We had ate at Cafe Orleans twice on our previous trip in January 2017, we really enjoyed it and it was on our must-do again list for this trip. We were planning on just making a normal reservation, but then we heard that they were offering Fantasmic dining packages for a limited time while River Belle Terrace underwent some renovations. We had never watched Fantasmic at Disneyland, we didn’t have time on our first two trips, and it was closed during our third trip, so it was something that was high on our priority list.

We made a reservation for 3pm, which is a bit of an odd time, but we knew we’d be up crazy early for the Avengers 5k that morning and would want to have a shower and a quick nap before heading to the parks, so this way we knew we wouldn’t be too rushed.

Of course, we were still rushed haha, and had to walk very quickly from Tomorrowland in order to get there on time. Cafe Orleans is always busy though, and we did have a bit of a wait – although I believe those with the dining package had less of a wait than those with regular dining reservations. The park was so crowded that day they weren’t even accepting walk-ups.

By the time we were led to our table, we were both hangry – you know, hungry and angry. Our anger was just grumpiness from being awake so early that day and from being hungry. I felt bad, because we were a little short with our server at the beginning of this meal (don’t worry, we talked to her and apologized once we had some food in our stomach haha).

It was difficult to find the options for the three course dining package online due to this being offered temporarily, but we had found one that listed the amazing Pommes Frites as a choice for the appetizer course. When we were handed our menus at the table though, this was not on there, and we weren’t thrilled since we had already decided that’s what we would both be choosing as our first course. Our server told us that had never been an option, ever, but we kept asking why we had seen it online (again, tired, hungry and grumpy – not my finest moment). This entire thing was stupid, since it’s not like those fries are expensive, and we just asked for an order of them anyways and paid for it in addition to our three course meal.

Anyways, this is what the menu looked like that we were given:

For the appetizer portion of the meal, Luke ordered the La Salade de Maison – baby greens, cherry tomatoes, candied pecans and goat cheese with a raspberry vinaigrette.

It’s not a salad I would care for, but Luke really enjoyed it. The greens were clearly really fresh, the candied pecans brought a nice sweet taste and the feta was creamy and delicious. 

I went for their seasonal soup, which was a Chicken Gumbo. I actually didn’t know what gumbo was, and asked our waitress if it had seafood in it. She looked at me like I was a complete moron and repeated very slowly “I just said it was chicken gumbo.” I don’t eat seafood of any kind, so I was worried it would have shrimp or something gross in it, but she assured me that the only meat was chicken.

This was not what I was expecting, but it was really good! I still couldn’t tell you exactly what gumbo is, but I know I liked this one, and would order it again.

Our third appetizer, as mentioned above that we paid for in addition to the dining package were the Pommes Frites – traditional French fried potatoes tossed with garlic, Parmesan and parsley, served with a Cajun Spice Remoulade, $7. We’ve had these from here before and love them, they are on my can’t miss at Disneyland list. The remoulade I could take or leave, I’m not a huge fan, but I love shoestring style fries and the garlic-Parmesan these are coated in is so tasty!

For my entree, I chose the Steak and Potatoes– chef’s choice house-rubbed steak, garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables served with a beer-molasses sauce

This was so good! I didn’t eat the Brussel Sprouts, because those things are nasty (but Luke ate them and thought they were great), but I enjoyed the carrots and broccoli. I was worried about the sauce (I’m not a fan of beer or molasses), but this was great! I had requested a well-done steak, so I’m not sure if it’s always chopped up into smaller pieces or if that was the Chef’s way of ensuring it was fully cooked, but I didn’t care. This was cooked the way I like my steak – not bleeding on my plate, but not tough and dry and chewy. I’m not an expert on steak (despite living in Alberta), but I do know this wasn’t a super fancy, expensive cut – but again, I didn’t care and I really enjoyed it. Potatoes are one of my favourite foods, and these didn’t disappoint- nice and garlicky and creamy.

For his entree, Luke decided on the Bourbon Street Chicken – honey-kissed Chicken with Hoppin’ John, seasonal vegetables and bourbon sauce

Neither one of us knew exactly what he was going to get – what does honey-kissed mean? What the heck is Hoppin’ John? What will Bourbon sauce taste like?

Luke thought this was delicious – I had a piece of the chicken and I agreed. I might have also stole that carrot off his plate haha. It turns out Hoppin’ John is the type of rice this was served with, which Luke loved. 

There were two options for dessert so we decided to get one of each and share.

I went for the Maleficent Dragon – crunchy milk chocolate base and special dark chocolate-blackberry ganache centre with caramel mousse and orange-vanilla sauce

I’m not a huge blackberry fan, but I took my first bite of this and really enjoyed it. I took another bite, this time from more inside, and was really surprised when strong heat hit my mouth.

Apparently, there was cayenne pepper in the chocolate part at the bottom. It wasn’t mentioned in the description, but it’s also a dessert paying homage to a fire-breathing dragon – so it totally makes sense. I was examining it, trying to figure out which part the spiciness was coming from when our waitress walked over, and she looked mortified – she kept asking if everything was ok, and if I had found something in my dessert – I think she was scared I had found a hair or something in it. She laughed once I explained that I just wasn’t expecting the heat. I’m a bit of a wimp with spice, but cayenne pepper just works so well with chocolate that I really enjoyed this.

Luke went for the other dessert option, and ordered the Coconut Cake – layers of toasted coconut, vanilla cake and coconut cream garnished with Mardi-Gras-inspired toasted coconut flakes, caramel and raspberry sauces

Luke told me afterwards that he wasn’t really excited about ordering this, but it ended up being so much better than he thought it would be, and he really liked it. I stole a few bites, and I agreed. You have to like coconut, but if you’re a fan then you will like this. The cake was light and fluffy, the coconut was toasted so it added a nice crunchiness, and the raspberry sauce complimented everything so well. I would consider ordering this again for sure.

Also included with our Fantasmic dining package was a drink (all of Disneyland is alcohol free, and this restaurant is included in that). We both had the Mint Julep – which had changed a bit since our January trip, but was still delicious. I didn’t keep track of how many, but we both had multiple refills of these.

The cost for the Fantasmic dining package was $45 each, plus the $7 for the Pommes Frites. I used my Annual Pass to save 15%, so our total bill came to $88.84 after tax. Everything we ordered is on the regular menu with the exception of the Maleficent dessert, but I figure the reserved section for Fantasmic cost us about $10 total – which is a great deal. The view from our section was fantastic, and we didn’t have to stake out a spot hours in advance. The show is phenomenal there,  and I was so glad we did this dining package. I’m sad that the package was only a limited time thing at Cafe Orleans, but we will be back at this restaurant, possibly to eat the exact same items we had on this trip haha.

 

We always try and make at least one reservation at a new-to-us restaurant on every trip – we had multiple on this trip, but one of them was Storyteller’s Cafe located in the Grand Californian Hotel.

This restaurant offers a character breakfast Monday-Friday, a character brunch on Saturday, Sunday and Holidays, an a-la-carte lunch and an a-la-carts/buffet hybrid at dinner (no characters). We booked the Sunday character brunch for the day of the Avengers Half-Marathon, I figured Luke would have worked up quite an appetite after running for 21km.

I also made a reservation late enough that Luke had time to go back to our hotel, have a shower and change into clean clothes before going to eat. Also, since he was feeling a bit sore (rightfully so!), we took an Uber to the Grand.

We checked in, and that place was slammed! It was a long weekend with a runDisney event happening, so it wasn’t all that surprising when we were told they were running behind a bit. We found a bench outside and sat down to wait. There were two little boys with remote control cars, their parents were sitting on the bench directly across from us. The younger boy, I’d guess him to be about 4 years old, thought it was hilarious when he drove his little car under the gate by the pool we were close to, but then of course had a huge meltdown when he couldn’t figure out how to drive it back under the gate to where he was. You can’t just open the gate either, you must be staying in the hotel and use your room card to open it, so I couldn’t offer any assistance . The older brother, maybe 6 or 7 years old, grabbed the controller from his younger brother and was trying to drive the car back under the gate, but it kept getting stuck. Eventually, someone who was in the pool area came over and opened the gate so the boys could go grab the car. Watching this made the time pass by quickly, and about 20 minutes after sitting down on the bench,  our names were called.

This restaurant is really gorgeous – high ceilings in the centre by the buffet, and lots of wood.

Even the floor leading to the main check-in counter is beautiful:

The carpet also ties in to the theming of the restaurant:

The buffet area was quite large here:

I took buffet pictures as we were leaving, since the crowd was gone by that point and I wasn’t interfering with anyone or holding anyone up just so I could get good pics for my blog haha. The food wasn’t as well signed as it is at other buffets, so I’ll do my best at remembering what everything was…

Bread pudding with vanilla sauce

Uhh…Cereal.

Mini cupcakes – I believe they were red velvet?

Various salads of death.

Charred corn chowder with various toppings – bacon, green onions, etc

Bacon, tater tots (or “potato barrels” at some Disney restaurants haha), and hash brown casserole

Salmon, rice pilaf

Butter, yogurt, etc.

Smoked salmon, onions, lemons, etc

Very picked over fruit platter. Just imagine it being full…

Mickey waffles, pancakes, French toast

Chilaquiles And eggs Benedict

Cinnamon buns, assorted pastries

Mini muffins

Make your own omelet station

Chicken and… something? 

My first plate, from the top and going clockwise: bacon, rice pilaf, chicken, casear salad, watermelon, grapes, tater tots, hash brown casserole(?).

For some reason, I really wasn’t very hungry and filled half my plate with salad and fruit – that’s just not typical for me haha. Everything was good that I tried though.

Luke’s first plate, starting at the top and going clockwise: chicken, mini cupcake, key lime tart (they must have been all gone by the time I took pictures of the buffet at the end of our meal), breakfast sausage, smoked salmon, pineapple slices, hash brown casserole, tater tots, bacon and scrambled eggs.

He also grabbed a bowl of their Nebraska charred corn chowder

My second plate was a little bit of bread pudding and half a plate full of caesar salad – not a great idea.

I really liked their caesar dressing, it tasted homemade – which meant it was very rich. Apparently my stomach couldn’t handle that much salad/rich dressing, and I ended up throwing all of this up about an hour later…

Luke’s second plate: scrambled eggs, eggs benedict and that red mess was a Mickey waffle with raspberry or strawberry sauce.

This was also a character brunch, so of course we met some characters – Pluto, Chip, Dale and Kenai from Brother Bear.

As with all character meals at Disneyland, we received pins specific to that location. I love that they do this here, it’s such a great little keepsake.

This brunch cost $39 each, but I saved 15% with my annual pass so our total bill came to $71.44 with tax. I wasn’t very hungry, and the  food I did eat I ended up throwing up, but I still want to return here again one day. I don’t blame the restaurant or Disney for me being sick, my stomach just couldn’t handle that much of the rich salad dressing. Luke really enjoyed his meal here, and he felt perfectly fine afterwards.

We had a reservation to eat supper here on our first trip to WDW, back in 2016, but unfortunately I ended up getting sick that day and we had to cancel. We tried finding a spot to squeeze it in on our 2017 trip, but it just didn’t work out, so we were determined to get there on this trip.

Our Walmart trip earlier that day ran a little longer than we expected it to, so we were a few minutes late checking in for our 6:35pm reservation – but they were backed up so it wouldn’t have mattered. We didn’t have a terrible wait, they called our names around 6:50 and led us to our two-top table. The hostess showing us to our table pointed out the buffet, and let us know that we would have more than enough time to go grab a plate of food before any of the characters made their way to us, as they were all on break at that point. We were hungry, so she didn’t have to tell us twice!

My first plate, starting at the top and going clockwise: mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy,  cheese, green beans, Mongolian beef, rice, baked ziti, cheese ravioli, pork and butter chicken.

They clearly don’t know what butter chicken is – this was more of a mild curry chicken – it was very good, but don’t call it what it’s not. The baked ziti pasta was surprisingly really good! Lots of cheese baked in throughout, and the pasta had a texture I liked. The beef and rice was a real standout on the plate, which shocked me a bit – usually beef like that (especially from a buffet) is tough and chewy. It was definitely cooked well done (big thumbs up from me for that!) but it was still tender and the sauce had great flavour! Honestly, I liked every single thing I tried.

I also had a bowl of their famous strawberry soup. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but I enjoyed it. It’s served cold (which isn’t soup in my opinion). When I was young, we had lots of local strawberries in the summer, and one of my favourite things to eat was mashed berries mixed with some heavy cream (usually unwhipped whipping cream), and then I would dip buttered toast into it. Basically, 1900 Park Fare’s Strawberry soup tastes exactly like that – which leads me to believe it’s just heavy cream and strawberries. Simple, but delicious!

We were both feeling fancy and ordered alcoholic drinks. Luke went for the Moscow Mule – Russian standard vodka, fresh lime juice and agave nectar topped with ginger beer, $11.

The drink that caught my eye was the Antioxidant Lemonade – Van Gogh Açai-Blueberry vodka, Odwalla lemonade and pomegranate juice, topped with Sprite, $9.75. We were both pleased with our selections, and I loved the little stir sticks with the hotel logo on it.

Luke’s first plate from the buffet contained, from the top and going clockwise, fried catfish, potato salad, sausage, pork and mushroom gravy, “butter chicken”, cornbread, roast beef, mashed potatoes, a single chicken nugget from the kids section (he informed me he had more, but he snacked on them as he made his way around the rest of the buffet…).

Luke’s favourites from this plate were the catfish and the pork roast, but there was nothing he didn’t like. That roast beef is way too rare for me, and Luke’s only complaint was that the juice from it made the catfish batter a little bit soggy. He also made a similar comment as I did about the “butter chicken” – terrible butter chicken, but excellent curry chicken.

Luke’s second plate: casear salad, butternut squash ravioli, Mongolian beef and rice, turkey and gravy and honey sriracha salmon.

Luke raved about that salmon, he tends to like most things sriracha-flavoured, but he also said the salmon was very well cooked. I don’t eat seafood, so I can’t tell you my opinion on it. He was also a huge fan of the butternut squash ravioli – but again, there was nothing on his plate he didn’t enjoy.

My second plate: cheese ravioli, green beans, casear salad, macaroni and marinara sauce from the kids section, baked ziti and Mongolian beef and rice.

I basically went for more of my favourites from my first plate. Of course, my eyes were much larger than my stomach (what else is new? Haha), and I was not able to finish this plate. It was all so good though!

While we ate, the characters made their way around the room. I’m always super awkward with face characters, I never know what to say to them, but these ones made it easy! The step-sisters were hilarious, and so was the Evil Step-Mother. Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of Cinderella, she’s a little too prim and proper for me – I prefer the spunky princesses like Rapunzel or Tiana. The Cinderella we met here was exactly what I’d expect, a very polished, proper princess.

This was the first time we’ve met a male face character. The interaction was good, but nothing really memorable.

Drizella was hilarious. We had one of our “Happily Ever After” buttons sitting on the table, so she asked if we were on our Honeymoon. When we explained that we were actually on our wedding trip, and getting married the following week she got all excited and asked to see my ring, so of course I showed her. She squealed, and asked if it was vintage (which it is, it belonged to my Grandmother). Drizella then went on to tell me all about the jewels she’s going to get that currently belong to her mother.

She had the best facial expressions hahaha.

As her sister, Anastacia, approached, Drizella excitedly told her we were getting married soon, so she asked me if she could see a picture of my dress. Luke snapped these pictures while I showed her the pictures of me wearing my dress…

I know she’s supposed to be an evil step-sister, but she was actually really sweet! I liked her 🙂 The table next to us had an older lady sitting there, the grandmother of the group, and it was apparently her first trip to WDW. Anastasia came back a few times just to give grandma a hug and tell her how adorable she was – the Grandma clearly thought this was just the greatest thing, I loved watching her smile every time Anastasia came over.

The final character was the evil step-mother, Lady Tremaine. Again, she found out we were getting married soon, so she asked me why I was marrying him – was he rich? I embarassed Luke and told Lady Tremaine I was marrying him because he liked cats and had a pair of them haha. She was pretending she didn’t want to get too close to him in case he had cat hair on him.

There was a decent dessert selection as part of the buffet, but we had ate so much of the other food that we didn’t want any. Our server did bring us each a cupcake though as a congratulations, so we did each have a bite of that. We left over half of each one though, we were so full!

I’m so happy we finally made it here for a meal! I think it might be my favourite character meal at Walt Disney World – the characters were great, and the food was fantastic. It’s not a cheap option, and my Tables in Wonderland card was blacked out due to it being January 1st, but I could still use my AP discount (10% on food only). I would not hesitate to return here, and won’t even complain that much about paying full price.

Tables in Wonderland Original Cost: $150                                              Break Even Point Before this Meal: $130.60                                                     Savings this Meal: $0 (blackout date)                                                                     Total until Breaking Even: $130.60

Predicted food budget: $2631.67                                                                             Estimated Cost of this meal: $27.46(Pop Food Court – Breakfast) + $112.89 (1900 Park Fare) = $140.35                                                                       Actual Cost: $15.95(Pop) + 112.20 (1900 Park Fare) = $128.15           Over/Under: Under by $12.20                                                           Remaining: $2218.58

Next meal: California Grill

We hadn’t made any plans for this night, we weren’t sure if we would be really tired and want to go to sleep after the Race Expo, but we were so excited to be back in California that we decided to enter the park.

We were starving, but hadn’t made any dining reservations- luckily we remembered reading rave reviews about the fried chicken at Plaza Inn, and it was technically a quick service meal! We had ate breakfast there on our previous trip, so we knew exactly where it was and set off in that direction.

You enter the main doors, and then order your food from the centre section of the restaurant. We both went for the same thing, the Plaza Inn Specialty Chicken – three pieces of chicken, fried to a golden brown, seasoned with distinctive herbs and spices. Served with mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuit and a mixture of vegetables, $17.49

This is a massive portion! I could easily share this meal with someone (I’d just need to order an extra scoop of potatoes because I don’t share those haha). The chicken was juicy, the crispy batter had great flavour and I can see why this place has the reputation it does. I don’t know what they do, I assume use lots of butter, but Disney green beans are always so good! Mashed potatoes and gravy is one of my favourite foods (I have such fancy tastes in food haha), and I enjoyed this serving. The biscuit was good, not great. I couldn’t finish everything, this was a lot of food! Luke did well, but he couldn’t clear his plate either.

Luke had a Coke to go with his meal, I grabbed a root beer. However, after my first sip of my pop I realized the fountain must be almost out of syrup, it tasted terrible. So, I also grabbed a coke.

There was a couple sitting at the table next to ours wearing the Bride and Groom Mickey ear hats, so I pointed at their ears and asked if they were on their Honeymoon. They told us they were actually on a pre-honeymoon, they were getting married the following week in Vegas, but were spending a few days in California first. They told us it was their first time at Disneyland, and asked us what attractions they should try and do. We chatted for a few minutes, and told them our favourites in the park before wishing them well in their upcoming nuptials. We didn’t even get their names, but I hope they enjoyed their day at Disneyland!

For some reason, it seems like I didn’t take a picture of our receipt here. I would have used my annual pass for a discount, but I can’t remember if it was 10%, 15% or 20% – I’d assume 15% since that’s standard with a top tier pass in California.

This place is on the list of places I would definitely eat at again. The price was right, the servings were large and the food was really tasty. Two thumbs way up for you, Plaza Inn!

After finishing our 5k, we were both hungry. One of the only places open at that hour was Earl of Sandwich, which is one of Luke’s favourite places. Since it was so early, they were only serving breakfast sandwiches, which sucked since I rarely eat eggs (they bother my stomach), and all of their breakfast options involved eggs. I’m sure I could have asked for a sandwich made without, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I did find some things to eat though 🙂

Bowl of Broccoli Cheddar soup, $3.99.

This is one of my favourite types of soup, and the version Earl’s makes is pretty good. It hit the spot, and made for a perfect breakfast selection.

Of course, no breakfast is complete without a little chocolate, so I also grabbed a Chocolate Pudding, $2.99

This had almost as much whipped cream as it did pudding. This was good, and I convinced myself I deserved it after walking a 5k that morning haha.

Luke actually ordered a breakfast sandwich, and went for the Ham, Egg N’ Cheddar – ham, eggs, cheddar and breakfast sauce served on our artisan bread, $5.29

Luke didn’t love this the way he loves their regular sandwiches. He ate it all, but wasn’t raving about it. There was nothing special about it, and we won’t be going out of our way to eat breakfast here again, we’ll stick to the lunch/supper menu.

Total cost was $13.22 – we had received free bottles of water at the finish line of the 5k, so we didn’t buy drinks at Earl of Sandwich. There was no option for a discount with my annual pass.

I was so excited that our trip coincided with the start of Festival of the Holidays at Disney’s California Adventure – I finally got to try some Disney food booths!

We headed to DCA on the very first day of the festival. We had scoped out the menus for the various booths, and were very excited to sample some food! I was also an annual pass holder at the time, so I was eligible to purchase a Sip and Savor Pass – I was pretty excited about it. This pass cost $45, and contained 8 tear-off tabs to be used on any non-alcoholic item at the booths, on any day for the duration of the festival (November 10, 2017 – January 7, 2018). I had already pulled off one tab from the bottom before I remembered to take a picture of it… 

To break even on this pass, we had to purchase 8 items worth at least $5.63 – most items cost more than that so I wasn’t concerned with that and I knew it would be a good deal in the end to have purchased this pass.

We decided to start at the “A Twist on Tradition” booth, and ordered the Reuben Potato Smash – with Russian dressing and rye toast crumble ($6.75 if paying out of pocket)

This sounded very strange, and I wasn’t completely sure what to expect from it, but I was very pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it! The potatoes were like tater tots (but better than most tots I’ve had), and the toppings were all really tasty.

Our next stop was “Classic Crocks and Casseroles” for the Chana Masala with grilled garlic naan ($6.50 if paying out of pocket).

Of all the things we tried at the food booths, this was the most average. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t special in any way, and not super flavourful like the Indian food I’m used to. The naan was standard, and worked great for scooping up the chickpeas.

Our third and final stop of the day was at “Blissfully Braised” for the Braised Pork Belly Adobo – with garlic fried rice ($7.50 if paying out of pocket).

Of the three items we tried on this day, this was the clear winner. That garlic rice was fantastic (and we might have ate some with the chana masala – a great combo), and the pork belly was tender and fatty and delicious. I really wish this was on a permanent menu somewhere at Disneyland, I would order this all the time.

We were starting to get full, and we had a dining reservation coming up soon, so we decided to call it quits for the day at the food booths. We were doing really well with getting our value out of the Sip and Savor pass so far – the three items we tried had a total cost of $20.75, leaving us with 5 tabs and $24.25 to break even.