We arrived in sunny (and hazy) California on the afternoon of Tuesday the 14th after a short flight up from Cabo. After sitting in the typical LA traffic on our way to Anaheim, we finally reached our hotel. Olivia and I had a room at the Hampton Inn near the Anaheim Convention Center. It turned out to be a fantastic hotel–just a short 15 minute walk to the park gates and plenty of food options nearby. Not to mention it felt brand new and offered a great breakfast in the AM. We threw our luggage in the room and were on to the park.
After deciding on California’s Adventure, we arrived at the park right around sunset. With an 8pm closing and a dessert party reservation for the World of Color show, we attempted to knockout as many rides as possible. Of course, we had to start with the Incredicoaster. It was a great ride to kickoff the trip and I was super surprised by how intense the first launch and loop were. After seeing these west coast Disney rides on TV and the internet or wherever for the past 20 years of my life it was a fantastic feeling to finally be there and ride (although this one was called California Screamin’ most of my life).
From there we headed to Goofy’s Sky School, a fun wild mouse attraction in the corner of the park. After two dark rides (Little Mermaid and Monsters Inc., both of which were great), it was time for our first fastpass for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. This is the attraction that was re-themed from Tower of Terror, and a version that I was never able to ride. Nevertheless, GotG was fantastic. Although there wasn’t much of a story to the ride (like the original Tower of Terror in Disney World), the ride itself is just plain fun. We ended up doing this one 4 or 5 times over the course of our three days at the resort.
After snagging one last fastpass ride on Soarin’ (always a classic), we headed to our dessert party reservation. This was an arrangement I made about a month or so earlier that allowed us private seating for the World of Color show, a dessert package, and two drinks. The party was totally worth it. Our host was excellent and described everything in our tray. She was even awesome enough to take our picture on multiple occasions.
The show itself was incredible. I went in with low expectations and was blown away. I did not think it would be able to top Halloween Horror Night’s new Monsters of Mayhem show that we saw for the first time this past September, but it stepped it up to the next level. The music was awesome and the projections were clear. The water effects were blended perfectly with the lights, lasers, and even fire. This is definitely a show I would not recommend missing.
On the way back to the hotel, we hit up the bar area at Cheesecake Factory for a quick bite to eat. A solid capper to our first day.
Wednesday morning was all Disneyland. After our quick hotel breakfast, we hoofed it to the gates and were inside the park by 8:50 for a 9am opening. As soon as the opening announcement began, we quickly made a beeline to our first ride of the day: Matterhorn. This classic attraction was a hoot. Although somewhat jarring, it was a great way to start the morning. Olivia had the front row and flying through all those caves and near misses definitely woke us up.
From there we decided to knockout another classic attraction right next door in Space Mountain. I am always going to be biased to the one in Florida but I really loved this edition as well. It was certainly as intense if not even more so than the southern counterpart. It’s much darker inside the ride and its strange sitting two across but I still thought it was great. Honestly all of the mountains will never get old to me.
With still a short wait in the early morning, we hustled over to Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. This is a ride I was super pumped for and unfortunately came out slightly underwhelmed. While still a fantastic dark ride, I think my expectations were just a bit high. The queue and story were fantastic, but Universal still has my heart when it comes to these highly technical attractions. Transformers and Spiderman are just so awesome to me. I have heard certain rumors saying that the ride is in desperate need of a refurb, so maybe that contributed to the somewhat lackluster experience. I would love to give it another shot after an update.
We then made the quick walk over to another GOAT, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Although I do prefer the Orlando version, I thoroughly enjoyed our two rides on this classic. This one had some cool extra effects on the lift hills that were a nice touch.
From Big Thunder, we headed back to Fantasyland to check out two classic dark ride attractions: Pinocchio’s Daring Journey and Toad’s Wild Ride. Both of these were awesome and I hope they never change–Toad’s especially. They still hold up over time and are a nice change of pace from the thrill attractions. We unfortunately did not get a ride on either Snow White (down for refurbishment) or Peter Pan’s Flight (line was consistently 45 mins+). Always something for next time.
After a quick ride on Star Tours–complete with an awesome update for the new film–we decided we needed some sustenance. I snuck in one last walk-on ride on Splash Mountain (go figure) and we exited the park to grab some grub in the Downtown Disney area.
We landed on the Ballast Point Brewpub and decided to sit in the outdoor bar area which was awesome. A much needed escape from the park. We were able to get some delicious food and a couple of drinks. I started with an order of some meaty buffalo wings and (of course) finished with a cheeseburger for an entree. Once we were recharged, we decided to take a quick walk around shop area. This inevitably led to a spending spree at the Disney Store…
Once we were back in the parks, we headed for a few more classic attractions–Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was awesome to see the differences in these attractions compared to their counterparts in Orlando. If you can believe it, this was only my second ever experience on Jungle Cruise, so I was lovin’ the corny jokes and outdated animatronics. Haunted Mansion was all dressed up in its interesting holiday overlay which I had never seen before. I much prefer the original, but this was a nice change (and I love Nightmare Before Christmas). Olivia has yet to ride the original so hopefully we can get on the Orlando version shortly.
The rest of the night consisted of mostly re-rides of our favorites–including a few back in California Adventure. We checked out Oga’s Cantina in Galaxy’s Edge for some crazy drinks, and finished off the night in the jacuzzi at our hotel. It was an incredible day to say the least.
Our last day on vacation started bright and early. After a quick hotel breakfast, we were on our way back to the parks for a few last morning rides. We hit: Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo, Space Mountain, Radiator Springs Racers, and Guardians of the Galaxy. An epic conclusion to our time at Disney. We hopped in a quick uber to a nearby Enterprise location. After being offered a cheap upgrade (had to), we grabbed our things at the hotel, a quick lunch at Jersey Mikes, and were on the road to our last destination: Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Stay tuned for another update from our west coast vacation!
– Walker
Texas-Ranger Travels 