Hi Everyone,
Sadly I am reporting "live" from my home in California. We were picked up by DME at BC at 6:30am Monday morning and walked through our front door (WITHOUT OUR BAGS!) at about 4:30pm California time. We spent 13 hours getting home only to find our bags did not arrive home with us. Talk about knocking the magic out of a wonderful trip. We had checked our bags with the BC airline service at about 5:45am, so I really don't know what happened, but since all three were missing I have a feeling they didn't get to the airport on time
. Anyway they were finally delivered to us yesterday so it looks like I will be doing laundry for the next few days.
I just want to thank Barb for such an awesome thread. As newbies to WDW we were totally lost and overwhelmed. This thread gave us great ideas on where to eat and kept us excited about our trip for months. 1coolpapa and I had a great time taking photos of our food and sharing them with everyone.
We only had 10 short days to try and discover and experience everything and believe me 10 days wasn't enough. There are so many things we didn't do and many many places we didn't eat. I read so many restaurant reviews and as a result cancelled and reworked our dining plans so many times I thought I would be banned from the Disney online reservation site.
We ate at 5 buffets/all you care to eat venues:
Hoop dee doo Review : Food was mediocre but entertainment was fun for all ages. So if you haven't been, go for the entertainment, not the food.We will go back (but probably not a place we would go every time)
Cape May Café (dinner): This was one of those reservations I made and cancelled several times. Reviews seemed to be mixed. We were disappointed. The selection was very limited. I specifically made reservations on a Sunday so we could enjoy the fried shrimp. The fried shrimp was good, but about the size of a quarter. I don't know what it was but we just weren't wowed by this place. We won't go back.
'Ohana (dinner): First of all we were concerned about how to get there from BC. We were using Disney transport exclusively. I originally thought we would use a taxi. We decided to leave in plenty of time and try and get there only using Disney. We took a bus to MK and then tram to Polynesian. We had given ourselves 90 mins (just in case) so left BC @ 5pm for our 6:30 reservation. Well everything worked like clock work and we arrived in about 40 mins. We decided to check in early at 6pm and we were seated in about 15-20 mins. I had heard reports of having to wait and hour or so after your reservation time before being seated. This was not our case.
Overall, I liked the food. I asked for a salad with dressing on the side (I hate a salad swimming in dressing) and they happily brought it to us. We loved the potstickers and chicken wings and the BBQ shrimp was great. My DH felt the other meats were dry. My only real complaint about this place is they bring you the food so fast you really can't keep up. This is not a place for a nice relaxing 2 hour dinner. However, we would do this again.
Boma (dinner): Talk about being "wowed", the AKL is beautiful. We were there early enough to walk around outside and see some animals. I might consider staying here. We probably checked in 10 mins early for our reservation and we were seated right away. The food selections were good (I loved the curry pasta salad) but some of the foods had some different spices. I have to say I liked Boma a bit more than my DH. We would go back but this is probably not a must do for every visit for us.
Biergarten: I know this is strange, but this was probably our favorite buffet. We loved the food (the red cabbage and beet salad was wonderful), the pretzel rolls were so yummy. We got into the spirit and ordered a flight of German beers and again this was a hit with us. Loved sitting and chatting with other guests and the entertainment was fun. This buffet offered us the total package with great food and good entertainment.I would say at this point Biergarten would be a "must do" for us.
Counter service:
Our favorites were Flame Tree (at AK) and the Boardwalk Bakery. They were both very good. We also enjoyed the counter service in Mexico at the World showcase. I think we are spoiled a bit by the counter service at DLR, or I just didn't do enough research in this area to find the right spots.
As a side note, we noticed that finding a counter service breakfast is almost impossible. I am so thankful we had done CL so we could grab some fruit and a hard boiled egg in the morning.
Also, are mocha frappucino's a west coast thing? I actually know they aren't because you can get them in any Starbuck's. Not sure why WDW doesn't serve these because you can find them easily at DLR. Hopefully the new Starbuck's at the MK will serve those. We searched and searched for a mocha frappucino and actually ran into a few others on the same search.
Signature restaurants:
Unfortunately we only had time to try 2. Yachtsman Steak house and Flying Fish. Both were very good.
Yachtsman's steak house: We loved the bread and roasted garlic, the lobster bisque was incredible and I am still dreaming of the Heirloom tomato salad. The desserts were incredible, too. I wasn't blown away by my filet but that would be my only real complaint of this place. We would go back.
Flying Fish: Amazing. They don't have the wonderful bread with garlic like Yachtsman, but that is about the only negative. The food was wonderful and the dessert I had of the sorbet trio is something I will compare all desserts to for a long time. (I know crazy to be so in love with sorbet, but it was that good). The restaurant was a bit noisy, I don't know why....ceiling design perhaps? We WILL go back.
Other dining stand outs:
San Angel Inn: We really liked this place. The margaritas were to die for and the food was great. Tables were pretty close together, but that would probably be the only negative I could think of for this place. We WILL go back.
Via Napoli: Another outstanding dining experience. I wish we could've eaten there again. Loved the pitcher of Sangria and salad. I would've loved to try more of their pizzas. We WILL go back.
We also dined at Marakesh: Wait staff was very friendly but I wasn't really crazy about the food. The restaurant was beautiful and we liked the entertainment. I guess Marakesh falls into the "been there, done that" category.
Bottom line, this was a great trip for us. We loved WDW and I am sure we will be back in a few years.
Well, my laundry calls. Sorry this is so long. I am so jealous of those of you currently planning a trip. Have a great time. I may check in from time to time with "live" DLR photos. I am hoping to take my new Premier annual pass to Disneyland on Saturday!
Jan
Too bad it didn't meet expectations. 
