Another birthday, another DisneySea day. As far as crowds go, about the same as last year. But it never felt like we were waiting too long for anything because we avoided things with longer lines. For example, I skipped one of the Food & Wine Festival dishes, because it didn’t have a mobile order window.
First up was pork with an apple-mustard sauce from Waterside Terrace in American Waterfront. (It was good!)
Side note: paper maps and guides are the best because you can draw on them. It’s very helpful for planning. I wish they weren’t reserved for special events.
Next were hayashi sauce meatballs with mac and cheese. This was so comfort food. The mac and cheese was super crispy and the sauce was straight-up pre-made by a sponsor company? But it was good? These two dishes might have been the best of Food & Wine, which kinda indicates just how far behind DisneySea is compared to the same festival in Anaheim and Orlando.
Our first drink was a lychee liqueur soda. Nothing too special going on here. We walked around for a bit.
Say goodbye to Aquatopia, I guess. By all accounts, it appears that this attraction will say farewell just days after its 25th anniversary. The only one in the world. This summer may be your only or last chance to experience it.
Over in Lost River Delta, we got this prawn and salsa dish at Yucatan Base Camp Grill. The salsa was pretty normal salsa. The chips must’ve been just taco-flavored Doritos. The pisco tropical fruit cocktail, however, was very nice.
The fortress in DisneySea keeps being one of the coolest things Disney ever built.
For my birthday, Ayano managed to secure a reservation for Magellan’s, a restaurant in the fortress I’ve been dying to go to but have never been able to snag. Today’s the day!
How incredible is this restaurant? Just look at it. The ceiling mural? The globe? You might recognize this stuff from Cabel Sasser’s XOXO talk or his website featuring the beautiful artwork of Wes Cook. Yep, the McDonald’s mural guy.
At Magellan’s, there’s like a “secret” dining room that I was really hoping we’d get to dine in, but I didn’t want to ask for fear of being that guy.
The hostess, while giving us a brief tour on our way to the dining room, was telling us (in Japanese, of course) that we’d be dining in the cellar. I didn’t catch that. She then clarified that some people call it the “hidden room.” Ayano looked at me and translated, but— I was already motionless on the steps. “Yes!” The hostess smiled and replied,「よかったね」 (Lucky for you!)
We approached a bookcase, where Ayano tried to find the secret button. I saw it, and pressed it. And the bookcase slid open to reveal the hidden cellar.
It cannot be overstated how cool it is. There’s only a few tables in there, and it was really quiet. It was difficult to contain my excitement through the entire coursed meal. (Next photo from Ayano, of course.)
The food was really great, actually. I think it might be the nicest available in both parks.
After lunch, I noticed Tower of Terror only had a 40-minute wait time. Ayano was not particularly enthused. She’s never experienced it before, but she was brave enough to give it an honest try. First and last time for her though, I think.
I wish I could say these chicken tenders were the lowest point of the Food & Wine Festival. (There was worse.) These were just so uninspired. So uninteresting. So… not Italian at all, for being in an Italian restaurant. The olive yogurt dipping sauce was good? I don’t know.
The vodka lime drink from Nautilus Galley was nice. All of these “cocktails” had one consistent flaw: retrieving the jelly or fruit at the bottom of the drink was near-impossible through all the crushed ice.
This “curry-accented” beef naan sandwich was pretty good? I would eat that regularly if it was available year-round. The rum and muscat cocktail was probably the best one overall.
The last Food & Wine dish we had was the one that broke me. Available at Lookout Cookout in Fantasy Springs, this butter beef curry ball with normal Calbee potato chips was not only difficult to eat, but the least-special. Thin potato chips cannot be used to scoop anything, let alone a dense ball of beef curry. But also, it feels almost insulting to use potato chips (or Doritos as mentioned above) in a Food & Wine event. Tokyo Disney Resort has a lot of work to do to catch up to where the American parks are with regards to these things.
I know I didn’t mention it, but the park is decorated in 25th anniversary “Jubilee” blue and silver and a lot of it is really cute, though besides one drink, we didn’t try much else.
As always, a construction photo of the new Space Mountain as seen from the Disney Resort Line. It’s almost done!
