Dining Reviews: Carthay Circle, Cozy Cones, and Paradise Garden Grill

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  What's more fitting on Thanksgiving than a food post?!  First up on the Reviews:

Carthay Circle

Outside the restaurant

When you enter the restaurant, the downstairs has the lounge area along with the hostess stand.  We checked in and had to wait a few minutes before being taken upstairs to our table.  We were seated in the main room, close to the waiter's stand.  I'm kind of glad we were seated there.  After our meal we took a walk around the rest of the restaurant, and while still nice, we liked the atmosphere of the main room the best.

Disneyland Day 5, Part 2: A QUAKE!

When I last left you, we were just checking in for our lunch at Carthay Circle.  They really nailed the decor inside.  It was absolutely beautiful.

Carthay Circle

Disneyland Day 5: California Adventure

Sorry for the extended break.  We're now almost settled in to the house.  We have some furniture coming today and then we can finish unpacking!

To continue our trip out West, we're now on Day 5.  This was our last full day, so we planned on catching some things back at California Adventure.

Since we were staying at the Fairfield and had no plans for breakfast that morning, I walked over to the McDonald's and grabbed us our favorite guilty pleasures.

Once we were ready, we headed over to California Adventure.  Since we had already done Radiator Springs with a Fastpass, we decided to try our luck just walking over to it when the park opened that morning.

Streetmosphere was out greeting guests

Of course, Radiator Springs wasn't going to open until later that day.  Foiled again!

Dining Reviews: Cozy Cones, Flo's V8, Cocina Cucamonga

Like the day before, we explored the Park a bit before taking a break for breakfast.  Today we decided on a more substantial breakfast so we checked out Flo's V8 Cafe in Cars Land.

I had also heard of a new frozen apple juice drink that you could get at one of the Cozy Cones, so I wanted that to go along with my breakfast.

I went off to secure my juice and my Mom got in line to get our breakfast.

Cozy Cone

Disneyland Day 3: Part 2!

After breakfast, we headed over to ride Soarin'.  My Mom couldn't get over the fact that the posted wait was just 10 minutes!  We cut that down even further by doing the single rider line.

Up until now, my Mom still was missing her Birthday Button!  So we decided to head back up to Guest Services and see if they got any in.  They did!  And everyone rejoiced!

Birthday girl

Disneyland Day 3!

Monday was a big day.  On the agenda was the race for Radiator Springs Racers Fastpasses (pun intended), Napa Rose for dinner, and of course, Mom's birthday!

The Parks were opening to the general public at 9am that morning, with Early Entry offered for people staying on-property at a Disney hotel.  I had heard that they would open the gates a half hour early to allow people to line up for Fastpasses.  So we got in line at about 8:15am and sure enough, at 8:30am, they opened the turnstiles.  I knew exactly where I was going, so I booked it down Buena Vista Street and got in line.  I did pretty well:

My spot in line 

Dining Reviews: Wine Country Trattoria, & Clarabelle's

For dinner on our first night, we called from our hotel at 5:30pm to make a reservation for 7:30pm.  Not something that you can really do at WDW!  We arrived at Wine Country Trattoria about 15 minutes early and checked in.  They let us know they were running a bit behind (which we could tell because we waited in a line for a good 10 minutes to check-in!)

So we went next door and grabbed a glass of wine to wait.  I had a glass of Prosecco and my Mom had a white wine...I think it was Pinot Grigio.

Plastic glasses, the height of sophistication!

It wasn't long before we were paged and our table was ready.  We had a nice little two-top out on the patio.  It was a gorgeous night and probably our favorite thing about Wine Country Trattoria was being able to sit outdoors and enjoy it (sounds ominous, huh?)

Disneyland Day 2 - Part 2

Well, I left you with a mean cliff hanger, so I'll get right back into things!  We hopped over to California Adventure to do a little exploring.  On a side note, I love how easy it is to park hop at Disneyland!

Buena Vista Street

First, I can't get over how different the entrance to California Adventure is!  Buena Vista Street is amazing.  It is so much better than it was before, it just felt more alive.  And so much more "Disney."