DCA Grand Reopening Part 2- Cars Land!

So when I left off on my recap of my experience at DCA on it's Grand Reopening day, I was headed to Cars Land! (Click here to read Part 1!)  When I got to the area of Cars Land I saw that the walls were down and that there was a big sign at the start of DCA's Route 66.

It seemed like everyone visiting DCA was at Cars Land because it was so crowded!  Everything had a long line and there were people everywhere!

I think this might be my favorite area in Cars Land!

So crowded!

  

I considered the Single Rider line for Radiator Springs Racers but even it had a 50 minute wait!

I saw a line that went far down their Route 66 and thought it was part of the regular line but when I asked someone I found out it was actually the line for people using Fastpasses!
I ended up just walking around the Radiator Springs Racers ride and I was amazed at how massive it was!

It was a little after this that I heard the song "Sh-Boom" start playing so I raced back to see the buildings light up!  The street looks nice during the day but I really think it looks best at night!

I didn't spend too long at Cars Land because of the crowd but I was glad I was able to check it out!

Afterwards I went back to Buena Vista Street to take a peek inside Carthay Circle.  The lounge looked very nice and I made a mental note to come back soon for a drink!

 

I left Carthay Circle and went over to check out the Mad T Party.  I'd been to it before but it was it's first official night so I wanted to take a look!  I'll be sharing lots of photos from that in my next post!

California Adventure Grand Reopening! Part 1

I didn't get to go into California Adventure as soon as it reopened on June 15th but I was able to go after work!  I went solo and had a really nice time taking in the new surroundings and checking out all the new merchandise!
I was nervous that the park would have reached capacity by the time I got there around 6:30pm but there actually wasn't much wait at this point and I got in just fine!
To start off I must say how much I loved Buena Vista Street!  All the changes made a big difference and you do feel like you're stepping into another time and place as you walk in.  The trolley was fun to see and there were so many new things to look at I felt a little overwhelmed trying to decide where to start.

I looked over at Oswald's which I was pretty excited about and spotted a new Oswald toy! It looked like there were only two left on the shelf so despite not having looked at anything else, I rushed over to purchase it since my husband and I are big fans!

Our new Oswald at home

From Oswalds I went over to Five and Dime to look for what merchandise they had for the Grand Opening.  It was here that I found out there was a special merchandise event for Annual Passholders at the Animation Building so I headed that direction. Near the Animation Building they had several tables that seemed to have had people from different radio stations at them earlier in the day.

They had a sign outside the Animation Building so I knew I was in the right place.

As I walked into the Animation Building I was handed several sheets of paper that indicated which areas had which merchandise.  I was also given a pencil. Inside there were different sections that had various merchandise in cases.  The setup made it a little hard to see what merchandise they had to offer but it didn't keep me from buying a few items.

Inside the Animation Building

Some of the merchandise

From there I headed back to Buena Vista Street and checked out the new statue of Walt and Mickey.

I was pretty excited by Buena Vista Street and wanted to explore some more but I was curious about Cars Land so I went over.  I'll post that night's photos from Cars Land in my next post!