California 2014 - Disneyland California Adventure Park

we spent our third day in disneyland at the california adventure park. the boys have been waiting to meet lightning mcqueen and mater. we went in pretty early as we had an early night. by 930am we were already at the gates. crowd looks ok, not too large not too small.

our first stop was at the ticketing booth to add an extra day to the 3-day entrance pass we have. that's for tomorrow.

we went into california adventure park and straight away checked out the wait time for each ride. most were 10 minutes long so thats not too bad. 

we took at right towards grizzly river run to first get a fastpass for tonight's colours of the world. the boys saw that the wait time for grizzly peak next to the fast pass counter was only 5 minutes so they went into that. a short walk from there we took ariel's undersea adventure *squeel*

we walked, the boys cold and wet, towards cars land after the first ride. there we went on the radiator spring racers, luigi's flying tires and mater's junkyard jamboree. the last two only had a 10 minutes wait but there was a 65 minutes wait for the racers ride. it was worth it though as we went through the ride we were treated to an excellent view and felt like we were actually in cars movie.

we stopped to have mexican lunch at the pacific wharf and then walked towards paradise pier.

we went on all the rides we could there, from the carousel to toy story midway mania - which we all so loved despite the 45mins wait - to the ferris wheel - the boys freaked out on but they were the ones who chose swinging ones - to the jelly fish and 4 rounds on the golden zephyr because there was no wait time at all on that.

while at the end of paradise pier we took in the feliz navidad dance show and the pixar parade. the parade feels more casual compared to the disneyland parade with the character interacting with the audience.

we quickly went to the other side to hollywood land to catch the aladdin show. two thumbs up for that, especially for genie but i didn't like jasmine.

then again a walk across the park to the paradise pier again to get into the queue for colours of the world. we waited for over an hour but was treated to a magical show of sounds, lights and water.

we started our way home after, accompanied by the fireworks which started after colours of the world ended. and had a late dinner at ihop across the park before walking back to the hotel.

our fourth and final day at the park was for us to go up any rides we did not get to go on the first three days (and yes, there were rides we didnt get to go on). we first went to adventure park, the boys wanted to go on the grizzly peak again and i wanted to see some shows on hollywood land. we missed the disney junior show at 10.30am so we went on the soarin' over california ride which hubby absolutely loved. it felt like we were on a low plane over california - starting with san francisco, napa valley, san diego, los angeles and ending at disneyland.

then we walked to catch the disney jr show which had akmal jumping and dancing. then a quick detour to the edge of hollywood land, over the small area under construction, to go on the sully and mike ride.

we then gave into the boys' request for grizzly peak ride again after that. they went on that twice before hubby put his foot down and told them its time for daddy and mummy to shop.

we said goodbye to california adventure park and made our way back to disneyland. we had lunch at plaza inn once we got in. hubby wanted a big lunch which they had but their choices for kids meal werent so good so we all had salmon for lunch, except akmal who is forever opting for his pasta.

after lunch we went on the snow white's scary adventure, which surprisingly on a day with quite a big crowd, had no waiting time at all. i remember this ride the most from my first trip here 30 years ago.

the boys wanted another round on autopia to we crossed to tomorrowland. the wait time for 55 minutes on saturday but was only 5 minutes today. maybe because most people were around the main street for the parade.

we went to the innoventions after that for the boys to get in some time become ironman, to get their hands on on some xbox and to meet captain america.

we wanted to take the monorail but it was offline so we walked towards downtown disney instead. we walked around lights-watching and ended our four-day outing with a big shopping time at world of disney.

i absolutely love disneyland. its been my dream since i was 9 to see all the disneylands (and disneyworlds). i hope the boys loved their trip to disneyland as much as i did.