California Grill, which underwent a nine-month refurbishment last year, opened back up in the fall. You’ll now find shades of yellow, blue, orange and red, along with dark wood and nods to famed Imagineer Mary Blair. The effect is both chic and comfortable at the same time. And of course, you’ll still enjoy that spectacular view.
With an entirely new look, it’s not surprising that the menu has changed a bit as well. While the menu has some incredible new additions (hello, banana fritters with salted caramel sauce, I’ll see you in two weeks), I’m going to focus here on two standbys that guests have grown to love over the past few decades: The filet and the pork loin. Read More »California Grill’s Old Favorites Get Updated
The dining scene at Disneyland has seen many changes in recent years. DCA’s re-launch added some amazing options while Disneyland retooled its menus just slightly, and upgraded a few popular locations with more space and more options. Needless to say, the choices can leave the new or infrequent visitor scratching their heads.
Here are some “insider tips” to help all guests find the best Disneyland dining options:
Favorite spots for outdoor dining: The terrace at Wine Country Trattoria, the patio at Carthay Circle Restaurant and the back patio at Flo’s V-8 Cafe in Cars Land, all at Disney California Adventure Park; Carnation Cafe on Main Street, U.S.A., the front porch of Plaza Inn and River Belle Terrace (where we’re told Walt Disney used to have breakfast on Sunday mornings), all in Disneyland Park; the terrace at Napa Rose, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa; Uva Bar, Downtown Disney District.
Planning a trip to Disneyland doesn’t have to break the bank, at least when it comes to food. If you know where to go, you can find economy-minded choices for delicious dining and save a little to spend on dessert or that souvenir you’ve been dying to have.
The good news is you won’t be stuck with hot dogs and hamburgers either. Here are over 40 interesting options for inexpensive dining ($11 or less) at the Disneyland Resort:
At Disneyland Park
Village Haus Restaurant in Fantasyland (chicken sausage with sauerkraut on a pretzel roll or apple and cheddar salad with red and green apples, cheddar cheese, fresh greens, Craisins Dried Cranberries, golden raisins, candied walnuts and honey-yogurt dressing)
The Bengal Barbecue in Adventureland (bacon-wrapped asparagus, vegetable, chicken or beef skewers)
Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante in Frontierland (three-cheese enchiladas with red chile sauce)
Carnation Café on Main Street, U.S.A. (a bowl of loaded baked potato soup)
The Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland (fish and chips)
Hungry Bear in Critter Country (fried green tomato sandwich, turkey and provolone sandwich, chicken salad sandwich)
Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port in Tomorrowland (slice of veggie pizza, tomato-basil pasta (pictured above))
Royal Street Veranda in New Orleans Square (gumbo or creamy chowder in a sourdough bowl)
Tomorrowland Terrace (veggie sandwich, grilled chicken chop salad)
One tap of the MagicBand and Guests access their Disney FastPass+ attractions which can be secured before they even leave home.
The switch from Legacy Fastpass (where select attractions were able to be reserved on a day-of basis as many times as you could according to the rules) to the Next-Gen technology driven Fastpass+ (where most major attractions and many minor ones now offer FP+ entry, but you’re limited to just three FP+ a day) is nearly as drastic a change as the transition from the famous A-B-C-D-E-Ticket ride coupons to a passport system where one ticket gets you in the park and on every attractions.
My memory is a little hazy, but I don’t recall guests getting so worked up about that switch. That’s because it was largely a switch in the method of accounting in the guest’s vacation ledger. With ride coupons park admission was merely a token charge, the real money was in the coupons. So grandma could take the kids and she would only have to pay a small amount for herself. Single admission changed that model forever. The new model meant Disney got more at the gate, but a savvy guest could work the system by staying from open to close (we called them marathon days) and ride many times more attractions than they could with a coupon book. Plus they wouldn’t be stuck with a bunch of unused A-tickets at the end of the day. So in the end, the ledger balanced for the guest.
A certain camp of Disney Imagineers believe this switch was the worst thing to happen to the parks. That the move away from ride coupons and to a single passport, meant that new attractions couldn’t be cost justified based on coupon purchases, that guest behavior was unleashed and less predictable, that minor attractions suffered in attendance, and that it made more difficult for a family to come and enjoy the park if they had to pay a large chunk up front just to get in. The counter arguments were: that most families on vacation had a set amount to spend and they’d spend it on passports or ride coupons just the same, that allowing guests to experience the park without worrying about buying another E-ticket for Space Mountain provided a better guest experience, and that the real money for Disney was in hotels, food, and souvenirs. Read More »FastPass+ and MagicBands Takeover Walt Disney World – Part 2: Challenges and Solutions Ahead
Update: Welcome to NY Times readers. Please find the latest news on MyMagic+ and Fastpass+ here. See all of our coverage here.
I went to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday to test how the FastPass+ (FP+) experience would work for someone who has time for a mid-day 4 hour visit. I’m still building back up to theme park conditioning, so anything more than that exhausts me. I’m a local and haven’t yet booked a night at at Disney resort, so I don’t own a MagicBand. Even though FP+ has been running in place of the paper (aka legacy) Fastpass system at Disney’s Animal Kingdom since before Christmas, this was my first experience with FP+.
Given that the FP+ system had been live for a few days already, I made sure to read various discussion boards about other people’s experiences and tried to determine an optimal strategy for myself and my son. Unfortunately, almost nothing turned out the way I thought it would.
My first attempt at accessing FP+ was a strikeout. I had read a few accounts of how guests were able to make FP+ reservations at the TTC via Guest Relations cast members armed with tablets. When we arrived at the TTC via the parking lot tram around 10:45AM there were no Guest Relations cast members to be found. Disney might have just been experimenting with that service earlier in the week. In theory, almost everyone arriving at the TTC is on the way to the Magic Kingdom, but you don’t really know until they’ve actually swiped their cards at the front gate. So I can see why they pulled that option.
After a quick ride on the monorail to the main gate, we immediately headed to the Main Street Opera House to score our FP+ reservations. I entered and went right to the MyMagic+ terminals, which would let me make a FP+ reservation if I was a Disney resort guest, but apparently not if I was a day-guest. There was a separate queue for that. A queue with a long-line as it turns out.Read More »FastPass+ and MagicBands Takeover Walt Disney World – Part I: My Magic Kingdom Experience
Editors Note: Disney has never said or implied that Fastpass+ and MagicBands would only be available to on-site guests only. As it stands, that is the current state of the program however. This is an interesting speculation if Disney decides to limit the service. One… Read More »Staying Off Site? How The New Fastpass+ May Change That.
This post brought to you by , the preferred travel partner of The Disney Blog.
Disney is currently trying out a “tiered” Fastpass+ system at Epcot. The idea behind it is simple, in that you’re limited as to how many major attractions you can choose a Fastpass for. It works like this:
Choose one Fastpass from the following:
Character Spot
IllumiNations
Maelstrom
Soarin
Test Track
And then two Fastpasses from the rest:
Captain EO
Journey into Imagination
Living with the Land
Mission: SPACE
Seas with Nemo and Friends
Spaceship Earth
Turtle Talk with Crush
This is clearly a response to guests choosing all “e-ticket” rides for their three Fastpass selections and none being available for off-site guests. It’s rumored (key word) that it will be implemented resort-wide during Christmas week, at the very least. The good news is that if you already have Fastpasses chosen, you won’t be effected by this new change, at least during this initial period of testing.
Mike and Julie Neal, co-authors of The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World, can be counted on for providing the absolute best most useful information in a format that’s easy to digest. Now the Neals have a new format for their books that enables them… Read More »Free Guide to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
