Friday, April 5, 2013

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique




Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, with locations in the Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney will make your little girl, a little princess. Be sure to make reservations in advance!

Depending on the level of makeover, your little princess can choose the hairstyle they want and a princess dress (for the higher of the packages). If you're only doing the hair and makeup package, bring your own princess dress and have your little girl change there. The dress choices include Ariel (both the mermaid and as a girl), Snow White, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Cinderella, Tinker Bell and Tiana. Some locations have Merida dresses. Costumes come with a tiara and a wand.

For the hairstyles, I highly recommend the "fairytale princess" style. The amount of hair gel and hair spray the Fairy Godmothers use in this hairstyle keep it up in your little girl's hair for at least four days, if not longer, and can withstand sleeping, bathing, playing and rides. Oh, and your little one gets a second tiara to go home with.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Mickey's Backyard BBQ




Mickey's Backyard BBQ, at Disney's Fort Wilderness is a very fun dinner option for children, but make sure to make reservations in advance!

A live band, the Fab Five (Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale, and Goofy); a yummy, all you can eat barbecue dinner and more. Dinner includes items like burgers, hot dogs, BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, and potato salad. Mickey ice cream bars and popsicles (like those sold in the parks) are served for dessert (also all you can eat).

Iced tea, lemonade, fruit punch and water are your non-alcoholic drink choices. A nice surprise, beer and wine were included in dinner - they carried Budweiser and Bud Light, and a Chardonnay, a White Zinfindel, and a Merlot.

The band and characters began about 30 minutes into dinner, giving parents a chance to get their kids to eat before the fun really begins. The characters do take breaks during the night, however, look for Mickey and Minnie outside the pavilion during these breaks for pictures.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Be Our Guest Restaurant, Lunch






Be Our Guest Restaurant, in the New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom, offers a quick service lunch (and is table service at dinner). For lunch, diners order their meals at touch screen computers and are then given a red rose to signal their server as to where they are in the dining room.

Once you enter the dining room, there are a few options: the ballroom, Belle's library, and the West Wing. The ballroom is the largest dining room, however, the West Wing is almost a perfect replica of the Beast's quarter's in Beauty and the Beast - rose and all.  We ate our lunch in Belle's library, with Belle and Beast dancing in the center of the room.

The dining options at lunch for adults are amazing, considering other lunchtime quick serve options. However, for younger, picky, finicky eaters, the options are not the best. For the adults, we ordered the braised pork entree and the grilled steak sandwich. Both entrees were delicious.

For the little one, we ordered the pasta with sauce and cheese (no longer available). While this seems the most simple item on the children's menu (versus a turkey sandwich, meatloaf, seared mahi mahi, and slow cooked pork), the sauce was the spicier side (not your plain, run of the mill pasta sauce) and, for a child who doesn't like cheese, the restaurant would not alter any items, including removing cheese from this dish.

I definitely recommend Be Our Guest Restaurant for adults, especially if you are on the dining plan, as the food is very good and very high quality. However, if you are traveling with children that are picky eaters, this might not be the best option for them.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Cinderella's Royal Table




Cinderella's Royal Table, in Magic Kingdom might be the highlight of your child's experience at Disney World. Dining in Cinderella's Castle, pictures with all their favorite princesses, a magic wand for the girls and a heroic sword for the boys.

However, while the dinner experience for the children might be very memorable, the food for the adults in the party will not be the most memorable dining experience in Disney World. We ordered the vegetable risotto and the chicken Alfredo pasta. We found that the risotto was very heavy for risotto and would have been a very delicious side dish, but a very tough entree to eat, and the pasta was very bland and the chicken not very good.

However, the children's dish we ordered was the chicken nuggets, which came with corn and an appetizer of grapes and cheese.

While I don't highly recommend the food at Cinderella's Royal Table, the smile on the children's faces during and after dinner made the meal worth it.