Free dining, oh yeah, oh yeah - 8/26-9/2 (W/ Pics)

[SheenaXena21]

Great reviews!!! I love seeing everyone's pics!!! You're son is so cute!!!

 

[whogirl'smom]

I love your review and your son is such a cutie! That was one big bowl of mashed potatoes at LTT!! (One of my favorites, too.) We are going there before MNSSHP next month, and I can't wait!! Bring on the gravy!

 

[momofdbsdc]

Thanks for the great reviews!!!!

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

OMG! I love your review!

I feel like I'm reliving my trip through your pictures! LOL!!!!

I loved the S'Mores at Primetime!!!!!

 

[IcePrincess467]

Okay now I am gonna have to try 50's PTC for sure when DH & I go It looks soooo yummy!!! Funny thing is I am looking foward to the food at disney, probably just as much as my excitement about just going to disney!!!

 

[DLo]

Thanks for your great reviews. Your pictures are great and I love your detail about not only the food but the service. Sometimes the service makes big difference in wether you will go back or not to a rest. I try to give places at least a second chance though. Everyone has an off day.

 

[lauritagoddess]

Thanks everyone!!!

Funny thing is I am looking foward to the food at disney, probably just as much as my excitement about just going to disney!!!

And lol, this is totally me.

 

[lauritagoddess]

We had an ADR for Crystal Palace for breakfast this morning. Honestly I was character mealed out by this point and we’d already used all of our TS ADRs so I would have been happy to forgo this one. The ADR was also for 8:10am and we were just tired. But DS was up early and wanted to go so I dragged my sorry self out of bed and over to the MK.

We’d been to CP once before, but for lunch. I’d been looking forward to trying the puffed French toast that I’d read raves about and we’re breakfast people which helps. We got to CP just as it was opening and only waited a couple of minutes to be seated. Piglet was already out when we walked in. Our server brought juice and we went to the buffet. For myself I got bacon, corn beef hash, a biscuit, a chocolate croissant and the French toast. DS got bacon, sausage, French toast, a croissant which he didn’t eat and a Pooh waffle which was very cute. The French toast was very tasty. It had a cinnamon taste to it and really didn’t even need syrup. I went back to get a second on it. At the same time, DS came and got some Frosted Flakes to munch on. Everything was very tasty except the corn beef hash which was a little too salty. I like the hash better at the Chef Mickey breakfast. I’d say this was pretty comparable to Chef Mickey’s for breakfast except maybe a little tastier, with Pooh instead of Mickey waffles and a little quieter. Piglet did come by right after we’d sat down from going to the buffet the first time and Tigger and Eeyore came by very shortly after. They did a parade after that with Eeyore and Pooh marching by us. Pooh started making the rounds and was getting close to us but DS was done with breakfast and we’d already met Pooh in the UK pavilion at Epcot and he’d marched by him during the little parade so we skipped meeting Pooh. DS gave the breakfast a B+ and I’d agree. I think I actually do like Chef Mickey’s a little better, but it’s more convenient to do the breakfast at the park, so would probably do CP for breakfast again.

This was our big wrap up for our trip and we were all over today. After CP we did a few favorites and MK and took the monorail over to Epcot and did a few things in Futureworld. I was all for having lunch there at Sunshine Seasons again or the Electric Umbrella, but DS wanted to do something different. I had mentioned that we might stay Port Orleans on our next trip so DS came up with the idea of having lunch there. We weren’t sure whether to go to French Quarter or Riverside. The bus went to both but French Quarter was the first stop so we got off there and ate at the food court, I think it was called the Sassagoula Floatworks & Fun Factory. I got the chicken strip meal with fries and DS got the adult cheese pizza meal. They had what looked like some yummy desserts but neither of us really wanted any and we just took the chocolate chip cookies that come with the kids meals. He gave his pizza a AAA as he called it, so I guess he liked it, but it looked just like regular CS pizza to me. The chicken strips were pretty good and I’m not usually a chicken strip person. This was really just more burning of CS credits than anything else. I’d give mine a B.

We were off to DTD after that where we used up the last of the snack credits with an Itzakadoozie and a frozen strawberry lemonade. We also went to the Goofy Candy Co and got a dipped rice krispie treat. We did ours dipped in milk chocolate with peanut butter cups, m&ms, chips and drizzled with white chocolate. It was almost too decadent for words. We nibbled it a bit later that night and in the airport the next morning and my mom finished it off for us when we got home. I’d give it an A though.

Our last meal was actually one of our favorites. We had an ADR for Sci-Fi for dinner. I was definitely all for skipping this one since we were so tired, it was going to be OOP and we’d already been to MK, Epcot and DTD that day. But DS really wanted to go to the Sky-Fi as he called it. We didn’t have to wait too long to be seated and once we got in there, it was definitely worth going. DS loved, loved, loved being able to sit in a car to eat dinner. And he loved the cheesy sci-fi clips. He still talks about seeing the clips for the 50 ft woman and the Amazing Colossal man. I was worried he wouldn’t like eating in the dark, but that was even more fun for him. I didn’t order an appetizer since this was OOP but DS got the tomato soup since an appetizer comes with the kids meal anyway. He didn’t touch it though. I tried it and it was okay, but I’m not a big tomato soup fan. DS got the hot dog meal with fries which he gave a big thumbs up to. I got a burger. The server took the order first from the family in the car who were in front of us and one of the kids asked if they had burgers because they weren’t on the dinner menu and the server said yes, even though they’re only on the lunch menu, they’ll still serve them for dinner. So I knew what I wanted. I have to say this was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. It was just so good. I will definitely order another from there. DS got the kids sundae and I ordered the hot fudge sundae which was very good. It was kind of cold in there though and after drinking cold soda and then having the hot fudge sundae, I was freezing. I’d say between the ambience, the fun and the good food that we’d both definitely give Sci-Fi and A. An interesting tidbit, as we were leaving I took DS over to the restroom and there was a door leading out in the other direction that leads into ABC Commissary. He thought it was hilarious that Sci-Fi and ABC shared restrooms and wanted to run back and forth between them, but I guess you have to be 5 to appreciate that.

 

[lauritagoddess]

It was our last morning. We did the airline check-in at OKW and headed to Goods to Go to have some breakfast before leaving on the Magical Express. We had one CS meal left and decided to get the egg meal because it came with bacon and DS would enjoy that and get a cinnamon bun and DS also wanted a muffin. I told the cashier that I wanted to pay for the eggs with a CS credit. She went to ring it up and refused to saying I didn’t have enough credits. I was only trying to use up the one credit on the eggs which I’d told her but she insisted I wanted to pay for all I'd ordered with CS credits I didn’t have. I explained again and she had to get her supervisor to come handle it. Eventually they cleared the machine and she rung up the eggs and wasn’t going to ring up anything else because I didn’t have any credits for it. Uh, I know that, the whole point was to use the CS credit on the eggs and pay the rest OOP which we’d gone over already. It probably took a good 15-20 minutes to resolve this with DS whining and it getting closer to our time for DME. Eventually we got our food. After all that, the eggs and potatoes were awful, the eggs all rubbery and the potatoes a mushy mess. DS did eat the bacon and I tried the biscuit that came with it but it had the potato mush all over it and I just didn’t like it. Other than the bacon we just tossed the CS meal after all of that. DS really liked the blueberry muffin though and we did get an orange juice that we drank on the bus.

And thus ends our trip through Disney dining. My overall feeling about the free dining is that it was great in that we got to try a lot of different places. Firsts for us on this trip were CRT. 50s PTC, LTT, Ohana for breakfast and SciFi. We definitely would never have done CRT without it. I do think the dining plan is worth paying for even with the changes coming in 2008. I could easily do without the appetizer in most TS places and considering that we used most of our TS credits on breakfasts, buffets and set meals it really wouldn’t have made much of a difference. I’d prefer the dessert over the appetizer anyway. If anything I’d much rather see less CS credits and more snack credits or the ability to convert CS credits into 2 snack credits. I think those would have been more handy. The only difference for 2008 I have an issue with is the tip. I’m not sure what we’ll do about the dining plan next year. I didn’t hear about the bounce back plan that some people are saying they were offered even though were at WDW at that time, but that starts on 8/30 next year which would be too late for us anyway so if I do the DDP next year it probably won't be free. I’d have to think it over but compared to what I’d spend without the dining plan it’s still probably worth it to go for it, especially with the bottomless pit of a child that I have. All in all, I give the free dining an A.

 

[Tricia1972]

Great reviews!! Thanks so much for doing this!!!

 

[Carys]

Thank you for your reviews - they were so well written and your photos were great. My sweet tooth has lain dormant in recent years but that final creation from Goofy's Candy Co made it do a little jig! I can almost taste the rice crispy treat now.

One question: at sunshine seasons you had the pork chop and red skin mashed potatos, which sounds great as I love red skins. It looks like there's some sort of rice side dish on the plate too in the photo, although my monitor is getting a bit dark so I could be mistaken. Was the side dish any good?

 

[AnninIowa]

Great reviews and pictures! Your son is adorable, too!!

 

[lauritagoddess]

One question: at sunshine seasons you had the pork chop and red skin mashed potatos, which sounds great as I love red skins. It looks like there's some sort of rice side dish on the plate too in the photo, although my monitor is getting a bit dark so I could be mistaken. Was the side dish any good?

It was a rice side. It was good but I preferred the mashed potatoes though.

 

[winniethepoohsmom]

We were also there during the free dining, we did'nt eat at any of the rest. that you ate at except Ohanas and that was dinner and cosmic rays for lunch (that place is huge) so it was nice to hear your review on the different restaurants, we tend to go back to the ones we really enjoyed and then try some new ones and you gave me some more to consider. I like how you graded each one. A cruise and free dining it must have been hard to come home and cook a meal. Thanks for the review and pics, your son is very cute. Linda

 

[dawgfan]

Thanks for the review. That kid eating peel and eat shrimp....wow!

 

[kimisabella]

Great reviews - looks like you had a wonderful vacation, thanks for sharing

 

[scottny]

Thanks for the reviews. R u planning a regular tr???

 

[lauritagoddess]

Thanks for the review. That kid eating peel and eat shrimp....wow!

I know, it shocked me!! I love shrimp and always have it at home and he never would try it. Then we were having a lunch buffet on the cruise and he just took one of mine, and the next thing you know he was hooked. He couldn't wait to go to dinner at Chef Mickeys because I told him he could have as much shrimp as he wanted. That and he was scarfing down the prime rib there. He'd better do well in school to be able to afford those tastes when he's older, lol.

Thanks for the reviews. R u planning a regular tr???

I'm going to try and work it on it soon.

 

[disneydreamer1970]

Thank you for the review and pictures!! Your son is adorable!

Trish

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
I really enjoyed reading your reviews. They were great and your son is so cute!!