Crazy for Cars Land

To try and break up the plethora of pictures from our recent trip to Disneyland I figured I would start with the hit area of Disney - Cars Land.  I think it's safe to say we're crazy for Cars Land!

This new "land" in California Adventure (CA) opened about a week and a half before our arrival, so we clearly weren't the only ones interested in checking out the new attractions!  In fact we were surprised to find out that CA opened at 8am rather than our anticipated 10am slot.  In our previous experience all guests had to remain outside the gates until the park opened.  My how things have changed in about 1 1/2 years since we were last there.

We arrived at around 7:45am and got right in line for the FastPass for the new big attraction in CarsLand - Radiator Springs.  Our original goal was to just go straight to the line and get the ride over with.  However we were told the wait would be 3 hours if we did that.  Needless to say we hopped into the FastPass line and took our 2:15-3:15 time slot.   They were out of FastPass tickets by 9 or 9:15am.... for.the.entire.day.

Here are a few shots from Radiator Springs.... the town (not to be confused with the ride).

 
It seriously looks just like it does on the movie!

Then it was time to get in line.

This ride is at the very back of "town" and it's kind of confusing where you're supposed to go - because the crowd of people appear to be all over the place.  Apparently there is a rhyme and reason... one wheel shows where FastPass folks return (and the time) and the other wheel in front shows how long the stand-by line is... yes it's 2 1/2 hours when we showed up.

We still had a 20-30 minute wait with the FastPass, but that sure beats wasting hours in line.  Each car holds 6 people - three in front three in the back.

Drew and I are all buckled up ready to speed through Radiator Springs.

The ride starts off with a semi-leisurely stroll through the realistic scenery and there's a little bit of a story going along with the movie(s).

And then we get to a point where we join another car getting ready to "race" our way to the finish line. Only one car wins.

Ironically this ride shut down for about 5 minutes when we got to this point.  After that 5 minutes we were off - here's a video I captured of that race.  (I apologize for the screaming by Dave and I - as you can tell it's "roller coaster-like").



Drew wasn't so sure during the race, but loved it afterward.

Needless to say we gave that ride a big 2-thumbs up.  We're lucky we got on the ride when we did, because shortly after we got off it was closed for the remainder of the day.  Apparently the "stall" we had while on the ride proved to be more serious.  We would've been so disappointed to miss out on that ride, since it was the only reason we paid extra for the Park Hopper pass.

We still enjoyed our time in Radiator Springs after the ride.  We were checking out the other rides which some had close to a 2 hour wait, but decided to pass and use our time more wisely.

We even had Lightning McQueen drive-by "parade-like" while we were in town.

It was a real car!

So if you're at Disneyland I highly recommend paying extra for the ParkHopper pass and giving Cars Land a glimpse.  I think it's worth the money.  And get there early to get your FastPass!

Here are a few other pictures of Cars Land...

 ...and in full disclosure I didn't take them.  They are courtesy Disney on our Photo card.