Day 8: Disneyland to Catalina Island (Part IV of IV) [Video]

Ethan and Grandma ride the Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train

Day 8: Disneyland to Avalon, Catalina Island | Total Drive Time: 2 hours | Total Distance: ???

Final day at Disneyland and we found Ethan’s favorite ride: Cars Land Radiator Springs Racers. Laura and I both agree that it was also our favorite.

We had planned on doing the Racers today since we had an early 7am pass to California Adventures, but after arriving at the park, signs showed that the Racers would not open until 11am due to maintenance. We weren’t going to wait until then without a Fast Pass. Lines without a Fast Pass have been 2-3 hours for the 5 minute ride. I jumped into the Fast Pass line where I had to wait 50 minutes (Fast Pass line opened at 8am) to get a 11:35 am-12:35 pm time slot.

We came back at 11:40am, waited about 15 minutes and happily enjoyed this great ride. It was worth it for Ethan. Here’s the full, but a bit shaky, video.

Other highlights at Disneyland today included riding the Silly Symphony Swings (video coming), visiting A Bug’s Land (very appropriate for Autumn), and enjoying a pineapple float at the Tiki Room.

The best example of customer service also occurred today on the Monsters, Inc. ride. We had just finished the ride and stepped off the car when Ethan realized he didn’t have his Cars sunglasses. Our car had moved on and was now heading out of sight with new riders. He broke down crying since they were his favorite. As you can tell in most of our vacation photos, he loves them. He went outside with Laura, and I waited inside checking each car that dropped off riders. After 6-7 minutes (longer than the ride), the supervisor took me to another room where she kindly wrote us a voucher to purchase another pair of sunglasses. I was surprised by the gesture and was very thankful. Ethan replaced the sunglasses with blue ones that he likes a lot better! Thanks to Disneyland for continuing to make Disneyland the happiest place on earth for my kid.

Good-bye Disneyland, hello Catalina Island!

We said good-bye to Disneyland around 3pm and made our way to Long Beach Harbor where we took the 5:45pm boat to Avalon. Laura first visited in 2004 and Ethan in 2009. This would be Autumn’s first visit. I first visited in the late 70′s (can’t remember the exact year) and have been here a lot. I used to visit for a week every summer until 1995. Since then I visit every few years. My grandmother has a condo (she owns with a variety of other families) that we stay at each visit. I have a lot of memories of Avalon where my cousin (Rich) and I would had fishing contest (we fished day and night every day), played arcade, tried to pick up on girls, ate tasty soft serve ice cream, and generally just hung out. Visit if you ever get the chance.

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