Disneyland Diva: Cars Land and Buena Vista Street Overview

At the new entrance to Disney's California Adventure (henceforth referred to as DCA) you get a Buena Vista Bugler, named after the new main street into DCA called Buena Vista Street. You can see it behind Mr. Diva. Doesn't it look great?

Of course there is a place to sell Disney stuff right at the entrance, but it is so CUTE! It is a gas station called Oswald's and this cool car is out in front with Dick Tracy stuff inside.

For those who don't know, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was Walt's first attempt at a character before he hit it big with Mickey Mouse. I put a short video of Oswald at the end of this blog entry.

Buena Vista Street -- the old Golden Gate Bridge is now this and I love it! Especially the patriotic bunting that was all over the place.

The new partners statue for Buena Vista Street called the Storytellers.

One fun addition to DCA is the Red Car Trolley. It runs from the Tower of Terror around Carthay Circle and as you see here, makes its way down Buena Vista Street to the entrance.

Red Car News Boys perform in Carthay Circle and Mickey joins them at the end. This group was okay. Probably better if you weren't expecting Newsies. They did however nail the last song, which was from Newsies, "Sieze the Day." Do NOT miss that number!

At the end of the performance they board the trolley and ride down Buena Vista Street, to the entrance, and then back through Carthay Circle, down Hollywood Blvd. and end at the Tower of Terror singing the whole way.

Mickey in his 1920's clothes.

Goofy performs in Carthay Circle with Five & Dime. They drive up in an old jalopy and play 20's and 30's music. I like this group! High energy and great music.

And Goofy is the cat's meow in his dapper 20's outfit! (if you can say that about a dog)

Chip and Dale were about their usual antics and looking as darling as ever! Dale "styled" Mr. Diva's hat for him.

Even Pluto got a 1920's make-over!

Much like they have in Disney Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, they have introduced some streetmosphere performers called the Citizens of Buena Vista Street. They are characters who roam around Carthay Circle and Buena Vista Street in period clothing and chat and take pictures with guests.

This is Phiphi (pronounced fifi) Francis, world famous photographer and travel columnist. She is usually in Switzerland or on safari in Africa, but decided to spend some time in California taking pictures and writing about her adventures.

Another fine citizen of Buena Vista Street is Molly the Messenger.

Miss Donna the Doglady with her dog Lady are well known around Buena Vista Street.

She told us that everyone knows her. And she has cute cankles.

Matt was given quite a talking to by Officer Calvin Blue and he was given a citation by Officer Blue for Abiding commitment to "Operation Beautification" (Ordinance 43064) or in other words, Matt is a good recycler. And he was also cited for always telling me I'm right. We loved Officer Blue.

We finally made it to Cars Land! This billboard sign is at the entrance right near the Boudin Bakery/Pacific Wharf side.

Not a great shot and it's the only one I took from the entrance all day. I was overwhelmed with all the detail in Carsland and actually ended up with a dead battery before the day was out. So, this will have to suffice until I can make it back.

Population 12!

Fillmore's Taste-in - basically just a stand where you get fruit or bottled drinks.

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree!

Tons of stuff in line to look at and I spotted a Hidden Mickey but that will have to wait until I do my detailed blog on this ride.

Basically, the tractors swing around in circles, but they move in a figure 8 so it swings REALLY wide sometimes. The entire time you are in line and on the ride, Mater is singing these ridiculous songs that the tractors are dancing to. So silly and so funny!

I loved Mater's Junkyard Jamboree! And yes, this is another one of those rides where I scream like a little girl!!

Sarge's Surplus is a big Army hut that sells Cars merchandise. There is a really nice little sitting area on the left side of Sarge's where the bathrooms are.

Cozy Cone Motel is the home of the photo spot for Mater and Lightening as well as 5 cones that serve different things in cones. We tried several of their edible offerings here throughout the day so I will also review those on my blog later.

Some of the things they serve are flavored popcorn, churro bites with chocolate sauce, bacon and eggs or chicken chili verde in a bread cone, and various drinks.

Flo's V-8 Cafe - 50's inspired decor and food. We ate two meals here. Flo's is a good addition to DCA. They have had the worst food at the Disneyland Resort. I will review the meals from Flo's on my blog later.

Inside Flo's you can see the 50's decor. It is so detailed I can't wait to share all about it!

Of course you can eat inside at Flo's, but we preferred sitting on the veranda outside next to the Radiator Springs Racers and overlooking Ornament Valley!

Radiator Springs Curios - run by Lizzie. No bumper stickers or postcards here though. Too bad too! Just run of the mill Disney stuff and a little bit are Cars stuff. You know, they had some amazing fake postcards printed and just sitting in the Cozy Cone Office that would be PERFECT to sell here!! I would have bought them in a heart beat, but no, they had a set of notecards of Cars Land attraction posters in Elias and Company for $20! Are you kidding me Disney?

Excuse me for a moment while I veer from my overview - Disney Suits, you are missing a great opportunity here. People want to take home memories, not plastic crap. This is the kind of store where you need to sell people cheap crap for memories!! This is supposed to be a Route 66 Curio shop -- bumper stickers, post cards, license plate covers, posters, maps, pencils, pens, key chains, hats and t-shirts that are all and only about Radiator Springs! NOT run of the mill, over-priced Disney junk you sell at every shop and kiosk in the rest of the Resort! If I want that, I know where to go. I want stuff I can't get anywhere else.

Okay, end of rant. Thank you for your forbearance.

Anyway, while I was in Lizzie's I did notice this Hidden Mickey and thought I would post this one seeing as there isn't much else to say about the Curio Shop.

The infamous Luigi's Flying Tires

I will say that it was the longest line for us all day and it didn't dip under an hour wait time.

This ride is based on the "Flying Saucers" attraction that was in Tomorrowland back in like the 50's and was only around for a year or so.

It was easier to learn than many people said it was going to be, and even though it was a little slow, it was still enjoyable and the little kids seemed to LOVE it. Plenty of people had a great time on the ride, they just need to work on getting the loading and unloading to work a little faster so the line isn't so long.

Ramones Body Art is another place that sells merchandise. I thought they might have face painting here or those rub on tattoos or something but they didn't.

The end of Radiator Springs main street with Ornament Valley in the back ground.

At the end of the street is the statue of Radiator Springs Founder and Lizzie's husband, Stanley. He discovered Radiator Springs back in 1909 when his engine overheated and he found water in (surprise!) Radiator Springs (which can be seen in the queue for the ride.)

The BIG attraction, Radiator Springs Racers. The standby wait times fluctuated throughout the day. When we got in the single rider line we only waited for about 45 minutes and that included a ride break down.

This is the Radiator Spring that Stanley discovered. Unfortunately the spring was not running. Not a good thing, in my opinion, to have something broken in your main attraction queue after only a month. And a personal pet peeve here -- adults throwing coins into the spring trying to make it into the radiator cap. This is probably why it's broken.

On to the ride. Once you are loaded into your car,

the ride starts off as a nice drive through Ornament Valley, then there is a whole dark ride section that we loved!

The dark ride part ends with your car getting ready to race another car, and then you take off racing to the finish line. Luigi and Guido are there to cheer you on! I love Guido!

Here we are making a sharp turn during the race!

Here are two cars racing. You can see this from the back entrance into Radiator Springs next to Flo's V8.

And this is the spectacular entrance from the back of the Pacific Wharf area (by the beer and pretzel truck) into Radiator Springs. What a view!

At about dusk 8:00 to 8:15ish, everyone kind of gathers in the main intersection and then they play "Sha-boom" and everyone gets quiet, and they slowly turn on all the neon lights from the end of the street all the way up to Sarge's just like in the movie.

We really had a wonderful day in Cars Land and on Buena Vista Street! It is amazing, and the detail put into it is something that will take me several blog entries to share. I think I may need to go back a few times to be sure that I get enough photos to really do the new areas justice.