Day 2 of Disneyland was a long one. We got there at 9, took about half an hour to get through security and the front doors, and then met up with our friends to go immediately to meet Jack and Sally since the line was going to get crazy fast.
We did stop first to take a picture in front of the entrance garden and I will tell you now: buy the $10 Maxpass for your ticket. Do it. It's totally, completely worth it.
Not only do you get to do Fastpasses, which are limited passes that will hold or "reserve" your space in line for a specific ride at a specific time but you also get free Photopass downloads! All over the parks are scenic spots where people usually take pictures so Disney went ahead and put professional photographers there. You line up, take a picture, and they'll scan the barcode in your Disney app and in about 20 minutes all the pictures they took are linked in your App and available for download.
It's pretty damn amazing. And some of them do AR photos and will put in characters or affects. Alex got this amazing one with her family around a cauldron and they're holding a poison apple. It's pretty darn cool and you end up with a ton of good photos.
Moving on tho.
Unfortunately, Sally wasn't there when we went to see them but Jack was pretty amazing. He's super interactive and pretty damn amazing. When Alex went to talk to him, he ended up doing a "trick" and made her scream which was hilarious. He talked to me about my Poison Apple fastener and my hair and Rony about his outfit. He was just so wonderful.
We took individual pictures and then a group photo and then wandered around the French Quarter. One of my favorite things is that sometimes the characters just roam around outside of their picture spots and in character, may chat with you. While we were outside the restaurant we saw Dr. Facilier from Princess and the Frog and then Jack came around with Sally this time and walked around. The first day we saw Alice and the Mad Hatter which was pretty cool.
First we got some bigneits and mint juleps and then got actual food. The lines are separate so we had to order them from different spots. They had a special Halloween bigneit flavor, which we obviously got, and Alex got regular. Both were Mickey shaped but mine was Dreamsicle flavored. While delicious, it was super super sweet and I may have ate too many.
Alex was in charge of Fastpasses so we road Pirates of the Carribean, Space Mountain, the Toy Story little mini-game ride, and Space Tours. In between we would stop for treats or shopping or what have not. It was a lot of running around.
I still got ride anxiety, especially after Guardians of the Galaxy, but it wasn't that bad. I actually enjoyed the Halloween version of Space Mountain even if everyone didn't really and despite my face in the picture.
Ride pictures are the worst.
We happened to find the Coco area and caught the mariachi performers and dance they had there. It was super neat to see traditional dances, the skeleton puppeteers, and the fact they had an all female mariachi group performing. The Plaza is GORGEOUS. There's marigolds everywhere, alters, folklore and background about the traditions, and Mexican food. I enjoyed not only seeing my culture so respectfully displayed but celebrated and getting to see everyone else's reaction.
Also the food was freaking delicious. Just saying.
Inside the plaza they had a little area where you could get your face painted for free, buy a handmade flower crown, or write a memory of a loved one and add it to a chain in the memory wall. I think that part was my favorite and yes, I did get a little teary eyed. You could read other people's memories or messages for their loved ones and it was very bittersweet.
In the back area was actually a Tree of Life sculpture/wall with sculpted flowers, statues, and decorations. They had a very sweet photographer there who took our picture and we even did an AR photo with the grandfather from Coco. The whole thing was fun and beautiful and it's definitely one of my top favorite spots in all of Disneyland and California Adventure.
We went and did some more rides and then me and Rony went off on our own and explored. The sun was setting and we took advantage of a photopass spot in front of the Ferris wheel that turned out beautiful.
I'm gonna be honest, I haven't seen the Cars movies. I had little to no interest in the movies. BUT holy shit, did they go all out to decorate Carsland and it was pretty freaking amazing. They fully redid the area.
All the places in Carsland were decked out in Halloween gear. The cones were turned into Jack-o-lanters, there were gas can pumpkin patches, and the pumpkins were made out of tires. It looked incredible at night! They even had a Dia de los Muertos area with an alter inside.
And yes, that is a Vampire Mater. It drove passed us and even talked.
(Did you notice that Rony finally got his orange bat light up Mickey ears? Yep, we found them and everyone cheered)
We met back up with Alex and I found my bat sundae I had saw online. Holy shit, it was delicious but soooooooooo much chocolate. Those cookies were soft tho.
California Adventure is pretty cool and feels kinda more like a shopping area than food and rides. I wish we had more time to explore. We didn't quite get to do everything like the Cars rides, but we'll save that for next time.
Alex and her family decided to go to the fireworks and we went to World of Color. On our way into the park, two girls stopped us and gave us tickets since they were leaving early. I had no clue what it was, but she actually gave us two reserved spots along the water so we didn't have to find a spot in general admission.
Unfortunately, no one told anyone, but since they had canceled the Halloween fireworks the night before they decided to do them on Saturday! We were already at World of Color and we missed the freaking Halloween fireworks. Later, we looked it up on Youtube and uggggggggggggggh they were amazing.
But World of Color was amazing too so we would have lost no matter what. Stupid wind.
World of Color is pretty much California Adventure's end show. They shoot water into the air and project colors or movie scenes onto them with music. Sometimes they make giant sheets of water and it's almost like a projection screen.
At some points they even shot fire out and we were so close that the heat was almost overwhelming.
I'm glad we got to see the show and thanks to the girl who gave us the tickets. Even though my feet were on fire from walking two days in a way, it was an unforgettable day. I had so much fun and loved getting to spend the day with Rony and my friends.
It took all day, but we finally got to take a picture in front of the Mickey pumpkin and it was pretty adorable and a good way to end the night. Our feet hurt, we were tired, and Rony was entirely decked out in orange light up gear, but everything was perfect.
Sunday we would be going to Universal Studios so we walked through Downtown Disney after close and said goodbye to Disney. I think calling it the Happiest Place on Earth is pretty accurate.
Stay tuned for the last part of our vacation trip :)
-Sam <3