Main Street U.S.A.: Jolly Holiday Bakery [8]

Wondercon.

It was the Thursday before Wondercon an my alarm was set to go off at 12:30 AM. Well what woke me up wasn't The Walking Dead theme that my alarm was set to play, but zombie moans which meant I got a text message, and it was 1:50 AM. For some reason my alarm didn't go off, so I quickly texted the situation to my friend who was expecting me to pick her up at 1:30 AM and grabbed all my bags and put them by the door before shoving a cinnamon roll that I made the other day in my mouth and grabbing my can of coffee (which is saying something since I hate coffee).

I drove to my friend house and while I waited for her I shoved another cinnamon roll in my mouth- shoving being the appropriate term here- and chugged my coffee. Brittany got in the car and it was 2:00AM and we were ready to go.

Parking at the Toy Story parking lot in Anaheim it was now 8:30 AM and throughtout the drive I had a Snapple and some Avengers fruit snacks, Brittany had some of my cinnamon rolls and water. so by the time were pretty hungry. My friend Ashley was going to meet us so we wandered around Downtown Disney until she arrived and we decided to have breakfast at Jolly Holiday.

Now 10:00 AM we were sitting with food and drinks at Jolly Holiday, right next to where Marry Poppins and Bert were taking pictures, and I had finally gotten the Practically Perfect Punch. It is a specialty drink from Jolly Holiday that they don't always offer and usually when I go there I have a mint julep or just had one or I want a hot chocolate because it's cold, but this time it was warm weather and I really had been wanting to try it.

It was a curious drink and I still am not sure if I like it or not. It tasted like lemonade with some berry juice, I believe. It was sweet with a slight tart, but I didn't feel like it was satisfying. It is a light and refreshing drink, and it was quite tasty, but it wasn't something I need to have again.

-Charlotte

Disneyland Hotel: Trader Sam's [2]

Yes, twice in one trip.
The first time was because my parents wanted to go but this time it was something I had planned for a month in advance.

After our festivities at the parks had concluded with a fun ride in the teacups,

I went to meet up with some friends at Trader Sam's. It is kind of a tradition that when a cast member has a birthday (at least in my little group of friends) we go and celebrate at Trader Sam's at the end of the night- and more so if it was for a 21st and up birthday- and I had a birthday at the beginning of December so I thought why not celebrate it a bit (the 28th is still in the same month).

Outside of the park I met up with my friend Ashley, who is the sweetest and nicest person/ cast member ever and a great friend (we went and saw Conan together back on July 19th) and we caught up as we walked to the bar.

We sat outside because there was no room inside and my friend Chris and her NEW Fiance arrived and we ordered our drinks. This time I was staying away from any drink with 'zombie' in the name and got the Ginger's Pear-adise which had pear vodka, ginger liqueur, organic agave nectar, and freshly squeezed lime juice. It was delicious! Next time I go back, I am definitely getting that. The pear flavour was strong and fantastic with just a little hint of ginger that 'peared' nicely with it; I thought it was going to be really sweet but it pleasantly wasn't and it overall had a great balance to it.

The rest of the night I caught up with my friends, Ashley met someone and was kind of dating him but now it is a long distance relationship and that was really exciting to hear about. Then Chris was just proposed to on Christmas morning and seeing the ring in person is a lot better then seeing it in a picture on Facebook. Their lives are moving along great and I am happy for them, the most I could say was that I completed another semester of college (with only 20 million more to go!).

At some point my family showed up because they liked the place too now, and walked right past me to their own outside table. Then they were texting me trying to figure out where I was when I was pretty much right in front of them. And we were all amused by the large group of cast members that we next to us, I believe it was someone's last day of work and they were having a 'good bye' party. That's the thing about Trader Sam's, not many people know that it is there so they get only guests of the hotel or cast members; cast members love Trader Sam's.

Even ex-cast members, and I will being going back again and I already know what drink to get because the Ginger's Pear-adise is just too good to pass up.

-Charlotte

Hollywoodland: Mad T Party [3]

After dinner my parents wanted to go back to the hotel to rest and I was going to go with them but I felt obligated to take this time to go off to the Hollywood side of Disney California Adventure and visit all my friends that were working at that time.

But first I had to go to Mad T Party. I never planned to spend so much time there, but because it was something that happened at night and changed every night (for the most part) towards the end of my employment there I just had to stop by and get a drink.

So I got a Croque-tini.

It is an alcoholic beverage and they do check ID's so be ready for that, and the Mad T Party drinks are known to be strong. The strongest drink they have is the Long Island Tea and that comes in a regular plastic cup size with a light up ice cube. My drink as a 'tini' came in a martini glass that you get to keep that has a base that lights up. It is pricey at $11.50 but you get to keep the glass so that isn't too bad and they do fill it to the rim.

It had great fruity flavour to it, not enough to hide the alcohol as my friend found out at her birthday earlier, but enough make the drink its own. I enjoyed it, although honestly I do enjoy the slushes better. The best part, you can carry the drink around with you throughout the park so after listening to the band for one song (they did change up their set lists from last time) I wandered over to Bug's Land and stood there and chatted with my friends for pretty much the rest of the night till my parents came back and we were off to do our family bonding vacation once more.

As a side note, my brother also at this time went off on his own to do stuff and bought this.

 

Because apparently he really wanted them.

 -Charlotte

New Orleans Square: French Market [3]

 

All day long my and family and I followed this trend of do some activities then rest and eat something, do some activities then rest and eat something. We had been to Disneyland so many times the past year so we didn't feel the need to constantly be running around and trying to do everything we could; it was too crowded to do that anyway.

For dinner my parents were passing around the idea to leave the parks and get dinner somewhere else but I really wanted to go to the French Market. I hadn't had a mint julep yet on this trip, I wanted some jambalaya, and my friend posted a picture of a cheesecake they had to the holidays that I had to get.

So everyone agreed with me to go eat at French Market and it was probably the worst experience ever. I wasn't feeling great all day having head aches and just over all 'blah'ness and I really needed to sit down and eat something most of the snacks had this day was food that I couldn't eat so I needed a full meal and my mint julep to cheer me up.

I got the jambalaya and a mint julep and the dessert my friend told me about and we sat down outside.

Fail 1
The jambalaya was dry and not as flavourful as it had been the past times that I had it.


Fail 2
I know the mint julep is a box mix, I asked my friend that works at the Mint Julep Bar, and I think they got the mix proportions off because that was the most watered down, worst mint julep I had ever had. Usually at French Market it doesn't have enough water but this was 100% the opposite.

But Success
The Bananas Foster Cheesecake was amazing and really kind of made my night. My dad had the first bite since he finished eating first and his comment was 'that tastes like banana!' He thought it was a classic cheesecake. My parents got the enjoy the crust, of course, but I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of it.



It was one of the worst meals I've had at Disneyland but I was hungry and just needed to sit down. After that I felt a lot better and managed to last the rest of the night. I could have been angry and upset, but I think we all needed a good sit down and some food but we all had this same feeling that it wasn't the best but we didn't care because we were at Disneyland. All day we were asking "If we weren't here right now what else would we be doing?" and the answer was "Sitting on the sofa watching Walking Dead." We were thankful for the trip with it's drastic ups and downs.

-Charlotte

Carsland: Flo's V8 Cafe [4]

Once in Disney California Adventure we just kind of wandered around and that led us to Carsland. To be honest I kept trying to push us towards Bug's Land so I could say 'hi' to my copious amounts of friends over there, but I had to settle with just saying 'hello' to the few friends that were working on Red Car Trolly as we made our way down.

Now since I hadn't eaten anything all day, and it was about lunch time now, I really wanted to eat. My father suggested to eat something over at Paradise Pier but I opposed him with something at Flo's and we decided to do that.

Walking down Radiator Springs we took in the festive 'Cars' themed Holiday decorations in Carsland and I tried to peak over at Mater's Junkyard Jamboree as we passed by to see if I knew anyone working over there, but alas I did not so then I made a straight line towards Flo's because I was hungry.

I knew immediately what I wanted there because I had wanted it for a while now but just never got it. The Turkey Citrus Salad...and an ice tea.

The turkey was delicious, although kind of awkward because they were these giant sandwich slices of turkey over the salad so I had to cut the pieces down and honestly I don't really like using a knife for my salad. The dressing was tangy with citrus juice which is where the citrus in the title comes from, and the rest was a typical salad but fresh and still rather filling.

Other dish options were roasted meats with buns and your choice of side. They also have ugly pies, which my father got one because he was intrigued.

Then we went on Mater's where I knew two people working and I happily got to say 'hi' before being hurried onto the ride and getting to squish and be squished by my brother.

-Charlotte

For Sale: Turkey Leg

No I did not get a turkey leg, but my brother did and I had a little piece and that was enough for me.

Our day as spent going on a few rides then eating a little something, then going on a few rides, then eating a little something more. So before this little something we went on Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Snow White.

Then as we were walking around the hub after taking a picture at the castle:

My brother decided to get a turkey leg because he was hungry (that's what happens when you don't eat breakfast). He got it and we went and sat down to people watch and so my brother could eat it, and I got to sit next to him. Now the Disneyland turkey leg is from a very large turkey and you can smell it before you see it. It has a distinct smell that some find mouth watering but I find...not mouth watering. And those bones are huge, I once found a bone left under a bench while I was working and got someone from custodial to pick it up (since they had gloves), it was gross.

My brother greatly enjoyed it though, made him feel like a manly man. It was salty and tasted a bit like turkey and a lot like ham. But it is too huge for one person unless you are really hungry, my parents had a few bites of it as well.

I've seen some families bring bread to the park with them and get a leg and just cut it up and made turkey sandwiches out of it. Just as one idea of what you can do with it.

While we were sitting there we also got to hear the USC marching band come down, although what they were playing was very boring.

And after that little something we headed over to Disney's California Adventure.

Just so you know, this was neither in the 'best' categoy for this trip nor the 'worst' it was just interesting.



-Charlotte

Main Street U.S.A.: Jolly Holiday Bakery [7...I think]

Experiencing Trader Sam's for the first time was part of the 'best' category for this trip, and while I love Jolly Holiday Bakery, this time around it was part of the 'worst' section.

So far our morning was interesting. I had tried to push my family out of our hotel as fast as possible so we can get to the parks as fast as possible. It worked somewhat we got there 15 minutes after park opening. We got our tickets very fast then made our way in. Now I know my way around the morning rush at Disneyland, usually people run to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, rarely over to Adventureland and New Orleans Square so my family followed me away from Tomorrowland and over to Indiana Jones. I heard from some of my friends that they recently did a lot of work on the ride to help improve it and lower the amount of down times so it was ironic when we got over there and saw they were down. They weren't even distributing fast passes because they didn't know if the ride would be back open again that day.

Hungry and disappointed my dad lead us to Jolly Holiday bakery because they loved it last time and really wanted to go back. The line was long and slow moving, it was peak season so we expected this and honestly we didn't care about waiting. Because it was Holiday time at the parks they had a lot of special holiday treats and drinks which is what my problem was. Because of the additions to the options, other items had to removed for the time to make room for more seasonal treats, two of the things removed were the only two things I could eat there: the flourless chocolate cake and the cheesecake. In other words I didn't eat breakfast because there wasn't anything there that I could eat. I did have to try one of the holiday drinks so I got the caramel apple cider.

My family was happy with what they ordered, although my brother didn't get anything to eat either just a coffee my parents enjoyed their breakfast, I was upset.

The cider was warm which was great on that cold morning but the caramel kind of just went to the bottom of the cup and so and last couple of sips were way too sweet. It had great flavour though and somewhat filled me up and gave me energy to go on that morning. Afterwards we made our way over to Pirates and then Holiday Haunted Mansion.

-Charlotte