A Rose By Any Other Name

The food and service at Napa Rose at Disney's Grand Californian is outstanding. Going there with a group of friends whom you've known for many years makes it that much better.

So my friend, Don, is a huge Disney/Pixar Cars fan (understatement of the year). When we walked in, we saw a row of wine bottles with characters from many of the Disney/Pixar animated features. The one that caught Don's eye was the Cars bottle. We joked that the purse of his wife, Mary, wasn't big enough to take the bottle, but that it would easily fit in my backpack.

We asked our waiter, John, if we could take a picture of one of the bottles with our glass of Meritage from the Lasseter Family Winery. He was kind enough to bring it over, which is what you see below.

Now, the back story. John tells us that John Lasseter has signed these various bottles of wine, and they just slapped labels on the bottle. So it's not even his wine! The President of Disney (We're not sure if he meant Bob Iger or George Kalogridis, President of Disneyland) saw these bottles and took them! So the next time John Lasseter was at Napa Rose, he asked what happened to the bottles and it was explained to him what happened.

John Lasseter signed another set of bottles, and he said, "That's your last set!"

Here we are after enjoying our meal.

Dom, sitting on my left, asked me, "How long have you all known each other?" I turned to Don, on my right, and Michelle, in the front in yellow, and we started figuring it out and it has to be 14+ years! We all became friends through the love of collecting the Walt Disney Classics Collection. Our friendship has endured the years and spanned the miles, and I wouldn't have it any other way. These are first-class friends here.

(Left to right: Michelle, Mary, Don, Tim, Dom, Amanda, Greg)

Be sure to check out Don's website too!  Duckman's Inside Report