California April 2022 Food/Trip Report

[chrisjj7]

A great start to your holiday!

We are staying at the same hotel in October. What are your thoughts please and what is the walk to Disney like? Is it straightforward/safe looking?

[Finn family]

Originally Posted by prthomas

Did you do ILL for ROR or standby?

Also, what did you think of Harbor Galley? I had read some reports which thought the lobster was poor quality.

Finally do you think of Ogas? Is it worth the money?

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For ROR we queued as we got there for park opening. The standby line was only 60 minutes and there are a few pre-shows so it broke up the wait.

We enjoyed Harbour gallery! There wasn't much lobster in our mac and cheese but the pieces we did have were soft and buttery. We went at a quieter time aswell so that might have helped?

We loved Oga's. The cocktails are overpriced but I suggest just go for one drink, enjoy the atmosphere, tick it off the list, and get the photos. To save money, there was a selection of mocktails that were still fancy.

[Finn family]

Originally Posted by chrisjj7

A great start to your holiday!

We are staying at the same hotel in October. What are your thoughts please and what is the walk to Disney like? Is it straightforward/safe looking?

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The hotel is pretty standard. The rooms were a good size and it was clean. Our complaint was that the bar area doesn't stay open until late enough. It closed at like 9/10pm, so not ideal when you want to come back from the parks and have a drink to wind down. It's situated a 15 minute walk from Disney on a long strip of hotels. It's well lit and you're basically walking there and back with loads of other Disney visitors too. We never felt unsafe as the Anaheim area is nice, much nicer than Hollywood/Central LA!

[Finn family]

Day 2!

Disney California Adventure today. Up early and straight in the line for Web Slingers. This was our first time at Avengers Campus and we were really impressed with the theming. It definitely adds more to the park. Web Slingers was a really cool ride and we found that we were pretty good at it too... bonus! A lot easier to aim than Buzz's Space Ranger Spin, but I'll not spoil any more...

After riding Web Slingers and GOTG Mission Breakout, we headed to Starbucks for some breakfast. I had a java chip frap and a slice of red velvet loaf cake. The California food and wine festival was running so we decided on a light breakfast and there was lots of dishes we aimed to try on this day. The festival ran this year from March 4 through April 26.

We bought a lanyard (sip and savor pass) as it worked out good value for the items we'd researched.

Here is the link to the festival info:
disneyparks.disney.go/bl...rting-march-4/

We rode some more things and decided that 11:30am was the perfect time to start eating our way around the park.

Booth - Cluck-A-Doodle Moo
Dish - French Onion Grilled Beef Tenderloin Slider
Rating - 8/10

Booth - Garlic Kissed
Dishes - Grilled Top Sirloin with roasted garlic-gruyère smashed potatoes and black garlic chimichurri & Carbonara-Garlic Mac & Cheese with peppered bacon
Rating - 10/10

We then did some exploring on Pixar Pier and rode Icredicoaster, Toy Story Mania and Jessie's Carousel.

The food continues...

Booth - Bayside Brews
Dish - Jalapeño Cheese-filled Pretzel
Rating - 8/10

Booth - California Craft Brews
Drink - Tropical Hideaway (beer that tasted like dole whip!)
Rating - 10/10

Booth - Paradise Garden Grill
Dish - Beer-battered Fish Tacos
Rating - 6/10 (a little soggy)

This day will continue on the next post. Hope you're enjoying the report so far

[Finn family]

Day 2 Continued...

We did also use Disney Genie+ on this day too. Again, I found it great value for money. We got 6 rides done.

Booth - Uncork California
Dish - California Artisan Cheese Selection: Habanero Jack and Toma Provence
Rating - 10/10 (great value!)

Drinks - Tropical Mimosa Flight
Rating - 7/10 (just too much syrup/juice and not quite enough champagne)

After this, we rode Monsters Inc, PhillarMagic and Soarin Over California (I've missed this ). I personally prefer Soarin California than around the world. I was so happy we got to experience it again as part of the festival.

Back to the eating!

Booth - Smokejumpers Grill
Dish - Pepperoni Pizza Slider
Rating - 9/10

Booth - Peppers Cali-Ente
Dish - Chile Relleno Empanada with arbol pepper salsa and Oaxaca and Cotija cheeses
Rating - 7/10

Before an evening stroll along Pixar Pier, we visited Avengers Campus to see it at night and decided to sample something from the PYM testing kitchen. We went for the Impossible™ Spoonful (Rigatoni and Ditalini Pastas, Plant-based Meat-balls, Tomato Sauce, Dairy-free Parmesan and Micro Basil). This place is really fun and the dishes either come crazy big or small. This was just one giant veggie meatball but because of this, it was a little dry.

To end the day, please enjoy photos of Pixar Pier at night

[Finn family]

Our feet are aching and we're currently surviving on 6 hours sleep a night... but the show must go on!

This is our last Disney day so we've made plans to hop between the 2 parks to do everything we haven't had the chance to previously. We purchased a 3 day hopper ticket directly from Disney, which meant we could have 1 full day in each park, then the third day park hopping. We didn't purchase Disney Genie+ for the 3rd day.

The morning started with a coffee...

We then rode Matterhorn, Small World and Alice before heading back into Galaxy's Edge. We loved our breakfast Ronto Wraps so much that we wanted to experience the lunch time version too. Again, they were amazing. A grilled sausage, roasted pork and tangy slaw wrapped up in a delicious pita bread. They're really good value for money because they're so filling. Also, we got a coke.

After a visit to the Tikki Room and a wander down Main Street USA, we decided it was time to head to the other park. However, I picked up a refreshing frozen Fanta Wild Cherry slush for the walk.

Day 3 continued on next post

[Finn family]

After heading into the park, we did some exploring and decided it was time for an ice cream. There's only 1 place to go, Ghirardelli! We opted for strawberry, mint choc chip and cookies and cream, all in dipped waffle cones.

After this, we headed to Pixar Pier to do the big wheel (scary version) and have another ride on the Incredicoaster

The temperature was hot on this day and we did find that a lot of the queues were outside so we were ready for a cool down. Near Pixar Pier there's an entrance to the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. We headed to the GCH Craftsman Bar and decided to order some cocktails to enjoy in the shade under the fans. We went for the Passion Fruit Mojito and Banana Daiquiri. Both were strong but refreshing.

We felt cooler and hydrated so we headed back into the park to try some more food as we still had some samples left on our food and wine lanyards from the previous day.

Booth - Sonoma Terrace
Dish - Old World Aged White Cheddar Lager Soup with toasted fig and prosciutto sandwich
Rating - 8/10

Booth - D•Lish
Dish - Black & Tan Beef Potato Puffs: Karl Strauss Wreck Alley stout gravy and lager micro sponge
Rating - 10/10

Bellies full, we headed for Cars Land to ride all the attractions in that area.

We did Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters and finally, Radiator Springs Racers. We raced round Radiator Springs during sunset which was beautiful and I highly recommend doing so if you can time it right. We did wait 60 minutes for this attraction but it's worth it. We left Cars Land and Disney's California Adventure (for the final time ) to head back to the main park for the night time shows.

To be continued...

[Finn family]

After ending our Disney California Adventure in Cars Land, we headed back to the main park for the evening.

We caught the fireworks/show and a special showing of 'We don't talk about Bruno' on the Small World building. I liked the fireworks show and projections but I still think Happily Ever After at WDW is the best of all time!

The Encanto extra was lovely!

Tears in our eyes, it was time to say goodbye to Disney as we looked at the castle one more time.

Tomorrow we move hotels are carry on our travels...

[HevaDuck]

Loving your report 😁 so want to do California with my family and you are inspiring me 😊

[Finn family]

Originally Posted by HevaDuck

Loving your report 😁 so want to do California with my family and you are inspiring me 😊

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You should definitely do it!
Thank you so much for following the report
Happy to answer any questions