#BeastOnTour: Disneyland & LA Solo Trip Day 2 - first time at DCA and Oga's Cantina

[mr-paul]

Index
Introduction and Day 1

Day 2 - Monday 23rd September

So, after getting to bed at about midnight, of course jetlag had me awake by 4am! Luckily, I managed to get back to sleep for another couple of hours. I got up at 6:30am, had a shower and a pastry I had bought the night before from Walgreens for breakfast. The parks opened at 8am, so I set off not too long after 7:30am, destination DCA!

Queues were small at the main gate and I was in at 7:50am. My first target was to head to Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, so after getting my bearings, I headed down into Hollywood Land, where there was cast members holding the small crowds for ‘rope drop’. At 8am, they walked us slowly through the land, and to GOTG, for which I was one of the first ones on!

Hi Rocket!

Loved this! Even though it is the same ride as Tower of Terror, it feels so different with a different soundtrack! Less scary for sure!

Cars Land was my next destination, as I had only heard good things about Radiator Springs Racers.

Cars Land all dressed up for Halloween

The standby queue was already up to 45 mins, but lucky for me, I’m a single rider, so I walked straight on! Very fun ride. I’ve only been on Test Track at Epcot once back in 2003 but it definitely brought back memories of that.

Next up, I walked through to Pixar Pier, and first up, the Incredicoaster. I believe the only Disney coaster with a loop in the USA?

It was a pretty cloudy morning today.

This was a walk-on too, I was very pleased with my progress so early in the morning! But my first ‘hurdle’ was up next. Toy Story Midway Mania had a 30 minute wait. But fortunately for me, I could get a Fastpass, wander around for 10 minutes, and come back and walk on!

This ride was fun, though probably/definitely better when you’re with someone else to compete against. I think I did OK?

I had managed four rides in the first 70 mins, not bad! Was time for a sit-down in the form of the Pixar Pal-A-Round, aka the Ferris wheel. I had never been on one with swinging carriages before - was semi-intense! I enjoyed that there were sick bags for those who may get a bit queasy!

Hello small people down there!

Empty car parks!

Sick bags!

I walked around to what I’ll call the back corner of the park and went on Goofy’s Sky School. A bit rough, not that fun, short. A one and done. Next up was the Golden Zephyr - again fine, nothing remarkable. I was not going to go on the Silly Symphony Swings. I don’t like these rides when you’re on a chair dangling by some chains!

Also in this corner of the park is Plaza de la Familia - an area themed to Pixar’s Coco. At 10am a show was taking place, “A musical celebration of Coco”. This was very enjoyable.

As a side-note, I remarked at this point at all the churros stands everywhere in both parks. I don’t remember there being so many in other Disney parks - I’m guessing they’re big in Cali due to being close to Mexico?

Around the lake I continued and to The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. What can I say other than it’s a classic-style Disney dark ride. Just outside here is where you can also pick up a FastPass for World of Color, the night-time show, so I nabbed myself one of those.

No Ariel, your 'stuff' isn't neat. Your dinglehopper is a fork...

The sun was now out after a cloudy start, so I walked through to Grizzly Peak, where the rapids ride is located. It wasn’t yet running, so I continued around to Soarin’ and was disappointed to see a queue of 60 mins at 10:30am. Luckily, FastPass was to come to my rescue again and I picked one up for 20 mins later. I sat down and had some water and had a look in the shop while I waited.

I went into Soarin’ and unfortunately this ride still takes a while to get through the queue and get loaded on even with a FP. My verdict? I guess it was quite a cool experience but I had higher expectations due to how much people seem to love it here. It was a bit sedate, I guess, the seats could swing a bit more!

A pretty full loop of the park done, I had a look on the app to see what FastPasses I could pick up now. I opted to get one for GOTG, which was return between 12:20 and 1:20pm. Star Lord and Gamora were hanging around outside too!

It was 11:30am I fancied some air-con, so went and watched Mickey’s Philharmagic. I had seen this show before at Hong Kong Disneyland, a good rest stop! The Monsters Inc. ride had at this stage a queue of an hour, so there was no way I was waiting that long, so instead decided on the midday showing of Frozen - Live at the Hyperion!

An excellent production, very funny and it flew by despite being an hour long. Back out into the California sun, I had 20 minutes left on my GOTG FastPass, so I went and rode that again to finish off my first stint at DCA. I left the park at 1:30pm, so in 5 and a half hours had managed 13 attractions/shows.

I hot-footed it over to Disneyland, as I had a 1:40pm reservation at Oga’s Cantina. I’d very much been looking forward to this.

Although you have a reservation, it’s pretty much standing room only, with tables shared with other groups. I stood at the bar, and decided on the Fuzzy Tauntaun. This was $16, so with tax and a tip, cost me $20 (£16.11).

Cîroc Peach Vodka, Bols Peach Schnapps, and Simply Orange topped with tangerine and pure cane sugar and “Buzzz” Foam

This was delicious! And I can’t describe how weird the buzz foam makes your mouth feel!

Another group had left their ‘Batuu bits’ as they didn’t like them, so I nibbled on these with some others stood at the bar. It was a peculiar mix of flavours - among them Wasabi nuts and chocolate meringues!

I did consider a second drink, and I was really tempted by a Yub Nub with the souvenir cup, but couldn’t bring myself to pay $45 plus tax and tip for a cocktail! I absorbed the atmosphere for a while, waited for the classic cantina tune to be played by DJ R3X and then made my exit back out into Galaxy’s Edge.

I spent a while playing on the Datapad on the Play Disney Parks App - if you’re not familiar, you can ‘hack’ into different things around the area and interact with panels, vehicles, droids etc. If a Stormtrooper sees you using it, they may question you, and I was scanning a crate at one point low to the ground when I realised I had Chewbacca peering down at me, checking I was aiding the Resistance rather than the First Order!

Bloody love this land.

I then went on Smuggler’s Run for the second time of the trip, again using the Single Rider line and being an engineer. From here, I took a stroll through New Orleans Square where a band was playing, back to the centre of the park for a selfie in front of the castle

Next up was a Disneyland exclusive. Matterhorn Bobsleds. This had a long queue and the FastPasses were all gone, but I read it had a single rider line, although where it was wasn’t immediately clear. I asked a cast member and found that they give you a little slip of paper for this one, which you have to hand in when you get to the front of the queue! After a wait of 10-15 mins, I was on. A bit rough, isn’t it

Into Discoveryland from here, it was time for a different kind of mountain. Hyperspace Mountain. This was another one that had a bit of a queue, and a hidden single rider line! Turns out, you go in the exit! As such, it was a walk-on for me, and I loved this version of the ride. Space Mountain in Paris is very different to this, and while I’ve been on a SM of this style in Hong Kong, the Star Wars theming took it to another level for me.

Clearly in a Star Wars mood, I walked round to Star Tours. Again, I’ve made no note of the queue length, but I picked up a FastPass at 3:52pm for 4:05 to 5:05pm. A neat trick for FPs is that you can use them 5 minutes before your window opens, so I only had to wait until 4pm to enter. I spent these 8 minutes in the shop!

I'm generally against cringey couples' t-shirts, but I do wish I had a girlfriend I could get to wear these with me

Flagging a little now as I really hadn’t eaten much, I exited the park and had a wander around Downtown Disney, looking around all of the shops and trying to decide what to eat.

If I was made of money, I'd have splashed out on this at the Lego shop!

From the timestamps on my photos, it took quite a while, leaving Disneyland by 4:15pm and taking until 5:45pm to actually get my food! I’ll spare you the details of my deliberations, but I ended up at Black Tap - Craft Burgers & Beer. I had:

The Mexico City ($18) - prime burger, pepper jack cheese, pickled jalapeños, crispy onion ring, chipotle mayo

I enquired whether they did cast member discount, which they didn’t in the evening, but did give me a free refillable soda cup, so that was a win!

This was delicious. I’m a sucker for an onion ring and anything mexican themed, and it hada good kick to it. With tax, it came to $19.40 (15.62)

Well-fed, it was time to re-enter DCA for the last few hours at around 6:20pm. Monsters Inc.’s queue had reduced to 20 minutes, and since that was one of the main attractions I missed in the morning, I jumped in. This was an OK dark ride - I believe this is the only time I went on it this trip.

The sun was now setting so I wanted to see Cars Land by night, as I’d heard it looked stunning all lit up in the dark. It was. I queued up again for Radiator Springs Racer in the single rider line, and it took a bit longer this time, but nothing too painful. Was even better in the dark with the canyon all lit up!

At 7:30pm it was time to start heading over towards the centre of the park for World of Color. This park looks so good at night with the wheel all lit up! I found the Fastpass viewing area, got down right in front of the lake, and kept myself busy on my phone for 30 mins before the show started at 8:15pm.

I love theme parks at night.

What can I say other than I loved this. Never seen anything like it. The water effects, the projections, the fire, the music. All of it comes together so wonderfully. Here are some pictures but they will never do it justice!

I will have to warn you though, if you stand where I did, right close to the lake, you will get wet! I found it very refreshing though!

The show is around 30 minutes long, and then, sadly, it was time to leave the park for the night. After a few snaps of the wheel and the Halloween decorations on Buena Vista Street, I departed the park gates at 9pm.

I could have gone into Disneyland for another couple of hours, but I’d had a long enough day on not too much sleep, so back to the hotel it was for some shuteye, in bed by 10pm!

Steps today: 29,676
Attractions/Activities: 21
Tomorrow: More Disneyland and a trip to the baseball!

[KayLouise]

Fantastic day and great photos again, beautiful night time shots 😊

[Bad Pink Tink]

sounds like you are really enjoying the trip, great report and photos. I had the Fuzzy Tauntan too, yeps, its um, interesting. My trick to reduce down the cost is order 2 drinks at the same time, one alcohol and one non alcohol.

[disneypars]

Another fantastic day. Thanks for posting.