Touch of Disney

 Disney announced a new timed/ticketed Food Event.  My husband got us tickets to go the first weekend.  Ticket prices were $75 which included a $25 food credit, parking (which started 1/2 hour before the event) and unlimited photo downloads.  Our tickets were for March 20.

We stayed close by and went into Downtown Disney early.  My husband mobile ordered beignets before the Jazz Kitchen Express was even open!  Thankfully we brought our coffee with us.  We ate then went to get in line.  I guessed we were in line with the first 200-300 people.  They started letting us in at 11:30 am.  None of the food was ready yet so we decided to take a walk to get our AP magnets.  

We went back to Smokejumpers to get the Monte Cristo and the frozen coke with rum with the Mickey ears bowl of fries.  They made a mistake and gave us the chili fries but let us keep them along with our plain fries.  On the way to the first store to shop I stopped at the popcorn cart outside of Elias and Co. for some caramel corn (in the plastic bucket with a lid) and the straw with the retro Mickey and Minnie.  

The first shopping stop was at Off the Page.  (It wasn't open when we were there in November.) After a purchase we made our way to the WandaVision set to get a selfie and found the "new" inside entrance to the Studio 17 store.  Both of us made a purchase there.  When we came out my husband found a photo op as I headed to Award Wieners for the carrot cake funnel fries.  They were a bit chewy, though I liked the cream cheese icing, whipped topping and the carrot cake crumbles.

After the snack we headed to Carsland.  We wanted a few more selfies and the vodka pomegranate limeade.  This is the first time I have ever bought anything from the Cozy Cone.  We sat at Flo's (not open) as the wind kicked up a little, but it was nice to sit.  We got pics with Mater and Lightning McQueen.  (Side note:  since we were in California Adventure we wore our Cars masks.)  We even got a sneak pic of the Quinjet in Marvel Campus.  We spoke to a Cast Member who guesstimated that Marvel Campus might be open by summer.

We walked through the Wharf area to catch Goofy doing a little fishing.  Once we got some great pics we headed over to the hotel to see if we could catch Donald.  Instead we found Chip and Dale.  My husband got his pics while I talked with the handler.  We hung around and caught a seat while we waited to see Donald.  (The characters are out for about 20 minutes each.)  (It's definitely easier to mobile order while you're sitting.)  My husband ordered the Grilled Beef Tenderloin Slider and the Chicken Gumbo for me.  Since these are "tastes" I knew it wouldn't be enough for dinner.  I ordered the Brisket Mac 'n Cheese to eat first.  Good thing!  The gumbo was good but spicy and the slider was just what it was meant to be - a taste.  I have to admit, the only thing that was actually hot when it arrived was the gumbo.  I know everything else was meant to be hot but we were lucky if it was even relatively warm.

There was something particular that I was asked to find (by a co-worker) but it wasn't available.  However, I wanted to make sure I exhausted all of my options before I gave up.  After we ate dinner (where they usually have World of Color) we headed to Elias and Co. and Julius Katz.  By the time we had made our purchase I realized that we weren't going to have the time to go get an ice cream sundae at Ghiradelli.  (It was already 7:45pm.  The event ended at 8pm.)  Instead I picked up a candy bar and cake pop (to take back to the room for dessert) at Trolley Treats.

We had a great time being able to walk through the park though it was weird to be there without the mechanical noise of  rides moving and people screaming on the roller coaster.  The $25 food credit was not enough for both of us to eat.  Since each item cost $7-8 or more you only get 3 items to "taste".  You can use it on food and not be able to get anything to drink.  Thankfully we were able to still bring our water bottle in, but we still spent extra.

I'm very happy that the Governor announced that theme parks can open starting on April 1st as long as the county they are in has moved to the red tier.  As of Tuesday March 23, Orange County (where Disneyland is located) has reached the red tier (blueprint for a safer economy) and Disney has announced that they will be opening Disneyland on April 30th.  (I know they are hoping for orange tier by then.)  This will give them time to get employees returned to work, trained, and get the reservation system up and running.  Granted, there's nothing that says they have to have the new annual pass program (or whatever they are going to call it) up and running as they can limit everyone to daily tickets for the time being until everything is hammered out.  My prediction is that they will stick to their m.o. and release the reservation system (and the ability to purchase tickets) two weeks before the Parks open.  I for one would love to be there for my first Star Wars day this year.  I don't really care what is going to be open as long as there are a couple of rides running, food available and shopping.  I haven't been in Disneyland since December 2019 so it's been nearly a year and a half wait for me.  I'm going to be soaking everything in and just enjoy being in the park again after so long.

Until next time...