Grandmom Helped Pay! (She Needed a Christmas-Flavored Disney Fix)-WCC 4/18 -Complete!

NorweJenNY

Always expanding my knowledge of the World
Joined
Apr 5, 2008

In my last dining report (with my dsil), we had brought Grandmom (my mother) to Disney to celebrate her birthday with free dining. So since "We Got The Mouse to Pay for Our Disney Feasts," we had quite a bit of fun feasting! I like not having to pay for stuff myself! (Like the trip before that when because of a work-related conference, "I Got Work to Pay for my Disney Feasts!")

:thumbsup2

That trip when Grandmom came with us to Disney was a major event for another reason though... we convinced Grandmom she needed to upgrade to an Annual Pass! So...toward the end of our last trip, she went to Guest Relations at Epcot and upgraded! Here's proof that she did it herself!

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We just realized that if she were planning on going back to Disney parks for just three days in the next year, it was going to make sense for her to have the AP! (The rest of my family already has APs... this being our third trip in 2009, I think that was a wise decision... ;))

That last trip was completed in early October, and as November came, Grandmom realized that she didn't want to wait until 2010 for another Disney vacation... "how about before Christmas?" she asked me...

You know my response?

I basically didn't respond to her! I was too busy dialing 407-W-DISNEY! :lmao:

We priced out POFQ at an AP rate (see, those things are good for more than just park entry!) and got a rate of $140/nt right before Christmas. We were going to start with a Sat night, but that was priced to high, so we figured our first night we could stay offsite - which we did... $30 at Continental Plaza. Then, just in case we could try renting a DVC stay, I started inquiring about possible studios available... even if just for part of the trip. We were really close to getting an OKW studio, but when the owner called back, that had been taken. On a brighter note, my first choice, VWL, had one opening the last night of our stay! Did I want it? Of course! It was for the night before Christmas Eve, and we got a studio villa at Wilderness Lodge for just $120! Yeah, cheaper than POFQ! So I cancelled our last night at POFQ!

Grandmom paid half of everything... :worship: (otherwise we'd have been at Continental Plaza the whole time!) And when it came to meals, Grandmom and I are a good team! We split a lot, which made my feasts half price! (I don't like eating super huge portions anyway.)

This trip, without a dining plan, my Tables in Wonderland card played a major role. We got 20% off at most of our meals.

So where'd we dine?

Sunday, 12/20 - Hollywood Studios
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater (lunch) - page 1
Sassagoula Floatworks @ POFQ (dinner) - page 1

Monday, 12/21 - Magic Kingdom
Crystal Palace (late breakfast) - page 1
Auntie Gravity's Galactic Goodies (snack) - page 2
Sassagoula Floatworks @ POFQ (dinner) - page 2

Tuesday, 12/22 - Epcot
Rose & Crown (lunch) *Candlelight Processional Package - page 2
Sassagoula Floatworks @ POFQ (dinner) - page 2

Wednesday, 12/23 - Magic Kingdom
Liberty Tree Tavern (lunch) - page 2
Enchanted Grove (snack) - page 2
Whispering Canyon Cafe @ WL (dinner) - page 3

So join Grandmom, myself, Big Guy (ds6) and Little Guy (ds4) on our Christmas-flavored dining adventures!

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(They like being Goofy-ish...)
 


Sci-Fi Dine-In

Since I had only a month's notice to plan ADR's, it was hard to get some reservations. Sci-Fi was the trickiest. We ended up getting scheduled for about 3:15 in the afternoon - the only available time throughout our entire trip! Even after calling back dozens of times, nothing else became available! I tried online a lot too, and only once did an availability show up - for the same exact time slot we already had!

We kept it... I knew how much the boys liked it.

To hold us over for such a late lunch, I gave the boys some raisins, but snuck one of these out of the Writer's Stop, which Grandmom and I shared...

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(Pardon the picture from a previous review, but it looked the same.)

Carrot cake cookie - oh! So good! And HUGE! No problem sharing this one!

Finally it was time for Sci Fi. We did have a wait of several minutes (maybe 10 or so), but I don't think it was as bad as our wait the first time we came.

I had one of my favorite foods, ribs! And Grandmom thought it sounded good too, so we shared one portion.

Here's my half, though I ate one rib already (just couldn't wait!)

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You can see how clean that one rib bone is though! The meat fell right off of those bones! Beautiful! We had string beans and fries on the side... they basically let us pick any two sides we wanted. Both Grandmom and I enjoyed it... though I don't think she ate all her green beans. (Good thing we weren't at 50s Prime Time!)

I had water to drink, but only as one of my drinks... ;)

This was my other...

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I LOVE cookies and cream shakes! :lovestruc

This is such a wonderful meal!

The boys had hot dogs, which I didn't get pictures of because of the darkness and distance they were from us (in the front seat of the car). They enjoyed them, though... and especially their ice cream for dessert!

So Sci Fi in summary...
My 2nd trip here...
Food, great!
Service, great!
Atmosphere, great! Very different then any other restaurant in WDW, and highly appeals to kids!
Will I return? Yes... not sure when exactly, but yes, I will on one of our future trips.

 
Yay! I loooooooove your reviews and I can't wait to get back to Disney World but it won't be until December :sad2: so more of your reviews (especially with Christmas-y things) will definitely help!
 


Yay - you're back for more reviews :cool1:


Hey, this is the year of a million trips! (Ok, slight exaggeration... but this is really unlike my family in the past! It's very different and exciting!) I even went back a couple weeks ago for a weekend getaway! Of course I have some kind of food to report on... but by the time I get to review this most recent trip, I may have already gone back yet again! (Hey, ya never know!)

Sorry if it may take a while for some updates at times!



Yay! I loooooooove your reviews and I can't wait to get back to Disney World but it won't be until December :sad2: so more of your reviews (especially with Christmas-y things) will definitely help!


Thank you for the compliment.

Disney in December is wonderful! (Before the Christmas crowds really hit, that is!) Especially since we've been in the summer, when there isn't really a "season" to look forward to decoration-wise. I wish there were more Christmas treats, in the edible sense, but there weren't many. Still, most of the Christmas feel comes from the atmosphere. Some of our favorite experiences this trip were not even food-related! :eek:

We thoroughly enjoyed the fountain at Epcot as the water danced to really Christmas-y music, like Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Carol of the Bells and other good stuff! We also liked the more obvious attraction, the Osbourne Spectacle of Dancing Lights. Gotta see it for yourself! And Wilderness Lodge is the most wonderful place to see decorated for Christmas! I love the Christmas-y feel in there!

It may be a while away, but it will so be worth the wait! I hope you have a good trip in December! And go ahead and splurge on a Candlelight Processional package! Fantastic food, followed by a fantastic show!
 


Sassagoula Floatworks

This is becoming a traditional type of meal... my family has placed Sassagoula Floatworks on top of our list for CS restaurants in Disney.

Sure the kids have their typical stuff, like Little Guy's chicken nuggets & applesauce...

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...or Big Guy's cheeseburger and french fries...

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(Both come with a second side, so we usually get a cookie to use as a dessert.)

But the main reason Sassagoula is our favorite is this:

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Best counter service ribs and mac 'n cheese in WDW! :cloud9:

The ribs are always glazed with just the right amount of sauce. The meat is soft and falls off the bone. It actually is pretty close in rating to Sci Fi's ribs, and those are twice the price as they're at a TS! The mac 'n cheese is creamy and buttery-tasting. And the ribs come with two sides, but we just go ahead and get double mac 'n cheese! :thumbsup2

My mom and I shared this meal. You can see the ribs always come as two separate chunks of ribs on the plate anyway, so it's really easy to split! And should two people not be able to agree on sides, you can each pick one (although my mom and I never have a problem deciding on the mac 'n cheese!)

Oh... and it comes with some pretty good cornbread (which we always add butter too - though that's one teeny, tiny negative... no real butter... just buttery-type spreads... but it's hard to complain when everything else is so near perfection!)

Now, there are plenty of other choices at Sassagoula... but being our first night at POFQ, how could we not get what we already fell in love with in the past? :lovestruc

 
Wow, another food review...I have enjoyed your 2 past food reviews and truelly have loved it...thanks for sharing. We were suppose to go last December but had to cancel. We are suppose to go May but have to reschedule again so I'm now thinking of first week of December so we can celebrate Christmas in Disney. Can't wait to read more.
 
Wow, another food review...I have enjoyed your 2 past food reviews and truelly have loved it...thanks for sharing. We were suppose to go last December but had to cancel. We are suppose to go May but have to reschedule again so I'm now thinking of first week of December so we can celebrate Christmas in Disney. Can't wait to read more.

Welcome back! Good to see you... er... read you again! ;)

So sorry you had to cancel your last trip... what a shame! :sad1:

Christmas in Disney is wonderful! I sure hope your Plan C works out! :santa:

BTW, judging by your user name, I have a feeling you'll like my next review... Crystal Palace.

It was almost up tonight, and then my Internet Explorer stopped responding. I restarted, but lost everything I was typing... I don't have the patience to retype it all tonight, so I'll hopefully get that up in the next day or two. I used to type everything out in a Word document in the past before, then just copy and paste... I think I'll have to do that again. At least Word automatically saves work, just in case of an unexpected shut down.
 

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace is just a favorite of ours... we love doing breakfast there! We scheduled this one late, so it would kinda cover breakfast and lunch (we just ate a little hold-us-over in the room before we left to get to park opening that morning).

Just as we got to our table, someone was waiting for us!

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See? The kids didn't even take their coats off yet! Tigger was sitting in their booth! How could they not go in with him?!

The restaurant also had some festive decor, which made us feel better about wearing sweatshirts and coats in Disney World! ;)

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And you can see the edge of a big bunch of poinsettias in the background of this picture (like millions of poinsettias - I didn't actually count - throughout WDW, actually)... yeah, Eeyore and the boys are kinda cute too. :goodvibes

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Onto the food!

Big Guy had a plate full o' carbs, plus some eggs because Mommy and Grandmom insist on him having some protein to better stabilize his blood sugar level (not that he's diabetic or anything, we just have a firm belief in th importance of protein).

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Then Little Guy is my little fruititarian...

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We made him have a little egg too. :)

My mom didn't really have anything different than what I had (except for a cup of coffee... I had hot cocoa)... so I just took pictures of my food.

Here's my first plate...

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I've noticed that a lot of the eggs and meats, potatoes au gratin casserole (yum) and bready things (like my puffed french toast... a really carb-y idulgence - so worth it!) often look kinda boring on a plate.. just a bunch of yellow and brown stuff. Stick a few pieces of fruit or some berries on the plate, however, and the whole plate looks a lot more appetizing! (Don't get me wrong, though... it all still tastes great!)

I actually got the berries for Little Guy, except for the strawberries... I love fresh strawberries, especially with whipped cream! (That's the white blob at the back of my plate.) And I love taking a little fresh pineapple too... why spend three bucks for it at Aloha Isle if you can get some at a buffet you're already paying for?

Then on my second plate, I got a made-to-order omelette.

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I think the option was for an "ultimate" omelette, which is all sorts of meat, cheese, onions, and mushrooms... I asked for no mushrooms. Not the best omelette in the world, as I like them extra cheesy, but it was still quite good. I also snagged a piece of cake from the dessert bar... it had some raspberry in it. Although it seems like such a simple thing, it was really good! I was glad I splurged on that one too!

Our whole family enjoys the experience here... we'd even go without the characters because we like the food so much. But it's nice to see Pooh and friends too, so it gives us all the more reason to go... no waiting on lines for pictures out in the cold when we go to a character meal and wait for the characters to come to us! :thumbsup2

I'm sure we will be back to Crystal Palace... again... and again. :goodvibes

 
Oh see DSIL I asked for a LOT of cheese in my Made-to-order omelet during our trip and mine was sooooooo sooooooooo good! I loveeeeeee CP and it was my fav Breakfast at DW. Can't wait to read more.
 
GREAT update on CP. We love eating at CP but we only go for lunch (we go for the first seating at lunch and great food selection. there is a salmon dish my husband loves). We are going to try CP breakfast in December.
 
GREAT update on CP. We love eating at CP but we only go for lunch (we go for the first seating at lunch and great food selection. there is a salmon dish my husband loves). We are going to try CP breakfast in December.

Ya know, it's interesting... we've only gone to breakfast... all of the zillions of times we've been there.

We've never tried lunch... how is lunch at CP? What types of things on the menu? Do they have a carving board? Or is that more just at dinner time? Just kinda curious... Your husband may love salmon, but mine hates ALL fish! And although I do enjoy some seafood, salmon is one thing I've never really liked.
 

Auntie Gravity's

(Don'tcha just love the name of this place?)

Since our Crystal Palace breakfast was kinda like a late breakfast/early lunch, by mid-to-late afternoon, we were hungry. So we decided to get some snacks, just to hold us over until dinner.

The boys shared a chocolate/vanilla soft-serve swirl in a cup...

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They enjoyed it... what's not too like?

Grandmom enjoyed her Strawberry Sundae...

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I don't remember her ordering something like a sundae in years! Thank goodness for Disney letting her take it easy and just enjoy! What possessed her to get a strawberry one? Well... could've been the season... the red is a very Christmas-y red... or it could just be the fact that red is her favorite color... or maybe she figured strawberries would add a healthy component to a not-so-healthy snack... or perhaps she was wearing a red top and figured that if she dripped, no one would notice... :)

Or maybe... she just felt like a strawberry sundae?

I, apparently, shocked my mother with what I ordered... an orange-pineapple fruit smoothie!

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I loved it! What possessed me to get it? Well... I just felt like an orange-pineapple fruit smoothie! :goodvibes

I just fund that it was a little too much, being that it was a cold December day and all! I finished it gradually over the course of the next few hours. (We kept it in the stroller cup holder while we were in attractions -what ever will we do when the kids are too old for a stroller? We need that thing for our stuff!!!)

So... Auntie Gravity's was a good choice! I just might go back for another orange-pineapple smoothie... I think I might wait for warmer weather though... :rolleyes:

 
Hi Jenny,
Great reviews. That carrot cake cookie looks delicious and I loved the big berries at CP for breakfast too! Brrr, it looks cold there. Did it warm up at all?
 
I'm with Icky Mickey! I'm sad sad sad that I missed out on some of the WDW greats.

Carrot Cake Cookie :(

AND

DOLE WHIP.

How did I go on our last trip with no Dole whip. I want to cry. We need to crash your next trip.
 
Ya know, it's interesting... we've only gone to breakfast... all of the zillions of times we've been there.

We've never tried lunch... how is lunch at CP? What types of things on the menu? Do they have a carving board? Or is that more just at dinner time? Just kinda curious... Your husband may love salmon, but mine hates ALL fish! And although I do enjoy some seafood, salmon is one thing I've never really liked.

I feel they have one of the better buffet when it comes to lunch. They have a carving board but I forgot what it was, they have pasta dish, chicken, and I love the salad selection. They have edamame salad that my son loves.
 

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