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

[RGirl]

I fell behind on all TRs and DRs this week. So busy!

But I am back and still loving reading your reviews.

You know, we went to Coral Reef on our first trip in 2010 and loved it. I don't know why we haven't been back. Your meals looked pretty darn good.

Love all the snacks! YUMMY!!!

The Boardwalk Bakery salad looks wonderful. I can't imagine why in the world I have not gotten one.

 

[Haley]

Great reviews! Keep em coming!

 

[AussieAngel]

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!

Hiya and welcome! Thanks for reading so far! There are so many types of delicious food in the US that we don't have readily available in Australia... Cheese popcorn, strawberry lemonade, corn dog nuggets, Reese's peanut butter cups... They're the first ones that spring to mind, but there's so many more! Of course Australia has it's own food that we miss while we're away too. That's one of the things I love about travelling - getting to explore all the different kinds of food!

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

Hi Lauren! So glad you found my dining report! Thanks for reading! I found myself telling Conan about you and the way you do things a lot while we were away... "Ooh, we should pop in here and see if we can find the food Lauren told me about!" "Ooh, we should put the cover over Leo's stroller and see if he sleeps that way!" And lots of other little things!

We had an amazing trip, thank you. We've been home just over a week and I think we've all finally recovered from the jetlag, phew! Leo slept pretty well in his stroller, but really only for one nap a day. It's actually quite hard to get him to sleep, but once he's asleep, he'll sleep for a long time! His morning nap was fine in the stroller, but in the afternoon when it was hot and he was cranky, he never wanted to nap in his stroller. Suited us though - we were happy to head out of the parks at around 2.30ish each day when it was busy and go back to the BC for a swim and nap.

You should definitely try that salad from the Boardwalk Bakery next time - it was delicious! Beaches & Cream was a great, relaxed atmosphere with Leo and would be great for Aria too.

Yes! We found nearly all the food you recommended from a big CVS Pharmacy in New York! Leo loved the little yoghurt drops and we bought the puffs, but actually haven't tried them yet because he hasn't really mastered the pincer grasp yet. Saving them for when he's a bit better with his fingers! The Mum Mum rice crackers I actually found here at our local supermarket in Australia, funnily enough! I've started putting some mashed up avocado on those and Leo loves sucking on them and licking the avocado off! He's getting much better with his finger foods... Strawberries and avocados are his favourite at the moment, although he also loves cheese sticks and pears. He's happy to gnaw on them so I'm not sure how much food he's actually eating, but it's a start! Thanks again for all your recommendations.

In New York (aside from baby food shopping!) we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge which was great, visited the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 Memorial, did lots of shopping, played in Central Park and generally did a lot of wandering and exploring! I just adore that city! Are you very close to NY?

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

Thanks so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!

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!

Yay! I looove that Frozen Sunshine! I hope you enjoy it just as much in December!

It was definitely a lot of packing for Leo, but I imagine it would be more difficult to take a 20 month old! At least little Leo isn't walking around yet, and he was pretty easy to entertain, really. So well done you, I say!

I'm in, loving your reviews so far

Thank you, and welcome! Hope you continue to enjoy them!

definitely still tuned in - don't stop now

Aw, thanks for letting me know! I'm glad people are still reading!

I fell behind on all TRs and DRs this week. So busy!

But I am back and still loving reading your reviews.

You know, we went to Coral Reef on our first trip in 2010 and loved it. I don't know why we haven't been back. Your meals looked pretty darn good.

Love all the snacks! YUMMY!!!

The Boardwalk Bakery salad looks wonderful. I can't imagine why in the world I have not gotten one.

So glad you're still enjoying my reviews! Coral Reef was pretty good, but I don't think we'll be back. There are so many other great Epcot restaurants to try! Thanks for sticking with me and for your nice comments!

Great reviews! Keep em coming!

Thanks so much! I'll be back very soon with the next reviews!

 

[DisneyJo]

Loving your reviews and oh my goodness Leo is such a cutie

 

[AussieAngel]

Loving your reviews and oh my goodness Leo is such a cutie

Aw, thanks so much! So glad you're enjoying the reviews! We think he's cute too, but I'm sure we're biased!

 

[AussieAngel]

So after a great day of MK snacks and Boardwalk Bakery treats, the eating continued... That evening we headed to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival!

When we originally booked our Disney World trip way back in 2012, we had no idea the F&W Festival would be on during our time there, so it turned out to be a very happy surprise! Especially since we were staying at the Beach Club - it was so close, and so easy to wander over to on a nice night... Which is exactly what we did that evening!

In my original planning for our trip, we had reservations for dinner at Le Cellier this night, but once I learnt about the F&W Festival, I cancelled Le Cellier quick smart! Don't get me wrong, I love Le Cellier and we've been there both other times we've been to WDW, but really, my favourite part is the cheddar cheese soup - which you could buy at the F&W Festival anyway! Granted, it's nowhere near the size of the bowl you would have at Le Cellier, but it's also nowhere near the price! I just couldn't justify 2 TS credits for cheese soup when it was available elsewhere.

And do you know what we discovered? The Food & Wine Festival is FUN! Music, people, great drinks, delicious food, perfect weather - what's not to love?!

It was so lovely to just wander around the World Showcase and explore the different booths, trying new food and drinks as we went. Leo was more than happy in his stroller, looking around and taking everything in as he tends to do, and Conan and I had a great time!

Our first stop was of course - Canada! Hooray! Cheddar cheese soup!!



Ahhh, this was just as good as I remembered! Cheesy, creamy goodness with plenty of little bacon bits in there too. Sure, it was a small serving, but definitely enough for a good taste!

We both also got the Wild Mushroom Beef Fillet Mignon with Truffle Butter Sauce...



This was also delicious, and a much bigger serving than it looks! I'm not a huge fan of red meat in general, but the flavours in this was wonderful - especially the mushrooms on top.

Our next destination around the world was Brazil, where I chose the Seared Scallop with Ragout of Tomatoes, Peppers and Hearts of Palm...



Again, this was sensational and bigger than it looks! The scallops were cooked beautifully and the ragout blended really well with the rice for a nice side dish.

We used snack credits for all of these dishes, by the way, which worked out to be excellent value!

Then of course, it was time for us to visit... Australia! We had to, right!?

Conan actually chose two things from here - the Grilled Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies, and the Garlic Shrimp with Roasted Tomatoes, Lemon Myrtle and Rapini.



Firstly I just have to say... we have no idea what potato crunchies are. They're certainly not an Australian thing! I don't think there were any on Conan's lamb, either! Hee!

Also, we don't call them "shrimp" in Australia. We call them prawns! Shrimp to us, are the teeny little versions you put in fried rice. So that stereotypical slang quote - "Throw another shrimp on the barbie!" - you would never actually hear an Australian say. More like, "Let's chuck some prawns on the barbie!" Hehee!

Anyway, that all aside, Conan LOVED his lamb and prawns! They were definitely his favourites of the night - mine being the cheese soup, of course!

We were both starting to feel quite full by then, but needed some dessert to complete our meals.

I stopped at the Refreshment Port to grab some Dole Pineapple Fritters...



Sadly, these were just okay. The inside of the fritters was quite dry and the outside was pretty greasy. They would have been much nicer with a bit of ice-cream on the side, I think!

Conan made a much wiser choice than me. He stopped at the "Desserts & Champagne" booth and bought the Dessert Trio, which I think consisted of a Chocolate Orange Cupcake, Hazelnut Chocolate Cheesecake and the Morello Cherry Pistachio Mousse.





He loved all of these, but the pistachio mousse was definitely his favourite. He even stopped me as we wandered around and told me I HAD to taste it, which I did - and it really was pretty darn good! Sweet, light and delicious! A perfect way to finish off our F&W Festival evening.

We only made it half way around the World Showcase that night. As it was getting later, it was also getting much busier and louder, and we felt like we should be responsible parents and take Leo home to bed.

But don't worry, we did make it back another time (or two!) to finish.

Next up - Breakfast at Cape May Cafe!

 

[RGirl]

Wow - it looks like you found some yummy dishes at the F&WF! Isn't that just such a wonderful time to be at WDW?

The scallop and shrimp dishes both look especially yummy to me. Wish I was enjoying them right now……

 

[jedijill]

Leo is a doll!

Love the reviews so far!

Jill in CO

 

[Imagineer5]

Yum looks fantastic!! We always plan too many ADR's and rarely eat much at the booths, but this sounds like a great evening! How were the lines?

That is too cute about you thinking back to my TR's!! I hope some of the advice I gave worked for you! I'm sure there were a lot of things missing. Glad Leo liked a lot of the food you found.

We live about 3 hours from NYC (driving). I always want to spend a weekend there around the holidays bc they go all out, but never seem to have a free weekend to do it!

Oh, and too funny about the Australia booth and you having no idea what the potato things are, and the verbage being off. You'd think Disney would do a bit more homework for it.

 

[Dislover1991]

Excited for your Cape May review! We are going there for breakfast next month and have never been so I'm really excited to try somewhere new

 

[Britard]

That pistachio mousse does look fantastic! Leo sounds like such a happy boy!!

 

[AussieAngel]

Wow - it looks like you found some yummy dishes at the F&WF! Isn't that just such a wonderful time to be at WDW?

The scallop and shrimp dishes both look especially yummy to me. Wish I was enjoying them right now……

Yes! The F&W Festival was so much fun! Definitely a great time to be at WDW. There was so many people there who were there just for the festival. I had no idea it was that popular before we went!

The scallop and shrimp dishes were delicious. You and me both wish we were eating them right now! Thanks for continuing to read!!

Leo is a doll!

Love the reviews so far!

Jill in CO

Aw, thanks so much Jill! Glad you're enjoying the reviews so far!

Yum looks fantastic!! We always plan too many ADR's and rarely eat much at the booths, but this sounds like a great evening! How were the lines?

That is too cute about you thinking back to my TR's!! I hope some of the advice I gave worked for you! I'm sure there were a lot of things missing. Glad Leo liked a lot of the food you found.

We live about 3 hours from NYC (driving). I always want to spend a weekend there around the holidays bc they go all out, but never seem to have a free weekend to do it!

Oh, and too funny about the Australia booth and you having no idea what the potato things are, and the verbage being off. You'd think Disney would do a bit more homework for it.

The lines weren't too bad when we were at the F&W Festival. It definitely got busier as it got later. We were there from about 5.30 until 6.30pm, and by that time the lines were getting longer. It totally depended on the booth too, of course - the Canada booth was always crazy busy, whereas the Refreshment Port never seemed to have anyone there!

Your advice definitely helped while we were at WDW... Especially the part about browsing in the air-conditioned stores while Leo (or Aria, in your case...) slept! It was really hot on some of the days we were there so that tip was great. Plus I got to do lots of shopping too!

You live so close to NYC! I'd be there every month if I lived that close. Hee! I guess the novelty wears off after a little while. I love that city! We went over New Years a few years back and it was SO much fun. Holiday season would be beautiful!

Excited for your Cape May review! We are going there for breakfast next month and have never been so I'm really excited to try somewhere new

We'd never been there either! It was lots of fun... But more details coming soon!

That pistachio mousse does look fantastic! Leo sounds like such a happy boy!!

Ooh, it was delicious! Leo is a very happy baby, thank you! As long as he's fed and had his naps, he's a very smiley, sweet baby. He's growing so quickly - just this week he's started giggling away to himself for no particular reason, I love it!

 

[AussieAngel]

It's Cape May Cafe time!

This day was our "day off" from the parks. We planned to sleep in, swim, relax and let Leo have some nice long naps in our villa, instead of in his stroller.

Well of course, none of that went to plan! Hee! This is the one day we didn't have to wake Leo, so of course he woke up at 7.30am! Automatically this made things tricky, because our ADR for Cape May Cafe was 10.30am... And Leo is really only up for 2-3 hours at a time before he gets tired and cranky, especially in the mornings.

It was also raining pretty hard that day, almost constantly. There goes our swimming day! Ah well, we were at Disney World - there was plenty of other things to do!

By the time 10.30 came around for our breakfast at Cape May Cafe, Leo was already sleepy and ready for his nap - but we wanted to keep him up so he could meet the characters, which is why we made the ADR in the first place! Eep!

We had to wait about 15 minutes for our table, but once we were inside, we kept Leo entertained with books, toys and pieces of fruit to nibble on. He did really well, the little trouper!

Conan and I took it in turns to head up to the buffet. This was my first plate...



So there was a breakfast frittata, chorizo scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon and some orange & cranberry bread.

I really didn't expect much from the food here - we really only made the ADR because of the characters and the fact we were staying at the Beach Club - but wow! It was all delicious! My favourite was the orange & cranberry bread. So good!

Conan had a very similar plate to me, so he didn't take a photo. Bad DIShusband!

It was soon after this that we had our first visit from a character - Beach Goofy! Yay!



Aside from meeting Mickey Mouse at MK a couple of days before, this was Leo's first real character interaction so we were intrigued to see how he would do. Luckily, he loved Goofy! He was mesmerised by him, especially his whiskers and nose. Goofy was lovely with him and kept touching him on the head gently and giving him little pats, it was very sweet.



The characters were a great distraction to keep our tired bubba going, too!

There was a bit of a wait for Donald and Minnie to arrive, so we grabbed another plate of food to nibble on while we waited...



So from the top, there's a Mickey waffle, blueberry muffin, fresh fruit and and French toast with a banana sauce.

Again, all these were great - though not as great as the orange & cranberry bread!

We'd been in the restaurant for almost an hour by that time and were still waiting for the rest of the characters... It was actually really busy in there. The buffet lines were quite long and generally it felt pretty loud and hectic. Poor Leo was getting very tired and grizzly by then and we were contemplating leaving so he could take his nap, but then - Donald arrived! Hurrah!



Leo was actually wearing a little Donald Duck outfit for the morning, so Donald made a big thing of it, which was cute.



We love Donald Duck! Leo was mesmerised again!

Very quickly after that, Minnie Mouse popped over to say hi... Clearly Leo wasn't as fussed with Minnie! Yawns!



Someone was ready for bed! We quickly organised payment and hightailed it out of there so our poor bubba could nap. He did so well though, really.

Would we go back to Cape May Cafe again? Probably not, but it was fun to do with Leo. The food was great but it all felt a bit frantic in there. It was easy to get to, of course, because we were staying at the BC, but I don't think we'd travel a long way for it.

We gave Cape May Cafe and a half out of 5!

Next up... Raglan Road!

 

[pumba]

thank you so much for your great reviews and the photos of your little man with the characters...I loved it..

can hardly wait for more

 

[marmalade]

What a handsome little man you have there.

Love the review so far!

 

[mkleinbe]

Loving your review! We have taken a baby to Disney before and it was fun! Keep going with your review, we're all reading!!!

 

[AussieAngel]

thank you so much for your great reviews and the photos of your little man with the characters...I loved it..

can hardly wait for more

Thanks so much for reading! Glad you're enjoying the reviews and photos!

What a handsome little man you have there.

Love the review so far!

Aw, thank you! We think he's pretty handsome too, but we're pretty biased! Glad you're enjoying the reviews so far!

Loving your review! We have taken a baby to Disney before and it was fun! Keep going with your review, we're all reading!!!

Thanks so much for popping in! It was definitely lots of fun taking Leo to Disney - and probably a lot easier to take him at that age, rather than when he's a toddler!

I'll be back soon with the next review - Raglan Road!

 

[Imagineer5]

Love the Cape May review! So glad he was still doing great even after the super early wake up - don't you hate when you try to plan something like a relaxing day and they undoubtedly get up early!? Aria won't sleep past 7- so annoying!! The characters were great through, and it looks like the food was too, so that's wonderful. It's on my list of places to eat (we've done dinner but not BF). Love raglan road, looking forward to that review!

 

[DisneyJo]

Awww I loved Leo's reactions to the characters, so cute

 

[AussieAngel]

Love the Cape May review! So glad he was still doing great even after the super early wake up - don't you hate when you try to plan something like a relaxing day and they undoubtedly get up early!? Aria won't sleep past 7- so annoying!! The characters were great through, and it looks like the food was too, so that's wonderful. It's on my list of places to eat (we've done dinner but not BF). Love raglan road, looking forward to that review!

I know! Leo only ever seems to wake up early if we don't want him to! On other days, we had to wake him so we could get to the parks! He's a very good sleeper though, so I shouldn't complain. Hehee. You should definitely try breakfast one day at Cape May Cafe. Aria would love it!

Awww I loved Leo's reactions to the characters, so cute

Aw, so did we! He was so intrigued by them, which was lovely. He's too little to be scared, I think!