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.

Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios

Have you ever wanted to be a Jedi?  Want to fight Darth Vader?  Well, if you're an adult, you might be out of luck.  However, your kids, ages 4 to 12, can get the opportunity to slay Darth Vader!  At Disney's Hollywood Studios, every day there are multiple Jedi Training sessions available.

During this activity/show, kids will be brought on stage, given Jedi robes and a Light Saber, and taught how to use the Light Saber.  The host/head Jedi, is quite enjoyable and funny.  At the end, each child gets the opportunity to fight Darth Vader, and it is quite a thrill for them, not to mention a great photo opportunity.

If it's something you're interested in, make sure you sign up early in the day.  As soon as you get into Hollywood Studios, make your way towards the Star Tours attraction, and shortly before then is a building where you can sign your child up for one of the sessions during the day (same building as the American Idol auditions!).  If you wait until mid-day to do this though, you may be closed out and not be able to help destroy the Dark Side!

This event is free for children but is first come first served during the day. Parents are asked to stand outside the training area, but a PhotoPass photographer takes photos of all the children during training and during their big battle against Darth Vader.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Every year in December, the Magic Kingdom has a few special days called "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party".  In order to attend, you need to purchase a special ticket, which usually sells out in advance.  This ticket gives you access to the Magic Kingdom for the party, from 7 PM to Midnight. However, you get access to Magic Kingdom beginning at 4 PM.  Since only a limited amount of tickets are sold, it does greatly limit the amount of people in the park, which is great, especially during this busy time of year.

You'll have the opportunity to see special shows and parades that are only shown during these times, as well as see special characters including all Seven Dwarves together, which is a rarity.  The lines to the rides are shorter.  You get unlimited free cookies and hot chocolate included in your ticket purchase (apple juice also available upon request).  It's just a great way to enjoy the Holiday season at the Magic Kingdom and we'd highly recommend it for any Disney aficionado.

Disney's Art of Animation Resort

Disney World's newest hotel, the Art of Animation Resort, is absolutely gorgeous!  There are 4 themed areas, representing the worlds of The Little Mermaid, Cars, The Lion King & Finding Nemo.  The Little Mermaid section is made up of rooms similar to the other value resorts on Disney's property, but have a more fresh feel to them.  They also went to great lengths to make guests feel like they truly are in the Little Mermaid universe.  While we didn't get to stay in the other rooms, they are more suited towards families as they are full suites (and hence more expensive).

Around the property, you'll find all of your favorite characters from the movies, and Disney has created some of the more iconic scenes throughout the resort.  The imagineers really out-did themselves to make guests feel like they are inside each of the movies.

There is also all the standard benefits of staying here as with other Disney hotels such as free bus transportation to/from the airport, free bus transportation to all of Disney World, early/late access to the parks and more.

If you're looking to go to Disney World, definitely put this resort at the top of your list of places to stay!

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!

Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Lake Buena Vista, A Sky Resort

Hotel Review of Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Lake Buena Vista, A Sky Resort

We only got to spend one night at this hotel, but even in less than 24 hours, they people at the front desk managed to make this a negative stay.  Let me first start with the positives.  The hotel is very easy to reach from Disney World, especially Downtown Disney.  The hotel lobby is simple, but inviting and clean, as is the rest of the hotel.  And, that about ends the positives.

The rooms are quite small and cramped.  For an area rich in hotel rooms, you can easily find a more comfortable room for less money.  In addition, in the bathroom, the sink has no space to place any items on, which is quite annoying.

The biggest issue we ran into though was with the service.  When we went to use the toilet, we discovered that it was clogged and needed to be fixed.  I tried calling down to the Front Desk, but there was no answer after several rings.  I went straight down there instead and asked that someone come and fix the toilet, but they said that maintenance and housekeeping weren't on duty for another few hours so no one could fix it.

Plenty of staff were at the hotel, so someone should have come and taken care of this.  The most they offered me was a plunger to fix it myself.  This was a completely unacceptable answer for a hotel to give.  In the hospitality industry, asking a guest to plunge a toilet is a big problem with your service.  The front desk refused to do anything about this.

As we were checking out in about an hour at this point, there wasn't too much recourse for us except contacting Wyndham directly.  After I contacted Wyndham via their website, they did get back to me about a week later with an offer of a $75 refund to be delivered to me, which was received after about another week.  I'm glad that Wyndham did provide this compensation, but they didn't address the need to re-train their front desk staff on how to deal with these situations.

In addition to this major issue, they also did manage to "lose" our reservation and we had to jump through a few hoops to get them to find it.  Due to this, I believe it is best to avoid this hotel and use one of the numerous other hotels in the Disney World area.

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.

Cat Cora's Kouzzina

Cat Cora's Kouzzina on the Boardwalk at Disney is a delicious restaurant in WDW. Unfortunately, everyone knows it and it books up very, very quickly, so make reservations early! And, if you can, make your reservations for when they open (5 p.m.) and get there a little early. Before they open the doors to seat diners, all of the servers, chefs, and staff go outside and do an opening cheer. Definitely walk outside and witness this, as it's definitely fun and interesting!

Also, ask for a seat by the kitchen. The kitchen is completely open, so you can watch the chefs work, and even prepare your own meal. Its fun to watch as the chefs prepare the meals. As they start fires on the cook top, one chef will yell "forte!" (Greek for fire) and every other chef will subsequently yell Opa!

We ordered the oak-fired pork tenderloin, which was moist and had this crust from being grilled that was incredibly flavorful! It's served with zucchini cornbread, an interesting cornbread that was sweet and tangy and paired nicely.

We also ordered the slow cooked lamb shank, which was fall off the bone and cooked perfectly.

Top everything off with the delicious pomegranate splash, sweet, fruity and candy-like. (Super yummy.)

Disney's Pop Century Resort

One of Walt Disney World’s Value Resorts, Pop Century is a great option for couples, families and groups of all sorts. The hotel is a sprawling complex of four-stories buildings that traverse pop culture from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Decorations around the complex are gigantic replicas of toys and gadgets from the eras in pop culture – yo-yos, laptops, cell phones, Rubik’s cubes, bowling pins and more. There are also three pools at the hotel – the larger Hippy Dippy pool, and the two smaller pools, the bowling pin pool and the computer pool.

Classical Hall – the resort’s central building – contains the main check-in lobby, the Everything Pop shop, an arcade, and the food court.

The rooms are spacious, with connecting rooms available, and kept very clean by housekeeping before and during your stay. Housekeeping will also keep children entertained – one of our neighbors at the hotel found their new stuffed animal friends in their window shades upon their return the next evening!

The cast members at the front desk are also very valuable – when you first check in they can also answer all of your questions about the parks, extra magic hours, the dining plan, and more. And during your stay, if you have any problems or issues, they will see they are fixed, corrected or righted as quickly as possible. (We did not have plastic cups one night and went down to get more. The next day, housekeeping left the normal, as well as extras for us.)

The only complaint we had was the toilet paper – it was the roughest ever felt and rougher than the toilet paper in the parks, even. However, if this is the only complaint with the hotel, it is a small one, to say the least.

Disney transportaion: Magical Express, resort transporation, monorail service and more

There are lots and lots of reasons to stay at Walt Disney World Resort Hotels – my favorite is the joy not having to drive during your stay.

When you book your vacation, if you are flying into Orlando International Airport (MCO), make sure to choose tickets for Disney’s Magical Express.

Magical Express is a Disney transportation service that takes resort guests directly to their hotels from the airport, no additional cost. And then, at the end of your stay at Walt Disney World Resort, Disney’s Magical Express will return you to the airport.

If you have checked baggage, you can skip baggage claim and someone from Disney’s Magical Express will pick up your luggage and take it directly to your hotel room for you. However, if you arrive after 10 p.m., you will have to claim your own luggage.

At the end of your stay, you can check in at your resort for your return flight and check your luggage at your resort.

While at Walt Disney World Resort, take advantage of the complimentary resort transportation, which will get you between the resorts, the parks, Downtown Disney, and more.

Busses leave approximately every 20 minutes. From the hotels you can reach the four parks and the water parks, as well as Downtown Disney. From the parks, you can reach all of the resorts, but not park to park or Downtown Disney.

Water taxis connect Magic Kingdom park to Grand Floridian Resort, Polynesian Resort, Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground and Wilderness Lodge. As well as a ferryboat that connects Magic Kingdom to the Transportation and Ticket Center.

A ferryboat connects multiple resorts to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. A separate ferryboat connects resorts to Downtown Disney.

A monorail system runs throughout the park, one running from Magic Kingdom and connects the Contemporary Resort, the Grand Floridian, the Polynesian and the Transportation and Ticket Center. There is also an express monorail service that originates from the Transportation and Ticket Center to Epcot and Magic Kingdom.

Eating in Disney with the Disney's Dining Plan

While planning your Disney vacation, why not plan all of your meals ahead of time by adding the Disney Dining Plan to your reservation? There are multiple options that will suit every need and you’ll save up to 30 percent on your meals while you’re there.

The basic Dining Plan, Magic Your Way plus Quick-Service Dining include 2 quick service meals and 2 snacks for each night of your stay. However, you can upgrade from the basic Dining Plan to include table service meals, refillable mugs and more.

The only things not included the dining plan cost is tips at table service meals and alcoholic drinks.

We found we saved a lot of money by purchasing all of our meals ahead of time, and then we didn’t have to think about the cost of food while we were in the parks. Most days, for a combo meal at a quick service location in the parks, and dessert (all of which are included in the quick service meal) for two people typically cost around $35.

For dinner, at many of the buffets at the Walt Disney World Resort Hotels is between $25 and $35 per adult.

Paying ahead of time for all of our meals through the Disney Dining Plan we saved quite a bit of money, and because of it we highly recommend the Dining Plan to anyone heading to Walt Disney World.

Vinylmation

The newest fad at Walt Disney World is called Vinylmation. These three inch Micky Mouse shaped guys are then designed to resemble Disney characters, park icons, and some are just fun.

The key behind Vinylmation is they are sold in sealed boxes that you can’t see what’s inside. You know what is potentially inside (the entire collection is pictured on the back) but the exact one inside is a mystery.
However, if you don’t get the one you want or the one you need, you have two options. Many stores that sell Vinylmation have a clear case with three Vinylmation inside that you can trade for.

If you don’t like any of those options, there is also a black case with 24 options. You can pick a number to trade for, but don’t have to commit. However, you can only trade once per store per day.