I wanted to share a mini TR from the weekend before Thanksgiving. Our Community Concert band plays out at Disney every year, and has for the last 10 or so years. Every year we pick six dates in order of preference, and every year we have received our top date. So I booked Saturday night at the VGC for the weekend of our performance. Well barely a month beforehand, we find out our date and it was our second choice. November 21st! I had to scramble to cancel my reservation so that the points didnt go into a holding account, and rebook trading out to the DLH instead. I know for next year to book all the weekends that we want and cancel when we find out when were playing.
So on Saturday we had a rehearsal in Hollywood where our out of town guests were able to join us. My friend Jim and I cooked a Thanksgiving style lunch for everyone with Ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, zucchini casserole, spinach salad and green salad. After everyone gorged themselves (there was almost nothing left), we played down the show and everyone went home, or for about a dozen of us we headed down to the parks.
I had spent so much time earlier in the week with some unexpected personal business that the time I planned to spend Friday packing my suitcase was spent making food for the lunch, so as soon as we got home to drop off the mashed potatoes that were left, I started packing. It took about two hours to get everything together and loaded up in the car, and we headed off to the parks a little after 4PM. We estimated that we would arrive at the Valet at 5:30 and be in our room by 6PM and we were right on target.
We checked into the DLH and got one of those nifty refurbished rooms with the fireworks display on the headboard. We had a view of the Neverland Pool and the construction. I realized while we were there that one entire tower is closed down. They are certainly doing a lot of construction work!
One of the ladies in our band is a member of Club 33 and a highlight of our Disney concert weekend is Saturday night dinner at Club 33. It usually runs about $100 per person and diners get free admission to both parks. I wish we could have arrived earlier to take advantage of the admission, although we have APs, so it really doesnt matter, but it was just not in the cards. Once we checked in, I still needed to get a shower and get gussied up since we were dining at such a swanky restaurant.
After we got dressed up, we headed out for our reservation, though it wasnt until 8:45PM we left the room around 7PM so that we could check out the shops. We visited the jewelry shop and were pleased to find that they had my necklace still (a Mickey Journey pendant priced at $5K LOL!) plus another 55th anniversary pendant at the same price. In my dreams!
By the time we arrived at the Club they were ready for our party. So they seated us immediately.
We had prepaid for a four course meal, Butternut Squash Soup,
Scallop Appetizer,
Filet of Chateaubriand
and a Kahlua Chocolate Bombe.
We had a very nice dinner and left around 11:30PM. I took a few pictures of the castle
I was so glad to have our points because all we had to do was go back to the DLH instead of drive ½ an hour home, wake up at 5 or 6 AM and drive back. In the past thats what weve done, we thought about going to Steakhouse 55 for breakfast at 7AM, but we were still too full so instead of getting up at 6AM we slept in until 7AM.
We packed our suitcases and called Bell Services. They had free coffee in the Lobby so I took advantage of that. We checked our suitcases, put our horns in the car and checked the large
scooter (normally we take the two small ones, but we had issues I wont go into here), we put the small scooter in the back of the SUV and we prayed that the rain would let up because the DCA stage doesnt have a roof. Back in 2008 they cancelled our performance due to rain.
We hit McDonalds on Harbor Blvd, where I got a Fruit & Yogurt Parfait and I dont know what DP ordered. We sped over to the entrance gate because as Band Manager I had already received a number of calls with problems regarding the entrance list, people who were going to be late and other such things. We got there well within time to perform and after clearing up the performers names we were allowed backstage, we took a picture with the group and shortly thereafter they provided a tram for us to DCA where we were scheduled to perform. It had been iffy all morning as to whether or not we would be able to perform at the Backlot Stage at 10:30AM because the weather was not cooperating, but just before we got onstage a big patch of blue sky opened up and we had a great performance!
After that we returned to backstage at
Disneyland for our complimentary passes. We changed into our everyday clothes and headed back to fetch our things at the DLH, parked the car and headed towards our lunch at Café Orleans. On the way I stopped and got a FP for Indiana Jones. We were an hour early and they really couldnt honor the reservation that soon, so we waited for what they said would be 20-45 minutes. It seems a lot of other people werent willing to wait because they called numerous parties who werent there, so our name came up rather quickly. We were seated outside which was not a very good thing, the high that day was about 57 degrees so it was pretty cold.
We ran into several of our friends from the band there, so it seems we all know where to get good food! We ordered coffee to keep warm,
and the onion soup, which didnt arrive as an appetizer. When our Monte Cristo sandwich arrived, we asked about the soup and they brought it right away.
In the end they comped the soup. It seems they were having a bad day because the table next to us also missed a couple items. All in all it was still a good lunch, by the time we finished, my FP for Indy was up so I rode that. Then we made our way slowly out of the park stopping in various shops just to look. Our last stop was at Marcelines in DTD. I was bummed they didnt have their Cheshire Tails, but they had holiday treats with marshmallows on a stick dipped in caramel, chocolate and crushed pieces of Peppermint Bark. We got a couple to take home and they were really good! Well have to go back again before the end of the year to get another one!