Sweet 16 celebrated with Mickey & Pals-9 days of TiW dining: Completed 6/14

[emmysmommy]

Dining Review Preamble:
My DD and I recently returned from 8 nights/9 days at WDW that included 23 meals that I get to share with all of you lucky folks! Seriously though, these boards were such a tremendous help with deciding where we were going to eat that I want to share our experiences, and of course all the photos that we took of all this food. Before I get into the real reason for this thread - it really is ALL about the FOOD - some background on “us”.

Hi there, I'm Brenda and this was our 3rd girl only trip to WDW in the last 18 months. We timed the trip to coincide with a school break and more importantly to celebrate DD’s Sweet 16 birthday! She actually was involved in much of the planning and chose many of the restaurants in addition to selecting her own birthday dining day. I’m really thankful that I still have this time with her since our other 3 kids are grown, married, and gone from the nest.

Noticeably absent is my DH…. His vacation style is more fishing, camping, and boating compared to my preference of deluxe villas and room service. Actually, he is very diverse and our family vacations are typically cruises so I take advantage of time with my DD while I am blessed to still have it.

This is the second trip that we are using our TiW card:

This girl trip was 8 nights at Bay Lake Tower – 1 bedroom TPV. (Love the view of the castle and the fireworks from our balcony!) Most of our ADRs were for restaurants we had tried in the past with 5 new ones this trip.


Our dining line up:
Day 1: arrival day
Dinner: Cosmic Rays – a tradition!
Late night snack - Contempo Cafe

Day 2:
Kona Café (B)
Chefs de France (L)
Snack: Karamell Kuche
California Grill (D)

Day 3
The Wave (B)
Flame Tree BBQ (L)
Brown Derby (D)

Day 4
Grand Floridian Café (B)
The Plaza Restaurant (L) - first time for us
La Hacienda de San Angel (D) - cancelled this reservation. Contempo Cafe instead.

Day 5
Kouzzina (B) - first time for us
50’s PT Café (L)
Turf Club Bar & Grill (D) - first time for us

Day 6
Whispering Canyon Café (B)
Liberty Tree Tavern (L)
Tokyo Dining (D) - first time for us

Day 7
Captain’s Grille (B)
Le Cellier (L)
Beverly Sunset - snack break
Artists Point (D)

Day 8
Akershus (B)
Via Napoli (L) - first time for us
Citricos (D)

Day 9
Cinderella’s Royal Table Part 1(B) Part 2- first time for us
Contempo Café (L)

Next up: Let's get this started.

 

[jabead]

I was very excited to see you have started another dining review as I really enjoyed reading your last one! I can't wait to hear about your girls only trip as I am taking one myself next month with DDs (both away at college now). I'm really missing them and am looking forward to our girl time together.

 

[Linda67]

Wow great line up
Count me in

 

[Linda67]

Wow great line up
Count me in

 

[Aulika]

Year ! I love your reviews

 

[emmysmommy]

I was very excited to see you have started another dining review as I really enjoyed reading your last one! I can't wait to hear about your girls only trip as I am taking one myself next month with DDs (both away at college now). I'm really missing them and am looking forward to our girl time together.

Why thank you! What a great trip to look forward to with your DD!

Wow great line up
Count me in

You are a dining review ICON here! Thank you joining in.

Wow great line up
Count me in

And again, thanks! ha ha!

 

[emmysmommy]

We made it from the West coast to the East coast with minimal food along the way... After checking into BLT and getting situated in our room we walked over to MK.

Since food was on our mind we made our way to Tomorrowland and Cosmic Rays – our traditional first meal.

Sure enough, all of the crowd indicators were correct, it was very crowded. It was about 7pm when we arrived at Cosmic Rays and there were long lines and full tables. There were 2 empty chairs at the counter by the window so Em camped out while I went to order our dinner.

Cosmic Rays had new photo menu boards installed since the last time we visited – what a great idea! Although I can see how it could create a dilemma with what to order since everything looks so delicious.

Good thing for us that we are creatures of habit and since our first visit a few years ago, we continue to go to the chicken “bay” and get the rotisserie chicken. One day we may make it to the burgers and salads area. Here’s a bonus for those of you who get the burgers and such… there is a toppings bar with some wonderful looking fresh condiments and toppers. I didn’t take a photo so I don’t recall exactly the offerings but it all looked good and fresh.

It took about 10 minutes to get to the cashier to place our order (I didn’t line hop so I’m sure if I had jumped from line to line the wait would have been much shorter however, it was a short wait for the food to be deposited on our tray. Now the challenge was getting said tray of food safely to the seating area. With it being so crowded I had to duck and weave- with a few “pardon me, excuse me-s” thrown in to get it to our counter seat.

The rotisserie chicken was absolutely delicious. The meat was moist and perfectly seasoned. I usually take the skin off of my poultry but this is one meal for which I can’t resist eating that part. The green beans were as good as I expected and the mashed potatoes were… well, not nearly enough! I must have eaten mine in record time because Em hadn’t finished half of hers before I was looking longingly at the rest of her food wondering if she was really hungry enough to eat it all. Darn – she was. We had passed on dessert since we could always get something from the snack case at Contempo Café later.

Total cost for dinner was $25.90 with no discount since they do not take TiW or AP discounts.

Next Up: What type of late night snacks did we find?

Note: Oops ... sorry for the gigantor size of the photos.. apparently I didn't resize them when I loaded to Photobucket. I'll fix that!

 

[vettegirl]

Can't wait to hear about the rest. The food from Cosmic Rays looks great.

 

[emmysmommy]

Year ! I love your reviews

Thank you! I like eating and some people like reading about what I ate so it works out great!!

Can't wait to hear about the rest. The food from Cosmic Rays looks great.

Certainly is! Thanks for joining in!

 

[emmysmommy]

I was very excited to see you have started another dining review as I really enjoyed reading your last one! I can't wait to hear about your girls only trip as I am taking one myself next month with DDs (both away at college now). I'm really missing them and am looking forward to our girl time together.

I just realized that I had read your reviews and that you gave high marks to Yachtsman last year. We are considering going there this summer so I am excited to see that you had such a great review. You have awesome photos too!

 

[vinotinto]

I'm definitely signing in for this one. Lots of wonderful restaurants.

I can't wait until I can do a girls only trip with my DD (but she's only 4, so we have a while before that!). My DH is like yours - more into outdoors stuff (skiing, running), whereas I'm also more deluxe hotels and dining.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Great line up ... we are eating at many of the same places in August!

We are going as a family this year but planning a 2nd Mom & Son trip next year before DS graduates HS and goes off to college. It will definitely be a bittersweet trip for me!

 

[Linda67]

Great start
We nearly always visit Cosmic Rays - we love a good toppings bar!

 

[starousse]

Looking forward to hearing your reviews again!!!

 

[pumba]

We love Cosmic Rays too and can hardly wait for our trip in a few weeks...
thanks for taking the time to do this and looking forward to your photos and reviews..

Thanks again

 

[wilma-bride]

Great start. Have never tried Cosmic Rays as we are always drawn back to our favourite, Columbia Harbiour House, when at MK. The food does look delicious though.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Subscribing - we've always ruled out cosmic Rays but having seen that chicken we might just change our mind :

 

[iloveeeyore]

YAY! Another DR from emmysmommy! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

I've read up on a few of your other dining reports and they have been fantastic! Looking forward to this one as well

 

[MickeyNicki]

Which on is the mom and which one of you is the kid??? You two are like twins! Great line up Brenda, cannot wait to hear all about it so I can make changes to my reservations!