December 10th, Part 2 - Lunch at Club 33 and evening in the parks!
According to the time stamp on the photo Jeff took, we arrived at Club 33 at 11:20 for our 11:30 lunch reservation. We approached the secret door and pressed the buzzer!
The world’s most exciting buzzer.
We gave them our names and were told that they were not seating guests until 11:30. They offered to let us wait in the Court of Angels if we wanted. We said yes, of course!
It was all decked out for Christmas!
They had a little bit of Club 33 merchandise set out near the door. We were looking at it when the hostess asked if we would like some hot chocolate while we waited (remember, it was cold!). We said yes, and she said that she had already set up a little table for us.
After about five minutes, we were the first people seated in the restaurant for the day!
When we were seated, there was a card on our table congratulating us on our wedding, signed by all the restaurant staff. So nice! Then we were given menus to look over.
I started with a champagne cocktail, pictured here with fancy Club 33 bread basket. If I remember correctly, Jeff got a mai tai. It was crazy to think that we were drinking at Disneyland!
You can choose between a three and four course menu for dinner. We weren’t terribly interested in any of the appetizers, so we chose to have three courses: salad, entree, and dessert.
According to the internet, this is the “Lafayette” garden salad with shaved radish, cucumbers, and vinaigrette maison. We both had it, and it was good for what was basically a typical appetizer salad.
Then we both got the petite filet mignon with tender haricot verts and cabernet jus. I am a big fan of any kind of steak in a red wine sauce, and this did not disappoint.
As we began to eat our entrees, the manager of the restaurant approached us to congratulate us on our wedding. He said that he had spoken to our friends who booked us the reservation, and they had set up a bottle of wine for us!
Honestly, from the moment the manager gave us the bottle, our wine glasses were never less than half full. Our server was consistently filling them, pretty much every time he walked by. By the end of the meal, we had finished the bottle! Oops!
For dessert, we did get different items from each other! Jeff got the apple pie with white cheddar ice cream. The ice cream really did taste like cheddar... weird but good!
And I got a citrus tart with passion fruit meringue and huckleberry syrup. Yummm.
So good!
After I finished my dessert, I went out on the balcony. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take my wine outside. I remember looking down and seeing some people looking up at me. Although I knew that I was allowed to be there, it startled me, and I stepped back until they went away.
And then we ran into some friends in the lobby area, where we posed in front of terrible lighting.
After about two hours and that whole bottle of wine, we literally couldn’t drag our meal out any longer, no matter how hard we tried. So we paid our bill and left. But not before picking up a Club 33 Christmas ornament!
Club 33 was such a special experience for our honeymoon! It was pricey, so I don’t think it will be a regular stop for us on trips to Disneyland, but I would love to visit for dinner some time.
Now sufficiently full and semi-drunk, we decided it was time for a nap. But first, we stopped to say hi to Minnie, who had done an outfit change since we saw her in Club 33.
She’s so darn cute!
We walked back to the Grand Californian for naptime, and we were hungry again by the time we woke up. We headed down to Whitewater Snacks in the resort for dinner!
I don’t remember what Jeff got, but I got these delicious nachos!
After we ate, we headed to DCA because we had gotten into a Disney Parks Blog meetup! The meetup was for the Aladdin musical. We got to see the show, and then they did a Q&A with the actors and stage manager.
I’m excited for the Frozen show that’s going to go in that theater, but the Aladdin show really was great! The genie was always so funny.
After the meetup, DCA was closed, but Disneyland was still open. We headed over to see the fireworks, but it turns out that we didn’t make it in time. We couldn’t find any decent spot. We shopped for a bit instead, until the crowds cleared out. Then we met up with a friend who happened to be in town as well, and we got churros!
After talking a while, I realized that Paint the Night started in about half an hour, and the spot that we were talking in would be right on the parade route! Score! So I sat down as we continued to talk, so I could keep our spot. Soon our friend left, and Paint the Night began. No photos unfortunately. We were too busy watching and enjoying!
After the parade ended, we were exhausted. Time to head back to the resort to get some rest before it was time to wake up for DCA extra magic hour the next day! But not before a couple good night photos at Disneyland.
In the next update: morning at DCA!