Day 8, Part 1: New-and-Nothing-To-Do Fantasyland + Les Halles Bakery Review

Today was our one full day in the parks at Walt Disney World, and it was kind of a bummer! (However, if you’ve got a hankerin’ to see 1.7 bazillion photos of New Fantasyland and Storybook Circus, you are totally in luck!)

We woke up early enough to catch the sunrise over Bay Lake, which was nice.

Then we walked over to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop so we would have plenty of time in New Fantasyland before it got crowded.

Look out behind you, dapper dancer!!!

 

“Word.”

 

With nothing in the photo to give you a sense of scale, these look like they could be pins! But they’re really posters in the tunnel to Main Street, U.S.A.


We power-walked our buns off, eager to be among the first to ride the Little Mermaid ride that morning (or, as I call it, “Under the Sea: Ariel’s Undersea Journey to a Voyage of Adventure”).

But when we got there, a pair of cast members stood out front turning people away. The ride was inexplicably closed til 1pm! Suddenly our entire day’s plans—New Fantasyland in the morning, lunch at Epcot, and DHS in the evening—were thrown off course.

We felt completely deflated. We didn’t really even know what to do next, since there’s nothing much else going on in New Fantasyland without the Seven Dwarfs Mine Car ride. We wandered aimlessly, firing the camera practically at random…

WHY AREN’T YOU DONE YET?!!!

 

Even these dwarfs have more to do in New Fantasyland than we do!

 

 

 

We wandered into Gaston’s Tavern and the new gift shop for more photos, but if you just ate breakfast and aren’t in the market for a hideously over-the-top light-up castle goblet, they don’t occupy you for more than a few minutes.

This guy is daydreaming about stealing that ECV for an impromptu joyride…

 

(You’re gonna be able to draw this place from memory by the time Patrick gets done documenting it!)

Bad show, straw dispenser… bad show!

 

Dozens of Animatronic elk gave their lives for this chandelier

 

 


Who is this little door for?

 

When we passed back by Enchanted Tales with Belle, the 10-minute wait had jumped to 20 and we were like, “Forget it!”

BIG MISTAKE!

As we later discovered, this show is just like Ollivander’s wand show at Harry Potterland. You gotta go early when they line’s short, cuz it’s TOTALLY not worth standing in the huge lines that develop later in the day. But we just kept walking…

Eventually we ended up in Storybook Circus, which Patrick hadn’t seen yet. His photos are going to make the ones in my Epcot 30th Anniversary trip report totally redundant when I finally get to posting that part of my trip—d’oh!

For lack of anything better to do, we rode Goofy’s Barnstormer, a.k.a. whatever it’s called now.

Oh! That’s pretty much what it’s still called!

 

So OSHA wants railings on Alice In Wonderland but they have no problem with the death trap that Goofy’s Barnstormer appears to be?

 

 

Patrick was enthralled by the new Casey, Jr. water-play area.

OK, when you think about it, that’s actually kinda gross…

 

GAHHHH! I am NEVER letting my kids play in camel spit!

 

…OR elephant snot!!!

 

Disney did a pretty great job of illustrating clowns that aren’t creepy!

 

Patrick adored the illustrations on all the banners in Storybook Circus, which is why you’re getting to see every single one!

 

 

Now, you know how I am about character interaction, so I thought we were only going into this tent to grab a couple overview shots. But Goofy and Donald had ZERO lines, so we got suckered in. And that’s how I ended up waiting in a 20-minute line—for the first time EVER—to meet Daisy and Minnie…

“Gawrsh! Come on over! You will totally not get suckered into waiting in a 20-minute line for Daisy and Minnie!”

 

“Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!”

 

We couldn’t get over how well-done the character’s backdrops are—super-detailed, colorful, clever and creative. I always grumble when they put in a big character barn instead of an actual ride, but I gotta admit that it’s pretty much the perfect way to get a character photo if you want it.

“Forget her—you want a photo with ME!!!”

 

 

“Now me!”

 

You do, of course, exit through the obligatory gift shop. But what a gift shop! Not only is the atmosphere incredibly appealing, they actually have some good-looking, unique merchandise. Amazing!

They need to be selling prints of all this art. I’d almost have a kid just to hang it in her room!

 

But here’s what I was REALLY interested in…

 

I tried really hard to think of a reason to buy this!

 

There’s only one thing that can distract Patrick from taking photos…

PINS!

What a great idea to make the pin “board” into cartons of popcorn!

 

 

Storybook Circus seen and photographed, we wandered aimlessly back in the direction of New-and-Nothing-to-Do Fantasyland…

 

Thank goodness we’d managed to snag a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest Restaurant as soon as our plans changed to include Walt Disney World. No way was I waiting in the blazing sun for that!

“I’m melting…!”

 

Patrick hadn’t yet experienced a Citrus Swirl, and remembering that gave us renewed purpose. Off to Adventureland!!!

Money-swiper!

 

In the same amount of time it takes you to scroll to this photo, these melted

 

Once you have a Citrus Swirl in your hand, you pretty much gotta go visit the Tiki Room!

 

Sorry this one is blurry—I’m keeping it in cuz I love the colors!

 

This display reminds me of the Bon Voyage shop at Tokyo Disney. I like it!

 

My journal says we walked back to Bay Lake Tower to get our car. This shot was taken from the monorail. What ELSE have I been lying to myself about?!!!

Maybe we were stilt-walking…?

 

LOVE!

I guess we decided to stick with the MK-to-Epcot portion of the plans ruined by the Little Mermaid ride’s closure. (RUINED, I tells ya! There was no saving the rest of this vacation!!!). I wanted to try the new bakery in France and see if the food was actually good now, so it was bon voyage to the Contemporary!

But where can I make a KIDCOT mask now…?

 

First Impression: Wow. It’s almost like I’m really standing in a real airport food court! (I know, I know… it’s themed to a train station. I’m from LA… I don’t know what a train station food court looks like!)

Clockwise from lower right: Quiche Lorraine, Croque Monsieur, Fruity Thingy, Something That I Thought Was Just Chocolate Mousse But Wasn’t

 

Second Impression: Wow. They’ve managed to perfectly re-create the same dry, flavorless sandwich I remember from the old bakery, complete with that veneer of hard cheese shards barely melted by the toasting process.

 

The quiche was OK, but its primary flavor was “salty.”

There was something unidentifiable lurking under the chocolate mousse in the soggy-crusted tart.

Sorry, I was trying to get a mouthwatering close-up like AJ does for the Disney Food Blog….

 

I found this deeply unsettling—what if it was FRUIT?! (Yes, I know, if I can’t taste it as fruit, I shouldn’t have a problem with it, but it’s all mental, you see….) I had to go back and ask one of the girls behind the counter what was in the thing I was eating. She smiled and replied, “Eh… salty… caramel?” in a delightful French accent. After I thanked her and began to walk away, I thought I heard her stage whisper to her co-worker, “‘Salty caramel’ means ‘really disgusting fruit stuff’ in English, right?” (I speak French Stage Whisper).

It says something that even Patrick, who never met a fruit dessert he didn’t like, met a fruit dessert he didn’t like at Les Halles! He couldn’t get past the idea that it was like eating gobs of mango jelly straight from the jar, even if there was coconut pineapple custard under there somewhere. We both ended up throwing our desserts away.

Allow me to translate these signs for you…

“You would have to be eating on horseback not to notice how weird this dessert tastes!”

 

“Dry bread, dry cheese, dry ham—that’s just how they like a Croque Monsieur in France. Really!”

 

“Our croissants are stinkier than our cheese!”

 

“Don’t like our food? Shove it up your—!” (Er, sorry, I don’t know the English equivalent of that word…)

 

Les Halles was a disappointment, but we knew exactly where to go to raise our spirits: Mitsukoshi!

“Hey, guys! Over here!!!”

 

Love among the frogs…

 

I told Patrick the D23 Epcot 30th story of Imagineer Jason Grandt schlepping this melon box all over Tokyo to the amusement of passersby, to which Patrick replied, “Why didn’t he just break down the box?”

I was sorta glad I’d thrown out my French dessert, because it left room for the S’more Mousse Brownie now served at the counter-service spot in the American Pavilion (what’s that place called… “McDonald’s”?). I had a little better luck with the Disney Food Blog-esque photos here, thanks to the natural light.

As noted in the DFB review, it’s less of a brownie and more of a… cupcake-pie…? It’s got a graham cracker crust, cake in the middle, and then fudgey/ganache-y frosting, plus some melted marshmallow on top that runs all over like an egg yolk when you break it. With higher quality ingredients, this might have become my new favorite, but it was just that gooey, stick-to-your ribs chocolate that’s kinda generic-tasting. Not too shabby, but nothing to write home about (unless you’re writing a trip report, in which case EVERYTHING is something to write home about!).

We decided to take a Friendship boat over to Mexico so Patrick could check out the new art displays, but first he grabbed some daytime photos of the fireworks-viewing areas in Germany for me. If you can wait to book til 2 weeks before you wanna have one, these are great spots for a dessert party!

Hey, that’s our boat!!!

I was glad to see that the animales fantasticos we like to collect on every trip are still being sold. The press release made it sound like Disney was removing them completely, not just from the lobby.

Huh. All that, and Patrick didn’t even shoot the new displays in the lobby of the Mexico Pavilion. This is his next photo:

OK, I’m gonna pause here for now, but I’ll be back soon with…

Up Next: Impressions of new Test Track, our trip to DHS, and our dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant!

17 Responses
  • Eileen
    July 25, 2013

    Gee, aren’t they finished building CA Adventure yet? It was under construction when we went almost 3 1/2 years ago! I thought they had opened the Little Mermaid ride awhile ago.

    • Carrie
      July 26, 2013

      Very funny, Moma! Yeah, the Little Mermaid ride they dropped into the Magic Kingdom is identical to the one they put in California Adventure a couple years ago. At least the one in Florida has interesting exterior themeing of its show building, though—I always say DCA’s looks like a suburban AMC theater…

      • Eileen
        July 26, 2013

        Ohhhhhh. Silly me! I was getting my parks mixed up! I was thinking you were in CA and not in FL!

        • Carrie
          July 26, 2013

          Hee hee! Guess I should’ve known you weren’t being sarcastic…

  • jenn paul
    July 16, 2013

    just catching up, and LOL. This post was especially carrieistctic and HIGHlarious! and holy shiz, I love character meet and greets, and totally missed the big top ones! I MUST GO BACK! SO thank you for that. As far as mermaid ride.. I wasn’t impressed, Bob was… I’m curious if you actually rode now, and your thoughts… guess I should read the other posts to find out! BUMMER about France! I was DROOLING over it last trip, and you know how I feel about QS! I still may give it a try 🙂

    • Carrie
      July 16, 2013

      Well, maybe we just happened to order all the worst things at Les Halles. Let me know if you find something great!

  • Beka
    July 10, 2013

    I’ve spent some time in Gaston’s, and I have to say that for all the money Disney has thrown at New Fantasyland, why, WHY did they cheap out on those stupid looking resin animal head things? They’re not even to scale! UGH. They look like something you’d get out of a Lillian Vernon catalog.

    • Carrie
      July 10, 2013

      LOL! I remember the Lillian Vernon catalog! Who knew they were selling theme park theming now? 😀

  • Claire (Chilly)
    July 2, 2013

    You are my own personal dessert guide as another hater of fruit and chocolate together. I think next time we go ( still over 2 years away 🙁 ) I might write a list of snacks to try.

    • Carrie
      July 2, 2013

      That’s a really good idea, cuz it’s easy to forget when you’re there! I always have separate To Do and To Eat lists on my phone. 😀

  • Katelyn B
    July 1, 2013

    I’m glad to hear the animales fantasticos are still in action! I hope that’s still the case when we finally get to go to WDW (Feb. 2015 Woooooo!). Every time I read a trip report where you buy them, I think about what a neat souvenir tradition that is. We totally want to do it!

    • Carrie
      July 2, 2013

      We’re going to have to take it up again cuz our new cat, Nacho, keeps knocking ours off the shelf and breaking them!

  • Tim
    July 1, 2013

    The little panning spotlights in Big Top Treats are probably some of my favorite details in the entire Storybook Circus. It adds a little bit of life in what would be a somewhat static scene otherwise.

    New Fantasyland is pleasant enough and generally quite pretty. I just wish there was more to do.

    • Carrie
      July 1, 2013

      EeeeeeeeXACTLY!

  • Hope
    July 1, 2013

    Storybook Circus looks really cute. I also like the merchandise that I saw. I can’t believe YOU threw away dessert.

    So in the epic battle of Dole Whip vs. Citrus Swirl, where you do stand?

    • Carrie
      July 1, 2013

      Not being a huge fruit fan, I call it a draw! Both are very refreshing despite their fruityness. The Citrus Swirl has this neat half sweet-half tart thing going on that is very fun. But the preternatural smoothness of the Dole Whip can’t be denied.

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