One of our favorite landmarks to visit on any trip is a Route 66 sign. When my daughter was 2, we took a trip to the Grand Canyon and stayed at a hotel along Route 66 in Williams, Arizona. Then a couple years later, while visiting Chicago, we located the Route 66 starting point.
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So this year on our California trip, part of the reason we started at the Santa Monica Pier is because they relocated the unofficial end of Route 66 to the pier. So of course hitting up Cars Land inside of Disney California Adventure was high on our list.
If you’ve never experienced Rope Drop at DCA, especially to get to Radiator Springs Racers, the ride where you get to tour the town of Radiator Springs and then race another car, you’re missing out!
We started our day by heading over to the Harbor entrance to wait for security to open at 7am allowing us to be one of the first through the ticket entrance at 730. When we got to the rope, we were in the second row of people.
By 8am when they let down the rope, there was a massive crowd behind us and as soon as they removed the rope and gave the signal, it was a free for all run to the entrance of Route 66 and all the way down the road to the ride entrance. I decided to pick up my daughter because I didn’t want her to get trampled.
I believe we ended up waiting about 15 more minutes to get onto the ride, but totally worth not eating up park hours waiting for the ride that quickly builds to 90 minute wait. Experiencing RSR for the first time was quite a thrill. From getting a tour by Mater to racing on the track, it was very exciting.
We then hit up the other two rides in Cars Land, Luigi’s and Maters, then headed to the Cozy Cone Motel for a churro breakfast snack while just enjoying the excitement of being in the Cars movie! We also got to say hello to Mater and Lightning McQueen when they stopped at the Cozy Cone for a break.
After experiencing the rest of the park, we headed back to Route 66 after dark. That’s when the light show begins. The neon lights are flipped on and the party begins!
Getting to be in Cars Land and to see the movie come to life was so cool. I would definitely recommend, if you haven’t been there yet, plan a trip soon. With the new Genie Lightning Lanes now available, you can skip the rope drop rush and 90 minute waits for a small fee, which if you have small children dying to see this ride, I highly recommend.
If you’re ready to start exploring a Walt Disney World or Disneyland family vacation, I recommend checking out Undercover Tourist for your ticket options. I’ve already used them twice, once at Disneyland and once at Disney World and will plan to continue comparing their prices with other sites, however I usually come back to UT because they have the best deals and their instructions make it easy to add your tickets to the Disney apps.
The 360 of Disney 