After spending almost 12 hours at Disneyland Park on a Thursday back in April, a friend and I visited Disney California Adventure Park the next day before our flight leaves Saturday around noon.   Back in 2015, when I visited both Disney parks for the very first time, I only got to spend half a day at Disney California Adventure Park due to a hockey game that evening.  This visit was my chance to properly explore this park a lot longer.

Getting There

Since it was my shower day, my morning care took a bit longer so we could not visit the park as early as the previous day.  As both theme parks are located right beside each other, we walked/strolled from our Super 8 Maingate hotel again.  We did manage to get to Mc Donald’s for a quick cheap early lunch before heading to the park.

Disney California Adventure Park

Disney California Adventure Park opened in 2001 and has added a brand new land since my last visit: Avengers Campus.  This land replaced “a bug’s land” which I was happy to see it back on my 2015 visit.  The full list of the 8 themed areas are: Buena Vista Street, Hollywood Land, Avengers Campus, Cars Land, Pacific Wharf, Pixar Pier, Paradise Gardens Park, and Grizzly Peak.

I have already previously pre registered for DAS (Disability Access Services) via video chat prior to our visit so I didn’t have to waste time waiting in line at Guest Services to do this in person.  DAS allows myself and my companion to put our names in a virtual queue on the Disneyland app so we don’t have to physically wait in line.  It also gave us 2 bonus DAS advance selections.

Here is a recap of what we did for the day and which area it could be found at:

Carthay Circle

(Buena Vista Street)

Buena Vista Street is the first area seen upon entering the park.  It represents Los Angeles in the 1920’s and is similar to Mainstreet, USA from Disneyland Park.  There are shops, restaurants, a trolley system and more.  It also has a Central Hub area called Carthay Circle that directly connects you to some of the lands around the park.

There is also a statue of Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse called “Storytellers” that is left out in the open for guests to take close up pictures with.  Continuing down Hollywood Land, we went to take pictures at the Hyperion Theater and the giant Hollywood buildings mural located at the back.

Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!

(Hollywood Land)

Our first advance DAS reservation was Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!  I knew this ride was wheelchair accessible as it was listed in the Disneyland app.  This ride opened in 2006 and has taxi cabs as the ride vehicles.  The first 2 rows of seats have been removed to allow a wheelchair to roll inside the ride vehicle.  My friend just sat at the back seat of the cab.

The ride itself was slow moving as the taxi cab goes through Monstropolis during day and night scenes.  All the monsters were bright and looked exactly like they do in the movies.  We do get to see Roz who is the only monster during this ride that is fully animated with a moving mouth and interactivity.

Toy Story Midway Mania!

(Pixar Pier)

I thought about riding the recently opened Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT at Avengers Campus next door but decided my friend could go alone on this.  We then headed to my next DAS advance selection which was Toy Story Midway Mania! all the way in Pixar Pier on the opposite side of the park.

I previously went on this ride back in 2015 and also at Tokyo Disney Sea, but skipped it at Hollywood Studios last year.  I did not want to miss it again as I do enjoy this wheelchair accessible ride.  Even though I don’t bother with shooting the guns, I enjoy riding along watching my friend shoot all the bad guys from the Toy Story movies.

Soarin’

(Grizzly Peak)

My friend and I then headed towards Grizzly Peak Airfield section to go on our next ride.  Soarin’ opened in 2001 and is a flight motion simulator ride that uses a mechanical lift system, a giant curved screen and artificial scents and winds to simulate hang gliding around the world.  My friend had to lift me and transfer me on to the ride seat.

Once the big hang gliding seat lifted us into the air, the seat did lean forward and back making it really feel like we were in the air soaring around the world.  The real environmental scenes, combined with the wind and smells made this ride even more realistic.  This ride was never really scary as I would go again next time.

Pixar Pal-A-Round

(Pixar Pier)

We then headed to Paradise Gardens Park as I was going to join my friend on Goofy’s Sky School ride but I skipped that until going to Pixar Pier to ride Pixar Pal-A-Round.  This giant Ferris Wheel ride opened in 2001 and has a few name changes over the years.  The last time I rode this, it was named Mickey’s Fun Wheel.

There are 24 gondolas for this wheel, with 16 of the gondolas swinging as it rotates around the wheel.  A staff member does help by putting a portable ramp to an accessible gondola and wheeling me inside.  Just like my previous  visit, we chose a swinging gondola.  It never swung too violently so we did get great views of the entire park once our gondola was at the top.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure

(Paradise Gardens Park)

Before leaving this side of the park, my friend checked the Disneyland app to see if there were any wheelchair accessible rides nearby.  He noticed a ride with a short return time and booked The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure in Paradise Gardens Park.  This ride opened in 2011 and has a similar variation ride at Magic Kingdom which I also went on a few months back.

This ride uses a similar accessible clamshell vehicle to the Magic Kingdom version which has a fold out ramp.  This ride was always slow moving and not scary at all.  We move through dark scenes and see bright and colorful characters throughout including Ariel and her friends.  Songs from the movie are also heard throughout the ride.

Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure

(Avengers Campus)

The final ride of the night that we went together on was Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure.  We headed back to Avengers Campus just to go on this ride as it was shut down temporarily earlier in the day.  The queue area and pre show features Tom Holland who briefs us on what to do and expect for the ride.  We are told to shoot web fluid from our wrists to stop the Spider-bots and to ride on a WEB Slinger vehicle.

We then go to a loading area where we board the ride vehicles.  The accessible ride vehicle does have a large spot for a wheelchair that also has a safety bar that goes in front of my chest.  We also get 3D glasses for this ride as we get different Spider-bots jumping at us as the ride continues.  It was even easy for me to simulate shooting web fluid out of my wrists.

This ride was really fun and the lady let us ride this twice in a row.  We decided to try a shawarma at Shawarma Palace and exploring a bit more of Avengers Campus before heading out to Cars Land.

Cars Land

This land is quite large and on my last visit in 2015, we got to spend time in this area in the daytime.  I remember being wowed at how it looked exactly like we were in Radiator Springs from the Cars movies.  The mountains, shops and restaurants were an exact replica of the movie.

During this visit, we got to see Cars Land in the night and it looked just as amazing as it did during the day.  This time however, there were the bright neon signs of all the shops and restaurants.  I was already tired by this time so my friend went on 1 ride in this area before we saw the night time show World of Color.

World of Color

(Paradise Gardens Park)

We quickly hurried back to Paradise Gardens to get a good spot in the accessible viewing to watch World of Color.  There were many spots to choose from and I was parked near the front of the area for the best view possible.  People in front of the area did block a bit of the view as the show went on however.

World of Color originally debut in 2010 and is a 22 minute night show that features 1200 musical water fountains that includes lights, fog, fires, lasers and colorful animation on mist screens.

I missed it last visit since we left the park early for a hockey game, but am so glad to witness this phenomenal spectacle of a show this year.  It really was neat to see all the Disney cartoons dance with the music and move about on the water screens.  This is a show that I could definitely watch on repeat.

Final Thoughts

My friend and I enjoyed our 9 hours at Disney California Adventure Park and am happy that I finally got my chance to revisit and spend a full day exploring.  5 of the 6 rides that I went on were wheelchair accessible and the World of Color show was my highlight of the visit.

Both Disneyland theme parks really made up for how this trip started with the cancelled music festival and room issues that I already booked my next Disney trip.  I got to visit Disneyland Paris for their 30th anniversary celebrations last month and will post about it in the next few days.  Follow along.