Disney's Soda Fountain

The one and only, and located directly across from Grumman's Chinese Theatre, be sure to stop into Disney's Soda Shop for a quick, light lunch or a very, very delicious ice cream sundae.

We ordered the grilled cheese and the the french dip sandwiches for lunch, both which were delicious and the perfect light lunch for a warm Los Angeles afternoon. For dessert, we ordered the black and white sundae, which was perfect for two people to split.

For Disney pin collectors and traders, be sure to swing in for the Soda Shop exclusive pins.

Akershus

Akershus, is the lesser known of the princess dining experiences, tucked into the Norway Pavilion in EPCOT. While lesser known at WDW, we preferred this princess dining experience over the more popular castle dining at Magic Kingdom; the food was better and the children were able to interact with the princesses more.

For dinner, we ordered two orders of the Traditional Kjottkake, the Norweigian meatballs, which were absolutely delicious. For the little one, we ordered the pizza, which, despite the excitement around her, she finished and helped us eat our desserts.

Dinner also included the salad buffet, which was the perfect way to start a fun dinner and help a little one settle down from the day before eating dinner.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen

 Gumbo Ya-Ya

 Creole Onion Soup

 Drunken Chicken

Blacken Chicken Carbonara

In Downtown Disney at Disneyland Resort, Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen is a great find. There is an outdoor and an indoor dining area. The outdoor dining area has heat lamps for cooler evenings in California, and is great for people watching. The indoor dining doubles as a dueling piano bar in the evenings.

We started our meal with the Gumbo Ya-Ya, a chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, which was delicious. It was creamy and had layers and layers of flavors.We also had the Creole onion soup, which was NOTHING like a French Onion Soup. This was creamy and rich with an onion flavor but without those stringy onions in the soup.

For dinner we ordered the Drunken Chicken and the Blackened Chicken Carbonara. The Drunken Chicken was fantastic -  the chicken perfectly cooked and the mashed potatoes delicious. The carbonara, on the other hand, left something to be desired. I've had blackened chicken before and this wasn't very blackened, just seasoned. The carbonara sauce was good, though.

Disney Cruise Line: Parasailing on Castaway Cay

Parasailing on Castaway Cay is an amazing experience.  For those who have never been parasailing before, let me assure you that it is quite a calm experience and there really is nothing to be scared of.  You'll take a ride out a bit from the island and then take turns, either solo or in tandem, going up in the air.  

Your guide will safely strap you in to the parasail and gently send you into the air.  Once up high, you'll get an amazing view of the island, the ocean and of course your Disney cruise ship.  It feels wonderful being up in the sky like that and it will create a memory you'll never forget.  After about 7 minutes, you'll be slowly brought back onto the boat, and at no time will you land in the water (unless you specially request it).

We'd definitely recommend anyone going on a Disney Cruise in the Caribbean to take advantage of this experience and we promise you won't be sorry.

Castaway Catamaran Sail and Snorkel to Shipwreck Cove - St. Thomas

We knew that snorkeling was something we'd like to try during our Caribbean Cruise.  There are many choices for this, and we decided to go on the Castaway Girl, departing from Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.  This ended up being an excellent choice!

You take about a 20 minute ride out to the cove for your snorkeling.  You should be aware, depending on the sea, it can be a rough ride, but not unpleasant.  Once there, you receive instructions on how to snorkel including safety information as well as how to enjoy yourself in the water.  All of the equipment you'll need is provided. 

Once in the water, your tour guide will take you around the cove explaining the different sea life you're seeing, which cannot be fully appreciated in just photos.  She also shows a shipwreck under water that she'll swim through.  This was definitely a very exhilarating tour that we'd recommend to others looking for a snorkeling trip in St. Thomas.  

After everyone got back on the boat, there was plenty of Rum Punch to go around (and other non-alcoholic drinks for kids).  Refills were unlimited and simple trail mix snacks were provided as well.

Mountain Top Downhill Rainforest Trek - Sint Maarten

Mountain Top Downhill Rainforest Trek in St. Maarten is a great excursion for those in good physical condition. Let me repeat that: only do this if you are in GOOD PHYSICAL CONDITION.

People on this excursion are taken to the top of Pic Paradis by bus and then a very bumpy ride by truck. The hike downhill from there is much easier than the hike uphill would have been, but some of the sections of the trail are steep, rocky, or both. However, the views from the top of the hill are worth the hike back down.

The trail has two sections, the first small section ends at a road for people who signed up and decide they can't handle the hike. From here, someone from Loterie Farm will come pick you up. However, beyond that, there is no turning back.

The area that you hike through was once a rainforest that was destroyed and turned into a sugar plantation. You'll hike past a slave-built rum distillery, see lots of critters (we saw lizard-type creatures both big and small) and tropical fruits and learn about the local flora.

This is a very cool excursion. It takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to hike down the mountain, and you will get sweaty. But the views and the history you'll learn about St. Maarten, and the ride to Loterie Farm and to the top of Pic Paradis makes everything worth it.

Disney Cruise Line: Eastern Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Magic

A fantastic getaway, even for couples sans kiddos, is the Disney Cruise Line 7 Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise. With three days at sea during your cruise and three ports of call, it's a great balance of time on board to enjoy all the ship itself has to offer as well as enjoying the best of the Caribbean.

We opted for a higher end room, on the Disney Magic stateroom level 5C - a standard size room on deck 5 with a veranda. The room was tight compared to a hotel room, but we didn't spend a ton of time in the room anyway. The veranda was our favorite area of the room. Of the time we spent in the room, more than half of the time was spent out there. We had room service deliver breakfast one morning and the attendant placed the tray right out on the veranda for us.

The other beauty of this room was the split bathrooms. I could be showering and getting ready for the day while in the other bathroom, you could use the toilet, brush your teeth, do your hair, etc. while the two bathrooms were small, having the two rooms and a sink in each room made getting ready in the morning a breeze!

On 7-night cruises, there is a formal night. On the Disney Cruise Line website it says the attire for the night, "formal wear for men: tuxedo or suit; for women: gown or dress." However, the degrees of formal for the evening is as varied as the people on the cruise. We did a formal cocktail dress and shirt and tie (above). Others did full suits, some women packed ball gowns and went to the on board salon to get their hair done. There is also a semi formal night where we did a similar style and some people wore less formal attire than that.

I also want to give some space to the onboard Vista Spa. The spa area is another adults only area on the ship and on the Magic the doors near the spa lead outdoors to the Quiet Cove pool, the adults only pool. We thoroughly enjoyed the Rainforest Room, which we purchased entrance to on the days we were at sea. Sauna rooms ranging from hot to cool as well as very unique lounge chairs that heat up. This room is incredibly relaxing (so much so that people would fall asleep in those lounge chairs!). This is definitely a must-do for adults who want to relax but don't really want to spend the big bucks on massages and facials on board.

Disney's Yacht Club Resort

When staying at Disney World, there are numerous options of hotels to stay at.  You can easily filter out many hotels based on the price you're willing to spend.  If you're someone who is willing to pay a decent amount of money for your room, then Disney's Yacht Club is definitely a prime choice.

From the moment you pull up, you're greeted by a host and all of a sudden everyone else you meet along the way knows your name.  Inside the hotel, you're greeted by the Captain of the club, dressed in full uniform.  The staff is extremely friendly and welcoming.

When you get up to your room, you'll find plenty of Mickey Mouse related items, such as the towels on the bed shown below.  The Yacht Club theme is very prevalent throughout the room, as well as the hotel itself, and is very charming.  The rooms are spacious, clean and have extremely comfortable beds.

Outside, the hotel shares a swimming pool area with the Beach Club Resort, which features a slide coming off a "crashed" Pirate ship, which is something children will love.  There are activities in the pool area going on all the time, from sing-a-longs to movies on the "beach".

The hotel is also located across the lagoon from Disney's Boardwalk, making it easy to reach this area either by foot or boat.  In addition, you can take this boat to the back entrance of EPCOT center for a quick way into the park in the International section.

If you have the money for it, this hotel is definitely worth your patronage on a visit to Disney World!

6-ft. Waves at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon

Gang Plank Falls at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon (video)

The Trip Down Summit Plummet at Typhoon Lagoon

Portobello

Downtown Disney's Portobello is a nice hidden gem. It's tucked into a corner and a little bit out of sight, and the food and service is amazing, to boot. If it's a nice night out, ask for a table on the patio, the view is amazing. In the evenings, the lights reflecting off the lagoon are beautiful and you can watch the boats go between the hotels and Downtown Disney.

We ordered their value special: soup, entree and gelato. If you're looking for a full meal, this is definitely the way to go. We ordered the spaghetti pomodoro with meatballs (meatballs are an additional charge, but worth the price) and the tomato bisque soup (which was topped with shaved Parmesan cheese - yum!). The spaghetti had perfect sauce and the noodles were cooked perfectly.

We also ordered the grilled pork chop on top of polenta with Florida sweet peppers. The polenta was like grown up mashed potatoes, I couldn't get enough! And the pork chop was cooked perfectly - it fell right off the bone and melted in your mouth. The whole plate was delicious.

Garden Grove Restaurant

The Garden Grove Restaurant, located in Disney's Swan Resort, has been decorated to make diners feel like they are in a garden, with a tree in the middle of the restaurant and, if you are there in the early evening or later, after the sun has started to set, the lights in the tree begin to light and twinkle, giving the garden a magical feel.

The Garden Grove also has character dining at dinner time, and themed dining each night of the week. Characters change throughout the week, with Goofy and Pluto being one set of characters.

While the setting is beautiful, the food choices are not the greatest. The selection is small and what we had was either under cooked or over cooked. However, the dessert options were delightful, and a much larger selection than the dinner buffet. The brownies even has Swan and Dolphin on them in gold writing, which was a nice touch.