First Time Dining Reporter, but Long Time Eater - Updated 2/21 (Toy Story Pizza)

[MusicMouse]

Welcome to my dining report! We are leaving on our first family vacation to WDW in two days, and I thought I would start this report early and whet your appetites (so to speak). First, let’s start with the cast of this little show:

Me: I’m a 38 year-old graduate student and mother of two. I love all kinds of food, and exercise regularly so that I don’t start resembling the Michelin Man. The last time I was at WDW, I was 13, and Epcot was brand new, so I’m really looking forward to a ton of new and fun experiences.

My DH: My high school sweetheart - he’s a carnivore through and through, and tries to avoid most things that belong in the fruit and vegetable part of the food pyramid. He’s never been to WDW before, and looked perplexed when I asked him 6 months ago what he wanted to eat in February.

My DS5: He will be turning 6 just before we leave on this trip, so we are celebrating his birthday all week. He loves chicken nuggets, French Fries, pizza, and has never met a fruit he didn’t like. We are currently engaged in a war over broccoli.

My DS2: He is only 6 weeks out from his third birthday, so we’re taking him while he is still “free”. He loves most foods (especially hot dogs, fruit, cheese, and yogurt), but doesn’t like French Fries or chicken nuggets. His favorite cartoon is the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and he can hardly wait to eat with the characters.

I made my ADR’s with all of the other crazy people on the infamous October 27th. Yes, I am one of the people who crashed the online reservation system at 5 AM. The worst part is that my 90 day window would have been Nov. 1st – so if only Disney had waited a few more days… All’s well that ends well, though. I got all the reservations I wanted later that afternoon after a brief 5 minutes on hold. So where are we eating?

Cosmic Ray's (L) Post #16
Columbia Harbor House (L) Post #19
Akershus (D) Post #23
Toy Story Pizza Planet (L)
‘Ohana (D)
Donald’s Safari Breakfast (B)
Old Port Royale at CBR (L)
Restaurant Marrakesh (D)
Wolfgang Puck Cafe (L)
Chef Mickey’s (D)
Mexico/China (L)
Le Cellier (D)
ABC Commisary (L)
Tutto Italia (D)

So welcome aboard, and stay tuned for the next exciting installment…

 

[H20DogsNDisney]

HAve a great Time! can't wait to read your report.
I have only been 3places on your lis le cellier and libery tree tavern both are very good and chef Mickey.
have fun meeting the Mouse

 

[Miabug]

Have a great time! Can't wait to read you're dining report. My family loves Chef Mickey's!! It's a must for us. Don't leave without trying everything on the dessert tower, yum!

 

[sue and co]

Hey great look forward to the rest of your reports.

 

[msce2]

I'm married to my highschool sweetheart too! You don't find too many people that say that anymore. Hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[MusicMouse]

HAve a great Time! can't wait to read your report.
I have only been 3places on your lis le cellier and libery tree tavern both are very good and chef Mickey.
have fun meeting the Mouse

Thank you! I was so excited to learn that LTT was going to be serving a character breakfast while we were there!

Have a great time! Can't wait to read you're dining report. My family loves Chef Mickey's!! It's a must for us. Don't leave without trying everything on the dessert tower, yum!

There's a whole tower of dessert at Chef Mickey's? I LOVE Disney!!

Hey great look forward to the rest of your reports.

Welcome! I vow to eat as best I can so that this report can be thorough!

I'm married to my highschool sweetheart too! You don't find too many people that say that anymore. Hope you have a wonderful trip!

Thanks! These last two days can't go quickly enough!

 

[kandyk]

I'm in!

 

[weswife]

me too!

 

[psindone]

I too am married to my highschool sweetheart, June will be 35 years.

How exciting to have so many in your family seeing disney for the first time.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. So much has changed since your last trip.

Take lots of wonderful pictures..

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

joining in
Have a wonderful magical trip.

 

[MusicMouse]

I'm in!

Welcome!

me too!

Happy to have you!

I too am married to my highschool sweetheart, June will be 35 years.

How exciting to have so many in your family seeing disney for the first time.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. So much has changed since your last trip.

Take lots of wonderful pictures..

Thank you so much! I plan to take pictures until I run out of memory cards!

joining in
Have a wonderful magical trip.

Thanks for joining in!

 

[pinkxray]

Have a great trip! Can't wait to hear all about it when you get home.

 

[Symans3honeybees]

Don't start without me!

 

[pigletto]

Have a wonderful trip!
Boy do I hear you on the perplexed husband. We have already done the ddp and he still looks at me like I am insane when I want to discuss our restaurant choices for next September

 

[MusicMouse]

Have a great trip! Can't wait to hear all about it when you get home.

Thank you!

Don't start without me!

Of course not!

Have a wonderful trip!
Boy do I hear you on the perplexed husband. We have already done the ddp and he still looks at me like I am insane when I want to discuss our restaurant choices for next September

Thanks! I don't know why people think we're crazy. I mean, where you eat is the most important decision of vacation planning - right?

 

[MusicMouse]

Hello fellow DISers! We’re back, and had an absolutely amazing time! This was our first family vacation to Walt Disney World, so you will be getting a complete Newbie perspective on the food in the parks. We were on the regular dining plan, and felt it was a good value for us, especially as it was our first big trip to WDW together. First, I will apologize for the fact that I didn’t take as many pictures as I probably should have.
However, I did take a lot of notes, so here goes…first stop: Cosmic Ray’s.

We arrived on Saturday, January 30th, in the early afternoon. After checking in, we headed straight to the Magic Kingdom. We hadn’t eaten any lunch, and it was already almost 4 in the afternoon, so we headed over to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café for a late lunch/early dinner. My DH and I each had the chicken and rib combination, which came with mashed potatoes and green beans. We each got a coke to drink, as we were in SERIOUS need of caffeine at that point (we’d been up since 5:30 AM). I shared my dinner with my DS2, who was not on the dining plan. My DS6 had the kids’ chicken and French fries meal with a side of grapes and milk. The chicken and ribs were both very good. The chicken was regular rotisserie-style chicken, and was flavorful and juicy. The ribs were tender, and we both added extra BBQ sauce to the ribs, since they only came with a thin layer of sauce. I thought the mashed potatoes were OK, but then I’m very picky about my mashed potatoes (I would rather eat a pound of Brussel sprouts before I ate an instant potato). My DH thought they were great. The real surprise was the green beans. They were firm and buttery with just the right amount of salt – delicious. DS6 said the chicken, French fries, and grapes were good, and they must have been because he inhaled them.

For dessert DH chose the chocolate cake, and I chose the carrot cake. DH and DS6 shared the chocolate cake, and said that the cake was moist and that the frosting was thick with good chocolate flavor. DS6 loved the Mickey shaed sprinkles! I shared the carrot cake with DS2. It was well spiced, but slightly dry. The frosting was very sweet with a hint of cream cheese. The best part was when DS2 solemnly tried to tell me that eating the carrot made out of frosting counted as a vegetable. (Although, now that I think about it, that might actually be true when you are on vacation.) The boys both enjoyed Sonny Eclipse, who played almost continually while we were there. Overall, I would recommend Cosmic Ray’s. The food was fresh, hot and tasty, even at 3:45 in the afternoon, and the portions were generous. It was a very good deal for 3 QS credits.

Total cost: $57

 

[klacey1]

Joining in! Can't wait to read the rest-- we really regreted missing out on Cosmic Rays!

 

[MusicMouse]

Joining in! Can't wait to read the rest-- we really regreted missing out on Cosmic Rays!

Welcome! You should try it the next time you go (see there's always an excuse to go back).

 

[MusicMouse]

On Sunday we were in the Magic Kingdom again, so we stopped into Columbia Harbour House for lunch. After reading all of the recommendations here on the boards, I ordered the Anchor’s Aweigh sandwich, which comes with potato chips, and a bottle of water. The sandwich is white tuna with lettuce and tomato on multigrain bread. The bread was supposed to be toasted, but it was only lightly so, which left it a bit dry instead of crunchy. The sandwich filling itself was fresh, with a good balance of tuna and mayonnaise. My DH ordered the Chicken Breast Nuggets and Fish with French fries and a Coke. He said it was good, but nothing special - about the same as you would get from any fast food restaurant. DS6 ordered his favorite – chicken nuggets and French fries with grapes and chocolate milk. He ate it all, and then “helped” me eat all my chips (apparently walking around the parks for hours stirs up a hearty appetite). DS2 ordered the macaroni and cheese with applesauce, grapes, and apple juice. Although he ate the sides quickly enough, he took one bite of the macaroni and cheese and declared it “yucky”. I tried it, and he was right.

For dessert DH once again ordered the chocolate cake, which DS2 and DS6 helped him eat. I ordered the apple crisp, which turned out to be more like a small, single-serving apple pie. It was warm and had a flaky crust. The filling was packed full of apples with the right balance of sugar and cinnamon. It was very chilly outside that day, and the warm apple pie was just what I needed (even if DS2 tried to eat half of it). We ate upstairs, and the boys loved all of the nautical decorations. Here is a photo of the view from upstairs down into the lower art of the restaurant:

As you can see, CHH was quite busy. I'm glad I had the Disboards to tell me to eat upstairs, because it was much quieter up there.

Total Cost: $37
Coming up next: Dining with Royalty...

 

[klacey1]

Mmmm we liked CHH, too! We sat upstairs at apparently one of the "magical moments" tables and had all of the napkins and condiments right at our table. A CM even came over and offered to clear our trays! We liked it more for the atmosphere though, than for the food.