October 31, 2024 • 29 mins
Join Tony Desiere and Lauren Mallard as they dive into the culinary delights of Walt Disney World, sharing their top picks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner across the four parks. The duo highlights the evolving dining experiences at Disney, emphasizing how food has become a focal point of their visits. They explore must-try locations, from the crepes at Epcot's Le Creperie to the iconic Tonga toast at Kona Cafe, and discuss hidden gems like the Yorkshire Fish in Epcot and the barbecue at Flame Tree. With a blend of personal anecdotes and practical tips, they encourage listeners to savor the dining experiences at Disney without the rush of the rides. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a seasoned park-goer, this episode is packed with recommendations to enhance your next magical trip.
Takeaways:
- Tony and Lauren emphasize the importance of planning your dining experiences at Disney parks to enhance your vacation.
- They share their favorite breakfast options across all four parks, highlighting unique dining experiences.
- Dining at Disney has evolved; it's no longer just about quick meals but enjoying experiences.
- Lauren recommends Satu'li Canteen at Animal Kingdom for its delicious cheeseburger pods and customizable bowls.
- Dinner at Epcot can be memorable at Garden Grill, with character interactions and fresh food.
- Tony suggests Tiffins for a fine dining experience at Animal Kingdom, praised for its quality.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Walt Disney World
- Universal Studios
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome to another edition ofthe Wands and Wishes podcast, your
best podcast for planning yourWalt Disney or Universal Studios
vacation.
Lauren Mallard.
With all the magic travel, I'mTony Doziri.
So who would have thought as Igot older that what I would enjoy
the most about going to DisneyWorld are the restaurants and the
food locations?
If you had told me that even20 years ago as an adult, I would
(00:26):
have said, you're crazy.
I was the kind of theme parkperson that was like, just give me
a burger, give me fries, getme on the next ride.
That's all I cared about.
Get me in line, get mesomething quick.
But now I'm really, reallyenjoying the restaurant.
So today we thought we wouldhave fun with picking our best breakfast,
lunch, and dinner options.
If you're going to any of thefour parks at Walt Disney World in
(00:47):
Florida, and this is youridea, Lauren and I thought it was
great because I had so muchfun doing our culinary review of
the six restaurants that we did.
And I thought, now we get totalk more about the food at Disneyland.
I love to talk about food atDisney World.
It's great.
And like I said earlier, Ihave gotten more interested, where
can I go to dinner?
Like, where can I go to lunch?
Like, what experiences can mywife and I at Zempty Nesters can
(01:09):
now have going to the parksand experiencing the dining without
the rush of getting out ofthere and getting on rides, when
I know our kids were, like,screaming at us to get out of the
restaurant and go back tohaving more fun.
Now we're really enjoying,hey, we're going to take two hours
and really enjoy this dinner.
And we don't really care.
We will be back down.
We'll be back down later.
But we really came for this experience.
(01:31):
And I think the last trip wetook was really based around the
idea of going to restaurants.
And we just said, you know what?
Most of it is going to beabout going to see restaurants.
Plan your day around it.
Plan your day around it.
So I thought this was areally, really, really fun idea.
Good.
So we're going to start withbreakfast, and we're going to go
to four parks.
And you kind of set the rulethat you look not just the park,
but resorts as well.
(01:51):
Where would you start yourbreakfast if you were going to these
parks?
So which park would you like to.
Start with on this podcast?
You know what?
Let's start with Epcot.
All right.
Let's go to Epco.
Okay.
So if I.
I'm trying to think about thegeography of the whole property.
Okay.
So I'm trying to think outsidethe box when I'm thinking about these.
(02:12):
So it depends.
And you don't have to bestaying near an Epcot resort to eat
at anywhere that's around Epcot.
So you can start thinkingabout the Skyliner or you can think
about walking around theboardwalk to have something for breakfast.
Any of those options.
But for Epcot, it's so obviousbecause Epcot is such a foodie park.
(02:33):
It is.
I have to go ahead and insidethe park.
Okay.
So for Epcot for breakfast,I'm going straight to France.
Oh, I probably took yours.
You took mine.
Yes.
But I'm not going where youthink I'm going.
Okay, go ahead.
So I'm gonna go to the LeCreperie around by Remy's, and I'm
going to have a crepe forbreakfast around there.
(02:53):
So I left the obvious one for breakfast.
But what's also good aboutthis option is if you're rope dropping
Remy's Ratatouille adventure,then you can do that first.
Go ahead and knock that outduring early magic hours or entry,
whatever it's called thesedays, and go ahead and then stop
for your crepe before you movealong during the in the World Showcase.
(03:13):
Well, I'm staying in Epcot andI'm staying at the French Pavilion
because I'm going to thepastry shop.
Yes, Le Bon la Pastry.
So I'm going there, I'mgetting a croissant, I'm getting
a cup of coffee.
I do it all the time.
I love it there.
I.
My wife had never gone there.
She wasn't really a pastry person.
But I kept saying, you know,she went to France two years ago.
(03:33):
When she came back, I said,let's go get you a croissant.
These are really delicious.
Oh, yeah, they're fantastic.
Now the people get a littleintimidated by it because the line
can go all the way out thedoor, but it does move pretty quickly.
Very quickly.
Split you up, you can go intorows and you can.
You can get your pastry orwhatever you want and get your coffee.
I think the only thing thatintimidates me is that I'll stand
(03:54):
in line for so long and I'llthink about what I want in there.
And then I feel so muchpressure when I'm standing there
in front of the case and I seeall the yummy.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
I'm like, what do I really want?
But it's all so good, so youcan't go wrong.
Yeah, you're thinking you wanta croissant, and then you get there
and you see another thing.
You're like, wait a minute, Iwant that.
Instead, they just basicallyare lining it up in front of you
as you're walking to the cash register.
(04:14):
So you're adding stuff as you go.
And there's no wrong answer.
And no wrong answer.
So that's fantastic.
All right, you want to move onto Animal Kingdom?
Okay.
Are we going to stick with breakfast?
Let's stick with breakfast inAnimal Kingdom.
Okay.
So a lot of times I do nothave breakfast before I go to Animal
Kingdom.
So what I will do is what I'mgoing to pick for this one is I'm
going to pick my resort foodcourt because there's going to be
(04:35):
one day during.
During the week that I have tohave the Mickey waffles.
That's right.
But here's my hack.
For the resort food courtbreakfast, you don't need the adult
meal.
So the kids meal at breakfastis more than enough food.
Because what I like to do thenafter that is go to Joffrey's inside
the park and get my coffee tohave while we're touring the park.
(04:55):
So what I will get is the kidsmeal that comes with the Mickey waffles
with the bacon, and it alsocomes with the drink.
So you get two Mickey waffles,you get bacon, you get your drink
whether you want chocolatemilk or whether you want to sub that
for a Coke or something to getyour day going.
And then so I'm going to havemy breakfast before I go to the park
(05:15):
because lunch and dinner atAnimal Kingdom, I think are a little
bit more stars.
All right.
I'm like you.
I don't usually eat breakfastwhen I go to Animal Kingdom, but
I picked a place that Ithought you might touch on in that
sauna in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Because they.
Because I've never been there,but I heard great reviews about it.
And it is a place to get sortof the Savannah view.
If you're not staying at thelodge, you can eat there.
(05:36):
They've got some.
They got some traditional breakfast.
They got some after Africanthemed breakfast.
It's kind of a uniqueexperience, but it does give you
some theming and also givesyou something that you can see that
you may not be able to see ifyou're staying on somewhere else
on property.
Great point.
That's an awesome pick.
All right, let's go to Magic Kingdom.
Okay.
All right.
Breakfast at Magic Kingdom.
How do you start your day?
(05:57):
Okay, so there were twoOptions here that I was trying to
decide between.
But for this one, I'm actuallygoing to go with a sit down breakfast.
Okay.
This is my favorite sit downbreakfast on all of Disney property.
And I'm gonna go over to thePolynesian resort and I'm gonna go
to Kona Cafe.
That's right.
So at Kona Cafe, they have themost divine thing that's on the menu.
(06:18):
It's called Tonga toast.
What it is is it's a giantstuffed Texas toast style dish.
It looks like a Minecraft bread.
It really does.
It is giant.
I'm like, I don't know howthis really works because it's just
one giant piece of breadthat's stuffed with bananas and then
it's rolled in cinnamon sugar.
And then this.
The.
(06:39):
I guess it's not a dressing.
The syrup that they serve withit is actually a strawberry compote.
So it helps to kind of evenout the sweetness of the cinnamon
and sugar without having amaple syrup.
But it is the best breakfaston property, along with the Kona
coffee.
So that is my perfect start toa magic kingdom.
All right, now I'm going witha place that's kind of gotten reviews,
(07:00):
but I'm staying with itbecause Chef Mickey at the Contemporary,
I think is a fantastic diningbreakfast experience for kids with
the characters.
Is the buffet gonna blow you away?
Not likely, but it's good breakfast.
It's a good breakfast.
Yeah.
There's not really anythingsuper special about it.
It's eggs, bacon, whatnot.
It's waffles, etc.
But it's a great place to seethe Fab five.
(07:20):
I always like the Contemporary.
I've always.
Ever since I was little, Ithought this was a kind of a cool
design for a hotel.
So it brings back a lot offeelings for me.
Nostalgia.
It's nostalgia to the hotel.
First one there.
I mean, again, take a kid inthe middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire
in 1982 and put him on amonorail through a hotel.
Straight through a hotel.
(07:40):
Like, I'm just.
My mind is exploding as a 10year old kid.
So I've always had a soft spotfor the contemporary.
But I know that a lot ofpeople have said I was a little underwhelmed,
but for a character breakfast,I think it's one of the better ones.
I've done that and I've doneKate May.
I would take the Chef Mickey.
Yeah, Cape May was fine, butit's a little off the.
No, I agree.
I think that Chef Mickey's isone of those that's kind of a rite
(08:02):
of passage for Disney.
And if you're going to choosea meal at Chef Mickey's, I think
breakfast is 100% of the timethe way to go.
Exactly.
All right, let's go toHollywood Studios.
What are we having forbreakfast to start that park?
Okay.
So I am again going to gooutside the park, and for this one,
I'm actually going to visitthe Skyliner.
Okay, very good.
So whether you're staying onthe Skyliner or not, if you go ahead
(08:24):
and take your bus to HollywoodStudios, then you can get on the
Skyliner for breakfast.
And I'm going over toTopolino's Terrace.
Absolutely.
I've talked about it before onthe podcast.
It's another fantastic,fantastic character dining option.
And so if you're, if you'retraveling with kids and you don't
want to stand in line forcharacter meet and greets, these
character breakfasts are sucha good bang for your buck.
(08:47):
And then again, we've talkedabout too, when, if you have a child
that's under the age of three,this one would qualify, Chef Mickey
would qualify as a place thatthat child is going to be able to
eat for free.
So this starts your day offreally well if you're going and feeding
the family for a little lessthan you would if you were purchasing
Mickey waffles for that twoyear old.
And Topolino's Terrace, as wetalked about in the previous podcast,
(09:08):
there's almost, almost like adual restaurant and it's so family
friendly with breakfast andthe characters.
But at night it's a little bitmore fine dining and fancy and you
can see the fireworks on the rooftop.
And it's a little bit more ofan upscale dining experience.
But that breakfast and to seecharacters in different outfits,
like you're gonna see Mickeyas the painter and Donald as the
(09:29):
sculptor, and Daisy, I think,is a poet.
I'm not sure, but those arethe kind of, kind of experiences
if you're looking for.
I think Topolino's Terrace is fantastic.
Yes, I'm going to Galaxy's Edge.
Okay.
I'm going to get a Rontoroast, the breakfast one.
These wraps are fantastic.
Now, this was recommended tome not that long ago, and I decided
to get one.
Lori stayed away from it, butit's eggs, pork sausage, it's got
(09:51):
a little peppercorn sauce andthe cheese.
It's delicious.
It's delicious.
Fantastic.
And so don't underestimatesome of these places that, you know,
if you're walking through thepark, you can get a breakfast sandwich.
A lot of these places that aresort of themed to the land and the
galaxy's edge.
This is fantastic.
You see, like a big beast roasting.
It's sort of like the idealtheming of where you're at.
(10:13):
But to get one of these ispretty cool.
It's a pretty cool experience there.
Yeah.
So I would say for breakfast,what you can do is really research
some of the places beforehandto kind of get an idea of what's
close by, what's inside thepark that maybe would be off the
beaten path that you could gocheck out, or what might be at a
rest, a resort nearby.
So, so let's say you wanted tostart the morning at Hollywood Studios,
(10:36):
but go have a brunch likewe've talked about before at Topolino.
So all of these things cancome into factor, but try to stay
close to whatever park you'revisiting that day.
Yeah, you can.
I mean, you can get Mickeywaffles at Sleepy Hollow.
You know, there's all sorts ofplaces to get them.
So, again, don't be.
You know, if you're planningyour trip and you're planning your
food and you.
Your family likes breakfast,but maybe doesn't want to sit down,
plenty of great places to getquick breakfast and still have a
(11:00):
feeling of Disney World.
Not just a quick littlesandwich or something like that,
but you can still make it afun theming experience and get it
done fast, for sure.
All right, so that's breakfast.
Now let's move on to lunch.
Okay.
All right.
Where would you like to startin our lunch journey?
I guess we can go back to Epcot.
I feel like it's been a minutesince we've been in epcot, and absolutely
100% of the time, even thoughEpcot has so many good choices for
(11:22):
lunch, I really could probablygo anywhere.
But 100% of the time, I amgoing to the Yorkshire Fish and having
the fish and chips.
Absolutely.
There's just something aboutthat fish and chips.
Now, the only thing that is acon to me is the seating there.
There is not very much seating.
It's all outdoors, very fewumbrellas and a lot of birds.
So you got to just know thatgoing into it that you might not
(11:45):
find a place to sit.
You might be finding a trashcan to put your fish on and stand
there and have your fish.
But it is just delightful.
It is so good.
My mother is.
My mother.
My grandmother on my mother'sside is.
Was from England and marriedmy grandfather after the war.
And my mother honors herbirthday by eating fish and chips
every single year.
There.
Now, you can get the same fishand chips in the restaurant, but
(12:06):
they're.
But the one you're talkingabout is.
Is basically the same.
Okay.
I've never been inside the.
The Rose and Crown.
I guess they were very proudto tell me that.
They said, oh, it's the samefish and chips and you can eat outside.
Very good.
They get it every year, butthey love it.
They look forward to the tripto get that with me.
Only if it's open and it's notopen all the time.
I'm getting the pizza outside.
Via Napoli.
Yes.
Not open a lot.
(12:27):
If it is open and the windowis open at lunch, get it.
It's a Sicilian thick sliced pizza.
It's phenomenal.
It's molten grande.
It's big, and it'll feed youand even feed you and somebody else
if you wanted to split it downthe middle.
Absolutely.
That large, a good value andit's pretty quick.
But if.
If it's not open, I get thebarbecue at Regal Eagle Smokehouse.
Yeah.
Love Regal Eagle Smokehouse.
(12:47):
Absolutely.
So that is my little lunch for Epcot.
Yes.
All right, let's go to Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom.
All right.
I am probably going to takethe obvious choice here.
I'm going over into Pandoraand I'm gonna go to Satchuli Cantun.
Yeah, I was that too.
It is just the best quickservice on all of Disney property,
(13:08):
in my opinion.
There's something for everybody.
There's something calledcheeseburger pods there.
They're delicious that thechildren love.
They're kind of like aMcDonald's cheeseburger.
Same taste.
And then of course, they havedifferent bowls where you can choose
to make it a salad bowl or youcan choose to make it a rice bowl,
steak, chicken.
I mean, you can really buildyour bowl and you can feel like you're
eating something hearty.
(13:28):
That's not just.
Just run in the millhamburgers or cheeseburgers in the
park.
All right.
I'm taking Flame Tree barbecue.
Oh, yeah.
One of the reasons is they gota really cool seating area.
They've got like a gazeboplace where you can sit in underneath
the elements.
And it's one of the coolerviews around the park.
It really is.
Especially if you keep goingback in.
There and the food is good.
(13:49):
It's really.
It's standard barbecue fare.
I like the St.
Louis ribs with the halfchicken, but I really love the scenic
part of eating outside.
Some of the birds come up to you.
And you got to kind of shoothem away.
But nevertheless, the.
If you really like loving justto see the scenic beauty of Animal
Kingdom, it's a great place tosettle in, eat some barbecue and
enjoy the views.
(14:09):
Yeah, I can't go wrong there.
Yeah, you can't go wrong there.
All right, let's go to Magic Kingdom.
Okay.
Magic Kingdom.
I've probably said it before.
You can probably know whereI'm gonna go.
I'm going to Main street andI'm going to Casey's Corner.
That's what I wrote down.
100% of the time.
I am predictable.
At Magic Kingdom.
I'm actually getting the corndog nuggets.
(14:31):
They are mini corn dogs.
I don't know what they'recalled there.
I think they're called corndog nuggets, but they come with fries
and they are always hot,they're always crunchy.
And pair that with a good icecold Coke in the middle of the day
at Magic Kingdom and it isjust the best thing ever.
I'm with you.
I'm gonna stay with that.
Casey's Corner.
If you never get a hot dog atCasey's Corner, what are you doing?
(14:51):
How do you live?
It's the one recommendation Igive all the time.
It's.
It's the one thing.
And I say I.
You know, just from the Caseyat the bat feeling that you're in
when you're in there, the oldDisney cartoon and the old poem just
in the, in the hot dogs are big.
They're fun.
It's a great.
It really brings that there'san element of Disney that's in there
(15:12):
from the, from the 40s, 50sfeel to it.
It's, it's, it's a great,great place to stop.
And you really have to do itto say you did it.
Because if you've gone five orsix times and never eaten there,
shame on you.
I'm terrible.
You gotta eat there.
Absolutely.
So I'm staying there.
I, I mean, when was I going totake Cosmet McRae?
I can't take.
There really.
There really is no otherchoice in Magic Kingdom, unfortunately.
(15:32):
I'm hoping maybe one dayDisney will listen to us and hear
that we need a few more things.
A few more things.
But for now, I'm okay witheating lunch at Casey's Corner anytime
that I'm in Magic Kingdom.
And another thing that I willsay is take time to listen to the
piano player that's outside ofCasey's Corner.
That's right.
Whoever it is, is always fantastic.
All right, let's go over toHollywood Studios for a lunch break.
(15:54):
Yeah.
So Hollywood Studios is theother park that I think really struggle
with food.
But there is a dish there thatI really enjoy at ABC Commissary.
ABC Commissary.
It is the buffalo chickengrilled cheese sandwich.
And it is really good.
It's always fresh made.
This, this is one of the fewrestaurants at Hollywood Studios
(16:15):
that's actually in the air conditioning.
So you'll find that a lot ofthe quick service places in Hollywood
Studios only have outdoor seating.
So if you're looking forsomething to be able to sit inside,
get a little respite from theheat, this is a great place.
They have a pretty goodvariety on their menu.
But that's the one that Iwould go with is the buffalo chicken
grilled cheese sandwich.
All right, I'm going to.
I went a little different.
Now, if you are somebody thathas skipped breakfast and you're
(16:37):
really looking for heartylunch, go with ABC Commissary.
Because again, variety on the menu.
Sure.
If you're looking forsomething to get some theming, something
light, maybe something.
Because you're planning a bigbreakfast, go to Olga's Cantina.
Oh, yes.
Because you can get a samplerplatter of the meats and cheese.
There's just like two optionsfor food.
So that's pretty much allyou're getting.
(16:57):
You're there for either analcoholic drink or a non alcoholic
mocktail.
They're fun.
But if you're a Star wars fan,it's like the cantina in Tatooine
in Star wars.
It's got that vibe to it.
You got to experience it.
It's really fun because ifyou're, if you're really a fan of
the movie, it's going to takeyou into that scene where Luke and
Obi Wan are trying to meet Han Solo.
(17:19):
It's really great.
Again, not a lot of food options.
My father took us in there.
We mostly went in there to geta drink and to experience it.
But we got a platter and Ithought to myself, this could fill
apart people.
You know, this could fill two people.
If you're looking for somefood, a drink, and then have a bigger
dinner.
That's a great point becauseI've had people ask me before if
that's somewhere that they canhave lunch.
(17:40):
And I'm like, well, it's notreally somewhere that's going to
fill you up.
But that's a great way to, totalk about it.
Because if you've had a bigbreakfast then.
Yeah, sure.
It might be a great spot for lunch.
Yeah, it's.
And the, and the platter wasreally cool.
Had different meats and cheeses.
Pretty standard.
Nothing.
Nothing super fancy.
The mocktails are really fun.
They'll bubble over and thingslike that.
So if you're looking for a biglunch, ABC commissary.
(18:03):
I was going to put Andy'slunchbox, but it's always crowded.
It's so crowded.
And there's no seating.
No.
And the mobile order, even yougo on to mobile order something there
and you might be waiting 90 minutes.
Yeah, I don't want to be inToy story land for 90 minutes.
So.
Yeah, that one's a tough one.
And while seating in a lot ofplaces are hard, this is really hard
to get a seat.
Yes, it's.
It doesn't have a lot ofoutdoor seating.
(18:25):
So, you know, try it if youwant, but you're going to be.
You might be there for a while.
Yeah.
All right, now we are movingon to dinner on the portion of this.
All right.
Which park would you like to venture?
Okay, so let's go back to Epcot.
Okay.
But you kind of threw me for aloop here because I feel like I can't
go to my Via Napoli.
Because you went there for lunch.
Well, I went there for the pizza.
Place outside, so I'm notgoing to choose Via Napoli.
(18:48):
And I am actually going to goover to the Land Pavilion and I'm
going to go to Garden Grill.
This is the most recommendedplace I get all the time and I've
yet to do it.
It is really good, actually.
It's very good.
I heard it's very good.
Yeah, my daughter Lily and Iate there and this was the first
time in years, guess since Iwas a kid that I had eaten there.
And the food is fresh.
(19:09):
It's a really good menu.
It's pleasing to kids and adults.
And the character interactionthere was really some of the best
character interaction we hadanywhere that we went.
You get Mickey, Pluto, Chipand Dale.
And the restaurant slowlyrotates around through the Living
with the Land ride.
So you can look down atdifferent times and see boats going
(19:31):
through the ride or you cansee different scenes of the ride.
And it's just, it's a funplace to just relax and enjoy a family
style meal.
So again, my retired parentsare doing this restaurant tour of
Disney and I was telling Lorithat of all the places, they really
are highly recommended.
Garden Grill.
There was an enthusiasm to.
(19:51):
When they were telling me how Much.
They loved Garden Grill and Iget that from everybody.
I have yet to go there there.
But the enthusiasm is great.
It really is.
All right.
I, I did nostalgia here.
I only I chose Coral Reef.
Oh yeah.
And the reason I did wasbecause when we were on the dining
plan in 2012, my son, who wasa maybe 12 at the time, he wanted
(20:11):
lobster ravioli.
Uhhuh.
And now became a lobster fanatic.
Thanks.
Coral Reef.
Yes.
I'm not a huge seafood person.
I had the and I didn't want toinsult the fish.
I had the New York strip whenI was there.
Again, this is one of thoseplaces that gets mixed reviews for
food but the ambiance isreally cool.
Big aquarium whatnot.
(20:32):
But I feel bad because there'sso many good restaurants in the world
showcase.
But some of them I, I, I haveyet to try.
Yeah, I want to go to Nine Dragons.
I heard Nine Dragons is really good.
Santa, Santa and Hell in Iheard kids not as good.
Kind of getting mixed reviews.
Getting mixed reviews use.
But some of the other onesthey said the Moroccan restaurant
(20:52):
is really delicious.
Yes.
But I have, I don't usually goin that direction.
It's outside of Vianapoli.
So I wanted to recommendsomething I've been to before.
And a good point with that toois Coral Reef is one that you typically
can find a reservation last minute.
If you're looking for a sitdown restaurant and you don't currently
have a reservation, check itout because there are some good things
(21:13):
on the menu for sure.
All right, let's go over toMagic Kingdom.
Yeah, let's go over to Magic Kingdom.
So I am going to leave thepark for dinner.
I thought about staying insidethe park but I don't love the sit
down restaurants inside Magic Kingdom.
And I want to sit down.
And so what I'm actually goingto do is on almost every trip and
I'm not going to talk aboutthe one that I talk about all the
time.
So don't think that I'm goingover to the Contemporary.
(21:34):
But what I'm going to do isI'm going to go over to Grand Floridian.
I'm going to take the boatover to Grand Floridian because I
think it's the best view fromMagic Kingdom.
And I'm going to go to GrandFloridian Cafe.
They have a really good menu,a good variety.
My kids love it.
They have a pasta on theirkids menu that my kids have just
adored for years.
And there's something, there'sa great burger on the menu, there's
(21:55):
a really good steak, there's asalmon, so there's something that
will please every pallet.
And honestly, I think for theprice that it is, you're getting
a really good value and you'reescaping the park enough to feel
like you're kind of gettingthat break in, but then you're close
enough to the park that youcan just hop right back over there
for the evening.
All right.
I was going to do Be ourGuest, but I did that in a review.
(22:16):
But my wife said no, no, no,no, no.
You have to do Crystal palacewith Winnie the Pooh and friends,
of course.
So this is more for her thanit was for me.
But I like the buffet a lot.
It was a good buffet.
Pretty much everything you'dwant in a buffet.
Salads, meat, potatoes, sides, dessert.
Plenty of everything that youwould expect at a typical dinner
buffet.
And it is very cool.
Winnie the Pooh and friendswill walk around and spend some good
(22:38):
time with you.
And from, from manyexperiences that I've heard with
people, you get a lot ofinteraction with Winnie the Pooh
and fans.
They will spend really a lotof time.
Sometimes they'll come back toyour table twice.
So it's, it's a very coolcharacter experience.
You can go there for breakfast too.
But we went there for dinner.
It was a treat that I wantedto surprise her with and it was a
very good buffet.
(22:59):
And Crystal palace is, has anumber of video iterations over the
years, but they've really landed.
I really think that it hasreally gone up on everybody's radar
because the food has beenconsistent lately and the character
interactions as well.
Absolutely.
All right, let's go over toHollywood Studios.
Hollywood studios.
A lot of cool things atHollywood Studios.
There are some cool things.
(23:19):
So you can kind of go a lot ofdifferent directions here.
And I'm going to picksomething for dinner that I honestly
typically will have for lunchif I'm here.
I typically don't have it fordinner if I'm going to have a sit
down meal.
But I'm going to go over to50s prime time.
Yeah, that's fun.
This is such a nostalgic onefor me because we used to love to
eat here when I was a kid andnow it's just funny watching the
(23:43):
faces, my kids reactionswhenever the waiters and waitresses
are talking to them if they'renot eating their food or if they're
got their elbows on the table.
It's just a fun experience for everybody.
And the food is prettyconsistent I love the fried chicken.
I love the fried chicken there.
It's great.
And it's really.
It's another one of those thatI think is a really good value for
(24:03):
the amount of food that you're getting.
It's going to fill everybody up.
And again, it's got a good variety.
So I would.
I would pick that every time.
On our last trip, we hadreservations for that, but we wanted
to go to the rodeo, thebarbecue place, to try something
different because we wentthere about 10 years ago and I thought
it was fun.
Another place we went 10 yearsago, which is on my list.
Sci Fi Drive in theater.
It's.
It's cool.
It's a cool theme, and itbrings back to you to a time.
(24:25):
If you remember drive intheaters, maybe you're too young
to not know what drive intheaters were.
It's a really cool nostalgic feel.
Yes.
It does repeat.
Yes.
There's a lot of things thatyou might hear over and over again.
It's fun to see the staffrepeat the lines because they just
hear it over and over and over again.
But the food is decent enough.
There's a variety on the menu.
The kids will love it becauseyou get to be in a car.
(24:46):
And where else can you be in acar like you're in a drive in theater?
I think the theming for thisis outstanding.
It's a really cool.
It was a really cool idea toadd it to when you're talking about
a place that's celebratingHollywood to say, what kind of thing
can we do?
Oh, drive in theaters were abig deal.
It fits perfectly.
Yeah.
And that's a tough reservationto get to.
So if you're thinking you wantto go to Sci Fi, make sure that you
(25:07):
are looking for that one at 60days out, for sure.
And it is dark.
It is.
It is dark.
So don't let your kids run tothe bathroom by themselves.
Even though they say they cango by themselves.
They might wind up in thewrong car.
They might wind up in thewrong car.
Or you.
You might be looking for thembecause they won't know their way.
Right.
It's.
It's kind of dark in there,but the food is actually decent.
Sometimes the theming doesn'talways match the quality.
The food is actually prettydecent there.
(25:28):
All right, which one are we missing?
Oh, Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom.
So I.
I don't guess I've ever beenhere after dark to actually eat.
Yes.
While I've been.
This was a problem for me.
Yeah.
And so I'm like, huh.
Well, what would I do?
And I thought, well, I couldgo back to whatever resort that I'm
staying at, but I'm trying tostay with the proximity of the park.
So obviously, the choice thatI'm going to go with is Boma over
(25:51):
at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
We've already been over thereonce today with your recommendation
for breakfast, but we're goingto go over to Boma.
This buffet, to me, is thebest buffet on all of Disney property.
It is just.
There's such exotic things onthe buffet, but then again, there's
something for picky eaters, too.
And so you can really, reallyjust find something that everybody's
(26:14):
going to love.
And you're going to be able towalk in that lobby at Animal Kingdom
Lodge if you're not stayingthere and if you've never been there
before and really, like, feelso immersed in that culture and it
gives you a good way to go toanother resort if you're not going
to visit there.
I think we've said it beforeto kind of get your feet wet there
and say, oh, would this besomewhere that I'd like to stay in
(26:34):
the future?
Because you can really kind oftake in some of the animals that
are outside, look at them and.
And then go down and have thebuffet there, which is a really,
really tasty buffet.
I think you're.
You hit the nail on the headwith the.
With the park.
It's not really open late fordinner, so again, you're probably
having an early dinner beforethe park.
But I'm going to a place Inever went, and if I hear one more
person tell me to go there,I'll go.
(26:55):
Okay.
Okay, It's Tiffin's.
Everyone tells me to go eat at Tiffany.
I've never been.
I've never been either.
This gets high.
Reviews.
People who've gone tell methat they'll love it.
They'll tell me it's great.
I have eaten at Yak and Yeti.
I did like Yak and Yeti.
I can't remember what I had,though so long ago ago, but I can't
remember.
But that was another placethat was on my secondary list.
If I'm just going to go withan experience rather than anticipation.
(27:18):
The anticipation is.
Tiffin is really good.
Yes.
And I think that was anotherone I was trying to think about.
Is like, okay, well, we couldgo fancy in a couple different places
outside of Animal Kingdom.
You can choose Tiffin's, oryou can choose Jico over here.
Animal Kingdom Lodge, whichI've never Been to either.
So if you're wanting to endyour Animal Kingdom day with a fancy
dinner, there's a couple ofreally good options there.
(27:39):
I'm not telling you where notto go, but.
Rainforest Cafe.
Yeah, you know what, there'sso many cities in the US that have
a Rainforest Cafe, so let'sstay away from that if we can.
Exactly.
I mean, I've been to one inlike, I think in Las Vegas.
I think, if I'm not mistaken,on my travels in the sports world.
So that is it.
That is the breakfast, lunchand dinner, all four park combination
at Walt Disney World.
(28:00):
Any final thoughts?
Now I'm hungry.
Exactly.
Any final thoughts?
Yeah, you know, I think thatthere's so many good places.
So like, if you're not goingto one of these places that we've
listed, or if you're thinking,oh, well, they, they didn't mention
any of the places that I'm going.
That doesn't mean that they'renot good because so many places at
Disney World are fantastic.
But, you know, pace yourselfbecause you could have a snack here,
(28:22):
a snack there, and you couldactually double the amount of places
that you're going in a day andbe able to just kind of sample a
few things and, and reallyjust experience a lot of it.
And let people like us helpyou with reservations because it
may get dis disheartening whenyou see it's booked up.
But reservations get canceledall the time.
You got to keep checking andgot to keep checking.
(28:44):
And it's good to have somebodyon your side like Lauren or myself
that can help keep it up.
But we did for Space220.
Space220 did not look like apossibility at all for our trip at
all because, I mean, it wasbooked every day.
We tried different days,couldn't get in, but we just kept
at it every single day.
We kept checking and checkingand then boom, next thing you know,
hey, look, we may have toswipe swap our days from a Sunday
(29:05):
Epcot visit to a SaturdayEpcot visit.
But we got it for lunch, sokeep checking these places because
you, you never know when youmight land it and have a really cool,
fun meal themed meal that'sreally actually delicious.
We want to thank you forlistening to the podcast.
Hit us up.
You can emaillauren@laurenagictravel.com hit me
up@travelwithtonyd gmail.complease subscribe to the podcast.
(29:25):
Leave us a five star review.
Share it.
It really helps us with the algorithms.
We'll be back next next week.
Actually, you'll be gone nextweek, right?
I will be back.
You'll be back in time.
I know you're going to be gone somewhere.
We won't give it away becauseI want to hear about it when you
come back on the podcast.
So a quick trip for Lauren andher family and we'll get the details
next week.
But again, please subscribe.
Leave us a five star review ifyou like the podcast because it really
(29:47):
does help us out for all ofthe traveling that you may do, for
all of the planning you may do.
Thanks for listening to Juan'sand Wishes podcast.
Welcome to another edition ofthe Wands and Wishes podcast, your
best podcast for planning yourWalt Disney or Universal Studios
vacation.
Lauren Mallard.
With all the magic travel, I'mTony Doziri.
So who would have thought as Igot older that what I would enjoy
the most about going to DisneyWorld are the restaurants and the
food locations?
If you had told me that even20 years ago as an adult, I would
(00:26):
have said, you're crazy.
I was the kind of theme parkperson that was like, just give me
a burger, give me fries, getme on the next ride.
That's all I cared about.
Get me in line, get mesomething quick.
But now I'm really, reallyenjoying the restaurant.
So today we thought we wouldhave fun with picking our best breakfast,
lunch, and dinner options.
If you're going to any of thefour parks at Walt Disney World in
(00:47):
Florida, and this is youridea, Lauren and I thought it was
great because I had so muchfun doing our culinary review of
the six restaurants that we did.
And I thought, now we get totalk more about the food at Disneyland.
I love to talk about food atDisney World.
It's great.
And like I said earlier, Ihave gotten more interested, where
can I go to dinner?
Like, where can I go to lunch?
Like, what experiences can mywife and I at Zempty Nesters can
(01:09):
now have going to the parksand experiencing the dining without
the rush of getting out ofthere and getting on rides, when
I know our kids were, like,screaming at us to get out of the
restaurant and go back tohaving more fun.
Now we're really enjoying,hey, we're going to take two hours
and really enjoy this dinner.
And we don't really care.
We will be back down.
We'll be back down later.
But we really came for this experience.
(01:31):
And I think the last trip wetook was really based around the
idea of going to restaurants.
And we just said, you know what?
Most of it is going to beabout going to see restaurants.
Plan your day around it.
Plan your day around it.
So I thought this was areally, really, really fun idea.
Good.
So we're going to start withbreakfast, and we're going to go
to four parks.
And you kind of set the rulethat you look not just the park,
but resorts as well.
(01:51):
Where would you start yourbreakfast if you were going to these
parks?
So which park would you like to.
Start with on this podcast?
You know what?
Let's start with Epcot.
All right.
Let's go to Epco.
Okay.
So if I.
I'm trying to think about thegeography of the whole property.
Okay.
So I'm trying to think outsidethe box when I'm thinking about these.
(02:12):
So it depends.
And you don't have to bestaying near an Epcot resort to eat
at anywhere that's around Epcot.
So you can start thinkingabout the Skyliner or you can think
about walking around theboardwalk to have something for breakfast.
Any of those options.
But for Epcot, it's so obviousbecause Epcot is such a foodie park.
(02:33):
It is.
I have to go ahead and insidethe park.
Okay.
So for Epcot for breakfast,I'm going straight to France.
Oh, I probably took yours.
You took mine.
Yes.
But I'm not going where youthink I'm going.
Okay, go ahead.
So I'm gonna go to the LeCreperie around by Remy's, and I'm
going to have a crepe forbreakfast around there.
(02:53):
So I left the obvious one for breakfast.
But what's also good aboutthis option is if you're rope dropping
Remy's Ratatouille adventure,then you can do that first.
Go ahead and knock that outduring early magic hours or entry,
whatever it's called thesedays, and go ahead and then stop
for your crepe before you movealong during the in the World Showcase.
(03:13):
Well, I'm staying in Epcot andI'm staying at the French Pavilion
because I'm going to thepastry shop.
Yes, Le Bon la Pastry.
So I'm going there, I'mgetting a croissant, I'm getting
a cup of coffee.
I do it all the time.
I love it there.
I.
My wife had never gone there.
She wasn't really a pastry person.
But I kept saying, you know,she went to France two years ago.
(03:33):
When she came back, I said,let's go get you a croissant.
These are really delicious.
Oh, yeah, they're fantastic.
Now the people get a littleintimidated by it because the line
can go all the way out thedoor, but it does move pretty quickly.
Very quickly.
Split you up, you can go intorows and you can.
You can get your pastry orwhatever you want and get your coffee.
I think the only thing thatintimidates me is that I'll stand
(03:54):
in line for so long and I'llthink about what I want in there.
And then I feel so muchpressure when I'm standing there
in front of the case and I seeall the yummy.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
I'm like, what do I really want?
But it's all so good, so youcan't go wrong.
Yeah, you're thinking you wanta croissant, and then you get there
and you see another thing.
You're like, wait a minute, Iwant that.
Instead, they just basicallyare lining it up in front of you
as you're walking to the cash register.
(04:14):
So you're adding stuff as you go.
And there's no wrong answer.
And no wrong answer.
So that's fantastic.
All right, you want to move onto Animal Kingdom?
Okay.
Are we going to stick with breakfast?
Let's stick with breakfast inAnimal Kingdom.
Okay.
So a lot of times I do nothave breakfast before I go to Animal
Kingdom.
So what I will do is what I'mgoing to pick for this one is I'm
going to pick my resort foodcourt because there's going to be
(04:35):
one day during.
During the week that I have tohave the Mickey waffles.
That's right.
But here's my hack.
For the resort food courtbreakfast, you don't need the adult
meal.
So the kids meal at breakfastis more than enough food.
Because what I like to do thenafter that is go to Joffrey's inside
the park and get my coffee tohave while we're touring the park.
(04:55):
So what I will get is the kidsmeal that comes with the Mickey waffles
with the bacon, and it alsocomes with the drink.
So you get two Mickey waffles,you get bacon, you get your drink
whether you want chocolatemilk or whether you want to sub that
for a Coke or something to getyour day going.
And then so I'm going to havemy breakfast before I go to the park
(05:15):
because lunch and dinner atAnimal Kingdom, I think are a little
bit more stars.
All right.
I'm like you.
I don't usually eat breakfastwhen I go to Animal Kingdom, but
I picked a place that Ithought you might touch on in that
sauna in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Because they.
Because I've never been there,but I heard great reviews about it.
And it is a place to get sortof the Savannah view.
If you're not staying at thelodge, you can eat there.
(05:36):
They've got some.
They got some traditional breakfast.
They got some after Africanthemed breakfast.
It's kind of a uniqueexperience, but it does give you
some theming and also givesyou something that you can see that
you may not be able to see ifyou're staying on somewhere else
on property.
Great point.
That's an awesome pick.
All right, let's go to Magic Kingdom.
Okay.
All right.
Breakfast at Magic Kingdom.
How do you start your day?
(05:57):
Okay, so there were twoOptions here that I was trying to
decide between.
But for this one, I'm actuallygoing to go with a sit down breakfast.
Okay.
This is my favorite sit downbreakfast on all of Disney property.
And I'm gonna go over to thePolynesian resort and I'm gonna go
to Kona Cafe.
That's right.
So at Kona Cafe, they have themost divine thing that's on the menu.
(06:18):
It's called Tonga toast.
What it is is it's a giantstuffed Texas toast style dish.
It looks like a Minecraft bread.
It really does.
It is giant.
I'm like, I don't know howthis really works because it's just
one giant piece of breadthat's stuffed with bananas and then
it's rolled in cinnamon sugar.
And then this.
The.
(06:39):
I guess it's not a dressing.
The syrup that they serve withit is actually a strawberry compote.
So it helps to kind of evenout the sweetness of the cinnamon
and sugar without having amaple syrup.
But it is the best breakfaston property, along with the Kona
coffee.
So that is my perfect start toa magic kingdom.
All right, now I'm going witha place that's kind of gotten reviews,
(07:00):
but I'm staying with itbecause Chef Mickey at the Contemporary,
I think is a fantastic diningbreakfast experience for kids with
the characters.
Is the buffet gonna blow you away?
Not likely, but it's good breakfast.
It's a good breakfast.
Yeah.
There's not really anythingsuper special about it.
It's eggs, bacon, whatnot.
It's waffles, etc.
But it's a great place to seethe Fab five.
(07:20):
I always like the Contemporary.
I've always.
Ever since I was little, Ithought this was a kind of a cool
design for a hotel.
So it brings back a lot offeelings for me.
Nostalgia.
It's nostalgia to the hotel.
First one there.
I mean, again, take a kid inthe middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire
in 1982 and put him on amonorail through a hotel.
Straight through a hotel.
(07:40):
Like, I'm just.
My mind is exploding as a 10year old kid.
So I've always had a soft spotfor the contemporary.
But I know that a lot ofpeople have said I was a little underwhelmed,
but for a character breakfast,I think it's one of the better ones.
I've done that and I've doneKate May.
I would take the Chef Mickey.
Yeah, Cape May was fine, butit's a little off the.
No, I agree.
I think that Chef Mickey's isone of those that's kind of a rite
(08:02):
of passage for Disney.
And if you're going to choosea meal at Chef Mickey's, I think
breakfast is 100% of the timethe way to go.
Exactly.
All right, let's go toHollywood Studios.
What are we having forbreakfast to start that park?
Okay.
So I am again going to gooutside the park, and for this one,
I'm actually going to visitthe Skyliner.
Okay, very good.
So whether you're staying onthe Skyliner or not, if you go ahead
(08:24):
and take your bus to HollywoodStudios, then you can get on the
Skyliner for breakfast.
And I'm going over toTopolino's Terrace.
Absolutely.
I've talked about it before onthe podcast.
It's another fantastic,fantastic character dining option.
And so if you're, if you'retraveling with kids and you don't
want to stand in line forcharacter meet and greets, these
character breakfasts are sucha good bang for your buck.
(08:47):
And then again, we've talkedabout too, when, if you have a child
that's under the age of three,this one would qualify, Chef Mickey
would qualify as a place thatthat child is going to be able to
eat for free.
So this starts your day offreally well if you're going and feeding
the family for a little lessthan you would if you were purchasing
Mickey waffles for that twoyear old.
And Topolino's Terrace, as wetalked about in the previous podcast,
(09:08):
there's almost, almost like adual restaurant and it's so family
friendly with breakfast andthe characters.
But at night it's a little bitmore fine dining and fancy and you
can see the fireworks on the rooftop.
And it's a little bit more ofan upscale dining experience.
But that breakfast and to seecharacters in different outfits,
like you're gonna see Mickeyas the painter and Donald as the
(09:29):
sculptor, and Daisy, I think,is a poet.
I'm not sure, but those arethe kind of, kind of experiences
if you're looking for.
I think Topolino's Terrace is fantastic.
Yes, I'm going to Galaxy's Edge.
Okay.
I'm going to get a Rontoroast, the breakfast one.
These wraps are fantastic.
Now, this was recommended tome not that long ago, and I decided
to get one.
Lori stayed away from it, butit's eggs, pork sausage, it's got
(09:51):
a little peppercorn sauce andthe cheese.
It's delicious.
It's delicious.
Fantastic.
And so don't underestimatesome of these places that, you know,
if you're walking through thepark, you can get a breakfast sandwich.
A lot of these places that aresort of themed to the land and the
galaxy's edge.
This is fantastic.
You see, like a big beast roasting.
It's sort of like the idealtheming of where you're at.
(10:13):
But to get one of these ispretty cool.
It's a pretty cool experience there.
Yeah.
So I would say for breakfast,what you can do is really research
some of the places beforehandto kind of get an idea of what's
close by, what's inside thepark that maybe would be off the
beaten path that you could gocheck out, or what might be at a
rest, a resort nearby.
So, so let's say you wanted tostart the morning at Hollywood Studios,
(10:36):
but go have a brunch likewe've talked about before at Topolino.
So all of these things cancome into factor, but try to stay
close to whatever park you'revisiting that day.
Yeah, you can.
I mean, you can get Mickeywaffles at Sleepy Hollow.
You know, there's all sorts ofplaces to get them.
So, again, don't be.
You know, if you're planningyour trip and you're planning your
food and you.
Your family likes breakfast,but maybe doesn't want to sit down,
plenty of great places to getquick breakfast and still have a
(11:00):
feeling of Disney World.
Not just a quick littlesandwich or something like that,
but you can still make it afun theming experience and get it
done fast, for sure.
All right, so that's breakfast.
Now let's move on to lunch.
Okay.
All right.
Where would you like to startin our lunch journey?
I guess we can go back to Epcot.
I feel like it's been a minutesince we've been in epcot, and absolutely
100% of the time, even thoughEpcot has so many good choices for
(11:22):
lunch, I really could probablygo anywhere.
But 100% of the time, I amgoing to the Yorkshire Fish and having
the fish and chips.
Absolutely.
There's just something aboutthat fish and chips.
Now, the only thing that is acon to me is the seating there.
There is not very much seating.
It's all outdoors, very fewumbrellas and a lot of birds.
So you got to just know thatgoing into it that you might not
(11:45):
find a place to sit.
You might be finding a trashcan to put your fish on and stand
there and have your fish.
But it is just delightful.
It is so good.
My mother is.
My mother.
My grandmother on my mother'sside is.
Was from England and marriedmy grandfather after the war.
And my mother honors herbirthday by eating fish and chips
every single year.
There.
Now, you can get the same fishand chips in the restaurant, but
(12:06):
they're.
But the one you're talkingabout is.
Is basically the same.
Okay.
I've never been inside the.
The Rose and Crown.
I guess they were very proudto tell me that.
They said, oh, it's the samefish and chips and you can eat outside.
Very good.
They get it every year, butthey love it.
They look forward to the tripto get that with me.
Only if it's open and it's notopen all the time.
I'm getting the pizza outside.
Via Napoli.
Yes.
Not open a lot.
(12:27):
If it is open and the windowis open at lunch, get it.
It's a Sicilian thick sliced pizza.
It's phenomenal.
It's molten grande.
It's big, and it'll feed youand even feed you and somebody else
if you wanted to split it downthe middle.
Absolutely.
That large, a good value andit's pretty quick.
But if.
If it's not open, I get thebarbecue at Regal Eagle Smokehouse.
Yeah.
Love Regal Eagle Smokehouse.
(12:47):
Absolutely.
So that is my little lunch for Epcot.
Yes.
All right, let's go to Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom.
All right.
I am probably going to takethe obvious choice here.
I'm going over into Pandoraand I'm gonna go to Satchuli Cantun.
Yeah, I was that too.
It is just the best quickservice on all of Disney property,
(13:08):
in my opinion.
There's something for everybody.
There's something calledcheeseburger pods there.
They're delicious that thechildren love.
They're kind of like aMcDonald's cheeseburger.
Same taste.
And then of course, they havedifferent bowls where you can choose
to make it a salad bowl or youcan choose to make it a rice bowl,
steak, chicken.
I mean, you can really buildyour bowl and you can feel like you're
eating something hearty.
(13:28):
That's not just.
Just run in the millhamburgers or cheeseburgers in the
park.
All right.
I'm taking Flame Tree barbecue.
Oh, yeah.
One of the reasons is they gota really cool seating area.
They've got like a gazeboplace where you can sit in underneath
the elements.
And it's one of the coolerviews around the park.
It really is.
Especially if you keep goingback in.
There and the food is good.
(13:49):
It's really.
It's standard barbecue fare.
I like the St.
Louis ribs with the halfchicken, but I really love the scenic
part of eating outside.
Some of the birds come up to you.
And you got to kind of shoothem away.
But nevertheless, the.
If you really like loving justto see the scenic beauty of Animal
Kingdom, it's a great place tosettle in, eat some barbecue and
enjoy the views.
(14:09):
Yeah, I can't go wrong there.
Yeah, you can't go wrong there.
All right, let's go to Magic Kingdom.
Okay.
Magic Kingdom.
I've probably said it before.
You can probably know whereI'm gonna go.
I'm going to Main street andI'm going to Casey's Corner.
That's what I wrote down.
100% of the time.
I am predictable.
At Magic Kingdom.
I'm actually getting the corndog nuggets.
(14:31):
They are mini corn dogs.
I don't know what they'recalled there.
I think they're called corndog nuggets, but they come with fries
and they are always hot,they're always crunchy.
And pair that with a good icecold Coke in the middle of the day
at Magic Kingdom and it isjust the best thing ever.
I'm with you.
I'm gonna stay with that.
Casey's Corner.
If you never get a hot dog atCasey's Corner, what are you doing?
(14:51):
How do you live?
It's the one recommendation Igive all the time.
It's.
It's the one thing.
And I say I.
You know, just from the Caseyat the bat feeling that you're in
when you're in there, the oldDisney cartoon and the old poem just
in the, in the hot dogs are big.
They're fun.
It's a great.
It really brings that there'san element of Disney that's in there
(15:12):
from the, from the 40s, 50sfeel to it.
It's, it's, it's a great,great place to stop.
And you really have to do itto say you did it.
Because if you've gone five orsix times and never eaten there,
shame on you.
I'm terrible.
You gotta eat there.
Absolutely.
So I'm staying there.
I, I mean, when was I going totake Cosmet McRae?
I can't take.
There really.
There really is no otherchoice in Magic Kingdom, unfortunately.
(15:32):
I'm hoping maybe one dayDisney will listen to us and hear
that we need a few more things.
A few more things.
But for now, I'm okay witheating lunch at Casey's Corner anytime
that I'm in Magic Kingdom.
And another thing that I willsay is take time to listen to the
piano player that's outside ofCasey's Corner.
That's right.
Whoever it is, is always fantastic.
All right, let's go over toHollywood Studios for a lunch break.
(15:54):
Yeah.
So Hollywood Studios is theother park that I think really struggle
with food.
But there is a dish there thatI really enjoy at ABC Commissary.
ABC Commissary.
It is the buffalo chickengrilled cheese sandwich.
And it is really good.
It's always fresh made.
This, this is one of the fewrestaurants at Hollywood Studios
(16:15):
that's actually in the air conditioning.
So you'll find that a lot ofthe quick service places in Hollywood
Studios only have outdoor seating.
So if you're looking forsomething to be able to sit inside,
get a little respite from theheat, this is a great place.
They have a pretty goodvariety on their menu.
But that's the one that Iwould go with is the buffalo chicken
grilled cheese sandwich.
All right, I'm going to.
I went a little different.
Now, if you are somebody thathas skipped breakfast and you're
(16:37):
really looking for heartylunch, go with ABC Commissary.
Because again, variety on the menu.
Sure.
If you're looking forsomething to get some theming, something
light, maybe something.
Because you're planning a bigbreakfast, go to Olga's Cantina.
Oh, yes.
Because you can get a samplerplatter of the meats and cheese.
There's just like two optionsfor food.
So that's pretty much allyou're getting.
(16:57):
You're there for either analcoholic drink or a non alcoholic
mocktail.
They're fun.
But if you're a Star wars fan,it's like the cantina in Tatooine
in Star wars.
It's got that vibe to it.
You got to experience it.
It's really fun because ifyou're, if you're really a fan of
the movie, it's going to takeyou into that scene where Luke and
Obi Wan are trying to meet Han Solo.
(17:19):
It's really great.
Again, not a lot of food options.
My father took us in there.
We mostly went in there to geta drink and to experience it.
But we got a platter and Ithought to myself, this could fill
apart people.
You know, this could fill two people.
If you're looking for somefood, a drink, and then have a bigger
dinner.
That's a great point becauseI've had people ask me before if
that's somewhere that they canhave lunch.
(17:40):
And I'm like, well, it's notreally somewhere that's going to
fill you up.
But that's a great way to, totalk about it.
Because if you've had a bigbreakfast then.
Yeah, sure.
It might be a great spot for lunch.
Yeah, it's.
And the, and the platter wasreally cool.
Had different meats and cheeses.
Pretty standard.
Nothing.
Nothing super fancy.
The mocktails are really fun.
They'll bubble over and thingslike that.
So if you're looking for a biglunch, ABC commissary.
(18:03):
I was going to put Andy'slunchbox, but it's always crowded.
It's so crowded.
And there's no seating.
No.
And the mobile order, even yougo on to mobile order something there
and you might be waiting 90 minutes.
Yeah, I don't want to be inToy story land for 90 minutes.
So.
Yeah, that one's a tough one.
And while seating in a lot ofplaces are hard, this is really hard
to get a seat.
Yes, it's.
It doesn't have a lot ofoutdoor seating.
(18:25):
So, you know, try it if youwant, but you're going to be.
You might be there for a while.
Yeah.
All right, now we are movingon to dinner on the portion of this.
All right.
Which park would you like to venture?
Okay, so let's go back to Epcot.
Okay.
But you kind of threw me for aloop here because I feel like I can't
go to my Via Napoli.
Because you went there for lunch.
Well, I went there for the pizza.
Place outside, so I'm notgoing to choose Via Napoli.
(18:48):
And I am actually going to goover to the Land Pavilion and I'm
going to go to Garden Grill.
This is the most recommendedplace I get all the time and I've
yet to do it.
It is really good, actually.
It's very good.
I heard it's very good.
Yeah, my daughter Lily and Iate there and this was the first
time in years, guess since Iwas a kid that I had eaten there.
And the food is fresh.
(19:09):
It's a really good menu.
It's pleasing to kids and adults.
And the character interactionthere was really some of the best
character interaction we hadanywhere that we went.
You get Mickey, Pluto, Chipand Dale.
And the restaurant slowlyrotates around through the Living
with the Land ride.
So you can look down atdifferent times and see boats going
(19:31):
through the ride or you cansee different scenes of the ride.
And it's just, it's a funplace to just relax and enjoy a family
style meal.
So again, my retired parentsare doing this restaurant tour of
Disney and I was telling Lorithat of all the places, they really
are highly recommended.
Garden Grill.
There was an enthusiasm to.
(19:51):
When they were telling me how Much.
They loved Garden Grill and Iget that from everybody.
I have yet to go there there.
But the enthusiasm is great.
It really is.
All right.
I, I did nostalgia here.
I only I chose Coral Reef.
Oh yeah.
And the reason I did wasbecause when we were on the dining
plan in 2012, my son, who wasa maybe 12 at the time, he wanted
(20:11):
lobster ravioli.
Uhhuh.
And now became a lobster fanatic.
Thanks.
Coral Reef.
Yes.
I'm not a huge seafood person.
I had the and I didn't want toinsult the fish.
I had the New York strip whenI was there.
Again, this is one of thoseplaces that gets mixed reviews for
food but the ambiance isreally cool.
Big aquarium whatnot.
(20:32):
But I feel bad because there'sso many good restaurants in the world
showcase.
But some of them I, I, I haveyet to try.
Yeah, I want to go to Nine Dragons.
I heard Nine Dragons is really good.
Santa, Santa and Hell in Iheard kids not as good.
Kind of getting mixed reviews.
Getting mixed reviews use.
But some of the other onesthey said the Moroccan restaurant
(20:52):
is really delicious.
Yes.
But I have, I don't usually goin that direction.
It's outside of Vianapoli.
So I wanted to recommendsomething I've been to before.
And a good point with that toois Coral Reef is one that you typically
can find a reservation last minute.
If you're looking for a sitdown restaurant and you don't currently
have a reservation, check itout because there are some good things
(21:13):
on the menu for sure.
All right, let's go over toMagic Kingdom.
Yeah, let's go over to Magic Kingdom.
So I am going to leave thepark for dinner.
I thought about staying insidethe park but I don't love the sit
down restaurants inside Magic Kingdom.
And I want to sit down.
And so what I'm actually goingto do is on almost every trip and
I'm not going to talk aboutthe one that I talk about all the
time.
So don't think that I'm goingover to the Contemporary.
(21:34):
But what I'm going to do isI'm going to go over to Grand Floridian.
I'm going to take the boatover to Grand Floridian because I
think it's the best view fromMagic Kingdom.
And I'm going to go to GrandFloridian Cafe.
They have a really good menu,a good variety.
My kids love it.
They have a pasta on theirkids menu that my kids have just
adored for years.
And there's something, there'sa great burger on the menu, there's
(21:55):
a really good steak, there's asalmon, so there's something that
will please every pallet.
And honestly, I think for theprice that it is, you're getting
a really good value and you'reescaping the park enough to feel
like you're kind of gettingthat break in, but then you're close
enough to the park that youcan just hop right back over there
for the evening.
All right.
I was going to do Be ourGuest, but I did that in a review.
(22:16):
But my wife said no, no, no,no, no.
You have to do Crystal palacewith Winnie the Pooh and friends,
of course.
So this is more for her thanit was for me.
But I like the buffet a lot.
It was a good buffet.
Pretty much everything you'dwant in a buffet.
Salads, meat, potatoes, sides, dessert.
Plenty of everything that youwould expect at a typical dinner
buffet.
And it is very cool.
Winnie the Pooh and friendswill walk around and spend some good
(22:38):
time with you.
And from, from manyexperiences that I've heard with
people, you get a lot ofinteraction with Winnie the Pooh
and fans.
They will spend really a lotof time.
Sometimes they'll come back toyour table twice.
So it's, it's a very coolcharacter experience.
You can go there for breakfast too.
But we went there for dinner.
It was a treat that I wantedto surprise her with and it was a
very good buffet.
(22:59):
And Crystal palace is, has anumber of video iterations over the
years, but they've really landed.
I really think that it hasreally gone up on everybody's radar
because the food has beenconsistent lately and the character
interactions as well.
Absolutely.
All right, let's go over toHollywood Studios.
Hollywood studios.
A lot of cool things atHollywood Studios.
There are some cool things.
(23:19):
So you can kind of go a lot ofdifferent directions here.
And I'm going to picksomething for dinner that I honestly
typically will have for lunchif I'm here.
I typically don't have it fordinner if I'm going to have a sit
down meal.
But I'm going to go over to50s prime time.
Yeah, that's fun.
This is such a nostalgic onefor me because we used to love to
eat here when I was a kid andnow it's just funny watching the
(23:43):
faces, my kids reactionswhenever the waiters and waitresses
are talking to them if they'renot eating their food or if they're
got their elbows on the table.
It's just a fun experience for everybody.
And the food is prettyconsistent I love the fried chicken.
I love the fried chicken there.
It's great.
And it's really.
It's another one of those thatI think is a really good value for
(24:03):
the amount of food that you're getting.
It's going to fill everybody up.
And again, it's got a good variety.
So I would.
I would pick that every time.
On our last trip, we hadreservations for that, but we wanted
to go to the rodeo, thebarbecue place, to try something
different because we wentthere about 10 years ago and I thought
it was fun.
Another place we went 10 yearsago, which is on my list.
Sci Fi Drive in theater.
It's.
It's cool.
It's a cool theme, and itbrings back to you to a time.
(24:25):
If you remember drive intheaters, maybe you're too young
to not know what drive intheaters were.
It's a really cool nostalgic feel.
Yes.
It does repeat.
Yes.
There's a lot of things thatyou might hear over and over again.
It's fun to see the staffrepeat the lines because they just
hear it over and over and over again.
But the food is decent enough.
There's a variety on the menu.
The kids will love it becauseyou get to be in a car.
(24:46):
And where else can you be in acar like you're in a drive in theater?
I think the theming for thisis outstanding.
It's a really cool.
It was a really cool idea toadd it to when you're talking about
a place that's celebratingHollywood to say, what kind of thing
can we do?
Oh, drive in theaters were abig deal.
It fits perfectly.
Yeah.
And that's a tough reservationto get to.
So if you're thinking you wantto go to Sci Fi, make sure that you
(25:07):
are looking for that one at 60days out, for sure.
And it is dark.
It is.
It is dark.
So don't let your kids run tothe bathroom by themselves.
Even though they say they cango by themselves.
They might wind up in thewrong car.
They might wind up in thewrong car.
Or you.
You might be looking for thembecause they won't know their way.
Right.
It's.
It's kind of dark in there,but the food is actually decent.
Sometimes the theming doesn'talways match the quality.
The food is actually prettydecent there.
(25:28):
All right, which one are we missing?
Oh, Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom.
So I.
I don't guess I've ever beenhere after dark to actually eat.
Yes.
While I've been.
This was a problem for me.
Yeah.
And so I'm like, huh.
Well, what would I do?
And I thought, well, I couldgo back to whatever resort that I'm
staying at, but I'm trying tostay with the proximity of the park.
So obviously, the choice thatI'm going to go with is Boma over
(25:51):
at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
We've already been over thereonce today with your recommendation
for breakfast, but we're goingto go over to Boma.
This buffet, to me, is thebest buffet on all of Disney property.
It is just.
There's such exotic things onthe buffet, but then again, there's
something for picky eaters, too.
And so you can really, reallyjust find something that everybody's
(26:14):
going to love.
And you're going to be able towalk in that lobby at Animal Kingdom
Lodge if you're not stayingthere and if you've never been there
before and really, like, feelso immersed in that culture and it
gives you a good way to go toanother resort if you're not going
to visit there.
I think we've said it beforeto kind of get your feet wet there
and say, oh, would this besomewhere that I'd like to stay in
(26:34):
the future?
Because you can really kind oftake in some of the animals that
are outside, look at them and.
And then go down and have thebuffet there, which is a really,
really tasty buffet.
I think you're.
You hit the nail on the headwith the.
With the park.
It's not really open late fordinner, so again, you're probably
having an early dinner beforethe park.
But I'm going to a place Inever went, and if I hear one more
person tell me to go there,I'll go.
(26:55):
Okay.
Okay, It's Tiffin's.
Everyone tells me to go eat at Tiffany.
I've never been.
I've never been either.
This gets high.
Reviews.
People who've gone tell methat they'll love it.
They'll tell me it's great.
I have eaten at Yak and Yeti.
I did like Yak and Yeti.
I can't remember what I had,though so long ago ago, but I can't
remember.
But that was another placethat was on my secondary list.
If I'm just going to go withan experience rather than anticipation.
(27:18):
The anticipation is.
Tiffin is really good.
Yes.
And I think that was anotherone I was trying to think about.
Is like, okay, well, we couldgo fancy in a couple different places
outside of Animal Kingdom.
You can choose Tiffin's, oryou can choose Jico over here.
Animal Kingdom Lodge, whichI've never Been to either.
So if you're wanting to endyour Animal Kingdom day with a fancy
dinner, there's a couple ofreally good options there.
(27:39):
I'm not telling you where notto go, but.
Rainforest Cafe.
Yeah, you know what, there'sso many cities in the US that have
a Rainforest Cafe, so let'sstay away from that if we can.
Exactly.
I mean, I've been to one inlike, I think in Las Vegas.
I think, if I'm not mistaken,on my travels in the sports world.
So that is it.
That is the breakfast, lunchand dinner, all four park combination
at Walt Disney World.
(28:00):
Any final thoughts?
Now I'm hungry.
Exactly.
Any final thoughts?
Yeah, you know, I think thatthere's so many good places.
So like, if you're not goingto one of these places that we've
listed, or if you're thinking,oh, well, they, they didn't mention
any of the places that I'm going.
That doesn't mean that they'renot good because so many places at
Disney World are fantastic.
But, you know, pace yourselfbecause you could have a snack here,
(28:22):
a snack there, and you couldactually double the amount of places
that you're going in a day andbe able to just kind of sample a
few things and, and reallyjust experience a lot of it.
And let people like us helpyou with reservations because it
may get dis disheartening whenyou see it's booked up.
But reservations get canceledall the time.
You got to keep checking andgot to keep checking.
(28:44):
And it's good to have somebodyon your side like Lauren or myself
that can help keep it up.
But we did for Space220.
Space220 did not look like apossibility at all for our trip at
all because, I mean, it wasbooked every day.
We tried different days,couldn't get in, but we just kept
at it every single day.
We kept checking and checkingand then boom, next thing you know,
hey, look, we may have toswipe swap our days from a Sunday
(29:05):
Epcot visit to a SaturdayEpcot visit.
But we got it for lunch, sokeep checking these places because
you, you never know when youmight land it and have a really cool,
fun meal themed meal that'sreally actually delicious.
We want to thank you forlistening to the podcast.
Hit us up.
You can emaillauren@laurenagictravel.com hit me
up@travelwithtonyd gmail.complease subscribe to the podcast.
(29:25):
Leave us a five star review.
Share it.
It really helps us with the algorithms.
We'll be back next next week.
Actually, you'll be gone nextweek, right?
I will be back.
You'll be back in time.
I know you're going to be gone somewhere.
We won't give it away becauseI want to hear about it when you
come back on the podcast.
So a quick trip for Lauren andher family and we'll get the details
next week.
But again, please subscribe.
Leave us a five star review ifyou like the podcast because it really
(29:47):
does help us out for all ofthe traveling that you may do, for
all of the planning you may do.
Thanks for listening to Juan'sand Wishes podcast.
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