Ride Ready Guide Independent & unofficial

Disney California Adventure

Pixar Pier

The 2018 rebuild of the old boardwalk, with the resort's fastest coaster and its best cookie.

  • Opened2018
  • Attractions7
  • Places to eat7
  • HeadlinerIncredicoaster

Pixar Pier is what became of Paradise Pier's eastern half in 2018. The bones are the original 2001 seaside boardwalk — the coaster wrapping the bay, the wheel, the midway games — with the theming redirected wholesale to Pixar properties and the palette shifted from carnival primary colors to something more considered.

The ride lineup is the strongest concentration in the park after Cars Land. Incredicoaster is the fastest ride at the resort. Toy Story Midway Mania is the most replayable. Pixar Pal-A-Round has two completely different queues that guests board wrongly every single day. Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind and Jessie's Critter Carousel round it out, and the pay-per-play midway games sit along the walkway between them.

The pier has no shade. None worth the name — a few awnings over food windows and nothing else. It is the least pleasant place in the park between noon and four and one of the best after seven, and planning around that single fact will improve your day more than any other decision here.

It is also where Lamplight Lounge sits, which is the best table-service in the park after Carthay Circle, and where the Jack-Jack Cookie Num Nums window sells the best baked good at the resort.

Do not miss

  • Incredicoaster's launch, the fastest acceleration at the resort
  • Toy Story Midway Mania and its hidden bonus targets
  • Pixar Pal-A-Round's swinging gondolas, if you know what you are choosing
  • Jack-Jack Cookie Num Nums, warm from the window
  • Lamplight Lounge's water-deck tables

Pixar Pier tips

  • Read the Pixar Pal-A-Round queue signs carefully. The swinging and non-swinging gondolas are separate lines and genuinely different rides; the swinging side is not a slightly bouncier version.
  • Ride Incredicoaster in the back row. The launch is harder and every hill produces more airtime.
  • There is no shade on this pier. Do it early or late and eat lunch somewhere else.
  • During the nighttime show the entire pier empties. It is the single best window of the day for the wheel, the Whirlwind and the character greetings out here.

Attractions in Pixar Pier

Incredicoaster

48"122cm

Roller coaster · 2½ min · Multi Pass

The resort's fastest ride: a launched steel coaster around Paradise Bay with one loop and a lot of airtime.

Incredicoaster is the 2018 retheme of California Screamin', the coaster that opened with the park in 2001 and defined its skyline for seventeen years. The track layout is unchanged — same launch, same loop, same 6,000-foot circuit around Paradise Bay — but the theming, the tunnels, the audio and the on-ride show scenes are all new, built around the Parr family chasing Jack-Jack.

Tips for Incredicoaster
  • Ride in the back row. The launch is harder and every hill produces more airtime because the train is already moving when the back car crests.
  • The single rider line is short and consistently overlooked, often turning an hour standby into fifteen minutes.
  • After dark this ride is transformed. The entire circuit runs above the water with the pier lit, and the launch into darkness is significantly more intense than the daytime version.
  • Secure everything. Loose items leave pockets on the launch, and the recovery process for something dropped over the water is not quick.
  • Repeat visitors: the tunnel show scenes are timed to the train, and you can only really read one or two per ride. Front row on the right side gives the best look at the mid-circuit scene most people never see.

Full guide to Incredicoaster →

Toy Story Midway Mania!

Any height

Interactive game · 6 min · Multi Pass

A 3D carnival shooting gallery on a spinning tracked vehicle — the most replayable ride in the park.

Toy Story Midway Mania! opened at this park in June 2008 in the pier's old shooting-gallery building, and it has been near-permanently busy ever since. You ride a tracked vehicle that rotates to face a series of screens, each running a different carnival midway game, and fire a spring-loaded cannon at 3D targets.

Tips for Toy Story Midway Mania!
  • Pull the string as fast as your arm allows. Most first-time riders fire a third as often as they could and blame their aim.
  • Each game hides bonus targets behind a trigger object — break the plates on the edges, pop the volcano balloons, hit the moving train. Regulars score five times a newcomer purely on knowing where those are.
  • The single rider line exists here and is badly underused. It routinely saves 40 minutes.
  • If your shoulder gets tired, switch the cannon to your other hand between screens. There is no penalty and the vehicle rotates anyway.
  • Repeat visitors: your score is displayed against the ride's daily and all-time averages at unload, and the all-time bar is a legitimate target rather than decoration.

Full guide to Toy Story Midway Mania! →

Pixar Pal-A-Round

Any height

Spinner · 9 min

A 150-foot wheel with two separate queues: gondolas that hang still, and gondolas that slide violently along rails.

The wheel has been on the pier since the park opened in 2001, originally as the Sun Wheel, rebranded as Mickey's Fun Wheel in 2009, and rethemed again in 2018 as Pixar Pal-A-Round. Through all of it the machine has been the same: a 150-foot eccentric wheel with 24 gondolas, sixteen of which slide along curved interior rails as the wheel rotates and eight of which are fixed in place.

Tips for Pixar Pal-A-Round
  • Read the queue signs carefully. The two lines split before you reach the platform and cast members will not talk you out of your choice. The swinging side is not a slightly bouncier version — it is a different ride.
  • The non-swinging line is almost always the longer wait, because most people want the calm version and there are only eight of those gondolas.
  • Ride at dusk. The view across the bay at that hour is the best free photograph in the park, and the wheel's own lighting comes on partway through the cycle.
  • Nine minutes with no exit is a long commitment for a small child who might need a bathroom. Go before you queue.
  • Repeat visitors: sitting at the outward end of a swinging gondola produces a noticeably stronger slide than sitting at the inward end, because you are the weight that drives it.

Full guide to Pixar Pal-A-Round →

Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind

40"102cm

Spinner · 2 min

A spinning gondola ride themed to a memory-train tour of Riley's mind, with the highest height requirement of any ride this mild.

Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind opened in 2019 as the replacement for Flik's Flyers, which had been moved from a bug's land. It is a standard amusement-park scrambler variant: gondolas on arms extending from a rotating central hub, which lift and swing outward as the ride spins up.

Tips for Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind
  • The 40-inch requirement is the thing to check before you walk over. It is unusually tall for how mild the ride is and it turns away a lot of preschoolers.
  • Ride it at night. The rotating view of the lit pier is the only thing that elevates this above a county-fair ride.
  • If anyone in your group is prone to dizziness, this is a harder ride than it looks — two minutes of continuous rotation is more than most spinners give you.
  • The wait is nearly always under twenty minutes and drops to nothing during the nighttime show, which makes it a good filler while the crowd is at the bay.
  • Repeat visitors: the outward-most seat in each gondola gets meaningfully more swing than the inner seats, which is worth knowing if you are riding with someone who wants either more or less.

Full guide to Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind →

Games of the Boardwalk

Any height

Interactive game · 3 min

Four pay-per-play midway games on Pixar Pier, each themed to a Pixar film, with guaranteed-prize pricing.

Games of the Boardwalk are the only pay-to-play carnival games at either Disneyland Resort park. Four booths sit along the Pixar Pier walkway, each themed to a different Pixar property — a ring toss, a ball toss, a bottle knockdown and a target game — with a cast member running each one and prizes hanging overhead.

Tips for Games of the Boardwalk
  • Every play wins something. Knowing that in advance changes how you decide whether the price is worth it — you are buying a plush and a game, not gambling on one.
  • The ball-toss game gives the best odds of a larger prize; the ring toss gives the worst. Cast members will confirm this if you ask them straight.
  • Prices are not covered by any park ticket or pass, and the games do not accept dining plan credits.
  • Play in the evening. The booths are quiet after dark, the cast members have time to coach a kid through it, and the pier lighting makes for better photos.

Pixar Pier Character Greetings

Any height

Character meet · 3 min

Woody, Jessie, Buzz, the Incredibles and the Inside Out emotions appear along the pier on a rotating schedule.

Pixar Pier hosts the resort's densest concentration of Pixar character greetings, spread along the walkway between Incredicoaster and the wheel. The rotation has included Woody, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Incredible, Frozone, Edna Mode, Joy, Sadness and Bing Bong, generally two or three out at a time.

Tips for Pixar Pier Character Greetings
  • Check the app's character list before crossing the bridge to the pier — the rotation is real and characters take long breaks.
  • Do these during the nighttime show if you can bear to skip a viewing. The pier empties and the lines effectively disappear.
  • Edna Mode is the best interaction on the pier and reacts to your outfit. Wear something with an opinion.
  • The greeting spots have no shade. In summer, morning or evening only.

Eating in Pixar Pier

Table service · Pixar Pier

Lamplight Lounge

A two-level gastropub on Pixar Pier with lobster nachos, a serious bar, and the best waterfront tables at the park.

$$$Book ahead

  • CuisineCalifornian gastropub
  • ReservationsReservations essential

Snack cart · Pixar Pier

Jack-Jack Cookie Num Nums

A one-item cookie window on Pixar Pier, and the best baked good at the Disneyland Resort.

$

  • CuisineCookies
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Quick service · Pixar Pier

Angry Dogs

An Inside Out-themed hot dog window on Pixar Pier with a spicy signature dog.

$Mobile order

  • CuisineHot dogs
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Snack cart · Pixar Pier

Adorable Snowman Frosted Treats

A soft-serve window on Pixar Pier themed to the Abominable Snowman from Monsters, Inc.

$

  • CuisineSoft serve
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Quick service · Pixar Pier

Poultry Palace

The turkey leg stand on Pixar Pier, built as a Toy Story-era diner and open on a limited schedule.

$

  • CuisineTurkey legs and poultry snacks
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Snack cart · Pixar Pier

Señor Buzz Churros

A churro cart on Pixar Pier with a rotating flavored coating instead of plain cinnamon sugar.

$

  • CuisineChurros
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Bakery · Pixar Pier

Bing Bong's Sweet Stuff

The Pixar Pier candy shop, doing hand-dipped caramel apples and novelty confectionery.

$

  • CuisineCandy and confectionery
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Snacks worth stopping for

Lobster Nachos

Lamplight Lounge

$28.99

A large platter of house chips loaded with lobster, cheese sauce, pickled vegetables and herbs, built for a table rather than a person.

Our take: Expensive and worth it if three or four of you split it. There is real lobster on it, which is not something you can say about most theme-park seafood.

Do not leave without it Savory

Turkey Leg

Poultry Palace

$12.99

A large brined and smoked turkey leg from the stand at the far end of Pixar Pier.

Our take: Overrated, and has been for two decades. It is enormously salty, awkward to eat, and impossible to share without a knife. Buy it once for the photograph and never again.

Savory Gluten-friendly Walkable

Spicy Angry Dog

Angry Dogs

$11.49

A hot dog loaded with chili and pepper heat, from the Inside Out-themed window on Pixar Pier.

Our take: A decent hot dog with real heat, which catches out kids who order it for the name. If you want something fried on a stick, Corn Dog Castle is five minutes away and much better.

Savory Walkable

Specialty Coated Churro

Señor Buzz Churros

$7.29

The standard resort churro rolled in a rotating specialty coating rather than plain cinnamon sugar, with a dipping sauce.

Our take: The same churro as everywhere else, seasoned better. When the chile-lime style coating is on, it is the only churro at the resort worth going out of your way for.

Sweet Vegetarian Walkable

Hand-Dipped Caramel Apple

Bing Bong's Sweet Stuff

$12.99

A whole apple dipped in caramel and decorated, displayed in a case positioned exactly at child eye level.

Our take: Overrated and overpriced. It is a thirteen-dollar object that is genuinely difficult to eat. Ask them to slice and box it, or skip it entirely.

Sweet VegetarianGluten-friendly Walkable

Nearby

Disney California Adventure map See where this land sits All attractions Every ride in Disney California Adventure Buena Vista Street The park's entrance street, rebuilt in 2012 as 1920s Los Angeles as Walt Disney would have found it. Hollywood Land The park's studio district, now thinner than it has ever been and built almost entirely around theaters.