6/1-6/8 DDP Now complete WITH PICS! Lots of character dining!

[cab0ad]

Just got back from the world and was on the DDP. Unfortunately my DH dropped my camera the 2nd day of the trip and our flash broke so no pics for some of the restraunts. Just depends on the quality of the pics. Some restraunts were just too dark and the pics were horrid. I'll give a detailed review of each of the following restraunts:

Garden Grill (epcot)
Whispering Canyon
Chef Mickeys
1900 Park- dinner
Crystal Palace - breakfast
Liberty Tree Tavern
Hollywood and Vine- lunch

CS locations

Cosmic Rays
Cosmic Rays day 2
Main Street Bakery
Earl of Sandwich
Sarassouga Float ??? (POFQ quick service)
Sunshine Seasons
Sunshine Seasons day 2
Pizza Planet


What did we learn on DDP and Disney? ALWAYS order a large drink for CS meals. They will automatically give you medium but you can order a large. I tried to get DH to upgrade to Deluxe Dining since there were no breakfasts and I thought we'd be hungry NOT! We were NEVER ready to eat dinner after lunch and most day we didn't even eat our snacks. We ended up using snack credits for our breakfasts about 4 days into our trip and still had 8 credits leftover to get things on the last day. Next time we're actually considering using the quick service plan so we're not tied to the ressies so much. We weren't really impressed with a lot of our table service meals and there is enough variety on quick service that it may be a better option for us. We'll fight that battle when it comes.

We had some MAJOR upsets in dining at a few of these places. Some old "reliables" were horrid this time and some of the "horrid" from the past were great! Enjoy!

 

[cab0ad]

Okay, so we decided to go to the Garden Grill because we wanted to start our trip with a character meal but my DS wouldn't like princesses at Norway. We had ressies for 4:30 and were seated promptly when we checked in. First family there! Since we were first we were greeted at the front by Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. All four of them walked our kids to our table and we got a great shot of all of the characters with us and our kids. They spent a lot of extra time with us since we were first even though many were seated after us. After they left they dispersed into single character greets and noone else got to see them as a "group". we felt very lucky.

We had a seat on the top ring so our kids couldn't see the rotation of the restraunt. Wish I would've thought about that and we would have requested lower ring. Didn't know though and we were too excited all characters were with us that we didn't notice we were led to the top ring. Request lower ring. Not near as good on the top, but that's our fault.

Our waiter was very friendly and efficient. we had a great salad with many mixed greens and dressing. Rolls also served but they were just so-so.
Main course was turkey, dressing, fish, and some sort of beef and potatoes. The kids had a different "family style" plate of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese.

The fish was just okay. I'd heard a lot of good stuff about it but it was a bit limp... Meat was okay. Nothing to write home about but edible. The turkey was fabulous! We loved it with the dressing and cranberries on the side (did I forget to mention the cranberries??)

Not a lot of food was on the platter and my kids shared the adult meal since the nuggets looked like rocks from a rock garden (noone ate them either) so we had to ask for 2nds. came quickly.

Dessert was a nice surprise. a slice of chocolate cake for my DD who had a birthday notice on our ressie (we dindn't mention it....they did it on their own) dirt and worms for our DS (hated it but he doesn't like gummy things) and a huge pan of blueberry cobbler topped with a heavenly whip cream that tasted like vanilla beans. There was enough to accomodate me, DH, and DS and still have leftovers.

Overall great meal. Great characters. Request lower ring though!

 

[cab0ad]

Too dark for pics here. sorry. Had ressies at 8:30 but showed up at 5:30 hoping to get in earlier. Well, they lost all of our ressies. Couldn't find it. But they had no problem getting us in and we were seated at 6:00. Got put in the side room not in the main dining room. We were a little worried we woudn't have any fun but we were wrong. Our waiter was fabulous. We did the ketchup thing even though we needed no ketchup but the waiter asked if we wanted some. My DS said no but the waiter played along and INSISTED every ketchup bottle in the restraunt come to us. Our kids didn't want to do the pony rides but was offered to us. Lots of screaming and hollering. (the good kind)

We had unlimited milkshakes (strawberry, choc, vanilla, cotton candy, and caramel). They were all heavenly. we tried all flavors among us. I thought the cotton candy was too sweet but the rest of the family drank it up. It did taste just like cotton candy.

We all had the skillet dinner. Salad and cornbread was promptly brought out and it was good enough to be the whole meal. We ate more cornbread than we had in a year! Our skillet was huge and contained beans, corn, mashed potatoes, chicken, ribs, pork, and beef. Oh my gosh, all of it was soooooo good!! My fav. was the pork and my DH loved the beef. We asked for extra potatoes, beef, and pork thinking he'd bring a small side but he brought out another regular sized skillet piled so high with beef, pork, and potatoes that it could have fed another 20 people! He laughingly told us that we could take it "to go" if we couldn't cram it down our throats!

Well by dessert we were so stuffed we didn't even want it so we ordered fruit plates to go. We left with so much food we could have eaten 2 meals off of it.

Fabulous service, fabulous food, fabulous atmosphere! This was our 2nd favorite meal of the trip!

 

[mickeyplanner08]

You have quite a few of the same restaurants we are headed to in August, so I'll be looking forward to more great reviews! Thanks for doing them!

 

[cab0ad]

Had ressies at 5:00 and showed up to the LONGEST line I've ever seen. No kidding here. It made the line for Peter Pan look dwarfed in size. After waiting in line forever we made it to the counter to check in. We were given a beeper and it went off within minutes of checking in but we were not allowed to leave the line until we got our pictures taken with a cement Mickey statue holding a plate. My DH said we weren't interested but the lady up front said it was part of the package and we had to before being seated. hey, cool! Free Pic for dinner??? so we thought.....Our pic was brought to us 30 minutes later while we were eating and they told us it was ours if we wanted it...for $32.00! No way! Why not tell that to us from the start and save time and money on both ends? Noone was buying the photos at any table around us.

Characters - We saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy. They were spread out nicely and we had about 10-15 minutes inbetween each one. They also had some birthday fun songs where the characters led a little party. No complaints here on the characters.

Food - Pretty darn good! The Micky ravioli was a bit of a dissappointment (tasted like canned) but everything else was fabulous. All very fresh. There was a turkey pot pie that was to die for. The mickey head mac and cheese was a hit with my kids. The salad bar had peel and eat shrimp. YUM!!! Never a huge crowd at the buffet or carving station. Very laid back and relaxing here despite hyper kids and characters. The dessert bar had an assortment of bite sized treats and cookies that were okay but lacked anything really outstanding.

Here's the funny thing about Chef Mickeys: during our dinner there was a thunderstorm and I kid you not there were about 3 spots in the restraunt that were absolutly POURING in watter! Not just a drip or small stream, I mean a huge waterfall! One of them was right in the middle of dining couples table! It just started pouring in the middle of their table. It was hilarious. Probably not to them, but my family was laughing a lot. They had buckets and water signs and seemed like it happened every day. Dude....take care of the leaks....

 

[cab0ad]

This was the restraunt we were most looking forward to...and by far the worst meal of our trip.

It started out bad. We had ressies at 4:30 at opening. We were the 2nd couple to check in. 2nd family seated. I kid you not we were seated in the "side" dining room in a corner behind pillars that blocked the view of the main dining room to where we couldn't see any of the characters come in or interact with anyone. When we asked why we weren't in the main dining room we were told that they "space" us out so all wait staff will have customers the whole time. Made sense to us so we quieted our complaints and decided to live with it. Boy, wish we would have pushed the issue a bit further. Come to find out our tabe was DEAD LAST in the character rotation for the whole restraunt. No joke, dead last. We were seated at 4:30 and we didn't leave until 7:15. We were stuffed by 5:00 but still hadn't seen anyone. We just sat and sat and sat and sat. Our waitress was peeved and wanted us to leave but we came here for the characters...we weren't going anywhere! Your fault for seating us in the DEAD LAST table even though we were 2nd to check in! Well, we noticed the characters picked "favorite" tables where they focused 10-15 minutes of interaction and then quickly breezed over the next 10-15 tables barely stopping for a picture. Guess what? We were a "breeze over" table! Those characters practically RAN through our table. Anastasia didn't even stop at ours although the one behind us got a good 5 minute show from her! My DH was about to call the waitress to tell her but by that time even the kids were upset and bored and said it wasn't worth it. So sad.....

Food: seemed okay. nothing to brag about but edible. I did like the strawberry soup but its very rich. that night though my DH and DS both were so sick they had diarrhea. My tummy hurt too. Could be a coincidence but we are blaming 1900 since our trip there was so bad anyway!

overall: so so food with HORRID service and spotty character interaction. We won't be going back.

Food pics didn't come out. Neither did most characer but here's one of the stepmother that was okay.I'm guessing from the disgusted look on her face that she ate dinner there at the buffet too.

 

[cab0ad]

Okay, Crystal palace at 8:05 before park even opens. Admittedly the only reason we did this was to get in before everyone else and get pics on main street with noone there. We didn't expect much from the restraunt but we were pleasantly surprised.

Got into the park at 8:00 and made it to the crystal palace at 8:15....late after taking those pics...

Was immediately seated and surprised with a heart outline in mickey confetti for our anniversary. Only restraunt to do anything for it. The service was excellent. Our waitress refilled our orange juice so many times I felt like a walking orange grove. She played and joked around with our DS and DD and offered to bring us extras when she noticed we were really eating something a lot. I mean come on, who actually offers to fill another plate for you at a buffet??? She was so nice!

Food: excellent. I expected dry waffles and cold eggs like we'd been experiencing at POP (we'll discuss this later...) but it was all so good! The omelet station was my DH's favorite. He ate 3 cooked to order omelets. My DS was goo goo for the chocolate croissants and waffles. I loved the cheesy casserole and eggs. They were SO good. Not at all dry or runny, which eggs usually are one of the two extremes on a buffet. We were surprised with cupcakes and a card for DD's bday and our anniversary.

Characters: excellent. very fast and very friendly. we saw all before 8:45 (tigger, pooh, piglet, eeyore) and was out in Cinderellas palace before rope drop allowing us to run to Dumbo and be first to ride it for the day. Tip: Fairy Godmother was at the palace rope drop and took pics with the kids whow were waiting.

what can I say? I expected NOTHING and got one of the nicest meals we had. Fast, friendly, and GREAT food. Definitely worth going to even if you can't get in before the park opens. If you can snag one of those ressies before the park open then you'll have a great morning!

Here's a few pics. One of my husband's omelet, birthday cupcake, and a lot of empty main street pics that we got before the crowd came in.

 

[cab0ad]

Okay, so we knew better to go here with all the bad reviews and we made ressies at Sci-Fi instead. We missed our ressie though waiting in line for Toy Story and were too late. But guess what? H and V had walk in service available! there's a reason....

There were characters there...Jo Jo, Goliath, Little Einsteins. They were actually annoying us with so much attention and let me tell you, a 9 year old boy doesn't want to be taking pics with a giant lion! LOL There was also a guy who came out every 10 minutes and called all the kids in the restraunt to come up and sing/dance to playhouse disney songs. fun concept but they were constantly blocking the flow of people to the buffet line.

The food was a bit harder to like here. Not much of a selection really. Fruit, a few mixed salads, paella (way too spicy for my taste), mac and cheese....fish.... Nothing, and I mean, NOTHING really stood out. It was not the best meal. The food was either too spicy (paella) or not seasoned at all and tasted like a tv dinner. The dessert had the best amount of selection. apple crumble, mixed berry crumble, tarts and cookies. Ice cream. It was okay but we really wanted more hot foods. The buffet seemed very small for such a large seating arrangement but was uncrowed. I kid you not, we walked in at 12:30 to an almost empty restraunt while others were packed.
I'm not saying the food was absolutely disgusting but it just wasn't good, you know what I mean? edible but forgettable.

H and V is a good place to go if you don't have ressies or want to just "walk in" and eat but don't expect much to remember. We got full, just can't remember what we got full on!

 

[cab0ad]

Okay, best for last. We ate here 2 years ago and liked it. we made ressies again but were weary since the characters were gone. We didn't remember if we liked it for the characters or the food.

Boy were we glad we came. Of all of our meals at WDW, including CS's, this was the best meal we had. From beginning to end it was flawlessly perfect.

Got there at 4:30 and was instantly seated despite the large crowd that had gathered. Our waiter was superman. He had 4 tables next to eachother and not a single table seemed to ever lack a drink, extra food, or attention.

We started with the strawberry salad and rolls. our dressing was put on the side since my DH hates dressing. Excellent salad. The rolls came out and I was shocked to see a basket of about 15 rolls for 4 people. I was even more shocked when we ordered another basket since we'd eaten them all. They were SO GOOD. With the honey butter it was the best thing i've ever eaten. I could have had only them for my meal but alas more food was to come...

The main dish had turkey, dressing, ham, beef, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, mac and cheese, and gravy. mmmmmmm

The turkey was perfectly cooked. juicy and tasty. beef was great so my DH says. I never got to it since I wanted the turkey. ham was just so-so. good, but don't waste tummy space on it when you have the turkey and potatoes here! The potatoes were REAL... a few small lumps proved it! I like lumps BTW, so they didn't bother me... green beans weren't canned ones. REAL and a bit crispy the way I like them. Mac n cheese was okay to adults but kids loved it. Gravy was like grandma's.

for dessert (amazing we could eat it after 2 platters and 30 rolls....) was apple cobbler with an amazing vanilla bean ice cream. The ice cream was soft and melty over the warm cobbler. fabulous! cupcake came out for my DD and the waiter brought more out when the kids at the table next to us and my DS got jealous. cupcakes for everyone!

I left the restraunt with such a full belly we had to go sit throught he country bear jamboree...which my family would NEVER do.

Oh my gosh, I just can't say enough about this meal. It was like thanksgiving dinner all over...only no dishes, no mess, and no mother in law!

I've heard a lot of belly aching about the characters being gone from this place and how noone thinks there's any reason to eat there anymore. those people are CRAZY This is the best meal there! We had absolutely NO complaints and as you can see above...we're pretty picky!


Only pic that came out here was this: You can see the mac and cheese and one of the heavenly roll that haunt me in my dreams.

 

[cab0ad]

Okay, so Cosmic rays has always been our favorite in the past. Who wouldn't love the chicken and rib combo????

Okay...they have now gone downhill.

Day 1 at CR's:

We got there right at opening and got 2 chicken/rib combos and a double cheeseburger. Chicken was dry, ribs were like eating beef jerkey, and the cheeseburger tasted like it had been sitting there for at least 3 days. We were hoping since we came right when it opened we simply got food that had been prepared an hour earlier to "stock up" for opening.

Day 2 at CR's: Nope. We went a few hours past opening and ordered the exact same thing. Got the exact same food. Dry, old, stale tasting. This ruined our memories of how good it was!

On a good note, since it stunk so bad 2 times we decided to try 2 new CS locations, Main street bakery and Pinocchio village haus. Never been there and never would have if Cosmic Ray's had been good. we'd have eaten it all 4 days in Magic kingdom.

side note: chocolate cake was good both days. i know, prepackaged, but how can you not love chocolate cake?

 

[KatMark]

Great reviews! Thank you for sharing. We too love CP--a must do every trip. We know what you mean about H&V--we had two horrible experiences and won't go back. Glad you had a good meal at WCC. Unfortunately, it was the worse meal of our trip last year and left a really bad taste in our mouth and we probably won't go back. I enjoyed your review of Garden Grill. It's been many, many years since we've been there...we may have to go back.

 

[cab0ad]

Great reviews! Thank you for sharing. We too love CP--a must do every trip. We know what you mean about H&V--we had two horrible experiences and won't go back. Glad you had a good meal at WCC. Unfortunately, it was the worse meal of our trip last year and left a really bad taste in our mouth and we probably won't go back. I enjoyed your review of Garden Grill. It's been many, many years since we've been there...we may have to go back.

Never tried CP until this trip. Wouldn't have either if not for the early entry. Its those disney "surprises" that make the best memories. We won't go another trip without visiting CP, early entry or not!

 

[cab0ad]

On to the Main street bakery. Never would have gone there if we weren't looking for something new after Cosmic Ray's disappointing first 2 dinners....Honestly, we're one of those families that either run through Main Street or take the train to get to the lands...LOL I'm glad we stopped by though.

This place doesn't really give a lot of bang for your buck if you're looking for the "best value" or "most expensive" food on the dining plan but it was GOOD!!!

We all got a cold sandwich (2 turkey and one chose ham. There was also tomato and cheese that looked good). The sandwiches were HUGE and could have been shared. Really there was so much meat on those things it was ridiculous. I peeled a lot off and gave it to my 2 year old and still thought the sandwich was overpacked with meat. All were good/fresh. We also got an apple turnover, crumb cake, and fruit cup. The crumb cake was HUGE and good. warm too. The apple turnover, according to my son, was the best thing he'd ever eaten. I can't tell you anymore because he refused to share. My husband got the fruit cup. WHAT?? All of the dessert in the world and you get a FRUIT CUP?? I still don't get it...

We had frozen strawberry smoothies with whipped cream that were divine for our drinks. My son got a frozen cappacino.... couldn't believe my DH let him get that but he really liked it. This was a nice meal that was cool and refreshing after being in the sun all morning. It was a nice change from hot meals/fried foods. Its our NEW favorite replacing cosmic rays! Hey....we might even look at main street now!

 

[cab0ad]

Another new one we tried due to the cosmic ray letdown. We had chicken nuggets, fries, pizza, cheesecake, and chocolate cake. What can I say? not much to write about. better than Cosmic Rays. It was hot and fresh. No better than other restraunts though. Just kinda "there". Good view from a talbe by the Small World ride though. Probably won't go back but it wasn't terrible. I really can't think of much to say about it. Let me know if you have questions.

 

[cab0ad]

We ate here our first day and only got sandwiches because we thought it would be cheap and quick. weren't expecing much but it was GOOOOD! I do have a pic of this and will add it later (can't you see I'm "working" now?)

We got the Hawaiian sandwich and the cannonball. The cannonball was a meatball sandwich with cheese. It didn't have "whole" meatballs. The meatballs were sliced. My son ate it all and said it was "hot, spicy, and good!"

My DH and I both got the Hawaiian. It had chicken, ham, pineapple, and marinara sauce. Sounds like an absolute mess of a sandwich but it sparked our curiosity. Boy am I glad we tried. it was great. The sandwich was big and freshly toasted. It reminded you of a cross between italian and hawaiian food (not that I've ever been there). Definitely worth stopping by for. It was also pretty cheap for Disney. only 5 or 6 per sandwich and they were big sandwiches.


We also got a turkey and swiss for my DD who is 2. It was also toasted, which turned her off a bit. She didn't want it since it was so unusal. I'd suggest not getting it toasted if your kids are picky. I didn't assume it would be toasted, but it was. The rest of us shared it though when she woudn't eat it and it was good too.

This was a last minute trip to the Earl and we were happy we went!Again, if on the Dining plan you won't get a lot of "bang for your buck" if you're looking to get expensive food but the food was really good. much better than some of the "bang for your buck" food we ate.

 

[Mom of DisKids]

What great reviews! Thanks for posting. I think I'm going to tweak my list now

 

[jana616]

Great reviews! On Main Street Bakery, for one CS credit on the DDP you got a huge sandwich, yummy dessert, and then your drink was a smoothie? That sounds awesome! Are there a good amount of seats there?

 

[Mandychelle79]

Thanks for posting. You did most of the TS resturants I want to do in December.

 

[dd50]

Get reviews. I need to try the Main St Bakery. We usually just pass every thing by on Main St.

 

[cab0ad]

Great reviews! On Main Street Bakery, for one CS credit on the DDP you got a huge sandwich, yummy dessert, and then your drink was a smoothie? That sounds awesome! Are there a good amount of seats there?

Yes, you get a sandwich (good sized), dessert of your choice, and drink. We had the strawberry smoothie for our "drink" but could have chosen a pop, juice, milk, powerade, etc. I kinda think we had "double desserts" here since the drink was a smoothie.

You can get breakfast here too with the same food choices. They have egg/croissant sandwiches you could get with the drink/dessert. But here's a good tip: if you're in the mood for an early lunch come here. The deli sandwiches were premade and in a cooler. There were times we were STARVING before the other counter service places opened. We could eat lunch here much earlier and still get "lunch" food.

Not an incredibly huge amount of seats but adequate. People go in and out quickly. Some just get their food and go.