Can you find me?

Many people pass through New Orleans Square on any given day. All make sure to visit Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. Many will eat at the Blue Bayou, French Market, or Cafe Orleans. How many of these thousands of people stop to visit my one of my favorite food stands in any Disney park in the world.


The Mint Julep Bar has been ingrained in my memory since I was a child as a fun place to stop for a treat. My parents would make a point at least once a trip to buy fritters from this little stand. In the years that have passed since it has remained a family tradition and is now a tradition with my own family.

Mint Juleps are a favorite of mine. You can get them at other locations in New Orleans Square but they just seem to taste better when they come from the Mint Julep Bar. The Cinnamon Crisp is another excellent choice. Funnel cakes are another popular item from this bar. You will find many that say there isn't a good cup of coffee in Disneyland but I have always liked the espresso here.

The menu may be limited but that is part of the charm. This little out of the way stand on the backside of the French Market is a special find for anybody that finds themselves next to the New Orleans Square Train Station and thirst for a unique beverage.

Stop at this Dining Intersection

Often when friends are planning trips to Disneyland Resort they will ask me for recommendations on everything from hotels to tickets to restaurants. The restaurants are always my favorite to discuss. Disneyland and the resort as a whole offer a great variety and while the prices are higher than you would pay at a local eatery you are at Disney and that is worth a premium to me. Many of my favorite restaurants are located at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World.

When at Disneyland there is a concentration of great food right where New Orleans Square, Frontierland, and Adventureland meet. River Belle Terrace, Bengal BBQ, Royal Street Veranda, Cafe Orleans, and Blue Bayou make up the fab 5 of west side Disneyland dining. With the exception of Cafe Orleans and Blue Bayou they all have pretty distinct menus and all of them are special for different reasons.


When I think of breakfast at Disneyland I think of Mickey Mouse pancakes at the River Belle Terrace. I grew up eating on the patio overlooking the Rivers of America whenever the park opened early enough for us to eat breakfast there. Due to the great location right between Adventureland and the Rivers of America, dining there had a great soundtrack of Mark Twain's whistle and the Swiskapolka coming from the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. The soundtrack has changed a little over the years but the food is still some of my favorite and breakfast is still a must. I have graduated from the Mickey Mouse pancakes but it still gives me a smile every time I see one on the griddle.


Bengal Barbeque is a restaurant that has not been among my favorites for long. It was only a year ago that I finally ate there. Now I can't get enough. There is often a line and the service isn't that quick but they are well worth the wait. The skewers are excellent and I love a tiger tail. This is a very unique eatery for a theme park.


Tucked away, under the balcony of the former Disney Gallery, is a small counter serving Gumbo and Clam Chowder. At the Royal Street Veranda you can usually walk up and grab a bite to eat unless you wait until Fantasmic is about to start. Both the Gumbo and the Chowder are served in bread bowls and the service is very quick. I find myself eating here more during the cooler months but every time I walk past I think about the Steak Gumbo.


I have always enjoyed Cafe Orleans. Since their makeover into a full service restaurant a little over a year ago I enjoy it all the more. This is the location of my favorite appetizer and dessert in the resort. The Pommes Frites are are french fries with parmasean cheese and garlic. Every time we sit down here we order them. The Mickey Beignets make this restaurant worthy of a visit every trip. On top of all this they are now the second home of the Monte Cristo sandwich. How do you improve a ham and cheese sandwich? You batter it and deep fry it of course. The Cafe Orleans, like the River Belle Terrace, has a great patio looking out to the Rivers of America.


The Blue Bayou is probably the most unique dining experience in a Disney park. How many restaurants are located inside an attraction? This was the original Disneyland home of the Monte Cristo and you can get them to this day. During the Pirates of the Caribbean rehab last year they made several changes to the menu. They are trying to go a little more upscale while still offering a menu that your average person will love. After you enter the restaurant and are seated you may be indoors but it sure feels like you are sitting on the back patio of a southern plantation house. Every few seconds a boat will slip into the darkness. It has been copied in Tokyo and Paris and the Mexican pavilion at Epcot tries to imitate but there can be only one Blue Bayou.

While the original intention when writing this was not a restaurant review I can't help but run on about some of my favorites in the Disney universe. If this was expanded to cover all of Frontierland, New Orleans Square, and Adventureland I could probably go on even longer. When you find yourself hungry on the west side of Disneyland you know that good food can't be far away.

Individually themed lands...Not for merchandise

I spent a lot of time in Disneyland during the 80's and 90's. Almost every family vacation was spent visiting Mickey and friends. On our one big trip every year my parents would give my brothers and I an allowance of $100 to shop for souvenirs. Each trip I would buy a plush, a hat, a shirt, and a gun. Not much of it was spent on Main Street. The Pioneer Mercantile received a lot of money from my parents back then. Now they don't receive much from me. The only reason for this is because they don't have anything that I can't get at the Emporium.

I still can't figure out why anybody would buy a plush that they sell at the Emporium or World of Disney anywhere else in the park. I would rather not carry around a stuffed Pooh Bear all day if I don't have to. You used to buy frontier themed merchandise in Frontierland. You would make purchases earlier in the day because you didn't know if you would be back by this store and you knew that you wouldn't be able to get this item anywhere else.

The Pioneer Mercantile that I remember sold western themed clothing and toys, coonskin hats, wooden toy guns, and had a shooting arcade on the southern wall. You didn't have anything with pirates or princesses.

The South Seas Traders in Adventureland used to have exotic themed merchandise. Pieces of Eight in New Orleans Square was the only store in the park that sold pirate merchandise. Can you guess what the One-of-a-Kind shop next door sold? The Disney Gallery was lost just this month. The Villains Shop in Fantasyland was where I got my first Jack Skellington hat. This was before the goth craze that has made Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise available in its very own store in Disneyland and at ever Hot Topic in the country. If you wanted a hat you visited the Mad Hatter in Fantasyland or Main Street or Hatmosphere in Tomorrowland. Now every store in the park has a hat selection and it is the same at every store.

This is not to say that I don’t still enjoy the shopping in the park. Disneyana is still a unique shopping experience. While there is too much Pirate merchandise in the parks, Pieces of Eight is still a fun store with the courtyard between the original store and the recent expansion. For the fanboy in me I love the Star Wars portion of the Star Trader as you exit Star Tours.

On the other side of the esplanade at Disney’s California Adventure I love taking my son to Engine Ears Toys. My wife and I could spend hours in the Animation Building and upon exiting, Off the Page. This is similar to Disneyana but different enough to make it worth visiting every trip. I am also a sucker for Rushin’ River Outfitters. They are getting more and more generic but it might just be the environment that they offer you the same generic merchandise that I find appealing. My other favorite from DCA is Tower Hotel Gifts. Many people hate when attractions exit to a gift shop but in this case I love it. It gives you an air conditioned waiting place while we swap kids and it may be a little corny but I love all the Hollywood Tower Hotel merchandise.

Obviously we all want the Disneyland merchandise. That is why it is sold in so many stores. I am not a purist that thinks that everything should remain untouched. I would just like a little individuality as well. Make some stuffed critters only available in Critter Country and keep the Princesses in Fantasyland. Now that the Pirate craze seems to be dying some maybe they can move back to New Orleans Square.

If Disney gave me a unique place to shop in every land they would get more money from me. Every time you turned the corner you would have a chance to find something new. I don’t know if everybody agrees with me on this, but I think that some merchandise diversity would make for more fun at the parks.

Suite Dreams, Disney Gallery

New Orleans Square is, in my opinion, the most detailed and richly themed land in all of the US parks. The meandering streets and hidden alcoves working with the amazing architecture are a sight to be seen. You have two of the greatest attractions in theme park history, great food, and a hidden club. With so much detail jammed into such a small space it is very easy to find something new every time you visit. All of this adds up to a very magical experience.

I am sad to say that New Orleans Square is soon to be losing one of the great treasures of the park. The Disney Gallery will be closing on August 7 for a refurbishment and rumored conversion to a suite that will be given as a daily prize in the Year of a Million Dreams promotion. When I was first visiting the Disney Gallery I didn't always want to go but when you got up there you could tell it was a special place. Some of my earliest memories of the Gallery were viewing a model for Discovery Bay. When I saw this and thought that some day this might be at Disneyland I was amazed. It was beautiful. The walls surrounding the model were covered in concept art that had my family calling each other across the room to see our newest "find."

In the years since the gallery has always had great exhibits, Disney art for sale, and played host to some very special events. For $60 you could get a dessert buffet and an incredible seat for Fantasmic! It will be missed by all those who have walked up the curved staircases.

At the same time I am mourning the loss of an old friend I am excited by the birth of a new experience. I personally will probably never get to visit the Dream Suite with the 1 in 50,000 odds. Someday, it may come to hold the same allure as Club 33 to me. I can't say right now. I can just walk under, look up, and wonder what it would be like to spend the night in Walt's apartment.