Tink Tested: Pinocchio's Village Haus Dinner

Location: Fantasyland in The Magic Kingdom
Meals Served: L, D

Type of Cuisine: Italian quick service

Dining Plan: Yes
Full Menu: Pinocchio's Village Haus Dinner Menu
Atmosphere: Pinocchio story book inspired dining rooms 

Photo Credit: Disneyworld.com

Fun Stuff: One of the rooms has windows that look out over the loading and unloading area of It's A Small World and kids get a kick out of waving to Guests on the boats.  

Stand out dishes: Caprese Flatbread, Chicken Parmesan, Chocolate Gelato
Best Use of Dining Plan Point: Chicken Alfredo or Chicken Parmesan ($11.49) + Chocolate Cake ($4.29) + Iced Coffee ($4.69) = $20.47
Experience: We visited Pinocchio's during our second visit to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I had eaten here once before, but since we are more of a burger-favoring family, when we are in the Magic Kingdom, we typically pick Pecos Bills or Cosmic Rays for a counter service meal. Truly, The Hubs went into Pinocchio's with the intention of grabbing a fountain soda, and we ended up enjoying the air conditioning and seating too much to move on right away. We were hungry, and the kids needed a trick-or-treating break, so we decided to grab a bite. There are 4 different dining areas to choose from, as well as outdoor tables. Since it was not very busy, we could sit anywhere, so we chose the room with the windows that look into Small World. 
     While everyone else sat, I went up and ordered. I asked a Cast Member for the allergy menu and was handed one right away. There were a good number of egg-free options for K and since he looooooves pizza, I knew we would be good to go. The pasta dishes looked good but I was too hot for something so heavy. I decided to get one regular Pepperoni Flatbread for the Hubs, Garlic Pesto Bread Knots to share, and I got each of the kids a kid's meal with a Cheese Flatbread, a side of grapes, an apple juice, and a side of fries. Since the kid's meals always come with two sides and a drink, I figured it made more sense for me to share with the kids than to order a separate meal for myself. With sides and entrees, we should have plenty. My mom chose a Caprese Flatbread. Because of K's allergy, they have to cook the whole order separately, and it takes longer, so we were handed a pager and told it would be about twenty minutes. That seemed like an excessive amount of time to me, but we went ahead and waited. They did let me get our beverages right away, since the kids were thirsty. 
     When I returned to the table, I was greeted by K, jumping up and down like Tigger. Looks like the candy kicked in. Good thing we had almost the whole room to ourselves. Only about 12 minutes later, the pager went off and our food was ready. I guess they tell you 20 minutes to be on the safe side.

     The flatbreads all looked very good, with golden crusts and plenty of cheese on top. The garlic bread smelled fantastic! The portions of fries were huge and the two packs of grapes were chilled and fresh. The kids dug right into their food and ate with gusto. I snagged a piece of the Cheese Flatbread and thought it was pretty good. Nice flavor and a crispy, thin crust. The Hubs was super impressed with his Pepperoni Flatbread and really enjoyed the Garlic Pesto Bread Knots too. Mum loved the balsamic glaze on the Caprese Flatbread. All around the table were smiling, pleasantly surprised faces. Why did we always skip this place? Well, I guess part of that can be blamed on it's location. Being in the heart of Fantasyland, it does get massive crowds, most of which contain toddlers and small children, making it a loud, full place to be during the regular park day. But now that we know how much we enjoyed the food, maybe we'd check it our during the day too. 
     As we were wrapping up, a Cast Member came out from the kitchen area to clean up and she started talking to K. She asked him if he was having fun and what he liked most about the party. His answer, of course, was, "Candy!" She said, "Well, we don't have candy, but we have something better! Hang on." She asked if it was ok to give the kids a surprise, and she ran out back and returned with cups full of blue slush, topped with whipped cream, and with plastic Mickey silly straws for sipping. My kids could not fathom a greater act of Disney magic! They were in heaven. And highly, highly sugared. What a sweet, genuine and magical thing to do! I adore when those moments of incredible happen at Disney. It's the stuff we will remember forever. (Queue Disney's new ad campaign, "Where Unforgettable Happens".) 
      So overall we really enjoyed our meal. We could have done without the Garlic Knots and maybe even one less kids meal, since we ended up having a lot of food leftover, and we weren't going to carry it around the party all night. I'll order more conservatively next time.

Tink's Tots Try It Out: According to D (6 yo girl) I know I don't even need to ASK what the best part about this meal was.   "The slush was awesome! I was so, so, SO excited to get it!"   Yes, clearly. Can you tell me about the actual food, though?   "Oh, yeah. The pizza? That was yummy. And the fries, and the grapes, even though I didn't eat all the fries, they were good anyway. I liked them a lot, cuz I like salty things and they were SALTY. Not the grapes, the fries."   I feel like the slush and candy combo is still having effects on you, days later.   "Huh? Slush with candy? I didn't have a slush with candy in it."   I know you didn't. I meant that you had candy and then had a slush too.   "Oooooh, cuz I was like, I didn't have a slush with candy in it."   Ugh, you're talking like a teenager. When did you start talking like a teenager?   "I'm almost a teenager, I think."   NO, no you're NOT. Remember that.   (insert disapproving look from said six year old)

Tink's Tots Try It Out: According to K (3 yo boy)  K, how was that slush at Pinocchio's? Pretty cool, huh?   "Yah, cold sush, Mamma."   Oh, I meant cool, as in awesome.   "Ah-sum. Yah, I liked it."   What about dinner? Did you like that too?   "Yah. I liked it."   What did you have for dinner?   "Sush."   Well I guess that's the only thing that made an impression, huh? That's ok. You have sugar-on-the-brain.   "Shugga on K's HEAD! Haha!"

Will we be back: Sure. Provided it's not insanely busy to get into, I would get a meal here again. 

Tink In The Parks: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, TAKE TWO!

Good morning, Tinkers!

     Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a magical weekend! Last night we did our second Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party of the season. This was sort of a re-do, since the first one we went to, on September 15th, (the first one of the season), was somewhat disastrous for us. To read the full review, click HERE! Since I have been reading some reviews that state that the Not So Scary Parties have been better since that first one, we decided that in order to be fair, we would need to try another one.

     This second one we did was on a Sunday night, and was the sixth party of the season. This time, we also brought along my mom, who was in town from Boston. All day long we had been watching the weather reports and keeping our fingers crossed. It was NOT looking good for our party. Rain was supposed to be moving in from about 4pm-11pm, so, yeah... pretty much the exact time of the party. We put both kids in for a nap around 2pm, hoping that they'd be up around 4, and we could head into the party and be there around 5 or 6. Well, my little dude decided to rage against the machine and didn't fall asleep until after 3, so that backed up our plans a bit. When the kids were finally awake, (around 5), we started getting ready. The rain was still holding off, but the sky was dark gray and ominous. Looked like Maleficent was stirring up something fierce. Hopefully, it would blow away, without blowing US away. We headed out the door anyway, since the party is rain or shine. D had decided to be Rapunzel and K insisted on wearing an Elsa dress, so we got in the car with two bedazzled children.


     By the time we pulled on to Disney property, the sky had opened up. The slashing rain was making it hard to see out the car windows, but we did notice that the inflatable jack-o-lanterns were back on top of the Magic Kingdom toll plaza, as they had been in years past. I also saw a somewhat disappointing sign, pointing out that the party was once again sold out. I had a flashback to the first night we went and hoped things were not the same. We parked, and got out of the car. When K saw that it was raining, he said, "No Elsa dess, RAAAIIINNNcoat!", so we took the dress off and he just wore his regular clothes, with his raincoat over them. I can't say I blame him. Getting an Elsa dress all wet would be a shame. The cold may not have bothered Elsa, but I bet the rain was a different story. D, on the other hand, was doing everything she could to avoid putting on a raincoat, since she was busy marveling over her new, "magically" extended hair, and her puffy dress.

The humidity made the fog super dense.

     When we stepped off the monorail, and down the ramp, by some Not So Scary miracle, it had stopped raining! It was PERFECT! (Hot as Hades, and super humid, but no longer deluging.) We entered the park, got our wristbands and trick-or-treat bags, and were off. At this point, it was 7:40, so the party was well underway. My mom loved the decorations and special lighting on Main Street and again our fellow Guests were out in some stellar costumes! Lots and LOTS of emotions from Inside Out, many princesses, and I saw a lot of Universal characters. Minions, Harry Potters, and even a Jack the Clown. (Which was unnerving to see at Not So Scary.)

     This time we decided to head toward Adventureland first. The crowds were packed pretty tight, but I think the rain encouraged some of the would-be-stragglers from the day to head on out. Tarzan, Turk and Jane were not in their regular spot, nor was Jafar. I looked to see if they were in an alternate location, due to the rain, but we didn't see them. (Turns out, they WERE in an alternate location, over near the new sunglass store, but we couldn't locate the area through the crowds early in the night.) The trick-or-treat line for the Tiki Room was massive. Like, all the way through the Tiki queue, around the building, and down past Pirates. Oh man. A repeat of the last party we went to. Ugh. We were going to try the Jungle Cruise treat station, but for some reason, it was closed off. Next we tried the Pirates treat station. The line was again, huge, but at least moving quickly, so we hopped in. We made it through the line in less than 15 minutes, and the kids FINALLY had candy in their bags! They were psyched! We probably could have gone home at that point and they would have been perfectly happy, but we were in it for the long haul. I had wanted to ride Pirates, since it just reopened, but it was a 35 minute wait, so we passed it up, and pressed on. Jack Sparrow had about a 20 minute wait, so we skipped him too.

     Already I had noticed two vast improvements over the first party: 1.) There were Cast Members patrolling the streets and yelling, 'Show me your wristband!", in an effort to get non-party Guests out. This seemed to be extremely effective, since they could quickly identify who should be there and who should not.  2.) There were managers at the candy lines, trying to herd people along as quickly as possible. They were shouting, "There's a station open here, move on down! Have your bags open!"  Yes, these actions might have seemed a bit militant and not very Disney-like, but heck, I'll take that over there being tons of non-paying Guests there with me any day!

     In Frontierland, the Splash Mountain treat station had a very, very long line, but again, it was moving quickly, so we hopped in. We got through it in about 10 minutes. Then we ran over an did the Tom Sawyer Island queue one, and got our Halloween Peeps. We got through that line in about 5 minutes. Thunder and Splash Mountain each only had a 5 minute wait, so The Hubs took D to ride Thunder, while K, Mom and myself headed away from the crowd. There was already a very full street of people waiting for the first parade, and it was about 8:15pm. There were people shoulder to shoulder. It didn't help that there was a medical emergency in front of the ferry dock, so they had a whole section closed down. Once The Hubs and D caught back up with us, we moved into Liberty Square. In search of a fountain drink, we tried to go into Columbia Harbour House, but were told by the Cast Member out front that it was closed. I thought that was weird, since it was on the map as being open, but oh well. Haunted Mansion was on a 35 minute wait, so we skipped that too. The kids now had their eyes on the (candy) prize, so we went to the treat station in the Peter Pan queue. That line was also enormous, and took us about 15 minutes to move through it, but tonight was really all about the candy and the stuff the kids wanted to do, so we waited.

     After that, we all needed a break from the heat and from standing, so we went to Pinocchio's Village House to grab a bite. I will do a full review of it for you tomorrow, but it was way better than I remember it being in the past. Tasty flat breads and yummy garlic rolls. MMmm... I knew it was a poor strategy to be parked on our butts while the parade was happening. We should have been taking advantage of the lighter crowds, but again, we had been to a party already and so we had a little more luxury to fly by the seat of our pants. Beside, the kids were quiet and semi-calm and enjoying some food that was NOT sugar-based, so I was happy to stay where we were.



     When we came out of dinner, it was sprinkling again. The parade had ended, so the crowd in Fantasyland was pretty heavy. We opted for a spin on the Carousel, which the kids are always thrilled with. Princess Fairytale Hall looked deserted, and the kids wanted to see those Frozen sisters, so we checked on the wait times. Cinderella and Rapunzel: 5 minutes. Anna and Elsa: 40 minutes. I said to D, "Wouldn't you like a picture with Rapunzel, since you're dressed like her?" Worked like a dream. Hooray for creative parent problem solving! We actually had NO wait and walked right into an empty meet and greet. Rapunzel fawned all over D and her gorgeous braid, and K jumped up and down yelling, "Punzel!!!" Totally worth the trip in! We said hi to Cindy and got some more princess hugs, and then went back out into the crowd of Fantasyland. But it had stopped raining again, so that was awesome!

 

     Next we decided on Teacups, since that is K's new favorite ride. After a nauseating spin for their candy-filled bellies, the kids wanted to shake everything up some more, so we went into Cosmic Rays, where they had moved the Monsters Inc dance party out of the rain. We sat for a bit while the kiddos bounced around to pop songs and yelled for more candy, like any villagers. We were only about 10 minutes away from fireworks, so we hit up another trick-or-treat stop next to the Speedway, with only a 5 minute wait, and then headed toward Story Book Circus. We watched the fireworks from right in front of the Story Book Circus sign and had a great view! If you haven't seen Hallowishes before, I really recommend watching it from in front of the castle for the best view, but since we had already seen them, this was a nice place to watch, without being packed in tight.

The special perimeter fireworks seem to pop up everywhere!

     After fireworks, we hit up the treat station inside the queue of Pete's Silly Sideshow with no wait, and caught a glimpse of Jack and Sally as they returned from a break. Woah! They look amazing and super creepy, all at the same time!

     I decided to let K see if he was tall enough to ride The Barnstormer on the way by and he WAS! YEAH! First coaster ride for K! He loved/hated it. As soon as we went down the first hill, he buried his head in my chest and wouldn't look up, but when we came to a stop at the end, he was all smiles and yelling, "Again! Again!" When we had to step out of the ride vehicle, he lost his mind. I had to promise him more candy to get him to get off of the ground, where he was protesting exiting the ride by laying in fetal position. In all fairness, it was almost 11pm and he had a slow sugar-burn going. D had wanted to take a picture with Cruella, but she had a 30 minute wait, so she opted to pass on that, in order to get more candy. We did the trick-or-treat trail that runs down to Tomorrowland, with only small back ups and a little waiting. Tomorrowland was pretty deserted at that point, and we did the treat station at Carousel of Progress in under ten minutes. We also went to the one over to the side of Carousel of Progress, where we found no line at all. Turned out, the queue was empty because it was basically the house that gives out toothbrushes on Halloween. (They were giving out bags of Craisins.) Lotso still had a good sized queue, so we opted for a ride on Buzz Lightyear, which was down to no wait. We hit up the treat station in the Stitch queue with no wait too.

     Since the second parade was about to start and my mom hadn't seen it, she and D grabbed a spot for it in the already VERY crowded hub. The Hubs and I opted to keep moving with K, in order to keep him from melting down. (K, not The Hubs. The Hubs was managing to keep it together.) While they watched the parade, the three of us got in some more trick-or-treating over  in Adventureland. We hit the treat stations in the Tiki Room, the (now open) one at The Jungle Cruise, and the one at Pirates, all in less than 20 minutes total. We did happen to see Tarzan, Jane and Turk leaving their photo spot for the night. K jumped out of his stroller to go see them, but they were already walking away. I was a little irritated when they did, however, stop for Cast Member friends of theirs who were walking by. That was a bad judgement call on their part. Don't rush past an excited 3 year old because you're done for the night, and then be willing to stop for your adult friends, a few feet later.

     We could hear the parade wrapping up in the hub, so we went back to collect my mom and D. We were going to stay for the last Hocus Pocus show at midnight, but since the hub was already PACKED, we instead decided to head down Main Street while the stores were still open, to grab a drink and hopefully a specialty cupcake. Well, as I had feared, the Confectionery was totally sold out of cupcakes, and they did not carry the candy corn cotton candy. We overheard a girl complaining to a Cast Member that everywhere they tried to get the cotton candy and the cupcakes they were sold out, so it sounds like maybe there weren't enough treats again tonight. No worries for us, since we had collected a GIANT grocery bag full of candy. Score!

Our trick-or-treat haul

     It was midnight. We were exhausted. We were sweaty. We were exhausted. Oh, wait. Yeah.... It was time to go. We had Not-So-Scaried until we couldn't Not-So-Scary anymore.

     So overall, here are my positive and negative thoughts about the party:

Positive: They definitely did a MUCH better job of clearing the party of non-paying Guests, much quicker than they had on the first night. They also kicked butt at moving people along at the candy stations and made the treat lines move a lot faster. From what I understand, there was more party-exclusive merchandise available later in the night than there had been at the first night. Maybe it was rationed better or something. Most attractions had little to no wait. Even Mine Train was down to 20 minutes for parts of the night.

Negative: The party was still super crowded. I feel like the cap on the number of Guests allowed in is way higher than it has been in the past. We truly NEEDED two parties in order to see and do what we wanted to. If we were at the party last night and had not been there on a previous night, we would have found ourselves in the same position, having to miss out on most of the trick-or-treating and characters, in order to have a spot for the parade and fireworks. There also should have been signage, or at least a Cast Member, at each of the designated character meet and greet areas, telling Guests where the alternate location was in the case of inclement weather. I talked to Guests that said they had a hard time finding several of the characters, since they were moved to covered or inside spots, which were not labeled in any way. They also need to make sure that if they are going to advertise specialty treats on the map, that they are available for the whole night, or at least almost the whole night.

     Was this one better than the first night? Yes. Was it as good as previous years? No. Would I go again? Maybe. I certainly won't do the first one next year. I think I'll wait and see what some of the reports are like before I spend the money. But for now, my kids are napping, so I'm going to sneak into their candy stash!

     I hope you all found this helpful and I would LOVE to hear what YOUR Not So Scary experience was like this year!! Let me know!

Tink In The Parks: Coming Soon... Back to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Good morning, Tinkers!

     I have exciting news! Since we didn't have the best experience at the first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party this year, but there have been MUCH more positive reviews of the more recent parties, we have decided to try again!











     This Sunday, September 27th, we will be returning to MNSSHP for a second go! I can't wait to report back to you... hopefully with much more positive comments and some FULL bags of candy! Make sure you tune in Monday, for my review! Anyone else going this Sunday?

Tink In The Parks: Magic Kingdom Fall Decorations and More

Good morning, Tinkers!

     Have you "Liked" my Facebook Page yet? If you do, you'll be entered to win a cute Minnie Halloween antenna topper, so make sure you hop to it! Ok, back to today's fun...

     The other day, K and I went to The Magic Kingdom to check out the Halloween decorations, and to take advantage of the light crowds. We got some great pictures, so let's go on a little Magic Kingdom photo safari, shall we? Here we goooooooo...........Off to The Magic Kingdom!

     Well, we started with a quick bite at the Polynesian Village. Look how empty the lobby was!

     Who wouldn't LOVE to stay in one of the incredible DVC Bungalows? Your own private hot tub on your own private deck, facing your own private Magic Kingdom fireworks? Um, yes.

The Halloween decorations at The Magic Kingdom are gorgeous!

Can you believe there was almost no one in the bag check line at 9:30am?

The Main Street USA decorations are so fun and festive...

Hey, there's Pluto!

And Marie!

A quick stop into the Confectionery...

And back to the Hub...

 

We decided to do K's first spin on the Teacups, which he LOVED, and then headed into Storybook Circus.

I LOVE catching live entertainment!

Look at that wait time! Yay, off season!

Made a new friend. Is this not the CUTEST popcorn bucket?

K played in the splash pad area for almost an hour! Luckily, I had a change of clothes with us!

Have you guys seen these Attractionista dolls?

I don't love that they look like Bratz, but they are pretty cool.

 On to Fantasyland...

Oh, off season, how I love you!

K decided that he was royalty on the Carousel.

And rode while waving and saying, "Hi, my people!"

We took the happiest cruise that ever sailed... (Well, personally I think that the happiest cruise is a Disney Cruise Line cruise, but I'll settle for Small World for now.)...

And a quick couple of attractions in Tomorrowland before we were done. This was K's first ride on the Speedway too. He was finally tall enough! I let him drive. Bad move. Ooof did my head hurt from all of the banging around, but he squealed with delight the whole time!

 

And there's ALWAYS time for a relaxing cruise on the TTA...

Again... Off season rocks!

By this point, it was almost 3pm, so we needed to make that important decision... Stay for the parade and get stuck in the crowd leaving, or head out before the parade starts. We opted for the later option.

I love this "See Ya Real Soon" sign

As we pulled to the end of our row in the parking lot, I asked K if he had fun. This was my response...

I'll tale that as a 'yes'.