A Marvel-ous Day at California Adventure

This weekend Alison and I took a trip to Disneyland with Kristin, Dan, Skylee and Holly. 

Alison and I left Thursday night after work. We got in a little later, but we didn't eat before we left. Instead we got food at Downtown Disney. We shared a couple of pizzas from the Napolini Pizzeria. It was pretty good. Of course we couldn't be in Downtown Disney and not stop at Alison's favorite ice cream shop. We got a couple of scoops of ice cream at Salt and Straw. We tried a couple of the seasonal berry flavors - they were quite good. We got our ice cream and found a place in the quad between the parks to sit and watch the Disneyland firework show. 

We spent our first day at the parks in California Adventure. We were excited to visit the new Avengers Campus that opened last month. The first order of business was to get a boarding group to the new ride - WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure. We all stayed at our respective hotels until 7am (we wanted to be connected to wifi). Right at 7am we used our phones to request a boarding group. Kristin had fast fingers and scored a boarding group for our whole party. That started the day off on the right foot. 

We met up and walked to the parks. It was very exciting to be back in California and headed to a Disney park. 

This trip was different from any other trip because Disney has not brought back fast passes. The way we experienced the park on this trip was completely uncharted territory. Because there were no fast passes we chose to start the day in Cars Land. Kristin, Dan and Skylee rode Radiator Springs Racers while Alison and I took Holly on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. We weren't sure if she would be tall enough, but she is taller than 32'' - hooray!. Once Kristin and Dan finished up Alison and I took Skylee on Radiator Springs Racers using rider swap. Rider swap is a great way to navigate the parks when there is a young kid in your party. Part of our group would stand in line and ride the ride, while someone waited with the baby. The cast members at the start of the ride would scan our tickets so that when they finished three people could skip the line and ride again. This worked out particularly well for Skylee because she got to ride most every big attraction multiple times. 

Not having fast passes really changed the way we experienced the park. When fast passes were available it was almost like a game - we would focus on optimizing our day to avoid lines and ride as many rides as possible. This often required going from one part of the park to another to use a fast pass. This trip we found ourselves spending more time in a given area and making our way through the park in a much more methodical manner. This was especially true since most stand by lines settled in at reasonable waits. There wasn't much advantage to running all over. While we much prefer the fast pass system, at least the stand by lines tended to move really well and we were still able to ride everything we wanted to ride. 

When we were done in Cars Land our boarding group was called for WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure. We headed over to Avengers Campus. This is a family friendly attraction so we all go to ride together - no child swap required. It was a fun ride - it is kind of like a more advanced version of a Midway Mania type ride. It is super interactive and we all had a great time. This was probably Holly's favorite ride in California Adventure. She kept showing us her Spider-Man shooter hands throughout the day. It was very cute. 

After the ride we explored Avengers Campus. The land itself isn't that big, but they found a way to pack a ton into this space. Walking around you are sure to run into a variety of Earth's mightiest heroes. Every time we walked through we saw a different character. 

We took turns rider swapping Guardian's of the Galaxy ride. It is one of our favorites and fits way better now that there is a whole land dedicated to Marvel. 

While Kristin and Dan rode with Skylee, Alison and I explored the Sanctum Sanctorum. We also caught the Spider-Man stunt show - so amazing! And we watched Black Widow and T'Challa take on the Taskmaster. 

We mobile ordered lunch at Pym's Test Kitchen. Skylee was quite taken with the shrinking and enlarging pretzel exhibit in the ceiling. She stood and watched entranced while we waited for our food. The food was pretty good. I had the Not so Little Chicken Sandwich, which seems like the thing to get there and I was satisfied. For dessert we shared a Celestial-sized Candy Bar: Choco-Smash CANDY Bar. I would highly recommend it (note - it was big enough to share). 

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the park. During the hottest part of the day we went to Turtle Talk with Crush. This was a big hit, especially because Holly loves Nemo and Dory. We also explored the Beast library. Skylee was quite taken with the animation exhibits and she also liked the quiz that would tell you what Disney character you are - Skylee got Edna Mode. 

While it was hot it wasn't nearly and hot as it could have been. This was by far the warmest day of our trip and it was in the low 80s. The park was a little on the crowded side, but also not bad. The longest line we probably waited in was 40ish minutes. All in all it was a great summer day to spend in DCA. 

Despite not having fast passes we were able to ride every ride, many multiple times. This trip was particularly exciting because Skylee is now tall enough to ride every ride. This was her first time experiencing the Incredicoaster. She loved it. We spent the afternoon and evening going from ride to ride, finding character interactions, and having an all-round great time. 

Holly hit a wall and fell asleep in her mother's arms

We stopped back by Avengers Campus. We grabbed dinner at the Shawarma Palace and introduced Skylee and Kristin to Schmoozies!

We also checked out the Doctor Strange show. It is quite the show. Disney has really outdone themselves with the entertainment at Avengers Campus. 

Before we knew it our day was coming to an end. We split up for our final activities. Kristin and Holly went to buy treats. Alison, Dan, and Skylee wanted to ride Grizzly River Run. I took a scenic route through the park to enjoy the ambiance of California Adventure at night. I love the park at night. I was also on a mission to visit WEB Suppliers to buy myself a Spider-bot. This interactive remote controlled spider robot is the hot ticket item at Avengers Campus. Alison likes to tease me that I am living out all of my childhood fantasies by buying all the Disney toys (I have been talking about it since April when I wanted her to buy me one during a Touch of Disney, but she couldn't find one). I don't even care. She is probably right. It is a cool looking toy and I bought one and it made me happy. When we all wrapped up our final activity we walked out of the park. We were just in time to sit in the quad and watch the Disney fireworks before calling it a night. What a marvelous day in DCA.