Join Tony and Lauren as they delve into the dining experiences at Walt Disney World, sharing their reviews of six standout restaurants. They highlight the importance of theming and ambiance in enhancing the overall dining experience, with a particular focus on the delicious food offerings. Among the featured locations are the enchanting Be Our Guest, the vibrant Ohana, and the innovative Space 220, each providing unique culinary adventures. Listeners can expect insights on pricing, menu options, and tips for securing reservations at these sought-after dining spots. Tune in for valuable advice that will help you make the most of your theme park dining experiences!

With dining a major part of a Disney World Vacation, Lauren and Tony review six different restaurants from recent trips. Lauren gives her thoughts on Ohana, Topolino's Terrace and Via Napoli while Tony discusses his experience at Be Our Guest, Space 220 and Roundup Rodeo BBQ. They give their thoughts on food, theming, price and overall experience.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Walt Disney World
• Universal Studios
• Disney
• Disney's Polynesian Village Resort
• Epcot
• Riviera Resort
• Topolino's Terrace
• Space 220
• Be Our Guest
• Ohana
• Vianapoli
• 50's Prime Time Diner
• Roundup Rodeo Barbecue
• Tutto Italia
• Chef Mickey's
• Texas de Brazil
• Disney Dining Plan

Welcome to another edition of the Wands and Wishes podcast, as we help you prepare for the best vacation at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.

Well, part of going down to a theme park is obviously the theming and the rides and the shows and everything that surrounds you.

But one of the other great parts is the dining.

And today we're going to go over six restaurants.

Lauren and I will pick three each to kind of give you our review and our thoughts, some of these a little bit recently on our recent trips down to Walt Disney World and give you a thought on what goes right with the theming and what could be a little bit better in terms of the overall dining experience.

Once again, if you like what we've been doing so far in this podcast, please, like, subscribe to it.

It helps us with the algorithms, leave us a five star review, and also share it with friends, as, again, we try to give you the best tips for your theme park experience.

All right, Lauren, so we're going to do six restaurants that are in the Walt Disney World complex, both the resort, the parks, and whatnot.

I just got back from a couple of days.

A couple of weeks ago.

We went to three restaurants.

My wife and I.

We've done the Disney dining plan in years past, decided to go through, go through three.

And I'll start with the one we went to first, which is our Friday night excursion into the Halloween party.

And we had reservations for be our guest.

Yum.

Delicious.

Absolutely delicious.

So good.

So now, this came as a highly recommended place for my wife and I, even though our kids had moved on past the youth.

My parents got that fancy feel.

Yeah.

Because my father and my mother went down there and they experienced it.

They said, oh, you and Laurie would really like it.

I know Laurie was a big, big beauty and the Beast fan.

And so we said, all right, let's give this a whirl.

The first thing is when you go there and you check in and you enter.

I was blown away by the theming.

This is where you get your camera.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

You just start taking pictures of every single thing you could possibly do.

Do you remember which room you were seated in?

I was in the grand ballroom.

Oh, that's the best one.

It is the best one.

And we had a nice little table by the wall.

And this is a prefixed menu.

So you're gonna get an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert to choose from for the price of the meal.

At the time we went, it was dollar 75 per person.

And then, of course, afterwards, you get the tip.

And if you want any extras, like a light up goblet or anything like that, then you can pay for the alcoholic beverages.

That's right.

Now, my wife is a big french onion soup fan and got the french onion soup.

Said was one of the best french onion soups.

Really?

Yeah.

Now, I've heard differently.

Cause I kind of warned her that I had a few friends say it wasn't as good.

She liked it a lot, said it was really good french onion soup.

So it's been a few years since I've been to be our guest.

When I was there last time, it was just an a la carte menu.

Okay.

It wasn't the prefix, so take me through that.

How many choices were you given for your appetizer?

How many choices were you given for your dinner and your dessert?

Well, the appetizers were pretty basic in terms of there were two soups.

There was a french onion soup, and then I got the sweet corn bisque.

Oh, yum.

Which was very good.

Really good.

And then there's like, tuna tartare.

And there was some escargot to keep up with the french cuisine.

And then there was a mixed green salad I tend to not get.

Even if it's great and fancy.

I try not to get a salad on a prefix menu.

Cause I can get a salad anywhere, and I'm paying pretty good money.

So I'm trying to get a more advanced appetizer than a couple of, you know, salads.

Um, so I.

We went with.

I went with the sweet corn bisque, which was really good.

Now, as far as the entrees went, there was fish, there was trout, there was short ribs, which was recommended to me.

My father said, you'll love the short ribs are really good.

Um, there was chicken, which Lori got, and then I got a butcher's cut steak, which was a special.

Sounds wonderful.

Which was the kind of the french fries, but they were a little drizzled with some oil and whatnot.

That was really tasty, and that came out pretty good.

As a steak guy, that was pretty good.

The sauce is what made, I think, my meal better than maybe it would have been.

And the fries, I thought would be pretty basic, but they were pretty jazzed up, if you will, with some sprinkles of stuff, and made it really kind of tasty.

But the chicken was really delicious.

Laurie had the chicken with the asparagus and the petite potatoes and really loved that.

It took some time to come out, and you could tell that it was done with real good care.

One of the criticisms sometimes is an overly themed restaurant is that the food is not as good.

You're paying for more of the atmosphere.

This really was.

If they had stripped everything down, it still, I thought, would been a very good restaurant.

Oh, that's good.

I thought it was very good.

And then, of course, the dessert came and then I got the gray stuff, of course.

And I wanted Lori to get that, too, because I didn't want to share the gray stuff, which I knew I was going to have.

That's right.

It's not a huge bowl of gray stuff either.

And she ends up getting, like, the caramel cake.

Okay.

And I said that.

All right, I'll give you some grace.

I wanted the whole thing.

You get a little truffle and you get a macaroon.

But the gray stuff is what I was looking for.

Yeah.

And it was, you know, it was out of this world good.

It was good.

It was really good.

So.

And everyone kind of leans on, leans into that.

As far as the theming, the theming was outstanding.

Yes, it's absolutely outstanding.

The one criticism I had was, I wish Bell was there and put on.

A little bit more of a.

I agree.

I think that for the price that you're paying when you're going there, I don't understand why we're only getting one character.

Why can't we have them as a duo?

But when you're describing the food that you had and the amount of the food that you had, honestly, if you really think about it, for what all you're getting, dollar 75 per person is really, I think it's in line with what you got.

Yeah, exactly.

And beast walked around.

If there was a meet and greet, they never said it was.

Some people said they did get to have a meet and greet one time.

If they did it on our night, no one said a thing.

No one said, you can go in this room and wait.

There's one thing I regret in that, is I didn't tour enough.

We didn't tour the facility.

We had our dinner and then we left.

We took our pictures in the beginning, so I missed the rose.

I should have saw that.

I should have remembered that that was there and went to go find it.

So I highly recommend, if you get this, really enjoy the theming and go as much around that place as you can to get your pictures and enjoy the ambience.

You're paying good money for this meal.

You're paying good money for the experience of the beauty and the beast.

Theming the windows, bring in the snow.

I mean, they really make it just like the movie.

But don't leave, because if you find out that you could have gone, taken a picture of something cool.

Exactly.

You're gonna miss out.

It's gonna cost you another $75 a person.

That's right.

You gotta go do that.

But this is a really good, good option if you're wanting a sit down dinner inside Magic kingdom.

And a good note that you mentioned, prior to a few years ago, Magic Kingdom did not serve alcoholic beverages at all.

And that is still largely true.

True.

Except for at the sit down restaurants.

So if you are looking for an alcoholic beverage, those are served at some of the sit down restaurants inside Magic Kingdom.

We saw in the menu that there was this lighted goblet.

And Lori's kind of a sucker for that.

She likes, like, knickknacks and trinkets and stuff.

And so she didn't know what it was.

And a waiter came by with a bag for the goblet for a table next to us.

And I said, hey, I'm pretty bold.

I don't mind getting up and asking the guy if I could see his goblet.

I don't have a problem.

She goes, no, no, no, no.

But then she finally told the waiter, she goes, what is it?

How cool is it?

And he said, I'll bring one over for you.

And he did.

And she goes, oh, great.

I'll take it.

I guess I gotta get a drink.

He goes, no, you can pay x amount of price for a beverage, or you can just buy the goblet straight.

Up, just as a souvenir.

Yeah, it's a couple dollars less.

Oh, that's great.

So that's what we did.

That's what she got.

Awesome.

Now, you do get a really cool beast autographed card that thanks you for coming in.

So that becomes a very nice keepsake as well.

That's right.

So this was very, very high, I think, of the things that we wanted to do restaurant wise, this was probably priority one.

So reservations were not as difficult to get, but they are very difficult to get.

So you just really make sure you stay on top of that.

If you're going down there, would you go back here?

Would I go back?

That's a very good question.

We talked about it a lot.

Probably, yes.

Okay.

Only because she really loves the movie and, you know, the theming really worked.

But I probably would go back.

So what are.

That's a question I'm going to have off after every review, and I'm going.

To have that for you as well.

All right, so what is your restaurant?

Okay, so the first one that I want to talk about is probably one of the most popular restaurants on Disney property.

It's one of the most often requested ones from my clients.

And that is Ohana.

Oh, yeah.

It is.

Inside Disney's polynesian village resort.

It is a whole experience other than just a meal.

So at breakfast, you have.

It's a character meal.

It is stitch and Lilo and Mickey and Pluto.

And you're given a family style meal of Mickey waffles, bacon, eggs, sausage.

Just your basic breakfast meal.

But those different characters come around with different hawaiian music, and it's just a fun atmosphere.

Now, the restaurant itself has floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lagoon and Cinderella castle.

So it's got a really nice atmosphere.

Whether you're there for breakfast or for dinner, breakfast is going to be a little bit more on the pricey side.

I actually was looking at the menu.

It's $49 per adult and $30 per childhood.

Is this all you can eat?

Do they bring more platters over?

Yeah, it's definitely all you can eat, but when it comes to character meals and breakfast in particular, I would say you're really only booking that for the characters.

Right?

Like my daughter Lily.

Her favorite character is stitch.

She absolutely loves stitch.

Her entire room is decked out.

But I would say if this is something that she wants to do, yes, I'll spend the money for it, but I am not spending the money for the Mickey waffles and the bacon, because if you want that, if that's only what you're going for, then stick to the quick service.

But it's great atmosphere for atmosphere for breakfast, but for dinner, that's really the one that people are after.

So it's not character dining at dinner.

It is, however, still.

It still feels like an experience.

When you walk in, they tell you ohana means family.

And they.

Everyone calls each other cousins.

They say, I'm cousin Sam.

I'm gonna be taking care of you.

It is a little on the pricey side.

Again, it's $62 per adult, $40 per child.

A big note to remember on this one is at that $62.

If you're on the dining plan, it's still one credit.

Oh, that's great.

So I think it's really one of the more expensive ones.

That's still considered one credit.

Again, it's one.

It's all you can eat.

Again at dinner, they bring out different courses.

It's kind of a polynesian themed meal, obviously, so you get things like noodles and vegetables and pot stickers and then different grilled meats.

Like, if you've been somewhere like Texas de Brazil, it's very similar to that.

They'll bring around skewers.

Definitely go hungry.

But don't fill yourself up so much that you skip dessert, because dessert, to me, is the best part.

It's like caramelized, like banana and pineapple, coconut ice cream, bread pudding sort of thing.

So good.

All in all, I definitely think that Ohana is an experience worth having.

Now, I will say we went several years with not going.

My husband got burnout on it, and then we went again, I think, on our most recent trip last year, and it was just as good as it had been years ago, so it stayed consistent.

Okay.

Going way, way back.

And what I remember, I remember the breakfast big bowl of stuff, but I remember the juice being filled.

Oh, the pog juice.

Yeah, the pog juice is so delicious.

It is really good.

And I can't replicate that in any way, shape or form.

I know, I try.

I can't replicate that.

I mean, it's.

What is it?

Is it papaya juice?

Yeah, it's like papaya juice, orange and guava.

But, yeah, I can't replicate it either.

You made a good point about the value on the dining plan.

I know that there are people who.

I'm one of them.

Like, I try to see, like, what value am I actually getting with this?

Right?

So I am more likely to go, like, if I see a restaurant that's got x amount of dollars for price versus another that's higher, I'm going to go with the higher one.

That's right.

Everyone figure out what you do.

The same thing.

I am not going to pay for this dining plan if I'm only going to places that are more affordable.

If I kept that dining money in my pocket and just spent it out of my pocket.

That's right.

So that's a very good point.

To get really good value out of your dining plan is to find places that, yeah, they're a little bit more on the higher side, but it's only one credit.

Yes.

Another note, too is on places that have a prefix price or like a character meal that's buffet, that's priced per person.

If you have a child that's under the age of three, you don't pay for them to eat and they can still have a full plate.

However, if you are dining somewhere where everyone orders off the menu, don't expect that child to eat for free.

It doesn't work the same way.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

All right.

My second restaurant is space 220 at Epcot.

Okay.

Again, this was another one where, just for context, so my parents have retired.

They lived down 45 minutes away from Disney, and now they're on this kick of going to restaurants, and now they want to tell me all about it.

So that's what they do.

And I told them about space 220.

They didn't really know about space 220.

And then they started trying to find reservations.

Yeah, found one.

Went to the park, went, came back and told me, you got to experience it.

It's amazing.

It was really fun.

Great time.

Then I said, great.

But, dad, when we're going, I can't get a reservation.

These things are gobbled up and they're taken.

That's right.

So he said to me, he goes, look, this goes for a lot of restaurants.

People don't really know this is that you can be put on the waitlist if cancellations come.

And so they got that note when he went, checked in, he said, we had a reservation.

But what if we didn't get here as early as possible?

Get yourself on the waitlist.

We will notify.

We get cancellations all the time.

And that happens usually with most restaurants.

People don't know about this, but we were lucky to get a reservation.

Now, the reason we went was because we were flexible in our two days that we were going.

We wanted to go to epcot on Sunday of our trip.

We couldn't get a reservation.

We ended up getting a notification that there was one available on Saturday.

We took the Saturday one.

Pivot it.

So we went.

We went to.

We went to this one.

And I was really looking forward to this because of the amazing optics.

That's right.

There's so much hype around it.

Real hype.

So part of the enjoyment of this ride.

And again, pricey.

But we were going for lunch, so not as pricey.

$55 per person.

Good tip, too.

Go for lunch if you're going for the atmosphere, skip dinner.

Skip dinner.

Skip dinner.

Go for lunch.

If all you really care about is the experience and saying you've been there so you can talk to your Disney friends, that you experienced, that theming.

Go for lunch.

So we had the lunch, the lunch date, we went there.

Reservation.

Part of the joy is how you get to the restaurant.

Yeah.

Because they're making it out to be a trip to space.

So you get there, you get a boarding pass.

You're waiting, you get into a room, you're going 220 miles up in space.

It's.

It's very similar to mission to Mars.

And the stitch ride where you are flying up.

Yeah.

So you look down, you're leaving, you look up, you're going to the space station.

You get out, you're now in space.

You walk into this grand dining room, big, huge windows, similar to rise of the resistance, showing you Earth.

And now you're in space and you see things flying around, and you're having your dinner in space.

It was very, very cool.

This was just a two course meal.

For lunch.

You got an appetizer and a meal, and they're pretty standard lunch items.

There were sandwiches.

There was other items like tuna and whatnot.

I got the burger, the Gemini burger.

I started with the Caesar salad.

I said earlier that I don't usually take salads in a prefix menu.

I unfortunately didn't really see much, though.

I like, I couldn't eat the shrimp tacos.

My wife is allergic to shellfish.

She just stayed away from me for the rest of the day.

But there was a roasted beet salad that Lori got that was really good.

There's a wagyu beef capaccio.

If you don't like raw beef, don't get that.

But calamari was on the menu and whatnot.

But I went with the Caesar salad.

Pretty standard Caesar salad, but it was still pretty good.

Okay.

The Gemini burger was actually really delicious.

Yeah, tell me about it.

It was really delicious.

It came with bacon.

It came with kind of different cheeses, like two different cheeses.

Large burger you need.

If you cut with a knife, you could cut it and really take it in.

It came with truffle fries.

Fries drizzled in truffle oil with some parmesan on top.

That was really good.

And then the atmosphere is really fun because you get to see people sword fighting.

It really feels like you're in space.

And we really enjoyed the entire experience.

I got a lemonade drink that came with a glow cube.

And this glow cube will go off when wet.

You could take it home, and so you can keep it for your own home bar.

You can plop it in.

A cold drink starts lighting up, makes your drink really fun.

That's another good tip too, is they will.

Different restaurants will bring those glow cubes out also to kids.

I have experienced that when I've had an unruly child in a restaurant, and they brought one out to try to calm her down.

And then we've used it once we've been at home.

So those are really fun.

Would I do it again, probably not.

Okay.

And here's why.

I got everything I wanted out of this.

The experience is fantastic.

It's really fun.

You're not going anywhere.

It feels like you're going somewhere.

I kind of teased my wife because she's kind of afraid of heights, but I said, we're not leaving.

You look like you're leaving.

She wouldn't look down into the portal.

I was like, all right.

And I was like, part of the joy is doing that.

She was getting into the experience.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So at least she played into the whole, we're actually going up into space or coming down.

And that's how you leave the restaurant.

You go down, you go into the same room, you plummet back down to Epcot center, and you leave out the door.

But I got all my pictures.

I got everything I wanted out of it.

I don't know if I would do it again.

The food was really good.

I wouldn't mind trying something else, some other things, because I did feel like, well, maybe I could have gone somewhere different than the burger.

But I really liked the burger.

Looked really good.

I saw it on another table, and I was kind of in a burger mood.

And so I probably.

For a burger and a Caesar salad.

I definitely was paying for theming.

I was definitely paying a lot for theming.

So I got all I wanted out of that.

But I might want to try different items.

But the experience for me was one felt like it was just one and done.

If I had kids, I'd probably do it a couple of times because it was really a cool experience.

Awesome.

Yeah.

That's good to know.

I haven't been there.

Yeah, you should definitely try it.

Okay.

Definitely try it.

Because it is that odd.

Like, we know when you ride rise of the resistance the first time and they open you up.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

I'm really on a star cruiser.

Yeah.

This is nuts.

That is the feeling.

Okay.

You walk in there and you see the big windows and the big screens, and you're like, this is great.

This is really Disney at its theming finest.

And, of course, the characters, the waiters and stuff, they're all in character space.

We're high up.

Be careful of gravity, making jokes, that kind of stuff.

That's pretty fun.

That's a pretty fun thing to do.

That's awesome.

All right.

What is your second restaurant on your list?

All right, so for my second restaurant, we are going to go over to the Riviera resort, and we are going to go to Topolino's terrace.

I've heard so much about Topolino's.

Now, I'm looking forward to this.

This one.

So this one is right now one of the most popular reservations on property, and it remains that way because of everything that it offers.

So it opened just a few years ago when Riviera Resort opened, and the characters are only there at breakfast, again, kind of like Ohana.

However, I think I have a little different opinion on whether or not this character breakfast is worth it.

It is.

So.

So adults are $49 and you know what?

I don't even know what the child.

Oh, the child price is $30.

So it is like a prefix meal.

So you will be given a choice of several entrees.

They bring out a bread basket that's full of different pastries and breakfast breads.

So when you're seated, first of all, I should tell you, the restaurant is at the very top of the Riviera resort, so it must be great view.

It is so beautiful.

It's overlooking the skyliner caribbean beach resort.

You can see parts of Epcot and even off in the distance, you can see Hollywood studios.

So the atmosphere alone is absolutely gorgeous.

There's windows all around.

And so when you're going to order your meal, let's talk about the food.

What I had when I was there was the steak and eggs, and I'm trying to see what all it comes with.

Oh, yes.

So it comes with a polenta, tomatoes, roasted potatoes, some wild mushrooms, and then.

And you get two eggs, any style you like.

That's the fanciest steak and eggs I have ever heard.

Yes.

And so that brings me to my next point.

When booking Topolino's terrace, my personal recommendation is to book the latest time possible.

So you're getting breakfast food, but you're basically getting two meals out of it.

and that kept us full until dinner.

Yeah.

And so I had over easy eggs with that, and it was really, really outstanding.

When I ate here, it was on the trip with just my daughter, Lily, and she had just a basic, I think it was a really well done Mickey waffle platter that was on, like, an art palette.

So they brought out, like, different, a strawberry, chocolate and a caramel sauce that she could dip her waffles into.

So the food here really is more than just your run of the mill breakfast.

I was just going to ask that, how different is it from like a chef Mickey's buffet or anything like that.

Totally.

Apples to oranges.

This meal is a step above any of the other character breakfast that you're gonna get on property.

Now, talking about the characters, they're so cute.

They're all in, like, their French Riviera outfits.

And they come around and they'll each meet individually.

But then every.

I think it was 30 minutes or so.

They do a dance around the restaurant.

And it is the cutest thing ever.

Everybody kind of gets up and claps and dances with them while they're doing it.

And so the whole experience is just fun and it's beautiful.

And so.

Yeah.

So would I go back?

Yes, absolutely.

Would I take a whole family of five there?

That's where my cheapness kind of comes in a little bit.

Because I don't like to pay that much per person.

But yes, I would absolutely go back there.

Again.

What is it at dinner?

Is it.

Is there a theme?

Yeah.

So at dinner, I would consider it like a really good date night restaurant.

Oh, very good.

It is not prefix.

It's an a la carte menu.

It's got things like braised beef filet, sea salt, scallops, rigatoni.

Different things that are really kind of stepped up.

And you still have that beautiful view at dinner.

What characters did you get at breakfast?

We had Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Donald.

Wonderful.

Well, I hope there's Mickey, because that's Mickey Mouse in Italian.

Topolino.

Yeah, that's right.

Little mouse back in the day.

That's how the Italians say Mickey Mouse.

Oh, topolino.

Very good.

All right, my third one is the rodeo.

Roundup rodeo barbecue.

Okay, toy Story.

This was a late addition.

We originally had booked fifties primetime diner, but we had already been there with the kids ten years ago.

And I had heard about the barbecue place.

Not from my parents, some.

Someone else.

And so when I saw that was available, I said, do you want to do this instead?

A little toy story theming rather than something we've already experienced?

I said, sure.

So we ended up getting a lunch reservation at Roundup rodeo, BBQ at Toy Story land.

Now this is theming again.

At its best, you are shrunk down to the size of a toy.

Everything is larger than life.

All the playing cards, the kind of things you would expect at Toy Story mania, slinky dog, dash, things like that.

You're kind of in that mode.

Yeah.

This is a barbecue restaurant.

So if you don't like barbecue, this is not going to be your place.

It's a prefixed menu, it is all you can eat.

You get a pretty basic salad.

It's either a watermelon or a tomato salad.

That's really not the highlight of the meal.

The highlight of the meal is the platter with everything on it.

Beef brisket, chicken.

There is a snake in my boot.

Sausage.

There is ribs.

There is baked beans.

Now you're getting the sides, which include tater tots.

They include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw.

Can't remember what else.

Just a whole bunch of sides.

Now they bring out cheddar biscuits.

These are absolutely, really, really good.

There's a sweet pepper jelly.

It's a little on the spicy side, but still just the cheddar biscuits alone are great.

And again, all you can eat.

It's $45 per person at lunch.

When we went, this was a lot.

Of food for two people.

Yeah, sounds like it.

This was a tremendous amount of food for two people.

And I almost felt bad because one of the things I hate wasting food at restaurants, even though it's somebody else's dime, I just hate that feeling of, like, I didn't eat any of this.

And there was so much food left over, and I felt bad because it was like we didn't touch certain items.

We didn't really care for.

The baked beans, they come with a different kind of flavor.

It was all just left there.

I'm not a big coleslaw person.

My wife had a couple bites, but that was it.

Still left a whole bucket of coleslaw there.

We loved the Mac and cheese.

That was delicious.

Tater tots, same thing.

But the meat was just overwhelming.

So much for two people.

So it was great in that sense that if you want to do what we do is when we go to these places, try to fill up, don't want to have another meal.

Let's burn it off when we're walking around the park.

That's a great thing for the amount.

I wish, in a way, and I don't know if there's probably would ruin the experience.

They'd rather just give it to you and say, pick what it.

Keep eating, instead saying, look, we don't eat this.

Can we have a second of that?

But that could get too complicated.

They're doing a lot of acting out certain things, so I don't know if that works.

The theming is wonderful.

And there's voices overhead that come up when Andy comes in, everyone freezes.

And I didn't freeze.

I didn't know.

And I was still eating.

And luckily I didn't say anything.

I remember this?

Years ago when I was at a golf tournament, I was sitting with a friend, looking at a piece of paper, the paring sheet, and I noticed that somebody was coming through next.

And I looked up to tell my friend, and I realized the guy was putting.

And I mean, literally, just before I said, hey, mark, you caught yourself.

I caught myself and went, oh, somebody's.

Everyone was quiet.

I didn't realize everyone was quiet.

I just was in my own world.

This is how I was eating this food.

Andy comes in, everybody else's frozen.

I'm eating my food, looking around, and my wife goes, freeze, freeze.

I go, oh, okay, now I got it.

But I luckily didn't say, like, hey, honey, you know what we should do?

Like, I didn't say.

I luckily didn't say anything to ruin the mood.

So funny.

But what's great about that moment is when you do know Andy's coming.

Everybody freezes.

Look to see where everybody is in middle of.

People were holding their forks to their mouths.

Servers were holding drinks, you know, food and drinks on trays.

Whatever you're doing, you stop and just.

That's so funny.

So you got to be willing to play along.

You gotta play along.

You gotta play along.

Now, I heard way back in the day they used to give giant pencils to sign your check, and then people started finding a way to take the pencils.

Oh, I heard about this.

Yeah.

And I.

We didn't get that.

I was like, how do you walk out with a giant pencil?

Yeah.

And not get caught?

And they go, excuse me, can we just have the pencil back?

We only have, like, 15 of them, and we kind of need them for the rest of the time.

And now they're on eBay.

Yeah, now they're on eBay, probably.

We decided on this one that only because of the food portion, we would not go back again.

Everything else was great.

The food was delicious.

Again, there was just certain things just for personal taste I didn't like, but it was only because it was a tremendous amount of.

And I were like, just not going to eat that much.

Yeah.

I mean, it was real.

But the barbecue is really good.

They give you four barbecue sauces to choose from.

But if you love barbecue, give this a whirl, especially if you love the toy story theming.

I didn't think the lunch was all that expensive for a themed restaurant.

It's not character dining.

I do want to make that clear.

They do not have anybody coming by your table.

But it is a cool atmosphere, and it looked like the kids were having a lot of fun.

So, again, it's all you can eat.

You can't beat that.

So if the kids really like the ribs, keep bringing them.

But for us, for her and I, I don't know if we'd go back just because of the amount of food, but overall gave it a really good, solid a.

That's awesome.

And you kind of touched on this a little bit.

This is another really good option that if you're wanting to take care of two meals at one.

And so you kind of snack early in the day for lunch, and then you're having kind of a lunch and dinner combo, but paying one price.

So this is another good option for that.

One thing we did notice, because it was barbecue, we were thirsty the rest of the day.

It's barbecue is just naturally salty, so we were thirsty the rest of the day.

That makes sense.

But the theming is really a plus.

And they.

And it seemed like.

Whereas, again, all the other servers that we had on this trip, they were, in character, having a lot of fun.

This was the most fun.

I saw a crew.

That's awesome.

They were all having a really good time with it, singing the songs that were coming through, having fun, talking back at the.

Whatever voice was coming through.

There's a lot to soak in.

Take a walk to the quote unquote bathroom.

Just walk around.

Just get out of your chair and just walk around.

There's a lot more to see depending on where they seat.

A.

I noticed that as I was getting up to look to find where the restroom was, and I was like, oh, that's kind of neat.

Oh, that's kind of neat.

Oh, cool.

So it's a very, very cool, atmospheric restaurant.

Okay, awesome.

All right.

The third one on your list.

All right.

So I had a really hard time deciding which restaurants that I wanted to choose today because I love dining at Disney World.

So I went back to probably my family's ultimate favorite.

We do it every time.

Often we do it more than one time on a trip.

And that's Vianapoli.

Oh, Vianapoli.

Yes.

So my favorite thing.

Thing about Vianapoli is that you can go here for a sit down meal, and if you do it right, you really can get out of there without paying a whole lot more than your family would pay for a quick service meal, because there's so many options.

My family's favorite thing to get here is pizza.

And so they have three different sizes.

They have an individual size.

They have a large size, and they have what they call the mezzo Metro pizza.

And you're probably gonna laugh at me the way that I'm pronouncing that, because I am not italian, but so we always get the largest one, the mezzo metro, and we get the pepperoni, and it takes up an entire table.

It's like.

It's just a sight to behold when they bring out this giant pizza to our table.

But it will feed our entire family.

And so usually also what I like to get is they have a fantastic house salad, and they price their salad per person.

Rather than just ordering one appetizer salad, you can order it for as little as two people or as many people as you want.

Now, we have found that a salad for two people will feed our children too, if they want some salad.

And they actually do want salad here, because it's really good.

So we'll usually get a salad for two and get a pizza to feed the table.

Now, some other favorites that we have there.

My kids love the spaghetti and meatballs.

So they have a kid's spaghetti that comes with a homemade meatball.

My girls can sometimes split that.

The last time we went, though, they were so hungry, and they loved it so much that we ended up asking the server, hey, can we get a second?

Spaghetti and meatballs on the kids menu?

And so they each had their own.

The Alfredo is amazing here.

I've had the tiramisu, and there's nothing at Vianapoli that is not delicious.

Now, there's a few cons that I want to talk about.

A couple of cons, I guess I should say, is that the restaurant is really loud.

So if you've ever been in here, it is an open air area where you can see the stone ovens cooking the pizzas, and then the entire room is just open.

And so it gets super loud just to be able to hear your servers or talk to each other at the table.

But there is a little room off to the back, and I don't know what they call it.

I think that there's a name for it, but I just call it the back room.

But there's some booths back there, and if you are hard of hearing or if you would just like a quieter area, ask to be seated in the back.

And it's a totally different feel back there.

I went to Vianapoli again with the family ten years ago.

I regret not getting the pizza because I hear it's the best pizza on property.

Oh, good.

There's a lot of places to get good pizza, but they say it's the best pizza on property.

And I get that.

I got the candlestick pasta with the meat and sausage sauce or whatever it was at the time.

This is an interesting question, because there's two restaurants in that area, tutto Italia, which doesn't get a lot of great reviews.

No, it doesn't.

It's been.

It's probably been seven or eight years since I've been to Tutto Italia.

I didn't love it.

I felt like it was more like kind of mass produced food, I guess I should say.

It tries to be on a higher level.

Yes.

Than Vianapoli.

And I feel like Vianapoli is more crafted and just.

They're fixing it for you when you order it.

I keep asking myself, do I want to go?

My father, again, Italian, he went, he likes Vianapoli better than tutorial Italia.

It doesn't feel like Tudo Italia is worth the money, but Viennapoli, he loves.

He loves Vienna.

And another good thing about this restaurant is you will pretty rarely see it available last minute for a reservation.

But I will say I'm probably 100% of the time I've walked up without a reservation, and they've been able to get us in.

So always make sure and ask, even if you don't see a reservation available.

Hey, can I get a.

Can I get a table for four?

And they can usually get you in.

So it's.

It's always one that I'm going to continue to go back to time and time again.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to go back there again, because again, I keep hearing about the different pizzas.

I mean, from how bad pizzerizzo is to how good other places have pizza.

This is on top of the list.

People's pizza.

A little note about the pizza, about the price, too, when we're talking about that is, I was saying that they have the different sizes, and I was actually trying to see.

So you can get a mezzo metro pepperoni pizza for that will feed your entire family.

Well, I don't see the pepperoni one here on the menu, but I do see the meat lover pizza, and it's dollar 60, so that will feed easily a family of four.

And you cannot get out of a quick service restaurant for that.

You can't.

You can't.

That's crazy.

I have a quick story.

I think I told it on the podcast once.

We had reservations at Vianapoli.

We had Fastpass reservations for Soarin.

Yeah.

We went on Soarin, and I was going to be late for the reservation.

That's right.

I tried to pull a typical reservation gag, which is, I thought it was this time.

Yeah.

And you added a few minutes.

I said, I had a reservation for 715.

She says, we don't do reservations on the quarter.

And I said, you caught me.

I said, we rode a ride and.

They seated you anyway.

Right?

So every time I think about Viennapoli, I think of how I tried to pull a fast one.

Failed miserably.

Just trying to say, oh, I had no idea.

I was late, massively late for this reservation.

I feel like they get that all the time.

I'm sure they do.

They probably get that a lot.

So that is.

That is one of my favorite places to go.

And I'm definitely looking forward.

I loved going back to Epcot.

I hadn't been to epcot in a while, and I didn't realize how much, as I've gotten older, how much I really appreciate world showcase.

When I was a kid, I couldn't get through it fast enough.

Like, I just could not.

Like, it was just like, what are we doing here?

This is silly.

I don't want to watch a film about China.

I don't want to watch a film about France.

And I told my wife, I said, you know what?

If you do go to Epcot, maybe one day we'll do a whole Epcot doing Epcot episode shop.

Even if you're not going to buy a thing, there are so many things you can see and get that are from the countries that have nothing to do with Disney.

They don't put a Mickey sticker on it.

They have just different things from the different countries.

And a lot of people think they're going to a gift shop like you would Winnie the Pooh or another ride.

There are some real authentic stuff from these countries that are there for you.

So I said, we should have done that a little bit more.

But via Napoli, walking past that, remind me how good that was.

So I'm glad that was one of your lists.

Oh, yeah.

All right, those are the six restaurants that we reviewed on today's show.

Again, if you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a five star review as we continue to work the algorithms and hopefully help you plan.

If you'd like to reach Lauren, Lauren at all themagictravel.com dot, you can reach me Tony at travel with tony dmail.com dot.

We look forward to hearing from you and helping you plan the best theme park vacation for you and your family.

We'll be back next week.

And again, this is the wants and wishes podcast.