Las Vegas/Disneyland Trip - Day 4: Disney California Adventure

Woke up in the wee hours to a horrible noise coming from the bathtub drain.  I ended up closing the drain and the bathroom door.  It was sort of funny actually - Todd took this video later:

This was Disney California Adventure day, where the Disney California Food & Wine Festival was currently (then) taking place.

While this is an annual event at Disney's Epcot Center in Orlando, the last time California Adventure held the festival was 6 years prior, so this was quite a treat.  Although the major events like workshops, demonstrations and guest appearances only happen on the weekends (meaning we would miss them), all of the food marketplaces are open during the week.

As usual, I got up first so I got ready and headed down to The Coffee House on site at the hotel to grab us breakfast.  I brought a croissant and cinnamon roll back to the room with a couple of orange juices.

Once Todd got ready and we had eaten, we walked through Downtown Disney to the park.  Today was early entry to California Adventure for guests staying at one of the Disney hotels (or for guests not staying on property but who had bought 3-day or more tickets).  We got in the park around 8:15am, and it would open to the general public at 9.

Like our last trip here, we thought we'd buck the trend and head to Tower of Terror first instead of Radiator Springs Racers.  We walked there and got in line with about 15 other people, but after 5 minutes of waiting it was announced that they were having technical difficulties.  We could have stayed and waited, but we (and most everyone else) reversed course and exited the line.

Instead we walked over to the FastPass distribution line for Radiator Springs Racers.  The FastPass machines don't operate until the park is open to the public at 9am, so a lot of early access folks get in line for FastPasses before the park opens - the idea being that waiting 10-30 minutes now for a FastPass is better than waiting 40-60 minutes in line for the ride itself.  Disney staff were attempting to do crowd control by assuring everyone queuing up for a FastPass that the ride was open right now and we could all just go get in line and ride it, but no one was budging - including us.  Since it was only 10 minutes until 9am when we walked up, it was worth it to wait as the line for the Racers was 30 minutes long.  If we had gotten there earlier we would have just gone and rode the ride.

There's our room - top right

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

Disney Trip 2013 - Day 7

Saturday, December 14th.  Today is our only full day at Disney's Hollywood Studios, so let's get going!

The park opened at 9am to the public, but today was an Extra Magic Hours day for resort guests.  That meant that people staying on-property in a Disney hotel could get into the park an hour early at 8am.  We decided to take full advantage of this and slept in.

We did manage to get up and get going early enough to walk past all the people waiting at the gate and make it inside the park by 8:45, which was more than enough time to ride Rock 'n' Roller coaster and get in a 5 minute line for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  Check, and check.

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster is such a sweet ride.  Launching 0-60mph in under 3 seconds, zipping through 3 inversions in the dark, flying by and through lit up neon signs, all while Aerosmith cranks out of speakers by your headrest - not to mention how smooth the ride is - this is a perfect roller coaster!  I could ride it over and over again if the line wasn't long.