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Carthay Circle Club…

Artist Rendition of Carthay Circle Theater (c)Disney

…or Triple C. Rumor has it that this will be the Disney California Adventure cousin to New Orleans Square’s hidden treasure, Club 33.

Built inside the Carthay Theater on Buena Vista Street (and all part of the current DCA facelift project), the Carthay Circle Club will offer members a feel of the type of club Walt himself might have frequented. They will relax in an Animator’s Lounge while waiting for their table to be ready in the spanish-style dining room upstairs. An open show kitchen, displays of photographs and memorabilia dating back to Walt’s early days as an animator, and wide vista views of the park and scenery beyond offer a stunning backdrop to each meal.

Club members will have a variety of perks as well, as do Club 33’s members.

Word is that Club 33 wait listers will have first dibs on a Cathay Circle Club membership, but steady your bank account now: Club members will pay $10,450 up front and $3,275 annually in dues.

The Wave Discovery Dinners for Tables in Wonderland Members

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Tables in Wonderland

, formerly the Disney Dining Experience, is a fantastic dining discount program available to Florida Residents and Disney World Annual Passholders. As a part of the perks of membership, Disney has begun offering a series of “Discovery Dinners” at Disney Contemporary Resort’s The Wave Restaurant. Here’s the info on the upcoming dinner:

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Wave Restaurant is delighted to offer a special series of dining events for the Tables in Wonderland Members. Chef Dylan Schauwecker and Sommelier Steve Shepherd will be welcoming three individuals with a great vision for the future at The Wave’s next Discovery Dinner. Bert Roper is an Inductee at the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame. He is a lifelong citrus farmer and world renowned inventor in addition to being a visionary. Mr. Roper has joined with Tim Blank who is an expert in Hydro-Organic food production to create a rooftop hydroponic garden in downtown Winter Garden, Florida. This working garden located on top of the Winter Garden Theatre represents their vision on how to create sustainable agriculture that can help feed our planet. Tim Blank is President and CEO of an international sustainable food production company called Future Growing. Guests will be sampling products grown in hydroponic towers that sit 4 stories above downtown Winter Garden. Lastly from Opici Wine Company, Donna Perrin will be joining us. Donna was integral in assisting with the selection of the wines for this discovery dinner and will be sharing her knowledge of these wines with our guests.

Reception
–Kilroy Sparkling Shiraz, Barossa Valley
–Cured Pork Crostini with Sweet Potato Brandade
–Gingered Kobe Beef Sliders with Grilled Jicama and Onion

Salad
–Warwick Professor Black Sauvignon Blanc, Stellenbosch
–Poached Lobster Salad, with local Hydroponic Greens, Avocado, and a Tomato Vinaigrette

Appetizer
–Hill of Content Pinot Noir, South Australia
–Cold Smoked Muscovy Duck with Caramelized Georgia Peaches over Brioche

Entree
–Rustenberg Chardonnay, Stellenbosch
–Wild Sockeye Salmon with a Citrus Beurre Blanc, Israeli Couscous, grilled Asparagus, Artichoke and Santa Sweet Tomato’s

Dessert
–Mt. Horrocks Cordon Cut Riesling, Clare Valley
–Summer Fruit Shortcake with Purple Micro Basil Sorbet and Sweet Summer Salad

Cocktails: 7:00 p.m. Wave Lounge at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, First Floor
Dress Code: Casual Evening Attire
Dinner to follow in the Restaurant
$92.00 per person, includes tax and gratuity

FOR RESERVATIONS:
Please email [email protected] with your interest to book, your name, daytime phone number, home address, and the number of people in your party. You will be notified on a first come first serve basis and your credit card will be taken over the phone. The event will be limited to 50 Guests.

SAVE THE DATES:
§ Epcot® International Food and Wine Festival: September 25 – November 8, 2009.

§ Tables in Wonderland will continue The Wave Discovery Dinner series in November 2009.

Disney Food Menus and Maps Now on Official WDW Website

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While the Disney Website re-vamp gave a lot of us headaches for a while, I’m very pleased to see that they’ve added two planning tools to the dining section that have been sorely needed.

Menus
You’re not the only one who faithfully prints out the menus for all your ADR restaurants and pores over them for weeks deciding exactly what you’re going to order. Apparently, enough of us are obsessed enough with Disney food that Walt Disney World has seen fit to pander to our idiosyncrasies and finally post many of their restaurant menus on their website! What’s so great about that, you ask? Two things:

The menus are authoritative, so they’ll likely be up to date.
They’re PDFs of the actual menus used in the restaurants! That means there’s just that added bit if Disney Magic and themeing that you get to glimpse before your trip!

Here are a couple of screen shots of how you can get to the menus on the Disney website. You begin by searching “Dining,” and clicking on the restaurant for which you’d like details. From there, you’ll see a screen that looks like this:

Location of Menus on Disney World Website Restaurant Pages

Simply click on the menu for the meal you’re curious about, and out pops a cool PDF that looks exactly like the menu you’ll get in the restaurant in Disney World. Here’s Liberty Tree Tavern’s dinner menu:

Menu PDF Pulled Up When Choosing Menu Option From WDW Website

Unfortunately, Disney doesn’t yet have ALL menus available, but you’ll find that about 80%-90% of what you’re looking for is there. Remember that buffet menus change daily, so those are often not posted.

Maps
Disney has also added what many of us consider to be the quintessential planning tool, maps, to its individual restaurant pages.

Map Section of Disney Restaurant Web Pages

Simply click on the “map” icon; when the map is pulled up, scroll down the list to the left until you find the restaurant you’re looking for. Its location will be highlighted on the map!

This is a great planning tool to help you determine where you’ll need to be in your touring plan (e.g. what rides you’ll want to be scheduling for before and after lunch) around the time of your restaurant ADR.

Visual When Opening Map From Restaurant Page on WDW Website

Happy Planning!
The Disney World website is getting more and more user friendly, and the inclusion of these tools, along with the interaction of the Mom’s Panel and other informative additions, makes me optimistic that the site has the potential to be a truly useful planning tool–even for veteran Disneyphiles!

If you’ve seen or used other great Disney dining planning tools, I’d love to hear about them!

California Grill: Spots Still Available for Independence Day Dinner July 4th!

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THE CALIFORNIA GRILL HAS AVAILABILITY FOR THEIR INDEPENDENCE DAY DINNER ON JULY 4TH.California Grill has availability for their Independence Day Dinner, an exclusive dine-a-round Food and Beverage event with well bar. Guests can dine on Summer Lobster Rolls, fresh sushi, Boneless St. Louis style pork ribs, Black Angus Strip Steaks, sweet buttered corn, summer salads, a variety of desserts, and many more exquisite dishes. They will have characters, a DJ with dancing, strolling entertainment, fortune teller, and magician. This wonderful meal offers an incredible viewing location of the Magic Kingdom’s Disney’s Celebrate America! – A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky at 9:00pm and then the festivities continues with additional viewings of firework presentations at Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios at 10:00pm. This is one celebration no one should miss!

Adults and children are $220. The price includes tax and gratuity. Call 407-WDW-DINE or enter 6:30pm, July 4th into the reservation request for California Grill in Disney’s online system.

Good luck!

Wishes Fireworks Dessert Party Photos!

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THANK YOU to Zapperz at My Disney Mania for allowing me to use his stunning Wishes Dessert Party photos from this weekend. Stop by his blog and see more of his photos from his trip (including a few from the Museum of Pintiquities)!

The Wishes Fireworks Dessert Party is currently running from June 23 through August 28. (9/18 Update: The Wishes Dessert Party has been extended through January 2nd, 2010!) It includes exclusive viewing for Wishes fireworks and a self-service dessert buffet. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 407-WDW-DINE.

You can read more about the event on our previous Wishes Dessert Party blog post.

Tomorrowland Terrace--Location of the Dessert Party

Castle from Party Vantage Point

SpectroMagic from Party Vantage Point

Wishes from Party Vantage Point

Wishes from the Party Vantage Point

Sunday Round-Up June 28: Disney Food Posts From the Week

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Lots of fun food posts about Disney this week! Enjoy!

SoloFriendly takes an in-depth look at Animal Kingdom’s newest table-service restaurant, Yak and Yeti: As always, great commentary and fantastic photos. Also a plug for great Disney service, which we always like to see.

Win a pair of tickets for an advance screening of Julie & Julia with Scott Joseph Orlando and the Divas of Dish on July 23rd: A fun opportunity to preview this foodie-heaven film (starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams) two weeks before it hits theaters! And, if you’re from out of town, you’ll just have to book a trip to Orlando if you win… won’t you?

The Touring Plans blog hits the China, Norway, Germany, and American Adventure pavilions on this week’s “Drinking Around the World” post: Kristen and company enjoy some Tsing Tao, Beck’s, Carlsberg, and the seasonal Beach Bum Blonde Ale…after which I hope they went and ate something absorbent!

Etckt takes a look at dining in Epcot and dining the Magic Kingdom: Rarely do you see an overview blog of dining in a particular park, so these are a great opportunity for anyone interested in seeing all of their options at once. I have to beg you to click on these links for the photography alone if nothing else, however; Matthew is skilled with a lens, ladies and gentlemen.

Orlando Sentinel’s The Dish blog highlights the Epcot Food and Wine Festival: The Epcot Food and Wine Festival is less than three months away! While details and specifics won’t be released until late July (and booking of special events will have to wait until August), Heather McPherson gives a great overview of what to expect in this post.

Lifthill’s “Walt Disney World’s Best Breakfast” article about Tonga Toast at the Kona Cafe: A good intro to the Kona cafe plus pictures of tonga toast and coffee; what could be better??

Online Dining Reservations (ADR) Launched at Disney World!

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Hey all! Just heard (6-26-09) that the Disney system is cancelling double booked time slots. Would love to hear your experiences!

You can now make your Disney World dining reservations online!

Disney has integrated the online ADR option into its restaurants section, so just click on your preferred restaurant and book the reservation. Here’s an example for Yak and Yeti.

Here’s a screen-shot of the system:

Online ADR Screenshot

Here’s what you see when the system finds a reservation for the time and restaurant you requested (note that they also give you other options to choose from). I like that, because I signed into the system and Disney knows I’m an Annual Passholder, they tell me what discount I can get with that perk:

Found Reservation During Time Requested

And what you see when your reservation request is NOT available. Again, they give you other options:

What You See When The Requested Reservation is NOT Available

Once you’ve got your online ADRs booked, you’re taken to the Shopping Cart screen. This gives specific instructions at the top, then lays out all of your ADRs. You are now welcome to add dietary and other requests:

Shopping Cart Screen

Dietary Requests Screen looks like this:

Dietary Requests Screen

Other Requests Screen looks like this:

Other Requests Screen

Once your ADR is confirmed, you get this screen:

Confirmation Screen

Once confirmed, the system will send you an email about your reservations. If you need to cancel a reservation, simply log back into the system, pull up your reservations, and cancel according to confirmation number.

NOTE: If you book two reservations for the same time, you get the following screen warning you of your error. Disney does not make you confirm that the reservations are for two different parties, however. Just heard (6-26-09) that the Disney system is cancelling double booked time slots. Would love to hear your experiences!

If You Book Two Reservations for the Same Time...

I shall investigate further! Until then, book away! Send your reviews of the system to [email protected] and I’ll post them—surely they’ll be helpful to other planners.

Thanks to Touringplans.com for the info!

Note–You can now make online reservations at The Diamond Horseshoe for the period of August 16th through October 3rd (dinner will be table-service, all-you-can-eat).

ONLINE ADR SYSTEM REVIEWS FROM AROUND THE WEB
@cherylp3 twittered that the system didn’t work very well for her in the Safari browser. Also confirmed that, if you log in, the system sends a confirmation email.
@gdpinvestigator twittered that the system took a bit longer than he’d like, and that you could likely make ADRs quicker by calling.

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