New Fantasyland Passholder Preview including lunch at Be Our Guest!

What a great day we had at our annual Passholder preview of New Fantasyland! We had walked through a few weeks prior but we were so excited to see it in more detail. This time it was just 5 of us because our oldest 2 were at the Animal Kingdom with youth group. It was fun experiencing this with Julia without her sisters; I think it made her feel special to get to do this without them.

We were scheduled for the 12:30 time slot on Saturday, November 3rd. We arrived at the TTC, where check in was, at about 11:45. There were no lines at the event check in window, and it was quick and easy to show our confirmation and get our wrist bands. The castmember told us to hold in to our printed confirmation because we would need it when we got to the New Fantasyland entrance. We took the resort monorail to MK because the lines for the express monorail and the ferry seemed long. Lines getting into the MK were crazy! I was surprised at the crowds going into the park in the middle of the day. We got in and fought the crowds down Main Street, expecting to see a line to get into the expansion area. I was expecting the worst at this point, after reading a negative review of the Passholder preview morning time slot on the disboards, and after seeing how crowded the Magic Kingdom was.
I am happy to say, I had nothing to worry about. I have nothing but good things to say about our experience. We walked right into the expansion at 12:25 with no line, handed the castmember our confirmation paper, and we were free to explore as we wished. We had been signed up for the Ariel Meet and Greet instead of Enchanted Tales with Belle, but no one was checking and everyone was able to do both, which I was very excited about!
The first thing we did was walk up to Be Our Guest, excited to tour it! Well, to our surprise, the castmember outside asked us if we would like to dine there! Wow! It was not scheduled to be open, it was supposed to be just a tour, so I was thrilled! We weren’t quite hungry for lunch at this point, so we decided to do a couple of things first and come back. We moved on and saw Gaston outside of his Tavern, with a short line. We hopped in the line and got a great picture.

Nick wouldn’t meet him, so he stayed in the stroller. Not sure why he was scared of him; I guess he knows he’s a villain even though he doesn’t really look like one. After the meet and greet we walked through the gift shop. They sell some really cute and different things, with lots of Beauty and the Beast merchandise of course. My kids played prince and princess before we moved on.

We hopped in line for Little Mermaid. It was a 15 minute line, and we snapped these pictures while we were waiting. Since we had ridden this a few weeks before, we took less pictures this time and just enjoyed the ride. If you want to see tons of pics of the queue and ride from our previous trip, click here.
This ride is so well done. All 5 of is rode in one car. We were a bit squished but it was fun riding together. After we left the ride, we got in line for out Meet and Greet with Ariel. This was about a 20 minute line. The baby fell asleep while we were waiting, so he missed out on meeting Ariel. Julia was excited, though! Ariel is her 2nd favorite princess after Rapunzel! Nick was a little bit star struck and acted very shy, but still got in the picture.

Ariel was sweet and tried to talk to him, and he gave her a high 5. On our way out of Ariel’s Grotto, we found these hidden Mickeys:

We posed for a quick pic outside of the ride

And we were off to dine at Be Our Guest! The Disney Geek in me was so excited! I had my hubby take pics on our way in.

You enter through a room guarded by knights. The menu is displayed on 3 monitors as you walk through. I imagine there will be lines through this room once Be Our Guest opens to the public. There were no lines for us, and we were given a rose and directed to a screen to place our order. Ordering is very simple. It is a do it yourself touch screen. You order, swipe your key to the world card or credit card, and take your rose to go find a table. It is seat yourself, and you have your choice of 3 rooms. I thought all 3 rooms were spectacular. We sat in the ballroom. It looked like it was straight out of the movie.

It was even snowing outside

We went exploring while waiting for our food. The West Wing is so cool! A little dark, but perfectly themed.

The dining room was decorated with pictures of Belle and the Beast together, with a large rotating statue of the pair dancing in the center of the room.

We went back to our seats and our food arrived. The castmembers find your table using GPS magic in the rose. They bring out the food in these

I had ordered the steak sandwich and fries. It was pretty good, but maybe a little plain.

Hubby ordered the turkey sandwich. This was delicious and we ended up sharing so we could both have a little bit of each.

Julia got the Mickey Meatloaf and ate the whole thing. She loved it. She got fries and broccoli with it.

Nick ordered the macaroni with fries and peach applesauce.

He wasn’t a fan of the macaroni. He ate his fries, and I fed the baby some macaroni and the applesauce. As usual, baby ate more than his big brother.

We really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food, and can’t wait to dine here again! I snapped a few more pictures on our way out…..

And we were off to Maurice’s cottage to experience Enchanted Tales with Belle

The line was about 30 minutes, and at that point the baby was done with lines, so we almost decided to skip this attraction. I am SO glad we didn’t!

The inside of the cottage is so well done. The details are perfectly done, such as the portrait of Belle and her mom, and Belle’s growth chart on the wall. There was so much to look at that the wait didn’t seem too bad. The show itself is adorable and the special effects are really neat! I don’t want to give anything away, though, so go check it out!

I love how they include all the children. Everyone that wanted a part got one. A few lucky grown ups were chosen, too. My daughter was picked for Mrs. Potts. Even though she is 10, she still enjoyed being a part of the story. After the story was over, Belle posed for pictures with all the participants, plus any other children that wanted a photo with her. Julia was given a bookmark for participating, and everyone got a photo pass card on their way out with pictures from the entire show. It was very nice. I was impressed by Enchanted Tales With Belle!

When we were finished here, it was almost 4:30, so we decided to leave New Fantasyland and head over to check out the new circus meet and greet. We took a detour through the new circus themed gift shop, which was really cool. The center if the shop is a snack stand, selling all of your circus favorites. It even smelled like the circus in there! We headed out the side to the character tent, where you get in line for either Minnie and Daisy, or Goofy and Donald. Since the wait time for Goofy and Dinald was only 20 minutes, we got in that line. Goofy was dressed as a stunt man, and Donald was a snake charmer. We got some fun pics with them.

We decided not to wait in line for Minnie and Daisy, but snapped this pic of Minnie on the way out. She was dressed as a poodle trainer, and Daisy as a fortune teller. The theming is fun and different. I really like the whole circus theme; it goes perfectly with the Dumbo ride.

We wanted to check out the new mermaids on pirates, so we headed in that direction, but the ride was down. We were disappointed, but it will be there next time. To cheer ourselves up, we decided to get some dole whips. The line was long but I waited anyway, and I’m glad I did. Yum! Here is Zack tasting his first Dole Whip Float.

I was very happy with our first experience at a Passholder preview. I thought it was well run and not too crowded. I am looking forward to previewing the new Test Track soon! I will be sure to keep you in the loop, so subscribe to my blog and “like” me on Facebook so you can follow along on our adventures!