Disney World Restaurant and Vacation Review

Zach, Cecily and I spent the past 5 days with my parents and sister in Disney World. We are huge Disney fans, I think this was my 15th trip. Cecily is only 4 and she's been 3 times! We stayed at Wilderness Lodge for the first time and really liked it.

Here are reviews of the restaurants we ate at, plus some other highlights of from our trip.

Whispering Canyon Cafe
Wilderness Lodge

We ate here twice, once for lunch the day we arrived, and again for breakfast. We really enjoyed both meals! The waiters and waitresses are loud and funny, throwing napkins and straws at you, bringing super large sodas because they don't want to get refills...very funny. We spent the whole trip joking about the ketchup because if someone asks for ketchup, any table that has some is instructed to bring it over to that table.

The food was really good, I had a BBQ chicken sandwich for lunch and Belgium waffles in the morning. Great casual restaurant!

Big diet coke at lunch:

House of Blues
Downtown Disney

We have been to Disney a lot, but we hardly ever go to Downtown Disney because we are usually so busy in the parks. This trip, I thought it would be fun to check out on of the restaurants there our first night, after spending the afternoon at the Magic Kingdom. I chose the House of Blues. It was a fun place to eat and the food was great. The Rosemary Cornbread was to die for, we ordered one to split and had to get another because it went so fast!

Ohana Character Breakfast
Polynesian Resort

We've done this breakfast the past 3 years in a row and its a "must do" in my opinion. Food, atmosphere and the characters are great. I think the juice is one of my favorite parts, guava, papaya and orange juice (I think) YUM!

Cecily and Lilo:

Ohana Parade:

Teppan Edo
Japan, Epcot

This was a really fun meal! Very good hibachi!! Highly recommend going there for dinner in the countries. It was entertaining and delicious.

Grand Floridian Cafe
Grand Floridian Resort

We added this dinner in last minute since our plans got changed around a bit this day and it worked out great because dinner here was delicious. We love the Grand Floridian so even if we aren't staying there we spend a good amount of time here. Beautiful place, great service and one of the best french onion soups I've ever had.

Park Faire Character Restaurant
Grand Floridian Resort

Did I mention we love the Grand Floridian? Back again for breakfast. I think I had 4 Mickey waffles (they are so good!!). You see Pooh, Tigger, Alice, Mary Poppins and the Mad Hatter. The buffet breakfast was great and the characters were a lot of fun. They interacted with the guests and each other a lot. The Mad Hatter was particularly entertaining.


Narcoossee's
Grand Floridian Resort

After a full day at Epcot and the some swimming at the Wilderness Lodge, we got dressed up for dinner at Narcoossee's. This is a tradition for us. As far as atmosphere is concerned, you cannot go wrong here. Its right on the lagoon with view of the castle and if you are there during the fireworks, they dim the lights and you can see them from your table (or go out on the porch to watch). They seem to have changed the menu a bit and it was more limited than we remembered, but what we did have was very good.

Jill, Cecily and I on Narcoossee's porch:


Boma
Animal Kingdom Lodge

We spent our last morning at Animal Kingdom, so I had planned to have breakfast at Boma. We have never seen the Animal Kingdom Lodge and wanted to check it out. Its really beautiful!! They buffet at Boma was great, they had all your regular breakfast items along with some traditional African dishes as well. And the guava juice again!

Boma decor:

Yak and Yeti
Asia, Animal Kingdom

I think this was my favorite meal. We had lunch here while at the Animal Kingdom and it was really good. I had the Lettuce Cups, which were really similar to the Lettuce Wraps that I have on my blog. The chicken fried rice was also really good as well as the lo mien and ahi tuna

Other Trip Highlights:

We spend a lot of time in the Magic Kingdom. It is a tradition for us to go on Its a Small World first and this year was no different. We ended up going twice since Cecily loved it so much. She also loved Dumbo, the carrousel, Aladdin's Flying Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean (went on that twice as well), tea cups, etc. She also loved meeting Cinderella, Belle and Aurora in Mickey's Toon Town. The line for the Fairies was ridiculous unfortunately, we really wanted to meet them as well!

In Epcot, we went straight to Souring. It is an awesome attraction. I was excited that Cecily was tall enough to go on this year. We went there first thing when we got to Epcot and waited in line, then "fast passed" it when we got off so we could go again later that afternoon. Also loved Turtle Talk in the Living Seas with Crush. The Flower and Garden Festival was really nice, we loved seeing all the character topiarys. Plus the butterfly garden was really beautiful.

In MGM, we waited most of the day for our Toy Story Fast Pass and definitely saw why it is so popular. What a fun ride!

Even though I had to miss out, Cecily liked the Rapids ride in Animal Kingdom. Blows my mind that she is big enough for these things! Next trip I need to try it out. And Zach rode the Himalayan ride 3 times! I had to miss out on the Safari as well because it is too bumpy, but I've done it in the past.

Lessons Learned:

Do not wear sandals to the park. You will hate yourself. I did. Sneakers all the way next time. Even in comfortable, well cushioned Reef sandals I felt like my feet were broken by the end of the day.

Bring your own stroller. We decided that we would rent strollers at the parks, but quickly realized that it was throwing away money. We ended up buying an umbrella stroller for $50 and it was definitely worth it. We would have spent more renting in each park and it was nice to have in the hotel.

We can't wait until our next trip, hopefully when baby boy is 2. I cant believe the next time we are there, we will be a family of 4!