Mama Monday : Be Our Guest Review

Today I take you to Be Our Guest for dinner. As mentioned last week, this is Disney’s newest restaurant concept. It is a quick service for lunch and a table service for dinner. While there are still three dining rooms for dinner just like lunch, the area that you order in for lunch is converted to the Beasts’ library. This is not a character meal, however the Beast walks through the restaurant and then back to his library. You may visit him after you dine. He does not stop at the tables as he walks through the restaurant.

For dinner we opted for the smallest of the dining rooms and requested the West Wing. Our request was granted. It is darker in this dining room than the other two options. And every 20 minutes there is some thundering as the time ticks by that the Beast must make Belle fall in love with him by. The Enchanted Rose is in this room and there is a picture of the Beast as a Prince that changes throughout the evening. Some reviews say this room is too scary for some small children. If they are bothered by thunder then it will be scary for them. Our children loved it and they are three and one.

The menu for dinner is short but perfect.  Our table started with the assorted meats and sausages platter. Even the kids liked the options served! Then I ordered the Sauted Shrimp and Scallops dish as it has quickly become their signature item. My dish was light and rich all at the same time.  I would definitely order it again. My husband ordered the Grilled Strip Steak and the other people at our table ordered the Grilled Strip Steak and the Ratatouille. I don’t think any one left a single bite on their plates! The kids wanted the Mickey meatloaf like they had for lunch the previous day and they devoured it once again. The level of service is exactly as you would expect in one of Disney’s nicer restaurants-perfect and attentive. In addition to the food, the wine and beer list didn’t leave anyone thirsty. They had an excellent selection of French wine to complement dinner. The only disappointing part of the wine list was they added in selections from California as well. I was really hoping it would only be French wine to stay with the theme. For the beer selection there were selections from France and Belgium.  The dessert was like the ones served at lunch-cupcakes and crème puffs. The winner remained the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake.  Price wise-compared to other restaurants of this quality, the price is a good value. There is something for everyone on the menu and the price ranges from $16-$30 per entrée for the adults.  On the dining plan, this counts as one table service meal.

The food and service at this restaurant along with the wine list really makes it in line with the signatures as far as quality goes but still very kid friendly. The ambience is nice but still very loud no matter which room you are in. I would say the next highlight was meeting the Beast!  I see a lot of people pitch a fit when they are the people in line that get held up because a character needs to take a break. Our family loves it. It allows our children to have more fun with the photographer. The kids were allowed to sit in the Beast’s chair and the photographer snapped picture after picture. It was like our own mini session. The Beast returned and the boys were in awe. He is just so BIG.  The adults took pictures with him and the kids did too. It was really a fun time and a perfect way to end the dining experience at the Beast’s Castle.

This restaurant is booking at the 180 day mark. If you delay on your reservations, it will likely be booked. If that happens and you are dying to get into this restaurant, I recommend checking in at 4pm as soon as it opens and attempting to do a walk up reservation. You can also walk up after 8:30. Keep in mind the time they close varies based on the park hours. Those are your two best options though if you were not able to get a reservation ahead of time. I have personally been successful in getting all of my clients in when we have booked at the 180 day mark. As this continues to grow in popularity, it will be a tough reservation for a while. I think it is definitely worth it though!

Overall Be Our Guest gets my recommendation for lunch and dinner. Excellent food, ambience, and the Beast was just the icing on the cake. I will have more pictures to share with you once we receive our cd with all of our pictures from this trip.

Want to let someone else handle your dining reservations?  Use the contact me tab and I will gladly help you!

Mama Monday : Be Our Guest Quick Service Review

Today I am taking you to Be Our Guest. This is Disney’s newest restaurant in the Magic Kingdom and it is inside Beast’s Castle. There are many special features of this restaurant that make it a favorite for the Mamas. This is a new approach to a dining concept for Disney. The restaurant is a quick service for lunch and a table service for dinner. I was lucky enough to try it for both on our last visit in January. I think the concept is brilliant!

Let’s start with lunch first.  Lunch is served here between 11 and 2:30 daily and you can start lining up at 10:30. The average wait during a non peak time has been about 30 minutes. We got in line right around 11. During peak time it has been running 45+minutes. Don’t let the wait times deter you. It is definitely worth the wait especially if you didn’t make dinner reservations early enough to secure this coveted spot.  For lunch this is one quick service dining credit on your dining plan if you have opted to go that route.

The line is managed outside. Park your strollers at stroller parking as they are not allowed in the line or inside the restaurant. If you have a sleeping baby, wear them as they are pretty strict about this rule. You line up along the bridge and wait for a cast member to let you in. They will not let you inside if your entire party isn’t there. Once inside you approach a second line to order. There are screens showing you the lunch menu as you wait. There are also Knights lined up greeting you.  Hopefully you have made your choice before going up to the ordering counter.  You will use the touch screens to place your order then you will pay the cashier.

You are given a Rose to take to your table and the food will be brought to you. I don’t know about you but this is one of my favorite parts of this concept. It makes juggling the kids, diaper bag, etc, all so much easier when the food is brought to you. The drinks are self service. At lunch you have the option to dine in one of the three dining rooms. The West Wing (where the enchanted rose awaits); Belle’s book filled library; or the Grand Ballroom that is two story and has a view of falling snow outside.  The West Wing can be scary for some kids and I will tell you more about that one next week. We opted for Belle’s library at lunch as it was quieter than the main dining room.

We grabbed a drink and took a seat. We waited about 10 minutes for the food to arrive from the time we left the ordering counter. And like magic, the server knew exactly where we were seated. The food arrives in a covered cart for those of us that are germaphobes.  After they give you the food you do have to relinquish the rose. This caused great trauma for our three year old and I am sure this is common so be prepared for that. 

The sheer beauty of the restaurant was an extra treat for a quick service. There was so much to admire and look at. It kept the kids and adults entertained checking out the art work and finishings.

One of the other nice touches for this restaurant is the real silverware. A lot of quick services have plastic ware and it is nice to enjoy a good meal with real silverware.The price is also right for this quick service especially for the quality of food.  Kids’ meals ranged from $7-$8.50 and adults entrees ranged from $10-$13.50. Very reasonable.

My husband had the Carved Turkey Sandwich with Pomme Frites.  His sandwich was actually a little dry but the frites were extremely tasty and he had to fight the rest of the family off to enjoy them. He wishes he would have tried the Steak Sandwich so opt for it if you go.

I had the French Onion Soup and the Quinoa Salad.  The Quinoa salad was exceptional. It was a nice healthy option which is refreshing when dining out for all of your meals. I also liked the French Onion Soup but it was not as heavy on the onions as you would expect. 

The kids both had the Mickey Meatloaf which was a turkey meatloaf in the shape of a Mickey head with broccoli. Another healthy option for the kids! They both at all of it so I assume it was quite tasty. I didn't even get a bite. This mama was happy and so were the kids!

To counter balance all those healthy choices we had the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake and the server also brought us a Triple Chocolate Cupcake to make up for the rose debacle. Totally unnecessary but our son loved it. The Strawberry Cream Cheese cupcake was the best cupcake we had at Disney.  Truly amazing! I tend to be a cupcake snob. You won't be disappointed. Get your own though because you will not want to share.

Overall, this has moved into my top list for quick service meals.  It is a Mama’s dream come true for a quick service meal- healthy, tasty options, food is delivered to your table, good price, spacious enough to not feel crowded, yummy desserts, and amazing theme. 

Stay tuned for next week when I take you to dinner at Be Our Guest!

Mama Monday : For the love of Rides

Hi Mamas(and daddies)! It’s Valentine’s week. The week of love! I have found that a lot of mamas put aside something they love at Disney for the sake of their children. Any guesses?  The RIDES! Just because a child is too young or too small to ride a ride is no reason for the parents to not enjoy them. (pictured below is my favorite ride!)

Disney has a program called Rider Switch just for this situation. It has been explained on the internet all kinds of wrong ways so people don’t seem to understand how it actually works.  I have found there are two ways it works-the official proper way and the unofficial way.

The first way, is the OFFICIAL protocol from Disney. One parent is to either have a fast pass for a ride or plan on waiting in the line to ride the ride. Before getting into line for either approach, you go to the Fast Pass entrance and tell the attendant you have a child that is too small to ride and you would like a Rider Switch pass.  The attendant will want to see your children and other adult so you point out your spouse /friend/grandparent/other traveling companion and your children.  Then they give you the Rider Switch pass (pictured below). It will have a date but no time on it. Then the first parent can enter the ride using their fast pass or the regular line. That parent comes out and “Switches” the children and the other parent goes in the Fast Pass entrance using the Rider Switch pass. 

Things to know :

• The Rider Switch pass is good for three people.
•  If you have multiple children and one is tall enough they can ride it with both parents.
• There will be plenty to do with the non-rider while you wait. 
• There is a way to maximize your fast pass availability. You are only allowed one fast pass per hour. Since you only need to use one fast pass to enter the ride, the other adult can use their ticket for a different fast pass. Genius!

The second way is how it has worked for our family and others we’ve witnessed. This is not the OFFICIAL way so do not expect it to work this way.  I do not want people to think this is a way to cheat the system, as it isn't intended to do that. At some point the cast members will have a meeting and be retrained on Rider Switch. Until then you might get lucky and be able to eliminate a step.  When we have approached the Fast Pass line to ask for the Rider Switch we tell them we have two adults that need to ride and they almost always have given out two passes. Then there’s no need for the fast pass.  This has not always been the case but I would say more times than not, this is how it worked. There were a few that only handed us one. Remember the passes are good for three people but all three people have to enter at once. On our last trip there were four adults and they still handed us two passes in most cases. We only needed one pass because the official way would say one person waits in line then the other three ride on the Rider Switch. I truly believe that the cast members are not all trained properly on this feature and that is why some will hand out more Rider Switch passes than you need. I could tell you that you should give back the extra, but I don’t give back the extra pass. I don’t ask for the extra pass but if it is handed to me, I will use it.

Don’t wait until your kids are older for you to enjoy the rides. Ride them now and have fun too! Your kids will not be bored waiting on you. Things we’ve done with our kids while one parent rides: saw a character, danced at the dance parties,  had a snack, just stopped and people watched, looked in a shop, rode another ride. There is no way the kids will be bored! Yes, at some point they will realize that you are doing something really cool and fun. Our oldest can’t wait to ride Space Mountain. He doesn’t even know what all it does as he’s only three. He just knows Mommy and Daddy love it so of course it must be fun. It’s ok to build their anticipation on when they are tall enough to do different things.  We even have a growth chart that tracks their height based on what rides they are tall enough to ride! That is part of the fun of some rides!

It’s not selfish or wrong for mamas (and daddies) to get to enjoy the parks and the rides too. Everyone will have something fun to do while this happens. Enjoy! Use Rider Switch and get those thrill rides in now (assuming you aren’t pregnant of course!)

Mama Monday: Mama Stays in the Picture

In case you missed it, the inspiration to today’s post stems from an article published last fall called The Mom Stays in the Picture  It spoke to me a great deal. I remember when my first son was born everyone wanted a picture with him. I did too, but really does anyone look flattering right after child birth??  During that first year my husband made a conscious effort to make sure there were photos of me with Mason.  For me, it would be a reminder to him how much I loved him and how happy I was that he was my son.  I have felt the same with our second son Reed and my husband has continued to make sure we have pictures together.

The thing that helps me do this the most at Disney is letting the Disney Photopass Photographers do their job.  No matter where you are at inside the parks, there are Photopass Photographers everywhere! This is what they look like:

 They are professional photographers, have a camera better than most guests, have a brown vest that is easy to identify, and always have a name tag on as well.

You will be given a Photopass Card that has a number on the back of it that you will enter in on the www.disneyphotopass.com site. 

There are two options I think are fantastic values. One is the prepurchase CD offer.  Until recently this is the option we always opted for. It saves you money and we take a lot of pictures with the Photopass Photographers.  Order it in advance and then when you return home you will order the CD or download it if you prefer that option.  All of the photopass pictures will be there. You can also alter them with borders, etc.

The option we have been doing more recently is the PhotoPass Plus. Your Disney Vacation Planner can add this to any vacation package and it will give you the CD plus photos at select rides(the images only on your CD) and the prints and images at select dining experiences. You can also purchase it on your own, however it is less expensive through your vacation planner.  We’ve never really been ones to purchase the ride photos but the dining ones make this completely worth it! Every family Disney trip in our future will include this add on.  Here’s a picture of what your Photopass Plus card will look like.

So mamas( and daddies), there’s no excuse to not be in the pictures at Disney. Your kids will love seeing you in them when you get back home. You will not regret the opportunity to captures these memories with your kids.  And you never know, the Photopass Photographer just might add someone special in the picture too(besides you that is).

  Let’s create some magic together and get you IN the picture!