Disney California Adventure Attractions, Ranked

Since I decided to rank Disneyland’s attractions, I might as well do the same for California Adventure, right? So here are Disney California Adventure attractions, ranked from worst to best. And again, apologies for not having very many good pictures – I wasn’t expecting to write a post about it, but apparently, I can’t help myself.

Disney California Adventure

History

First, a word about Disney California Adventure overall. This is Disneyland’s second park, opening in 2001 after 46 years of Disneyland being the only Disney park in California. It was built to attract visitors from outside California, with a strong California cowabunga-culture theme. The entrance was like an oversized postcard, the monorail crossed a tiny Golden Gate bridge, and there was a big sunny fountain and Beach Boys-heavy soundtrack. A beach pier with a looping roller coaster and a giant Ferris wheel dominated the back of the park.

But on the whole, the park was low on quality attractions and high on shopping opportunities. People hated it. Disney tried to add some attractions, mainly some kid’s rides and a poorer Tower of Terror copy from Florida, but it didn’t help enough. By 2007, Disney decided to do a complete overhaul of the entire park, which opened in stages up to a re-dedication ceremony in 2012. The entrance was completely redesigned to look like Hollywood of the ’20s, when Walt Disney would have first arrived. A copy of Toy Story Midway Mania was installed in the pier area and that whole space was transformed into Pixar Pier, retheming the roller coaster and Ferris wheel. Almost all the rides were rethemed to Disney characters instead of their original generic “California” concept.

The biggest kicker was the addition of the stunning Cars Land, with the fantastic Radiator Springs Racers ride. And more recently, they’ve added Avenger’s Campus, retheming the Tower of Terror and adding a Spider-Man ride and tons of walk-around characters.

DCA Now

Now, Disney California Adventure looks an awful lot like Florida’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios, even down to the neon art-deco entrance. The theme fits better in California, and I like the emphasis on Walt’s early days with nods to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt’s pre-Mickey creation. It’s weird, but I am more disoriented in California Adventure than in Disneyland. I walk in, and expect to see the Hollywood Studios’ layout. I hear most people have that disoriented feeling in Disneyland, but for me, it happened more in DCA.

Disney California Adventure Attractions, Ranked

Now, on to Disney California Adventure attractions, ranked. Like the last post, each attraction’s name links to a video so you can take a virtual vacation from home!

#19 – Boudin Bakery Tour

At the bottom of our list is a real holdover from old California Adventure – the Boudin Bakery Tour. Boudin sourdough is a San Francisco staple, using the same yeast starter since 1849 when they fed the goldrushers with it.

The DCA experience is a walk-through situation, with a video and photos at the beginning and signs to read along the production line. If workers are present, you can see them making the various sourdough loaves they sell nearby, some in fantastic, Disney-themed shapes! The best thing about the attraction is that they hand out bread samples at the door as you walk in. (It used to be that you could get another free sample at the Ghirardelli’s nearby, but they stopped handing them out in 2019.)

When I went through the Bakery Tour, there never seemed to be much going on behind the glass. And there weren’t even samples once when I must have come through too early. If you’ve ever been to their flagship store on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, the DCA location hardly compares. At most, it’s a 5-minute walk-through.

#18 – Redwood Creek Challenge Trail

The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail is a kid’s play area and another California Adventure original. Found near Grizzly River Run, it’s a good option for kids too small to ride the rapids. It’s also pretty big! There are fun slides and climbing structures, a short zip line, and even a “spirit cave” where you can put your hand in a bear print and found out your spirit animal (out of five options.)

The overall theme is a redwood forest, obviously, with trees to walk through and rings to count. It was later re-themed to the movie Brother Bear and, more recently, to the Pixar movie Up. Most of the Brother Bear theming looks to be still in place, and the main relation to Up is a scavenger hunt to gather Wilderness Explorer Badges, like Russell. (Though I can’t tell if they do that anymore – you might have to ask a cast member.)

#17 – Monsters, Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue!

By far, the worst actual ride is Monsters, Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue! A dark ride through monstropolis, human kid Boo is loose, and you follow the action in a taxicab. It’s bright and fun and good for smaller kids, but any figure animation is pretty limited, except for the funny Roz figure at the very end. I will say that the door room is fairly impressive too.

This attraction is a re-work of the genuinely terrible Superstar Limo ride, which explains your extra-long ride vehicles.

#16 – Silly Symphony Swings

It’s pretty telling that a simple wave swinger you can find in any amusement park ranks higher than Monsters Inc! But I love a good swings ride, and the Silly Symphony Swings sit right next to the water at Pixar Pier/Paradise Gardens. It’s themed to an old Mickey Mouse short called The Band Concert, where Mickey conducts a barnyard orchestra playing the William Tell Overture during a tornado.

As you spin around the ride, you hear the William Tell Overture play as the tornado painted on the central column expands to reveal all the barnyard characters still playing their instruments. Conductor Mickey Mouse stands with baton ready at the very top. It’s a simple ride but great fun! The classical music really makes it.

#15 – Mickey’s Philharmagic

The version of Mickey’s Philharmagic 3D show at California Adventure is exactly the same as the one in the Magic Kingdom in Florida, down to the animatronic Donald Duck at the end. As such, it doesn’t rank particularly highly for me. It’s been in Florida since 2003, though it didn’t come to DCA until 2019.

It’s a fun show with all-new computer animation of familiar scenes from Disney movies, like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Peter Pan. In 2021, they added some scenes from Coco, so at least that part is new. But otherwise, I’ve seen it a hundred times.

#14 – Turtle Talk with Crush

One of the best things about Mickey’s Philharmagic is the chance to sit down for a while, and the same is true for Turtle Talk with Crush. The biggest challenge with this attraction is finding it! It’s tucked away from the street with a fairly generic waiting area. There’s not a whole lot of seating while you wait, I will say, but there’s more once you get inside the theater. There are backless benches for adults and lots of floor seating up front for kids.

In the show, you talk to Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo, via an aquarium-like screen. And if you’ve seen the show before, it usually hits several of the same beats. But what’s special is that it’s different every time! A real-time actor controls Crush behind the scenes and takes questions from the kids in front. And while there are some standard answers Crush gives, since the kids ask different things, it’s different every time – and always pretty hilarious. If you’re stuck for a question for Crush, try one of these.

#13 – Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree

Heading over to Cars Land, it’s an attraction just to look up and down the street! There is so much theming packed in here, and it is so fun! And while there’s the big Radiator Springs Racers at the end of the street, there are two smaller attractions closer to the main thoroughfare.

The first of these is Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. You get towed in swoopy figure 8’s behind one of the baby tractors found in the movies, in sort of a teacups/scrambler motion. The same concept is deployed in Alien Swirling Saucers in Toy Story land in Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida.

Part of the fun is the goofy soundtrack, a do-si-do called by Mater himself, voiced by the original actor! Make sure to pay attention to it for extra laughs. I visited during the Halloween season and rode the version called Graveyard JamBOOree with silly versions of Halloween songs. Around Christmas, it turns into the Jingle Jamboree.

#12 – Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters

The other “kid’s” attraction in Cars Land is Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters. You sit in impossibly cute little cars while they do a trackless dance around an open blacktop. I’m not even sure if it’s the same dance every time or maybe different for every song. And unless you get a few good spins in there, I can’t say it’s the most thrilling ride, but it’s so cool, however they do it!

Like Mater’s ride, Luigi’s changes to Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween at Halloween and Joy to the Whirl at Chrismas. This ride replaced the second failed version of Disneyland’s Flying Saucers ride. In this case, Luigi’s Flying Tires floated (or tried to) on a cushion of air. Just like the first time, it didn’t work too well.

#11 – Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure

The Little Mermaid – Ariels Undersea Adventure isn’t an E-ticket attraction, by any means, and suffers from the same limited animation as Monsters, Inc. But it’s done to much greater effect here, with a simulated plunge under the sea to Sebastian’s musical party. And there are some elegant effects with the 7.5-foot tall Ursula animatronic nearer the end.

I will say that I like the queue and the setting for this ride much better in WDW than I do here. In California Adventure, it’s more like a pretty beachside pavilion, while in Magic Kingdom, there’s a whole castle and caves.

#10 – Toy Story Midway Mania!

Toy Story Midway Mania! is the same ride as in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but the Mr. Potato Head carnival barker definitely fits in better with Pixar Pier’s aesthetic. The ride inside is a 3D shooter ride, with targets and projectiles that change with every screen. The Toy Story characters cheer you on as you go, and there are secret tips to unlock higher points! The firing mechanism is a toy-like pull string, and if you’re doing it right, your arm will be tired by the end!

As usual, the queue for Toy Story Midway Mania! isn’t nearly as fun as the one in WDW. I remember spending a lot of time in one back-and-forth room.

#9 – Goofy’s Sky School

Goofy’s Sky School is a wild mouse-style roller coaster, only one of two coasters in the park. The conceit here is that you are learning to fly from Goofy, and of course, it doesn’t go well with sharp, unbanked curves and a few steep swoops.

Goofy’s Sky School has a single-rider line, but it’s not very easy to use. Like most single-rider lines at the Disneyland Resort, it’s an afterthought. They offer it, but it’s not integrated into the line system like some of the newest rides. When I used it, at first it wasn’t available and I was told to come back in a few minutes. When I did, I was directed to stand in a little boxed-off area near the ride platform. I guess I had to wait for there to be room? It is confusing. But I got on more quickly than I would have in line, and it’s not a ride I want to stand in a long line for.

#8 – Pixar Pal-A-Round

The giant Ferris wheel at the back of the park is called the Pixar Pal-A-Round. There are two types of gondolas, with separate lines for each. Eight stationary gondolas offer beautiful views of the park and the surrounding area on a gentle, normal ride. The Sixteen swinging gondolas might keep you hanging on enough that you never look outside! Sliding along an oval-ish track as the wheel turns, you get some really big swings several times during an entire ride. All gondolas seat eight people, so you may be put in with other parties.

The Pal-A-Round is a beautiful backdrop for the World of Color nighttime show, with a big Mickey face plastered on the side, carried over from when it used to be called Mickey’s Fun Wheel. And it’s got a little light show of its own at night.

#7 – Soarin’

Soarin’ is original to California Adventure and first featured an all-California flight itinerary, even in the Florida park. Now, both parks show Soarin’ Around the World, with sights such as the real Matterhorn mountain, the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower and more. The unique theater design hoists 87 riders into the air on benches, putting you right in the projected action.

If you can get on the front row, you’re the highest up, but on any other row, you’ve got a load of feet in your view. And if you’re on either extreme side, the curve of the screen makes any tall, pointed object look pretty bent. I dislike the newest “Around the World” for that reason – so many of the monuments look distorted. I enjoyed more the original “Over California” version, and luckily, that version returns every now and then! Right now, from March 2 to April 25, California Adventure will show the original all-California version.

#6 – Grizzly River Run

Grizzly River Run is a river-rapids ride amped up to Disney standards. I think it’s a good deal better than Kali River Rapids in Florida’s Animal Kingdom. California’s version has two tunnels, a pass-over, and two decent drops, as well as the regular bumps, geysers, and mist effects.

Grizzly River Run is another ride with a shoehorned-in single-riders line. This time, I was told to wait outside the entrance for about 15 minutes until the existing single riders line went down a bit. Then you get a pass to stand in the exit line to be fed into empty spaces. It did save me a ton of time over an hour-long wait, it just seems like such a low-tech solution for Disney.

#5 – WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure

The new Avenger’s Campus at Disney California Adventure is super cool! It honestly seems like you’re walking around some sort of headquarters for the Avengers, and a lot of that is sold with near-constant character appearances. I never walked through without seeing Loki, Spider-Man, or Black Panter (or a host of other characters) just walking around, talking to people. Then there are frequent little shows – like a fight with Captain America and Black Widow on a balcony or Spider-Man flinging himself into the stratosphere. Inside the Ancient Sanctum, Doctor Strange shows off mystical items in a little magic show.

The newest attraction in Avenger’s Campus is WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure, another shooter ride. This one uses all screens and very few physical props, and you just use your arms, no gun, trigger, or pull string. By flinging your arms in a web-shooting motion, you sling webs at nefarious, multiplying robot spiders and can even pull objects or open doors. Here are some tips to bag a higher score. You can even buy physical upgrades that should net you a higher score (though they may not be worth it.) The pre-show features adorable Tom Holland being adorable, so overall, it’s a fun ride.

There is a proper single-rider line in this one. I didn’t use it, so I can’t speak to where it leads, but it’s actually integrated into the line instead of the usual Disneyland “wait a minute” approach.

#4 – Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout

Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout is a re-theming of Tower of Terror. Which I don’t mind, since it was an inferior version to the one in WDW anyway – there’s never that moment of leaving the elevator that is so trippy. In this one, you’ve arrived to view the Tivan Collection (aka “the Collector”), which now includes the captured Guardians of the Galaxy. During the pre-show, Rocket shows up to disrupt a long-winded video tour and gives you a new mission, to help the Guardians break out! Once you get to your elevator, the rapid rise & fall of the ride starts almost right away, stopping barely long enough for scenes of the crew fighting, and of course, succeeding to escape. It’s still essentially a crazy hyped-up drop tower/jump shot, but boy, is it effective! And super fun with this cast.

Since I visited during Halloween, there’s an extra ride experience called Monsters After Dark. This time, when you walk in, you can tell everything’s on the fritz. The videos aren’t working, the lights are red and blinking, and something has clearly gone very wrong. In the pre-show, Rocket tells you that we’ve got to find baby Groot, and oh yeah, there are a ton of monsters loose, so look delicious. In the elevator, there’s a heavy rock soundtrack, more glitches, and you see Rocket rescue baby Groot and fight off scary monsters. It’s so awesome that they can reprogram a wholly different ride experience like that, with only about an hour of downtime! And it’s worth riding both versions if you have the option.

#3 – Incredicoaster

Incredicoaster is the bigger of the two roller coasters in the park, originally built to look like a boardwalk woodie. Instead, there is a steel track with a fast launch right down at the water line! There are loops, drops, and banks – for once, it’s a proper roller coaster! Now, it’s themed to the Incredibles. They’ve lost Jack-Jack, so as you zip around the ride, you spot him and all his family members chasing him. They even try to lure him with cookies, and there’s piped-in cookie smell on the ride! In probably the best instance of cross-marketing, they sell warm cookies nearby.

Incredicoaster has the worst system for a single-rider line. Though I guess I should be glad they have one at all. It did save me a lot of time! In this case, you stand up on the walkway in the full sun until a few riders at a time are allowed to stand on the ride platform. There are different stages and spots to wait, an elevator is involved, and it’s all kind of complicated. But worth it if you’re on your own (or your traveling partner doesn’t want to ride.)

#2 – World Of Color

World of Color is Disney California Adventure’s nighttime show. It’s based on the same water-screen technology first developed for Fantasmic! eighteen years before. Only this time, the screens are HUGE, and there is a whole array of water jets that color the water and move in every direction. The concept is based on Walt Disney’s original ’60s Wonderful World of Color TV show and takes place in the water in front of Pixar Pier.

I was really looking forward to this show. It sounded like a lot of fun, with exciting characters. I did NOT expect it to make me cry! I watched it a second time, and I cried again! It’s an unexpectedly emotional and powerful show. The colors are so saturated, it’s like painting the air with color! It’s Just. So. Impressive.

Where/How to Watch

We were lucky that someone in line with us for Radiator Springs Racers told us to join the virtual queue to get a good seat. Almost all the tiered viewing areas to the left and the right are distributed via a virtual queue, which requires the My Disney Experience App. A center section is set aside for those who buy a dining package that includes preferred seating. And another section is for guests who purchase a dessert party package. I’m told the dessert party seats are the best, and are one of the few ways to watch while seated. Everything else is standing room. There are some reserved areas for handicapped guests, and if you haven’t reserved anything at all, you can stand in front of Ariel’s Adventure. It’s much farther away but usually less crowded, and you can usually still see pretty well over the heads of other guests.

If you are standing near the front and the wind is blowing, you can feel the spray from the water jets and potentially get reasonably wet. I remember getting a face full of water at one point. The good news is that there are often fire jets used near the end of the show, for a slight chance at warming up.

There have been different versions of World of Color, including a holiday version and a villain/Halloween version. Right now, it’s World of Color: One to celebrate 100 years of the Disney company and the power of one person to change the world. See, I’m already tearing up.

#1 – Radiator Springs Racers

Finally, the best attraction in Disney California Adventure is Radiator Springs Racers. The sense of place already created by Cars Land with the beautiful (recreated) natural scenery just blows me away! It’s the same technology used at Test Track in Epcot but infinitely more interesting. You start with a little road trip through the desert landscape, end up in a dark ride with all the Cars characters, then line up next to another car for a race through the hills! It’s beautiful and exhilarating and just a ton of fun! And pretty much suitable for everyone, though kids need to be at least 40 inches tall, or 3′ 4″.

The line to ride is interesting – which is good since you’ll be in it for a long time. You pass the original Radiator Springs and other roadside attractions, like a bottle house and garage, all offering welcome shade in the line. There’s also a proper single-rider line incorporated into the regular queue, which can shave a significant amount of time off a long wait. We did the single-rider line together once on this one and were placed in two different cars, but we didn’t get to race each other :(.

Attractions I Didn’t Experience

As always, some attractions were closed or that I was uninterested in during my visit. And a few that I straight up couldn’t find! I really wanted to ride Golden Zephyr, but it closed every time I approached to ride. I saw it running, saw others ride it, but I could never manage it myself. Its biggest appeal is its unique ride, but it would probably rank around its neighbor, the Silly Symphony Swings. It seems to be extra sensitive to wind conditions.

I also looked forward to visiting the Animation Academy and Sorcerer’s Workshop, but I realized later that I never found the entrance! I found Turtle Talk with Crush, which is in the same building, and there was always a long line for what I assumed was an Anna & Elsa meet & greet. Maybe that was the line for all of it, and I didn’t investigate enough. That whole area is pretty confusing to me. I also wanted to see the Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar, but it was (and is still) closed. I guess they don’t have anything new to talk about!

The Hyperion Theater used to have impressive Broadway-like shows like Aladdin and Frozen, but it closed with the pandemic and hasn’t reopened yet.

And we skipped the obvious kid’s attractions, like the Disney Junior Dance Party, Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, Jessie’s Critter Carousel, and Jumpin Jellyfish. And like the Main Street Vehicles in Disneyland, we missed the Red Car Trolley on Buena Vista Street and didn’t do any of the many character experiences.