Disney 2023 – Part 2

The original plan for this holiday was that we would spend day one at Disneyland, day two at California Adventure, day three at Universal, and day four back at Disneyland. That meant day two, (or Tuesday, as it was also known) saw us heading to the other side of the Disney plaza for California Adventure.

Last time we were there, we had queued up for the Incredicoaster, and actually taken our seats just as it broke down, so that one was on our list. We also wanted to do the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, and see the Avengers’ Campus which had been built in the intervening years. However, we weren’t very organised about our visit, so we kicked things off with the Spider-man Web singers ride.

It was a fun ride, and the technology was impressive – slinging webs based on a computer knowing where my arms were? Unreal! We loved the setup and the ride, and the fact that bits of the story of the ride were reflected in the details around the Avengers’ campus. Where we saw Captain America, Spidey, and General Okoye:

Oh, and Ant-Man.

We loved the Guardians ride just as much this time as we did last time.

Then it was time to head across to the Incredicoaster, and there was a fast-moving queue and no breakdown! It’s a fast coaster, with a complete loop and a bunch of huge bumps and fast turns, but the ride seems to last quite a while. We were ready to take the pace down a notch, so we went for the Monsters Inc ride. It’s not really a ride, more like a retelling of the movie through a series of tableau that you meander past in a replica Monstropolis Taxi. Seemed fair enough to us, though,

It doesn’t sound like much, but in between we had walked a LOT, visited almost every shop and eaten many things, including an enormous Turkey leg. That was enough for one day.

We called off Wednesday’s visit to Universal. Firstly, I didn’t want to drive through LA traffic there and back. Secondly, with JK Rowling out of favour in our household (Trans women are women, it’s not difficult), a large part of the park is written off. Thirdly, super Nintendo world or whatever it is holds no interest for us, and we did the studio tour twice already. Basically, we’d be paying a lot for not much, so we had a hugely decadent lie in, drove to a nearby beach, got a nice pub lunch and went back to the hotel.

And that brings us to our last day at Disney.

We’d already done the two rides in Galaxy’s Edge, and spent a lot on stuff I don’t need, but we both seem to find Batuu a very restful place to hang out. We did do both rides again, obviously…

And we got lunch at the Docking Bay, where I was delighted to find they still serve Fried Endorian Tip Yip.

The really great thing about having done everything you set out to do, is that there is no longer an agenda or timetable. We could (and did!) just sit and watch the world go by. We saw as many Star Wars characters in that hour or so after lunch as there are in the park, I think…

It was a blissful afternoon, but you know the one thing you can’t get on Batuu? A cup of coffee. We finally stirred ourselves to head back to Main street, so Mrs Dim could observe her Disney tradition of drinking coffee on Main Street while wearing her tiara. When we got there, the parade was about to kick off, so she grabbed a space and I went and fetched the coffee.

We haven’t watched a Disney Parade since we visited Disneyland Paris in 1997. It was shorter than I expected, but fun and with some really interesting floats and dancers.

Replete with spectacle, we retired to the Jazz Kitchen for a final Disney Meal.

For three days of theme park fun, it’s been a really relaxing holiday, and I’m actually looking forward to the road trip home. I hope Galaxy’s Edge doesn’t suffer too much in the restructuring going on at Disney as they try to save money. It’s an amazing place for someone who has spent so much time imagining what it’s like to live in Star Wars