Any word on the Sonoma Terrace Paint The Night Reception?

JPTexan82

Ever which way but loose
Joined
Feb 10, 2008
just checking to see if anyone has experienced this yet? We have a reservation for the 24th and want to see what’s all included?
 


I too am anxiously awaiting reviews as I have reservations in early May. My most pressing question is regarding the parade view. Does everyone have a front row view or is there a potential of vertically challenged people having an obstructed view from a back row? Thanks for your feedback.
 
hi again. So i went on Friday. The Sonoma Terrance Paint The Night Reception is still under testing phase so i was invited to test and trial. Im not sure if this match exactly what you will experience, but i guess it should be close to it. We were told to head to location at 8pm. Parade start time is at 8:45pm coming from the paradise pier to hollywood.

We were placed in the back row area of the seating area on high chair and table. This is what my view looks with the balloon vendors.
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The view does see over the people from the back. The only concerned i had was the poles. The parade lighting and speaker poles are in the way. From the back, u will see them. Its much harder to take pictures of the floats coming by. There is no guest that will sit on the railing in front so the view is pretty good.

Now lets talk about the food. I forgot to take a picture of the bread but they give u 3 different types of bread. One looked like a dinner roll, the taste of it, like a hint of some kind of herb. The 2nd bread of course is sourdough bread. The last bread was the tastiest but for some reason they only give 1 for 2 people to share, but it was like a cheese flavor to it. The bread also came cold, if it was warm, im sure it would taste so much better.
The main course consist of like 12 items on a plate. Here is a picture.
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The menu list is missing the peppercini for some reason. The food was pretty decent and tasty. This is where im not sure if your experience might be different with another type of plate, but this is what was given to us. YMMV. The back of the menu showed 4 different wines. I also forgot to take a picture of it. They seem to be specialized wine but they just taste like normal red wine to me. They did have some off menu drinks, one of them they call "Paint The Night." special. I got one, was pretty good. My friend told me it taste to her like cough drops though lol. very light on alcohol, taste very fruity to me. We were also given a box of chocolates! i dont recall one of them, i think it was just regular chocolate, but one had raspberry cream, one was salted caramel, the white one was white chocolate. Came in this paint the night box.
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Now, here comes the parade! The one thing that i saw lacking was that the speakers are pointed towards the parade route, so the sound isnt as great as being right next to the route. But it is definitely still a great place to watch. You can see everything, but as u can see in both my first and 2nd picture, the stupid light pole is in it.
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Overall, its a nice place to just sit and relax. The parade is a bit unknown as this is the 2nd time the parade started going at DCA. They are still trying to figure out the lines and such. If you were actually on the parade route, we noticed that it was super close to the guest.

Now this is where i can get a little biased, i am an ex cast member and this seating arrange/meal was free, but i honestly cant imagine paying for this. If u were to pay for this, id also wait till June to actually got see Paint the Night. My friend was specifically there to see the Incredible float, but we later learned that that float wont be out until after the movie comes out. Save your money until then if u will be going at another date! Overall though, it was a nice experience! I hope that helps y'all with your decision making. Feel free to ask questions!
 


Thanks for the review and photos @Albort . I would not pay for that view. You would miss too many of the street level performers.
 
Thank you for the great review! I think my Son, DIL and I will enjoy this. We will also have 3 1/2 YO twins with us that will not appreciate the food and chairs as much. Thankfully they are well behaved, but again they are toddlers so you never really know. The taller tables would probably would not be a good idea for the littles. Your ticket said to arrive at 8:00 but did others arrive earlier to get the tables in the first and second row? If so, do you know about what time?
 
Great review, how many drinks do they let you get that's included?
We had no limit. at least that i know of. I ended up having 4 drinks by the end of the night. Water, Black Tea, Red Wine, and the cocktail drink.

Thanks for the review and photos @Albort . I would not pay for that view. You would miss too many of the street level performers.
If u were in the front roll, u would get a front row seat with no obstruction. We did had the thought of thinking if we were too close, we would be able to see the entire floats.

Thank you for the great review! I think my Son, DIL and I will enjoy this. We will also have 3 1/2 YO twins with us that will not appreciate the food and chairs as much. Thankfully they are well behaved, but again they are toddlers so you never really know. The taller tables would probably would not be a good idea for the littles. Your ticket said to arrive at 8:00 but did others arrive earlier to get the tables in the first and second row? If so, do you know about what time?
when we arrived, we were maybe the 3rd or 4th group. Its hard to tell how early u need to go, keep in mind, most of the people there that night for us were current cast members with their friends and family so many did show up after the 8:00 time. there were maybe like 6 groups behind us when they started checking in.
 
If u were in the front roll, u would get a front row seat with no obstruction. We did had the thought of thinking if we were too close, we would be able to see the entire floats.
Oh, I would do it if they would guarantee front row. But knowing I could end up in that back row will keep me from doing it.
 
Thanks for the review! I can scratch this one off my list. My kids wouldn’t enjoy these offerings. Looks good to me though!
 
Thanks for the great review. We are going Friday (2 sleeps) and it looks like a good replacement for the WOC Dessert party while on hiatus. The view can be dicey, but I like the idea of sitting for the parade as I have a softball hip injury I cant seem to shake...getting old sucks...We like the high tops at WOC so this should be ok for us. Hope for the best and if it is bad we won't do it again.

Mike
 

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