All photos copyright Disney

Massive summer crowds are making their final seasonal assault on the Disneyland Resort, but there was still plenty of news coming out of the Anaheim area last week.

Crowd Calendar

Quietest Day: Friday 8/10 was a 9 out of 10 at the resort, with DCA crowds at 9.1 and Disneyland Park at 7.7.

Busiest Day: Saturday 8/11 was a 9 out of 10 at the resort, with DCA crowds at 9.3 and Disneyland Park at 8.5.

Subscribe to the TouringPlans.com Disneyland Crowd Calendar for details on predicted crowds for the next 30 days.

Special Events

• Disney released a quarterly earnings report, confirming a massive increase in attendance at Disney California Adventure since the relaunch in June.
• The Destination D fan event celebrating 75 years of Disney feature animation was held August 11-12 at the Disneyland Hotel.
• A temporary exhibit of sets and props from the upcoming Tim Burton stop-motion film Frankenwenie was announced for DCA's Hollywood Land, opening in September.
• Reservations are now being taken for the temporary Pirates League makeover boutique being set up in Disneyland's Court of Angels for the Halloween season.

• Disneyland announced that the Glow With The Show ears sold for DCA's World of Color show will soon also interact with Fantasmic at Disneyland Park.
• A video released by the Disney Parks Blog depicts how “Owen,” one of the resort's newest horses, was trained to work on Main Street USA.
• Special discounted tickets and hotel rates are available to active and retired military personnel and their families from August 17 through September 2013.
• Tickets for the August 2013 D23 Expo in Anaheim went on sale on August 9.

• Bookings are now open for the new “Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps” VIP tour. Begining September 9, the new tour (which replaces the popular “Walk in Walt's Footsteps” tour) includes visits to the Club 33 lobby and Walt's private Main Street apartment. The tour price will increase to $108.
• The Disney Parks Blog announced an opportunity to meet Imagineer Tony Baxter and the authors of the new book “Poster Art of the Disney Parks” at Disneyland's Disney Gallery on August 18.
• Another blog post highlighted Chef Jean-Marc Viallet, creator of the “ugly” pies served at Flo's V8 Cafe in Cars Land.
• Newly released videos feature the Goofy “Instant Concert…Just Add Water!” and “Dancin' with Disney” shows at DCA.

Openings, Closings, and Refurbishments

• Additional concept art was released of the under-construction Princess Fantasy Faire, due to be completed in spring 2013. The current Princess Royal Walk closed August 12 to transform the Fantasyland Theatre back into an entertainment venue; the princess meet & greets have been temporarily relocated to the Small World mall.
• Al Lutz shared rumors that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will close soon for a major refurbishment, to last through most of 2013.
• Many of the beach balls have been removed from Luigi's Flying Tires in Cars Land, in an apparent effort to improve the slow-loading ride's throughput.
• Construction of the Earl of Sandwhich restaurant in Downtown Disney is slowly progressing.
• No other scheduled attraction closures were reported last week.

Last Week at Disneyland Resort (8/5/2012 – 8/11/2012) is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

The neon-soaked source of my favorite Cars Land food. (All photos by Seth Kubersky)

Ever since Disney California Adventure relaunched last month, the park’s new food offerings have been earning almost as much attention as the attractions. Tom Bricker recently reviewed the park’s signature restaurant at Carthay Circle, but there’s also some intriguing automotive-inspired food to be found in Cars Land.

In a sense, Disney has attempted to ape Universal’s overwhelming critical and commercial success in concocting Harry Potter-themed comestibles. Sales of Butterbeer and Cauldron Cakes have help propel profits at Orlando’s Wizarding World to new heights, and I imagine Disney’s chefs hope their dishes will do the same.

After a week spent sampling both sweet and savory from around the town of Radiator Springs, I feel I can report that the results are mixed. Some dishes I delved into earned a firm thumbs up, while a few failed epically. And then, there are the ones that appear awful on the surface, but pleasantly surprise once you dig under the surface.

So, with humblest apologies to Sergio Leone, I submit a spaghetti western of Cars Land’s featured flavors:

The Good,…

I’ve read grumblings in online fan forums that the food in Flo’s V8 Cafe is too “fancy” for the average theme park visitor, who is presumably only interested in hamburgers and chicken nuggets. You won’t find me joining that off-key chorus, because I found Flo’s fare to be fabulous. The menu focuses on old-fashioned, unpretentious comfort food with just the right amount of freshness and southwestern flair. At about $11 an entree it isn’t exactly cheap, but everything I sampled was a fair value, and you even get to eat with silverware off real plates (instead of wasting more plastic).

Take, for example, the citrus turkey salad. In most theme parks, you might expect some wilted iceberg with luncheon meat on top. Instead, Flo’s prepares a sizable portion of flavorful mixed greens, featuring tart arugula, and julienned vegetables including carrots, cucumbers, and yellow peppers. That harvest is topped with generously carved slices of juicy roasted turkey breast, nearly identical to the fine fowl served in Fiddler, Fifer, & Practical Cafe’s turkey Ruben (a sandwich worthy of a blog post of its own). Drizzle the dish with the bright, tangy citrus-tarragon salad dressing served on the side to tie the plate together. For a bonus, you get a cube of flaky, buttery bread that is a step up from your average store-bought dinner roll. As a connoisseur of theme park counter-service salads, I’d judge this is about the tastiest and best-looking that you’ll find in the state.

What is your favorite food in Cars Land, and what do you think is the worst? Leave your answers in the comments below, and check the blog soon for my picks in the conclusion of this series.

Cars Land Food: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (Part 1) is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.