Photo Essay: Disneyland’s California Adventure

Debbie & Darcy
Posted by June 30, 2016 August 21, 2020

Last Updated on August 21, 2020

While the classic Disneyland park is our favourite, we love to spend a day at Disneyland’s California Adventure too and take advantage of the fun to be had there. We really only feel we need one day there, but it sure is a day packed full of fun. Cars Land is a definite favourite, but riding the coaster is good, too. Madison kept asking to go on The Little Mermaid ride again and again and we would hop out of one shell and walk around to hop right into another.

We always make sure to get a park-hopper pass so that we are able to get the best of both worlds, and to find a good time to be able to get a FastPass to ride Radiator Springs Racers. Racing around in the cars are is much fun, but the lineup is way too long without a FastPass.

We also love the World of Color “water show”. We recommend you either grab a FastPass, or make a dinner reservation that gets you preferred seating so that you have a good view of the show. We were thrilled that the show was different than it was from our last visit, and it is definitely worth the time to take a look. Both girls were asleep before the show even began, so it was nice to be able to take a bit of a break as they slept in the stroller without worrying about two little ones trying to run around in a sea of people. Celebrate tells the story and legacy of Walt Disney as narrated by Neil Patrick Harris. The story starts with the details about how Walt created Mickey Mouse and showed the evolution of Mickey before moving into Walt’s progression into feature length animation. The story wraps with Disneyland and remembering that it was all started by a mouse.

Take a look at some of the great memories we made at California Adventure:
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Cars Land looks as amazing at night as it does during the day
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Cars Land is a California Adventure favourite.
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Love all the decor at Cars Land.
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Love all the cute signage around Cars Land. I didn’t remember seeing this one on our last visit.
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The Little Mermaid was such a hit. We lost track of how many times we had to go on the ride. Happily though, there was never a lineup – you could walk right on!
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Happy Sadie with Daddy.
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Having fun going for a bit of a swing.
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What a great performance. Mickey was even a passenger for a bit.
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California Adventure’s Paradise Pier
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The parade was great, but we were a bit disappointed that it hadn’t visibly changed any from our last visit, except the addition of the 60 years sign on the side of the drum.
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Kissing Mickey’s nose.
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Mickey’s nose is always popular for honking.
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Meeting Pluto.
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Disneyland is a lot of hard work. Having fun is tiring!
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World of Color – “Celebrate” was an interesting look into Walt Disney.
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The World of Color water show was quite impressive.
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Finding Nemo was one of the features.
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You could feel the water spray and the heat from the fire shooting up.
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The water and lights created quite the pretty backdrop.

 

While we love California Adventure, we will always be more of the Classic Disneyland fans. Which park do you prefer, and why?

 

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