- Yellow Productions presents
Nine things to know before you visit
the Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California.
I'm Chris at Yellow Productions,
I do travel guides that are fun, informative, entertaining.
This is part of my series in Disneyland,
I've got other videos on Disneyland, the shows,
the attractions, but this one is all about
the Disney California Adventure Park,
so here we go.
The first thing you need to know
about Disney California Adventure Park
is it's a separate park with a separate admission,
opened in 2001, just right across
from the main entrance of Disneyland.
The theme of Disney California Adventure
is a little bit of a California Fairgrounds,
Hollywood added in, the Pixar slowly taking over.
The rides at Disney California Adventure are more thrilling,
so they're bigger for the bigger kids.
For example, California Adventure has a rollercoaster
with a loop, but Disneyland has no such thing.
Admission tickets to California Adventure
are $97 low-season, and $135 in high-season.
If you wanna visit both parks in the same day,
add $50 to make it a Park Hopper Pass.
As we got here,
that's the entrance to Disneyland right behind me,
and then if we continue this loop this way,
then right there,
there's the entrance to California Adventure,
so super close to each other.
The second thing you know before you go
to Disney California Adventure is there's no main street.
The California Adventure is called Buena Vista Street,
this is the main street as you come in the park,
it's not main street, it's Buena Vista Street.
This opens 30 minutes before the park opens,
it stays open 30 minutes after the park closes,
so if you're looking to do some souvenir shopping,
do it at the beginning or the end of the day.
The chamber of commerce is located over to the left,
as you come in, and the lockers are on the right.
Also, Disney California Adventure does not have a castle,
but the closest thing is the Carthay Circle Restaurant,
right there, placed on a straight line
to the Disneyland Castle.
We'll talk more about this restaurant in the food section,
coming up.
The third thing to know before you go
to Disney California Adventure is about the shows.
There's three big shows I'm gonna talk about.
The main one is called World of Color.
It's on the main lake, over by Pixar Pier
and the rollercoaster.
This one happens one or two times nightly,
it is a really impressive water show with light effects.
If you wanna guarantee a seating area,
get a fast pass.
They do those over kinda by the Little Mermaid ride.
If you have a fast pass, they won't guarantee you a seat,
but it guarantees you, at least, an area where you can stand
and watch the World of Color.
If you want a guaranteed viewing area,
you can also do these dining packages that they have,
reserve them 60 days ahead of time,
and you'll have one of the upfront areas.
You can check out the Disneyland dining website for those.
I think they're a pretty good way to not have to wait
around forever for a good viewing location.
My favorite show at Disney California Adventure though,
is the one I'm standing in front of.
It is the Frozen show, it's in the Hyperion Theater.
They do this one about two to three times a day.
Check the times to make sure you don't miss it.
This is a must see, you really need to see the show.
The theater seats 2,000 people.
If you wanna get a seat, make sure to get there
about 45 minutes before.
The best seating is down to orchestra level,
there's often seats right up at the front,
check that out, you'll really enjoy.
The show runs somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour.
Sometimes they do fast passes,
so be on the lookout for that.
The final great show, and they're doing it right now,
not always, it the Paint the Night Parade.
That's come over here from Disneyland,
it's like a light up parade at night,
it runs 20 minutes.
That one you can do dining packages as well,
it's well worth to check it out.
If you wanna see more on the World of Color
or the Paint the Night Parade, you can check out the links
in the description of the cards above,
for full-length videos of those shows.
The fourth thing to know before you go
to Disney California Adventure is about the rides.
I mentioned at the beginning,
the rides here are more thrilling at California Adventure
than at Disneyland.
My favorite, number one, Radiator Springs Racers,
this one right here,
it's one of the most popular rides in the park.
If you wanna get a fast pass for it,
you should do this first thing.
They don't distribute the passes by the ride,
they distribute them, actually,
up at the end of Buena Vista Street,
right behind the Carthay Circle Restaurant,
so pick up your fast pass from there.
This also has a single rider line, so you can,
if you don't mind being by yourself,
you can ride that and get on the ride a little bit quicker.
My second favorite ride is the rollercoaster,
it's called the Incredicoaster.
It's currently being remodeled,
but that's gonna open here in June of 2018, Pixar themed.
It's got a single rider line as well,
it makes a loop, that's pretty fun.
My third favorite ride is Toy Story Midway Mania!
It's a fun shooting game
that's over behind the ferris wheel.
The newest ride is the Galaxy of the Guardian ride.
It took over the Hollywood Tower Hotel,
it's one of those rides you get in the elevator,
you go up and down, it drops you quite a bit.
The ride is themed very cool, it looks neat.
I will say I don't like going up and down
and being dropped so much.
It's definitely something that you don't wanna do
on a full stomach, or even a half full stomach.
Disney California Adventure has one big water ride,
it's the Grizzly River Run.
You go on a raft through the rapids,
you will get wet on this ride, so do not ride this ride
unless you're okay getting pretty much completely soaked.
Make sure to protect your electronics
when you go on this ride too.
Two more things about the rides.
One, some of them close earlier than the rest of the park.
When they're doing World of Color,
the rides behind World of Color typically close early,
that's like the Ferris Wheel, the Toy Story Midway Mania!,
the rollercoaster,
so make sure to ride those earlier in the day,
before they close at night.
And also something to know about the fast pass
is the California Adventure fast pass
is connected to the Disneyland fast pass,
so you can only hold one fast pass per person in both parks.
You can't have one in California Adventure
and one in Disneyland.
It was crafty of you to think about that,
but Disney thought about that too.
The next thing to know before you go
to Disney California Adventure is about food.
My favorite place to eat in Disney California Adventure
is at the Corn Dog Castle.
They've got these delicious corn dogs for about nine bucks,
they have the corn breading
that tastes really like corn bread, they're super delicious,
it comes with apple or chips.
This is back behind the Symphony Swings ride.
I also mentioned Carthay Circle at the beginning.
Carthay Circle is Disney California Adventure's
fine dining restaurant,
so that will be the most high end place to eat.
That means they have the best food,
but also the highest prices.
It has the same executive chef as the Napa Rose,
in the Grand Californian Hotel.
If you want to eat at the Carthay Circle,
make sure to make a reservation ahead of time.
They also do dining packages for the World of Color there.
If you just wanna see inside Carthay Circle,
they do tours of the restaurant before it opens for lunch,
you can find those times for the restaurant
at park opening time.
Two more pretty solid options forgotten
in unknown eating areas at Disney California Adventure
are Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta and the Paradise Garden Grill.
They're right next to each other,
they're just passed the Corn Dog Castle,
kind of in the corner of the park.
Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta has pretty solid pizza slices
and pastas.
The pasta is about 10 bucks,
you can get spaghetti and meatballs.
The Paradise Garden Grill has different things
for different times of the year, that's often themed
for whatever special event they're having.
Also, I like the seating area here.
It's a pretty shady part of the park,
there's covered eating areas,
so when it's hot and crowded in the rest of the park,
come over here to find a not too busy and a lot cooler.
When I got my corn dogs from Corn Dog Castle,
I bring them over here to eat.
Speaking of food, the next thing to know is about free food.
Yes, you can get free food at Disney California Adventure
at the Boudin Bakery Tour, if you go,
they'll give you a sample of the famous sourdough bread.
Hmm.
Originally from San Francisco, this bread is pretty cool.
Also, just right across from Boudin,
it's the Ghirardelli chocolate and ice cream store.
If you go inside there,
you can get some free chocolate samples.
This is also from San Francisco,
every day is a different chocolate sample,
today it's a milk chocolate caramel square.
What's better after sourdough than some milk chocolate?
To wash that all down, you'll probably be thirsty.
Well, you can go into any quick serve restaurant,
that's the ones that actually do service inside
and get a cup of water with ice for free.
The next thing to know about Disney California Adventure
is about all the special events they have.
DCA has a lot of special events.
Probably, the most famous they have
is the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival.
They have that in March to mid April,
and they'll have all the special food booths set up
with specialty gourmet foods, like garlic infused ice cream
or Peruvian salmon poke.
Lunar New Year is a big celebration here,
and not just Chinese New Year,
but they celebrate all the different countries
that celebrate Lunar New Year.
Right now, when I'm here, it is Pixar Fest,
where they're celebrating everything Pixar.
So, take a look at the special events they have.
If you're an annual passholder,
then you might even get
some free special gifts and handouts.
Take a lookout for the annual passholders zone
to find the gifts for annual passholders.
The eighth thing to know about Disney California Adventure
is the alternate entrance and exit,
right behind the big water ride,
there's an entrance and exit that goes into
the Grand Californian Hotel.
This entrance, anybody can exit.
If it's really busy during entrance time,
they limit it to hotel guests,
but this is a convenient way
if you wanna come in and out of the park
and the main entrance is too busy.
Also, it's convenient if you're having lunch or dinner
at the Napa Rose in the Grand Californian,
you can just slip out this entrance right here.
Just to show you where it is inside the park,
here is the main walkway,
and then this is the Grizzly River Run ride,
right back there.
The ninth thing to know
before you visit Disney California Adventure,
is about Sh-boom time in Cars Land.
Every night, right at sunset,
actually, just a few minutes after sunset,
the lights come on in Cars Land, in Radiator Springs,
and they play Sh-Boom by the coasters, from the movie.
If you wanna know the exact time,
just ask a cast member in this part of the park,
they have it written down, they'll tell you the exact time.
Or, if you don't really wanna ask anybody,
just come a few minutes before sunset,
look it up on Google, it will tell you,
and it's pretty neat to see the lights come on,
the dancing, and a little bit of the show.
You won't find it listed
in any really official Disney guide,
but it does happen every night.
Thanks for watching.
If you enjoyed this video,
you might also enjoy watching my 10 things to know
before you go to Disneyland in general video,
or my new video here in Universal Studios Hollywood,
the other big theme park in the area.
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