California Adventure

We decided on our third day to take a break from Disneyland and see what was at Disney's California Adventure. The park opens at 10am so we were going to sleep in but the boys were still up pretty early. We had to be at the gates at 8:30am to wait in line so we could be in the front to wait in yet another line.
The way it works is the front gait opens at 9:30am and you have to walk (not run, ha ha!) back to the Fast Pass station to get World of Color passes for the show. It's a new show so they've had to use the Fast Pass system to manage the crowds. Then after you get your pass you have to wait in front of a rope until 10am for the rest of the park to open.
We were about 4th in line when the gate opened so I sent Jeff ahead to get us our passes so I didn't have to fight through with a stroller. I thought I'd wait at the rope for him but it turns out he was at the other side at a different rope which was closer to the Toy Story ride which is what we we're planning to ride first. Jeff went up to the rope to ask a Cast member directions to where he was so I could find him and the lady behind him was really rude and verbal about him going to the back since she was obviously very worried about him staying there to be first. That experience sort of set a bad vibe for our whole day there at California Adventure. The whole park just didn't have the same magical, warm feeling Disneyland does, plus we already fought through two mass herds to get Fast Passes and in line at the rope, add in the rude lady...and the park hadn't even opened yet!
The Toy Story shooting gallery was pretty awesome (it's even in 3D!) but after we got out the line was so massive that we only dared ride it once. We went to the Bugs Life kid ride area but they were obviously made for timid, nervous little kids because it was laughable how slow they all went. Harrison was an inch too short for the bumper cars but seeing how slow they went, I would hardly call it bumping- more like tapping! We didn't stay there long.


The really slow "bumper" car ride James did. Most of the time they just stayed in one place since it was hard to make them move very far or fast.

When Jeff was running to get Fast Passes in the morning we stopped to take pictures with Lightning McQueen since no one was there. It was hard to keep Harrison still since he kept running to the back to touch the tires.
James was even brave enough to ride the Tower of Terror and I took a picture of the screen after their ride came through. Jeff is in the green in the front row and James is next to him.

We decided to wait in line for the Aladdin show since we read great things about it. Jeff got in line while I went to park our stroller since they made me take it down the street to a special place. When I got back they had closed the Orchestra section line he was in and wouldn't let me get to him since it was full. They have exact counts so they couldn't let me in but would make Jeff come back to the upper section line. Our kids were both sad and hungry and we were both annoyed so after deciding to leave the Cast member offered us VIP passes for the next show. That gesture sort of made up for the negative experience we had in the park so far.
We had time to eat lunch before the next show so we found an out of the way eating area and got mayo and mustard from a food cart for our sandwiches. After two days of eating the in the park I was so tired of burgers and fries for lunch and dinner. Plus it was costing about $30 each meal. Last night I found an Albertson's and bought sandwich stuff, chips, yogurt and fruit to eat for lunch the rest of the week. Our hotel has a mini fridge and we've been bringing a small cooler in the park every day so it worked out great.
While standing in line for the Aladdin show we talked with the family in front of us who happened to be from Beaverton, Oregon. The woman soon asked if we were LDS and said she could just tell. It turns out her husband is the seminary teacher for the Beaverton area and we passed the time pretty quickly chatting with them. They even gave us tips on where to sit once we got in the theatre so we were right where the cast comes marching in for a big parade with huge elephant and camel puppets.

World of Color was AWESOME!!
I would have to say all the craziness and waiting to see the show was worth it. The show was to start at 9pm so we got there at 7pm thinking we had plenty of time. There was already a huge crowd gathered at the roped off area waiting to get in. They finally let us through at 7:30pm and we rushed to the colored section on our Fast Pass. We read on the internet the best view was in the front dock section so that's where we rushed. Our blue section was roped off so we couldn't go to the center section, just the section to the side of center stage.
We were very discouraged to learn we wouldn't be able to come and go because once they reached their max capacity they wouldn't let anyone in even if you had previously been admitted. I was planning to save places for us while Jeff took the boys around to keep them busy until showtime. On top of that we were told that at 8pm we would all have to stand so they could fit more people. We were dreading the hour and a half wait keeping our tired kids contained and engaged.
We started chatting with a group of guys from Northern California who were standing behind us who had just got out of school and it really made the time go fast. They all had a fun time joking about the pre-show hosts "Steve" and "Sherrie" and the cheesy song they sang. They kept singing the same lyrics "Something, something, something good" and we wondered if they just kept forgetting the words to the song. One cool thing were these giant lighted puppets of characters that were walking around the crowd.
With so many people our boys were confined to a small space and everyone around us thought Harrison was so cute and were calling him by name before the night was over. It wasn't such a miserable wait like I pictured and was actually pretty fun.

When the show finally started it was hard to put into words a description of what we saw. It was like the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas meets a drive in movie in Technicolor being powered by giant fire hoses. I was in awe of the effects they could do in water! These fountains would shoot hundreds of feet in the air in bright colors and somehow water would spray sideways across the top and make it look like waves of glitter. Then scenes from Disney movies were projected on misted screens of water. We were pretty close to the front so we were constantly being misted and sprayed with water. We had been told we'd get wet and they were even selling ponchos during the pre-show but we didn't think we'd get that wet, wrong! After these amazing scenes of water they shot up huge flames of fire out of the water that never seemed to end! It just kept coming and burning and we had to turn away it was so bright and hot.
Here's what was technically happening:
"The story and special effects are created with nearly 1,200 powerful and programmable fountains with heights ranging from 30 feet to 200 feet (50 feet higher than Mickey's Fun Wheel). Each fountain has multiple points of control to direct the lighting, color intensity, water angle and height. Featured is one of the world's largest projected water screens--a wall of water 380 feet wide by 50 feet high for a projection surface of 19,000 square feet. There are nearly 30 high-definition projectors-- 14 of them submersible; synchronized flame projections, lasers and special effects; and a soundtrack performed by more than 100 musicians."
All of this combined to make one breathtaking, amazing show. The boys were actually awake for most of the show but both were asleep before we even left the park. Harrison pulled the sun shade down and leaned his head forward to sleep. You can see from their jackets how wet we were.