Wandering around the West Coast – Day 2 – Disneyland & World of Color

[jocat]

Index is here.

Day 2 – Wednesday 26th July 2017

Firstly, let me apologise for the shortage of photos this morning. It’s not like me, but I was trying to preserve my phone battery, as with using Maxpass and taking lots of photos yesterday, my phone was dead by mid afternoon.

Anyway, we woke this morning at 5:50 am, got up just after 6am, showered and got ready for the day. We met our friends in the lobby again at 7:30 am, then got a taxi from outside the hotel to the park, which cost around $10 - cheaper than parking!

When we were through bag check, Martin and I headed into CA to get a FP for World of Color. We intended to visit DL through the day, then see WOC tonight. While Martin walked to the FP machine near Little Mermaid, I set up Maxpass for the day for the four of us. When we had left our friends near the entrance, I told them to give it a few minutes after they'd entered the Disneyland park, then they could select all of our FPs for Indiana Jones - we'd noticed yesterday that the FPs had run out quite early and the standby line was huge!

Martin messaged me to say that they were making him wait for a FP for World of Color, as although it was early entry in CA, they weren't giving FPs out until at least 8am. He only had a few minutes to wait. I arranged to meet him outside of the café where we'd eaten yesterday, then picked us both up a muffin and orange juice for when he joined me. With not eating dinner last night, we were both ravenous this morning and needed something to keep us going!

Once FPs were secured, and we'd eaten our first breakfast we swapped parks.

We walked towards Pirates of the Caribbean, where we knew our friends were. It was a walk on, so I sent them a quick message telling them we were going on the ride and would meet them afterwards. POTC is a lengthy ride in Disneyland and my message didn't get delivered, as we were underground for so long! Luckily they had assumed what had happened and were waiting for us when we got off. We all headed to Indiana Jones.

There was just a 20 minutes standby line, so we waited in that first, with the intention of riding it twice and using the FP straight after. We also booked a FP slot for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad while we waited. Am loving Maxpass. Think we'd have got even more done yesterday if it had been working all day for us, rather than just the afternoon.

We rode BTMR, then noticed a breakfast place as we neared the end of the ride, so headed there. We both ordered a breakfast and Orange Juice from Rancho del Zocalo, which cost $29.

Full American breakfasts are just wasted on me though – think I had the sausage and a few potatoes, and nibbled at one of the pancakes. I’m probably the only Dibber in the world that doesn’t enjoy them.

While at breakfast, we'd booked a Star Tours FP via the app, so headed there to ride this, pausing for some photos on the way.

I was a little nervous about riding Star Tours – I’ve always avoided it in the past, due to it being a simulator. Me and DD both get the dreaded motion sickness, so we’ve always ended up in the shops while we waited for DH and DS to ride it in Orlando. This time I was brave and gave it a go. All I can say is that due to the feelings of queasiness it induced, I won't be riding it again to try to see the other 53 versions!

We then rode Buzz Lightyear. Again, our scores were not worth mentioning.

As we were ready to leave Tomorrowland, we almost lost our friend when the storm troopers marched past. Think it made his day.

We stopped for photos by the castle, before heading into Fantasyland.

It was quite busy here, and I remember starting to feel very hot and bothered. There also didn’t seem a lot of shade here.

There was only a short queue for Storybook Land, so we got in it.

In need of a bit of shade, we rode It's a Small World next. It’s been years since I went on this, but the outside loading area really stood out to me. You can tell California probably doesn’t have to worry about afternoon storms in the summer like Florida does.

We’d just got enough time to go on one more ride in this area before our next Fastpass slot opened, so opted for Pinocchio’s Daring Journey.

We headed towards Splash Mountain for our fast pass, looking forward to cooling down. We got right to the front of the queue for the loading area, when it went down. It was 1:45 pm now, but we decided to wait it out. Quite a few people gave up and left though.

At least we were in shade here! It was actually quite interesting watching them dragging the boats back to their places by ropes. Finally at about 2:20 pm, it was up and working and we were the first to ride. It was like we were famous, with people cheering us and waving as we went round! Martin and I got soaked - I sense a theme!

At this point we said goodbye to our friends and deciding to head towards the exit - the heat was really getting to us today, so we wanted to get out of the sun for a bit before it impacted on our enjoyment of the park. We also felt that we’d done our must do’s (the only thing we didn’t ride, that we’d initially wanted to was Matterhorn Bobsleds, but I’d got a few twinges in my back today, made worse by Indiana Jones this morning, and heard that it could be quite jerky. At the time I was fine about it, but looking back now I wish I had just rode it.)

We stopped at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Café - I had a Jolly Holiday combo of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich and Martin had a BLT. Both were very nice and felt quite good value at $25 including drinks.

We kept an eye on the app for ride times, looking for some to book for later, but think they were having a few problems. The summer wait times weren’t as bad as this, honestly!

It gives you an idea of how soon FP windows were for some rides though – as you can see you could have FP slots just a few minutes away.

We left the park at about 3:20 pm, stopping for some Photopass pics at the entrance.

We caught the Toy Story Parking Lot bus again, then chilled for a couple of hours in the hotel. No naps today though! As we had entered a park with our tickets today, we were able to continue using Maxpass from our hotel, so booked some FPs from the room. We were going back into California Advetnture later, so booked Toy Story Mania first for the 7:15 - 8:15 pm slot, then when we could book a second one later we booked California Screamin' for 6:20 - 7:20 pm. We left the hotel around 6:30 pm and caught a taxi back to the park.

We walked straight to California Screamin', quickly followed by Toy Story Midway Mania (which I won again ).

We then spotted the Cove Bar, so decided to go and get a cocktail. Martin had a Mai Tai and I had my first taste of a fabulous glowtini - I'm a convert!

At 8:15 pm, we used our FP to enter the blue area set up for World of Color. We were directed to a holding area for a front view, but instead chose to move to the roped off area on the bridge to Paradise Pier where we could lean on the railings and have nobody obscuring our view. After hardly being able to see anything at Fantasmic last, it felt more important to have an unobscured side view, than seeing it from the front with lots of heads/children on shoulders in front of us.

What can I say about World of Color - it's simply amazing. I even got a bit emotional at the Lion King part, and I never normally cry at anything like this. It was lovely to have nobody in front of us too.

We hung around for a little while after it had finished to let the worst of the crowds go, then wandered to the exit, calling in a few shops for a mooch.

We headed for the Toy Story shuttles, then walked across the street to our hotel, feeling that our two Disney days had been a success. We probably hadn't made the most of it, due to us needing a break in the afternoons, but had done everything we wanted to.

[Melbatb]

I think you managed to do a lot! The Maxpass seems to be a positive addition!

[Jake71]

WOW, I am so excited for our 2 days now, although we will be driving from Newport Beach both days so aren't doing consecutive days and won't have rest time in the afternoon. We won't be park hopping, can you tell me if we get a fastpass for World of Colour first thing in the morning can we still get ride fastpasses throughout the day? I'm not 100% sure on how the Maxpass thing works. You managed to get loads done in your 2 days which is great to hear.

[jocat]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

I think you managed to do a lot! The Maxpass seems to be a positive addition!

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I really liked Maxpass and it seemed a bit of a bargain really. Can imagine they'll soon put the price up though!

Originally Posted by Jake71

WOW, I am so excited for our 2 days now, although we will be driving from Newport Beach both days so aren't doing consecutive days and won't have rest time in the afternoon. We won't be park hopping, can you tell me if we get a fastpass for World of Colour first thing in the morning can we still get ride fastpasses throughout the day? I'm not 100% sure on how the Maxpass thing works. You managed to get loads done in your 2 days which is great to hear.

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I think we'd have been fine without the afternoon rest if Anaheim hadn't been our first stop. You can always have a nice leisurely meal somewhere to get out of the sun if you get a bit hot and bothered.

The World of Color fastpass is completely separate from Maxpass, and therefore doesn't affect any others you might get. The only downside is you have to get the old paper type fastpass from the machine, so must go there to pick them up. There's lots available though - the fastpass just gives you a coloured section to get access to. It doesn't take long to cross the park though, and if you use Maxpass, you'd be able to get your Radiator Springs fastpass from the app, without hotfooting it straight there as soon as the park opens.

In the Disneyland Park, you can also get a similar paper fastpass for Fantasmic, which I'd recommend doing so you get a better view than we did.

[tocpe321]

Great day. World of Color looks fantastic. Like the outside start to IASW.

[jocat]

Originally Posted by tocpe321

Great day. World of Color looks fantastic. Like the outside start to IASW.

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World of Color is brilliant. I liked seeing IASW outside, although it could do with a little bit more shade in places, for those of us with pale skin.

[clochette]

World of Colour looks amazing. Disneyland is on my to do list but I'm not sure when I will make it there.
You certainly seem to have got lots done - not that I am jealous or anything, lol!

[WileyCoyote]

Ah, so envious at another brilliant day, WoC is just awesome. Shame your back is playing up, hope that's ok but another packed day of touring and great rides, love Indiana Jones ! Lunch looked yummy. Did you miss dinner again ?

[fillmore]

Another jam-packed day. Your WOC photos are amazing. We thought maxpass was well worth the money especially as it includes access to photos too.

My DS had the same lunch as you in Jolly Holiday - one of the rare meals where he ate everything so it must have been good!

[jocat]

Originally Posted by clochette

World of Colour looks amazing. Disneyland is on my to do list but I'm not sure when I will make it there.
You certainly seem to have got lots done - not that I am jealous or anything, lol!

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WoC is just fab. In fact, I think it's taken over as my favourite of all Disney shows.

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

Ah, so envious at another brilliant day, WoC is just awesome. Shame your back is playing up, hope that's ok but another packed day of touring and great rides, love Indiana Jones ! Lunch looked yummy. Did you miss dinner again ?

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My back was fine after today. I really think it was a combination of sleeping a bit funny on it, that general aching you get after walking for miles, plus a bit of a jarring of it when I wasn't sitting right back in my seat on Indiana Jones as we went round a corner.

Yes we missed dinner again, although I'm sure I raided the Pringles once we were back in the room, that I'd still got from Travel Day!

Originally Posted by fillmore

Another jam-packed day. Your WOC photos are amazing. We thought maxpass was well worth the money especially as it includes access to photos too.

My DS had the same lunch as you in Jolly Holiday - one of the rare meals where he ate everything so it must have been good!

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Maxpass is definitely a great addition isn't it? Admittedly though, if you are a large family there for several days it might work out a tad expensive. For two of us though, it was a bargain.

Lunch was good too!