Brunch at Topolino's Terrace

It would seem that our February Disney trip revolved around food - but I promise it did not. Well,  mostly. :)

One thing I can say for certain is the fact that we love Topolino's Terrace. Although we haven't visited for dinner (yet), we have eaten brunch here twice - once pre-covid and once mid-covid - and it has passed the test both times! 

In order to properly share the love for Topolino's, I figured it deserved its own post, so here we go...

Topolio's Terrace is located on the 10th floor of the Riviera Resort. It's a premium character dining experience for brunch and a signature dining experience for dinner. The characters included with brunch are precious and revolve around Mickey and his friends, dressed in their favorite artistic attire. 

The restaurant isn't difficult to find - simply take the elevators near Primo Piatta up to the 10th floor, and there you are!

Up first for our meal was a delicious glass of POG juice, known all over Walt Disney World breakfast dining locations. This stuff is incredible!

We also received a basket of pastries and toppings to go along with them.

Not long after we were seated, the characters began. In a modified fashion, they paraded around the restaurant, stopping for brief seconds so guests could capture selfies.

Of course this is not ideal, and I cannot wait for things to return to "normal", but I wouldn't say it ruined or dampened our experience here at all!

As far as our meal went, I absolutely loved the sour cream waffles on our last trip, so I had to order them again. I also had the chance to try the spiced sausage hash as the description was intriguing to me. 

Jason ordered the wood fired butcher's steak and he loved it! Everything we ate that morning was delicious!

As far as Brayden goes, he had the Mickey and Minnie waffle with a side of fruit and eggs. 

The addition of a "Minnie" waffle makes me smile every time I see it! So cute!

More characters paused briefly for a selfie. I say "briefly" because that's exactly what it was - they did not really "stop" for long at all!

You think my child loved seeing the characters? 

Negative. He literally took a nose dive into the booth every time one would pass. Silly boy! 

He's hilarious to watch on every trip - as an infant he loved the characters, which transpired to him not liking them at all, then liking them again for a few trips, then refusing to wave at them. So funny!!

Prior to leaving, we received an autographed card from the Riviera, which took the place of the character's signatures in a signature book.

After we finished eating, we walked out on the rooftop to check out the view. This place is so beautiful and the view was breathtaking! 

I could have stayed up here for hours! 

Another thing I love about the Riviera is the artwork. If you look super close at the bottom right hand of this photo, you can see a "hidden" Mickey, painting a portrait of the countryside. Such a fun touch!

While here, we also took a DVC tour of the resort where we were shown all different types/styles of rooms including the 3 bedroom grand villa! If you haven't taken the tour, I highly recommend you do - it's beautiful!!

Will we be back? Absolutely! We already have brunch booked here for our August trip. If you haven't visited Topolino's Terrace yet, I highly suggest you do!

Topolino's Terrace Breakfast Review

Maybe I'm really longing for Disney World...or maybe I'm just hungry? Well, whatever the reason, I came across pictures from our dining experience at Topolino's Terrace at Disney's Riviera Resort and wanted to share them with you today!

For starters, we were not staying at the Riviera on this trip. However, getting to the Riviera was an easy ride away! We were also on the Dining Plan and wanted to utilize our credits as best as possible. For us, that usually does not include using a table service credit for breakfast, but we decided to chance it for a breakfast experience at Topolino's Terrace and we don't regret it one bit!

Prior to the trip, I'd attempted to score a reservation for breakfast at Topolino's and was unsuccessful. For good measure though, I continued trying throughout our trip and literally at 11 p.m. on the second to last night of our trip, a reservation slot opened for Topolino's for 8 a.m. the following day! What a way to begin our final day at Disney, huh?

We were so excited!

Topolino's Terrace is located at the very top of Disney's Riviera Resort and you are welcomed into their lobby immediately after stepping off of the elevators. From the start, this restaurant gave me a very Disney Cruise Line vibe, which I was 100% in for!

I loved all of the subtle Disney/Mickey touches, too!

The view from the top is incredible!

After a very short wait, we were directed to our table. Remember that Disney Cruise Line touch I mentioned? Well, my DCL friends will recognize the knife on the table! How fun, right?

The breakfast menu was prix fixe and included an art dish of pastries (yet another ode to DCL) as well as an entree of your choice.

The pastries even had dipping sauces across the bottom of the dish and everything was oh so delicious!

As the characters began coming around, Brayden became "shy". (His head on my shoulder was a recurring thing this entire trip! He thought he was so silly. At least he's smiling! Kids crack me up!)

Brayden's meal was the kids waffles which he ate up!

Bonus: Look how cute - they had a Mickey AND a Minnie waffle! So fun!

I ordered the sour cream waffle dish after asking the recommendation of our waitress. She was amazing, by the way and also a fellow DCL fan!

Although I'm not a huge fan of sour cream, these waffles were delicious!!

Jason ordered the  wood grilled steak and said it was very flavorful!

We all took turns taking photos with the characters (I did solo, too). For sake of time, I'm just posting a few here.

The outfits of all of the characters were so cute!

We loved this new (to us) dining experience and will definitely add it into our rotation for a future dining experience!

Have you had a chance to dine at Topolino's Terrace? If not, do you plan on dining there in the future?

Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno

Breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno at Disney's Boardwalk Resort has been on my list for a while as a "must do". So, when the opportunity arose on our most recent (and super quick) August Disney World trip, I knew I had to snag it!

We were able to book this reservation just a few weeks out from our trip. We also decided to go with an 8 a.m. breakfast time so we would have more time in the parks after breakfast. Our plan worked out great!

Also let's face it - this breakfast wasn't intended to entertain my toddler as he has no clue who any of these characters are (Rapunzel, Flynn Ryder, Ariel, Prince Eric)....it was mostly for me. There, I said it. Now that we have that out of the way, let's move on to the fun stuff!

Both Jason and I had trouble deciding on a dish from the menu as they all sounded amazing! I ended up asking our waitress about the menu favorites and she listed the Royale Breakfast as number one (which Jason ended up ordering) and the King Triton's Shipwreck al Forno as number two (which I ended up ordering)!

A frying pan of pastries was also delivered to our table shortly after we sat down. You know, similar to the one Rapunzel hit Flynn Ryder over the head with!

It's the little details that make this breakfast experience so fun!

Flynn Ryder was the first to stop by our table and y'all, he was seriously hilarious and definitely my favorite of the day!

I missed the beginning encounter as I was tending to the toddler, but apparently Jason called him "Eugene". Well, I was drawn into the conversation when I heard him respond with...."Ssssshhhhh! A man's fake reputation is all he has!"After chatting for a few minutes and taking pictures, he knelt down next to my completely un-interested toddler and began talking to him about Pascal and towers and the Snuggly Duckling. The more my toddler ignored him, the more he talked. Y'all, I was laughing so hard I was crying!! He was seriously the best!

Ariel and Rapunzel were fabulous as always!

You see what I mean about un-interested toddler?

Yep. Hot. Mess. Express.

I will give it to him though - he was a pretty good sport during breakfast itself for being so overtired from travel. I'll have to plan these things out better in the future!

Jason's Royale Breakfast included steak, asparagus, and potatoes. All of it was ranked as delicious in his book!

My King Triton Shipwreck al Forno was a calzone with marinara sauce and y'all...it was seriously delicious! I would return here just to eat this dish again! Oh yes, and the Triton was taken away as soon as this photo was snapped. I guess that thing can be seen as dangerous around there!

Brayden's waffles included Flounder and Ariel! So cute!!

Of course he decided to smile for a photo once all of the characters were gone. See what I mean about hot mess express? Toddlers. Gotta love them!

Overall, Jason and I really enjoyed our experience here and agreed we would return for the Bon Voyage breakfast experience at Trattoria al Forno again soon!

Have you ever eaten breakfast at Trattoria al Forno? If so, what were your thoughts on the overall experience?

Weekend Fun!

Hello Monday...we meet again!

The weekends always seem to go by so quickly, especially when a lot of fun events took place!

When the Astros World Series parade was announced for Houston on Friday at 2 p.m., I debated every in an out and up and down way for me to attend. Unfortunately, even though I had a half day of work on Friday, there was no way I would make it to Houston and into downtown to catch the parade. Instead, I watched live feeds from my cell phone! I was sad to not be there along with the projected millions of Astros fans, but oh well...it was really neat to see the live stream!

On Saturday morning, we were up very bright and early to attend a Princess & Superhero breakfast. A local dance club was hosting this as a fundraiser and we thought it would be fun to take Brayden!

He was super iffy about the superheros. He did give them a high five but didn't really want to....

The princesses, however....

He was enamored with these ladies, especially Sleeping Beauty's dress. We thought it would be funny to have a picture made with him in the middle of all of them. I'm sure he's going to be mad at me one day for this but for now, it's adorable.

Another trip we almost made was to WDW. I was initially supposed to be there this weekend anyway to surprise a friend running her first runDisney event but with the hurricane/cruise cancellation and rescheduling, this trip didn't work out. THEN the World Series parade was announced for Magic Kingdom on Saturday and we debated dropping all of our previous plans to attend, but there was just way too much going on this weekend. So again, I watched this one as live stream from my house!

After nap time, we went over to a local park that just opened this weekend. It's SO nice and a decent size for our small town and Brayden LOVED IT.

Yes, I'm aware that it's November and yes, it was in the 40's last weekend...but not this weekend! We had high's in the upper 80's here this weekend which was perfect for an afternoon at the splash pad.  He loved playing in the splash pad and didn't want to get out!

He also loved these new swings as well as another little play area where he could turn knobs and push buttons to his heart's content. In all, it was an amazing afternoon!

We arrived early at church on Sunday to drop Jason off for orchestra practice, so instead of waiting around for an hour and a half for service to start, Brayden and I went to Target to check out their Christmas collection!

He LOVED the trees with blinky lights!

Sunday night's service was very special for me as four young ladies I've worked with for a while now earned achievements in our Wednesday night program. They've all worked very hard for years and have come very far! It was a really special honor for them!

I hope everyone who ran Wine & Dine had a lot of fun this weekend! Seeing all of the social media posts and stories made me even more excited for January! Dopey, here I come!

How was your weekend? Anything exciting happen?