Food and Wine? Sounds Divine! An October TR - 12/2 A PTR Link!

[franandaj]

Thats cool you got her tickets. I even know who the Dave Matthews band is, and possibly identify at least one song. I don't think we have concerts allowing contact highs here any more. Not that I'm complaining, but every venue here is non smoking so security is on that like a heartbeat! In fact I have a funny Hollywood Bowl story from about 20 years ago when the policy first went into effect. NOT to be shared on the DIS!

 

[heathsf]

I can see why you said the Cars section of AoA reminded you of RSR. It looks so cool and also straight out of the movie! And I completely agree that DH and I need to visit DCA. I told him we needed to go and I got a sideways glance, but other than that he completely ignored me. LOL!
ToT <3 Looks like you had fun!
Too bad you couldn’t get a good picture of that baseball player. You certainly get an A for effort though! The only time I’ve ever seen Bobby gush over someone was when we took an elevator ride with Nomar Garciaparra. I guess there’s something about those athletes.
That Aladdin show looked really cool. I would love to see that too.
1901 looks really cool. The picture of you guys in the Walt and Lillian chairs is super cute. Walt’s shadow was pretty cool too. I feel like there is such a strong connection to Walt in Disneyland.
Your friend has never heard of DMB? That is crazy.

 

[Leshaface]

Replying from my phone. Bummed that I missed your update and now I'm reading from my phone. Boo!

That ice sphere is too cool. I totally want one of those drinks.

I can't wait to come back and see your pics.

Wow. You need some paparazzi training. Lol. Good try though.

You are a trooper to try and read from your phone!

I know i'm very bad at pretending to be a paparazzi!

Hahhaha, last summer I went to see Maroon 5 at Shoreline Amphitheater which has a similar setup -- we had lawn seats, and I actually started to feel ill from the serious smoke clouds. It was crazy strong!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, and wouldn't you think because it's outside it would all just be swept away by the breeze?! Nope.

I know, we really want to get out there. There is a chance of our May Land & Sea changing to DLR, but that is dependent upon Dug changing jobs and attending a conference in L.A., etc.

I wish we could stay longer than the 1.25 hours each layover at LAX to go to DL! Not happening this trip, though.

Nice little update! Looks like you had quite a fun weekend!

What does your DH teach? Nice photos!

Well, if you guys ever do make it out this way for DLR, you gotta let me know so we can have a DIS meet! Would love to meet you all

DH's a PE teacher so I guess he can get away with it

Managed to get to a computer on see your pics!

The Cars ride is amazing. Love your selfie.

The pics of you guys in Walt & Lillian's seats is to cute.

But my favorite pics are the drinks. Just kidding. I'm not that much of a lush.

How fun to have a private tour and catch up with friends.

Oh Mary Ellen, do not lie! Anyone who reads your TR's know that your favorite pics were going to be of the drinks

Too cool about the concert!!! Glad your friend didn't know who they were!

Me too!

What luck! Great bonus to score those tix. Looks like it was a fun night.

It was such a fun night! For me at least. DH not so much. He's not a fan. At all.

Well, we're going to make them sit through Candlelight Processional in December, so surely we can get them to sit through 40 minutes of a show that is more visually compelling to them like this...

Then i'm sure they'll do great with Aladdin

It's the rubber band. Try putting one on yours.

Free concert... that's my price range.

Yep! We're not concert goers, because we're cheap when it comes to that form of entertainment. The last concert we had been to was Genesis back in 2007. So at this rate, we see a concert every 7 years

Hope you don't have to pass a drug test soon.

I would definitely fail that test! Not even kidding, every group around us was lighting up. Well, at least it saved us from using our stash

Is this for real????

This is my life. A few years back, DH and his other coworker decided to do this pose from Step Brothers

Exactly what I did when he came home!

well, you know I am a fan of the Yardhouse ... though your beers were way too small

In my defense, I hadn't tried that particular beer before so just a pint. But I did order a second pint of a different beer afterwards

And so cool about the free Dave Matthews tickets! I haven't seen them since the latest album came out but is probably the band I have seen the most over the years

Yay for another DMB fan! I told Andy we're not really concert goers. The last concert was Genesis back in 2007. We had tickets to see Radiohead in 2008 but DH purchased the wrong day and by the time we had seen that, the date we wanted was gone.

Yeah, a contact high officer ... it must have been a contact high

Thats cool you got her tickets. I even know who the Dave Matthews band is, and possibly identify at least one song. I don't think we have concerts allowing contact highs here any more. Not that I'm complaining, but every venue here is non smoking so security is on that like a heartbeat! In fact I have a funny Hollywood Bowl story from about 20 years ago when the policy first went into effect. NOT to be shared on the DIS!

She's more into Pop music. I wouldn't waste my time or money on any of those artists.

Holy cow, the workers at this venue don't care at ALL! A few were even smoking themselves This was at the Irvine Ampitheater. Never going ever again!

The Hollywood Bowl I do remember a few people smoking, but no where close to what it was at the Irvine theater.

Dang it DIS, and your family friendly rules :shakingfist:

I can see why you said the Cars section of AoA reminded you of RSR. It looks so cool and also straight out of the movie! And I completely agree that DH and I need to visit DCA. I told him we needed to go and I got a sideways glance, but other than that he completely ignored me. LOL!
ToT <3 Looks like you had fun!
Too bad you couldn’t get a good picture of that baseball player. You certainly get an A for effort though! The only time I’ve ever seen Bobby gush over someone was when we took an elevator ride with Nomar Garciaparra. I guess there’s something about those athletes.
That Aladdin show looked really cool. I would love to see that too.
1901 looks really cool. The picture of you guys in the Walt and Lillian chairs is super cute. Walt’s shadow was pretty cool too. I feel like there is such a strong connection to Walt in Disneyland.
Your friend has never heard of DMB? That is crazy.

These boys and their athletes. Now if it was someone like David Beckham or Christiano Ronaldo....

Oh my gosh I know, but I was so happy that she didn't know them for my sake! I even said, "I'd love to go with you!" and she was like, "Uh no, i'm giving them both to you. It sounds boring."

 

[Leshaface]

We walked back to the GCH with Alison so that we could move our car from valet to self parking...where it should have been from the start

At this point, we thought we should head back into the park and maximize the rest of our time there, since we would be done with parks after today.



DH was a little hungry and thought a Rice Bowl would be a good small meal. Meanwhile, I headed to Ghirardelli to get my warm chocolate chip cookie fix

He was still in line to get his food when I returned




Finally the food showed up. But all I cared about was my cookie



After DH was done with his food, I wanted to go over to Cars Land. I just love it at night and wanted to get some pictures of RSR







It was getting close to the World of Color showing and I really wanted to catch it. It’s my absolute favorite Disney show out of them all! The music is fabulous and the whole concept is awesome. I took some pictures of how filled the stand-by area had gotten already






Wishes was happening over at Disneyland




A CM eventually kicked us out of the area we were standing in so we moved towards the back where we snagged a pretty decent viewing spot considering it was very last second










They have taped off sections in the large walkway in front of the Little Mermaid attraction for standing only spots to view WoC. We had gotten a spot in the very front of one of the viewing spots next to this friendly couple. Well some people, either don’t know or don’t care, that there are specific viewing spots to stand in, so they would keep standing in front of me to watch the show. The man next to me was not afraid of telling people to move out of the way or say, “Do you not see this girl, you’re in her way.” Wish I could take this guy with me everywhere we went.


continued in next post

 

[Leshaface]

We left right at the finale to avoid the mob of people trying to exit. It was 10:15 and we were just barely going to be checking into our room. I received our notification text that our room was ready at 4 and I showed Alison our room number. Because she knows the layout of the villas, she knew exactly what view we would have We had to stop at Bell Services first to get our bags and it was taking forever.





To pass the time, I decided to entertain myself by hiding from DH and taking pictures of him. Yes, I’m 30 years old and still enjoy hide and seek.





Finally bags in hand, we headed to our villa, room 3504

These were the first pictures of the room that I took





LOVE OUR VIEW! And with this view you get a room

 

[dizneeat]

Awesome view you had from your room. I think I might not even need a bed, I would camp out on the balcony.

Oh, and tell me about the people who decide to come and stand in front of you at fireworks or anything.
This is one of the things that really annoys me about DLP. You stake out a spot, stand there for quite some time for Dreams to start and then some guy in front of you decides to put his kiddo on his shoulders. Drives me nuts.

 

[tdashgirl]

The view from your room!!!!!!

 

[Dugette]

Hmmm, I hadn't even thought about how cool Cars Land must look at night. Now I will have to make sure we go there at least twice (whenever we go) to experience it at both day at night. Pretty!

World of Color looks great too. And nice to have your own personal view-preserver next to you!

What a great room and view!

 

[franandaj]

The valet gave us autographed princess pictures. We just found ours digging out the island in expectation of my parents arrival next week.

I can't believe you had the umph to go back into the park that night. I was totally beat! Looking forward to how you enjoyed relaxing the next day.

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a great view from your room.

Great pics of carsland.
Glad you got a great view for WoC.

 

[Leshaface]

Will get back to replys in a bit but need some help.

DS's birthday is coming up and I requested a Disneyland themed cake from my cake lady. She is very talented and pulls off every cake i've seen. She just messaged me and asked for some ideas because she's only been to Disneyland once 16 years ago.

I suggested maybe on the top to have the Disneyland Marquee with DS's name on it and maybe having some elements from different attractions like a Teacup, Dumbo, Mickey shaped balloons, some Disney characters etc.

Do you guys have any ideas or suggestions on what to add to a cake? Usually Pinterest comes through, but a Disneyland themed party isn't very popular apparently.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Will get back to replys in a bit but need some help.

DS's birthday is coming up and I requested a Disneyland themed cake from my cake lady. She is very talented and pulls off every cake i've seen. She just messaged me and asked for some ideas because she's only been to Disneyland once 16 years ago.

I suggested maybe on the top to have the Disneyland Marquee with DS's name on it and maybe having some elements from different attractions like a Teacup, Dumbo, Mickey shaped balloons, some Disney characters etc.

Do you guys have any ideas or suggestions on what to add to a cake? Usually Pinterest comes through, but a Disneyland themed party isn't very popular apparently.

You could include a monorail, the Matterhorn, Pirates and/or pirate ship, Autopia and/or characters from Cars, a tree with a treehouse like the Tarzan treehouse on the cake. That might be elements that a boy might like?
I also wonder if there are miniature toy Disney characters you could buy to add to the cake. That way, you'll have some toys to play with as a reminder of the birthday cake.

Hope you work it out. I'd love to see a picture of the cake when it's done.

 

[MEK]

Wow Wow WOW - That view is simply amazing. Could I please have that room if I ever go to Disneyland. It's simply stunning! I can't believe it!

World of Color seems like such an amazing show. I can't wait to see it someday!

As far as your cake, I am so not creative, but does Calvin have a favorite character? Could you include his fav character and then an icon which represents DL?

Good luck. I'm sure it will turn out wonderful!

 

[Pinkocto]

He's going to be row already! Carsland themed and race car decorations that he can play with after. Boys love cars.



COOKIES!!!!!!!

DL is sooooo gorgeous at night! I MUST go for a week before the cruise in October! (If I can manage it)

Love the hide and seek, and the room view is AMAZING!

 

[Leshaface]

Awesome view you had from your room. I think I might not even need a bed, I would camp out on the balcony.

Oh, and tell me about the people who decide to come and stand in front of you at fireworks or anything.
This is one of the things that really annoys me about DLP. You stake out a spot, stand there for quite some time for Dreams to start and then some guy in front of you decides to put his kiddo on his shoulders. Drives me nuts.

I actually would have preferred having a sleeping bag so I could listen to the music and noise coming from DCA!

Would you say guests are way worse at DLP than WDW?

The view from your room!!!!!!

Right?!

Hmmm, I hadn't even thought about how cool Cars Land must look at night. Now I will have to make sure we go there at least twice (whenever we go) to experience it at both day at night. Pretty!

World of Color looks great too. And nice to have your own personal view-preserver next to you!

What a great room and view!

Cars Land is awesome at night! They did such a great job. In fact, at dusk, they turn all the neon lighting on and the song from Cars ('Life Could Be a Dream') starts playing That's one of my favorite parts about DCA

The valet gave us autographed princess pictures. We just found ours digging out the island in expectation of my parents arrival next week.

I can't believe you had the umph to go back into the park that night. I was totally beat! Looking forward to how you enjoyed relaxing the next day.

What a great view from your room.

Great pics of carsland.
Glad you got a great view for WoC.

Our view was incredible! Wish I had that every time we visit.

You could include a monorail, the Matterhorn, Pirates and/or pirate ship, Autopia and/or characters from Cars, a tree with a treehouse like the Tarzan treehouse on the cake. That might be elements that a boy might like?
I also wonder if there are miniature toy Disney characters you could buy to add to the cake. That way, you'll have some toys to play with as a reminder of the birthday cake.

Hope you work it out. I'd love to see a picture of the cake when it's done.

Oh yeah Pirates would be a good idea along with cars! Thanks for the ideas and absolutely i'll post a picture!

Wow Wow WOW - That view is simply amazing. Could I please have that room if I ever go to Disneyland. It's simply stunning! I can't believe it!

World of Color seems like such an amazing show. I can't wait to see it someday!

As far as your cake, I am so not creative, but does Calvin have a favorite character? Could you include his fav character and then an icon which represents DL?

Good luck. I'm sure it will turn out wonderful!

I loved our view. Every chance i'd get, I'd go look out. Or i'd sit out there for minutes at a time. I think the last day, I did my makeup out there so I could soak it all in.

I asked her to do a couple of his favorite characters like Sulley and Mickey. Thanks Mary Ellen!

He's going to be row already! Carsland themed and race car decorations that he can play with after. Boys love cars.



COOKIES!!!!!!!

DL is sooooo gorgeous at night! I MUST go for a week before the cruise in October! (If I can manage it)

Love the hide and seek, and the room view is AMAZING!

Definitely asking for something from Cars.

I knew you'd like the cookie!

Oh my gosh yes!

 

[Dream426]

Trying to catch up on everyone's updates so sorry if things have been discussed already.

Yay for free tickets. Love Dave Matthews.

Love the view from your room. That cookie looked so good too. I could just eat dessert the whole time on vacation. It is my favorite part of a meal.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Wait...your friend won tickets through Ticketmaster and had never heard of Dave Matthews Band! That's it. I'm officially old now.

Hehehe, I remembered seeing his new school ID photo. It cracked me up.

I'm with you. All I would care about would be a warm chocolate chip cookie too.

World of Color is my favorite show too! I saw in April 2013 and was blown away. So perfect.

 

[Leshaface]

Trying to catch up on everyone's updates so sorry if things have been discussed already.

Yay for free tickets. Love Dave Matthews.

Love the view from your room. That cookie looked so good too. I could just eat dessert the whole time on vacation. It is my favorite part of a meal.

I could listen to DMB all day!

Hopefully you get to do that in just a few short weeks!

Wait...your friend won tickets through Ticketmaster and had never heard of Dave Matthews Band! That's it. I'm officially old now.

Hehehe, I remembered seeing his new school ID photo. It cracked me up.

I'm with you. All I would care about would be a warm chocolate chip cookie too.

World of Color is my favorite show too! I saw in April 2013 and was blown away. So perfect.

The thing is, she's 28 She's just very into Britney Spears, Nikki Minaj, etc..

Oh yay! So glad you got to see WoC! It's absolutely amazing.

 

[Leshaface]

***I've dragged this mini-TR out way too long. Did you guys even know I'm doing a TR from our trip in October 2013?! Bet you didn't! My DLR trip is going to be officially over right now in one long update.

Also, i'm taking more ideas for DS's birthday cake. It's Disneyland themed and my cake lady has only visited DLR once many years ago, so isn't familiar with attractions.

Thanks!***





This was our first morning ever at a Disney park where an alarm was not set. DH was ecstatic about this! And gotta admit, I was happy too because I slept in till 8! Our only plans for today was pool time, dinner at Napa Rose and a DIS meet. Easy, laid back plans.

I had left the sliding glass door open that night a bit so I could hear DCA in the morning.





I had brought bagels, fruit and Starbucks VIA Latte packets from home so we could have that for breakfast in the room.



We both leisurely got ready, played Candy Crush, watched ESPN, etc then finally headed out to do some shopping at DTD

I wonder if DH’s school would allow him to wear this for his photo next year?



Saw these magnets and loved them!



I wanted to get this one, but DH was concerned about DS eating it



While we were at DTD, we needed to take 4 of our watches to Fossil to get the batteries replaced. Turns out one of mine was completely broken and needed to be shipped off to be fixed. I did finally get it back to me 2 weeks ago.

Bagels and fruit don’t fill us up and we were getting hungry fast. I really wanted to go to Jazz Kitchen for lunch, but DH wanted to try something different. House of Blues. I’m shocked he suggested this. ESPN Zone was just within eye view from where we were standing and he wanted to try HoB?! Alrighty then.

It was around 11:30 a.m., so of course there was no wait when we walked up and were seated immediately. We were the only ones in there, which put me off a bit



It wasn’t noon yet, so I thought a ‘lighter’ beer would be more appropriate for a morning drink



Beer is a little hard on DH's stomach sometimes, so he ordered some hard liquor instead . A Cranberry Vodka which you can see in my pic above.

I haven’t heard much (good or bad) about this place so wasn’t sure what to order. Figured a burger would be the safest option



It was actually pretty good and juicy. And by the time our food arrived, lots of people were being seated.

We were both very happy with the service and the food and beverage options. Never thought I would add this to our DTD dining list, but it’s on there now.

What’s the one thing you want to do after eating a big meal? Why put on a swimsuit and lay out by the pool of course It was getting hot though and thought it was a now a good time to head back and get ready for some pool time.

Passed by Marceline’s on the way, also passing the smells and calls of the deliciousness coming from this shop




I had read that the pool was absolutely nuts in the Summer. I had really debated about getting a cabana, mainly so that DH could have his TV and I would have the sun and we would both be happy. Luck was on our side. There was hardly anyone out here and check out those empty cabanas.



Although it was overcast, it was still warm.



Can I just say, these loungers are entirely too comfortable. It is seriously difficult to get up and leave at any point, they are so thick and squishy. DH ended up napping for an hour with snoring included.



No picture of the menu, but DH ordered the Red Stag Lemonade and I got a Sam Adams Boston Lager



The sun came out after a while and so did the crowds. Great Odin's Raven, so glad we got here early and secured chairs. While DH napped, I swam, read my magazine, ordered us another round and just relaxed. It was so wonderful.

After spending over 2 hours outside, we headed back to the room to get ready to go have some more drinks over at one of our favorite places! Not sure what’s happening here but it was important enough to take a picture of






continued in next post

 

[Leshaface]

continued from previous post


We made the trek over to the Disneyland Hotel to this place



If you haven't been here, you need to get here somehow, someway. I was introduced by Alison, of course The inside is very tiny and everytime we've gone, we've never gotten lucky. Today was no different. Nothing available at the bar or tables but they have a very large deck outside with plenty of seating.






DH went with



And I got







So delicious and a little strong I do recommend the Uh-Oa! It says it's recommend for more than 2 guests. However, on our last visit, DH and I easily drank that and had more But the presentation is impressive. Even though I really wanted it, I knew I would get full off it. We also decided against getting appetizers because our dinner reservation was coming up and wanted plenty of room. The flatbreads are absolutely delicious though! But we really were getting hungry. DH suggested going over to Napa Rose and see if we could possibly more our reservation up. Smart dude!


Back to the Grand we went, making a stop into Napa and they could definitely move our reservation up by as much as we wanted. We were now eating at 6pm instead of 7pm.

The time change still gave us enough time to change and get ready for the night so up to the room we went.

I never got tired of the sight and sounds from our balcony