California Adventure

Floyd and Allie waiting for the Muppets to start.

We went to California Adventure on a weekday that was forecasted for rain.  We decided that we were from Washington and rain and clouds were our specialty.  Overall the weather really wasn’t that bad.  It barely rained at all and we just wore coats and sweatshirts.  The good thing about going on a day when the weather isn’t that nice is that the lines are really short.  

It seemed like a lot of the attractions in the park are shows rather than rides, and most of the rides are for older taller kids.  Allie’s favorite ride was the Ariel ride.  She loved the characters and songs even though she has never seen The Little Mermaid.  Selena said Ariel was her favorite too, but at the time it seemed like she enjoyed the bumper car ride more.  My favorite was the Toy Story ride.  You put on 3D glasses and get to shoot stuff like an arcade game.  Floyd went on the big roller coaster - California Screaming.  He said it was really fast.  

We went and saw Aladdin performed at the theater and it was really good.  It was probably the best play I’ve seen, not that I’ve seen a ton, but I enjoyed it a lot.  I like the sound track for Aladdin so there was also some nostalgia to add to the enjoyment.

Other highlights were the Muppets 3D show, Disney Junior Live show, the Redwood Creek Challenge obstacle course, and the World of Color fountain show.  The fountain show is their lure to get you to stay in the park the whole day.  They have an elaborate fast pass system that works as a ticket system for the show.  You can pay for fast passes by buying various food, or you can stand in line and possibly get a free one.  We got the free one, but didn’t have to stand in line because the park was pretty much empty due to the less-than-perfect weather.  We got to the show viewing area about 40 minutes early and had staked out a decent spot, but once the show started everyone crowded around and some kids squirmed around us and blocked some of my view.  The show was impressive, kind of like the Bellagio show in Vegas, but longer (about 30 minutes) and fancier.

Overall my experience was that California Adventure isn’t as cool as Disneyland, while it has some fun individual attractions that probably make it worth going, the park as a whole isn’t as entertaining.  Part of this was due to the fact that there was lots of construction.  We had watched Cars the night before because we thought it would make going to Cars Land more fun, but it wasn't open yet. In Disneyland, while you are walking along the pathways there are lots of interesting plants, characters, buildings, etc to look at, but in California Adventure there are lots of long paths, with nothing to look at.