Quick Dining Review

[michygoomy]

We were in the World from 6/6 -6/15, but only had the dining plan for 6 nights (split stay). Here are some quick reviews:

Coral Reef This was fantastic. What a great way to start the dining plan experience. The food was great, the view of the tanks was fun, and our service was perfection. The kids had ordered speciality drinks so I had to tack on an extra tip anyway, but I upped it considerably. This was also our most expensive meal--like $240 (not counting the speciality drinks and extra tip). I almost choked when I saw the bill, and I was really glad to be on the dining plan. We just don't eat places that would cost us that much EVER.

appetizers:
Me: Caesar salad--OK. I would be a little annoyed by the overabundance of "deconstructed" caesar salads by the end of the week. Could someone just chop my lettuce for me, please? I did get the chicken add-on at the servers suggestion and was able to feed that to the baby.
DH: Mushroom soup--very yummy
DS12: Caesar salad
DD10: Shrimp cocktail: very good, but was sitting in the cocktail sauce so she had to wipe some of it off because it was too spicy.

entrees:
Me & DH: Crab cakes: very good. spicy hash was with it that was very good, also.
DS12 & DD10: Grilled chicken breast: both said it was very good, and I was able to give the baby some of their pasta

desserts:
Me & DH: Cheesecake. I thought it was very good, DH liked it but was pretty full. He turned out to be not much of a dessert eater.
DD10: California Gold--she didn't finish it, so she gave it to me and the baby to share. I loved it! So did the baby who ate more of it than I did.
DS12: Chocolate Wave--he was in love with this dessert. You should've seen the look on his face. He did share some with his sister.

4TS + speciality drinks and extra tip. Great food, even better service. The server had brought out a Magna Doodle for the baby to play with, and DS wrote a thank-you note to our server on it before we left (of his own accord).

Whispering Canyon
I didn't tell my family anything about this place before we went and they were pleasantly surprised. The whole night was the highlight of our trip--from the boat ride over, the exploring of the Wilderness Lodge lobby afterward (while we waited for the rain to stop), to a rainbow at the dock, to riding back to MK at sunset.

They enjoyed the antics tremendously. At one point DH was distracted watching a lady who was forced to ride a wooden horse around singing "Happy Birthday" to herself when our server asked if he wanted a refill on his milkshake. Since he didn't hear her the first time, she yelled, "YO--YOU GONNA WANT ANOTHER MILKSHAKE?". The look on his face was worth the price of our dinner.

On to the food:

appetizers:
Me: Mixed greens with apple vinegrette: I usually hate fruit or fruity dressing in green salads, but the dressing on this was fantastic. The apple taste was very subtle.
DH: Southwestern Chicken Soup: declared to be very good
DS12 & DD10: Nachos. Boy, that was a lot of freakin' nachos. They both loved them, but when they took them away it barely looked like they had touched them because it was so much. I hated to waste so much.

entrees:
Me: Skillet. I loved the pulled pork the most. The potatoes were good as was the corn bread and ribs. The corn was very sweet, but I was disappointed that it was sitting in mashed potatoes--I don't like my food to touch. I never even got to the chicken. The baby ate all of my beans and loved them.
DH & DD10: Meatloaf. Both liked it very much.
DS12: NY Strip Steak--he loved this, and I tried a bite and it was very flavorful. I wish I could've gone back to have this!

desserts:
The only thing I can remember is the Apple Caramel Pie. I think I was so distracted by it that I didn't see what every else got! It was heavenly!! I only wish I wasn't so full already that I could eat every bite.

DH & DD10 got the bottomless milkshakes (very good, very thick!), and DS12 got a smoothy that he didn't care for.

This will be #1 on my list if we go back, for sure. We've also told the kids that when they grow up they're taking us to Disney and we're staying at the Wilderness Lodge, so they had better get good grades and get a good job!

Le Cellier
I couldn't get a dinner ADR for this so we did a late lunch (2:10). I had heard so many good things about this place, but it didn't really stack up for me. It was a bit of a letdown after the other two, but still pretty good. Service was just OK, especially compared to the first two.

appetizers:
Me & DD10: Caesar salad: again, deconstructed. Boring and a pain to eat.
DH: Cheddar cheese soup: lived up to its reputation--very good!
DS12: Beef and barley soup: very, very good

entrees:
Me, DH, DS12: Grilled petit filet. DH actually laughed at the size of it when she brought it out. It was very small. DS & I liked it, DH thought it was charred and not very tasty. We all ordered it medium well, but mine looked medium rare and DH's might have been well done from how he described it. The potatoes were good.
DD10: Sauteed jumbo shrimp: She liked this OK. The baby ate the linguini from this and loved it. She even licked her plate.

desserts:
Me: Maple Creme Brulee: pretty good. I've never had creme brulee before so I don't know how it compares. It wasn't good enough to finish off, though.
DH: Ordered the kids moose. He didn't care for it, but DD finished it for him and liked it.
DS: Chocolate whisky cake: We teased the heck out of him about how he'd get carded for getting this. For all his excitement over ordering it, he didn't like it much.

Chef Mickey's
It's a tradition for us to do Chef Mickey's as a late breakfast on a MK day, and it didn't disappoint. The food was great and the character interaction was fabulous! I got a ton of great pictures, and every ate really well, even the baby. Great fun!

Hollywood & Vine

Ick. I don't have much nice to say about this place. Not much variety, what was there was not spectacular, and the plates all looked dirty. I finally found a normal caesar salad--only to find it just as bland as the others.

Crystal Palace

This was my backup ADR for the last day, and I ended up using it because the baby got sick the day before we left and we couldn't make our Marrakesh ADR. I stayed back with the sick baby and DH took DS & DD here. He declared it better than Chef Mickey's. I'll put this one on my list for future trips.

Because of the sick baby I ended up wasting one TS. I would've used it for a CS breakfast at the resort, but dopey left with ALL of the room keys! So it was a mickey rice crispy treat for me back in the room.

Our CS meals were all OK, not much great to talk about there. Columbia Harbor House and Earl of Sandwhich were the only real standouts. The rest of the meals were typical cheeseburgers and such. Most of the fries weren't great, what a disappointment because you usually can't go wrong with fries!

I would do the dining plan again just for the couple fantastic meals we had! Plus most of our CS lunches came to 50 bucks alone.

[PrincessPaczki]

Hi!
Great review! I was glad to see that two of the ADR we have, you went to and had a great meal. I hope that we have the same experience!

[Grumpy'n'Goofy]

Great reviews, thanks!

I'll have to forewarn DW about the "deconstructed Ceasar salad" since I know she'll be getting it for an appetizer at a couple of different places.

[swankybeth]

Thanks for sharing your reviews...I had to laugh at the 'deconstructed' Caesar salad...Sorry the baby got sick.

[bluejasmine]

Im so excited to hear so many good reviews of Coral Reef and Im excited to be trying it on the DDP in Aug.. I have noticed most of the LeCellier reviews have been doing a nose dive tho.. Hmm well this is DS fave place so we will try it again and if its not up to par we just wont be returning.. I have to agree with your review of H&V we thought the food bland and variety lacking..
THanks for the reviews!

[dansyr1]

How is the menu at Coral reef?? I looked online and it doesn't seem to have many choices. I love all kinds of seafood but dbf is very picky and right now the only thing he may like on the menu is the beef. Has anyone eaten there recently and noticed maybe some other items???

[lauraf]

Great reviews, I happen to have ADR's for all of those places. I always look foreward to read peoples reviews, and I will give my own when I get back.

[Kaycee]

Thanks for the reviews. We have a late breakfast scheduled for Chef Mickey's in October and I was a little nervous about how the food and character interaction would be going late, so I was happy to hear about your experience.

[ufgator]

Thanks for your reviews!

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reviews ~ Thanx for sharing.