We broke in the Deluxe Dining Plan...with lots of PICTURES! I finally finished one!!!

[tyandskyesmom]

Ok, so I am a little late writing this up. And ok, so I have not yet finished my actual trip report. And ok, so we have anoter 14 days after this one to tell of. BUT, I figured maybe I could get a dining report out quicker. And maybe it will be as helpful to others as others have been for me. And maybe I can get both trips out quicker if I do a dining review first. So that is what I am going to attempt.

We arrived in The World on New Years Day 2008 for our first 13 night trip with just me (Mom) and the kids (Ty had just turned 9 and Skye was 3 1/2) for a wonderful stay at All Star Movies. We also had added the Deluxe Dining Plan...and oh how much fun the planning was! We had never even done the regular Dining Plan so it was all new to us. And let me tell you, I have a difficult time thinking about another trip without the Deluxe Dining Plan. You guys all helped me so much with your reviews and pictures...I belong to another Disney board too, but I find you guys so much more informative! So I hope I can give back...

Before we begin the reivews though, let me say that we are not gourmets. In fact, in the past we have not done many table service meals at Disney...not because we would not like to but because it would cost too much. The DDDP made that a non-issue. Also, I love to try new things and eat almost anything, Tyler is on the picky side, and Skye sort of follows in her brother's footsteps but is a bit easier to get to try things and actually does find she likes new things sometimes. And while the kids are not super adventurous eaters, they love to go out to eat! And they are very well behaved while we are there (I wish I could say so much otherwise!). So, we tried a lot of restaurants that were new for us. We have been to the World many times (Ty has been about 12 times since the age of two) so while it took a lot of time getting to our ADRs and eating, we did not feel like we were missing anything. Also, along those lines, Skye is still about an inch too short for the "big" rides (although she cannot wait) and Ty is just a little too chicken for most of them so the lines that tend to be longer were not something we were using our time on so it kind of balanced out for us.


The places we ate were...

Yacht Club Galley - lunch
Goofy's Candy Company - Snack
Citricos -Dinner
World Premiere Food Court - Breakfast
Tuskerhouse - lunch
Animal Kingdom Oasis Popcorn Cart
Narcoossee - Dinner
1900 Park Fare - breakfast
Liberty Tree Tavern - Lunch
The Plaza - Dinner
Restaurant Marrakesh - Lunch
Chefs de France - Dinner
Hollywood & Vine - Breakfast
Mama Melrose - Dinner
Ohana - Breakfast
Lunching Pad - Snack
Crystal Palace - Lunch
Grand Floridian Cafe - Dinner
Main Street Bakery - Breakfast
Liberty Square Produce Market - Snack
Club Cool
Akershus - Lunch
1900 Park Fare - Dinner
Cape May Cafe - Breakfast
World Premiere Food Court - Dinner
Tuskerhouse - Breakfast
Yak & Yeti - Lunch
Boma - Dinner
Crystal Palace - Breakfast
Concorse Steakhouse - Lunch
Lunching Pad - Snack
Kona Cafe - Dinner
Le Cellier - Lunch
The Writers Stop - Snack
Flying Fish - Dinner
World Premiere Food Court - Breakfast
Coral Reef - Lunch
Kringla Bakery - Snack
Tutto Italia - Dinner
Canada Popcorn - Snack
World Premiere Food Court - Snack
Chef Mickey's - Breakfast

And I'll start off in the next post...

Oh, and the reason for my title is that January 1, 2008 was the first day of the Deluxe Dining Plan so we were not sure what to expect.

 

[Four*Peas]

Oh, this is gonna be good! I can't wait to see what you have to say!

 

[adsrtw]

Wow, what a list! Gotta jump in!

 

[Angelrose]

Sounds very yummy. Can't wait to read more.

 

[dltnboz3mom]

I thought the concourse steakhouse was closed?

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Our first meal was lunch at Captian's Grille. There was not much available about this place to read or see so we went in not knowing what to expect. It also had a name change as of that morning too and from what I understand a bit of a menu change. We would not notice because we have never been before so all was good.

We were running a tiny bit behind for our 1:30pm ADR due the the huge line to check-in at Movies and the non-existing boat from MGM which prompted us to walk. We needn't have worried though because the place was pretty empty.

We walked past the dessert table on the way into the restaurant...oh they looked good! Our waiter was there very quickly and we ordered a diet coke and two Pirate's Punches which we paid for out of poket so the kids each got a huge, glass bottle of Avian Water to take with us as their drink on the Dining Plan.

Skye's had Tinkerbell on it.

Ty's had Captain Hook on it.

Tyler had a Kid's Cheese Pizza with French Fries which he thought was great.

Just to quantify though, Tyler is a Pizzaholic...and he has only found one pizza in The World that he does not like...Wolfgang Puck Express. I told you we were not gourmets!

Skye had Mac 'N Cheese and French Fries. She loved it and actually ate almost all of it which is a great thing for her. Tyler only eats the Blue Box Mac 'n Cheese but it is usually Skye's first meal in the World.

I had the Crab Cakes for my appetizer.

Now normally I do not get Crab Cakes because normally we would not each get our own appetizers so I would take one for the team and order something everyone would eat. But since the kids got plenty of food and Lou was not around, I could order whatever I wanted. So you will see that Crab Cakes were my appetizer of choice a lot of times. Since I am not gourmet, I cannot comment on the actual quality but they were pretty darned good for me! For my entree, I had the Lobster Roll with Orzo Salad.

The Orzo Salad was good and different for me. It is chilled and kinds of had a relishy taste to it. But the Lobster Roll was fantastic. Huge chunks of Lobster meat on a buttered roll...mmmmmmm. It was so good.

For dessert both the kids ordered the Kabob.

It was a rice treat, brownie, strawberry, and marshmallow on a Mickey Straw with chocolate sauce to dip in. They both scarfed down their marshmallows, Skye ate both the strawberries, and Ty took a bite of his brownie. Neither one of them tried the rice treat. I did. It had an odd taste to it. I don't know what it was. The brownies were good, especially when dipped in the chocolate. I know this because this is what I ordered...

And the kids snagged most of it! They thought it was great! It was a chocolate mousse cake and it was the kind of thing that appears really heavy but was super light and it did not feel like you were eating anything...you know, the kind of dessert you can eat the whole thing of and not even realize it!

The service was wonderful. We are not people who want a ton of attention. In fact, we are generally happy that you serve us quickly, friendly, and re-fill our drinks when needed. And since the place was basically empty the whole time we were there, that could have been it but whatever it was, our service was really good.

We would definately return...and in fact we did on our next trip on our first day in town...but that's a story for another time. We left with a Tink, Hook, and two huge bottles of Avian for later.

We paid out of pocket for the kid's drinks = $6.92 because he only charged us for one.

The cost of our meal was $57.64 and we left a $10.00 tip. And we used 3 TS credits.

We would recommend Captain's Grille!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Oh, this is gonna be good! I can't wait to see what you have to say!

Hi there...I promise to finish the whole thing and in relatively quick time...hold me to that please!

Wow, what a list! Gotta jump in!

And for our first venture into the word of dining at Disney, it was a lot of fun!

Sounds very yummy. Can't wait to read more.

Stick around and I'll give you more!

I thought the concourse steakhouse was closed?

It is now but it hadn't been yet when we were there. I was glad we got to try it but now am sorry it is gone!

Thanx for reading guys! It's so much more fun when you know others are there with you!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

After lunch we jumped over to Downtown Disney to hang out a while and to hit Goofy's Candy Company. We had been there on our trip before and knew we wanted to get some make your own snacks. We had two orders of marshmallows and one of pretzels. You get four marshmallows on a Mickey straw in one order and three pretzel rods in one order. Each of us designed an order. I do not remember what we all got and I have not been able to find the pictures...if I do I will post them.

When we went to check out I asked if they were covered as a snack on the Dining Plan and the CM answered, "Sometimes". She went on to explain that some people have been able to get it on the plan and others have not. She said with the changes, she (in fact, any CM working there) did not know if they were going to remain a snack or not. So she pushed ours through and they were allowed.

It took us most of the first week to eat them. They were all so good. Definately worth the trip to Downtown Disney for. If we were driving I would have hit it up on our last day and used all of my extra snack credits on different variations of them.

We used three snack credits. The cost would have been around $12.00, I think.

That is my one complaint about the dining plan. The receipts you get, particularly at CS or snack locations do not give you a price paid on them. Weird!

 

[skellingtonfreak]

I'm in! Great start!

 

[danalee]

bring it on!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Now we had eaten at Artist Point years ago. But other than that, this was our first venture into Disney Signature Dining. We had returned our room after our jaunt to Downtown Disney in order to change our clothes and freshen up for dinner. We put on our nicer clothes and headed out. We had a 7:35pm ADR at Citricos. This was another that I had a hard time finding information on. So we took a chance. Well, not really a chance, it is fine dning after all, how bad could it be?

We were seated quickly towards the back, along the balcony. We had a great view of the whole place and outside from there. There were not a lot of kids there but there were some. Our disappointment was in that there were peole there not dressed appropriately. I mean, it was not a huge deal...we would have dressed for this place anyway but it was a bit odd.

Our waitress was really great with the kids and did not seem annoyed by them being there at all. I had a diet Coke, Ty ordered a Coke and Skye ordered a chocolate milk...which came out as a Coke but when she saw it's presentation, she did not have aproblem with it...

A cherry would have been a bit weird in chocolate milk.

Kiera A. (the waitress) brought the bread soon after our drinks. I think the kids would have been happy with only bread at most of the restaurants!

The kids each ordered the Mozzarella Sticks...they are freaks for them!

They were very good, typical cheese stix. Tyler's only complaint was that when our food arrived, Kiera took his cheese stix but he still had ne left on the plate and he was planning on eating it still!

I had, can you guess???? Yep, my second order of Crab Cakes, well actually Gateau of Crab. I don't really know what that means but for all purposes here they were Crab Cakes...no I take that back...they were really good Crab Cakes!

For entrees the kids both ordered pasta plain with the sauce and cheese on the side.

Now we are people who believe pasta should be it's own food group so my kids like it plain. But, they also like it with extras but the like to control the extras. And they don't do meatballs or meat in the sauce. So they get it on the side. Tyler dips his pasta into the sauce. Skye, it just depends on her mood. This night she was enjoying creating her own pasta and ended up with most of the sauce and cheese on her pasta. I guess it is the thrill of doing it yourself. Both of them enjoyed their food their ways. Can't really mess up pasta, right? They both ate most of their food too! That's twice in one day...I swear they eat so much better on vacation!

For my entree I got a beef dish...somehow it is the missing picture from this trip! I believe if I remember correctly it was a fillet with potatoes and brocolini. I do not think it was the same name as the beef dish listed on allears.net now though but I do remember I liked it a lot. That I am sure of. I am really bummed that I do not have this picture though because of the lack of info about Citricos out there...every little bit helps!

For dessert the kids both got the Make-Your-Own-Sundaes. Again, that do it yourself thing was a winner. Skye loves to "cook". While we were back at the room to change Tyler got his Birthday pin. His birthday was three days earlier. It brought us a lot of extras on this trip. It was very fun to have all the attention on him. So Tyler got his Sundae with a candle in the whipped cream and a chocolate "Happy Birthday" on the plate. Skye's was plain. She did not mind. He was very good about sharing the attention with her.

And I had one of my favorite desserts of the whole trip...the Cheesecake. It was a Year of a Million Dreams dessert. It was almost too pretty to eat...hey, I said ALMOST!

The background was a sugar wafer kind of thing. The kids loved it when they found out they could eat it. It was so pretty and delicious. Skye was scamming on it too!

Our service was great...except for Tyler's cheees stix mishap and Skye's drink...but all was fine in the end. When they brought out Tyler's dessert they sang to him too. It was a nice, calm, quiet kind of dinner and a great way to start off the trip.

We are so glad we added this one on...it was one of the last we added. We would definately recommend it to anyone. I say, dress the part, it just adds to the experience. We were out of there around 9pm, so about an hour and a half for dinner.

This is a signature restaurant and therefore is a 2TS credit venue but we were only charge three. Our total was $95.59 and we left a tip of $16.00...there were those couple of mishaps after all.

Definately a good choice!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

The next morning we had to stop in the food court for our re-fillable mugs that were included with the plan. So we grabbed breakfast too. This is where we discovered how difficult the new deluxe dining plan was for the CMs. All the registers were open and there were Supervisors walking around helping because of the addition of the new plan. I ended up with three receipts for this one meal.

One was for the mugs, which would have been about $36.00.

One was for the kids meal Skye got. Her favorite breakfast in all the world...and I do not mean The World, I mean on Earth, is a Mickey Waffle! So she got the kids waffle (two of them come with it)with bacon and grapes and a small bottle of water to take with us. Well that had to be rung on it's own. It would have been around $4.00 but we used one credit for it.

Then the last one was for my Oatmeal (Disney makes Oatmeal like no other!) and Tyler's Cinnamon Roll and Strawberry Milk. This would have been about $8.00 but we used three snack credits for it. Tyler lives on Cinnamon Rolls in Disney. So as you can see, this is a typical breakfast for us.

Everything was fresh and hot (at least when we put it on our tray!). It did what it was supposed to for breakfast.

It took us a while to check out...and not because of the food or waiting in line. It took a while for the CM to actually do the cheking out. This was the only time we had this problem though so I am sure it was just the addition of the new Deluxe Dining Plan that was throwing them.

I do not know if I have pictures of this meal. We were still getting used to the taking pictures of your food thing so if I find them I will add them.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We had an 11:30am lunch ADR for Tuskerhouse. Since this was relatively newly renovated, we obviously had not visited before. I was sad to see the CS Tuskerhouse disappear but I changed my mind shortly after being seated. I say "after being seated" because while we generally like the first seating at meals, this is not one of them. The problem we discovered here is that since breakfast is a character meal and lunch is not, the lunch crowd has to wait to get in until all the breakfast guests have seen the characters. So, we waited about 30 minutes past our ADR time to be seated. You walk in around the back and the host tells the story about the venue....something about the family that lives upstairs of the restaurant being noisy (you can hear the sounds of a busy hosehold coming from the upstairs windows) and such. The area that used to be the lines for ordering is now all a huge open room with pods around the edges and one in the middle of the room. It seems to me that from left to right starts with saland and breads and such and flows around to the end where the carving pod is. The desserts are the center pod. The kid's section is right in the middle of the back section of pods. There are tables in the two rooms on either side. We were seated along the window overlooking the back of the building where people are brought in. Our table was in that first room there.

Our waitress (Dorothy) was a ding bat. She was nice enough but seemed to forget a lot and was not around much. This was our first adventure with the paper straws. While we were glad for the straws, they do get a little gross after a while.

I am not going to even try to figure out what is on most of the plates. Some of it was very good. Some was not to our, or should I say "my" because you all know by now that the kids did not try anything out of their comfort zone, tastes. But that is the beauty of a buffet, right? So here are some plates...

Skye's plate -

Watermelon and cantalope, bread, crossaint, corn & carrots ("Why are there carrots in my corn?"), green beans, mashed potatoes ("Why are there brown things in my potatoes?"), mac 'n cheese, and a banana.

My plates -

Cesar Salad, ham, American Cheese, Cucumber & Tomato Salad, and Potato Salad.

Salmon, Chicken, Samosa, Jasmine Rice, and some things I do not recall.

Potato Wedges, Mashed Potatoes, carved pork, and carved beef.

And for some reason the only plate of Tyler's I can find is this...

Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Here's Skye and my dessert plate...

And as forgetful and slow as Dorothy was, she did bring Tyler a birthday cupcake and sing to him.

This was a make-your-whole-mouth-blue kind of cupcake too!

We really liked this place. It was sort of a very mini-Boma. It had plain enough food for picky people as I assure you Tyler had to have eaten some real food before that dessert plate and cupcake...I just don't recall what....probably chicken and a ham sandwich. The kids really like buffets because again, they can do it themselves.

This meal cost us three credits but would have been $61.22 if we had had to pay for it. Normally I do not tip very much for a buffet but I think I only had one re-fill (and I am one of those people who drinks a lot while I eat so a good re-filler is a necessity) and we had plates on our table for long periods of time after we had new ones. So needless to say, she got $8.00 which for me was a good tip for a buffet. But I know it was just her because we have been for breakfast a couple of times since and for lunch again and had great service.

We would definately return...and did.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

I'm in! Great start!

bring it on!

Thanx for joining in guys...keep reading along!

 

[DisneyDancin7]

Everything looks delicious! Great review so far! Looking forward to more!!!

Oh, and you have adorable children!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Everything looks delicious! Great review so far! Looking forward to more!!!

Oh, and you have adorable children!

Thanx a lot! They clean up well

 

[tyandskyesmom]

That evening we had an ADR at Narcoossee's for 5:40pm.

It was freezing out all day and we had brought our better clothes to change into once we arrived. One side note...every time we were at the Grand Floridian we managed to hit the bathroom by the 1900 Park are entrance. And every time they were gross! I just don't understand why a place like the Grand Floridian looked and smelled like that. Anyway, we went into those bathrooms to change into our dinner clothes and then walked out the back door into the courtyard where grounds keepers were covering all the plants because of the expected frost coming in that evening...yes, it was that cold. Unless you are a mommy duck and a bunch of baby ducks swimming in the pool along the way!

So we arrived and were a little early and they had not yet begun to seat anyone. We were seated before our ADR time however. We got a table along the window but to the left side. It was not the best seat in the house but it was none too shabby.

I know, not very good pictures but you at least get an idea of the view we had at dinner.

Chevy was our waiter. He was a bit stiff but very nice and friendly all at the same time...if that makes any sense?!?!?!?! He brought over bread and took our drink orders (the usual).

The kids had fruit cups for appetizers. Skye just about licked her bowl clean! It was very fresh and cold and chopped in tiny bite sized pieces. What more could you ask for?

I had my usual...yep, Crab Cakes again! And I had absolutely nothing to complain about!

The kids again had pasta with everything seperate. And again, it got rave reviews.

I had the Surf & Turf. It came with the best potato gratin I have ever had and some asparagus. I was so full but I could not stop eating it! It was really great! The kids shared some of the lobster (ya, the freaks eat that!) and I had the beef all to myself. This is one of the best values on the DDP. High cost and great food...this dish alone will keep me coming back! It is a shame though because I may never get to experience any of their other dishes...

Skye had the Make Your Own Smores for dessert. She ate all the components seperately???

Tyler had the Brownie Sundae with a birthday candle in it. This was a very good dessert for a kid's menu and not your usual vanilla ice cream. He loved it!

And I had my absolute favorite dessert of the trip...the almond cheesecake decrate for the Year of a Million Dreams. Again, it was almost too pretty to eat...ALMOST!

Chevy was great and our glasses were kept full. We were checked on just the right amount of time and we were not left to wait between servings. Our food was good and spaced perfectly. There were many more under dressed guests here and a lot of kids...including some playing their Nintendo DS with the sound up at the table behind us. We were there for about an hour and a half. So while this could be a long meal, it is what you make it.

Since this is a Signature Restaurant it was two credits each so we used six but our meal would have been around $109.00 (but I do not have the receipt with the total on it so I am going from a menu online) and we left $20.00 tip.

We did go back on our last trip and I venture to guess we will go back on all of our trips, even if we are paying out of pocket! We were not there late enough to watch Wishes from there but I can imagine it could be a great view.

After this we headed back out in the weather to go to Animal Kingdom's extra hours. I tried to talk them out of it but they were having none of it! We threw all of our clothes on to keep warm and headed over to an almost empty park. It really was worth going back but I was so full I could have beenjust as happy going back to our room and to BED!

Definately give it a try!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

On the way out we stopped for a box of popcorn as a snack credit...NO, not for me and I honestly do not know where the kids put it because believe me they do not eat this well at home! But by the time we got back to our room (and it was not that long because we truely were about the only ones there!) it was gone!

I am not a popcorn eater but Disney popcorn is just so much better than anywhere else!

No picture from tonight.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So we were up and out earlier than I thought we'd be so after a bit at the Magic Kingdom we headed back to the Grand Floridian for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare.

We love it here but I really cannot figure out why??? We had a 10:20am ADR but when we arrived it was P-A-C-K-E-D! Now, we did arrive a little early but then we waited well past our ADR time and we were watching people who came in after us go in until we were some of the only ones left out there. So finally we went up to ask about it. Well, apparently someone made a mistake and they apparently knew about it but were not going to let anyone else know and we were skipped. So without an apology, which may have been part of our problem today, we were told they would get us in ASAP. It was shortly after that that we were beeped and we were seated at table past the door on the isle. There were better seats other places but they were done seating that section by then. So we began to eat and Sharon (the waitress) brought out drinks but no straws...which was ok for me (not prefered but ok) but the kid's cups had lids on them so without a straw they would not be able to drink them. It was quite a while until she came back.

Skye had...

I had...

And again I am missing Ty's plates. Probably some waffles, hard boiled eggs, and scrambles eggs (which he decided he did not like).

Mary Poppins came around pretty quickly.

Then Tigger.

This is when Sharon realized Tyler had a birthday button on and she brougt out an autographed place mat, a prince's crown, and a birthday cupcake.

It was about then that Pooh completly skipped us. Now had I though about it, it probably would not have been that big a deal as we would be visiting him a couple of other times later in the trip but I did not think about it and my kids wanted to see Pooh. So once we were sure we were really skipped and not just rearranged I told Sharon and she told us to hold on. So about five minutes later as Alice and the Mad Hatter are getting closer the manager comes over. He tells us to come with him and he wil get us to meet Pooh. So he takes us clear across the restaurant and tells us that Pooh is in the hall section greeting the people in there and as soon as he is done he will meet us so we should sit in the chairs pushed up against the wall and wait. Meanwhile Skye is freaking (which for most 4 year olds is probably quite a mild freak but for her she was worried!) because Alice is coming and she thinks we are going to miss her. So just as Alice is at the table next to ours, Pooh comes over, stands there for a minute and as soon as the camera flashed he was off. And so was Skye!

So we made it just in time for Alice and The Mad Hatter.

We had been sitting for so long that as soon as we were done meeting with them we took off.

The food was ok...your basic breakfast fare plus Strawberry Soup! Nothing bad, nothing exceptional. But the service, from the hostesses to the waitress to Pooh and the absent minded manager, was bad.

This meal was $52.16 but for us was three credits. I left a $4.00 tip. Had I actually had to fork over actual money for this meal I would have complained. It just did not seem worth ruining any more of our day at that point. And yet, throughout all of this we still keep coming back. I don't know what it is??? I am thinking it must be the characters. We have consistantly had big waits here and sub-par service here...and I don't even expect much in the way of service from a buffet but I can continue to complain about it here.

We will most likely be back and attempt to forgive but we will probably be right back here saying similar things after.

Go for the fun variety of characters and decent food with a decent variety but do not set your hopes too high and you may not be disappointed!

 

[CookingMama]

subscribing yummy!!