Day 2 at Disney, and today it’s the California Adventure park’s turn. The park has the Avenger’s Campus, Cars Land, Pixar Pier, San Fransoyko, Grizzly River Country and Hollywood Studios.
First stop, Avenger’s Campus, where I made a beeline for the Guardian of the Galaxy Mission: Breakout - which previously housed the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Not quite a giant drop, as you are accelerated up, dropped down, accelerated up and dropped down multiple times. Wait times range from an hour to 2 hours most days, so was excited to be in and done within 30 minutes. The ride is spectacular, in that you wind your way through the Collector’s inner sanctum to view his latest attraction - the Guardians of the Galaxy. Once you are on the ride, it’s a fast-paced adventure as you bounce up and down, with doors opening to reveal the Guardians battling to escape the Collector’s clutches.
Explored the campus a bit further, watched the Spiderman stunt show, the Avengers fight show and sampled some of the food and drink from Pym’s Test Lab and Pym’s Test Kitchen.
Next stop, Cars Land. This one is my favourite Disney movie, from the toe-tapping soundtrack, through to its star-studded cast, Brendon and I watch this one regularly. And Disney does not disappoint. The road along Main Street is darker and smoother than the other cross roads, like Lightning McQueen has just freshly relaid the bitumen. You mosey on past Sarge’s Surplus Hut, the Cozy Cone, Flo’s V8 Diner, Luigi’s Tyres, Stanley’s Oasis and the Firehouse at the end of the street. Music is piped over speakers and everything is themed around the movie. There are three rides - Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters where the cars spin and swirl around in time to the music (it’s like a beautiful synchronised dance), Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree where the cars twirl in a square dance than slings and spins around on spring trailers and finally, the piece de resistance, Radiator Spring Racers where you commence your ride as a gently ride through the town of Radiator Springs, prepping your car to race with new tyres or a fancy paint job, which culminates with you on a race start line and fast drive through around Ornament Valley (a parody of Monument Valley) to the finish line. Easily the best ride in the park, always a long line to get on and thankfully has a single rider line to be able to get on a little faster.
I love the single rider option when it’s available, however just like at Disneyland Paris, there are always people who flaunt the single rider, and then complain when they get split up at the end. The best part about CA is that cast members manage those people the same consistently - they are always split up and no matter how loud, how whiny or how much they plead, they don’t get to ride together at their insistence.
One of my biggest worries of the day was the Grizzly River Rapids ride - very similar to the ill-fated ride that resulted in multiple deaths at Dreamworld - I really wanted to ride it (it was extremely hot, and it would be a great way to cool down) but of course it was all in the back of my mind as I waited for 45 minutes in line. But oh boy, was it worth the anxiety! It was a fun ride and I got saturated, which meant I stayed cool for hours afterward.
Rather than go through the rest of the timeline for the day, let’s explore some of the food that I indulged in on day 2. Breakfast was a really ordinary “Calculated Breakfast = Ex2+(B+P)/T - eggs with crispy potato bites and focaccia toast”. Cold eggs and bacon, the only really redeeming factor was the potato bites. Made a strong mental note not to order again.
Had a concoction of mango sorbet with chilli-lime syrup soaked mango chunks at the Adorable Snowman at Pixar Pier, which was interesting but not really my kind of iced treat. Mango sorbet yes, chilli-line mango chunks not so much, but had to try it.
Watermelon slushy from Stanley’s Oasis was ultra-sweet but the perfect thirst-quencher on what was proving to be a hotter than average day for this time of year. Note: paper straws are useless in icy drinks. It turned out to be a 4-straw drink!
Also had multiple Minute Maid Lemonades throughout the day - they will be the biggest thing I miss when I’m back home. Now for those who’ve never been to the US, their lemonade is not like out lemonade. If you want a fizzy lemon drink, that’s a Sprite. If you want a thirst-quenching, sweet lemon drink that is not fizzy, that’s lemonade, and it is delicious!
Dinner that night was thanks to Shawarma Palace on the Avengers Campus, a gorgeously spicy chicken shawarma - fast, hot and full of flavour. Washed it down with a Blue Hawaiian cocktail from Pym’s Tasting Lab, which came in a cutely-branded Pym’s plastic beaker.
Food aside, the highlight of the day was definitely being on Main Street in Cars Land just before sunset. The music gets a little louder, cast members flow into the street and when Shaboom, Shaboom starts to play, there is dancing and playing in the street as they turn on the neon. Everyone cheers and claps and there is a feeling of absolute delight emanating up and down the street. Once again I found myself dancing in the street of a Disney park - but this time Bernie Clarke wasn’t there to record it.
As the title says, it’s all about the detail. When you walk into a store or a restaurant there are details like the whiteboard in the photo above that reference parts of the movies and recreate scenes. It’s just another part of the magic that is Disney.
Once the sun had set, I did a final lap of the park and started the short walk back to my hotel. It’s a busy walk until I get to the parking structures, and a bit quiet for the last ten minutes - well lit, busy road beside, but not a lot of pedestrian traffic. Still, I never felt unsafe on the multiple early morning and late night walks to and from the parks.
Watched the fireworks from the balcony of my apartment tonight, and wondered at the pace in which 3 weeks can pass. Tomorrow is my last day in the parks and in the US as I fly home late in the evening.
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