Weekend Getaway *Storybook Dining at Artist Point updated 1/5*

[FSU Girl]

Welcome!

If you're new to my reviews, welcome. If you're not, welcome back.
This was our longest trip in a long time. We went to Disney Friday 12/17 through Monday 12/20. Sadly we didn't go into any parks. I still have unactivated annual passes, but couldn't use them since they are now blocked out. This trip really made me miss Disney and we will definitely be going back soon and go into the parks. We used this trip to explore the resorts decorated for the holidays. I did not take pictures of all our food, I thought I did, but apparently I did not

Who we are:
Me - the author who is obsessed with Disney
DH - he likes Disney almost as much as me
Baby - Our 13 month old daughter

Meals:
Geyser Point Bar & Grill To Go Dinner
Chef Mickey's Breakfast
Roaring Forks Lunch
Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White Dinner
The Boathouse Lunch
Gideon's Cookies
Kona Cafe Dinner
Cape May Cafe Breakfast

Geyser Point Bar & Grill

No pictures from this meal. We arrived at our resort Wilderness Lodge (hence all the quick services at this resort) around 7pm, which was much later than we had originally anticipated. We were staying in a One-Bedroom Villa at Copper Creek and our room had been ready since 3pm so we went straight there upon arrival. The room was amazing and a last minute decision. We had originally booked off property, but the last second switched to this room.

With our late arrival we didn't want to do anything fancy for dinner and had nothing booked. We decided to try out Geyser Point. We had tried the waitlist option and when we got there they said it would be over an hour wait for us so we opted for the to go side. We did mobile order and it said the food would be ready in 20 minutes.

The Good -
I liked the food. I got the crab cakes and they were delicious. DH got the bison burger which was also delicious
The Bad -
The estimated wait time was way off. We were originally sitting at nearby tables waiting for the food to be ready. We watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks through the trees which was nice. But after 30 minutes and the food still not being ready I took the baby back up to the room. the food ended up not being ready for over an hour later. Wish the estimated time on the app had been more accurate or we wouldn't have waited around for so long.
We ordered the children's hamburger for the baby to eat. It was disgusting like a piece of rubber and I don't think dogs would even eat it. Luckily we had brought some meals for her that we made in our kitchen and she had that instead.

The area would be a nice location to dine at I think and I liked that it had more unique options. We didn't go back here though for the rest of the trip.

Chef Mickey's Breakfast



We went over to the Contemporary Saturday morning for a 10:10am breakfast reservation. I was able to pick up this reservation a couple days before our trip. Before going, I had no idea that the boat from Wilderness Lodge was not running to the Contemporary, so that through a little wrench in our travel plans. We ended up taking the boat to the Magic Kingdom and then walking over to the Contemporary. So not too far out of the way, but did make me sad to be a foot away from my favorite park and not go inside. When planning this trip I figured we wouldn't go near the parks and we ended up outside Magic Kingdom like 8 times.

We did the check in on the app (something I've never done before) and I loved it! Our table ended up being ready early.

I've been to this breakfast before, but this was the first time since all the changes with covid. One, they are no longer doing a buffet. It is now an All You Can Eat family style platters. They also removed the area where you could take a picture with the Mickey statue and now use that space for more tables. This was where our table was located.

They told us they would bring us more of anything we'd like and our waitress was really attentive to bringing more food or drinks. Was probably the best meal we've had here and I hope they keep with this style over the buffet.



Fresh Fried Sweet Fritter with Vanilla-Cinnamon Sugar
Harvest Sweet Rolls with Honey Butter, Sea Salt and Cream Cheese Icing-Poured Tableside - this is from the website, not sure if the large balls above area what these are or not. Although nothing was poured tableside.



Fresh Fruit



The family platter: scrambled eggs, mickey waffles, bacon, sausage, chicken sausage, and beef brisket.



"Loaded" Potato-Cheese Casserole - This was my favorite item served. We ended up getting seconds of this.



"Celebration" Mickey Pancake



Banana Bread French Toast and yogurt parfait (sorry this looked prettier when it arrived but the baby wanted to try some and wasn't willing to wait for the picture to be taken)

Over all the food was tasty. The Mickey Waffles were a little too soft for my liking, but everything else was good.







The Characters were great even with the social distancing. They each spent time with the table to take pictures and interact. The baby loved them. This was her second character breakfast (first was at Topolinos when she was 10 months old) She was waiving to all of them it was very cute.

The baby loves to waive, it's her favorite thing to do right now and she will waive at everyone around her. One of the tables near us she kept waiving to and everyone would waive back to her. It was really adorable.
​

 

[FSU Girl]

Roaring Forks Lunch

After our breakfast at Chef Mickey we hopped on the monorail to go look at the other resorts holiday decorations. Our plan was to look around Grand Floridan first and see their Christmas tree and gingerbread house then walk over to the Polynesian and check out their holiday decorations.

The baby was very curious about the monorail and the people around us.



The gingerbread house is beautiful and I'm glad I got to see it in person this year. We thought about buying some holiday treats from it, but the line was like 50 people deep and the baby wasn't willing to wait.



This display is across from the gingerbread house and made entirely of chocolate.

We let the baby toddle around the hotel. She had a lot of fun exploring. We ended up going over the the Grand Floridian Villas to cut through to go to the wedding pavilion and got a bit side tracked there. There was such a nice cast member there who gave the baby a bunch of stickers and followed her around as she toddled everywhere. The baby loved all the attention and it was so adorable to watch.

We ended up going inside the wedding pavilion for the first time since getting married. The baby walked down the isle super excited. I think we have a future Disney bride on our hands.

We had planned to spend time at the Polynesian and get lunch from their quick service, but the baby decided she was ready for a nap. So we took the monorail from the Polynesian back to the Magic Kingdom and take the boat from their to Wilderness Lodge. By the time we got back she was a bit cranky and fell asleep quickly. So we opted for lunch from our quick service.

I forgot to take any pictures of our lunch at Roaring Forks. Nothing fancy from here just some chicken fingers for a quick late lunch. DH ran downstairs to get it while the baby napped and we ate in the room.

while the baby napped I tried to find us something for dinner on the app. I didn’t realize the availability changed day of. I figured since you had to cancel in advance it would just be what’s left over. Not true. It would change frequently as I kept refreshing. I ended up picking up Storybook dining at Artist point for 8:45. We don’t normally eat so late at night but we let the baby nap extra long and she likes to go to sleep late anyways so we figured it would be ok.

Up next our dinner at Storybook Dining at Artist Point. With pictures this time. ​

 

[FSU Girl]

Storybook Dining at Artist Point

Before our trip I had booked a bunch of dinners around 6:30pm figuring it would be around the time the baby typically woke up from her nap. Then I started to worry if being on vacation her schedule would get thrown out of whack. So I ended up cancelling all our dinners and only had breakfast and lunch scheduled when I knew she’d be awake for sure. I was a little worried about dinners being unavailable due to crowds and figured quick services would be what we’d end up doing.

Low and behold there’s actually a lot of dining available last minute. I was really surprised to see dining change when I’d refresh and some super hard to get restaurants showed up. Then the app glitched and wouldn’t let us book anything. I lost out on a few restaurants I tried to grab. Then an 8:45pm reservation came up for Storybook. I hadn’t been to this restaurant since they changed it over to character dining.

I was a little hesitant with the late time, but the baby went down for her nap later than normal and this restaurant was in our hotel so no travel was needed. With the online check in we were able to get into the restaurant 20 minutes earlier.



Our table location was not the best. It was in a corner in the back behind another row of tables. With the characters meeting from a distance it made it a little difficult to get pictures of them.

The table comes already set up with this little decoration they use to put all the food on for the first course and dessert course.



the appetizer course comes with three different items. You don’t get to pick one ahead a time, but get to try all 3.

It comes with wild mushroom bisque. I really liked the soup, although it didn’t taste as good as the mushroom soup that was served here before the change over.


Hunters Pie - turkey and chicken, black truffle, cranberry preserve and crispy sauerkraut. I didn’t think I’d like this when I read it on the menu, but was pleasantly surprised. Our waiter said it had recently changed the recipe for this. I haven’t eaten here before so I don’t know how it was before for a comparison.


Wicked Shrimp Cocktail - this tasted like a typical shrimp cocktail except the sauce was already all over the shrimp. Was good, but not outstanding or anything.


The evil Queen made her appearance. They played dramatic music and she walked around the restaurant before going to each table individually. This part made me second guess if I should have made this reservation. So my baby is super friendly and waves to everyone. She loves it when people wave back. I get she had to stay in character, but she refused to wave. It upset my baby who didn’t understand and kept trying to wave harder. I felt bad for her and she was the only character we saw twice. Also said the babbles my baby made were annoying, which was a little hard to hear even though I know she’s a character. For this reason I won’t rebook this until my baby is older




On the complete opposite experience Snow White was amazing. She lingered by our table extra long playing peekaboo and waving at the baby. It was such an amazing experience I wish she had been the one we saw again or at least ended the night with instead of the evil Queen.

I could have sworn I took our dinner pictures, but I guess not. For dinner you have multiple options and I went with A Stroll through Nature - asparagus, leeks, arugula, gnocchi, sage and Parmesan. I really liked this meal it was perfectly cooked and delicious

DH got the Royal Prime Rib Roast - horseradish mashed potato, carrots and jus. He enjoyed this a lot

The baby was given Mac and cheese for free. She really liked this and it was nice of the restaurant to offer this for her.

Up next was dessert. It was served like the appetizers where you don’t get to pick, but get to try everything.

fairy tale gooseberry tart. I did not like this and ended up letting DH


Miner’s Treasures - cookies n cream pan a cotta and chocolate gems. This was my favorite dessert


poison apple - dark chocolate apple mousse and sour center

I hated this one after one bite and gave both to DH. So desserts for me was a bit of a bust.

Continuing in next post I’ve reached my picture limit ​

 

[FSU Girl]

Story book dining at Artist Point continued



The last dessert was the Hunters Gift to the Queen. These were chocolates filled with creamy centers. I did like these.



Up next for characters was Grumpy. He was great and even though he was grumpy the baby did win him over and he waved to her in the end.





The last character to come out was Dopey. He played peekaboo with the baby which was really cute.

The evil Queen came back out while we were finishing up paying and I tried to linger to see if Snow White would come out to end on a happy note, but sadly she didn’t. It was already after 10pm so we decided to head out. This was our latest dinner ever at Disney and was surprised there were still a ton of tables seated when we left. The baby handled the late meal surprisingly well.

I love the Wilderness Lodge, especially when it’s decorated for the holidays. We let the baby toddle around the lobby and she made friends with another baby toddling around which was cute to watch them interact


Up next lunch at the Boathouse in Disney Springs ​