Something amazing happened on our third-to-last day in the parks. We went to Magic Kingdom super early because we heard that if you get there between 9am and 10am the cast members will let you take a look around the Be Our Guest restaurant before the lunch queue, and incredibly on the off chance Mike asked if they'd had any dinner cancellations (for dinner the reservations are booked up into 2014!) and THEY DID. We managed to get in for dinner! I was so stoked because I'd heard it was so hard, and the cast members looked as shocked as we did!
We dined in the West Wing, which had the enchanted rose, rumbling thunder, torn tapestries and a portrait of the prince, which changed into The Beast with a bolt of lightening. It was truly one of my favourite experiences from the whole trip, they had mournful strings playing notes from the Beauty and the Beast score and it was just so so beautiful, properly outstanding. We ended up having a three course dinner (with wine!), I had french onion soup, prawns in this pastry thing and Belle's desert (which was a cupcake with strawberry mousse inside). Mike had The Grey Stuff for dessert, which WAS delicious (I think it was cookies and cream).
It was pretty dark in the West Wing so we didn't get many great pictures. Above is the rose, every now and then a petal would fall when the lightening flashed and it gently rotated. It made me a bit weepy when I saw it. Beauty and the Beast was one of my favourite films growing up, my dad took me to the cinema to see it when it first came out (and I slept the whole way through!), its had a lasting impression on me. I'd love to get a tattoo inspired by the prologue, with the stained glass style. ANYWAY. So after dinner we were free to roam around the rest of the place, there are three separate rooms to eat in. The main one is a huge dining hall which is a recreation of the ballroom from the dance scene, complete with glittery chandeliers, snow falling at the windows and a massive mural on the ceiling. It is BREATHTAKING when you see it. The third room has lovely music-box Tale As Old As Time music playing, which a huge rotating dancing Beast and Belle, and lots of portraits of the characters on the walls. All the music is perfectly times with each other so you can walk through and not miss any of the music. Astounding attention to detail obviously!
Even the entrance ways are lovely, with talking suits of armor, gloomy beasts holding up pillars and gargoyles. My favourite bit was the stained glass mosaic, which I thought was really really lovely. EVERYTHING WAS SO LOVELY YOU GUYS.
As part of New Fantasy Land, the whole oft he Beauty and the Beast area is really lovely, and Be Our Guest isn't the only place to eat. There is also Gaston's Tavern (complete with the best Gaston cast member mingling around), where you can try LeFou's Brew, which is like fizzy apple juice with caramel. It's pretty good! They also has cinnamon buns, which are HUGE. I had a chocolate croissant, which was covered in powdered sugar which I managed to cough all over our table. The inside of Gaston's is fantastically decorated of course, with animal trophies and a huge portrait of Gaston inside. There is also a fountain outside with some very funny words from Gaston written on the plaque! I've probably gushed enough, do you just want some pictures?
One last thing, in the Beauty and the Beast gift shop, there is a huge portrait of a man hanging on the back wall. Have fun spotting all the Disney references in it if you ever see it! We asked the cast member behind the till who it was a portrait of and got an incredible story about how it was his great-great-great grandfather and how he was related to Gaston and stuff. It's very hard to explain, but it was very funny!
