A Disney Family's Dining Review - we magically even got some pictures!

[MommytoaSweetie]

Thank you all so much for the encouragement! The idea of writing dining reviews is a little intimidating to me... I don't feel like I'm a very eloquent writer, and I know my pictures pale in comparison to many I see on there, but I still hope they're helpful.

Day 3 will be coming tomorrow, I'm almost done writing it.

Looking forward to reading your reviews! We're going in June with our almost 3 y/o DD and almost 2 y/o DD and have a lot of ADRs for places you're reviewing I just upgraded to deluxe, so I need to make a couple more ADRs...

Wow, that'll be fun! And a great idea while they're free - isn't that the best!?

Count me in! I had the hardest time when I brought our 2 nieces to WDW...I learned that they filled up on a big buffet breakfast as they both love all breakfast foods but lunch and dinner were a nightmare!

And BTW, I love vanilla ice cream too

Hmm, that's so frustrating that it was hard to do lunch and dinner! Tiredness for our family definitely plays in, though. It's hard to be little and tired! And that vanilla ice cream... I just don't get it. I love it ON my other desserts, but only by itself if we're at McDonalds and that's all they have.

Oh a new chicken parm dish at PH? Hope its still there in Sept, that has to be new!

I'm glad I wasn't crazy thinking that! I seriously almost ordered pizza just "out of habit," but then we saw the chicken parm and figured it was worth a shot. And we're glad we did. I hope they keep it, too!

great start! we didn't do character meals our first several trips because one of my ds didn't like the masked characters either. Now that he has finally out grown it , we love going even though now they may be a little to old (my younger ds is 13 - he still likes going) We have only eaten at CP for dinner or lunch and enjoy it. Want to try breakfast so I can try that french toast. it looks amazing!

I'm glad we're not the only one with that issue! And I'm SO SO thankful for all the princess meals - I'm sure for moms of boys it may not be as great, but for us it really helps "break" our kids into the idea of characters. We still try the regular characters, in hopes that it'll get better, and it does by the end of our vacation... maybe one day it will by the first day or two. What did you think of CP for lunch and dinner? I'd love to try it again!

 

[MommytoaSweetie]

Day 3

We went to Animal Kingdom for morning EMH. Since we weren’t going to be eating our big breakfast for awhile (ADR at 10:10), we took our quick breakfasts with us… milks, kasha bars, and clementines. By 9:15, though, our girls were a little hungry, so we used a snack credit and got apple slices with caramel dip – they think it’s such a treat. Seriously, the gobbled them up!

It turned out to be a very good thing we had the apples… our breakfast was at

Donald’s Safari Breakfast at Tusker House

We arrived at 9:55 to checkin, and were told it would be a 20 minute wait PAST our reservation time because they were backed up. Pretty annoying, especially since they tell you to get to restaurants 15 minutes BEFORE your ADR time – and we did. This was our family’s 3rd time at the restaurant, though, so I’m hoping this was just a one-time issue. We waited out at the tables outside, got our sunblock on since it was warming up, and then DH took the girls to look around. We were finally called after 10:30 and walked up to where you take your picture with Donald – who was just stepping out for a break. Bummer. We knew that there would be issues with the characters anyway for our family, though, so we asked if we had to take the picture – since the purchase is not included in your meal price and we knew we wouldn’t buy them, it didn’t seem worth it to wait and have our kids freak out anyway, so they said we could just skip it and go on in. Perfect idea.

We sat down at our table and no characters were close… Mickey and Goofy were further away, but not close enough to cause distress so both DD’s were just aware of their presence. Our waitress brought out our “jungle juice” or whatever it’s called – it’s very tasty – and then took our other drink orders. DH and I needed coffee. I think our girls just stuck to the juice. We also asked about the order of characters, and realized it would be a little while before they got to our table, so we went to get our breakfast. I like that Tusker House has a wide variety of options available. The food was good, too, although I think we slightly preferred the food at Crystal Palace (we hadn’t expected that)… well for me, it was mostly the fruit options. There were some good melon choices at Tusker House, but I was hoping to find more strawberries. My plate is below – I got a cheese blintz with apple topping (very yummy!), scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, a vegetable quiche, and bacon. I enjoyed my breakfast! Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of it, but I went back up and found a chocolate croissant, too… that was excellent.

DH got his favorites – Mickey waffles (but no chocolate), eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon… and in his words, “yeah, it was all good!” (and I again apologize for the blurry pic)

Our girls both had a Mickey waffle with fruit and bites from our plates. No picture of those because by the time it was on our plate, everything was cut up and ready to be eaten. They ended up just waving by Mickey, but when Daisy came by (a favorite of our girls), both of our girls sat with us and had us ask her to sign their autograph books. They did the same for Goofy, who they wouldn’t look at, but closed their eyes while he signed their books. It was an improvement.

The food was tasty – like I said before, I think we preferred Crystal Palace, but it wasn’t that Tusker House was bad. We also had the longer wait, and that put us on a sour note, so who knows. We’d give it an 8/10 for the whole experience (with the wait), but 9/10 for the food.

Since we ate breakfast so late, we ended up not being hungry for quite awhile – we got a little hungry around 3pm, but not enough for a full lunch, so we decided to use some snack credits. We were somewhere near the Festival of the Lion King and there was a place with soft serve icecream treats. DH and I both got a waffle cone, and DD1 wanted a strawberry shortcake (DD2 was napping in the stroller). That thing was HUGE! She absolutely loved it (and told me it was okay for our “lunch” since it had strawberries ), and thankfully DD2 woke up in time to finish it up.

We left Animal Kingdom after 4, headed back to our resort to change, and headed over to Downtown Disney for dinner at

Rainforest Café

We had signed up for their Safari Club at a recent visit to a RC in New Jersey, so we had that card, plus the $10 new member voucher, plus a gift card, so we were excited to hit it up. We didn’t have a reservation because we had the Safari Club, which we showed at the front, then went and stood in the line (I think they were resetting for the dinner crowd) for about 10 minutes, and got seated. It worked well!

We chose the free appetizer for our Safari Club perk and got the cheese sticks because it was what we could all easily agree on. They were hot, fresh, and gooey – our DD2 had a hard time figuring out how to get the stringing cheese in her mouth. Sorry, though, no pic. DH and I each got the China Island Chicken Salad – oh my goodness, it was so yummy! Huge portion, and I couldn’t finish all of mine, but I loved it.

Our girls split the mini turkey sliders – it was two small buns with some turkey and a piece of American cheese on each, and came with a side – both girls wanted applesauce, so we ordered a second so they could each have one. Both of our kids enjoyed it, even if it looked a little plain to me.

The food at RC was really good, but it was also REALLY expensive. I guess it’s similar in price to other Disney TS restaurants, but our bill came to $50-some before our voucher & gift card. That’s a lot for dinner! It added up easily with our higher-priced salads ($17 each?!?), pretty pricey kid’s meal ($7 for the meal plus $2 for each milk and another $1 or 2 for the extra applesauce). And we got the appetizer for free! Without a gift card, I’m not sure we’d go there again, but it was certainly worth the value we actually spent.

For food and ambiance, I’d give Rainforest Café a 10/10. With the cost, I’d drop it down to 9/10.

 

[sushibite]

The food looks delicious. I am definitely subscribing to this thread.

 

[sahm2two]

Great reviews! I really enjoy reading about what your DDs like/eat. We've got Cinderella's table booked for breakfast on our 1st day, I'm crossing my fingers that they like the characters! Do the characters do a good job of judging if the kid is scared?

Looking forward to reading the rest of the reviews

 

[Dimples1973ca]

Fantastic Reviews! Thanks for sharing.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

We'll be eating at Akershus for the first time in October with our 2 year old, can't wait to see how you and your girls like it!

 

[minushka72]

Thank you all so much for the encouragement! The idea of writing dining reviews is a little intimidating to me... I don't feel like I'm a very eloquent writer, and I know my pictures pale in comparison to many I see on there, but I still hope they're helpful.

I'm glad I wasn't crazy thinking that! I seriously almost ordered pizza just "out of habit," but then we saw the chicken parm and figured it was worth a shot. And we're glad we did. I hope they keep it, too!

Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews. I have a 4 year old and 1 year old so this is especially great. I had the chicken parm at Pinocchio's in September and it was really good. Mine came with orzo instead of regular pasta though which I thought was a nice difference. Your pic looks like it was ziti when you got it? I loved the sauce and thought the chicken was very tasty for CS. Will definately be getting it again if we eat there in May.

 

[lizzyb]

Great reviews soo far! I'm in!

 

[MommytoaSweetie]

Great reviews! I really enjoy reading about what your DDs like/eat. We've got Cinderella's table booked for breakfast on our 1st day, I'm crossing my fingers that they like the characters! Do the characters do a good job of judging if the kid is scared?

Looking forward to reading the rest of the reviews

I think that most of the characters can tell... the masked characters sometimes might not see what's going on (not their fault that it's probably hard to see in there!), or they've occasionally tried to be silly with us if they don't know not to (like Goofy or Tigger - it's just part of their character), but once they've realized that our girls are too scared, they totally back off - maybe try a wave to see if they can ease them in, but if we need to we can totally tell them that we just can't do it then and they're fine with it. I'm sure they see that ALL the time. For the regular characters, I've found the same thing - if our girls don't know a character well, they don't have a big desire to interact, and the characters can sense the shyness and usually act accordingly. I keep hoping that after this many trips, we'd no longer have issues, but if the characters were too much to handle, we just wouldn't do the meals for awhile.

Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews. I have a 4 year old and 1 year old so this is especially great. I had the chicken parm at Pinocchio's in September and it was really good. Mine came with orzo instead of regular pasta though which I thought was a nice difference. Your pic looks like it was ziti when you got it? I loved the sauce and thought the chicken was very tasty for CS. Will definately be getting it again if we eat there in May.

That's so interesting! Our pasta definitely wasn't orzo, but it wasn't ziti or penne, either... I don't know the names of all the pasta shapes, but it was some sort of twisted shape, maybe rolled up tubes or something? All I know is that it was tasty, held the sauce well, and had a fun texture. Maybe they switch it up depending on cost?

 

[jamiesmom07]

I'm along for the ride. What wonderful informative reviews!! Thank you!

 

[MommytoaSweetie]

Day 4

After a good night’s sleep, we headed out for morning EMH at Epcot. Since we had an early morning, we ate our on-the-go breakfasts again… it was so nice to just be ready to go in the morning!

When we were ready for lunch, we headed over to

Sunshine Seasons

I love the selection there! So many options and varieties, and the desserts are wonderful. It’s a little hectic in the food area, especially with two small children at your side. It would be easier if you knew what you wanted before you went in, but that’s hard to do with so many food areas, so we just had our kids stick close to us and it worked fine, just a little stressful for a few minutes until we got seated at a table.

DH went to the Asian area and got the Mongolian Beef with noodles and broccoli. He says it was okay – not amazing… he’d get it again if he was in the mood, but maybe try something else. I actually think he’s had the beef before, so if he thought that previously, he must not have remembered. He also got the Key Lime Pie for dessert – that thing is BIG, and looks delicious… if it wasn’t sour. I make it at home not-sour (and DH still likes it that way), but I don’t like sour things so it’s too much for me. But if you like Key Lime Pie, it’s a good choice.

I got the sustainable fish of the day… it was some white fish, maybe tilapia? I think I asked, but now I don’t remember. It was very yummy, though! Not super fishy-tasting, and the pine nuts and sauce on top were delicious with it. It was served on a cold salad of marinated green beans, potatoes, and tomatoes. The salad was good – different than I’d think to make at home, but I really enjoyed it and I might try something similar with our CSA green beans this summer. I really enjoyed that meal! My dessert was a chocolate mousse cake (it’s in the picture above), and it was very tasty and chocolatey.

Our girls wanted mac & cheese, so they split that and each got an applesauce as a side (we forgot our own), and I let them get a treat of chocolate milk to drink. Our kids never get chocolate milk at home (only when Daddy is on a business trip), so it’s a big treat on vacation. They finished up their meal quickly, and then DD1 ate my tomatoes and DD2 ate some of DH’s noodles before we all split the desserts.

Overall, I’d give Sunshine Seasons a 10/10 for quick service – there is so much to choose from, lots of seating, and the location is great because it’s so close to other rides.

For dinner, we had a reservation at our favorite princess place,

Akershus!

This was our 3rd visit – we’d been before once for dinner and once for breakfast. Our girls, especially DD1, were EXTREMELY excited for this!! DD1 was remembering a LOT about it – she honestly remembers a lot about all of her trips to WDW (she’s now been 3 times), even from her first trip when she wasn’t even 2 yet. So her memory of Akershus was pretty good, and she knew what was going to happen. After taking a picture with Belle (DD1 was feeling a bit shy, so just DD2 went up), we sat on the side near the entrance of the princesses. It’s nice to see them come out and know right when they’re getting to your table. Our server came by, took our drink order, and made sure we knew what was happening. We were welcome to go to the cold buffet any time, but since princesses started coming out, we waited for them first.

Meeting the princesses was WONDERFUL – DD1 was SOOOOO thrilled to meet each of them (even though she has before, it’s still an extremely fun experience at her age), and couldn’t help her squeals of delight as they came through the doors. She went up to each (we saw Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Ariel), smiled with them, and gave them a big hug. A year since she last saw them, she now initiated getting out of her seat and all of her interaction – she kind of wanted to talk to them a little more, but still didn’t know what to say yet so it’ll be fun to see her grow. They were all very sweet and we weren’t rushed with them. When Ariel came through the door, there was extreme delight at our table – we had been to Akershus before, but had somehow never seen Ariel there, and DD1 was hoping to meet her in her dress. So as Snow White got to our table, Ariel was out in the restaurant, and DD1 kind of rushed through meeting her so that she wouldn’t miss Ariel. The excitement clearly rubbed off on DD2, who until that point had stayed in her highchair (they didn’t have booster seats, btw). As soon as Ariel came close, DD1 rushed out of her chair to give her a hug, and DD2 asked to get out and hug her, too! It was so fun to see her get in on the fun, too!

After meeting all the princesses, we went up to the buffet. They have salad greens, various other salads (pasta, potato, cucumber/tomato, shrimp, beets, etc), cut melon, deli meats, cheeses, rolls, capers, and smoked salmon. I really enjoy the buffet – it offers some less traditionally-American foods and a good opportunity to try something you might not normally, with plenty of options for more picky eaters. DH got salad, pasta salad, some meats, cheese, and a roll.

I had salad with other salads on top – beets, cucumbers, potato salad, pasta salad, and shrimp salad, with some cheese. It was all REALLY tasty – especially the shrimp salad! I could seriously eat just from that buffet and not need more.

Our girls chose some ham, cucumbers (which were gone before I took the pic), beets, cheese, and fruit. I loved that our girls – who sometimes will eat them but not always – ate the beets because they were princess pink.

For our entrée, I got the salmon, and it was delicious!! Cooked wonderfully, the vegetables underneath were great, and I loved the whole thing.

DH got the Traditional Kjottkake, which are described as dumplings, but it turned out they’re really like our version of meatballs. Once he realized that his expectation was just wrong, DH enjoyed them.

Our girls got pizza – I just ordered one because they were going to split it (since DD1 was on the plan), but they brought out two, and didn’t charge us for the second! I think they did this for us when DD1 was younger (she was almost 2 at her first trip there for dinner), but I was still surprised they did it again. It’s such a nice gesture, and the pizza was pretty tasty! (I tried a bite since they weren’t going to finish theirs).

Dessert comes out served family style, with three items to share. The chocolate torte was very yummy and we all finished it off. The rice cream was okay – if you like rice pudding, you’d be a fan… we ate some of it, but it wasn’t anyone’s favorite. The puff pastry was really yummy – it’s filled with a cheese mixture, similar to a cream cheese, and the berries with it were good, too. I like that they give you different options of items we wouldn’t necessarily choose, but are fun to try.

At some point during our meal, there was a Princess Processional for children to parade around the room with the princesses. I’m not sure if we just missed this before, but we hadn’t seen this done, so our girls weren’t exactly sure what to do. DH took them up and had them hold hands, and then the sweetest girl (who had been sitting at the table next to us and we had talked to a little) – she was probably 9 or 10ish – held hands with DD1 and helped our girls walk around with the princesses. It was SO SWEET!! If she hadn’t done that, our DDs probably would have come back to the table, but she helped them feel comfortable with the situation and they talked about it the rest of the trip (and since then!). I thanked her parents after taking pictures, and I hope they know how their daughter made our vacation more special.

Another mom came up to us as they were leaving (we were a little slow with our food, as is usual for our family… our girls are slooooow eaters ), and she was expressing how much fun she had watching our DD1 with her excitement about the princesses. She had and older daughter, who used to get that way, and it was a fun reminder to her… and it was a really good opportunity for me to remember to enjoy the moment of our girls being young – they will grow up and change (which is good, too), and I’m so thankful that we have been given these opportunities with them.

Overall, we’d give Akershus a 10/10 for everything… the food, princess interaction, guest entertainment, etc… it’s such a special place! And yes, if you read in my first post, we did go there again – the next day – so we really do enjoy it.

 

[dbcdhogan]

Yumm...This is making me hungry, and is VERY helpful! Thanks for sharing

 

[ThreeKMom]

Loving your report so far!

Thanks!

 

[kimgof]

I'm so glad you enjoy Akershus. We will be dining there for the first time, on our trip this summer. My DD will be 8 and has done CRT 3 times now so we wanted to try something different. I was a little concerned about the food choices being a little "different" at Akershus. My kids are not adventurous eaters. I feel better seing things like meatballs and pizza! Of course my kids would never eat beets...even princess pink ones

 

[ukool]

Oh a new chicken parm dish at PH? Hope its still there in Sept, that has to be new!

I hope it sticks around till sept, it looks like a great dish!

 

[LoriJune]

Loving your reviews!

 

[irishsharon]

Wonderful reviews

 

[MommytoaSweetie]

(I'm so sorry I've been slow in finishing this up!! Who would have thought my life would get so busy in mid-March!? )

Day 5

We had another day at Epcot… it’s just too big of a place for us to get through the whole thing in one day! So we had our on-the-go breakfasts and had a fun morning in the park. After our AAA Storytime Experience (Jasmine was our storyteller), we were very close for our lunch at

Akershus! (again!)

We booked Akershus twice this time because DD1 soooooo desperately wanted to see Ariel in her dress and it was our best chance… besides that they just love it there and there was no reason not to. I originally had a Garden Grill ADR, but changed it for the hopes of Ariel, and I was so thankful I did after our first masked-character experience.

When we checked in the night before, the wait was about 5-10 minutes… no big deal. Well this time, checking in for lunch was a 10 minute line in and of itself, and then there was another 10 minute wait after that just to get in the line to see Belle. Kind of annoying, but not a huge deal. Thankfully, once we were in line for Belle, things went quickly and it was a wonderful experience. Again.

We were seated in a different room this time, which was especially nice, just to make things different. We definitely knew the drill this time, and the princesses weren’t near us yet, so we went up to the cold buffet first. By our 5th day, we had also learned an important lesson – if you’re paying for a “big” meal (like a buffet), you might as well get your money’s worth. We learned that on our Animal Kingdom day, where we ate enough at a late breakfast to just have snacks at lunch. So since we were paying for a “big” lunch, we ate like it was dinner… so we loaded up our buffet plates. HA! I don’t have any pictures, because the food was the same and it was still delicious, and we enjoyed it again.

The lunch menu was different than the dinner menu had been for smaller, lunch-size portions. So we were extra glad to fill up more at the buffet. The lunch food was still yummy. I got an open-faced chicken sandwich with a vegetable soup. I enjoyed the sandwich, although the bread was a little hard and it was difficult to eat gracefully. The soup had a lot of flavor from all the different vegetables. I liked that it was NOT salty, but still seasoned nicely.

DH got the chicken and green beans. He liked it, but getting him to describe anything more about it is not happening right now, so I’ll just say it must have been fine.

Our girls again got the pizza, and they again each got one. And our server was so sweet... this meal we had put a note about their birthday on the reservation, so she brought out a cupcake for each birthday girl with a card signed by the princesses - plus our server had written a note on the card to them (personally!) in her own Norwegian language. It was such a special touch, and we really appreciated it! And our girls definitely enjoyed the cupcakes.

Dessert was the trio again – since we were pretty full, we didn’t even touch the rice cream this time, and we knew that we liked the puff and the chocolate best.

The best part of going to Akershus a second time was that DD2 knew what to expect this time – and wanted in on the action! She wanted to hug all the princesses, the girls both held hands and went around during the princess processional… the whole time was just beautiful. I was so thankful we ate there twice! Considering that at this age, princesses are the best part of DisneyWorld for our girls, to get that extra time with them was definitely magical. I’m not sure we’d do it again (since there wouldn’t be a need), but if our girls asked us to (and we were on the dining plan ), I’d probably agree to go twice again.

We made our second Epcot day a half-day and left around 4:30, so we swam in the pool a bit and then got dinner at

Everything Pop

The food court there has a lot of variety, similar to Sunshine Seasons. I really like that! But it’s also a bit confusing to walk around, especially with little kids. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy so that didn’t add much stress. DH got a pulled port sandwich with fries – he again says that it was good. That’s all. (that’s not a bad or good description for him… it was food so he ate it… that’s just him )

I was going to go for the Mom’s special thing (I think it was roast turkey?) but when I got up and saw the salmon, I changed my mind to that. It came with rice that was a little more flavored than I anticipated – not bad, just not what I was expecting, green beans that were yummy, and corn bread similar to Boston Market. It was great!

DD1 wanted a hotdog and DD2 wanted mac & cheese, so we just let them each get their own… it’s only $5 for another meal and we needed the drinks & sides anyway. They both wanted applesauce, and then DD1 saw the “Jammin Gels” and really wanted that, too… so I felt nice and let them get that, too. They loved having it for dessert! I was actually impressed by it, too… it does have some fruit juice in it, so it wasn’t total junk. Of course, neither of our girls ate all their meals, but they finished their applesauce and jello.

Now here’s where I tell you the BEST part of that meal. With the dining plan, you get a dessert with an adult meal. We know that. And last year we learned that you could get a brownie sundae as your dessert, so we asked our cashier if we could do that again. Yep. So we had two brownie sundaes on our receipt. At our table, DH read the stamp on our receipt… it said that we had to get our sundaes within 90 minutes. We ordered at 6:30 and finished eating at 6:50. A new plan was born. We quickly got our kids back to the room for a fast bath, got them in bed (where they fell asleep easily since they were so tired), and then DH went back to Everything Pop for our sundaes. He texted me a picture of the choices…

So I chose Rocky Road ice cream with hot fudge, nuts, chocolate chips, and sprinkles… and he was able to get all of that! It was SO HUGE and SO GOOD. And the best part - OH YEAH! We got to eat them ALL TO OURSELVES!! A big brownie sundae, sitting on bed, watching TV with my husband – it was like our own vacation within our family vacation. LOVED it. I HIGHLY recommend this idea to anyone, although especially to parents of young children.

(As an FYI, I have a big event coming this weekend, so I know I won’t get to write any more until then – I’m so sorry to not get it finished all at once! But I will, I promise!)

 

[lilandvisma]

Really enjoying reading your reviews! That sundae from POP looks sooo yummy to me right about now and I don't even do ice cream Our girls LOVE akershus too. I love how you write about your girls...you can just tell that you guys are great parents, not trying to force the characters on them. My DD's were always fearless with characters, santa, etc... DS is questionable but he does seem much more timid than the girls ever were.

 

[Lil Bo Peep]

What were your dates in Feb? We were there as well from the 3rd to the 15th and we stayed at Pop.