Adventure is Out There! - 10.22.25

Today was our first full day in California and we were in for an adventure!

Avery and I woke up and got ready to rope drop, or close enough to rope drop, Disneyland’s California Adventure. We stayed at the Hampton Inn-Los Angeles Orange County Cypress, CA, which was a quick and easy drive to the parks. 

At DCA we were ride focused and used our purchased Lightning Lane Passes to give us an advantage on the day. Throughout our day we accomplished the following attractions: The Bakery Tour, Golden Zephyr, Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT*, Incredicoaster*, Jessie’s Critter Carousel, The Little Mermaid - Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween, Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!, Radiator Springs Racers, Soarin’ Around the World, Toy Story Midway Mania!, and Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure. The two rides with asterisks are rides that the group went on without me as I did not wish to participate in them. While I enjoyed all of the rides, some of the ones that stood out the most were Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween, Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!, and Radiator Springs Racers.

Aside from rides, we dined, shopped, and took a multitude of photos. I, of course, had to get a few new pairs of ears as well as a commemorative Disneyland 70th anniversary pin. I ordered refreshments from Cocina Cucamonga in San Fransokyo Square - Carne Asada (citrus-marinated grilled steak tacos with crushed avocados and fuego salsa) for $11.99 and a Bottle Logic Brewing Blood Orange Paloma Seltzer for $14.25. Avery ordered a Classic Lime Margarita for $17.00. Everything was delicious although next time I think I would pick the margarita over the paloma seltzer. Avery and I then got drinks from the Cozy Cone Motel 4 - Frozen Cone-coctions and we had the Watermelon Vodka Lemonade Cocktail which was tasty but a little too sweet for my liking for $19.00. Avery and I then headed over to the Lamplight Lounge where I had the Open Ocean with a Splash (a frozen cocktail made with raspberry rum, blue curacao, orgeat, agave nectar, and lime juice) for $19.50 and the Black Pearl from their secret menu for $15.25. Avery had the Hero Work (huckleberry vodka, dragon fruit syrup, lemon juice, and agave) for $17.50 and the Zombie from their secret menu for $18.50. We enjoyed the views and the fun drinks. Afterwards, I continued on our self-made bar crawl at Paradise Garden Grill and had an Apple Cider Margarita (tequila, apple cider, and lime with a cinnamon sugar rim) for $18.00. I would like to note that the bar crawl was in fact a crawl and we paced our drinks over several hours in between all our activities.

We stayed to watch the nighttime spectacular of World of Color Happiness!, a show that I have seen before but still enjoy. After we dragged our tired selves back to our rental and drove back to our off-site hotel for some much-needed rest. Unfortunately, Avery and I came back to our toilet not working and had to switch rooms. The process took about 30 minutes which was 30 minutes longer than I wanted to be awake, we got it sorted out around midnight. Aside from this unexpected disturbance, our first day at Disneyland was extremely fun. I cannot wait to share our second day adventures with you.