Chapter 49
DCA 2.0

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(Originally posted July 25, 2013)

February 23, 2013

Waking up on our first full day as passholders, I don’t think we quite believed it yet. Though we knew it would have been smart to head to rope drop, we just aren’t the kind of people who can do early mornings on weekends. Plus, I usually feel the worst before lunch, so by waiting until early afternoon to head to the parks, I had the best shot at feeling okay for most of the day.

After eating lunch, we did the now familiar journey to the Mickey and Friends parking structure, took the tram to the Main Entrance Plaza, and started our day at Disneyland.

Upon going through the arch and into Town Square, we saw Pluto walking hand in hand with this small child and thought it was very cute.

While we were in Town Square, our favorite Main Street Vehicle approached, being pulled by Danny the horse!

We climbed aboard the trolley, loving that Danny had his own nametag.

We quickly started off down Main Street toward the castle.

When we arrived, Tracy took a picture with her new friend Danny.

I did too.

We noticed the Omnibus taking people back down Main Street, and we decided we would have to ride this sometime soon as well!

There’s something so great about the Main Street Vehicles. We just love that they run them so much more often here than they do at the Magic Kingdom.

Without being absolutely sure, I think the main reason we came into Disneyland first this afternoon was to get our annual pass photos. The day before, we couldn’t find a single roving photographer without a tripod, and you have to go to them to get your picture taken. This time, I’m pretty sure we were more successful, and after being photographed, we actually walked back down Main Street toward the park exit.

Back in Town Square, we saw that the White Rabbit was doing a meet and greet, so we decided to say hi.

Across the square, Mickey was conducting the Main Street Straw Hatters.

We noticed that Pluto was back from his break, so we ran over to meet him.

He appreciated my hat.

On the way out, we saw Ariel was in front of the train station, so we waited to meet her as well because Tracy was wearing her Little Mermaid shirt (from the kids section at Old Navy, of course).

And now, we decided to leave. That was more than enough fun for one day.

I’m kidding, of course! We left Disneyland so we could park hop to Disney California Adventure!

As we prepared to enter DCA, we were ripe with anticipation! The last time we had been in this park, it was a giant construction site. It had been almost impossible to get around and had really felt like an incomplete experience. Now, we were entering onto the beautiful Buena Vista Street.

The first thing we saw on our left upon entering was Oswald’s Filling Station. I like the nods to Oswald at DCA.

Starting to walk down the street, we saw the striking silhouette of the Carthay Circle Theater.

We also just loved some of the architecture of the building facades, like this one on Trolley Treats.

Making it to the end of the street, we approached the Photopass photographer at the Storytellers statue. We had always been so used to buying the Photopass CD that it felt weird having to ask the photographers to take pictures with our camera. Luckily, they always oblige.

I really love that statue! I think it’s a great complement to the Partners statue at Disneyland and really helps set the tone and the scene of Buena Vista Street as being the home of a young Walt Disney.

We also loved seeing the fountain in Carthay Circle. You all know how I feel about kinetic water!

While we soaked in the atmosphere of this first section of DCA, one of the Red Car Trolleys went by near us.

We officially could say we loved this new land. It provides a great entrance to DCA, and it was obviously a million times better than the walled-off entrance we experienced on our last trip here!

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