2 weeks of dining; wk 2; CP, Chef Mickey, WCC, Biergarten, CG

walkermm

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
Messages
46
Hi again. Here goes the second week of dining. Again, no DDP, but we did use the DDE card which had paid for itself at the end of week 1.

Crystal Palace (breakfast)
Wait time; less than 5 minutes.
Service; excellent; lovely older woman who was very attentive.
Atmosphere; lovely table with view of the castle. Characters each came around twice to our table.
Food; food was good; typical selection; tried the breakfast lasagna; too sweet for me. French toast was deep fried; too sweet for me. They make eggs cooked to order, but you had to wait forever (only one chef making the eggs). Desserts were sparse.
This was our first character meal (DS request - he was told he had to actually eat here or else...so he did...well still not enough to justify $18, but at least he ate......He loves Winnie the Pooh and Tigger so it was worth it....he won't be a little boy for much longer (he's 11)

Total Cost with Discount: $64
Discount $16


The Plaza Restaraunt; Dinner
Wait; less than 5 minutes.
Atmosphere; small but cozy. Tables are crowded.
Service; average. We were not offered a children's menu here and I had heard that people have trouble ordering off the children's menu here with "over age" children, so we didn't even ask.
Reuben Sandwich; DS and DH shared - we were still "full" from huge breakfast at crystal palace at 11 am. Excellent, but DH thought there should have been more sauerkraut.
Turkey Sandwich; DD and I shared.
Brownie Sundae; yummy!!!!!!
1 kids sundae; average.

Cost; sorry don't remember

California Grille
(dinner for 2 - yes I said 2 - we left the children in the room and ordered room service pizza - but that's another story....)
Wait time: at least 20 minutes.
Service; excellent
Atmoshphere; we had a lovely window table with a view of the castle; what could be better. We loved it here. Also, no children along.....need I say more.
Pork Tenderloin; DH; he thought this was by far the best meal of the trip....he couldn't stop going on about it.
Sea Bass (me); well I'm not a huge fish fan, but I love salmon....so I decided to try to branch out a bit. I enjoyed it, but I think I could have enjoyed the pork tenderloin more...I was trying to be healthy.
Caesar Salad; excellent.

We were truly full and did not feel we needed to order dessert, especially since they were $10 each!!!!

Overall this was one of the best meals of the trip. The food was excellent quality and priced fairly for what you got. I would leave the children at home though.

Cost with discount: $58 - isn't that reasonable????
Discount: $12

Kona Cafe (dinner)
Wait; none
Service; excellent
Atmosphere; more of a coffee shop atmosphere, however you're at the POLY so everything is nice!!!!
Chicken wing appetizer; very yummy, but watch the mustard sauce; its dijon and my kids hate dijon mustard so whatever had this mustard on it they wouldn't eat it. Generous serving of wings and very tasty.
Steak Teriyaki (DH); really a sirloin steak with a sauce, thought this was also excellent. Very tender and flavorful, he needed a steak fix and this fit the bill.
pan Asian Pasta (me); very flavorful, lots of veggies and chicken, however, I did get tired of it before I was able to finish it.
Chicken soup x 2 (DD and DS); they thought it was good
Ceasar salad (DD); 2 thumbs up from her.
We had 2 smoothies for the kids and 2 glasses of wine for us (who says we can't be fun sometimes....)

Total with discount; $77
Discount: $16

Biergarten Germany Pavilion (Lunch)
DS was not feeling well today and didn't want to eat; well I wasn't going to pay $20 for him to eat a pretzel. So I asked if he just sat with us but didn't eat would they charge us and they said no. They were very nice about it.

Wait time; none, in fact you could have walked in off the street and been seated right away. The place was only 2/3 full.

My husband is German (his parents actually immigrated from Germany so he knows German food) and he LOVED his meal here. The food was extremely tasty; salads, hot items and dessert - wow the cheesecake was to die for and the strudel and the almond cookie. Everything was delicious. We were stuffed right up. My son had a small pretzel from my plate (I asked the waitress first and she said no problem).
The entertainment was great - my husband had a blast and sang along (he knows all the German lingo and saying - it was quite amusing to watch him - he could have donned a pair of lederhosen and fit right in) and of course thoroughly embarasses our 13 year old. My kids refused to go up and polka with me this time - they always have in the past. I wish the entertainment was longer - it seemed to go by very quickly.
We sat beside a lovely woman and her mother who was visiting from Russia. It's nice to meet new people.
This was an excellent buffet.

Total cost with discount; $55 (only 3 meals, but DH had to have a german beer of course)
Discount: $13


I need to stop for now, but I have a few more to go yet....stay tuned.
 
what time did you go to cali grill? made res for 9pm and want to make sure we get to table before wishes.
 
Enjoyed reading your reviews ~ Thanx for sharing.
 

I have always been afraid to try the Biergarten. What did they have on the buffet? I have never really eaten German food.
 
thanks for the reviews....I am amazed you got out of CG for under $60....I don't think we've ever gotten out of there under $200!
 
walkermn,

I was probably one of the posters who reported having touble getting a child's menu for my 10 yo DS at some restaurants in Feb. Plaza Rest. was one but it was ok since he only wanted a burger and fries anyway.

Nice reviews! :sunny:
 
Great reviews, looking forward to reading the rest. Thanks for posting. :sunny:
 
twinsmamma said:
what time did you go to cali grill? made res for 9pm and want to make sure we get to table before wishes.

Our reservations were for 8pm, and we were finished eating by 9:30. We could have stuck around for wishes, but since we were staying at the POLY we decided to go back and watch it from our beach. (Wishes was at 10 when we were there)
 
Letsbgoofy said:
I have always been afraid to try the Biergarten. What did they have on the buffet? I have never really eaten German food.

Let's see now....I have to turn on my middle aged memory bank....
Salads; coleslaw, cucumber salad, and about 3 other cold salads, no lettuce salad
Hot items; roast pork, chicken shnitzel (much like chicken fingers), red cabbage (an acquired taste - but I've been eating my mother in laws for almost 20 years now and this was better than any she has ever made, carrots, meatballs, sausages with sauerkraut, spaetzle (german pasta type things); At dinner they have exactly the same menu ($5/person more) except they add sauerbraten which is some kind of roast as well.
Desserts; german cheesecake, blackforest cake, almond cookies, apple strudel.
Kid friendly items; mac and cheese, meatballs, chicken schnitzel

Oh ya, Deb willis' site (all ears net) has a menu in case I forgot something.
 
Okay so here's the final stretch;

Chef Mickey (breakfast 10:30 ADR)
Wait time; at least 20 minutes
Service; this was by far the poorest service we received all week. Our waiter was a dud. I didn't leave a tip here. Other servers looked to be doing fine, but ours...well.
Atmosphere; we had a lovely table in the area with all the windows so we could watch the monorail coming in to the CR.
Didn't know that Donald is no longer there in the morning and only at night...DS was quite disappointed about that. Goofy is the host in the morning.
Great character interaction; they visited our table at least twice each. The napkin celebration was an absolute hoot. My husband was standing up and singing and waving his napkin around.....just what every 13 year old girl wants to see her father doing.....
We had the best time. (well maybe not DD)
Buffet food; excellent selection; although the fresh fruit selection at the CP was by far superior (it had fresh pineapple, strawberries, etc), whereas here there was canned pineapple at CM...canned pineapple???? what's with that?
Again, made to order eggs which we really like, and this time they take your order at the table and then bring them to your table....a nice touch so you don't have to stand and wait for them at the buffet for 20 minutes....that's assuming of course that you have a server that is even somewhat attentive....I think we waited almost 30 minutes and he hadn't brought the eggs yet...so we asked about them....they appeared a few minutes later....meanwhile DD and DS were on dessert. Mom made them eat the protein anyway.

Would we go back here...in a second. A must do for us every time.

Total cost with discount $63
Discount; $15

Whispering Canyon Cafe (dinner - 5:30 ADR)

Wait time; none
Atmosphere; wilderness lodge is beautful - lovely trees out the window. Festive atsmosphere.
Service; we had high expectations, and they were not met with regards to entertaining servers...only because is geared for younger children. We also had a server in training, so she was not really a whole lot of fun. DS did enjoy the ketchup event, but I think he was hoping for alot more "kibitzing" (sp?) especially since he didn't get a whole lot of it at the prime time either. They did have a pony race when we were there, but again this was really for younger children.

Food;
All you can eat skillet (me and DH 1 each) - very tasty, but we didn't think it was worth $23, ribs were very tender though. They brought only a few ribs to start, but then brought enough for about 10 people when we asked for more!!! Chicken was ok, sausage was just ok. By far the ribs were the best bang for your buck. Salads and beans were very good too.
Nachos (DD) - DD thought they were just ok.
Grilled cheese (DS) - sound familiar????

total with discount; don't have the bill - sorry - would have been about $60

This is the huge "meat fest" that made my husband not want to go to Ohana's the next night.....we wished that we had skipped this and gone to Ohana's instead.

Spoodles - 7pm - and we phoned that day for our ADR (Fri night too)
Wait time: none - and we asked for a table outside.
Atmosphere; we had a lovely table outside that overlooked the boardwalk and the lake. We were entertained by a juggler during our meal.
Service; excellent

Oak fired salmon (me); by far the BEST tasting meal of my entire trip....might have been the 3 glasses of Sangria I had first....no I don't think so...it was that good.
Rigatoni (DH) - delicious.
Fettucine Alfredo (DD - again) - this was way tastier than Wolfgan Pucks and more true to traditional alfredo. Out of this world yummy.
DS - not eating due to splash mountain on evening agenda....he wouldn't eat before any "thrill rides" - he's very anxious about rollercoasters etc (that's another story) this saved us a whack of money in the end.....
1 pitcher of Sangria....yum, yum, double yum.

Cost....well I think the Sangria stole the bill......


Kona Cafe (breakfast)

Wait time; none
Service; good
1 eggs benedict (me); very good, eggs done perfectly. Nice sauce - and I am a fussy eggs benedict eater.
french toast (DD) (DS - childs menu - same thing only 2 pieces less) - not the greatest looking french toast but they liked it - pieces were too thin.
2 eggs/toast/bacon (DH) - the usual fare.

I just could not order the tonga toas when I heard it was deep fried - I saw it and I was glad I didn't order it - too sweet looking and too deep fried for me - but that's a matter of personal preference.

Well that's it for me. I'm glad to hear that these reviews are helpful to you. I know how much I enjoyed reading them before my trip.
Questions are welcome.
 
Thanks for the reviews. I really like your review style - organized and easy to read, with just the right amount of detail! :)
 












Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE






DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top Bottom