Califronia Adventure: Buena Vista Street

 

I feel like there is a definite flow to the Magic Kingdom, and California Adventure is more disjointed. However, there are parts that flow together, and if Buena Vista Street is the embodiment of what Walt Disney found when he came to California, then Hollywood Land is kind of what he did when he got there, so those will be our first two lands.

As you enter California Adventure, you are in Buena Vista Street, and the first thing I saw was Oswald's. It looks like a tire shop, but is a souvenir shop. There are several shops, and most of them connect to each other. One of the shops across is where you can pick up photos taken by park photographers. The customer service there was great.

There is only one ride in Buena Vista Street: The Red Car Trolley. It is exactly what it sounds like. You can ride from Buena Vista Street through Hollywood Land, with a total of four stops. It terminates near the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and one of the stops is a central point from which you can head to any land.

I would take it more for the experience than as an actual mode of transportation, but the cast members on board did act as tour guides, pointing out interesting things and answering questions.

Now, when I said there were gift shops that look like other things, that is an important part of the architecture of all of Disneyland, and that comes into play here too, especially in the centerpiece of Buena Vista Street, the Carthay Circle Theater.

No, it is not a theater, but it is designed after the theater where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in 1926, starting an amazing and still growing legacy of animated films.

I admit to thinking it would be kind of cool if it actually was a theater, and you could go there and watch Snow White, however, that's impractical for a couple of reasons. One is that there are such strict rules for showing films that I'm sure it would be a nightmare, but also, it's an amusement park; people want to be moving around and doing things. That creates some issues with a few of the attractions in Hollywood Land, but we will get to that later.

What it is instead is a restaurant and lounge. We did not try them, but I do think the atmosphere would be pretty cool. Even without going in there, the visual impact of the structure and the nod to the history is important.

There are two other restaurants there. We did not try Fiddler, Fifer, & Practical Cafe. There will be a lot of restaurants we cannot comment on. There are so many, and we have our favorites that we want to get back to, where we are not always trying new ones. There are options for a wide variety of different tastes, and you can probably find something that will work for you. That being said, we did try Clarabelle's Hand-Scooped Ice Cream.

We had to, really. First of all, we saw them talking about it the last time we had been at the Blue Sky Cellar. We appreciate the appropriate nod to Clarabelle Cow, and the designer was really excited talking about it, and we had to try.

What I said in the Snacking at Disneyland post stands. It is not significantly different getting ice cream there or at Gibson Girl on Main Street. The ice cream tastes about the same either way, and it's good, but to a large extend you are choosing atmosphere. This atmosphere was great.

I can't remember exactly what I was thinking. I believe I was feeling like there was a combination of Art Deco with some Mission Style influence, which would be right for that time and place. I only remember thinking that it was perfect. It looked exactly like it should.

Buena Vista Street is primarily an entrance into California Adventure. It's a gateway. As such, it functions well. It tells you that what is coming is going to honor traditions, and find beauty and coolness, and with an eye for detail. You have a good view ahead. Welcome.