(Magic Kingdom, Grand Floridian Cafe)
After a goodnight’s rest Hana was ready, bright and early, to hit the parks. We have never made it early enough to see the Magic Kingdom Welcome Ceremony. Let alone, on an Extra Magic Hour morning. The crowds were scarce and it was pretty cool. We tried out the new RFID sensor at the gates. It was super confusing. Apparently, since our tickets weren’t attached to our room cards, we had to wave our room cards, and then meet up with a cast member, with a palm pilot to scan our park tickets. We didn’t run into this problem at any other park.
Again, it was pretty empty, so we decided to try out our first character experience!
She was curious. Rough petting and tugging on whiskers, Pluto didn’t whimper once.
As we walked in, our first plan was to hit up Fantasyland- Enchanted Forest! We walked past Be Our Guest and found they started their counter service at 10am. Then we headed to Gaston’s Tavern.
Best sugary breakfast ever!
A nice cup of LeFou’s Brew! My get up and go juice!
This is about when Hana’s excitement fizzled and she crashed from waking up too early.
This is also when I started running into problems with the charging privileges on my room card. I couldn’t use the waving system to pay, and didn’t find out until the next day that the real issue was with my card. I will go into that more on Day 3. Thankfully, my mom brought her credit card.
I loved the new additions to the park and just wish I took more pictures of Fantasyland in general. Just beautifully done. When we visited on this morning, it was empty and so relaxing. However, the following day, when we came back during the afternoon, it was packed and chaotic. I see some issues with the flow of traffic to and from this area. There was only one way to get from Enchanted Forest to Storybook Circus. Going back towards the Teacups. Point being; avoid the crowds by hitting it up these two locations first thing in the morning.
To kill time until lunch, we decided to hit up ideal “first time rides.” My mom has been to Disney World three times in her life and never rode most of the signature rides. I think it was a real treat for her.
It’s A Small World was first!
Hana has a book about this ride, along with a cd that plays the song, so she was pretty excited due to the familiarity. Infact, I had to pop that pacifier in, because she started “singing”…. loudly.
Half way through the ride, she lost interest. Infact, it was hard to get Hana to summon any excitement on any other rides after this. I guess we peaked too soon.
We then went over to the Journey of the Little Mermaid. It had an amazing queue, but the ride just didn’t meet our expectations. Although, I am not sure what are expectations were. Ursula was pretty realistic looking, so that did impress us. I heard a child whimper a bit from another car, so that might be a heads up for those taking on children that may frighten easily. That may have been my husband though. Either way, be prepared to comfort if needed. OH and don’t bother taking photos. None turned out when we tried.
Next up, teacups. My mom loved them and I was happy to have her go on them. My husband gets motion sick, so he has only indulged me once. Hana however, still no excitement.
She did follow our challenge of no smiling on the teacups.
Dumbo was next, so we wandered over to Storybook Circus. I really liked what they did here. Again, the traffic flow did show some issues the next day, when we came in the afternoon. It was like walking into a dead-end with hundreds of other people. So, I would recommend hitting this up early, along with the Enchanted Forest.
Kyle thought she was sleeping. She was just channeling Eeyore. That and, being the observer that she is, was looking at the ground/water below.
In this area, tucked towards the back, under a “tent” is a meet and greet area with Daisy, Minnie Mouse, Donald, and Goofy. It is called Pete’s Silly Sideshow. Because of the dead-end issue, not many people ventured this far back, so there was zero wait in the morning.
Now, this got her excited.
We didn’t get a picture catching her doing this, but she actually gave Minnie a kiss on the nose. It was so cute.
After our meet-and-greet, we saw it was 9:30 and thought we should head over to Be Our Guest.
We didn’t expect the looooong line!
While we waited in line, we looked at the menu and decided what we wanted. We didn’t manage to get into the restaurant until 10:45am. The worst part about this wait, we couldn’t have the stroller with us in the line. So, for an hour, I had to hold my squirming, exhausting child, who eventually passed out and was pure dead weight.
My back, was killing me.
After we walked in, we were ushered to a hallway lined with coughing suits of armor. I thought Hana would have gotten a kick out of it, since she is in her coughing to get attention phase. Sadly, we didn’t get pictures. It wasn’t until we reached the podium to be placed in the proper line to order food that we remembered to use the camera.
Wish they had comfy chairs like this outside!
Now, the ordering system was not efficient. They had self-ordering kiosks, which made sense, but they also had cast member operated registers too. They asked if we were on the dining plan, which we weren’t, and sent us to a cast member. We ended up in line for quite some time, as we saw folks come and go at the self-ordering kiosks. It was abit frustrating, as I thought not being on a dining plan would make using the self-ordering kiosks easier to use. It was okay though. Once we walked out of that room, my jaw dropped and I forgot all about the insanity.
This is the main dining area, the ballroom. Along those back windows, there was “snow” falling gently outside.
Where you get your beverages.
This is how you get your food. You are given a rose, a red or gold one, which acts like a sensor. The servers come with these carts of food, using a GPS type system to locate you and your order. It was fun to watch everyone wheeling these about, magically delivering food to everyone.
Off to the left, was a second room. The mysterious West Wing. This one was the smallest of the dining areas, but stunning, nonetheless. In the corner, where it is lit up purple, is the enchanted rose! Because it was small, it was also chaotic, as everyone kept wandering into this dim room, looking for seating, and there was none.
We chose to eat in the study, as it had comfy booths, and my daughter was still deadweight. Plus, it was empty and quiet. As a library should be!
There were dozens of paintings in this room, all with hidden Mickey’s. You can’t see it, but there is one in that plate of pastries.
We didn’t get our food until 11:30am. Two hours after we originally got in line. Long wait or not, besides the décor, the food was out of this world!
My favorite was the Croque Monsieur Sandwich, with a cup of French Onion Soup. Yum. My husband ordered the Braised Pork, and of course, the cupcakes! C’est Magnifique!
Funny enough. The a few days before we left, our neighbors mentioned they were leaving for Disney World. We never thought we would run into them! Sadly, their little one was starving, so it wasn’t a happy meeting between him and Hana.
If you do plan on eating here, the best tip I can give is, be sure to be prepared for a wait. Maybe bring a banana, do some stretches, take turns holding sleeping children, and plan any bathroom breaks before you get in line.
