Beauty and the Beast Limited Time Offerings at the Disneyland Resort

Stained glass decoration at the Red Rose Taverne.

As I mentioned last month, I was very much looking forward to checking out some of the new Beauty and the Beast promotions happening at the Disneyland Resort starting this month. Now that I’ve had time to visit some of them (and a few more than once!), I thought I’d share some details on what you may find there!

Enchanted Rose at the Red Rose Taverne – it glows!

Definitely my favorite temporary addition – one that I wish would become permanent – is the overlay of the Village Haus counter service restaurant into the Beauty and the Beast-themed Red Rose Taverne. Not only is the theming overlay wonderful – as the original Pinocchio-themed decorations and artwork have been covered up or replaced by tributes to Belle, Beast and Gaston – but the food is a massive improvement as well!

I have now eaten there three times and despite my wanting to try multiple options there (the beef poutine and the grey stuff cupcake are still of interest!), I keep returning for the wonderful Beast’s Burger with pommes frites!

Happy 50th Anniversary Pirates of the Caribbean!

Some pirate treasure from my travels!

I seriously contemplated going to Disneyland Park today for the 50^th anniversary of one of my favorite attractions: Pirates of the Caribbean.

After all, there’s a lot happening there this week and today specifically:

• Starting this past Thursday, March 16^th, the attraction reopened after a fairly long refurbishment, so you can once again join your favorite pirate crew and sing “Yo Ho! Yo Ho! A Pirate’s Life For Me!” to your heart’s content!

• Special merchandise was released starting on the 16^th including limited edition pins, anniversary t-shirts and an amazing skeleton pirate-topped stein (which reportedly sold out the first day within an hour and a half of park opening – but more may be released today).

• Free button! If you’re at the park early enough today only you may receive upon entrance or exit an “I Was There” 50^th anniversary button. There is also a t-shirt being released today with “I Was There” on it as well.

• Themed food offerings! “Gold”-dusted churros and beignets are just the beginning of the treats that may be uncovered this weekend in New Orleans Square!

• Entertainment – yay! Lucky the Pirate will be making his regular rounds, but in a rare weekend appearance, The Bootstrappers pirate band will also be roaming the area and performing! I heard that earlier this week The Bootstrappers actually boarded the attraction and sang to some lucky passengers!

• JACK SPARROW! This was probably most tempting of all for me – rumor has it that Jack Sparrow may be doing a Meet & Greet today for the anniversary. He’s such a rare character at Disneyland Park (though he can be seen regularly at his tutorial in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort) that this is a treat indeed! I’m hoping it’s a precursor to perhaps another visit from him for the next movie release in May. But catch him today if you can!

Ultimately, I decided that it was going to be chaos at the park with all of these events happening concurrently, so instead, I’m going to the movies to see Beauty and the Beast! But for those of you who get to enjoy some of today’s pirate-y adventures, may the wind be at your back!

Note: it’s unknown how long these pirate celebrations will last – some may last only through today, others through tomorrow, and others may recur or return – time and tide will tell!

But for those who cannot be at Disneyland today, I wanted to raise a mug of rum to a few more Bootstrappers who I’ve not yet had time to spotlight here:

Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival 2017 – Entertainment

Welcome to the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival 2017!

This year’s expanded Food & Wine Festival at Disney California Adventure brings back both the culinary demonstrations and the popular (and still pricey) food and drink booths from last year’s event but adds several more of these along the parade route down Paradise Pier.

Sadly, the prices kept me away from sampling these offerings once again this year. I simply cannot justify $6 for a spoonful of soup in a mini bread bowl (bread roll?), when I can pay $11 for an entire cup of soup with a full loaf of bread just down the way at Pacific Wharf Café – so in fact, that’s exactly what I had!  Although I was disappointed that the seasonal Loaded Baked Potato soup there yesterday was much saltier than I remembered from previous meals.

But very happily, the entertainment for the Festival has been greatly enhanced as well and will definitely be bringing me back regularly for the rest of this event, which runs March 10-April 16, 2017!

For the run of the Festival, there will be two stages with all day and into the evening performances. First is the Paradise Park stage – an elevated platform right in front of World of Color. This is for the bigger shows and I’m absolutely thrilled that one of the regular bands performing here is a Disneyland Resort favorite: TOMASINA!

TOMASINA playing at Paradise Park during the day.

Yes, Tomasina is bringing her wild and crazy rock and pop show to Disney California Adventure this season!

TOMASINA playing at Paradise Park in the evening.

Following are TOMASINA’s currently scheduled dates and show times (as always, subject to change):

Show Spotlight: Main Street Electrical Parade Returns to Disneyland Park

The Main Street Electrical Parade returns home to Disneyland Park for a limited time!

What is the Main Street Electrical Parade?

Goofy rides the train!

This endearing, enduring parade has once again crossed the country back from the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort where it ran as their nightly Disney’s Electrical Parade for the past several years.

Once again home at Disneyland Park for a limited time before it “glows away forever” (for real this time… we think), this spectacle of color, lights and music was the inspiration and precursor to the (hopefully returning later this year) Paint the Night parade.

The performance features massive floats themed variously to classic Disney animated movies including Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and Pete’s Dragon, along with brightly lit individual characters all moving to the familiar strains of the “Baroque Hoedown”.

Each main massive float features matching characters (Alice atop a mushroom, Cinderella in her pumpkin coach, Pete atop Elliott the dragon, etc.) and many are also accompanied by smaller themed floats as well.

Tinker Bell in the Peter Pan segment of the parade.

Who are the performers?