a perfect pixarfest day

we decided to hit up pixarfest again on a sunday morning for rope drop.  it's our favorite way to visit the 'land, and even though it's an early morning it always ends up being totally worth it.  we were up and out of the house by 6:45, and with zero traffic we were pulling into a sweet parking spot in no time.  when we got to the main gate the lines weren't too terrible yet, and the turnstiles opened a few minutes later.

because we'd taken advantage of maxpass again, we had time to meander slowly down main street and take a nice sunday morning stroll.  we even had time to catch pluto for a photo op:

and then we decided this was a nice spot to take a couple more shots.

with our fastpass for space mountain secured on the app, we walked right onto star tours for our first ride.

one of the nicest things about arriving so early is this - nice wide open spaces with no crowds to fight through as we walked from one ride to the next.

matterhorn!

when you hand your kids your phone to take pictures, you later find gems like this.

the restaurant next to space mountain has been temporarily pixar-fied into pizza planet from toy story.  we made a mental note to come back here for lunch later.

space mountain!

next up, the wildest ride in the wilderness!

after that, we managed to ride the indiana jones ride without it breaking down on us again.  yay!  and then as we walked past the castle we came across one of the horse drawn trolleys, sitting there empty and waiting for passengers.  although we didn't need to go back down main street, we got on anyway because we could.

when we got off, i managed to sneak up to the horse to say hello.  i was so close to him that i could feel him breathing on my neck, and i snapped this really fast and stepped away.

the bean wanted to get a similar shot, but the cast member caught sight of her and told her she was too close.  oops.  sorry, kid.  to make up for it, she ran into the disneyland fire department building to climb on the fire truck and pretend to ride down the pole.

since we'd already gotten on all of the rides we love the most (and it was still not quite 10:00!), we decided to get our next fastpass across the way in california adventure.  since we had some time to kill, we went into the theater in the hollywood studios area to watch a collection of pixar shorts.  "lava" always makes me cry, because i'm a sap like that.

we stopped in at cars land to pick up some snacks, and the old lady and her special friend opted for the champions corn cup - fresh corn, spicy mayonnaise, cotija cheese, chili-lime spice and fresh lime.

this is doc's wild grape tonic - sprite, grape syrup, and a grape-flavored foam topper.  it was pretty tasty.

and then we shared an old favorite -dill pickle-flavored popcorn.

over at cocina cucamonga, the old lady stood in line to pick up one of the new coco-themed tres leches parfaits - vanilla cake layered with caramel and rum cream and topped with a white chocolate disc featuring miguel, the dog from the movie.  this was easily our favorite new item of the day.

inside blue sky cellar, we got a sneak peek at what pixar pier will look like when it's unveiled this summer.

on our way to redeem our fastpass for the guardians ride, we ran into an old friend.

and then we walked through bug's land, which is scheduled to close later this summer to be transformed into some sort of marvel-themed area.  i'm glad we'll get one more summer to run in and play in the water areas.  we used to love coming here just for that.

i always love seeing this little guy as we wait in the fastpass queue for the ride.

one more fastpass before lunch:

and then we went back to disneyland to get some pizza planet grub.  this was the new cheeseburger pizza:  a sesame-seed crust with american and cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, diced tomato and a burger patty with ketchup, mustard and pizza sauce plus a special burger sauce and pickle.

the green miso pesto pasta was simple but tasty.  the pasta is tossed in a spinach miso sauce and topped with bacon, peas and parmesan.

our alien macaron came with a broken antenna.  boooooo.  it was filled with a blackberry-lemon curd...not my favorite.  but it sure was cute.

speaking of aliens, they were hovering right above us.  ooooooooo.

and the posters are all alien-themed.  this was my favorite.

we stopped at the candy palace for a few last to-go treats, and watched as the candymakers worked on some fresh rocky road treats using housemade marshmallows.

all in all, another perfect disneyland day with the winning combo of maxpass and rope drop.  by the time we left around 3, the place was jammed.  we'd gotten to ride everything we wanted, eaten a lot of great stuff, and avoided crowds.  does it get any better than that?  i think not.