When we first heard that the Italy showcase at Epcot was getting a new pizzeria restaurant we were thrilled. There are not many counter service opportunities for a quick bite when you enter World Showcase from the Canada side and we always wished that Italy would open a casual restaurant to grab a slice of pizza.
That enthusiasm quickly faded as soon as we found out that Via Napoli was going to be Italy's second sit-down restaurant. After the Disney restaurant's grand opening in late 2010, we began to hear grumblings about Via Napoli's overpriced (and often over-baked) pizza. The price for an individual pizza averages $15-$17. We've resisted the idea of trying it out anyway and splurging because we simply couldn't justify spending that much money on pizza.
Our decision not to splurge on Via Napoli was also based on our many past experiences at L’ Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante (now closed and replaced in 2007 by Tutto Italia). We were just never that impressed and always felt that the wait staff was less than friendly. To be fair, neither Via Napoli or Tutto Italia is related to Alfredo. Nevertheless, our many visits to Alfredo over the years tainted our desire to explore other Epcot Italy restaurants. That all said...
Recently, Via Napoli introduced exactly what we were hoping for... pizza by the slice at Epcot Italy. Finally, we can sample real Italian pizza (at least we thought) at a more affordable price. Two options were available: cheese pizza slice for $4.50 or a pepperoni slice for $5.25. We shared a slice of pepperoni:
Like many counter service items we order from Disney, our Epcot Italy slice of pizza was cold. It most definitely was not hot. The pizza to crust ratio favored the crust a little more that I would have preferred. My husband, on the other hand, liked the chewiness of the crust. Overall, I felt the pizza slice was small. The pepperoni was extremely mild (I like mine spicy). Seating is outdoors only and sparse. All of the tables were taken so we grabbed a concrete bench.
The pizza we received at the window is NOT the same as the brick oven pizza inside. Overall, I'm glad I spent just five bucks on a pizza slice to share. Pizza by the slice was also temporarily offered around New Year's - cheese only and for a higher price per slice (we didn't get a slice at that time). Unfortunately for Via Napoli, I won't be making plans to eat indoors any time soon. I wanted to sample the "inside" pizza as a way to decide if I should make reservations for this restaurant.
I understand the pizza window is again temporary (at least for now) and will close by end of May or so. I may give them one more try, but based on the slices I saw other guests walk away with, I don't have high hopes for a better pizza experience.
At Disney's Port Orleans Riverside resort the hotel gift shop is themed as an old-time general store. Fulton's General Store is an adorable little shop bursting with 1880's nostaglic details from the outdoor decor to the interior theming.
If you look high on the walls, you'll notice so much attention to detail. Everything from old-time tools to baking and canning supplies adorn this adorable store. Everything else, though, is what you'd expect to find in your typical modern Disney World gift shop - souvenirs, snacks, magazines, postcards, sundries and more.
We spent most of our time in the store checking out this super cute Mickey Mouse luggage. The overall design is white with comic strip styling including Minnie Mouse and Pluto. The luggage is a rolling bag and somewhat hard-sided. It rolls beatifully... the handle it even has two pull-out positions.
My husband and I look at this comic strip Mickey luggage almost every time we visit a Disney World gift shop. We look at the price tag (it is over $100 for a carry-on size piece) and know that we would just be crushed if it were damaged by airline travel.
If you can't make it to the parks for a Disney vacation, this luggage (and its big brother) are both currently available for purchase at The Disney Store online. Maybe one day...
It was 6:10 PM when we walked into the Sunshine Seasons quick service food court in The Land pavilion at EPCOT. As we approached the food service area we heard music and clapping. Could it be? Is there dancing here too?
Yep... we saw two dances. The first dance was The Chicken Dance and the second was the Hokey Pokey. We wondered if maybe we had missed one since the Pop Century starts dancing The Hustle each night at 6:00 PM.
Many of the cast members wore silly Disney hats and were extremely enthusiastic about their performance. Many went out of their way to invite children into the circle and to make them feel comfortable. So many smiles and laughs were being had. Lots of parents with video cameras in hand. This, I thought, is a Disney vacation memory in the making.
No matter how many times we visit Walt Disney World, we almost always manage to find something we've never done or seen before. That is what makes it so magical for us.
Refillable mugs at Walt Disney World have changed after a long run of the red Mickey Mug. We first noticed during our visit to the Pop Century Resort last week. We began seeing guests carrying a new design. During a visit to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, the mugs had been completely replaced with the new design.
The new refillable mugs have a cute pool scene with several Disney characters. Four cap/handle colors are available: black, pink, blue and yellow. Black and blue are the most difficult to find. Yellow seems to be the least popular color.
When I first noticed a guest with the new design, I thought it must have come from a Disney water park. Mickey Mouse is shown exiting a big water slide, Minnie Mouse is poolside on a lounge and Goofy is playing in the water. Pluto, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck are also on the cup.
If you're not familiar with the soft drink refill program, here's the rundown. Guests buy a mug for $13.99 for continuous filling at the beverage station available at your resort's food court area (or designated filling station). Choices include various Coke products, ice tea, coffee, tea and hot cocoa. The mug is only good during the duration of your current visit and only at your own resort. We often stayed at Pop Century for our Disney vacations because the refills used to also included Coke and Raspberry Icees. They are no longer served at the resort due to problems with the machines. We miss the Icees! One last note... refillable mugs are not good at the Disney World theme parks.
Speaking of food courts, we decided to snack on an order of chili cheese fries at Disney's Caribbean Beach resort. This is what we got:
We order chili cheese fries all the time and have never had them served like this before. The chili and cheese were served in separate small cups. Each cup held about 2-3 tablespoons. We asked if this was a change (normally the chili and cheese is spooned on top) and were told that some guests had complained and wanted to put the toppings on themselves. I like it served the old way - it felt like we got a whole lot more toppings that way. Especially, since an order of chili cheese fries at Disney costs about $5.
Since we live near Disney World in Orlando, Florida family and friends sometimes ask for favors. They may need groceries or supplies delivered to their Disney hotel room while on vacation - or - after they've returned home, they realize that they wished that had bought that one last souvenir. We're happy to oblige.
This week we got a request that sounded simple enough: find postcards for each of the four Disney World theme parks (plus a couple of favorite rides). There was just one catch - the front of each postcard needed to have the park name in text. Oh... and the postcards had to be landscape (they were for a Disney vacation scrapbook project). "Sure", we said, "no problem".
I guess postcards are starting to be phased out at Disney World. It has been so long since we've sent any that we really had not been paying attention to the fact that the postcard supply is dwindling. No matter where we shopped from parks to hotel gift shops, we saw the same dozen or so postcard designs.
We can remember looking at display racks that were full of postcards. Today, the cards are not only hard to find, they're are pretty pricey. A single postcard that we picked up for Soarin' at Epcot cost $2 - it was the only one and we didn't even really like it.
Finding postcards with the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom written across the front was nearly impossible to find... unless you wanted to buy a 10-pack of cards for $6 each. Ultimately, that's exactly what we had to do. The cards came in a long folded strip that needed to be separated by hand at the perforations.
So... I guess that's progress. Communication has become more instant (unlike the postcards that used to arrive about 2 weeks after we got home from our Disney vacations). Why send a postcard when you can quickly update friends using e-mail or social media. Honestly, I still enjoy receiving an old-fashioned postcard. It looks like they may soon become a thing of the past...
Disney's Pop Century was quiet this afternoon which surprised us actually. Recent reports have noted that the parks have been busy with some long wait times at popular attractions. No doubt due to the many events going on at Walt Disney World in March... including the grand opening of the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival last week and baseball spring training going on at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex.
Our visit to Pop Century included sharing a dinner of Chicken Penne Alfredo along with a side order of breadsticks. My husband loves the breadsticks and thinks they're a great value (considering Disney pricing). Two breadsticks with a cup of tomato sauce for dipping is just under two bucks.
Today's meal was good, but not Pop Century's best effort. In fact, the same dinner we ordered at Disney's All-Star Music on February 3 was WAY better. Primarily, the food was cold. The chicken breast, while plump and meaty, was barely warm. The penne was a water-logged plate of severely bloated noodles. The alfredo sauce, thankfully, was creamy and flavorful this time - a few times we've had this dish, the alfredo sauce was watery.
We left the resort just as cast members were rounding up all the kids for a muscial parade around the Everything Pop Shopping and Food Court. Boy, is that ever noisy. Tamborines and drums all around. The kids are all smiles, though. Makes for some nice Disney vacation memories.
Happy Birthday Yeti. Disney Passholders were invited to attend a special event in celebration of the 5 year anniversary of Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom park.
One of the benefits of being a Disney Passholder is special events. On Saturday, March 5, 2011 Animal Kingdom stayed opened from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm for guests who accepted a Passholder invitation to party Yeti style and signed-up in advance online. Signing up took time and a lot of patience. It was quickly a sold-out event. Wristbands were distributed the night of the event to those who arrived at the park gates with their online ticket information.
During the special event, 3 attractions were open - Expedition Everest, Dinosaur and Tricera Top Spin. Everyone's favorite Animal Kingdom roller coaster generally had a wait time of less than 15 minutes. A real treat for anyone who longs to ride but is sidelined by the usual extra long waits and sold out FastPasses. For those who wanted to dance (mostly children), a DJ was spinning tunes at DinoLand USA.
Of all the attractions, the line and wait time seemed to be longest for a special character meet and greet. Mickey Mouse and Goofy were both dressed in their finest Animal Kingdom gear as fearless mountain climbers (posted just outside Everest, of course). They looked absolutely precious. Based on the line, many people agreed.
Our only complaint, and I hate to complain because I appreciate special events, is that none of the restaurants in Animal Kingdom were open. We planned to eat at the park. For many people, 6pm is dinner time - even more so if you're travelling during the 5:00 hour. So we were disappointed to find all of the restaurants had shut down for the night. We walked from one end to the other (as did many other guests) in search of something to eat. Choices were primarily limited to popcorn, ice cream and beer - all available for purchase. We've been to some events where complementary food or snacks were provided.
At long last we spotted an option. Dino Diner, a converted camp trailer serving snacks in the midway area of DinoLand USA. The only "real" food option, however, was a $5 hot dog. Nothing with it, just the dog. Starved, we handed over the five bucks (and eleven cents) for a barely-warm and not very good hot dog. But, at least it took the edge off until we could return back home.
This special Animal Kingdom event was not one of Disney's finest efforts, but - as always - we appreciated the opportunity to enjoy a piece of the magic reserved exclusively for Passholders.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit that this was our very first time to ride Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney's Hollywood Studios. This really, really fun attraction opened in May 2008. Why did it take so long? Easy... the long, long lines.
When we go, we typically arrive at Disney's Hollywood Studio late in the day. By that time, every FastPass has already been distributed. In fact, I've heard that if you're looking for a FastPass after 10:00 am, you're likely too late. At least on busier days. So... if the Toy Story Midway Mania ride is on your must-do list, make sure you arrive early in the day.
Unlike someone on vacation at Disney World, we have the luxury of bypassing long lines and returning any other day. Well, that's what we've been doing with Toy Story for nearly 3 years. Crazy, right? Never before have we seen a Disney attraction sustain extra long wait times for this long after opening. It is not unusual for us to walk past lines with stand-by wait times of 90 minutes or more. I think the longest we saw for Toy Story Midway Mania was 240 minutes.
We finally decided that if we really wanted to experience the ride (and we did) than we'd have to plan an early morning trip. We arrived sometime before 10:00 am and headed straight to the FastPass distribution lines. It was a light day at the park (as we expected) but our FastPass return time was still for 3-4 hours later - we could return any time between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm. Return time was later than we hoped.
On this morning, the stand-by time was 40 minutes. The line seemed to be moving quickly so we decided to hop in line (we usually refrain from waits longer than 15-20 minutes). Inside was filled with everything you'd expect to see - oversized versions of childhhod toys from Candyland to a Barrel of Monkeys... and, of course, a fully animated Mr. Potato Head. Sadly, I heard recently that a new toy version of this playful spud has been slimmed down. Really? It's a toy potato. Potatoes naturally come in all shapes and sizes. But I digress...
After about 15 minutes in line, we were whisked off to the side by cast members to the disability entrance. No one needing special assistance was boarding at the time so we very luckily shaved about 15 minutes off our wait time (at least by our estimate). As we headed off to a ramp on the right, other guests filed off to the left and up a stair case. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I guess it pays to wait 3 years.
We entered our car, put on our 3-D glasses and began our journey down the Midway. It was an exhilarating (almost exhausting) ride filled with fun arcade games and a little spinning. Fun, fun, fun. For a few minutes, we smiled and giggled non-stop (exactly the reason we love to escape to Disney). We wish we hadn't waited so long. In the end, I even scored a little higher than my husband - which NEVER happens when we ride the similar Buzz Lightyear attraction in the Magic Kingdom.
I see now why Toy Story Midway Mania is such a popular attraction. Hopefully, it won't be another 3 years before we return!
