Now Showing...Our first trip out of the Loonybin! May 2011 *Completed:7/27*

[rachel09985]

Have fun!! Pop Century is awesome!!! How did you get the deluxe part of the trip? Do you have two separate reservations?

 

[deenbrad]

Hope y'all had a great time!

 

[Jonesloonybin]

We are back!!! We got back a couple days ago, but my dh and youngest dd got sick at the end of our trip and passed it on to my oldest dd and I. Now that everyone is feeling better, I am ready to start my dining report!!

We had such a great time! The first couple days back, we all felt kind of sad. We called it the post-disney blues. It was really hard to get back to the real world. We are already talking about our next trip!!

There were some changes to our dining plans and I tried really hard to get pictures of everything, but some are missing. Sorry!!

I will load my pictures on to photo-bucket today and I promise my first review will be here no later than tomorrow evening!!

If anyone has any questions, please post!!!

Terri

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Have fun!! Pop Century is awesome!!! How did you get the deluxe part of the trip? Do you have two separate reservations?

Yes, we did a split stay. The 1-6th was the deluxe dining, then the 6-10th was OOP. Both stays at POP. We did not even have to switch rooms!

I do have to mention that we had quite a bit of trouble with our cards while we were there. POP had a hard time getting it right.

Terri

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Ok, lets try this again. I have been having trouble getting my posts to go through.

We left our house around 7ish am (about an hour later than I had planned.) Our first stop was to get some food in our bellies. We don't eat at fast food places, so we were not sure were to stop. We decided on...

The girls had a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. The both thought it was pretty good. A little bit greasy, but not soak through the wrapper greasy.

I had a egg and cheese biscuit (no picture because it looked exactly like the one with bacon, just no bacon). I thought it was really good. We have never tried it before and were pleasently surprised.

DH had a sausage biscuit. I think his was not as good as ours. It would have been better with some egg and cheese.

Their sweet tea was not as good as other places. But all in all, it filled the bellies and we were off to Disneyworld!!!

Terri

 

[butiflfeet]

I'm glad you're back and started with your reviews! We're leaving in a few days and I can't wait

Congrats on your weight loss by the way

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Somewhere in SC we stopped for lunch at Subway. We did not get any pictures. (sorry) It had to be the smallest free standing Subway ever!! We have eaten at Subway a few times, but it has been a good year since the last time. I was really disappointed in this Subway. The sandwiches were just so blah!

We did not make great time on our trip down to WDW. (the trip back was even worse!)

We stopped at the FL welcome center for our free OJ. My youngest would not stop talking about it all the way down. She kept asking "We haven't passed the FL border yet, have we???" Next time, I could just save the money from Disney and just take her to the Welcome center.

I tried the grapefruit juice.. Not my cup of tea at all. I am thinking they should offer the OJ for those entering the state and the grapefruit to those leaving. Kind of like "Welcome to FL/Now get out!"

We also stopped in St. Augustine at the Disney outlet store. We looked around and then decided to use the restrooms before leaving. This is when the first and most major hiccup happened. I realized that we did not grab the girls' gift cards! That is $100 each! I was so upset. I didn't know what to do, should we go back and waste a whole day? What??

It took us about a half an hour to calm down and decide that we would just get them new cards when we got to Pop. We could move some things around and take some things off our plan. So, after that emotional 30 minutes, we got back in the car and headed to WDW.

We managed to get to Pop at 6:30pm. We checked in, got some bad directions to the nearest gas station, jumped back in the car and headed off to find a gas station and hustle to our 7:15 ADR at Raglan Road.

This ended up being an awful plan. We were all tired from being in the car all day, and the added drama of the gift cards, etc. We should have just grabbed a bite at Pop. (this had been our original plan, but we changed it a week or two before our trip).

Stay tuned for the next episode! Raglan Road!

Terri

 

[Jonesloonybin]

I'm glad you're back and started with your reviews! We're leaving in a few days and I can't wait

Congrats on your weight loss by the way

Thanks! I am pleased to say I did not gain any weight at WDW. I had hoped that with all the walking, I would lose some more. Considering how much we ate and what we ate, I am just happy to break even.

I will get a few more posts up today! Hope you guys have a great time on your trip!

Terri

 

[lblume91]

First off, congrats on your weight loss!! That's awesome!!!!!

Second, looking forward to your reviews. I've never been a fan of Subway but the rest of my family loves it.

 

[tinkerbell3747]

I am joining the show super excited about your list of ADRS as some are my old favs and some I am tempted to add to our trip now....your reviews will help me out in that area...no pressure!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[danalee]

The looneybin, lol... I can relate to that!!

 

[Disneyfreak616]

Woohoo! You're up and running!

Can't wait for more!!

 

[gracy_hm]

I'm so happy you made it home! I was worried when you said Savannah it can be so dangerous. I've been checking to see an update to make sure everyone was okay

Can't wait I love Raglan Road!

 

[Jonesloonybin]

May 1 - Raglan Road

We arrived at Raglan Road right at 7:15pm. It was surprisingly crowded at the restaurant and DTD for a Sunday night. They started to seat us RIGHT next to the VERY LOUD band. My youngest dd could not take the noise and we did not even make it to the table before we had to turn back. They had us wait a few minutes and then found a table as far from the music as possible. (it was still hard to hear ourselves or our server)

They went over the dining plan and what we could order, etc. Then they took our drink order. We got water for the adults, Rasberry lemonade (?) for dd15 and chocolate milk for dd7. Then while I was using the restroom, they brought out the bread and the oil/guinness reduction mix.

We all thought that this was very good. The guinness reduction was sweet, so a little went a long way.

For our appetizers, DH ordered the Kinky Crab - Kilmore Quay Crab springrolls with a sweet chili jam

We both thought that this was very good. DH did not care for the sweet chili jam, but I thought it was pretty good but did not seem to go with the crab. I would have preferred soy or something instead. The sweetness seemed to overtake the delicate crab flavor.

DD15 and I shared the Dalkey Duo – Dalkey battered cocktail sausages with a mustard dipping sauce

These were a little on the greasy side for both of us. (but we do not eat fried food at all normally). I did like the batter, it was light and not overpowering. The mustard dipping sauce was very good and I do not like mustard at all. It was a very light color and had been mixed with something, not sure what. There was not much of a mustard flavor at all.

DD7 ordered the kids Mac and Cheese with Garden Vegetables as her side.

This was VERY good Mac and cheese. It was obviously homemade and not out of a box. I believe they used a Dubliner cheese. This was also the best kids veggie side dish. There was a good selection of cooked (but not overcooked) veggies. We all tried a bit of both and all gave it thumbs up.

DD15 ordered the Burger ‘R’ Way – Char grilled Sirloin beef burger with bacon, tomato chutney, and Dubliner vintage cheddar served with Irish style chips.

At this point, we started having a bit of meltdown. I think everyone was overwhelmed by the noise, the people, tired from the long drive, etc. DD15 just laid her head down on the table and really did not eat anything. She had one bite of her burger and maybe two fries. We ordered the burger medium well and it was VERY red inside. She only took one bite, so I can only imagine it was pretty much raw in the center.
She did not like the chutney with for some strange reason had some whole, slightly mushy grapes in it.

DH ordered the Salmon of Knowledge – Baked Atlantic Salmon fillet topped with smoked salmon baked and served with maple glaze.

It was ok. We have had much better salmon living in the Pacific Northwest. I liked the edges that were a bit crispy but everyone DH and DD7 did not like that part and preferred the center. We both thought that the maple glaze was a bit weird, like you mouth could not decide if you where eating fish or bacon. It also did not come with smoked salmon on top. The potatoes and veggies were blah and forgettable.

I had the Fish and chips (subbed asparagus for the chips).

This was very good! I could not finish it (and later my stomach expressed its displeasure at the amount of fried food I had eaten.) The fish was very fresh and the asparagus was cooked perfectly. Not to mushy! The tartar sauce was also very good and tasted fresh and homemade rather than from a bottle.

At this point we had not seen our waitress in since the apps came out. Someone else brought out our entrees. The kids were tired and freezing (we were sitting under the a/c vent) and wanted to go.

We finally flagged someone down and asked to get our check and the deserts to go. A few minutes later our waitress finally appears and is trying to convince us that we should just get chocolate chip cookies to go. I really wanted to try the Dunbrody kiss, so I had to be firm that we wanted one of those and we took the rest as cookies to go. (We ended up eating it in our room a few days later and it was still very good!! The cookies were not as good. We like our cookies soft not hard.)

Still ended up waiting another ten minutes for that and our check.

I don’t think that we will be back there for awhile. It wasn’t bad and much of it was poor planning on my part, but there are so many other places to try. We just don’t see DTD as a place we would hang out unless we did an adults only trip.


We lost the recipt for this meal, so I looked up prices. The total was about $97.98. (could not find a price for the cookies.)

Running Total for meals: $97.98

Next up: Akershus Breakfast!
Terri

 

[Jonesloonybin]

May 2 – Akershus Breakfast

This was our first park day and the bus was way behind schedule. Our reservation was for 8:15am and we really had to hustle/jog to Norway to get there. We were a few minutes late but stood in line to check in and was called up for the picture with Belle. It was nice that she was also signing autographs. After the picture, we were seated. We were very close to the buffet and I took the girls up right away to get some food before the princesses got to our table.

We got our drinks: Juice for the girls and water for DH and I. (This is were I discover that Florida water is really crappy tasting.)

Here is my plate.

Starting with the fruit and going clockwise: blackberries, grapes and strawberries. The blackberries were VERY TART. Even though they look ripe as far as color goes, they did not taste like they were ripe at all. The grapes and strawberries were great! Next we have the lingonberry muffin...this was FANTASTIC!! I went back for a couple more (hey, they are mini muffins!) Then we have an apple turnover..I did not get to eat this as dd7 decided she wanted it! The cinnamon roll was ok. The icing was very hard and tasted a bit fake and too sweet, so I chipped it off. Last we have salami and cheese. The cheese was Muenster and the other was like swiss but I think they called it by a different name. I really liked the Muenster and salami but the swiss one had no flavor at all.

This plate was dd15's

She had fruit and melons, cinnamon roll and a cherry danish. She really liked the cherry danish (it was her first danish) and ended up getting danishes a few more times during our trip.

DD7's plate

She loved the fruit (except for the blackberries) and the bagel has flavored cream cheese. (I think it was lingonberry flavored) There is a small bit of strawberry yogurt on her plate because it was labeled lingonberry cream cheese. Once I got to the other side of the buffet (which is the same) I found the correctly labeled cream cheese. (I don't like cream cheese so it was not surprising that I didn't notice the mistake right away.) She also did not care for the swiss type cheese but ate the salami and Muenster.

DH's plate

The most adventurous of us. He got fruit, croissant, strawberry yogurt with granola and some of the fish offerings. There was salmon two ways and herring two ways. He liked the salmon offerings better than the herring but he thought that was pretty good too. (The herring did make a come-back throughout the day (burps, sorry if TMI), so he said he would skip that next time.)

Then they brought out the family style breakfast.

The potatoes were really good. They had some cheese baked in that made them very creamy and flavorful. The eggs we did not eat because, as you can see from the picture, they were not fully cooked. They were very runny. The bacon was like most disney bacon, thin, floppy, and undercooked with very little flavor. (The only bacon they liked while at disney was from Parkfare) The sausages were better than the bacon but we did not really eat that much.

The character interaction was great. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, with the tables very close together. They had a little parade part way through the meal. The characters kept my dd7 distracted and she did not really eat much. DH left earlier than us to go get fastpasses for Soarin.

My final thought on Akershus...I would go again. The cold buffet was great and the fact that you get all those princess autographs at once, plus you get the picture included in the dining plan. (The picture with Belle was one 5x6 and four 4x6s)

Cost for Akershus: $150.83

Total so far: $248.81

 

[deenbrad]

Doing great! You lucked out at Raglan Rd. We really DID sit next to the band and somehow my DS fell asleep anyway!

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Doing great! You lucked out at Raglan Rd. We really DID sit next to the band and somehow my DS fell asleep anyway!

Hey! I popped over to your dining report! I love it. It is funny that we were at Pop at the same time. I wonder if we passed each other!

I think Raglan Road was just too much for the first night. Next time, we will just stick around the resort that first night.

Terri

 

[Disneyfreak616]

I the potatoes at Akershus.

Great update!!

 

[archdandy]

Great review so far! It stinks you guys were so exhausted to enjoy Raglan Road's band. I heard they are really good. We have a ADR there for our trip in June and I am looking forward to getting the fish and chips.

 

[Jonesloonybin]

I am sorry for not posting a review. Today was my youngest daughter's birthday. I will post a review tomorrow!!

Terri