A table for 2.5 please! Disney dining with a baby! NEW-Animator's Palate / The End!

[AussieAngel]

Hi everybody!

We are just home from an amazing 8 nights in Disney World and I have LOTS of delicious Disney food photos and dining adventures to share with you all!

I have written a couple of dining reviews and trip reports in the past, but this time was a bit different. This time on our trip there was not only DH (Conan) and me (Julie) - there was our 7 month old baby boy, Leo!

He didn't eat much of course (except a few nibbles of fruit and yoghurt), but he played a big part in our Disney adventures, hence the title of this trip report - a table for 2 and a half!

We live in Australia and travelled around the USA for just over three weeks, touring New York, Disney World, a 3 night Bahamas cruise on the Disney Dream (even more food photos to share from the cruise, if you're interested...) and then finally Los Angeles for a few nights before flying home again. We're either very brave or very silly for travelling overseas with a 7 month old baby, but our holiday all went pretty smoothly so we'll stick with the first option for now!

Here is baby Leo with his Daddy on the Disney Dream...



And Leo and me in Central Park, New York...



So where did we eat while at Disney World, I hear you ask!? Here's a list to get you started...

* Beaches & Cream
* Coral Reef
* Beach Club Marketplace
* Aloha Isle
* Casey's Corner
* Boardwalk Bakery
* Food & Wine Festival booths
* Cape May Cafe
* Raglan Road
* Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafe
* 'Ohana
* Toy Story Pizza Planet
* Karamell Kuche
* Boma
* Crystal Palace
* Yachtsman Steakhouse
* Boardwark Bakery

On board the Disney Dream...

* Enchanted Garden
* Cabanas
* Palo
* Tow Mater Grill
* Animator's Palate

Some of these places we ate at more than once and ate lots of yummy snacks along the way too, which aren't listed.

We were on the regular dining plan and had a good variety of table service and quick service meals. Some old favourites, some new places, lots of highlights, a couple of low points but lots of stories to tell and reviews to share! Eating at restaurants with a baby is certainly never dull!

As I have done in other reviews, I will score each meal out of 5 little smiley yellow men... is outstanding and is disastrous!

I hope you'll join me in my food reviews, photos and adventures! We had so much fun during our time at Disney and can't wait to get started!

 

[AussieAngel]

So after a fabulous week in New York exploring my favourite city, it was finally Disney World time! Yay!

Our flight landed in Orlando at around 3pm and we headed to the Beach Club via the Magical Express - always exciting! Our original plans for that afternoon and evening were to head to Magic Kingdom for a little play and then dinner at The Plaza.

But as we very quickly learned while travelling with a baby, naptimes come first! Leo was tired from the flight and was definitely ready for a rest, so we decided to hang around the resort instead, unpacking and settling in while Leo napped. Once he woke up at around 5pm, we decided to head to...



Beaches & Cream!!

This is a restaurant we had never been before, despite it always being on our list of places to go - so I was excited to finally try it! Especially those amazing desserts and sundaes I'd seen photos of here on the DIS.

We were seated straight away... In fact, the place was pretty much empty aside from another couple. Seems early evening is the time to come to Beaches & Cream!

Our server here was lovely, and very playful with Leo. Poor Leo was pretty tired and grizzly during this meal - he was actually cutting another tooth, we discovered the next morning after it had broken through! But our server popped over quite a bit to play and distract him with menus and napkins, which was nice of him.



(Not looking so grizzly here!)

Speaking of menus... Let's start with drinks. I decided to order the "Frozen Sunshine - orange sherbet, vanilla ice cream and seltzer, blended to perfection, topped with whipped cream, and a candied orange slice", while Conan chose a Coke Float.



OH MY GOODNESS!

My Frozen Sunshine was amazing! Definitely my favourite drink of our entire time at Disney World. Maybe even my favourite drink anywhere! It was pure creamy, orangey goodness, with more cream on top. I would have been happy to just drink a couple of those for my dinner! Talk about starting your Disney dining off with a bang!

Conan was happy with his Coke Float too... But it was certainly no Frozen Sunshine!

Despite falling in love with my drink, we did actually eat some food too. I went with the hot dog (naked!) and substituted the fries for onion rings.



So good! Sometimes a naked hot dog is all you need, really. I love American onion rings. We don't really have them here in Australia so they're a special treat for me! These ones were a tad too oily though... But still yummy.

Conan ordered the "Bacon Angus Beef Burger - with cobb smoked bacon, cheddar, lettuce and tomato on a fresh-baked bun."



I can't see any bacon on his burger so maybe he asked for it without bacon, for some reason!? Whatever the case may be, he really liked his burger. He said it was "great" and cooked perfectly, which in Conan language, means it must have been really, really good!! Usually something will just be either "okay" or "pretty good", hehee.

And then came dessert! We decided to be little piggies and order our own desserts rather than sharing. Big mistake! These things are seriously huge!

I ordered the "Milky Way Sundae - Three scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream, Hot Fudge, Caramel, Whipped Cream and a Cherry." (Without the hot fudge because I'm not a huge fan...)



We've all seen photos of these sundaes before, haven't we!? But nothing can compare to their actual size when it's placed in front of you. Wow. Just... wow.

Size aside, it was actually really, really delicious. You could even see the teeny black specks of the vanilla bean in the ice-cream - the measure of a good vanilla ice-cream, to me! Plus lots of oozy caramel, whipped cream and half a Milky Way bar stuck in the top... Gah!

Conan was excited to see this on the menu - "Classic Banana Split - ripe banana, three scoops or ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry), pineapple, strawberry and marshmallow topping, finished off with hot fudge, butterscotch, toasted almonds, whipped cream and a cherry."



He loves traditional banana splits but like me, he wasn't expecting it to be quite so huge. He really liked it though, and wished he wasn't so full so he could fit more in!

We only ended up eating about half our desserts each. Lesson learned - next time, we share!

By that time, Leo was starting to get even more grizzly - he spent half his time in his high chair and half the time with us. He's going through a tricky stage where he wants to eat everything we are, but doesn't know what to do with it once he has it in his hands. And he's not a fan of baby pureed food (or spoons in general!) so it's really about experimenting for him at this age. He did have a little taste of my ice-cream though, and seemed to quite like it!

All in all, Beaches & Cream was a really delicious, easy start to our Disney vacation. We only had to stumble back to our villa at the Beach Club, which was very handy with our tummies full of ice-cream and Frozen Sunshine. We'd definitely return!

We gave Beaches & Cream out of 5!

Next up... Lunch at Coral Reef!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great start - I remember your previous reviews (without baby) - Congratulations on becoming parents and enjoying WDW with your son

 

[etoiles]

As the mother of 7 month old myself, you are very brave to go to Disney World and all those other places with him! I am very curious to see what happened and how it went. I know my little guy gets very grumpy when he needs a nap too.

Love all the photos!

 

[Haley]

He is so cute! Can't wait for more reviews!!

 

[Dislover1991]

Subscribing!

Can't wait to hear all the reviews. We're trying out a few of the places next month so i'm excited to hear more recent reviews of some of the places

 

[pwwtoy1]

Yes, we are leaving Dec. 12 for Pop Century. Cant wait to hear more. Did you try the new outdoor bar at Brown Derby?

 

[AussieAngel]

great start - I remember your previous reviews (without baby) - Congratulations on becoming parents and enjoying WDW with your son

Aw, thanks so much! It's been a few years so I wasn't sure if anyone would remember me, pre-baby! Glad you're enjoying the reviews so far!

As the mother of 7 month old myself, you are very brave to go to Disney World and all those other places with him! I am very curious to see what happened and how it went. I know my little guy gets very grumpy when he needs a nap too.

Love all the photos!

Brave or silly!? Or both? Hehee. Really though, Leo was amazing on our trip. As long as we kept his schedule on track (naps and feeds), he was happy! He even did pretty well with the timezone changes too. Thanks so much for joining in!

He is so cute! Can't wait for more reviews!!

Thank you and welcome! I'll post the next review soon.

Subscribing!

Can't wait to hear all the reviews. We're trying out a few of the places next month so i'm excited to hear more recent reviews of some of the places

Welcome! How exciting, I'd love to hear about the places you're trying! I read lots of reviews on here before we left too - it's so handy!

Yes, we are leaving Dec. 12 for Pop Century. Cant wait to hear more. Did you try the new outdoor bar at Brown Derby?

Hi and welcome! Wow, December 12th will be here before you know it! So exciting! We stayed at Pop Century our first time at WDW and really enjoyed it. Nope, we didn't try Brown Derby at all this trip, but the outdoor bar sounds lovely!

I'll have the next review (Coral Reef) up soon! Hope you're all having a fun weekend so far!

 

[Britard]

Joining in! Leo is adorable. Beaches and Cream is on my must try list-can't wait to see just how big the ice creams really are!!

 

[RGirl]

Joining in!

Leo is adorable!

B&C sounds like so much fun. I can't believe we still haven't ever manage to try it.

 

[AussieAngel]

Joining in! Leo is adorable. Beaches and Cream is on my must try list-can't wait to see just how big the ice creams really are!!

Welcome! Thanks so much for reading along. Beaches & Cream was great... Especially those huge ice-creams! I hope you get there one day soon!

Joining in!

Leo is adorable!

B&C sounds like so much fun. I can't believe we still haven't ever manage to try it.

Thank you! So glad you're joining in. We were like you and B&C was just one of those places I'd always wanted to try but never got around to. I'm glad we finally did!

 

[AussieAngel]

Thanks so much to those of you reading along and saying hi! Leo is napping so I thought I'd get started on the next update.

For our first full day at the parks, we headed over to Epcot. We ate breakfast in our villa before we left (just toast and cereal, nothing too exciting!) and had a fun morning in Epcot before lunch at... Coral Reef!

This was another restaurant we had never tried but I'd always fancied, for some reason. I know it doesn't get great reviews here on the DIS but the menu looked good and I thought it might be fun for Leo to dine with the fishes!

It was a hot morning that day, so we were looking forward to sitting down in the air-conditioning and enjoying a yummy lunch. Unfortunately when we checked in, we still had to wait 15 minutes or so. We gave Leo a little play on the bench seats as we waited but he was getting pretty restless... 15 minutes is a long time for a baby!

Nevertheless, we were finally seated... At a table on the top level, as far away from the aquarium as possible! Oops! I hadn't thought to ask for a table closer to the aquarium... But never mind, we could still see the sharks, fish and other sea creatures swimming by (if we squinted!). I don't think Leo noticed the aquarium at all actually, but he did enjoy playing with the kids puzzle page they gave us!



Our server was quite nice and dropped off some rolls and freezing cold butter for us...



Being a good DIS-er, of course I knew exactly what I was going to order. The lobster pasta!

"Coral Reef Lobster Orecchiette Pasta - with White Cheddar Cheese and Basil Oil."



This was good... but not as amazing as I'd hoped! There were lots of yummy lobster chunks in there and the cheesy sauce was great, but it just wasn't really that interesting! I think I only ended up eating about half of it.

Conan, on the other hand, loved his choice of entree. He had the "Seared Chicken Breast - toasted fregola, peas, tomato chutney, and lemon butter sauce."



I had a little try as well and it was delicious! The chicken was cooked perfectly and the light sauce over it all was very tasty. I definitely chose the wrong entree this time, boooo!

Things seemed to take a long time in this restaurant. Our poor server seemed very busy and frazzled, despite there being empty tables around us. By that time, we'd been there for an hour already and Leo was starting to get grizzly. So we quickly ordered dessert and Conan took Leo for a little walk around the restaurant while we waited for them to arrive.

Tadah! My dessert... "Coconut Mango Chiffon Cake - with raspberry sauce."



It looked very pretty but like my entree, it was just okay. It was nice and light and the flavours were good... Just nothing to really set my tastebuds alight!

But again, it seemed Conan chose the right dessert! He had this - "The Chocolate Wave - served with Raspberry Gelato."



Yum! I stole some from his plate (again!) and it was amazing. Full of rich, chocolatey goodness and the raspberry gelato on the side broke through the richness perfectly. He had to drag his plate away from me so he could finish his dessert, hehee.

By that time, Leo was well and truly ready for a nap and we were ready to head out of there too. I can't say we especially enjoyed the ambience of the restaurant, due to the fact we were so far away from the aquarium, but also because everything just seemed to take such a long time. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been a problem for us, but with a little baby, it made things tricky.

We had different views on the food, of course. My choices were okay, but Conan's were fantastic... So it's difficult to know what to score Coral Reef! I'm glad we tried it once, but I don't think we'll be rushing back again.

Overall, we gave Coral Reef a score of out of 5.

Coming up next - Dinner at the Marketplace!

 

[AussieAngel]

I thought I'd keep going with this day, since dinner was a quick one!

After a big day at Epcot, we put Leo down to bed early that night. Once he was asleep, Conan snuck down to the Marketplace at the Beach Club (where we were staying) to grab some dinner for us.

I had the Pepperoni Flatbread with an orange juice. You can see the resort refillable mug there too...



This was actually really good! It was crisp and nice and light, and the tomato paste had a slight tang to it. I was happily surprised!

Conan had the Roast Beef Sandwich...



It kinda looks pretty gross, but he said it was delicious! The salad was quite nice too - we both shared that.

Then it was dessert time! I had the New York Cheesecake...



Remember how we'd just come from a week's holiday in New York? Hmm, yep. I think we'd been spoilt with real New York cheesecake, because this one wasn't so good. It was pretty dry and tasteless, really.

Conan will always choose Chocolate Cake!



He loved this... But then, he loves anything chocolatey really!

And that was dinner from the Marketplace! There's not a huge amount of choice there, but it was handy to be able to bring food back to our villa when Leo was sleeping. We went back there later in the week too, but more on that later!

We gave our dinner at the Marketplace out of 5.

Next up... Lots of MK snacks and lunch at the Boardwalk Bakery!

 

[AussieAngel]

Eek, I'm not really sure if anybody is still reading or not! I'll continue on anyway, for now...

So our next full day at Disney World was a Magic Kingdom day! My favourite!

I was so excited to take Leo on lots of little rides, like Dumbo, Winnie The Pooh, Buzz, etc. We really wanted to maximise our time in the park while he was awake, so we actually didn't have any ADRs this day!

This was new for us. Usually at Disney World we have at least one ADR planned per day... In fact, the last time we came, we did Deluxe Dining which was fun, but WAY too much food! We constantly felt full and therefore sadly didn't have a chance to try all those yummy snacks I'd always wanted to try - like corn dog nuggets from Casey's, for example.

So this day at MK turned out to be a day of yummy snacks! We ate breakfast in our villa again before heading out, then while Leo napped mid-morning, we grabbed my favourite food in the whole of WDW...



The pineapple float from Aloha Isle! Ahhhhh! Seriously, I could have just eaten these all day and been a very happy girl! So refreshing and delicious.

(On a side note, when I was pregnant with Leo, all I wanted to do was drink pineapple juice. Luckily I didn't have access to dole whips when I was pregnant! Hee!)

Around lunchtime we stopped by Casey's Corner and grabbed some of these little suckers...



So good! We don't have anything like this in Australia and I'd heard so much about them here on the DIS Boards, I just had to try them. I'm so glad I did! Yum!

Conan grabbed a hot dog and fries, but in all the excitement of the corn dog nuggets, we forgot to take a photo of his food. Gasp! He said it was great though. We sat out the front of Casey's Corner and did some people watching as Leo napped. Always fun!

Did I mention it was HOT that day!? It was really, really hot. So hot, in fact, that once Leo woke up, we headed back to Aloha Isle for this...



Orange Dole Whip! I'd only ever tried pineapple, but this was pretty darn good too! Perfect for a boiling hot day.

We played for a little while longer at MK but by about 2ish, we decided it was far too hot and too busy, so we headed back to the Beach Club for a swim, which was lovely. Leo also had a nice long afternoon nap, and while he did, I went for a walk over to the Boardwalk to check it out, and see what snacks I could find.

My first stop was the Boardwalk Bakery, where I bought this amazing salad for a very late lunch, since all I'd really eaten was ice-cream and a few corn dog nuggets!

"Apple Mixed Greens with herb grilled chicken breast, dried cranberries and goat cheese with pomegranate vinaigrette."



This was actually really, really good. Ultra fresh and tasty! I especially loved the crunchy green apple pieces in there. I'd definitely order this again.

Also from the Boardwalk Bakery, I used some snack credits to buy...



A salted caramel ganache! This was amazingly rich and full of gooey caramel. I liked it, but it was probably a bit TOO rich for me! Conan loved it though.

I also chose...



An Oreo Minnie head! This was great - much lighter than the caramel ganache. It tasted like soft, creamy mousse in a chocolate base - and of course, a cute Minnie head on top!

(I didn't eat these all at once, by the way. I took all my purchases back to our villa and we shared them over the following couple of days!)

Lastly, I bought this for Conan from Seashore Sweets...



A s'mores square! He loves chocolate and marshmallow, so he really enjoyed this.

All of those little treats were a great way to use a snack credit. There were so many delicious looking things in Seashore Sweets and the Bakery, it was very hard to choose!

It had been a great day of eating and tasting so far... And that night we were off to the Food & Wine Festival for more! Hurrah! That's what will be coming up next!

 

[auntfrannie]

Just found your reviews! It's always interesting to hear about the foods that aren't available in other countries that you get to enjoy at Disney World.

Leo is a cutie!

 

[Imagineer5]

Ahh I saw your title and got so excited to read, then realized it was YOU and you're back! YAY! So happy to see your reviews. Hope you had an amazing trip. Sounds like Leo slept ok in the stroller, and did pretty good at restaurants (sounds like Aria lol in and out of the high chair!).

Your afternoon exploring the Boardwalk sounds lovely, the salad with chicken and goat cheese looks amazing - going to have to remember to do this next time we are at the BCV! And, you made me want to skip Tutto Italia in 3 weeks and visit Beaches and Cream, too!! I think we just might - nice atmosphere and would be a good spot for Aria.

Too bad about Coral Reef being so so for you but great for your hubby. We sometimes find that, too, and being up on that top level STINKS when you want the fish to entertain a fussy baby! LOL.

Somehow I don't think we ever ate lunch or dinner from the BC Marketplace LOL!

Any luck finding the pouches or dried fruit or anything for Leo that we'd talked about?

What did you guys do in NYC? Visit the Disney Store? I want to go to the American Girl store there but I guess Leo wouldn't really be into that

 

[butiflfeet]

Great reviews so far! I can't wait to see what comes next

 

[marshallsmommy]

Because of your update I will be having that Frozen Sunshine in Dec! It looks soooooo good! Leo is a doll! we took our son at 20 months and it was a lot of work and a lot of packing I can't imagine at 8 months! I'm loving your reviews!

 

[SilentK]

I'm in, loving your reviews so far

 

[chocolateMinnie]

definitely still tuned in - don't stop now