Hicks on Holiday Vittle Report (Free Dining w/ Food Allergies included!)

[DisneyMom5]

Welcome to the Hicks on Holiday Food Report.
Subtitled "I can't wait till we go home so I can stop eating."
[True Story!]

Free Dining is a beautiful thing.

Our cast of characters are:
Cast of "Characters" (And I say that with love, truly):

Me (Sarah) - 45, Stay-at-Home-Homeschooling mom, Disney compulsive planner.
I made those ADRs at the crack of 180 days. YES I DID.
And...I only did some minor tweaking (NO, NOT TWERKING)
of them over the 6 months in between.
That's quite an accomplishment for me!
I was excited to try some different restaurants and new foods.

John- 43, My handsome dh of 20+ years.
He tolerates my WDW obsession, mostly because once we get there, he has a great time.
He likes meat and beer. Especially steak. And beer. And seafood. And beer.


Disney Girl - Our 19yo dd.
She doesn't like seafood or chocolate (really, I question some times if she was switched at birth.)

The Chef – Ds17 – Working on 6’4”…and super skinny.
Looking forward to free food.
He likes burgers--he's on a quest to eat a burger in every state of the US--but will also eat tons of other things.

Danger Boy – DS, 14.
He is our gluten-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free food critic, so expect to hear some input from him.

The Inquisitor- DS, 12. Happy if you're putting food in front of him.

Princess K - 10yo dd. K was glad to be on the adult dining plan.

Bitsy - DD, 9. Not happy to be on the kids' dining plan.

Babycakes – DD7, would eat chicken nuggets at every meal, so she was thrilled with the kids' dining plan.

And introducing the newest Hick:
Booger (hey, Daddy picked that nickname, not me. Heretofore to be called “Boogs”.)
– DD3 First trip to Disney, happy with everything and everybody.

Next up: Restaurant list

 

[DisneyMom5]

List of restaurants we visited:

Counter Service/Quick Service
Be Our Guest Lunch
ABC Commissary
Sunshine Seasons (breakfast)
Pizza Planet
Flame Tree BBQ
Liberty Inn
All Star Movies World Premiere Food Court

Table Service
'Ohana
50s Primetime
Garden Grill
Raglan Road
T-Rex
Biergarten (dinner)
Crystal Palace (breakfast)

I'll be giving reports on all, most with pictures, but also happy to answer any questions anyone might have. We had 7 adults on the dining plan, and three kids, spread over three rooms.

Thanks for reading!

 

[tluvstink]

I love the title of your report I'm in and looking forward to it!

Terri

 

[DisneyMom5]

I love the title of your report I'm in and looking forward to it!

Terri

Sometimes, you have to call it as you see it.
Thanks for reading...I'm trying to get to an update but soccer and dinner keep interfering. Apparently, when you're not at Disney, you actually have to cook!

 

[vettegirl]

Sounds like a blast!!

 

[bigsis1970]

joining in for the fun!

 

[2manypets]

Can't wait!!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Can't wait!!!

 

[partyof2]

Excited for this one!

 

[iwasdaisy]

 

[labfan]

Looking forward to reading your report.

 

[DisneyMom5]

UPDATE: Arrival Day
All Star Movies World Premiere Food Court

First, a disclaimer: Danger Boy does not eat peanuts or tree nuts EVER,
but sometimes eats wheat/gluten or trace amounts of wheat gluten.
Always check with a chef if a food is safe for you to eat.
If a chef has particularly created a dish that was deemed wheat/gluten or pnut/tree nut free in this report, I'll note it.
And then still advise you to double check,
because recipes and ingredients can change.

On our drive down to FL, we stopped at
IHOP off of 24 in Paduch, KY (excellent service AND food),
Cracker Barrel near Lookout Mtn. in Chattanooga (also great),
and IHOP in Adel, GA (always good –what can I say, we like IHOP).
We highly recommend them all.
On our drive home we stopped at the IHOP that is 1 or 2 exits south of the one at Adel, GA (not as good, but acceptable. Hash browns were dry),
McDonald’s on Brown’s Ferry Rd in Chattanooga (eh…it’s McDonald’s),
and IHOP in Paducah again (even better the second time!)

We were uncertain what we would do for our supper on our arrival night at WDW,
as our package didn’t start until the next morning.
But, considering we had a late lunch,
and driving off site to find something would have cost about as much,
we decided to eat at the All Star Movies World Premiere Food Court.

The food court is pretty well laid out, pretty much the same as Pop Century where we’ve stayed before,
and a little bit larger than AS Sports,
which, I’ve heard, is due to it being built last of the All Stars, so they decided to improve upon things.

This one is themed to look like each ordering station is a movie marquee.

The key thing to utilizing any value resort food court is TIMING.
Late afternoon/early evening…great.
After the parks close? MADNESS.
Very early in the morning after it opens…slightly busy.
About 8 am? CRAZYNESS.
We happened to hit it about 6 pm, so it was pretty lightly populated.

A few of us were not hungry enough for a meal and opted for a snack,
which worked out great both for my wallet and because the food court has many, many choices.
I’m going to be swiping descriptions and quotes from All ears menus page.

I had: Six Breadsticks with Marinara Sauce $5.99
They were fine, I shared with the kids, and also ate some of their stuff.
Not the best breadsticks ever but tasty enough.

John had: Turkey and Munster Cheese on Focaccia Bread - with coleslaw, cucumber salad or house-made chips $8.99
He said it was ok. I think he had the coleslaw.

Disney girl had a yogurt/granola parfait, which I don’t see listed anywhere,
but are available in the cold section all day long.
I believe they are snack credit on the DDP. She liked it.

The Chef had Key Lime Pie, also available in the coolers most, if not all, of the day.
He said it was very good.

Danger Boy had French fries to go with some leftovers he still had from IHOP.
He said they were good.

The Inquisitor, Princess K, and Bitsy all had the adult portion of Chicken Breast Nuggets (8 pieces) $8.69 which came with French fries.
They loved them, and ate more of them that week than I can stand to think about.
These are the crunchier, fried chicken style nuggets that replaced the chicken strips a few years back.
The child’s nuggets, by comparison, are flat, Banquet nugget looking pieces, and you don’t get as many.

Babycakes had an adult individual pepperoni pizza.
[The kid’s pizza is a small, cheese pita-style pizza.]
She loved it, and I snagged a small part and it was tasty.

Boogs shared with us all.

All in all we felt it was a successful trip and worth it for saving us time and frustration trying to find food off-site. And not excessively expensive.

I forgot to take pics of the food, (bad DIS-er) but here’s a couple pics of the “ambience.”

Boogs waiting for her vittles (Take-out Pizza Order Pick-up window in the background):



The marquees are blinding. Boys and Duck-faced Boogs waiting to get some food.



Happy to answer any questions!

 

[Alby]

Hey, i hadn't realized you are writing a dining report as well! That's great!

Can't wait for the pictures...

 

[akayek31]

Yay you are back. Can't wait to find out about Raglan Rd. We are eating there for the first time in February.

 

[DisneyMom5]

Yay you are back. Can't wait to find out about Raglan Rd. We are eating there for the first time in February.

I'll do a full report later, but we loved it, food was good, atmosphere was GREAT.
I recommend it. You need to know going in that it is VERY loud...we thought it was louder than T-Rex. We were right next to the band, so that might be part of the reason. That said, it's not an unpleasant loud. Just don't expect to go there for a quiet little conversation.

 

[partyof2]

Thanks for your thoughts on Raglan Road, they make me feel more at ease with cancelling our ADR there. I'm teetotal and don't like to be around rowdy places full of drinks - it makes me very anxious. The menu looks delicious though, we may do Sunday Brunch on a future trip.

 

[DisneyMom5]

Thanks for your thoughts on Raglan Road, they make me feel more at ease with cancelling our ADR there. I'm teetotal and don't like to be around rowdy places full of drinks - it makes me very anxious. The menu looks delicious though, we may do Sunday Brunch on a future trip.

It was not rowdy or loud in a drinking way. We were there with our little kids and felt very comfortable. It's not that kind of place...at least at 7 pm on a Thurs. it wasn't.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to families. It was more the music and Irish dancers and the general roar of a bldg. full of people that made it loud.

 

[DisneyMom5]

I have not forgotten about this report...it's been soccer season and time has been a premium. I'll be back to post more soon!

 

[DisneyMom5]

For our first day, we made plans to eat at the Be Our Guest counter service lunch. We were in line around 11 am (maybe a little earlier?) and the line extended out past the "gates" before the bridge.
Cast members were handing out cups of water and umbrellas, as it was sunny and hot that day.
They also handed out menus for you to look at.
I was prepared for a long wait, but I think from getting in line to sitting down was only 1/2 hour.
I had purchased a B & B shirt for Disney Girl (dd19) before the trip, and we had to get a pic of her by the matching window.



I'm afraid we were hungry and forgot to take pics of the food. MY BAD.

That said, the ambiance was amazing, an I did get a couple of pics of that.

It's even more beautiful in person.











We sampled the turkey sandwich, the beef sandwich, the ham and cheese, the roast pork, a kids' roast pork, and a kids' turkey sandwich.
We loved every single entree (quite a feat!), and were very impressed with the roast pork, which is a substantial lunch offering.
For dessert, we tried several of the offerings on the dessert menu, focusing mostly on the cupcakes.
GF son had the GF cream puff.
I had the Lemon Meringue cupcake, and it was AMAZING.

All in all, we were very pleased with our visit here, and dh proclaimed it his favorite counter service...which was surprising to me, as he only really went there to appease his daughters.

We will probably eat here again.

 

[huggiebear23]

Subscribing!! My DD has a tree nut allergy. Def interested to read the report.