Retired racing greyhound + free dining = speed eating!A dining report-done!

[PaDisneyCouple]

Welcome!

Cast:
Me DH, planner of things, penny pincher, ambivalent towards WDW until DW made us go there 1 year prior to our wedding. Now the go-to WDW/DCL person for my department at work.
DW: She who is my wife. Handy with the sewing machine, exploring new things, and scrapbooking.
Max: Our retired racing greyhound. Unfortunately, due to Health Dept. regulations, understandibly not allowed in the restaurants. Able to finish his dinner in under 60 seconds. Saddened that he must stay home, but otherwise happy about his living arrangements.
Mom & Dad: Coming to spend time with Max whilst we're away. Bringing with them:
Dodgie. Another retired racing greyhound. Babysitting Max 10/08 for a week while we cruised with DCL led to Dodgie in their lives.

Me thinks Max will quite enjoy himself.

Dining: free! The standard free meal plan: 1 snack, 1 cs, and 1 ts pp per day.

ADR's: we made all of them by phone at t-90. Hated it! On hold for over 90 minutes, I was! DW was on hold separately. Due to using a TA, we couldn't do anything online but our arrival day.

Battle plan: With the free food, we decided to try new locations for us, as well as different meals in old locations.

Base Camp: Beach Club. Land of our honeymoon.

Agenda:
Saturday Captain's Grille 1730 CHANGED TO LUNCH! -done!
Sunday At Discovery Cove, all inclusive, no WDW meals planned -done!
Monday Yak & Yeti 1300-done!
Yachtsman's 1740-done!
Tuesday Brown Derby 1245
Kouzzina 1825
Wednesday Kouzzina 0730 (You have no idea how many times I called before I could get this. Most times, they had no idea what Kouzzina was at Disney Dining, but I got it, for my )
Bistro de Paris 1830
Thursday Cape May Cafe 1800
Friday Cpt's Grille 0735
Flying Fish 1800 (a last evening tradition, when staying at the BC)

Photos: TBD. It depends upon my relationship with Photobucket. Sometimes, we just don't see eye-to-eye.

So, there you have it. The stage is set. Here comes the mechanical rabbit...

 

[oybolshoi]

Nice line-up you have there ... I am really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on breakfast at Kouzzina. We have a reservation there for one morning next month but I'm on the fence about keeping it right now.

Have you seen AFEG around lately? We're supposed to meet up with him, Hazel, and Jess on the last morning of our trip along with some other cruise friends.

Have a great trip!

 

[BriarRosie]

I admired your military precision in detailing your dining plans. But you won me over because you remind me of my best friend and her DH, adoptive parents of two retired racing greyhounds, Gage and Tony. Otherwise known to me as the World's Biggest Lap Dogs with Incredibly Stinky Breath.

Try to take some food porn if you can. The masses love it. I'll be at Flying Fish for a food and wine festival event dinner in a few weeks, and Bistro de Paris a couple days after that. I'll be snapping photos of the food.

 

[natalielongstaff]

looks good

 

[Symans3honeybees]

This is going to be very interesting review, I bet!

 

[sctigger]

Can't wait to read your reviews.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Can't wait! Hoping photobucket cooperates with you!

 

[TigerKat]

Signing on!

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Testing, testing, 1,2,3
Hoping to use the following template to aid in detailing our adventures

Location:
ADR time:
Arrival time:
Seated time:
Host/hostess:
Server:
Drinks:
Appetizers:
Entrees:
Dessert:
Commentary:

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Nice line-up you have there ... I am really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on breakfast at Kouzzina. We have a reservation there for one morning next month but I'm on the fence about keeping it right now.

Have you seen AFEG around lately? We're supposed to meet up with him, Hazel, and Jess on the last morning of our trip along with some other cruise friends.

Have a great trip!

An honor to have you with us. While I'm told I can be good with words, our culinary skills are still a work in progress. We loved Spoodles, especially getting 4-5 tapas to share, and calling it dinner. This will be the first time we've eaten at such a new place since Morimoto in Philadelphia many years ago. We dropped character breakfast at Cape May for Kouzzina. The downstream effect is paying oop (out of pocket) for another meal that is likely to be less expensive than our original plan. I'd expect DW to try something interesting at breakfast. Me: probably the french toast (I think I saw that).

Nothing from AFEG for a few weeks. Sometimes we pm about his beloved Manchester United. I'll let you know if I hear anything.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

I admired your military precision in detailing your dining plans. But you won me over because you remind me of my best friend and her DH, adoptive parents of two retired racing greyhounds, Gage and Tony. Otherwise known to me as the World's Biggest Lap Dogs with Incredibly Stinky Breath.

Try to take some food porn if you can. The masses love it. I'll be at Flying Fish for a food and wine festival event dinner in a few weeks, and Bistro de Paris a couple days after that. I'll be snapping photos of the food.

We'll make every effort to take photos. Got us a new, unused 2gb card, and have set the camera to the highest quality setting I could find in the owner's manual.

Max has been a welcome addition to our lives since he arrived 5/08. We've learned to enjoy little things to enjoy with him. The play, lasting only a minute, at most. The occassional display of speed in the back yard. The emotions of his face. He doesn't care what my day was like, just that he can happily greet me when I get home from work. Greyhounds sure seem to love their people.

 

[Disneygrl36]

Hi Sean & Christine
I hope your trip is fabulous. Looks like you have some great meals planned.
Are you also going to be indulging in some food & wine festival goodies?
Can't wait to read all about your culinary adventures when you return.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Who is this "Max" I'm hearing about?????

Like the format for the reviews.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Who is this "Max" I'm hearing about?????

Like the format for the reviews.

About half way down this page, you can see Duramaxx and DW. I had to work that day :-( Hard to see, but she's wearing a shirt with a leopard print mickey on it.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Oh--THAT Max!!!

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Got back to good 'ol Pa yesterday afternoon. Max still loves us (we think), and appears to be searching our suitcases for leftovers. No WDW food for him, but he's really enjoying the stuffed Yeti we bought him at the EE store! Its soft and fluffy, just how he likes his toys!
Once we get some more work done around the house, reports will begin. There were some changes in plans, quite a number of good meals, and many special treats due to our anniversary. We even remembered to take a few photos! But I must say, we usually just dove in.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Dining Review Template
Location: Captain’s Grille
ADR time: None (we had one for 5:30 that same evening)
Arrival time: 1:50pm
Time on the final bill: 2:51pm
Seated time: Same
Host/hostess: n/a
Server: Eduardo
Drinks: DW= iced tea, Me= Root beer. Normally, I don’t like Barq’s too much, but this was quite refreshing. I looked forward to more during our just begun stay.
Appetizers: None
Entrees: DW= Grilled Ahi Tuna - with pickled ginger slaw and arugula served on ciabatta bread $15.49
Me= Caesar Salad with Chicken - house-made Caesar dressing, Romaine lettuce and croutons topped with grilled chicken $12.99
Dessert: DW= Apple tart with caramel and whipped cream.
Me= Double Chocolate Cheese Cake with fresh berries $5.49
Commentary: We decided to roll the dice upon our arrival, and go to CGrille. They close at 2pm, so we made it just under the wire. It was very empty there; a quiet place to bask in the fact that we’d arrived. Our plan became: have lunch at CGrille, cancel our dinner adr, and head to Downtown Disney for some “retail therapy”. The hostess was quite surprised, when we asked to cancel that evening, and free it up for someone else. We were told, "nobody ever does that, I'm sure someone will be happy to have it."
I felt that the salad was a generous portion, with good flavor throughout. I should’ve taken a photo of my desert, as it was a wonderful chocolate fix. DW reports that her tuna was nicely cooked, with some peppery bites, and good bread. The slaw on the sandwich contained pickled ginger. The fries were presented nicely, held vertical in a square cup. Her desert review: “Yum!”

In a nutshell: A quiet, underappreciated locale, close to the BC.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Now that I've hopefully whet your appetites...what's in the future:
Discovery Cove
Beaches and Cream
Boardwalk Bakery (many times!)
Yak and Yeti
Yachtsman's Steakhouse
Hollywood Brown Derby
Kouzzina (breakfast, we cancelled dinner, story to follow...)
Columbia Harbour House
Cape May Cafe (dinner)
Captain's Grille (breakfast)
Flying Fish

and perhaps a few other qsl's, and some F&W joy!

Now, I must attempt to figure out how to make links on post #1 (with help from Disneygirl36)

 

[Disneygrl36]

First meal sounded great.
Good luck with the links.

 

[Enna]

Can't wait to read all of the dining reviews.

Tell Max that he is welcome to stay at the greyhound farm any time his grandhumans are not available.