April 4 -12, Split stay with DDP

[OhMari]

I didn't think you could do a Dining Review without pictures, then I saw someone else do one, so I thought maybe I'll give this a shot.

We left freezing Milwaukee on Thursday, April 4. Our flight was at 2:35 from Milwaukee to Orlando. I didn't eat all morning, because I didn't want my stomache to flip in any way. But, our plane was delayed until 3:00 p.m. and my dh convinced me to share a club sandwhich with him at the airport. Actually he needed 2 drinks to settle his nerves, and I had a rootbeer. So for the next hour, I made at east 3 rounds to the bathroom before we left.

Midwest Express offers pretzles and soft drinks, water or tea. If you want a meal, you can purchase it for $7.00-$10.00. Then, everyone gets fresh baked cookies.

We land at MCO at 7:30 and get to POR around 8:30 p.m. Check in and get to our room and it is around 9:00. We take the boat to DTD and look for Earl of Sandwich. When we found it, I realized I ate at the resturant in 2003, but I couldn't remember what it used to be called. I had the Beef Club and my dh had the Italian Club. They were out of desserts and told us to pick a bag of chips and I had to ask for our soda cups. I don't know if all the workers wanted to go home, but we felt really rushed and it was only 9:30 p.m.

We took our food outside, since it was really hot and humid in Earl's. My sandwhich tasted just like the one I got at the airport. Sort of dried out. I drank the first of the way to many diet-cokes that I would end up hating.

We walked around DTD and got back in line to take the boat back to POR. We enjoyed listening to a couple behind us describe their dinner at Fulton's Crab House. We are from Wisconsin and this couple was from Mississippi. They told us they were in the resturant over 3 hours. They said the service was slow, but they also enjoyed their meal and ate at a really slow pace. They asked us if we were Packer Fan's, because Brett Favre Family only lived 3 miles from their house, and they always go to Brett's dad's resturant every chance they can get, to enjoy Wisconsin Brats.

When we got back to our room Garden Grocers brought our order. Diet Dew, Lemonaid-Gatorade, cookies, donuts, chips-salsa and water. Oh and disenfective hand wipes-hand to wipe down the remote and a few othr things. I really should of ordered Diet Pepsi-I ended up givng away a case of water and the gatorade.


Next Up
Sunshine Season's and "The Biergarten"

 

[wilma-bride]

What a shame about your experience at Earl of Sandwich. We ate there twice in February and found the sandwiches to be hot, fresh and delicious Maybe it was considered 'late' for them, which surprises me. I hope it hasn't put you off trying again.

Looking forward to more

 

[TigerKat]

Looking forward to more!!

 

[rentayenta]

Thanks for sharing! Keep it coming.


I am with your DH on needing a drink, or 2, to fly!


How did you like the POR?

 

[OhMari]

Thanks for sharing! Keep it coming.


I am with your DH on needing a drink, or 2, to fly!


How did you like the POR?

I loved POR. It is so quiet. We were at WDW during the busiest time of the year and we hardly saw anyone. I was told the resort was sold out. I would definately stay there again.

 

[rentayenta]

I loved POR. It is so quiet. We were at WDW during the busiest time of the year and we hardly saw anyone. I was told the resort was sold out. I would definately stay there again.

Were you in AB or the Mansions?

 

[goiu]

What's Garden Grocers? I've never heard of it.

Thanks!

 

[OhMari]

rentayenta Quote:
Originally Posted by OhMari
I loved POR. It is so quiet. We were at WDW during the busiest time of the year and we hardly saw anyone. I was told the resort was sold out. I would definately stay there again.



Were you in AB or the Mansions?

We were in th Mansions. Perrott. It was the 2nd last one next to the road bridge where you can walk over to POFQ

goiu What's Garden Grocers? I've never heard of it.

Thanks!

They are a delivery grocery store near WDW. They do ask that you tip right away. So I gave $5.00 to the person that shops for me, the truck driver and then the delivery person. So make sure you are there when they deliver, otherwise like us we ended up tipping the luggage guy because we just missed garden grocer. Here is the link www.gardengrocer.com. I would use them again just to get the Mountain Dew and Pepsi products, water and donuts. You can get toothbrushes, soaps too. They run specials, this is how I ended up with 2 cases of water. I forgot I ordered one and then I saw a special and ordered another case of water.

 

[OhMari]

Epcot was a green day according to TGM, but his 3rd choice for a green day. If you want to read my TR, here is my link www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1440024 I sort of had a melt down my first day.

I was hungry by 10:45 a.m. since we only ate a donut at 7:00 a.m. that morning. I did all my homework and decided we would eat lunch at Sunshine’s. I grabbed a sandwich, diet coke and brownie, my dh, he couldn’t find anything he liked. He suggested we go to the Land and find something. But I didn't want to walk over to the countries and back, since we had a Fast Pass for Soarin at 11:10 a.m.

My sandwhich was okay, but I really wanted something different, but nothing was really opened yet, so this is why I settled on my 3rd sandwhich in a row. When I don't know what to eat, I just grab a sandwhich at home. Why in the world, did I keep ordering sandwhiches. At least this one was a Turkey Parmesan. The sandwhich was so large, I could barely eat my cocolate cake. My dh got over his bucky mood, and drank my diet coke. He was having a major withdrawal from his usual diet dew he drinks. We didn't bring a back-pack to the park becase the diet dew wasn't cold enough this morning.

After we did Soarin-we decided to get out the land and I suggested that we start drinking around the world. My dh eye's lit right up. Our first drink of the day was in Mexico-the famous margarita's.

 

[OhMari]

We had a 4:40 p.m. ADR for Biergarten. We decided to go check in early we only waited 15 minutes, and basically got seated at our original time.

I actually liked the food, my husband loved it. He said, it was everything his grandma used to make for him when he was growing up. I skipped the brats and weiner salad, but tried everything else. We had fun with our table mates. There was a couple from Seattle Washington that worked for Starbucks. They were taking a vacation and their next assignment was going to colleges and universities and trying to get contracts for Starbucks coffee shops. I told them, there head boss, Howard D. Schultz graduated from Northern Michigan University-Marquette MI on a Football scholarship. Our dd just graduated from NMU and our youngest ds still attends. Anyways, he put a Starbucks in the campus food court 2 years ago and it is part of the meal plan. My opinion-I think that is why the meal plan rose $400. Bad idea.

We were about to leave and the couple told us to stay and watch the Polka band. So we decided to order 2 more "cold one's" and we happily sang,
"In Heaven There is no Beer" and a few others. We enjoyed watching them play their "long horns".

The other couple and their two dd’s were from English Town NJ. We had a great time talking with them. We talked about our county fairs in WI, and their dd’s couldn’t believe county and state fair's existed. We told them how the farmer kids raised steers, sheep, rabbits, and then sold them to the highest butcher shops, large groceries stores. Their girls really want to come to Wisconsin and actually see a County Fair, or our State Fair, hmmm, maybe I should of suggested to "trade houses this summer".


We wobbled out of Germany and decided to call it at day. Epcot had a EMH for he evening and now the park was wall to wall people at 6:00 p. On our way out I was asked by a CM if I had a Tables Service Meal and I replied that I hd. Then he asked me if I would take a 15 minute survey. I thought I would get something in return, but I didn’t. I just gave the Biergarten rave reviews.

We went back to or room and that evening we used a snack credit over at POFQ. We decided to walk over to the French Quarter. We filled our mug with hot chocolate and ordered Beigette’s We only ordered 3, I read on the boards you can order 6 and only use one credit. Oh, well, they were worth it.

 

[wilma-bride]

We wobbled out of Germany and decided to call it at day.

The sign of a good day

Did you only order 3 beignets at FQ by mistake? Or were you only allowed 3?

 

[OhMari]

I wanted to eat at Tusker House, but we decided on Pizzafari. It was pretty crowded at 11:30. We had a hard time finding a table. I got the Pizza, chocolate cake and diet coke. My dh got the Italian Sub and Iced Tea. I am really starting to hate Diet Coke. UtahMomma-Now I know why you have that DIET Pepsi picture in your Sig. I loved the pizza. Two people could easily share the pizza. My dh ate one of my slices plus his sub sandwhich.

I was a nice wife today, I brought my back-pack and carried in 3 diet-dews today and water for myself. My dh was a happier person today.

It was 2:30. Do we try getting on a bus to go back to POR and change into good clothes, or do we go over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and hang out till our ADR’s at 4:40 p.m.

We went over to the Bus stop and got on the Animal Kingdom Lodge Bus. We took a tour of the Lodge and saw a few animals out. I remembered that I needed to call “Dollar” and make a pick-up time for our rental car on Sunday. So I went to concierge and she gave me the number. My dh was really impressed with the Lodge, he even went into the store. We walked down to Boma’s and saw they were setting up for the evening Buffet. We walked outside and found the Pool Bar. I know some DIS members have a fit about pool hopping, but I never heard anyone say anything about Pool Bar Hopping.

The day was just beautiful, I actually fell asleep for about 15 minutes and my dh saw my drink was melting, so he obliged and drank it for me. He ordered another exotic drink and we shared this one. Found a nice bathroom with showers-so I can easily see how easy it really is to Pool Hop-(anyone every read those threads)-if you ever do, take my advice and just pull your “lurker status” here.

Checked into Boma at 4:25 p.m. and were seated immediately. We saw lots of walk-ups. If you want to eat at a resturant where you need an ADR, go when they open, - you probably can get in. We were seated and I went in one direction and my dh in the other. He never wastes his time with salads-he goes right for the main courses. The chef came out and got to talking with my dh. The chef was from Chicago and worked at Kohler in Wisconsin. In Kohler (maker of all toilets) is the “Americana Restaurant”. It is our only 5 star restaurant in Wisconsin. So they chatted awhile and the chef followed my dh to our table to say hello to me. Nice guy, first time in my life, I ever talked to a Chef of a restaurant.
I tried all the different soups. I only put about 1/4 cup in each. I actually enjoyed the salmon and the roasted chicken. I'm not a huge fan of the Prime Rib, so I skipped it.
We had a nice table by the window. I had 1 zebra dome. I put 2 on my plate and gave the other one to my dh. I really didn't like them. (sorry).

 

[OhMari]

The sign of a good day

Did you only order 3 beignets at FQ by mistake? Or were you only allowed 3?

We only ordered 3, and I found out when I got home, that the snack credit allows you 6.

 

[OhMari]

We walked over and a CM asked us if we have ADR's and I told her we did. She told me to walk around to the side window and check in. The CM was weeding out people that did not have ADR's. This girl was so sweet, she took so much verbal abuse from people that did not have ressie's -yet she kept a smile on her face, tilted her head and directed people to Columbia Harbor House. (I actually had a 12:00 ADR for CRT. I cancelled, we looked at the menu, and no one was impressed with anything. We all decided it wasn't worth it. It would have been cool to eat in the castle, but not worth the price or the double credits).

At 11:30 a.m. another.....otsky Family from Ohio were honorary members that were the first seated guests for Lunch at the Crystal Palace. I was beginning to think this family may have won Cinderella's Castle Suite, this is the 2nd time today, I saw them. They were the family that opened the MK this morning. Anyway's within 10 minutes we were called and we were seated on the west side, next to the window.

We had a great waitress-she was from New York and just retired to Florida and it was her dream to work at WDW. She looked to be about my age-middle 40's.

We all ordered our drinks and she explained the buffet-and who should appear:

Pooh walked around and Callie said he gave he a kiss when he left.

For some reason he went back and hugged my dh;

We all finally went to the Buffet and we sat down and Eyeore showed up.




Once again the girls received a kiss from eyeore: I had no idea what Callie meant by a kiss. I did find out in a couple of days, when Tigger gave me a kiss. They must have a mechanism that they can press and it sounds like a big smackin kiss.

After Eyeore left, we noticed the handlers taking away Pooh, Eyeore and Piglet. It was then I noticed the noon time parade marching down Main Street and going towards the castle. Do you think the same characters have to be in the parade. We contemplated this question and came to the conclusion they probably had to do double duty.

About 20 minutes later, I saw all the characters walk back in. A lady and her dd walked into the Crystal Palace and argued with a handler how she wanted her dd to have Piglets autograph. They asked her to leave, but her dd started crying, so Piglet walked over and gave the little girl a hug and signed her book. This is where I feel the DIS is so valuable. I never knew back in 2000 that we needed ressie's to eat a TS resturant, or where to see and meet a character. Do you know 1 out of 300 people that visit WDW have a itinerary or a plan. Thus, this leave quite a number of people that just wing it.

Anyway, here is Piglet-

We finished eating around 12:30. I told our waitress we were on the Dining Plan. She took 4 credits off of our plan. I wanted to pay out of pocket for the girls. But it didn't matter. We had a ADR for Trails End Buffet at 6:00 p.m. We decided since we just had a buffet, that we really wouldn't be hungry for another buffet at 6:00 p.m. and we would just go somewhere else for supper tonite. I did call and cancel like a good DIS member. I also left her a $10.00 tip. I know on my receipt it says 18% gratuity included, but when does the waitress actually receive the tip, at the end of the week, the month, when. I know my oldest sister is a waitress and she wouldn't want to wait around for her tips at the end of the week, or the at the end of the month

 

[wilma-bride]

Lovely pics of CP I agree that the DIS has taught us lots that we would be totally clueless without - good old DIS

 

[OhMari]

As I stated in my previous post, our waitress subtracted 4 credits instead of just 2. I decided to leave it, cause I will be paying out of pocket for "Trails End".

But we decided we were so full, and we didn't want to do another Buffet this Sat. evening. We went back to our room Sat. afternoon for a nap, and when we got up at 5:00, we decided to split a cheeseburger meal at Riverside Mill Court. The cheeseburger was pretty greasy, I could only eat half. My dh had the ice-tea, I brought along our mug and had hot chocolate.

I knew I wanted to bring our mug along back to the MK, because tonite was suppose to get really cold 45. Our dd-marched with her h.s. band at 8:45 p.m. before Spectro.

I wanted to try The Plaza for ice cream that evening, but with it being so cold, we weren't even hungry. We left the MK after Wishes and instead of leaving we went and rode Dumbo and the Carousel. It was 10:40 when we left the park.

We walked out and saw the line for POR. We figured it would take 2 or 3 busses-wow, was there a line of people. We then saw that there was a bus just sitting there for POFQ. We flew down to the depot and hopped on that bus. Away we went and we were at the POFQ at 10:55. We ran into the Food court and ordered 3 baguettes and I went and got hot chocolate. The CM wasn't to happy that she had to make more, but when something closes at 11:00, it shouldn't be to much of a surprise to have a last minute order.

We talked to a lady from Lousiana and she said these bagquettes were good, but she told us we needed to take a vacation to Louisiana. She felt you could get better ones there. Oh, well, the way I see it, "Bagquettes is a heart attack food anyway you look at it."

So, where do I stand with my DDP.
I used our 8 TB meals at Biergarten-2, Boma-2, Crystal Palace-4
Counter service Credits 8; Earl of Sandwhich 2, Sunshine Seasons-1, Pizzafari-2, FoodMill Court 1,

I had an ADR for Boatwrights at POR at 8:05 a.m. Easter morning. I saw the menu at Riverside mill court for breakfast and I knew you could use your counter service creditsm, plus snack credits for breakfast. So we slept in the next morning, I forgot to cancel our ADR for Boatwrights and went to the food court.

For breakfast I had Frenchtoast with sausage, and I used a snack credit for a chocolate milk. My dh had 'create your own omlete, and I used another snack credit to get home toast at the Bakery.

So now all our Counter Service Credits are gone.

I have 2 snack credits left.

I got a bottled water when my dh got a margarita.
We used 2 snack credits for Bagquettes
My dh used a snack credit for bottled ice-tea at the MK
We used 2 for breakfast.

I almost forgot, we checked out of POR on Easter morning and we checked into BWI. I went to the Boardwalk Bakery that evening and got Chocolate Milk and some Danish. Our DDP didn't expire till midnight.


I am going to go figure out how much we actually spent, compared to the $38.99 we paid for using the Dining Plan.

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent

 

[Busymom85]

Great review, Thanks.

 

[wilma-bride]

Great reviews, thanks. I would be interested to see how much you saved

 

[DisneyJo]

Great reviews