Garden Grill Review

Garden Grill is a family style character meal in Epcot’s The Land pavilion at Walt Disney World, in a rotating restaurant offering views into the Living with the Land attraction. Just to make sure you caught all of that, we have: 1) all you can eat, 2) characters, 3) restaurant rotation, and 4) views into an attraction. Does it have ALF and dinosaurs? Because if so, with those 6 things, it would be the greatest restaurant ever! In reality, it’s not quite the greatest ever, but we’ll get to that in the review. Since Garden Grill is a family style all you can eat meal, the menu options are more limited than a standard Disney buffet. It’s still fairly pricey, making it one of our top values for character meals on the Disney Dining Plan. If you’re not on the Disney Dining Plan, Garden Grill accepts the Tables in Wonderland card for a 20% discount.

This restaurant has existed since The Land pavilion opened, but not always as Garden Grill. It used to be The Good Turn Restaurant, and before that it was The Land Grille Room. The restaurant has always rotated (hence its first name), but it was previously a higher caliber of restaurant before characters came onto the scene. Back in the day when Kraft sponsored it, they served classy stuff…like Easy Mac! That’s not to say the character version is worse (I don’t recall our meals at The Land Grille Room, so I’m not qualified to make that judgment), it’s just different. I’m also fairly certain they used to do breakfast and lunch (I’m pretty sure we did lunch here only a few years ago), but now it’s only dinner. (more…)

Disneyland Paris 2012 Trip Report: Part 6

Right after indicating that all of the photos were edited and promising that I would finish this trip report soon, I went on a two week hiatus from posting. Oops. I think most of you probably understand, as we’ve been in Japan for the last couple of weeks, and my staff of 1 doesn’t work well from the road. If you’re just finding the site now and want to read our Disneyland Paris 2012 Trip Report from its start, click here.

As an item of housekeeping: we’ve already had a lot of questions about Tokyo Disney Resort. A trip report is coming for the Tokyo Disney Resort trip, but it probably won’t be here for a while. You’ll understand why once it does get going. Since so little good information is out there for planning a trip there, I’ll also be doing a series of trip planning posts. I know they won’t help many people, but I wish someone would have written posts like them before our trip–it would have saved me from reading a lot of trip reports. (How do you all make it through these things?! )

Back to the here and now (or in this case, the last November), and we’re continuing this Disneyland Paris trip report from our last full day in the parks. As I noted in the last installment, I have to cut down on the size of these reports, keeping them to only around 60 photos each. That means that this is going to be a fairly pedestrian installment since it will stop before the exciting nighttime stuff. To add some mystery and intrigue, I’ll spice it up with some controversy, fireworks, and even a possible cameo by Christopher Walken.

We had just left the abysmal Walt Disney Studios Park and had washed the sour taste out of our mouths with some delicious treats at Gibson Girl and Cable Car Bake Shop. Having just had dessert, it made since to go to yet another restaurant to have real food. (For how much we complain about the food at Disneyland Paris, it does seem odd that we’d waste the time to go to 3 restaurants in succession, rather than just saving time and only going to one.) Due to our meals at Blue Lagoon and Walt’s, table service was out of the question. Instead, we opted for Toad Hall, which served “so very British” counter service fare. (more…)

Disney Dining Plan 2013 Costs and Review

The 2013 Disney Dining Plan at Walt Disney World is now available for booking, and not much has changed from the 2012 Disney Dining Plan, besides the price. As has been the case each year since the popular meal plan was first offered, there are more price increases for 2013. Luckily, the 2013 Disney Dining Plan does not feature any cuts to what’s included in the meal plans, which has happened in many years prior.

2013 ”Free Dining” is now available for Walt Disney World guests with arrival dates between September 2, 2013 and September 25, 2013 (meaning you have to arrive between these dates to be eligible–so if you arrive September 24, 2013 and stay until October 4, 2013, free dining is available for your entire stay!), and we anticipate even more Free Dining dates will be offered in 2013. If and when this happens, it’s important to compare the “Free” Dining Plan to other discounts. If the Disney Dining Plan is “free,” that means you’re paying rack rate for your room and full price for a minimum number of tickets, whereas other packages may discount your room or tickets. For most people, Free Dining is the best discount that Disney offers, but you should still check. Whether Free Dining is best depends upon party size and resort tier, so do the math and compare the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion to other available discounts–if there are other available discounts. (more…)

Greetings from Tokyo Disney Resort!

Welcome…to Tokyo Disney Resort. (Read that like John Hammond in Jurassic Park.) We have made the pilgrimage to Japan to visit what many Disney fans regard as the pinnacle of the Disney theme park experience. Barring issues with our flights or our poor senses of direction, we are now at Tokyo Disney Resort to celebrate Tokyo Disneyland’s 30th anniversary, and to visit Tokyo DisneySea (where we will undoubtedly acquire at least 27 Duffy souvenirs).

We’re mostly disconnected from the rest of the world on this trip, but we (mostly Sarah) will be posting occasional photos to Instagram, assuming the modems we rented for our iPhones work. Further assuming that the nifty Instagram plugin works, you should be able to view our 20 most recent live photos from Tokyo Disney Resort on this post below. If for some reason photos don’t display below, or you want to see all of our photos from Japan (not just the Disney ones), follow us directly on Instagram: Sarah here or Tom here. Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of the east coast of the United States, so expect daytime and nighttime photos to be roughly reversed in terms of night and day back in the US.

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Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party 2013 Tips

The schedule and ticket prices for the 2013 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Parties at Walt Disney World is now available, with the party occurring September 10, 13, 17, 20, 24, 27, & 29, and October 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, & 31, plus November 1. On these nights, the Magic Kingdom closes at 7 p.m. to guests who haven’t not purchased tickets for the Halloween Party.

So you can prepare for the Halloween Party, we thought it would be a good time to look back at our experiences at past parties to help you determine whether this expensive hard ticket event is worth it to you, and if so, what your “Plan of Attack” should be to efficiently conquer the various offerings.

Should I Attend?

So at over $50 a pop for tickets to the 2013 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, you might be trying to determine, “is it worth it?” If you’re asking this, you’ve probably never been, otherwise you’d know the answer to this question. Our opinion, as Disney-biased tourists, is that it most definitely is worth the price: at least once. Once you’ve experienced the party once (it doesn’t change much year-to-year), you might determine that it’s simply too expensive to experience again. For a one time event, though, it’s definitely worth it for everyone except those on traveling on thin budgets. Personally, we prefer Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, but I think it’s fair to say that the two are about equally popular with guests (the guest costumes at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party are pretty awesome to see).

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Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2013 Tips

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is a special hard ticket event held in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. For 2013, the party will be held on November 8, 11, 14, 15, 17, 21, & 22, and December 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, & 20. After December 20, the party entertainment is available to all day guests (and included in theme park admission), but waiting until Christmas week also means going during the busiest time of the year, and when rooms and dining are most expensive.

Here is our party review and tips for 2013, based upon our experiences attending the party for the last five consecutive years. The Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2013 schedule has not yet been announced, but it will take place select dates in November and December. Ticket prices will vary for 2013 based upon whether you purchase in advance or on the day of, are a child or adult, and whether you have an Annual Pass, Disney Vacation Club membership, or some other affiliation that entitles you to a discount. In any case, the event is not cheap, starting at $57 for children with advance purchase on select nights and exceeding $70 for adults on the “Premium” night! To purchase tickets, visit Disney’s Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party page.

That said, if you’re visiting Walt Disney World in November or December, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is an absolute must-do! But more on that later. First, let’s provide an overview of the events to those who haven’t been.

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Disneyland Paris 2012 Trip Report: Part 5

This day would be our last full day at Disneyland Paris. If you haven’t read about the previous days, before reading this, you should check out the previous installments, which contain hundreds of photos. The last installment ended up taking the site down several times throughout the day when it was posted, so this report will contain fewer photos (which also means the entire report will not be done this week since there will need to be additional installments). My apologies if you had trouble accessing the last installment. Now, on with the report!

Some famous scientist (probably Al Gore) is credited with once having said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” Hoping to break my streak of overcast mornings with a glorious sunrise, I was once again up early and out, waiting for the fog to break. Of course, it didn’t. Sarah, being much more sane, elected to stay in bed and have me come back and get her when I was done with my exercise in futility.

For us, I have found this is one of the great benefits of staying at a “within walking distance” hotel at any of Disney resort complexes. Sarah is very patient with me, and goes on little sleep when we’re on vacation, but she generally can’t do the 4 hours of sleep a night that I can run on. At night this is no issue–I usually just wander around the hotel where we’re staying and take photos, while she goes back to the hotel and goes to bed. In the morning, it’s more of an issue. If I’m within walking distance of a park, I’ll generally start my day in that park when I’m up and ready and either go back to the hotel to get Sarah when she’s ready, or have her meet me in the park. If we stay at a hotel that isn’t within walking distance, I generally just wait for her. I’m a bit like a dog whining at the door anxiously trying to get outside to chase cars when I have to wait. Sarah really ought to win a Noble Peace Price or a Major Award for putting up with me.

Anyway, I started out the day with breakfast at Inventions by myself (they again accepted my Sequoia breakfast ticket without additional payment), and then headed to the park to wander around. As you can see, there wasn’t even the most remote chance of seeing the sun that morning. (more…)

Disneyland Paris 2012 Trip Report: Part 4

Sorry for the delay in getting this installment posted. I know this is the highlight of approximately no one’s day, but still. We were in Walt Disney World a couple weekends ago and since I’ve been working on some exciting things that we can’t wait to share with you soon. (This seems to be the excuse everyone else uses when they have a lapse in blogging, so I figured it will work…sitting on the couch watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia counts as an “exciting thing,” right?) If you’ve missed any of the first three installments, or want to revisit them, start by going here.

The good news is that all of the photos from this trip are now edited, which is generally the hold-up in getting these things posted. As for the text, I usually just run this site through Gizoogle, and copy and paste the results here. It’s quite simple, as my Control+C/Control+V skills are impeccable. Anyway, I hope to have the remaining installments all up soon.

We still had a bit of time to kill before our reservation at Blue Lagoon, so we headed over to the Storybook Land Canal Boats (actually called Le Pays des Contes de Fées, which translates to Fairytale Country) and Casey Jr, which were more or less right next to one another, just as they are at Disneyland. In Disneyland Paris, it was almost as if they were tucked away into their own mini-land (which was added to the park in 1994–this 2010 map gives you an idea of their location), almost how New Fantasyland is a bit separated from the rest of Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom.

These are two attractions that we absolutely love at Disneyland, and the Paris versions did not disappoint. Casey Jr. was all upside. It was like a modernized version of the Disneyland classic, with no “downside” that I can think of. The beauty started in the queue, which winds and passes through a wooded area; there were some traces of fall colors remaining when we visited, making this area especially beautiful. The rest of the attraction is pretty much the same as Disneyland’s, except with superior visuals. (more…)