Our trip to Disneyland California Day 2

Our second and final day at the Disneyland resort started out with breakfast reservations I had made at a place called Goofy's Kitchen for a character breakfast over at the Disneyland Hotel. I was incredibly glad I made these reservations because I ended up finding a lot of different foods I loved! If you don't know me that is saying something because I am incredibly picky eater (prob the pickiest eater you will ever meet!). Yet I managed to fill two plates from the buffet! I am the opposite of my husband who will eat just about everything. He also loved the food at the buffet. There was a huge selection of food to chose from! I was a fan :)

After finishing breakfast we decided that we would go to Disney's California Adventure park and get a fast pass (gives you a time to go to the attraction with a shorter wait) for the main attraction at the Carsland section of the park, Radiator Springs Racers. The fast pass distribution was near the front of the park and we could not believe the lineup just to get a fast pass!! Thankfully the line moved fairly quickly, but I have never seen such a lineup just for fast passes. So if you ever make your way over to Disneyland in California get the fast pass distribution first thing as they go quickly!

Since it was a Monday the parks were much less busy than our first day(which was a huge relief!). We were able to go on everything we had wanted to and the waits were not too bad. We did take advantage of the fast pass program when we could. We were able to get another one at the same time as our Radiator Springs fast pass so our next one was for California Screamin, a high speed steel roller coaster. On our trip back in 2010 the coaster had closed down before we had a chance to ride it so we made sure to do it first thing this time around. We loved it! It is the only roller coaster in Disneyland with an inversion and is incredibly smooth! I am glad that we were able to go on it this time around. 

We decided we would go get our fast passes for the nighttime show World of Color and then wanted to take a small break back in our room for a couple of hours. Once we returned to the park in the afternoon we ran into flight attendant Minnie Mouse (she was so cute!) and decided since we were in California we would go on Soarin (which is identical to the Disney World version) since it originated in California. Although there are going to be some changes coming to this ride in Florida so that it includes areas outside of California and instead of showing you over Disneyland it will show you over Disney World (which only makes sense right!). 

The last two things I wanted to do in the park before heading over to Carsland was see the Aladdin musical stage show and go on Tower of Terror. It worked out perfectly because we were able to get a fast pass for Tower of Terror due just after the Aladdin show ended! I really enjoyed the show, it mainly went through the main musical scenes from the movie with some changes and great comedic moments to modernize it. Tower of Terror is located right beside the theater so it was easy to go right onto that. The version at California is different than the Disney World version in a couple of ways. First of all in the Disney World version you actually exit the first elevator shaft and move through a corridor into the final elevator shaft for the drop sequence. But the major difference is that the WDW version of the drop is completely randomized so every ride is different. In Disneyland this is not the case, every single ride regardless of what elevator shaft you get will be the same. I personally think that the Disney World version is much much better. 

 

It was then almost time for us to use our fast pass for Radiator Springs Racers so we headed over to walk around and look at Carsland (which had not been open in 2010). I was probably most excited to see Carsland and it was one of the main reasons I wanted to go back to Disneyland. The section is meant to look like the main street of Radiator Springs from the movie. The theming is phenomenal, it actually looks and feels like you are in Radiator Springs including places such as Cozy Cones Motel, Flo's V8 Cafe and Luigi's Casa Della Tires. There was periodically different Cars that would appear at the Cozy Cones Motel and then drive through the street. I appreciated all of the small details included in the area including little signs and so on. It is rumored that there will eventually be a Carsland at Hollywood Studios in Florida, and I hope it happens. 

At the end of Carsland is Radiator Springs Racers. The line up was very long for this ride and even with a fast pass there was a decent wait. It was completely worth it though and I must say I was incredibly impressed! The ride uses the same technology as Test Track at Epcot in WDW but it is so much better! You load into a car and are taken through a dark ride portion where you will see some animatronic characters from the Cars movies as well as some areas of the town and you will see some great effects throughout. 

At the end of the dark ride section, two cars are then lined up at a track where Luigi will wave a flag to start a race between the two cars. You are then taken through a high speed outdoor track which was so much fun! The entire time your two cars are racing side by side and at random one will cross the finish line slightly quicker than the other. I thought this was a great element to the ride! I just really cannot express how impressed I was with this entire ride! I think next time I will need to make a point to ride it a couple of times since this was probably my favorite ride at both Disneyland Parks! And I could also not get over the size of the attraction!! 

 

Our evening ended with the nighttime show World of Color which we also missed on our last trip (all of the things we missed last time made this trip a lot more enjoyable). I liked the other nighttime shows more than World of Color but it was still a very cool show. It takes place at Paradise Pier in front of California Screamin and Mickey's fun wheel. It is a great show with scenes and music from Disney movies projected on fountains with some fire and laser effects. 

All in all we had an amazing two days at Disneyland with some great experiences and perfect weather! Before checking out on our final morning we had another great character breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe! Once again the food was excellent! And the characters were so fun especially Meeko from Pocahontas.

While in California we did also go to Universal Studios Hollywood. This wasn't really part of these two days and even though it isn't Disney I will have posts about Universal Orlando in future posts so I figured I would take a quick moment to add a quick summary in this post as well (don't worry I am almost done lol). Again Universal Orlando is a LOT better! First of all in Orlando there is also Islands of Adventure which you will not find in Hollywood. There currently is no Wizarding World of Harry Potter (need I say more!), although they are in the process of building Hogsmeade and Hogwarts over in Hollywood. 

The park itself is not very big and has limited attractions that are also in Orlando and all the exact same - The Simpsons, Transformers, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Shrek 4D. They also have The Mummy and Jurassic Park which have some little differences. We did not get to go on the Jurassic Park River Adventure as it was closed for rehab but we did go on the Mummy. Some of the scenes were different and during the second portion of the roller coaster you actually go backwards for another portion before going forward again. 

While the Minion Mayhem ride at Universal Hollywood is the same as the Florida version there are some exterior differences which are actually for the better. Just like in Florida the exterior of the ride itself is Gru's house, but in Hollywood it actually has the street his house is on with Super Silly Fun Land at the end. It makes it seem more like a small Despicable Me land.

The major draw for Universal Studios Hollywood that is unique to the park is that it is actually a working movie studio with the theme park attached. The parks major attraction is the studio backlot tour, which I loved! I found seeing the studios and sets one of the major highlights of our vacation in California (we also did the Warner Brothers Studio tour). During the backlot tour we are taken through various sets and shown many props from movies such as the cars from Fast and the Furious. In the middle of the tour is the King Kong 360 3-D attraction. The set that I was most looking forward to was actually going onto Wisteria Lane and seeing all the houses used in Desperate Housewives. Some other sets we saw were ones used in Back to the Future, War of the Worlds, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and so on. 

I did enjoy our time at Universal Studios, but I also am in no rush to go back because as I mentioned there isn't a lot in the park. It is certainly an enjoyable experience and I am sure I will visit in years down the road but I don't not have a desire to go on every trip like I do in Florida. One thing that Florida just cannot beat though is the absolutely stunning views of the mountains from Universal Studios Hollywood! With that said I am done this post! I apologize for the length, it is so difficult sometimes to fit so much into a shorter blog entry!! 

Our Trip to Disneyland California Day 1

I haven't had a chance to post in a few weeks, because first we had been away on vacation in California and Las Vegas. Once we got home I had to get back into my normal routine. So I am finally getting a chance to post about our trip to Disneyland! There will be a few posts to come about the parks (I can't fit everything in just on!). So for now I am not going to go into great detail on things I plan to blog about in a different post. 

This was our second time visiting Disneyland (we spent a day there back in Sept 2010). Firstly I must say that we enjoyed the parks much more this time than the last time around. After our first visit I remember feeling somewhat disappointed with the parks and pretty much thought "Meh". I didn't care if I ever went back. Maybe it was because we are so used to Disney World or because we had driven from Las Vegas in one day and we were a bit tired and felt rushed. We may have enjoyed it more this time around as well due to the fact that our expectations were lower. Not that we didn't enjoy Disneyland the first time, because we did quite a bit. But we really liked the parks a lot in California this time around (still not as much as Disney World). Although we did notice a few things we liked better at Disneyland than Disney World. 

We spent two full days at the Disneyland resort, using our Disney Vacation Club points to stay onsite at the Grand Californian Resort. The resort was gorgeous and we had a 1 bedroom unit that had a view of Paradise Pier at California Adventure Park. The bathroom had a jacuzzi tub that I loved having to soak in after each day in the parks. The resort exited into Downtown Disney which was just a short walk to Disneyland Park and also from the resort was a separate entrance for resort guests only to California Adventure Park. Staying here made everything incredibly convenient and much more enjoyable. We could take breaks back into the room with just a short walk and just go back to the parks when we were ready. I think staying right by the parks and for two days also made us enjoy the parks much more. 

Disneyland is much smaller than Disney World and everything is side by side. At Disney World everything is much more spread out and grander. Disneyland consists of Disneyland Park and California Adventure separated by a hub between the two with Downtown Disney to the side of the open area separating the parks. As well as a 3 resorts all within walking distance of one another. Both being close together like in California and spread out as in Florida have their advantages. 

 

The majority of our first day was spent at Disneyland Park. One lesson I did learn was do not visit on the weekend! We went on a Sunday and the park was PACKED! I have been at WDW during long weekends and it has not been this busy. And People were much less considerate there than they tend to be in Florida as well. So needless to say during the afternoon we did not accomplish very much except going on Pirates of the Caribbean (which is actually longer than the WDW version) and just walking around before taking a break back at the resort. 

In the evening we decided to go into California Adventure and saw the special sneak peak going on for the new movie Maleficent opening May 30th. This movie has to be one of the ones I am most looking forward to this year! The sneak peak was basically the opening scene as well as an extended trailer. It showed in the theater used for It's Tough to be a Bug. I honestly wish all movies were shown like this one as it was in 3D with wind and light effects that really immerse you into the movie! I can't wait to see the full version! Maleficent has always been my favorite Disney villain and I think Angelina Jolie will do a great job in the role. 

We then went back over to Disneyland Park for the remainder of the evening. Luckily the park was less busy than it was during the day. We were able to get on Big Thunder Mountain, which I will admit is a lot better than the version over at Disney World. We also managed to go on Haunted Mansion which is basically the same ride inside except for a few minor changes. The outside looks completely different as it is in their New Orleans section so it was designed to look like a Plantation. On our last trip we did see the Haunted Mansion with the Halloween overlay of the Nightmare before Christmas, which is only at Disneyland Park. Our last ride of the day was Space Mountain which is much smoother than Space Mountain at WDW. The Halloween overlay on Space Mountain at Disneyland called Ghost Galaxy is also phenomenal! 

At Disneyland Park there are two nighttime shows. The first one we went to was the park's fireworks show "Remember...Dreams Come True". I personally prefer Wishes over at WDW but this show was still great. Parts of the show was the same as Wishes with the classes music but was narrated by Mary Poppins instead of Jiminy Cricket. The show pays tribute to different parts of the park with music from the attractions such as the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars. The show did include some pyrotechnics as well as at times 360 degree fireworks. What I did like about the fireworks at Disneyland better than Wishes at WDW is that Tinker Bell actually flies over and around the castle several times. Over at Disney World she only goes from the castle over into Tomorrowland. 

Immediately after the fireworks we made our way over to Frontierland to watch Fantasmic on the Rivers of America. At WDW Fantasmic is in Hollywood Studios and is an amazing show! On the other coast Fantasmic also does not disappoint. I actually enjoyed the Disneyland version better as well. The WDW version has a battle scene from Pocahontas which in Disneyland is actually changed to a fight on a ship between Peter Pan and Captain Hook (much cooler!). A couple of other sequences were also different. Near the end the dragon from Sleeping Beauty comes out onto the Stage but again the one at Disneyland is much better than the one over at Hollywood Studios. Either way both shows are amazing!! 

This concludes day one of our time at Disneyland. I was planning to do the entire two days in one post until I was half way through this one. I quickly realized it needs to be a 2 part blog!