We got up early for our first day which was going to be at Disneyland. The park opens at 8:00a but if you want to get in one of the big rides early you need to be there by about 7:00a. The park is fully open with no mask restriction but things aren't quite back to normal. You had to sign-up well in advance and the days we are here are actually 'full'. The one restriction was that you had to stay in your designated park until at least 1:00p. They opened the gates at 7:30a and we made it down to Main Street and waited for full opening at 8:00a.
Our first ride was 'Rise of the Resistance' and it did not disappoint. The line up starts off fairly normal but there are several staging areas before you even start the ride so it felt like the ride was over 10 minutes long. The staff are all in character and we were quickly taken over by the 'First Order'. At one point you get to walk through the hanger bay of a Star Destroyer. Those are life sized storm troopers ushering you on to your destination. My favorite part was the battle scene where you are flying under life sized Imperial Walkers. We definitely want to make it back on that ride.
Disney has gone a direction I'm not trilled about. I always liked that they had a 'Fast Pass' option that was open to everyone. There was no pass that allowed you to buy your way to the front of the line. That has changed with their new 'Genie' pass that 'opens doors'. I don't like it but of course we had to get it. It allows us to sign up for the shorter line throughout the day. We figure we'll get to use it about 4-6 times each day. Our first ride was 'Smuggler's Run'. Still a great ride but paled in comparison to 'Rise of the Resistance'.
Callie insisted our next ride be Pooh Bear. At least we didn't have to there first like on previous trips. We would ordinarily go to Pirates next but it was closed for refurbishment. We're somewhat surprised at how many rides are closed right now. I had hoped they would have used their one year of downtime to do all this maintenance work but maybe they didn't get as much done as they wanted or maybe it was all done and they are just all due for maintenance at a similar time. Instead we went over to Tom Sawyers island which we often don't make it to.
We finished up Disneyland with Star Tours and Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain is going to be rebranded in the next couple years so this will probably be the last time we get to ride it as it was originally designed. It's based on 'Song of the South' which is wildly racist and although none of that comes across in the ride, Disney has still decided to change things up. I don't recall what they plan to do but it doesn't hurt to refresh things. They do that on many of their rides. I kind of hope they keep 'Zippity Do Dah' but that might go too.
After a rest at the hotel we headed back to the park. This is where you have the option of going back to the park you started at or switching. We decided we would switch to California Adventure. The weather is absolutely perfect for me. It's been about 12 degrees in the morning which is just warm enough to not wear a jacket until it warms up. It gets up to 25 or 28 during the peak of the day which we spend by the pool and then it cools down again when we return. There is also no risk of rain while we are here.
Although we weren't planning on any rides, we were excited to be checking out the new Avengers Campus which is where Disney is setting up their Marvel rides. It took over the old 'Bugs Land' which is a bit sad. I miss the Heimlich Chew Chew train. The new area looks great. We saw Thor, Loki and Ant Man and the lighting was great at night. Our plan is to go to the new 'Web Slingers' ride first thing tomorrow. We noticed there are new rules for interacting with characters. All hands off which is why Thor and Lok were on a balcony and Ant Man was in the back of a truck.
We took advantage of our special pass to book the Toy Story ride. I was surprised when Callie said she didn't want to ride with me because I was too competitive. The ride involves shooting imaginary balls at targets to get a score. I'm happy to say I managed to get high score for the family. Having said that I was no where close to high score for the month or even the hour. Not sure how they do it. I think I need to up my accuracy and find more of the bonus plates. Carter had to ride with me and he wasn't happy he couldn't beat me. He wants a rematch.
Disneyland has a great policy for the end of the evening. All rides are open right up until the minute closing. If you can make it to the line in time, they will let you finish the ride regardless of how long it takes to get through everyone. We managed to get to the Cars ride with only a couple minutes to spare. At one point there was no one in line behind us though a few did show up a bit later. The Cars ride is a lot of fun at night and the weather was great for it. It gets quite fast and is outside. Wouldn't want to do it in the rain.
Day one ended with us being some of the last people to exit the park. We got to walk through Avengers Campus with no one around and got some fun pictures of the park empty. Close out is only 10:00p for California Adventure so I think we were leaving around 10:45p. Disneyland is open until midnight which might be too late for me. Tomorrow we switch things up and start in California Adventure and end in Disneyland.
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