Guide Tour of Pixar Pier, Disney California Adventure Park, United States

Pixar Pier and Paradise Gardens Park are themed lands at Disney California Adventure, based on that of Victorian boardwalks that were once found along the coast of California. Despite its name and the presence of a nearby man-made lake, Pixar Pier is not actually a pier, but a waterside area of the park. Incredicoaster sprawls across much of the area, with various other attractions and forms of entertainment scattered around it.

Pixar Pier is themed after many of the major films produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and is divided into four districts; Incredibles Park, Toy Story Boardwalk, Pixar Promenade, and Inside Out Headquarters. The area includes the Pixar Pal-A-Round, Incredicoaster, Jessie’s Critter Carousel, Games of Pixar Pier, Toy Story Midway Mania, and the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind.

The land also features three main stores (Knick Knack’s, Midway Mercantile, and Bing Bong’s Sweet Stuff), as well as Lamplight Lounge. The land is connected to Paradise Gardens Park on both ends; however, the main entrance is located across a bridge under a large Pixar Pier gateway.

The area opened as Paradise Pier in 2001 along with the rest of the theme park. Paradise Gardens is the largest land in Disney California Adventure. It is located at the center of the park and has direct entrances to Pixar Pier, Pacific Wharf, and Grizzly Peak. The Paradise Gardens Park area, located in front of The Little Mermaid, is a prominent place to watch the World of Color water show and to get pictures with Pixar Pier in the backdrop.

Paradise Gardens features five different attractions, including Goofy’s Sky School, Silly Symphony Swings, Jumpin’ Jellyfish, Golden Zephyr, and The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. The Paradise Garden Grill and dining area hosts the Dia de los Muertos celebration during the fall, featuring two shows (A Musical Celebration of Coco and Mariachi Divas), as well as the Festival of the Holidays. Most parades and cavalcades that run throughout Disney California Adventure also begin in Paradise Gardens and run north towards Buena Vista Street.

A new attraction, Toy Story Midway Mania!, opened on June 17, 2008. The attraction was the first in a series of theming upgrades to the land and park as a whole. This was followed by changes to the Sun Wheel to become Mickey’s Fun Wheel, removing the ears of the Mickey head behind California Screamin’s vertical loop, and new Games of the Boardwalk in 2009. In 2010, World of Color and Silly Symphony Swings were added. To complete the Paradise Pier makeover, Disney opened Goofy’s Sky School and The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.

Part of Paradise Pier was reimagined as Pixar Pier, which opened on June 23, 2018. The area that includes Paradise Gardens, Goofy’s Sky School, Silly Symphony Swings, Jumpin’ Jellyfish, Golden Zephyr, and The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure was renamed Paradise Gardens Park.

Incredicoaster
Incredicoaster is a steel roller coaster at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California. Reopened on June 23, 2018, inspired by the 2004 computer-animated film The Incredibles and its 2018 sequel Incredibles 2. Its opening coincided with the debut of the newly revamped Pixar Pier section of the park, where the roller coaster is located.

Guests enter as TV screens display news footage of the Incredibles and Edna Mode being interviewed for the coaster’s rebranding as Incredicoaster. While they are being interviewed, Jack-Jack uses his unpredictable superpowers, much to his family’s frustration and Edna’s amusement.

As the riders board the cars and take off from the station, Elastigirl asks Edna to look after Jack-Jack. The riders pass by the VIP room showing Edna with Jack-Jack as he teleports around. Moments later, Edna announces that Jack-Jack has escaped. The Incredibles then take off throughout the ride trying to catch Jack-Jack as he uses his vast array of super powers to “attack” certain points on the ride as the coaster arrives in the launch area.

After Dash gives the countdown, the train is launched at 55 mph into the first tunnel, accompanied by a stream of water jets that glow red to simulate Dash’s super speed. In the first tunnel, Dash tries to use his super speed to catch Jack-Jack, while Jack-Jack shoots lasers from his eyes. The train then exits the tunnel as it descends the drop and rises uphill onto the first block brake and then navigates right hand turn around Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind before passing under the outbound track and climbing up the main lift, with uses LSM’s propelling the train. This the first use of Linear Synchronous Motors (LSM) technology that allowed a roller coaster vehicle to travel on an inclined angle.

As the train crests the hill, it enters the second tunnel, where Elastigirl tries using her stretching powers to grab Jack-Jack while he is phasing in and out of the tunnel wall. Past the crest of the hill, Mr. Incredible has used his super strength to smash through the wall and is trying to catch Jack-Jack by offering him a cookie, after which the train drops out of the tunnel.

Exiting this tunnel, the ride goes through a three-quarter turn before diving into the vertical loop. Following this, the train dives through the third tunnel, which Jack-Jack has set ablaze with his fire powers, forcing Violet to put an invisible force field around the tunnel to put out the flames and keep the riders safe as they make another loop around the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind.

After hitting second block brake section, the track passes through a series of airtime filled bunny hop hills as it passes over Toy Story Midway Mania, where Jack-Jack uses his ability to multiply to make dozens of Jack-Jacks pop up everywhere. The train then rises into the third and final block brake section. After dropping off the block brakes the train traverses through a 270 degree downward spiral that leads into a straight section of track with one last bunny hop. Which is followed by a final 100 degree left turn into final brake run, as Jack-Jack makes it back safely. This time he has increased in size, but Edna manages to keep him calm by giving him a cookie.

Pixar Pal-A-Round
Pixar Pal-A-Round (formerly known as the Sun Wheel and Mickey’s Fun Wheel) is a 150-foot-tall (46 m) eccentric wheel at Disney California Adventure, at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.

Pixar Pal-A-Round is an eccentric wheel, differing from conventional Ferris wheels in that 16 of its 24 gondolas ride on interior rails so that they slide inward and outward as the wheel rotates. This results in a more intense experience, and motion sickness bags are provided in each gondola due to the disorienting nature of the ride. The other eight gondolas are fixed to the rim of the wheel and do not slide. Guests may choose to ride in sliding or fixed gondolas, each of which can carry eight people.

The attraction opened to the public on February 8, 2001 at Paradise Pier as the Sun Wheel. In 2008, the attraction was rethemed as the Mickey’s Fun Wheel, which opened on May 8, 2009. The sun was replaced with a Mickey Mouse face, and images of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, and Minnie Mouse were added to the gondolas.

On November 2, 2017, Disney announced that the ride would be renovated, which would include Pixar characters on the gondolas but with Mickey’s face remaining on the side. On June 23, 2018, the attraction reopened as the Pixar Pal-A-Round. As part of this transformation, the attraction features characters from Pixar films on its gondolas.

Pixar Pal-A-Round features a Mickey Mouse head, but with gondolas themed after Pixar films such as Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Inside Out, and Coco. From 2009 to 2018, the stationary cars featured Mickey Mouse, while the sliding ones featured Goofy, Donald Duck, and Minnie Mouse.

Toy Story Mania!
Toy Story Midway Mania! (also known as Toy Story Mania!) is an interactive 4-D theme park attraction, located at Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort. Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and inspired by Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, the attraction was first unveiled during a press conference at Walt Disney World in January 2007.

Park guests wear 3-D glasses (Carnival Games Goggles) aboard spinning vehicles that travel through virtual environments based on classic carnival midway games. Ride vehicles seat up to eight in four back-to-back pairs. The attraction features five mini-games after a practice round, where the player can hit targets from 100 to 5,000 points. Each mini game includes at least one “Easter egg” that can trigger additional targets or gameplay changes.

At its debut, Toy Story Midway Mania! was one of the most technologically sophisticated attractions yet developed by Walt Disney Imagineering, costing an estimated $80 million to design and build. It marked the company’s first use of industrial ethernet for a ride’s control system. Many of the parts for the attraction’s control system came from two of Disney’s corporate sponsors, Siemens AG (from Spaceship Earth) and Hewlett-Packard (from Mission: Space).

The ride was the biggest system that had been built at the time and ran on one of Disney’s most advanced automation systems to date. The control system is divided into three components: one for the ride vehicles, one for the games and one more for the attraction’s special effects. Programmable logic controllers in the vehicles alert the control system wirelessly via ProfiNET RT to the vehicle’s speed and location. The central controller then sends its instructions back to the vehicles using a hard-wired network within the track.

Games of Pixar Pier
Games of Pixar Pier is a collection of four boardwalk games themed to several different Pixar characters. It is located in Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure. Games of the Boardwalk officially opened in 2001 with the rest of Disney California Adventure. Originally, the games included Boardwalk Bowl, Dolphin Derby, San Joaquin Volley, Shore Shot, Angels in the Outfield, New Haul Fishery, and Cowhuenga Pass.

The Games of the Boardwalk closed on January 8, 2018 during the re-theming of Paradise Pier to Pixar Pier. During this transformation, the Games of the Boardwalk were renamed Games of Pixar Pier. They opened with Pixar Pier on June 23, 2018. Bullseye Stallion Stampede remained. The other three games were turned into La Luna Star Catcher, WALL-E Space Race, and Heimlich’s Candy Corn Toss.

Jessie’s Critter Carousel
Jessie’s Critter Carousel is a carousel at Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. The attraction opened to the public as King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea on February 8, 2001. King Triton’s Carousel was closed on March 5, 2018. It was re-themed to Jessie’s Critter Carousel, inspired by Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 2, and officially reopened April 5, 2019.

Disney California Adventure
Disney California Adventure Park is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. The 72-acre (29 ha) park is themed after the history and culture of California, which celebrates the adventure of the state through the use of various Disney, Pixar and Marvel Studios properties. The concept of a theme park dedicated to California arose from a meeting of Disney executives in 1995, construction of the park began in June 1998 and was completed by early 2001.

The park opened on February 8, 2001 as Disney’s California Adventure Park and is the second of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort complex, after Disneyland Park. Disney spent the next several years incrementally adding new rides, shows, and attractions, and implementing other promotions aimed at boosting attendance.

In 2007, Disney announced a major overhaul of the park consisting of new expansion as well as re-construction of existing areas of the park. Construction lasted for five years and was completed in stages, culminating with the opening of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land along with the re-dedication of the park in June 2012. According to the Themed Entertainment Association, the park hosted approximately 9.9 million guests in 2018, making it the 12th-most visited theme park in the world that year.