PTR Feb 2016: What do you mean we're going to Disneyland? Updated 02/23 5 Days to Go Update!

[TheMaxRebo]

Overall we found the counter-service options to be really good at Disneyland - though we weren't specifically looking for vegetarian options. I know we got the veggie skewer at Bengal BBQ and it was delicious!

bummer about them no longer offering the pre-order on the Photopass. We found it to be a great deal at the pre-order price - but we also did a few of the character meals which then included the prints. There are are a number of fun photo-pass shots set up for the 60th anniversary so there is definitely added value with that

 

[mindylee847]

Overall we found the counter-service options to be really good at Disneyland - though we weren't specifically looking for vegetarian options. I know we got the veggie skewer at Bengal BBQ and it was delicious!

bummer about them no longer offering the pre-order on the Photopass. We found it to be a great deal at the pre-order price - but we also did a few of the character meals which then included the prints. There are are a number of fun photo-pass shots set up for the 60th anniversary so there is definitely added value with that

Awesome! I was wondering about that veggie skewer actually. I love grilled veggies but I'm always worried they'll be burnt to a crisp!

Yeah, I think now we will wait to see how the pictures on our camera turn out and then compare what they snag themselves... since there's no incentive to buy early I'll just have to compare the two. Do the character meals provide prints without photopass? That my incentivize me to go to one! I really want to either do Goofy's Kitchen or the one at the Grand Californian but I wanted to wait and see park hours and what not before making that decision.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Awesome! I was wondering about that veggie skewer actually. I love grilled veggies but I'm always worried they'll be burnt to a crisp!

Yeah, I think now we will wait to see how the pictures on our camera turn out and then compare what they snag themselves... since there's no incentive to buy early I'll just have to compare the two. Do the character meals provide prints without photopass? That my incentivize me to go to one! I really want to either do Goofy's Kitchen or the one at the Grand Californian but I wanted to wait and see park hours and what not before making that decision.

So our veggies were definitely not overcooked, though the were fairly roasted which is how we like them.

I believe you can get the photo packages at the character meals, but they are pretty pricey (just looked and was able to find the price of the package for Ariel's Grotto and is i $32.57, couldn't find the others handy) - so general consensus is that if you are thinking of getting one you might as well get the photopass+

 

[mindylee847]

So our veggies were definitely not overcooked, though the were fairly roasted which is how we like them.

I believe you can get the photo packages at the character meals, but they are pretty pricey (just looked and was able to find the price of the package for Ariel's Grotto and is i $32.57, couldn't find the others handy) - so general consensus is that if you are thinking of getting one you might as well get the photopass+

Thanks, TheMaxRebo! Good to know about those photo packages. If I'm going to spend that much then I'm absolutely getting Photopass.

 

[mindylee847]

Over The Counter - Vegetarian Research

So, my travel agent hasn't gotten back to me yet in regards to the menus or anything so I figured I'd take my dining needs into my own hands. I checked out some of the menus on All Ears and came up with what I think is what I'd eat at most OTC places. If I didn't see anything I wanted at a location, I just didn't list it. Highlighted in green are the ones I feel like I'd be more inclined to eat.

We ate at Rancho del Zocalo back in 2008 and we went there twice since we enjoyed it so much. That's definitely another must do for us. If anyone has any reviews of any of these foods, I more than welcome them! I'm just glad I found so many options all over the parks!​

 

[cathyb93]

Your vegetarian research is helping me so much! I just made the switch a month ago and as I'm a pretty fussy eater aside from that, I was worried I'll have to eat meat at the park Especially since I want gumbo. But vegetarian gumbo! I'm so excited! We're doing BB for Fantasmic and now I'm hoping I can ask them to make the gumbo vego And I must check out Rancho!

 

[mindylee847]

Your vegetarian research is helping me so much! I just made the switch a month ago and as I'm a pretty fussy eater aside from that, I was worried I'll have to eat meat at the park Especially since I want gumbo. But vegetarian gumbo! I'm so excited! We're doing BB for Fantasmic and now I'm hoping I can ask them to make the gumbo vego And I must check out Rancho!

I'm so glad that I could help you out!! I'm not sure they'll be able to do that at BB but definitely ask! I'd be interested in that answer. I just don't know if they cook it all together in the back and it's all already prepped for serving??

In regards to Rancho, I found an article a while back verifying that the refried beans are actually vegetarian as well. Which is so hard to find - most refried beans actually contain animal fat. I try not to be too picky when it comes to that, but on my own I usually go for the veg beans so that was exciting to find out!

Have a great trip!

 

[mindylee847]

Dining Reservation - February 28th

So I caved and made a reservation for arrival day. My husband isn't sure we should keep it just because he doesn't want any added stress for us on our arrival... which definitely makes sense. Our plane is set to land before 2 PM but then factoring in driving and what not, I didn't make our reservation time until 6:30PM. I was aiming to do a 7/7:30 dining time, but nothing was available between 6:30 and 9:00. I was trying to decide between Ralph Brennan's and Tortilla Jo's. I figured we would definitely be having some Mexican in the parks for over the counter since we loved Rancho so much last time.

Checking out the menu on All Ears, there aren't any vegetarian entree options so I made sure to mark off "Other" on my reservation along with "Milk". While I can have a certain amount of lactose... I try to avoid it when possible, primarily any cheese or cream sauces and milk. I could take a lactaid pill as well as those seem to be working for me, but the less pills in my mind that I have to take the better. So basically you're probably wondering why would I book this? Well there are two fish options that my husband will obviously love. He still eats fish as a pescatarian and there's a mahi and salmon option listed.

Jalapeno Cornbread Crusted Salmon - candied sweet potatoes green beans, Andouille sausage cream sauce $27.50

Blacked Mahi Mahi - butter poached asparagus, Cajun rice, satsuma butter sauce $28.50

I've already showed him and he's leaning towards the mahi mahi. So I'm looking forward to it. The only thing I'm worried about is when the heck we're going to be eating anything since we'll have been flying for so long. I think we'll be packing some snacks for the flight to tide us over and maybe grab something small from Tangaroa Terrace when we arrive (which also doesn't seem to have a veg entree option... so maybe Whitewater Snacks at the GCF?). Anyways, more to come! I'm hoping to book at least the Blue Bayou PTN package this week so I'll post about that when I get it.

Edit: I just realized that there's a sausage cream sauce with the salmon. I'm sure they'd have a substitute but I guess that makes it not pescatarian friendly! Silly me.

Second Edit: Found a new menu and there's no mahi mahi on it!! There's a different salmon option which he said he'd be okay with... but he's not as excited about it. I'm going to look into other dining options for right now and delve more into vegetarian specific reviews of this place to see if it's a keeper. Who knows? Maybe we'll end up at Tortilla Jo's instead...



Third Edit: Alright! I've cancelled Ralph Brennan's. Not finding good reviews of their vegetarian accommodations. It sounds like they mostly just take the meat off of their mac and cheese and that's about it. Which, while I risk having some lactose that's a bit extreme for me.

So I went directly to the restaurants' websites rather than using All Ears for the menu to make sure I have the most updated version available. Mike and I have settled on Catal. I believe that Pete Werner has raved about this restaurant on the Dis Unplugged so it's gotta be good!

I even got the time I wanted! Now we should have plenty of time to grab a snack and maybe even a drink at Trader Sam's when we arrive.

As far as Catal's menu, I'm eyeing up these two items here:

VEGETABLE PAELLA charred corn, summer squash, oven dried tomato, wild herbs | 24
BEET & WATERMELON weiser farms beets, wild arugula, california goat cheese, citrus vinaigrette | 14

Mike will most likely get one of these two:

SKUNA BAY SALMONsummer squash succotash, snap pea, basil pesto | 27
LOBSTER PAELLA 1lb maine lobster, chorizo de bilbao, saffron bomba rice, snap pea, saffron aioli | 39 (without the chorizo)

And the drink menu looks fun too! I feel like I'm all over the place trying to plan this trip. Clearly I have not been there enough and I think it shows. Thanks for following along!


​

 

[cathyb93]

I'm so glad that I could help you out!! I'm not sure they'll be able to do that at BB but definitely ask! I'd be interested in that answer. I just don't know if they cook it all together in the back and it's all already prepped for serving??

In regards to Rancho, I found an article a while back verifying that the refried beans are actually vegetarian as well. Which is so hard to find - most refried beans actually contain animal fat. I try not to be too picky when it comes to that, but on my own I usually go for the veg beans so that was exciting to find out!

Have a great trip!

That's true! I know BB shares a kitchen with RSV, so if it is prepped, the vego gumbo should be too, but I don't want to be too much of a pain. Fingers crossed!

And that's excellent news! Esp. for the vegans out there. Thank you!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Glad your plans are coming together. There are a lot of food options at DTD. We are at Uva Bar which is the outside eating area for Catal and it was very good. We ordered the roasted cauliflower and it was great! The sweet potato fries were good too. For drinks we got the sangria and it was quite good.

We also ate at Trader Sam's for apps and the green beans were awesome!

 

[mindylee847]

Glad your plans are coming together. There are a lot of food options at DTD. We are at Uva Bar which is the outside eating area for Catal and it was very good. We ordered the roasted cauliflower and it was great! The sweet potato fries were good too. For drinks we got the sangria and it was quite good.

We also ate at Trader Sam's for apps and the green beans were awesome!

My husband will be so excited to hear about the sweet potato fries! He's obsessed and I'm not so much so it's a rarity to have them when we are home. And I'm super excited about the green beans! That's something I definitely wanted to try so I'm glad to hear they are tasty.

 

[mindylee847]

Official Dining Reservations

Good Morning, everyone! I know I had said that I probably wasn't going to make dining reservations, but I think it's the WDW in me that wouldn't allow me to go a day without one, or two! In WDW, my husband and I always go somewhere each morning for breakfast and he suggested we do the same in Disneyland... especially with historical hours showing that even with that extra morning hour, we weren't looking at getting into the park until 9:00 AM at the earliest.

So for our breakfast line up:

Monday, February 29th - Steakhouse 55 at the Disneyland Hotel, 7:45 AM
Tuesday, March 1st - La Brea Bakery Cafe in DTD, 8:00 AM
Wednesday, March 2nd - Rainforest Cafe in DTD, 8:00 AM
Thursday, March 3rd - Storyteller's Cafe at the Grand Californian, 7:15 AM

Mike doesn't know yet that I've officially booked Storyteller's... we were going back and forth about a character breakfast buffet. I want to do it because I've heard there are some rare character meet and greets, like Meeko.

Also, I would have booked most breakfasts for 7:30/7:45, but Downtown Disney restaurants aren't open until 8:00 AM so I grabbed the earliest I could. I've heard that La Brea has amazing lemon blueberry pancakes and I absolutely love the ones at Captain's Grille so I had to book that one. I'm a little skeptical about Rainforest Cafe. We have one that's about an hour away from us and I've gone for lunch/dinner. I've also been to the one in Vegas... it's fine. I know it's more about the atmosphere but we don't have kids. The reason I did end up booking it was this:

Veggie Benedict - toasted English muffin halves, poached eggs, creamed spinach and tomato topped with Hollandaise sauce; accompanied by breakfast potatoes $11.99

Sounds delicious!!

I've only booked one other dinner throughout our week other than Catal. We were able to score a 4:20 PM Paint the Night package at the Blue Bayou on Tuesday! This restaurant was Mike's one of the few requests he made for the trip so I'm really glad I snagged a package since the parade is one of my must do's. I hope the viewing area is worth it!

I was interested in reserving a World of Color dining package as well for our first night, but none were available online. I had asked my TA about it and she called Disney to find out. Apparently, WOC isn't on the schedule yet... I really really hope that it's not closed for refurb while we are there. That's one of the things I was dying to see.

I had also asked her to check into vegetarian options for those packages at Carthay Circle and Wine Country, but I guess she was told that they can "remove meat from any menu item"... which, in my opinion works, but it never really makes a true vegetarian option. It always ends up lacking and missing something because the dish was meant to compliment that meat. It looks like both places do have a vegetarian option on their dinner package menus on All Ears, but I would prefer to do a late lunch... I'm assuming I could request the vegetarian option but I never like to be difficult. If packages are released, I'll probably aim for a 2:00 time slot and maybe I'll call them directly to find out.

So... that's it for now! Thanks for following along. Let me know if you have any reviews of where we've booked. I'd love to hear them.


EDIT: We got rid of Rainforest Cafe for breakfast and moved Storyteller's to that morning (Wednesday). We are planning to do DCA that morning so we figured we'd be nice and close to the park to get in when it opens then. For that Thursday, we've reserved Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast. My husband is big into Goofy so I figured this would be a fun/cute experience for us. ​

 

[wishiwasindisneyjen]

I'm really enjoying your PTR. We are going the end of April and I can't wait to be able to make some ADRs. This is a short trip for us and one of the things I was looking forward to the most was Fantasmic but it has been cancelled for when we will be there which makes me sad. I can't wait to hear how you like the Parade dining package/seating as I want to book that too. Thanks for sharing!

 

[mindylee847]

I'm really enjoying your PTR. We are going the end of April and I can't wait to be able to make some ADRs. This is a short trip for us and one of the things I was looking forward to the most was Fantasmic but it has been cancelled for when we will be there which makes me sad. I can't wait to hear how you like the Parade dining package/seating as I want to book that too. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for following along! I was bummed to find out about Fantasmic too. Sounds though like I may have missed it anyways. During my research it seemed to only show Friday through Sunday during February which we won't be going into a park on the Friday or Sunday that we are there. I've heard it's better than the WDW version so boo.

 

[mindylee847]

Dining Addition

World of Color packages just opened up today for booking the week we are going to be there! After a lot of discussion about the vegetarian options available per the menus online and what "meat could be removed", we decided on Ariel's Grotto. I'm a little skeptical because it will obviously have more kids there than the other places (I'm assuming), but it's Disney and it will totally be fine. I just am unsure about the grotto type atmosphere. The dish that swayed me was this:

Fire-Roasted Corn Cakes - sauteed spinach, onions, and shiitake mushrooms with spicy bean salsa and chili oil drizzle

Plus it says that there is a dessert sampler, which is always more fun to me rather than a large chunk of cake. This way there are more tastes! So on Monday, February 29th, this is where we'll be having dinner.

My only real concern about this reservation is IF they announce anything special for the 29th as it is a leap year. I know they did a 24 hour event last time, but it seems they've moved those events to kick off summer so I'm not sure what to expect. Sounds like I should be finding out pretty soon if anything will be happening... but now we just play the waiting game. ​

 

[texasgingerbread]

Following...I'll be there the same time as you. The experts mentioned if MM is offered on March 1 then there probably wont be a 24 hour event on the 29th. And they let me book Minnie's Breakfast for 9:10 on March 1 which indicates MM. We shall see!

 

[mindylee847]

Following...I'll be there the same time as you. The experts mentioned if MM is offered on March 1 then there probably wont be a 24 hour event on the 29th. And they let me book Minnie's Breakfast for 9:10 on March 1 which indicates MM. We shall see!

Thanks for following along!! That's a great tip. And almost a relief. I'm really torn over if I want anything big to happen since I haven't gone in so long... I'd prefer if the park was totally dead with limited rides/shows just so I can really take it all in.

 

[texasgingerbread]

Thanks for following along!! That's a great tip. And almost a relief. I'm really torn over if I want anything big to happen since I haven't gone in so long... I'd prefer if the park was totally dead with limited rides/shows just so I can really take it all in.

Ditto. 24 hour would be fun but the crowds!!! Love your PTR! Fun times. I'm jealous you can hop in your car and do a quick trip to WDW! I'm smack in the middle of the country.

 

[mindylee847]

Ditto. 24 hour would be fun but the crowds!!! Love your PTR! Fun times. I'm jealous you can hop in your car and do a quick trip to WDW! I'm smack in the middle of the country.

Oh it was not an easy drive! We live in Milwaukee, WI so it's about a 19 hour drive when we don't hit bad traffic... and with the Thanksgiving traffic through Chicago on the Wednesday we left, well that added about 2.5 hours to just getting to Louisville! But it was absolutely worth it. I really needed the short escape. The long ride was also great to have a deep conversation with my husband about everything I felt about my dad and what I wanted for the future now. I'm obviously still pretty out of sorts when I think about it, but I'm more grounded. Gotta look forward to the future and I have to know that my dad is in a much better place.

Plus, I had never seen the Osborne Lights before. I was starting to tear up when they flicked on and I decided that I absolutely couldn't cry because I didn't want to miss a thing! I don't think I could ever make that quick trip again though... unless I had more time or the extra cash to splurge on last minute air fare. We checked those airfare prices and paying over $1,000 was just not okay.

 

[texasgingerbread]

Oh it was not an easy drive! We live in Milwaukee, WI so it's about a 19 hour drive when we don't hit bad traffic... and with the Thanksgiving traffic through Chicago on the Wednesday we left, well that added about 2.5 hours to just getting to Louisville! But it was absolutely worth it. I really needed the short escape. The long ride was also great to have a deep conversation with my husband about everything I felt about my dad and what I wanted for the future now. I'm obviously still pretty out of sorts when I think about it, but I'm more grounded. Gotta look forward to the future and I have to know that my dad is in a much better place.

Plus, I had never seen the Osborne Lights before. I was starting to tear up when they flicked on and I decided that I absolutely couldn't cry because I didn't want to miss a thing! I don't think I could ever make that quick trip again though... unless I had more time or the extra cash to splurge on last minute air fare. We checked those airfare prices and paying over $1,000 was just not okay.

Ah gotcha! Wow.