Monthly Archives: November 2015

Show Your Love at Disney World

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Animal Kingdom's Dinosaur RideLove is patient and kind, right? Love is about sharing and compromise, giving and taking. This applies even on vacation. Because you’re here with me, you know I’m talking Disney vacations specifically – and never have I found a place with more opportunity to practice showing love than at Walt Disney World. It’s not easy sometimes to step outside your comfort zone and take one for the team. For today’s Friday Five, I’d like to help you…

Show Your Love at Disney World!

Wear It:  Push aside any thoughts you might have of looking silly, childish or stupid – if your family wants to wear matching t-shirts, Earhats, or all-inclusive, themed costumes for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, do it! For sure you won’t be alone and you might just enjoy yourself even more.Meg and Joe at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Ride It: Unless you have a medical condition that would prevent you from being physically able to enjoy a ride or attraction safely, don’t knock anything until you try it. If your family wants to go, please don’t stay behind because you don’t think you’ll like it. This is about making family memories. Together!Kali River Rapids / Disney's Animal Kingdom

Wait For It: If you don’t have any patience for waiting, figure out how you’re going to deal with waiting at Disney World because wait you will! If a member of your family suddenly wants to add parade watching or princess meeting to the agenda, give it your best try! A little research ahead of time will clue you in on where the best and worst waits are – choose your FastPasses accordingly.Exterior of Indiana Jones Theater / Disney's Hollywood Theater

Stop For It – The view is different for everyone and magical details and surprises are everywhere. Unexpected delights will spring up from time to time and someone will want to stop and check them out. Pay attention and share the moment of awe and discovery. Maybe there’s a giant peeking into the shop you’re in. Maybe there are footprints in the walkway. A door might suddenly open to reveal a surprise.It's a Small World Clock

Go Along With It – Get over yourself! Nobody needs to be “that guy”. The one who won’t pose (and smile) for pictures with characters or sits glumly at a character meal. You should be trying to be a part of Enchanted Tales With Belle.  Wave at parade characters, visit with Cast Members, play along with your server at Whispering Canyon or 50’s Prime Time Café – let yourself be part of the magic! Your family will love it and you might love it too.

What’s your favorite way to show love to your family at Walt Disney World?

Disney Date Night – Resortloop Pub Crawl

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Yellow Monorail / Walt Disney WorldRaymond and I are big fans of the Resortloop Pub Crawl!  A great grown-up activity that gives us the opportunity to see what’s going on at our favorite resorts along the monorail loop while enjoying an adult beverage here and there.  We can visit one lounge or more, as a pre-dinner way to relax or a dinner substitute altogether.  The pub crawl is a great way to take in the unique settings of each pub within the very differently themed resorts – we love this!

Disney Date Night – Resortloop Pub CrawlRM-The-Wave

We like the Wave at the Contemporary, but have also spend quite a few happy early evenings at the tiny and casual Outer Rim (right next to Chef Mickey’s).  The Wave’s bar is pretty traditional with a great wine selection and tasty menu.  Choose a dish to share and save room for the next stop on the loop!RM-Mizner's-Lounge

We think the atmosphere and ambiance at Mizner’s in the gorgeous Grand Floridian makes it a great place to relax and soak up the fantastic sounds of The Lobby Society Orchestra.  If you know us, you know we’re going after the artisanal cheese platter!  Wine and cheese and fantastic live tunes.  This place has all our favorite things!  If you decided to wait on this stop, there’s also a nifty dessert menu.RM-Tambu-Lounge

And we’re off to the Polynesian Village Resort.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto – new-ish, small, heavily themed, and impossible to get into!  We’ll give it our best shot in late December and if we succeed, I’ll give you the full scoop.  Let’s talk instead about the Tambu Lounge – home of the popular Lapu Lapu and Backscratcher cocktails.  If you’re waiting to get into ‘Ohana, this is the place to be!  RM-Tambu-MenuThis pub is open, lively, noisy and fun!  If you’re NOT headed to ‘Ohana for dinner, belly up to the bar and order some of those fantastic honey-coriander chicken wings then top those off with a serving of the ‘Ohana bread pudding.  YUM!RM-Tambu-Wine

Three stops, three amazing lounges!  That’s what makes the Resortloop Pub Crawl so unique and special – each stop along the way is completely different from the others.

Have you tried any of the Resortloop pubs?  What’s your favorite stop?

Walt Disney World – Picky Eater Survival Tips

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IMG_0403Our family is fortunate in that we don’t have special dietary needs or a single food allergy among us.  We’re highly gluten-tolerant omnivores and can (not that we should) munch on pretty much anything.  One among us, though, has always been an extremely picky eater.  World class picky.  Joseph has, from birth, been the most discriminating consumer-of-nearly-nothing we’ve ever met.  Green foods of any kind? Nope. Squash, cauliflower, gravy, most cheeses, jelly, mayonnaise, mustard, tomatoes, and all pickles are also inedible to our boy.  Casseroles of nearly every variety were once shunned due to being unable to identify every ingredient.  Even bacon!  Yes, bacon, as a breakfast food would not be tolerated.  It will, however, gladly be consumed on a certain fast food chain’s hamburger, but only if that burger also has cheese and ketchup.  Our son is was the child who would order “peanut butter and jelly, hold the jelly” in a restaurant.  The struggle is real, friends.IMG_0640

I once believed that picky eaters were the result of poor parenting. Children offered a variety of healthy, delicious foods and encouraged to try new flavors will not be picky – HA! Clearly, I’d never met the champion of non-eaters. I even resorted to a white lie on occasion when sitting down to dinner…if the food looked even remotely foreign, Joseph would ask, “Have I ever had this before?” and I would say (no matter what) YES!!! And you really liked it!!!Wild Child at Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World – Picky Eater Survival Tips

What did this make Disney vacations like?  When Joseph was little, we decided we’d deal with the eating thing (I suppose I should say the NOT-eating thing) with one basic strategy – we’d make sure he got something he would eat (and enjoy) at every meal, but would not allow his food quirks to keep us from eating where we wanted to eat.  That incredible Disney service and kid-friendly food expertise meant that we’d have help with our plight, including assistance with the “no food must touch” quirk that went along with the picky food choices.IMG_2663

Important:  Picky is NOT the same as a life-threatening food allergy. Allergies mean meals must be prepared in a very specific, careful way. While I’ve seen Joseph gag over an accidental bite of pickle hidden in a sandwich, I would never misrepresent it as an allergy to a restaurant server.  Allergies are extremely serious and it would be wrong to claim one that doesn’t medically exist.

What worked for us:

Buffets were our friends! Chef Mickey’s (Contemporary Resort) and Boma (Animal Kingdom Lodge) in particular were safe bets.  Disney Cruise Line’s buffets are awesome!IMG_2651

We asked for plain (without sauce or gravy) rice, noodles, or potatoes when possible.  Almost every table service restaurant would easily help us put together plain fish (odd to me that fish was always a favorite food, go figure) or grilled chicken, a starch and either fruit or one of the short list of Joseph-approved veggies.  Disney Cruise Line took it to a completely new level.  Those servers do NOT want children to go away hungry – they’ll go above and beyond to make sure even the pickiest diners are happy.

Breakfast was the biggest meal of the day sometimes – and that was okay with us.  The Florida heat is an appetite killer, so if Joseph filled up on scrambled eggs and fruit (and maybe a Mickey waffle or two) in the morning and didn’t feel like eating much later, we didn’t stress out about it.IMG_0791

We lighted up because we were on vacation.  I carried granola bars and pop tarts with me and didn’t mind buying an ice cream treat each day.  We did our best to make sure Joseph had healthy options that he liked, but didn’t sweat it if he didn’t want to eat much – we could go back to arguing about food when we got home.WDW Mickey Pretzel

Now that he’s 20, Joseph eats lots of foods he wouldn’t have eaten when he was little.  He’s an accomplished cook and enjoys trying new recipes.  He’s healthy, tall and slender and looking forward to trying all the food booths at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival in 2016 (after he turns 21).  If you have a picky eater, I feel your pain!  Keep offering new foods and hang in there!  It does get better and you are NOT a bad parent.

Are you the parent of a picky child?  What works best for you on vacation?