Best Spot for Dinner at the Disneyland Resort!

Cars Land at California Adventure has been open just a short time, but our family has quickly found our favorite location for our (almost) weekly dinners at the Disneyland Resort.  It's on the outside of Flo's V8 Cafe, along the Radiator Racers track. 

I absolutely love a good dinner, tucked in a quiet corner, and good scenery.  We've eaten there a number of times since the Cars Land opening and have enjoyed every time!  The meals are a great value (same pricing as most of the cafeteria style eating restaurants at the parks) and are so delicious! 

You won't find a burger or pizza on the menu.  What you will find is old-school diner themed to the max.  With Pork Loin, Roasted Citrus Chicken Breast, NY Strip Loin or Citrus Chicken Salads, the adults are sure to find something delicious and nutritious.  There are many sides to choose from that are all equally yummy and taste like they are straight from your family dinner table.  You can order delicious milk shakes and other beverages (including beer and wine).  The kid menu is delicious with chicken and roast beef sandwiches in addition to macaroni & cheese.   And don't get me started on the gravy options... Yum is all I can say!

Now what rivals the yumminess of the dinner is the ambiance that the outdoor eating terrace offers.  My favorite place to sit is along the railing with a view of Radiator Springs Racers.  It just can't be beat.

Every time we have sat there we've had several of our favorite Cars characters cruise by.  Love it!

Now I've heard there are fabulous breakfast options at Flo's V8.  Anyone tried them and want to guest post about it?  Love to share!

Now if you ever run in to us having dinner there, be sure to come say hi!

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Radiator Springs Racers - Best Ride Ever. - Semi-Wordless Wednesday

It's Wednesday!  Yay!  Week is half over and I wanted to share a picture of my new favorite ride at California Adventure - Radiator Springs Racers.  Seriously the best ride I have ever been on!  I snapped this picture last week on opening day - actually at 9 am as the park "officially" opened (but many people had been let in earlier in the day).  It was such a great ride that we braved the crowds and went back first thing on Saturday morning and rode it again!

The ride is worth the waits in line and stands up to absolutely all the hype!  Have you tested out the ride yet?  What's your favorite part?  Mine is the race at the end of course!

Have a great rest of the week!

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The Perfect Iced Mocha - Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop at California Adventure

Lots and lots of changes are happening at the Disneyland Resorts in Anaheim, CA.  I'm a huge Disneyland fan and spend way more time at the parks than I would ever admit!  One of my favorite new additions at California Adventure is the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop (in what used to be the Tortilla Factory in the Pacific Wharf Area).  I'm bummed to see the Tortilla Factory go (we loved getting the free samples fresh from the ovens!), but I have to admit I am IN LOVE with the iced mochas at the Ghirardelli Shop!  Hands down they are  simply amazing and the best I have ever had and I've had a lot of mochas... 

I've already been there three times since it opened for a mocha!  My boys have also tried the S'mores Kids Sundae and the ice cream scoops.  There are countless choices and all super yummy (with a fun flashback to my San Francisco/Bay Area home town roots!).

I also love how the castmembers hand out a complimentary Ghirardelli chocolate square as you enter.

Stay tuned for more fun finds with all the changes at the parks!  Have any you'd like to share?  Email me!

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A dubious honor at Disneyland Resort ...

Only one ride at the Disneyland Resort deserves this dubious honor. Who knows which ride I snapped this picture on?

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Wordless Wednesday... A Disneyland Treat

Wordless Wednesday...

One of our favorite treats at Disneyland - the Cinnamon Crisps from Rancho del Zocalo in Frontierland.  What's your favorite treat at Disneyland/California Adventure?

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Have you see the Zoetrope at California Adventure?

Easily missed... this gem of an attraction is hidden in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area of California Adventure (in the same building as Turtle Talk with Crush.  Have you ever stopped to watch it?  It runs every couple of minutes and the special effects are guaranteed to make you gasp!  

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World of Color is Now Showing!

In case you hadn't heard about how the World of Color is now showing at California Adventure / Disneyland Resort, here's a video of the entire show to tide you over until you have the chance to see it!  Enjoy!

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Toy Story Midway Mania Mr. Potato Head- Wordless Wednesday

Why? Well because nothing is better than being made fun of by a potato (Yup, I was the one wearing sunglasses).


All I could think was... Fries for dinner kids!

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What's in Your Wallet When Going to DL?

I may just be the last person on the planet to have noticed that all the carts at Disneyland now accept credit cards! Finally! It has been a royal pain over the years having to check that I had $11 in cash in my wallet for purchasing two of the souvenir pop corn tubs before going to Disneyland (yeah... going as often as we do...)!!! As evidenced by my recent post on using the tubs for birthday party favors, it has been a frequent problem...

So you'll imagine my surprise when I walked up to the cart the other night to find that not only had the price gone up by 25 cents, but atleast now I could pay with my debit card and no longer worry about it! Yippee!

After further interogation I discovered that most of the carts accept credit cards now (FYI you've been able to use credit cards for a long time for parking... Always a last minute panic for me when going to a new theme park because I'm not one to carry much cash!)

Thanks for making it just a bit easier to spend money Mickey!!!

Family Travel Tips
Anaheim

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Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Fun

Without a doubt, Fall and Winter are my favorite times of year to visit Disneyland. Disneyland Resorts’ Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party signals the beginning of the festive season. A few years ago Disneyland began hosting the Mickey’s Trick or Treat at California Adventure and it quickly became a tradition in our house to go. Most years we get tickets to go right around Halloween (if not on Halloween), but this year Disney offered us the opportunity to also go earlier in October. I am so glad we did! It is a FANTASTIC way to jump start the season! If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, you can buy them here. Don’t wait because nights do sell out! (Do note that regular park admission does not get you in, you have to buy separate tickets)


This year it seemed like more of the rides were open and made it feel like a VIP private event because the wait times for rides were virtually non-existent! Brett rode California Screamin’ (for the first time) and it was literally walk-right on to the ride! I saw a 10 minute wait on Toy Story Mania & Soarin’ over California and it was walk-right on to all the rides in A Bugs Land.

I’d also like to say a special thanks to Disney for continuing to make such an effort to bring in healthier snacks… this year we saw individual packaged Craisins, baby carrots, apple slices and Cheese-Its. This is a HUGE help for parents because my kids were snacking on the healthy snacks most of the night and didn’t actually eat much of the candy until the way home.

Kyle sums up the evening best by saying, “It was AWESOME!”


Things to note:

-You don’t need to bring a trick or treat bag. They provide perfect sturdy Halloween themed bags just after you enter the gates.

-Don’t worry about the stations running out of candy, so don’t rush to the trick or treat the 13+ stations in a panic. One of the things I LOVE about Disney is that they think of everything and are prepared for everything, so once you see the massive mounds of candy at each station AND the Castmembers diligently running around refilling the stations, you’ll soon see that there really is no rush. (We’ve also found that at the end of the night it’s not unheard of to get larger handfuls dumped in trick or treat bags as the crowds dwindle down). Every time we have gone we come back with a ridiculous amount of candy… and we aren’t really trying to!

-Costumes are encouraged – You are trick or treating of course!

-Be prepared to have fun. With a large amount of character greetings/photo opportunities, dance party areas, parades (Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat on the Street Cavalcade) and activities, it will be a night to remember.

-I saw most of the food vendors open inside during the event, so don’t worry about grabbing dinner before. The find of the night was the first time I think I have EVER seen no line up at the Churro cart! Not sure if it was because everyone was filled up on sugar already, but I was sure tempted to get one…
-Don’t miss the walk through in Disney Animation (Hollywood Backlot), there were more trick or treat stations than I could count!

-If you’re a chocolate fan… be sure to find the Ghiradelli Chocolate stations.

-If you’ve got young ones, bring your stroller because they will get exhausted by the end of the night (and you also need an easy way to carry the massive bags of candy!)


Have you gone to Mickey’s Trick or Treat Party? What was your favorite part?

Family Travel Tips
Anaheim

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Disneyland Adding New Parking Lot

Well, its official, Disneyland is building a new much needed parking area! Disneyland has already permanently closed the Timon parking lot (2,226 spaces) to make room for the Cars Land addition to California Adventure and it was becoming painfully clear that something needed to be done about the parking situation! The massive Mickey & Friends parking structure no longer provides enough parking for the guests to the park (we know this because of the massive wait times to get in to the structure that occur during peak visit times!).

This week Disney will present its plan to the Anaheim Planning Commission for approval to use the Strawberry fields it once purchased for the site of a third Theme Park for the added parking areas. To put it in perspective Disney has access to 28,893 spaces in Anaheim. I think it’s safe to say that Disney doesn’t currently have plans to build the third theme park in Anaheim with the current $1 billion improvements being done to California Adventure.

Other important links:

OC Register Story
Closure of Timon Parking Lot

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Ghost Galaxy, Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party and Fireworks, Oh My!

Disneyland has just announced that they will be doing a Halloween theme overlay on Space Mountain this year beginning September 25th called “Ghost Galaxy”! They’ll be changing the music and adding extra effects to the already wildly popular ride (I know it is already one of our favorite rides!).

This will be in conjunction with the Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party that has become a regular in our family Halloween activities. If you haven’t bought a ticket for that, I’d highly recommend it. We’ll certainly be going this year (and I’ll write a post about it!), but buy your tickets now before they sell out! Tickets are currently only available to passholders (until Aug. 1st) , but I’d recommend asking someone you know who is a passholder to buy your tickets so you’ve got them. There is also a $7.00 discount for purchasing them ahead of time.

Disneyland will also be doing Halloween themed fireworks this year. October is going to be a not to miss time to go!

For more information visit:
http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/reserve/specialOffers/detail?name=MickeysTrickOrTreatPartySpecialOfferPage
http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/disneyland-halloween-4901/

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The Original Parking Lot is Gone at Disney to Make Way for Cars Land!

Ack! I was never able to say a proper goodbye! All kidding aside, I’m sad to say the original parking lot at Disneyland, yes the only one that existed before they systematically began chopping it up to make room for California Adventure, is now a part of history.

A few weeks ago I heard that the final section was closed to make room for Cars Land. I’ve now seen it for myself. It’s gone. Don’t get me wrong, we love the giant Mickey and Friends parking structure, but there was just something cool about parking in the Timon lot and walking in if you didn’t see a tram around, since the walk never took more than 5-10 minutes.

Oh well, at least Cars Land is sounding like a pretty neat addition and much needed boost to California Adventure. I’ll work on posting more photos of the progress as I have chance to grab them!

For more info about the renovation check out these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cars_Land
http://www.mickeynews.com/News/DisplayPressRelease.asp_Q_id_E_10177Expand
http://themeparks.about.com/od/disneyparks/a/DCAMakeover.htm

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The Bakery Tour hosted by Boudin Bakery at Disney's California Adventure Park

I normally try to avoid California Adventure/Disneyland on hot days, especially during tourist season, but yesterday I made an exception. It was super hot outside and one of the biggest recommendations I have for going to either of the parks during the summer is to be sure to alternate between rides that are either in the hot sun (or have waits in the sun) and ones that are air conditioned (or shaded).

I took my own advice yesterday and here’s a little about one detour…

We’ve walked past these doors many times and barely taken a second look. Boy, were we missing out! Located inside the Golden State Region of California Adventure is The Bakery Tour, hosted by Boudin Bakery located just across from the Farmers Market and San Andreas foods. We found it in our quest for shade from the sun!


Upon entering my boys were each handed a freshly made Mickey shaped loaf of sour dough bread! Yum! All adults were handed a couple slices of fresh sourdough bread to snack on during the tour. The video accompanying the tour was interesting and I garnered a few interesting tidbits, including that the Boudin family has been using the same “mother” started dough for well over 100 years to make their wonderful sourdough! That is just cool. But, let’s just say I am quite glad sanitary practices have increased dramatically and the starter dough is handled in a much more clean way these days…

Along the short tour (snacking as we went of course) we got to see the bakers mixing up new batches of dough (for bread soup bowls at the parks I assume), portioning out, cooking and cooling.

Again, this was super cool (literally and figuratively) and a quick little educational detour from the crazy day at California Adventure. We LOVED the free take home goodies!!!

Family Travel Tips
Anaheim

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California Adventure's Wine Country Trattoria

I've walked by the Wine Country Trattoria at California Adventure many times and always meant to eat lunch or dinner there. I'm finally tired of the burgers and pizza at the various different locations and have decided to expand our horizons. :)

Last night we ventured in and were pleasantly surprised to have a less than 10 minute wait for a nice sit down dinner! The kids menu was great, and both of the kids ordered spaghetti. My husband chose the lasagna and I chose the soup of the day along with bruschetta salad. the standard bread was brought to the table with a fantastic whipped butter infused with tomato and a hint of white wine. That was a delicious surprise!

The service was fast, except for a little mistake of my order getting placed wrong, so I had a couple minutes of waiting for my salad to be brought out. This would have really annoyed me except for the waitress being extremely apologetic and obviously working to rectify it asap. But my soup and salad were fantastic and my husband loved the lasagna (which is a big deal because lasagna is one of his favorite dishes). If I hadn't been so full and the park about to close, I would have tried the Tiramasu (definitely my favorite dessert!).

And the price was very reasonable, about $40 for a family of four. We'll definitely eat there again and I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for something nicer than the walk up windows and tray dining that prevails at most of the eateries at the parks.

Family Travel Tips
Anaheim

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