Here's what a little PIXIE DUST can do ....... a dining review+pics COMPLETED!!!!!

Loooove the updates Karin!! We are considering a short cruise (can't resist the "free child" deal!) or Universal on our next trip and your photos and reviews make dcl SO tempting!

My recommendations for CS places we enjoy:

WPE (but you know about this one already! ;) ) ****
Captain Cooks breakfast - almost as good as Kona!
Pepper Market - everything is cooked fresh to order and we've been really impressed. It's like a TS restaurant for a CS credit
The Mara - some interesting items there with the African theme and can't beat the view of the pool
Roaring Fork - good food with a gorgeous resort to visit
Sunshine Seasons

Can you tell we (mostly!) like the resort CS places more than the parks?

I would like to second (or third or fourth) Beaches and Cream and Cape May Cafe. And while you're in that neighborhood, you have to get something from the Boardwalk Bakery. Divine...

And Jiko? :love:

Congratulation on the added trip and HAPPY PLANNING!!!

****I wanted to add that we tried WPE on our last day for breakfast based on your reviews and OH MY GOSH! It was the sleeper hit of our trip. We are thinking about driving up to the Mall of America tomorrow and I might have us go just a mite early to have breakfast there again. So GOOD! (unfortunately the MOA WPE has a much smaller menu than DTD, but it scratches the itch!)

Do DCL next trip - MUCH better than UO ;)!! Seriously, I never thought I would LOVE the cruise part as much as I did! It was really wonderful! Go for a 4night cruise - and don't bother with Nassau - we were SO disappointed, :lmao: Should have stayed on board!

Thanks for the CS recommendations! We won't do DDP next trip, so we can check out whatever we want and not have to "worry" about spending all my credits ;)
We love Mara and I wanted to try Captain Cooks the last two trips and we never made it there :lmao:
I never thought about Pepper Market and Roaring Fork - thanks for the hint :thumbsup2

We have been to Beaches and Cream SO many times, but always for ice-cream - guess this time we will have to eat there - so many people recommending it - it must be amazing!

And I so envy you because you will get to eat at WPE at MOA! I wish I didn't live that far from my fellow Austrian, Wolfgang!

As for Jiko - we are upgrading part of our free DDP to DxDDP next summer and we want to do all the 2 credit restaurants. We had to cancel Jiko last August - I had to go and wave goodbye to MY cruise ship, so we drove all the way to Port Canaveral to say goodbye to the Wonder as it sailed out! :rolleyes1

I loved your pics and trip report! We are heading out to WDW on November 16th and back on the Wonder November 19th. For sure this time I am dropping off the kids and heading to Serenity Bay! It looks awesome! We pretty much stuck to the Family Beach on Castaway last time. A question for you? How much was the "Kitchen SinK?" at Beaches and Cream? It looks delicious!

I am glad you like it! Be sure to check out Serenity Bay! It is wonderful!! We are going on a back to back cruise next summer, so we can spend two days there. :goodvibes
The Kitchen Sink is 22$ before tax (if I remember correctly), but it is SO worth it. The lights flicker and the server is announcing it to the whole restaurant - that alone is worth it, :rotfl:
Last time there were 6 of us and we all loved it. Apart from the ice-cream there are so many treats - candy bars, cookies, brownies, angel ? cake (don't know the correct name of it) and SO many cherries! :cloud9:
 
........... and still day 11, Aug 25

Pirate Dinner night at Animator's Palette

Tonight was Pirate Night and guests are encouraged to dress accordingly! Well, there were a few who REALLY got into it and had absolutely WOW costumes. Tom and I are not very good at dressing up for such an occasion, but we wanted to "blend in".
So here we are on pirate night!

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Once we entered the dining room every server was wearing a pirate costume and it looked like it was going to be a fun night. Most of the people from our group had some kind of pirate attire or other and even my little pal was dressed accordingly! He kept a good grip on the menu!

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Tom and I both ordered some Diet Coke and needless to say we needed a speciality cocktail as well.

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Captain's Treasure, Absolute Mandarin, Peach Schnapps and Orange Juice. I really liked this but boy could I feel the alcohol in it! Hm, now that I think of it, could it have been that I was feeling the alcohol of ALL the drinks I had had that night? :rotfl:

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They started the meal with the bread service, Johnny Cake. Not quite my taste - we don't have anything like it in Austria.

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There was a Pigeon Pea Relish to go with it. We all tried it, but it was rather bland and no one really liked it.

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I chose "Black Beard's Jumbo Crab Cake" with a Golden Raisin-, Carrot and Coconut Slaw served with a spicy Calypso Dressing. That was a really nice starter! The crab cake was huge and very moist and tasty!

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Tom had Pirates Golden "Pot Stickers", Oriental Pork "Dumplings" deep fried and served with a Tamarind-Ginger soy sauce and Pickled Vegetables. Very good as well. He really enjoyed it.

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Joe had ordered the Caribbean-style Conch Chowder with sherry, sweet peppers, onions, tomatoes, thyme, and garnished with diced potatoes and crispy bacon bits. He was happy with it too!

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Mary Ellen had the Jerk Chicken Salad, jerk seasoned chicken strip over fresh crispy greens with a citrus dressing and plantain chips. She was the only one that did not enjoy her starter very much. There was quite some cilantro in her salad/dressing and it was a really unusual taste.

Let's bring on the main courses!

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My "seat neighbour", from the TagGroup, let me take a photo of her entree. Jack Sparrow’s Barbecue Marinated Beef Short Ribs, Rubbed beef short ribs with tamarind-barbecue sauce served with onion red bliss mashed potatoes and plantain chip. She was full of praise for it!

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I had The Dutchmen's Roasted Dijon-Crusted Sirloin of Beef, Thick cut of beef with roasted sweet potatoes and a black spot tomato with a deep red wine glaze. I loved the sweet potatoes, crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside, the tomatoes were yummy, but the beef was as tough as old boots. I didn't even make a dent in it.

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Tom tried Captain Hook’s Macadamia Nut-Dusted Mahi Mahi, Jasmine rice and sauteed pineapple on a mild curry sauce. This was very yummy and he cleaned his plate.
 
........... and still day 11, Aug 25, part 2

After we had eaten our main course they had a little Pirate FEST in the dining room!

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Here's a photo of our head waiter, Miguel!

Next up were the desserts.

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I had opted for the Pirates of the Caribbean's Sweet Temptation, A trio of Shiver-me-Timbers white chocolate cheesecake , rum barbossa, walk the triple layered chocolate gangplank cake

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Rum barbossa, very dense cake with little flavour, I have had better.

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Walk the triple layered chocolate gangplank cake. Very rich chocolate cake - good!! but I was happy this was only a small piece - I got full of it quite soon.

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Shiver-me-Timbers white chocolate cheesecake. Sickingly sweet cheesecake. I had a bite or two, but could not manage any more - that was just too sweet for me!

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Mary Ellen had the "original" version of it. She did say it was very sweet too, but she ADORES cheesecake and managed to finish it!

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Tom had the "original" version of the Rum Barbossa, Captain Barbossa's own recipe of the famous dessert rum baba. It looked totally different to what I had and it did taste different too. Tom quite enjoyed his dessert, so next time I won't have any more dessert samplers ;)

After dinner we went to the Pirates IN the Caribbean Party.

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Needless to say that brave Captain Mickey came to save the day, or night!

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The evening ended with .................

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FIREWORKS!!!!!!!!!!!! Now this is something only Disney does and you can tell ....... there were cruiseships "parked" all around the Wonder :lmao: watching OUR fireworks!
Needless to say they were amazing. There was even a dessert party lateron, but we were too stuffed and tired to go to it, so I will have to review that next year ;)

It was a wonderful, wonderful day!

Next up - Brunch at Palo!
 
I think Disney needs to hire you as the spokeswoman for the cruises...just from your reviews I want to go on one!
 


I think Disney needs to hire you as the spokeswoman for the cruises...just from your reviews I want to go on one!

Me too. I've thought it off and on over the years, but never seriously, and it just sounds and looks great.
 
Your cruise looks wonderful. One question though, do you think you could go on one as a solo? My next trips will probably be solo as my husband doesnt do disney. :scared1:
 
Hi! OMG I love your reviews!!! What an amazing trip!!
 


I think Disney needs to hire you as the spokeswoman for the cruises...just from your reviews I want to go on one!

I will gladly accept their offer! ;)
But seriously we both never expected to like it that much! We thought this would be a once in a lifetime experience, and look at me now, sitting here staring at my ticker until I can go on a cruise again. :rolleyes1

Me too. I've thought it off and on over the years, but never seriously, and it just sounds and looks great.

It IS a great experience! I was so afraid I would feel "looked in" being on a ship, but it was so much fun and they just go above and beyond to make you feel happy! I am sure you would love it too!:thumbsup2

Your cruise looks wonderful. One question though, do you think you could go on one as a solo? My next trips will probably be solo as my husband doesnt do disney. :scared1:

I am sure you would be fine travelling solo! :thumbsup2 At dinner you will be seated with others anyway and I have never got to talk to so many "strangers" before, than on that cruise.
And there is SO much to do, so many activities you can sign up for that time just seems to fly by. We never even made it to the "other" evening activities, like Bingo or Karaoke or clubs, because we went to see the early "show" in the Walt Disney Theater and then went to have dinner which took until 9.30 - 10.00pm. We would then go back to the stateroom, change and go do on a fish-extender round.
Have you ever thought of sharing a stateroom with someone? There are people here on the cruise board who are looking for room mates!

Hi! OMG I love your reviews!!! What an amazing trip!!

Welcome Lynn! It truely was a amazing trip with lots of wonderful new experiences and yummy food! ;)

:thumbsup2looks like ya'll had some more natur AL fun :goodvibes

WOW pirate: great reviews !!!pirate: :thumbsup2

Thank you! I am glad you are here! :goodvibes
 
Day 12, Aug 26

Day at sea, Brunch at Palo, Part 1

This was supposed to be our "leisure day" where we could sleep in. Well, we didn't, we got up rather early and sat outside on our balcony and enjoyed the view.

We had a reservation at Palo at 11am and we got there about 10 minutes early. When we signed in we asked if Michele could be our server and we were granted our wish! :goodvibes
We were led to our table and within a minute Michele appeared. He was as nice and friendly as the last time and really treated us like friends. First off, he told us that we would start our brunch with a glass of Prosecco! We all agreed, only Joe does not drink alcohol, so he went for water.

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Then he took us for a tour of the buffet! Have a look for yourself!

Here is the cold selection!

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Breakfast pastries .............

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Hot selection

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Bread and cheese selection

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So, what do you think? We were stunned and if you think that was ALL they had to offer, you'll be surprised!!! ;) :rotfl2:

Next up - What WE had and sweet delights selection!
 
WOW what a beautiful brunch! So much to choose from.
 
WOW what a beautiful brunch! So much to choose from.

The buffet was HUGE and EVERYTHING looked so inviting! This was truely amazing!

All I can say is Oh My God! :worship:

And you haven't even seen it all! :lmao: It was so worth the 15 dollars extra to eat there! The food tasted as wonderful as it looked! Have I convinced you now that you need to take a Disney cruise? ;)

I agree with Kat! Where's the drooling smilie????? OMG YUMMO!!!!:worship::worship::worship:

Wait until you see it closer up and the rest of it! It was devine! And it is such a relaxing experience, they do NOT rush you at all! Can't wait for next August when we'll repeat the experience! :cloud9:
 
You...Are....Killing....Me....

This is not fair! I must eat that food NOW! Do you think DH would notice if I go AWOL for a week so I can cruise without him??
 
Oh these reviews make me want to do a Disney Cruise!! We're doing Carnival in February (I suggested Disney, but the look I got! :laughing: So I dropped it!) I hope it's half as good!!!
 
joining...

I can not believe all that food at Palo brunch!!! And yum - I'm totally getting the Beef foccacia melt at WPE & the breakfast one (if I get up early enough). GREAT photos and review - thank you!
 
You...Are....Killing....Me....

This is not fair! I must eat that food NOW! Do you think DH would notice if I go AWOL for a week so I can cruise without him??

:rolleyes1 ;) :rotfl:

And that was only the savory selection!! Loads of desserts are still to follow!

Just show Todd the food and tell him you want to try all that!! ;) But DON'T tell him that there is NO changing restaurants (only if you want to change to CS!)

Oh, by the way, what the heck does AWOL mean - remember, English is NOT my first language, so some things are hard to figure out! :confused3 :lmao:

Oh these reviews make me want to do a Disney Cruise!! We're doing Carnival in February (I suggested Disney, but the look I got! :laughing: So I dropped it!) I hope it's half as good!!!

You are going to have so much fun on your cruise, don't worry! But I have one big request to ask you ............... when you embark on your cruise, please wave to MY ship:worship:, blow it a kiss and tell it that we will be back SOON!!!! ;) :rotfl:

joining...

I can not believe all that food at Palo brunch!!! And yum - I'm totally getting the Beef foccacia melt at WPE & the breakfast one (if I get up early enough). GREAT photos and review - thank you!

Welcome! It's wonderful to have you here!:goodvibes

Oh, and that's only half the fun of eating at Palo - there is a HUGE dessert selection as well:cloud9:. I will have photos of it in the second part of my review, which is coming up in a few more minutes!
 
Still Day 12, Aug 26

Well, where did I leave off? Oh, yes, Michele was showing us the buffet! :cloud9:

We were now left to choose what we wanted to start with!

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When we came back to the table they had folded our napkins again. Sorry this is so blurry, but they removed them for you so you could place your plate, so I had to be very quick with my camera!

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My first plate! Let's start with the Foccacia bread, which was to die for and go clockwise. Next to it is Hummus, which was SO good and the white stuff is some cream cheese stuff, reminded me of Boursin cheese. Then there is Duckbreast and Bressaola under the spoon, which had salmon mousse on it - disneyliscious!!!
white asparagus and green asparagus wrapped in Parma ham and Hollandaise. Both were just cooked to the point and were SO good. Then there is an Olive Roll, smoked salmon and chilled shrimp! Everything tasted as good as it looked!!

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Here are two views of Tom's first plate! He had some of the same stuff I had and he tried the scallops, the prosciutto wrapped melons, smoked trout and a bloody mary with baby shrimp!

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Tom's bread selection - Olive Rolls and Foccacia!

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We shared a cheese plate! These were all the cheeses that Michele had recommended, but PLEASE, don't ask me any names. :rotfl2:

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As you can see, the bread was SO good, we had to go back for more. There is a dinner roll, crisp on the outside and very soft on the inside, another Foccacia and some bread that was filled with blue cheese and walnuts - sooooooooo good!

Once we had finished our plates, Michele came over to ask for our choice of hot entree.

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We asked him if he would mind having his picture taken with us and he sat down with us, causing his fellow servers to ask him if he wanted a glass of Prosecco and what HE would like for HIS main dish. After a lot of laughter, he got up and took our orders.

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Mary Ellen ordered the Pancakes and Joe had a Pepperoni Pizza - sorry no photo of it. He dug in before we could get the photo!

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I LOVE Eggs Benedict, so this is what I ordered.

Tom couldn't decide between the Chicken Parmeggiano and the Veal Saltimbocca, so he left it to Michele to decide for him.

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Here is the Chicken Parmeggiano, a very tasty and generous dish and guess what ..........

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Michele brought him the Veal Saltimbocca as well!!! We all shared a little bit of it and it was melt in your mouth tender and SO tasty!

We were stuffed by then, but Michele insisted :laughing: we get some dessert. So here is the selection!

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Apart from that there were breakfast pastries and lots of different kinds of danish.

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Starting at 6 o'clock with the white creampuff, which was filled with vanilla cream, then there was some chocolate cream pot, which was very light and creamy, just like a creme brulee, just without the burnt sugar. Next to it is a chocolate mousse. I can't remember what the name of this was, but it was a very light cream with a fruit coulis on top. So nice! Next is a coffee mousse and a chocolate dipped strawberry!

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I also had a heavenly Tiramisu!

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Tom had the same things as I had, plus he had a meringe pie as well.

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Mary Ellen's plate.

Okay, I guess that gives you a little impression of the Palo Brunch buffet! We all enjoyed it VERY much and were SO stuffed when we left! We went back to our staterooms, got changed and Tom and I went to hand out the last round of Fish extender gifties before we all went to explore a bit more of the ship.

Next up - Martini tasting! :rolleyes1 and dinner at Palo




 
I think that may be my concept of a perfect day...Brunch at Palo....Martini Tasting...Dinner at Palo....YUMMY!

Can't wait to hear about it all!

Best,

Mrs. Spratt

ps - AWOL is Absent WithOut Leave. It is a military term for not being where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there!
 

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