Hello again everyone! I’m back for part 2 of our #epicparkhop day! If you missed part 1, you can check it out here!
We arrived at the airport 2 hours prior to our 4:30PM flight, and getting through security was a breeze (we’ve heard it’s not always this way at MCO, but it turns out early afternoon flights must not bad). We planned the entire day so meticulously, we knew that only a significant delay in our flight could derail our #epicparkhop.
Luckily, our flight was on time, and we even had plenty of time to rest in the terminal (charge our phones, stretch our legs, call family/friends). Our flight took off at 4:34PM EST, and we were excited to be on our way!
The flight itself was not the best I’ve ever had. The seats weren’t very comfortable, and Clark and I were both in middle seats five rows apart seated near the back of the plane (trying to save money of course, but had I done it over again, I would have sprung a few extra bucks to sit together). The flight was about 5.5 hours, and we both had intentions of trying to get some shuteye on the trip. The uncomfortable setup and the anticipation of Disneyland precluded us from doing that, unfortunately. Getting off the plane, the very little sleep was catching up to me and I felt myself dragging a bit. Good news though – I picked right up when we arrived at Disneyland!
The time change going west meant the net travel time for our cross-country flight was only a couple hours. We landed at 6:35PM PST, and by 7:08PM, we were on an Uber headed to Disneyland. Traffic was not too bad, fortunately, and we arrived in a timely manner.
If you are used to Walt Disney World, approaching Disneyland for the first time can be a little weird. It’s on a main road, and nothing really signifies the entrance besides a small (by WDW standards) marquee. Our Uber driver dropped us off right in front of the marquee (we took a picture there at 8:01PM), and we proceeded to bag check.
The two parks at Disneyland Resort (Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park) are literally right next to each other and only separated by a courtyard referred to as the “Esplanade.” To make things easy for parkhoppers, security and bag check are situated before you enter the courtyard. Consequently, you can freely go from park to park only having to go through the ticket entrance, a real advantage over park hopping at Walt Disney World.
Given it was just a little after 8PM, and California Adventure was open till 10PM (Disneyland Park till midnight), we already knew success was well in hand for our #epicparkhop challenge. This also allowed us to take our time a little more and enjoy things (even though we had 3 days to spend in Disneyland after this).
Technically at any Disney Park you only have to be in line for an attraction by closing time to ensure your spot. Since we had the better part of 2 hours before California Adventure closed, we wanted to ride a premier attraction even if it meant we had to wait a while. This most definitely would have worked and was our plan; however, we ultimately didn’t have to wait that long :).
Several weeks prior when we purchased our Disneyland tickets, we never received confirmation of our order via email. We were of course concerned, so I called customers service, where they assured us the tickets showed, but we would have to visit guest relations prior to entering the park to link up our tickets to our account. So before we were able to enter California Adventure, we went by guest relations, where the cast members were excellent to deal with, but for whatever reason the process was taking a little long. We were fine on time, but you could imagine we were a little anxious to get on with our adventure after coming this far. We had also told them about our #epicparkhop adventure while we were waiting. When we finally received our ticket, we were surprised to find that a few multi-experience fastpasses had been added to our account! Consequently, the rest of our evening just got a little easier.
Again (similar to our Flight of Passage good fortune), we were well-positioned to accomplish our goals without any help, but the extra pixie dust certainly made things easier!
While not an official rule for our challenge, our hope was to ride something unique to each park that couldn’t be found at the other parks. California Adventure had a lot of attractive options in this regards (in fact, California Adventure has officially become Clark’s favorite Disney Park now, and he’s been to 8 of the 12 world wide). We were most excited to ride the Incredicoaster and the new Guardians ride (Radiator Springs Racers actually became our favorite ride in Disneyland Resort, but we didn’t know that yet!).
So we enter California Adventure around 8:30PM and headed straight to Pixar Pier. On the way, we check off our snack requirement with one of Disneyland’s famed churros (we haven’t tried any in Walt Disney World yet, but a cast member told us they’re better at Disneyland because they are prepared differently. Believe what you wish!).
We have no context for what Paradise Pier was like before, but we absolutely love the look and feel of Pixar Pier now. Every Pixar movie and most shorts are represented in some fun way, and it is especially charming lit up at night. We got on the Incredicoaster just a little after 9PM, and we were blown away with the ride. From what we had read before, I anticipated the Incredibles theming to be a bit lazy (like they just slapped some characters on the ride and called it a day). While I understand some of those criticisms, we thought it was really well done. The soundtrack, characters, and “tubes” made it really fun and immersive. Even without the theming, the attraction is a great rollercoaster in its own right (I thought it was a better coaster than any in Walt Disney World, even though I love Expedition Everest).
After incredicoaster, we still had time and thought, “Why not?” and went for another ride before hopping over to Disneyland. My favorite ride has always been Tower of Terror, so you could imagine I was excited to see what they did with Guardians: Mission Breakout. We got in line around 9:30PM, and with our multi-experience FastPass, we were out before 10PM.
The ride was a lot of fun, and Tower of Terror fans would especially enjoy all the easter eggs from the previous ride present in the pre-show room with Rocket. The thrill of the new ride is the same obviously, but it definitely has its own flavor. During Halloween, the ride has a “Monsters After Dark” overlay which is fun, but after riding the regular version the next day we think we like it just a hair better.
Having ridden two premier rides and eaten a delicious Churro, we were well primed to go to Disneyland Park to round out our #epicparkhop. We entered Disneyland around 10:15PM, and soaked in Main Street for a little bit. The buildings are much smaller (albeit super cute!), and the use of forced perspective is more apparent than Disney World (those tiny windows!). The castle lit up is very pretty, but there’s no getting around the fact that it’s a little ole’ thang. Something about walking where Walt did made it really neat and memorable. We made sure to take a picture of the lamp in Walt’s office!
With all the excitement that day, we realized we never really had dinner, and despite the late hour needed something substantial to get us through to the finish line. We heard from a cast member that when you go to Disneyland, you must have a corn dog from a little red cart near main street that will change your life. My first thought was, “It’s a little weird to be into a corndog that much.” Well, at 10:25PM, we bought corn dogs from the little red cart, our lives were forever changed, and I became someone who gets into corn dogs too much. Really good!
We never rode Mr. Toad in Walt Disney World and decided it would be a good choice for us since it was unique to Disneyland. So at 10:40PM we hopped on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (with absolutely no context whatsoever for Mr. Toad’s story or his wild ride). Ummm… we didn’t really get it… but we did it!
At this point, 10:47PM to be exact, we accomplished our 10th Anniversary #epicparkhop challenge! But Mr. Toad hardly gave us the bang we were hoping to go out with. We had another multi-experience fastpass and over an hour left before the park closed. Given this, the only thing that made sense was to visit my boyfriend, Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones-era Harrison Ford is my not-so-secret crush).
At 10:52PM, we got in line for Indiana Jones. We knew this ride used the same vehicle system and track as the Dinosaur ride in Animal Kingdom. However, in my humble opinion, Indiana Jones is SOOOO much better. The massive set that the ride takes place in is movie magic gold, and the scenes are equal parts fun, scary, and adventurous. If there was one word to describe the Indiana Jones ride, it would be “epic.” What a fitting end to our #EPICparkhop adventure!
We got off the ride a little past 11PM and headed toward the front of the park. We had another hour we could have used, but by this time we were understandably tired.
Before leaving however, we stopped at a bench in front of the castle and just soaked it in a bit. We reviewed some of the highlights of the day, did some people watching, and wished each other a happy 10 year anniversary. We did something crazy and fun from my bucket list, and it exceeded my hopes in almost every way. Everyone has their own thing I suppose, and I wouldn’t dare think this would be everyone’s idea of a perfect trip. But for us, it was perfect. Planning it was fun. Anticipating it was fun. Doing it was fun. Ultimately, going on an adventure with the person I love was the ultimate anniversary gift, and we loved sharing it with you!
