A table for 2.5 please! Disney dining with a baby! NEW-Animator's Palate / The End!

[AussieAngel]

I just found this thread last night. How exciting! Love all your pictures, and your son is a doll! I always wondered if doing Disney would be possible when we have a baby of our own. You definitely proved that you can! Also excited to see your cruise photos

Aw, thanks so much for reading! I'm glad you're enjoying the reviews and pics! Disney is definitely possible with a baby. Probably the perfect vacation spot with a baby, really!

 

[AussieAngel]

It's finally update time!

I'm so sorry it's taken so long... I'm still here, but life has just been a bit busy lately! Just lots of little things that all add up and take away from my DIS time! But here we are now, so let's dive right in!

So after our first full day on the cruise, we had Palo booked for dinner that night. This is one of the adults only restaurants on board which you need to make reservations for, and pay an extra $25 each. There is also a dress code... It's not as fancy as Remy, but still a special treat. Palo serves Italian food, which we both love.

We booked Leo into the It's A Small World nursery while we dined at Palo, which is the nursery for babies on board. All this was planned well in advance... Before Leo was born, in fact! We were very excited at the prospect of having a date night, just the two of us, and loved the idea of Leo having a little play in the nursery too.

But then of course, Leo was born and as all other mothers know... That mothering instinct kicks in and suddenly it's not as easy to leave one's gorgeous little baby as one thinks it will be! Leo was 7 months old then, and he'd only been looked after by someone else once - and that was my sister! So actually taking him to the nursery on the ship and leaving him there for a couple of hours was a big deal for me. Conan was absolutely fine about it, and we met the lovely girls who worked there and it all seemed very cute and fun in the room, but... I still felt sad / worried / nervous to leave him!

(Interestingly, I'm a school teacher and have worked with young children for years. I've seen many, many teary mums struggling to leave their children and I'd be the one saying, "They'll be fine! We'll have a lovely time! Off you go now..." But now the tables had turned and that was me instead! Hehee. Silly, I know!)

Anyway, we made sure Leo had a big nap that afternoon and he was fed and happy, so off we went! As I said before, the staff were absolutely lovely and welcomed him warmly, and were very sweet to me as well. We gave him a quick cuddle goodbye and one of the girls took him over to play with the other babies, which he was more than happy with, so off to Palo we went!

(By the way, we also had the portable wave phone with us, which they have in each room of the ship. We took that to dinner with us just in case the nursery staff needed to contact us, which was reassuring.)



We had a 6pm reservation and were seated straight away, at a lovely table right next to the huge windows. Talk about an ocean view! So pretty... And I didn't take a photo. Oops!

Our server was lovely and very helpful, answering our questions and always quick to offer suggestions too... But he was at our table so often, it almost felt like he was a third member of our party! Not really what we fancied for our romantic dinner for 2!

To start, he brought us an antipasti platter...



This was great and a nice way to begin the meal, with a lot of different tastes and flavours. There was a mix of breadsticks, flatbread, mozzarella, grilled tomatoes, eggplant, proscuitto, ham... All delicious!

As my appetiser, I ordered a fried calamari dish...



This was fantastic, and lovely and light. The calamari tasted fresh and the sauce that accompanied it was great too.

Conan ordered a shrimp cocktail...



How fancy does this look?! Hehee. I think he quite liked it at the time, but I think it may have looked prettier than it tasted.

Then came a refreshing lemon sorbet to "cleanse the palate" between courses. Ooh la la!



This was actually amazing... I could have had a whole bowl of that for my dinner!

For my main, I chose a mushroom risotto...



... which was amaaaazing! Definitely my favourite part of the meal. Light but creamy at the same time. I love the balsamic and red wine reduction around the edge - and lots of fresh parmesan on top! Best dish of the whole cruise, for sure.

Conan had the beef tenderloin...



He loved this as well. The actual piece of meat was huge, sitting on a bed of mashed potato and spinach, served with a red wine sauce. Definitely a highlight for him as well!

And then came dessert! Upon recommendation from our server, we both ordered the Palo specialty - the chocolate souffle. We had to order this before the main was served, as it takes 20 minutes to cook.



The souffle comes served with vanilla bean and chocolate sauces... And it was delicious, but SO rich! I'm not a huge chocolate person and it was a bit too much for me, although Conan thought it was fantastic.

Another view...



And just because we were being little piggies (and because our server encouraged us!), we also ordered another dessert - a vanilla panna cotta...



I enjoyed this so much more than the chocolate souffle! It had a real vanilla bean flavour to it, and was light and creamy and delicious. It was served with a strawberry sorbet which added some tartness to it as well. Two thumbs up from me!

So that was our night at Palo! The food was all amazing and the service was excellent too (despite seeing a bit too much of our server!)... Definitely worth the extra money for a special adults only dinner!

By then it was around 2 hours since we'd dropped Leo off, and we were keen to get back to see him again... And also a bit nervous to see how he'd gone without us! So we headed to the nursery to pick him up.

And of course, he'd had a fantastic evening! Apparently he had a lovely time rolling around on the play gym with another little baby, smiling and having lots of cuddles with the girls who worked there. Phew!

It was such a relief to know he enjoyed himself. The next day we even received a card from the staff in the nursery with some photos they'd taken of him during his time there, saying thank you for playing with them! So sweet! They said he was "the smiliest, happiest baby on the seven seas"! Aw!

Here we are back in our room, later that night.



He loved playing on our big bed!



So all in all, it was a really great night for our little family. Definitely a special night to remember!

Next up... Lots more cruise food and our day on Castaway Cay!

 

[jedijill]

I'm so glad you have a great adults dinner and Leo had fun at the nursery! What a great night for everyone! I love his smile...he is such a cutie pie.

Jill in CO

 

[Imagineer5]

Looks like we both came back from a hiatus the same week! too funny!!

WOW dinner looks AMAZING!! So nice to have some alone time, but I totally know the feeling of leaving your little one behind!! It's still hard for me, and I have to leave her at daycare! LOL!

So glad they were so great (and the card with pics is adorable for them to do!). Can't wait to read more!

 

[SilentK]

Looks lovely, pan a cotta is my favourite

 

[Dugette]

A Disney Cruise with dinner (or at least some meal) at Palo is definitely on my To Do Someday list! Hopefully the sooner side of someday... The foods looks/sounds awesome (better than my frozen meal I'm eating right now for lunch...by a lot!). So glad that Leo did well in the nursery. From what I've read, it sounds like they do a really great job with the little ones there (not that it makes it any easier to leave them). So nice of them to send the card and pictures too!

 

[DisneyJo]

Your meal sounds amazing and it sounds like Leo had a great time too

 

[AussieAngel]

Whoopsie!! Hi everybody!

I'm SO sorry for not posting here for so long! It's been a busy couple of months and I took a bit of a DISBoards break, but I am definitely going to finish off my reviews from the Disney Dream cruise - starting from now! I only have a few more to go and I'm looking forward to sharing them with you.

Leo is 13 months old now and keeping us giggling (and very busy) each day! He's starting to toddle around now - a few wobbly steps at a time. Hard to believe how much he's grown since our WDW trip!

I'm so glad you have a great adults dinner and Leo had fun at the nursery! What a great night for everyone! I love his smile...he is such a cutie pie.

Jill in CO

Aw, thanks Jill! It really was a great night - and such a relief that Leo had fun in the baby nursery too.

Looks like we both came back from a hiatus the same week! too funny!!

WOW dinner looks AMAZING!! So nice to have some alone time, but I totally know the feeling of leaving your little one behind!! It's still hard for me, and I have to leave her at daycare! LOL!

So glad they were so great (and the card with pics is adorable for them to do!). Can't wait to read more!

Oops, seems I took a much longer hiatus than you! So glad I found your new thread though. Dinner was fantastic at Palo and it was just such a relief that Leo had a fun night too. More coming up very soon!

Looks lovely, pan a cotta is my favourite

Ooh, the panacotta was amazing! So lovely and light - the perfect way to end a great meal.

A Disney Cruise with dinner (or at least some meal) at Palo is definitely on my To Do Someday list! Hopefully the sooner side of someday... The foods looks/sounds awesome (better than my frozen meal I'm eating right now for lunch...by a lot!). So glad that Leo did well in the nursery. From what I've read, it sounds like they do a really great job with the little ones there (not that it makes it any easier to leave them). So nice of them to send the card and pictures too!

Dinner at Palo really was fantastic - you must do it soon! They were so lovely in the nursery. Leo had a fun time which was so nice to hear! Such sweet staff members.

Your meal sounds amazing and it sounds like Leo had a great time too

Palo really was amazing! Yep, Leo definitely had a fun time in the nursery which was a great relief!

 

[AussieAngel]

When I last left off, we'd had a fun first day on board the Disney Dream, and an amazing dinner at Palo while Leo enjoyed the It's A Small World Nursery. But really, this was the day we were really excited about. This was...

Castaway Cay day!!!

Disney's very own private island... Swimming, snorkelling, soaking up the sun - what's not to love!? Conan had also booked a jetski adventure which he was really looking forward to. (My special treat on board the cruise was my massage the day before, so this was his!)

Once we woke up though, there was a bit of a problem... The weather! Augh!



It was already rainy and overcast. Still humid and warm, but definitely not the sunshiny skies we were hoping for! Leo's spirits were not dampened though...



We decided to head to Cabanas for breakfast, the huge buffet style casual restaurant, and hoped the weather would clear up a bit while we ate. The food choice for breakfast was just as huge as lunch the day before. By the looks of my plate, I must have still been full from the night before!



All pretty self-explanatory really... A blueberry pancake, hash brown, donut, eggs benedict and bacon. It was all quite good but nothing hugely different than we'd eaten elsewhere.

Here's Conan's plate...



Bacon, a donut of some sort (I think! It looks more like a turtle, hehehee!), eggs benedict, pancakes, grilled tomato and scrambled eggs.

Conan received a message sometime that morning that sadly, his jetski tour was cancelled due to inclement weather. Very sad! Still, there's not much you can do about the weather, unfortunately.

It was still quite rainy at that point, so we went back to our room while Leo took a short nap. Once he was awake, we decided to brave the drizzle and go and explore Castaway Cay anyway. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and one we didn't want to miss out on!



Still grey skies, but at least the rain had stopped - for now!

The beautiful Disney Dream...



We decided to have a little paddle in swim in the water... Leo's very first swim in the ocean! Yayyy!



Baby toes in the sand for the first time!



He loves water and swimming, and was very intrigued by the ocean! We had a really fun time just splashing around and playing on the shore. A lovely memory!

We only got to explore the island for an hour or so, before the rain REALLY started to come down. Oh dear! Definitely not island weather anymore! We made a dash back to the ship (along with almost everyone else on the island) to dry off and enjoy some lunch at Tow Mater's Grill.

This was really casual fast food, served on the pool deck...



We shared that plate of fast food goodness... Cheeseburger, hot dog, chicken strips and fries. It was nothing brilliant, but filled a hole in our tummies!

By that time the rain had really set in. Here's our view of deserted Castaway Cay!



I'm glad we got to have a little play on the island and a short explore, but the weather just wasn't on our side that day. What can you do!?

Despite the icky weather, we actually ended up having a really lovely afternoon, playing on a quiet deck with Leo and watching the rain. There was nobody else around, and we sang silly songs and generally had some really fun family time! Sometimes it's the little, unexpected times that somehow become the most special...



We also had some time to explore the ship some more and all had a little afternoon nap together too. It turned out to be a really lovely day!

Continued in the next post...

 

[AussieAngel]

So this was it... Our final night on the Disney Dream, and in turn, our final Disney meal! Aughhhhhh!

Our time on the cruise felt way, way too short. We'd really just settled in, and then it was time to pack our suitcases again! Wah! We learnt our lesson though... We wouldn't do a 3 night cruise again. We had fun, but it was just wasn't enough time to explore and really feel settled.

But back to dinner! That night was actually our only night when we stuck with our scheduled rotation plan, since the first night we ate in our room and the second night we ate at Palo. On our third night, we headed to Animator's Palate...



This was the rotational dining restaurant I was most excited about trying, so it worked well. We had a great table, right next to a huge screen which most of the time looked like a fish tank, but then... Look who appeared!



Crush! He (along with other members of the Nemo gang) talked to the members of our table and asked where we were from, etc, which was lots of fun and a good distraction for Leo too.

We met the other family we were meant to be dining with throughout the cruise. Their first question was, of course, "Where have you been the other nights!?"

They were lovely, but Conan and I still find it a bit odd and uncomfortable to share a table with strangers. We made smalltalk and chatted a little bit, but the whole dinner had a slightly awkward edge to it. Crush definitely helped though! You would really want to hit it off with your tablemates if you were to eat with them three nights in a row!

Onto the food!

For my appetiser, I chose the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes - pasta purse filled with truffle scented cheese and coated with a delicate champagne sauce...



They were quite nice, but looked prettier than they tasted. I would have liked some more sauce and a bit more flavour, but overall they weren't too bad.

Conan chose the Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup with bacon bits and chives...



I think he quite liked it at the time, but I just showed him the picture then to jog his memory and asked how he liked it. He shrugged and said, "I have no idea. Did I eat that?!" Bwahaa! Obviously it wasn't too memorable!

Moving onto mains, we both chose the same dish. We had the Lemon-Thyme Marinated Organic Chicken Breast with sour cream mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables and grain mustard jus...



This was very tasty and I remember really enjoying it. Two thumbs up from me! Conan also really liked his too.

Leo had a fun time during the meal, looking around at the Nemo characters and the new people at our table!



Here comes some bad dining reviewing... We both had the same dessert, and neither of us can actually remember what it was! Oops! Sorry!

But look, it looks pretty!



It was a dessert sampler of some sort, but none of the menus I could find online seem to match it. I remember quite liking it, but it wasn't hugely exciting. (Or memorable, it seems!)

I wouldn't rush back to Animator's Palette next time... It was nice enough and the setting was gorgeous, but the food was pretty average, really. Not the best end note to our Disney dining!

Ahh, so there we have it. That's our 2013 Disney dining adventures! We truly had an amazing time together as a family and ate some absolutely delicious food. I can't wait to go back to WDW in a few years time and enjoy it all over again with a much more grown-up Leo!

Thank you so much to all of you who have read along and commented. It's been so much fun sharing our trip with you. I just love the DISBoards!

Thank you everybody, and bye bye for now!!

 

[DaisyNY]

Great reviews...you took me right back on to the Disney Dream and I agree a three night cruise is not long enough...Hardly enough time to settle in!

 

[DisneyJo]

Thank you so much for your lovely reviews, it looked as though you had a super trip and I have to say one last time that Leo is an adorable cutie pie

 

[Dugette]

Wow, that is quite a bummer that your Castaway Cay day essentially got rained out! Great that you were able to make the best of it and have a pleasant family day, though. Too bad your dinner wasn't that impressive and you ended on that note. Great report and I really enjoyed it!

 

[Couchy]

Thanks for sharing. I loved Palo . It was so delicious, Great reviews. Thanks for sharing

 

[Imagineer5]

Aww what wonderful attitudes you had over the rainy Castaway Cay day! So glad you got to see it a little bit and then had a nice afternoon despite it. Animator's Palette looks great, funny that it was the only night you actually ate with the other family. That is weird to share though - is there an option to request a table by yourself? That would really stink if you didn't really have much to say to the other family.

Yeah, I keep looking at last minute cruise deals for fun (though I have very little leave left for this year) and start only at 4-night cruises - 3 just seems sooo short!! Especially if your castaway cay day is rained out! boo!

Thanks for sharing your experiences though!! (and for finding my TR!)

 

[WDWaddictt]

Great TR..thanks for sharing!

 

[Rosco1]

What an awesome vacation! Thank you so much for taking the time to share.

Your baby is adorable!

We are headed back in June and we are going to do the opposite than your family did....One day my son and I are going to Typhoon Lagoon and my hubby will be head out for a solo day at Epcot!

 

[MrsB1228]

I just finished reading your dining review in one big gulp, LOL! I really enjoyed reading about your adventures on your Disney vacation and wanted to say you have a lovely family! Leo is such a handsome little guy, he'd have anyone wrapped around his little finger in no time flat.

I really loved how you always found something positive in your experience, even when things didn't exactly turn out as planned. There's so much negativity in the world and it's so refreshing to find someone who can make the best of things and enjoy the moment. Kudos to you!

I hope you'll do another review when you visit next time, I'll definitely be signing on!