Disney Resort Hopping using the Monorail

The Starving Chef is supported by Hungry People like you. When you make a purchase through an affiliate link on my site, I may earn a little bit of cash on the side (at no extra cost to you) to help keep my kitchen running. Read our disclosures here.

Get your Magic Bands ready – today we are doing more than just visiting Magic Kingdom. I once again joined Disney travel agent Karli Keene on another Disney adventure.

And while the rides may be fun, the real reason I love Magic Kingdom is for the food!

We spent our morning in Magic Kingdom in the sweltering humidity and the threat of rain – but still managed to get in a few classics before lunch.

For our first food stop of the day we found ourselves famished outside of Pinocchio’s Village Haus – which also happens to be the entrance to “It’s A Small World.” 

We started the morning with a quick bite of flatbread, which I know isn’t super adventurous – but the Village Haus has a great family friendly menu, with something everyone can eat.

I washed down the pizza with a blue fairy slushy, which really helped to cool me down on a humid Florida morning.

After brunch we rode a few more rides and caught a parade, which just so happened to also be my first ever Disney parade experience. But at this point, dark clouds had started to gather in the sky and were threatening to ruin the magic so we decided to change up our game plan and hop on the monorail to do some resort hopping.

The first resort on the route is the Contemporary – and as soon as we arrived, they shut down the monorail due to… inclement weather.

We decided to check out the main lobby of the contemporary first, where there’s a Chef Mickey as well as the Contempo Cafe.

While we didn’t stop to eat anything, we couldn’t help but lap up the smells. It all looked SO GOOD.

The rain continued to persist so we decided to head on down to the hotel lounge called Steakhouse 71.

I started off with a vodka gimlet that had green chartreuse, lime, lemonade and seedlip garden which gave it an herby aftertaste; and Karli had the bourbon cold brew with vanilla bean cream.

I figured I probably shouldnt be drinking heavily without some actual protein in my stomach so I ordered some PB&J wings as an app – which were absolutely fantastic. It was almost like a Thai peanut sauce on the wings, which really hits the spot, especially after you’ve been drinking.

With the monorail still down we decided to move over to the main dining room to continue eating while we waited for the rain to stop.

I pretty quickly lost track of what we drank as we ordered several items off menu and I completely lost track of everything else until we started being served actual food.

For my appetizer I had a lump crab cake on a bed of corn hash and old bay remoulade. And because I was both drunk and starving, I also ordered a citrus poached shrimp cocktail.

Karli had the stack burger – which is Steakhouse 71’s signature blend of beef chargrilled and topped with lemon aioli, cheese and pickles.

And for dessert we decided to go big or go home and ordered the tallest slice of chocolate cake I have ever seen.

By this time the monorail was back up and running – but we decided we were having too much fun to return to Magic Kingdom right away – so we decided to complete the loop and hop over to the next resort on the circuit: the Polynesian.

The Polynesian is delightfully exotic and decked out in tropical decor and greenery. Plus it has a couple swanky restaurants to boot. The Polynesian is also one of the only places outside of the parks where you can get yourself a genuine dole whip from the Pineapple Lanai.

Did you know there’s also a limeade dole whip? And you can even order it glitterfied for the 50th anniversary. 

Afterwards we hopped over the Grand Floridian to check out the Enchanted Rose, which is a gorgeous lounge built to look like Belle’s library in Beauty and the Beast. We stopped to cool off with a few extra strong drinks – Im pretty sure I ordered the Grand Cosmopolitan but I was pretty much sloshed at this point so I honestly can’t be totally sure, but I do know it was deeeeeelicious. And my best guess for Karli’s drink was the espresso martini. 

It had been a long day, cut me some slack.

We sobered up on our way back to Magic Kingdom, rode a few more rides and then we made our way to the foot of the castle, where we camped out for the fireworks show.

Somehow our hunger returned for one final meal – so after the fireworks we headed over to the Liberty Tree Tavern. I certainly wasn’t expecting to eat an entire Thanksgiving dinner to wrap up my evening at Disney world but I will say it certainly hit the spot. We ended the meal with an ice cream topped chocolate chip cookie – which I honestly still dream about to this day. 

There’s so much more to see and do at Disney! Don’t forget to look back on the rest of my trip where I ate around the world at Epcot and joined the Resistance at Galaxy’s Edge. You won’t want to miss out.

Where should I travel to next? Let me know in the comments below!