Top Ten Favorite Posts of 2021

Another year come and gone, and a time to look at the past as well as the future. I pray your 2021 year was as blessed as mine: a wedding, a new granddaughter, a trip to Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando and a year filled with friends and family who joined together to love and support one another. More than anything, it was a year when, once again, God showed his faithfulness to those who follow Him. May your 2022 be filled with love and joy and fresh discoveries!

In no particular order, excluding ones about my family, are some of my favorite blog posts of the year: 

Why Every Disney Park Fan Must Visit Universal's Diagon Alley - Universal excels at Disney's game, surpassing Cars Land, Pandora: World of Avatar, and even Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. The Imagineers and the suits need to take a hard look at what their main competition has accomplished. Here's why.

Notable and Quotable: Dick Van Dyke - Beloved entertainer reflects on his life.

The Past Present and Future of Disney's Animal Kingdom: Part Eight - More photos, more rare concept art, more history on the evolution of this park and its development. One of the most read series on the blog.

EPCOT Center's Unbuilt Rollercoaster for Future World - Did you think Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind was the first coaster planned for the area? Here's proof that Imagineers were looking into this decades ago.

Top Ten Episodes of Friends - The reunion may have disappointed, but these top ten episodes will make your burst with laughter while warming your heart,

Carpenters Revisited: A Fresh Look at Horizon - With rare photographs and a fresh perspective, this album review will make you reconsider the impact this fine album had on the incredible but short career of Richard and Karen Carpenter.  

Disneyland Attraction Posters: The Fantasyland Collection - A new poster for Snow White's Enchanted Wish headlines this ever growing collection of beloved park posters.

Art Surfaces for Disneyland Paris' Log Ride - Long talked about but finally found. No, it's not Splash Mountain, but what is it?

Dine or Ditch: The Land's Garden Grille Room at Epcot - Dining at Disney World is expensive enough. Is this premier Future World location worth your money?

Bringing Life to a Dry and Thirsty Land - Political mandates, entertainment, and religion got you down? Time to try something new.

(Photographs copyright Mark Taft.)

Dine or Ditch: The Land's Garden Grill aka Land Grille Room aka The Good Turn

The next restaurant to be reviewed in the Dine or Ditch series is one of our family's favorites... and one we unfortunately outgrew and now decide to pass on in favor of something different. Will your family experience the same curve of then dine, now ditch? Keep reading.

As the premier Future World restaurant- sorry Coral Reef- this dining establishment in The Land is immediately recognizable and almost immediately desired. Every guest heading downstairs to Soarin' Around the World or Living with the Land (and at opening, the Audio-Animatronic musical Kitchen Kabaret), must pass by this slowly revolving eatery. Talk about product placement!

Looks great from far away.

But the close up view pulls you in!

Are you confused by all the names? This popular Epcot staple was once known as The Good Turn (at park opening), then the Land Grille Room (1986), later the Garden Grill (1993), and then whatever name is next for the upcoming rebirth of Epcot 2.0 and that incarnation. 

Once The Good Turn was the place to begin our day at EPCOT Center. Breakfast was great with numerous fresh options, filling, and for Disney, it was relatively affordable. Currently, this location is home to Chip 'n' Dale's Harvest Feast, a character dining option that also brings Mickey and friends in farmer garb. This means it is pricey, with limited seating, and difficult to reserve.

My shot from 1983.

Yet, the place has its charms and offers an experience only Disney can deliver! As your table continues revolving, once at the back side of the restaurant, diners are greeted with an exclusive view of a beautifully realized farm scene from the Living with the Land boat ride. (Not counting the sponsor lounge that does offer the same kind of view.) At this point, the atmosphere changes from bright and lively to darker and intimate. Watching the boats glide by and listening to the sounds of a family farm at dawn cannot be replicated in real life. Pure magic! 

Our growing family of preschool kids really enjoyed this place back in 1989. The adventures of EPCOT Center, both in Future World and World Showcase, and this restaurant were more than enough to keep them interested for a full day. The Disney characters and excessive marketing tie-ins didn't need to be there to keep their attention.

Of all the on property character dining experiences, this location has the fewest number of seats, making more face to face time with the rubber heads a big draw in favor of eating here. Chip and Dale, Mickey, and usually Pluto, are found making the rounds. Pretty popular characters in a smaller setting equals better opportunities for those family memories captured by your camera. When character dining moved in, this was about the time Garden Grill moved from a dine to a ditch. (Same for the Crystal Palace, by the way.)

In line with the trendy concept of farm to table dining, much of the food comes right the pavilion's attached greenhouses. The quality and quantity is top notch, almost universally rated so by those who indulge. Also in line with farm to table, the prices reflect the trend. For a child, a $40 meal is a splurge of the highest kind, an amount that can feed an entire family for a week or more in most of the world's poorer countries. At $60 an adult, diners are paying top price for the experience, not that much less than some of Walt Disney World's better dining locations. Is it worth it? Or is it worth forgoing in favor of more time on rides like Test Track and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure? Or do you skip it in favor of a meal at the ultra pricy Space 220?

A Few Tips:

Use the Disney Dining Plan when it's offered again. IF it is offered again. The "bite" doesn't seem too hard to take when you've already decided that the best dining experiences are worth it when on vacation.

Try to obtain the reservation you want by getting on line early and/or try again up until departure date. Do you plan your Lightning Lane (Fast Pass) attractions when offered again first, or are the restaurant choices top priority? Balancing that is a tough call in this era of Disney. Keep checking availability on the Disney Genie Service / My Disney Experience App once you arrive on the Walt Disney World property if you haven't been able to get the exact day and time you want. (I gotta ask- Is it all worth it? I guess it must be!)

Dine or Ditch for Garden Grill?  It all depends on what a day at Epcot means to you! Want a taste of EPCOT Center or an intimate character dining experience? It's a "Dine". Running from ride to ride to get it all in? Or not a character dining fan? A clear "Ditch".

Want more Dine or Ditch?

Check out these reviews:

Sci-Fi Dine In

Be Our Guest

(Photographs copyright the Walt Disney Company.)