Resort Spotlight: Disney's Beach Club Resort

You've seen my favorite Value and Moderate resorts.  Now let me tell you about my favorite Deluxe resort! Disney's Beach Club resort is my favorite for so many reasons!

Besides its obvious beauty, let's explore why this resort got my top spot.

ROOMS:
Standard rooms at this resort are anything but standard!  With a gorgeous beach theme everywhere you look, you will feel like you are truly on vacation, even if you never leave your room.

DINING:

No matter what you are in the mood for, you will find it right here, at the Beach Club resort!  Let's take a look at the many dining options here.

Character dining:  So, you want to dine with some of your favorite Disney characters.  Cape May Cafe features a unique breakfast character dining experience with Minnie, Goofy and Donald, dressed in their beach attire, of course!  They also have a wonderful seafood dinner (no characters).

Table Service dining:  You may also choose to dine at Captain's Grille or Beaches and Cream, which offers the famous Kitchen Sink dessert!

                                                         (photo from WDW dads)

Beach Club also has two quick service restaurants- Hurricane Hannah's and Beach Club Marketplace.

RECREATION:

The Beach Club resort has the BEST pool area on property (in my opinion)!  It features 3 acres of water fun, including a lazy river, zero entry beach area, and a 230 foot long water slide!  Other recreational activities offered here include:  a Pirate Adventure cruise, campfire, outdoor movie, bike rentals, tennis, volleyball, jogging paths, a playground and an arcade!

OTHER:

The Beach Club resort is walking distance to EPCOT, which is a HUGE plus for my family since it's our favorite park!

So, tell me, what's YOUR favorite Disney Deluxe resort and why?

Disney World Food & Drinks- Our faves!

We didn't get a chance to try everything on our list, but of the things we did try, here are our favorites!

Favorite snack overall: This one goes to the Mickey bar!  We had several of these, because they were just that good!

Favorite ice cream treat:  Hands down, and a close runner up for favorite snack overall, is the American Dream (from the American pavilion at EPCOT)

Favorite drink: Pog juice, from Ohana!

Favorite main course: Our favorite meal was our Ohana breakfast.  Everything was delicious!

Favorite resort snack:  Our favorite resort snack was the rice crispy treat with chocolate ears!

*All pictures (except Ohana meal pictures) are from the Disney Food Blog website.  What are some of your favorite Disney foods?

Restaurant Review: Hollywood & Vine

Hollywood & Vine is located in Disney's Hollywood Studios.  We went for their character breakfast, where you get to meet Handy Manny, Jake from the Neverland Pirates, Doc McStuffins, and Princess Sophia.  The character interaction here was just right.  It didn't feel rushed, but we were able to meet all four of them and eat our food in less than an hour.

The food was really good.  Here's what we had:

My 3 year old's plate:  She loved the yogurt, and wouldn't share a bite, but I tried everything else.  The cinnamon roll was to die for!  The chocolate muffin was a little dry, but tasted good.

 My son's plate:  He loved everything, and went back for seconds.

 My plate:  I will go back just for the cheesy potatoes!!  YUM!  Again, the chocolate muffin was dry and the banana had a few brown spots, but everything else was perfect!

I give Hollywood & Vine 3 out of 5 stars.  We will go again.

Character meet and greets

My favorite thing to do in Disney World is see the characters.  The interactions can be quite amusing, especially with kids.  Here are a few meet and greets from our last trip that really stood out to me.

 While chatting with Tinkerbell, my 3 year old started rubbing her dress.  I panicked and told her to stop touching Tinkerbell, but she kept on.  The photopass photographer was laughing hysterically, and Tink took it all in stride saying "It happens all the time".  What a trooper!

 We were sitting on the sidewalk having a quick breakfast, when a castmember stopped to talk to us.  He led us up main street a little ways and said  to wait there, because a show was starting in a couple minutes.  When the performers came out, we were the only family sitting there, so this awesome performer came over and had a 5-7 minute conversation with my daughter.  My daughter felt like she was so important!  Once a little crowd had a formed, they started dancing.  I was so glad we got to see them.

 For some reason my 3 year old LOVED the green army men!  We met several of them, but this one really stood out to me.  The guy in the blue shirt in the background kept trying to jump in with an autograph book, but the green army man shook his head no and pointed to my kids. He spend a good 10 minutes with us, giving the girls hugs (they kept hugging him over and over) and messing with my son.  It was one of the best (and longest) interactions of the trip!

 Our very last Disney experience was breakfast at Ohana the day we left.  When Stitch came to our table, he plopped right down on my son's lap!  After signing his name, he licked the page.  For my 9 year old son, this was the BEST character interaction! He was laughing the whole time Stitch was at our table.  This was the best way to end our trip.

 The line for Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen was the longest line of our whole trip (about 40 minutes), but it was well worth it!  Princess and the Frog is one of my daughter's favorite movies, and she adores Tiana.  Just look at the way she's looking at her in this picture.  They joked with the kids, and were super sweet.

We met Goofy 3 times on this trip, but seeing him at Hollywood Studios was my favorite interaction.  When I was hugging him goodbye, he gave me a kiss!  The kids heard it, and said "Awwwww, Goofy kissed you mom!"  It made my day!

What are some of your most memorable character meet and greets?

Disney's Festival of Fantasy parade

During our recent trip to Walt Disney World, we were finally able to see the new parade at the Magic Kingdom.  My 9 year old son was the photographer for this parade, and he got some really great pictures!  Lots of characters looked right at him as he took their pictures, and one special princess even came over to talk to him, complimenting his photography skills.