Carthay Circle Theater Restaurant & @DCA Today Part:2

Hey guys! If you're just jumping in, stop and be sure to read Part 1 first! :D
(Warning: this post is extremely picture heavy) 


Ok where was I? right... the incredible opportunity to reschedule my reservation for Carthay Circle Restaurant!

After receiving the confirmation for the restaurant, which happened to be on a very important July 17th date, I was giddy for the entire week wondering (again) how the food was going to taste.  Instead of salivating over the lunch menu like before, I was checking out all the yummy looking dinners! And again, I say the desserts look divine!

Finally the day came.  I think I was literally bouncing at times.  Katy came over to the house to see Miss Annabelle, and then we were off! We made sure to get there in plenty of time just in case... can you imagine if traffic happened to be bad and I missed it AGAIN?! Oh, the horror!

With about an hour to go, we entered into Disneyland first but weren't quite sure what we wanted to pass the time with.  After checking out the wait times, our old mantra helped out...  "when in doubt... Pirates!" so we headed to the left of the hub, cut through Adventureland and steered toward our most beloved destination.

Then... it was time.

Skipping over to DCA (ok we didn't really skip... well, maybe...), we entered into the lobby of the Carthay Circle Restaurant and gave the hostesses my name.  For a brief second, I got that scary panicky feeling my name wouldn't be on the list - that somehow all this really wasn't happening, but DCA Today had done as he said he would and they pulled it right up!

lobby sitting area and hostess desk in the far left corner
elevator and stairs to the right 

to the right of the lobby

bar area of the lobby

I tried to get a shot of the
Lasseter Family vineyard
 wine selection.
If only I had $70 for wine! 

As DCA Today had requested, I sent a quick tweet out once we had checked in letting him know we were there and excitedly waited for the response. Didn't have to wait long as he quickly replied, however, I'll wait til after dinner to show you the rest ;p Feel my suspense! hahaha

Knowing this probably has something to do with the "surprise", I got even more excited!  Can I just tell you that trying to enjoy a dinner you've waited a VERY long time to eat is extremely hard when you've been given a hint of a prize for when you've finished?? I tried so hard to enjoy every single bite! 

The upstairs area of the restaurant is just as beautiful as the downstairs, albiet a little cramped.  I was surprised at how close the tables were to each other.

upstairs bar area

Yours Truly :)

Katy posed for me :) 

And then our Food, Glorious Food! 

potroast, veggies, garlic mashed potatoes, & the Monte Cristo Banana Split Sundae!

After stuffing ourselves with as much food as we could handle (It's expensive, I was gonna eat all I could! haha).  It was time to go and see what magic Disney had in store for us! 

Since we took the gorgeous elevator up to the dining area, we decided to go down the stairs on the way out while I pulled twitter up on my phone. 

Everything, even the staircases, are elegant! 

We got outside and I sent out the tweet that we were finished... here's the rest of the conversation.. 

wha-wha-whaat?!

I'm sure my eyes were buggin' out of my head when Katy heard me gasp towards my phone LOL. 

"Umm.. we're meeting DCA Today by the Storytellers statue in 15 mins..." 

She laughed at my reaction but was just as excited to go haha, so we walked across the street and waited just out of photo reach of the guests by the statue.  As we sat against the railing, I turned over to Katy..

"You know... this could be the point where we get kidnapped.  At least the tweets are on the internet so they can get clues and find us." 

She just shook her head and laughed, "Way to be dramatic, Hobbs".

We were there for probably about 10 mins and then .... I spotted a BIG sign with legs walking over to us...

"Are you Annie?"

"YES!" (I think I actually squealed at him. I'm such a nerd) 

He introduced himself to us and asked us how dinner went, how my sister and niece were doing, and of course I pulled up a picture to show him. :)  This whole time my brain was a blur.  I was so over the moon with happiness. 

After a few minutes of conversation passed, he brought up the topic of us going to World of Color, (we had ordered a special selection of food at Carthay, so they gave us fastpasses to the 9pm show).  Upon hearing our "yes" response, he pulled out the surprise...

2 Glow-with-the-Show Mickey Ears!

Awesome!! 

I most definitely squealed here. I'd been wanting a pair so badly, but we didn't know on our last trip if we were going to watch World of Color then.  It was completely unexpected and considering those ears retail for about $25, it was most definitely appreciated! 

(For those of you who might not know what these ears do, here's a quick rundown: The ears sync up with the controls for the World of Color shows.  They blink, glow, and turn colors sometimes completely independent of each other but still are in tune with what's going on in the lagoon.  If you're standing in a group of people who all have the GwtS ears (even in the same section), you'll notice that they also are independent of each other. It's really cool. AND they just announced that the ears will be added to Fantasmic starting Sept. 2012! )

Here's a short clip of the GwtS Ears in action. 

I think I thanked him about 50 gajillion times, but in between I managed to ask for a picture to post on the blog.  He happily obliged. 

cheezers!

After taking the picture and again thanking him a few more thousand times we said goodbye and headed down towards World of Color.  And by "headed", I mean I was jumping up and down like a complete dork with my Mickey ears bobbing around blinking neon.  All 5ft 10 inches of me. I bet I looked special. 

The rest of the night was spent in giant smiles as we watched the show, or more accurately... watched our ears and other peoples' GwtS ears around us, while the while World of Color was going. If you haven't seen the show, I suggest that you go see it in DCA first and then go see Fantasmic when the ears debut in Disneyland Park. 

It was one of the best days of the summer.  I have to admit that I have had a pretty rockin' month of July.  So many incredible experiences have happened and this was right up there at the top of my list.  

I say again, Thank You DCA Today, for making a life long memory at what truly is the "Happiest Place on Earth".

Thanks for reading along! :D 

Carthay Circle Theater Restaurant and @DCA Today!

This is a special post.  A special post of Disney Magic.

The month of July was an ongoing vacation blur for me down in Orange County.  I was able to go to the parks many times before my annual pass ended, which was in itself a real treat. I've was able to meet up with friends that I haven't seen in years, had experiences that I never thought were possible, said good bye to a long time friend as she moves to the next chapter in her life, and I even had the privilege of becoming an aunt for the first time when my sweet little niece, Annabelle, was born!

I asked myself so many times how this time could get any more incredible.... and then it did.

Little bit of backstory... the first week of my vacation was the week of "Epic Disney". A couple of my friends came down south to hit the park for a few days, buy their annual passes, and experience Carsland with me for the first time! It was a whirlwind of multiple fun days arriving at opening and staying all the way to closing. During this time my sister, who was very very VERY pregnant, was doing her best to walk and move around trying to get my niece to make her grand debut. (We actually had a Disneyland day before this to "walk the baby out") I had jokingly asked her wait to go into labor until AFTER I went to Carsland... And she did! However, I should have been more specific in my request for an extension.

The final day of our amazing Disneyland trip included a reservation to the swanky new Carthay Circle Theater Restaurant in DCA (Disney California Adventure). Knowing this place was very difficult, if not impossible, to get a walk up reservation I called 3 weeks in advance and set it up for the 3 of us to have a late lunch. We poured (and salivated) over the menu for days deciding what we were going to eat, drink, what we would wear etc. The desserts look divine! This was a big deal and we all were super excited!
Finally the day came! We had dressed nicer and had made sure to save the light/indoor attractions for the morning heat so we wouldn't get sweaty and smell like sunscreen in the restaurant. We got to the park about 7:30 am and then.. I got the text.

Right as we walked through the tunnel into Disneyland park.

I knew, as a first-time mom, statistics pointed that she had hours to go. I figured ok... It's 8am now... I have 6 hours to go before our reservation.. I might be able to still make it.

Yes. My sister is in labor and the first thing in my mind is if I still go to my lunch reservation at DCA! I'm ridiculous. *facepalm*


Fast forward the morning as we go about our Disneyland business all the while with my phone tightly gripped in hand. 1pm rolls around and I'm thinkin' I'm totally gonna make it to both the restaurant AND the hospital! Just as we are seated in the Lincoln theater and The Voices of Liberty begin their A Capella splendor...

The phone rings.

It's my dad.

"I'm coming to get you right now at DTD"

I didn't make it to Carthay Circle Restaurant and my niece was stubborn and didn't end up being born that day.  At the time all signs pointed to her arriving at any moment, but then she pulled the brakes. (I have a feeling this is going to end up being her personality LOL)

Early the next morning (3:30am) she arrived via c-section completely healthy and beautiful! To celebrate I sent this announcement tweet via Instagram:

screen shot off webstagram

Regardless of the fact that she didn't make her debut that day and I missed my reservation, I would not have traded that time for the world.  I love my sister to death and I'm incredibly happy that I could be there with her during her difficult day.

Little did I know that is wasn't only my followers on twitter who were reading my Instagram tweet.  Someone else had also seen my niece's announcement...

I sort of geeked out.  A Lot.  Once my excitement wore down about DCA Today actually responded to my tweet, I finally realized that I had a chance for another set of reservations!  Quickly confirming my friend, Katy, was available the next week I responded back with a time and date to @DCAToday.

At this point, I was over the moon!  First I get a niece, THEN I get a congratulations from DCA, THEN I get an offer for more reservations, THEN I GET the reservations.... AND THEN I get an extra surprise??

Seriously? This is what Disney magic is made of.  This is the magic that only Disney can bring.  They go over the top and make things better than you could have imagined. Heck, even if we received fastpasses to something I still would have been excited and more than appreciative!  This was probably the smallest deal, for him to be able to call up and place the reservation for me, but it meant so so much more than I'm sure he realizes. Thank You, Thank You DCA Today!

Writing this post has brought back all the emotions and excitement I felt when it was happening and I've sat here for about an hour with a big goofy grin on my face haha!

Make sure that you come back tomorrow to see what the BIG SURPRISE was in part 2!!

I'll leave you with one more pic of Miss Annabelle :)

LOVE

Part 2 is live! Click here for the continuing story!

Exciting posts coming up next week!!

Hey Mousers!

I've been on vacation for literally the entire month of July! Just got back home a few days ago and I'm still trying to organize all my souvenir goodies, laundry (yuck!), and most importantly go through all my pictures for upcoming posts!!


Stay tuned this next week for some really cool stuff. It may or may not include multiple days at the Disneyland resort, Carthay Circle Theater restaurant, @DCAToday, and some incredible artifacts from the Disney Archives!


Don't Miss It!!!



Here's a little sneak peak to hold you over...