Recently we returned to Disney and had the opportunity to try several new dining experiences. This is one of my favorite things to do in Disney in the middle of the day for a break from the heat, from screaming children, or from some of the biggest crowds. I do tend to choose dining where I make reservations so this forces us to stop at some point during the day for a break. I tend to look for reservations about 3-4 hours after we enter the park each morning.

Day 1: Toledo- Tapas, Steak and Seafood

We drove from SC to Disney on the first day, so our first new dining experience was at Toledo- Tapas, Steak and Seafood in the Coronado Springs hotel. We arrived and took the elevator, an experience all in itself as you choose the floor from a touch screen while you are outside the elevator, to the top floor. Once there, you walk out into the lobby where the Dahlia Lounge is to the right, and Toledo to the left. Side note- the bar had an amazing view of the back of Hollywood Studios and would be a great place to sit and relax at night to watch the park while it is lit up. They had indoor and outdoor seating. OK- back to Toledo. If you are looking for a restaurant at Disney with Michelin recognition, this might be the place for you.

While there were certainly items on the menu I was more interested in, we settled on the chef’s dinner for 2, since this gave us a lot of flavors to try, and it has been a while since I have had paella, which is one of my all time favorite meals, so the chef’s dinner it was. When you look at the menu online, be prepared for a different menu in the restaurant. Our appetizers were small bites (tapas) and of the 4 choices that were offered, one was really inedible. One bite was enough. The bite of tuna was amazing though. The paella came loaded with seafood. The scallop foam was delicious as was each bite of seafood. The only disappointment in the paella was the amount of oil at the bottom of the pan and throughout the dish. A little too much oil for my taste. (Keep in mind, I have had paella in Spain, so I do carry a little bias). Dessert was incredibly interesting. It was a bar of chocolate mousse with colored “pearls” on top. Each pearl had a different flavor to it. Raspberry, Lemon, and coffee are the flavors that stand out in my memory. If you like wine, there was a wall of wine from all over the world that you could order by the glass or bottle. We watched many waiters walk by with bottles of wine for various tables. The view was the same as from the bar area, but unless you were seated by the windows, you didn’t have a great view. The decor was pretty, and we watched as some of the food was prepared in the wood fire oven, which was fun. It was a very open restaurant so it was a little noisy, but we were not seated very close to other tables which was nice. Overall, it was a good experience and a fun way to start our vacation. If I returned to eat, I would choose the Dahlia Lounge for the view and their lighter bites.

Day 2: Animal Kingdom Park- Yak and Yeti

Hands down my favorite ride right now in all of Disney World is Avatar- The Flight of Passage. This brings us to Animal Kingdom at least once every time we visit Disney World. This time we decided to try the Yak and Yeti Restaurant for lunch. My husband tried a burger and I had a salmon dish that was my favorite meal of the entire vacation. Last time I wrote about food, our favorite restaurant was also in Animal Kingdom, Tiffin’s. So Animal Kingdom for the win in the restaurant department. There are not many places to eat, but those that are in the park certainly pack a punch. Note: There is a character dining experience at the Tusker House as well. While I have not been there recently, I have enjoyed that dining experience as well.

Day 3: Hollywood Studios- Sci Fi Drive In and the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue

This is probably my least favorite park to eat at. The food is just OK and the themed restaurants are not as fun (in my opinion) as at some of the other locations in Disney World. My husband had never been to the Sci Fi Drive in so that was my choice this trip. 2 people is the best part size for this restaurant, since you sit in either the front seat or back seat of a car. If you have a larger party, it makes it difficult to talk with others in your party. There are a few cars with different seating arrangements, so you may want to ask for these tables if you have a larger party. We really enjoyed watching the old movie clips, trailers, and cartoons on the big screen, and many were in black and white. My husband had the chicken sandwich and I had a burger with onion rings and a vanilla shake. The onion rings stole the show while the sandwiches and shake was just alright. This gets a high rating on atmosphere but a low rating on food quality.

We decided to skip the late night at the park and try the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue. If you are old enough to know what the show Hee Haw was, this is kind of like what the Hoop Dee Doo Revue was like. Some comedy, some singing, some audience interaction, and some fun. We did laugh at the silliness of it all, which is what made it fun. There were several folks in our show who had been there before. There were a lot of anniversaries and birthdays, which took about 30 minutes for the cast to go around and highlight, so we clapped a sang for others a lot. This was nice if it was your special day, but a little long if it wasn’t. The food was all brought to your table in a family style format and consisted of things you would eat at a barbecue. Fried chicken, ribs, beans, corn, coleslaw, salad, and brisket. Dessert was a strawberry shortcake. Everything was in a cast iron like dish and a drink was included with dinner. Overall it was very cheesy but fun if you are into that sort of thing. I’d go back, but not for a few years.

Day 4: Magic Kingdom- Cinderella’s Castle

Funny story. We were staying at the Shades of Green hotel on Disney property for a few nights. In the middle of the night, the people next door to us weer locked out of their room, while their child was locked in the room and was asleep. The parents spent about 45 minutes banging on the door to get in the room, meanwhile keeping several of us awake… Grumble… I did call the front desk and they did not answer. But eventually security came and they had to break into the room to let the couple in. All the time, they were yelling, “Nathan.. let us in Nathan. Nathan… open the door…” So I was awake for about an hour an half listening to this unfold and then finally falling back asleep. Lucky for us, Nathan helped us out because sometime around midnight I checked my app and a reservation had opened for lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table. I snagged the booking and the next day we had the opportunity to dine in the castle at a window overlooking the park. It could not have been a more perfect location and such fun when the princesses came around as they all remarked on our view, looking out for the monkey Apu, or Merida’s pesky brothers. Their comments made us laugh. The tables here were very crowded and the seats sometimes were right against each other. There were lots of kids around us, even out of their seats running around. If you want to avoid kids, don’t come here to eat. The waitstaff and the princesses made up for it though by interacting with us throughout the meal. We were also given a few surprise items to take home, although we left ours for some kids who would appreciate them more. We had the lamb chops and filet mignon which were both cooked and seasoned perfectly. The desserts stole the show here. They were absolutely beautiful and although reading the description was very different from what we tasted, they were some of the best desserts of the trip. This was the most expensive meal of the trip but we came home talking about it so it left an impression on us.

Back to Shades of Green for a minute. We decided to try this hotel since my husband is retired from the Air Force and we had the option to stay there. Many people say that it is cheaper than staying at a resort hotel. Here is my opinion. It can be cheaper if you compare prices, but I found that most times I looked to book it, it was already sold out. When it was available, in most cases it was similar in price to the low end Disney hotels. I was surprised to find that they tacked on a $17 per day parking fee, so when you add that to the price of the hotel, on the days that we were there, we could have found a cheaper hotel on Disney property that did not charge for parking. Another downside: it is not Disney branded so other than a Mickey statue in the lobby, you did not really know that you were staying at Disney. One more downside: The shuttle busses from hotels to parks only run every 30 minutes from Shades of Green. In the few days that we spent there, we spent an average of 15-20 minutes longer waiting on busses to take us back to the hotel from the parks. If you ask at the front desk you can get a timetable for the busses but they were fairly accurate when leaving the hotel, but not so accurate returning back. I like staying on Disney property to have the advantage of either taking the bus or driving the car and entering the park’s parking lots for free. You have to pay to park in the park’s parking lots if you stay at Shades of Green, which makes the bus the only option to avoid that extra charge as well. Unless the rooms are considerably less expensive than other hotels, it does not get my vote to return to.

Day 5: EPCOT- Space 220 and Rose and Crown

I was so excited to surprise my husband with this restaurant. I mentioned he was in the air force so he is all about flight and space too. I had heard a lot of hype about this Space 220 and there is never any availability, so when I found us a table I snagged it, and then actually changed park reservations to go to EPCOT. We made it to this restaurant for an early lunch. The “ride” to and from the restaurant (pretend you are on an elevator to the ISS) was one of the best parts of the experience. I’m not going to ruin it for you. We were seated to one side of the restaurant, but could look out into space and see the earth. Throughout the dining experience, there are various people, space ships, and a few surprises floating outside over the earth. We found ourselves in the middle of talking about something, and stopping each other to see what was floating outside the window, before resuming our conversation. The day we arrived, they had changed their menu. Their price fixe is a little different than other restaurants. They include an entree and dessert, but not the appetizers. My husband had the burger and I had the tuna poke. Both good choices. We both chose the carrot cake for dessert which was good. It was our favorite restaurant for the atmosphere of it, and we would definitely go back. We also said that we wished our kids were with us as we thought they would have liked the experience as well.

For dinner we tried the Rose and Crown. It was not crowded at all, probably because fish and chips is their specialty, which you can also order from a window if you don’t want to sit in the restaurant. The advantage to the dining room. It was very cool on a hot day, and they had a piano player playing while we dined. We happened to be sitting right in front of the piano, so we enjoyed listening to his music as we ate. We both ordered the fish and chips. They were good but we’ve had better. They were very hot a crispy, but also full of oil. They did not have enough time to drain before being served. Our table also overlooked the lagoon, so it would have been a nice place to sit while the fireworks show was going on. They also have an outdoor patio if you do wish to dine there during the fireworks.

Day 6: Hollywood Studios- Woody’s Roundup Rodeo BBQ

Hollywood Studios redeemed itself with this restaurant. Woody’s Roundup Rodeo BBQ is a restaurant that I have avoided in the past. I don’t know why as this was also one of our favorite finds of the trip. The theme of this restaurant is that you are one of Andy’s toys. The BBQ is happening in his backyard as they are also having a yard sale in the front yard. You can move and talk until…. Andy is spotted. Then everyone in the restaurant freezes. This happens 1x or 2x during an average meal, so it is fun to see everyone play along. Throughout the meal, there are announcements about toys and Andy which are fun to listen too, and the walls are covered with fun toy story themed items. We really enjoyed this meal. This meal was very similar to what we ate at the Hoop Dee Doo, but it was better. Everything here was also served family style. The meats tasted fresher and were a little hotter when delivered to the table. The desserts were cute in mini glasses. This was another restaurant that we can’t wait to bring the kids back to so they can experience it as well.

Day 7: Three Bridges Bar at the Coronado Springs resort and ‘Ohana at the Polynesian Resort

For our last night, we stayed at the Coronado Springs resort. We spent some of the afternoon at the resort and decided on a snack at the Three Bridges Bar and Grill. The restaurant sits over the water and was a fun place to just sit, enjoy the afternoon breeze and fresh air, and chill. We shared the appetizer of Patacon at the waiter’s suggestion and it was a good size for both of us to enjoy. I would definitely go back for snacks, lunch, or dinner.

We chose to visit ‘Ohana during the Magic Kingdom fireworks show. This was our last night at Disney so it was nice to go out on a bang. Haha. Our reservation was about 30 minutes before fireworks, so that gave us time to eat so that we could then spend most of the fireworks time just enjoying them. We were seated in the corner of the restaurant one row back from the windows, so we did not have a great view of the lagoon. It was pretty to see outside the windows into Magic Kingdom, and when it was dark some of the rides lit up. We did see the electric parade in the lagoon a few minutes before the fireworks, which was really nice. It brought back a lot of childhood memories for me, as I used to watch it as a kid when visiting Disney with my family. The fireworks were nice to watch from inside. We moved to an abandoned table for a better view. The music was piped in and we could hear the fireworks exploding in muffled sound. We typically don’t stay in the parks for the fireworks, so this was a good compromise to be able to see them, but not have to deal with the crowds after the fireworks are over.

So dinner… At night there are no characters. This was fine with us. If you want characters, you have to go there for breakfast. Dinner was served family style. I think Disney is moving away from buffet service towards family style dining. This keeps guests at their tables. The salad was just OK. The bread was delicious but had coconut in it so that was a no for me. I do not like coconut. All but the noodles were good. The peel and eat shrimp were tasty. The dumplings had a nice sear to them. The only negative was that the food seemed to get cold pretty quickly. More than I remember at other restaurants. The dessert was bread pudding. Somehow I was OK with this version of the bread. It was not as coconutty. Overall, this was a good meal with the fireworks included. I would go back, but it is not at the top of the list.

Coronado Spring Resort was a fun place to stay. We asked for, and received an upgrade to stay in a Casita close to the Marketplace area. The resort was very clean, and it was huge! There were a few pools, several restaurants, and a Mexico theme throughout the resort. Our room was decorated like a Spanish galleon ship. The staff was incredibly friendly. There are three bus stops throughout the resort to take you to the parks, so you can choose the one closest to you. We chose the one near the tower and hopped on and off the busses very quickly during our stay. This would definitely be a resort that I would come back to in the future.

Overall, we enjoyed our dining experiences on this last trip. I like that we tried some new locations, and ventured out to the resorts this time. We have three more short visits planned this year so as soon as we can start making some reservations, we will see where we will end up.