Dining Done Disney

Our one Disney tradition is to eat at Chef Mickey's on our first night. 

It has always been such a fun way to kick off our vacation - yummy food, classic Disney characters.  Before we even hit the parks, we've been personally greeted by The Mouse, himself.  So, of course, this year's trip also started with a dinner at Chef Mickey's.

M, N, and H at Chef Mickey's.

EJ, A, and I celebrating the start of our vacation

The food was, as always, yummy. 
The company was terrific
(we are all extremely hysterical people).
And there were characters (other than just us)!









The weather raged outside during our meal, but we enjoyed the atmosphere inside and discussed what attractions we were going to visit that evening in the Magic Kingdom.  We missed the storm and looked forward to playing in the park until 3am (thank you, extra magic hours!).





My biggest thrill, though, was watching this:

 

EJ met his hero, in person/mouse.

One of the great things about staying on property at Disney World is the opportunity to utilize the Disney Dining Plan.  Budgeting has never been my forte - so, budgeting food costs for a vacation to Disney World is just begging for something to go awry.  I also know a lot of people who stay places that give them the opportunity to cook their own meals and save some money.  While, yes, that would cost less monetarily, it would also mean that it wasn't so much of a vacation for me. 
And the Disney Dining Plan means that Chef Mickey's was just the first of some wonderful dining experiences:

Hollywood Studios

Lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine In Cafe was lots of fun. 
S'mores milkshakes, vegetarian shepherd's pie, ribs, fried pickles, great desserts - all while sitting in our snazzy "car" and watching film clips on an indoor drive-in movie screen. 

Ohana

Dinner at Disney's Polynesian was spectacular.  There was nothing that wasn't scrumptious - salad, noodles, wings, dumplings, veggies, 4-5 different kinds of meat (that's Gary, offering up another kabob of chicken to our table, and A and I being goofy).  The coconut pineapple sweetbread at the beginning of the meal was only topped by the bread pudding, made with that same bread, served for dessert.
H is a vegetarian, so Gary spoke to a chef and presented her with a really yummy looking dish of veggies and tofu, to make sure she wasn't left out of the feast.

Beach Club

We also enjoyed the seafood buffet at Cape May Cafe.  We had some transportation issues that resulted in us being almost an hour late - but they held our reservation and we were able to enjoy a wonderful and relaxing dinner.  I learned that while refined butter is lovely on crab, it's also amazing on freshly baked cornbread. 
Oh. My. Yum.

1900 Park Fair

Our second character meal was breakfast at the Grand Floridian.  Cheese blintzes, Mickey shaped waffles, eggs made to order, eggs Benedict in a lobster sauce, bananas foster - basically, all kinds of yumminess - combined with meeting Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and the Mad Hatter.  A fabulous meal!

The meal that I was most looking forward to was our dinner at Boma, in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  It absolutely lived up to its hype, but because I was clucking so much over EJ (it was the day that he was overcome by the heat), I got no photos.  Obviously, we'll have to revisit Boma, not only for the bobotie and the mushroom soup, but to get some photos.

Our last night at Disney World included a fabulous dining experience at Germany's Biergarten in EPCOT's World Showcase.  You can see my last post for video from that night. 

These were just our table service meals at Disney World.  Our dining plan also included snacks (a toasted croissant with ham and swiss inside from the boulangerie in France counted as just a snack!) and a counter service meal for each night of our stay.  In all, a LOT of food.