All photos by Seth Kubersky

Recently, I wrote about five of my favorite ways to begin my day at Disneyland Park. Until this past summer, Disneyland’s original park was most visitors’ first destination, with its little brother Disney California Adventure an afterthought on many itineraries.

Now, how the tables have turned: since last June’s grand re-opening of DCA, headlined by Cars Land and the Radiator Springs Racers E-Ticket, the former also-ran is often drawing as many (or even more) “first click” entries as its older sibling. That means more and more visitors are starting their Disney day on Buena Vista Street instead of Main Street, U.S.A.

As a result, we advise you arrive at DCA’s front gate at least 45 minutes before the official opening time; guests are typically allowed into the entry plaza at least 30 minutes early, and Disneyland’s current ID-checking procedures can make for slow lines at the turnstiles. Most importantly, don’t visit DCA on an Extra Magic Hour morning (currently Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) unless you are staying in a Disney resort hotel and can take advantage of the early entry.

Once you are inside the park and awaiting rope drop, what to do? Here are my top five tips for making mornings at DCA more memorable:

Do The RSR Fastpass Conga

Upon entering the park, the vast majority of DCA visitors make a beeline to one of two holding pens: the mob gathered in front of Carthay Circle, awaiting permission to speed-walk toward Cars Land; or the queue stretching towards Hollywood Land. That line leads to a Radiator Springs FASTPASS, the hottest ticket in Anaheim today.

While the line may look daunting, it will move swiftly once the opening hour arrives, thanks to the cast members who assist at the dispensing machines; on a recent visit, I began waiting at the Disney Junior theater and retrieved my Fastpasses less than 15 minutes after rope drop.

In any event, the RSR FASTPASS line will certainly move more quickly that the standby line at the ride itself, which regularly posts a 45 minute wait within moments of opening. Exacerbating the wait is the fact that this high-tech attraction frequently begins cycling guests a few (or many) minutes after the rest of the park, due to pre-opening testing.

The bottom line is that if you have any interest in riding Racers (and if you are in the park, of good health, and above 40″, you should), your best best is to hand all of your party’s admission passes to one sacrificial member and plant that person in the RSR FASTPASS line as soon as possible. Just make sure all the passes have been validated at one of the parks’ front gates first; you can’t use your family’s tickets to secure FASTPASSes while they snooze at the hotel.

Mortgage Your House for a Latte

In my previous installment, I took some pokes at Starbucks for taking over the classic Market House on Main Street, ending a tradition of free coffee refills. But I can’t deny that, refills or no, the Starbucks-serving Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe has been a huge hit on DCA’s Buena Vista Street. And if the free java in your hotel is as awful as it was in the last motel I stayed in, you may be in desperate need of an eye-opener before beginning your day’s adventures.

If that’s the case, you’ll want to be one of the first through the doors in the morning, since the combination of a substantial snack and sandwich menu with Starbucks’ complex caffeinated concoctions causes the line here to move slower than Siberian molasses.

As an alternative, try stopping by Downtown Disney’s La Brea Bakery immediately outside the Esplanade before going through the bag check. Though not as publicized as the outlet inside the park, the Express counter here serves Starbucks-branded beans as well.

Soak Up The Atmosphere on Buena Vista Street

The Imagineers did an amazing job reimagining the flat, tacky Sunshine Plaza as the richly detailed Buena Vista Street, which emotionally and architecturally evokes Los Angeles’s Art Deco era much as Main Street, U.S.A., does for late-19th century middle America. Before rushing off to Pixar’s marvel of mountain-making, make sure to take a look at signage and shop windows surrounding you, filled with Disney in-jokes and vintage memorabilia.

Better yet, strike up a conversation with one of the colorful characters who roam the street each day. Sure, you’ll find the usual chipmunks, dogs, and mice (in natty zoot suits and other period duds) out doing early-morning photo duty. But you should also seek out the Citizens of Buena Vista Street, who are always willing to share advice (sage or otherwise) with visitors. You may run into the local cop, a bike messenger, or a socialite with a playful puppy. Whomever you meet, try to chat for a few moments, and you’ll discover that (much like the Citizens of Hollywood in Orlando’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios) these improvisation actors are much more than walking photo ops.

Read the Morning Paper

All frequent theme park visitors are conditioned to pick up the park map and show times guide as the enter the turnstiles. But at DCA there’s a less familiar free publication that you should also pick up. In baskets positioned around Buena Vista Street, you’ll find complimentary copies of Buena Vista Bugle, a 4-page faux newspaper that is updated every few months.

The idea hearkens back to the early days of Disneyland, when Imagineering legend Marty Sklar was hired by Walt to write a promotional newspaper sold in the park. Today, that newspaper’s descendant is distributed gratis to DCA visitors. Inside, you’ll find puff pieces extolling attractions and seasonal offerings around the park, all amusingly ghostwritten by eccentric imaginary journalists.

Amid the unsubtle advertising, the Bugle contains solid info, especially on finding character encounters around the park, and does it in a more entertaining way than the antiseptic Times Guide. Be sure to pick up a copy on your way in for reference during your visit, and another non-rumpled copy for a souvenir on your way out.

Go Anywhere Except Cars Land

If you follow our recommended Touring Plans for DCA, you’ll head directly to Luigi’s Flying Tires after securing your Radiator Springs Racers FASTPASS. If you are intent on experiencing this unique attraction, that’s certainly the best advice, since this visually attractive but short and slow-loading ride can quickly develop a lengthy queue second only to that of Radiator Springs Racers.

Due to its “cycle loading” nature, you can wait twenty minutes or more for Luigi’s with only a few loads of guests ahead of you, burning valuable early morning touring time. So, unless you are among the first through the FASTPASS distribution and enter Luigi’s queue within fifteen minutes of opening, you may want to consider spending the remainder of your first hour in a more efficient manner.

The upside of Cars Land’s phenomenal popularity is that it draws most guests away from the park’s other headliners until hours after opening. Tower of Terror, California Screamin’, and Toy Story Midway Mania often have minimal waits in the morning while the herd heads down Route 66. If you can stand to skip Luigi’s (try back at the end of the day, when it and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree are sometimes walk-ons), you’ll get a great return on your time investment at these other E-Tickets.

A final tip: remember that your Radiator Springs Racer FASTPASS is “disconnected” and won’t interfere with getting a FASTPASS for another attraction. You could snag a FASTPASS at Soarin’ Over California (if you don’t just use its Single Rider line) on your way to getting a viewing ticket for World of Color (also disconnected), or grab one for Tower of Terror before hopping across to Disneyland to pick up FASTPASSes there. Just be aware of the the ending time on your tickets; return windows are now being strictly enforced, though you may get 15 minutes of grace (i.e., arrive up to 15 minutes after your window has passed) if you ask nicely.

5 Ways to Start Your Day in Disney California Adventure is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

All photos by Seth Kubersky

Last summer’s debut of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure was probably the most extensively publicized expansion in theme park history (or at least since Harry Potter arrived in Orlando). So it seems strange that anything about this exquisite addition to Disneyland’s little sibling could still be considered “hidden.”

Even so, in their rush to ride Radiator Springs Racers, most of the tens of thousands of guests running daily down this ersatz Route 66 probably never notice some of the subtler touches Disney’s Imagineers infused the land with. Next time you visit DCA, why not slow down and savor five of my favorite but easily overlooked elements of Anaheim’s hottest attraction.

The Cozy Cone Motel Office

Most guests going to the Cozy Cone Motel aren’t looking for a place to sleep — there are sadly no rooms for rent — but a Red’s Apple Freeze to slurp (known as LeFou’s Brew in WDW) or oddly-flavored popcorn to munch. As a result, no one ever enters the motel office, but that didn’t stop the designers from decking it out with detailed decor, down to the faux postcards on the souvenir rack.

While peeping in through the windows, keep an eye out for a certain Space Ranger star of another Pixar franchise; he’s hiding in plain sight, in a sly tribute to a scene from Toy Story 2.

Ed Catmull Tribute

When speaking of Pixar, director John Lasseter’s name is mentioned most, followed perhaps by company founder George Lucas and long-time owner Steve Jobs. But not to be forgotten is Ed Catmull, the current president of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation who started as a computer scientist and went on to win Oscars for developing RenderMan software and other CGI innovations.

Catmull may not have a coveted window on Main Street USA, but he has the Cars Land equivalent. This neon tribute hangs in the window of Radiator Springs Curios, facing Luigi’s Flying Tires. Take a look and tip your hat to a man who helped invent digital effects.

Doc Hudson’s Doctorate

Flo’s V-8 Cafe, in addition to offering unexpectedly upscale entrees and exceptionally ugly pies, boasts a collection of curios that flesh out the back stories of some favorite Cars characters. One side of the seating area displays mementos from Flo’s career as a Motown singer; the other holds a museum of Doc Hudson’s history.

My favorite among Hudson’s artifacts are the pair of diplomas that prove he earned his Doctorate in Internal Combustion from the prestigious institution Pnorthern Pneumatic Polytechnic, with a certificate in Clinical Stufies of Internal Hydraulics from the Mechanical School of Carburetor County. Who knew — I thought “Doc” was an honorary title!

Pacific Wharf Archway

It’s a stretch to call one of a land’s major entrances “hidden,” but it’s true that the vast majority of guest go in and out of Cars Land via the main entrance across from the Golden Valley Winery. A second entrance provides a shortcut to a bug’s land and Tower of Terror, while giving a good glimpse of guests on Luigi’s Flying Tires (which may be more fun than the actual ride, depending on the wait time).

But unless they get hungry for edamame from Lucky Fortune Cookery, many visitors may completely overlook the area’s third egress in the Pacific Wharf. The stone archway here is a stunning piece of rockwork in it’s own right, and frames the Cadillac mountain range for a particularly dramatic vista. For an unforgettable photo, try taking a snap from here at “magic hour.”

Neon Lighting Ceremony

Speaking of magic hour, the moments after each sunset see a magical transformation of the already magnificent land. As twilight approaches, the strains of the 1950′s do-wop classic “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream)” float through the air. One by one, the buildings along Route 66 spring to life in glowing neon colors, and the entire street slowly illuminates for the evening.

The nightly neon ignition is a not-to-be-missed experience that often sees crowds spontaneously dancing and singing along in the street. But you wouldn’t know anything about from the official show schedule published on Disneyland’s website. For some odd reason the irritating DJ Dance n Drive Party merits an online mention, but the lovely lighting ceremony goes unadvertised. Fear not, you can count on the event occurring every evening at about 5 minutes past official sunset. If unsure, ask any cast member in Cars Land what time tonight’s neon ceremony will be held. Keep in mind that, depending on the time of year, sunset may be many minutes before it actually gets dark out.

Enjoy this video I shot shortly after Cars Land’s grand opening, and let us know in the comments what your favorite underappreciated detail in the area is.

Hidden Treasures of DCA’s Cars Land is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

Arrive at DCA at least 45 minutes before park opening...

Looking for traffic avoidance advice as you drive down the crowded Route 66? Well, pull up to the pump and fill up on some free touring info, certain to make your first (or next) visit to Cars Land at at Disney California Adventure a little less fraught.

Recently, we related our step-by-step plan for surviving the Early Entry hour at Cars Land. Since the publication of that piece, Disnelyand announced the expansion of Extra Magic Hours for resort hotel guests to 7 days per week at both parks, now through September 13, 2012. Our advice is to take full advantage of the early admission programs if you are eligible for them, but that’s out of reach for the bulk of visitors this summer.

As a result of this temporary adjustment to early entry operations, general admission visitors this summer will never be the first into Cars Land, no matter how early they line up. If you are one of the unwashed masses unable to enter the park early, you can still enjoy all the new Cars Land attractions; it just may take a little more effort. Follow this plan to a “Model T” and you are likely to find yourself cruising in the fast lane, while everyone else languishes in long lines.

...and wait in line for a Radiator Springs FASTPASS...

Selecting the right day to visit is crucial. Avoiding DCA on an Extra Magic Hour morning — when resort hotel guests are allowed in early – is currently impossible. However, on four days of the week, Annual Passholders are also allowed in early (now through mid-September). Therefore, your best day to visit DCA is Saturday, when the majority of Annual Passholders are barred from entering by blackout dates. The next best days are usually Tuesday and Thursday. Sunday is the busiest day for Passholder early entry.

• Arrive at the park’s front gates, ticket in hand, at least 30 to 45 minutes before the official opening time. Hotel guests and Annual Passholders who have registered for early entry will be allowed in ahead of you through designated turnstiles. Active hotel keycards or special wristbands are required, so don’t bother trying to sneak in.
• As soon as the general public is permitted through the turnstiles (usually at least 30 prior to the official opening time) proceed down Buena Vista Street to Carthay Circle. Look for signs designating the start of the Radiator Springs Racers FASTPASS queue.

...and wait...

• Have one noble, self-sacrificing member of your party take everyone’s admission tickets and hop into the line for Fastpass distribution, which will not begin moving until the official park opening time. The queue may stretch through Hollywood Land all the way to Tower of Terror; if you are standing past the Animation building, you are looking at about a 30 to 45 minute wait once the line begins moving.
• At park opening (8 a.m. every day this summer) a musical fanfare will announce the “rope drop,” and employees will carefully walk the crowd towards Cars Land. FASTPASS tickets will be distributed to those waiting in the queue, and will likely be gone for the day before 9:30 a.m. On busy days, unless you are already in line by opening time, it is possible you may not get a FASTPASS at all.
• The rest of your party (minus the FASTPASS retriever) should proceed through Cars Land to Luigi’s Flying Tires. The wait may already be quite long, thanks to early entry guests, but it won’t get much shorter all day. So if this ride (a slow-loading blend of bumper cars and air hockey) is high on your to-do list, do it now.

It's only 8:15 a.m. and FASTPASSes for the morning are running out quickly!

• Take a look at the single rider line for Radiator Springs Racers. If the wait is 30 minutes or less, and your party doesn’t mind being separated, take a trip through the singles queue. Otherwise, wait until your FASTPASS is active.
• Experience Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree next. If the wait is over 30 minutes, skip it and check back in the late afternoon, when the queue usually dwindles.
• If you’ve made good time to this point and want to take a breather, grab some breakfast at Flo’s V8 Cafe or Cozy Cone Motel, or pose for a photo with Lightning or Mater.
• Secure a World of Color FASTPASS if you want to see the first showing of the night.
• Enjoy the park’s other top attractions, which should be much less crowded than Cars Land. Also keep a close eye on your Radiator Springs Racers FASTPASS return window; this is the resort’s only attraction where the end time printed on your FASTPASS ticket is being enforced.
• Be sure to stop back in Cars Land in the evening to enjoy the sunset neon lighting ceremony and evening illumination on the rock work. A second ride on Radiator Springs Racers after dark is a very different experience; try the single rider line during a performance of World of Color.

Victory! Got in line at 7:40 a.m., got a Fastpass at 8:30 a.m., can use it at 12:40 p.m.

Cars Land Survival Guide: General Admission is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

7 a.m., seconds before rope from in Cars Land for Early Entry. (All photos by Seth Kubersky)

The new Cars Land attractions are barely three weeks old, but their popularity has already pushed the Disneyland Resort in general, and the Disney California Adventure park in particular, to record levels of attendance. The old conventional wisdom was that the sparsely-attended second gate didn’t require the same assiduous planning as its older sibling to enjoy in a single day. But at least until the Cars Land hoopla dies down — which we don’t expect to happen any time this summer — you’ll need an efficient itinerary to absorb all the relaunched park has to offer.

The 2013 edition of The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland will soon be winging its way to the presses, packed with our brand-new optimized touring plans for tackling Disney California Adventure’s latest additions. Unfortunately, it will arrive on store shelves too late to help those of you planning to visit within the next few months. Therefore, in honor of the recently-passed Independence Day holdiay, we wave the flag of freedom from frustration, and offer you this “survival guide” to liberating yourself from the long lines in Cars Land.

As always, our number one advice is “Arrive early, arrive early, arrive early!” For the foreseeable future, as far as Cars Land is concerned, you’ll want to add at least two more “arrive earlies” to that mantra. Much of your touring strategy depends on whether you are eligible for one of the park’s Early Entry programs.

Extra Magic Hour is the new name for Disneyland Resort’s bonus to guests staying at one of the three on-site hotels. Anyone with valid admission and an active room key from Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier, or the Grand Californian, is eligible to enter DCA one hour before the general public on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Purchasers of 3-day or longer tickets with Magic Morning are only eligible to enter Disneyland Park early, not DCA.

Hotel guests may enter through the main gate or the private entrance in the Grand Californian. An old “trick” that allowed non-hotel guests to enter early if they had a same-day receipt from a hotel shop or restaurant is no longer valid. Note that on the other four days of the week, hotel guests may enter the park 30 minutes early through the Grand Californian entrance, but are only permitted to retrieve World of Color FASTPASS tickets; Cars Land rides will remain off-limits until the official opening time.

For this summer, Disneyland is running a separate early entry program exclusively for Annual Passholders, who can register to attend DCA and Disneyland on one morning each between now and mid-September. The program is held on the opposite days of Extra Magic Hour, meaning that DCA is available on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Passholders must register online in advance, and will have to show their passes to receive wristbands before entering the park.

If you are able to participate in either early entry option, we highly recommend you do so, since it is easily the least crowded way to experience the park. Here is our early entry touring strategy:

• Arrive at the park entrance, ticket in hand, at least 90 minutes before the official opening time. For this summer, that means 6:30 a.m. Allow for extra time if you need to purchase admission, or receive a wristband for Annual Passholder early entry.
• Guests may be allowed into the park 30 minutes or more before the early entry period begins. Proceed to Carthay Circle at the end of Buena Vista Street, where you will be held until 7 a.m. If you are early and sleepy, you can grab a Starbucks eye-opener from Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe.
• Once permitted to progress forward, move straight to Cars Land, walking with the restraining rope to the end of Route 66. The majority of the crowd will head directly to Radiator Springs Racers. However, that ride frequently opens a few miniutes (or more) late due to morning safety testing. Instead, get in line for Luigi’s Flying Tires (inside the Casa del Tires shop facade, with the tire tower out front). If you are among the first in the queue, you should be on and off the ride in about 10 minutes.
• After riding Luigi’s, look at the posted wait time for the single rider line at Radiator Springs Racers. If the wait is 30 minutes or less, the time is before 7:15 a.m., and your group doesn’t mind being separated, get in the singles queue. Otherwise, skip to the next step.
• Ride Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. Your wait time should be under 20 minutes.
• If the time is 7:30 a.m. or earlier, consider grabbing some breakfast from the Cozy Cone Motel (beware the overcooked scrambled eggs) or Flo’s V8 Cafe.
• Send a member of your party with all of the group’s admission passes to get in line for Radiator Springs FASTPASS tickets no later than 7:45 a.m. The distribution location is outside Cars Land near the entrance to It’s Tough to be a Bug! Make sure you get in the FASTPASS line with other early entry participants several minutes before the official park opening, at which time the queue will be merged with the general public.
• FASTPASS distribution begins at official park opening time. If you’ve followed these steps, you should get your passes within 20 minutes of opening, with a return time around mid-morning. Pay close attention to your return window; Radiator Springs Racers is the first attraction at the resort to enforce the printed one-hour time frame, though exceptions are made if the ride breaks down.
• At this point you’ve experienced the slowest-loading rides and secured a coveted FASTPASS to the park’s top attraction. Grab some food if you need to, pick up a FASTPASS to World of Color if you want to see the first performance, and start touring the park. If you’re not following one of our time-tested touring plans, at least prioritize Toy Story Midway Mania, Soarin’ Over California, and Tower of Terror. You’ll find that Cars Land sucks up so much of the arriving crowd that lines at the other former top draws should be pleasantly short.

This is what your wait will look like if you are among the first people in line for Luigi's.

Can’t take advantage of early entry? Check back later for part 2 of this series, featuring our survival advice for general admission.

Cars Land Survival Guide: Early Entry is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

All eyes in the theme park industry turn this week to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, where the grand re-opening of Disney California Adventure is being celebrated in the high style befitting the finish line of a billion-dollar makeover marathon. Before this massive expansion officially opens to the public on June 15, invited media and paying sneak-preview participants will have already had an opportunity to experience the new attractions of Cars Land and Buena Vista Street, and naturally the TouringPlans.com team is there on the scene. Touring Plans’ official photographer Tom Bricker, Unofficial Guide to Disneyland co-author Seth Kubersky, and new Touring Plans researcher Guy Selga, Jr. will all be on-property this week, documenting every detail to your touring advantage. Over the next few days, please check back on the blog for our hot-off-the-press first reviews direct from DCA, edited versions of which will appear in the 2013 edition of the Unofficial Guide.

Radiator Springs Racers (FASTPASS)

Our Rating: 5 stars

Tom Bricker says:

“Aside from ‘sacred classics,’ Radiator Springs Racers is the best Disney attraction ever, in my opinion. I was in absolute awe!”

• What it is: Automotive dark ride with high-speed thrills.
• Scope and scale: Superheadliner.
• When to go: The first 30 minutes the park is open or use FASTPASS.
• Special comments: Must be 40″ tall to ride; switching-off option provided; Not to be missed.
• Duration of ride: About 4 minutes
• Average wait time per 100 people ahead of you: 3 1/2 minutes
• Loading speed: Moderate–fast

Description And Comments

To the right of the Radiator Springs Courthouse at the end of Route 66 lies the entrance to the most ambitious attraction built at Disneyland Resort in more than a decade. Disney’s Imagineers have wedded an enhanced version of the high-speed slot-car vehicles developed for Epcot’s Test Track with immersive sets and elaborate animatronics. The ride, which covers nearly 6 of Cars Land’s 12 acres, mixes slow indoor sections with thrilling open-air acceleration in a way that appeals to every end of the demographic spectrum.

You begin your road trip by walking through Stanley’s Oasis, the town’s original 1909 settlement, and end up in an cavernous loading station. There you board a six-passenger convertible, each with a smiling face on its front grill, and you’re off on a scenic tour of stunning Ornament Valley, on your way to compete in today’s big race.

After a leisurely drive past massive rock formations and a majestic waterfall, you enter the show building for a series of indoor scenes depicting the residents of Radiator Springs. These environments don’t quite match the awe-inspiring scale of scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean or Indiana Jones, but they are big step up from the old-fashioned Fantasyland dark rides, and feature movie-accurate animatronics with impressively expressive eyes and mouths (achieved through a combination of digital projections and practical effects). Along your tour, you’ll be sidetracked by a tractor-tipping expedition with Mater, which leads to a run-in with an angry harvester. Before reaching the starting line, you’ll need some new tires or a fresh coat of paint. Then it’s time to line up alongside another carload of guests as you await Luigi’s countdown.

The last third of the ride is a flat-out race over camelback hills, under outcroppings, and around banked curves, with a randomly chosen car crossing the finish line first. Radiator Springs Racers’ top speed of 40 miles per hour falls short of Test Track’s 60-plus peak, but the winding turns and airtime-inducing humps supply an exhilarating rush. After a final swing past the glowing stalactites of Tail Light Cavern, and some parting praise from Lightning McQueen and Mater, you’ll exit your vehicle and (we expect) immediately get back in line for another run.

Touring Tips

As the $200 million, 800-pound gorilla of California Adventure’s makeover, Radiator Springs Racers is expected to be a massive draw from the minute it opens every day. Luckily, the ride is engineered to handle about 1,750 riders each hour, and FASTPASS and single rider lines are available.

Note that FASTPASS tickets for Radiator Springs Racers are distributed outside of Cars Land proper, near It’s Tough to Be Bug!. This may change in later years as the popularity of this attraction runs its course.

All photos by Tom Bricker

First Review: Radiator Springs Racers is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.