Since I don't have too many days off between now and our October WDW trip, I'm going to be updating a little more frequently. And expect big updates at a time! I want to have this one finished before we leave for WDW.
DAY 2 Continued: Saturday August 25th
At around 6:45 pm, showered & dressed nice, we headed out to the car to drive over to the
Disneyland Hotel for our dinner at Steakhouse 55. It didn't take long to get there, so we arrived a bit early to check in. That was fine because we had wanted some time to look around anyway. After handing the keys over to the valet, we found someone to take our picture with Mickey & Minnie before heading inside.
The lobby was pretty, but what I really loved was the artwork!
Cool memorabilia wall
Umbrellas hanging from the ceiling? I don't know, it just looked pretty.
We went over to the hostess station to check in, and the CM says she doesn't see the reservation. I insist that it was for 7:20 and explained I had made the reservation through the email ADR system. She said it was not a problem, they could seat us anyway, but I was a little annoyed so I went to try and pull up my email on my phone while we waited. And yet ANOTHER instance where my timing was way off...our dinner was scheduled for the next night! Boy, did I feel like an idiot. I went back up to tell the CM so she could cancel our reservation for the next night and she laughed and said she had found the one for Sunday night in the system and cancelled it already. She said it happens all the time, but I bet she was just trying to be nice. Lol
It didn't really matter in the end, because we only waited for maybe 5 minutes at the bar before someone came to bring us to our table. We had already looked over the menu online at home, so we had an idea of what we wanted but decided to look at them anyway while we munched on some more delicious sourdough bread. We don't usually order appetizers, but this one sounded so good, we decided to get it anyway. And it was our anniversary, why not indulge, right?
Lump Crab Cakes with Remoulade
Oh my gosh, SO GOOD! They were so creamy and delicious, and had plenty of crab. The sauce was really good too, I was tempted to lick it off the plate, but I didn't.
After devouring the crab cakes, we asked our waitress to take our picture.
For our entrees, I had the Filet Mignon while DH had the New York Strip. The side items are big enough to share, and even though I really wanted the mashed potatoes, DH is not a big fan of potatoes and we knew we wouldn't be able to finish our steaks and 2 sides (we wanted dessert!) so we went with the macaroni & cheese that came with 4 cheeses and bacon. The mac & cheese was delicious, and the steaks were nearly perfect! DH's cut of meat was huge, and I think he took it as a challenge to finish it all. Unfortunately, I guess we were so excited about how delicious our entrees looked that we forgot to take pictures of them.
We did, however, get a picture of our dessert!
24 Layer Chocolate Cake - Chocolate Sponge Cake, Grand Marnier, Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate and Nutella, Vanilla Ice Cream
Chocolately heaven on a plate is about the only way to describe this! And it was so tall, we were not even sure where to start. We were taking pieces the same way you would from a normal piece of cake, but stopping halfway down until it got small enough for us to flip over and eat that way. Trying to figure out how to eat it was half the fun! I got stuffed less than halfway through the cake, but again DH saw it as a challenge. As valiantly as he tried though, there was no finishing that cake after all we had eaten that night!
We rolled out of there so stuffed I could have gone back to the room and gone right to bed. But no, we still had things to do that night! DH stayed in his dinner outfit, but my dress was definitely not park ready. I had brought some clothes, so I changed in the bathroom and we headed out to the car to drive to the parking garage.
Our destination for the night was DCA, and we made it into the park around 9:20 pm. The first thing we wanted to do was go over and see Cars Land lit up. I had read that tip on the DL boards that most people skip over it at night because they head there first thing in the morning. So I definitely wanted to see it "turned on"!
It was a lot of fun strolling around and seeing all of the fluorescent lighting on all of the buildings. Since the first WoC show was happening, it wasn't very crowded, so you really felt like it was a casual walk through Radiator Springs at night. We contemplated riding something, but then we were just enjoying it and taking it all in, and we didn't want to be late for WoC, so we didn't.
Our WoC show was set to start at 10:15, but we were not worried about getting a fantastic view, so we took our time getting over there. It was probably 10 or a little after before we found our spot. It was not crowded at all. We were one section or so back from where we were last time, and we were able to walk right up to the railing with no one in front of us. And we were raised up a little so we had an almost unobstructed view. We were right next to come kind of overhang that went over the walkway so the posts obstructed our view to the left by the slightest. But overall, definitely not a bad spot or view for walking up less than 15 minutes beforehand!
Again, I told DH not to worry about taking pictures since he had gotten so many in May, but he insisted! So I'll share some of the better ones with you.
Once again, an absolutely stunning, beautiful show! The addition of Brave was new for us since last time, and that part was okay, if not a little too long. Or maybe I just thought so because I haven't seen the movie yet! lol The only thing missing was DS snuggled up in my arms this time. I'm pretty sure I could just watch this show every night and never get tired of it!
After the show, we made our way slowly up to the front of the park. We passed the Mad T Party, and DH got a picture.
We stopped in the art store, Off the Page, for a bit, and DH bought a couple of Vinylmations while I looked at gorgeous pieces of Disney art we will never be able to afford! After shopping, we made our way up Buena Vista Street, and got stopped by one of the survey people. Well, DH and his love of surveys, he said yes. But only one of us could do it, so he follows the CM inside and I'm sitting there waiting. And waiting. And waiting. So I run across the street to use the restroom and when I come out, DH is still nowhere to be found. Meanwhile people I saw other CMs taking in after DH are now coming out! I started worrying a bit once I realized DH had my cellphone in his pocket since I didn't bring a bag that night, and I had no way to get in contact with him. I started thinking what if he came out while I was in the restroom and couldn't find me so he started walking around looking for me? Or thought I went to the car so he went to the car?
Finally, the CM that had taken him inside appeared and I asked him if DH was still inside and he said yes. Turns out I did all that panicking over nothing, just because DH is so thorough on his surveys that he takes forever!!
Once we were reunited, we left the park. The wait for the trams was huuuuuuuge, so we decided to walk. We got back to the resort at 11:45 and went straight to bed. No sleeping for us on this trip!
Continued in Next Post...
You actually expected the other CM to be there and the whole process to be seamless? 
Will have to find out for myself in 18 days!
I want one!
