Disney Fantasy’s Animation Magic!

Our last night on the Disney Fantasy®, we had a chance to dine in Animator’s Palate.  We were very excited to experience this restaurant.  For those who have cruised on the Disney Dream®, you know that in this restaurant Crush from Finding Nemo entertains the crowd, just like he does at the parks with Turtle Talk with Crush.  Well, the Disney Fantasy had to do something different and this show did not disappoint!

When we arrived to the restaurant and were seated, there is a place mat template at each seat plus a marker.  Guests are asked to draw a character in the template.  There are distinct areas for the head, body, arms, legs, hands and feet.

You are not given a lot of time to draw so I suggest getting to dinner on time.  The later you arrive, the less time you have to draw.  Our servers picked up our artwork and then we started our meal.

I don’t know if the menus that followed will continue, but I must say, I was more disappointed with this menu than I have been in the past.  Animator’s Palate has always been my least favorite menu.  Here are some photos of the menus.

Basically, we only had to decide two things.  The appetizer is a sampler platter with marinated garlic and herb shrimp, prosciutto with melon and sesame-crusted tuna sashimi.  This tasted good, but I didn’t like not having a choice.  Next was the soup.  Again, no choice here.  It is called Corn Three Ways – buttered popcorn soup topped with caramel corn and spiced cornbread.  This was just ok.

Next you could select your entree, including lobster tail which will be a favorite among many.  Finally, you will choose one of three desserts – a trio of amaretto cheesecake, banana creme brulee and apple pie; warm chocolate lava cake or no sugar added chocolate cheese cake.  We made all of these selections, including dessert, at the beginning of the meal.

Disney animations continue on the screen throughout the meal.  At the end of our meal, Mickey appears on the screen to start the show.  Initially, all of our characters march and dance together on the screens.  We noticed that these were only the characters drawn in our section so you don’t see ones from the entire restaurant.

Next our characters interacted with different Disney characters!

At the end of the show, they rolled the credits and our names all appeared on the screen.  Our servers then brought around our place mats with a gold seal added, proclaiming all of our Official Disney Animators.