On our 2017 trip, my family split up and the boys went to Garden Grill and the girls went to Akershus. We did this so our grandson didn't have to sit through another meal with the princesses with his sister and cousin. Looking at the menus, I really wanted to try Garden Grill, but I went along with the program.
How nice of the CM to get your bill quickly. That's one of my pet peeves at restaurants, wasting time waiting for the bill.
Glad your DD enjoyed Soarin'. That's still my favorite ride in WDW, but I haven't ridden Rise of the Resistance yet.
Oh my gosh, your daughter took so many adorable photos this trip! How did choose which one to frame?
Splitting up to go to character meals the kids would enjoy separately is a great idea! We looked at Akershus for the princesses, but the food really didn't appeal to us. I think next time we will spend the $$ for CRT for the princesses and for the experience of eating in the castle at least once. DD loves her princesses!!
I find that when we have done the early morning breakfast reservations, the servers are really great about getting you the bill quickly to get you on your way once you finish eating, which is really great. I hate sitting around waiting for the bill too. That happened to us once at Biergarten in Germany, but then we read/heard later that many European countries find it to be rude of them to come ask you if you're ready for your bill because it's considered the server hurrying you out of your meal. Since our server was German, he took quite awhile to bring us our bill, it really wasn't until we decided to ask for it directly.
It has been hard to choose photos for this trip, they both had so many great poses and happy faces!!
What a fun morning! The food at GG looks really good. It seemed pretty quick considering you ate and had character meets in 45 min. Nice your waitress offered to settle the bill while you were still eating. Such cute pictures with Joy!
We found that for character breakfasts, we really enjoy the family style environment over the buffets. Family style just seems to move a little more quickly, and we got lucky that we were first in the character rotation so we didn't wait on any of them to pass our table. Our server was really excellent at keeping the meal moving and getting us down to Soarin' quickly!
It's always nice to have that options when you drive.
It really is! We like having a car with us just to have the option to drive ourselves, even if we fly in. It makes it possible to be more flexible.
Talk about the early bird. I don't think we have ever beat security.
Haha, I'm not sure we ever have either!! It was an odd experience for sure.
This is really great. So nice that she asked.
Yes, she was very intuitive, and she helped the meal move along smoothly without feeling like we were being rushed.
Breakfast does look really good. The character interaction is great too. I've never done breakfast here but we have done dinner.
The food was delicious! Dinner looks really appealing to me too, but I had a hard time selling the rest of the family on it. With so many picky eaters in our family, breakfast is usually the safest choice not to waste a lot of money on food no one will eat!! lol
It's great that he's getting started young with working on his photo skills.
He really loves following in Dad's footsteps!
You can't go to Disney at Mardi Gras and not run into at least one person you know.
That is 1000% the truth!! We have never been at Mardi Gras without running into someone (usually several someones!) that we know!
Thanks!
I'm glad you guys enjoyed Garden Grill, it was one of my faves!
So cool being first in line for Soarin! And even better being off the ride before the park even officially opened!
Cute pics with Joy!!
It was really delicious, and the characters were great. We were very happy with our decision to try a new character meal, and it's hard to go wrong with breakfast.
That was really cool & a memorable experience for the kids. They thought it was so special to be FIRST! And it was nice to get that jump on our touring plan for the day by getting a headliner done before park opening.
I loved her little area!
Glad the Garden Grill breakfast was a success! The cinnamon roll looks like it'd be worth the ADR.
I can't believe your DD was tall enough for BTMRR and Soarin'. These DISkids are growing up so fast! But I'm glad she enjoyed both and was willing to give them a try, that's awesome!
Mmmm, dinner at Via Napoli. I think we can both agree we could use a Quattro Formaggio pizza from there right about now. We sure have earned it with this virtual learning madness!
Honestly, that cinnamon roll was most of the reason we decided to give it a try, and it DID NOT disappoint! It was really good, and hard not to eat too much of it and save room for the rest of the food still coming.
Tell me about it! Last time we were there she was only a little over a year old, and now suddenly she is a big girl riding some headliners! It's so crazy to see how much the DISKids have grown & changed. I was so happy she was so brave, because she was always so hesitant and scared as a baby once she was a bit more aware of the rides & what was going on. I couldn't believe how excited she was to try EVERYTHING!
Oh FOR SURE!!! I would give my left foot to be enjoying one right about now!!!
One day I will try breakfast at Garden Grill! I have heard such good things about it.
Thanks for the update!
It was really really good, and we were all happy with our decision to give it a try! The kids also really enjoyed the rotating restaurant experience.
So happy to find your recent TR. I can’t believe you were last at WDW in 2016! Your family is so adorable, I love your DD dress on the first park day. I remember your earlier TR when your kids were so young. The Epcot art festival is one of my favorites, did you see any of the broadway performers? We were in FL from mid December until mid February, I bought an AP, and went to the park intermittently when we were in Orlando. Looking back I wish I would have gone to the parks more often, our daughter lives just north of the MK. We rarely missed watching the nightly fireworks from her front porch when we stayed with her. We had to cancel our April trip, but hopefully we’ll be able to get back to see our DD and grandkids soon.
It was hard for me to believe it too! After going so often for so long, it was crazy for us to go so long between Disney World trips. They have both really grown in between trips!
We really enjoyed
Festival of the Arts! But we didn't take in any of the Broadway performers. We weren't sure the kids would be willing to invest the time into that, but I'm sure it would have been pretty entertaining.
That's really amazing that she lives close enough to see the fireworks! I'm so sorry you had to cancel your trip, I hope you're able to plan a great re-do trip sometime soon & get to visit your family!
Our server was so good at getting us out in time to get to Soarin' last June also! I really appreciate how they recognize our underlying motives lol
I feel like the servers are pretty in tune to that, which is SO great! We have never sat around waiting for a bill when in a restaurant for a pre-park opening breakfast.
It really is a great character meal! Glad you guys loved it too!
Yes, we really enjoyed it!
Oo I didn't realize this was where her new location was. It is really cute!
We stumbled upon it ourselves. I knew she had moved but I hadn't really looked into where it had moved. It was nice to catch her with a very short wait also.
