Happy Holidays from Disneyland! Part 2: California Adventure and Spider-Man Webslingers!

Welcome back to part 2 of Happy Holidays at Disneyland Resort! Let's pop over to see what's going on at California Adventure, from holiday decorations, the new Spider-Man Webslingers ride, and Cars Land. Quick note: the new Genie+ and Lightning Lane services have launched at the Disney parks, so you can shorten your wait times! Read more here.

California Adventure

DCA is currently drawing visitors with its Festival of Holidays. a "seasonal celebration of diverse cultural festivities with music, food and fun for all, from November 12, 2021 to January 9, 2022!" This includes holidays such as Christmas, Navidad, Hanukkah, Diwalki, Kwanzaa, and Three Kings' Day (special ticketed event running only from January 3-9). You can spot special musical performers from holiday toy drummers to a capella, jazz, and rock. 

The toy drummers perform in front of the Pixar Pier bay, while most of the other performers are on the stage at the Pacific Wharf just outside the amazing sourdough bread restaurant.

Another festive area is the Paradise Gardens Park, which features a ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party with the Three Caballeros plus Mirabel from the latest Disney movie Encanto. 

Although California Adventure's Christmas tree isn't quite as tall as Disneyland's (only 50 feet vs 60), it's another great photo op on your way down Buena Vista Street as you enter the park.

Of course it's even prettier lit up at night!

On your way into the park, grab a Mickey balloon for you or your little one.

You'll spot a lot of bear characters dressed in holiday sweaters around Grizzly Peak.

Here on the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail you can meet Santa through December 24th!

Over in Hollywood Land, I was surprised to find a Santa sleigh and reindeer photo op at the end of the street.

You'll also find a few Avengers photo ops scattered in the area.

And I discovered these artists writing names using the Marvel characters! Too bad Loki was not included :(

Over on Pixar Pier, I found this Duke Caboom popcorn turner just like the Oogie Boogie one outside of Haunted Mansion!

Looks like they are still doing Zootopia photo ops? I thought the Pawpsicle display was cute.

Here are a few extra night views of the wharf. So pretty!

Spider-Man Web Slingers

Now for the most exciting part of my visit this season – I finally got to experience the new Webslingers ride for the first time now that they are not using the virtual queue! Standby is open for this and Star Wars Rise of the Resistance. There were a lot of fun details to observe while waiting in line. Plus, if you choose California Adventure as your starting park and get there before they open, there will practically be no wait at all!

They created these signs and characters to fill out the story behind the ride, because storytelling is what Disney does best to make attractions come to life!

These notes looks to be written by Peter himself :)

They even try to sell you the web slingers while you're waiting in line! These personalize your experience on the ride.

This is the blueprint of the vehicle you'll be riding in.

Once you're finally inside, you'll wait briefly to enter a separate room for an "open house."

Inside you'll find Peter's workshop and watch a holographic intro that sets up the premise of the ride: help Spider-Man destroy the self-replicating spider bots!

I love the amount of detail they put into all of the sets.

Once you're done with that, you'll walk into another room with lockers and an old-fashioned time card stamping machine I thought was cool.

Next, grab your "webvision" glasses.

Another fun sign :)

Here's how the special motion capture technology works on the ride.

Finally you'll one of these with three other people! Of course, since it's a 3D ride and I was busy helping out Spider-Man I couldn't get any shots or footage inside, but it was fun.

Not a bad score for my first time! Note that it is combined with whoever is sitting next to you. Also, your arms will be extremely sore from all that slinging!

At the end you can see the ranking board of high scores.

My only beef with this ride is that it's exactly the same as the Toy Story Midway Mania ride, just Marvel style. With all the hype and waiting months to experience it, I was disappointed! Plus, your arms are way less tired on Toy Story Midway Mania.

Cars Land

Cars Land is another area you won't want to miss for special decorations! And it always looks great lit up at night.

I love how they made snowflakes out of wrenches.

Here's a better look during the day.

Another fun Christmas tree made out of cones!

A tire Christmas tree!

Another tree with hubcaps as ornaments!

Just like at Halloween, they traded these spinoff movie posters for holiday-themed ones. I like the "Coolant Runnings"!

In other news, I went on Goofy's Fly School for the first time during one visit where I started with CA instead of Disneyland. 

Thinking it was a kiddie right and having some time to kill, I thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately there was the part about "learn how to nosedive"! Would never go on this again due to that drop. But I did appreciate the humor of the posters.

Let's move onto Part 3 with holiday characters, food, and shopping!