Sunday – June 4th, 2023
After our long day from park opening to close we had a slightly later start to our second day. We dragged our tired feet out of bed, once again donning Minnie ears, Disney clothing and not forgetting Hei- Hei. Our morning park reservation was for Disney California Adventure and today’s Disney bounding outfit was Monster In, complete with my beloved Mike Loungefly.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Seeing how quiet rope drop had been the day before we arrived at a reasonably quiet Disney California around 8:30 ready to ride Radiator Springs racers- which of course, was closed. Guardians of the Galaxy was only showing a 15-minute queue so Steve went off to ride that while I went in search of coffee. I was TIRED and had no desire to ride Guardians for a 3rd time, those drops are way too big for me and I only end up closing my eyes throughout the whole thing anyway. I walked into Starbucks to be greeted by literally no queue! The absolute opposite of the one over in Disneyland Park. I got our drinks to go and wandered over to Avengers Campus to wait for Steve to come off Guardians.
Typically, the app was now showing a wait time of 35 minutes for guardians so Steve took a little longer than planned. Luckily, I hadn’t got him a hot drink so I happily sat drinking my coffee and even saw IronMan while I was waiting.
Steve – Guardians was as awesome as ever. It is the best ride in the park as far as pure thrills go. I ended up adopting a family whose mother was not so keen on the idea. I tried to help calm her down and explain it’s all about anticipation and once the ride starts, it’s all fun. The screams and shrieks she made of the ride and her reaction afterward meant I maybe talked her into something she wasn’t ready for…oh well at least she did it!
Radiator Springs Racer
Whilst Steve was on Guardians of the Galaxy, Radiator Springs Racers had opened up and was showing a 35-minute wait by the time he had joined me. We had chosen NOT to purchase Genie+ on our second day and therefore we had to plan our rides around the wait times. Radiator Springs Racer is our favorite ride at Disney California Adventure but it is also everyone else favorite ride too (or at least the queues make it feels this way!) We have lost count of how many times we have ridden Racers but it is still on our absolute must-ride list when we visit.
We decided to slowly walk to Radiator Springs and join the single-rider queue. This is a much shorter queue than the stand-by line as the ride has 3 seats in each row of the car, generally an odd number for groups- we have always ridden Racers with a single rider next to us! As we have ridden the ride so often, we weren’t bothered about being sat together. However, when we approached the line, a group of 5 had been split up and they were happy for us to sit together so they could sit with who they wanted. They also knew the group in the opposite car which made the race at the end especially competitive. After a pit stop at Luigi’s for tires, we lined up and went head-to-head with the other group- and we were victorious! The Piston cup was ours!
After we left the ride, we wandered through Radiator Springs and saw Lightning McQueen and Mater.
Little Mermaid – Ariels Undersea Adventure
Wait times for the Little Mermaid- Ariels Undersea Adventure were low so we picked this as our 3rd ride of the day. The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite Disney Classics with an outstanding soundtrack so we have to always ride it while at Disney California Adventure, despite how dated the animatronics look! It’s an absolute classic so I think the quality of the characters can be forgiven.
Turtle Talk With Crush
It had been a while since we saw one of the shows and due to our love of Finding Nemo, we chose to go and watch Turtle Talk with Crush which was due to start in 10 minutes time. An attraction with prolonged seating was just what we needed on our second morning at the Parks.
We sat toward the back near the aisle, letting those with kids and families sit up front. If we had any hopes of being inconspicuous, those plans were thwarted once Crush noticed Hei- Hei on Stev’s shoulder. Que a hilariously awkward exchange between Crush and Steve discussing the merits of England (not many) and explaining that to have fun, we travel to America! Luckily, Crush soon moved on to chat with other Guests where he learned lots about Disney Princesses.
Schmoozies
After Turtle Talk with Crush, I had been dying to try one of the new Disney 100 Schoozie shakes. Schmoozies are known for their Instagrammable-looking shakes and I had been wanting to try the special Steam Boat Willie shake. When we got there, Scmoozies’ Dismey 100 offering was the ‘Brave Little Mickey’ shake, a Blueberry and Oreo flavored shake. The cast member explained that the Mickey shakes will change throughout the celebration and this was the current offering. As it still looked yummy so we ordered one to share: It did not disappoint, it screamed Disney magic and tasted good too!
Park Hop and Rise of the Resistance
After our Scmoozies shake it was not long off at 11 AM: Park Hop time! We had Lamplight Lounge reservations for 1 pm which was 2.5 hours away and Rise of Resistance was showing as open today (of course it was, on the opposite day of our morning reservation!) and the wait time was only 40 minutes. We headed out of Disney California Adventure and were at Disneyland Park gates a little before 11 AM.
There is no wriggle room on the Park Hop 11 AM time and we could not scan in until exactly 11 AM. Still, with 2 hours until our dining reservation, we made it to the stand-by queue for Rise of Resistance at 11:10 with the wait time showing 50 minutes. This was definitely the longest queue we were prepared to do during our trip but we didn’t want to pay for the Individual Lightning Lane, we had queued 60 minutes before and we had plenty of time before our reservation. Or so we thought…
In the Queue, we decided to investigate the Galaxies Edge Data Pad something we have not bothered with before. This is a cool little game that you can play in the Queue and in other parts of the Land. You solve simple puzzles to unlock progress on the App. It’s pretty basic but it gives you something to do while passing the time. Which was Lucky. The 50-minute queue was not going as planned.
After 10-15 minutes we started getting the inevitable announcements that the ride was running at low capacity. These were particularly cryptic here as they refused to break the illusion, but it really was hard to tell if these were real announcements or themeing. After 90 mins it was clear it was running slow, and our Lamp Light Lounge Reservation looked under threat.
Eventually, we got to the first Pre-Show, but the problem with Rise (not usually an issue) is it really is a LONG ride, you get a lot for your queue time, but when we were on a deadline, it was a little stressful.
It is such a good ride though and is worth the wait, we just hate it when queues lie to you, even if it’s no one’s fault really.
LampLight Lounge (2nd Park Hop of the day)
We got off Rise of Resistance at 12:35 and somehow, with a lot of power walking, we made it to the Lamplight Lounge at 1 PM. Steve checked us in on the app the second we walked into Disney California Adventure to help save time.
We like to take our second day in the parks at a more leisurely pace than the first. It was 1 PM and we had only been on 5 rides (not helped by the massive queue at Rise of Resistance), but this is partly why we go hard on the rides on day 1: we get to spend a more relaxed day enjoying food and either taking time to do anything we missed the day before or things we want to do twice.
We got to Lamplight Lounge rather exhausted after our power walk and very hungry! The current menu was brunch menu and we both ordered the Brunch Burger. I had been wanting to try the Disney 100 Celebration cocktail but it was not on the menu. I asked the server and he said it was still available. Few! I ordered one and Steve ordered the Cinnamon Toast Cocktail, perfect for brunch. Our food arrived in good time and disappeared just as quickly! We enjoyed our leisurely brunch and left just before 2 PM, with a long queue of guests waiting for their lunch reservations.
Monsters Inc: Mike and Sulley to the Rescue
The morning June Gloom was clearing and I hadn’t spent months planning my Monster Inc bounding outfit not to have photos by the Boo’s Door! So we went over to Monster Inc ride and waited patiently to get a clear photo in front of the door with no people in it. I really wanted to take Mike on his Monsters Inc ride as I didn’t have him with me yesterday but the wait time was showing 40 minutes. I asked a cast member at the front of the queue if they still did buddy passes and she handed us 2! Me, Mike, and Steve were off to ride Monsters Inc together, our 6th ride of the day.
After Mike enjoyed his ride, we headed back to the hotel for a few hours’ rest. We even chilled by the hotel pool for an hour or so, which we have never done so far in all of our stays there! After a quick shower and change, we started our final walk back to Disneyland Park for our last evening at Disney.
Red Rose Taverne
As a massive Beauty and the Beast fan, I consider there to be a serious lack of Belle or Beast-themed attractions at the Parks with only Red Rose Tavern as the nod to my favorite film. As such, we decided to have a quick service dinner as our last supper at the enchanted Red Rose Taverne. We chose a table outside and used the app to order our food. Steve chose the chicken tenders (his favorite) and I chose the Speciality Flatbread with the plan to share both between us. Dessert was, of course, the Grey Stuff Gateau, a real-life version of the Grey Stuff from the movie. The cake was a shortbread topped with red velvet cake, smothered in a grey fondant. It truly was delicious! (Don’t believe us? You can always ask the dishes!)
After our food, we went inside to look at the Beauty and the Beast theming of the Taverne including the ‘Be Our Guest’ welcome sign.
Story Book Land
It was still barely 8 PM so we decided to ride Storybook Land as there was no queue and it was right near Red Rose Taverne. We got on the next boat and started our sail into Monstro’s tummy and out into all the little storybook lands of Disney classics. Our cast member was happily telling us stories about the little islands we passed and at some point casually mentioned that the boat had run out of battery. And she wasn’t joking.
She radio-ed for another boat to come and tow us back to the dock. As we waited for ‘rescue’ several other boats had to stop their journey as we were blocking the path. As a result, most guests were stuck waiting until our tow boat came to move us out of the way. Luckily for everyone, our rescue did not take long to arrive and soon we were traveling through the rest of Storybookland, with our cast member narrating as if we were not being pulled by a second boat. We had several ride breakdowns yesterday but nothing like this one, our 7th and final ride of the day at least turned out to be a unique one!
Wonderous Journeys with Fireworks
With our rides done for the trip, we had one more important Disney experience to complete; Disney fireworks. Since re-opening Disneyland had only been doing Fireworks with their castle projections at weekends or on select nights. As a result, it had been a while since we had witnessed the magic of Disney fireworks over the castle and was the main reason we planned our trip to fall at a weekend. Since we planned our trip, Disneyland has now started doing fireworks during the week as part of the 100-year Celebrations. There is no confirmation if this change is permanent though or if it will go back to just weekends.
The current projection and fireworks display at Disneyland is Wonderous Journeys, a celebration of the special kind of wonder that Walt Disney Animation Studios has brought into our lives for the last 100 years.
We entered the roped area directly in front of the castle at 8:10 PM and we literally found the last spot for 2 people at the back of the area. This suited Steve perfectly as he planned to elevate himself onto the raised curb behind us to get higher photos of the castle and fireworks when the show began at 9:30, a whole hour and 15 minutes away. We were lucky we got these last 2 spaces as the rest of the area was full of people who had been sitting there since 7 PM!
Around 8:45, cast members instructed everyone to stand up which created a lot more space as people surged forward. We were worried that many new guests would enter the space that had been created and make it full again but this didn’t happen. Apart from the 2 ladies we had watched World of Color with at the dessert Party last night! We couldn’t believe we had bumped into each other again and spent the rest of the time chatting about our trips until the fireworks began.
Yes, I teared up at the sights of our most beloved Disney moments and the sound of the incredible soundtracks. I stood, singing away to my favorite Disney hits enthralled by the projections on the castle. I always enjoy watching the moments from my favorite movies more than the fireworks themselves but I can’t deny they don’t add to the magical moments. Steve got his perfect shot of the Mickey Fireworks above the castle so was very pleased with himself. And all too quickly, the 13 minutes were up and the show ended. 13 minutes is really no time to celebrate fully the magic and wonder of the incredible 100 years Disney has given us and I could have stood there all night watching and singing away.
We said goodbye to our new Disney friends for the final time and headed onto Main Street. The crowds leaving the park were chaotic so I convinced Steve to pop into the Christmas shop while the crowds died down. After all, we had not yet got a Christmas decoration to remember our trip by, let alone this special 100-Year Disney trip. After a while in the shop, we found a perfect decoration and after asking a cast member to check it was not damaged before we left (a bit of a long commute to return it LOL), we purchased our momento and left the shop.
Main Street had cleared considerably while we were shopping and we sadly, but tinged with happiness slowly made our way away from the castle. I turned to take one last look at her in all her 100-year celebration finery and said goodbye before leaving the park and ending our special homage to the Happiest Place on Earth.
Walking Total – 27,290 Steps – 12.99 Miles
Disneyland Totals – 64,828 Steps – 30.69 Miles
Wow, over 30 miles covered in 2 days! we really hit Disneyland hard this time. That crazy 17-hour first day really was a heavy day. Hopefully tomorrow, despite being another theme park day, should be easier, as we have VIP at Universal.
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