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A full review of A Touch of Disney, a “lite” daytime food and shopping experience for theme park fans, at the Disneyland Resort!
As eager Disneyland fans wait for the theme parks to reopen on April 30th, there’s another experience to hold them over. A Touch of Disney debuted on Thursday, March 18th with promises of magic around Disney California Adventure. We visited on opening day and here’s what we loved—and what we thought could be improved.
Overall, the experience was very “Disneyland lite.” Meaning, that only a portion of the magical experiences were available. Guests already knew that the rides would remain closed, so there was no surprise there. However, Disney is typically vague on details about what else guests can expect to special events. Overall, it was simply a dining and shopping experience inside the park. However, there were some very cool extras (we’ll get to that in a bit)!
Parking was included as part of every A Touch of Disney ticket. Guests could park inside the Mickey & Friends parking lot, show their ticket, and park for free. From there, they are screened and walk the tram route to the gate. Though the process was overall smooth, parking doesn’t open until 30 minutes before the event and it takes a while to reach the gate. We had to wait another 30-40 minutes just to get into Disney California Adventure. That was a bit of a negative to us since we planned to stay the entire eight hours. Nonetheless, we still have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves in the park.
Disneyland did an excellent job of keeping crowd sizes low. Guests were great about wearing their facial coverings, keeping a distance, and sitting while eating. There were only a handful of times that we passed closely by guests (sometimes larger parties taking up wide spaces of walkways). However, there were so few people there that finding a spot to eat, ordering food, and checking out a photo op was a breeze!
The Disney food is the best part of the event! We tried the classic Monte Cristo and the new Brisket Mac N Cheese at Smokejumpers Grill. Both were delicious—especially the Monte Cristo—and easy to share! Each ticket comes with a $25 dining card.
Tip: You can mobile order at most locations using the Disneyland app. Also make sure to type in the numbers on your dining to order that way! Disneyland Legacy APs also receive a discount at some location.
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Our favorite character interaction was Goofy and Max near Pacific Wharf. They spent all day outside, fishing and waving at guests. Most characters were pretty far away from the guests. However, you could get relatively close to Joy and Sadness from Inside Out in Pixar Pier.
Lightning McQueen and Mater were also on location in Cars Land. They interacted with guests as they took photos. While A Touch of Disney promised unlimited PhotoPass digital downloads, there weren’t many photographers around. More than half of the photo op locations required us to take our own photos. Since that was a big perk of the tickets, it was a bit of a let down.
Nonetheless, there were so few crowds that we rarely waited more than 5 minutes for a photo spot. Even the Legacy AP photo spot, that gave away complimentary magnets and buttons, had a short wait. In the past, these typically have very long lines, but the thin crowd sizes allowed guests to easily move between photo spots.
The midway games on Pixar Pier were the biggest surprise! Guests could literally walk up to these spots and play for free! There were even prizes given away to the winners.
There were also several more characters scattered around the land. Many of them wore special costumes and greeted guests atop buildings. We also didn’t see Mickey because he was so far away near the Silly Symphony Swings! Clearly, Disney wanted to play things safe and prevent any type of crowding. For that, we are very grateful. To get updates on Disneyland’s reopening, sign up for our free e-mail newsletter! You can also follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
