I had planned it that way. I planned to jump off the airplane and head straight to Disney. It was one of those ideas that seemed-like-a-good-idea-at the time, but by the time I got to the hotel wasn't so sure. I was pretty tired from the travel (and the early wake-up), but felt it important to keep with the plan. It ended up working out really well.
Monday afternoon at California Adventure turned out to be the perfect crowd level for us. All of the fastpasses for Radiator Springs were gone, of course, but the lady at the fast pass machine let us know that we could use the single rider line for a shorter wait. I knew the ride was going to be closed the next day (a day we had planned to be at C.A.) and so it was important we rode it that day!
We did Bugs Land First. No waits on anything, though these are not the most exciting rides in the park. The Squish loved it though. Right near BugsLand is Tower of Terror. We headed over, (there was a ten minute wait, which was really more like 6), did Rider Swap and while some of us entered the Twilight Zone, Charming took the Squish on more Bugs Land rides.
The great thing about rider swap is you can take yourself and 2 other (it might have been 3) people back on the ride with you. So, if I took Sugar Bean and Engineer on the ride, Charming could come back with Spider and re-take one or both kids (I swear it was both) back on the ride. Bean went on Tower of Terror twice because she liked it so much.
We spent a good part of the rest of the day in CARSLAND. Holy Amazing! I loved that place. Right out of the movie, so great. We took the FastPass lady's advice and I grabbed Bean and got in the single rider line. Actually, first we grabbed the rider swap necklace and then got in the single rider line. I would say we waited less than 15 minutes, came back and gave the special rider swap fastpass ticket to Charming (who had taken the other kids on both Luigi's Flying Tires and Mater's ride. They got in the fast pass line and I think they might have waited even longer than we had in the single rider line. While they rode the ride, Bean, Squish and I rode the rides Charming had just been on with the other kids.
Mater's Ride
We had such good luck with the single rider/rider swap equation, we ended up riding twice. Can I just Radiator Springs was my favorite ride of both parks? It's classic Disney animatronics-y stuff combined with storytelling and SPEED! There's a good reason the regular wait for this ride is an hour on slow days.
At some point we ate lunch at Flo's V-8 cafe. It was pretty good. I was a little shocked when I walked into the restaurant and all the servers were people and not cars, though. I had to laugh a little at myself for thinking that. The three big kids got kid meals and I got the pork loin and Charming got the roast beef. Squish mostly just drank her sibling's chocolate milk. The kids did get free buttons from the lady at the front of the restaurant. There are a few places in Cars Land that you can get free buttons from, Flo's v-8 cafe, Filmore's fruit stand place and the clunky looking gift shop with all the license plates on it. At the V-8 cafe and the Fruit Stand you can just ask for the button, we did have to answer questions at the Collectible's Gift Shop.
At Flo's V-8:
We didn't do much else at California Adventure that day, I am not even sure we hit Paradise Pier. Mostly Cars Land and Bugs Land. But! Squish and I did get our picture taken with Mater:
We ended up heading back to our hotel around 5:30 so we could cash in on the free dinner that was served there. The dinner was sort of over-cooked school cafeteria hamburgers with salad bar, but it was free, the kids ate a bunch and Charming and I piled on the salad greens.
After dinner, I ended up taking the two big girls (Bean and Spider, ages 9 and 7) back to the parks around 6:30 to go to Regular Disneyland because I had an itching for some Haunted Mansion. Engineer insisted he would rather chill in the hotel (this was a mistake as he was later very sad) and of course Squish needed the rest. I took the girls on Haunted Mansion (at night) and Bean loved it and Spider covered her eyes the whole time. We did Tarzan's Treehouse (LAME) and I feel like we rode the carousel and did a Fantasyland ride, and we rode the Matterhorn (holy bumpy ride, Batman!) which was kind of fun to do at night. We caught a tiny glimpse of the Soundsation's parade which I vowed we would see another night.
Then back to the hotel to prepare the next day's plan and sleep on relatively lumpy beds!
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