Ride Ready Guide Independent & unofficial

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.

  • Opened2012
  • Attractions3
  • Places to eat6
  • HeadlinerRed Car Trolley

Buena Vista Street replaced the park's original entrance — a set of enormous letters spelling CALIFORNIA in front of a tiled mural — and the improvement is difficult to overstate. What is here now is a period Los Angeles boulevard: streetcar tracks down the middle, storefronts with real depth, and the Carthay Circle tower closing the view at the far end.

The conceit is the city Walt Disney arrived in when he got off the train in 1923. That framing gives the street a reason to exist beyond decoration, and it is the only part of this park that does what Main Street does at Disneyland — sets a tone before you have done anything.

There is almost nothing to ride here. The Red Car Trolley runs the length of it, the Five & Dime band plays several sets a day, and the classic characters appear in period clothing. What there is instead is the resort's best restaurant, its best bar, its best candy shop and its best coffee, all within about two hundred yards.

Do not miss

  • Carthay Circle Restaurant and the lounge underneath it
  • The Red Car Trolley and its view down the street
  • Classic character greetings in 1920s clothing
  • Churro toffee at Trolley Treats
  • The Five & Dime band's afternoon sets

Buena Vista Street tips

  • Turn right at the entrance in the first thirty minutes for near-walk-on character greetings while everyone else sprints to Cars Land.
  • The Carthay Circle Lounge takes walk-ups. Put your name in on the way past in the afternoon and go do something else while you wait.
  • Buy churro toffee in the morning — Trolley Treats sells out of it on busy days.
  • This street is the last thing you see at night and it is lit better than anywhere else in the park. Leave five minutes to walk it rather than being swept out.

Attractions in Buena Vista Street

Red Car Trolley

Any height

Transportation · 4 min

A working replica of a 1920s Pacific Electric streetcar that shuttles between the park entrance and Hollywood Land.

The Red Car Trolley opened with the 2012 Buena Vista Street overhaul, and it exists mostly to make a short walk feel like a period piece. The cars are modern reproductions of the Pacific Electric Railway streetcars that once ran across Los Angeles, complete with wooden bench seats, brass fittings, and a live operator who works the controls by hand.

Tips for Red Car Trolley
  • Ride it in the direction of Hollywood Land in the first hour of the day — the light is behind you and the streets are empty enough that the trolley actually moves.
  • Skip it entirely between noon and 5pm. The line is often longer than the walk and the benches bake in direct sun.
  • The Hollywood Land stop is a two-minute walk from Avengers Campus, which makes the trolley a genuinely reasonable way to cross the park with a tired preschooler.
  • Ask the operator about the car number. Each trolley is named and numbered after a real Pacific Electric line, and the operators know the history cold if you give them an opening.

Five & Dime

Any height

Show · 20 min

A jazz-age band that rolls onto Buena Vista Street in a battered flatbed truck and plays swing arrangements of Disney standards.

Five & Dime is the resident street act on Buena Vista Street: a small brass-and-rhythm ensemble fronted by a vocalist, delivered from the back of a period delivery truck that parks itself near Carthay Circle. The conceit is that they are a struggling group of musicians who have driven cross-country to break into pictures in 1920s Los Angeles.

Tips for Five & Dime
  • Check the times board at the entrance turnstiles rather than the app — street entertainment is more reliably posted on the physical board.
  • Stand on the shop side of the street, not the truck side. You get shade, better sound because the horns project outward, and you are not in the path of the trolley.
  • If you are eating at Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe, take an outdoor table around the posted set time. You will get the entire show sitting down with a cold drink.
  • The group performs a different holiday-season book of arrangements; the standard set described here is what runs the rest of the year.

Buena Vista Street Character Greetings

Any height

Character meet · 3 min

Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and friends appear in 1920s Los Angeles outfits along the park's entrance street.

Disney California Adventure's entrance street is where the classic characters appear, and they appear here in clothes you will not see anywhere else at the resort — period Los Angeles daywear rather than the standard costumes. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck and Pluto all rotate through the area near Carthay Circle and the Buena Vista Street plaza.

Tips for Buena Vista Street Character Greetings
  • Do these in the first thirty minutes of the day. Everyone else sprints past to Radiator Springs Racers, and the entrance street is the emptiest it will be until closing.
  • Ask the PhotoPass photographer to also take a shot on your own phone. They will, and it means you get the image immediately rather than after you link the card.
  • The last hour before park close is the second-best window — the crowd has migrated to Paradise Bay for the nighttime show.
  • If a specific character matters to your kid, ask any Buena Vista Street cast member what the rotation looks like. They know and they will tell you honestly if it is a long shot.

Eating in Buena Vista Street

Table service · Buena Vista Street

Carthay Circle Restaurant

The best restaurant at the Disneyland Resort, upstairs in the tower at the end of Buena Vista Street.

$$$Book ahead

  • CuisineCalifornian with Southern and Mediterranean influences
  • ReservationsReservations essential

Lounge · Buena Vista Street

Carthay Circle Lounge

The ground-floor bar under Carthay Circle Restaurant, with the same fried biscuits and no reservation required.

$$

  • CuisineSmall plates and cocktails
  • ReservationsWalk-ups usually fine

Quick service · Buena Vista Street

Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe

The park's Starbucks, dressed as a 1920s Los Angeles cafe, and the first coffee inside the gate.

$Mobile order

  • CuisineCoffee and bakery
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Snack cart · Buena Vista Street

Clarabelle's Hand-Scooped Ice Cream

A walk-up ice cream window on Buena Vista Street doing hand-scooped cones and made-to-order sandwiches.

$

  • CuisineIce cream
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Bakery · Buena Vista Street

Trolley Treats

The park's candy kitchen, and where you buy churro toffee before it sells out.

$

  • CuisineConfectionery
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Snack cart · Buena Vista Street

Mortimer's Market

A fruit and packaged-snack stand near the park entrance, and the cheapest real food inside the gate.

$

  • CuisineFresh fruit and packaged snacks
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Snacks worth stopping for

Carthay Circle Fried Biscuits

Carthay Circle Lounge

$16.99

Fried biscuit dough filled with white cheddar, bacon and jalapeño, served hot with a dipping sauce.

Our take: The best savory thing at either Disneyland Resort park. Order it in the downstairs lounge, where you do not need a reservation to get it.

Do not leave without it Savory

Churro Toffee

Trolley Treats

$7.49

A slab of English toffee coated in white chocolate and dusted with cinnamon sugar, made in limited batches at the Buena Vista Street candy shop.

Our take: Buy it in the morning because it sells out, and buy two because it survives a suitcase better than anything else at the resort.

Near the top of the list Sweet VegetarianGluten-friendly Walkable

Made-to-Order Ice Cream Sandwich

Clarabelle's Hand-Scooped Ice Cream

$9.49

Hand-scooped ice cream pressed between two cookies of your choosing, assembled at the window on Buena Vista Street.

Our take: Twice the food of a cone for barely more money, and you pick both cookies. Skip this window after 8pm when everyone leaving the park descends on it.

Sweet Vegetarian Walkable

Carthay Circle Craft Cocktail

Carthay Circle Lounge

$19

A cocktail from the resort's best bar program, made with fresh citrus and house infusions on the ground floor of the Carthay Circle building.

Our take: The best drink inside either Disneyland Resort gate. Ask what they are infusing rather than ordering off the printed list — the off-menu answers are consistently better.

Near the top of the list Drink

Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar

Outdoor vending carts

$5.99

Vanilla ice cream in a chocolate shell, shaped as a Mickey Mouse head, sold from freezer carts throughout the park.

Our take: The most reliable cheap treat at the resort and the one you can get without a queue anywhere. It is not special; it is dependable, which on a hot afternoon is worth more.

Treat cart Vegetarian Walkable

Cold Brew Coffee

Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe

$6.25

Standard Starbucks cold brew from the park's coffee location, fifty yards inside the main entrance.

Our take: Exactly what you expect at a fair price by park standards. Mobile order it from the parking tram and walk past the twenty-minute morning line.

Drink VeganGluten-friendly Walkable

Nearby

Disney California Adventure map See where this land sits All attractions Every ride in Disney California Adventure Hollywood Land The park's studio district, now thinner than it has ever been and built almost entirely around theaters. Avengers Campus A compact Marvel land with two rides, a lot of character work, and a major expansion under construction.