Are any of you going to the D23 version of the Carsland Preview on 6-10??

[KarenW2]

Just wondering if there are any D23 members who are going to the D23 version of the event on June 10th. I was able to get our tix today for the dinner package, since it's for our 33rd Wedding Anniversary!

The confirmation letter said THEY are assigning us a dinner time, so I guess this means we don't get any say in when we eat! I don't think that's how it should be, especially when we're paying for the experience and the AP version people get to choose their times!

What do you think?

[cstephens]

I don't think that's how it should be, especially when we're paying for the experience and the AP version people get to choose their times!

Why didn't you just buy the dinner package through the AP offer then, since you could have then picked the dinner time you want? The AP package and the D23 package seemed identical, unless I didn't read thoroughly enough.

[KarenW2]

There was no reason to think they wouldn't offer a choice of dinner times for the D23 dinner package tix, so since we were going to do it with the club, I bought those tickets, fully expecting to see a choice of times as part of the menu for purchase.

When it wasn't there then, I thought it would be something we'd arrange with them at some point between Friday and whatever day their cut-off would be. It wasn't until I received the D23 Confirmation email that I found out that THEY are choosing the dinner time for us.

I have emailed a person who may be able to help us with this and hope all will be well.

[rickosuave1987]

Even though I am a D23 member, I opted to just buy the tickets for the preview through the AP site. We wanted to make sure we got the time slot we wanted and I was too worried it would fill up before we could get tickets...

[Drince88]

Just curious if there was any difference between the D23 and the AP versions? Special seating areas in the restaurant or different 'goodies' with the meal?

[KarenW2]

Hi Cathy,
We have a friend named Daniel who went to each and every preview event for Cars Land! He had ALL of his wristbands on last night, so when John Lasseter came over to visit with us at our table, Daniel showed them to him and they took a photo together, with John looking "shocked" to see all his wristbands! It was really funny!

I was surprised/disappointed that we didn't get any D23 perks of any kind, we got the same statuette that everyone else received, the only difference between Saturdays vs. Sundays events was most probably that the Saturday people had Saturday's date on their Storyteller's plaque and we had Sunday's.

When it came to the dinner, they didn't let us know ahead of time what time our reservation was to be, which was disappointing. I wrote to them, specifically asking for that info, if it would be a fixed menu or if we could make choices, since I have health challenges that I have to work with when it comes to ordering food, etc., but I never got an answer back from them!

Via Facebook, we were able to find out a bit of who else was going that night, so we were able to ask the restaurant if 2 of our friends could be seated with us and they were able to do that.

The menu was almost totally fixed as it turned out - 3 courses, 2 of which were "Chef's Choice" and we had our choice of 4 mains, but all of them were spicy, so I had to request the one that was the least spicy and I ended up only being able to eat the Bacon Wrapped Shrimp, but not the corn, other veggies and the sauce that came with it, because it was VERY spicy. For the starters, since there were 4 of us at the table, they brought out 4 different apps, but not 4 of each one, so that was odd. They said we were expected to "share" them, but again here, only one app wasn't too spicy, so I didn't have any of the others, except for one bite. I misunderstood what the waiter said and started to taste one of the apps, but it was SOOOO spicy, my lips were immediately on fire, so I had to inconspicuously spit the food into my napkin and had stomach troubles after dinner, so that was disappointing. Daniel said they had different food at his dinner, but he didn't remember exactly what it was.

For dessert, they only had 2 desserts - what looked like one of those Apple Blossom things you get at Trader Joe's, with a crumble topping or whatever and a lemon cake with HUGE blueberries. Again, they told us we were supposed to share (you'd think at $500 a pop we could've gotten our own servings of the first and last courses!!), but since my hubby was happy with his apple thing and I was happy with the lemon cake, I gave him a taste of mine and we ate the desserts set in front of us.

The other weird thing was they said they considered it to be a "wine tasting dinner", so when I explained I didn't really drink wine and asked what my alternate alcoholic possibilities were - the waiter said they were only doing *4* signature drinks that night and I couldn't get anything else, even tho they had a full bar in the place!

He knew the names of the drinks and said them as tho I was supposed to immediately already know what was in them, but when I asked him what was in them, he just repeated the names again, so I had to actually ask him if he could go ask someone what was in the 4 drinks, so I could decide between them, if I was interested in any. They were all hard liquor drinks I didn't want, so I settled for Barq's root beer for the main part of the meal and had the dessert wine at the dessert course. It was a really delicious Late Harvest, but he said they didn't know who the vineyard was, because they were concentrating on the Lasseter wines that night!! It was very frustrating service, since we'd paid in advance for this and that included the tip, so it didn't really encourage them to do a really good job. Hopefully, it will be a better situation, when we eat there with 19 of our D23 friends, the day before the Destination D event coming up in August. But even so, we'll still be sticking with Napa Rose as our favorite restaurant!

We weren't seated in the main dining room, but one to one side of the place. We were very happy we weren't seated outside, like some others were. They said they were staggering seatings to every 15 mins., starting at 6 pm and ours was 6:30. The group that was in the large, main dining room was being greeted and talked to by John Lasseter and Chef Andrew Sutton when we were being seated and they had lots of other talks going on with applause and all after that, but we had no idea what we were missing. JL and CAS did come by, to greet us and spoke briefly about the winery and menu, but that was it. After dinner, John and Nancy went around separately, to talk to each table, sign things and/or get photos taken, but they had a handler with them, who would rush them along, if they were staying too long. Luckily for us, the handler wasn't around when we spoke to him, so we had a chance to talk a bit and get some photos. After dinner, we looked for CAS and thanked him for the dinner. He said he won't be back over to Napa Rose until probably about July, when I told him we'd missed him the last time we were in, since he was working at DCA then. Gloria wasn't there, but we looked thru the little window and saw Frank working, he waved and we said hi to each other. AS asked how we thought Alex was working out over there and we told him we thought he was doing a great job, in his stead.

Any other questions? Feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

[Toocherie]

And your experience is exactly WHY I didn't choose the dinner option--instead, I have three reservations for Carthay Circle coming up--I can choose when I go, who I sit with and what I order.

Having been to special dinners at Club 33/Food and Wine you either eat/drink what is provided or you don't. These types of events are not set up to be a pick your own menu or to accommodate special diets. I was surprised several years ago by someone I was acquainted with who attended one of the Food and Wine dinners at DCA. Not only was the event advertised ahead of time but the full menu had been advertised as well. Yet, she complained throughout the night (and afterwards on the board) about the choice of the food--she wanted "soy-egg-gluten-whatever-free" stuff --the staff did their best to accommodate her, but she knew going in what the menu was. She doesn't drink alcohol of any type, so she complained about that. (Hello--it was a wine pairing dinner.) A lot of the food is prepped prior to the dinner--they can't change it at the last minute. It sounds like you didn't have a menu ahead of time--but I would never book a dinner like this if I had food restrictions. It really is a crap shoot at that point. (Not to mention that having dined at Napa Rose quite often, I thought the price of $425 per person for such a dinner was outrageous. I've never come even close to that ordering a full meal and the wine flight at Napa. To hear that you couldn't even get your own dessert--but were expected to share-- would have just sent me over the edge.) I know that Disney tries its best to accommodate special diets---but these types of events just aren't as flexible as going into a restaurant with a full staff. I bet the kitchen didn't even have food other than what had been specifically bought for this menu.


Considering that D23 membership is what--$75 a year?-- and a Premium Annual Pass now costs $650--I am not surprised you did not get anything special for being a D23 member either. I was a member the first year and dropped my D23 membership after that as I thought it was pretty much a waste of money. Several of my friends have remained members, so it's different strokes for different folks--but I don't think D23 membership really means that much. You pays your money and youse get to be in the "club." I didn't really feel like it was exclusive or entitled me to special perks. I went to the last D23 convention (at the Anaheim Convention Center) and pretty much didn't enjoy it. Too many people trying too hard to get into the same events. Not for me--thanks. (I remember you bought the special package there--but honestly none of the offerings at D23 were important enough to me to buy that package--not even Dick Van Dyke! )


LOL--I remember an old boyfriend of mine who used to accompany me to different types of banquets and events I had to go to for work. He always wanted coffee, with cream, throughout his meal. It was really hard to get it before dessert time though--the staffs weren't set up to serve coffee until then. Once in a while we would have an accommodating staff member who would go and find some, but most times he would just have to make do until dessert (which he didn't eat--yay--more for me!)

It's also interesting that people who chose the $500 package through the Annual Passholder option got to choose their dinner time, but D23 members did not (is that right?) I would have also been ticked off to know that stuff was going on in the other room and I wasn't part of it. I must say when I've been to a special event at Club 33 (thanks to some special friends) EVERYONE was included in EVERYTHING. I would have really felt like a second class citizen if there was much revelry going on in one room and I was stuck in another.

Did you get time to see Carsland other than the evening slot? That was the other reason I didn't choose the dinner---there will be lots of opportunities to go to Carthay--but not to be able to see Carsland without hordes of people. How long did the dinner last? Were you able to go on the rides in Carsland? Or did you run out of time?

[Malcon10t]

And your experience is exactly WHY I didn't choose the dinner option--instead, I have three reservations for Carthay Circle coming up--I can choose when I go, who I sit with and what I order.

Exactly. One of several reasons I opted not to go.

Having been to special dinners at Club 33/Food and Wine you either eat/drink what is provided or you don't. These types of events are not set up to be a pick your own menu or to accommodate special diets. I was surprised several years ago by someone I was acquainted with who attended one of the Food and Wine dinners at DCA. Not only was the event advertised ahead of time but the full menu had been advertised as well. Yet, she complained throughout the night (and afterwards on the board) about the choice of the food--she wanted "soy-egg-gluten-whatever-free" stuff --the staff did their best to accommodate her, but she knew going in what the menu was. She doesn't drink alcohol of any type, so she complained about that. (Hello--it was a wine pairing dinner.) A lot of the food is prepped prior to the dinner--they can't change it at the last minute. It sounds like you didn't have a menu ahead of time--but I would never book a dinner like this if I had food restrictions. It really is a crap shoot at that point. (Not to mention that having dined at Napa Rose quite often, I thought the price of $425 per person for such a dinner was outrageous. I've never come even close to that ordering a full meal and the wine flight at Napa. To hear that you couldn't even get your own dessert--but were expected to share-- would have just sent me over the edge.) I know that Disney tries its best to accommodate special diets---but these types of events just aren't as flexible as going into a restaurant with a full staff. I bet the kitchen didn't even have food other than what had been specifically bought for this menu.

That is my guess as well. I haven't yet attended a "special event" that had a full menu, and the dinner was advertised to the Annual Passholders and to Club 33 members as a Prix Fixe menu. I would not have expected an open menu. At the Club events I have attended, they did ask if anyone had any allergies, but that was about as far as it went. I don't think there were any substitutions or special requests. And the wine pairings were never substituted or discounted.

Considering that D23 membership is what--$75 a year?-- and a Premium Annual Pass now costs $650--I am not surprised you did not get anything special for being a D23 member either.

Add to that, the Sat event was also for Club 33 members at $4-10K a year, I wouldn't have expected anything special for the D23. I dropped my membership after the first year for the same reason.

It's also interesting that people who chose the $500 package through the Annual Passholder option got to choose their dinner time, but D23 members did not (is that right?) I would have also been ticked off to know that stuff was going on in the other room and I wasn't part of it. I must say when I've been to a special event at Club 33 (thanks to some special friends) EVERYONE was included in EVERYTHING. I would have really felt like a second class citizen if there was much revelry going on in one room and I was stuck in another.

Yes, that was VERY odd. When we attended the Voices event through Club 33 last month, everyone was involved and included. It would have been very disappointing to have been in a separate room while trying to listen to Mr. Iwan and Farmer. (We were actually very fortunate and got to spend about 20 mins chatting with them, then watched Fantasmic! with them. It was cool to watch Mr. Iwan's reaction to various parts of the show.)

Did you get time to see Carsland other than the evening slot? That was the other reason I didn't choose the dinner---there will be lots of opportunities to go to Carthay--but not to be able to see Carsland without hordes of people. How long did the dinner last? Were you able to go on the rides in Carsland? Or did you run out of time?

This was the main reason we opted to just do the land. We saw when Club members started arriving and it was quite late. They did get a FP to RSR, but only had about 2 hours in the area. And then they also missed WoC.

[AVP]

And then they also missed WoC.

Well, THAT was because the printed schedule listed the show as being at 11:15, when it was actually 10:15. A lot of people "missed" World of Color, even though they where and when they were told to be.

Yeah. I'm still annoyed.

AVP

[Malcon10t]

Well, THAT was because the printed schedule listed the show as being at 11:15, when it was actually 10:15. A lot of people "missed" World of Color, even though they where and when they were told to be.

Yeah. I'm still annoyed.

AVP

BTW - Thanks for the heads up on the tickets/meal vouchers. I went on Sunday and before I said more than 10 words, they were offering the meal vouchers. It was quite easy.

I also left a compliment for Officer Blue.