Disney's California Adventure

We flew into Las Vegas late on a Thursday evening, spent a night in a hotel near the airport and then started out on a drive to Los Angeles early in the morning. After a brief breakfast stop at Carl Jr's, which was disappointing (and further disappintent in learning the Starbucks at that exit had closed), we arrived in Anaheim. The drive through California was interesting, especially the part when we came to an unpaved road and Janie had to drive over a mile very slowly on gravel and sand. But we made it to LA and parked in the remote-remote lot and caught a bus to Disney's California Adventure.

Radiator Springs was broken down which meant no FastPass opportunities so we went instead to California Screamin'. We picked up FastPasses, rode the 10-minute stand-by line and then went to MidWay Mania, which was a 30-minute wait. We followed that up with two more rides on Screamin' and then hopped over to Soarin' to pick up FastPasses. Janie and Rebecca aimed for Tower of Terror, but it too was down, so we wandered through Animation and Monster's Inc. before riding ToT.

When we had been at Epcot the previous year, they were doing an Easter Egg hunt and Rebecca was delighted to see they were doing one at CA and Disneyland as well, so we picked up a map so she could egg hunt as we walked around.

For lunch, we walked into the Grand Californian and stopped at Storyteller's Cafe, where we had a light bite to eat. Following that we headed back to CA for Soarin' and the rest of the rides before taking the bus back to our rental car and checking in at the Fairfield Inn. We usually stay on-site in Anaheim but the prices were very high this year and with a short trip, it didn't seem worth it.

Napa Rose

After check-in, we rested for a little while then hopped in the car and headed back to the Grand Californian, this time for dinner at Napa Rose. Janie and J. R. make this a must-do whenever in Anaheim and this time we brought Rebecca along. She had her first-ever Shirley Temple while the adults enjoyed a bottle of wine. Dinner was delicious as always although we regretted bringing our dress clothes when we saw people dressed in jeans and even shorts in the dining room

Disneyland

Saturday was our Magic Morning entry into Disneyland, so we arrived at rope drop and headed off to Hyperspace Mountain, the Star Wars-themed overlay of Space Mountain. After three or four "it's a traps", we visited Buzz Lightyear and then the Matterhorn before spending the rest of the day touring Disneyland.

For dinner, we booked the Paint The Night package at Blue Bayou, which gave us reserved seating for the parade. Dinner was disappointing. We didn't realize the package was a fixed-price special menu and it got worse when Rebecca was given an "allergy" menu. We asked our waiter why and he told us it was because she had allergies. We told him she didn't (and I had specifically just said she didn't at the hostess stand when asked) and he shrugged and said "Fine. But she has allergies. They said so". Like we wouldn't know better than "they" would? His service did not improve through the night as he could not hear our orders, making us repeat ourselves (and getting frustrated at us because of it). Dinner was nothing special either and definitely not worth the price.

However, having the package paid off as we had front-row stoop right across from the train station for the Paint The Magic parade which was very impressive. While part of us long for the old Electrical Parade and Disney is overdoing it with every parade having the same characters, the lights and special effects on this parade were amazing. Sadly it was too windy for fireworks, so we headed back to our hotel.

Ariel's Grotto

Sunday was another California Adventure day, but not before an early-morning breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. We made sure to take photos of Alex's favorite peanut butter and jelly pizza to taunt him (although he taunted us back with photos of Rome, where he was visiting at the time). After Goofy's we got FastPasses for Radiator Springs and waited in the 60 minute standby line for it as well before touring the rest of CA again.

We took a mid-day monorail ride to Disneyland from Downtown Disney and spent some more time in Tomorrowland before crossing back to California Adventure for Princess dinner at Ariel's Grotto.

The nighttime show at CA wasn't impressive to us last time and it seemed even windier than the night before so we guessed there would be no fireworks so we cut out of the parks just before all of the crowds and went back to our hotel to pack up for our drive back to Nevada.