World of Color is BACK! After 10 months of refurbishments it’s back and better than ever! With new Fastpass & Dining Package viewing areas, there’s no better time to see this amazing show.
As soon as I heard the news that World of Color was reopening, I immediately went online to Disneyland.com and booked a dining package! I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go to the Parks in the morning to get Fastpasses, so a Dining Package is the next best option to ensure you get a good spot (and to avoid a tiny princess meltdown.)
There are 3 Dining Package options for World of Color – Carthay Circle, Wine Country Trattoria and the Dessert Party. While Carthay Circle and the Dessert Party are both incredible experiences, we went with Wine Country Trattoria because it’s the least expensive of the 3. At $49 for adults and $25 for children ages 3 to 9, it’s still pricey, but totally worth the money!
We arrived for our 6pm reservation a few minutes early so we sat down in the Mendocino Terrace and had a glass of wine before dinner. There are 2 terraces on either side of the restaurant and 1 upstairs that are open to all guests and both are lovely places to sit down and escape the crowds. We received a text message when our table was ready which was nice.
The dining package includes a starter, entree and dessert from the prix-fixe menu as well as a non-alcoholic beverage. Adam and I both decided to start with the salad. Honestly, I was disappointed. It was like a weird wedge salad and the dressing was lackluster. We talked to the table next to us and they had ordered the soup and loved it so my advice is to go with that. Next up were the entrees. I had the Lasagna Rustica and Adam chose the Chicken Parmesan (Chicken Parm to you Sopranos fans!) Both of these were really good and made up for the salad letdown. We ordered one of each dessert and to my surprise, I really loved the Chocolate Panna Cotta. It was creamy and delicious!
It should be noted that you can upgrade your starter to either a Caprese Salad or Rustic Bruschetta for an additional $4. Also on the back of the menu, there are several options for alcoholic beverages (Hooray for DCA) I chose the Tour of Italy flight but you can also order off the regular drink menu and get a bottle or glass of wine from their fairly extensive wine list.
The kid’s menu is also a 3 course prix-fixe menu with some great options for kids. Little A chose the spaghetti (which she of course barely ate any of!!) and it also comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert (which she of course ate all of!! #kids)
Our meal lasted about an hour which set us up perfectly to head straight to the World of Color Viewing Area for the 8:15pm show. The viewing areas have changed since last year and I was really happy with the area for Wine Country Trattoria. Wine Country Trattoria’s new viewing area is on the 2nd tier of Paradise Gardens Park. We showed our Dining Package pass to the attendant and we were shown right to our spot. We arrived at 7:25pm and got a spot right on the rail, which is perfect for little kids to see the whole thing without being held. If Adam & I had been by ourselves, we could have shown up much later and still been able to see, so keep that in mind if you don’t have kids. It was slightly breezy that night so we did get misted with water when the fountains went full force in the sky. But not so bad that it bothered us.
Another amazing thing I learned is that if you ask nicely, the attendants will give you a ticket for re-entry so you can leave and come back. Little A and I left Adam to hold down the fort to use the restroom 10 minutes before the show and as long as you have a dining package ticket, they will let you back in. I made sure to stop and talk to each attendant on our way out just to let them know we would be back and no one gave us a hard time.
The new viewing areas are outlined in the map below. You can read more about them in THIS POST and why I think Wine Country’s viewing area is better than Carthay’s.
We really loved not being rushed to get to a viewing spot with our dining package. It made for a (dare I say it) RELAXING night at Disney California Adventure. The food was good and the show was amazing! If you haven’t been, get there now!!
Have a Magical Day!
[…] Dining Packages and the Dessert Party are the easiest way to go. You can book either of these 60 days out by calling Disney Dining at (714) 781-3463 or online at Disneyland.com. The Dining Packages give you a sit down meal at your preferred restaurant and a paper pass allowing access to your restaurant’s assigned viewing area. You can read more about them HERE as well as our review of the Wine Country Trattoria dining package HERE. […]