After our early morning success yesterday we agreed to take advantage of Disney’s California Adventure Park early extra magic hour today as well. We decided to save ourselves some steps and wait in the Grand Californian Hotel park entrance line which was equally as long as it had been the prior day. This time we headed for Toy Story Midway Mania first which, like yesterday, was basically a walk on attraction.
We made our way back to Cars Land which we just could not get enough of. Just in front of the Cozy Cone they have meet and greets with the cars from the movie. The boys got to meet Red the fire truck. You can see in the video that his horn just about scared the pants off of Sawyer. Because Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters is the newest park attraction with longer lines later in the day, we made sure to ride this one early as well. We got to this ride and a few more like Soarin’ Over California (better queue that the Florida version), the Jumping Jellies, and King Triton’s Carousel. Getting up early has its benefits!
Not having eaten a thing up to this point we felt some nourishment (if you can call theme park food that) was in order, so we headed back to Cars Land for breakfast at Flo’s V8 Cafe. We sat outside and enjoyed breakfast tamales and themed waffles while overlooking Radiator Springs Racers (another benefit of arriving early was our FastPasses for that attraction for later in the day)!
Since our last visit to California, Hunter has been talking about The Red Car Trolley News Boys show that we watched in Carthay Circle at Disney’s California Adventure Park. The show is a short atmosphere entertainment offering that has a fun Newsies style and cute storyline. We got our spot just before 11:30, allowing Em and the boys enough time to bring our recently completed egg hunt maps to the merchandise store to claim their Easter eggs rewards. The show was full of energy and we ended up singing “A Suitcase and a Dream” the rest of our visit.
With some time left before lunch we snacked on a few delicious California Churros (they are so much better than Disney World’s – Emily boycotts all churros except those at Disneyland) and took the Red Car Trolley through Hollywoodland. The lands are all so conveniently connected that we were able to go right to Bugs Land for a ride on Francis’ Ladybug Boogie and our daily caterpillar ride on Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train (it still cracks me up how much the boys love that ride).
In what quickly became our favorite daily ritual, it was our Fastpass time for Radiator Springs Racers. Although Sawyer wasn’t a huge fan after his first ride, he has come around to really enjoying the ride. The ride was a blast and we captured a ton of fun video.
Thanks to Emily’s amazing planning, she booked us lunch at the Carthay Circle Restaurant. Although the food is a little bit on the fancy side for this simple guy, the atmosphere in the restaurant is really neat with old photos of Walt Disney. I got a Shrimp Tempura dish that I thought was average but probably would have impressed on Top Chef. Emily got some Crab Cup appetizer that was really tasty. The boys got the gourmet butter noodles which were far too unlike boxed pasta to enjoy.
After we wrapped up lunch we decided to divide and conquer. Emily took the boys back to the room for a chill (boys) and packing (Em) break, and I set back out on my second trip to Enterprise to get the rental car for our trip to Arizona. I mapped the walk after my first foray yesterday and discovered it was closer leaving from the park than going back through the hotel. After being offered rental coverage a half dozen times (thank you Enterprise), I asked if I could be on my way and back to vacation.
I met back up with Emily in the room and tagged out so she could do some shopping while I hung with the sleeping boys in the room. This gave me some time to blog and gave Em some quiet shopping time away from her impatient traveling companions. Before going to get the car, I secured some Fastpasses to Grizzly River Rapids, which Hunter was requesting another time before departing for Arizona. Emily returned from shopping within the hour so she and Hunter could go back into the park to get soaked on the ride, much to her delight The came back to the room drenched and ready to change for our final evening in the parks.
Revived from our afternoon rest (well, the small people, anyway), we headed back into Disney’s California Adventure because the boys were excited to explore the Redwood Challenge Trail. This area of the park has been around since Emily and I visited back in 2004 on our honeymoon. It is a really fun spot to climb over rope bridges, zipline on seated swings, as well as explore a number of slides and other random climbing areas. Needless to say the boys were in heaven. Great way to burn some midday energy.
We worked up a hunger while on the Redwood Trail, so we split up to get some dinner. Emily got a hotdog for Sawyer and a bread bowl of clam chowder for herself, while Hunter and I grabbed a couple corn dogs for ourselves and went back to Pacific Wharf area to eat. There was the most amazing sunset happening just over Mickey’s Fun Wheel so I set my camera on time lapse to try to capture it (I will add it to the video). The dinner and atmosphere were absolutely perfect!
We were refueled and relaxed and ready to take on the Disneyland Resort nighttime activities. Before we left Disney’s California Adventure Park we had to do a few of our favorite attractions like Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train (which Hunter can now recite word for word), and then a trolley car ride back up to the front of the park. Hunter had his heart set on a giant pickle which just happened to be at the exit of the Red Trolley ride so we picked up a couple of those for our walk to Disneyland Park.
We arrived to Disneyland Park just as the fireworks were going off, so we got to see them again as we traveled back to Fantasyland. Our sights were set on Small World so Sawyer could see the Disneyland version. Not sure how it is possible but Sawyer was able to fall asleep while the huge firework booms were going off. The fireworks show was so impressive as we captured some photos and video of the last portion of the show from a tiny, uncrowded corner near Small World.
We carried a sleeping Sawyer onto the nighttime Small World ride and enjoyed our boat trip around the world. Sawyer must be programmed to that music because as soon as we hit the first chorus of “It’s a Small World,” he perked up and enjoyed the rest of the ride. We love the fact that the attraction goes both inside and outside, and includes some Small World-ized Disney characters.
It was about 10 pm when we got off the Small World attraction which was 30 minutes prior to the second Paint The Night Parade. We had seen the parade from our table at Carnation Cafe last night, but we could only really see the top half of the parade over the crowd on Main Street. Since the floats were so impressive we decided to get a great spot in Fantasyland to see the parade again, unobstructed. Fantasyland was as yet fairly deserted and we got a front row spot without having to camp out for hours! We bought a blanket for Emily and Hunter to sit on (thanks for the spending money, Grandma Curly and PopPa Colonel) as Sawyer fell back asleep in his stroller. The parade was even better the second time around. The costumes and floats were so innovative and beautiful, and the music was catchy and enjoyable as well.
After the paraded we made our way back through the park as we headed back to the room. We paused around Sleeping Beauty Castle to capture some fun nighttime photos and video around the hub. The night provided a little less congestion throughout the park for us to finally enjoy. It was a beautiful night walk back through Disneyland park and Downtown Disney as we carried our tired bones (and children) back to the room. Another fantastic day at Disneyland Resort!
We love to read your comments so please leave one below if you like. If you want to read more about our fun, you can start at our Disneyland vacation day one and check out videos, photos and blog entries. Thank you for following along with our adventures!
I cannot tell you how much I enjoy reading your comments. You always have such positive things to share. I really appreciate that you follow along with our crazy family adventures!
I always have lot of thoughts while reading this and enjoying the videos and pics – my first thought was, Day Four was the day for crazy facial expressions – I love it! My second thought was, wow, I’d really like to ride around in those small, cute cars……then I was thinking, the boys definitely enjoy just about everything the Park has to offer, and what great adventures, with cool memories for later, they are having – yes! Continuing on, I was struck by all the wonderful (mostly) food you all get to eat, and surmised that all that walking makes for loss of calories, a good thing, as you and Em are fit and slim, and the boys look just right at this age. Yeah, crazy things I think…..I can also tell that Em performs wonderful, organized scheduling with details that deter possible mishaps, also a good thing. I swear, sometimes I feel as thought I am strolling through the Park, either day or at night with the cool breeze and cool visuals as well (it’s the descriptions.) So, all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed your Day Four – well done, you cuties!
Love you so much,
A Barbara
PS – Cheers for the sunset video, it was so pretty, and I especially liked the music!