride. Staley and I were the only ones in the family who wanted to ride it, so we were able to do it twice in a row using the rest of the family's Genie Plus passes.
We also really enjoyed the Pixar Pals parade that we saw. It wasn't as good as the parade at Disneyland, but it was still a really fun parade with great performers, fun floats, catchy music, and lots of our favorite Pixar characters. I'm a sucker for a Disney parade. They just make me happy.
We had lunch at Pym's Kitchen in Avenger's Campus. It was an Antman themed restaurant, so there were lots of clever foods to join in with the theme. Staley and Zach both had the humongous taco salad. It had plenty of people stopping to gawk as they walked by.
Adelie went with the not so little chicken sandwich. All our food was really good, but the novelty of the presentation and the restaurant made it even a little more fun. And we had found a great table outside the restaurant where we were able to watch some of the Avenger's action while we ate.
We liked the restaurant and the food so much that we went back later in the day for a sharable quantum pretzel. It was gigantic...and really yummy!!
When dinner rolled around, we ate at Flo's V-8 Cafe in Cars Land. The food there was also really good, and it was just fun sitting in Cars Land and taking it all in. I just really enjoyed the atmosphere in that area of the park...especially at night when it was all lit up just like in the movie.
At the end of the night, Zach and Briggs went to do Toy Story Mania again while the girls and I rode the Ariel ride again. After realizing that we weren't willing to wait in the really long Radiator Springs Racers line to end our night, we hustled back to do one last ride as a family on Toy Story Mania. While we were walking around and doing our final rides, we were able to catch part of the World of Color show that had colored fountains and projections.
We were some of the last people getting off the ride at the end of the night, so the park was pretty empty as we were walking out. We had again filled our full day from park opening to park closing. Zach had a craving for a hot fudge sundae, so we made a quick stop at the McDonald's by our hotel on the walk back. Those really hit the spot!!
I really loved DCA. I had enjoyed Disneyland the day before, but DCA might be my favorite of any Disney park on either coast. It had so many fun rides! I loved Cars Land, and Radiator Springs Racers was one of my favorite rides. Guardians of the Galaxy is just like Tower of Terror, but better. Incredicoaster is better than Rockin Roller Coaster. Grizzly River Run is way better than Kali River Rapids. And some of our favorites like Toy Story Mania, Ariel, and Soarin' were the same on both coasts. The free roaming entertainment and characters were a lot of fun, the restaurants we ate at were good and well themed, and the park was easy to navigate. With the help of Genie Plus, we didn't wait in many lines and were able to accomplish so much while still enjoying the ambiance of the park. It was truly a great day at Disney...even if we were all thoroughly exhausted when we got back to our hotel.
