Laura's Disney Lines

On Saturday night, Lee and I attended the "Taste" event, which is a new addition to Disney's California Food and Wine Weekends this year. It's very similar to Epcot's Party for the Senses - except that Taste was better.

If you're not familiar with Party for the Senses or Taste - both are food and wine tasting events. Guests pay one price for admission ($100 in this case), and then can partake as much as they wish from a series of food and wine tasting "stations". At Taste, each of the fourteen food stations featured a different dish and chef from one of the Disney parks, resorts, or Downtown Disney restaurants. (You can find the menu HERE.) The portions were sample-sized, but very nicely plated and presented. For example, my favorite was Cafe Orleans' Cajun Spiced Shrimp, served on a corn cake with ratatouille and a drizzle of Mornay sauce. As you can see from the photo, it looked really good, and tasted even better. The wine tasting stations featured one of nine different wineries, each pouring at least three different wines. There was also beer from the Karl Strauss Brewing Company available.

And as if that weren't enough...there were several cheese and fruit stations, which later in the evening were turned into the dessert stations, featuring an assortment of delectable desserts. (My one complaint is that there wasn't enough chocolate. But then there's never enough chocolate...)

So why did I like Taste so much more than Party for the Senses? It was Party for the Senses (PftS) on a smaller scale, that's why. PftS is in a huge building (the former Millenium Village at Epcot) which accommodates a large number of people. I found it quite crowded and overwhelming - there were too many people and too many food and wine choices. At Taste you could realistically try one of everything without completely stuffing yourself, and you could move around the room without feeling like a salmon swimming upstream. In addition to "standing tables" inside, Taste had quite a few tables *and* chairs set up outside, which gave people the option both to sit and to get away from the noise a little bit.

And I must also admit that I was somewhat predisposed to enjoy Taste when I found out who the entertainment for the evening was going to be - a group called "Barrage". We saw them several years ago at Epcot and really liked them...and they put on a good show at Taste, too. They are kind of hard to describe, but here's a blurb from their web site: "Barrage - A high-octane fiddle-fest that features an international, multi-talented cast performing an eclectic mix of music, song and dance." Picture a group of young and very energetic violinists accompanied by drums, electric guitar, and bass. They played everything from Irish reels to Duke Ellington to Bolero. All while jumping around the stage, step dancing, and even singing. Whew.

Taste started at 6:30 and ended at 9:30 - I hadn't expected that we would be there for the entire time but we were. Promptly at 9:30 the lights inside the building were turned up and we got the polite Disney announcement: "Thank you for coming. We hope you will visit again soon." Translation: "It's over, so get out of here already!" On the way out they handed out nice bags for us to carry our souvenir wine glasses in - that was a very thoughtful touch.

We had a really good time. I'm not sure this is something that we would want to do *every* year, but we certainly enjoyed it. We will be going to Epcot's Food and Wine Festival this fall, and had planned to attend Party for the Senses...but now I'm wondering if I really want to do that - it might be quite a disappointment after Taste. (And the only night we have for PftS also happens to be the night of the Tower of Terror 13K, which Mike Scopa has written about in his blog. We thought it sounded like a lot of fun - but it conflicts with PftS. Of course a lot of people would say that given the choice between running and eating we'd be crazy to choose running...but that's just the kind of people we are.)

"Taste"fully yours...

Laura

Disney's HalloweenTime is becoming one of my favorite times of year at the Disneyland Resort - it's just so festive and fun! The Halloween decorations are really clever - I like the huge character pumpkins sitting atop Disneyland's entrance. Not to mention the candy corn appearance of the "CALIFORNIA" letters in front of Disney's California Adventure. I think the imagineers must have had a lot of fun with it. But one drawback is that Disneyland is significantly more crowded, especially in the evening.

I didn't get the chance last year, but this year I sat in on one of the Woody's Halloween Round-up shows back in the Big Thunder Ranch area. Pretty corny - just like you'd expect - but cute. It's hosted by Tex Tumbleweed, but of course stars Woody, Jessie and Bullseye. From what I could tell each day's shows follow a continuing story arc - I saw the second show of the day, which featured a character (Lucky the Cat) who had apparently been introduced in the first show. And Woody impersonating a ghost. And the show ended with a cliffhanger - was the witch hat that blew on stage good or bad??? Should Jessie use it as part of her Halloween costume? Unfortunately I missed the later shows so I never found out!

But my favorite part was the "commercial" - where Tex does an ad for the show's sponsor, Cowboy Crunchies. He even brags about how they are loaded with sugar - and all a kid needs to do is take one whiff of the cereal to make them strong! He got an audience volunteer to demonstrate that. Ah yes...all the elements of bad 50s-era live TV shows. :-)

What's next for our Dynamic Duo? Will Laura and Lee make it through the treacherous Friday Freeway Free-for-all with time enough to change into their costumes before the Mickey's Halloween Treat party? Will their macabre masquerade survive Mulholland Madness? Find out next time...same Blog time, same Blog channel!

For the third year in a row, Disney is presenting the Mickey's Halloween Treat party at Disney's California Adventure on selected evenings during the month of October. It's a fun event for both kids and adults where everyone can dress in costume (normally no one over the age of 9 can enter the park in costume) and trick or treat around the park. Lee and I went to the party on Friday night, and here are a few observations.

In addition to the formal Meet and Greet spots, there are LOTS of characters just walking around, I think even more than last year. The lines are pretty long at the Meet and Greets - I think it's more fun to just run into the characters where generally there is no line! Characters are also dancing with guests at the various party/music spots. We saw Stitch and Flik getting down at Candy Corn Acres, some piratical partying from Chip and Dale at Pirate's Wharf, and Frozone, Merlin, and Sulley had the boogie fever at the Bat Lot Bash.

There are even more treat stops this year - there is a new "Treat Trail" in the Animation Building. There are more alternatives to candy available - every treat stop has a "healthy" option in addition to the candy. Last year there were only sliced apples, but this year there were boxes of raisins, packets of fruit leather and small bags of baby carrots as well.

I was disappointed in the candy selection - there was not much chocolate, and it was mostly things like Now and Laters, Laffy Taffy, Smarties and Lemon Heads. I got a couple of Butterfingers, Nestle Crunch bars and one Snickers and one Clark bar - not much chocolate as far as this chocoholic is concerned! There were several treat stations that were giving out 2 oz bags of Kissables, though, so that was a nice treat!

There are many more activities in the wharf area this year, which has been set up with (what else?) a pirate theme. The characters in the area are all wearing pirate attire and the craft area is decorated with lots of pirate figures. There's even pirate-themed games - Lee got to fire a cannon at a target and won a pirate bookmark and some (temporary) tattoos).

The decorations are much the same as last year - Halloween projections on the sidewalks, Mickey pumpkin and Mickey ghost lights, and spider webs projected on Grizzly Peak, the Orange Stinger, and the Hyperion Theater.

New this year is the Mickey's Trick or Treat on the Street character cavalcade. I don't know that I'd call it a parade - there's one central float that's accompanied by some sign floats and a couple of large moving jack-o-lanterns. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald are are the central float, and a bunch of characters and cast members in costume follow it on its route. It follows the normal parade route, with stops in front of Golden Screams and Candy Corn Acres (Sunshine Plaza). There the characters perform a couple of songs and invite audience members (kids, generally!) to come out and dance with them - the kids get a Mickey's Halloween Treat button for participating. It was kind of fun and the new Trick or Treat on the Street song is catchy.

A fair number of people dressed in costume (like last year there were lots and lots of pirates!), but a lot of people didn't dress up. Lee and I were from very different worlds - he was a Jedi Knight (Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi) and I was Belle. Lee's costume was popular with the ladies. :-)

Back in November (yeah, I know, not a very up-to-date blog entry, is it?) Disney opened a Snow White 70th Anniversary exhibit in the Animation Building at DCA. The exhibit is in the main room of the building - sort of a maze-like set-up of walls with some photos and artwork and copies of cels from the movie. Interesting to see some of the sketches and concept art, and read snippets on how they come up with various ideas, etc.

For those of you familiar with that part of the Animation Building, you know that there are a bunch of projection screens overhead, which usually are showing scenes, artwork, etc. from lots of Disney animated features - but for now it's only Snow White.

Which brings me (finally) to the point of this blog entry...how to have some fun at the exhibit. On the outside of the exhibit's "walls" are life-size sketches of various characters from the movie. Life-size enough that with a little imagination and placement you can insert yourselves. :-) So Lee and I had a little fun with that when we were there a couple of weeks ago.

Hmmm...I'm not quite sure I like the way Snow is looking at him!!! Though I can't blame her for wanting to upgrade to someone much more manly than the "girly prince" that Disney stuck her with...

Happy New Year, everyone!

I thought I'd post some follow-ups to a couple of previous blog entries.

Last week I wrote about the new House of the Future, coming to Disneyland in May. (That blog entry can be found HERE.) One thing the article didn't mention is that it was going in on the ground floor of Innoventions. We asked a Cast Member when we were there last week who confirmed that. There have been quite a few changes to the upper floor of Innoventions since we were last there - the Disney Interactive gaming area has received several different kinds of "virtual gaming kiosks", and the Virtual Resort area has been replaced (at least temporarily) by a Segway demonstration. The ASIMO demonstration and Stitch's Picture Phone areas are still there, though.

My second follow-up has to do with DCA's upcoming Food and Wine Festival (original blog entry is HERE). The Signature events for the Food and Wine Festival went on sale Friday morning. Though the web site with pricing information was supposed to be up earlier in the week, it didn't go on-line until they opened it for reservations, so no one knew how much the events were going to be until it was time to sign up for them. That made it a little bit difficult to know what the budget would stand, though fortunately DCA's events don't sell out immediately...at least not yet.

As I expected, there were price increases almost across the board - the most notable being that Taste went from $100 last year to $125 this year - though it's still $10 cheaper than Party for the Senses at Epcot. (Though it still requires separate admission to DCA, and since May 3 is a blockout day for all but Premium Passholders, a lot of people attending will have to pay an additional $40 for a blockout day ticket, or otherwise pay for park admission to DCA.) The Festival Wine Receptions also went up $10, to $55 (though this year they include a premium viewing location for Disney's Electrical Parade, which wasn't running during the Food and Wine Festival last year), and the Taste Wine Like an Expert class is up $25, to $45, though its format will be different this year. The Napa Rose Cooking School went up a whopping $75, to $400/person, and the Celebrity Chef dinner went from $145 to $185. Interestingly enough, the price of the Winemaker dinners stayed the same - $125.

As of this writing, nothing has sold out yet, and there still seems to be plenty of availability for all of the events. Check out http://www.disneyland.com/foodandwine to make reservations.

I was checking out Disney's California Food and Wine Festival website (http://www.disneyland.com/foodandwine) last night and noticed that some new things have been added recently.

Most weekends are going to feature a celebrity chef who will be conducting cooking demonstrations as well as book signings. In addition to Chef Jamie Gwen, who will be there every weekend, Cat Cora is scheduled on April 12-13, Bret Thompson on April 19-20, and both Nancy Silverton and Guy Fieri on April 26.

Hmm...with all those chefs around, I hope there aren't too many cooks in the kitchen...

A new "Signature" event has been added: A Special Evening with the Gallo Family Winery is scheduled for Sunday, April 20. This dinner will be held from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Vineyard Room restaurant inside Disney's California Adventure. The cost is $85/person.

I hadn't planned to be at the parks that weekend but that sounds intriguing...I love Chef Tae's food!

The Daily Schedule for the Food and Wine Festival complimentary events is now up on the web site also, so I've been checking out things I want to attend on the weekend of the 11th-13th and the weekend of the 2nd-3rd.

Ghirardelli Sweet Sundays...oooooooooooh! (Every Sunday at 11:00)

Wine and Chocolate...oh my. (Every weekend at 5:30)

They're starting the Festival off right as far as I'm concerned - Delicious Desserts on April 11 is the very first demonstration. Also that weekend are demos for Gilroy Garlic and Melissa's Produce, and a What's for Brunch session on Saturday.

With the Festival going to a daily schedule this year, there's many more wineries represented - 24 if I counted correctly. Beer tasting sessions will feature either the returning Karl Straus Brewing Company or (new this year) Widmer Beers. Don Julio Tequila sponsors tequila tasting sessions every weekend, and there's a new Mixology 101: Drinks 1-2-3 session offered every Monday afternoon.

If you haven't made plans yet to attend any of the Signature events...The Napa Rose Cooking School is sold out, but there are still tickets left for all of the other events, though some are getting close to capacity.

I plan to try to blog live from the Festival the first weekend, so there will be lots of photos and reports coming both here and on the AllEars.net Disney's California Food and Wine Festival web page, which is HERE.

Please send me any reports or comments that you have, too!

Disneyland's Half Marathon Weekend is coming up on August 29-31. The Disneyland Health & Fitness Expo is August 29-30, the 5K and Kids' Races are Saturday, August 30, and the third annual Half Marathon is on Sunday, August 31.

Disney's HalloweenTime starts on September 26 and runs through November 2 and this year Disney has put up a pretty nifty interactive website for it. There's information on the attractions that are decorated for Halloween (Haunted Mansion Holiday, Woody's Halloween Roundup, and the Tower of Terror), on the decorations, the characters, and special merchandise. And a list of locations at Disneyland that will be featuring special foods and beverages. There's also a page with crafts (including pumpkin carving patterns) and some interactive games. The web site is here: http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/calendar/specialEvents/detail?name=HalloweenTimeSpecialEventPage

Miley Cyrus will be celebrating her "Sweet 16" birthday at Disneyland with a special event on Sunday, October 5. Much more information is available on Disneyland's web site HERE, and in this Disneyland Press Release. A limited number of tickets (5,000) will be available to the public, and go on sale on August 30, for $250 each.

The 2008 CHOC/Disneyland Walk in the Park, benefiting Children's Hospital of Orange County, will be held on October 19. More information is on their web site: http://www.chocwalk.org. You can read about Photo Blogger Lisa Berton's CHOC Walk experiences from last year in her blog entries:
CHOC Walk Part 1
CHOC Walk Part 2
CHOC Walk Part 3

There's finally a date for "it's a small world" to come out of its lengthy rehab - according to the Disneyland calendar it opens on November 29. I wonder if it will come up in the holiday configuration or not this time...

Fantasmic!, which goes into rehab on September 2, will begin running again on November 7.

The three McDonald's restaurants in the parks, Conestoga Fries and Harbour Galley in Disneyland, and Burger Invasion in California Adventure, will be closing on September 2. No information yet on what will be replacing them, but it appears they will all reopen on September 27.

From January 6 - April 30, 2009, Disneyland is bringing back its Everyone Get in for the Kid's Price promotion. 3, 4, and 5-day park hoppers are available to adults and kids alike for the kids' price. More information is on the Disneyland web site.

Warning: This is going to be a rambling collection of various observations.

On Friday, September 26, the first official day of Disney's HalloweenTime, I made a day trip to DL with my friend Kristin(e). (Spelled Kristin, but pronounced Kristine - got that?)

Weather was beautiful and the crowds were minimal - the longest line we waited in all day was 20 minutes for Toy Story Mania. We practically walked onto Space Mountain at 11:30 that morning. And even Soarin' and Grizzly Rapids had less than 15 minute standby lines - we really didn't need Fastpasses, though we used them a few times. (Since it was Friday, I'm sure crowds at Disneyland picked up in the afternoon/evening, but we left at 6:00, so we missed that.)

Disneyland continues to have big problems with the Indiana Jones attraction - it was down when I was there last month, and it was down when we walked by it just after park opening. We went back later and it was up, and we got as far as getting into our jeep and belted in - and then it stopped. And after a few minutes the lights came on. And then they started sending Cast Members into the attraction to walk people out of it (which would have been really cool, but we weren't in the attraction at all!) They gave us a Fastpass to return later, which didn't end up happening, but Kristin gave it to a group of very nice young teenage boys who rode Grizzly Rapids with us. Anyway...seems like Indy is in major need of an extended rehab.

Haunted Mansion Holiday is back, and still a lot of fun, though I didn't notice any new additions to it this year. But I took a few movies inside (movie mode on my camera handles low light a lot better than still photography!) and noticed something I'd never noticed before: the gingerbread coffin on the table in the ballroom scene has a lid that opens and closes, with a gingerbread man corpse that sits up then lays back down! The scent of gingerbread in the air is a nice touch.

Other things that have returned in Disney's HalloweenTime:

The Halloween displays along the tram route.

The huge pumpkins over the Disneyland park entrance, and the large Mickey pumpkin in Town Square.

The Dapper Dans on Main Street in their orange and black striped vests

Woody's Halloween Roundup in the Big Thunder Ranch area, with live shows featuring Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye - and your host, Tex Tumbleweed (and sponsored by Cowboy Crunchies!)

Free coloring crafts for kids at Woody's Roundup, or there are bat and pumpkin-shaped Halloween cookies available to purchase and decorate.

The pumpkin carver at the Roundup

Special menu and food items - especially sweets like Halloween-decorated apples and cookies.

Lots of Halloween merchandise - both quite a collection of Nightmare Before Christmas stuff and Disney Halloween plush, pins, Mickey ears, etc.

Goofy's Candy Corn Acres at DCA, which features character greetings and "corny" shows.

Over at DCA, one thing that is NOT back this year is the Halloween decorations around the Tower of Terror - the last couple of years there has been a glowing-eyed bat banner outside, and decayed Halloween party decorations inside, but those were missing this year. Golden Screams has also not returned.

I collected menus from some of the Disneyland and DCA restaurants, and there have been some significant changes in the Blue Bayou lunch, dinner, and kid menus. Price is up, of course. Cafe Orleans also has a few changes, though mostly in their dessert items and the kid's menu. I think the kid's menus were changed just about everywhere that I looked. More "healthy" options - like a turkey dog, or string cheese, fruit, and yogurt, or a turkey wrap. All kid's meals come with fruit (e.g. grapes or apples) though parents can request chips or fries. Prices have gone up slightly - most kid's meals start at $6.99 now - and the price of the Arroz con Pollo Toddler Meal has gone up from $2.99 to $3.99.

Ariel's Grotto had the most significant changes, though - they have completely redone their menu with more of an Italian theme. It actually looks a whole lot more interesting to me - I might actually consider eating there now. They've also changed their pricing - $29.99 if you eat outside, and $31.99 if you eat inside. (Sorry, I didn't get a kid's menu for Ariel's, but maybe someone has one they can photograph and send to me???)

Some of the updated menus:

Blue Bayou Lunch

Blue Bayou Dinner

Blue Bayou Kids

Cafe Orleans

Cafe Orleans Kids

Tomorrowland Terrace (updated kid's menu)

Ariel's Grotto

Wine Country Trattoria Kids

(You can always find all the menus on our Disneyland Menus page.)

We had a very nice lunch at the Wine Country Trattoria at DCA - that's one menu that had NOT changed at all. With the demise of the Vineyard Room, that's my favorite park table service restaurant now. Kristin had the Tuscan Salad and I had the Chicken Bruschetta Salad. They were both really good.

An unexpected surprise - I ran into my IRC friend JD in line at Soarin'. I knew he had an upcoming trip to Disneyland, but thought it was in October. After Soarin' we all went to Grizzly River Run - JD and I got drenched, but Kristin escaped most of the water. It was nice to see JD!

Toy Story Mania continues to be way fun - Kristin had never been on it before but she had a good time, and she scored very well - better than I did my first time!

(If anyone would like to help with All Ears menu updates for Disneyland, please let me know - it can be as simple as taking a picture of a menu and emailing it to me. You can contact me at laurag at allears dot net)

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