This last weekend we decided at the last minute (Friday night!) to do a quick trip to Disneyland. During this summer Disneyland has a special theme called Pixarfest happening where there are new character events, parades, shows, and more themed after Pixar movies. We had planned a trip in a few weeks, but then realized we had passes expiring yesterday that we didn't want to waste. And since I don't have any vacation days to spare, we drove down Saturday and came back on Sunday.
Although it was a quick trip, it was a fun one and offered some unique experiences over past Disneyland trips:
Secrets of the Empire Star Wars VR experience - for an extra fee, I signed myself, Cameron, and Landon up for a walk-thru VR experience in Downtown Disney. ILMx Labs made the experience in conjunction with The Void, and came to Pixar a couple of weeks ago to talk about it. As a fan of VR games, I really wanted to try out a walk around VR "game". Not being tethered to a computer and feeling "4D" effects like heat lamps and blowing air heightened the virtual experience beyond what I've tried out before. We got to shoot storm troopers and lava monsters, sneak around an imperial base, and face Darth Vader.
Pixar Pals and lunch time show - Unfortunately the revamped "Pixar Pier" was not yet open, but that did cause the Pixar Garden area of California Adventure to be less busy than most other parts of the park. We stood in line to get a family picture with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, after waiting in line for a half hour and barely before they left for a break. The Gardens eating area nearby had some open seating and no lines for food. We even timed lunch so that we were treated to a show by the Pixarmonic Orchestra, enjoyed some fun lighted hearted humor and fantastic renditions of some classic Pixar movie music (like the Incredibles theme and Toy Story music). When I went to pick up pizza I ordered for the family, the pizza chef commented she like my cap (I was wearing an Incredibles 2 cap) and that she was excited for the movie. When I answered that it was a great movie, she asked if I had seen it, and was really excited to meet someone from Pixar and who had worked on the film.
Pixar Parade and night time fireworks show - A special new Pixar exclusive parade was at Disneyland. Some of the floats that were especially fun and impressive were the cowgirl gymnasts on the Toy Story float, the A Bug's Life Heimlich float that separated into multiple dancing parts, and the big Incredibles Omnidroid float. The fireworks show at night was also exclusively Pixar themed, with video from the movies or based on them projected on the castle, Pixar music playing throughout, and Buzz and the Up house making flights above the castle.
Max Pass - Not specific to Pixarfest, but Max Pass is Disneyland's new fast pass system that allows you to make fast pass selections for busy rides from your smart phone, without having to go to the actual fast pass locations. That and the fact it includes downloads for any photo pass pictures taken during the day makes the $10 per person price tag worth it. We got to spend time that we would have used waiting in line or getting the physical fast passes going to more attractions like Turtle Talk and the Frozen stage show.
Lemon ice cream - I shouldn't have been as excited about this as I was, but they had lemon flavored ice cream, inspired by the snowman's yellow snow cones from Monster's Inc. You could even get "snow" covered ones that had a white chocolate drizzle on top.
More Star Wars at Tomorrowland - Star Tours had updated scenes from the new Star Wars episodes and the technology gallery was all Star Wars themed with meet and greets with Star Wars characters. We met Kylo Ren and he tried to encourage my boys to join the Dark Side.
Not so fun: driving home for 6 hours after leaving the park after 10:30 pm. Ouch!
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