Santa and his reindeer in Disney California Adventure's Hollywood Land
The second day of our Disneyland vacation was dedicated to Disney California Adventure (DCA), the most recent park in the Disneyland resort area. I've read in various places that DCA has pretty extensive holiday decorations and they did not disappoint! The Christmas tree on Buena Vista Street was so big that I couldn't fit it into a picture. Most surprising, though, was Cars Land. I was incredibly impressed with their ability to make the Christmas decorations also Cars themed, which doesn't seem like an easy task.
We were also lucky enough to finally obtain Fastpass tickets to Radiator Springs Racers. I've always resigned myself to the single-rider line (which usually has a 20-30 minute wait) but was happy to find that at 10:30am we were able to get a Fastpass for 6:35pm. I am also not a huge character meet-and-greet fan but I noticed that the lines to see Lightning McQueen and Mater were not nearly as long as I've seen them on previous trips.
We enjoyed lunch at the newly redesigned Smokejumper's Grill (formerly known as Taste Pilots Grill), which is home to my favorite chicken sandwich on the planet. We also picked up a Diamond Celebration cupcake at Fiddler Fifer and Practical Cafe, which was promptly devoured.
Orange cupcake with chocolate crunchy pearls, mixed berry filling, cream cheese Bavarian mousse, blue buttercream trim and a chocolate diamond
Although lunch was delicious, we were most impressed with the World of Color dining package at Wine Country Trattoria. I've previously dined at Ariel's Grotto for the same package (not recommended) so I was hesitant to corner us into a package deal again, but Wine Country Trattoria won me over. I started with the Skywalker Pinot Noir (because of the name, duh) and a scrumptious salad with goat cheese and figs.
Our entrees included the filet mignon with herb-roasted potatoes and sauteed green beans and Osso Buco with polenta and asparagus.
Filet Mignon
Osso Buco
We definitely left the restaurant feeling very full so we had to walk off some of the meal. It was during this stroll that we stumbled upon one of DCA's holiday celebrations, the Disney Viva Navidad Street Party! It's a festive parade of dancers, a float with the Three Caballeros, and a mariachi band. Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, you can't deny the happiness that accompanies every Disneyland event.
The Three Caballeros in the Disney Viva Navidad Street Party
Finally it was time to wind down our night and we did so by securing our seats in the World of Color wet zone. There are two World of Color shows right now, Winter Dreams and Celebrate! (for the Diamond Celebration) but we were only able to stick it out for the Winter Dreams show because the temperature was dropping and it was starting to rain.
As the picture indicates, there was a lot of Olaf in the Winter Dreams show, which disappointed me just a bit. I love "Frozen" as much as the next Disney fan but I feel the original World of Color offering is a more inclusive mix of Disney favorites.
We ended our trip with a relaxing day at Huntington Beach and Balboa Island (Newport Beach) and dinner in Downtown Disney at Rainforest Cafe. We had adequate time to browse the shops and even picked out the first authentic Disney Parks ornament for our new Christmas collection. Downtown Disney is also decorated for the holidays, complete with carolers, but the festivities don't come alive until the evening. Here I've attached a picture of Olaf's Frozen Ice Rink although it was closed at the time that I took the picture:
It was a quick five-day turnaround but I think it gave us plenty of time to enjoy all that Disneyland has to offer. Feel free to share your experience in the comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment