Racing Through California Adventure 11.5.12

Happy Monday! On Saturday I took you through my first day of Cars Land at Disney's California Adventure. We missed out on the FASTPASS for Radiator Springs Racers and the line was never less than 2 hours long, so we decided to try again on Monday when it was sure to be less crowded - kids were back in school, after all, and it was Monday.

Monday was crazy! The lines were longer than I’d ever seen and we hadn’t even made it to the security tables yet. The woman who checked my bag said it was like a weekend in Summer. We got in a lengthy queue to get into California Adventure to see if we couldn’t get on the super popular Radiator Springs Racers. No luck with FASTPASS again. People were lined up to for 45 minutes to an hour just to get one, so we just decided that waiting in line was a better use of our time. 90 minutes, but met a nice family in line and chatted while we melted in the 90+ degree heat.

So, our plan was still a bust, but we came all the way to Anaheim to experience Cars Land, and we had two more days at the parks and another half of a day at the main park during the Halloween party. Two hours out of our day was not going to kill us and it gave us time to really look at everything there was along the line. Unfortunately, after that last picture was taken - by our new friend in line - we were also dying for cold water and ice cream and looked like we just came from Zumba class. You can see how sweaty Eric was already after being in line with hardly any shade for just half an hour. By the time we were at the front, I felt like having another shower and burning my clothes.

There is plenty to see while you wait in the unreasonably long line. The whole beginning of Radiator Springs is there! See the Spring that started it all and amazing advertising for the town and Stanley’s Radiator Caps. You pass through the bottle shack made of recycled oil bottles. It’s pretty cool! Once you make it to the ride, you finally see why the line is SO LONG. For those of you who have been to Epcot and ridden on Test Track, it’s like that, but so much better! 

You ride through Radiator Springs and say hello to some of your favorite Cars characters, then you screech down the mountain and fly through Radiator Springs’ landscape, racing the car next to you. Maybe you’ll win, but even if you don’t, you’re still going to have a ton of fun! Cross the finish line and roll through the famous Carburetor Caverns where you are finally congratulated by Lightning McQueen and Mater. You’ll wish you could go again! And then you see the line and wander off to buy yourself a tire hat at Sarge’s.

On our last day at Disney, we went back over to California Adventure to check out the concept art for Cars Land at Blue Sky Cellars. There were miniatures of the Land, the cars, the artwork, the rides and Radiator Springs historical items, including Stanley’s first radiator cap sales stand. My favorite part of the display was a viewing of one of Mater’s Tall Tales that I had never seen before (and probably was made specifically for the exhibit) where you learn both how Radiator Springs was founded and how Stanley met Lizzie. Unfortunately, Stanley has passed on, but Lizzie talks to her beloved’s statue every day. True love!

What was your favorite part of Cars Land or what do you look forward to most when you finally visit?

A Car Show Every Day 11.3.12

Once I heard about Disney’s new addition to its California Adventure park, I started to get jealous of all the people who were going to be traveling to Anaheim this Summer. Cars Land was just another new thing to add to the list of Disney things that I hadn’t seen yet: Star Tours reboot, World of Color, Mulholland Madness replacement ride, The Little Mermaid ride. It’s no surprise that I was really excited about our back-up plan for our annual vacation. As disappointed as I was to not get to go to Europe, I was thrilled to share in the excitement of the new Land that little kids thought was the real Radiator Springs when they got to visit the opening day. I mean, how fun is that?

I had no idea just HOW exciting Cars Land would be for visitors. Our first day at Disney was a Sunday. Lines weren’t that bad, so we made our way to Toy Story Midway Mania (always a long line) and California Screamin’, then headed over to Cars Land. Uh, apparently, this should be your first stop. At 8:30 the FASTPASS machine was out and the line for Radiator Springs Racers was 120 minutes. Mind you, this is 30 minutes after the park opened. Yikes! We decided to put it off until early the next day and did other things. We enjoyed walking around the rest of Cars Land and riding the super-fun Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi’s Flying Tires.

Since the lines for things seemed ridiculously long, we chose to eat at Flo’s V8 Café for breakfast. Eric had the chicken tamale breakfast and I thought bananas fosters French toast sounded like something I would enjoy. It was much like eating bread pudding covered in caramel sauce. Not bad, but not really a great breakfast meal. Soooo…if you want to not eat dessert for breakfast, I would suggest choosing something else. I kinda wish we had gone back for lunch to try different food, but we didn’t.

Eric thought the best part of Luigi’s was the line, which was not a total overstatement, especially when the line was 30-40 minutes long many times. Listening to Luigi tell you about the ride and send people on their way was pretty fun, as well as all the reproduction tires and race memorabilia. Guido loves to photobomb all the great pictures taken when Lightning McQueen wins a race. The ride itself is a unique twist on bumper cars. You don’t get to steer. Instead, you lean to move your tire on a giant floor that blows air to keep the tires afloat.

If you love the teacups, but hate having to do all the work to make them spin, then you may love Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. You sit in baby tractors while they “dance” to 8 original songs sung by Mater – THE greatest part of waiting in line, too. The tractors drag you behind and spin you in an arc, so you slide from one side to the other instead of a circle. It helps if you REALLY like the person you’re riding with on this one. The concept is that you are at a square dance and the tractors dance in a figure 8 in a really genius dance floor construction.

After getting our fill of all that is Cars Land, with the exception of Radiator Springs Racers (curses!), we explored the rest of California Adventure and checked back every so often to see if the line for the Racers had gotten any shorter. It didn’t. We did, however, come back to grab a snack at the Cozy Cone. I was determined to get churro bites (no trip to Disney is complete without a churro in my opinion) and then we saw some fancy frozen apple drink at one of the other cones, so Eric went to get one while I stood in line for our treat. You are going to wait in line for a looong time at some of these stands, because there is one person inside taking money and also making your snack/beverage. Worth it? I think it was, just for the experience – and I also got my churro.

Did I ever get to ride Radiator Springs Racers? I did! Guess how long we waited in line in the comments and then find out the answer in my special Monday post.

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