MAGIC KINGDOM
Day 3, by far, was our most magical day. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom a little over an hour before park opening. We had breakfast reservations at the Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace is a buffet style character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends. It has your standard breakfast fare and everything is very tasty, but there are three things that I LOVE there:
- The orange juice with guava
- The Mickey waffles
- The cheese potato casserole
Please make sure you try all of these if you ever go!
Now here are a ton of adorable pictures of us with the characters.
Review: You honestly can’t go wrong with a character breakfast. 4.5 out of 5 stars because Tom and I love breakfast food (it would get 5 out of 5 if they had pork roll) and it’s just so much fun! This type of restaurant is more about the experience. Also, it’s an easy way to see a bunch of characters without waiting on long lines.
After breakfast it was time to ride the ‘wildest ride in the wilderness!’ Big Thunder Mountain will always be one of our favorites. Since the park just opened it was only a 5 minute wait. There’s something about Big Thunder that just makes you laugh with joy the entire time.
Pro tip: park opening is the best time to get some rides done.
We had our 3 fast passes scheduled for a little later in the day. They were for Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. All of which are on my must do list.
We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and the People Mover along with several others that I won’t list to bore you. I could go on and on about the attractions we rode and the shows we experienced.
Now on to the food! Lunch was purchased, but not really enjoyed at The Friar’s Nook. We were both excited to order the BBQ Chicken Mac and Cheese. We love both of these things and putting them together is a genius idea …or so we thought. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. Maybe it was too hot outside for something that heavy, but either way we don’t recommend it.
Later on in the day, we both decided it was time to enjoy a snack. Tom opted for a giant chocolate dipped chocolate chip Mickey cookie. It was bigger than his head! I had to have the classic Disney snack, a Pineapple Dole Whip. I finally got to try it after all of these years of going! These items we definitely do recommend buying over and over again.
The rest of our day in the Kingdom was spent on rides and walking through the long connections of shops along Main Street.
Late afternoon was spent watching Flubber and taking a nap before our exciting evening of hotel hopping and fancy dinner having.
HOTEL HOPPING
Hotel hopping is one of my favorite Disney World activities. It’s also a free activity! You ride around on the monorail and explore the deluxe resorts. We started at the Polynesian, headed over to my favorite hotel The Grand Floridan and completed the tour at the Contemporary just in time for our dinner reservations.
CALIFORNIA GRILL
This was going to be our ‘special’ dinner night. I grew up enjoying the incredible food at the signature restaurants because my wonderful grandmother took us. When it’s just Tom and I it has to be a treat. For this trip, we selected California Grill so we could enjoy Wishes while we dined.
Our waitress (I believe her name is Joanne) elevated this already incredible dining experience to a new level. She joked around with us, had us make friends with the couple next to us, and gave incredible dining recommendations.
We began our meal with glasses of cabernet sauvignon and ordered the Pork Confit Flatbread. It had Pork confit, sweet onion purée, cabbage apple slaw, manchego, gouda, and brie cheese.
After enjoying the flatbread the lights were dimmed as Wishes began at the Magic Kingdom. We quickly grabbed our wine and headed out to the observation deck. It was rather chilly out, but worth it. Wishes filled me with such emotions. Tom caught me crying at one point, but his warm hug made it even better. It was for both of us the most incredible experience of the trip.
When the fireworks were over we went back in to savor our entrees. I had the Tuna Three Ways. This dish is updated from time to time so it is different now on the menu, but when I had it there was a Poke´ and two different kinds of sushi rolls crusted in this wasabi dust. Tom ordered the Filet of Beef which has also been updated since our trip.
Unfortunately, we skipped dessert. We could not fit another bite!
Review: 5 out of 5 stars! Everything about this place is wonderful and truly meets all the standards you would expect from Disney. It is delicious, romantic, and fun. We will be back this fall! Sorry the pictures are so dark. It’s part of the atmosphere.
After, a very long day of magic it was off to bed for us. Our next post will be our last full day of the trip.
