It'll Be Alright: Southern California January 2017

The next morning, Ellie woke us up at 6:00. She didn't sleep very well the night before. Lisa was up with her at 2:00. We got up around 7:00 and got ready. Breakfast was in the hotel again (started to get old at this point). Our destination today was California Adventure.

Ellie was done before we got to the park.

We headed to the park around 9:30 making it to DCA around 9:45. Since she hadn't slept well the night before and got up early, Ellie fell asleep in the stroller on the walk to the park. She slept until around 11:00. In the meantime, we tried to get a Fast Pass for Radiator Springs Racers and the ride was shutdown. It ended up being shutdown for the whole day. So we went to get a Fast Pass for Soarin’, but not until 11:15. Soarin' was packed (probably because Radiator Springs was closed). Soarin' actually shutdown for part of the day as well. We walked around to find the Olaf Meet N Greet (which was next to the Monsters Inc rice) and then headed back to Soarin’ to get ready for our Fast Pass. Just as we got there, Ellie woke up. We had found Olaf would be at his spot around 11:00 so we walked back there. We met Olaf and also Nick Wylde from Zootopia. Ellie loved seeing both of them, especially Olaf. After that, Lisa went to use her Fast Pass for Soarin’ and Ellie and I rode Monsters Inc. Our plan was for Lisa to use her Fast Pass and I would ride something with Ellie and then we would switch (hopefully before lunch at noon). Ellie did so great on the Monsters Inc ride. Lisa said Soarin’ was the same as Disney World. It took us a little longer than we thought so we instead met at the restaurant for lunch.

Nick Wylde from Zootopia

She was so excited to see Olaf

Lunch was at Carthay Circle. The restaurant was really cool. It looked very similar to the Brown Derby in Disney World. It is based on the Carthay Circle Theater, which is where Snow White premiered. The food was delicious, and they had Lasseter wine by the glass, so I had to have that (so good). Lisa had steak, truffle, and mushroom ravioli and I had beef tri tip with blue cheese risotto. They were great. Ellie was not. She did great until the food got there and then made a hell of a mess and was a pain in the butt. There was butter and ketchup everywhere. The waitress actually told Ellie she would bring her a dessert if she ate her food, and of course Ellie listened to her and ate a little bit. She brought an Olaf treat for Ellie, which she liked (but didn't eat much of it). We also got the World of Color package which gave us a better spot to see World of Color (more on that later). Another thing about this restaurant is the portions were huge, especially for lunch. The World of Color package is a fixed price 3 course meal. Lisa and I could have split 1, but we each had to order it to get the package. We also ordered food for Ellie. She got grilled chicken with broccoli and fruit. It was huge. There was enough food for several meals for her. It would have been too much food for me (and I'm a good eater).

Steak, truffle, and mushroom raviolis

Tri-tip steak with blue cheese risotto

Ellie's Olaf Treat

After lunch we tried to go see Anna and Elsa, but the line was crazy and the bear was back so instead we went back to the hotel to take a nap. Guess who wouldn’t go to sleep? Yep, the bear. We gave it a good hour to hour and a half and gave up. Ellie had a snack of hot dog, fruit snack and popcorn (she finished the tub today). We decided to head back to the park and try to see the Frozen show at DCA.

The show was at 5:30 and we left the hotel around 5:00. We made it in time, but sat at the very top. This theater was huge. It was probably similar to the Music Hall in Kansas City. Ellie loved it. She was singing along and constantly asking about Anna and Elsa and Olaf. Every time one of them would leave the stage, she would ask where they went. She had her tub of popcorn next to her for half the show. Ellie started to get antsy at the end, so we left just before the end of the show because Ellie had to pee pee. When we left, we realized the show was over an hour long. That is a long show and a really long time for Ellie to stay in one place. She and I went to the restroom and Lisa went to get in line for Anna & Elsa. We found Lisa close to the front of the line and we waited maybe 15 min (the line after lunch would have been over an hour). The closer we got, the more excited Ellie got. We were next to see them, I was holding her back and when they told her she was next, she took off and immediately hugged both of them. It was awesome and they were great with her. They knelt down to her level, talked to her about her hair and how cute she was. It was great. Ellie loved it. After that we did Turtle Talk with Crush, which was fine (too advanced for Ellie) and the Socerer’s Workshop, which was not too exciting.

So excited to see Anna & Elsa

Ellie in awe

Beast's Library

Next we headed to see World of Color. We had seen it the night before from an ok view and thought it was really cool, so we were pretty excited to see it from a reserved area. We found spots and they were great: Mid-level, center right. Perfect. Not many people around us either. Ellie made a friend with a kid similar age to her who had a Mickey bubble wand. They had fun. Lisa and I ate corn dogs from Corn Dog Castle (Lisa's was a regular corn dog, and mine was a hot link corn dog. They were yummy). Ellie had to go to the bathroom twice, which caused she and Lisa to miss the first couple minutes. We waited about 45 minutes for the show to start. It was fantastic. Ellie liked it too. It took her a while to get into it, but when she did, she liked it. It is probably the best show at a Disney park in North America. Last stop, bedtime. Ellie fell asleep in the stroller and didn’t wake up while we changed her into her pj’s. Tomorrow, back to Disneyland.