Saturday, June 9, 2012

World of Color

First, let me preface this review with the fact that I am a very picky eater (if you are new to this blog) and secondly, I call it like it is.  If I like it, I will tell you and if I don't, I'll tell you. With that being said, I will begin my review of Disney's California Adventure World of Color Show.

If you havent' already heard, there are three ways that you can view this show - stand in line and get a fast pass, pay $16 for a picnic meal and good viewing, or pay $40 for dinner and the best viewing.  Back when it first opened you had two dinner choices, Ariel's Grotto and Wine Country Trattoria.

We did not want to wait in line for a fast pass, I didn't like any of the picnic food choices (they all sounded disgusting to me and still do. *yucky shiver*) and since I had eaten at Ariel's for lunch a couple of years before, I thought that would be the best choice for us.

I thought this would be good, but I was sorely disappointed.  In order to get a large number of people in and out in a hurry, the menu is set and you have a choice between one or two things in the appetizer category and the entree.  We chose the antipasto appetizer.  It is on the tall thing between us.  I ate maybe one slice of cheese.  Everything else was olives, salami, salad, and tons of other things in vinegar and other unmentionable food condiments. I had to push it over by Mr. Diva because the smell was turning my stomach.  He didn't even eat the stuff.

For my entree I chose a steak with mashed potatoes and veggies.  Sounded safe, but it came slathered in some kind of horrible salsa/relish thing. Disgusting!  Ruined the entire meal. I had to scrape if off onto Mr. Diva's salad plate and tried to salvage what I could of my meal but it was pretty hopeless by that time.  Mr. Diva got something similar and he didn't like it either and he isn't picky.  He can eat just about anything.  I had someone take a picture of us so I could document the nightmare.  I couldn't believe we paid so much for a bad meal!  You know I hate the food when I don't even take a picture of the plate.

Dessert came and it was better to look at than it was to eat.  The three chocolate things were the only things really worth eating on the plate, so we split them.  We hardly ever saw our waiter and had no time to have anything sent back because they scheduled our meal so close to our show time.  We literally had to flag someone down to pay the ticket and hurry over to our spot to get in line.

We were led into the "best" viewing area.  Because I'm short, and we were at the back of the line due to the whole dinner thing, I chose to stand near the back of the viewing area on the steps so that I could actually see something.  The areas along the front were already full.  I thought this would be the best place to see the show, but the guy in front of us decided to film the entire show on his phone.  Right, like you're going to go back and watch the whole thing on your phone again and again.  So this was my view all night.  Yay.

His arm got tired, so he had to keep switching arms.  Brilliant.





The best view I got was after the show was over and everyone started to leave.

As you can tell from my review thus far, I was less than impressed with the food and the show, and so was Mr. Diva.  I added his review because he is much easier to please than I am, but he too felt that we had wasted almost $100 to see this show.

Before I close my review, I feel compelled to let you know that we had some friends who got the same meal and did the show and they enjoyed both.  But that being said, it appears that the Ariel's Grotto dinner option is no longer open, only the Wine Country Trattoria.

Our friends did the Trattoria dinner because they have eaten there many times for lunch and dinner and figured it would be good.  They we less than impressed and will not be doing the dinner again. Here is the current menu if you are interested.

My recommendations for WOC would be that if you have time to waste, stand in line for the Fast Pass.  If you are short on time, get the picnic meal.  If you have money to burn and no time, do the meal.

As for me and Mr. Diva, we won't be seeing WOC again any time soon.  We're way over it.


3 comments:

Susan Stringfellow said...

oh see I would kill to see that show and although I love antipasti minus the salami, I would not ever eat a steak -eww. I have heard really good things about the Ariels lunch and those desserts. I have also heard the picnic meal is the best way to see the show IF you get there early enough to get a good spot. You used to get a cute reusable WOC bag too. Kristin got one for me :) I am only picky about food where meat is concerned. I don't like meat much unless its super lean and really not even then. I prefer seafood and veg.

rick said...

We did exactly what you did when we went last March. My main beef with the meal (no pun intended) was that it wasn't hot enough. Lukewarm. Bleh. But I'm not too picky so it wasn't so bad. It was great to go to the "white" section and get a close viewing spot, esp since two of the kids were sitting in the stroller. And I wouldn't fight the crowds for that show, but the kids loved it, which was enough for me :)

blupixy said...

My mom and I opted for the picnic meal when we went. We actually did the kid options because, like you I thought most of the options sounded icky. I liked the show even though we didn't have the best view. We got a reusable bag and light up bracelets that my kids still play with