14 Days of Gluttony AKA Doing Free Dining Again! COMPLETE!

[rachel09985]

Lol i just laughed so hard at the "Here cover it up with a leaf" remark!! Lol! Thats something we would do!

[DsnyMama]

Great reviews so far! Joining aboard!

[MrsB1228]

Originally Posted by Roma

I am loving the look of that Black Forest Kiss! DH and I have ADRs at Raglan our first night and I've been torn between the bread pudding and the Dunbrody kiss for dessert. Now they both may be completely off the table of possibilities in the face of that scrumptiousness!

I'm also having an ongoing internal debate over whether to go with the original risotto or the mashed potatoes at Le Cellier.

Loving your reviews!

Thanks for reading! DH really enjoyed the Black Forest Kiss. He's a big fan of black forest cake, so this was right up his alley.

I completely understand the dilemma of trying to decide between the risotto and the mashed potatoes. Both are wonderful so you'll probably have to do what I did and just go with whichever appeals more on the day you visit. Enjoy!

Originally Posted by dgagnon519

Love the reviews, so I am jumping in so I can see more.

Welcome! Thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by rachel09985

Lol i just laughed so hard at the "Here cover it up with a leaf" remark!! Lol! Thats something we would do!

LOL! That's my hubby, always ready with a fix for any situation!

Originally Posted by DsnyMama

Great reviews so far! Joining aboard!

Thank you and welcome aboard!

[MrsB1228]

This was supposed to be a morning spent at Hollywood Studios with lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe but we had decided that after the busyness of the past few days, we needed a slower pace this morning. So I cancelled our ADR and did a search to find what was available instead. Since Yak & Yeti popped up with an available ADR at 4:45 that evening, DH was all for grabbing it since Y&Y is one of his favourites. We have a lunch ADR for later in our holiday, but he was quite happy to go twice, lol.

We had a sleep-in this morning and didn't get going until after 9. We just had coffee and juice for breakfast as neither one of us was very hungry then we hopped on the bus for the MK. After arriving at MK, we caught the resort monorail and headed over to the Grand Floridian as I wanted to shop at Basin White. They have the most wonderful body butters!! I discovered them quite a few trips ago and always stop by to purchase some when we're at the World. We spent some time poking around some of the other stores and taking photos, this is such a beautiful resort.





It was getting close to lunch time and as we hadn't had anything to eat, we were starting to get hungry. We decided to hop on the monorail and head to the Contemporary. We'd never eaten there before and as I'd been hearing some good things about it, we decided to try it.

You place your order at a kiosk which is equipped with a touch-screen ordering system. After making our entree selections, we headed over to the bakery to pick up our dessert. This is what we chose:

For DH: a Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake



For me: a Spiced Apple cupcake



We each chose the same entree, the Stacked Sandwich with fries. You also have a choice of a green bean salad. We both chose a soft drink as our beverage.



This was really delicious, but HUGE! It could easily be shared by two people. The serving of fries was also very generous. The sandwich contained smoked ham, smoked turkey, salami, cheddar, provolone and sundried tomato spread. This was very tasty and satisfying, but too much food for one person. We each give it 4/5

Here's a cross-section of the Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake. Sorry it's a bit mangled, DH did the best he could but it wanted to fall apart when he cut it.



DH loved his cupcake! It was moist chocolate cake covered in a light frosting that isn't quite whipped but also isn't quite as heavy as a traditional buttercream. The frosting on both cupcakes had a very nice texture IMO, and wasn't grainy at all. DH's cupcake had a peanut butter filling, which was different than the frosting and was more like the filling of a peanut butter cup. He ate every bit of it and enjoyed it immensely! 5/5

Here's a cross-section of the Spiced Apple cupcake:



OH. MY. GOD. This cupcake was amazing!! It's a cinnamon-spiced vanilla cake with a caramel frosting which was the same texture and consistency as DH's, very light and smooth. The real star of this show was inside though. The centre of the cupcake was filled with an amazing mixture of apple, dried cranberries and golden raisins. WOW!! I can never manage to eat all of a Disney cupcake because they're usually so rich but I came close with this one. Highly recommended!! Definitely a 5/5.

We really enjoyed our lunch at Contempo Cafe. Everything was very fresh, the sandwich was delicious and those cupcakes were to die for! This was our first visit to this quick service location but definitely will not be our last!

This meal used 2 quick service credits and would have cost $37.00 OOP.

Up next: Dinner at Yak & Yeti.

[wdwloverz]

LOVING this review! Can't wait for more

[jockey]

Really enjoying your report looking forward to more

[emmysmommy]

It is a shame that they don't sell the spiced apple cupcakes at CC year-round!! Yours is the second that I have seen (and the first for which I could see cranberries) and it looks lovely! With all the apple desserts (CHH apple pastry too) it's making me crave something sweet and apply!

Your photos as the GF are so lovely! You take great photos!

[MrsB1228]

Originally Posted by wdwloverz

LOVING this review! Can't wait for more

Thanks for joining in, more coming up!

Originally Posted by jockey

Really enjoying your report looking forward to more

Welcome! The next review will be up soon.

Originally Posted by emmysmommy

It is a shame that they don't sell the spiced apple cupcakes at CC year-round!! Yours is the second that I have seen (and the first for which I could see cranberries) and it looks lovely! With all the apple desserts (CHH apple pastry too) it's making me crave something sweet and apply!

Your photos as the GF are so lovely! You take great photos!

Thanks so much Brenda, I only have a little point-and-shoot but it does the job pretty well and I enjoy playing with the various settings to see what results I get.

That spiced apple cupcake was incredible!! I love apple desserts so when I saw that one on display I knew I had to try it. I was so glad I did! I'm really hoping it's available during our next trip.

[DonaldDoleWhip]

I love Contempo Cafe for its savory options (salads, flatbreads, sandwiches, etc), but the most recent cupcake I had there wasn't great. That spiced apple cupcake makes me desperately want to return there! It looks phenomenal.

[DisneyFansInLINY]

Great reviews and pics. You made me hungry. And I had no idea about those waffle sandwiches. I am so having one of those.

[MrsB1228]

After returning to the resort with our purchases, we relaxed a bit, watched some TV and then got ready to leave for AK.



We arrived at 4:00, and watched the end of Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade. We then made our way through the crowds to check in for our 4:45 reservation. We waited a few minutes and then were escorted upstairs to our table, right by the window overlooking the walkway. We were seated right at our ADR time. Our waiter checked in quickly, and took our beverage order, Coke for DH and ice water for me. After looking over the menu, we both decided to order the Baby Back Ribs.



Baby Back Ribs: Slow roasted ribs, hoisin BBQ sauce, chicken fried rice and sweet chili slaw.

These were good. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender and the hoisin BBQ sauce added some depth with its addition of sweet, slightly salty flavour. The chicken fried rice was OK, not particularly memorable and the sweet chili slaw was very nice. I didn't really detect much chili, there certainly wasn't any heat. It wasn't overly sweet either, and was actually rather bland. I seem to remember there being more complexity to the slaw the last time we had this. DH loved it however, and wished he had a larger portion. I give this 3/5 because the ribs were wonderful but the side dishes were weak, IMO. Hubby gives it 4/5 as he really enjoyed everything but agreed the chicken fried rice was nothing special.

For dessert, I didn't even need to look at the menu.



Fried Wontons: Skewers of fresh pineapple and cream cheese wontons, served with strawberries, vanilla ice cream and drizzled with honey vanilla sauce.

These are delectable and are one of my absolute favourite desserts in all of WDW. The components, when eaten separately, are delicious; but when you take a piece of wonton along with the pineapple, a little portion of strawberry and that incredible sweet, smooth honey vanilla sauce ... it's a party in your mouth my friends! Definitely a 5/5!

Here's a close up of one of these little nuggets from heaven.



Hubby had the same thing and gives it 3/5 since he doesn't like cream cheese. I know, I know ...

Since I'd only had ice water with my meal, I decided to order one of their specialty teas to have with dessert. I selected the Spiced Chai.



I love the teapots they use! This is a great choice if you're a chai tea fan like me.

Overall, Yak & Yeti gets a rating of 3-3/4 out of 5 this visit. It didn't wow me as much this time but it's still a solid favourite with DH. We're visiting again later this trip ... will I be more impressed next time? Stay tuned to find out.

Dinner used 2 table service credits and would have cost $78.75 OOP.

Up next: Day 4 includes breakfast at Kona Cafe, a snack at Ghiradelli, drinks at the Tambu Lounge and dinner at Boatwrights.

[MrsB1228]

Originally Posted by DonaldDoleWhip

I love Contempo Cafe for its savory options (salads, flatbreads, sandwiches, etc), but the most recent cupcake I had there wasn't great. That spiced apple cupcake makes me desperately want to return there! It looks phenomenal.

I remember reading about your disappointing cupcake. As I recall, it certainly looked delicious but didn't live up to its promise. I definitely want to return to Contempo to try more of their savoury options as I love the look of some of the flatbreads and I've heard really good things about both the Honey Lime Chicken and Spice Crusted Mahi sandwiches. Soo many choices, lol!

Originally Posted by DisneyFansInLINY

Great reviews and pics. You made me hungry. And I had no idea about those waffle sandwiches. I am so having one of those.

Thank you! You must try one of those waffle sandwiches, they're incredible and are on my "must do again" list for next trip!

[BlovesC]

Your meal at Contempo Cafe looks so delicious! I keep seeing that spiced apple cupcake and I'm so jealous! I may have to try making my own version!

Great reviews!!

[MrsB1228]

Originally Posted by BlovesC

Your meal at Contempo Cafe looks so delicious! I keep seeing that spiced apple cupcake and I'm so jealous! I may have to try making my own version!

Great reviews!!

It was wonderful! We really enjoyed every aspect of our meal here and will definitely return! If you make your own version of the spiced apple cupcake, please be sure to post your results, MMMM!

Thanks for reading!

[MrsB1228]

Today was a no-park day for us. After our morning showers, we headed to the MK where we hopped on the resort monorail. Our destination was the Poly, where we had a 9:30 ADR at Kona Cafe.



When we tried to check in, they couldn't find our ADR! I usually carry a print out of all our ADR numbers but didn't have it with me this time, naturally. LOL! I was a bit concerned as Kona was slammed this morning and I heard them turning away walk-ups before we got to the podium. The lovely lady checking us in believed that I had ADR's however, and managed to seat us within 15 minutes. It worked out in the end but lesson learned! I made sure I had the print out with me from that point on. It's a good thing too, as I would need proof again at another meal.

We had the worst server of the whole two weeks at this meal. She was slow and somewhat surly, definitely lacking in the "Disney magic" area. She acted like it was the last place she wanted to be and she was doing us the biggest favour in the world by taking our order. We've had some lacklustre service at Disney restaurants over the years, but I think she deserves the crown for worst ever, I never saw her smile once. It wasn't just us either, she was the same with all her tables, and I heard her snarl at a co-worker too. When she came to take our order (after a rather long wait) she didn't say "are you ready to order?" or "have you decided?", she said, and I quote: "whadya want??" Oh well, we didn't let a surly server spoil our morning because we were together at Disney and what could be better?

We weren't terribly hungry so we decided to split the Big Kahuna.



Big Kahuna: French toast, Pancakes topped with Pineapple sauce and Macadamia Nut Butter, eggs, home fried potatoes, ham, bacon, and sausage. This was my half after we split everything.

We both really enjoyed this. The eggs were perfect (we ordered them well done), the pancakes were fluffy and wonderful with the macadamia nut butter and pineapple topping. The french toast was fine, I don't really remember much about it and all the breakfast meats were tasty, especially the ham and sausage. The potatoes are nicely spiced and very flavourful. We give it 4/5.

We also ordered a fruit cup to share.



The fruit was wonderful! Cold, sweet, perfectly ripe and fresh. 5/5

I enjoyed two cups of Kona coffee with my breakfast and a very nice server came over to bus the table after we were finished and asked if I'd like a to-go cup for the rest of the coffee in the thermos. I told him I'd already finished the coffee in the thermos. He laughed and asked if I'd like another thermos of fresh coffee and a to-go cup? I said yes please and thanked him for his consideration. He definitely made up for our own servers bad attitude and we made sure to tip him directly when he returned. Our surly servers tip wasn't quite as generous.

All in all, we really enjoyed our breakfast at Kona. Everything was tasty and it remains a favourite of ours.

This meal was $23.92 before tips and we paid OOP.

Up next: A delicious mid-afternoon break at Ghiradelli!