Despite visiting Disneyland multiple times, I had not visited Disney California Adventure until recently. I found this historic and romanticized version of California to be a theme park gem, despite its horrendous past. I enjoyed this park because of its wide assortment of attractions, nostalgic environments, delectable food and lively night time atmosphere. I will be going through each of these lands clockwise from the entrance (but I will group Grizzly Peak with Pacific Wharf and the Wine Terrace, and Pixar Pier with Paradise Gardens Park).
Buena Vista Street
Although I was not expecting too much from this land, I was easily lost in this area as I found this historic version of 1920s Los Angeles to be a lovely opening land. Also, like many things in this park, it is far nicer than its respective modern counterpart. I was entranced by this land for its instrumental jazz background music, Pueblo Deco architecture, the Red Car, a recreation of the defunct Pacific Electric Railway, and how this place authentically recreated the lost world of 1920s Los Feliz, LA. I also loved the incorporation of period photos throughout the land, including a photo from the period of a red car crossing a street. This land also has quite the emphasis on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (I love his sundae), an early character of Walt’s. Many tributes to Oswald can be found in the land, so much so that I dare say that Oswald is the mascot of this area.
Hollywood Land
I knew early on that this land was originally supposed to be a set of Hollywood in the original DCA, and I was expecting that since I heard the 2012 makeover didn’t fix many problems in this area, but I appreciated this area more than I thought I would. Mickey’s Philharmagic, a 4D show, is a great place to get off your feet and into the AC during a hot summer day, and this land has many other nice areas to sit down in the shade. The area has a unique atmosphere that feels like Hollywood during the 30s, but I would love this area to have its own E-ticket, now that Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! has been “moved” to Avengers Campus.
Avengers Campus
After the initial craze over this area and the massive marketing campaign for it, I decided that this puny area is the largest cop out in Disney parks in the last decade for its industrial architecture, lousy environment, and overhyped second rate attraction, Webslingers. The only thing that is great there is Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout!, which I find to be quite good though I wish the show scenes were longer. Web-Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure is a cheap cop out, and despite its more advanced technology, the attraction feels like an updated, videogame-esque version of Toy Story: Midway Mania!. Overall, the campus doesn’t feel special because it does not take you anywhere special, like Wakanda or Asgard, instead leaving the guests in modern day California to behold: a glorified meet and greet that looks and feels like an office complex.
Cars Land
As a child, my favorite Disney film was Cars. I expected Cars land to be the best thing at DCA because of the many articles that lauded it. This land exceeded all of my expectations because of its painstaking attention to Radiator Springs’ layout, gigantic rockwork (the largest of any at a domestic Disney park), many references to the Cars cartoons, and vibrant neon which brings the land to life. The main attraction, Radiator Springs Racers, is a storytelling masterpiece, for its effective use of an original storyline, elements from the movie, and animatronics that bring the cars from the film to life. I cite this attraction as the park’s “thesis” attraction, meaning that this ride represents what the park is about, as it combines Disney characters with Californian settings. Now before you start saying that Radiator Springs is a town in Arizona and does not belong in a park about the Golden State, I have taken many road trips through the Californian desert, and the queue for Racers has the ambience of one of the places that I would have passed through in the desert, owing to its wide variety of desert life and “abandoned” buildings that appear as if they were pulled from a ghost town on the interstate. Moreover, this land feels like a smaller and more charming version of a place like Bakersfield, San Bernardino, or Barstow as its architecture and desert environment is reminiscent of such places, complete with sand. The land really comes to life at night with neon lighting and the “Sh-Boom” moment, where the neon is lit to the sound of the film’s iconic doo-wop song. It’s quite the way to end a day here at the park, especially if you grew up with Cars like I did.
Pixar Pier and Paradise Gardens Park
While I am not a fan of amusement park style areas at Disney parks, I had a fondness for this area because of its Victorian aesthetic, and as it is home to the best food in the park. Toy Story Midway Mania! fits perfectly into the Victorian aesthetic of the area, and even though the technology is relatively old, this attraction is highly entertaining thanks to its carnival game style and its wide use of the main characters from the Toy Story films. The Incredicoaster is a cheap overlay, but the roller coaster contained enough thrills to keep me from feeling repulsed by its hilariously cheesy mannequins of the Incredibles. The land also fails to properly block out the outside world because if you stand in certain areas of the land, you can see parts of the outside world such as buildings and telephone lines. Despite these issues, the land has some of the best food in the entire park such as the food at Lamplight Lounge’s Boardwalk dining and Adorable Snowman lemon soft serve ice cream (which is this park’s is equivalent of the dole whip, or the citrus swirl, which I appreciate because of its strong lemon flavor).
Grizzly Peak, Pacific Wharf, and Wine Country Trattoria
Grizzly Peak is an area meant to look like a national forest, such as Big Sur, during the 1950s. The area is home to an exclusive entrance for Disney’s Grand Californian Lodge, Grizzly Rapids, and Soarin’ Around the World. This area is nicely forested, and has some references to the time period (1950s) it is located in. Many say the area is lazily themed, but I think Disney gave a quality effort to make this land feel like a Californian national park. Further down is the Wine Country Trattoria, home to a Sonoma-looking winery, yet it is still family friendly because its main focus is food, not alcohol. This area also has lots of seating and is centrally located. Pacific Wharf is a nice area, with a diverse array of food from Americanzied Chinese, to Americanized Mexican, to food that may be found on a Northern Californian wharf such as chowder and San Francisco’s Ghirardelli's. The area is reminiscent of a Northern Californian wharf, and feels like it could be found anywhere from San Francisco, all the way to the northern border of the state.
Overall, I give Disney California Adventure Park an A- for its great environment, eclectic assortment of attractions, great nighttime, and food. Even though there are a few things that are repulsive, they can be easily ignored thanks to the spectacular attractions that make up for these mediocre features. The next time DCA has a new attraction, I will be coming back to see what magic Imagineering has cooked up this time.
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