Disney California Adventure’s “A Touch of Disney” Serves Tasty Memories

After a year of being (mostly) closed, Disney California Adventure reopened on Thursday to guests for its brand new, limited-time, special-ticketed “A Touch of Disney” event.  The new event gives guests access to nearly the entire theme park, including a number of its shops and dining locations.  Today we’ll give you a look at the new event, which is already completely sold out for its limited run, and let you know what guests got for the whopping $75 price tag. 

Welcome (back) to Disney California Adventure!

While Buena Vista Street has been open for a while as part of Downtown Disney, so heading into the event is a bit surreal after the park having not required admission media for a year.  Going into Disney California Adventure certainly feels like going into a theme park again: lines, tickets, and turnstiles.

A Touch of Disney event guide maps, Dining Card pre-loaded with $25, and park ticket.

Carthay Circle’s beautiful Pink Trumpet Trees are in full bloom and it is a delight to get to enjoy them again.

 

Carthay Circle Restaurant’s marquee welcomes guests to the event.  But what about the event offerings?  Let’s take a look. 

A Touch of Disney — The Good and the Bad

It’s hard to review an event like A Touch of Disney.  On paper, I couldn’t, in good conscience, recommend the event.  For $75, it simply wasn’t worth it for me.  A regular day ticket for Disneyland Resort theme parks, prior to shutdown, started at $104.  That’s less than $30 for a fully open and fully operational theme park: all of the rides, restaurants, shops, entertainment, meet-and-greets, and more.  Sure, A Touch of Disney gives you $25 to spend on food and free parking, but everybody attending is still paying $75 out of pocket, regardless of the “freebies” Disney has thrown in.  

Simply put, the food is pricey.  But it’s also the return of many nostalgic dishes from around the resort. You’ll find Disneyland classics such as Dole Whips and Monte Cristo’s, Trader Sam’s Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings, and previous festival favorites like Grilled Beef Tenderloin Sliders and Very Very Berry Mickey Waffles. 

But your $25 food credit won’t stretch very far.  On my own, I managed to get a Bengal Barbecue chicken skewer, an order of Carbonara Mac ‘n’ Cheese, and Sweet and Spicy Wings with my $25 Tasting Card.  I didn’t have enough for another item so I put what was leftover toward a cold brew from the cappuccino cart, paying some remaining change out of pocket.  

The price points of the food and the $25 preloaded value on the tasting card force you to either leave a balance on your card if you’re not looking to spend any extra cash, or to spend several dollars over your $25 budget if you want to use all of your pre-loaded dining card.  Other theme park food events that have taken place during the pandemic have simply guaranteed a number of tastings (typically 5 tastings), with additional tastings available a la carte at an additional fee.  

Very Berry Mickey Waffle 

Blue Bayou’s famous Monte Cristo sandwich

Below, Lamplight Lounge’s famous Lobster Nachos

Nearby, you can grab a classic Disneyland Dole Whip from Abominable Snowman.

Over in Pacific Wharf, fan-favorite Rita’s Margaritas is open for business during the event.

Disney’s choice to give guests a $25 credit is not only strange, but its simply not guest-friendly as guests can only get about 3 food tastings with their $25 credit.  With the event entry fee significantly pricier than competing theme parks (most of which offer their events for around $45), to continue to squeeze the guests with expensive food options just seems in poor taste. But the taste itself was really quite good, with items sure to please most palates. 

If the price points don’t bother you, the ordering system may.  Disney has significantly reduced the ability to order in-person at most locations which are able to support mobile ordering.  Below, the Cozy Cone Motel has consolidated its ordering to two cones, with food pickup now at the other three cones.  

Mandatory Mobile Order is a move that seems like it will end up being a permanent change as the resort resumes theme park operations on April 30th.  Even restaurants that are not being used during the A Touch of Disney event have had most of their in-person ordering cash wraps removed entirely. This change makes sense and is a smart move for Disney as it encourages social distancing and reduced person-to-person contact.  It also helps Disney cut costs, which we’ll certainly be seeing a lot of in the coming months and years as Disney finds a path to financial recovery. 

Unfortunately, the mobile ordering system is not as efficient and user-friendly as it can be.  And it’s there that Disney has room to grow and where guests will likely find the most frustration during this event.

 If you want to use your $25 Dining Card to mobile order, you’ll have to seek out a confusing-to-find option to add a Disney Gift Card as a payment method and manually enter your 16-digit gift card number every time you want to use it to place a mobile order (at least I couldn’t find a way, and neither could any of the people I spoke with). Which seems like a pretty glaring oversight, especially during an event that comes with a pre-loaded $25 dining card.  

Hopefully Disney is able to fix this issue quickly, as long queues to order at special in-person kiosks formed throughout the event. You can’t order at the Marketplace Kiosks at all, you must go to a special spot to do that if you can’t figure out the Mobile Order app.  And it seemed like many guests opted to waited in line instead of taking the time to figure out how to add the gift card to their Disneyland app, or perhaps just didn’t know how else to order.  Surely, an easier way to figure out how to add the gift card as a payment option and the ability to store the gift card as an in-app payment option would save guests time and help Disney accomplish their goal of encouraging mobile ordering. 

After fussing with your phone to mobile order with your Dining Card, you may end up waiting a good amount of time for your food.   At some popular locations, the earliest available return time for your order may be hours away.  Below, the earliest arrival window we could choose for an order we placed at 2:17 p.m. wasn’t for over an hour and twenty minutes.  On top of this, once your arrival window comes up, you then have to tell the location that you’ve arrived and they’ll prepare your food.  If you get there when everybody else in your arrival window has, then you may be in for another lengthy wait.  We heard some guests had to wait an hour to get their food once their arrival window opened up.  Disney has some kinks to work out.

All of this ultimately didn’t really negatively impact my experience and it may not be a problem for many event attendees.  If you’re already familiar with maneuvering Disney lines, planning for long waits, and are experienced users of Disneyland’s mobile app, then you’ll probably be just fine.  Guests who aren’t pro-users, however, will probably experience some difficulties at best or will walk away frustrated and dissatisfied at worst.

For sit-down dining, reservations for Carthay Circle and Lamplight Lounge booked up almost instantly when offered before the event.  The frustrating part about this is that you’ll likely notice quite a bit of available space is sitting unused at these spots.  At Carthay, the upstairs outdoor balconies remain closed entirely, which is a shame as they could add capacity to the popular dining location.  And on Pixar Pier, Lamplight Lounge is only using the upstairs portion of its expansive outdoor seating space.

Only the upstairs area (formerly known as the Cove Bar) is currently in use for Lamplight Lounge. 

Lamplight’s lower patios are mostly a victim of a lack of available Cast Members, which is an issue overall with the event.  From parking to food service to stores, understaffing seems to be pretty consistent across the event and that appears to be by design.  A reader shared with us that Disney is intentionally running the event with a barebones staff, with many Cast Members working one long shift each day, lasting the duration of the 8-hour event.  Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come and this problem will change once the full theme park operations resume on April 30th and more Cast Members are back to work.

Just a tip, if you didn’t get a reservation and would still like to attempt to dine at Carthay or Lamplight, there is a process to add yourself to a virtual waitlist. 

 

If you weren’t lucky enough to snag a dining reservation and just need a place to sit and eat your snacks, there are plenty of tables throughout the park to do so. 

The event has some other issues as well, many of which are probably just opening-day pains which will work themselves out over time.  On Thursday, the arrival process was a bit of a chore to get through.  Parking is included with admission at the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure, but Disney didn’t allow entry to the structure until around 11:30 a.m.  This created a significant backup, as event attendees need to have their park tickets scanned at the parking toll booths, plus parking is being spaced out for social distancing.  Parking took a lot longer than it needed to but this could easily be fixed with Disney simply allowing guests to start entering the structure earlier, rather than creating a backup that serves little purpose.

After parking, guests have to navigate a rerouted walkway through the back of the tram loading area at the bottom of the Pixar Pals structure.  The new setup requires guests to pass through the same type of security protocols now in place in Downtown Disney, including temperature screening and security dogs, which have been positioned on the areas where trams previously drove through. 

After passing through the temperature and dog screening areas, guests then head through the regular bag check and metal detectors, exiting out from what used to be the entrance to the tram loading area, back out into the plaza between the two parking structures. 

All of this may sound confusing but it’s actually pretty easy to navigate when you’re doing it. 

With new security protocols taking up tram loading areas, no actual trams are running, which means guests must walk the length of the tram route to get to the main entrance esplanade. 

It’s a bit of a walk, but it’s a surprisingly pleasant one.  The tram route landscaping comes in handy here, with plenty of shade covering a good amount of the walk.  Disney has decorated the tram route a bit and placed benches and hand sanitizing stations along the way, should you need a rest. 

Unfortunately, arriving early means your walk will likely end with a pretty significant wait to get into the park.  Our leisurely walk ended just before getting to Downtown Disney, at the end of a long line which ran along the Downtown Disney tram loading area into the main entrance esplanade, zig-zagging through ticket booth queues and up to the entry gates of Disney California Adventure.

A photo op presented by Honda, featuring Disneyland Autopia cars, was on display in the Downtown Disney tram loading area.

Thankfully, social distancing makes the long lines to Disney California Adventure seem longer than they are and they end up moving fairly quickly.

A Touch of Character

Inside the event, Disney PhotoPass photographers are back to work for this event and event guests receive unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads with their admission.  This is great as walking around the park and getting photos with some sights you haven’t seen in over a year is a wonderful treat.  Even more fun, Disney has characters scattered around the parks, waving from their rides, going fishing, or playing in the woods.  PhotoPass photographers are stationed near several characters, as well as at a variety of photo-ops and iconic park locations.

Over at Pacific Wharf, Goofy (and sometimes Max, too!) are going fishing.  Not having much luck with the fish, though. 

Seeing Goofy out in an organic way that fits the theme and his character was quite nice and I’m hopeful that characters out and inhabiting the parks like this becomes a fixture when the parks reopen later next month.

Walking through Pacific Wharf, a D23-sponsored photo backdrop is available

MiceChat’s Dusty Sage stopped by for a selfie

In Cars Land, you can take photos with some of Cars Land’s most iconic views in the background or with some of Luigi’s extended family in front of his tire shop.

Lightning McQueen and Mater are out to greet guests, as well.

Over on the pier, you can get photos with the Pixar Pal A Round in the background…

You can snap a photo with a Buzz Lightyear-themed backdrop

An unexpected treat: the Games of the Boardwalk were running on Thursday, free-of-charge and with prizes being awarded!  We’re not sure if this will be offered every day of the event but if it is, kudos to Disney.  During regular park operations, these games are an upcharge offering, so to see Disney not only run them for free and continue to give away prizes is a nice touch. 

For safety, there was lots of social distancing, some new plexiglass dividers, and touchable surfaces were cleaned between guests. 

Nearby, Joy is waving to guests from the Emotional Whirlwind platform.

In Paradise Garden, you can take a selfie with Miguel from Pixar’s Coco

Instagrammers love wings. So you’ll often find them at Disney’s festivals. Here’s the latest incarnation in Paradise Gardens. 

Nearby, Legacy Passholders can snap a photo with a special DCA 20th Anniversary backdrop, see a timeline of the park’s history, and grab a free Legacy Passholder event button and magnet.

A pretty cute photo op, exclusive for Legacy Passholders.

Speaking of the 20th anniversary, we have a look back at the park’s 20 years of ups and downs: 

Disney California Adventure at 20: From Zero to Hero

Mickey and friends wave from the Silly Symphony Swings platform.

The placement of Mickey and friends up on the Silly Symphony Swings platform might be the worst photo op.  The characters are simply too far away, making them pretty easy to miss and impossible to take selfies with.  

While I understand Disney wanting to avoid crowds gathering to take selfies with popular characters like Mickey, I do wish Disney had been able to work around this problem a bit more elegantly. 

A couple of Pixar Play Parade floats are on display near The Little Mermaid and Paradise Park.

A Little Mermaid-themed backdrop presented by H2O+ Beauty is on display in front of the attraction. 

Along Grizzly Trail, you may spot some chipmunks out in the wild on the hunt for… acorns of course.

A Touch of Shopping

If shopping is more your style, there is plenty to be had at A Touch of Disney.  Buena Vista Street is open along with select shops throughout the rest of the park.  Not everything is open, but some key spots are, including all the previously open Buena Vista Street offerings. Notably, Bing Bong’s Sweet Stuff is open on Pixar Pier, which drew long lines for its confections.  If you’re looking for event-specific merchandise, you’re out of luck.  For once, Disney didn’t create any merchandise for a special event. 

 

A Change of Heart

So is A Touch of Disney worth it?  Early on in this review I said that on paper I couldn’t, in good conscience, recommend the event.  But that’s simply on paper.  And frankly, after the year we’ve all had, nothing on paper really makes sense anymore.  An event like this is all about context and what everybody wants and needs right now, in this moment.  

For some of us Disney fans, simply being inside a Disney theme park right now is what we need to feel better about where we’re at and what we’ve all endured.  The pandemic has been hard and we’re all looking for something to help us through the last leg of this ordeal.  So, yeah, in normal times I’d say this event is a massive ripoff and a shameless cash grab by Disney.  

While it may still be those things, what really matters is how the event ultimately makes you feel.  If you have tickets and all you’re looking for is a mental break, a bit of that intangible Disney magic, or an escape from the house you’ve been cooped up in for a year, then this event may absolutely be worth it for you, as it ended up being for me.  

We’re all trying to sort things out right now and collectively find that path to the future.  And if this event can be a momentary diversion where you can regroup, recharge, and get some Disney endorphins in your system, then you’ll likely have an absolute blast.  

A Video Tour of A Touch of Disney with Dusty

Want to feel like you are there at the event with us? Dusty shared an hour+ video from the opening day of A Touch of Disney that you’ll want to see: 

Let’s Hear From You

Alright, that wraps up our review of Disney California Adventure’s new A Touch of Disney event.  What do you think?  Is it a feast or a flop?  Let us know what you think in the comments below!  And if you’re planning on attending A Touch of Disney, be sure to check out our handy guide to the festival by clicking here.  Stay tuned for a special Disney California Adventure update on Monday, right here on MiceChat!

The MiceChat crew has visited other local theme park food fest in the past few weeks, be sure to take a look to compare these $45 events with the $75 Disney event we featured above: 

Knott’s Boysenberry Festival Blooms & Preparing for Reopening

A Taste of Universal Studios Hollywood NOW OPEN with Surprises!

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