Cars 2 at the EL Capitan Theatre!

$30 per ticket gets you an assigned seat for the movie in 3D, plus popcorn and a drink, plus entry to the World Grand Prix afterwards. The theatre is actually not very large, but it is gorgeous old Hollywood style with a live organist playing all your fave Disney and Pixar movie tunes, awesome.

After the movie, you exit to the side of the theatre and get a slushie sample as you walk around the rear parking lot to the World Grand Prix.

Just at the entrance to the WGP, you can take a photo with Lightning and just inside the entrance with Mater, both are very much like the versions at Disneyland, except they shimmy and shake a bit.

(over the fence is Hollywood High – they are the “Sheiks.”)

Mater welcomes you to Radiator Springs where you can grab a paintbrush and slop some paint on a real car (I didn’t let my kids try this, I didn’t want them getting any ideas for automotive art projects at home). You can also spend time coloring or try your hand at a changing a tire like Guido, “Pit stop!”

My boys really enjoyed the Goodyear Tiretown, a whole tire play area with areas to bounce on tires, swing in them, throw stuff at them, etc. Luigi would definitely need a punch in the face if he were ever to see it.

(you can recreate this at home – the neighbors will love you for it and if you ever tire of the tires, just set them on fire for months of neighborly fun! 🙂  – this last comment was sponsored by Lightyear Tires, the tire to light if you’re setting more than 10 on fire!® ).

On to Porto Corsa where you can take part in a Time Trial Race on a tricycle, woot! You can also have your birthday party here. No idea what it costs, but how sweet would that be?

Next up, London – Next to Big Ben you will find Mission McMissile’s Spy Game – This is a “shooting gallery” with foam darts that you use with a popping mechanism (similar to those in the Toy Story Mania ride @ California Adventure) to knock down Grems and Pacers that pop up from behind shipping containers. When you are done taking out the bad guys, you can head into the mini Petersen Automotive museum and check out a few of the real cars that inspired Cars from the movie including the Sumos, the Queen, Zundapp and Pacer among others.

(Hey, is that an Apple CAR? 🙂  ).

Once you have cooled off in the mini museum, cruise on over to Tokyo to get a green screen photo taken and choose one of 4 backgrounds. Be sure to grab the card that tells you how to download your photo from the web later. Try to avoid getting behind the annoying lady that is fussing over posing her family like it’s going to be her Christmas card photo this year or something. If you don’t manage to avoid her, blow off some steam by running up the Tokyo Tower and racing down the giant slide. You can also take a potty break here. Sadly, the potties are totally not like the potty in the movie.

Stroll on over to Paris where the kids can burn off some energy jumping up and down and flipping on an Eiffel Tower Bungee Jump, then grab a “Euro Churro” next to Notre Dame, I kid you not, a Euro Churro.

(When in Paris, the best Churro is next to the real Notre Dame! 🙂 Slightly larger than this one but sadly no churro).

Lastly, you can test your mad engineering skillz at the Rockin’ Race Rally –build your own Lego car and then race it down the ramps. Most of the cars do not actually make it to the end of the ramps – those that do launch off the end of the ramps for a moment of glory before plummeting to the ground to be dashed into many pieces that are then collected up by the attendant and put back on the build tables. My boys spent about 5 tries before they constructed cars that would actually stay in one piece long enough to launch off the end of the ramps, sweet victory!

(Monica’s kids finally built this one – I think …)

Did I say “lastly”? Well actually, lastly is the gift shop. Most of what is in here you can find elsewhere. All the die casts we have all already seen, Ridemakerz, t shirts, books, etc. All except, oh yeah, limited edition giclees of the famed vintage style posters, at $155 each, pricey to be sure, but oh so tempting.

When they kick you out, you can head over to the Disney Soda Shoppe for a World Grand Prix Sunday, nummy!

(Good way to finish the day! 🙂 ).

All in all a totally fun day and totally worth braving LA traffic on a Saturday. How many days ‘til Cars 3?

Thanks Monica for a great report – I think the Mini CARS Land is staying up all summer until August 28th but call ahead to be sure.