A first timer's guide to free dining 9/19-9/26

[luvmy3jewels]

Our family's much anticipated free dining trip was last week and overall, it did not disappoint. There were six of us total including three kids (one of whom is a vegetarian) and my mother (the pickiest adult eater that I have ever met). We all had a great time, despite the heat and crowds. The TS restaurants we ate at were:

Rainforest Cafe (Breakfast)
Narcoosee's (Dinner)
The Plaza (Lunch)
The Wave (Dinner)
Crystal Palace (Dinner)
Tutto Italia (Dinner)
Kona Cafe (Breakfast)
T-Rex Cafe (Dinner)

QS meals and snacks included:
ASMo Food Court
Columbia Harbor House
Cosmic Rays
Pizzafari
Sunshine Seasons
Toy Story Pizza Planet
Electric Umbrella
Epcot ice cream cart

Dh and I had each lost about 17 lbs prior to this trip and gained back 5 lbs each, if that gives you any indication as to how much we enjoyed our food Everywhere we ate, we found something that was good. However, the biggest disappoint was the quality and selection of kids meals which was kind of suprising given that Disney is such a huge draw for families.

We loved having free dining, and it was quite a shock to return to the real world and have to pay for food
I tried to save my reciepts to try to help me remember what we ate, but they ended up being thrown away in our flurry of packing for our return home. So, I will just have to rely upon my excellent memory to write my reviews.

 

[TigerKat]

Signing on! Can't wait for The Wave, we're trying it in a few weeks!

 

[luvmy3jewels]

Oops, just found error #1 in my review. We were there from 9/19 - 9/26. If I were a little more tech savvy, I would update my heading (and I would also post pictures).

We arrived at the world on Saturday afternoon and quickly headed over to the Magic Kingdom. I hadn't made any dining reservations for the first night, in case our flight was delayed and to allow a little flexibiltiy in plans so our first meal was a quick service at Cosmic Rays. I got the chicken and ribs combo and found the chicken, mashed potatos and steamed veggies to be quite good. Dh ate my ribs (which he said were OK) and had the turkey bacon wrap which he said was good. Mom had a cheeseburger and fries which she enjoyed. My youngest two children (5&7) had chicken nuggets and fries and they didn't really like the nuggest but thought the fries were good. Oldest dd (8 year old vegetarian) had the pb&j uncrustable with french fries. We shared the adult desserts with the kids which were chocolate cake and carrot cake and they really enjoyed it. (I think the kids meals came with choc chip cookies for the youngest two and fruit for my oldest which were all just OK).

For a quick service meal this was pretty tasty, although we found that most QS places throughout the world had the exact same food choices which became a little repetetive by the end of the trip.

 

[TigerKat]

To change the heading click the "edit" button, bottom right then "go advanced", this will allow you to edit the heading.

 

[Nohal]

We were there the same time as you and also ate at Cosmic Rays. I had the rib platter which was delicious. The ribs were so tender. I thought the ribs here were better than they were at Flame Tree BBQ.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

how were the breakfasts at kona and rainforest?? we have both of those reserved for our 11/5-11/10 trip.

thanks

 

[natalielongstaff]

ooh you ate at some lovely places

 

[MickeyNicki]

What a line up...cant wait to hear all about it

 

[luvmy3jewels]

We were there the same time as you and also ate at Cosmic Rays. I had the rib platter which was delicious. The ribs were so tender. I thought the ribs here were better than they were at Flame Tree BBQ.

Dh thought the Cosmic Rays' ribs were pretty good. We didn't make it to Flame Tree, so I will take your word for it

To change the heading click the "edit" button, bottom right then "go advanced", this will allow you to edit the heading.

Thanks for the help! I have edited my title to reflect the correct dates.

how were the breakfasts at kona and rainforest?? we have both of those reserved for our 11/5-11/10 trip.

Kona was great. Our experience with Rainforest was you could take it or leave it. OK, but nothing to write home about.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

Sorry for the delay. I've had a very hectic week trying to get back in the groove of things after a vacation.

Our first full park day was spent at Animal Kingdom, and since we had a couple of "fast food" meals the day before, I decided to start it off with a sit down breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe. DH and I both ordered coffee and omelets. We both agreed the coffee was terrible and the omelets were OK, but a little too greasy before you start off a hot day in a theme park. Mom ordered a waffle along with veggie dd and they both liked it. The youngest two kids ordered plates with scrambled egg, potatos and sausage. They seemed to like it OK, but neither ate much and I think it was because they were too excited.

Our server was nice, but very, very slow. I'm not sure why she was so slow, since they restaurant wasn't very busy, but I'd like to think she had a good reason. We ended up paying $80 OOP for this meal (including tip), which to be quite honest was too much for what it was. This one definitely won't be on our "must return" list.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

Since this was our first full day of getting used to the FL humidity (and it was a HOT! week), none of us were really hungry around lunch time but we ended up stopping at the Pizzafari in the afternoon just to give the kids a break.

Pizzafari is air conditioned, so that was a major plus for us at the time. Everyone but dh ordered pizzas and thought that it was pretty tasty. Dh tried to keep things a little lighter and ordered the chicken ceaser salad, which he ended up regretting. His main complaints was that the salad was drenched in dressing and the chicken tasted bad. For dessert the kids got cookies and adults got chocolate cake (which we ended up once again sharing with the kids). I think my kids have been spoiled by the homemade choc. chip cookies their nana makes for them every week. Disney's just couldn't compare, and we ended up throwing them away because the kids didn't like them.

With the exception of the ceaser salad, Pizzarari was a thumbs up!

Since Animal Kingdom closed at 5, I had decided that we would visit Downtown Disney on this night. I had read so many great reviews about the Wolfgang Puck Express, I decided that it would be a must-do for this trip. Our orders (and opinions) were as follows:

Me: BBQ Chicken quesadilla and creme brulee - Both were delicious and I would definitely order them again!!!

DH: BBQ Chicken pizza and a cookie - Pizza and cookie were both very good.

Mom: Chicken fingers, french fries, and a cookie - It's pretty hard to mess up chicken fingers and french fries, so she liked them!

Veggie dd: Cheese pizza and cookie - Both were very good.

DS and youngest dd: Chicken fingers, fries and cookies - They liked them.

I agree with many of the posters who have commented that the Wolfgang Puck Express is one of the best QS values Disney has to offer!! All of our food was very good, and although it was QS, there was a server available that brought our food, cleaned our table and got us drinks. I wish I remember his name, because he was outstanding! I also love the fact that the menu has such a variety of food (and it all sounds good)!!

We ended up eating on the patio outside and there was a squirrel who kept coming right up to my dd and begging for food. Dh would shoo him away and a few minutes later the squirrel would come right back...that squirrel was shameless!!

I have one minor comment/complaint about the cookies. While WPE cookies beat out the Disney cookies by a mile, the WPE cookies were not labled. They have them by the register, so when you order you pick up whichever one you want. My youngest two ended up picking oatmeal raisin cookies, when they thought they were picking choc. chip. Now, to an adult this probably isn't a big deal, but to two raisin hating kids the suprise was not a pleasant one. Fortunately, dh and mom had picked up the white choc macadamia cookies and a swap was quickly performed.

Wolfgang Puck Express is definitely on my must-do list for Disney Dining!!

 

[luvmy3jewels]

The next day (Monday) we headed down to the ASMo Cafe for breakfast and used snack credits to get muffins, a bagel, and cereal (with milk) for the kids. We also bought resort mugs for the adults, which we used frequently throughout the week.

It wasn't a fancy breakfast, but it was something to eat before we left for Epcot. One thing I didn't like about the ASMo cafe was that it was always crowded and chaotic! But the food we ate there throughout the week was pretty good, and we found that eating outside was a lot quieter and more relaxing!

Before we went to eat lunch, we all rode Soarin once and then had Fast Passes to ride again. However, ds, youngest dd and dh decided to sit the second time out and they ended up waiting a long time for the rest of us to ride (even the FP line was sloooowww!). By the time we got off the ride, ds was "bored" and in a terrible mood. His mood definitely ended up affecting our lunch at Sunshine Seasons.

In order to minimize chaos, I made the mistake of going into the food court and selecting the kids' lunches. Thinking that my youngest two loved chicken legs, I got them a kids plate with roasted chicken legs and mashed potatos. DS pretty much refused to eat his because the leg was roasted/not fried and he didn't like the potatos because they had the skins mashed in them . Youngest dd followed his lead at first, but then bravely dared to try a bite of chicken and quickly discovered she liked it. I also made an error in selecting macaroni and cheese for veggie dd, because she apparenty hates Disney's mac and cheese. Kid-wise this meal was a disaster, but most of it was due to my miscalculation of what my kids like to eat.

I ended up getting the grilled salmon with mashed potatos and roasted carrots, which were all very good! Mom got the rotisserie chicken, mashed potatos and cheesecake (which dds shared) which were all good as well. Dh decided he wasn't hungry and skipped out on this meal. He was kind enough to remind me that the kids also hated Sunshine Seasons the last trip we made, so I guess Sunshine Seasons is knocked off our must-do list due to the kids' selections. For adults, I still think it is a good choice because there is so much of a selection and gets away from the typical Disney hamburger and french fries QS meal.