L.A. Trip - Day 6: Disney California Adventure, A.M.
Woke up this morning at 5:30am. Apparently it doesn't seem to matter what time I go to bed or how tired I am; I'm waking up early. I went back to sleep from 6:00 to 6:30, then got out of bed at 7:00.
Morning view
Like yesterday, I went downstairs to The Coffee House and this time got a chocolate croissant and 1% milk. After breakfast we left the hotel at 8:50am to go to Disney California Adventure. Today was its day to be open an hour early for hotel guests. It was a beautiful, partially cloudy, cool morning. We walked in the park at 9am.
Um, where is everyone?
Seriously, where is everybody?
To say the park wasn't crowded would be an understatement. Also like yesterday, we wouldn't wait more than 20 minutes for a ride today, with most lines being around 5-10 minutes. Even so, we guessed that everyone that was there at opening would be headed straight to Radiator Springs Racers, so we figured we'd give a little time for that to play out and instead headed to Twilight Zone Tower of Terror first.
The Hollywood Tower Hotel awaits
The lobby. Spooky.
We were able to walk right on in. Unlike the ride in Florida, the elevator in this one doesn't leave the shaft and travel across the floor. Instead it goes up and down in the same place. Todd didn't know this beforehand, and I didn't bother to tell him. :) He was a little surprised. :)
After the Tower of Terror, we walked over to Cars Land and Radiator Springs Racers. We had only about a 15-20 minute wait - during peak times this line can be between 90 minutes and 2 hours. It is a not-to-be-missed experience combining scenic outdoor views, indoor sections where the full-sized Cars characters come to life, and a thrilling outdoor race at top speed. We'd ride it again two more times before the day was over. On the way out after this first ride, we stopped at the photo kiosk and redeemed our free ride photo. We asked them to send it over to the hotel so we didn't have to carry it around. One short form later and we were on our way again.
On the way to Cars Land. Turn left here.
We've arrived
"Loyal Order of the Lugnuts"
Looks like we just missed Lightning McQueen
Queue entrance
Omg that looks fun!
Desert landscape
Cars go out...
...cars come in
I look a little ghostly due to sunscreen, but wheeee!
It was now 10am which meant the park was open for regular guests, and also meant that FastPass machines were now operational. FastPasses are tickets that allow you to return to a ride later at a designated time and skip the regular line. So we picked up a couple of fast passes to ride again later.
Score
Once we secured our FastPass tickets we headed over to Grizzly River Run, the rapids ride. There was no line and we walked directly on to the next boat. I stowed my phone and wallet in my handy zip-lock bag as we walked, and I'm glad I did because I ended up completely soaked on my left side.
There were 8 people per raft, and we sat across from a young man and his girlfriend. He looked like a young Val Kilmer. They were nice and we chatted during the ride, but she didn't get as wet as I hoped she would. See, she was very well endowed, and was also wearing a very tight, very, very, low cut, white, blouse that she was practically spilling out of - she apparently had no issue showing off her physical assets.
I wanted to see her get drenched.
Not for any sexual reason; just for the possibly comedic pure spectacle of the aftermath. Her embarrassment (if she had any) would be amusing, but the looks of other park-goers as they passed would have been priceless. Oh well.
After the rapids we walked over to the Paradise Pier area of the park and rode California Sreamin'; the launched, looped roller coaster that Todd didn't know had a loop in it - although it's right there on the front as one of the main visual features. Immediately after that we rode Mickey's Fun Wheel which is an innocent ferris wheel except that in addition to stationary cars on the outside, it also has cars along the inside of the wheel that are on oblong tracks. These cars swing back and forth as the wheel makes it rounds. Needless to say, Todd got really nauseous (but thankfully never reached critical mass).
Funnily enough, when we boarded the Fun Wheel car who should be sitting across from us but the couple from Grizzly River Run. They were just as perky as before, and we listened to their stimulating conversation about how nervous she was, and what if something happened - how would we get down? - or how would he save her? - or what if there was some sort of acid attack...
Really. Acid attack.
They were still nice and were just making up stuff to pass the time, but still...
California Sreamin' and Mickey's Fun Wheel
More of Paradise Pier
There's the launch...
...and there's the loop.
Mickey's Fun Wheel
Silly Symphony Swings
All that stuff in the water is for the World of Color fountain and light show that takes place at night
I spy Donald - do you?
A view from the gondola. Here, let's get rid of those bars.
That's better. The building in the foreground with the blue roofs is the ride building for The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure. Behind it is the large hangar-like building of Soarin' Over California (soon to be Soarin' Around the World), and behind that you can see Space Mountain and the Matterhorn in Disneyland. This gives you an idea of how compact and close the parks are to each other.
To the left of Soarin' is the Disney Grand Californian Hotel (on the other side of which is Downtown Disney). In the center is the iconic peak of Grizzly Peak, and to the right of that is the painted-sky backdrop in Hollywood Land and the backside of the Hyperion Theater where the Aladdin show takes place.
Panning to the right, we see the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Cars Land - namely the Radiator Springs Racers surround.
We'll be back here later tonight for the World of Color show
We strolled through some shops along the pier for a bit to allow Todd to settle and to kill some time, then we we walked back toward the front of the park for our 12:20pm lunch reservation at Carthay Circle Restaurant. As part of our reservation, we would get access to a reserved spot in the prime World of Color viewing area later that night.
We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early and only had a short wait in the lounge before they took us upstairs to seat us. As we would learn from our waitress, the restaurant was themed to the Carthay Circle theater which is where Disney's first full-length animated movie, Snow White, had its premiere in 1937.
Cathay Circle dead ahead. Soarin' is to the left.
The lounge. Upstairs are the dining rooms.
Ceiling detail in the main dining room
We sat in the main dining hall. At the table right next to us were two extremely outgoing Disneyphile women from northern California who were having a girls-day-out away from their families. They were excited and fascinated that a male couple were seated next to them, and we chatted throughout lunch. We're not that outgoing, so they really drew us out of our shells. They also engaged our waitress and let her know we were recently married.
For cocktails we both had pear martinis - a girlish drink I know, but it was excellent and strong. I found the recipe on the Disney Parks Blog website:
Double Pear Martini
Serves 1
1 ounce Double Cross vodka
1 ounce Absolut Pears vodka
1 ounce Kern’s Pear Nectar
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/4 ounce Monin agave nectar
Garnish: 1 Chilean baby Pear
1. Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass. Add ice and shake for 10 seconds. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a Chilean baby Pear.
Because everyone has Chilean baby pears laying around, right?
The World of Color dining package for lunch is a 3-course prix fixe menu with a few selections for each course. For a starter I chose the tomato broth soup, then had roasted chicken with strawberries on a bed of mixed greens with frisee, avocado, and toasted ancient grains for the entree. Yum. For dessert I ordered a dark chocolate mousse bar. With dessert our waitress lit two candles and presented us with hand-decorated "Just Married" buttons. We were embarrassed by the attention, but it was nice.
The wounded dark chocolate mousse bar only managed to make it a few inches before collapsing.
Fat men with cake and candles
This was sweet
Details everywhere
We finished lunch and our waitress gave us our World of Color passes and directions for later. We headed back out into the park to enjoy the rest of the day.
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