OC Wine Trolley

Great experience and worth the $! Al and team are so hospitable and do a great job of educating and entertaining! Food and wine were ample and good… fun night for groups and people of all ages… then after you are done… enjoy a walk thru the Orange Plaza

Big fun! I grew up in Orange and thought it would be be suckness. I will say the trolley seats are a little hard although good friends and wine fixed that. Do not bring the party killers to this one. We had a great time with fun people. The ones that didn’t have fun came up with a host of BS on how it could have been better. F-​Them Unilocal clown critics.
Thanks Al we had a great time!

Took the trolley tour on Friday June 27, 2014 and I’m sure we’ll be doing it again. It’s a really unique way to see and learn about Old Towne Orange. The trolley stopped at 12 restaurants which promptly brought out sampler food trays. Wine was poured throughout the tour. Lots of food and historical information. I was impressed with how well the trolley stayed on schedule considering the number of stops and Friday evening traffic. Bring a seat cushion as the benches are a little stiff. Also, don’t eat before you take the tour — you’ll be eating more food than it seems because it’s presented in small amounts at each stop. No one left hungry.

Went last night and had a great time! We learned a lot about the town, had some great food and wine and really enjoyed Al, Jeremy and Sean!
Here are some of my tips for making the most of the night:
–Come hungry! There is a lot of food and you want to be able to enjoy it all.
–Come early! Get a seat closer to the front so you can hear all the fun tidbits about the town.
–Play along! Chime in and guess at the trivia and ask questions. It’s much more fun if you just give in to the whole experience.
–And bring a paper and pencil! We didn’t get a list of restaurants (which would’ve been nice) and we really liked some of the places but had to work hard to remember their names and where they were located.
Overall, we had a blast and will absolutely be back!

I work for an insurance broker and we set up a client event with the Trolley Tour. It was amazing! All our clients loved it — the food, the guide, the history, the wine… their only complaint was that there was too much food! It was an absolutely perfect evening and we will most definitely do it again!

OC Wine Trolley is a guided 2 hour tour of Old Town Orange that includes; historic facts, wine from a featured winery, and serves samples of food from various restaurants in the Plaza all to a mostly 50s-​60s pop soundtrack. It’s heavily sponsored by Ricci Realty.
Facts: the trolley is small, well kept, and historic. It holds about 24 folks, so it’s cozy. The seats are wood, so if you can’t sit for long, bring a cushion. The windows open if you need air. There are steps to get inside so it’s not wheelchair friendly. They serve wine and many of the food samples have meat, so if you don’t do meat and alcohol, this isn’t for you. You stay on the trolley the whole tour. They do make two stops if you need to use the restroom or just have to have a cigarette.
Review: The wine, the food, the historic facts, and the trolley itself were great. If that’s all you need, it succeeds at that. However, my 3 star rating is about presentation. Our tour guide, Al Ricci — head of Ricci Realty, was great as our guide. However, he ran out of historic facts before the tour was over. Need more history. (Al does jokingly point out during our tour that he’s run out of material. I give him points for that.) The wine guide, Sean for our tour, was difficult to hear at times when he pointed out facts about each wine. A simple wine handout with all details would help. As mentioned, the food was great, however it’s weird to get two desserts early and a big taco at the end. I suggest sequencing the food so the dessert is served at the end. The music was all pop from the 50s and 60s, no problem there. But when you have to hear the same songs over and over it become tedious. We heard «It’s Not Unusual» by Tom Jones 4 times, and several others often. Have enough music for the whole tour.
Editorial: This is a fun tour. And I don’t imagine many people care about the things I’ve mentioned, they’re here for the wine. I liked the history of Old Town and wanted more, loved the wine but can’t remember the winery, and when Al points out a house he’s sold for $ 1.5 million you wonder why he doesn’t have $ 30 bucks to spare for enough tour music.

The information that you learn on the trolley about old town Orange was fascinating. The portions given for food tasting at the restaurants were really good, you leave the trolley very full and the wine parings are nice as well.
The negatives are the seating because it’s an old Disney trolley, so the seats are wooden… suggest bringing something soft to sit on and for your back area if you want. Also, it would be nice to get a bit of bigger plate to hold the food that you get from the restaurants… somewhere in between the size of a dinner plate and the small plate given on the trolley.
But all in all, a fun experience :).

What fun thing to do on a summer Friday evening!
This was so much fun and interesting. Al R. certainly knows a lot of information about the Old Orange area; i.e., historical homes, vintage buildings that once housed well-​known businesses, and some delicious restaurants.
His staff was also so much fun and helpful. We enjoyed the various restaurants that provided food along the way. It was really delicious and the wine pairings very good too. One wine we enjoyed so much, we bought a bottle of it at the end of the tour. I especially like that there was no walking on this tour, everything was done on the cutest little red trolley. It was great to have a rep from each restaurant board the trolley and tell us about their restaurant and serve us some of their specialties.
One suggestion would be to provide participants with a list of the restaurants at the beginning of the tour. We want to return to a couple of them, but don’t exactly remember their names.
We look forward to doing this again and bringing some family and friends with us.

This tour is so fun…
Great food, and lots of it… good amount of wine… everyone is really nice… just all around fun!
Only negative is the seat are small and not very comfy so bring something soft to sit on and a small pillow for your back!
I recommend this to my friends and I personally would do it again!

Less than four weeks before my wedding, and I’m going crazy trying to find a trolley rental company that will actually return messages. After much Googling, I find OC Wine Trolley. Their website states that you can book the trolley for weddings and special events. Excellent!
I call the number on the site, and find an unfriendly lady on the other end. When I inquire about rentals, she seems greatly inconvenienced, and tells me that I need to speak to Jeremy, and gives me another number to call.
When I try to call Jeremy, an even more unfriendly lady picks up the phone, wondering why I’m calling that number. I explain, she tells me he’s out and will return my call. When he does call back, he is incredibly nice and accommodating on the phone. I tell him my dates, hours, and drop off locations. He says that he might have to charge me a bit extra for the distance (Glendale), but that everything seemed fine, the trolley was definitely available, and to just e-​mail him so he could reply with a quote. His over-​the-​phone hourly rate of $ 150 seemed great for the circumstances.
I’m relieved to have finally found a trolley after months of searching with no luck.
After almost a week with no response, I call back the second number. Unfriendly lady is rude, and asks me where was I trying to rent a trolley. When I tell her Glendale, she’s briskly explains that they had talked about it, and had decided that was too far away from Orange County, and that they didn’t want to really operate outside of the county… completely contrary to what I was previously assured of on the phone.
No sympathy for the position she placed me in (3 weeks away now with no transportation!), and the complete lack of professionalism in notifying me of this new change of heart in a timely manner.
Maybe there’s something in the trolley water, because we’re now two for two on Bad Trolley Business Owners.

Wow. What a great experience. Like the other reviewers, even though I’m a current resident of Orange, I still learned a ton of stuff about Old Towne from the tour. The entire team was great. The food was plentiful (about 4 restaurants in, my husband and I were painfully counting how many restaurants were left on the tour — there were 13 total!!!), but delicious. So neat to see the proprietors totally getting into the tour. Also, get ready for wine, wine, and more wine.
In short, we had a fantastic time.

I had a blast! This is a great thing to do even if you don’t drink wine. I suggest bringing your own beverage or bottle of water. I don’t drink wine, and I found it extrememly difficult to get water. Also, if you are interested in learning all the wonderful facts about the city, I suggest sitting close to the front so you can hear better.
I highly recommend this. Very fun!

Highly recommended if you like to drink, eat, and learn about local history!
Had a lot of fun on the wine trolley! It’s owned by a local real estate company that donates all of their profits to the Orange Senior Center. I thought that was pretty cool.
When we showed up for the trolley at 7:45 PM, we weren’t sure exactly how it was going to go down — were we going to stay on the trolley the whole time, or get out at each restaurant and go inside? My worries went away about the structure as soon as we saw the people from the earlier trolley unload from their seats. Big smiles, and it was obvious a healthy amount of alcohol had been consumed. Looked like we were in for a good time!
You stay on the trolley for the whole trip. They give you a plastic wine glass that is refilled during the trip. Starts with white wine, then champagne, then red wine. As you pull up to each restaurant, a representative from each place comes out and gives a speech about their operation and they give you a sample of an entrée or dessert. One comment: I wish that they trolley went in order of types of food. Starting with a sandwich, going to an ice cream/​rice pudding, then to roast beef & potatoes, then back to dessert… is a little tough. But the food was great!
The tour guide gives a lot of good information about local real estate (not a coincidence since they are in the real estate industry), the city of Orange’s involvement in movies, and other historical facts. Good facts, and entertaining.
I’m giving it a 4 stars instead of a 5 for 2 reasons: 1) the jumping around of food dishes from entrees to desserts, back to entrees and 2) the lack of discussion/​touring of Chapman University. Chapman seems to be a major part of the city of Orange, and there was limited time devoted to the university. There almost seemed to be a bit of bitterness about the cost of tuition and the amount of local real estate that Chapman owns. I graduated from Chapman and this was disappointing to me.

Fun, interesting and an overall very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours on a nice summer evening. Al, the tour guide knows a lot about the local history, which was pretty cool. He plays a nice selection of oldies to go along with the theme. The food samplings from about 10 restaurants was good and filling. The wine, while not an expensive label, was better than I expected. It helps to go with a few fun friends but either way a very nice experience.

FUN WITH A SIDE OF FUN!
The first thing that I will say about the OC Wine Trolley is: Like any tour, it will only be as fun as you make it, so relax, smile, wave at the pedestrians, sing along to the radio, and HAVE FUN.
The tour dialogue is interesting/​witty. Mr. Ricci is truly an expert of his market and has some very insightful stories to share. Justin (? — the guy on the Segway) is hilarious. The rest of the staff is also very pleasant.
The trolley is very well-​kept, albeit pretty cramped — the benches are too narrow, but aside from laying the benches out in two very long rows (facing the houses), I’m not sure if there is an alternative. So if you are a large couple, this trolley may be more uncomfortable to enjoy.
If you are a serious wine connoisseur: this tour is not for you. On this tour you will: be sampling very small amounts of some pretty good wine while learning some interesting «wine-​101» type of facts. At the same time, you will be driven around Old Town Orange, learning some cool facts about the city’s history and periodically, the trolley will stop at some of the best eateries in the area, where a representative — sometimes the establishment’s owner, will step aboard with trays of food samples, and will kindly tell you about their restaurant. In my opinion, this is best part of the trolley tour.
If it wasn’t for the cramped seating arrangement/​constant-​reminder-​that-​I-​need-​to-​lose-​weight ;) …I would have easily given the tour a 5-​star rating.
An evening aboard the OC Wine Trolley is a fun way to spend a Friday evening. I will definitely do this again.

Had a great time on wine trolley — group of 13 of us friends went & everyone really enjoyed it! Wine was good– food was great & tour guide Jeremy was entertaining. Only suggestion would be to have restaurants that serve dessert be last ;) Would recommend this & look forward to doing it again sometime in the future!

Was invited by Old Town Al for an evening on the Wine Trolley on a pleasant Friday evening. For full disclosure, I am a Realtor and sit with Al on a Board of Directors, but went into this evening with the attitude of a guest.
I live in North Orange County. I have been to Orange and Old Town Orange on numerous occasions and thought I «knew» Orange: I was wrong. I don’t intend on buying a home here in the near future, but if I were, I would call Al. He knows not only the Orange of the past, but is absolutely aware of the Orange of the future.
After 3 hours on the trolley, I felt I had graduated with honors in a Masters of Orange. The food was plentiful and delish. The wine was meted out judiciously and some were very nice. But the highlight of the tour is Al and his consummate knowledge of Old Town Orange.
Part of the pleasure evening is enjoying the company of the other guests. We were blessed with a trolley of fun loving folks. Thank you Al and his staff for a memorable time in Orange.

What fun we had on the Wine Trolley!
It was a perfect Friday night «Happy Hour» after a busy week. Good food, good wine, gracious attention from the tour and restaurant staffs.
The trolley is quaint and it fun to see the entire tour start to loosen up after the first couple of pours. By mid tour the windows were open and we were all waving at people on the sidewalks.
I thought two hours was the perfect length. You have just enough wine without drinking too much, and the food keeps coming.
Al Ricci knows and loves Orange and it shows. He was a wonderful host. Our sommelier, Windy, was knowledgeable and fun (not to mention brave for wearing white while pouring red!)
I’m ready to go again!

The OC Wine Trolley is a great way to sample the restaurants of Old Towne Orange and get a tour of the historic homes. The wine certainly doesn’t hurt either.
It’s put on by Ricci Realty, so don’t be surprised to hear Al Ricci plug himself now and again. It’s $ 75 a couple, with the proceeds benefitting Meals on Wheels. Thats where the tour starts.
It takes about 2 ½ hours, with a bathroom break at Pitcher Park. The tour finishes at Rod’s Liquor. I wouldn’t bother buying anything there, because the tour is pretty much over at that point.
We tried 14 different places, and to be honest, it was really too much food. The highlights for me were Felix’s, A Perfect Circle Cupcakery, Ruby’s, Cheery on Top and Citrus City Grille. Bruxie doesn’t participate unfortunately.
Make sure you bring your appetite.

I had high hopes for this tour as the buzz that surrounds it is at fever pitch. So my husband and a couple of neighbors headed out on the tour last night, and here is how it went…
Seating Fail — The trolley is actually one of the old Marriott trolleys from the 80s, super cute, very quaint but you can tell that they are not designed for long rides. I am all for making the best of any situation, but damn, they are uncomfortable. There is a seat on each side of the trolley over the wheel well, where one of you has to sit with their knees under your chin basically. We were «lucky» enough to have those seats. They sucked big time! My suggestion to the operators is to not sell them because no one over 4’9″ could ever be comfortable sitting in them. Another suggestion, pad the seat backs as I have a lovely bruise in the center of my back. :(Oh, and if you and your partner in trolley riding crime are larger than a size 12, good luck fitting in the seats!
Tour Length Fail — Imagine sitting in the super uncomfortable seat I just mentioned and they announce the tour is going to be 3 hours long. OMG.
Wine Fail — I realize these tours aren’t designed to get you hammered, but for the $ 75 price tag I was expecting at least to be able to ask for seconds. The pours were small to say the least and you just got the wee little taste and that was it. Our host said that the restaurants «donate» the food — so what exactly is the $ 75 price tag for? It’s definitely not for a boat load of wine.
Kinda a Food Fail — The food was good, so that wasn’t the fail at all. The restaurants all did a brilliant job, so a big thanks to each of them. The problem was there was just too much food. I honestly think if they featured a handful of restaurants it would really give them a chance to showcase their menus. Because there are soooo many restaurants, it’s just too much food. I feel sorry for the places a the end of the tour because most of the people on the trolley are full.
History Win — I loved all the stories we were told about Orange, who knew that Big Mama’s House was filmed there? This was my favorite part of the tour hands down.
Real Estate Pitch — The host is part of Ricci Realty and he of course gave us some stats and told us about houses in the area that were for sale. It was fine, sometimes interesting, so no harm no foul there.
Would I do it again — no. Would I recommend it — probably not. Do I see the good they are trying to do for local merchants, absolutely!
I don’t want to be the enemy of fun here, I realize they are just starting out, so I don’t write them off, there is just a lot of room for improvement. My best advice if you are still going to go is show up early so you don’t get those crappy wheel well seats!
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