An Unbiased First Timers Dining Report- Short but Sweet!--COMPLETE December!!!

[rachel09985]

Hi Everyone!!
I am going to make an attemp at a dining report for the first time. I am not sure how interesting this will so just tell me if I am boring
The cast of characters is me, Rachel, and my boyfriend Corey. We have been dating for 8 years and currently reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We are from Toledo, Ohio and graduated from The Ohio State University!! I am missing Ohio and would like to go back sometime. This is our third time at Disney World as adults. We went for Free Dining for 6 nights.

Here is a list of places we will be reviewing.
Friday November 26th: Grand Floridian Cafe 6:20 pm
Saturday November 27th: O'hana 7:55 pm
Sunday November 28th: Crystal Palace 4:50pm
Monday November 29th: Le Cellier 4:40pm
Tuesday November 30th: Cape May Dinner 5:10
Wednesday December 1st: Tusker House 4:05pm
Thursday December 2nd: Boma 9:10 am

Counter Service:
Pop Century Food Court
Tangierine Cafe
Sunshine Seasons
Cosmic Rays
Pizza Planet
Flame Tree Barbeque
Restaurant O Saurus


Snacks:
Roasted Almonds
Karamell Kuche
Vegetable Egg Roll
Beer from Germany
Grey Goose Slushie
Kaki-Goris
Zebra Domes
Pastries from Starring Rolls
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party Snacks

Here is a picture of Corey and I from this trip

Picture from Our First Trip Together in College

 

[rachel09985]

After arriving at Pop Century we got settled into our rooms and went down to the food court to get some lunch. Luckily they haven't changed their mugs yet so we reused our old mugs. I had the Chicken Alfredo.

I have gotten this meal everytime at Pop Century for the past three times I have been there. I have always liked it but wished there was more sauce so I asked for extra this time. Unfortunately I didn't like it as much this time. I think it was because of Thanksgiving food the day before. I was sick all morning and didn't really have my appetite back. However, it was still pretty good for a counter service. We paid out of pocket for this because our dining plan didn't start until the next day.
Corey had pizza and breadsticks and from what I know he liked it. He was pretty embarassed of me taking pictures of food in the beginning so I had to sneak pictures in so that is why I don't have a lot in the beginning.

Now onto Grand Floridian Cafe for Dinner. Grand Floridian was ABSOLUTELY beautiful and I LOVED looking around before dinner. We arrived early for dinner and we were sat right away at a small two top basically on top of another table. I didn't like our seating arrangement. Unfortunately we got stuck at two tops the rest of the trip. I ordered the Grand Floridian Cafe Burger.

The hollandaise sauce, lobster, and asparagus was SOOO good!! Unfortunately I didnt really care for the rest of the burger or salad. The side "salad" was literally chunks of tomatos and red onions. There was no dressing or anything on the salad, i was hoping for Balsamic Vinaigrette. It was weird to eat chunks of tomate with chunks of red onion. I didnt really finish it. As for the burger, I took the bun off and used a fork for the burger and the topping. The burger was kind of dry but it was okay.

By the way the bread basket was not that good either. The bread was very hard and tough to bite into. You had to rip pieces of the bread off very forcefully with your teeth (weird explanation, I know). The butter was good though with the sea salt.

Corey had the steak with red wine sauce.

He said he liked the steak. I had the vegetables. The carrots were hard but the sauce was good. I don't really know too much details about his meal.

Overall, I am glad we went to GFC. The decor was beautiful! The bad thing was that we were in and out in 35 minutes!!!! I didn't like that at all. I wanted to relax. Our food came out within 5 minutes of ordering...We didn't order dessert here so that made it quicker. It felt very rushed. I don't have a receipt for here so I am not sure of the total. Corey's meal was around 28 and mind was 18. I might go back here in a couple of years, but not right away.

For dessert we had a sundae from Ghirardelli's. You can't go wrong with this. My only complaint was it wasn't big enough. It was a basic hot fudge sundae

By the way we went into that new Pollo restaurant and they have a bakery in there with the best looking organic cupcakes. I didn't try one because we had the sundae but you guys need to check it out. If anyone has one from there let me know how it was. I want to try one in June.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Great start! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[loganpaulsmom]

I have a lot of the same ressies for May, so I am interested to see the rest of your review..

 

[mkandjpsmom]

Sounds good so far!

 

[tggrrstarr]

Great job! I can't wait to hear more. Just curious, why didn't your ddp start the day you checked in? Or did you just plan your meals that way. I love that chicken alfredo meal, it is sooo good. One of the things I am looking forward to in January!

 

[pinkxray]

Great start! Can't wait to see more.

 

[cannp123165]

Great start! Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[DisneyDreamerMom]

Wonderful start. I can't wait to read more.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Great Start!!! I can't wait to read more...

 

[rachel09985]

Great start! Looking forward to the rest!

Thanks for joining

I have a lot of the same ressies for May, so I am interested to see the rest of your review..

I will be back in June! I am already excited

Sounds good so far!

Thanks very much!!

Great job! I can't wait to hear more. Just curious, why didn't your ddp start the day you checked in? Or did you just plan your meals that way. I love that chicken alfredo meal, it is sooo good. One of the things I am looking forward to in January!

Well we wanted to stay an extra night and tack it on to the end with the dining plan but they didn't have any more rooms so we had to add the Friday night before without dining plan because Free Dining started on that Saturday. I was really bummed about not getting the Extra Day Dining but it was actually nice being there without feeling like we had to to a park.

Great start! Can't wait to see more.

Thanks =)

Great start! Looking forward to the next installment.

Me too! I am excited about doing this

Wonderful start. I can't wait to read more.

Thank you! I am happy I have readers!

Great Start!!! I can't wait to read more...

Thanks!!

 

[rachel09985]

Now onto day two

Today was our first park day. We started at Epcot and then ended at Magic Kingdom. I apologize now but these pics aren't too good. It was the start of our vacation and I was new to the whole food pics thing.

Corey is very picky so he didn't want Tangierine Cafe but I wanted to try it because I really like that kind of food. I had the Schwarma Lamb & Chicken Platter.

If I could have gotten something else I would have just got lamb! It was so good with the tzaziki sauce. YUM! The chicken really didn't have a flavor. I don't even remember tasting it now that I think back. The tabouleh was also pretty good! It was actually better than Tusker House. The cous cous (I don't even know if I am spelling these words right or am even putting the right name down) was very good!! I don't like raisins and it had raisins so I just pushed those aside, but the flavor was very good! The hummus was not good and I love hummus. It wasn't bad, just didn't have a lot of flavor. I took a bite of the bread and wasn't impressed so didn't eat more. I was sooo excited about the baklava but was not impressed on that either. It was pretty dry and the phyllo layers were not done in the middle. It was okay though. I am glad I tried Tangierine Cafe and will definitely be back even if it is by myself!!

Corey couldn't find anything in World Showcase so we went to Sunshine Seasons and he had chicken with mashed potatoes and he ordered Creme Brulee for lunch. I don't know anything about his meal but his Creme Brulee was so good!!! I love their Creme Brulee but the weird thing was that it was pumpkin!! It was soooo much better being pumpkin. The sign didn't even say pumpkin. What happened if someone was allergic to pumpkin?? When we ordered it she didn't even tell us it was pumpkin. It was very good though. Here is a pic mainly of the adorable Christmas cup but you can see a little bit of the Creme Brulee.

 

[rachel09985]

 

[rachel09985]

Now Time for O'hana! Woohoo!!

I was soooo incredibly excited for this reservation. I knew I would like it but I was a little worried about Corey liking it because he does not like Asian Food.

We got to our reservation early. Was not impressed with Polynesian's Christmas decorations by the way. We checked in, found a table where Corey could watch football and I ordered this:

I was worried it would be strong, but it really wasn't. I was surprised at how little amount of drink was in there. I wish I would have taken a picture of the inside of the drink to show there is not much drink in there and for $13.58 plus tip it should have had more drink in it. Apparently, refills are only $5 in the lounge area, but I didn't want to get intoxicated so I just had one. I guess all you pay for is the pineapple. Still, it was a fun drink!

Now onto our meal. We got stuck at a two top (again) but this time it could have been a three top too so we had more room for all that food.

There was a really rude woman who sat down after us who said it was too cold (which it kinda was) but she talked to the server who said he couldn't control the air but he didn't offer to move her, which he should have. So she just went to the first open table and sat her entire family there without telling anyone..I guess working in a restaurant for 7 years makes me angry at rude people.

I didn't take any pictures here because there is so many and corey was embarassed but I did get a half eaten one! I think there needs to be a half eaten food thread because food always looks so good when its presented but the real test is when you cut into it.

I am just going to go through each course:
Bread: Very good!! I loved how unique it was.
Salad: Also good but I felt bad filling up on lettuce so didn't eat much. Corey only likes french but he liked the honey lime dressing on the salad.
Wings: Not good- didn't have much flavor
Noodles: Nothing memorable but okay
Broccoli: Weird but so GOOD!!! Cooked perfectly and they were juicy and flavorful.
Potstickers: Very crunchy on the outside but middle was good. They were so good dipped in the spicy sauce.
Chicken: Good!! Once again dipped it in the spicy sauce.
Pork: Didn't care for the pork. Only meat that I thought was dry.
Steak: Very good. i had a couple of hard pieces that come from the end but the middle pieces were very good!!
Shrimp: I loved the shrimp. Only downfall is you have to peel it. I think that is to maintain flavor. They give you hot towels and lemons to clean your hands with afterwards. Make sure you wash your hands before this meal because you eat with your hands a lot.
Bread Pudding: Corey declared it the best dessert of the trip! I enjoyed it but wasn't in love.

Overall we loved this meal. Some people don't but you should always try a restaurance once before you give it a No Go! This was my favorite meal of the trip. Pricey if you don't use the dining plan. I am going back in May with my family.

Our server was Kalani. He was good but seemed a little annoyed when we asked for more meat. Our meal was $78.79 with tax. We just ordered Diet
Coke.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that we had 151 of these babies:

Corey's dad went to Disneyland two months ago for work and everyone was given $75 in disney dollars to spend. But Corey's Dad didn't go ( I know shocking!!) so we got his dollars and another person's dollars. We were able to use the Disney dollars the entire time for Grand Floridian dinner and all tips! It was wonderful.

 

[rachel09985]

Magic Kingdom Day!!!

I was verryy excited about this day because it was Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party Day!!!

For lunch we went to Cosmic Rays. I had the chicken breast with mashed potatoes and green beans.

This is a good counter service meal, I like everything about this meal! It is nothing unique but it is good. Mashed potatoes were delicious and the green beans were flavorful!

Dessert was Carrot Cake

It is the typical Disney pre packaged cakes. Nothing special but good!

Before Dinner I had a snack of the glazed almonds.

I barely ate any of them. Not that they were bad but I just bought a snack to buy a snack! I should have saved it. They were good but sugary!

Next up is dinner at Crystal Palace. Earlier in the day we saw a sign up that said Crystal Palace dinner is $40.99. I was shocked when I saw that price! I was glad we booked it using the dining plan.

However, when we went back for dinner it was priced at $36.99. I guess the 40 dollars was for the thanksgiving crowds.

My salad plate:

Salad with ranch dressing, pasta salad, and chicken, black bean, and corn salad. That salad was sooooo good! I really liked that.

The best thing on this plate was the mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. The Crystal palace hot buffet did not impress me this year. We went last year and I really enjoyed it but not so much this time. The cold size was good though!!

The roast beef was not good and the horseradish sauce was not good either. There was hardly any horseradish in it. The salmon was pretty good.

Dessert!!!

Pumpkin Cheesecake, Banana Bread pudding with hazelnut sauce, and coconut flan. The pumpkin cheesecake was really good ( I love pumpkin cheesecake). The banana bread pudding was just okay, it was very sweet! Not as good as O'hana Bread Pudding.

Next Up: MVMCP Snacks

Hot Chocolate was perfect! perfect weather for hot chocolate! It was not too hot or too cold. I enjoyed it. The cups are adorable but tiny so you will need a lot of them.

The cookies were doughy and very sweet! They were pretty good. The nice thing is that they give you apple slices as a snack too. I didn't know that before. I didn't finish my cookie because I was SOOO Full from dinner!!!

This trip I was so full I didn't even have room for snacking. I was soo full all the time. After O'hana we couldn't even walk. I wanted to go back to the hotel to relax becuase I was so full but we ended up going to MK to walk the food off.

This was a pretty good day of dining! I won't go back to Crystal Palace next year but maybe some time in the future when I have kids. The dessert and the cold buffet were the best but the hot side, not so much.

Oh yeah, we were sat at a two top AGAIN here!!! I was so sick of two tops!!!! Our server was Sandra and our total was $78.79 with taxes.

 

[Linda67]

Really enjoying your reviews

 

[momtoBrandon&Jacob]

OMG it's so funny that you admitted to using your old mugs!! If this were not a dining review thread you would get hammered from all the Disboard mug police people . Good for you though - I will be reusing our mugs from 2009 when we go next year if they are still the same!

 

[rachel09985]

Really enjoying your reviews

Thank you very much!

OMG it's so funny that you admitted to using your old mugs!! If this were not a dining review thread you would get hammered from all the Disney mug police people . Good for you though - I will be reusing our mugs from 2009 when we go next year if they are still the same!

It is silly to not re-use! I don't understand what the big deal is if they are the same mugs. Now there were still some people at Pop Century using mugs from when they had mugs that had the resort name on them. I would not do that but I don't want to buy another mug if they are the exact same. I am glad you understand!

 

[lblume91]

Enjoying your reviews so far! We felt the same way on our last trip to Crystal Palace. We loved it the first time but were very disappointed the last time we went.

 

[cannp123165]

Great reviews! I really like the look of Ohana dinner.