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View Full Version : Notes from Friday, April 9, 2004



cstephens
04-10-2004, 11:51 AM
Since Good Friday is a holiday at the company where I work, I was able to spend a rare Friday at the resort. I got to the parking structure at about 12:45 and got a really good parking spot in Mickey-and-Friends-parking-structure-lotto. After I got off the tram, I headed over to White Water Snacks for some lunch. It's apparently not a best-kept-secret anymore because it was quite busy, with more people enjoying lunch there than at any other time that I've been there. It was nice to see that it's currently open from 6am to 10pm. It must be because of the spring break period. It still puzzles me when they close the restaurant at 7pm during certain times of the year. As I sat having my lunch, I happened to hear the people at the table next to me talking. The father had gotten up and come back and said that he'd noticed they'd just put out several new tuna fish sandwiches that looked fresh and full of tuna. He said it in a tone that suggested that he'd had a tuna fish sandwich, and it wasn't as good as the new ones looked. Something I noted for the future: if the sandwiches in the case don't look that good, ask to see if they can make new ones. Couldn't hurt, I suppose.

After lunch, I headed into DCA through the entrance from the Grand Californian. I had a purse and my normal backpack, so I opened them for the CM to check. When she saw my backpack, she made a comment about me being loaded down, so I must be the mom. Ummm, I have a purse and a half-filled backpack - that makes me a mom? Ooooohhhhhhhhkkkkkkkkaaayyyy....

I went to Ariel's Grotto to check out their menus. Their lunch and dinner menus haven't changed much, but their prices have been increased by about $2 since the last time I checked.

I then went to Engineer Toys to check out some more of those "collector pack" toys. The CM behind the counter mentioned that he had three he could trade, so I ended up trading two of my duplicates for two of the ones he had. So this is what Disney wants me to do, right?

I then met up with a friend at DL and we headed to the Fantasyland Theatre because she hadn't seen the Snow White show yet. (On our way there, we noticed how long the lines for "It's a Small World" were. The queue extended up into the area where there are normally character meet-and-greets. I'm not used to seeing this long a line for that attraction other than during it's holiday make-over.) For the 4:45 show, we got in line at about 3:30. They let us into the theatre at about 4:10, and it turned out to be another packed house. She liked the show a lot, and I still enjoyed it on my third viewing. I did notice that the CM playing Snow White this time was different than the CMs on my other two previous viewings. I still like the CM who's in the commercials best, but this Snow White was very good as well. After the show, we sat in Fantasia Gardens for a while before heading off to meet my husband for dinner.

We enjoyed another wonderful meal at Catal. They got a new executive chef earlier this year, and I'm really enjoying his creations. There is a daily three-course "chef's special", and I've had the special on my last couple visits there, so I haven't even been able to try everything off the new menu that sounds good. As usual, the service and food were great.

After dinner, we headed over to take another look at Tortilla Jo's. We noticed that the walls around the restaurant had been taken down since Sunday, so the entire restaurant is visible. The place looks great. There weren't very many structural changes made, but it's amazing how much different the place looks, especially with a new non-Pepto-Bismol-pink paint job. There are heaters in the outside bar eating area, and all the tables are set up in the inside eating area. Since both locations will be serving different items, we're definitely planning to try both. We also took a look at the taqueria area and noticed that the menu is up for that. With a number of inexpensively-priced items, we figure it's going to be very busy and especially popular for the movie crowd. They're definitely going to be giving Wetzel's Pretzels a lot of competition. One of the items that particularly interested us is what's best described as a waffle cone taco of sorts. I should have pictures up of the menu on Sunday night. With the expected early-May opening of Tortilla Jo's, we're definitely looking forward to it.

We took the monorail back into DL and headed over to Small World Mall to wait for Believe. It's been a while since I've seen it, so it was definitely a treat. We did notice that some of the fireworks were a bit off. Their comet-launching machine is apparently not working, because in the four instances where there are supposed to be comets, they instead used fireworks that went higher and faster. It looks odd for someone who's seen the show many times, but for others, it probably doesn't make a difference, though I must say that the effect of the last comet doesn't work quite as well this way. The hidden Mickey firework didn't work AT ALL, so we laughed at that. One other thing different we noticed is that right before Tinkerbell's flight from the Matterhorn, the CMs on "It's a Small World" shouted out for people to turn around to see Tink launch from the Matterhorn. I guess a lot of people missed that, so I wonder how long they've been making that announcement.

After the fireworks, we sat around for a few minutes before our friend left. We wandered over to Big Thunder, but all the Fastpasses were understandably gone, and the stand-by wait was more than I could handle, so I'm still trying to get my first ride of Big Thunder in several years.

Figuring the rest of the park was just as crowded (it had been quite crowded in DCA earlier in the day as well), we decided to just head over to Rod's and listen to him play for a while before heading home before the crowds from the second Fantasmic let out. The park was open until midnight, but we were both too tired to stay quite that late. As we left at about 10:30, we noticed that the lines to get into DL were really long, probably about 20 or 30 deep, partly because there were only a few lines open. We figured it was mostly people coming back over from DCA, which had closed at 10pm.

RickW
04-10-2004, 05:58 PM
Thanks for the report. I haven't been able to get up to the DLR for awhile, so it's great to live vicariously through the trip reports!

Tambour
04-10-2004, 08:12 PM
on both boards?.....

adriennek
04-10-2004, 11:02 PM
Ummm, I have a purse and a half-filled backpack - that makes me a mom? Ooooohhhhhhhhkkkkkkkkaaayyyy....

A purse AND a backpack, both? With, I'm guessing, no fruit snacks, no goldfish, and no juice boxes? Silly CM. ;)

Adrienne

cstephens
04-12-2004, 01:38 AM
Additional notes from Sunday, April 11, 2004

We had Easter brunch with some friends at Goofy's Kitchen. I should have the review up sometime later this week. After brunch, a few of us went over to take another look at Tortilla Jo's. It really does look great. Here's a picture of the full restaurant with all the walls down: http://www.colddeadfish.net/images/DLR/tjs-001.jpg. Here's a closer picture of the right side of the restaurant, where the outside bar area is: http://www.colddeadfish.net/images/DLR/tjs-003.jpg, and here's a closer picture of the left side of the bar area and the front entrance area: http://www.colddeadfish.net/images/DLR/tjs-002.jpg. Here is a page with pictures of the three menu boards for the taqueria: http://www.colddeadfish.net/tjs/tjstaqueria.html. And, as good fortune would have it, we were able to obtain a copy of what we're told is the menu for the downstairs inside restaurant. For that menu, go here: http://www.colddeadfish.net/tjs/tjsinside.html. Rumour has it that the taqueria will open this Tuesday, April 13, and the downstairs restaurants will open this Friday, April 16. Note that the rumours are very much that - rumour, so take that info with the proverbial grain of salt. There are a number of things I find interesting in the downstairs inside menu, though the slightly high prices surprised me a bit. However, upon reflection, I had remembered hearing that Tortilla Jo's would have three separate price point dining locations, so with the Taqueria being the lower end, the inside downstairs restaurant would seem to be the higher end, and presumably, the menu for the downstairs bar area would be in the middle.

After our detour, we then headed to DL and over to Big Thunder to see if we could get Fastpasses. At about 3pm, the Fastpass return time was 3:30 to 4:30, which surprised us as we expected a much longer wait, but we happily got our Fastpasses. To pass the time, we decided to check Pirates to see if maybe we could get Fastpasses there as well. Since the walk-up time was only posted at 20 minutes, with the line seeming to be moving quickly, we decided to just get in line. It ended up taking about 10 minutes to get to the front, and we had a lovely ride on Pirates. After that, we went back to use our Big Thunder Fastpasses. It's been quite a few years since I've been on the ride, so it was fun to be able to ride it again. I did make one discovery though - there are 2 rattlesnakes in the scenery. My husband told me that they've always been there, but I usually sit on the right side so I don't see them. I had sat on the left side this time. Mental note - always sit on the right side when riding Big Thunder.

We then headed over to DCA to see what we could see at Tower of Terror. With the walls still up, though, nothing more was really visible than previously. I had heard mention of a Mulan-related parade/cavalcade, so after checking with the information booth and being told that the last performance was just about to start, we hurried over to the wharf section. We caught the performers just as they were getting onstage near the first aid/baby care center (by the tortilla factory and bread factory tours), so we ended up following them as they made their way to the Golden Dreams theatre. And we were absolutely dumbfounded at how nothing it was. They had three people controlling a dragon, Mulan, Mushu and two other people dressed in Chinese costumes. That was it. They played the portion of the Eureka soundtrack that used to accompany the Chinese section of the parade, and then it transitioned to one of the themes from the Mulan Parade. What an absolutely poor excuse for entertainment this so-called cavalcade was. And to imagine that they would dare use the Mulan Parade music, which evoked in all of us such fond memories of that wonderful parade, for this non-entertainment. I can't imagine what they were thinking in bringing this forth.

After hanging out for a bit in the wharf area, part of the group left, and the rest of us wandered over to Bug's Land for a bit. We went on Heimlich's Choo Choo Train, and I was surprised that they were doing the watermelon squirting again. They had stopped that shortly after the land opened, but I haven't been on the ride in some time. I do like the ride, but it is definitely much too short. After walking around a bit more, we headed back over to DL for a quick dinner at Pizza Port. My husband and I had been boycotting the place for about a year now. We often ordered the pizza salad to split, and we had noticed that they had cut the portion size in half while maintaining the same price, which was absolutely ridiculous to do, so we had not gone back there for any meals. A couple of days ago, I had happened to go in there and noticed that the salad size had changed again, so we decided to try it. They've changed the salad bowl sizes for all the salads, it seems, and added a new iceberg lettuce side salad, but at least the new salad bowl size for the pizza salad seems mostly comparable to the original size, so I guess we can eat at Pizza Port again.

We left shortly after that. On the way out, one of the people in our group noticed that the picnic area now seems to be outside the bag check area as there are barriers up over most of the entrance from the picnic area, and there is a security guard there. So, presumably, one can again bring utensils and cutting knives and any other possibly objectionable items into the picnic area and keep them in the lockers there.

CarlieB
04-12-2004, 12:54 PM
Thanks for the update on Tortilla Jo's. The menu looks pretty good - i'm really excited about this restaurant. I just hope it's as good as it looks...:)