Southern California – 2019 12 – California Adventure and Main Street Electrical Parade

[Libby]

I’ve been an absolute failure with this trip report and nearly 2 years on I can’t find my trip notes. So … I’m going to continue with some photos and things I remember. Sorry the next entries will be very brief, but I hope you enjoy the photos.

Southern California – 2019 12 – California Adventure and Main Street Electrical Parade
Sunday August 18th 2019

It’s extra magic hour for hotel guests today in California Adventure; so that is where we are headed.

After a quick cup of coffee in our room we decided to grab a croissant each as we walked through Downtown Disney to get to the park. (I am already missing the included breakfast option that we had at our previous hotels, but at least it means we are not lingering this morning.)

We end up grabbing breakfast from Starbucks and I talk myself out of a Disneyland mug (which I still regret 2 years on )

Having read reviews for California Adventure I did not have high hope for this park. Well, I was so wrong. I loved it. I loved the rides, I loved the shows, I loved the themeing. I suppose it helps that I’m not American so even the normal is unusual to me.

I was a little sad that building work meant the tram wasn’t running as I’d been hoping to see the Newsies perform, but after an initial “oh, dear” I soon forgot my disappointment as I was too busy enjoying everything else.

It was quite nice to walk past the rope drop line of non-guests and get a couple of rides under our belt before it got busier.

We went on Guardians of the Galaxy which is just a rebranded Tower of Terror. I don’t enjoy the Tower of Terror but can just about cope with it. The queue was ewntertaining but the ride here seemed to go on for ever and made me feel quite queasy. I’d certainly not ride it again.

Then we made a quick dash to Soarin’.

After that we managed to pick up some fast pass tickets for the night time show “World of Color”.

We also managed, throughout the day, to get fast passes for Midway Mani and Radiator Springs Racers. We noticed that some of the fast pass kiosks were temporary and once the fast passes were gone for the day so were the machines.

We grabbed a sandwich from the Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Café (Starbucks again!) before going to watch an amazing Lion King performance by the lake.

At about 3pm we returned to our hotel for a rest, enjoying the gardens of the Disneyland Hotel on the way. It was only after we got home that I discovered that the grounds are themed to go with each tower of the hotel. The part we walked through felt very tropical and reminded us a lot of WDW.

After a break we return to the California Adventure Park to watch World of Color. (I can’t remember at all where we ate – we’re not big foodies so we just refuel wherever is easy, so we probably went to a quick service location.) We were positioned just behind the Dessert party customers and had a really good view. It was very clever and, as always. Disney music brought a tear to my eye.
It was lovely to see the park with its nigh time illuminations.

After the show the park closed and everyone was directed to the exit. As we were still raring to go after our break.
Disneyland was open for another 2 hours, so we crossed the entrance plaza and entered there.
We rode the Railroad and were bemused by the stuffed animal display on the way round (it kind of explains the macabre taxidermy display when we went on the railroad at DLP some years ago.)

We then managed to find a reasonable spot to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade. It was lovely to see it but I did feel a bit short changed the next day when I found out there was no daytime parade as well. Parades and shows are my favourite part of the Disney experience.

The it was a short walk back to our hotel.