Our First Visit - A February 2019 Trip Report with Disney After Hours & Festival of the Arts

[cadien]

Hello!

This was our first visit to WDW so it is also my first trip report. Technically. I've done two DCL cruise reports. We've been easing our way into Disney, pushed mostly by their acquisitions of Star Wars and Marvel. My husband and I met at San Diego Comic Con and we have a 7-year old boy, so it's all super heroes and science fiction at home. As a 70s kid, I missed the princess thing myself. I was in college when Little Mermaid was released and the serious Disney marketing kicked in. Disney for me was talking animal movies. In a good way. And Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night, after Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. DH, who is younger, has a very strong nostalgia connection to the Disney Afternoons shows. Also, he grew up in the L.A. area, which meant Disneyland. We now live in the middle of the country, but I also grew up on the west coast, so the whole thing about people talking about going to Disney always meaning Orlando has been a big adjustment for us.

This visit happened somewhat impulsively, although I still did 8 months of intensive research and planning after it was decided. Soon after we booked our second DCL cruise, I realized that it ended at Port Canaveral on a Thursday morning. It's not like we'd be going back to work/school on Friday anyway, so it seemed silly not to spend three days at WDW. None of us had been dying to go but I was curious to see what got people so hooked on the place. And DH was finally on board when he found out about Donald's Dino Bash, specifically that it included meeting Scrooge and Launchpad. (We all LOVE the DuckTales reboot, btw.) This would be DS7's fifth theme park, thanks to all the visits to the Southern California grandparents, so we knew what to expect there.

This was a pretty unusual trip. It was only three days, arriving Thursday and leaving Sunday. And to reduce the odds of being overwhelmed and irritated, we decided to only visit Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We'd all been to Disneyland, so we'd already had the Magic Kingdom experience. (And, I'll confess, were not blown away by it. DS and I both prefer Legoland.) DH prefers to leave most trip planning to me but I did have him pick the hotel, since that's an important part of enjoying the experience, and he decided on Animal Kingdom. Our son really loves animals. We watch a ton of Wild Kratts. The distance of the resort wasn't an issue because we never go back to rest in the middle of the day.

We did go with the deluxe dining plan. I know that's very controversial. I spent a huge amount of time on the restaurant boards. But I know how we eat and how we travel. And once I plugged meals and specific menu items into some of the spreadsheets, it made sense for us. (Spoiler: We used up everything without needing to bring snacks home and came out ahead dollar-wise.) Also, we were just getting off a cruise, where the meals are all included. So the whiplash of WDW food prices would not be a vacation.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide on the different events and packages. Paying for a dessert party or dinner package in order to have a low-stress view of fireworks is right up our alley. Especially at the end of very busy days. But we eventually decided that neither Illuminations nor Rivers of Light looked like something we'd want to spend our limited time on. I did book the Pirates & Pals cruise. Peter Pan was on heavy rotation for a while when DS was younger, although his Jake phase was brief. But then that got canceled in favor of (drum roll...) Disney After Hours. It was suddenly announced for our first night there, in Magic Kingdom. Doing MK as a crowd-controlled add-on was much more appealing than devoting a regular day to it, so we decided to go for it.

I subscribed to both Touring Plans and Kenny the Pirate and found them very helpful. Also the downloadable guides on Disney Food Blog.

 

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Our first morning was a busy one. Disney has (adorable) buses from the cruise port to the parks but it's not complementary like Magical Express. And you handle your own luggage at both ends.

Most importantly, they don't leave right away. If you keep your luggage in your room on the last night, and are willing to skip the final sit-down breakfast, you can walk off the ship at 7:30. The Disney buses don't leave for about another two hours, because of everyone who is eating breakfast. And then they drop off at multiple resorts. So we ended up making a 7:30 reservation with Happy Limo instead. Got up around 6:00, had breakfast in the buffet, and breezed through customs. Our driver was waiting for us and it was a lovely comfortable ride in some sort of town car. I wasn't expecting so much wilderness between the port and the parks. I'd assumed the Orlando area was much more built up. It was nice.

We reached Jambo House around 9:00. We'd decided to do regular rooms rather than DVC. There was no line to check in. Our magic bands were held up by all those mail-delaying winter storms but they had all the colors and programmed them quickly. We dropped our bags at the appropriate counter and headed back out for the shuttle buses.

They gave DS a choice of four or five animal prints to choose from for the sun visor. The cruise-themed backpack was a purchase with purchase on the ship and made a great day bag.

I had stressed a lot about what to carry into the parks on that first day because it was February 7 and recent DAH's had been very cold. Low 50s. So we packed various sweaters and sweatshirts and hats/gloves but ended up leaving them all behind when we got an updated forecast. And it stayed in the 70s all that evening.

 

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Since this day would be our shortest for whichever park we chose, we made it our Future World day. I'd predicted we'd want a full day each at Future World and World Showcase, and in the end even that wasn't enough. We just try to go with the flow and assume we'll be back to do the rest some other day. I did the backpacking through Europe thing in college and that was the only way to not go mad with all the must-see places. (It's also a great way to learn to pack light!)

Obligatory first selfie.

I wore that shirt for a very specific reason.

It took a while to get good at spotting the Disney photographers. We pretty much always buy the photo passes, especially so we can all be in decent shots. And the Magic Shots sounded super fun. Our one time at Disneyland, though, we bough the package and never saw a single photographer. It was weird.

Speaking of photos, our first stop was meeting Baymax. It wasn't a super long line but he went on a 15-minute break soon after we arrived. The queue posters were spiffy. Disney is excellent at detail.

 

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Halloween 2015:

And with the real thing in 2018:

Microbot!

While we were in line, we could watch the photos being taken with Joy and Sadness right across the way. Their line was reasonable too but DS really disliked that movie (too sad) so we skipped it.

 

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We had time before our lunch ADR to at least attempt the Ralph/Vanellope photo op and it was even also indoors, but we'd spent time in several character lines on Castaway Cay the day before and DS absolutely did not want to do any more. Even when we went inside and saw the cool backdrop and remarkably short line. He's too old for tantrums but can still whine up a storm. And he really had very little input into the trip planning so I didn't want him to start out hating it. So we moved on.

The photo line in front of the Finding Nemo garden thing was pretty long so I didn't care about that getting vetoed. And the puffer fish is a favorite anyway.

Not my photo but this is where the photopass photographer was set up:

The sun was very bright.

We did not deliberately put him under the ray. But that's his first name, so that's pretty cute.

We really enjoyed the animatronic seagulls.

 

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So our first ADR was at Coral Reef. A controversial choice. But DS really likes aquariums. He had a two or three year Octonauts obsession.

Magical Star (X-Fusion Organic Mango and Passion Fruit Liqueur, Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, Pineapple Juice) without the souvenir glow cube and a Bahama Mama.

Old-timey rolls. I didn't try one but they were all eaten.

Crispy Rhode Island Calamari - Roasted Corn Relish, Tomatillo Sauce

Kids Menu Vegetable Crudités with Ranch Dressing
We have the weirdo kid who happily eats all his veggies but won't dip them in anything.

Seared Mahi Mahi - Jasmine Rice, Coconut and Cilantro-Lime Sauce, Caribbean Shrimp Salsa

Kids Menu Pasta with Parmesan Cream Sauce and Fruit Salad

Key Lime Tart - Strawberry Sauce, Tropical Fruit Glaze, Boba Pearls

Turtle Cheesecake - Pecan Florentine, Chocolate-Caramel Ganache, and Caramel Sauce

Kids Menu Coral Reef Ice Cream Sandwich

 

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DH asked for and received an off-menu Caesar salad for his appetizer and we both had the Mahi Mahi.

The total before tax and tip was $145, so we felt good so far about the deluxe dining plan.

I was pleasantly surprised by both the calamari and the entree considering the reviews this restaurant gets. The calamari was crispy outside and tender inside. The fish was moist. The sauces were all tasty if consistently on the sweet side. Sadly, my key lime pie thing was gross. Well, the tropical jelly layer was good, and much thicker than the word glaze implied. And the boba pearls were fun. But I don't know what the key lime thing was made of. It had that same off taste as Dream Whip. Remember that? Totally different product from Cool Whip.

We did get a table right up against the window. And the service was pretty quick. They weren't stretching things out into a two hour meal like some people worry about signatures. Looking at the time stamps on all the photos, we were there one hour.

We appreciated the laminated species identification sheet. You can see it in the mahi mahi photo above.

 

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Back outside. The photo doesn't do it justice, but I really liked how these plants looked like something you'd see underwater. They even undulated properly in the breeze.

On this day, I hadn't booked any advance fast passes. It seemed safe to sign up as we went, and that did work really well.

First was The Seas with Nemo and Friends. I think that was our first experience with those moving walkways to get onto and off of the rides. Then we spent at least half an hour wandering around inside and reading all the factoids. We managed to see the last couple minutes of lunch for some rescued manatees before they swam out of the tank.

All kinds of neat coral colors.

The most tempting thing in the gift shop, but none of us would actually wear it.

We tried to get into Turtle Talk with Crush but it broke. After everyone had waited out front of the area for about 15-20 minutes, they said sorry and sent us all away. At least there were lots of interactive things to do there. DS didn't want to spend any time in the shark zone, let alone get photos with them. They creeped him out.

 

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Next was Living With the Land. That was much more interesting than the Nemo ride. I thought about the Behind the Seeds tour while planning but decided to save it for another trip.

Garden Grill looked a little chaotic. I knew about the revolving dining but not that you spend some time facing out at all the people going by. That would make me uncomfortable. The diners we saw looked uncomfortable.

DS has a heights issue and I'm not a fan of them either, so Soarin' wasn't an option. I did tell him about it just in case and that was a big no thank you.

I liked the hot air balloon decoration.

We did do some cross-crossing of the park because of when Fast Passes became available, but it wasn't great distances. After Living With the Land, we went over to Spaceship Earth. The FP queue moved slowly but steadily. It seemed like almost no one who wasn't FP was getting in though. I'm not sure how they allocate that. We had a great time in the queue spotting all kinds of fun t-shirts and hats/ears on other guests. That ride was a LOT of fun. I mean, not exciting fun but interesting fun. I forgot about the future selves feature, so I didn't get a photo. DS really enjoyed recognizing various famous events or people.


We had time before Figment to visit Club Cool. Of course I gave both of them Beverly to try without any explanation or warning. We all made the face you'd expect.

 

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I liked this on the way into Journey Into Imagination. But I also had a knee jerk "That should be Fred MacMurray."

We didn't watch any YouTube videos of rides in advance, so everything was a surprise. DS found this one hilarious. We tried all the different activities after the ride and took a couple of those photos where you're inserted into famous movie scenes.

This ride warning was a running joke with us all trip. "No partying!"

I may have squealed upon seeing this in the gift shop.

 

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Next was Mission Space Green. But only for DS and DH. Along with motion sickness, I have really bad knees, and the whole thing just sounded like I'd regret it.

Blurry photo but I just love this building.

Once they went into the queue, a CM pointed me to a door that led into the gift shop so I didn't have to wait for them out in the sun. From there you can also backtrack into the arcade area (the Advanced Training Lab), which is where all the seating is. They enjoyed the ride enough that DH went right back in to do the Orange version solo while DS hit the climbing structure (Space Base). He loves those Mad Max looking climbing structures. But for some reason this one didn't hold his attention. He was out within two minutes. He ended up at Mission: Space Race. It wasn't busy at all. There were maybe three kids per team. On their second go-round, I surreptitiously joined the opposite team and that extra push led to it coming from behind to win. It's a pretty easy game to figure out. Resource management. Always fun. (Not sarcasm.)

We looked around the gift shop but nothing grabbed us. One side is NASA-themed and the other side is Star Wars-themed.

DH was still on Orange Mission so we wandered out to Pin Central. On the way, DS could hear Test Track off to the side and thought that sounded very exciting. Now, he's never had any interest in anything automotive, and Test Track is down half the time, so I didn't even consider it. So of course that's what he wants to do. (We didn't.)

There weren't any actual pin traders around the shop and I wasn't ready to start buying anything. The pins part of the trip was weird. And a little sad. I got really into pin collecting a couple years ago. I've built up an embarrassing inventory thanks to various enabling social media groups. We missed the official pin trading night on last year's cruise and this year's didn't have one, so this parks visit was going to be my first opportunity to do any in-person trading. And in the end, I didn't. Every time I saw trading boards or CMs with lanyards, all I could think of was how over half of those pins are fakes. And there was always too much else going on to remember look for other traders except for this one brief time. The really sad part is that I ended up buying just under $100 in pins in Animal Kingdom the following day, including some limited editions, and lost the bag somewhere.

Around 4:30, we headed for the monorail station. We'd managed to do everything on the list except the malfunctioning Turtle Talk with Crush and a performance of JAMMitors, which I just forgot. We had 6:00 dinner reservations at Citrico's and there's all that advice about giving yourself lots of time to get around with park transportation. It was a pretty brief wait for the monorail at Epcot, but the wait at the Transportation and Ticket Center was really long. Something had broken down, according to a CM. Some people going to the Poly just gave up and walked. I was tempted to look up whether we could walk to the Grand Floridian too, but our feet had had a long day and there was still DAH. Not that standing in the queue was helping them either.

 

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We picked Citrico's for dinner because it sounded like our kind of food and I got the false impression from somewhere that we could just walk to MK from there. (Ha!) Originally, when we were just staying at Future World until closing and then returning to AKL, dinner was going to be at Sanaa.

We ended up with probably 45 minutes to wander around the Grand Floridian before our reservation. It is very grand yet homey. Or at least it seemed homey to us because a lot of the furniture reminded us of DH's grandparents' home. The live music had started, so that was nice. We checked in 15 minutes early, just in case, and they called us to our table within 5 of that. The dining room was only about 25% occupied that early in the evening. It was close to full when we left.

Tuna Tartare - Sashimi Grade Tuna, Paddlefish Caviar, Avocado Crema

Heirloom Vegetable Salad - Heirloom Carrots, Pomegranate Vinaigrette, Quinoa, Butternut Squash

Cheese and Grapes with Crackers (Kids menu appetizer)

Oak Grilled Tuna - Cannellini Beans, Smoked Ham Hock, Vegetable 'Pistou' Farandole

A version of the Berkshire Pork Two Ways that isn't on the current online menu

French-Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich (Kids menu)

I'd made a point of putting him in a buttoned shirt for today and DH had a shirt for himself in his day bag. A Disney shirt even, bought on our first cruise when he forgot to pack a dress shirt for Palo brunch.

This dessert isn't on the current online menu either. It's mango and raspberry.

Profiterole - Trio of Gelato Profiteroles and Chocolate Sauce

I don't know why I ever order profiteroles. The ice cream always makes the puff pastry seem stale. But DS has been marathoning a lot of baking shows so I think I did this for his benefit. To see puff pastry in real life. And those chocolate wafers on top were incredible. I don't know what they were made of. Not just chocolate. And that's crumbs of them on either side. They made the dessert. Like a chocolate flavored waffle cone but super thin.

Create-Your-Own Ice Cream Sundae (Kids menu)

How great is this? And they're incredibly generous with the toppings.

We didn't get a photo of the bread basket but there was olive bread and something else. We each started with a specialty cocktail and then had the suggested wine with the entrees. DH also had the Grand Cappuccino (Kahlua and Baileys Irish Cream) with his dessert (they're on the paper dessert menus but not on the online version) since we were about to hit Magic Kingdom. $247 before taxes and tip. Still feeling good about that deluxe dining plan. This is how we order on vacation regardless.

Disney After Hours officially started at 8:00 that evening and it was close to that when we left the restaurant. I knew that people were frequently being let in 30 minutes early but I didn't want to rush. A monorail came while we were still waiting at bag check but we made it aboard.

DH had come to WDW pretty reluctantly, but he was already talking about "on our next visit" at dinner.

 

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So Magic Kingdom is kind of a blur. Although that's probably true for people on their first visit regardless of the time of day. It was already dark when we arrived. It's a bit of a maze to find the gate, at least in the dark, but we just followed other people. We'd been mailed physical tickets (which fortunately did arrive before the winter storms, unlike the magic bands) and they scanned just fine.

Main Street seemed interesting but the fireworks were starting. It seemed important to get as close to the rides as possible while the crowds were distracted. We paused a few times to watch however.

DH led the way all evening and was able to get around without ever consulting a map. Just based on his familiarity of Disneyland. And because we were trying to accomplish as much as possible, I didn't have a chance to second guess various rides and went on all kinds of things I probably would have chickened out on at any other time.

We started with Pirates of the Caribbean. It had been out of order on our trip to Disneyland, so that made it a priority. There was NO ONE in the queue. DH was flabbergasted. And thrilled. He is totally sold on special events now. DS has seen the first Pirates movie two or three times, although only that one because we're meh on the others. It got spooky for him in parts but never full-on scary, and we all enjoyed it. The animatronic Johnny Depp at the end was pretty impressive.

One of the few things I did not research is where all the ride cameras are. But look at how few people there are!

Next was the Jungle Cruise, which we had done at Disneyland but I loved it. Especially the corny jokes. This one was just as funny and there wasn't a 45 minute queue. DS and I rode Aladdin's Carpets while DH found a restroom. Then it was off to Frontierland.

We did spot a lot of snack vendors but never stopped for anything. Never got hungry or thirsty. As the evening went on, the lines in front of them got longer and longer.

I was really leery of Splash Mountain but wasn't going to just wait around in the dark for them to finish. And didn't want to make DS think it was scary. It was a much more detailed ride than I expected and much longer. So many fake outs as to when the big drop is actually going to happen. And so much story! I'm old enough to have seen Song of the South several times as a kid. DS wasn't familiar with the stories but found it all very interesting, so I bought him the updated edition by Julius Lester when we got home and he's been really enjoying them.

 

[missangelalexis]

Following along!

Sounds like a good time in Future World on your first day. Glad you liked Coral Reef. I enjoyed it too despite the bad rep it gets!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I'm here! So excited to read about your first visit. Hope it was enough for you to return!
Sounds like a great time so far, and you lucked out with all the yummy meals. Your meal at Coral Reef looks pretty good. Haven't been there since 2011 or so, and we thought it was pretty decent but with horrible desserts too.
Citrico's is delicious! And I do love the magical star cocktail.

Sorry you lost a bag of pins! That must have been painful. But hopefully you still had a good time.
Sounds like DAH was pretty cool for you! We did the DHS one, which I think was considerably more crowded because we didn't' leave Toy Story Land. Slinky Dog was the only ride that had a wait.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Joining in. I can't wait to hear how your trip went.

Disney has (adorable) buses from the cruise port to the parks but it's not complementary like Magical Express. And you handle your own luggage at both ends.

Boo the cost and double boo the baggage handling. That was one of the most magical things about ME.

So we packed various sweaters and sweatshirts and hats/gloves but ended up leaving them all behind when we got an updated forecast. And it stayed in the 70s all that evening.

Awesome! Always better to be prepared, but isn't it great when you don't have to break out the cold weather gear?

I'd predicted we'd want a full day each at Future World and World Showcase, and in the end even that wasn't enough.

Agreed. We did a full day in each and it still felt super rushed.

Magical Star (X-Fusion Organic Mango and Passion Fruit Liqueur, Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, Pineapple Juice) without the souvenir glow cube and a Bahama Mama.

I had a couple of those Magical Star cocktails on the DDP, but they brought me the glowcube as well. Did you ask for no cube or did they specifically tell you that you couldn't have it on the DxDP?

Turtle Cheesecake - Pecan Florentine, Chocolate-Caramel Ganache, and Caramel Sauce

So cute!

Kids Menu Coral Reef Ice Cream Sandwich

Out of curiosity, how did he like that? It looks cute but potentially inedible

We did get a table right up against the window.

Great view.

We tried to get into Turtle Talk with Crush but it broke.

Bummer, my girls got a kick out of that one.

DS hit the climbing structure (Space Base).

Yup, mine killed some time in there, too.

The really sad part is that I ended up buying just under $100 in pins in Animal Kingdom the following day, including some limited editions, and lost the bag somewhere.

Oh no! Is it possible they're just stuck in another bag or have you already completely ripped apart your luggage?

DH had come to WDW pretty reluctantly, but he was already talking about "on our next visit" at dinner.

My husband came home talking about how much DVC costs, so I hear you on that. We had always agreed we'd do one big trip every few years, but he already wants to go back.

So many fake outs as to when the big drop is actually going to happen.

These got my kids every time. They kept saying, "Is this the one, Mommy?" all frightened.

 

[cadien]

Following along!

Sounds like a good time in Future World on your first day. Glad you liked Coral Reef. I enjoyed it too despite the bad rep it gets!

Hi!! Maybe all those negative reviews helped to keep my expectations low! But really, it was just as good as many of our other meals. Disney chefs can dry out fish. I've had it. But this was just right.

I'm here! So excited to read about your first visit. Hope it was enough for you to return!

Yay! Oh it was...

Joining in. I can't wait to hear how your trip went.

Likewise!

Boo the cost and double boo the baggage handling. That was one of the most magical things about ME.

We did get to experience ME on the way home at least.

I had a couple of those Magical Star cocktails on the DDP, but they brought me the glowcube as well. Did you ask for no cube or did they specifically tell you that you couldn't have it on the DxDP?

Good question! I asked for no cube. We already had one in our luggage from a cocktail on the cruise and I didn't want to risk an upcharge.

 

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From Splash Mountain we went over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. That one is more of a blur and apparently we didn't get a photo.

Then a bit more of a walk to Haunted Mansion. No photo with that either. DS was not a fan. He didn't freak out, but he told us afterwards that he didn't want to go on it again. I was in a doom buggie by myself, which was fun. Someone did recite the entire stretching room thing, as I've seen people complain about. And it was weird! The stretching room, not the guy talking over it. I'm glad I avoided spoilers, although I'd really wondered what it was based on the name. I probably will look up the bit with the bride now though. I couldn't really figure out what was going on in that room, especially since I couldn't make out what she was saying. I'm pretty sure she killed him but that's all I gathered.

I said DH led the way but there were two things that were my idea and they came next, back to back. First, the lantern photos. Which took us way too long to find and it turned out they were just on the other side of Haunted Mansion. #V8slap There were only two sets of people in line in front of us. We did the three poses that the photographer called out and called it good. She offered to do combinations like just one of us or just DH and I but the line was steadily growing and we had more to ride. I'm really happy with what we got though, especially the middle one, even if it's a little dark to tell I wore the right colors.

 

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Fortunately, we were right across from my favorite ride from Disneyland: It's a Small World. I have never been into cutesy anything and my mother-in-law was really surprised by how much I loved it, but there's just something about Mary Blair's art style.

This is definitely a ride, however, where Anaheim blows Orlando out of the... well, water. It's tiny! And inside a building! And my knees were painfully scrunched up the entire time against the dashboard or whatever you call it on a boat.

Sadly I don't have a decent range of photos of both for comparison, but a quick Google Image search will make it pretty clear.

Then we hopped on Peter Pan because it was right there. I read after the fact that there's some sort of interactive shadow thing in the queue but of course we didn't really have a line to wait in. I loved the design of the little ships and all the different scenes from the movie, but being up like that scared me to death.

There was something else in Fantasyland that DH wanted to visit, maybe Winnie the Pooh, but we were starting to run out of time and it was very important to him to not miss Space Mountain. So it was off to Tomorrowland.

This one had just a little bit of a wait. Five minutes? We were moving almost the whole time but there was a lot to move through.

This is also one that I will not do again. I came the closest to motion sickness and, worse, kept feeling like my glasses were going to fly off. My current style doesn't have those nose pad and it makes a difference. I'd start getting woozy so I'd put my head down, but then the glasses would start sliding and I'd have to lift my head back up. Vicious circle. It was also kind of rough. My back and hips were pretty sore when I got off. The others loved it though.

We had time after that to hop on the People Mover to see what the big deal is there. It was a nice rest. And it would be really interesting in daylight. DH suggested attempting Carousel of Progress but I was just done. We made our way back to the entrance and found the buses. There was plenty of clear signage for those, fortunately.

We picked up our luggage at the hotel rather than calling for it because we wanted to get into bed immediately.

And did.

I wore my FitBit that day and discovered the next morning that I'd walked 19,860 steps. It's just as well that I didn't see that number until later because I would have felt obligated to go up and down the hallways for 140 more and I was really too beat.

 

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Despite knowing we'd be turning in after midnight, I made us 8:00 breakfast reservations at Boma. Because we only had three days. And we can get up pretty early when we need to.

Sure enough, we had zebras and giraffes, although they look much further away in this photo than they were in real life. And you have to take my word for it that the zebras are there.

Not really surprised to see how far the theming goes for things. It's Disney.

It's much easier to make it to an early breakfast reservation when you're in the same building.

When we checked in, they gave us a pager and told us to have a seat. It was about three steps to the bench and we had barely sat when it buzzed. Okay?

POG mimosas!

In my family, holiday and/or vacation breakfasts always have mimosas. The in-laws do not do this, as I learned with some embarrassment, but DH has easily acclimated to our customs.

DS apparently doesn't like guava, because he loves both orange and pineapple juice, and has drunk plenty of pineapple-orange juice, but didn't like POG at all.

His equivalent of vacation mimosas is being allowed doughnuts.

There's a Simba waffle under the pancake. And that's a giant mutant strawberry in his other hand. Two or three fused together. I made him try the biscuit and gravy in case he liked it but no.


DH's first plate. If he had a second one, we didn't get a photo. He probably didn't. The online menu is missing the more unique things, but the Disney Food Blog comes to my rescue with the identification. He has the bobotie and both the mustard sauce and sambal for the ham. I think that's a plantain too.

I have bobotie with chakalaka, pap, African-spiced corned beef hash, plantains (we really developed a taste for these in San Juan), and scrambled eggs with spinach and goat cheese. They didn't seem to have the African fruit salad or I would have tried it. My general rule of thumb is to focus on things I can't eat at home...

Have I mentioned that bread pudding is my second favorite dessert? I've never decided whether because I love bread pudding because it's like French toast or I love French toast because it's like bread pudding. It kind of looks in this photo like they had creme anglaise along with the praline sauce but I don't remember. Also a guava-filled pastry. Because guava.

We left very happy.