Day 14 - Thursday, June 25 - Return to California Adventure
So yeah, we hopped on the monorail and got off at the Downtown Disney platform. We had been thinking that we wanted to have a break and be waited on in the air conditioning, and we weren't "feeling" any of the Disneyland options, so we decided to head over to DTD for lunch. Buddy ate at "Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria" when he visited DL with my parents a couple years ago, and he's went on and on about it ever since. On our last visit, we tried the counter service version next door at Napolini. The pizza was pretty good, but not amazing. I chalked it up to the counter service version probably not being as good (and that we walked it back to our room at the DL Hotel before we ate it.) So I was willing to give Naples a try. Surely it would be better. And we really wanted to sit down and relax in the AC.
So yeah, I'm a big fan of Neapolitan pizza and have done a lot of research about it through the years. You know, using 00 Caputo flour, authentic San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, cold fermented dough, etc. This place has a great reputation, so I was more than happy to accommodate Buddy's request...
We arrived at about 1:15pm, which I would have thought would have been after the big lunch rush. They gave us the option to wait 45 minutes for an inside table, or we could be seated outside on the patio instantly. Nobody really wanted to wait, so we agreed to be seated outside.
In the meantime, I spent a couple minutes watching them stretch the dough and finagle the pies in the oven...
That's where the fun ended... They put us in a sunny spot outside. At a table that was more like a picnic table. Bench seats with no back rests. After a few minutes, it started to get really hot and uncomfortable. Little shade and not much of a breeze. We so should have waited for an inside table, or went somewhere else for that AC.
That was strike one.
Strike two, is that our waiter was overly friendly and excited. You would think that it would be good to have an enthusiastic waiter, but when you are hot, hungry, and uncomfortable, we just weren't feeling it. And he wasn't picking up on our body language at all. If you can imagine being served by Tina, the Alamo tour guide from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, after drinking four bottles of 5 Hour Energy and a couple Jolt Cola's. You might get the idea.
Strike three, is that the pizza was slow to arrive, and it was just OK. Probably not as good as the one we had last time from Napolini. I think I'm pretty much not going to give this place a try again, not with so many other good restaurants within easy walking distance. Oh well, who would have guessed? (Noting that I left them a pretty dismal review on Yelp and they replied with an apology, but I didn't feel like it was very sincere.)
OK. A couple photos of the food, and then back to a positive spirit again!
Well, the fresh baked bread was actually pretty darn good...
Who doesn't like olive oil and fresh cracked pepper for their bread?
And here's the pizza. It's certainly not bad. Not in the least. But is it worth $30 or $40, plus tax and tip? Heck no!!!! Stick to the counter service option...
OK, on our way.... Hey look, it's Marceline's Confectionery again. Hard to believe we were in Marceline, MO two weeks ago. Wow, this trip is flying by!!!
Pickle was ready for some more cotton candy. I have no idea how many times she had it on this trip, but it was a lot!
It was getting to be mid-afternoon and we still wanted to head back to the hotel for a swim. We figured that we'd spend the second half of the day visiting California Adventure, and that we probably wouldn't be back in Disneyland park again on this trip. So, I made everyone come with me for a couple final photos. I wanted a photo of us on Main Street Disneyland to compare to our photo on Main Street Marceline and this was my last chance!
But first, I wanted a photo with Tilly from Marceline while I was wearing my Marceline t-shirt... to post on the Walt Disney Hometown Museum's Facebook page
I love that even Tilly has a commemorative Diamond Celebration name badge. Cool!
So yeah, the Main Street photos...
First the one from Marceline:
And second, the one from Disneyland
We did it. Cool! I know that the Marceline Main Street wasn't the true model for the DL version, but it's clear that Walt wanted to recreate the "vibe" from his hometown, and it's pretty cool to compar the two photos. (I'm fully aware that this is a nerd/geek thing, and I'm cool with that!)
So after a couple quick photos, we started making our way back to the hotel again.
"Thank You for Visiting?" You're welcome! But don't worry, we'll be back in a couple hours
Another ten minutes or so, and we had made it back... And Pickle was just about finished with her cotton candy.
And yet a few more minutes later, we were enjoying the pool for lone last time.
We probably spent a good three hours relaxing at the pool, and back in the room. And a little bit of time getting organized for the trip back home tomorrow morning.
Around 5:00 PM or so, we were heading back to California Adventure!!!!
We started off with a bit of souvenir shopping on Buena Vista Street, as this was going to be our last chance. We ended up with a few goodies.... Some trading pins, a paper weight (for me - as my fathers day gift), and a "big pin" for my parents.
After shopping and browsing for a while, we decided to head over to the Red Car Trolley. We rode it all the way over to the Tower of Terror and the got off. We wanted to ride ToT, but it was closed. Darn! Oh well, we've all ridden it before and countless times at WDW... no worries.
Over at the Bugs Life Movie Theater (I don't recall what it's really called - tough to be a bug or something), they had a 4D preview of the Ant-Man movie. Princess had expressed interest in this the other day and we didn't have time for it then, so we made it a priority this time around.
To be honest, I'm so out of the loop, that I hadn't even heard of this movie yet. The preview was actually pretty good and the special effects like rumbling seats, puffs of air, and water squirts, were all well played. I guess the movie came out a few weeks later. Princess and Buddy both saw it in the theaters and really liked it, but Stephanie and I decided to wait until it comes out on DVD. I really look forward to seeing it!
After the preview, we headed over to California Screamin' again. Stand by was about 40 minutes, so we decided to just take a pass on it.
It was a little after 7pm and we were all ready for food, so we kept moving.
Buddy and I went for Corn Dog Castle again, and the girls went for Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta.
Yum!!!!
Pickle had the kids pizza. I think she liked it well enough, but she wasn't overly excited or anything.
Princess had meatballs and plain noodles. Again, she didn't go on and on about it, but she ate it all!
Stephanie had the Chicken Sun-dried Tomato Pesto pasta. I think she liked it well enough too, but also sort of a forgettable dish.
So yeah, just a so-so meal. Certainly enjoyable, but not memorable like the Paradise Garden Grill.
It was now almost 8:00 PM and the sun was starting to set. Such a nice time to be around the boardwalk area! The Golden Zephry didn't have a line, so we hopped on that next!
Such a cool ride!
We had grabbed FP's to ride Soarin' again, so we started heading that way next.
There wasn't much of a line at all for the Little Mermaid ride as we passed by it, so took the opportunity to ride it again too.
It was about 8:45 or so after we got off Soarin'. We checked ToT and it was still down. We knew the "Mat T Party" was about to start, so we headed that way next... But we took the opportunity to grab a few more photo pass shots on the way over.
I have no idea why the photographer asked us to hold this newspaper and point at it, but we just went along with it. LOL.
I wasn't all that excited about the Mad T Party myself, but the kids wanted to ride Monsters Inc. before we left, so yeah, whatever....
Except for it was actually really awesome!!
The "White Rabbit DJ" was playing some pretty good tunes and the energy in the place was high and contagious.
And impromptu "dance off" started right next to us, with a group of 10 to 15 kids in their teens in twenties taking turns "shuffling" (or whatever they call it) and dancing off. Each trying to outdo the other. Some of them were REALLY talented and it was a blast to watch. Princess was captivated and having a lot of fun, so I stayed with her while Stephanie, Pickle, and Buddy went to ride Monsters.
I've been on that ride a couple times before, and while it's fine, it's not really one of my favorites, so I didn't mind missing out. They all had fun and then rejoined us for the remainder of the dance party. Another 10 or 15 minutes later, the DJ left and they switched up the party with a live band playing 80's cover songs. None of us were really feeling it, and we were all pretty tired after a long day, so we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel. (We were getting up pretty early the next morning for our drive to the Grand Canyon, and we still needed to pack a few things tonight. CA Adventure was closing in another 25 minutes anyway.)
So yeah, we joined the mass exedous and headed back to the Candy Cane Inn.
Good bye Disneyland, we sure had fun visiting. Of course, we'll be back again!!!!!
