Disney California Adventure has partially reopened for the ticketed event, “A Touch of Disney.” Beginning March 18th, events take place Thursdays – Mondays from noon to 8 PM. Currently, the event is sold out. We made our way over to Disneyland Resort for the opening day of this event this Thursday. Join us in our complete overview of “A Touch of Disney.”
The tickets for this event were priced at $75. This price includes admission, a $25 dining card, parking at Mickey & Friends parking structure, and unlimited downloads of Disney PhotoPass pictures from the event. The Mickey & Friends parking structure opens at 11:30, with the event starting at noon. They opened it a few minutes prior as many guests were circling Disneyland Drive while waiting for the structure to open.
We waited about 15 minutes before reaching the parking attendant. Once there, a Cast Member will scan your event ticket that you were sent on the purchase date and then direct you into the correct parking line.
New “A Touch of Disney” screens were present in the garage, they stated the event hours as well as a health and safety reminder.
Cars were distanced from each other in the parking structure.
Once you’re parked and ready to go, follow the arrows leading to the parks and make your way down the escalator.
Guests are brought through the back entrance of the structure first for temperature screenings at the tram loading station, and then where you usually enter bag check, you exit through.
We had no wait for temperature screenings.
Since guests have to walk down the tram route to get to the event, wheelchairs and strollers are available rentals if needed to walk to the park. The wheelchairs are priced at $32.00 but does include a $20.00 refundable deposit. They hadn’t started renting out the strollers yet, so there was no price available. If you need either of these, find a Cast Member after temperature screenings and ask for assistance.
Once through bag check, guests are directed to start walking down the tram route. A few posters welcome guests as they start their trip to the park.
While walking down the tram route, a few pieces of signage were placed along the plants that stated, “Steps to the Churro Cart!”
I wish there would have been a few more props along the tram route. Since you do have to walk across the Disneyland Resort after dealing with parking in Mickey & Friends, it would have been nice to see more items from the parks out. It was mainly benches and hand sanitizer stations; a few more props wouldn’t have hurt and would probably enhance guests’ experience while walking towards Disney California Adventure.
As you get closer to the Downtown Disney District Tram loading station, where you will get in line for “A Touch of Disney,” an Autopia photo opportunity is available. The cars have all received the event decals on the front. Guests can sit in the vehicles and take photos. More opportunities like this along the tram route would have been perfect.
This photo location was sponsored by Honda, drive safely!
Cast Members guided guests into lines at the ticketing booth queues. This helped avoid crowding in the Esplanade. The Harbor pedestrian entrance is also open for guests to enter through if they decided not to park at the structure. Any guests entering from the Harbor side are asked to walk around the Esplanade and join the same line that the guests who walked from the tram route are queued in.
After waiting near the ticketing booths, a Cast Member directs guests to a specific line in front of Disney California Adventure, where they will then be scanned into the event.
Guests slowly were scanned into Disney California Adventure for the first time in over a year. The line did last about 30 minutes meaning we didn’t enter the event until 12:30.
If you didn’t print out your ticket, they ask you to place your phone upright under the plexiglass with your QR code showing.
Cast Members welcomed us back into Disney California Adventure!
When you are scanned into the event, you receive a ticket which you can use to re-enter if you decide to leave, the $25 dining card, which is valid towards the purchase of food and non-alcoholic beverages (subject to restrictions including not being valid for alcohol), as well as an event map.
Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land were empty in the morning, it seemed as guests headed directly to the back of the park. New Marvel backdrops for Black Widow were placed on the Avengers Campus construction walls as photo backdrops.
Since we could access Cars Land for the first time in a year, there were some new views of Avengers Campus we could spot. Our full Avengers Campus overview from the event can be read here.
First stop, Cars Land!
Cozy Cone Motel was open and serving guests!
All of the stores and other dining locations in Cars Land sadly remained closed.
Flo’s V8 Cafe did offer seating in the front, but the back patio was closed.
Near Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, we caught a peak of the Quinjet that has been placed in Avengers Campus.
While attractions remain closed until April 30th, we had to stop by Radiator Springs Racers.
Lightning McQueen was out taking distanced photos with guests!
If you walk behind Flo’s V8 Cafe, Mater was also stationed as a photo opportunity. Both Lightning McQueen and Mater were moving and sound effects were working.
After Cars Land, we headed to Pacific Wharf. This area is currently being used as seating for guests to enjoy their food from the event. Cocina Cucamonga was covered in scaffolding as it looks like they were doing some exterior renovations. Inside the restaurant was still fully functioning.
The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure also had scaffolding surrounding the facade. It was surprising to see that renovations were still being done around the park, even with the newly opened event.
After checking out the wharf, we made our way over to Pixar Pier to enjoy lunch at Lamplight Lounge.
If you weren’t able to book a reservation for Carthay Circle or Lamplight Lounge through the website, both restaurants were taking walk-ups at opening. If this is a priority for you, make sure putting your name down on a dining list is the first thing you do during your visit.
Today we tried the Spotlight Barbacoa Nachos, the Potato Skins, and famous Lobster Nachos at Lamplight Lounge. Click here to read our original reviews for these dishes.
Collectable Coins were also available today, you can purchase them once in the restaurant. We were so happy to see this dining location open for this event and you can read our full post for Lamplight Lounge here for more information.
A few photo opportunities had been placed around Disney California Adventure for guests to take socially distanced photos. They seemed to be popular throughout the day, and guests enjoyed getting creative.
This opportunity was presented by H20 Beauty.
When it comes to dining at this event, most of the food options are things we have seen before, whether from the parks or the Food & Wine Festival. Many popular booths were placed around the event serving some Disneyland favorites. The lines for the booths never seemed to be too long of a wait. There is also a marketplace cashier stand near Buena Vista Street and Avengers Campus, where you can order food prior and pick it up at the specific booths. All of the booths are utilizing mobile ordering, so make sure to upload your dining card to the Disneyland App.
Roz and the opening float of the PIXAR Play Parade are back as a photo-op at “A Touch of Disney” as well.
The Cluck-a-Doodle-Moo booth seemed to be a favorite among guests at the event.
In Paradise gardens, there are even more photo opportunities.
You can visit Miguel from Coco and take a distanced photo.
The Legacy Passholder corner could also be found in Paradise Gardens. The line was very long early in the morning, so we went around 5 PM. Make sure you make it over to this opportunity before 6 PM, as it does close early. Here you can pick up a Legacy Passholder magnet, button, and take a picture in the 20th-anniversary photo opportunity.
Throughout the day, we saw conductor Mickey, Daisy, and Minnie enjoying themselves at the Silly Symphony Swings.
The characters would come down and switch periodically. I wish they would have possibly chosen a location that was easier to take photos with these characters as they seemed to be the most popular.
Sadness could be found at Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind. To see more photos and videos of these character opportunities, click here.
While we didn’t spend too much time in Grizzly Peak today, we did notice that plexiglass has been set up at the park entrance/exit into the Disney Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.
A photo opportunity presented by Coca-Cola was placed near the entrance of Grizzly Peak.
What we had been waiting for all day, Cars Land at night!
Mater had no wait for photos around 7:30 PM!
“You’re in Radiator Springs. The cutest little town in Carburetor County.”
The park started to empty around 7 PM; guests had used their dining vouchers, taken their pictures, and soaked in the atmosphere. There really wasn’t too much of a reason to stay unless you wanted to see the park at night.
It was so nice being back at Pixar Pier, the lights looked great at night.
As you can tell, very empty.
Luxo Jr. was moving around while checking out Pixar Pier tonight.
We got the It’s Lemon and Pineapple Swirl on Pixar Pier to end off the night, it’s available for $5.99 at Adorable Snowman Frosted Treats!
We left the park around 8:30 PM. Overall, this is an enjoyable event for anyone looking to get their Disney fill while waiting for the parks to open. Comparative to the other events currently happening around Southern California, it is a bit more expensive, and you don’t receive as much back as a food voucher. While this is a disadvantage, this event brings back a little Disney magic into the parks while offering unique character offerings, photo opportunities, music, and more. It’s a one-and-done event as I can’t see guests wanting to go back or be willing to pay for a second day.
I will admit, the walk back to the parking structure after the event was not fun. We’ll be back for the following three events, so make sure you stay tuned for more coverage and thoughts on this event. Thanks for following along, and make sure to leave a comment on what you think of the event! Will you be attending?
We’re heading to Touch of Disney on April 1st. Our family of four will be driving 16 hours to stay in Anaheim to attend the event. From what I have seen so far, we will definitely enjoy our day but I am a bit bummed in some areas because I think Disneyland could offer more..for example, more shops should be open, flo’s should be open, characters should be better placed for photos, event merchandise should be available, they could have some type of live music and fun things happening…it seems very very slow..and I know Disney thinks they can just exist and that is good enough to some extent, but really we do expect a little more magic right now after a year long closure. For $300 for my family to attend a walk around the park, I think they could have been more creative. I get the vibe that most people who attended the first day would agree, but we’re all too easy on Disney to fault them in any way, so we stay away from “negatives”. Still, we are excited to take a road trip and eat Disney foods and see some of our kids’ favorite characters.
This must be the ultimate tease lol being there but not riding or shopping. Just a warm up for the real experience.
Thanks for the review! Did you to have to tap in to the park before you got on the Lamplight waitlist? Did you use the app or go to the restaurant to put your name on the waitlist?
Thanks for the review! Nice to see Disneyland/California Adventures opening again. Can’t wait to visit when no masks are required.
We went to the Sunday, March 28th event and were extremely disappointed. We’ve been passholders for over 25 years and felt Disney didn’t put enough effort in planning this. In my opinion NOT worth the time and money.
Touch of Disney is a successful swindle and I was bamboozled into paying an exorbitant price for a complete waste of time. Mad grab to get as much money from consumers as possible, with no thought to how to make it an enjoyable event for devoted Disney fans. I know the world is different post-COVID, but I trusted Disney to make it magical. They failed, without even appearing to try to deliver otherwise. ☹️