Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen opened just a little while ago. The restaurant, which is themed after the Jungle Cruise, has received lots of good reviews and is a pretty popular place to eat at the Magic Kingdom. With new restaurants it can be hard to get in to try it out, because everyone wants to see it. That’s about to get a little easier for the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen, for a little while anyway.
Sometimes you just want to grab a quick bite to eat while you are in the parks. So, in this series we’ll explore quick service options in the parks.
During our recent visit to Disney World we booked a lot of character dining meals for the kids. The kids had fun at all of them and it was fun for us as adults to watch the awe in their eyes. While we enjoyed all of the character meals, one stood out for both the character interaction and the food; 1900 Park Fare was our favorite, hands down.
With the addition of Pandora – The World of AVATAR, the Rivers of Light show, and the night time experience for Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom, the park is getting some upgrades. That is not all that will be new at Animal Kingdom though. Disney has announced a new signature dining restaurant will be opening in Animal Kingdom as well.
As it gets closer to the Thanksgiving and the holiday season, you will probably start thinking about New Year’s Eve plans. If you are going to be in Disney World for the holiday make sure to check out these options to ring in the New Year!
I love these apples! During the last trip my husband and I split one of the “Witch Minnie” apples. It was so good and the little candy witch hat was really cute.
When you are staying in Disney for a week or longer having groceries on hand can help reduce the dining bill. A lot of people will have groceries delivered and there is one company that is mentioned over and over when the grocery delivery question pops up in Disney groups. It’s GardenGrocer.com and we used their grocery delivery service during our last trip. Continue reading
The Boardwalk has some very good dining experiences. The Boardwalk Bakery has delicious baked goods and Big River Grille has pretty good burgers, but the Flying Fish Cafe is probably the most popular table service restaurant on the Boardwalk. People love the food and the ambiance. Well, it’s about to get a makeover.
There were lots of fun things that my family did while we were on vacation in Disney World. Of course, the best part was that my family was together for 12 days. These days it’s hard to get that much family time. So that was definitely the best part!
On our arrival day we had made reservations to go to Raglan Road, because I have heard such great things. So I figured this was a “can’t miss” dining experience.
We arrived for our dinner reservation at 6:45. I overheard the cast member at the podium tell a guest that they seat within 15 minutes of your reservation. So that meant we would probably be waiting until 7 for our reservations that we made 180 days ago, but it was busy so we figured that was fair.
Unfortunately, we waited until 7:15 to be seated. We did have 8 people on the reservation, but, again, they had 6 months of knowledge that a large party would be coming in at that time. So by the time we were seated we were starving. The kids were still doing okay at this point, but we knew we didn’t have long before they began to fade.
Once we were seated our waitress, Charlotte, came to take our drink orders. Charlotte was wonderful. She was great with the kids, very friendly, and attentive. We all ordered our drinks and she brought them pretty fast. I ordered the Strawberry and Cucumber Mojito and it was delicious! Definitely recommend that one.
The appetizers came out pretty quick. I ordered the “Scallop Forest” which is basically fried scallops on forks. It came with two dipping sauces. One was creamy and the other was a chili jam. Our friend ordered the “Heaven on Earth” and those are baby back ribs with a Guinness glaze. Both the scallops and the ribs were very good.
Unfortunately, the entrees did not come out as fast as the appetizers. Charlotte brought out the mac and cheese plates for the kids, but it was quite a while before the other entrees made it to our table. We had been seated for at least an hour before our entrees finally came out.
Now for the food. The kids all got the mac and cheese and fries. It was standard mac and cheese and went over pretty well. The fries are thicker cut and were very good as well.
My husband got “The Pale” which has shrimp, clams, and roasted corn in a broth and it comes with two soda bread scone. The presentation is nice; it comes in a pan. My husband said it was good, but not really worth the price we paid for it. The portion was small and some of the clams were empty.
Two of us got the “Keen Eye for the Shepard’s Pie.” This one is a little different from the Shepard’s Pie I am used to. There was no crust, but it was still a perfect circle. The meat layer was pretty thick and it was topped with a layer of mashed potatoes. It was so good! The portion was generous and I was able to take half of it home to eat for lunch the next day.
One of my friends ordered the “Cluck Curry.” This was chicken breast that was in curry broth with onions, peppers, leeks, and served with steamed almond rice. She was very happy with her choice and also had leftovers for the next day.
Throughout the meal Irish dancers performed in the different rooms. We were in a room off to the side of the main room, but the dancers came to our section and performed. It’s fun to watch and the dancers are amazingly good! The main room is really nice. There is an actual stage in there and the decor is really nice. They also have lights that are programmed along with the show.
Overall, we didn’t think it was worth the $100+ that we paid. The atmosphere was fun, the food was good, and the waitress was very nice, but the wait was too long (especially since we had a reservation) and the food took a really long time to make it to the table. I would, however, try the restaurant again. I’ve heard many good things and maybe they were having an off night, but I would go during the day next time.
Thanks for reading!
*Liz*
