7 days of Deluxe Dining...full reviews with lots of pics!!! UPDATED w/ link to TR!

[accountingbabe08]

I wanted to let you know because of your reviews I've changed several of my ADR's for October. We are going to try Hollywood Brown Derby FAntasmic switched from Mama Melrose and also we are doing my daughter's birthday dinner at 1900 Park Fare. I've thorougly enjoyed your dining report. I'll be watching for your trip report when you get a chance to start it.


Belinda

 

[MickeyNicki]

Thanks for the Ohana breakfast review, we are trying it next month and I am so looking forward to it

Can you believe I have never had a Mickey Waffle? Is that a WDW sin?

 

[lemondog]

I wanted to let you know because of your reviews I've changed several of my ADR's for October. We are going to try Hollywood Brown Derby FAntasmic switched from Mama Melrose and also we are doing my daughter's birthday dinner at 1900 Park Fare. I've thorougly enjoyed your dining report. I'll be watching for your trip report when you get a chance to start it.


Belinda

I really hope you enjoy your meals as much as we did! I promise to provide a link to the Trip Report when I am done with the dining reviews.

 

[habg1]

Wow, Lemondog! I feel as this is a preview of what's to come for me during my vacation!

We're staying at the Poly, 7 days Deluxe dining and several of the same rest. Ohana dinner, LTT, Sci Fi, etc...

Way to go! Keep up the awesome reviews!

 

[lemondog]

Friday, July 25th ~ Crystal Palace dinner and Dole Whip revisited

Friday was super crowded and hot, so we took a long break back at the hotel after lunch. We returned around 5:30 to hit a couple of rides, the it was time for our 6:10 ADR at Crystal Palace. The place was packed to the gills with a ton of families waiting. They were turning away all walkups. We waited about 20 minutes after our ADR time to be seated.

The kids stuck with mainly the kids buffet....mac and cheese. green beans and chicken nuggets. They also enjoyed the soft serve ice cream for dessert. Sorry I didn't get any pics of their food, but it was standard kids buffet fare.

I first hit the cold salad bar...

Clockwise from top right - crusty roll, Mediterranean Pasta salad, some kind of couscous salad, and peel & eat shrimp. This was all delicious! Grumpy spied the shrimp and demanded an entire plate of peel & eat shrimp for herself, which I had to peel, since Mr. Picky is allergic to shellfish. There went 10 minutes of my dinner!

Up next were hot items...

Clockwise from top left is Broccoli tossed in Puri Puri with key lime ponzu, Fire roasted corn spoon bread, Ancho chile rubbed Atlantic salmon, crusty roll, Fire roasted prime rib with beef demi glaze, and garlic mashed potatoes.

All of this was DELISH!!! And this really only represents a small portion of everything they had to offer. There was so much food, there really was something for everyone! Well, except for Mr. Picky who ate carved meat and rolls all night.

Then it was time for dessert!

Clockwise from the top we've got Apple Cobbler with soft serve vanilla ice cream (FABULOUS), carrot cake (so-so), Coconut Flan (ick) and Banana Bread Pudding, which in my humble opinion beats even the bread pudding at Ohana...it was OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!! Next time I will just go for a heaping plate of that and be a happy camper.

Characters here were Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore. My kids were disappointed Darby was not there...she would be a nice addition for the little ones. We also had a SPECTACULAR view from our table...

They did a napkin twirl here as well and a couple of parades. This was a really fun meal for the whole family and I highly recommend it!

I also got the chance to try a Dole Whip again. After Wishes it was super crowded trying to get out so we hightailed it over to Aloha Isle in Adventureland. I knew I had to try a Dole Whip float, and Mr. Picky went for a regular Dole Whip. I don't know if the machines in MK are different than the Poly, or if it's just that it was so hot, but this time it was HEAVENLY!!! Both the float and the regular Dole Whip were amazing and are my new favorite snack at all of WDW...without a doubt!!!

Up next...Captain Cook's breakfast

 

[MickeyNicki]

Thanks for the CP review, you just made me feel so much better about switching from Tonys!

Ok so you said the banana bread pudding at CP is better than OHANA!!! Is it ok if I eat just that for dinner????

 

[Sam'sMom0126]

Great reviews! Thanks for taking the time to let us live and eat vicariously through you and your family!

 

[mom_of_3_70737]

Awesome reviews! I especially love the pics! For some reason I never think to photograph our food. This trip I will try to do so!! You ate at several of the places that we will be going to in Sept. I am really ready to go now!!!

 

[lemondog]

Saturday, July 26th ~ Captain Cook's breakfast

It was with heavy hearts that we trudged over to Captain Cook's for our last meal at WDW before heading home. We got up around 7am to start packing, and by 8:30 we were starving so we ran to grab some breakfast.

Captain Cook's, for those who have never been there, is usually very crowded, and this morning was no exception. It's not all that large for a counter service restaurant, especially serving a hotel with over 800 rooms. We were able to snag a table, though, while I headed up to the touch screens to order.

One other thing I need to mention about Captain Cook's -- there is truly only ONE kids' meal on the entire breakfast menu. It's called the Children's Breakfast Plate and it comes with scrambled eggs, bacon and grapes. The other meals are all considered adult meals. It really doesn't matter because they let us order whatever we wanted, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

Mr. Picky ordered the Breakfast Sandwich....egg, bacon and cheese on a huge croissant. He had this another morning as well (the morning he had to miss Boma breakfast) and he really liked it! He had oj to drink.

Superstar chose the Children's Breakfast Plate...she loves eggs and bacon so she enjoyed this. She had oj to drink as well.

Grumpy and Bashful both chose the Mickey Waffle. Grumpy wanted bacon, and Bashful wanted sausage. I should mention that the Mickey waffles served here are a lot larger than the little ones they serve on buffets and at the Ohana breakfast. They had chocolate milk and white milk with theirs.

I also chose a Mickey waffle, but i got mine with strawberry sauce. YUMMY! I snagged one of Bashful's humungo sausage links to eat with it. I had coffee with my meal (I honestly did not think the Nescafe was all that bad!) and brought my refillable mug so I could also have some Diet Coke.

Now the girls had been eyeing the yummy bakery case and since we had 25 snack credits left with 1 hour to go in our vacation, we told them to have at it! Superstar chose a cinnamon roll as big as her head. Bashful went for the equally large apple sweet roll. Grumpy had to be difficult. She was bound and determined to have a Mickey Cupcake like they have out during lunch and dinner. So I asked the CM if we could get one, and he said no problem! He quickly came back with a lovely vanilla mickey cupcake with sprinkles and she was one happy camper! Nothing like a little frosting and sugar in the morning to get you going!

We thought this breakfast was fine...your standard CS fare. It would be great for a quick breakfast before hitting the parks. The bakery selections looked amazing...the muffins and sweet rolls were the biggest I have ever seen. They also had several cold cereals to choose from and plenty of fresh fruit in addition to the hot offerings.

Up next...Wrap up and final thoughts

 

[Paparazzimama]

So sad that it's ending!

 

[lemondog]

Final thoughts...

On the whole, we really enjoyed our meals at Disney. I would not say they were gourmet by any means (although Brown Derby came close), but they certainly got the job done...filled us up in a fun atmosphere. We enjoyed sitting down for as many meals as we could. We are just not commando park types and we were still able to do everything we wanted to...many rides more than once! I saw several families snarfing down hot dogs on the run from one ride to another, and that's fine if you want to fit in as much touring time as possible, but we like to relax a little more and enjoy our food, so we feel the Deluxe DDP was truly the right choice for us. We have already discussed when we go back if the DxDDP is still being offered, then we will definitely do it again.

That said...it is almost impossible to eat 2 snacks a day in addition to all 3 meals. I don't feel 2 snacks was necessary. By Thursday we quit bringing water bottles from our hotel and just used snack credits to purchase as needed. I also bought several Diet Cokes this way.

Some of the things we used snack credits for...
-Bottled water
-Fountain and bottled sodas
-Ice cream cones
-Popcorn boxes
-Frozen drinks (a la Icee)
-Fresh pineapple (wonder who bought that??)
-Cupcakes
-Pastry items from Captain Cook's
-Ice cream novelties (popscicles, Mickey bars, etc.)
-Dole Whips
-Dole Whip Float
-Cotton candy
-Create-your-own snacks at Goofy's Candy Co. in DTD (we loaded up on these)
-Individually packaged baked goods and snacks -- rice krispie treats, brownies, pretzels, dried fruit, etc.

For those who are newbies and still on the fence about DxDDP, I say give it a shot at least one time. It will allow you to eat in many different places, and then after that you'll know what you like and don't like, giving you the ability to plan your meals more efficiently, especially if you decide to drop back down to the regular DDP or no meal plan at all.

Thanks again for taking the time to read my reviews. I felt like I "owed you one" since all the other reviews really helped me when I was planning. I had fun reliving my vacation!

For those who are interested, I will be starting a Trip Report soon over on that board. I promise to post the link here as soon as I get it started!

 

[marivaid]

Thank you for the great reviews ! Can't wait to read your trip report. Your family is beautiful

 

[Disney_Angel]

Sounds exciting.... ..... subscribing

 

[shellbelle]

I have loved reading your dining report!

I am so excited to hear you are writing a trip report, too! Can't wait to read it!

 

[heatherlynn444]

thanks for the reviews! doing deluxe in september and looking forward to all the food!

 

[Disney_Angel]

wow, great reviews!
we'll be dining at your first two restaurants and now i'm eager to try the CM's breakfast lasagne and the new offerings at 1900 (it's been *years* since we had dinner there)...
after seeing that salad, we are definitely hitting PVH for lunch one day!!!
thanks

I have to agree with this poster that salad looked tasty and light. I even think the kids turkey wrap looked good. GREAT REVIEW.....thanks

 

[vcgirl925]

[/B]

Wow! That's a lot of snacks! They look really yummy too. Especially the rice cripsy ears.

 

[adsrtw]

Fantastic Review!

 

[accountingbabe08]

Great report. Thanks for taking the time to share with us all.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I thought I had learned my lesson, reading your reviews on an empty stomach... but turns out they have the same effect on a full stomach! I'm hungry!!!!

Thanks for sharing these terrific reviews. I've enjoyed following along and will look forward to your trip report!