Mr and Mrs T. Our West Coast adventure May 2016 - Tuesday, May 10 First day at Disneyland

[TractorBoy]

As usual woke up around 3 a.m. but must have nodded off because when I looked at the clock again it was just after 7 a.m.

Out of bed, showered and by 8.30 we were on our way to iHop which is situated just up the road right opposite the crossing to Disney.



Lovely breakfast and did not take me long to hit the coffee.

Made our way over the crossing to the first park of the day, California Adventure. The queues for the bag search were enormous and did not seem to be moving very fast. They even have body scanners in place as well and were picking out people to go through them.



Eventually we got through the bag search and made our way over to California Adventure. The last time we were in Anaheim was the late 80s and this park did not exist. Got a map but still struggled to get our bearings.

This car was on a test run!

The first port of call was to get fast passes for Radiator Springs Racers. No joy, the ride was down so the fast pass machines were not in use. No idea when the ride would be back in operation.





So we walked past the area and were impressed with what we saw. We wandered over to Paradise Wharf where we went on the Fun wheel. Sat in the cage that did not move.



Did not fancy being swung about. Great views of the park from up high.



Next stop was the Golden Zephyrs. Good fun, then onto the Little Mermaid before getting fast passes for Soarin’.



Radiator springs Racers was now up and running so got fast passes with a return time of 6.50!

Also got fast passes for World of Colour later in the day.

Used our fast passes to go on Soarin’ before deciding to leave and head over to Disneyland.





On entering the park we saw that Pirates of the Caribbean was down. Shame, one of my favourites.





We did however go on Winnie the Pooh, Haunted Mansion, It’s a small world which was exactly how I remembered it from our last visit all those years ago.







And Buzz, which I have been informed by Elaine I got absolutely annihilated on. Can’t remember!

Had lunch at Village Haus Restaurant.

We then returned to Adventure where we got a good spot for the parade.





We had another wander round before heading over to Radiator Springs to use our fast passes. The queues were huge but seem to move fairly quickly. Enjoyed the ride, certainly different with 2 cars facing.

Made our way to the Lucky Fortune Cookie for tea, nice, although the area where we sat was absolutely filthy. In fact we noticed any areas were rather scruffy and there was a definite lack of people clearing up rubbish.

Made our way to use the fast passes for the World of Colour. Got to our allotted area just after 8 p.m. for the 9 p.m. show. The weather had got a lot cooler and standing around for an hour we were freezing.

In hindsight we did not need the fast passes as there were loads of rooms at the back beyond the fastpass rope off areas.

It was an ok show but not worth standing around for an hour to watch. Waited for an explosive finish but it did not materialise. Just our opinion though but for us it lacked something.

Made our way to the exit where we stood in the hub and watched the fireworks from Disneyland.

We had spent over 12 hours in visiting both parks and had done everything we wanted to see. In hindsight we would have been better off losing a day in Anaheim and adding it on to another location we were visiting.

[florida girl]

You did well to fit in 2 parks in 1 day.

Love an IHOP breakfast😋

[abiknox]

Lovely first Disney day. We missed WOC last time so have it on the must do list for next time. Shame you didn't think it was that good.

[mick]

Good day in the parks

Joan

[orlandosgr8]

Sounds like a lovely day