Spicey477
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2003
Hi all! I have never written a review here before, but after coming back from this trip I wanted to add one as a reference for those who are considering doing this Thanksgiving Day feast at Mickey's Backyard BBQ. I could not find much information about it when scheduling it, so here goes...
The Fort was very busy that day with overflow parking actually taking you to the engineering buildings at the campground. My husband was convinced that we were in the wrong area, it was obviously backstage, but the CM showed us the way so there we were. A Disney bus picked us up (I believe the main parking was the first stop and we were the 2nd stop) and away we went towards Pioneer Hall and such. We walked around to the BBQ site and there was a few people hanging at the podium but it wasn't crazy AT ALL (I was expecting a mob scene to get the will call vouchers). We were actually a group of 21, and we were waiting for some stragglers to our group or we could have headed into the area 20 minutes early. People were lined up along the winding path and among them were Jesse and Woody, Goofy and Donald and Mickey and Minnie! This should have been an idea about how fantastic this character experience would be!
We were among the last in the long line to get seated but even our group of 21 had plenty of room and no issues. Our group got to work getting sodas, beer, wine and sangria. I never had more than 2 people ahead of me at the bar at any time. The Thanksgiving event has a bit of a different menu: turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, hot dogs, hamburgers (various rolls), garden salad, green beans, root vegetable salad, cranberry sauce. There isn't a lot of info out there regarding this menu. Yes, it is different than the regular Backyard BBQ menu, and yes, it has Thanksgiving food. They had brownies and pumpkin pie. And, most importantly, they had Mickey ice cream bars, orange creamsicle bars and strawberry ice bars, all you can eat! The kids in our group had those as app, entree and dessert. I think my Mom did too...
What set this apart for me (former CM at WDW and DLP) was the character experience. Nowhere, not even DCL, have I been in a line with only 10 people max to see Mickey and Minnie. My 4 yo was very shy when we went to take a photo with M&M. He had rubber dinosaurs in his hands and Minnie actually took them and she and Mickey "played" with them for a good minute (of course this ended with hugs from the 4yo and tears in this mom's eyes). Unheard of these days, in my experience. Donald and Goofy doing a line dance just in the middle of the tables with guests, check! Roping demonstration, singalongs, tons of dancing for people of all ages, check! If your group is the kind to like "downhome" fun, this is an outdoor BBQ after all, I absolutely highly recommend over a typical character dining experience (hug and shove).
The Fort was very busy that day with overflow parking actually taking you to the engineering buildings at the campground. My husband was convinced that we were in the wrong area, it was obviously backstage, but the CM showed us the way so there we were. A Disney bus picked us up (I believe the main parking was the first stop and we were the 2nd stop) and away we went towards Pioneer Hall and such. We walked around to the BBQ site and there was a few people hanging at the podium but it wasn't crazy AT ALL (I was expecting a mob scene to get the will call vouchers). We were actually a group of 21, and we were waiting for some stragglers to our group or we could have headed into the area 20 minutes early. People were lined up along the winding path and among them were Jesse and Woody, Goofy and Donald and Mickey and Minnie! This should have been an idea about how fantastic this character experience would be!
We were among the last in the long line to get seated but even our group of 21 had plenty of room and no issues. Our group got to work getting sodas, beer, wine and sangria. I never had more than 2 people ahead of me at the bar at any time. The Thanksgiving event has a bit of a different menu: turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, hot dogs, hamburgers (various rolls), garden salad, green beans, root vegetable salad, cranberry sauce. There isn't a lot of info out there regarding this menu. Yes, it is different than the regular Backyard BBQ menu, and yes, it has Thanksgiving food. They had brownies and pumpkin pie. And, most importantly, they had Mickey ice cream bars, orange creamsicle bars and strawberry ice bars, all you can eat! The kids in our group had those as app, entree and dessert. I think my Mom did too...
What set this apart for me (former CM at WDW and DLP) was the character experience. Nowhere, not even DCL, have I been in a line with only 10 people max to see Mickey and Minnie. My 4 yo was very shy when we went to take a photo with M&M. He had rubber dinosaurs in his hands and Minnie actually took them and she and Mickey "played" with them for a good minute (of course this ended with hugs from the 4yo and tears in this mom's eyes). Unheard of these days, in my experience. Donald and Goofy doing a line dance just in the middle of the tables with guests, check! Roping demonstration, singalongs, tons of dancing for people of all ages, check! If your group is the kind to like "downhome" fun, this is an outdoor BBQ after all, I absolutely highly recommend over a typical character dining experience (hug and shove).
