One Long Monday of Park-Hopping!

[skyblue17]

Just back from a quick one day visit to Disneyland and California Adventure and thought I'd share a few details from our day, since we had a pretty great time and felt pretty satisfied with how things played out!

(This will be in parts based on our hops!)

We are: A pair of longtime friends in our 30s, one from NYC and one from CA.
Disney History: We have done DCA/Disneyland together multiple times, always just as a one day trip. I visited WDW for a week this past fall but had not been to Disneyland since 2010. My friend, who lives in Southern California, had been to DLR in the last year or so.
Ride Preferences: Thrill rides! While we both enjoy the quiet and tamer rides, we prioritize the bigger ones, which we find often leaves us with limited time to do the others. We also nix parades and shows on one-day visits (unless we happen upon one in progress).
Ticket Plan: One-Day Park-Hoppers with MaxPass.

After seeing here that Mondays can be pretty crowded, we decided to head down to Anaheim pretty early and were parked and at the gate for California Adventure by 7:15am. We assumed it'd be a bit of a wait to get in but alas, the gates opened at 7:30. We made a FastPass for Guardians of the Galaxy as we made our way to Soarin', which we walked right on.

I will always love Soarin' but I miss it being over California! Having just been to WDW, I had recently experienced Soarin' Over the World and was already missing the California version. I wish they had kept it! My general takeaway from California Adventure in general was that it is much less CALIFORNIA and now more of a general theme park, and in a way, it's a bit disjointed. Cars Land is fantastic, and I still love the Grizzly Peak area but Pixar Pier makes me feel like they should decide to theme things off based on areas of CA like they used to or with movie/character themes and not a little of both? But at the same time, I still loved the little San Francisco area and Hollywood area. I just wish the former especially had a little more context now that the rest of the park isn't quite as CA-specific.

ANYWAY. After Soarin', we headed over toward Guardians, only to find most of the park wasn't open yet! We felt especially lucky to have already gotten on Soarin' and went to Guardians via the Hollywood route, where a short line had formed for FastPass return. We were quickly on our way into the building, so quickly i didn't really have time to take in the new design of the ride much. I haven't seen the Guardians movies but I'm familiar with the premise and characters and liked the new "ride" down to the loading level. We were quickly in our gantry lift and before I knew it, music was playing and we were flinging up and down! In the quickness of loading and upbeat vibe of the ride, I had totally forgotten that this version of the former Tower of Terror, the elevator car doesn't move and I just was NOT expecting it all to begin so quickly! I was in a fit of laughter the entire time and totally screaming because I just never got my bearings after that! So much fun! I immediately wanted to go on again but the standby line was already pretty long so we moved on to...

CARS LAND! How fun! This was all brand new to me and I loved how they re-created so much. Cozy Cone was so cute! We headed right to Radiator Springs Racers and did single rider and were on within minutes. This is a GREAT ride to single-rider since each row has the odd number of seats. It's such a cute & fun ride! Well designed, kind of a mix between the tour style rides of Fantasyland at first before becoming more of an exciting ride. Since we were over there, we decided to walk right back on again! This time, the CM at the single rider line gave me a card to help them learn how long the wait would be but I literally did not even stop, I walked from her directly to the CM loading the ride and handed her the card, and got on. Amazing! And so fun to ride again, especially since I was on the "other" side for the race.

At this point, I was feeling hungry but didn't want anything big or heavy, just something to put in my stomach, so we picked up some fruit at the hippie stand in Cars Land. What a great idea! Lots of yummy and healthy snacks, and all pretty reasonably priced (my bag of grapes was $2). I noshed on those as we walked over to Grizzy River Run, only to find that it was closed temporarily, boo. So we made a FastPass for Incredicoaster and then went to wait standby for Toy Story Midway Mania. After doing this in Hollywood Studios in the fall, I had proclaimed that even though it was fun, I was glad to have had a FastPass for it, but honestly, it was getting so warm out that we were glad to go wait in the AC for awhile ahead of our FastPass that was still over an hour away. And we had so much fun playing the games on the ride! It's a good one, and a good breather standby (mostly cool, but doesn't move super fast since there's a long FastPass line taking priority).

We still had time when done with Toy Story, so we hopped on line for the Big Wheel. Now, I had had a BAD experience with the swinging cars on a previous trip, so I at least knew NEVER to do that again. But the stationary cars are great and it's fun getting such a bird's eye view of the park.

Then it was time for Incredicoaster! So fun! I loved this ride when it was California Screamin', mostly because it combines the ride design of the wooden coaster with the smoothness of a steel coaster. Adding in the Incredibles aspects was a lot of fun. It's one of many rides in Disney that go on for a little longer than you expect, which is great when you've waited awhile to get on! I'm really glad we were able to grab an early FastPass for it and experience it!

By this point, we had been in California Adventure for about three and a half hours and had booked a Space Mountain FastPass, so we decided to hop over to Disneyland for lunch and some riding over there. We passed Grizzly River Run again but it was still closed, and double checked the Soarin' wait time (SO LONG) on the way out, and alas, neither were options, so Disneyland it was!

More to come!

 

[Eve & Wall-e]

I really enjoyed reading your trip report so far. Cars Land is my favorite area of California Adventure. I miss Soarin' Over California, too!

 

[skyblue17]

Getting into Disneyland a little before noon went better than I expected! The line was about 10-15 people deep but it went quickly, and it seemed most had already had photos taken. We headed right to Tomorrowland, with hopes to ride Space Mountain before lunch. However, upon arriving there, we saw that Space was down temporarily and we'd miss our FastPass window. So instead we got some lunch in Tomorrowland simply because it was the closest. It was fine, not my favorite thing but filling and at least there were some good options (I still got a cheeseburger, lol).

While lunching we made a FastPass for Splash Mountain. We headed over to do standby for Pirates, which I always love! I am convinced the version in California is superior. First of all, having the restaurant as part of the scene of the ride is awesome. There seems a longer lead in through the caverns, which is really relaxing and helps set the mood. I feel like the drop is bigger? But that could just be the imagination, since you can't see it. And it's just such a fun, chill ride, perfect for that middle of the afternoon when the sun's getting too hot. I love it!

We then headed to Splash, which I was SO excited about! Splash Mountain in WDW was closed the entire time I was there in the fall and I missed it so, as it's one of my all-time favorites. I always forget that there are quite a few drops throughout and we managed to get soaked as we traveled along. I love this ride! It's so fun. I wish the standby line had been shorter so we could have gone on again right then but we didn't want to spend the time waiting and instead headed over to Haunted Mansion, which had a kind of significant standby time, but as we had booked a FastPass for the now-functioning Grizzly River Run for a few hours from them, it made sense to spend a little more time in Disneyland. I always do like visiting the Mansion, though it is SO DARK.

We wandered back through Adventureland for a Dole Whip break and it was delicious and refreshing. It was HOT on Monday! Finding some shade to sit and relax for a few was a great reprieve. Then we headed back to Space Mountain to use our any-time FastPass. Space was back up and running and we were on the ride in no time. Man, Space Mountain at Disneyland is just the best! It's so dark and the ride is SO smooth and it's so COOL in there that you really feel like you're aimlessly flying through the darkness. Love it!

We still had a little time to go before our Grizzly FastPass so we wandered around Fantasyland a bit and ended up getting on line for Peter Pan. This was the only line of the day where I felt like we were just getting TOO hot. Even though the standby lines for Pirates and Haunted Mansion were long, they were interspersed with shade, whereas this one was almost completely outdoors in the sun, and queued quite tightly. I remembered that we had used a FastPass for this in WDW and maybe that's why I didn't realize that it's actually a really short ride! But it's still cool, a classic and the Soarin' of its time, haha.

We headed back to DCA after that, and had another short and easy re-entry. When we got to Grizzly River Run, the FastPass line was back all the way past the store and down the road. I thought for sure we would be in line for awhile but really, there just isn't a whole lot of room for a FastPass line and if they had stopped it for any amount of time, that's likely why it backed up. It went pretty quickly once it started moving and we had a fun ride, spinning quite a bit as we were a full car of mostly adults. We didn't get TOO wet but we got enough that we felt a little refreshed (and our clothes stayed a little soggy for awhile).

Back soon with the final hop back to Disneyland!

 

[Eve & Wall-e]

I love the Pirates ride. It's my favorite at DL! Isn't it nice to be able to hop back and forth between the two parks since they're so close?!

 

[skyblue17]

I love the Pirates ride. It's my favorite at DL! Isn't it nice to be able to hop back and forth between the two parks since they're so close?!

Yes! I love how easy it is to do. In the past we usually only hopped a couple times but we left and returned way more this trip, which is extra helpful when making FastPasses!

 

[skyblue17]

We had decided early in the day that we should take an actual break for dinner, and sit down, drink a lot of water and relax for a bit. Instead of find somewhere in the parks to go, we decided to go to La Brea Bakery just outside the gates in Downtown Disney. I was amazed at how close it was! It was basically the same as going to a different part of one of the parks. Since it was so close, we did not have to worry about rushing back to DCA to use the Guardians FastPass we had managed to snag a little earlier in the afternoon, we had plenty of time. It felt really good to just sit, rehydrate, eat a full meal (I had the chicken pot pie and it was delicious and SO satisfying) and not feel rushed.

Once done, we popped back into DCA to head back to Guardians! I was so excited that we would get to ride this again! The return line was a little longer so I had more of a chance to take in my surroundings. It's really cool! We were taken to a different gantry lift for our ride, which meant a different song and story, which was also so exciting. Knowing a little more what to expect, though, made this ride even MORE fun! I just gave myself over to it, and it was a total blast! I wish we could have ridden it a few more times but the standby line was still SO long, so we said goodbye to California Adventures for the day and headed back to Disneyland.

We had made FastPasses for Big Thunder Mountain and then a late FastPass for Splash Mountain that we planned to end our day with. We headed back to New Orleans Square to ride Pirates again while waiting for BTM FastPass window. It was just as fun as the first time, and again, so satisfying and relaxing to just sit and enjoy.

I was excited to ride Big Thunder Mountain again! Because of ride preferences amongst my friends in WDW, I just never got to it, so I hadn't been on it since my last Disneyland visit. It's a lot of fun! And it goes on a bit longer than you'd expect! I really like the design of the ride and that part of Frontierland, so I really enjoyed getting to experience it again.

We still had about an hour to kill before our Splash Mountain FastPass, so we decided to head to the train station and loop around the park a few times. We ended up walking to the ToonTown station and the wait for the train there was pretty lengthy but since we didn't really have anything else specific to do, we were fine with waiting. We eventually got on a regular train, not the ones that are front facing. It was a nice relaxing ride and oh man, that section from Tomorrowland to Main Street is a real blast from the past! I kind of love that they still have that there. It made me feel like I was in Disneyland in the 60s (to be honest, there's quite a few little moments like this around the park! It can feel almost quaint at times, which is amazing considering how huge Disney has become). As we pulled into Main Street station, my friend got a notification that our Splash FastPass had been cancelled. Unfortunately the ride was down, booo. We were going to get off at New Orleans Square to head back to the ride but instead, we stayed on until we got back to Tomorrowland. I was actually excited that we got to see the stretch of train between New Orleans and ToonTown, though, it's a fun section, and we at least got one peak at Splash Mountain as we went past. It's probably for the best that we didn't end up soaked for the final journey out of the park and the ride home anyway!

We used our second Any-Time FastPass of the day on Space Mountain again! Space is another great way to cap off of a day and the ride was just perfect! It seemed like I was able to see the stars even better (my friend thinks it's because our eyes were more adjusted to the darkness, since the sun had set by this time) and it just felt so good to be flying around, after spending all day at the park. I got off with a huge smile on my face! As we left the ride, we saw that the fireworks had started, so we hung around in Tomorrowland for a bit to watch some before starting to head out. We kinda made a mistake here and ultimately ended up stuck in some of the Main St. crowd as the fireworks ended. It turned out fine after a few minutes, as we ducked in to the Candy Store to pick up a few Chesire Cat tails and Minnie apples for the road. By the time we were done with that, Main St. was passable and though we had to wait a bit for a tram back to the parking structure, it wasn't too bad. In the future, we probably should hang out a few more minutes before trying to leave if the fireworks are happening!

We had such a fantastic day and did SO much! Though we didn't exactly go in with the intention of "rope dropping," that's ultimately what being early got us, and it worked in our favor simply in helping us get a few big rides done super early with little to no waiting, and opening up other options for FastPassing later in the day. The MaxPass is definitely a game changer, especially when you have a small group who are interested in going on the same rides. We found that being a party of two got us on the ride faster about 40% of the time, so often they were looking for a party of two to move things along after a larger party was seated, and we skipped ahead on quite a few rides thanks to this! And doing single rider when available also helped us out, so if you're not tied to being with a friend, do it! And amazingly, after 15 hours in the parks, we weren't even THAT exhausted. We logged almost 30,000 steps and spent a lot of time in the heat, but the fun of it all kept our energy up and kept us enjoying the parks right through when we left at 10pm.

What a fun day! When can I go back?

 

[Eve & Wall-e]

What a magical day you had!!