Remember The Magic: My Walt Disney World Favorites

So, I’m finally home and I’ll be doing my best over the next few days to get caught up on my normal things, plus news from NYCC. (I can tell you that we’re getting 2 weeks worth of Sailor Moon coverage on Thursday…)

I know this is late, but I hope it gets the job done. Rather than a day by day breakdown of the trip, I’m going to break down a few favorites.

Food Favorites

We ate really, really good food on this trip. Partially by design, because Juli and I are both grown ass adults with full time jobs and can afford it, and partially because, well, it was the Epcot Food and Wine Festival so there was good food all around

Favorite Table Service Meal

Far and away, my favorite meal of the trip was at Jiko, which is located in The Animal Kingdom Lodge. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough. It’s a little on the expensive side, but it was far and away the best food we’d had. Juli had the Filet Mingon and I had braised pork. We split a couple of desserts, had an excellent South African wine recommended by our waitress and split the “Taste of Africa” appetizer. The whole thing was an incredible experience.

Favorite Restaurant

Be Our Guest. While our actual meal at Jiko was worlds better than the two we ate in the park, Be Our Guest is unbeatable as a place to eat. We were seated in the ballroom, but walked around the whole place, taking pictures and of course we got to meet The Beast and take pictures with him. The food here is also quite good, and we had a bottle of champagne which, lead us to being buzzed in the Magic Kingdom, which was really fun.

And you really should try The Grey Stuff, it is delicious.

Favorite Counter Service Meal

This goes, without fail to our first at Columbia Harbor House. I had the Lobster Roll and Juli had the Sunshine Sandwich, both were great, and very large. Plus that place is huge with lots of comfy seating.

Favorite Food Item

This was hard to call, but it was absolutely going to be something at the Food And Wine Festival, we ate a lot of really good food. In the end I think it’s a tie between the Lobster and Seafood Pie from the Ireland tent or the Cheddar Cheese Soup in Canada. While the other food we ate was delicious, these two were pretty much transcendent.

Park Favorites-Rides!

These were my favorite things in each park, attraction-wise.

Magic Kingdom

I wish I could rank the two newbies, The Seven Dwarves Mine Train and The Voyage of The Little Mermaid, which were both great, but in the end it was a classic that won out. Riding The Haunted Mansion again reminded me of how much I love classic Disney Magic, and why I go back there over and over again. Plus we rode it during Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Oh my God, is Toy Story Midway Mania the greatest thing ever or what? So much fun. The Tower of Terror has been my favorite Disney ride for a long time, but I had SO MUCH FUN on Toy Story that it was my favorite this trip.

Epcot

Test Track, I guess? Epcot doesn’t have a lot going on in the ride department. I do love the updated Test Track though. I wasn’t a huge fan of it when I last rode it over 10 years ago, but the new version is a lot more fun.

Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest. We rode it twice! Once first thing in the morning, and once right before leaving with a FastPass.

Favorite Attractions – Shows and Whatever

Magic Kingdom

It’s hard to beat the parades at Magic Kingdom and choosing between the two we saw is even harder, and while the Halloween themed “Boo To You” was really cool to see (and I may never see again, which is worth noting) I couldn’t believe how much I love Festival of Fantasy. And managed not to cry, not something that happened at well, any other show.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

You’re expecting Fantasmic right? I do love it, (And wept like a baby) but no, it was For The First Time In Forever: A Frozen Sing-A-Long, that captured my heart. Sitting in a full theater full of people singing along to “Let It Go,” is the kind of pure joyful moment that’s impossible to be cynical about. I know it’s manufactured fun, but it was just so great.

Epcot

Illuminations is my favorite fireworks show in the history of the world. Add to it that Juli and I walked into Spice Road Table in Morocco and asked if we could sit and have fireworks view (complete with cocktails and snacks), it was absolutely perfect.

Animal Kingdom

We did not see any shows at Animal Kingdom. This was a timing thing…

Favorite Character Interaction

We did a lot of character meetings but I have to say my favorite might surprise you.

I finally met Cinderella, who has always been my favorite, and had never met before, but she was eclipsed by her companion. When we entered the room in Princess Fairytale hall, Rapunzel immediately gave us tackle hugs and said that she liked our “satchels” (my cross body bag and Juli’s back pack) asking where she could get them, because Finn is always losing his.

“Oh I’m so excited to meet you!” – Actress Playing Rapunzel
“OH MY GOSH ME TOO!” – Me, Full Grown Adult Woman With No Irony In My Voice At All

It was so much fun, that a minute later, Cinderella’s far more mellow and proper interaction was underwhelming. Though I was grateful for both. (We got on line 3 times, before realizing that we had other things coming up and then finally sticking it out. It was a whole thing.)

Overall it was an insanely fun trip. I’m still exhausted and reentry to the real world is going to take a day or two, even though I’m back at work today! I’ve got a full DVR to clean up, about 16 hours of podcasts to listen to and plenty of news to sift through (plus a couple weeks of movie season to catch up on, may have to do a Sunday double feature again soon…)