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, or it is in my little group of cast member friends, that when a cast member has a birthday 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. I had a birthday at the beginning of December so I thought why not celebrate it a bit.

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 19^th. We caught up with each other as we walked to the bar.

We sat outside because there was no room inside and my friend Chris and her NEW Fiancé 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. We were then 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 be 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.

First though, I had to go to Mad T Party. Towards the end of my employment at the parks, I never planned to spend so much time there, but it was something that happened at night and changed every night- for the most part- I kept finding myself going back. So on this trip, I had to stop by and get a drink.

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 was a 'tini' so it 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 A Bug's Land and stood there and chatted with my friends for pretty much the rest of the night. Eventually, 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 family and I followed this trend of do some activities then rest and eat, do some activities then rest and eat. We had been to Disneyland so many times the past year, 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 special holiday cheesecake they had 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 headaches and just over all 'blah'ness- I really needed to sit down and eat something. Most of the snacks we had this day was something 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 to 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 we all had this same feeling that it wasn't the best meal. We didn't care much, though, 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, even with its 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 A 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 Trolley as we made our way down.

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, as stated, I was hungry.

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

The turkey was delicious, although kind of awkward. There 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 to eat 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 to be squished by my brother.

-Charlotte