Huxwolds California Dreaming (Aug 23) - Day 6: Disney’s California Adventure

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Huxwolds California Dreaming (Aug 23)
Day 6: Disney’s California Adventure (Weds 23/08)

Index
Day 5: Knott’s Berry Farm & Anaheim Packing House

Our last day in Anaheim / Disney…

I slept until 6:50am today, which was amazing

We did our usual morning routine of Rich bringing me a lobby coffee after his smoke and Tom going out for a vape and to FaceTime Lola (she was visiting Sooty again)…

We headed out just before 8am and we arrived at California Adventure by 8:25..

We had already decided that we were not getting Genie+ today, as we did almost every ride on Saturday. We were hoping to get a decent Standby time for Toy Story Midway Mania, maybe see Rogers The Musical, do Animation Academy and then end the night and our Disneyland experience with World of Colour.

We took some photos on Beuna Street.

Philarmagic wasn’t open yet, so we went into into the Animation building…

Animation Academy hadn’t started either, so we left, planning to pop back later.

At 8:40 we joined the standby queue for Guardians of The Galaxy: Mission Breakout…

Not Cosmo from Fuller House 🤣 …

It was posted as 35 minutes, but we had ridden and were in the gift shop by 9:05. We were in the upstairs left lift today and got the “Hit me with your best shot” version. It was another really good ride - the best in the park IMO

We mooched in the gift store and I bought a Rocket & Groot magnet ($? )…

We took our time mooching over to Paradise Gardens, taking some pics of Sanfrantoyko on the way…

We all did Golden Zephyr which was a walk-on, and gave us sunny Blackpool vibes….

Then Rich held the bags whilst Tom and I did Silly Symphony Swings which had a couple of minutes wait…

A better pic taken from the Pixar Pal-a-Round queue a bit later…

9:50 - Rich had found a table in the shade and was sat wearing my Spiderman ears (No pic). Tom popped to get us a Coke and also came back with a Senior Buzz Churro (c$11 for the two)…

We sat and chilled for a bit, then mooched through Pixar Pier, looking in the Bing Bong store, and seeing Joy & Sadness…

At 10:10 we joined the 15 min queue for Pixar Pal-A-Round (non-swinging version)….

It ended up taking 30minuted and it was very hot in the queue line. We got the Mr Incredible gondola and shared with another family of 3.

It was getting warm now…

The TSMM queue time was beyond our threshold so we it skipped it for now…

At 10:45 we decided (as planned) to head out of the park now for a mooch and lunch at Downtown Disney.

I got the S’more’s Cold brew speciality drink I’d seen on Saturday on the way past Joffrey’s ($? ) - it was strong but really nice and very refreshing…

We left the park at 11am - Rich suggested I go ahead to Downtown Disney whilst he and Tom pop off property for a smoke / vape - we agreed to meet in World of Disney.

I took a few pics of the 100 years sign…

…then headed into the store - the a/c was nice…

I checked out the t-shirts and some Loungefly (for a change), I loved this Orange Bird print, but not the colour of the T-Shirt…

After about 10 minutes browsing, hovered around the entrance area of the stores, so Rich and Tom could find me and finished off my cold brew while I waited.

Rich and Tom were about 20 mins as they had to come back in through security - Tom’s security guard was funny and told him to put his hands up but don’t fly away.

We all spent about 35 mins mooching in World of Disney…

The Pin Trader starter set we bought Tom in 2012…

Tom bought a Remi clip on pal ($? )…

I popped in Sephora whilst Rich and Tom went in Curl Surf…

Then we browsed at the lovely artwork in Wonder Ground Gallery.

They were playing the We Go On part of the Illuminations soundtrack, which was lovely and gave me all the feels 🥰

We had a restroom break and stopped to get some $$s out at the ATM, but realised we didn’t have my debit card with us this morning (I was using my Credit Card for purchases).

12:10 - We made is to Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs…

They didn’t have the Marinara Meatball dog that we’d seen online, so we just got a Corn Dog (which come with a bag of Lays) to share ($11.50 + tax). We were given a buzzer and advised it would be a 8-10 min wait as everything was cooked fresh to order.

We also got an “Original” Hot Stick Combo from Clyde’s Original Hot Chicken…

This also came with Lays, sauce and a little pot of pickles ($14 + Tax). We got a Coke too ($4.25 + tax). This was also cooked to order.

Tom grabbed us a shady spot on the wall opposite whilst Rich and I waited for our scran. The chicken was ready first and the Corn Dog a few mins later - it was huge…

We all shared the two meals between us, and they were both really good, but the Corn Dog was our favourite.

12:30 - After lunch, we had a quick mooch in the Lego Store and then in the Star Wars store…

12:45 - We were all done at Downtown Disney so we left through the “back” / hotels exit…

We walked via the Disney hotels and around the back of the convention centre which took 25 mins (so about the same as walking back through DTD and down S Harbour Boulevard would have taken)…

It was nice to see some of the residential homes and the Convention Centre on the way…

We arrived back at the hotel just after 1:15. I had about 10 mins rest, then headed to the laundry - taking my iPad so I could catch up on my trippie notes whilst I waited, as I was now 2.5 days behind.

The laundry was on the 4th floor, and it was $4 each for the washers and driers, (card only payment)…

I’d brought a couple of pods and some dryer sheets from home. It took a couple of swipes to get my card to work.

There were 2 washers and 2 dryers, so I was able to put on a dark wash and a lights wash (30 min cycle) and sat on the bench just outside the laundry room to do some trippie notes.

The 30 minutes went really quickly and I was soon pausing my note writing to put the dryers on (one was 35 mins and one was 45). Then settled back down to carry on my notes, finishing off Day 4 (Disneyland) and starting on Day 5 (Knott’s Berry Farm).

The first dryer (the lights) finished but the clothes were still a little bit damp. I checked the dark which still had 10 mins to go and they were still damp too, so I combined the loads into one dryer, let the remaining 10 mins run and then paid for another 45 min cycle.

A maintenance worker asked me if it was ok to check something on the dryer for a minute, which I said yes too.

I finished off the Knott’s Berry Farm day notes just as the dryer finished. I folded everything and sorted them into Ems, Rich and Tom piles, before heading back to the room at about 4pm. I put the clothes away then it was time time to get ready to head back out for our final Disney visit.

We left the hotel around 4:45 - There was a Rogers The Musical on at 5:30 but we weren’t too bothered about rushing for it. Tom wanted to pop into 7-Eleven on the way to try a Hot Dog, so we asked him to get a couple of drinks to share too.

He came out with some Honey Chicken Wings instead of a Hot Dog, which were tasty and a bargain snack for only $3. I think he said the drinks were about $5-6 (Mountain Dew Baja Blast and Dr Pepper)…

We picked a line with a very thorough Security guy - he was going through everyone’s bags and pockets in detail (the poor woman in front of me had to pretty much empty her diaper bag and then repack it again). As we expected, he was very thorough checking Tom’s Vape and Refill (he even read the label). We assumed he was checking for Cannabis as every now and then we would see someone’s vape get confiscated at Security.

We were back in California Adventure by 5:30pm..

We weren’t too bothered about doing rides tonight (unless the standby for TSMM came down to a reasonable level). We definitely wanted to see Cars Land with all the Neon lit up, and World of Colour was a must do.

We headed anti-clockwise, starting with Grizzly Peak - Mooching in the shops and around the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail…

By 6pm we’d made our way around to Avengers Campus, getting the Spider Bot tree dec in WEB Supplies ($26.99 + tax)…

We passed Black Panther & Captain America..

We carried on around to Hollywood Street…

Where we had a good look around the Avengers Super Store…

At 6:15 we headed into the Animation building to do the 6:30 Animation class. It was busy in the queue, but we got in and we got to draw Tigger. It was really good to do an animation class again (our last time was 2012 at Hollywood Studios)….

I think we all did an ok job…

After the class, we had a quick look in Sorcerer’s Workshop…

It was almost 7pm, so we skipped Turtle Talk with Crush and went back to Avengers Campus for the 7:05 Dr Strange show, stopping to watch the Guardians Dance Off on the way…

Dr Strange was full but we got a good view from the side, and were perfectly positioned for Thor coming out…

By 7:20 it was starting to get dusky so we headed into Cars Land - the Neon looked great in the twilight..

We saw Lightening McQueen driving down to Cozy Cone, and mooched in the 2 stores…

This mini display was fab…

At 7:35 we mooched back to and through Pixar Pier, taking loads of pics as it looked lovely with the sun setting behind it…

We all had a restroom stop near TSMM, but the gents queue was long so Rich and Tom l decided to wait until we got to the next ones.

TSMM and Incredicoaster lines were both too long for us, but that was ok as we were just enjoying mooching around and taking pics.

8pm - Rich and Tom used the restrooms near Silly Symphony Swings whilst I got us a large Coke to share from the food court area (Approx $5)...

We sat on a bench for a bit, having our drink and just chilling.

It was only 8:15 - so a bit too early to stake out a spot for World of Colour, so we mooched back down to Grizzly Peak, getting to see Avengers Campus and Cars Land in the dark - both were fab and even better at night…

At 8:35 we found a fairly central spot to watch World of Colour: One...

We chilled out sitting on the floor to wait, and it was soon 9pm and time for the show (no pics as I just wanted to enjoy it).

Just one pic at the end…

I absolutely loved World of Colour. It was even better than I expected, and Rich and Tom (who knew nothing about it beforehand) liked it too. My favourite bits were Ratatouille (because of Tom), when the Star Wars music started (just WOW), and Lion King. A truly superb show and the perfect way to end the Disney / Anaheim part of our holiday.

We headed out of the park straight after the show - there were quite a few people just sitting and chilling in the area between the two parks, watching the 9:30 fireworks over Disneyland Park.

We were walking under the Disneyland Resort sign for the final time by 9:35…

We crossed the road and went into Denny’s and got a table straight away. This was our first ever visit to Denny’s - it only took us 8 trips to get around to it.

Tom couldn’t decide between the TBone Steak or the Grand Slamwich, so I suggested that we go half and half and share both. Rich had the Flaming 5-Pepper Burger and a side of Mac-n-cheese. Dr Peppers for Rich and Tom and a Sprite for me. (Total around $59 + $12 tip)…

Our server couldn’t remember if we’d or3derd 2 Sprites or 2 Dr Peppers so he brought us 2 of each (it was free refills anyway)…

The food was ok - The Grand Slamwich was really tasty, and the steak was nice but had more of a pork colour and texture to it, which was a bizarre (I Googled it later and it does seem to be steak, it must be the way they cook it).

Also, Rich certain he’d asked for Fries with his burger, but it came out with Onion Rings (which it said on the menu were an optional extra charge).

Overall, whilst it was good to finally try Denny’s and also to have Breakfast for Dinner, I don’t think we’d be in a rush to return. There are just too many better options available in California and Florida too.

We were back at the hotel by about 10:45, and my “Disney Rash” had kicked in today. I took an antihistamine and put some of Tom’s socks on to help with the circulation and to also to stop me scratching them.

I didn’t do any packing tonight, as I would have time in the morning as we’d decided that we would wait until after rush hour to get our Uber to Hollywood, and checkout wasn’t until 11am.

Whilst Tom was having his evening Face Time with Lola, Rich and tallied up the last couple of days of Uber / Dining spending and paid off the Credit Card.

We settled down at around 11:30pm - falling asleep really quickly.

We walked 25,694 steps today 👣

Day 7: Hollywood, Warner Bros Studio Tour & City Walk

[Cinderella]

I am so looking forward to Cars Land