Okay, so, Pete & Crew reviewed it last June, and they had a new executive chef who'd been there about 6 months, and came out to talk to them at the end of the meal. She was apparently VERY open to all the critiques (way more than I would EVER have imagined), and Pete was actually fairly complimentary of his meal. Ranked it a 7. Charles and Steve were kind of meh, Sean HATED it, but the info that came out of it included 1) they're making all their pasta in house now, 2) the sauce has ingredients that come from a can, but does not, itself, come from a can anymore, and 3) the tiramisu is awesome. I've also scoured the web looking for reviews in the last year, and there's no question it's improving. It's not drop dead WONDERFUL, but I'm not quite as icked out as I was at first.
Bottom line, I can definitely recoup the ticket price with the meal, and because I LOVE that parade and have NEVER been happy with our viewing locations, I'm just going to suck it up and do it. We've got HEA Dessert Party that evening, so I can load up on cheeseburger eggrolls if necessary.
OH!!! And an earlier ToT FP opened for our arrival day, so I am a happy happy planner right now.