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

[DisneyJo]

Oh my goodness Leo is so adorable in his Mickey ears

I love your unhealthy eating day, I think I need to plan one

 

[AussieAngel]

I'm totally in love with little Leo!

(The food looks good too!)

Jill in CO

Hehee! Aw, thanks Jill! We're in love with him too!

Your day sounds fantastic! That lemongrass chicken looks wonderful, I hope they bring it back this F&W festival. So nice to get out and about with just Leo too! The breakfast sounds horrible, I wish that the Marketplace had more options, it's pretty disappointing.

Glad Boma was a hit, sounds like an awesome evening, what DIS'er would want to take pics when you're busy chatting about disney insider stuff!!

Cute pics from christmas too, glad you had a wonderful day!! We were super busy the last few weeks too, so sorry I wasn't here to read but glad to come back to a couple updates. Everything looks delish!

It was a really fun day! I really enjoyed exploring Epcot with Leo... Conan loves Disney World but he's not too keen on shopping and just pottering around! Leo doesn't mind either way (yet!) so it was perfect.

Yes! I totally agree... I wish the Marketplace had more food options too. I'm so glad we had the little kitchen in our villa and could cook breakfast each day. Otherwise the options would have pretty miserable really.

Glad you enjoyed the updates! Totally understandable - you've been busy holidaying in Disney World! Lucky girl!!

Joining in! Better late then never! Can't wait to see the bits of you on the cruise! We have been considering a Disney Cruise for many years, looking forward to your reviews.

LOVING your food pictures and ADORABLE little guy!

Welcome! I'll definitely post some Disney cruise food pics... I wasn't sure if people wanted me to, so I'm glad you've said that!

Still following. Those ears are so cute!

Aren't they the cutest!? They're sitting on his bookshelf in his bedroom now!

Julie, I just found your DR. Your little Leo is adorable! What part of Australia are you from? My hubby is working in New Zealand right now. Can't wait to read this report!

Hi, and welcome! We live in Melbourne, way down south. Best city in Australia! What is your husband doing in NZ? I've never been there but heard it's very beautiful!

Oh my goodness Leo is so adorable in his Mickey ears

I love your unhealthy eating day, I think I need to plan one

Aw, thanks! We think he's pretty adorable too! My unhealthy eating day was great! We all need those now and then, I think!

 

[AussieAngel]

Time for our last full Disney day!

Although it was sad of course, it was also exciting because we had fun plans for that day, and the next day we were heading to Port Canaveral to catch our Disney Dream cruise!

So for our last full day at Disney, we headed back to Magic Kingdom. We all had a little sleep-in, and got there just in time for our 10.20 ADR at Crystal Palace. Yayyyy!

A little background... When we were working out which restaurants to go to many months beforehand, Crystal Palace was right up there at the top of our list. Why? Mostly because of this...



Leo when he was about a month old, snuggled up with big toy Pooh! He's always loved his big Pooh toy, and that was one of our favourite photos of teeny Leo... So of course we had to make sure he got to meet the real Pooh at Disney!

Anyway, back to Crystal Palace. We were seated straight away and noticed most people were actually finishing their breakfasts and starting to leave. There were lots of empty tables around us and it only got more empty as our breakfast continued, which was quite lovely because it felt like we had our own private little section!

The characters were already making the rounds nearby, but Conan quickly went up to the buffet to grab a plate of food...



Pancakes, bacon, corned beef hash, scrambled eggs and maybe some potato casserole under there too... Pretty standard breakfast fare really, but he was happy with it!

Before I had a chance to grab a plate of food, Tigger appeared! He was really lovely with Leo and gave him lots of cuddles, pats on the head and let him play with his thumb. Sweet!



Leo was mesmerised by all the characters and just wanted to touch them! (Ooh, he was wearing a little Winnie the Pooh outfit to mark the occasion, too!)

And then straight away, Pooh came to say hello!



Aww! I just love these photos of Leo and Pooh. They look like they're having big private chats and cuddles!



Pooh stayed for quite a while, letting Leo touch him and explore, and so we could take lots of photos. Cute!

So far it had been a really fun breakfast, and I hadn't even eaten anything yet!

My plate...



Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancake, chocolate croissant and puffed French toast! Hurrah! How good is that French toast!? So sugary and delicious!! The perfect way to start a Disney day.

Not long afterwards, Piglet arrived!



See the empty restaurant around us!?

Piglet is just so cute, and Leo was quietly intrigued again!

I have to say that despite the restaurant being pretty much empty by that point, we still didn't feel rushed to leave. They were starting to change the breakfast food to lunch food, and I'm sure we could have actually filled up a plate with lunch food too, but we didn't.

We did, however, go back for some more puffed French toast, bacon and watermelon! Oh, and some strawberry yoghurt for Leo.



Eeyore came over then... And because he had nobody else to visit, Pooh came back to play again! He grabbed Leo's little toy Mickey Mouse and, well... put it on Conan's head!



I love this photo!

Piglet also came back after that to pose for some more photos... Maybe there had been a Piglet "change" behind the scenes so this was a new Piglet, or maybe not... But nevertheless, it was fun saying hi to Piglet again!

What a fun breakfast we had!

I'd definitely recommend this late ADR time. There were no lines at the buffet and plenty of space around the tables. We had lots of time with the characters and it all felt very relaxed and laid back. Leo had a lovely time with all the characters!

We gave Crystal Palace out of 5.

I'm just going to keep going here because lunch was only little!

Leo had a big nap in his stroller after breakfast, while Conan and I took turns to go on various rides and do some shopping. At around 1pm we decided to grab a few quick bites for lunch. Neither of us were very hungry so we decided to just snack on some...



Casey's Corner corn dog nuggets! Yayyyy!

I just had to have these one last time before we left Disney. So delicious!

And of course, for dessert...



A citrus swirl and pineapple float! My favourite!! Ahhhh!

Leo woke up soon after that, and we did a few last rides together before deciding to head back to our resort so we could start packing our suitcases and getting organised for our cruise the next day.

But later that night, we had dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse. Eeeek! Signature dining with a baby!? Coming up next!

 

[vettegirl]

How sweet is Leo in those pics The CP breakfast looks lovely and I love all characters, will have to put it on our list for our new baby thats due in July. I am already planning a Nov or Dec trip to Disneyland and I can't wait to book a character breakfast for our little one! Thanks for sharing.

 

[DisneyJo]

I seem to start every post with OMG how cute is Leo but he really is, those Pooh photos are just so adorable

 

[Imagineer5]

Wonderful update!! Your breakfast looks absolutely fantastic. I loved the photos of Leo with the characters, his expressions are perfect. I miss that easy go with the flow age! Lol!! If I ever have a 2nd we will have to go at this age again. But it is fun as they grow up and start to understand more, if not more difficult too! Lol.

Anyway I am planning on cp for both our upcoming trips. And possibly yachtsman again bc my mil wanted to check it out, so I can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[pumba]

thanks again for your great photos (especially leo) and your reviews..

Something about those eggs on Disney property..I love them..and we all love Crystal Palace..no matter what meal we eat there..

Thanks again and hope your cruise was awesome too

 

[Happy 2 B Me]

The pic's of Leo with Pooh are just adorable. Leo is sure a happy camper .

 

[lizzyb]

Great reviews! Leo is absolutely adorable!

 

[Dugette]

Joining in! Just stumbled across your report the other day and read the whole thing. I remember you from Lauren's report and I'm glad to hear that Leo is figuring out the whole eating thing! Really enjoying the report so far. We had a great time at Crystal Palace with our little one too. Those characters are so great and the food is yummy too. That's neat that you were there when it was so quiet and you could get breakfast or lunch! Looking forward to hearing how it went at Yachtsman!

 

[RGirl]

I’m playing DIS catch-up this weekend.

Oooh, bad news about the BC Marketplace breakfast there.

for more F&WF goodies. The chicken curry dish looks delicious. Ahhh - how I wish someone would ring my doorbell right now and present me with one of those pineapple spears. Why did I not get to the caramel shop during our trip?? WHY?? I did have that creme brulee several years ago, and it was good then too!

I’m glad the Marketplace was able to redeem itself at lunch. The salad looks quite tasty!

I’m glad you enjoyed Boma. This last trip was the first time we didn’t eat there. It’s a great place!

CP is so much fun. The pics of Leo with the characters are precious!

The day’s snacks look delicious too. Mmmm

 

[TX Momof2]

Hi Julie,

My hubby works in the oil/natural gas industry. Right now, he's working on the north island near Mount Taranaki. It looks gorgeous! I hope the kids and I can go visit some day, but right now I don't want a 17 hr flight with my 5yr old son! We're planning for maybe March 2015.

I love reading your dining report! We're staying at BC in Feb and I can't wait!

 

[AussieAngel]

How sweet is Leo in those pics The CP breakfast looks lovely and I love all characters, will have to put it on our list for our new baby thats due in July. I am already planning a Nov or Dec trip to Disneyland and I can't wait to book a character breakfast for our little one! Thanks for sharing.

Oh yay, how exciting! Congratulations on your new baby! Crystal Palace is perfect for little ones, I think. I'm sure there'll be some lovely restaurants at Disneyland too! Sounds fantastic!

I seem to start every post with OMG how cute is Leo but he really is, those Pooh photos are just so adorable

Aw, thank you! He was so happy during that CP breakfast and had a lovely time with the characters!

Wonderful update!! Your breakfast looks absolutely fantastic. I loved the photos of Leo with the characters, his expressions are perfect. I miss that easy go with the flow age! Lol!! If I ever have a 2nd we will have to go at this age again. But it is fun as they grow up and start to understand more, if not more difficult too! Lol.

Anyway I am planning on cp for both our upcoming trips. And possibly yachtsman again bc my mil wanted to check it out, so I can't wait to hear all about it!!

The food was great but it was the characters we were really there for. Plus the restaurant itself is so pretty! Leo had such a lovely time there! I know what you mean about the 'go with the flow' age... Even if we took Leo now, it would be so different! He's crawling around everywhere now and is really starting to know what he wants - and doesn't want!

Ooh, I'll be back with the Yachtsman review soon. Thanks again for reading!

thanks again for your great photos (especially leo) and your reviews..

Something about those eggs on Disney property..I love them..and we all love Crystal Palace..no matter what meal we eat there..

Thanks again and hope your cruise was awesome too

You're very welcome Pumba! Thanks so much for reading! Disney eggs are great, aren't they!? You can never have too many!

The pic's of Leo with Pooh are just adorable. Leo is sure a happy camper .

Hehee, thanks! Leo is a happy, pretty chilled out baby (generally!). We got lucky, I think!

Great reviews! Leo is absolutely adorable!

Aw, thanks so much!

Joining in! Just stumbled across your report the other day and read the whole thing. I remember you from Lauren's report and I'm glad to hear that Leo is figuring out the whole eating thing! Really enjoying the report so far. We had a great time at Crystal Palace with our little one too. Those characters are so great and the food is yummy too. That's neat that you were there when it was so quiet and you could get breakfast or lunch! Looking forward to hearing how it went at Yachtsman!

Hi there! Welcome! So glad you found your way over here and are enjoying the report so far. Yes, Leo is turning into quite a good little eater now! He still won't let us feed him with a spoon - it has to be all him, but he loves fish, chicken, bread, all types of fruit, pasta, cereal... The list goes on! Amazing!

Crystal Palace is just lovely, isn't it!? Glad you had a fun time there too. Yachtsman review coming up soon! Thanks for reading!

I’m playing DIS catch-up this weekend.

Oooh, bad news about the BC Marketplace breakfast there.

for more F&WF goodies. The chicken curry dish looks delicious. Ahhh - how I wish someone would ring my doorbell right now and present me with one of those pineapple spears. Why did I not get to the caramel shop during our trip?? WHY?? I did have that creme brulee several years ago, and it was good then too!

I’m glad the Marketplace was able to redeem itself at lunch. The salad looks quite tasty!

I’m glad you enjoyed Boma. This last trip was the first time we didn’t eat there. It’s a great place!

CP is so much fun. The pics of Leo with the characters are precious!

The day’s snacks look delicious too. Mmmm

Hooray for catchup weekends!

Hehee, I wish someone would pop by and present me with one of those pineapple spears too! Never mind, you'll make it to the caramel shop next time, I'm sure!

Yes the Marketplace was much better at lunch and dinner... Still not a huge variety of food, but much better than breakfast! Ugh!

Leo was so happy at Crystal Palace and we all had a really lovely time! Definitely one of my favourites.

Hi Julie,

My hubby works in the oil/natural gas industry. Right now, he's working on the north island near Mount Taranaki. It looks gorgeous! I hope the kids and I can go visit some day, but right now I don't want a 17 hr flight with my 5yr old son! We're planning for maybe March 2015.

I love reading your dining report! We're staying at BC in Feb and I can't wait!

Ooh, okay. I've never heard of Mount Taranaki but my brother has visited NZ many times and probably has! It's definitely a long way for a 5 year old... And 2015 will be here before we know it!

So glad you're still enjoying my dining report. Wow, you're heading to WDW so soon! How exciting! We just loved the Beach Club. (Maybe not breakfast at the Marketplace, but everything else was fantastic!) Will you write a dining / trip report?!

 

[AussieAngel]

Eeek, there's a heatwave going on here in Melbourne at the moment... 43C for 4 days in a row - or 109F! Thanks goodness for air-conditioners!

Anyhoo, back to the food!

After 7 amazing nights in Disney World, it was officially (and sadly!) our final night. We'd spent the afternoon packing and getting organised, because that night we had dinner at...

Yachtsman Steakhouse!

"What?!" I hear you exclaim. "Signature dining with a baby!? You're mad!"

Believe me, I was a bit nervous about bringing Leo to a fine dining restaurant. He's generally a very happy, chilled out baby, but you just never know! But the Yachtsman Steakhouse was one of Conan's favourite restaurants at Disney and we both really wanted to go there again, especially since we were staying at the Beach Club and it was so close.

We contemplated cancelling our ADR a couple of times actually, but finally decided to keep it. After all, it's Disney World! I'm sure they're very used to babies and kids in their restaurants. If Leo got a bit grizzly or noisy, it would be easy enough to take him for a little walk outside for a minute.

Our ADR was for 5.45pm and we were seated pretty much straight away. Here's a picture of Leo all dressed up in his fancy shirt for the evening...



His shirt was a bit big for him, hehee! Some of the photos aren't the best from this night because of the low lighting and I didn't want to use the flash...

We were seated towards the back of the restaurant, next to two other families with little kids which worked perfectly. The empty table behind Leo in the above photo was soon filled with a big family from New York who had a little boy with them, who was much noisier and wrigglier than Leo! Phew! They reminded us of the Kardashians, hehee. They were really lovely actually, and we had big chats with them throughout the evening.

Our server was AMAZING... And I forget his name. Oops! But he went out of our way to make us feel welcome and gave Leo lots of attention and played little games with him all night. As soon as he came over, he said, "Hello little Leo!" and remembered our names all night. Leo was absolutely mesmerised by him and couldn't take his eyes off him anytime he appeared! I told him we were a bit worried about bringing Leo to a signature restaurant and he said, "Not at all! This is Disney World! Children are encouraged.", which was very sweet.

He also took us through the menu and answered any questions we had, and took time to chat with us about Australia, our trip and told us a bit about himself too. He was just really lovely and it highlighted the difference between the servers at regular dining and signature dining.

So we started with the fresh bread rolls and butter - with Australian sea salt if I remember correctly!



AUGH! Those onion rolls with the fresh garlic are so good! I'm breastfeeding Leo and try not to eat too much garlic because we had a rough few days when he was tiny, when I'd eaten way too many garlic prawns the night before... But sorry Leo, I had to eat a couple of these rolls! I would have just gladly eaten that whole basket for dinner!

To drink I had a pineapple juice (my favourite!) and Conan had a mango smoothie, which he looooved...



As my entree, I chose the 8-oz Center Cut Filet Mignon with Mashed Potatoes, and Cabernet Wine Sauce...



I'm not a big red meat eater, but I do enjoy a good filet steak from time to time... and this was really, really good. I had it cooked well done so they butterflied it and cut it down the centre. Cooked perfectly for me! The red wine sauce was fantastic and the mashed potatoes were nice too. AllEars tells me this dish costs $47, which is a lot of money, but I think it's definitely worth the 2 TS credits here.

We also shared some "Truffle Mac & Cheese - Orecchiette Pasta and Reypenaer Cheese" as a side, which we paid extra for...



YUM! This was incredible. Who doesn't love mac and cheese!?This was a fancy version, I guess! Full of cheesy goodness. I loved it and ate most of it. Sorry Conan! Hee!

Speaking of Conan, he ordered the night's special, which included a filet steak, mashed potatoes and a lobster tail...



Wow! Looks pretty amazing! He loved every bit of it, too.

Here's a picture of Leo perusing his Daddy's meal...



Ooh, I nearly forgot... Our server also brought Leo a bowl of mashed potatoes to eat as well (for free). Very sweet! You can see them there on the table. He gave us a teeny little espresso spoon to feed him with. So cute! Leo has always refused to eat from a spoon though, so he didn't really eat any, but it was a very sweet thought!

So far our meal had gone perfectly! I forgot to mention that throughout the evening, another server kept popping over to say hello to Leo too, because she liked him so much! She was so sweet, making him giggle and playing with him.

And then came dessert! When we'd been there years ago, Conan had a sundae and still raved about it... So of course, he had to try it again! The Yachtsman Sundae - A trio of gelato with strawberry and a vanilla pineapple sauce...



Luckily it was just as good as he'd remembered! Phew! I had a little try of the strawberry gelato and it was really was pretty amazing.

As for me, I chose the creme brulee. You can't go past a good vanilla bean creme brulee!



It was fantastic. Sweet and creamy and crunchy on top... Yum!

And look! Our lovely server brought Leo a little scoop of vanilla gelato too! Aw!



Our server (and the lady who loved Leo!) both came over to say goodbye to us as we left, and we said goodbye to the Kardashian family next to us as well... What a fun night it had been!

After being worried to even take Leo, it turned out to be far and away the best meal we had during our whole trip. The service was just incredible and they all made us (and especially Leo) feel so welcome. And of course, the food was delicious!!

We left very full and very happy... It was our final dinner at Disney World and we had definitely saved the best for last!

We gave Yachtsman Steakhouse out of 5. Perfect score!!

Coming up next... Our final morning at Disney World and Disney Dream bound!

 

[vettegirl]

YM is one of our all time favorites and I agree those rolls are amazing. We just booked our trip for the December and our baby will be 5 months old at the time and we will be dining at a few signature restaurants as well.

 

[SilentK]

Oh my, I could not cope with that heat! Being Brits we found really hot on our December trip - 28c!

Sad this is nearly finished. I've really enjoyed your report.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

ooh those pics of Yachtsman reminded me of how much we loved it last trip. Glad to see your little man got looked after so well. He looks so smart! :

 

[smile4stamps]

Wonderful reviews! I am sorry I didn't catch them while you were doing them!

I think I followed another report of yours before!

Leo is a cutie! I can see why the servers just want to cuddle with him!

He did so good with the characters too!

I had that Pie in the Sky just last month! It was delicious! and VERY filling. So filling I didn't have room for dessert

'Ohana has always been a place I didn't book because my husband doesn't traditionally like those types of places but then last week he mentioned going so I have it booked for the last of April!
I can't wait to try that bread pudding!

We were also there during F&W. I think we missed half the booths I wanted to try because we were full all the time!

 

[TX Momof2]

The Yachtsman looks wonderful! I wish I had room in our schedule to book it, but my hubby wants to eat at Artist Point for our date night! My Mother in law is coming with us, so she can watch the kiddos! yeah!

I'm not sure if I'll do a report or not...this will be our 2nd trip to DW. I've never thought about doing it, but now you've got me thinking... I LOVE reading other people's reports, just not sure anyone would want to read mine.

Take care!

 

[DisneyJo]

One of my friends is currently in Melbourne (She is Australian but mainly lives here) and yesterday apparently she spent the whole day in the pool only getting out to eat as it's so hot

Your meal sounds lovely and it sounds as though Leo was a perfect baby