A Touch of Disney

HOORAY!

We got a chance to attend Disney’s Touch of Disney this week at California Adventure. Boy, have we missed both Disneyland and California Adventure.

Touch of Disney Before Park Entrance

Getting Tickets

I hopped online a few minutes late on the opening day of ticket sales. My bad! It was a busy morning at our house that day.

My wait was approximately 5 hours before I was able to purchase tickets (ugh). By the time we got to that step, all the weekends were gone, so we opted for a Monday ticket, thinking we would make a long weekend out of it.

Once we were able to buy them, the process was seamless and only took a few minutes. Deciding which day to go was what took the longest.

Getting to California

We are located in Northern Utah and had planned to drive for our long weekend. Some great family plans got in the way, so we decided to just make a swift trip out of it and flew out Monday morning and flew back Tuesday morning on Delta.

We flew into John Wayne Airport (one of my favorite SoCal airports!!), rented our tiny little economy car for the day, and headed to the Disney and Friends parking structure.

Getting into the Park

I knew some changes were in the works to the parking area (we were there just before COVID and saw the construction), so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The new garage addition was complete, but they directed us to where we have always parked in the past.

To enter the parking garage, they simply scanned our ticket (Sinc parking is included in the price of the Touch of Disney ticket. More about that later.)

As we got down the escalator, there was a temp screening that was fast and painless. Then our bags were checked, and we were off! There is no shuttle for Touch of Disney, so the hike began.

We had previously scanned our tickets into the Disneyland App and entered the park as usual. When our tickets were scanned, we were handed our two $25 dining cards.

Inside the Park

Eating All the Food

If we are honest here, Touch of Disney is just an excuse to eat all the Disney food we know and love! Plus some new delicious treats I hope to see permanently.

We started in Downtown Disney at the Jazz Kitchen for some beignets. This is ALWAYS our first stop during any trip to Disneyland Resort. These are better than the beignets inside Disneyland and pretty dang close to the beignets in New Orleans.

Our next stop was Smoke Jumpers Cafe for brisket mac and cheese and a Monte Cristo sandwich once in the park. Neither was a disappointment.

We found the sweet and savory wings next, then moved onto the tenderloin sliders. Both of which I would be ecstatic to eat again.

As we made our way around Pixar Pier, we, of course, stopped at Abomnibles lemonade stand and has swirl cones. Another “we don’t miss this place” on any trip.

We mosied over to Carsland for some churros. I tried the Oreo one, and should have stuck with the original.

The most important thing is to use the app to mobile order all your food. The app is the fasted and most convenient way!! And the easiest way to use your dining card. You simply add it as a form of payment.

One side note about the dining card and the app, It did not save our dining card number, so we had to enter it each time. Plus, if you are spending more than is on your card, you can only pay the remaining balance with a credit card, not another dining card.

The Cast

As per usual, almost all the cast members we encountered were friendly and so helpful. (We had one grumpy pants in Cars Land. She wasn’t happy) I genuinely believe they are pleased to be back at work. There were more than usual of corporate employees there as well.

The rides were all running, and I could see new employees getting trained and ready to reopen on April 30th.

The Shopping

I am going to be honest here. We don’t usually buy “stuff” while at the parks. If we wear shirts or ears, I buy them off the property.

This time, I accidentally forget my rose gold sparkle ears at home. I did, however, find some Minnie ears for only $10!! Great deal!!!!

I also bought myself a Disney-themed mask. The one I brought was driving me crazy; it was going to make for a long day. So I did splurge and got one for $15.00. They did have less expensive ones, around $7.00.

The Feeling

For us Disney fanatics, we all know the feeling. And it was present at A Touch of Disney. I was a little worried it would “feel” different, but even the music in the parking garage made me happy.

The Disappointments

I have only two disappointments about our experience.

First, the photo pass is included in your ticket price. I was excited about this since it was just hubby and me, and I didn’t want all our photos together to be selfies. Since COVID asking someone to take a photograph is frowned upon, so this was the only way to have someone else take our picture.

The entire 5 hours we were there, we saw three photographers taking pictures, and they all had at least 15-20 people in line. The one line we decided to stand in (in Cars Land) were terrible pictures. Total bummer.

Second, if you a purchasing more than one ticket, you still have to pay full price for each ticket. I know that sounds weird but hear me out.

Each ticket includes parking. Why would we need to pay twice to park? We came together, in the same car. And what if you use Uber or Lyft to get to the park? There should have been an option for a ticket that didn’t include parking.

Each ticket includes the photo pass. Again, if we are going together, we certainly don’t need two photo passes.

Final Thoughts

I appreciated Disney working something out so people could enjoy the park again and get some of their employees back to work.

It was a great time and made me even more excited when the park reopens, and non-California residents can go!