Park Adventures: Sunday, 1/15

After our great experience at the new Jolly Holiday Bakery last week, we decided to head back again this weekend to try some of the other items on the menu. We were only there for a few hours, but I wanted to share some photos from our time in the park. :)

We parked at the Mickey & Friends parking structure and spotted this gem. Seriously, how awesome is this?!?

The more economical Ecto

One of my favorite things about Disney is that no matter how often we visit, there's always something to catch your eye that you never noticed before. Like this poster in front of the Opera House:

I love the layout, the lettering and the vintage photo used as the background .

While in line at Jolly Holiday, we could see the refurb work going on around the Matterhorn. I was actually slightly surprised to not see one of their infamous highly-detailed scrims around the scaffolding. Saying it out loud, I realize how silly it sounds given the mass & shape of the structure, but it's Disney. If anyone can do it they can.

Gimme some scrim, my friend....

We went to the left this time and were able to grab a shot of this Mary Poppins Lenox statuette on display.

As we made it up to the front, we noticed the CM's had these cute new paddles to call the next guest over to them.

I can just hear the penguin waiters singing now...

We knew we definitely wanted to get the Jolly Holiday Combo again (Toasted Cheese Sandwich & Tomato Basil Soup), but I also wanted to try the Ham & Cheese Quiche since they were out of it on our first visit. Daniel loved the combo and didn't want to share this time so I had to get my own. Oh darn. While we were waiting, they announced that the chicken noodle soup listed on the menu was not being served because they had determined it "wasn't up to snuff", and were serving corn chowder instead. I'm a big fan of corn chowder so I asked if they were able to swap the soups in the combo and they said yes. Yay!

The cheese sandwich was just as good as it was the first time. The tomato basil soup seemed to be a little more watered down than before, although still good. The corn chowder was hearty and flavorful, but I would have preferred a few more potatoes and a little less corn. The amount of corn almost made it too sweet.

Jolly Holiday Combo with Corn Chowder instead of Tomato Basil Soup - $8.99

Next we tried the Ham & Cheese Quiche that also included a small House Salad and your choice of dressing. I was expecting the salad to be simple; lettuce, tomatoes and maybe some onions or cheese. It turned out to be a mini-version of the Jolly Holiday Salad which includes a blend of lettuce, spiced pecans, feta cheese, red & yellow tomatoes and Craisins. The salad was fresh and full of flavor, but I chose ranch dressing, which did not compliment the salad well at all. Had I realized this, I would've asked for the raspberry vinaigrette that the full size salad is served with. They also had blue cheese & Italian dressings available. Now, onto the quiche. It looked delicious, BUT...it was really wet & loose on the inside. It definitely needed a few more minutes in the oven. The flavor was good, the ham was savory & not too salty, but it was hard to get over the consistency. We weren't able to finish it.

Ham & Cheese Quiche with House Salad - $7.19

I tried the Practically Perfect Punch (pomegranate & light lemonade) this time around, which was good, but nothing I'd run back to try again. We also tried Abuelita for the first time. From what I understood, it's supposed to be a thicker & darker type of hot chocolate with cinnamon. Sounds delicious, right?. It tasted like they melted down a cinnamon drop candy and sprinkled chocolate powder into it. Not at all what I had imagined. Neither one of us enjoyed it.

Practically Perfect Punch - $3.29 and Abuelita - $2.79

For dessert, we opted for the lemon meringue & pecan bars, which are two of my favorite types of pie.
The lemon meringue bar was just the right mixture of sweet & tart. It was smooth and not overly pungent, I really enjoyed it.

Lemon Meringue Bar - $3.99

I was really excited to try the pecan bar, but it turned out to be really dry and it almost had a soy sauce flavor to it!?! I think maybe it was burnt because they looked a lot darker than what we saw in the case the week before. The second picture is borderline disgusting, but we were trying to pick through it to find something good about it. Nope. We threw most of it away.

Pecan Bar - $3.99

Dryness explosion!!

All-in-all, we enjoyed our meal, but we'll definitely go back to the hits from our last trip, like the turkey & chicken salad sandwiches.

While we were eating, Daniel looked up and spotted Tito Ortiz walking by, not-so-surprisingly without a plaid in tow. Last week when we were there, we spotted Josh Holloway walking by with his family (and a plaid!). So apparently, if you want to spot B & D rated celebrities at the parks, this is *the* place to be! We were big fans of "LOST", so it was kind of cool to see Sawyer.

Can you spot Tito Ortiz?

Hey, it's Sawyer!

Afterward, we wandered around the park for a bit, snapping some photos along the way.

Enjoying the ambiance while we still can.

Normally, I love the colors of Sleeping Beauty Castle, but something was definitely off here.

The lighting on the castle looks positively dayglo!

Who's ready for a rave??

Oddly placed purple lighting directed up the walls.

Blurry "Father" in front of his former home.

We stopped by Chester Drawers to search for a shower gift for my expectant boss. I love the nursery theme in this shop, it always reminds me of Mary Poppins.

The plan was to head over to DCA to hit up Toy Story Mania & the Fun Wheel, but it started to rain so we decided to just head home and cozy up to watch some movies. We decided to walk back to the structure since it was just drizzling and the tram lines were already huge. This meant a stop at D Street in Downtown Disney along the way! I was happy to find that the Animation Series #2 had been released and it was being offered with a new Jiminy Cricket in a combo pack. How could I could I resist? We ended up with Sebastian, which I was super happy about. He even has a little hidden Mickey on him! This week, I added 4 new vinyls to my growing army. I've been searching for the Epcot Center one for a looooong time, and my mom bought him for me on eBay as a Christmas gift! He arrived this week. I've also been searching for Tink since Park Series #7 was released a couple months ago. A super sweet friend saw me make mention of it on FB and sent it me as a surprise! I couldn't believe it! I just love how she sparkles. Here are my new additions....

Welcome to the team, guys (& gal)!

We're planning to hit the parks a couple of more times this month, so look for more updates coming soon!