Final Disney Days

So this post is prepared one week after it actually happened - but I wanted to give a reader's digest summary.

We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the President's day weekend at Disneyland. Each morning we got up at 6 am so we could be in line at Disney for 7:20 am. Lining up at the gates 40 minutes before official opening pays off with no lines for the first few rides.  Disney processes you through the gates about 20 minutes before opening time. Then you walk to the end of Main Street and you are held up with a rope and a few staff members until the official opening hour.   Saturday we lined up for Space Mountain, Sunday we lined up for the Matterhorn bobsleds and Monday we lined up for Peter Pan's Flight first thing in the morning.  Each time we were rewarded with no wait in line.  After Peter Pan we raced to Indiana Jones and rode it three times in a row!  The third time we didn't even have to get out of our jeep!  There was nobody in line so staff just asked us if we wanted to stay seated and go again!

Saturday for lunch we ate at Blue Bayou - the the dining ride right inside the Pirates of the Caribbean. P enjoyed the beef ribs, R thought the chicken was okay ( not a good enough review for a $33 entree!). I did not enjoy my monte cristoe sandwich - deep fried way too much and sprinkled with icing sugar. Oh and we were nowhere near the boats and the water - we were situated in the back corner near the kitchen ( they told us to wait another hour if we wanted a better table).  I would not recommend this restaurant for the price we paid for lunch. 

I would highly recommend Wine Country Trattoria for lunch ( in Disney's California Adventure).  We paid $30 a plate each for a 3 course menu. That price included a prime standing room section for the evening show of World of Color. Soup and salad were both excellent, main course of gnocchi and a fabulous dessert plate with 4 desserts each!

Each day we left Disney in the middle of the afternoon to head back to the hotel for some R & R. After supper outside the park -two days at the Cheesecake Factory (awesome and affordable  at about $60 for the 3 of us), we headed back to the parks for the evening. One night we watched the fireworks, the other we watched the world of Color. Both really were top notch outdoor shows. 

This 6 night excursion was a welcome reprieve from the cold of winter as we got to enjoy 25 C temps in our shorts and t-shirts every day!