100 Days of Wonder – #43
As we are pretty much in the run-eat-sleep-eat-repeat phase of Dopey Challenge Training, let’s stick with the restaurant and food theme from yesterday. As I said, it was Disney Dining reservation day for us yesterday. The only restaurant we had on our list that was tricky to get was Chef Mickey’s. Chef Mickey’s a a character restaurant in the Contemporary Resort. I think it is popular for 3 main reasons: 1. It is where people can meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto – quintessential Disney. 2. It’s easy to get to and from the Magic Kingdom and 3. It is one of the few restaurants that opens really early for breakfast. Every time we have been we have had our first meal there – breakfast at Chef Mickey’s on Day 1 has become something of a tradition.
So Chef Mickey’s is where I first met characters in 2006. Remember, I wasn’t ‘fun’. It took me a minute to embrace humans in costumes as part of the magic. But I just decided I was all in. I bought an autograph book, I had fun with the photos. But anyway food. Chef Mickey’s is great because it is a buffet that has everything (probably including gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, whozits and whatzits galore…You want thingamabobs? [They’ve] got twenty!) which means yummy food, at our pace and the odd sweet treat or banana in the bag for later. Getting a cuddle with Minnie is just a bonus really.
This time though we are breaking with tradition. We were thinking about this anyway as on Day 1 it is sort of nice not to have to work with a rigid time frame and we will have to go to the Expo to pick up our running stuff. But then we couldn’t get a reservation for breakfast on Day 1 anyway nor for any of the days we had originally thought might be good. We did get a reservation – the day after marathon day which is great because we won’t have to walk far!
100 Days of Wonder – #42
So, Disney Dining Reservation Day. Dining reservations can be made 60 days out from the start of your trip for the duration of the trip (up to 10 days). The last few times we have had the Deluxe Dining Plan which has meant we have been able to try some of the best and most expensive (not always the same thing) restaurants on Disney property. Making reservations can be stressful if you are dead set on particular restaurants but I actually quite enjoy it. And yes, obviously I have a spreadsheet. The planning is part of the magic for me. This time it was actually fairly easy. The Deluxe Dining Plan which included 3 Table Service Meals (or buffets including character dining) doesn’t exist anymore so we didn’t have to plan the entire trip around where we want to eat when. Instead we really just had to choose a few key ones. I might post some more about the restaurants etc but for now let’s focus on the California Grill. It’s located at the top of the Contemporary Resort and the first time we went it felt really quite posh. I think I have probably got more used to going to high end restaurants now but I didn’t quite know what to do with myself the first time. The food is amazing, the setting lovely and watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the balcony is special. The staff are also really nice and helpful – as exemplified by today’s photo. When we went In January 2013, I got food poisoning at Universal Studios and spent a few days in bed really poorly. In fact it was so bad it put me off cheesecake for the best part of 18 months afterwards. On our last day at Disney, which was the first day I was really up and about again, we had booked at the California Grill. I wanted to go but I didn’t want anything much to eat. So I asked whether I could just have some mashed potatoes. So they made me a big bowl of purple mash. Best mash ever! They were so lovely about it all – just typical Disney really and now purple mash has a special place in my heart – as does the California Grill.
100 Days of Wonder – #22
Ah Pluto! The first time I went to Disney World it took me a minute to suspend reality enough to do the whole character thing. Now I look forward to the silliness of the interaction. But silliness isn’t really what this post is about. The first time I went, characters like Pluto and even Mickey Mouse didn’t really mean anything to me. I didn’t watch cartoons as a kid, not that I remember anyway and I definitely couldn’t have told you the difference between Goofy and Pluto or Chip and Dale and Donald Duck has nephews? Anyway, over the last 20 years I have watched a lot of the old shorts as well as Disney Classics like Snow White (but not Bambi, I saw Bambi at the cinema when I was little and I’m still traumatised) and somehow that has set everything else Disney in context. I didn’t know I wanted or needed context but knowing the old stuff has made me enjoy the new(er) stuff more. It has also made me think about going back to the foundations or basics in so many things: Running, yoga, work. Knowing and understanding the foundations means we can build from them, we can critique and challenge them and we can learn from them. Sometimes we need to go back to the foundations or starting points to correct our course or to go on a new adventure. Maybe the Disney classics, the seminal works in any given discipline, the Couch to 5k programme or simple sun salutations are a different kind of base camp to the one made up of the familiar that I mentioned before, but one that is just as important. (And in case you are wondering, Chip has a black nose and Dale has a red nose)
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