Springtime Jaunt to Disneyland: Final Days and Final Thoughts: COMPLETE 6/11/08 About This Page:

[janicelovesmickey]

I love the california screamin pic!!
the view from the sun wheel is stunning to! i hope I get there in july.
ok cant wait to hear about RUDE CM!! ugh

[Jillybean]

I can't believe how much you two are getting done! I love the picture of you and the Evil Hag!

Love the CA Screamin' pic also - - I'm not sure if I have enough courage to go on that baby!

Jill

[DawnDenise]

Day 3, Part 4: The Cranky CM, Parade Pictures and A Much Needed Glass of Wine

We arrived to the same piece of cement bench that we claimed for Disney’s Electrical Parade. We had about 20 minutes before the parade started. We spent the time chatting about what to do after dinner and people watching. Once the parade came into view, I took my place standing up on cement bench as I had on my previous two parade viewings to ensure some decent pictures. Even with the swarm of people that inevitably showed up as the parade began, I still got halfway decent shots and a couple pretty darn good shots. I enjoyed the parade as a whole. Not my favorite but still fun. They had a lot of water squirting, some pyrotechnics, and bubbles.





I swear I didn’t aim for this shot. He turned around on his little scooter right as I was taking it.


It’s Jack Jack!! (One of my favorite photos)

And cue one cranky CM. The CM for CA Screamin’ was working the rope lines for the parade. All of the sudden she went into a mad dash and started telling people to get not stand on the cement benches. She had an almost knock down drag out fight with one guy because he refused. I was soon on her radar and I avoided eye contact hoping she would just let me be. : It just wasn’t meant to be. Because I am a good Disney guest, I did step onto the sidewalk when she asked. However, Chuck saw her resume her post at the rope and told me to get back up and take pictures as all the other guests were back standing on the cement benches. It lasted while the finding Nemo float went by.



Now the CM came around again and started threatening to kick people out of the park. Chuck, who can sometimes have a temper, did not appreciate this CM’s attitude. Nor did some of the guests around us. I decided to not fight the issue and just stand on the sidewalk for the rest of the parade. Chuck disappeared from my side. Seriously, I had no clue where he went. I figured my best bet would be to stay where I was at and try to enjoy the rest of the parade, and he would show up eventually.




Mater was the last thing to roll by but I was unable to grab a picture due to my non-elevated position. After the parade finished, I sat down on the bench and waited for my darling hubby to make an appearance again. I only waited about 5 minutes and he had a look that I hated seeing. Worse than when he realized the Blackberry got lost. Apparently, he went to search for someone in charge because he didn’t like being threatened. His search ended up a dead end which just frustrated him even more. When he arrived in front of me, I told him to let it go as it wasn’t that important. He went off to the smoking area to calm down, and I just wandered around. Once we met back up, he was still not completely happy but at least we could have a calm conversation.

We headed over to the Wine Country Trattoria as we were coming up on our ADR. I had a seat while Chuck checked us in. Of course, I took a few pictures of the outside of the restaurant.



We were called almost immediately and led to a room inside (glad for this as it was turning kind of chilly at this point). The hostess gave us a table for four right by the open kitchen. We weren’t happy with our seats as it was kind of loud but at this point, we just wanted some food and some wine. Our waiter came over and took our drink order. We both decided on a glass of the Von Buhl Estate Riesling with water as well. Once our server arrived with our water, bread, and most importantly the wine, we placed the rest of our order.



This is how close we were to the ktichen.

Chuck and I both chose the House Salad (Garden greens, Roma tomatoes, topped with shredded cheese and our house-made croutons with your choice of Italian, blue cheese, ranch or oil & vinegar). For our entrees, Chuck decided on the Lasagna Rustica (Robust meat sauce layered with tender pasta, Italian sausage, ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, herbs, and a touch of classic bechamel cream), and I went with the Chicken Alfredo Lasagna (Layers of tender pasta, citrus marinated chicken, spinach and Italian cheeses with a creamy Alfredo sauce).

The salads arrived and were actually very good. However, our entrees arrived two minutes later. Ummm, okay. We finished up our salads and then started in our entrees. Chuck thought his tasted like something out of Chef Boyardee. Mine was actually good but heavy on the cream sauce. Neither one of us finished our entrees in whole. I foresaw some snacks in DTD before the night was over.




A new server came up and introduced himself stating that he was taking over our table as the other guy’s shift was over. He gave us the dessert menu and we reviewed it quickly as he just stood at our table and waited for our order. Chuck went the Wine Country Tiramisu (Layers of espresso-and-liqueur-soaked ladyfingers, sweetened Italian cream cheese and shaved chocolate), and I went with the Dreyer's Ice Cream with Biscotti (Choice of Dolche de Leche, vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate served with traditional Italian almond biscotti. I went with vanilla ice cream. I know I am so adventurous.



Chuck did clean his dessert plate, and I ate a few bites of my ice cream. Just wasn’t feeling dessert or food for that matter. We settled the bill, which came to $62.04 plus tax and tip. I’m glad we tried the Wine Country Trattoria but it’s not high on the list for a return visit.
The park was closing at 8:00pm so we had about 45 minutes before close. We decided to see if we grab another ride on ToT so we headed over to the Hollywood studios area and stand-by was showing 20 minutes. In the line we went, and it was more like 10 minutes total as we walked into the library once we made it through the queue. Another fantastic ride as always. We debated heading over to DL as they didn’t close until 10:00pm, but decided on DTD yet again. We made our way over to the exit at the Grand Californian to head into DTD.

Coming Up: How well do you know the movie, “The Wild”??

[disneydani]

I am sorry the CM was on the rude side...poor Chuck...he must have been frustrated. Thanks for your dinner review, sorry the meal was less than stellar.
Glad you could sneak in a last minute ride on ToT.

danielle

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry about the rude CM Dawn You did get some great pics of the parade And sorry dinner didn't pan out that well either....but at least it wasn't a bust

More please

[chezp]

Good grief, what was it with that CM? I'm sorry, I'm with Chuck, I'd have found a member of management as well and complained. That's unacceptable behaviour from a CM.

Sorry the meal at Wine Country Trattoria wasn't better. We'll be trying it in October, so I guess I know not to have too high hopes for it.

[PrincessSharon]

First,

Originally Posted by DawnDenise

I swear I didn’t aim for this shot. He turned around on his little scooter right as I was taking it.

Yeah, yeah. Likely story! Sorry that rude CM put a damper on the parade for you and Chuck. But I love the photos you did get. And I have to tell you, I love the look on your face with that glass of wine!

[lauren-roxy]

Great parade photos!! Sorry the mean CM returned.

[Two4Disney]

Did you get a chance to do some wine tasting at the wine tasting bar? They had a great list of wines by the glass. Also, snacking at Downtown Disney is just fabulous, isn't it? We much preferred dining/snacking there over DCA.

Sorry to hear about the rude CM. Thankfully, we didn't have any of those on this trip, but we've had some doozies at WDW. Guess it can happen anywhere.

[DawnDenise]

Originally Posted by Two4Disney

Did you get a chance to do some wine tasting at the wine tasting bar? They had a great list of wines by the glass.

We saw the tasting bar and were headed there but they called us so quickly to our table we didn't get a chance. The Riesling we had was superb though.

[DyanKJ130]

Sounds like that CM had a case of the Roz! your photos!! Can't wait to hear more

[Joy J]

Sorry to hear that you encountered such a rude CM - too bad that you didn't get her name so that you could at least write to DLR guest services and complain about this sort of treatment. Also sorry to hear that you had a less than stellar experience at the Wine Country Trattoria. We've dined there twice and both times had great meals - in fact, it's one of our fave restaurants at DLR. Hopefully, they were just having a bad day.

Joy

[DawnDenise]

Day 3, Part 5: How Well Do You Know the Movie, “The Wild”?

This update is short and should have just been added to the previous update.

So we made our way through GCH and headed out to DTD on the search of some snacks and more than likely some shopping. Two of the things we enjoy best in DTD!! Our first stop was World of Disney yet again. I wanted to pick up a sweatshirt for the next night as I knew it was going to be cool and I didn’t pack one. (Convenient, huh? ) As we were walking through, Chuck found this hideous looking shirt and held it up against him. He got my attention, and said “Do I look trashy in this?” in a not so great English accent. I started to laugh pretty hard.

A little side note, Chuck and I are huge Disney movie fans and we play off each other a lot when we are together quoting certain movies that fit the situation. For example, we were at a Pacer basketball game earlier in the year and the guy sitting behind sounded just like Mater. So throughout the whole game we were whispering quotes from Cars and just cracking ourselves up. At least we can amuse ourselves if no one else.

Anywho, Chuck loves Nigel from the movie “The Wild.” This wasn’t a Disney blockbuster but I forgot to decline my selection of the month for the Disney Movie Club and ended up getting it. Although it is not Chuck’s favorite Disney flick, Nigel, voiced by Eddie Izzard, is possibly in his top 3 of favorite characters. There’s a scene in the movie where Nigel puts on a popcorn bucket and says "I've got popcorn up my bum. Does I look trashy in this?”.

Here’s pic of the scene from the movie.



So, he’s walking around just beyond amused with himself. I’m still giggling when I was checking out my new Tigger sweatshirt. As I waited for my credit card to go through, Chuck showed up beside me and said he had to go back to Build-a-Bear. I asked why. He said he saw something someone had that was a must buy for Trent. I said okay and went back to paying attention to the CM checking me out. Once the transaction was processed, Chuck grabbed my hand and practically dragged me to Build-A-Bear.

Once we walked in the doors, Chuck told me his grand plan. He wanted a Nigel for himself. We went searching for something that we could dress him in. There’s another part of the movie when he is dressed in a grass skirt. We found a hula outfit that would work until we could find an empty popcorn bucket when we got home. Chuck tried to get me to do the whole process again but I refused saying it was time for some payback.






With Nigel in drag, we headed up to check out and had to explain to the cashier why a koala dressed in a hula outfit was named Nigel. She had never seen the movie so she didn’t quite get it, but it made our night. While chuck was in the process of paying, I saw some pirate Mickey ears that I just had to get for Trent. It would make his outfit. I threw them to Chuck so he could include him in his purchase.

With Nigel safe in his box, we headed back out into DTD and in search of snacks. Wetzel Pretzels were the choice once again as we really enjoy a good pretzel. With pretzels and drinks in hand, we grabbed a bench and people watched while just having a nice chat. We lingered for about an hour in DTD listening to some of the artists, going in and out of stores, and picking up some candy at Marceline’s Confectionary. Chuck ended up getting 2 pounds of assorted jelly beans to bring back for his desk at work, along with three rice krispy treats as he said once can never have enough. We eventually decided to head back to the hotel as we had an early start the next morning, because we wanted to hit the Nemo Subs first thing and head to Toontown Morning Madness.

Coming Up: No Nemo for Us??? It Really is MADNESS!!

[disneydani]

What a fabulous night at DTD! Nigel is a great addition to the family....make sure you post a pic of him in his popcorn bucket.
Glad you thought ahead to leave your sweatshirts at home!

danielle

[DyanKJ130]

Nigel is adorable!! He totally deserved his own installment!! I'm a little nervous about what's coming next