In a Hurry, Hurry, Hurry

Thursday was a great day at Disneyland! We got to the park at around 7:30 and headed into California Adventure.  Thursday was Extra Magic Hour for hotel guests so we took our time walking down Buena Vista street because we were sure the end of Buena Vista would be roped off until the park opened.  We were surprised when we got to the end of Buena Vista and there weren't any ropes!  We headed into Cars Land and rode the Mater ride.  We were two of five people on the ride at that point.  It was insane.  By then it was around 8:00 so we headed to get fast passes for Radiator Springs Racers.  While we were in line we talked to a guy who comes to Disneyland with his family every year.  He said they were in California Adventure the day before and the line for fast passes was around the corner, which it typically is.  However, Thursday morning the line was VERY short.  In fact, several of the cast members were trying to convince people to just go ride the ride because the line was so short!  We got our fast passes to Radiator Springs and then went to check out the short line.  Sure enough - the sign showed 20 minutes, but it was really closer to 10.

We got off Radiator Springs and the line was still short so we rode it again and then it was time to use our fast pass so we rode it 3 times in an hour.  At that point, we got another fast pass and headed to the pier to ride Midway Mania and then we went to the Tower of Terror.  Eric hates the Tower of Terror, but I like it so he agreed to ride it with me on this trip.  We got off and he said he still didn't like it, but it wasn't as bad as he remembered.  Progress.

We went back to Cars Land and rode Radiator Springs again and unfortunately, the ride stopped just as we were about to race.  We were in our cars for about 5 minutes before it started going again.  Once the ride finished they told us we could just stay in our cars and ride it again - woot woot!  At this point, we were pretty tired from all the rides so we stopped to get some breakfast at Flo's.  I got the Brioche French Toast with bananas and caramel sauce - it was amazing! Eric got the American breakfast, which wasn't quite as dessert-like as my french toast and probably a little bit healthier.

At this point, we headed back to the pier and rode the Roller Coaster.  We love that ride - it was definitely one of our favorites this trip. The line was short so we rode it three times in a row!  One time when we were riding Eric said we should be rock stars for the picture and do the rock-on sign with our hands.  I was totally game and rocked out with my tongue out and everything.  Eric got confused with the sign and did the sign for "I Love You" instead.  It was actually pretty funny.

We spent the afternoon wandering through the park and going on our favorite rides. We decided to do Goofy's Sky School but just as we were getting in the car one of our water bottles fell out of Eric's backpack and broke and a piece landed on the track.  They had to stop loading cars for just a few seconds - we felt pretty bad about that.  For lunch, we went to Corn Dog Castle and got cheese dogs.  I'm not a huge fan of corndogs, but cheese dogs are something I can get on board with.  They were delicious.

At one point in the afternoon, we decided to play the boardwalk games.  We've never done them before and thought it looked fun.  They had four different games and we tried three of them.  The first one we tried was a baseball pitching game where you try to get a baseball through the catcher's mitt.  Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful - turns out we are better at watching baseball than playing it.  The next game was a fishing game where you pick a fish and then depending on the color on the bottom you win a prize - it was a really stupid game.  The game we liked the most was kind of like skeeball. We played that several times and then Eric won!  We won a giant stuffed Bullseye.  It was pretty exciting.



One of our favorite Disney treats - a churro

We decided to see Aladdin in the Hyperion theater. Eric saw this show when he was 17 and came with his family, but I had never seen it. Things slowed down in the afternoon so we thought the 2:15 showing would be perfect. Little did we know they were doing fast passes for Aladdin because it is only playing in the theater for one more month. We got in the stand-by line and fortunately, there were a few seats left for us. It is an abbreviated version of the Aladdin story, but it was funny and cute. We are glad we got to see it before it is gone.

That evening we decided to watch the Pixar Play Parade.  We got there early to get a spot, but since the parade route is so long you actually don't need to save spots like you do in Disneyland. We were able to sit on a bench and watch the parade.  The play parade is definitely high energy and we really enjoyed it!  For dinner, we went to Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill and we both got burritos.  They were excellent - we would definitely go there for dinner again.  We rode the roller coaster a few more times and got gorgeous views of the pier before it was time to get ready for World of Color - Winter Dreams.

World of Color is always such a good show - and they've added more effects this year for the Diamond Celebration!  The roller coaster lights up and they do more with lasers - it was really cool.  The Winter Dreams shows is narrated by Olaf and it's very Frozen-heavy.  It wasn't my favorite World of Color, but it was fun to focus on the holidays.  At one point there was even a sing-along where we all sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." It was great!  After World of Color, we decided to call it a night and head back to our hotel.  It was a fabulous day at the park!