When we woke up this morning we were pretty tired from the amazing day of yesterday. But for today there was a whole planned for California Adventure, the 2nd park of the Disneyland Resort.

It was around 08:30h when we left the hotel and drove towards Disneyland Resort. There was not much traffic on the highway and from our hotel it’s only a 7-minute-drive to Disney. So we arrived at about 09:00h at the gate of California Adventure.

For the both of us this was going to be a new experience. First we walked to Cars Land to check out the waiting line for Radiator Springs Racer or get a Fastpass. Unfortunately there was a technical problem with the attraction so we had to wait. Next thing to do was getting a Fastpasses for World of Color, so we went to Grizzly Peak and got our passes for the 9 o’clock show.

We walked back in the direction of Paradise Pier and we saw that there was only a 5-minute waiting line at Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, so we went in there. It is a really cool dark-ride.

We walked further over Paradise Pier and saw huge waiting times about everywhere, so we decided to come back later. But we could taking pictures with Duffy and after that we had breakfast at the Pacific Wharf Cafe.

After we finished our breakfast we walked towards Hollywood Land, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to be exact. There was only a 25-minute wait and we had a lot of air-time (being lifted from your seat) during the ride. Then it was time to visit Mike and Sulley in Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue. This ride takes you to Monstropolis in a taxi and it’s really a nice ride.

Unfortunately Muppet Vision 3D was closed due to refurbishment and instead of this show they had an 8-minute preview of Frankenweenie, the new film by Tim Burton. A must-see for all Tim Burton fans.

At 11:40h the Aladdin musical started a the Hyperon Theatre. This musical is really a high-quality musical and genie is just genius!!! He makes the show!!

We looked at the park-plan and went towards the Condor Flats area. This area only knows one attraction, Soarin’ over California. We know this attraction already from Walt Disney World, but it makes more sense here.

The next attraction was one where we were going to get wet. And we got wet, or more soaked. To dry up we went to Paradise Pier again to do some attractions. We started with Golden Zephyr and then walked to California Screamin’. A roller coaster from which I always thought it’s a woody, but it is not. Above all a expectations it was great and also a long ride.

Then it was time for the Radiator Springs Racers. The waiting time shrunk to 75 minutes and we decided to go in the line. It was a long wait, but totally worth it!!

After this we took some picture and for something to eat and then it was time to get ready for World is Colors. We had the Fastpass from this morning and at 8 o’clock the blue area opened and we found a really good spot to watch to show. After another hour waiting to show started and it was amazing. The combination of music, fountains and laser is phenomenal and really worth the wait.

As soon as the show ended we could hear and see the fireworks from Mickey’s Halloween party at he Magic Kingdom. That’s also going to be something special for Tuesday.

We closed of our day back in Radiator Springs at Flo’s V8 Cafe with a famous milkshake and then it was time to go home.

We could not wait till today would start at 7:00 Danielle woke up from the alarm-clock, jumped out of bed, sprinted towards the bathroom, rushed into the shower and as soon as she turned of the shower I jumped out of bed, checked my mail, Facebook, whatsapp and took a shower. After getting dressed and packing the camera bag we went to the hotel restaurant for the free breakfast.

At 8:22 sharp we jumped in the car and about 23 minutes we walked towards the entrance from the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland Park.

Today is the first time we visit the first Disney theme-park ever build and the only one which Walt Disney himself had opened back in 1955.

After checking out the park map we found ourself a bit lost, the park has a little different layout as the Disneyland Parc in Paris and the Magic Kingdom in Orlando. But there are still a lot of rides and things we recognize. But where to start? We decide to go round against the clock but first we need to take some pictures of the tiny Sleeping Beauty castle in the center of the park.

The first rode of the day is the Enchanted Tikiroom, followed by the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. All three rides almost without having to wait. A nice thing in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is that they’ve upgraded it with personages from the movies, yes there are a couple Johnny Depp’s inside.

After the pirates we went to the Haunted Mansion, the haunted mansion is a ride which is placed in the New Orleans Square themed area of the park and had the special holiday overlay. At first we thought this was not a good thing but if overlays are done in the way this one is done I would say overlays every ride during the holiday season. The overlay was based on the nightmare before Christmas and there was themed music throughout the ride and theming everywhere.

The Splash Mountain was closed due to technical issues so we moved on to the Winnie the Pooh-ride which was very funny.

From there we went on to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad where we had the first real wait of the day, 35 minutes.   But than I had the idea to try-out FaceTime and we called Yves & Joke so they could join us. We had them on the phone throughout the ride to but then the connection broke down a couple times when we moved into tunnels. Following print screen I made on my iPhone during the call.

After BTM we moved on to It’s a Small World where I used FaceTime to call my sister and show here Fantasyland. She wants to go to Disneyland to but her fresh husband doesn’t want to go, 🙁 Okay, I’m not writing about Apple and the iPhone today but I have to say FaceTime is really easy to use. It’s a Small World was a real surprise with the Disney characters integrated in it.

From It’s a Small World we went to the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. This is also a new ride for us, you bore a moving submarine and explorer the underwater world and due to the newest technology we were able to understand where the fish are talking about. We got back on land hungry so we decided to get something to eat at the Tomorrowland Terrace. Full with energy again we helped Buzz Lightyear save the planet.

We were really close to the entrance of Star Tours: The Adventure Continues and the waiting line was only 25 minutes so we waited to see this (for us) new ride where you fly around somewhere in outer-space. The simulator is really smooth and the 3D effects are really great. From there we went on to Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy. This is a special Halloween version. To relax a bit from the last 3 rides we walked through Innoventions and rode Autopia (5 minutes waiting time).

Than it was time for oldie, the Matterhorn. It opened in 1959 as the first tubular steel continuous track roller coaster in the world. And you can feel it’s old because it felt painful so much I was happy the ride was over at the end.

From there we walked into Fantasyland where we did the dark rides Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride,  Snow White Scary Adventures and Pinocchio’s Daring Journey. We also did the walkthrough attraction in the Sleeping Beauty Castle. And before we went to look for a good spot for the Mickey’s Soundsational Parade we ate pizza at the Village House Restaurant in Fantasyland. On our way to Town Square we visited some shops and we finally found a nice spot for the parade too. The parade was a lot of fun with loud music.

As soon as the last float of the parade passed us we went back into the park to ride Alice in Wonderland which is a nicely done darkride in Fantasyland. From there we went straight to Toontown. Toontown is a real toony place with all the houses of the fabulous 5 and some other Disney Characters. Since it was already late the area was empty and we did  the Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin and Gadget Go Coaster. The Roger Rabbit ride was awesome. We also visited Mickey Mouse house and we were lucky since he was at home so we took a picture together with him.

After this picture we went to Downtown Disney were Danielle bought a sweater because it cools down fast at night. Than it was time to go back to the hotel. We waited a bit for the tram to the parking garage. When we arrived home we went for something to small to eat at the nearby Starbucks.