FSU Girl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2016
Hi! It's been a while since I've written on of these dining reviews. I hadn't been to Disney for so long and missed visiting this board and all the planning! If you've never read one of my reports, I have links in my signature. I used to go to Disney all the time (2018 I went every other weekend) and did Disney cruises. Then we let our annual passes expire and I bought new ones to activate once I had a baby. Fast forward and 2020 happened. Covid happened and then I found out I was pregnant
So with a world wide pandemic and being pregnant I stopped really doing much of anything to stay safe. Then I had the baby - a girl! - and I didn't go anywhere to keep her safe. Went a bit stir crazy, got vaccinated, still didn't do much. Then a family member got pregnant and threw a baby shower in Tampa that we were going to. I convinced DH that a quick visit to Disney was needed. It was our baby's first real trip and with covid still pretty high in Florida we decided against going into the parks and just visit a couple hotels.
You may have noticed my many posts the last couple weeks as I tried to navigate going with a baby. Lots of helpful people! Some surprising responses, the amount of people who told me to not go to Disney with a baby was really surprising.
This will be a really short review, we only went to two meals. Dinner at Ravello at the Four Seasons where I didn't take any pictures except the surprise dessert for the baby and our character breakfast at Topolino which was fantastic!
My one and only picture from dinner at Ravello. Quick review of the restaurant: I thought it was great, although super loud. It might have been where our table was, right next to the entrance to the kitchen, but I could barely hear myself talk. The food was great, I got the squid ink pasta and DH got veal ravioli which was so much better than mine and mine was good. We ordered the baby chicken tenders and mashed potatoes. She's 10 months old and still working on chewing but ate the food like a champ. Our waiter surprised us with this build your own sundae to celebrate the baby's first trip to Disney. It was also her first taste of ice cream and she loved it. Mom and Dad ate the topping since those are chocking hazards right now for her.
The Four Seasons is located within Golden Oaks and those houses are life goal. Sad they are behind a second gate so we couldn't look at them, but makes sense because I'm sure I'm not the only one who wanted to do that. The hotel itself was beautiful too and I'd love to stay there one day in the future.
Riviera Resort - Topolino Terrace
I was so excited for this meal! I've wanted to visit and stay at this resort since it opened, this was the first time we've been to it since it was built. I love it, think its a beautiful resort and plan to stay here in the future. We stayed off property since this was a quick trip.
I had a dinner reservation here, but ended up cancelling it for Ravello because I wasn't sure if the baby would be up for dinner. Turns out she was, but I'm glad we got to experience two different hotels.
We arrived an hour before our reservation of 10am. And let me tell you how hard to get that reservation was! I stalked the website like a mad woman trying to get it, which I actually miss doing. I signed up for the reservation finders, but ended up not needing it since I found the dropped reservations before the finder did. I adjusted the time a couple times until we got this perfect spot. Did have to make it for 4 people instead of 3, which was annoying but they didn't care when I checked in.
This spot was the reason I've been wanting to visit the hotel. The mosaics are gorgeous! I had a plan while pregnant to take my maternity pictures here and sadly Disney was closed when I wanted to do this. I got some amazing pictures of me and the baby here and I could cry from happiness.
I am obsessed and if anyone knows how to do something like this on a smaller scale in your home please tell me!
If you don't know, these are located just before the entrance to the Skyliner. Also if you are driving to the hotel and want to visit them first you don't have to go into the lobby, there is access to these from a walking path around the hotel.
So in love!
We spent about a half hour taking pictures and then went up to the restaurant to be promptly told its too early and come back in 15 minutes. So we went down to the lobby and looked around the gift shop. I have to say, that gift shop was really small and disappointing. I had planned to buy some Disney toys for the baby and there was almost nothing to choose from and we left empty handed.
Something I've learned with traveling with a baby is that they do not travel light. We brought a huge bag of stuff just for her. She had a large container of puffs, her bowl and spoon and oatmeal and breastmilk for her oatmeal. A bib, a burp cloth, a toy, her little water bottle and a water bottle for her since I was paranoid about giving her tap water.
Her little set up for breakfast. She was getting a little hangry and had puffs to eat also while we waited in the lobby. We had left her stroller in the car since it couldn't come to the table anyway and had a lot to carry around with us.
Before we ordered they brought out a basket of pastries. These were delicious. It included two of everything, chocolate muffins, croissants and a jelly filled pastry. We also had more brought out later on when these were finished.
There were no menus, you scanned the QR code and it pulled up the menu on Disney's website. I believe this is a Covid safety feature to keep touching to a minimum.
Nutella, whipped cream and jam accompanied the pastries. The nutella was delicious on the croissant. We also had coffee with cream, which is included in the meal. Orange Juice and something else were also included, but we stuck with the coffee.
The coffee was good and I liked that we were left the container to refill our cups.
I've reached my 10 picture limit so will continue in the next post