Disneyland October 2010 Trip: Day 2

The weather during the trip was constantly bouncing between cold drizzle and bits of sunshine. Whenever we wore sweaters, we were too hot, and when we didn’t wear sweaters, it was cold and windy. Why can’t Disney control the weather in their parks?!

THURSDAY

A pretty straight-forward day, which we spent at Disney California Adventure Park. In case you didn’t know, DCA is undergoing a massive overhaul, and they’re spending a couple billion dollars or so to turn the park into the kind of detailed and charming theme park that deserves to be next to Disneyland. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve always enjoyed DCA, but I love that they’re re-theming it to California of the 20’s and 30’s, when Walt arrived in Hollywood. By the time 2012 rolls around, it’ll feel like a totally different park.

EDIT: Here's a link that gives the basics about the expansion, as well as having a photo gallery of artwork:

http://themeparks.about.com/od/disneyparks/a/DCAMakeover.htm

What that means for now, however, is that there are construction walls all over the place, especially in the back section of the park. But at least Disney has the sense to give us decorative construction walls, that we can still use for photos. Construction of the “Little Mermaid Ride” means big blue walls with fish all over them (sorry, didn’t get a photo of those ones). Construction of Cars Land means walls themed to roadside postcards:



The Paradise Pier eateries are being transformed into “Paradise Park” complete with period décor and themed restaurants. Those construction walls looked like this:






The big highlight of Thursday was that Maddy faced her fears and went on California Screamin' and ended up loving it! Anyway, here's the list of what we did, along with applicable photos.
[Oh, to answer Libby's question, while at Disneyland, I keep a folded up piece of paper in my pocket that I write notes on, including what rides we get on, time we get in line, time the ride is over, and any interesting info I feel like adding along the way. Maybe I'll scan in one of the pages for you to see in a future post!]

9:15—Left the hotel
9:30—Arrived at Disney California Adventure. They let people in at 9:30 even though the park doesn’t officially open until 10 so that people could get World of Color Fastpasses and ride Soarin’ Over California. So that’s what we did.
9:37—While Amanda and the 3 older kids rode Soarin’ [Which Abe HATED] (with a Baby-Switch Pass in-hand), I took Elliott with me to get Fastpasses for “World of Color.” World of Color is a huge water/lights/lasers/music/video presentation on the lake in the middle of DCA every night. To get a spot in the viewing area, you have to pick up Fastpasses for everyone in your group. Luckily it only took me about 10 minutes to get through the line.



9:55—Andy and Maddy rode Soarin’ (using the Baby Swap Pass).
10:30—Got Amanda and Maddy Fastpasses for California Screamin’ then got in line for Toy Story Midway Mania (our longest wait of the day, which doesn’t have Fastpass and you can’t use the Readmission Passes for).



11:20—Maddy and Amanda rode California Screamin’. Unfortunately, the music wasn’t working on their vehicle.
11:35—King Triton’s Carousel



11:55—Silly Symphony Swings (Amanda, Maddy, and Joel)
12:25—We had packed a sack lunch for everyone in our backpack so we sat on a bench in the Hollywood Pictures area and ate our sandwiches and Cheetos:



12:55—Rode the Monsters Inc. ride
1:10—Muppetvision 3-D
1:45—Maddy and I rode Grizzly River Run. It was a foolish decision on our part. The weather was cold and we didn’t have our ponchos. I love that ride but we got SOAKED, and my clothes were wet for the rest of the day. Also, my ride-notes paper got really wet along the creases of the paper, but not totally soaked.
2:15—Maddy and Amanda rode California Screamin’ AGAIN. And they got the same vehicle, with NO MUSIC playing.
2:30—Andy and the boys rode the King Triton’s Carousel AGAIN
2:40—Mickey’s Fun Wheel. Every time we go on this, Joel gets scared, thinking it’s going to be wild, instead of realizing it’s the really tame, slow ferris wheel.
3:35—Went through the Tortilla Factory tour for free tortillas.
3:40—Went through the Sourdough Factory tour for free sourdough bread.
4:00—Ate dinner at Taste Pilot’s Grill. Really mediocre burgers and fries. But Elliott loved it:



5:10—Rode every ride in the Bug’s Land area in a total of 35 minutes.
6:05—watched “It’s Tough to Be a Bug,” which Abe was actually NOT scared of.
6:30—Visited the Animation Building. The three older kids took quizzes to see which Disney character they were most like: Joel, Jiminy Cricket; Madison, Belle; Abe: Shan Yu, the villain from Mulan.
7:00—we just sat and relaxed for a while before getting a spot for World of Color.
7:45—Found a spot to stand for WOC. We should’ve gotten over there a few minutes earlier, so we could’ve stood against a railing. Instead, we were behind some people and the kids had to peek around/through the crowd, and we had to hold Abe up for some of the 30-minute show.
8:15—World of Color. Very fun to see once, but from now on, we’ll just go on rides while everyone else is watching the show!
8:45—headed back to the hotel.