14 Oct

Day 2 – Chef’s Counter at Napa Rose!

 

The two teenagers (and Chase who is no longer a teenager ) had heard Dad say we were doing Disney differently and took full advantage this morning. When Stephen wanted to be at the Grand Californian early enough to park, check in and get to an early Extra Magic Hour, they insisted we were doing it differently and they were sleeping in a little!

Well played, teenagers and Chase.  

Now we didn’t go crazy or anything! We still got up way earlier they would have liked.  

We took our bags down and ate breakfast.

Here’s some phone pics of breakfast.  This is Ally’s. Does it remind you of anyone?

And mine! Heavy on the breakfast potatoes, light on everything else.

Finally we left and went straight to the Grand Californian! We checked in, gave our bags to Bell Services and were off to the park!

Walking through Downtown Disney:

We did stop for some selfies. That was not really different.

Hello, little baby castle that I still love.

We went right to Peter Pan!

Oops. It was under refurb. I knew that!

So off to Buzz!

My score was horrific, but I was taking pictures!

Next we walked towards Indy.

One of the best rides ever.

It broke down while we were in line so it took a little longer than it should have, but we were patient. DDD. 

Next we rode Pirates!

After Pirates we were getting hungry but it wasn’t quite lunch time. We went and got Fastpasses for Space and then according to my phone pictures, we watched the Tomorrowland Preview. I’d seen the extended preview at D23 with Kris and we have since seen the movie. I liked it!

Finally it was time for lunch!

Well, almost. We had to wait about 10 minutes for Plaza Inn to open. I’d eaten there before but no one else had! So it was different!

This was different, I forgot to ask for double potatoes and no green beans! Stephen ate those.  

Man that was yummy.

After we ate, we walked back towards Fantasyland.

We decided to get in the crazy slow line for Storybook Land Canal Boats for some reason.

Oh Storybook! Look at that!  

Aladdin!

I wanted to get pictures of the new Frozen section but I was on the wrong side.

Next we were off to Tomorrowland for our Space Fastpasses. But it was down! So we did Star Tours.

Then it was about time to eat again! That’s not really different. But this time we didn’t go right to get Dole Whips!

We had another snack in mind.

We crossed the esplanade.

Hello, Walt and Mickey!

This was our goal! Clarabelles! I am boring. I always get chocolate on chocolate rolled in chocolate. But who can argue with that?

Chase, on the other hand, got everything on his. Check out the Pop Rocks!

Ally went for straight up chocolate ice cream.

I think Stephen had our leftovers.

While we were eating, we got a text saying our room was ready! Yay!

The area by Soarin’ was closed so we had to walk the long way through the park. Poor us.

My word I loved this villa. It was so spacious!

Our room:

Kitchen and living area:

Everybody relaxed for a little while.

Our view!

Our bathroom!

Nice!

After some relaxing and possible napping, it was dinner time! I booked Napa Rose two months before we left. At the time, we weren’t positive Chase was going to make it home so we booked it for four people. Plus it’s hard to seat 5 at the counter.

Once we knew Chase was coming, I warned him we weren’t going to have room for him at Napa Rose. Shame on us! 

But don’t feel too bad. Chase is literally one of the pickiest eaters you will ever meet in your life. Quite frankly, Napa Rose would have been one of his worst nightmares. He took one look at the standard menu and said he was good!

Phew! 

We got dressed, told him to go find some food and the four of us were off.

Now I’m a pretty picky eater. No veggies, no seafood, etc. I’m a meat and potatoes (and candy) kind of person. My adult life has put me in a position where I’ve had to eat a LOT of things I don’t like at various dinners.

I used to dread the eating part of these dinners, but I’ve gotten much better. I can stomach a lot more these days. Whereas I don’t love eating things I don’t like, I can do it and maybe even appreciate some flavors if not the texture.  I can definitely appreciate the experience at the Chef’s Counter and I’ll try several things I wouldn’t normally.  There are so many courses that I know if there are any I don’t like, there will still be plenty of food.

Food prepared specially for you by one of the greatest chef’s in our country. I can handle it. I had done it before and I was excited for Stephen, Ally and Deborah to have this experience.

The best seats in the house!

The meal starts with the chef coming over to see if you want to order off the menu, or let the chef customize your meal. It’s silly to me that someone would sit at the counter and not take full advantage of being there, so of course we wanted him to have control.

We gave him a basic breakdown of our big dislikes and how we like out meat cooked. I only mentioned I didn’t really like seafood. I didn’t want to limit him too much.

I could eat this all night.

They were making Stephen’s here. It was something crazy. I forget what. They tended to go crazier with Stephen’s food. He got the octopus, etc.

Thank the heavens.  

Food going out next to us:

I had a lot of green stuff and a flower.

This was Ally’s I think:

Deborah’s:

Yay!  Risotto!

Stephen’s:

Ally loved loved her scallops:

Dinner! I think I skipped some in here.

Stephen’s I think!

Mine!  Perfect!

Ally’s:

I know we had some sorbet somewhere in here.

And finally, dessert!

That was an amazing meal and experience. Ridiculously expensive and crazy long (about 3 hours) but really really cool. I highly recommend it.

We went back upstairs and found Chase watching hockey. He hadn’t really eaten, he’d just been snacking.

We decided to go watch World of Color from the viewing platform upstairs.

Next we changed into or swimsuits and went down to the hot tub. Chase went to grab some pizza at Whitewater Snacks.

It was closed. Oops.

I felt bad about that.  

We soaked for a while and then Chase and I went to Downtown Disney to find him some food. I was wet and wearing my swimsuit cover up.

That was doing it differently!!  

We found him something and we went back to the room to bed!

It was a great day!

 

Disneyland – Doing Disney Differently May 4-7, 2015

Day 1 – On Our Way! 
Day 2 – Chef’s Counter at Napa Rose! 
Day 3 – California Adventure 
Day 4 – Last Day!