Magic Happens, and Then You EAT: Our Gluttonous *Year of the Dragon* COMPLETE!!

[vettegirl]

Oh Wow, I love those cupcake pics, they look soooo good! I am such a Disney cupcake nut I actually found a Disney Cupcake guide on Pinterest

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

I really love the looks of that cupcake! Now both you and DDW have said that it is too sweet but I can't help but think that we may be trying it ourselves! DH loves anything strawberry or strawberry flavored and I love all things lemon. We'll see ...

Really looking forward to the rest!

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Iloveeeyore alluded to this in her post, but I wanted to echo it. I, generally, do not like buttercream frosting on any cake. I can tolerate it in smaller doses, or if it is a mixture that is not too dense.

For comparison, I also find the cupcakes at "Crumbs" (a chain that I see in NYC) to be less than satisfactory for the same reasons. However, Magnolia Bakery in NYC rectifies both of these issues, for me.

While I probably enjoyed the cake of the red velvet cupcake on its own, the frosting just was too much -- both in density and quantity. This would be a consistent issue in every cupcake I sampled at Disney this trip.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Iloveeeyore alluded to this in her post, but I wanted to echo it. I, generally, do not like buttercream frosting on any cake. I can tolerate it in smaller doses, or if it is a mixture that is not too dense.

For comparison, I also find the cupcakes at "Crumbs" (a chain that I see in NYC) to be less than satisfactory for the same reasons. However, Magnolia Bakery in NYC rectifies both of these issues, for me.

While I probably enjoyed the cake of the red velvet cupcake on its own, the frosting just was too much -- both in density and quantity. This would be a consistent issue in every cupcake I sampled at Disney this trip.

I feel the same way about Disney cupcakes being reminiscent of Crumbs (and not in a good way)! The cupcakes at both are enormous and have too much unpleasantly sweet frosting for me. My top choice for cupcakes would probably be Georgetown Cupcake (which has locations in the Washington DC area, Soho in Manhattan, Boston, and an upcoming one in LA). As famous as Magnolia is, I've never tried a cupcake there - yet another place to try in NYC sometime.

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Georgetown Cupcake (which has locations in the Washington DC area, Soho in Manhattan, Boston, and an upcoming one in LA). As famous as Magnolia is, I've never tried a cupcake there - yet another place to try in NYC sometime.

I will be on the lookout for Georgetown Cupcake.

BTW, Magnolia has a small shop in the basement of Grand Central Terminal. Convenient and lethal.

PS -- There is a great new cupcake store in Pleasantville, NY called Flour & Sun Bakery. A short walk down Washington Avenue from the Jacob Burns Film Center. Delish.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

I will be on the lookout for Georgetown Cupcake.

BTW, Magnolia has a small shop in the basement of Grand Central Terminal. Convenient and lethal.

PS -- There is a great new cupcake store in Pleasantville, NY called Flour & Sun Bakery. A short walk down Washington Avenue from the Jacob Burns Film Center. Delish.

Oh boy - I had no idea about Magnolia having a shop in Grand Central. That could be a game changer (since a 40-minute train ride is so much easier than driving into Manhattan and looking for parking). And I'll have to try Flour and Sun sometime as well.

 

[Roma]

I love cupcakes and frosting but I'm not sure I could handle that strawberry lemonade cupcake either. I don't like tangy flavors in cake-y desserts.

 

[deenbrad]

I have a friend from IN who used to fight with me about how all bagels are the same. Until I took her to NY! Now she puts in her order for some whenever I go up!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

I like the look of that red velvet cupcake. I might have to take a trip over to Contemporary sometime to give it a try.

I am so jealous of those of you with all these great cupcake shops near you! I don't have a bakery within 20 miles of me and even those aren't that great. Unfortunatly, when I'm craving a great cupcake I have to make one myself!

Great start to your DR! Can't wait to read more!

 

[iloveeeyore]

I loved your TR and now I can't wait to read all your dinning reviews.
Great Start!

Thanks for coming along on both of my reports! Stayed tuned. We have so much more gluttony to share!

Wonderful reviews so far!! I have to say that I love those Popcorners chips as well and I eat them with some Lauging Cow cheese and I love Terra chips too. Yum! I love cupcakes but I don't know if the strawberry lemonade would be my cup of tea...the red velvet one might be though! Many times I end up scraping off a little of the frosting anyway on many cupcakes to balance out the cake to frosting ratio! A new place just opened on Friday very near where I work and it's called Cupcake. I think I'm in trouble!!

Looking forward to more reviews!!

I love the Laughing Cow cheese and put it on almost everything! The red velvet was better than the strawberry, but still, way to much overly sweet frosting. Scraping some of that off did make it better for me!

Well, should I say I hope Cupcake is great and all you dream it will be...or should I say I hope Cupcake makes disgusting cupcakes!

I definitely recommend going back to Contempo Cafe to try some of their lighter fare. I've had really good salads, sandwiches, and flatbreads there (the marinated beef flatbread is so good), and it's one of my favorite CS locations for its more unique options. As a rule, Disney cupcakes are way too sweet for me. The exception might be the carrot cake cupcake at Wilderness Lodge, and I only ate half of it (since my mom and I split it).

I've never had olives and cream cheese together, although I can imagine the combo being good (since olives and feta go together well, and feta is even saltier than cream cheese).

And agreed on Disney CS. I actually think CS options have improved over the past year. From healthier options (like the grilled salmon and steamed broccoli at Columbia Harbour House) to amazing variety (tandoori at AoA!) and more authentic touches (okonomiyaki at Katsura Grill in Japan), I'm quite impressed with recent quick service changes. And when I compare Disney's CS food to airports, movie theaters, and Six Flags crazy2, Disney looks even better.


I definitely want to try Murray's now. We'll be leaving for our trip tomorrow, but maybe after I get back. The variety and ingredients sound incredible.

As for water, tell me about it! One time, we were scheduled to fly out of Philadelphia Airport. After making it through security, I bought a huge $4 water bottle that I was going to save for the flight. In an interesting turn of events, our flight was delayed, and due to a high possibility of missing our connection (across the Pacific Ocean), we ended up cabbing it to JFK. After the 3.5 hour taxi ride, imagine my horror when a security agent found my huge, unopened $4 bottle of water in my backpack (which I had forgotten about) and threw it away in the trash. He wouldn't even let me drink it.

Unfortunately, I doubt we will be back to Contemp Cafe for any real meal. I don't think we will ever stay at the CR again (unless we or a very close relative joins DVC and we stay at BLT with them...which is a very far fetched idea, but I don't like saying "never"). I just don't see us ending up there at any meal time without ADRs for one of the TS restaurants. But you never know. I would love to try their flatbreads and sandwiches, though, there are a few on my list. I just didn't want to eat a meal that day and spoil my appetite.

I had one GREAT cupcake at the WL back in 2008 as a dessert to a CS meal I enjoyed at RF. It was soooo delcious, so simple and vanilla! I think it elevated my expectations for Disney cupcakes, and none have ever met up. Maybe Roaring Fork is just the place to order cupcakes?!

We love Disney's CS restaurants, we actually missed them this trip!

That is such a sad story about your wasted $4.00 water! I hope that your trip was great!

Bon voyage! Have a wonderful time in the Happiest Place!

Oh Wow, I love those cupcake pics, they look soooo good! I am such a Disney cupcake nut I actually found a Disney Cupcake guide on Pinterest

Maybe you would have like these, then! Personally, I am disillusioned...but maybe I have just been ordering the wrong ones (for me)?

I really love the looks of that cupcake! Now both you and DDW have said that it is too sweet but I can't help but think that we may be trying it ourselves! DH loves anything strawberry or strawberry flavored and I love all things lemon. We'll see ...

Really looking forward to the rest!

Yes, I have heard both that they were too sweet and that they were the greatest ever, so we figured let's try for ourselves. It didn't work out for us...but maybe it will for you! I hope you like them!

Iloveeeyore alluded to this in her post, but I wanted to echo it. I, generally, do not like buttercream frosting on any cake. I can tolerate it in smaller doses, or if it is a mixture that is not too dense.

For comparison, I also find the cupcakes at "Crumbs" (a chain that I see in NYC) to be less than satisfactory for the same reasons. However, Magnolia Bakery in NYC rectifies both of these issues, for me.

While I probably enjoyed the cake of the red velvet cupcake on its own, the frosting just was too much -- both in density and quantity. This would be a consistent issue in every cupcake I sampled at Disney this trip.

Mmmmmm....Magnolia! I don't think I've ever tried Crumbs? Is that the one with the flavors of the day?

I feel the same way about Disney cupcakes being reminiscent of Crumbs (and not in a good way)! The cupcakes at both are enormous and have too much unpleasantly sweet frosting for me. My top choice for cupcakes would probably be Georgetown Cupcake (which has locations in the Washington DC area, Soho in Manhattan, Boston, and an upcoming one in LA). As famous as Magnolia is, I've never tried a cupcake there - yet another place to try in NYC sometime.

Georgetown in Soho. Got it, added to mental list. That's close to DD's school, so I have not doubt we will eventually get there. You MUST try Magnolia! The cupcake there reminded me of the awesome one I had a RF in 2008!

I will be on the lookout for Georgetown Cupcake.

BTW, Magnolia has a small shop in the basement of Grand Central Terminal. Convenient and lethal.

PS -- There is a great new cupcake store in Pleasantville, NY called Flour & Sun Bakery. A short walk down Washington Avenue from the Jacob Burns Film Center. Delish.

Mmmmm...Flour and Sun. Reminds me of Magnolia!

Oh boy - I had no idea about Magnolia having a shop in Grand Central. That could be a game changer (since a 40-minute train ride is so much easier than driving into Manhattan and looking for parking). And I'll have to try Flour and Sun sometime as well.

It might be a short drive for you to Pleasantville? Parking is usually plentiful in that neighborhood! Try that first. If you like it, you will like Magnolia, I think the cupcakes are very similar in character.

I love cupcakes and frosting but I'm not sure I could handle that strawberry lemonade cupcake either. I don't like tangy flavors in cake-y desserts.

I wouldn't recommend it, in that case!

I have a friend from IN who used to fight with me about how all bagels are the same. Until I took her to NY! Now she puts in her order for some whenever I go up!

HA! Glad you got her straightened out!

I like the look of that red velvet cupcake. I might have to take a trip over to Contemporary sometime to give it a try.

I am so jealous of those of you with all these great cupcake shops near you! I don't have a bakery within 20 miles of me and even those aren't that great. Unfortunatly, when I'm craving a great cupcake I have to make one myself!

Great start to your DR! Can't wait to read more!

We had the red velvet cupcake at DHS last summer and it was much better. It has different frosting which tastes more appropriate for the red velvet. There's still too much of it, but it tastes like it belongs on that cake, if you know what I mean! Being near a great cupcake shop is both good...and BAD .

Stay tuned!

 

[sushi candy]

The strawberry cupcake looked beautiful but like you, I totally would have preferred Dulce de Leche. Thank you for posting the snacks, I am also flying JetBlue and I was wondering what they are serving.

 

[iloveeeyore]

The strawberry cupcake looked beautiful but like you, I totally would have preferred Dulce de Leche. Thank you for posting the snacks, I am also flying JetBlue and I was wondering what they are serving.

Yes, the cupcakes looked absolutely beautiful! I wonder how we would have liked the Dulce De Leche? It's hard for me to imagine NOT liking something caramel, but I'm not too sure, based on the others...

JetBlue had lots of other choices, too, and I'm sorry I didn't write them down. I think there was a fruit/nut trail mix, animal crackers, pretzels...and maybe a granola bar? Everyone around me picked the Terra Blue and the Popcorn chips, except DS with his cookies.

 

[iloveeeyore]

I will be going back to add the cost on my previous posts, now that I have found my receipts, if anyone is interested!

 

[jabead]

Sorry I'm a little late in getting here. Real life has kept me busy the last couple of days. But I'm here now and in it for the duration!

Oh and btw...Great start and I'm looking forward to more!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Chef Mickey's on our first night is a bit of a mini-tradition for our family. We had fabulous experiences here on our first trips in 2001 and 2004! In 2006, we brought Aladdin's mom and her husband, and it wasn't as great. We were seated in the little side room with no view of the concourse, we totally missed the celebration parade and received no acknowledgment for our celebrations. I can't remember eating a single thing that I enjoyed that night. The beef was tough and flavorless, the salad seemed wilted, etc...

We decided to skip CM's in 2008. We were staying at the WL, so we decided to try WCC instead. That was our WORST dinner at WDW to this point, much worse than CM's was in 2006.

For our 2010 major celebration trip, DS asked to go back to Chef Mickey's. The rest of us were a little reluctant, but Hercules never asks for anything, so we decided to go for it. We were so happy we did, because the magic came right back!

We went back to WDW on a last-minute sneak-in in 2011, but we were unable to secure ADRs for CM's so we tried 1900 PF instead. It was good, we LOVED the characters there...but it was NO CM's!!

This trip, our first night's stay at the CR was a surprise to the kids until a month before we left (we could no longer keep the surprise once the ME tags arrived). They had thought our first night's dinner would be at ASMu's Intermission Food Court. They were so excited to discover we would be going back to Chef Mickey's!!!

We rode the elevator down from our 7th floor room to the 4th floor Grand Concourse at about 5:20. We breezed through Fantasia and BVG for a few minutes, and checked in for our 5:45 ADR at 5:40. We were given a pager, waited about 2 minutes for our photo with the plate, and the moment our photo was snapped, our buzzer went off! The hostess escorted us to a table in our favorite part of the restaurant, the area to the left of the podium, from where we had a great view of the monorail (and the railing in front of our room). As soon as we sat down, the celebrate music came on and Mickey came in to our area, twirling his napkin and we all did the napkin dance. I think we did the napkin dance 2 or 3 times that night!

We saw all of the fab 5, some of them more than once. I'm pretty sure that Pluto, Goofy and Minnie all came to our table twice. They were wonderful as always. We were watching a little girl at the table next to us who has the same real first name as Hercules. She was adorable and experiencing the magic for the first time, and it brought us back to when Belle and Herc were about that age. It was great!

Our server was Shannon, and she was absolutely terrific. She did a great job keeping our drinks filled and our dirty plates cleared.

You probably want to know about the food!

I kicked the evening off with my now traditional first-night cocktail:

Magical Star Cocktail! This is a delicious, sweet, fruity drink that is slightly reminiscent of sun tanning lotion! I LOVE that about it, and wouldn't want it any other way. Now I KNOW I am on vacation! It came with a glow cube that was changing all different beautiful colors, but it seemed no matter how many times I snapped a photo, it appeared pink. You can tell that the glow cube is blue in this photo. To the naked eye, this made the whole drink appear blue, but to the camera, the drink still appears pink. I tried it both with and without the flash and it didn't seem to make any difference. But trust me, this drink was both delicious and multi-colored! And BIG! I am always surprised at how big these glasses are in real life. They look pretty small in photos.


I loaded my first plate up with Chef Mickey's delicious salads:

You can see the pita and hummus up on the top left part of the plate. The hummus was absolutely delicious, but the pita, which tasted seasoned with salt and maybe garlic?, was a bit cold and hard, like it just came out of a really cold fridge. If the pita had been warm and soft, I would have been in trouble, because I would have had to have a plate of JUST that, the hummus was so good! Underneath the pita, I'm sorry you cannot see the olive salad (YUMMY), and just above the pita is curried Israeli cous cous with roasted vegetables (delicious, I wanted more), and then you see a few shrimp and scallops which was the seafood salad (just OK, I didn't finish the small portion I took). The rest of my plate is loaded with salad greens, cucumbers, cheese cubes, tomatoes and red onions with DELICIOUS bleu cheese dressing. I LOVE the bleu cheese dressing at CM's, as it is loaded with large lumps of bleu cheese (anyone remember Charlie Brown's?). Seriously, I could make a meal out of just salad at this place, I would have been happy with another plate of it, but I wanted to try some other things. I skipped the peel-and-eat shrimp this trip. I like them and they were available in abundance, I just didn't feel like doing the work this time. There was also a wild rice salad, cruditees, cottage cheese, and I'm sure some other items on the salad bar that we didn't take.

The soup of the day was New England Clam Chowder:

I was thinking it had to be homemade, because it tasted very strongly of tarragon, and I thought that if it were mass-produced it probably wouldn't have that much tarragon. But a few days later, we would taste this same flavor somewhere else in WDW, so I'm thinking it's probably from a vendor. It was good, though, if you like tarragon, and it had plenty of chunks of tender clams and potatoes!

Since I was at CM's I had to have me some Mickey-shaped mac & cheese and a slice of pizza from the kids' buffet:

The mac & cheese tastes like Kraft to me, but Hercules says no, and the pizza was not very good, no surprise there! There was also fried chicken fingers on the kids' buffet, but I neglected to get a photo of that. Both Belle and Herc tried that and liked it.

Next I had my vegetable plate:

My kids were like, "Mom, what's wrong with you?! We are at Chef Mickey's and you're eating VEGETABLES?!" Well, I'm glad I did, because these were very good, if you are a fan of vegetables! The Mickey-shaped ravioli was not very good. The sauce was bland and the ravioli wasn't all that stuffed or seasoned (perfect for your average young Mickey ravioli fan, I guess!). The broccoli was steamed to perfection, the stir-fry was crispy and fresh with just the right amount of seasonings, and the au gratin potatoes were exceptional! Even the green beens were prepared just right and tasted great!

Main course:

"Roast beef" (not prime rib) with bleu cheese sauce and horseradish sauce (OK, but not as great as in the past...I love the horseradish sauce and the meat is more a vehicle for the sauce), spaghetti with meatball (surprisingly, pretty good, MUCH better than the ravioli), salmon with rice (overcooked, but seasoned nicely), and the very best...parmesan mashed potatoes!

There were so many other offerings up there on that buffet that we didn't even touch. There was baked chicken, another meat on the carving board (I think it was pork), another type of pasta that had more of a pink sauce on it (maybe vodka sauce?) and I'm sure other thinks that I can't remember.

One of the kids' dessert plates:

Key lime tart, cheese cake, Rice Crispy treat.

My dessert plate:

Bread pudding with caramel sauce (good, but not the best bread pudding of the trip), Mickey Oreo Bon Bon (DELICIOUS!! There is something so special about these things! I want one right now!!!). I aplogize for yet another blurry picture!

Of course there were many desserts that we didn't try, including the soft serve ice cream with many kinds of toppings including mickey sprinkles and all kinds of candy. There were also brownies and cookies and I think fruit tarts? I can't remember everything, sorry, and I didn't want to take too much time out of our magical experience to write it all down!

All in all, my family LOVES Chef Mickey's and we would not hesitate to return on our first night. Some of its magic can be attributed to the fact that we do this on our first night, when the excitement of the vacation ahead of us alone is enough to make us giddy (though we are starting to believe that CM's is partially responsible for this sentiment, because we have done both WCC and 1900 PF on our first night, and neither gave us this feeling). The napkin dance, the view, the warm welcome from the characters, the friendly efficient service, and the plentiful decent food make this a magical first night event for us.

We collectively have trouble rating this one. We all have to try really hard to remove the emotion and remain objective. Though we are all inclined to rate CM's a little higher, we are being honest.

A solid 3/5. We did have a bad experience here in the past, but 1 bad experience out of 5 ain't bad. We still can't understand why this place continues to get panned? We will be back!

This was an out-of-pocket meal for us, since our DxDP didn't start until the next day. The stated cost per adult, $42.99. With the cocktail, tax and tip, this meal set us back exactly $230.81. We consider that money well-spent!

Oh, and I forgot to add the price of the photo package (we buy this one package each trip)...another $31.90! Honestly, we are NOT willy-nilly spenders (except in WDW!).

 

[iloveeeyore]

Sorry I'm a little late in getting here. Real life has kept me busy the last couple of days. But I'm here now and in it for the duration!

Oh and btw...Great start and I'm looking forward to more!

I'm glad you're here! And I read on your DR that you were getting your DD2 all set up at college! We have 12 more days until Belle's first move-in day, so we feel your angst!

Hard to think about it! Focus on dining report! Stay tuned for more...

 

[jabead]

I'm glad you're here! And I read on your DR that you were getting your DD2 all set up at college! We have 12 more days until Belle's first move-in day, so we feel your angst!

Hard to think about it! Focus on dining report! Stay tuned for more...

Ahh yes, it is so hard to let them go, isn't it...especially their first time leaving for college. When we took DD1 to college for the first time four years ago, I was a mess. I did manage to keep it together though until the ride back home. I then somehow thought it would be easier with the second child, when DD2 started college last year. Nope, not easier.

But anyway, on a more positive note, it wasn't quite as bad this year...with just a few problems to deal with along the way (which I posted about this morning ). Hope your moving day goes much more smoothly!

 

[basketlacey]

Great reviews so far! I love the surprise you pulled over on your kids! Mine don't even know we are going yet and it is getting harder every day to keep the secret!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Great reviews so far! I love the surprise you pulled over on your kids! Mine don't even know we are going yet and it is getting harder every day to keep the secret!

Thank you for liking my reviews!

I wish we could have been more creative in how we revealed the surprise. The kids said they were happy they found out a month in advance, so they had time to be excited about it. I would have loved to have sprung it on them. Our biggest fear was that they would be DISAPPOINTED at NOT staying at ASMu and NOT eating at the food court (which also would have been new and exciting to us), so DH and I agreed to spill the beans. That way, if they were disappointed, we still had time to switch without majot commotion on a vacation day.

How exciting about your kids! How do you plan to tell them? On the day you leave?!

 

[basketlacey]

Thank you for liking my reviews!

I wish we could have been more creative in how we revealed the surprise. The kids said they were happy they found out a month in advance, so they had time to be excited about it. I would have loved to have sprung it on them. Our biggest fear was that they would be DISAPPOINTED at NOT staying at ASMu and NOT eating at the food court (which also would have been new and exciting to us), so DH and I agreed to spill the beans. That way, if they were disappointed, we still had time to switch without majot commotion on a vacation day.

How exciting about your kids! How do you plan to tell them? On the day you leave?!

We haven't decided yet. I would really like to tell them on the way to the airport but we shall see!