6 Hot August Days and 5 hot nights on DDP

[sarobison]

We're just back from Disney and I wanted to do this while it was fresh on my mind. It was me, DW, DS 4 and DS 7 on the trip. At home we eat out 3-4 times a month for dinner, usually I cook (I'm okay, not a chef but I can hold my own). That being said, we're not super picky and are willing to try anything. The one thing is that DW is highly allergic to peanuts so at most places she gets to talk to the chef to know what to avoid. We had 5 nights of DDP.

Here's the list of CS places we ate at, I hope to get around to reviewing them all soon:

• Cosmic Ray's (twice)
• Pizza Planet @ MGM
• Sunshine Seasons in the Land @ Epcot (3 times)

Snacks:

• Coke Floats @ Ice Cream place at MK
• Cinnamon Buns @ Bakery at AK
• Dole Whips at Aloha Isle MK
• Popcorn and Ice Cream at MGM
• Side Salads and Cookies @ Old Port Royale (CBR)

Finally, what everyone really cares about it seems, TS places:

• Boma
• Coral Reef
• Whispering Canyon
• San Angel Inn
• Crystal Palace

Before I move on to the reviews (by day if I can remember) a few more things

I didn't take pictures, sorry. I meant to but I missed the first meal b/c of hunger and from then on it was usually after most everything was gone that I remembered I should be taking pictures.

I like to get my money's worth, usually. We also decided to stretch 5 of each apiece to fit 6 days.

If I had it to do again we would have probably stayed at CBR the night before we wanted to start our days at the world so we could get an extra allotment of DDP but we really only wanted (or needed) the extra TS.

It's vacation so, for the most part, nutrition and sensibility are out the window. Eat what you want and eat all you want whenever I decide to let you eat....

 

[sandybobandy]

I'm signing up for this one! Pictures or no pictures, you ate at some great places. Can't wait!

Sandy

 

[sarobison]

Day 1 is a Saturday that we started at MK. We're not big on breakfast so everyone starts the day with pop tarts or granola bars.

Lunch at Cosmic Ray's
DS's had the kids pick with chicken nuggets, fries, apple sauce, and raw baby carrots. I tried a little of each and found it to be standard kids fare. The only complaints were: the applesauce isn't all that great (it's basic, unsweeted stuff), the kids wouldn't eat it; and the kids wanted ranch dressing with the carrots

DW and I split Combo #1 from the chicken side (1/2 bbq chicken and bbq ribs) with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. Not great, not bad, just okay. We got this mainly b/c it was big enough to split and we wanted to conserve CS meals for our last day. IMO the chicken (at least the skin) is better than the ribs. The potatoes are pretty good and the carrots were okay. We also had the triple chocolate cake as our dessert which we split amongst the four of us. I don't think we finished it, even though it's not that big. It's just a lot of chocolate!

Coke Floats from Ice Cream Shop
Yum! These were great and really hit the spot on hot afternoon. It wasn't the dole whip float but they were good. We split 2 amongst us. Just be careful when you stab the straws in, if they've filled it up then you might cause a slight mess as the coke starts to fizz out......

Dinner at Boma
After hearing so much positive stuff on the DIS about Boma we just had to try it. We weren't disappointed but neither were we overly impressed. DW was told to avoid some of the sauces and to stay away from the desserts (no zebra domes for her ) but they brought her out a guaranteed peanut or peanut trace free brownie and vanilla ice cream. Honestly, I wasn't crazy about the zebra domes but DS 7 loved them. The mousse on the other hand was great! I had the potatoes with afritude and they were okay. I also tried just about all of the salads and liked all that I tried. I also tried all of the hummus that was offered and liked them all, even the black olive one! I had one of the couscous dishes (don't remember which) and thought it was pretty good. With all of that being said I also tried some of the pasta with marinara sauce that was on the kids line and honestly, could have eaten an entire plate of that and been happy.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being absolutely horrible and 10 being out of this world, I'd rate Boma a 7. It was pretty good and we would definitely go back. At the same time however if we don't go back on our next trip (or 2 or 3) I'm not going to miss it either.

 

[sarobison]

Again for breakfast was granola bars and pop tarts in the room, as it was every day.

Since we had a late lunch at Coral Reef we decided to get Cinnamon Buns from Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery. They were pretty big, easily 5 inches across and 3 inches high. Two of them were plenty for the four of us to share as a late morning snack.

Lunch at Coral Reef
After DW and I took an anniversary weekend trip to WDW a month beforehand and ate here we decided to change one of our ADR dinners to lunch at Coral Reef and once again we were not disappointed. DW had the crab claws salad, the blackened catfish, and (again) vanilla ice cream for dessert. She loved the salad and the catfish (she had the catfish last time as well). I think it's cool that the catfish they serve are the one's that Disney grows on-site in the tanks at the Land (I assume anyway).

DS's had cheese pizza. DS 4 got the lobster soup as his appetizer and he proved to be the smartest one of the bunch today! The soup is amazing! I started to get it but I let my stomach get in the way.... They also had the ice cream sundae's- so cool that they get to make their own!

I had the Sea and Land appetizer (2 grilled shrimp and 2 pieces of beef). As I was pondering my order I remember reading that this wasn't all that great but , as I said, I let my stomach order and not my head. I should have ordered the lobster soup. The shrimp were excellent, the beef on the other hand was not good. It tasted overcooked and the bbq sauce didn't taste good either. I hoped this was not an indicator of things to come because I ordered the NY Strip as my entree. I ordered my steak medium and it was wonderful! The only bad part was the demi-glaze/bbq sauce. It was the same stuff as was on the beef from the appetizer and I scraped most of it off. When I order steak I want to taste the meat, not some sauce the chef tried to cover it up with. Luckily the chef had only put it on one half of the steak. The potatoes that were the side were really good as well. For dessert I finished with the Jack Daniels and Bailey's Mousse. WOW! This was great. I really had a tough time deciding b/c I've heard so many good things about the chocolate wave but I think I made the right decision.

On a scale of 1 to 10(best) I'd give Coral Reef an 8.5. The service was great, the atmosphere was cool, and the food was pretty good. The only thing that keeps it from being higher is that daggum beef demi-glaze. We will definitely return to Coral Reef on future trips, probably more than once per trip.

Dinner at Cosmic Rays
Having had chicken at Rays the day before DW and I decided on burger's. We both had the Bacon Double Cheeseburger with fries. DW ate hers with nothing but ketchup, I loaded mine down with pretty much everything from the fixin's bar. With all of the toppings and the fries I couldn't finish the burger! They were really good, on par with most fast food places. We also got the triple chocolate cakes again but ended up not eating them. I think that the dbl cheeseburger could easily be split amongst most couples, especially if you load on the toppings like I did.

DS's had chicken nugget again. This time we got grapes instead of apple sauce. The nuggets really are pretty good.


So through 2 days we've used:
8 TS (4 adult, 4 kid)
4 snacks (we're 4 ahead now)
7 CS meals (supposedly their split but I think that you could actually use them all on adult meals as long as you only get 2 (or however many adults you have) at a time).

 

[sarobison]

I'm signing up for this one! Pictures or no pictures, you ate at some great places. Can't wait!

Sandy

Thanks, I hope I don't disappoint!

 

[natalielongstaff]

your breakfast plans are exactly like ours lovely reviews so far !

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent, looking forward to reading more.

 

[dizneyrules]

Can't wait to hear more. We leave in 11 days and are planning on enjoying many of the same places.

 

[TigerKat]

Great reviews so far, can't wait for more!!!!

 

[sarobison]

your breakfast plans are exactly like ours lovely reviews so far !

Why spend more than is necessary right? Plus pop tarts and granola bars can be eaten on the run!

 

[erikthewise]

More, more!

 

[sarobison]

Today we start with..... pop tarts! Not the healthiest thing but at least its something...

Lunch- Sunshine Seasons in the Land
DS 4 didn't want anything except for sun chips and a drink so that was paid OOP. DS 7 got a Kids Make Your Own Sub that included carrots and grapes (had to ask for grapes, all the rest have applesauce). I think it had ham, turkey, and salami plus cheese, lettuce, and tomato. There was enough there for him to make a mini-sub (about 4") and then to make a wrap as well using the lettuce.

DW got a pork chop with mashed potatoes and something else (don't remember). The pork chop was about an inch thick and was pretty good, as were the potatoes. In retrospect DW and I could have probably shared and been fine.

I had the combination plate from the asian station. I had chicken and beef as my two entrees. Both were okay, good enough that I'll have this again but not the best I've had. I also had noodles and broccoli, both of which were just okay.

Okay, so the desserts we picked out. As I walked over to the dessert section I was like "There's no way I can pick any of those, we'll be limited to the Triple Chocolate Cake and something else." Boy was I wrong! This place probably has the best selection of desserts on the CS plan of anywhere I saw. They had lots of pies, cakes, specialty treats, and ice cream. Among the selections were Key Lime Pie, Carrot Cake (not the boxed stuff), a chocolate cake, cheese cakes, fruit tarts, strawberry bavarian, strawberry shortcake, the list goes on.

DW chose the Key Lime Pie, I had the Strawberry Shortcake. The Key Lime Pie was really good. It tasted a little more like lemon meringue but was still good. It filled the dessert plate it was on, so probably 5" in diameter. The Strawberry Shortcake was a layered deal of angel food cake, strawberries, and whipped cream. The strawberries weren't very sweet but otherwise it was really good.

Another good thing about this place is that they have wet wipes set out so if you have kids then it's a good place to stock up.... not that we on the DIS would do that .

Dinner at San Angel Inn
The reason we chose this place was because some of the other places we wanted were full and I thought the kids would like the atmosphere. I'm not crazy about it because it's so dark in there and the only real lighting comes from a hurricane (oil) lamp on your table. With that being said, on with the food review.

Both DS 4 and 7 had the chicken strips. They have some weird themed name and DS 7 thought he was getting fajitas or something b/c of the name but he was okay with it. All of the meals were served with a vegetable mix that none of us ate..... The boys had ice cream again, no sundaes this time though.

For apps DW had the Ceviche which was really good, served in a cocktail glass. I had the nachos which were also really good, although after eating half the basket of chips and salsa I was kind of tired of chips. The nachos had slices of jalapeno peppers which I love but could have used a little more of the meat.

DW and I had the Filete Motuleno (grilled beef tenderloin) ordered medium. I had reservations about this for some reason. I had hoped DW would order something else but she wanted steak. The fried plantain that came with it was really good as were the beans. DW loved it, said it was awesome. Me, not so crazy about it. Honestly if it hadn't of been for the grilled pepper that came with I probably wouldn't have eaten it. I just wasn't crazy about the flavor and it was pretty thin. It reminded me of the steak I get if I order huevos rancheros (or something) at the local mexican places.

For dessert DW had.... vanilla ice cream. Me, I had a banana and raisin bread cake with dulce de leche (mexican caramel). This might have been the best dessert I had the entire time, and I almost didn't order it! It was really good, I mean good.

For the rating, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best I'd give San Angel a 7.5. Honestly the dessert saved it from being a 6 or so. I just wasn't crazy about the steak and I don't like eating in the dark.

In comparison I've eaten at Cantina de San Angel outside the temple and for the most part if I have a hankering for this type food in the future at Epcot I would probably just use a CS there (the combination plate is good plus you get churros!).

 

[mom2fivecs]

Great reviews...looking forward to more