Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure

Visited: September 25, 2026

Attending: Just Brian

You go to an amusement park in September or October, this is what you get.

After my Orlando trip, I had to fly to Palm Springs for a week for my company’s big off-site. It’s a two-hour drive from Palm Springs down to Disney, but I couldn’t resist. After all, I haven’t been there since 1995. Now, of course, I had to do California Adventure as well, which meant I wanted to do two (not huge) parks and get four credits, among other things. Fortunately, Disney opens at 8 a.m. – which I had no chance of making, because two hours away. But I got there around 9:30, which wasn’t too shabby. I decided to try for California Adventure first, just because of the prevalence of large, appealing rides there. The park was pretty busy, even though it was a weekday when schools are (I assume) open. Fortunately, I decided to make liberal use of the Lightning Lane. I even contemplated paying for premium, but I couldn’t stomach the $300 fee, so I went with standard. That required more logistics, but I think it worked out well.

Incredicoaster

It's pretty, but those sound shields don't really do it any favors.

Might as well start big, right? Incredicoaster is the biggest coaster in the Disney brand, over a mile long, and has a vertical loop. Personally, I liked it a little better as “California Screamin’,” but brand synergy conquers everything. I popped the Lightning Lane as soon as I got in the park, so I didn’t need to wait very long. Unfortunately, I got stuck in row 3, which really isn’t where I’d prefer, but I had decided in advance not to make the groupers’ day harder. So, a few mediocre launches, absolutely no airtime, just enough laterals to make me bonk my head a couple times on the completely unnecessary headrests, and a fairly forceless loop. I get it, this is Disney, but if you’re going to build a coaster that looks like a thrill ride, it would be nice if it would actually be a thrill ride. I give it a solid “meh.”

Ferris wheel thingy

I'm not a huge fan of Ferris wheels, but if they're this pretty, why not?

I think the actual name of this is the “Pixar Pal-a-round,” but even Dory in the safety announcement calls it a “wheel thingy,” so that’s what it is. I mostly went on this because I had to kill time before my Midway Mayhem Lightning Lane kicked in, and the line was pretty short. I went for one of the swinging cars, for variety. I can say that the cars certainly did swing. Enough to make me want to brace a hand casually, and enough to upset the two New Zealanders I shared a car with. I think if I did it again, I’d go for the stationary cars, because they go much higher on the wheel. The swinging cars are near to the hub when they’re in the 12 o’clock position. The views are nice, but Disneyland is pretty flat.

Toy Story Midway Mayhem

I challenge you not to be amused on this ride.

I’ll be honest, I queued up Midway Mayhem because I know it always gets a long line. I mean, I enjoyed it in Florida in 2011, but it wasn’t exactly a priority. And it was pretty much what I remembered; a shooty dark ride. As it happens, I suck at shooty dark rides, but this one gave me a nice sense of accomplishment, even though my score was low. Totally worth it with Lightning Lane.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout

Lens flare looks sci-fi, right? Too bad; this is the photo I've got.

Guardians is the biggest thrill ride with Marvel branding, and probably the biggest thrill in the park, period. If you don’t know, it’s a reskin of the old Hollywood Tower of Terror, with a Guardians theme painted on. I’ve never done Tower of Terror, mostly because I don’t think much of drop towers. And yes, I know Tower of Terror isn’t exactly a drop tower, but my point stands. Anyway, I was going to do standby line for this, but the Lightning Lane opened for a brief period, then closed again because of reasons. I’ll say that the Guardians reskin is a really darned good reskin. Yes, the ride is basically just a car that goes up and down, but given that Rocket is supposedly messing with the controls, it makes good sense. I was slightly worried, given that the only restraint is a plain seat belt, but I remembered that this is Disney, and nothing is too intense. Well, there was a definite free-fall sensation. Several times, as designed. But on the whole I found it more fun than scary. I think the soundtrack helped a lot; I got “Free Ride” by Edgar Winter Group, which seemed like a nice choice to me. I didn’t do much in the rest of Avengers land, because I’m told it’s lackluster. The sooner they can get a copy of Orlando’s Guardians ride out here, the better off they’ll be.

Philharmagic

I decided I wasn’t going to wait for Goofy’s Flight School, as it’s a standard wild mouse, and as it was around 1:00 at this point, I headed for the exit. However, I spotted Philharmagic as I was walking, I enjoyed the Florida version in 2023, and there wasn’t any line, so I popped in. I got a much more central seat than I had last time, so the 3D effects hit me right in the face. Last time, the show improved my day immensely by reminding me that I like Disney musicals. This time, I knew what to expect, so I was mostly struck by how short it was. And the 3D effects really seemed overdone. But it’s fine for what it was.

Space Mountain

Yep, that's Space Mountain. Take my word for it, OK?

At this point, I moved over to Disneyland proper. I certainly remember nothing from my 1995 visit, but the layout is similar to the Magic Kingdom, so I had some idea of where I was going. I was surprised at just how small the castle seems. I get we’re talking about 1955 dollars here, but it feels like they might have replaced it at some point. Anyway, I thought I was getting to be a Lightning Lane expert, so I cleverly queued up Big Thunder Mountain and then took advantage of the 15-minute standby line for Space Mountain. Except somebody made a mistake, and it wasn’t 15 minutes, it was 50. Whoops. But once I realized that, I was already committed, so I stuck it out. As for the ride, well, it’s in the dark. I could tell it was a wild mouse, but it did seem to be more intense than the Florida version. There were a lot of laterals, and it seemed darker and faster. Still fairly low on the thrill scale for me, but if I were experiencing it as a tween, like a lot of people did, I think it would’ve blown my mind. Definitely a strong improvement over the Orlando version.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

I’ve ridden the Orlando Big Thunder a couple of times now. Certainly not enough to have it memorized, so I can’t compare the layout to this one. It starts on a higher level, rather than below, so that’s different. Other than that, it’s kinda mine-train-y? There was one airtime pop that I noticed, but other than that, it seems to be mostly about the effects. It’s satisfying, but not exciting.

Matterhorn

The best imagineering 1955 can buy you...still goes a long way, to be honest.

I was deeply curious about Matterhorn, as I know it’s the oldest steel coaster in the world, and…that’s about it. There wasn’t much line to start with, and Lightning Lane cut it down even further. I liked the single-file trains, which made me wonder if they were lifted from Orlando’s Space Mountain. I’m sure they’ve been upgraded over the years, but I found them pretty comfy. The track, however, wow. That layout really shows its age. It’s original Arrow jank, and only the fact that it’s not going very fast saves the laterals from being painful. It’s also got Yeti animatronics that work, much to my surprise. I don’t know why I didn’t expect that, but I didn’t. I also didn’t expect the splashdown, but I guess Walt wanted his new toy to pull out the stops. A fascinating history lesson, but I don’t know if I’d call it fun.

Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway

You'll have to go all the way to the back of the park and hunt around to find this ride, but believe me, it's worth it.

I’d picked up all the credits I needed, so my highest priority now was this ride, because of its trackless system. So first, the negative: it’s based around a “new” Mickey Mouse cartoon, and I don’t care for the super-deformed style used for Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. The good: absolutely everything else. The pre-show is brilliant, and ushers riders directly into the world of the cartoon. I won’t spoil it, because it’s a great surprise. The ride vehicles are normal-seeming train cars that are hooked to an engine driven by Goofy…except they’re not. Early on, the cars simply break away from Goofy and continue on their own, which is a genuine surprise, even when I knew to expect it. The trackless system is so amazing I barely know how to describe it – the cars juke, jive, spin, and rearrange themselves into seemingly random order. I know it’s choreographed, but it sure doesn’t seem that way. And the effects are astonishing. Animated water behaves like real-world water, while still looking hand-drawn. Cartoon characters seem real and interactive. Rooms completely change while you’re in them. I know it’s projection, along with clever uses of effects and sound, but wow, it’s effective. This is the basic dark ride concept, taken to the next level. I imagine this system has a long future ahead of it at Disney parks. I’d have to say this was the ride that impressed me most today.

It's a Small World

It's pretty much exactly what you think it is, and that's fine.

Yeah, OK, I rode Small World. First off, it’s very near the Runaway Railway. Second, I’ve only ever ridden the Florida version, and the people I was with at the time were Californians, and they were very dismissive of it, to the point of being offended, so I wanted to see what the deal was. Plus, way back when my son was small, he went to Disneyland with his mother and grandmother, and this was the big thing they rode. I wasn’t able to go, for very good reasons, but as time goes on, it feels like a dereliction of duty. Going by myself doesn’t make up for it, but I wanted to see. And yeah, this version is much more impressive than the Orlando version. The animatronics have probably been improved over the decades, but still. I think the ride makes the point it was trying to make; it’s deeply inclusive, with pretty much all of the world represented equally. Shifting languages on the song prevents it from becoming too annoying. I don’t know if the “new verse” was included; I suspect it was. Anyway, I left smiling, which isn’t bad for a ride that’s often derided.

Oga's Cantina

I just stood at the bar like a guy who has the death sentence in 12 systems.

OK, so…I have a bad track record with Galaxy’s Edge. It should be right up my hyperspace lane, as I’ve been a Star Wars fan since literally the beginning. However, I never succeeded in getting my family to go with me, and it felt like a betrayal to go without them. In 2023, I was in the Florida version for all of 15 minutes before the park closed, just long enough to go to the bathroom. This time, I was ambivalent about whether I would go or not. But I was really hungry, so I pulled up the restaurants on the app, and Oga’s had only a 15-minute wait, and some menu items that seemed appealing, so I queued it. What I didn’t know was that after my 15 minutes, I had to get in the queue and wait some more, which was annoying. Even more annoying, I didn’t get to sit down; I had to stand at the bar. I was pretty damned thirsty at this point, and the space-iced-tea I ordered wasn’t very big, so I had to actively restrain myself from sucking it down. I also bought a snack, something that translated to a pretzel roll with cheese, but was somewhat spicier than I preferred when I was so thirsty. The bartenders were attentive, and dressed perfectly in character, but my joke about paying with Republic Credits fell flat; I would’ve expected they get that multiple times a day. Basically, it wasn’t the experience I was looking for. I really should have gotten a ronto burger at the next establishment down; I’ll know for next time.

It's just right there, y'all. I'm gonna need a minute.

That said, oh my god this land. The costumes, the atmosphere, and the flippin’ Millennium Falcon, right there, big as life. I mean, I’ve virtually flown the Falcon before, I’ve built it from Lego in a variety of different sizes; hell, I’ve even power-washed it (in a game). But standing next to it gave me chills in a way that I really wasn’t expecting. Unfortunately, I biffed my Lightning Lane game right at the buzzer. I thought I was going to score myself a walk-on ride on Rise of the Resistance, but it turned out that was the “pay $30 extra” version of Lightning Lane, not the “queue it right up” version. And since I wasn’t going to wait an hour in the standby line, I will continue to remain unspoiled for Rise until another day.

Then I stupidly left the park at 5:30 on a Friday and attempted to drive up to Hollywood, a 25-mile trip that took me 90 freaking minutes, because LA traffic hates everyone.