Visitors Guide to Disney California Adventure

Disney California Adventure

Disney California Adventure opened as the Disneyland Resort's long-awaited second gate on February 8, 2001. It's the sixth most-visited park in America, with 10 million visitors last year.

DCA might have the same Pan Pacific Auditorium-inspired entrance as Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios, but it shares a focus on seasonal food festivals with EPCOT, staging the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, Lunar New Year, and Festival of Holidays.

Ticket Icon Looking for discounts? Shop Disneyland Resort theme park tickets from our selected partner.

For more information about Disney California Adventure, jump to...

Our recommendations below come from our year-end survey of Theme Park Insider readers. Locations with star ratings ★ ranked especially highly among our readers.

What to Do

Readers' Picks

  1. Radiator Springs Racers ★ ★ ★ ★
    "Cars"-themed dark ride with a high-speed finish, located in Cars Land. Height requirement: 40 inches

  2. Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ★ ★
    Indoor drop ride, located in Avengers Campus. Height requirement: 40 inches

Other Attractions

Click the 🎦 symbol to watch on-ride or show video for each attraction.

Grizzly Peak

  • Soarin' Around the World: Flying theater ride located in Grizzly Peak Airfield. Height requirement: 40 inches. Will be replaced by the new Soarin' Across America on July 2. 🎦 Video
  • Grizzly River Run: Rapids ride. Height requirement: 42 inches
  • Redwood Creek Challenge Trail: Play area

Paradise Park

Pixar Pier

Cars Land

  • Mater's Junkyard Jamboree: Whip spinner in Cars Land. Height requirement: 32 inches. 🎦 Video
  • Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters: Trackless ride in Cars Land. Height requirement: 32 inches. 🎦 Video

Avengers Campus

Hollywood Land

  • Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live - A new playtime show for kids in the Disney Theater. 🎦 Video
  • Animation Academy: A DIY Disney animation step-drawing class, taught in the Animation building.
  • Turtle Talk with Crush: Interactive movie, where Crush from "Finding Nemo" talks with the audience. Also in the Animation building.
  • Mickey's PhilharMagic: 3D movie

Coming Next

There are no opening dates yet for the following:

  • Avengers Infinity Defense: A motion-base dark ride multiverse adventure coming to Avengers Campus.
  • Stark Flight Lab: A robot arm flight simulation experience, also coming to Avengers Campus
  • Avatar: A new boat ride, set on Pandora and located in the current Hollywood Land.
  • Coco: A new boat ride in between Pixar Pier and Paradise Park.

Where to Eat

Recommended

Other Table Service

Wine Country Trattoria: Italian specialities, as well as California wines

Other Counter Service

Buena Vista Street

  • Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe: Starbucks

Hollywood Land

  • Award Wieners: Hot dogs
  • Studio Catering Co.: The menu here changes by season to match whatever food festival is happening at the moment.

Avengers Campus

  • Shawarma Palace: Wraps, served at two carts on either side of the land

Cars Land

  • Flo's V8 Cafe: Burgers, fried chicken, club sandwich, salads
  • Cozy Cone Motel: Windows serving churros, ice cream, popcorn, and chili or mac 'n' cheese in a handheld cone.

San Fransokyo Square

  • Aunt Cass Cafe: Sandwiches and soups in a bread bowl
  • Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill: Tacos
  • Lucky Fortune Cookery: Udon, ramen, rice bowls

Pixar Pier

  • Angry Dogs: Hot dogs
  • Poultry Palace: Fried chicken

Paradise Gardens Park

  • Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta: Pizza, pasta and salads
  • Corn Dog Castle: Corn dogs
  • Paradise Garden Grill: The menu here changes by season to match whatever food festival is happening at the moment.

Grizzly Peak

  • Smokejumpers Grill: Burgers, chicken sandwiches

Disney California Adventure also hosts several food festivals throughout the year, including Lunar New Year, the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, and Festival of Holidays. Festival marketplaces will offer small bites and drinks, with a Sip and Savor Pass available to buy multiple items at once. You can order items from all festival marketplaces at any one, to save you waiting in line multiple times.

Buy Tickets

Park Map

The Disneyland Resort is located in Anaheim, California - about 25 miles south of downtown Los Angeles and 30 miles from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Orange County's John Wayne Airport (SNA) is just 15 miles away, but it's not as well served by nonstop flights from around the world as LAX.

Parking is at either the Mickey & Friends and Pixar Pals parking structures (they are connected) northwest of the parks or the Toy Story surface lot southeast of the parks. Plan on spending at least 30 minutes to park, go through bag checks and then get to the theme parks from either location. Shuttles are available, but you can walk as well.

Strategy

Before You Go

Start with buying your tickets before you arrive, since Disneyland Resort theme park tickets are date-specific and may sell out. "Magic Key" annual passholders must make advance reservations to visit Disney California Adventure, via Disney's website.

For lower crowd levels, avoid Friday evenings, Saturdays, and holiday weeks, as well as Showstopper cheer and runDisney event dates:

  • January 29 - February 1, 2026
  • February 13-16, 2026
  • May 22-25, 2026

For assistance in planning a Disneyland vacation, please contact our partner for a free, no-obligation vacation quote.

If you want to go to Lamplight Lounge, make reservations up to 60 days in advance on the Disneyland website or the official app. Admission to viewing spaces for World of Color will be assigned via virtual queue in the Disneyland app. Watch the app when you enter the park for today's virtual queue opening times.

Itinerary

On its mobile app, Disneyland offers a tool called Disney Genie that will create a custom itinerary for each day of your visit. In addition, Disney offers three ways for its theme park guests to pay to access shorter wait times for many popular attractions. You can learn more about these options in our posts:

But you do not need any of those tools or upcharges to experience pretty much everything you would like in one day at the park. Still, plan to arrive at the front gate at least a half hour before opening in the morning, adding extra time beyond that to park and get to the gate. Again, remember to use the Disneyland app to enter the virtual queue for World of Color as soon as you can.

Head first at park opening toward Radiator Springs Racers and then to Toy Story Midway Mania, as those are, on average, the two longest waits in the park by mid-day. After Midway Mania, head into Avengers Campus for WEB Slingers and Guardians, which will be the next longest waits in the park by early afternoon. Save Soarin' for later in the afternoon, as its average wait time does not get as bad. Again, watch Disney Genie for wait times and estimated wait times to adjust your plans throughout the day.

Single Rider

If you are visiting alone, the following rides have single rider queues, which can save you quite a bit of waiting time:

  • Goofy's Sky School
  • Grizzly River Run
  • Incredicoaster
  • Radiator Springs Racers
  • Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure

Ask a cast member at the ride's entrance for directions to the single rider queue, if you do not see it marked.

Bathrooms

You can find rest rooms listed on the official Disneyland app. We like the ones located between the Animation building and Disney Jr. show in Hollywood Land. They are hidden behind a facade inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, which leaves them uncrowded. Avoid the stinky ones between The Little Mermaid ride and Grizzly River Run, however.

Disneyland Resort News

Traveler exposes Disneyland visitors to measles last week

Soarin' Over California returns for park anniversary

Lunar New Year kicks off at Disney California Adventure