Pixie Dust Mom

Our Top 5 Favorite Things- Port Orleans French Quarter

Hi and welcome to my first Disney World resort review! My family and I absolutely love the Port Orleans resort and would gladly stay here again and again! In this post I’m going to discuss what we love about it and why we chose it over all the others on Disney property.

**Our daughter loved all the crocodiles along the main path to the pool from the lobby.**

Reasons Why We Love Port Orleans

Size: We literally felt like we had been transported to a small, quiet town during our stay. The cobblestone streets, the lamp posts and fountains, all nestled alongside the Sassagoula River. You can even take a horse and buggy ride around the property!

**I love all the bright pastel colors on the buildings! No detail was spared here!**

Kid Friendly: We didn’t realize how kid friendly it was until we arrived. The pool and splash pad are totally geared toward families but I would still want to stay here even if was just my husband and I on a quick getaway trip for 2. We saw so many families staying here, but it wasn’t loud at all. So even though I say it’s kid friendly, it’s also couple friendly too.

**The pool and splash pad area are so fun!**

Food: French Quarters only food option is there “food court” called Sassagoula Floatworks Factory but don’t let that deter you. They have anything and everything you could possibly want, including the infamous Mickey shaped beignets. Trust me, you don’t want to miss out on these. Now, you don’t have to be staying here in order to eat the food (just like how it is at any of the resorts), but let me tell you…it’s pretty nice to wake up, get ready for a day at the parks, and stop and get some beignets for breakfast real quick! If you’re looking for more meal options, you can always take a short stroll to the other Port Orleans resort, Riverside and find something there. They have a few more options.

Proximity to Disney Springs: Since this resort is right next to the Sassagoula River, it has it’s own boat dock. Boats run night and day to and from Disney Springs, where you can find more dining options and shopping as well.

Why We Chose Port Orleans French Quarter

Disney breaks down all of their resorts into three categories: value, moderate and deluxe. The Port Orleans resorts, French Quarter and Riverside, fall into the moderate category. The price point and the amenities were perfect for our family. Honestly, I’m so glad we chose to stay here because I think we have found a home for many more trips to come!

Be Our Guest Dinner Review

We recently visited the Beast at his castle for Be Our Guest dinner! The Beast’s castle is located in Magic Kingdom in Fantasyland. Breakfast and lunch are also served at the castle as quick service meals. All three meals require a reservation, but you can pre-order for breakfast and lunch.

We checked in for our dinner reservation and waited just a few minutes before we were seated at our table. There are three different rooms for dining. The West Wing, the Grand Ballroom and the Castle Gallery. The West Wing is darker and more gloomy, with thunder and different sound effects playing. The Grand Ballroom is the main room that you first enter. It’s the noisiest of the three. The Castle Gallery has a large music box in the middle of the room with a rotating Belle and Beast dancing pair on top, and also has beautiful paintings of different scenes from Beauty and the Beast all around the room. This is the room where we were seated.

We visited over New Years so the Grand Ballroom was still decorated for Christmas.

There was even “falling snow” outside of the windows! Disney magic is the best!

Our dinner was delicious! We both ordered the Filet Mignon (which was delicious), but the dessert trio was definitely the highlight! The seasonal macaron, dark chocolate truffle and white chocolate chip with grey stuff are brought out on a platter lined with edible sugar paper that has a stained glass design.

The white chocolate chip cup with grey stuff was my favorite! It tasted like a light vanilla mousse, but wasn’t too overly sweet or rich. I couldn’t finish it though because I was so full from the rest of the meal!

And then of course, after we finished dinner, we met the Beast! He’s only there for meet and greets at dinner and this is the only place in Walt Disney World to meet him. Our interaction with him was great. We asked him where Belle was and he said she was reading in her library!

We had a great experience at Be Our Guest and would love to go again soon! All of the cast members were very friendly and we had wonderful service! Let me know in the comments if you have eaten here and what your experience was like!

Valentines and Disney at Target

Valentines merchandise has been out for a couple of weeks already and as always, Target did not disappoint! I found some adorable Disney brand clothes, as well as some books and home accessories! Let’s look at what I found on this trip!

How cute is this Juniors Mickey Mouse sweater? It’s a light pink color so it’s perfect for Valentines Day! Find it here for $19.99.

This Mickey and Friends Raglan tee is just the cutest! It’s listed online here for $16.99.

I also found some sweet dresses and shirts in the Little Girl’s section. The dress is $22.99 and the tops are $11.99 with reversible sequins. Find them all and more here.

I also found some St. Patrick’s Day items as well! Since they’re already out in stores, I wanted to go ahead and include them now so you can find them before they sell out. Here are the shirts ($11.99 each) and the dress ($19.99).

A few more Disney items that would make cute Valentines gifts for the kids! Minnie Knows Bows book for $6.79 (on sale), Mickey and Minnie shaped Goldfish ($1.99) and Frozen 2 Enchanted Journey Flashlight Adventure Sound book for $12.70 (on sale).

I just loved these adorable plates and serving tray from the Opal House line! Look how cute those heart shaped waffles are! The small plates are $1.99 and the larger plates are $2.59, while the serving tray is $7.99 online.

These may not be Valentine themed, but they definitely got me in the mood for spring and sunshine so I wanted to include them in this post. These are also from Opal House. The plates are $2.99 and bowls are $1.99. So pretty!

That’s all for this trip! Make sure to follow me on social media for more finds! Links to my Facebook and Instagram accounts are listed below this post!

January Disney Store Merchandise Search

Yes, I know. January is almost over! But, I wanted to get a quick peek at some of the merch in my local Disney Store. I found some really cute Valentines merch and some awesome deals on plushes! Let’s dive on in and see what I found!

Okay, seriously how cute are Mickey and Minnie in their Valentines themed rain gear?! These guys are $14 each with any purchase ($22.99 regularly).

More Valentines items! They had several mugs with the 1928 theme, which I really liked (I’m a vintage kinda girl). And this Tonys Restaurant shirt from Lady and the Tramp..I mean, it’s perfect for Valentines!

Another AWESOME deal on plushes!! Buy one, get one for $3! The big plushes are normally $19.95 and the smaller ones are $9.95. I was really excited to see that they had some characters from TOTS (my daughters favorite show right now on Disney Jr.). This is the only place I’ve seen some of the main character plushes so far. Just waiting to see more of them (hopefully) soon!

I can’t see this bag without singing the song in my head! Anyone else do this too?! I’m loving all this Original Mouseketeer merch! This bag is $34.99.

I’m in LOVE with this kitchen home line. SO many cute items! This cookie jar is so adorable! ($54.99)

The Disney Baby line is cuter than ever! SO many things! Definitely giving me baby fever! The yellow varsity jacket is marked down online right now for $16.19 and the Donald and Mickey romper is marked down for $13.99!

This adorable Lion King plush is marked down online for just $4.98! They have a whole line of merch celebrating the new live action movie, that’s also now on Disney+, just FYI! They also had a really cool talking and moving Simba plush, that’s also marked down online for only $10.98! If you have any Lion King fans in your family, you might want to check these deals out!

I’m loving this vintage Mickey look right now! The backpack is $29.99 and if you order online, you can personalize for just $3! The matching lunchbox is $14.99. And of course, if you’re going to a Disney Park, you HAVE to travel in style right? The small suitcase is $49.99.

And last but not least, who can resist a Minnie Shaped Doughnut pillow?! I couldn’t find this one online but most of the others are $34.95 or $34.99. These also fall under the plush deal of Buy One, Get One for $3.

That’s all for this trip! We saw so many cute things, so make sure to check out your local store if you have one close to you! It really helps get that Disney “fix” if you’re missing the parks! If you don’t have a store near you, you can always shop online at shopdisney.com. Can’t wait to go back in a few weeks and see what else we can find!

Sanaa Dinner at Animal Kingdom Lodge

Hello everyone! I’m so excited to bring you this NEW blog, full of Disney reviews, news and more!

Our first dining review comes from Sanaa, which is located at Animal Kingdom Lodge in the Kidani Village. We decided to spend New Years Eve as our “resort day” because it fell right in the middle of our trip and also because I knew the parks would be very busy that day. Magic Kingdom actually closed to outside guests that weren’t resort guests on New Years Eve due to being at capacity. We actually had reservations for another restaurant on this night but decided to switch when I saw a reservation for Sanaa on the app. All we had to do was call and switch it, and we weren’t charged anything for cancelling the first reservation! So it’s always a good idea to check your app to see what’s available, because you never know what will be dropped last minute!

Sanaa is a beautiful restaurant with a wall of windows with savannah views of the animals on property. Unfortunately, since we were eating dinner, we couldn’t see out of the windows, but that just means we’ll have to come back for breakfast! The decor inside was so beautiful. It’s like we were eating in a treehouse!

Disney’s website describes Sanaa as “African cooking with Indian flavors”. I personally have never liked Indian food, but I loved everything that I ate here! They are most known for their bread service, which comes with 5 different breads and 9 accompaniments. Some of the accompaniments were spicier than others but I was able to try about 4 or 5 that weren’t too spicy. And the Naan bread was delicious!

**Indian Style Bread Service with Accompaniments**

For our main courses, we had the Berbere-braised Lamb Shank and a signature holiday dish that isn’t on the regular menu. I’m pretty sure it was similar to the New York Strip Steak that is on their regular menu. Both were good, but my favorite was definitely the steak. For dessert, we ordered the African Triple Chocolate Mousse to-go. This was delicious as well! Like I said earlier, I can’t wait to go back for breakfast and/or lunch and try something new!

All in all, we loved our experience and would definitely go back! Before we went to Sanaa, we literally ran into a meet and greet with Minnie mouse in the Kidani Village lobby. With only a few people in line, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet her in her gorgeous new dress! (This is not a regular meet and greet, but was a special holiday surprise!)

I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions about Sanaa. If you’ve been, what was your favorite dish? Would you go back again? If you’ve had breakfast here, I would love to hear about your experience as well! It looks and sounds delicious!

Until next time friends, never stop dreaming and always spread pixie dust and smiles wherever you go!