Day 18: Disneyland

It was an early wake up for magic hours from 7-8 at California Adventure.  We were about the 50th group in line at 6:45am.  It did move quickly, and we made a mad dash for Cars Land.  This is our first visit that the new Cars land since it opened last summer.  We were going to dedicate the morning time before the regular crowds entered the park to explore nothing but Cars Land. 

There is one ride called Radiator Springs Racers that has super long wait times so with the early entry we were hopeful the line would be short . . . as in less than 30 minutes.  Of course everyone else had the same plan, and we were all greeted by cast members informing us it was closed.  Seriously?  So we rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.  It was fun and had a "tow"-rific ride!

The big ride was still closed so instead we headed back to Paradise Pier, and Colin rode his California Screamin' roller coaster twice!  Just down the way is the Toy Story Midway Mania ride which is super fun but always has a long line too.  Today we walked right on, rode, got off, and did it again!  I was shocked because the line is always at least 45 minutes.  I pulled out my phone and checked the status of Radiator Springs Racers and it was open! 

We made a mad dash and had to wait about 30 minutes.  I was fine with that and it was a cool ride but at 8:45am it was already steamy hot!  We stopped to get a Fast Pass for later . . . at 9:00am the return time was 4:30pm-5:30pm.  We managed to ride all the rides in Cars Land and exited the park to have breakfast at my our favorite restaurant, Storytellers Cafe.  Who doesn't love these critters?

 

 

We headed back to Disneyland to ride Colin's favorites and all were closed or the line was super long. I was really surprised at the crowd levels for a Monday morning.  It is more crowded than the
weekend and I was not having much fun fighting the crowds. We went back to California Adventure for one last ride; Grizzly River Run . . .

. . . he was soaked!  Again this is a great ride as a single rider!  While I waited for Colin to exit I watched for a family that was using Fast Passes.  I gave them our Fast Passes for the Cars Land ride that afternoon.  You would have thought I gave them a lot of money . . . they were thrilled and I was happy to pay it forward!  We said good-bye to the parks and headed to Downtown Disney for one last stop . . .

. . . your guessed it; the Lego Store; go figure!  I let him play and build for an hour while I melted in the hot California sun!  The time had come to leave and it was off to the airport area for our morning flight tomorrow but first it was pool time!