azcavalier's Trip Report - Day 1: Bongos, Be Our Guest, and Bay Lake Tower

[azcavalier]

To start, here are some photos. The photos were mostly taken with my iPhone 5.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2593947...th/8702644926/

My wife and I landed in Sanford on Sunday morning, got a rental car, and headed for Downtown Disney. Armed with our Annual Passes we snagged with the DVC discount, and our newly purchased Tables in Wonderland card (for the first time in *years* we decided to try WDW without the DDP).

For our first meal, we decided to try Bongos Cuban Cafe.

Bongos - We ordered an appetizer of Papas Rellenas (Mashed potato balls filled with seasoned ground beef). Good stuff! I ordered the Cuban Sandwich with black beans and rice, and my wife ordered fried rice with boneless chicken and plantains. My sandwich was just OK. Not bland, but nothing special. Her chicken was good, but the fried rice was fairly devoid of anything other than rice and soy sauce. The plantains were delicious, though. Verdict? Glad we tried it, probably won't go back.

After shopping a bit, we checked in to Bay Lake, a studio room with a Magic Kingdom view from the 7th floor. Sweet! Fairly standard DVC studio room, with retro decor. But the balcony view was great. Check out the photos above.

We headed out for the Magic Kingdom, walking of course! It was mid-afternoon, nice weather, and the MK really wasn't terribly busy. We had ADRs for Be Our Guest, and after pin trading and window shopping up Main Street, we checked in. We were seated in the ball room. The decor here is amazing. The ballroom is jaw-dropping, with all of the detail that they have added. On the way to our seat, they asked my wife to carry a candelabra (like Lumiere) to "illuminate" the way to our seat. It's dark, but not that dark, and these battery-operated candles don't give off much light.

Not being on the DDP, ordering was a bit liberating. We shared a French Onion Soup, which was delicious. My dinner was the Shrimp and Scallops served in a puff pastry bowl with vegetables and a lobster sauce. My DW had the rotisserie cornish hen with fingerling potatoes and seasonal vegetables. My dish was very, very good, but the puff pastry was a bit hard to cut. My wife loved her dish. For dessert, we each had a cream puff. I ordered the chocolate one, and she had the passion fruit puff. She thought hers was amazing, and I know that mine was. Verdict - Great restaurant. Decor was great, service was fast, and the food was very good. We won't be able to get dinner ressies here when we come back in August, but we'll be able to bring our kids for lunch so that they can see it.

After dinner, we simply rode some of our favorites...Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain, BTW, was NOT completely running. All of the animatronics were working, but the water effects in the Laughin' Place are still not functioning. Not a single one. Not the jumping water streams, the bubbling pots, nor the water under the laughing turtles. Very disappointing.

[DonaldDuckUSA]

Bummer about the Laughin' Place water. We're still sad about that too. Still, LOVE that ride!

It sounds like you're having a great first day. Thanks for the report, especially on Be Our Guest. Sounds yummy!

[WRWDisney]

That's a shame about the Laughing Place . It was working over Easter break; DW and I both commented on it.

Love TiW as compared to DDP

Glad you enjoyed Be Our Guest! We ate there Christmas night and loved it as well. Have fun on you August trip--we won't be back until Christmas again, unless some bargain falls in our lap.

[faline]

Nice start to your trip! Glad to hear such a terrific review of Be Our Guest!

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.

[KylesMom]

Love the view from your balcony - thanks for sharing the pics! Great first day. Be Our Guest sounds like a real treat! A shame about Splash Mountain though.

Looking forward to Day 2!

[azcavalier]

Love the view from your balcony - thanks for sharing the pics!

Thanks. Apparently, i'm not supposed to have links to Flickr photos, but I didn't see that Sticky until after I had posted them! Also, I can't edit my post to remove the link. Hmmm...can we not edit posts once they've been responded to?

[KylesMom]

Flickr or other photo sharing sites such as PhotoBucket are fine - and we love to see photos to take us back to our happy place!!! YouTube links are what is disallowed.

FYI, after a certain amount of time passes, posts are uneditable.

[tinksmom02]

Sounds like a great first day! DD and I are heading down tomorrow and have ADRs at Be Our Guest on Saturday. Should we request a certain room to sit in, do you think?

[January-2007]

Thanks so much for sharing!

[Mickey'sGirl]

Fantastic report! A great room, and it sounds like you had a great meal at BOG.