A Christmas Dining Extravaganza

[tyandskyesmom]

I wish I could have given a better review with actual pictures of what all of our food looked and tasted like but due to the camera issues and then Cary's phone picture transfer issue, it was not to be...this is one of the places you don't see reviewed much especially with good pictures...to me, I can hear the words of a description of a dish and not fully understand what it is sometimes without a picture.

 

[Candycane83]

@tyandskyesmom I really love all your reviews! Makes me want to go for a month just to try everything! LOL! But as our trip is getting closer and closer, I really have to make firmer ADR decisions! I wanted to ask your opinion on which signature meal impressed you the most? Also which did you prefer- Artist Point or California Grill?

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Gosh, could you imagine a MONTH to explore Disney World?!?!?! AWESOME, I'll take it!!!

That's a really hard question! They are all such a different experience!

Between Artist Point and California Grill...hhhmmm...Well California Grill is a much louder, more bright and exciting meal with the views and the big open room. Artist Point is much more relaxed and quiet. Food wise, I think I am going to have to give this last trip to California Grill, although not my much. Tyler had his favorite of all time Waygu Steak that he was afraid of at first because it sounded different but you could cut with a fork and he asked many times to go back again during that trip and the next! They also have sushi on the deluxe dining plan which for Cary and me is a treat. There is also much more to choose from on their menu. Artist Point has a much smaller menu. Everything was wonderful at both places though. Service might be a bit better this time around at Artist Point but that could just seem that way because it was such a relaxed meal. I think if you have active kids who want to look around and may not be the quietest, California Grill would be a better bet but if you have kids that enjoy a clam relaxed meal, Artist Point might just do the trick.

Over all, I couldn't give you a favorite and if I could only choose one, I don't know what it would be. It would probably come down to where else we were eating and what our park plans were. I do know that two of our all the time favorites are California Grill and Narcoossees but this Christmas trip our favorite favorite was probably Yachtsman Steakhouse. But I do adore Jiko also...but they seem to have changed their menu a little and some of it makes our choices a bit more limited. Citricos (which we did not make it to this time) always seems a bit more formal to me for some reason than the others. The "signatures" in the parks don't compare to the ones at the resorts though.

Big help I am here right?

 

[Candycane83]

That's great input, even if it does not help me much in my decision making since I want to go to both! We're going on DxDP for 6 nights and I have Narcoosee's and Flying Fish as well as Boathouse on my list. Was thinking of one more... (There's always room for one more right? ) I initially had Artist Point, then switched to HDDR then switched back to Artist Point then thought about California Grill! I should mention that I also do have a toddler (2 years old) and staying at Contemporary...

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Ok...I forgot about Flying Fish. We like Flying Fish but it is usually the second one cut if a cut is needed (Citricos is first only if we realize we are already hitting Narcoossees and want to hit a different resort) but I am not sure if it's status for us is because it is a little out of the way or if it is a food issue. But now that it's re-opened, with a new menu, we'll have to check it out...although it does not look like they are serving my favorite potato wrapped snapper anymore so I don't know.

We have not done Boathouse. I think a lot of the time we don't hit a lot of ADRs at Disney Springs because I don't usually "plan" time there...it's kinda like our time filler place. So I haven't even really looked at it yet...YET!!! With all that new stuff opening there, we might just have to start making time. Tyler used to LOVE Ion Chef (the original one) when he was about your son's age so a trip to Morimoto's may be in order.

We have never done any dinner shows at Disney though. And really, I am not sure how much they interest me. They seem expensive for the food you get. And we're not big drinkers so the unlimited beer and wine won't make up for it. I guess that's just my mind set though. I have thought about it but never quite do it because I'd rather spend my money or two credits on better food...I have enough entertainment at Disney without a dinner show. But maybe someday we'll get to one of them.

Oh, see the last paragraph would probably cinch it for me...if you're staying at the Contemporary and have a 2 year old, I would go California Grill all the way. And I don't know if he is into mac & cheese but Skyler claims they have THE BEST mac & cheese in the real world! And she will never turn down dessert sushi (rice crisp sushi with fruit roll up seaweed and Swedish fish). And even if you don't eat late, you can return to the observation deck for a different view of Wishes if you want.

 

[Candycane83]

there have been rave reviews on flying fish since it opened so I wanted to give it a try. A few people have mentioned that the steak is probably one of the best on Disney property. I bet Tyler would love it

Yes the main reason why I'm considering California grill is because of the location. Seems much more convenient, we plan to have an early dinner after a break and head to MK after. Artist point would probably work for that as well though

Yes there seems to be a lot of great choices at Disney springs now

 

[tyandskyesmom]

I had not heard any reviews yet really...I am sure it will NEED to be in our future...the steak lover will need to check it out! LOL

 

[tyandskyesmom]

...I need to finish this one up so I can start the next one so I'm gonna try for that today.

T-Rex

Like I said we had to wait a little bit for T-Rex to be open so we hung out.

We didn't go far and soon enough our buzzer went off and we were being seated for our 11am ADR in the ICE ROOM! It is very "cool" in there!

Our waitress was Megan M. She was decent...kinda felt like she was in a hurry in anticipation of what she was expecting for the afternoon. We were brought waters for all of us and we ordered our drinks (diet coke and 2 cokes, Skye just wanted water). Once drinks were brought back we places our orders and Skye and Tyler went to look around and take pictures.

For appetizers Cary and I ordered the Colosso Nachos...start at the summit of this delicious colossal heap of tortilla chips topped with Cheddar cheese, black beans, pico de gallo, green onions; serves two...

These were really good! Lots of food and just what a huge plate of nachos should be!

Skyler ordered the Chicken T-Rexadillas...chicken, red bell peppers, green onions, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses grilled in flour tortillas. Served with pico de gallo and T-REX avocado cream sauce...with JUST cheese! And all the toppings on the side (and the pic is not mine, hers was just the quesadillas).

She loves a cheese quesadilla so she and Tyler split these...and Cary and I used her toppings on our nachos!

Tyler ordered the Mega Mozzarella...Seared Mozzarella with marinara and mozzarella fingers.

At first he was weirded out by the melted mozzarella but once I convinced him it was just a smooshed stick, he and Skye scarfed it all down. Again, Tyler is a mozzarella stick freak so these did not go to waste!

For entrees, Cary ordered the Boneyard Buffet...Fire-roasted Rotisserie Chicken and slow-roasted St. Louis style spare ribs served with waffle fries and coleslaw.

This was really good and a lot of food! The ribs were falling off the bone tender and the chicken was moist. Skye scammed on some of the chicken. He liked the coleslaw (I don't do coleslaw usually so I cannot confirm that or not) and the waffle fried were hot and crispy on the outside and soft like a mashed potato in the inside. Everyone liked the waffle fries!


Skye ordered the Kid's Rocky's Pasta...Rocksy's Pasta - Tossed with Alfredo, butter or marinara sauce...with butter and parmesan. When it came out it was a double order with a double order of waffle fries. We we using an adult credit for her but hadn't mentioned that to Megan but apparently she noticed and made sure Skye got an adult sized portion. Skye had no problem with that (and neither did Tyler) because noodles in our family DO NOT EVER go to waste! Tyler helped her finish them. She loved the little garlic breads on the side of her plate. Everything was doubled.

Tyler got the Neanderthal New Your Strip... Charbroiled New York strip steak topped with steak butter and served with red skinned mashed potatoes and your choice of a side. He got waffle fries as his side...twice...he wasn't interested in a salad and oddly enough Skyler wasn't either so he just got double fries.

He ate it all and said it was good. It probably wasn't as good as some of his other steaks but at home we don't do much steak so he was pleased!

I had the Paleozoic Chicken Sandwich...grilled chicken, lettuce, bacon, pepper jack cheese, avocado, tomato and lemon aioli.

I love this sandwich. I think this is the only entrée I have ever had here. My only complaint is that it's hard to eat...that pizza crust is so stuffed everything falls out when you bite it...but that's where waffle fries come in handy! I think I was only able to eat about half of this though and Cary tasted it and enjoyed it but didn't have room for more after his meal!


For dessert, we decided on the Chocolate Extinction... A gigantic portion of chocolate fudge cake served with ice cream, creamy whipped topping drizzled with fudge and caramel sauces and sprinkled with Butterfinger crumbs. Enough for four! No, it doesn't...it would serve much more than four...especially after the huge meal we just had!

The brownies were VERY choclolat-y and the ice cream was a very good compliment to them...without the ice cream or a huge glass of ice cold milk, I don't know how much brownie I could have eaten!

We ended up leaving a little on the plate. But we tried to finish it...Tyler is a big fan of Man VS. Food so it is always his quest!

All in all, we love T-Rex. It is not gourmet or high end dining but it is a lot of good food in a very cool atmosphere. We have a couple of Rainforest Cafes near us so we don't generally do Rainforest in Disney but T-Rex is different enough to entice us back. Unfortunatly, our Rainforest's are getting a bit run down and at least one of them got rid of the fist tanks...which is a huge part of the uniqueness of the place so I don't know how much we will frequent but there is always Disney if we change our minds.

I would safely say, if it fits, we will visit T-Rex again...the problem is with all the new stuff in Disney Springs, I donno how soon that will be.

We were leaving at around 12:06pm so not a long lunch but a little longer for us than usual. I think we just wanted to enjoy our last day as much as possible!

TOTAL = $173.89... TOTAL FOOD = $6773.75
USED 4 CREDITS ... USED 156 MEAL CREDITS

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We arrived a short time later at Animal Kingdom Lodge and headed downstairs to our 5pm ADR at Boma.

There were a lot of people around waiting and we were a little bit early. So we hit the restrooms and sat down for about 5 minutes before our buzzer buzzed...which was a relief because there was a family fight about to break out in the waiting area!

We were seated along the windows in the back where the walking path to the Mara is...nice view.

Our waiter was Allison and she was nice. She took our drink orders and we headed up. We love Boma...it is one of the few dinner buffets we DO like...breakfast I can do for a buffet but we find the lunch and dinner buffets lacking. I do not have any pictures of food form here...it's so hard at a buffet! We all ate a tom and enjoyed everything. Tyler has his own personal chocolate chip cookie eating competition every time we eat here with himself so he had a ton of those. I have to say while I like Zebra Domes, I am not crazy about them. The lines for the carving station got a bit long at times but the rest of the pods were not bad at all. We were leaving there within about 45 minutes. Allison charged Skye as a child...I don't know why, she should have had it down that she was an adult. She also brought us to go cups for the drinks left in our glasses.

We love Boma breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is a little hard to get o sometimes but well worth it. I think we'll be back!


TOTAL = $151.19... TOTAL FOOD = $6940.94
USED 04CREDITS ... USED 160 MEAL CREDITS

 

[tyandskyesmom]

And Dining...We had ADRs for 2 - 3 meals per day for 15 days. It was a lot of food. Food we normally would not order...but not because we wouldn't want to, but because I am cheap. Cary, was the one with the problem. We had some issues with eating on a schedule and having so much food. He caught on to ordering after a few days but he sometimes felt like he had to stuff himself. He is not used to this level of luxury, he did not grow up that way nor was he ever expecting in his lifetime that he'd be able to live that way. He has requested no dining plan next time. I gave him the down side of that but I do realize our family dynamic and our eating habits have changed in the last 4-5 years so we'll see.

Our worst meal was probably Ohana for dinner on Christmas Eve. It was extremely disappointing. Maybe I just had it hyped up in my head form all the reviews in here but it was bad...from food to service to wait times...I do realize some of our choices for that day may have lead to part of our experience so I am willing to give it another chance some day though.

Our best meal overall was probably Yachtsman Steakhouse. The service was great, the food was great, the venue was great!

I was disappointed in the food court at Caribbean Beach...closing so early when parks are open so late is silly! But that is most of them, so what are you gonna do???

We really love the deluxe dining plan...

And that's a rap!

 

[Candycane83]

This was such a great dining report, I'm sad it's over! Looking forward to your next one!

 

[Sydney2977]

Great dining reviews! I loved hearing about all the places you ate, especially the ones I haven't tried. Your family's eating habits and tastes are similar to mine, so that will help me decide what places to try for us. I don't think we'd ever do the deluxe plan- that's just sooo much food- but your opinions of the dishes were very helpful. I could see going to some places and ordering a few apps and a few entrees and making everyone happy. Thanks for sharing!

 

[CandiceF]

I LOVED your reviews!!!! There are so many restaurants I wasn't sure about with my fussy kids but your pictures really helped me find some new places we would like to try. I am excited you are doing another review on your most recent trip and I look forward to reading it!

 

[dnllmz]

I really enjoyed reading all your reviews. Thank you!

 

[wrmiller13]

Did you charge tips to your room? Just reading this ( lol, late) and we are going with the deluxe plan in November, but my tips are adding up to,more than 500.00! Lol, I'm getting a little nervous!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Did you charge tips to your room? Just reading this ( lol, late) and we are going with the deluxe plan in November, but my tips are adding up to,more than 500.00! Lol, I'm getting a little nervous!

We actually paid cash for out tips...it just seems easier to keep track of to me. Since I had gone uber planning, I knew approximately what we'd be spending so I had an approximate amount already pulled out for tips. Then we'd have extra on hand just in case. To me, since we dont' do credit cards, it just worked out easier to track using cash.

The tips are a lot on the DDDP but in comparison to paying OOP, for us, it's nothing. Plus if you get in under the free dining and then upgrade, you can still come out a lot ahead!

Happy eating!

 

[brandyleeann]

This was an awesome review - thanks for sharing!

 

[crazycatlady]

Great reviews! I really enjoyed reading about your deluxe dining meals. I have done deluxe dining twice and I loved it both times, but the people I was with thought it was too much food both times. I am not a clean-my-plate type of girl, so I had no problem leaving food when I was full, but both my dad (first trip) and husband (second trip) felt l like they had to eat everything that was put in front of them, so walked around too full all the time. I keep telling my husband we are going to try it again sometime and he just groans.

 

[Halbleib1]

We arrived at The Poly at 7:08am. We arrived at the check in for Ohana and they were asking only one person from each family to stand in line to check in and they were not yet checking people in. Cary stood in line while me and they kids found a seat.

I was sad to see they no longer give out leis nor do the take your family photo before going in. We were the first ones seated at 7:30am at the first table the characters came to.

We were given our bread/rolls by Arelis. We were also given juice and Skye ordered Apple Juice, Tyler a coke, and Cary chocolate milk. I was plenty happy with the juice!

And fruit...

Neither of which we were offered more of because no one else stopped by our table again for quite awhile. Even after they did, it was to simply scoop up empty plates not ask if we wanted more...which we did.

Finally, our main platter arrived.

At which time we were finally asked if we needed refills. Now, I am a drinker while I eat. I drink and eat at the same time so I usually go through many refills. There were what looked to be 37 million servers running around and only about half the restaurant was being used. They couldn't have been that stressed yet...they just opened. Now one was especially nice, cordial yes, not nice...and being that this is the "ohana" place and we're all family and it was CHRISTMAS EVE, you'd just expect a little bit more joy???? On regular days when we've been here before there was much more joy floating around...maybe the servers from Kona moved to Ohana and visa versa???

Anyway, the platter had scrambled eggs, bacon, Stitch waffles, biscuits, breakfast potatoes, and sausage links.

Everything was fresh and hot...although they had just opened so you'd expect that. The sausages used to be great big fat links...no more. All in all, everything was good. We asked for more waffles and bacon when someone finally noticed us sitting there doing nothing. And asked for more refills on our drinks...yes, we had to ask!

As we were finishing up eating, the characters started coming around. Stitch was first.

Then Lilo...

Mickey's picture was blurry???

So was Pluto's...

Then they came around with noise makers, I mean instruments. Skyler decided she was going to join the parade this time.

Tyler was being 16!

Lilo led the procession...

I have to work on my picture taking abilities in dim places with action!

Stitch followed...

Then the Main Mouse...

And the girl of the hour!

At this point I was trying to not get annoyed but we had had very little attention from any server here. They share tables actually so any one of many could have stopped by to see if we needed anything. I am quite sure people are sat in the same order all the time so the characters know where they stop and start and the servers know too. SO they had to realize we were seated close to first! We have only refills on drinks we had to ask for, no ability t ask for more bread or fruit and the server who picked up our empty dishes did not care to ask if we needed more, we actually had to stop a server running past to get more waffles and bacon. And my pet peeve of all pet peeves, we're at a pay one price meal and we had to WAIT FOR OUR CHECK! We actually had to ask for it! Why they weren't pushing us out the door I don't know and we did not have that problem anywhere else the whole two week trip. And the funny thing is, we weren't there more than an hour. We tend to be quick eaters, don't linger most of the time, aren't people who do coffee or cordials after dinner...but since we couldn't get food or beverage so we were ready to leave much faster that usual. To our surprise, none of the characters were very attentive...picture, sign, leave. Except at the table next to us...but they had a down syndrome young adult who was very into characters (it was fun to watch them interact with her and how excited she was to see them) and many other kids...but they had to pretty much force the characters into allowing time for all their party to get time with them.

Now, this review leaves a bad taste in my mouth because in the past we have had excellent food, service, and interaction here but this time we had good food and bad everything else. It was too early in the day for them to be stressed out or behind. And it was Christmas Eve. People have paid for and chosen to spent their time and money in Disney World and chose to do Christmas Eve breakfast with Ohana. For the cost of this meal, especially at a holiday pricing time, I should have left more satisfied. I mean, we had enough to eat but we would have liked more fruit and bread. We got autographs and pictures but weren't feeling the Disney love. Usually Lilo and Stitch play and interact with each other and are so much fun...today they were all business.

This one might be moved to the bottom of out list in the future. I'm sad about that though. Maybe a bad day??? But at opening on a special day??? I don't know.

Anyway, we were out of there in about an hour, like I said and weren't gonna let it ruin our day.

TOTAL = $127.76 ... TOTAL FOOD = $2871.07
USED 4 CREDITS ... USED 67 MEAL CREDITS

The experience that you describe here is exactly what we experienced for breakfast in Dec 2011. We have not been back nor do we have plans to go back in the future.