Adventures By Disney Short Escape - Part 3

Day three of our Adventures By Disney short escape started with a VERY early wake up call. We met our Adventures guides in the lobby of our resort at 6:00 am. I’ll be honest, with this being the last day of our trip and with us having gone non stop the past two days waking up was hard. But trust me when I tell you getting up when my alarm clock went off at 5:15am was worth it!

This day was all about the parks, and we kicked off the day by being the first guests inside Disneyland! This was such a surreal and fun experience. Going through the turn styles, under the train station, and down Main St as the only guests in the park gave me chills + we got some pretty awesome photo opportunities! We stopped by the giant Mickey Pumpkin for pictures, took additional shots on Main Street, and of course at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. The castle glowing during the sunrise with it’s brilliant pink and purple colors was absolutely worth my early wake up call.

After our red carpet entrance into Disneyland it was time to eat. We had a wonderful breakfast at the Plaza Inn. Like previous meals with Adventures By Disney our table was reserved and ready with waiters waiting to take care of us. The Plaza Inn is a very fun and unique character dining experience. There is no character theme here which means you could see anyone from Fairy Godmother to Rafiki to Minnie.

Next up we experienced some pixie dust and we walked right on Peter Pan’s Flight and King Arthur Carousel. It was really neat to ride the carousel after seeing the original inspiration the day before at Griffith park. We then headed over to Indiana Jones where we rode the ride and then we were able to go behind the scenes and see all the work that cast members put into keeping those trucks running! Trust me, it’s a lot! Every truck gets new tires every few months!

Then it was time for one of the highlights of my trip, a visit to Walt’s apartment!!! We weren’t allowed to have our phones or cameras out, but I did get the below photo which was taken by our adventure guide. Hey low quality photo is better than no photo when you are in Walt’s apartment haha! It was very surreal being where he stood and knowing how much time he spent enjoying that apartment space. He enjoyed time with his family there and loved to watch his guests enjoy the magic of Disneyland that he had created. Walt’s lamp now stays on and shines it’s light down on Main Street below.

We jumped over to California Adventure Park next for lunch. We took a group break and enjoyed lunch on our own. Once we met back up with our guides it was off to Radiator Springs!! First we were able to skip the always long line and ride the racers. Second we were taken behind the scenes again to see how these cars operate. It was neat to see all the racers out and being worked on just like an actual body shop. We were taught how the cars and the ride itself operate and why when a racer goes down it’s not an easy fix. The cast members have an excellent plan in place for when this happens, but it does take a little bit of time. I’ll remind myself of this next time I’m on a ride that goes down!

Our last stop of the day was Soarin’ Around the World! I’ve always been a big fan of soarin, it’s a relaxing ride that does have some thrill to it. As with all of our other expereinces on this day we were able to ride the ride first and then head behind the scenes. For this behind the scenes we literally went behind the big Imax screen that you watch during the ride. We then watched as the next group of guests enjoyed the ride from behind the screen! It was VERY cool, and something I wasn’t expecting to like as much as I did.

Soarin’ ended our time in the parks with our Adventures Guides. We had some free time to play before our farewell reception. This reception was held at the Grand Californian and we were surprised with Mickey ears and all the desserts we could eat. Our guides made sure we were all set to head to home the next day and passed along information to download all the pictures they had taken during our trip. All of those pictures are included with your adventure!

We had two AMAZING guides! Natalia and Lori both did anything and everything to make our trip perfect and memorable. One day I got a terrible headache from nowhere and in true Disney fashion they whipped out some advil for me lol. They couldn’t have anyone feeling bad on this magical adventure! They talked and interacted to not only us but everyone on the adventure like they had known us for years. I can only hope our paths cross again on my next Adventure By Disney vacation!

That’s a wrap on my recap. We truly had the BEST time on our ABD Short Escape. The experiences, the food, the service, the Disney magic, and all the memories we made were worth every penny! In case you missed it you can read all about Day 1 of our adventure here and Day 2 here. If you have any interest in taking a vacation with Adventures By Disney or questions about this Disney product feel free to email me :)

XOXO & Pixie Dust,

Ashton