Goofy's Kitchen

Saturday morning was very boring and there are absolutely zero pictures of it.  We basically just sat in a room with a bunch of people and let the kids watch videos on our phones and eat snacks while we listened to the time share people.

 

Actually, I lied.  I think this is from before we left our room in the morning.

After the time share presentation we forced Elliott to take a nap.  We were not going to re-live the pizza on the beach debacle from the night before.  Not with what we had planned for that night.

 

While Elliott slept Spencer and I went to the hotel pool.

 

He was very cold after he took a shower.

 

Once Elliott woke up we sat them down and told them we had big news for them.

This was their reactions to us telling them that we were driving to Anaheim to go to Goofy's Kitchen for dinner.

  

We got the idea to do Goofy's Kitchen from my dear friend Jeannette after they made an unscheduled stop in Anaheim on their way back from a wedding.  They had so much fun and I was so jealous when I read about it.  Then we realized that we were a quick 31 miles away from Anaheim and that we could do the same thing.

 

We were slightly worried that Spencer (and us) would be really disappointed being so close to Disneyland and not being able to actually go in and experience it, but we all did fine.  I do think though that with what you pay for Goofy's Kitchen (which is a lot) you should get one time through on Pirate's of the Caribbean. 

 

Spencer, Michael and I have previous experience with Disney Character Dining.  You can read about it HERE.  This was Elliott's first experience with any Disney Characters.

 

Everyone got new Disney shirts for the big night.

After Elliott had 3 or 4 meltdowns in quick succession he finally got in the right frame of mind for such an exciting evening. 

 

But then he gave me the stink eye the entire way there.

 

It was actually pretty funny.

 

Oh, stink eye AND a sneer!

We got to the Disneyland Hotel with about 20 minutes to spare.  Time for some pictures!  Get ready, these are the first of about 7 billion.

Elliott flat out refused to stand by Michael.  Not wanting to send him into yet another tantrum, nobody pressed the issue.

That is also why my hand is flopping awkwardly on my leg.  Elliott did not want to be touched.  He is a delicate prince after all.

 

I believe Michael has his hand on my butt here.

We declined the $30 picture taken by the professional Disney photographers.  I think it is highly suspicious that the picture they took with our camera is blurry.

 

This was right before we were taken to our table.

And then.  Finally.  We were seated.....right next to the door in which all the characters made all of their entrances and exits.  It was a pretty awesome location in such a huge restaurant.  I think we got about 70% more character time because we were sitting there. 

 

Immediately after being seated, like within 3 seconds, Pluto walked in the door.  I wish my camera had been right on Elliott and I wish we had also been recording him.  The look on his face and his high, squeeky voice as he screamed "PLUTO!" was priceless.

 

The kids were in love.

Pluto even got down on all fours so that he could sniff Elliott and so that Elliott could really pet him.  Creepy or cute?

 

He really liked Spencer's hat.

 

It reminded me of Spencer's 2nd trip to Disneyland when Pluto really liked his shirt.

 

FLASHBACK! 

FLASHBACK OVER!

 

All of these pictures are chronological.  The characters just came and went, came and went.  Michael and I were joking that they were out there drinking and smoking.

 

Feel free to scroll as quickly or as slowly as you please.

 

They were dancing.

Goofy's Kitchen is an all you can eat buffet.  Spencer had a decent dinner of fish, rice, veggies and fruit.  Elliott had a not so decent dinner of a cup of milk.  Good thing the under 3 crowd is free.

I think Minnie is Elliott's favorite.  He was absolutely in love with her and I think the feeling was mutual.  She came back to our table several times.

I already have 2 Mickey Mouse shirts, so I bought a Minnie shirt for myself.  I couldn't be wearing a Minnie shirt and not have a picture with her.

 

They were playing peek-a-boo.  It went on for a long time.

The Mad Hatter freaked Elliott out at first.  But Elliott actually went over there when he told Elliott to.  I don't know if I should be concerned or proud of his compliance.

 

He told Spencer to make a funny face.

 

This is Elliott's funny face.

I found the dinner food to be OK.  Not terrible, not the best.  But dessert was another story.  I should have just skipped dinner and gone straight for dessert.  And yes, that was all for me.  Starting at midnightish and going clockwise I had creme brulee, bread pudding, peach pie, a caramel tart and chocolate lava cake.  The ice cream was for the peach pie.

 

Spencer had ice cream and jello.

Elliott also had ice cream and jello.  It was the only "food" he ate that night.  Under normal circumstances we do not allow dessert without eating dinner, but we were trying to keep him from throwing a tantrum during what should have been a fun night.  Sometimes you just have to bend rules.

As we were waiting for the valet to bring our car to us we got to watch 967 Disneyland employees try to figure out what to do about the rather large branch that fell on this car while it was under the care of the valets. 

 

Somebody was not going to have a good night. 

Then we headed over to Downtown Disney for a bit.  We visited the Lego store to get ready for Legoland the next day. 

All in all it was a great evening.  I totally recommend Goofy's Kitchen if you have the time and money for it.  We got $150 in Visa gift cards just for sitting through the time share presentation so we felt like it was OK to splurge a little.  And splurge it was because after dinner and Downtown Disney, this is how much we had left:

$0.