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.

Bengal Barbeque

 The Bengal Barbeque is a counter service restaurant in Adventureland right across from Indy.

 It is almost always busy, but the wait is never very long.  I usually don't eat near the restaurant because it is so very, very crowded in Adventureland.  I get my food and go elsewhere to eat it -- like the Golden Horseshoe to watch the Billies.  It just doesn't get better than that!

 Here I am ordering my food to take to the GH.  It was the performance there on this particular day that is seared into my memory.  Those guys are so funny! I need to do a scrapbook page about that particular performance!  But I digress, back to the food.

 So the prices aren't bad and the food is generally pretty good.  Anyone who knows me knows I hate sauces, but I usually get a knife and get most of the sauces off of the skewers so that I get a little of the flavor and almost no sauce.

 The chieftan chicken skewer is good!  $3.79

 As is the banyan beef skewer. $3.99

 But my favorite are the Safari Skewers - bacon wrapped asparagus!!! $3.79

One of the things they are known for here are the Mickey-shaped pretzels served with cheese sauce.  I however decided to try the jalapeno cheese stuff pretzel $3.49.  Yuck.  It was terrible.   don't waste your money.

Over all the food at the Bengal Barbeque is very good.  I like it and I don't know why we don't eat there more often.  We just don't spend much time in Adventureland and so I forget that it is one of our dining options.  But if you are in need of a quick and tasty meal in Disneyland, check out the Bengal Barbeque.  It won't disappoint!

Mickey and Friends Surf's Up! Breakfast

It has been awhile since I reviewed a character breakfast.  Last summer I took one of my former high school English students from RVA in Kenya to breakfast at the Mickey and Friends Surf's Up! Breakfast in the PCH Grill at the Paradise Pier Hotel. 

Mr. Diva and I had gone to this breakfast back when it was the Lilo and Stitch Breakfast and we liked how laid-back it was and how much time you got with the characters.

It may have changed names, but it is still a nice, laid-back character breakfast and you still get a lot of time with the characters.

 One of my favorite parts of this breakfast is that you get to see DAISY!!  She is a really tough character to find at Disneyland.  Trust me.

 Minnie is looking good in her lifeguard outfit!

And so is Mickey!

 Stitch showed up to breakfast, but Lilo was nowhere to be found.

 Look at Pluto's cute star fish tag!

I probably should stop here and let you know about the food.  It is a Disney Breakfast Buffet - one price, all you can eat.  Fruit, granola, cereal, muffins, yogurt, eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, omelette bar, etc.  If you have been to a Disney character breakfast, you know what I'm talking about.  

 Periodically, the characters all come out and start dancing with the kids to some surfer music.  It's fun, upbeat and cute.

 The decor is fun, beachy, surfer, Hawaiianish.  Take some time to look around and get pictures with some of the fun spots around the room.

Kowabunga!!

And here we are, student and teacher re-united 20 years later.  

Even with the characters coming through and us going back for refills, we had a great time chatting and getting caught up with each other after 20 years.  And one other nice thing is that you don't need park passes to have the breakfast, so if you are meeting friends or people who will not be going into the park, you can enjoy some Disney magic with them for a fraction of the price!

As far as character meals go, I highly recommend the Mickey and Friends Surf's Up! Breakfast. 

Candy Palace and Penny Arcade Refurb

 With the refurbishment of the 400 block of Main Street, that included the Candy Palace and the Penny Arcade. If you have ever tried to stop and grab a caramel apple or peanut clusters before you left the park, you know that it is always crowded and difficult to maneuver around the penny presses and gobs of fellow caramel apple lovers.

 In comparison to the candy kitchen in Marcelline's at Downtown Disney, this kitchen was microscopic, but they still managed to turn out lots of hand made scrumptiousness.  Now look at the difference!  In this area they were making something with gooey caramel.

 In this second section they were dipping pineapple wedges into dark chocolate.  What?  If I were a pineapple fan, let me tell you, I would be all over that!  Yum!

 Here is how they have changed the display cases and check out areas This used to be the end of the check out stand, but they have now move the check out to the back corner behind the Coca-cola Corner.  See it back there?

 And this very patriotic looking area used to be where all the penny presses and the Uncle Sam were located.  It has the coffees, boxed cookies, caramel corn, and packages of the fresh candies made on the premises.  See all of them in the display case in the center of the picture?  If the package says FRESH on the yellow sticker, then it was made at Disneyland.  If it has a blue Disneyland sticker on it, it was made who knows when back in WDW.  Yuck.  We have gotten too many rancid nuts that way.  Never buy those.

 Here is Mr. Diva checking out our stuff at the new check out stand in the back.

 Here are all of the yummy products along the back wall.

Steakhouse 55 - Disneyland Hotel

For our anniversary, we usually have dinner at the Blue Bayou in Disneyland Park, but it was closed for our anniversary in 2011, so we decided to try Steakhouse 55 in the Disneyland Hotel.  We had heard it was very good and was a nice, adult place to have a meal at the resort.

Steakhouse 55 was originally a restaurant called Granville's Steakhouse.  As you may or may not know, the Disneyland hotel was not originally owned by Disney.  Walt brokered a deal with his friend Jack Wrather to build the hotel.  Jack added the Granville Steakhouse and named it after his wife. She was a child star by the name of Bonita Granville. The hotel wasn't purchased by the Disney Corp until 4 years after Jack's death in 1988.   The name of the restaurant was changed and the restaurant refurbished and re-opened in 2006.
But enough about the history of the place, I know you want to know how the food was right?

First, you are served some amazing bread!  The bit of leftover bread is in the top corner. We ordered the berry Pina Coladas and they were very good!  

For dinner, I ordered the Filet Mignon $32 and Mr. Diva ordered the Porterhouse  $39.  Much like Ruth's Chris, you have to order the sides separately.  We ordered the Chef's Potato Stack Au Gratin $8, Sauteed Green Beans with Applewood-Smoked Bacon $8, Sauteed or Creamed Spinach$9, Sauteed Mushrooms $9.  Way too much food!

Sorry that I don't have better pictures, but Mr. Diva and I were celebrating and it's a nice restaurant, so we didn't want to look like tourists. ;-D 

After this HUGE dinner, we didn't have any room for the delectable desserts on their menu, but they knew we were celebrating our anniversary and brought us this sweet ending to our delicious dinner. 

 On our way out, we stopped by a few of the pictures of Walt and went ahead and played the Disney Geek.  Mr. Diva wanted pictures with Walt before we left.

All in all, Steakhouse 55 is an excellent restaurant!  I don't have a bad thing to say about it other than that it is very expensive.  Because of that, we will only be eating there on very, very special occasions.  But when we do, at least we will be assured of a great meal!

How Many Wishing Wells are in Disneyland?

 Of course, there is the iconic Snow White's Wishing Well in Snow White's Grotto to the right of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.  The money from this wishing well is collected periodically and it goes to the Children's Hospital of LA.

 Over in Toon Town, Minnie Mouse has her own wishing well.  Minnie posted a special message on the front of her wishing well that says,

Welcome to my backyard well,

A secret wish you now must tell,

My reply will echo clear,

To all my friends so near and dear!

Love, Minnie

 And the last wishing well (that I know of) is over in Critter Country near the fast pass distribution for Splash Mountain.  You really can't throw any coins into this wishing well, but it is really cute and it has this adorable statue of Brer Rabbit on it.  And I love all of the greenery around it.  Such a lovely little spot.

So there you have it!  Three wishing wells at Disneyland.  Just a silly little tidbit I felt like talking about.

Disneyland's Jolly Holiday Bakery

Disneyland is in the midst of refurbishing many of the things on Main Street, and in so doing, they have the Carnation Cafe and Blue Ribbon Bakery closed.  They needed another restaurant to replace them, so they turned this corner restaurant space from the AP Renewal office, back into a restaurant called the Jolly Holiday Bakery.

 

One of the interesting tidbits that I recently learned was that this custom Mary Poppins weathervane has two pennies in her carpetbag.  One has the date 1955 for the year the park opened and one is 2012 for the year the bakery opened.  

 

As you enter the bakery, you can see the lovely light fixture, the menu boards, and the display cases full of yummy looking things!

Here is a painting with many sayings and things from the movie.

Here is a display case in the queue with a figurine of Mary riding her carousel horse, and some birds and penguins.

Silhouettes of Mary, Jane and Michael. And a detailed silhouette of a child flying a kite.

This tile mosaic on the floor is supposed to mimic the chalk pictures Burt drew on the sidewalks.

Here is the menu served after 10:30 am. 

And the espresso and beverage menu that is served all day.  In case you were wondering, Abuelita (Spanish for grandma) is a Nestle brand of powdered chocolate for making Mexican Hot Cocoa.

Yum, right?  so many choices!!

Too many baked goods to choose from! 

Raspberry Cheesecakes and cupcakes.

Cookies, cupcakes, crispy treats, Matterhorn Macaroons, chocolate croissants, and muffins!

Banana nut loaf, danish, scones, cookies, and cinnamon rolls!

This is the grilled cheese sandwich that is part of the Jolly Holiday combo with tomato basil soup.

I'm not really sure how I even made a choice between these two!

Mr. Diva ordered the Roasted Turkey Sandwich and chips, $8.69.  He liked it!

I ordered the Cheese and Broccoli Quiche with house salad $6.29, blended mocha $4.39,  

and a lemon meringue (actually marshmallow fluff) bar $3.99.  

All very good!  Of course I had my salad dry, but it was still good.

And who could pass up a meal in this setting?  You can watch tons of people, enjoy the view of the castle and the Matterhorn, listen to the Main Street music and enjoy a good meal.  I would definitely recommend the Jolly Holiday Bakery for a quick service meal on your next trip.

Here is a little video done by the folks at Disney about the Jolly Holiday Bakery: