Day three of our adventure began with a very exciting breakfast reservation....The Kona Cafe. Now, I have been to Kona several times for dinner. It actually is one of my favorite restaurants on property when it comes to dinner. But I had yet to try it for breakfast. I really am not a huge breakfast person. Don't get me wrong, I like breakfast, but let's be honest...in the morning at Walt Disney World I would much rather be sleeping or rope dropping. Take your pick.
We headed out bright and early to catch our Magic Kingdom bus. My experience with the bus service at Coronado Springs has always been stellar. But for some reason throughout this entire trip it was extremely hard to get a Magic Kingdom bus. Six buses for Animal Kingdom would come before a Magic Kingdom bus. It was insane. We started out a little over an hour before our reservation, we arrived at the Magic Kingdom with exactly 10 minutes until our reservation. This is from exiting the bus. We still had to sprint to the monorail and make a stop at the Contemporary and TTC before arriving at Kona. I was extremely nervous due to the new "no show, no cancellation" fee that Disney is supposedly charging people for missing their reservations. We finally arrived, about ten minutes late, but luckily the hostess was very understanding and we were not penalized and there happened to be plenty of tables available.
Now on to the good stuff!!
The Disney community as a whole talks about this particular meal more than anything so I decided it was time. I needed to see exactly what all the fuss was about.
For any of you who may not know the Tonga Toast is banana stuffed sourdough bread, rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with Strawberry Compote.
All in all, I have to say that I really did love it. It was worth checking out for sure and I will say it does live up to the hype. I am not great at describing tastes and flavors so I apologize for not being more descriptive. The strawberry sauce was one of my favorite things about it as well as the cinnamon sugar glaze.....YUMMMMM. I will definitely be going back to Kona for breakfast at some point.
After breakfast we were of course headed into the Magic Kingdom for our one and only day trip to MK. We returned later in the week at night, but this was the one day to try to get to the things we had planned. Most importantly was New Fantasyland. My mom and cousin had yet to see it, so we had plans to spend the majority of our time there. But not before we took some more pics at the Polynesian and made a quick stop to the Grand Floridian to check out some more Xmas decorations!
I for sure wanted to check out Enchanted Tales with Belle. When we were there the previous March I was with my husband. He is not really a Disney fan so I didn't feel it would be fair to drag him to Disney as well as make him wait an hour and a half for storytime with a princess. So we skipped it last time but I wanted to make sure I got to see it this time. I knew what to expect and not having any children with us I didn't imagine we would be all that interested, but I still wanted to say I had done it. Plus I wanted to see the inside of the cottage. I was actually pleasantly surprised by it. It was completely geared towards the little ones but Belle's cottage was very cute and when we got into the castle, the talking Lumiere was a great touch. I also was surprised that all of the children in the show got to take a little time with Belle and get photos/autographs. I will definitely be taking my daughter to this and I make sure to recommend it to people who are taking their kids. It was basically a meet and greet with the added bonus of a show. Really cute!
Next we waited in line for lunch at Be Our Guest. We got in line at around 11 and were hoping to eat between 12 and 1. We actually got in much quicker than the line had looked. I had the Croque Monsieur which is a grilled ham sandwich with Gruyere cheese, and bechamel with Pommes Frites. it was just fine. Nothing spectacular but a nice counter service option. I also made sure to get the "grey stuff" cupcake. We sat in the West Wing so I really didn't get great pics of the food.
So now we had to leave New Fantasyland for just a bit since we had a fastpass at Splash Mountain that I did not want to miss. Splash Mountain is one of my all time favorites. It was pretty warm out so we were looking forward to a little splash. However we weren't expecting the magnitude of the splash we actually received. We were in the very front row and I got absolutely soaked!
Run back to New Fantasyland to check out Gaston's Tavern, get on Ariel's Undersea Adventure and then Storybook Circus for Dumbo.
We were able to get over to the Studios and still have time to ride Star Tours before the lights began. I had yet to ride the new Star Tours. On the last trip I had where I actually visited the Studios, I was pregnant so I was unable to experience the new version. I liked it and it was definitely an improvement over the old version. I am pretty sure anything would have been an improvement! It's still not my favorite and I think I can take it or leave it, but I was happy to have gotten a chance to ride it.
We were then on the Streets of America waiting for the lights to begin. Such a spectacular show! I was thrilled that my mom and cousin were viewing it for the first time. And it was great to see their reaction. We hung out there for about 20 minutes or so and then went over to our reservation at Mama Melrose.
Now I know this is not a popular place and most people have less than stellar reviews of it, but we must have had a fluke because we all really enjoyed it. Our server was very nice and quick. The wine was great and I actually REALLY enjoyed what I ordered. I have to say it was a standout meal for this week. I ordered the Chicken Campanelle and while it may not have been healthy, it sure was delicious! It was a really great meal. For dessert I just ordered chocolate gelato. I did this for two reasons..... One - it was free on the dining plan. And two - I literally ate so much the only thing I was getting down was maybe two bites of ice cream.
Thanks for reading!