California Adventure gets a bad rap. Amusement park aficionados complain about the lame rides (and for the most part they’re right), Disney fans are disappoined at how generic the park looks (and they’re right too) and parents of small children complain there isn’t much for them to do there. They are wrong. Thursday I took my 3 year-old daughter to the park and we had a great time. She enjoyed herself much more there than at Disneyland, and I’m already planning to take her back next year.
We wouldn’t have gone to California Adventure at all but we got “free” tickets with our Disneyland ticket purchases. It was a deal for residents of Southern California, they only asked for one ID when we purchased the tickets at the park, and not at the entrance. The tickets had to be used by April 28, so we (my brother, sister, Mika and I) went yesterday.
The park is considerably smaller than Disneyland and most amusement parks I’ve gone to (though it’s probably about the size of Parc Asterix in Paris). It has a limited amount of rides, and perhaps for that reason it’s only open from 10 AM to 6 PM during the day. We got there probably a little after 11 am and we still managed to only do about 2/3rds of the park even though we didn’t stop for lunch. Most of the rides are for children who are at least 40″ tall; our daughter is considerably shorter than that so that limited what rides we could all go into. For much of the time, Mika and I went together while my sister and brother rode the big-kid rides. Sometimes we switched and Kathy took care of Mika. We got several fastpasses, which made standing in line not as big a deal (and we went on a day which was supposed to be rainy, though it was beautifully sunny) and a couple of child switch tickets.
We started at the Paradise Pier section, an area made to look as a waterfront traditional amusement park, and thus reminiscent of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. This is were most of the big rides are located. Mika and I went to King Triton’s Carousel, a run-of-the-mill merry-go-round with whimsically shaped and colored sea animals. There was no line when we got there and Mika enjoyed herself. We then headed to the Sun Wheel, a large ferris wheel with swinging carts. As is the case with ferris wheels in general, the line here moved very slowly and when we got to it, the ride wasn’t that thrilling. The swinging was kind of nice, and at first it scared Mika, though once we started making funny noises when the car swang she started enjoying herself. Still, even though you only get two rounds around the wheel I was bored before we exited. I wouldn’t go again unless there was no wait at all.
David and Kathy went to all the rollercoasters on this area, and they weren’t thrilled by any of them. They said some were fine, but in general not as thrilling as those at Magic Mountain. I don’t like rollercoasters so the only I went to was Mulholland Madness, which must be one of the lamest rides in the world. It’s just a small rollercoaster with some sharp turns and short falls and nothing else. Take my advise and skip it altogether.
Mika enjoyed the S.S. Rustworthy, a small area with two water cannons (they really should have put some more, even in a day with so few children it was hard to get any time at the cannons) and some “sprinklers” that shot water randomly. She had a blast trying to guess when the water would come and get herself wet. She wasn’t too succesful, but she played here for a loooong time. She also loved the Golden Zephyr, some rocket-shaped gondollas suspended on wires that go around and around. She’d liked a similar ride at Disneyland. The line was pretty long but she wanted to go on it again after she was done going once.
Our second stop was the Golden State, a small area made to look like the California wilderness. There isn’t much in this section, the only ride is the Grizzly River Run, where you ride in a circular “raft” down “rapids” and get wet in the process. The ride is made to look like it’s going through an abandoned mine, and the scenery is quite nice, but the ride itself is less than thrilling. You get more wet and have more fun at similar rides at Great America and Magic Mountain. I wouldn’t have bothered going twice, even though with the fastpass we didn’t have to wait at all.
Our 3-year-old was too short for this ride, so she spent her time at the Redwood Creek Challenge, a little outdoor playground that has a couple of stands, several high-platforms (where Mika decided to play house) and lots of hanging and rope bridges. For older kids they also have tire rides and a rock climbing wall – Mika wanted to do it but once again she was too short. She had a great time in this section, though and was able to spend about an hour playing here with no purpose. Also in this area they have the “The Magic of Brother Bear” show. Kathy saw it with her but she said Mika enjoyed it. She did like seeing the bears, once she got over her fear that they would eat her. She hasn’t seen the Brother Bear movie yet, but I’m planning to rent it now that she’s seen the show.
This area of the park also features examples of California’s industry – from a tortilla factory to a winery. We didn’t have time to explore this section, but I’d like to next time.
Our next stop was Soarin’ Over California, which I loved. This is an IMAX theater where your seats rise so that your feet are hanging down. The movie are scenes of California’s scenery shown from the air, so you get the impression that you are flying through the whole state. It’s quite wonderful and I really enjoyed it. The only down side, aside from the wait (and we had fast passes) was that we were in the second row, so we couldn’t avoid seeing the feet of the people on top of us hanging down. That took a bit away from the illusion. Try to get the first row you can.
mist.jpgMika was too short to go on that ride, but fortunately there was a mister outside and it’s amazing how much fun a little kid can have just playing in the fine mist.
Our next stop was a bug’s land where we hurried to It’s Tough to Be a Bug!, an amazing 3-D movie. Mika has seen A bug’s life so she was at least familiar with the characters (she hasn’t seen most of the Disney movies, which was really a minus for enjoying the two parks). We were able to get in with no wait, and after a bit of trouble Mika actually put on the 3D glasses. The movie was amazing, I won’t give up any of the “secrets” that make it so enjoyable, but let me just say that I had no idea 3D effects had come so far. You really feel like you can touch the bugs flying in front of you. Indeed, the second time Mika saw the show she tried to grab one.
wet2-1.jpg
I went off to pump after that, and Mika stayed with my siblings who after taking her to see the show again, took her to Princess Dot Puddle Park, a water play area. Fortunately it was nice and sunny by then and Mika enjoyed herself a lot. She also got very wet, fortunately we’d brought a change of clothing.
Unfortunately we didn’t have time to sample any of the other rides in this area as I wanted to catch the Aladdin Show. Mika decided to throw a tantrum on the way there (she wanted cotton candy, I wouldn’t buy her any) so getting to the show wasn’t fun and we were pretty late getting there. We grabbed seats at the last row of the balcony, so we were pretty much as far away from the stage as we could be. Still, I really liked the show. The production values were very high, the staging was gorgeous and the show pretty interesting. Mika hadn’t seen the movie before, so she couldn’t really follow the action much, but she was still mostly interested and even though she was really tired by then, she paid quite a lot of attention. I’d certainly recommend you see it.
It was 5:30 PM by the time we got out and as we were so exhausted we decided to head home. On the way out we passed on the Disney Animation building and we decided to go in. I’m glad we did because it was really cool. We headed to the Sorcerer’s Workshop area, which is divided into three rooms. In one, you can look into Snow White’s stepmother’s mirror and hear it talk and see how animation works. In another, you can find out what princess you are most like (Cinderella, in my case, which seems very unlikely) and in the last and most fun part, you can sing part of a song or read a couple of lines of dialogue and hear it juxtaposed to part of the movie in question. We had a lot of fun doing that. It works better if you’ve seen the movies in question, but fortunately one of them was “The Lion King” which Mika really likes (unfortunately, we didn’t see any other Lion King references in either of the parks, Mika would have LOVED to meet Simba).
After that it was time to go and off we went.
In all, we had a great time and as I said above I’m looking forward to going again next year.