Two Seniors -Out Of Pocket Dining Report

[shoes99]

We just returned on 3/6/2010 from our "Celebrate DH's Birthday Trip". We stayed off-site at the Marriott Cypress Harbour near Sea World for 5 nights, then we moved over to the Wilderness Lodge Club Level for 1 night.
I'll just report on the food, since that was the best part of our trip. We are two seniors, 64+, have been to the parks lots of times, so I let DH sleep in every AM. It worked for us. We were not on the dining plan, but used the Tables In Wonderland discount card for all sit down meals.
Saturday - Perkins for Dinner, fun and quick
Sunday - Garden Grill for dinner, we met up with our niece and nephew who were staying at Pop. Food was good, and character interaction was fun, even for adults. We were celebrating DN's 40th and DH's 65th. Nice time had by all.
Monday - Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern. We shared the Chile and the Chicken and Dumplings (it was really chicken soup with wide noodles, white meat chicken, celery and carrots). Food was good and DH received a free birthday dessert.
Tuesday - Birthday dinner at California Grill. A glass of wine, a 4 cheese flatbread, and the scallops filled us up. Free dessert for the birthday boy.
Wednesday - Restaurant Marrakesh for dinner. I had the lamb shank, DH had the vegatable couscous. The dessert was good but not free. A pastry with custard and vanilla ice cream. I wanted DH to see the belly dancer...
Thursday - Teppan Edo for lunch. We shared the shrimp and steak. DH had the salad with ginger dressing. Free ginger cake for the birthday boy.
House of Blues for dinner with friends. I had the hamburger, and DH had the chicken wings. Good food, and it was our first time eating at HOB. We will go back again.
Friday - We checked into the WL at 12 noon and just stayed around the Club Level Lounge for food and snacks. DH rested while I went to the MK for the parade. We ate dinner in the Club lounge since they had chicken chile and salmon for their hot choices. We had enough veggies and dip to fill us up.
Saturday - We slept in, then had hot oatmeal, bagels, pastries, juice and coffee in the lounge. Enough food to fill us up.
Chilling out at the Wilderness lodge for our last day was lots of fun. I could see that the birthday boy was pooped, so doing nothing was ok with him.
We took the 12:45PM DME bus back to the airport.
This was a laid back, celebrate a birthday trip, and we had a very nice time.
Weather was very COLD, but coming from the northeast, we had our winter coats, and we were happy to get out of the snow.
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[catne]

NICE review...sounds like a very fun birthday trip. Like that idea of just staying one night concierge level for the food...we got upgraded unexpectedly to concierge in Jan 09 and really couldn't take advantage of the club room offerings because we were on Disney Deluxe Dining (and were stuffed to the gills already!) But we enjoyed checking the club room out to see what was offered at various times of the day. And we DID enjoy the cordials & beer in the evening

 

[catne]

sorry-double post!

 

[SereneOne]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed Garden Grill. We are going there for the first time in a few weeks. We planned a last minute trip and wanted to get a Mickey Mouse and Chip-n-Dale meal in and this was the only character meal we could get in such short time.

 

[Disney owl]

thanks for a good review

 

[MeLaNie9]

thanks for the reviews - I agree with the good character interaction at GG, even for adults! DH and I ate here when we were dating and loved it. We have gone back a number of times with our kids who love the idea of the rotating restaurant and the characters and we still love the food there.

 

[pumba]

thanks for your review and I agree.........ANYplace with no snow is a good vacation.
I too love to go with the characters.....we are always going to a character dinner or breakfast with or without the grandkids and youngin's...
Glad that you had a relaxing time. Next trip is with our grandkids so no rest for the old folks here......

Thanks again