Did we come for the rides or the food?!?! - 14 Days of Dining COMPLETE!

This was the first place that we ate on our last trip to WDW, and after reading all the reviews and seeing recent pics we were really quite excited to eat there again! It might just be me, but I really like the decor of this place!

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I've also got a picture of the menu here. Very sorry about the picture quality here, it was pretty dark inside! :confused3

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Luckily thanks to the Disboards we were aware of the upstairs dining area. Just a note for people who might be going there, there is a Cast Member at the foot of the stairs checking that you have a tray of food before going up. I just want to let you know in case, for example your entire party goes upstairs then someone comes down for whatever reason without a tray of food and isn't allowed to go back up. There are probably other things that could happen, so just keep in mind that a tray of food is required to go upstairs.

As for the upstairs area itself, it was very nice! We were able to get a massive table for the four of us and were very comfortable.

Now onto the food. DM, DS and I all had the Shrimp Platter

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and DD had the Chicken Breast Nuggets, served with French Fries

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We also got two 32oz Diet Cokes, 2 Large Dasani waters and 4 Apple Crisps for dessert.

DM, DS and I were all very happy with our shrimp platters. There were nine shrimp on each plate, the fries were crisp and the coleslaw was good. The sauce you can see on the plate is like the special sauce they provide with the shrimp and it was quite nice. However, if you don't like it the condiments bar has plenty of other sauces to choose from. DM liked the shrimp so much that for the rest of the holiday, everytime we passed the restaurant she asked if we could stop by to purchase a plate of shrimp! :) DD was also happy with his chicken nuggets, although I think his serving was a fair bit smaller than ours.

The dessert was also very nice. I know that there have been many reports here of people wishing they would serve it a la mode. While it would definitely be nice to have some ice-cream, I liked it on its own and found that the crust provided enough flavour to help neutralise the strong taste of the apple. Best of all, it was a warm dessert and something different to the regular desserts you would find at theme park CS.

EDIT: Hi, this is the DS, Rachel, here. Just letting you know i didn't enjoy the apple crisp nearly a quarter as much as my DB Stephen did. I found the pastry a little soggy and while i ate the filling on its own i didn't find it THAT great. But hey, each to their own right? ;)

All in all, we were happy with this meal and glad to have returned. Staff were quick to prepare our meals and kept the place clean. I would highly recommend it should you be in need of a place to eat at the Magic Kingdom. We would most likely return.

Cost:

4 credits used - 32 remaining
Bill Total - $65.92 (avg $16.48ea)
Running Total - $354.68

NEXT UP: A snack at Aloha Isle!
 
Love your review. Can't wait for the rest. Looking forward to visiting Australia someday.

Jill in CO
 
Goodness had no idea it was such a long flight from Austraila, I want to go back to DL someday but dreading what now seems like a short trip compared to yours, since it was only 6 hours for me last time.

Very nice family pic at the beginning of this tread and nice start to the reviews, I am subbing as I want to read more, our trip is not until September so I am just now begining to pick and choose where we want to eat
 


Doing great! We are looking forward to eating at Columbia House in March. My DH and I joined the "Keys to the Kingdom" Tour and lunch will be at CH. The last time we were at DW in October, the family had plans to go there but never made it. We were soooo disappointed. It seems like a great hidden gem at DW.

I'm gald you enjoyed!
 
Looking forward to reading more of your reviews. I like how you are putting the cost also, since we are going to Disney withough DDP this next time around it will hopefully give me a good basis on what things really cost! Thanks so much. :thumbsup2
 
CHH is great! We love the nautical decor, too. Sitting upstairs is a great way to relax amidst the craziness of the theme park! Great review!
 


Great reviews! Love your pics. You guys look like a wonderful family!!

Thanks!

Love your review. Can't wait for the rest. Looking forward to visiting Australia someday.

Jill in CO

Thanks! If you haven't yet, you should watch Oprah's Australian special! :)

Goodness had no idea it was such a long flight from Austraila, I want to go back to DL someday but dreading what now seems like a short trip compared to yours, since it was only 6 hours for me last time.

Very nice family pic at the beginning of this tread and nice start to the reviews, I am subbing as I want to read more, our trip is not until September so I am just now begining to pick and choose where we want to eat

Oh this is a great time for you to start looking into restaurants since the ADR window won't be opening for a while yet. If I was going to make one or two suggestions, I would recommend Le Cellier and the Maya Grill!

Doing great! We are looking forward to eating at Columbia House in March. My DH and I joined the "Keys to the Kingdom" Tour and lunch will be at CH. The last time we were at DW in October, the family had plans to go there but never made it. We were soooo disappointed. It seems like a great hidden gem at DW.

I'm gald you enjoyed!

It is a great little restaurant, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Looking forward to reading more of your reviews. I like how you are putting the cost also, since we are going to Disney withough DDP this next time around it will hopefully give me a good basis on what things really cost! Thanks so much. :thumbsup2

Thanks! Just keep in mind that I think for the buffets we visited we had to pay a peak period price, which is a couple of dollars more than the regular season.

CHH is great! We love the nautical decor, too. Sitting upstairs is a great way to relax amidst the craziness of the theme park! Great review!

Thanks! It definitely is far more relaxing than many of the other CS places at the MK.
 
It was a reasonably warm day (well, at least it was warmer than it was later on our trip! :)) so we went to Aloha Isle to start making use of some snack credits. DD had seen people walking around with the cups and really wanted one, so we trekked from Fantasyland to Adventureland to get one!

DM had a pineapple soft serve ($3.19), DS and DD had a vanilla citrus swirl ($3.19) and I had a Pineapple and Vanilla Dole Float ($4.19)

Just a word of warning for people who are visiting here. DD got confused with the idea of a vanilla citrus swirl and thought it would be all vanilla. Of course with the swirl it is not just the vanilla ice-cream, but also the citrus component, in their case pineapple. If you are looking for a plain vanilla, plain pineapple etc. what you want to get is the soft serve, not the swirl. I just wanted to point that out in case there are any misunderstandings. ;)

I'm sorry but we didn't get around to taking any pics. However, these are pretty popular and there are plenty of pics across the net! :)

My float was :thumbsup2. Basically there was a lot of pineapple juice in the bottom of the cup and a big chunk of vanilla ice-cream on top. Most people around me who seemed to have one, and me included, decided to drink the pineapple juice first and save the soft serve for later. It was a really nice snack, and pretty good value too! I reckon it would be an even better snack in the coming months as the weather heats up in Florida.

DM had no complaints about her pineapple soft serve, it was what it was described as and nothing surprising. The servings were pretty big, though and I don't think she finished it.

DS and DD thought that the pineapple-vanilla ratio in their swirls was not very good, and that there was a lot more pineapple soft serve than vanilla soft serve. This was perhaps their biggest complaint of the swirl.

So at least in our experience, I think if we visited again we would avoid the swirl and probably get either the float or the plain soft serve.

Cost:

4 snack credits used, 40 remaining
Bill Total - $14.65 (avg $3.66ea)
Running Total - $369.33

NEXT UP: A dinner with character at 1900 Park Fare!
 
I'm checking in here. I'm really lenjoying your report so far, your family seems to have very similar tastes to my family. Our upcoming trip in Aug. I've planned some of the same restaurants.
 
You are really doing a great job:thumbsup2 may i ask your age-- your write so well and are very detailed!
we are going to be at wdw feb 2 - 6 so i was very interested in the WPE pictures and description and also the food from sunshine - many thanks and keep writing - i am subbing!
 
After hopping on the monorail from the MK to the GF we stepped off and went downstairs to 1900 Park Fare. We had a 6:50pm ADR and we were informed at the front desk they were probably running about 20-30mins behind. She blamed it on the holiday season. We were given a buzzer and left to absorb the atmosphere of the GF lobby. Quite a nice place I must say, and it was made even better by the Christmas decorations. The Ginger Bread house is really something, and we enjoyed the live music being played for the guests.

Some info about the gingerbread house

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We were eventually called fifteen minutes late at 7:05pm. They offer a family photo before being seated, which we refused. We were then taken to our table, which was a fairly good table. The restaurant appears to be split into three sections. There is the section as you enter, which is of a reasonable size (not too big, not too small) and although there are a lot of tables I wouldn't say it's packed. The next room has the buffet as well as the middle section of tables. I think this room is louder and more crowded. On the far side was what looked like a narrow room that looked like it was pretty packed. Perhaps that one is only used during peak periods. Luckily we got put in the room as you enter.

Our server was Margaret, I think she was from New York. She was a really excellent server. The amazing thing is, we never really saw her. As if by magic, we'd return from the buffet to have all our old plates cleared away, and she kept our drinks filled the whole night. She was a really, really good server and ensured that we didn't have any plates stacking up through the night.

Drinks are included as part of the buffet. They had a very wide selection of stuff. DM had a Pomegranate Lemonade, DD had sparkling water, DS had coke and I had fresh orange juice.

Of course the theming of this dinner is "Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner" so there are plenty of characters. The characters going around were Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella. For whatever reason, Drizella never made it to our room. She always seemed to be in the main room. For us it wasn't such a big deal since we're all adults and just wanted to see a couple of characters, but perhaps other people who visit this restaurant would like to meet her.

As for the characters, Cinderella was alright, but a little bit boring. I think perhaps she was trying a bit too hard to act like royalty. She probably wasn't the best character of the evening. Prince Charming in my opinion was a pretty good character. The Cast Member playing Lady Tremaine was probably a bit young, but she did an excellent job of portraying the character and walked around with the same "I don't want to be here" expression the whole night, which was pretty funny! Anastasia was by far the best character. She got all the kids and took them around the restaurant in a line, singing and dancing. At the end she got them all to scream at the top of their voices! But by far, her best performance occurred when a child started crying at a table not too far for us. The child had been crying for a little while when Anastasia came in and let out an ear-piercing scream! :rotfl2: The child immediately stopped crying and started looking at Anastasia, who was staring back. Definitely a highlight of the night. I worship her ability to control small children lol :worship:

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As for the buffet, there was an extensive selection and they kept things topped up fairly well. There was a wide variety of salads, soups, entrees, accompaniments and desserts to choose from. I had some of the caesar salad, which was very good. I also recommend trying the chilled strawberry soup. Either as a soup OR a dessert, it was really good!

For the entrees they had prime rib being carved, various pastas, rice, Italian sausages, an Asian beef dish, paella, chicken and much more. They also had a Kids section with a few child friendly items. I thought that the quality of the food was very good.

Here is a picture of one of my plates...

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The dessert selection was also very good. They had key lime tarts, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake, carrot cake, fruit tarts, bread pudding, Edys soft serve ice-cream and more. Unfortunately one of the soft serve machines had broken but the other one was working. What I liked about the desserts were that they were all miniature, which allowed us to try a large variety of them and go back for the ones we liked.

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Midway through dessert Margaret brought out a birthday muffin for DS, who had just turned 17. We were too full to eat the whole muffin but we had some of it and it was very nice! I wonder if they're still doing this sort of thing now that the "What will you Celebrate" theme is over. I hope they are, as I think it really adds to the Disney experience without very much cost to Disney.

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So all in all we enjoyed this buffet. There was a variety of food, service was excellent and the characters were a bit of fun. Just one minor complaint, there seemed to be a couple of spills on the ground around the buffet which I didn't notice getting cleaned up. There was one in particular near the dessert buffet which was quite a large spill. It wasn't cleaned up and I saw quite a few people walk straight through it. Be careful! ;)

I would definitely recommend this to people as a good character dining experience, plus you get the bonus of having dined at the premier resort hotel at WDW. I haven't been to Cinderella's Royal Table, but I reckon that this place must give it a good run for its money. Personally I wouldn't mind returning, but I think that this is the sort of place you only really have to do once in a lifetime :)

Cost:

4 credits used, 36 remaining
Bill Total - $170.36 (avg $42.59ea)
Running Total - $539.69

NEXT UP: Lunch at Japan's Yakitori House!
 
I'm checking in here. I'm really lenjoying your report so far, your family seems to have very similar tastes to my family. Our upcoming trip in Aug. I've planned some of the same restaurants.

Thanks for reading!

You are really doing a great job:thumbsup2 may i ask your age-- your write so well and are very detailed!
we are going to be at wdw feb 2 - 6 so i was very interested in the WPE pictures and description and also the food from sunshine - many thanks and keep writing - i am subbing!

Thanks for reading! I'm 18.

I guess since your trip is so close you've already made the ADR's, so the CS restaurant reviews are probably more helpful. There are more to come, hopefully I'll post a review for Yakitori House later today! :)
 
Great reviews! DBF and I tried making 1900 PF's Strawberry Soup at home, but it definitely wasn't as good as the original - isn't it great? Looking forward to reading more :goodvibes
 
We were back at Epcot, but this time we decided to try something on the World Showcase! We visited Yakitori House on our last visit to WDW too, although since then we have visited Japan and our palate for Japanese food has definitely developed!

The indoor seating area at the restaurant was very small with just a couple of tables. However, there is more seating outdoors. We sat outdoors.

Here's a photo of the menu board. It's a bit blurry but hopefully you can make out a few of the dishes :)

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For our entrees Mum and Rachel had the Teriyaki Chicken, while Dad and I had the Tonosama Teriyaki Combination. As the dining plan dessert they have both an American and a Japanese option. The American option is a chocolate chip cookie, while the Japanese option is a ginger cake. We got two cookies and two ginger cakes. To drink we got a Diet Coke and three bottles of water.

The staff at the restaurant were reasonably efficient at getting our meals organised. The cast member serving us was shocked out of her mind when I thanked her in Japanese! :rotfl:

And now for some food pics! Here's the Teriyaki Chicken ($8.99)

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And here's the Tonosama Teriyaki Combination ($12.99)

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As you can see, the Teriyaki Chicken is served with some steamed vegetables and a big serving of rice. The Tonosama combination had chicken, beef and salmon, as well as the steamed vegetables and rice. This dish has been edited very recently, and the menus on WDWinfo and AllEars haven't been updated yet to reflect the changes in price or content to this dish.

We found both dishes to be alright, although the vegetables were a little soggy and tasteless (perhaps they had been frozen for a really long time??). The meats were alright, my favourite was the beef. As for the ginger cake, I think it was a good idea to give it a try since that's what the World Showcase is all about, but it didn't really suit our Western tastes. The cookie was good though! :laughing:

In summary, the meals at Yakitori House were just alright. There was nothing special about them, but they weren't bad. Now that we've been there twice I don't think we'll ever have a need to go back. Perhaps we can try a few other CS places around the World Showcase next time! I think my overall recommendation would be that if you really want to try it there would be no harm in giving it a go, but if you're tossing between Yakitori and another place, perhaps go to the other one ;)

Cost:
4 CS credits used - 28 remaining
Bill Total - $70.24 (avg $17.56ea)
Running Total - $609.93

NEXT UP: A tasty snack at Boulangerie Patisserie!
 
Good updates, I have heard good things about Harbour House , I had Park Fare on our tentative list until be changed resorts, we switched our ressies from CR to Beach Club since there are so very many places in Epcot we want to try this trip. We are planning on Teppan Edo but Yakitor House does not look bad for CS at all. On our last trip Ddil went there with DS for sushi.
I have to say as a pp mentioned , like that you are giving the credits used and prices, both of which will be helpfull when planning, we are doing the DxDP for the frist time in September.
 
great reviews looking forward to more. Can't believe the creme brulee was a cs dessert it looks very good.

Your flight puts our 10 hours into perspective. :)
 

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