San Fransokyo Square is a new addition to DCA since our last visit. This land is themed from the Big Here 6 movie and opened in August 2023. It features a striking bridge resembling the Golden Gate Bridge with really good quick service food, and lots of Big Hero 6 merch!
After having a rest day after our busy Disneyland day, we were ready to tackle DCA! We didn't rope drop like DL, but we did arrive around 9 am. We went to Monster's Inc first, because I wanted to take advantage of the wait not being too long yet. I think we waited about 30 minutes. This ride will be closing next year, and I wanted a chance to ride it. We ended up loving it! It was just like the movie, and we all found it fun and delightful.
Right across from the Monster's Inc attraction is the Animation Building. This building celebrates Disney animation and features four attractions. One is Turtle Talk with crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo. This is a screen-based show with an animated turtle who actually talks to you. My son found it so incredibly fun he ended up watching the show three times during our park day.
We also got to do the Animation Academy. Here you sit in a classroom-like setting with an instructor who will demonstrate line by line how to draw a Disney character. We lucked out and got one of our favorites, Lighting McQueen from Cars! My son has always liked to draw, so we had so much fun! This building is way worth a visit even if you don't do the attractions. There are large screens everywhere with the animation from different movies. I can't believe we missed this area on our last visit, but I'm so happy we did it this time!
Then we headed over to Cars Land. Here we got some snacks at the Cozy Cone Motel, which I'll show in my next post about all of the food we tried in DCA. It was a lot! Then we walked over to the Radiator Racers attraction and took some photos. This was another spot we missed last time. It's really scenic and it feels like you're in the Cars movies! We weren't able to ride Radiator Racers since the wait got to 100 minutes and we already rode it on our last trip.
By this point in the day it was lunchtime, so we walked over to the new to our area, San Fransokyo. It was really busy, so I did have to wait 45 minutes in line for food, but it was worth it! This Big Here 6 area is awesome and very well done. There's lots of food spots here and so many neat details to take in!
At this point in the day, my husband needed a break, so he headed back to the hotel. My boys and I spent a couple of hours strolling around the Paradise Pier area, riding rides and getting a snack.
The Incredicoaster is such an awesome ride! I got to ride it last time and I loved it!
My sons and I rode the Pixar Pal Around. There are two sides-the calm ride and the crazier one where the pods rock a lot and tend to make people sick! We chose the calm ride, and it was so nice! The views of DCA and DL were fantastic!
Then we rode Jumping Jellyfish. This ride is for little kids and very quick but still was a vibe and you got some nice views of DCA. After getting a snack we were pretty tired, so we walked back to our hotel and had an afternoon rest.
Around 4:30 we walked back to DCA and did the Food and Wine Festival. I'll cover that in one of the next posts! We walked around a bit more in San Fransokyo Square checking out the cool buildings and went inside the sourdough bakery, Boudin, but they weren't handing out any samples then. Checking out the Baymax and Mickey bread was cool, though! Baymax is a character from Big Hero 6 and one of my faves!
Then we walked back to Cars Land for some dinner. We got lucky and saw Lighting McQueen drive by!
While my husband took our boys to see Turtle Talk with Crush again, I had some solo time. I walked around, bought a Cars pin, and then checked out an area I missed last time, Grizzly Peak. This area has an entrance to the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa and features a water rapids ride, an outdoor climbing space for kids, and gift shops. I walked through when the sun was going down and it was such a cool vibe!
The loop through Grizzly Peak took me to the entrance to Paradise Pier, so I was happy to see this view of the Ferris wheel and Paradise Gardens. I mobile ordered a snack in San Fransokyo and then I met back up with my family! It was time to get our spot for World of Color-Happiness!
My husband and my son headed back to the hotel, but my son and I got to experience such a wonderful show. We got lucky and were able to get up really close to the action. The World of Color-Happiness was such a sweet way to end our park day! I already showed this in my 70th Anniversary of Disneyland post, which you can see here, but I wanted to end my DCA day post with this shot!
Thanks for reading about our day at Disney California Adventure! Stay tuned for two food posts next!
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