 Last weekend we made our trip to Disney California Adventure for their Touch of Disney food event. We had a fantastic time, it was amazing being back in the park for a few hours, and saying hi to some of our favorite characters from 6+ feet away. We of course also tried some great food. Enjoy! Written by Gregg Condon  Welcome to Touch of Disney!  No trams, so a bit of a walk to the entry   Heading into DCA!  When we got to the park we were STARVING, so it was right to the location where we could get some food quick!  That ended up being a churro cart in Grizzly Creek. Lol.  EUREKA!  They're doing some work on the outside of Little Mermaid. Not sure if they're doing anything inside.  Our first tastes. Beef Barbacoa Taco and Bengal Skewers. Both were excellent!  Pepperoni Pizza Egg Rolls. Probably our favorite thing we had at the event.  Black Widow Walls    Heading into Smokejumpers for some more tasty treats!  Monte Cristo and a Jack and Coke Icee (to go along with our egg rolls)  They had lots of photo locations, we oddly didn't see any PhotoPass people. Hmm.  Peoplemover return confirmed! Lol. Wish this wasn't a trucker hat because I totally would have gotten one.  Pork Banh Mi and some Bourbon thing. Both very tasty!  About 4:00pm the crowds definitely started dying down  Wings, Mac and Cheese and a hunk of meat on a bun.  45 minute wait for the swings and World of Color! Guess this is the same as it was the last day the park was open?  Looking across the bay. Is it still called Paradise Bay or is it Pixar Bay?   Longest line was for the bar. Yeah.  Hey Buzz! Thanks for keeping an eye on the place while we've been gone!  They were testing Incredicoaster while we were there.  I will say, it was nice to be able to get some pictures with nobody in them  3, 2, 1 ... GO!   My favorite entry to Cars Land  Not sure there's ever been a better use of forced perspective than this area  I mean seriously ...  Hey Mater!     Some new paint and stuff. Ooooh. Aaaah.  What's up A!   Woof Woof Pluto!   By DCA, see ya real soon (we hope)   Hello Gorgeous   The long walk back to the car  We had a blast!   Overall, we had a fantastic time at Touch of Disney. Was it worth the $75 entry, probably not, but hey, it's Disney and we had a great day. As I mentioned in our Comparison video of Taste of Boysenberry Festival, Taste of Universal, and Touch of Disney ... I think out of the 3, Disney had the least amount of available seating and the biggest issues ordering the food. While I think mobile ordering is the way to go, and that part was indeed easy, getting the Disney Gift Card onto the app to use it for the food was a bit cumbersome. I hope they figure out some way to fix that before the parks open. Because it would be nice just to be able to "load" cards onto the app to use for dining. But those minor things aside, it's a great event and we're glad Disney has figured out a way to get some people back to work sooner than their April 30th opening date Related Videos
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Today is the 20th Anniversary of Disney California Adventure. And sadly, just like when the park actually opened, it's passing with very little fanfare. Nonetheless, we figured we'd take a look a look back at one of the more interesting and different parks in the Disney family. We hope you enjoy!!! We'll start our look at one of the AP Preview days they held before the park was open, aka, one of the very few days the park was busy during it's first few years. You've come a long-long way baby.  We also did a "Theme Park Retrospective" of the park in 2001 last year. Click on any of the pictures below to see a larger version.  This first set is going WAY back to the earliest days of Disney's California Adventure. How about some DCA 1.0 night shots. The park always did look better at night. As the years went on, they added more seasonal decorations, attractions and shows. Looking back on this now, the "postcard" thing does kind of make sense. Of course, the big change came in 2012, and really continues through this day. Only a few things at the park are in their original 2001 state at this point. Marvel made it's way into the park a few years ago, and an all new Marvel attraction will (hopefully) open this year.   The last big change at the park was Pixar Pier. I do actually miss "Paradise Pier". I've loved most of the changes at the park, but this one was a step back IMO. Still, it doesn't change the fun or excitement of the star attraction in the area.   We hope you enjoyed this look back at Disney California Adventure. We can't wait to visit again, hopefully soon. Related Videos
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Written by Gregg Condon Today news broke that the Disneyland Annual Passholder Program has essentially been cancelled. We will try to outline this, what we know now, and what we think is going to happen in the future for any kind of passholder program. The official statement is below.  So what does mean, and what can we decipher from this statement.
 The words that pop out in that statement are "choice" and especially "flexibility". It's no secret that Disney has been seeking to roll out more Flex passes in recent years, that was our Annual Pass of choice when we got our new AP's in December 2019, after not having AP's for about 7 years. Obviously we don't know, but don't be surprised if the Annual Pass program looks like a Flex Pass program when it returns. And honestly, for me personally, I'm ok with it. We're planners, we live 100 miles away from the parks, so for us it's not that big of a deal. The people this is really going to impact are those who use Disneyland as a "hang out" or "babysitter", and these are the types of Passholders Disney has been trying to weed out for years, and they've finally come up with an excuse to do so. It's also not any accident that this announcement comes approximately 10 months after the parks closed. This is something that's most likely been in the works for some time, but from an "agreement" standpoint, they probably had to wait for a certain timeframe for this to happen. But it was inevitable. So why do we think some sort of Annual Passholder program will come back in the future?
What likely isn't coming back? SoCal passes. Sorry. They're gone. Done for. Kaput. No more lower tier passes that caused the parks to be busier on a Tuesday in October than a Saturday in July. Why does making all Annual Passes "Flex Passes" make sense.
Let's face it. Daily and resort visitors, you know, the people who spend money when they go to the parks, were getting hosed the past few years. Because the park was constantly packed with Annual Passholders who, let's face it, don't spend a whole lot of money. When Universal Studios Hollywood opened Wizarding World, they discovered a few things. One, attendance was not as high as was anticipated during the first summer it was open. And two, guest spending was through the roof during that same time period. Guess word spread that people will be more than happy to spend money on merchandise when they're not fighting through oppressive crowds all day. As we get through the next couple of months, and the vaccine becomes more readily available, and there is a light at the end of this awful tunnel, I'd anticipate we will start to hear about the new program. They already have it, they just aren't saying yet. And that's smart. There is pent-up demand for theme parks, and Disneyland in particular. By controlling the amount of people who will want to go to the parks ASAP they are setting themselves up for a smooth roll-out in a couple of months (we hope). What are your thoughts on these changes? Pro? Against? Let us know in the comments below. Related Videos
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