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California Adventure Review
Overall 4.00 of 5
(by 1 user)
Disney's California Adventure Has Some Great Rides!
family traveler, fun-loving dad, seeker of fun and interesting places
| Pros |
|
DEC
8
2007
I loved California Adventure, and ended up preferring it over the much more popular Disneyland / Magic Kingdom park. The reason was simple: rides. I love rides, and so do my kids. At Disneyland, there's some cool rides, but the lines are often ridiculously long and the thrill factor far lower than the rides over at California Adventure.
California Adventure is also the newer, cleaner park with wider walkways and more open areas. The rides are all state-of-the-art, so mechanical breakdowns don't happen nearly as often as in Disneyland. The lines are often shorter to begin with, plus they have single-rider lines on many rides, giving flexible adventurers the chance at genuine "bang for the buck" in terms of pure riding time.
Most importantly, the rides in California are EXCELLENT and there's a whole lot of thrills in store for anybody who spends a day in the park. Here's a few of my picks for best rides in California Adventure:
- California Screamin': Awesome steel coaster, it's fast and impossibly smooth, even through the sharpest turns or in the inverted loop through Mickey's head. Lines move well, there's a Single Rider line and Fast Pass. This coaster lacks the rough edges that make a classic wood coaster so thrilling, but there's something to be said for rocketing through a coarse like this one without a jolt or a jar.
- Grizzly River Rafting: Your classic whitewater rafting ride, but done a bit better than similar rides I've been on at places like Six Flags, Busch Gardens, or Universal Studios. What makes Grizzly River Rafting better is simply a much higher likelihood that you really will be walking off the ride soaked to your skin. (Hint: If you want to stay dry, bring a poncho and try to get one of the inside seats --- the seats next to the entry opening stand the best chance of getting soaked.) Two excellent drops give this ride plenty of thrills.
- Soarin' Over California: Flight simulation that kind of reminds me of the classic Imax flick, To Fly. Not too much real motion --- it's pretty gentle --- though some seats get an occasional whiff of scenic scents (though having ridden this at least 4 times, I can tell you that some seats don't get the "scent"). If the line is over 30 minutes, do the Fast Pass --- the single rider line doesn't buy you much on this attraction.
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: How scary could a mere elevator ride be? Well, step into the Hollywood Tower and you'll find out! (Gets pretty crowded after an hour or two, so use a Fast Pass option here).
Even though California Adventure will probably appeal most to a teen, there's some fun stuff for the little kids too. Ariel's Grotto is a popular character dining spot, though the prices are outrageous and reservations are required. Still, I know a lot of little girls with Little Mermaid fixes, and this will be a required lunch stop. For little kids, the Bugs Life area will be a winner. They have a 3-D simulation show, a handful of toddler-oriented rides, and a small splash park area. Over in the Paradise Pier area there's some more attractions that will appeal to the short crowd: I think the Golden Zephyr should be especially good for the 6 and under crowd. It looks big, but it's a very gentle ride.
As with any theme park, you need a strategy if you're going to maximize the thrills. Get to the park early, hit popular rides like Soaring Over California and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, then head over to Grizzly River Rafting and ride it a few consecutive times until the line starts edging up to the 20 minute wait point, then either start doing single-rider lines, or start using your FastPass: both strategies work for at most of the popular rides, and we found that the California Screamer lines moved very well considering how excellent the coaster really was.
Food and drink in the park aren't that great, but we found some palatable food and some excellent beer (from Karl Strauss, no less) over in the Wharf area. Otherwise, we were glad for the Downtown Disney area right near the entrance so we could grab something a little tastier than theme park food when the hunger pangs hit.
I loved spending a day at California Adventure. They had a great variety of excellent rides, very clean facilities, and shorter lines than the main Disneyland park. The only down side was that the park closed at 9pm whereas Disneyland was open til midnight on the weekend we were there. And of course, official info and all that jazz is on the web: www.disneyland.com
RECOMMENDED!
Last edited on Apr 17, 2008
California Adventure is recommended by mrkstvns
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