girli565
A Miami kind of girl
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2007
- Messages
- 5,638
Dining Review April 2-6, 2007
Starring, Me (Jenn), Mom (Annie) and Dad (Dan)
This was a trip to treat my parents. They never take vacations and havent been to Disney in over 15 years. I figured that they have supported me my entire life so why not take them on their dream vacation and treat them as well.
I took care of everything on this trip but when we checked in I realized that my parents had secretly changed our reservation to a dining package and paid for that themselves. Sneaky sneaky. They hated that I was going to pay for everything so they secretly added the tickets and dining plan.
There will be pictures attached tonight of some of the meals, I'm at work right now and don't have access to the resizing program from my Mac.
Ok, enough of the background on to the food. ENJOY!!
Day One (arrival day)
The first night we arrived we had dinner ADRs for California Grill. It was a Monday night so the place was pretty dead. Dress code was not enforced, which disappointed me, and our server seemed a little stressed out. But none of that deterred us from the wonderful food! After the waitress explained the DDP to us and that 2 sushi platters were excluded we started to order
Dinner Order (apps, entrée, dessert)
,
,
(you can see the to go box of the honey cake)
Mom Cold lobster salad with blood orange dressing, Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta, and Coconut Panna Cotta - with passion fruit gelee
,
,
Dad - Dungeness Crab California Roll, Oak-Fired Filet, and the "Where Dreams Come True" Honey Crunch Cake (took back to the hotel)
,
,
,
Me - Cosmo, Chipotle Braised Chicken with sweet onion marmalade, crispy bacon and chili aioli Flatbread, Oak-fired filet, and the Valrhona chocolate cake with Peanut butter and jelly ice cream.
Everything was absolutely heavenly! The flatbread was beyond what I thought it would be. Crisp on the outside, a slight chewyness after the initial crisp bite and the toppings all melded well together. I was weary of the sweet onion marmalade but it was tangy with just a hint of sweetness after. The California rolls were good, I cant say excellent because Ive had similar ones at local sushi dives but the natural Dungeness crab made for a real treat. It was so good that my mom actually picked it out of the roll and ate just the crab. The cold salad left something to be desired, it was strange and I dont think we would order it again. The only real high point of the salad was the dried blood orange crisp that came with it. Delicious! On to the entrees: The filet was so tender that before the waitress brought us steak knives I had already cut it with my butter knife not realizing I didnt have a steak knife. The real star was the Pork and polenta. It was creamy with a slight grain to it, but not enough to make you think that you are eating polenta. I was shocked because I normally dont like polenta due to the grainy nature of its texture. The desserts were incredibly sinful and delicious. The Panna Cotta was light and a perfect end to our heavy meal and the Valrhona cake was to die for, I still have dreams about it to this day! The Honey crumb cake I cant comment on because we took it back with us and my parents inhaled it before I even got to look at it. They loved it, though!
Day two (first full day)
This was our day at Magic Kingdom. We didnt leave the room until about 10ish and didnt arrive at MK until almost 11:30 because we got distracted at the resort store and then the busses took a while. Once there we were starving! We figured wed go to Cosmic Rays because the Dis people really thought it was better than most CSs at MK.
Mom Cheeseburger with fixings
Dad Bacon double cheeseburger with fixings
Me Roasted chicken and ribs with mashed potatoes and carrots.
The burgers looked ok and the parents really didnt have much to say about them. My dad tends to inhale food before he comments on it, lol. And he just grunts an affirmative when he likes it. My chicken and ribs were messy and really waaaaay to much food for a lunch! They were good, though, and tasted like most roast chicken does, tender and juicy. I couldnt eat all of it and barely even made a dent in it. I mostly ate the carrots and some if the potatoes. Desserts at this CS were the prepackaged carrot and chocolate cakes. The chocolate cake was very rich, much to rich to eat high noon on a pretty hot day. But when I did eat it, it was pretty good for a packaged cake.
Snacks
My parents stopped to get several snacks that day.
McDonalds Fries, a Mickey premium bar, waters, and I also stopped to have a quick snack at Pecos Bill. I had the chicken wrap. It was not the best Ive had. Its cold, and yes I know that most wraps are cold, but I mostly get at least the protein warmed. The entire thing was ice cold. Not horrible but edible. I got grapes for desserts and a spirte.
I cant remember what my parents ate for dinner. Must not have been that eventful seeing as though neither can they.
Day Three
This was our day at MGM. We breakfast OOP at Pop Century, our resort. I dont eat breakfast so I didnt go and didnt ask what was had. We had to run to the post office because my dad, always working (he does AIDS research in South America), needed to mail out a UV light meter to get recalibrated at the manufacturer. After the errands we went back to Pop to park the car and caught the bus to MGM. We arrived around 1:00pm. Got fastpasses for RnRC and started to stand in line for ToT when the tummy started rumbling. So we got out of line (we were only 10 feet in) and went to Toluca turkey Legs and Starring Rolls Bakery.
Me - Turkey Leg
Mom & Dad - Turkey sandwich, jalapeno chips and a cookie.
We all split the turkey leg and sandwich. The sandwich was the best one Id had in years. Im picky about deli meats and barely eat any kind of cold cuts. But it was good. Had an aioli mayonnaise and spring greens. Delicious. I really recommend this place for a CS credit in MGM. I know the CS department is seriously lacking here but this was a wonderful find!
Later on in the day my mom was hungry so we stopped for a hotdog at the Backlot Express. It was a hotdog! ?
We had an ADR for 50s Prime Time Café at 10:45pm. Yes, its late but we are very late eaters. We wanted to be able to go to the later Fantasmic because it was evening EMH that night, hence the late dinner. Well, we never made it to the ADR. My mom has serious back problems and after riding RnRC she didnt feel well. So at around 8 we left. Went back to the room and ate dinner at the food court at Pop.
Dinner
Mom Chicken fingers and fries
Dad Some kind of sandwich and fries (a kind of exotic sandwich but again I didnt have a chance to ask what it was or see it before he inhaled it. And again, the affirming grunt, lol)
Me Penne alfredo with chicken and breadstick.
This was actually the best CS Id had so far. The pasta wasnt mushy like I expected it to be. The Alfredo was very tasty and creamy. The chicken was good, crsip on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside. Moms food was common faire for Disney! Not bad at all, I mean what could go wrong with chicken fingers? Dessert was a mish-mosh of things. A huge chunk of carrot cake for Dad, apples and caramel for Mom and Worms in Dirt for me. Weird but okay.
Day four
This was our commando day!! Animal Kingdom in the morning and Epcot in the afternoon. We actually got out early this day because I was on everyones butts! We got to the park at 8:30 am and went straight to Expedition Everest. The Fastpasses were already showing return times for after 12pm and the standby line was showing only a 20 minutes wait so we went in the standby line. My Dad is a chicken when it comes to rollercoaters so he sat this one out already plotting where he and mom were going to have breakfast. EE was awesome!! Even mom loved it!
Breakfast was such a hassle. We went to Donalds character breakfast because on the park map it does not say that its a character meal and Dad though it just breakfast. We get there, find out that its a 60 minute wait for the meal and he pitches a fit!! Bad way to start off the day, I know. We have to book it all the way to Tusker House for breakfast and if you know the park, you know how far away that is. I was huffing and puffing by the time we got there, so were the parentals. Breakfast was normal breakfast foods, I wont get into it because again, I didnt didnt eat it. Sorry!
After breakfast we walked around a bit looked at the park and thought that wed had enough. We hopped on the bus for Pop, went back, cleaned up a bit, rested and then hopped on the bus for Epcot.
Now, my dad is into hydroponics and thinks that it is the coolest thing so we had to take the Behind the Seeds tour. He loved it, I was bored and in pain (old knee injury flaring up) and mom was just following Dad and nodding when he would say something but not really paying attention, lol, like always. After the tour we headed to Sunshine Seasons. I love that place, such a variety to choose from! Because they had already had breakfast they werent hungry but I was. I picked up the Turkey sandwich on foccacia with a chipotle mayonnaise. Delicious for a sandwich! What made the meal was the Dasani flavored water, I love that stuff and buy it all the time at home but didnt see it at Dsiney until I was at Epcot.
Once we left the Land we stopped at the Preztel cart because my Dad just HAD to have one! Wasnt all that bad, though. Yummy processed cheese wiz-like sauce and chewy pretzel. Not bad.
For dinner on our final night at Disney I made us ADRs at Chefs de France, my mom was dying to go.
Mom Lobster Bisque, Beef tenderloin with a peppercorn sauce and potato gratin, crème brulee
Dad Lobster Bisque, Beef tenderloin with a peppercorn sauce and potato gratin, espresso
Me Lobster Bisque, Beef tenderloin with a peppercorn sauce and potato gratin, Profiterolles
We all ordered the same thing except for dessert. The bisque was rich and creamy, it just coated your mouth with the richness of cream and lobster flavor. It was absolutely heavenly. The beef was even better. Not as tender as California Grill but very close. I didnt care for the potato gratin, Im not one for nutmeg in my cream dishes so I usually leave it out. The gratin had a strong nutmeg flavor so I left most of it. My mom liked it and so did Dad. Dessert was excellent! The crème brulee was delicious and the profiteroles were what I expected, crisp outside, creamy inside because of the ice cream and the chocolate sauce was a mixture of chocolate and a hint of coffee. Very nice and light even if it didnt seem light.
Day 5
We were checking out this day and heading back home. We didnt have a long drive ahead of us so we decided to go to DTD and have lunch, we did have one TS meal left for each of us. We decided on Wolfgang Pucks. We should have just left home from the resort because this meal just killed it for us. The host was rude, didnt even write my name down and then sneered at me when I went back to check that he had us down. The meal was far from ideal.
Mom Crab cakes, chicken aioli panini, white chocolate cheesecake
Dad calamari, three cheese ravioli w/shrimp, warm dark chocolate cake
Me BBQ chicken quesadilla, Wolf-fredo fettuccini, key lime pie
The meal was horrible! The espresso my Dad ordered was cold and every replacement was also cold. The bread was cold, my dads pasta was cold and my mom did not like the crab cakes. My appetizer was good, not wonderful but something I would order again. My mom ordered a sandwich to go because she wasnt hungry. We ended up throwing it out at a rest stop on the way home. We took all the desserts to go and ate them on the way home. The cheesecake was the only highlight of the entire meal. That was the most amazing cheesecake I had ever had! Even better than Cheesecake Factory, whom I love.
And that was our gastronomical feat for the year, I dont think we could ever eat like that again!
Any questions I will be happy to answer!
Starring, Me (Jenn), Mom (Annie) and Dad (Dan)
This was a trip to treat my parents. They never take vacations and havent been to Disney in over 15 years. I figured that they have supported me my entire life so why not take them on their dream vacation and treat them as well.
I took care of everything on this trip but when we checked in I realized that my parents had secretly changed our reservation to a dining package and paid for that themselves. Sneaky sneaky. They hated that I was going to pay for everything so they secretly added the tickets and dining plan.
There will be pictures attached tonight of some of the meals, I'm at work right now and don't have access to the resizing program from my Mac.
Ok, enough of the background on to the food. ENJOY!!
Day One (arrival day)
The first night we arrived we had dinner ADRs for California Grill. It was a Monday night so the place was pretty dead. Dress code was not enforced, which disappointed me, and our server seemed a little stressed out. But none of that deterred us from the wonderful food! After the waitress explained the DDP to us and that 2 sushi platters were excluded we started to order
Dinner Order (apps, entrée, dessert)
Mom Cold lobster salad with blood orange dressing, Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta, and Coconut Panna Cotta - with passion fruit gelee
Dad - Dungeness Crab California Roll, Oak-Fired Filet, and the "Where Dreams Come True" Honey Crunch Cake (took back to the hotel)
Me - Cosmo, Chipotle Braised Chicken with sweet onion marmalade, crispy bacon and chili aioli Flatbread, Oak-fired filet, and the Valrhona chocolate cake with Peanut butter and jelly ice cream.
Everything was absolutely heavenly! The flatbread was beyond what I thought it would be. Crisp on the outside, a slight chewyness after the initial crisp bite and the toppings all melded well together. I was weary of the sweet onion marmalade but it was tangy with just a hint of sweetness after. The California rolls were good, I cant say excellent because Ive had similar ones at local sushi dives but the natural Dungeness crab made for a real treat. It was so good that my mom actually picked it out of the roll and ate just the crab. The cold salad left something to be desired, it was strange and I dont think we would order it again. The only real high point of the salad was the dried blood orange crisp that came with it. Delicious! On to the entrees: The filet was so tender that before the waitress brought us steak knives I had already cut it with my butter knife not realizing I didnt have a steak knife. The real star was the Pork and polenta. It was creamy with a slight grain to it, but not enough to make you think that you are eating polenta. I was shocked because I normally dont like polenta due to the grainy nature of its texture. The desserts were incredibly sinful and delicious. The Panna Cotta was light and a perfect end to our heavy meal and the Valrhona cake was to die for, I still have dreams about it to this day! The Honey crumb cake I cant comment on because we took it back with us and my parents inhaled it before I even got to look at it. They loved it, though!
Day two (first full day)
This was our day at Magic Kingdom. We didnt leave the room until about 10ish and didnt arrive at MK until almost 11:30 because we got distracted at the resort store and then the busses took a while. Once there we were starving! We figured wed go to Cosmic Rays because the Dis people really thought it was better than most CSs at MK.
Mom Cheeseburger with fixings
Dad Bacon double cheeseburger with fixings
Me Roasted chicken and ribs with mashed potatoes and carrots.
The burgers looked ok and the parents really didnt have much to say about them. My dad tends to inhale food before he comments on it, lol. And he just grunts an affirmative when he likes it. My chicken and ribs were messy and really waaaaay to much food for a lunch! They were good, though, and tasted like most roast chicken does, tender and juicy. I couldnt eat all of it and barely even made a dent in it. I mostly ate the carrots and some if the potatoes. Desserts at this CS were the prepackaged carrot and chocolate cakes. The chocolate cake was very rich, much to rich to eat high noon on a pretty hot day. But when I did eat it, it was pretty good for a packaged cake.
Snacks
My parents stopped to get several snacks that day.
McDonalds Fries, a Mickey premium bar, waters, and I also stopped to have a quick snack at Pecos Bill. I had the chicken wrap. It was not the best Ive had. Its cold, and yes I know that most wraps are cold, but I mostly get at least the protein warmed. The entire thing was ice cold. Not horrible but edible. I got grapes for desserts and a spirte.
I cant remember what my parents ate for dinner. Must not have been that eventful seeing as though neither can they.
Day Three
This was our day at MGM. We breakfast OOP at Pop Century, our resort. I dont eat breakfast so I didnt go and didnt ask what was had. We had to run to the post office because my dad, always working (he does AIDS research in South America), needed to mail out a UV light meter to get recalibrated at the manufacturer. After the errands we went back to Pop to park the car and caught the bus to MGM. We arrived around 1:00pm. Got fastpasses for RnRC and started to stand in line for ToT when the tummy started rumbling. So we got out of line (we were only 10 feet in) and went to Toluca turkey Legs and Starring Rolls Bakery.
Me - Turkey Leg
Mom & Dad - Turkey sandwich, jalapeno chips and a cookie.
We all split the turkey leg and sandwich. The sandwich was the best one Id had in years. Im picky about deli meats and barely eat any kind of cold cuts. But it was good. Had an aioli mayonnaise and spring greens. Delicious. I really recommend this place for a CS credit in MGM. I know the CS department is seriously lacking here but this was a wonderful find!
Later on in the day my mom was hungry so we stopped for a hotdog at the Backlot Express. It was a hotdog! ?
We had an ADR for 50s Prime Time Café at 10:45pm. Yes, its late but we are very late eaters. We wanted to be able to go to the later Fantasmic because it was evening EMH that night, hence the late dinner. Well, we never made it to the ADR. My mom has serious back problems and after riding RnRC she didnt feel well. So at around 8 we left. Went back to the room and ate dinner at the food court at Pop.
Dinner
Mom Chicken fingers and fries
Dad Some kind of sandwich and fries (a kind of exotic sandwich but again I didnt have a chance to ask what it was or see it before he inhaled it. And again, the affirming grunt, lol)
Me Penne alfredo with chicken and breadstick.
This was actually the best CS Id had so far. The pasta wasnt mushy like I expected it to be. The Alfredo was very tasty and creamy. The chicken was good, crsip on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside. Moms food was common faire for Disney! Not bad at all, I mean what could go wrong with chicken fingers? Dessert was a mish-mosh of things. A huge chunk of carrot cake for Dad, apples and caramel for Mom and Worms in Dirt for me. Weird but okay.
Day four
This was our commando day!! Animal Kingdom in the morning and Epcot in the afternoon. We actually got out early this day because I was on everyones butts! We got to the park at 8:30 am and went straight to Expedition Everest. The Fastpasses were already showing return times for after 12pm and the standby line was showing only a 20 minutes wait so we went in the standby line. My Dad is a chicken when it comes to rollercoaters so he sat this one out already plotting where he and mom were going to have breakfast. EE was awesome!! Even mom loved it!
Breakfast was such a hassle. We went to Donalds character breakfast because on the park map it does not say that its a character meal and Dad though it just breakfast. We get there, find out that its a 60 minute wait for the meal and he pitches a fit!! Bad way to start off the day, I know. We have to book it all the way to Tusker House for breakfast and if you know the park, you know how far away that is. I was huffing and puffing by the time we got there, so were the parentals. Breakfast was normal breakfast foods, I wont get into it because again, I didnt didnt eat it. Sorry!
After breakfast we walked around a bit looked at the park and thought that wed had enough. We hopped on the bus for Pop, went back, cleaned up a bit, rested and then hopped on the bus for Epcot.
Now, my dad is into hydroponics and thinks that it is the coolest thing so we had to take the Behind the Seeds tour. He loved it, I was bored and in pain (old knee injury flaring up) and mom was just following Dad and nodding when he would say something but not really paying attention, lol, like always. After the tour we headed to Sunshine Seasons. I love that place, such a variety to choose from! Because they had already had breakfast they werent hungry but I was. I picked up the Turkey sandwich on foccacia with a chipotle mayonnaise. Delicious for a sandwich! What made the meal was the Dasani flavored water, I love that stuff and buy it all the time at home but didnt see it at Dsiney until I was at Epcot.
Once we left the Land we stopped at the Preztel cart because my Dad just HAD to have one! Wasnt all that bad, though. Yummy processed cheese wiz-like sauce and chewy pretzel. Not bad.
For dinner on our final night at Disney I made us ADRs at Chefs de France, my mom was dying to go.
Mom Lobster Bisque, Beef tenderloin with a peppercorn sauce and potato gratin, crème brulee
Dad Lobster Bisque, Beef tenderloin with a peppercorn sauce and potato gratin, espresso
Me Lobster Bisque, Beef tenderloin with a peppercorn sauce and potato gratin, Profiterolles
We all ordered the same thing except for dessert. The bisque was rich and creamy, it just coated your mouth with the richness of cream and lobster flavor. It was absolutely heavenly. The beef was even better. Not as tender as California Grill but very close. I didnt care for the potato gratin, Im not one for nutmeg in my cream dishes so I usually leave it out. The gratin had a strong nutmeg flavor so I left most of it. My mom liked it and so did Dad. Dessert was excellent! The crème brulee was delicious and the profiteroles were what I expected, crisp outside, creamy inside because of the ice cream and the chocolate sauce was a mixture of chocolate and a hint of coffee. Very nice and light even if it didnt seem light.
Day 5
We were checking out this day and heading back home. We didnt have a long drive ahead of us so we decided to go to DTD and have lunch, we did have one TS meal left for each of us. We decided on Wolfgang Pucks. We should have just left home from the resort because this meal just killed it for us. The host was rude, didnt even write my name down and then sneered at me when I went back to check that he had us down. The meal was far from ideal.
Mom Crab cakes, chicken aioli panini, white chocolate cheesecake
Dad calamari, three cheese ravioli w/shrimp, warm dark chocolate cake
Me BBQ chicken quesadilla, Wolf-fredo fettuccini, key lime pie
The meal was horrible! The espresso my Dad ordered was cold and every replacement was also cold. The bread was cold, my dads pasta was cold and my mom did not like the crab cakes. My appetizer was good, not wonderful but something I would order again. My mom ordered a sandwich to go because she wasnt hungry. We ended up throwing it out at a rest stop on the way home. We took all the desserts to go and ate them on the way home. The cheesecake was the only highlight of the entire meal. That was the most amazing cheesecake I had ever had! Even better than Cheesecake Factory, whom I love.
And that was our gastronomical feat for the year, I dont think we could ever eat like that again!
Any questions I will be happy to answer!
And what a pain about Wolfgang Pucks! Sorry you had to end your trip on such a disappointing note, but it still sounds like you had a great time. 
