The Disneyland Resort: Part 1-Day Time!

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous Post: Eating on the Road.

Welcome to Cars Land!

The Man, the Mouse, the Legends. There is hardly a sole in the world who would not see the familiar 3 ringed shape of Mickey Mouse and not be able to tell you who he is. And for as long as he has been an icon, there has been Disneyland.

Being from southern California I have grown up with the magic that is Disneyland. Some of my first memories are walking through the massive parking lot up to the main gates of the happiest place on earth with the beautiful steam train perched atop the entryway at Main Street Station. As I grew up, the magic continued to be a place to be with friends and escape daily life. It was where I had my first experience being in a marching band, parading down Main Street.

But ever since my first visit, the park has grown to what we know today as The Disneyland Resort. With 2 theme parks, downtown Disney, 3 hotels, 65,000 employees, and what was at one point the

New California Adventure Entrance

largest parking garage in North America (with 10,250 spots) It has truly grown to massive proportions.

When I found out that I would be coming back to California for a short time, I made plans with my friend Stella to make the trip. Neither of us had seen each other in quite some time, so it was both a friendship reunion, and a day to pay homage to the mouse. And on the morning of July 11th, we woke up early and made the quick 1 hour drive to Anaheim.

Now one thing about Disney that many people are deterred by is the price, and I don't blame you! Here's a basic price breakdown:
1 Day 1 Park: Adult-$92, Child $86
1 Day Park Hopper: Adult $137, Child $131

And that doesn't even include the $16 parking fee and food in the park. So when you plan your day, it

Holder of 2 Season Passes!

is something you have to save for. But the experience you get in the parks and the theming both on and off the rides is incredible and well worth the money.

I chose to get an annual pass for $279 as I knew I would return in the next year for sure. This pass had the most blackout dates with Summer,  weekends, thanksgiving and the two weeks leading up to X-mas blacked out, however I don't like to visit in those peak times anyways so it was no issue for me.

Radiator Springs (Cars Land)

While I had been to both parks previously, California Adventure had just finished its massed renovation and re-imagining project that included Buena Vista Street, Hollywood Land and most importantly... Cars Land! The massive expansion included an incredibly accurate rendition of Radiator Springs. When you walk up to see Cars Land, you can see the impressive Cadillac Range towering over the end of the strip. All down the main drag you

Chilli-Cone-Carne

pass Filmores, Sarges, Maters Junkyard, Flo's V-8 Cafe, The Cozy Cone, and Luigi's Tire Shop, with not a detail to be spared. We decided to dine at the cozy cone, and found all of the food to be appropriately themed as well. I had the "Chilli-Cone-Carne," which was served in a bread cone! It was pretty great. Other cone themed dining included Pop Cone and Ice Cream cones.
Attractions included Maters Junkyard Jamboree, Luigis Flying Tires and the massive E-Ticket ride Radiator Springs Racers. I didn't ride the first two attractions, but the racers were just incredible. The Ride vehicles are similar to those on Test Track at Walt-Disney World (Slot Car), and they even have the signature eyes on the windshield.

Radiator Springs Racers

I wont spoil the ride experience for you, but essentially it is a cruise through the hills surrounding radiator springs that culminates in a race against another car, and the winner is always different! While it is an extremely family friendly attraction, It was a ton of fun to ride and was definitely a thrill. A couple of suggestions though if you plan to ride:
-Lines are very long throughout the day, and FastPasses are gone within the 1st hour of park opening, so make this your first stop.

Racers Ride Vehicles

-They offer a single rider line (but it is still only about 1/2 the wait of the regular line), and unless your group really wants to buy the ride photo, this is the best way to go. However if you have small children, you will need to wait in the Stand-By line as they will split parties to fill seats.

Inside the Tower of Terror Lobby

-Take plenty of pictures, as you may only get to ride it once with the lines. I took a lot and still regret not taking some of different elements of the ride and line.

After the Racers, we proceeded to my now second favorite ride the park (second now to the Racers), The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Utilizing a different (and operationally more effective with a higher capacity) ride system, it is a slightly different experience to its sister tower at WDW. The ride line includes the same pre-show sequence in the library, and dark and dingy boiler room leading up to the service elevators. The ride experience is a drop tower, but is more mild for those of you who do not enjoy the standard drop tower. I normally cant stand them, but love the ToT. Give it a shot, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Paradise Pier

Touring around the rest of CAA we checked out the new Trolleys, Paradise Pier, and of course
California Screamin'. We did find Jesse from toy story and tried to see if yelling "Andy's coming!" would really make them pretend to be just toys, but unfortunately it didn't worth a shot though, and anything to make Stella embarrassed is worth it to me.

We then headed over to the Disneyland side for more of the

Pickles in Hand!

classic Disney experience. Our stops included Space Mountain, Star Tours, Matterhorn (whose new ride vehicles are great!), Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. The park was fairly busy so most lines were around 45 minutes long. But no matter when you have your trusty pickle at hand!

We ended our "Day Time" in the parks with a walk through Mickey's

We Met Mickey Mouse!

house. Now I'm not sure what Stella thought we were waiting in line for this whole time with a bunch of kids, but when we reached the end, boy was she surprised that we got to meet Mickey Mouse!

Well this post has gone on for a while, so I'm going to separate it into 2. The second half will consist of nighttime fun in the parks.

Be Sure to Check Out my Next Post: The Disneyland Resort: Part 2-Night Time!