Lisa's Letters from La La Land: Fast Cars, Flouro's and Fountains....

( get comfy, this turned out to be an epistle... )

Up early again today, and the group assembled to visit Disney California Adventure for the first time of this trip… and for most of our group – first time ever.

But given the changes that have occurred to this park in the last 5 years, almost half the park is vastly different from the last time I saw it as well.

The changes are not subtle either –

*the huge letters out the front of the park – gone.

*the ‘post card from California’ theme of the entry way to the park( which I loved) – gone, replaced by the same era that Walt himself encountered California for the first time – a little Santa Fe like with beautifully detailed mosaic seating.

*The introduction of the Red Car Trolley.

To name but a few.

*All the little curio shops at the entrance of the park – gone, replaced by one huge Five n’ Dime store that on the outside looked like lots of stores, but inside, one feeds into the other , presumably for easy spending. Actually, this is very similar to the Emporium in Disneyland across the road.

So, once we were all safely through the new Xanadu-like turnstiles, past Oswalds Tires ( a nod to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – and the only place you could actually buy Oswald Ear hats… which I contemplated buying the entire trip), we headed towards the most popular section of the park – the new Cars Land, with all our park tickets gathered for a mad dash for fast passes, we waited by the entry to the new fabled land for an excruciatingly long time for Jeannette to surface with our precious fast passes ( for which we were all VERY grateful – because without them, getting to ride today would have been hours long or just ‘forget it’ stage).

At this stage, our group split with many going off to explore whichever part of the park was calling their name. For me, there was no question… I had heard so much about Cars Land that I could wait not a second longer and turned my heels towards Radiator Springs and all its photographic and souvenir-acquiring opportunities with my heart beating a little faster than it should.

This new land is truly immersive, and took my breath away, despite having seen many, many photos – it still was a work of genius. You truly were entering Radiator Springs when you walk down the road stamped with Route 66. There’s the Cozy Cone motel( each cone sells a different snack food), Flo’s V8 diner, Luigi's tires ( yes, I know that is spelled the American way – and this was actually the entry point of another ride) and Ramone's Body Works- which fittingly, was a store where you could pimp yourself or your ride… There are of course, more recognisable landmarks, but this is what took my attention first.

So I wandered along, taking what would be the first of MANY photos of Cars Land, and realised that the lines for every ride were already way past what I was willing to spend in a hot sweaty line. So the shops beckoned and I did a little ‘detailing’ before heading out to explore elsewhere in the park to fill in time before I could ride Cars with my Fast pass.

As it was still relatively early in the day, I headed to ride another favourite ride – Soaring. Then hit the gift shop to embark on my pin collecting campaign. Then it was a wander down towards Hollywood Studios, naturally stopping into all the shops along the way.

When I got to Tower of Terror, I was delighted to find it a walk on, and before I knew it, I was strapped in, and being dropped more stories than I care to think about… and loving every second of it.

Then it was a short cut through Bugs Land to wander the new changes at the Pacific Wharf eateries and then another new ride for me – The Little Mermaid… which again, lucky for me, was a walk on.

I LOVED this ride… its very simple in its concept, but there are some really sophisticated elements that lift it out of the ordinary and make it memorable… I took the opportunity to ride it again seeing as it was so quick to load.

In the Ariel gift store, I overheard a conversation that reminded me about the space shuttle relocation that was supposed to happen over the past ¾ of an hour… but still hadn’t… and it was then that I noticed almost EVERY park goer gathered around the pier to get the best vantage point for viewing. What a hot crush that would have been… The temps today were very high 30 C and I was glad I hadn’t stood there all that time. The excitement and patriotism was palpable and truly, I could have been at a 4^th of July march with the vibe that was pulsing through the crowds.

As it was near our meet up time, I headed back to the ‘spot’ and most of the girls were there waiting in the shade. And then it happened….

I heard this wave ( and that is the only way I can describe it, a increasingly loud wave of clapping and cheering) sweep through the crowd coming towards to me and I looked up, ( and for some reason pointed my camera where I was looking) and directly overhead flew the space shuttle on the back of a plane, so unbelievably low that I really didn’t need too much zoom to get the both planes in my sights.

One of those ‘where were you when’ moments, and something I’ll never forget. The tears and emotions gushing all around me were infectious and I felt part of something WAY bigger than myself.

Once the excitement had dissipated a little, we headed down towards Radiator Springs Racers to ride for the first time, only to find when we got there, that the ride was ‘down’ for who knows how long. So we decided to snack and then try again.

While a few of us snacked, the others tried their luck again, but with the ride still down, we all went our separate ways vowing to try again later. While I sat there in the shade, tucked around the back of Flo’s cafe with Jacqui, Sue and Deb, we were lucky enough to have Mater drive right past us as he was heading back to the garage, and the camera’s came out and got some great shots.

We checked again to see if the ride was ‘up’ but alas, it wasn’t, so we headed to Tower of Terror for Jacq and Sue to ride with me for their first time. That was seriously fun and I had two converts by the time we exited into the gift store.

The girls headed to see the Aladdin Show while I went over to check out the Mad Hatters T Party venue - a grown up playground that comes alive after dark - making a mental note to NOT miss coming back here and experiencing the fun before I left.

After riding Monsters Inc, and sitting in on Turtle time with Crush, and checking out the stop motion exhibit of the new movie Frankenweenie, I made my way back to Cars Land but nope, the ride was still ‘down’ so I made my mind up to ride some of the other headliners.

All this walking around was exhausting in this heat but I was determined to ride a few more rides before taking a break.

So off to Screamin’ I went – nope… ride down.

Off to Toy Story Mania – nope… ride down.

By this time, I was getting a bit hot under the collar, so what does one do then? One shops!!!

Into the air-conditioned deliciousness that are all the shops on the Disney resort, and I shopped my little heart out… buying my first ever Duffy and picking out his traditional sailor costume to dress him in. Along with other Halloween goodies, my ‘Glow with the Show’ ear hat for tonight’s viewing of World of Colour and multiple other things I couldn’t live without.

Heading back to try my luck at Cars Land again, I stumbled upon a little ‘mini-show’ with Goofy conducting the fountains in the lake to music… it was short and sweet, but I was glad I didn’t miss it.

Back to Cars Land, and this time Radiator Springs Racers was UP!!! And because I had a fast pass, it was honoured and I zoomed past many many folk with dour looks on their faces( who had no doubt been there a long while) on my way to the very short wait to the ride of the day. And who should wander in about 15 people after me? Sandie and Jeannette, so I waited for them to catch up and we rode the ride together, squished into the little yellow car and loved every second of it.

All too soon, we had zoomed our way around the track through Ornament Valley and putting in a good showing for Team DUD, we won our race convincingly.

Then it was onto Maters Tractor ride for myself and Jeannette which was surprisingly rough and I couldn’t take photos cos I was too busy hanging on for dear life and making sure I didn’t get flung out of the cabin on what was mercifully a very short ride.

The light was starting to fade and all the girls met up once again, for our pre-paid World of Colour picnic dinner and priority standing space.

With nearly an hour between dinner and the show, I wandered pack down to Cars Land to get some shots of the neon signs that the land is famous for – and they didn’t disappoint – and then, thinking I’d get a good spot for photos, headed straight to area ‘yellow’ to stake our claim… little did I know, that many had the same thought and I got a spot at the back of the section, but with a little manoeuvring managed to get myself and Jacqui up to the railing to make the most of our photo opps.

Words fail me to try and describe this show. Essentially, it’s a massive curtain of water, with other jets spraying in unison in various other directions that are all lit in appropriate and often multi coloured hues, or have movie clips projected onto them, in a seamless extravaganza of water, light music and movies.

Yes, you do get a little wet, even at the back, but the whole thing is mesmerizing, and my photos really really didn’t do it justice. Even having taken over 655 photos today alone, there were only a couple I was happy with from this show, it was so difficult to capture moving water. Also the kids on their parents shoulders didn’t do much for my shots either.

The crush of humanity leaving the park when it was all over is truly overwhelming, but sadly, there is nothing for it, but to throw yourself into the forward traveling mass and try not to trip over in the process.

Another night where one falls into bed knowing that the morning is going to come waaaaay too soon.