- Day 5 ~ California Adventure -

On Thursday morning we got up at 8:00 and got ready for another exciting day in Disneyland.  However, today we decided to just stay in California Adventure.   As soon as the park opened, we could see the line for the fast passes on the Cars Racer ride was quite long.  We debated back and forth on whether to get in line now or wait til later, but the line seemed to be moving fast and we thought get it now while we are here, that way we can go on and move to other rides.  Plus, Eric had security after him with his pocketknife.  While he was at the entrance of Disneyland, the employees saw that he had a pocket knife so Eric was asked to remove his knife and take it back to our room. Not only were they serious, they had 2 guards follow him out of the park! After a while, we called him and heard his story we just decided to go on without him.  So then Grandma JoAnn decided to go stand in line, and much to our surprise our passes were good for the Cars Racer ride between 6:45 to 7:45 pm that night.  So glad that we got them when we did, or else we would have had to wait in the regular line, which would have taken forever.

First thing we did was went to the Bugs Life 3D movie.  This is so cute and it just is amazing how they are able to create such a show that seems so real.  Tyra didn't care for this, especially when the spiders dropped from the ceiling and Ally was afraid of the bugs that ran on the seats, but we all walked away laughing.  After this, they decided to go hit the "scary" rides while the lines were short.  They decided to started at Tower Of Terror. I do not do good with those type of things so I stayed back with the Trey, Ally, Maddie, and Tyra and took them on the little kid rides in Bug's Life, while Jen, McKenna, Eric, Jeremy, Rod, and JoAnn went on Tower Of Terror. They wanted to keep going on the Tower Of Terror but it was after noon and the girls had their princess lunch scheduled for 1:00, so there wasn't enough time to do it all.  

Jen, Maddie, McKenna, and Ally, were the ones that went to the princess lunch.  I am so grateful that Jen made these reservations so the girls could have a chance to meet and greet with Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, and  Sleeping Beauty.  While the girls were eating their lunch at Ariel's Grotto, Trey and I went and met up with a couple of characters like Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and Donald Duck, and then he rode King Titon's carousel.  It worked out good that he and I were together so Rod, JoAnn, Eric and Jeremy could go get in on the Screamin' California ride.  I have to say that I got some funny pictures of those four on the countdown before the ride blasts off.

After the girls were done they decided to catch up on all the rides, so they went on Screamin' California once again with everyone else. After that, McKenna, Trey, JoAnn, Rod, and Jen went on Mickey's Swinging Ferris Wheel. This ride was crazy, they sat in a swinging cart versus the non-swinging.  They were all really really glad to get off, in fact, Jen said that this was the worst ride that she had ever been on.   

We spent the rest of the day in Cars Land and Bug's Life.  By now it was nearing 5:00 pm, so we decided to go to Buena Vista street to watch the Pixar Parade. I just love the parades that Disney puts on.  The music, the dancers, the characters are all so cute.  Even the light post spray bubbles to add to the atmosphere.  We ended up grabbing a little bite to eat and then went and got in on our fast pass for Cars.  This by far was my favorite ride.  It puts six of you in a car and takes you through Radiator Springs; it feels like you are right in the movie.  Before you know it, they have two cars lined up and you are racing up and down through the hills of Radiator Springs.  It takes your breathe away, but I loved every minute of it!

Today we were able to ride the following rides:  Cars Racers, Screamin' Californina, King Triton's Carousel, Monsters, Tower of Terror, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, Lady Bug, Maters Junkyard Jamboree, Soarin' over California, Goofy's Sky School, Jumpin' Jellyfish, Little Mermaid, Mickey's Fun Wheel.

 We were able to meet Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Buzz Lightyear, Donald Duck, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale.  All so fun!