The Deluxe Dining that defeated us ...a German perspective! (FINISHED!)

[jeminni]

Great reviews. It's definately no fun being sick at disney. My DD21 was sick when we were there in December ( she actually ended up having complicated appendicitis after we got back ) so we also ended up changing/missing some reservations. Your chicken salad at the Plaza looks great> Looking forward to the rest of your reviews.

 

[annichan]

Love CP breakfast and the Plaza!! So good!
Can't wait to read more Congrats on your wedding. Honeymoning in Disney is the best!

Yes, isn't it? We loved it!! Our wedding was a while ago already, but we couldn't get enough time off work in the first months after the wedding, so this finally was our honeymoon, and I loved every minute of it! Even though we didn't buy the bride and groom ears, we wore our "Just Married" buttons all the time, and we got loads of pixie dust!

Loving your reviews so far!
I agree...I kept reading, "the dining plan is so much food! We couldn't eat dessert!" etc. etc. And I was thinking yeah right, I LOVE to eat! No way! We're going to eat it all!
And we were also proved wrong. We ate so much that dh became physically ill, and then we decided it was too much food! And we weren't even on the deluxe plan!
Anywho, keep em coming!

Oh wow, I hadn't seen your review before, and now I see that I have even almost stolen your title without knowing it! Sorry for that! I will start reading it as soon as possible, it seems like you and your poor husband had similar problems to us!

looking forward to reading more of your reviews!

Thank you, I will try to keep them coming as quickly as possible!

Great start! Sorry you got sick! Looking forward to more reviews!

Great reviews. It's definately no fun being sick at disney. My DD21 was sick when we were there in December ( she actually ended up having complicated appendicitis after we got back ) so we also ended up changing/missing some reservations. Your chicken salad at the Plaza looks great> Looking forward to the rest of your reviews.

Yes, it's no fun at all being sick at Disney World, when you lie in bed and feel awful and start thinking about how much money this day in your hotel bed is costing you, and for all that money you don't even feel as comfortable as you would if you were ill at home ... But I assure you, no more sick stories from me, I was fine for the remainder of the vacation!

 

[annichan]

Like I said, we had a nice calm afternoon at the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness, and by the evening I was feeling fine again and ready to tackle dinner. We didn’t want to venture out and did not have an ADR waiting for us anymore anyway so we decided on ordering in-room dining. I gave our orders to a very nice lady on the phone and was allowed to choose any delivery time I wanted, as long as it was at least 30 minutes out. She also offered to call us again just prior to delivery, which I didn’t deem necessary, however.
Absolutely right on time, dinner arrived … and kept arriving … and kept arriving!

We could not believe the amount of plates and “metal keep-the-plates-warm thingies” (whatever they may be called in English ) that the server carried into the room! There were two big thingies with our entrees underneath them, and two smaller thingies with the desserts, and another smaller thingy with DH's appetizer, and a cheese plate under plastic wrap, and another thingy apparently covering some complimentary cornbread, and salt and pepper shakers, and two big plastic wrap-covered glasses of juice (tomato for me and apple for DH), and a plate full of crackers, and napkins, and cutlery, and ketchup, and salad dressing, and cream, and brown sauce … and a tiny small table to put all that onto. I swear I caught our server laughing at us!

Anyway, this is what we had for dinner (not all of it fit onto the photo, unfortunately, the rest was parked on the bed meanwhile):

DH had a mixed green salad (I forget with which dressing) for starters, followed by the oven-roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and “seasonal vegetables” (in this case, beans and carrots). He liked (and finished!) all of it.

I had the cheese plate as an appetizer, however I treated it as dessert (seeing as it couldn’t get cold) and started with the entrée: A medium-grilled rib-eye steak with the same sides as DH had, mashed potatoes, beans and carrots.

The steak had a cute little yellow plastic buffalo sticking up in it, and it was also extremely delicious (the steak, obviously, not the plastic buffalo – sorry for getting tangled up in long English sentences!). The beans were a bit too “al dente”, if not to say hard, for my liking; the mashed potatoes, on the other hand, were heavenly. I have always loved mashed potatoes, but in Germany we never get them the way Disney does them, which is with a bit of the peel left in the mash. I love that!

The cheese plate was directly off the Artist Point menu, as I was told, and consisted of Fiscalini, Rogue River Blue and Midnight Moon cheeses, accompanied by Walnut toast (roasted so it was completely hard and crispy, very nice) and served with brown and yellow raisins which unfortunately both proved a bit too sweet for my liking so I ate it with just the toast and crackers. The blue cheese was slightly too strong for me, but I had been expecting that as I am a wussie when it comes to strong cheeses . The other two were mild and very nice.

The cornbread, incidentally, went back to the kitchen almost whole: We had so much other food that we just had a tiny little taste of it, and we didn’t really much care for it as we found it rather boring – kind of like a basic butter cake, but without any sugar.

For dessert, we both had the fruit plate: Some strawberries, red grapes, pieces of pineapple and of different types of melon, with fruit joghurt and oatmeal sprinkled on top. Very nice and light. We put most of it in the fridge because we couldn’t finish it after this food feast, and unfortunately we never got around to finishing the nice fruit. A pity!

Coming next: Breakfast at Whispering Canyon Café – what a quiet affair!

 

[annichan]

The next morning, we got the chance to check out our hotel's own restaurant - the Whispering Canyon Cafe. Situated on the Wilderness Lodge's ground floor, it has one open side to the lobby so every time we had walked across the lobby so far, we had been able to see and hear that this was not exactly one of the World's quieter spots: Laughter, shouting, who knew what went on there
Yes, I must admit we were a bit apprehensive – we are not exactly morning people, so we cherish a quiet breakfast where you can glumly stare into your cup of coffee and wake up ever so slooowly. Therefore, we had not booked the Whispering Canyon for the wild experience but rather because it was so conveniently located in our hotel, only a couple of minutes away from our room. When checking in at the podium, however, I caught a glimpse of a paper pinned behind the desk that reminded the employee's not to forget the pony race on every hour . Scary, that …
Anyway, I am going to stop building up the tension now – as it turned out, our breakfast was to be really quiet and subdued. This was mostly thanks to our server, Jeffro, who was a very nice and quiet person (well, maybe he could be otherwise, but we only saw that side of him). There was one other server, a lively lady, who did a fair bit of yelling and joking, but she was far away from our table . Altogether, the restaurant was quite empty at this time of day (7:35 a.m.) anyway, as you can see in this picture of the restaurant (with a view of the hotel lobby in the background):

Now, what did we eat? As we were still rather full from last night's neverending dinner, we chickened out at the prospect of the "All-you-care-to-enjoy" Canyon Skillets and had some eggs instead. I went with the Ham and Cheese Omelet, which according to the menu is a three egg omelet with ham and cheddar cheese that comes with red bliss potatoes with sauteed onions.
The potatoes and onions, even though so creatively named, were the usual breakfast potatoes that come with many Disney breakfasts (or is it with many American breakfasts out of Disney World as well? I don't know …). The omelet was hearty and nice, even though I could have done with only about half the amount of molten cheese (tasted nice, but was so filling and heavy!). With the omelet came an unsweetened muffin type of thing called a Buttermilk Biscuit that I tried but did not finish, as it did not do much for me.

(Sorry about the poor quality of the picture – we only just bought the camera prior to the trip and I still had some trouble figuring out how to take good pictures in artificial light settings.)
My husband had the two eggs with bacon and breakfast potatoes which turned out to be not quite enough for him – therefore it was a good thing that I, quite predictably, was unable to finish my omelet all by myself . This is his eggs and bacon, and our nice server Jeffro in the background:

With the breakfast, we had orange juice and coffee. By the way, speaking about coffee: While researching for our trip, we had read a lot about the coffee at Disney being pretty dismal almost everywhere, so we were prepared for the worst . However, the coffee turned out much better than we had feared … A little weak, yes, but not bad at all. Maybe it's because we mostly drink instant coffee at home as well, but the Disney coffee really was a rather pleasant surprise. (And yes, we STILL loved the Kona Café coffee press pot, but that is another story .)

Coming up next: A late lunch at Olivia's Café, and finally some nice al fresco seating!

 

[ChelleinNC]

Loving your reviews!

 

[annichan]

I had scheduled a late lunch (or call it an early dinner?) at Olivia's Café for 4:00 p.m. after I had read in several reviews that this was a hidden gem and not to be overlooked. On the day, we ended up arriving an hour early as it took us shorter than planned to "finish" Typhoon Lagoon. Getting an early seat was no problem at all since there were only about five parties dining at that time in the whole restaurant!

We immediately decided to sit outdoors: This is something that Germans love to do as soon as the weather isn't freezing anymore, probably because we like to catch all the sparse sun we can get . Here in Florida, however, we had quickly learned to seek shade … and shaded outdoor seating opportunities at Disney seemed few and far between, to our disappointment!
Here, however, there was a perfect cool, shady, beautiful terrace – and it even had a nice view (it was much sunnier than the picture suggests, but I was once again having difficulty with the camera):

The waitress, whose name I forget, was very nice and friendly – and she did what we particularly like: She didn't rush us at all! She started by taking the drinks orders, then she came back to ask for each course individually, it also took some time to receive each course, and she only brought the bill when we asked for it and not before that. This was probably the one restaurant during our stay where we didn't feel the least bit rushed even for a single minute – great!
This was also the first restaurant where we tried that most heavenly of all drinks, the gorgeous MegaBerry Smoothie. Mmmmmh! Made of (according to the menu) raspberry puree and nonfat yoghurt blended with Odwalla Berries GoMega, what ever that may be, it was heaven! Actually, I wish I could have one right now, and probably every single day afterwards . One of us had the strawberry smoothie and we shared both of them, but preferred the MegaBerry.

I started with the Crab Cakes, which I had seriously never had before – so I can't compare them to anything. However, they were very nice and not too fatty, and I also loved the little salad they came with, as well as the key lime mustard and papaya-ginger dipping sauces (even though the latter could have been a tad less sweet).

Dear husband had the Mozzarella and Tomato Salad with mixed Greens and Aceto Balsamico, which he liked but which apparently was not particularly special in taste.

To follow this with something hearty and sustaining, he chose the Chipotle Barbecue Chicken Breast Sandwich with smoked bacon, pineapple jam, caramelized onions, and smoked gouda – doesn't it look great? (Oh my, I just realize I shouldn't be writing reviews while I am hungry, otherwise my strict critics' objectivity fades ).

Meanwhile, I had the beautiful Key West Salmon Salad, a beautiful fresh mixed salad with a gorgeous lemony vinaigrette, with a yummy slice of roasted bread, sweet tomatoes, bacon and – best of all – a huge piece of medium-grilled, juicy, rosy salmon. (Oh god, get me something to eat or I don't know what will happen! )

After this feast, we were once more totally full, happy and inclined to skip dinner. However, there was the matter of the Key Lime Tart … another item which I had read so much about, and never tasted. So we decided to share one of them, and to each have a nice frothy cappuccino to go with it – even if that meant having one on the Dining Plan but having to pay out of pocket for the other one. After all, if the honeymoon isn't the right time to indulge, then I don't know what is …
So here goes the Key Lime Tart with mango and raspberry sauce - tadaa:

Nice, innit? I had expected it to be even less sweet and more lemony-sour, but it was still very, very nice. We devoured the meringue on top, the filling and the sauces, but we left the cake part of it. Once again, too much food.
All in all, this was our most enjoyable meal so far, and probably one of the best of the whole trip. (Remind me to compile a list of my Best & Worst once I am done with the reviews!)

Coming up next: The least motivated waitress of 'em all … meets us at Raglan Road !

 

[fizz13]

Great reviews! I totally sympathise with the too much food thing, I can see how you would get very full very fast but at the same time you dont want to waste the food
I did the regular dining plan a few years ago when you got 3 courses instead of 2 and I think I made it to dessert once in the whole trip, which was such a shame, but i know I can not eat an appetiser and dessert.
Anyway really enjoying the reviews and looking forward to more

 

[gardengirl628]

That key lime tart at Olivia's looks so good! Glad you had a nice meal there.

 

[ChelleinNC]

We had dinner at Olivia's in December and it was one of the best meals of the trip. Our waitress was a little scatterbrained, but the food was really good

 

[TigerKat]

Enjoying your reviews! We may have to try Olivia's...

 

[annichan]

Great reviews! I totally sympathise with the too much food thing, I can see how you would get very full very fast but at the same time you dont want to waste the food
I did the regular dining plan a few years ago when you got 3 courses instead of 2 and I think I made it to dessert once in the whole trip, which was such a shame, but i know I can not eat an appetiser and dessert.
Anyway really enjoying the reviews and looking forward to more

We will definitely do the regular dining plan next time, we think we can handle that . But probably no more deluxe DDP for us ...

That key lime tart at Olivia's looks so good! Glad you had a nice meal there.

We had dinner at Olivia's in December and it was one of the best meals of the trip. Our waitress was a little scatterbrained, but the food was really good

Enjoying your reviews! We may have to try Olivia's...

Yes, I really recommend Olivia's Cafe! Even though I just found out that Anita Answer has just deemed it one of her worst Disney restaurants in her weekly Allears column. Oh well, I guess this is all in the eye of the beholder (or the eater?)

 

[annichan]

First of all, let me apologize that the food photos I took here really won't do much for anybody. I must have had my camera in a wrong mode the whole time, plus I was not really motivated to take pictures at the time. Sorry!
Anyway, we arrived at Raglan Road for our dinner after a long and eventful day which had been great but very stressful on my poor aching feet, so I was glad to get off them. Accordingly, I was blissfully happy when we were seated immediately upon our arrival – or rather, being led into the beautiful Raglan Road interior …

… by a really nice and outgoing cast member who was delighted to meet Germans, as she said she loved Germany and had always wanted to go there. She had the nicest table in a corner booth overlooking the whole room for us, so everything was fantastic … until our server arrived. She looked at us glum and stone-faced and asked the usual question: were we on the dining plan? When I answered "yes, on the deluxe", she eyed me with a look that seriously shouted disbelief and asked rather rudely if she could see our card, then. I got it out to show it to her – and she grabbed it from me and marched off .
When she came back to take our drinks order, I pointed out to her that she had taken my KTTW card – after all, she had only asked to SEE it - , and she curtly said yes, she would keep it and give it back at the end of the meal. Okay … So this is our room key card, with charging privileges on it, and she wasn't even going to TELL us she wouldn't give it back for another hour or so? With this, we were not off to a good start, I am afraid.

However, moving on to nicer topics: The food and atmosphere more that made up for the rude waitress. The dining room with the glass windows up near the ceiling is beautiful, and soon some good (albeit a bit loud) live band came on and delivered Celtic classics that quite a few of the guests heartily sang along to.

I had planned on a beer flight - but since we had arrived by car instead of by bus, as originally planned, DH couldn't drink so I didn't either, and we stuck with water and iced tea. A pity, in a way, but then again there are so many Irish pubs and places at home where we can get those beers, it was not too much of a disappointment.

We gladly jumped at the food intake-minimizing possibility of sharing an appetizer … and what a great one it turned out to be: "Scallop Forest" – forks of scallops served with a lime dipping sauce.

(Once again, sorry for the bad picture!) Neither of us had eaten scallops before so we felt we were really brave. As it turned out, there was no reason to worry, though: They were yummy, and at the same time not half as exotic-tasting as I had feared.
As we were now both well started in seafood knowledge, we decided we would keep going in that same direction – so DH decided for the Salmon of Knowledge and I tried "It's Not Bleedin Chowder".

I can't say if it really bleedin wasn't, if I may quote its name thusly, as this was the first (not-) chowder I had ever had. However, I found it delicious – very seafoody, slightly spicy, and creamy in a yummy none-too-overwhelming way. I can proudly say that I finished every last morsel of it and would have even liked some more .

By that time, the entertainment had turned up another notch, and a cute tap dancer came on stage – I was unable to take a clear picture of her which just shows how incredibly speedily she was tapdancing!

Tonight, there was no question of skipping desserts – we both wanted them, and we found out the most delicious combination imaginable: the "Triple Your Pleasure" (which was white chocolate mousse, dark chocolate mousse and a glass of something that was called tiramisu, but actually very much resembled normal cocoa) …

… gloriously combined with a beautiful, colourful fresh fruit plate, over which golden honey had been dribbled, with a little can of yoghurt on the side. I cannot find this dessert on the menu so I do not recall its name, unfortunately, but I believe it was the "no sugar added dessert".

Like I said, we shared both by dipping the honey-covered fruit pieces into the white and dark chocolate mousses, and the result was just heavenly – one of the best desserts ever!

In this way, a great dinner came to its end – and when taking our leave from the waitress, I tried once more to come to good terms with her by saying "by the way, I was a bit irritated when you said you had to see my card, but then you took off with it. Maybe next time it would be a good idea to explain that BEFORE you take the card." She responded with a lengthy explanation of how the system worked, and why she needed the card. I said "Yes, but I just meant it would be nicer to explain that BEFORE you take the card, next time" – to which she again responded by saying, "Well, but I needed it because … etc etc". This happened something like three times until I finally gave up.
I don't know if this was maybe just cultural or language differences between us, but all I wanted to hear was something along the lines of "Oh I see, sorry for having confused you" – but that just didn't happen. Oh, well. Maybe she was just having a bad day. Or maybe I was.

Coming up next: Donald's Safari Breakfast … a hug from the duck!

 

[TigerKat]

Sorry you had to deal with that snippy, rude waitress BUT isn't that chowder to die for? I had it last November and LOVED it!!!

 

[natalielongstaff]

Mmm maybe reading your report before going to weightwatchers wasnt a good move, im hungry now

 

[TXMomof3boys]

I am really enjoying your reviews! Thank you for taking the time to give us such detailed reports.

I am now wishing I would have stuck with our Raglan ADR - maybe I should change back?

I am also thinking about giving Olivia's a try too. The food looked really yummy.

 

[devonsmommy]

No worries about the title!
It seems we both really were defeated!

still enjoying your reviews!

 

[annichan]

Gee, I just realize I failed to mention the little early lunch we had before eating at Olivia’s Cafe: These alligator nuggets and other bits (I almost wrote „wings“ until I noticed I had to get off the chicken assumption )!

Actually, they only qualified as food in the very widest sense, as in fact they were rather gross. I think it’s only the way they were prepared, though, so I am prepared to give gator meat another chance at some future time! So, if you are at Gatorland, skip these, you’re seriously not missing much. Do not skip Gatorland altogether, though, if you want to take my advice: I loved it there, it is a fantastic rather old-fashioned way to spend a nice three or so hours!

 

[torsie24]

Loving your review so far!!

I think your photos are wonderful, and you write really well!! (Puts me to shame seeing as english is my only language and it isn't as good as yours! )

Can't wait to hear about meeting Donald - him and Daisy are my favourites!!

 

[annichan]

No worries about the title!
It seems we both really were defeated! still enjoying your reviews!

Oh yes, truly defeated! Even though I found out today, after some adding up of receipts and looking at menus, that we actually saved a large sum of money over what we would have paid for our meals out of pocket! I was really happy when I found that out, as with all that dessert-skipping and spending-4-credits-on-room-service, I never thought we would come out so far ahead!

I am really enjoying your reviews! Thank you for taking the time to give us such detailed reports.
I am now wishing I would have stuck with our Raglan ADR - maybe I should change back?
I am also thinking about giving Olivia's a try too. The food looked really yummy.

Thank you! I love writing these detailed reports, they really make me live through those nice experiences a second time. Yes, do give Raglan Road a try! I hadn't got it in my original plan, but then I cancelled the Luau as a spur-of-the-moment decision and went with Raglan Road instead, and I don't regret it! After all, you now know that they will keep your KTTW card for the duration of the meal, so you can't be as shocked as I was .

Mmm maybe reading your report before going to weightwatchers wasnt a good move, im hungry now

Oh dear, I'm sorry! Look deep into my eyes and speak after me: All ... Disney food ... is disgusting ... I do NOT ... want to eat ... any of it!
No, seriously, good on you for doing WeightWatchers, I've been wanting to do that forever and never really done it!

Sorry you had to deal with that snippy, rude waitress BUT isn't that chowder to die for? I had it last November and LOVED it!!!

Yes, loved that chowder or not-quite-chowder! I actually had another one later that didn't live up to this one in any way, but I'll get to that in a later review!

Loving your review so far!!
I think your photos are wonderful, and you write really well!! (Puts me to shame seeing as english is my only language and it isn't as good as yours! )
Can't wait to hear about meeting Donald - him and Daisy are my favourites!!

Wow, thank you for the compliment!
But you don't want to see me writing anything in German, it's probably all horrible compared to this!
Yes, Donald is my favorite too and has been so since I was little - the only one I probably like even better is Balou, whom I met in the Animal Kingdom and ran at him skipping and shouting "Balou! I've always wanted to meet you!!!" as if I was like five years old, how embarrassing
Oh, and Uncle Scrooge of course, but I didn't see him anywhere and I've never seen a photo of him as a character anywhere, either. Does he exist at all? I mean, does he ever appear in any of the parks?

 

[annichan]

The next morning (May 1st) finally saw us at the Animal Kingdom, a park I had very much looked forward to and which to me turned out just as great as I had hoped, if not even better. In fact, I can’t even decide if I like Magic Kingdom a tad better, or if the AK is my favourite park of 'em all!

It all started with a very early breakfast ADR at Tusker House at 8:10 a.m., which meant we could get into the park ahead of all the regular guests since park opening wasn’t until 9:00. Delighted, we walked along the near-empty streets of the Oasis towards Africa, frequently hailed by Cast Members congratulating us on our wedding (wearing those buttons, again!), until we saw this sight:

We progressed along the deceptively long line in front of the check-in counter much faster than expected, then skipped the photo as we didn’t want to buy it anyway (incidentally, why is it that they always pose you for expensive pictures exclusively at character breakfasts, but the characters don’t pose with you? I just don’t get it!) and also because my husband was beginning to feel the need for some coffee and food. We were led into this astonishing setting:

… and from then onward to our table in the very far right corner of the room. That was nice, as we love some peace and quiet in the early mornings when we are not yet really awake! Of course there is not much of that to be had at a character breakfast, but every little bit counts . DH and I were quickly off to the buffet to grab ourselves some brekkie before the characters started heading our way – I got myself what I now believe was my first try of mickey waffles!

They are nice, but I would have liked some icing sugar on them … Or are you supposed to pour syrup over them? I’m such a newbie when it comes to American breakfast foods (as you can you can see by looking at what else I had: just fruit and joghurt and oatmeal, all nice and non-threatening and almost-European ).

DH was more adventurous, with eggs and bacon and what looks to me like a beef patty, but I asked him and he cannot remember what he had for breakfast, so it can’t have been that exciting after all .

All in all, I can really recommend the Tusker House breakfast - or Donald’s Safari Breakfast, as it is called: The food is nice, the setting is absolutely gorgeous and seems very authentically African to me, and then of course there was this friendly and outgoing guy, who gave the breakfast its name and also shamelessly hugged me in front of my husband:

I have always loved Donald more than any other character in the Disney comics and short films (and I think you can see it in my smile here, too) so this was a very special moment for me . I also loved his safari attire, isn’t it fancy? After posing for the photo, he gave me a biiig hug, and that was easily the best part of the whole breakfast experience .
A little later, as the lady at the adjacent table was so nice to offer to take pictures of DH and me together, we also got this great shot demonstrating how we finally met the one and only Mickey Mouse (not my favourite as a child, but shhhh, don’t tell him that):

Goofy and Daisy kindly payed us a visit as well, and then – as it was already past 9:00 and guests were streaming into the park - we were off to explore the wonders of Africa and beyond! But we wouldn’t be gone for long …

Coming up next: Back again – lunch at Tusker House!