A January Engagement Celebration and first time dining report! Updated 2/10

[amandadisney]

I promised myself that I would wait until we were within a week of our trip before I started my thread. So...we are less than a week away! Yay!

This is my first report, so let me introduce myself, and my dining companion/fiance. My name is Amanda. I am a law student, and true Disney lover thanks to my parents. I was lucky enough to get at least one trip to Disney per year as a kid...and now I'm hooked for life. My fiance, Don/DJ/Donnie, didn't get as many trips to Disney as me when he was a kid, but he still ended up loving the mouse.

We just recently got engaged, and are getting married on 12/12/2011 at the Grand Floridian wedding chapel! This was supposed to be our "meeting the wedding planner" trip/engagement celebration...but we were a little later than I thought in signing the contract so it's just an engagement celebration trip now.

Again, thanks to my parents I had lots of Disney dining experiences as a youngster...and dining has grown to be a big part of our trips. Plus Don loves to eat...cough...snack...cough...Seriously, he wants me to take a picture of everything he eats. I am warning you...he snacks a lot, but then he doesn't eat his meals! Ex: We had a huge breakfast at one of the buffets. 30 min later: Don "I'm hungry." Me "That's impossible." Don "No, seriously. I am hungry." Me "It's 10:00 am, nothing is open yet." 5 minutes later he has a pretzel. It's cyclical, but I love it!

I am the try anything eater, and he is the "this doesn't taste like how my mom made it" or "what is that green stuff" eater. Although he is getting better, he's mainly a comfort food lover with some mainstay ethnic foods...like tacos...haha. And he likes his snacks! I expect a lot of pretzels, and egg rolls, and dole whips, and sweets in general!

Here's our restaurant list (hopefully this will remain unchanged!):

January 13
- Liberty Tree Tavern (dinner - we've been for lunch, never for dinner)

January 14
- Kona Cafe (Tonga toast pictures made me do this one)
- Via Napoli (mmmm...real pizza)
- San Angel Inn (nervous about Don here since its not typical mexican...oh well! This one is for me because I love the setting.)

January 15
- Kouzzina (Iron Chef obsession. Had to throw this Cat Cora restaurant in here)
- Chefs de France (I'm always up and down on the food quality here, but I love French food)
- Garden Grill (Don loves Chip and Dale. Enough said. I am also slightly obsessed with the Living with the Land ride)

January 16 (I may explode from food overload on this day)
- Le Cellier (Must do. I love cheese. Cheese soup too.)
- Hollywood Brown Derby (Don made me. He loves the grapefruit cake. The only way I could fit it in was by making us basically have three dinners this day...oh well, if I have to eat at all these places, I guess I will have to do it)
- Tony's Town Square (MK needs better restaurants haha, but this one is good)

January 17
- Rainforest Cafe (Don's never been)
- Tusker House (Never been, and I can't wait!)
- Flying Fish Cafe (Haven't been since I was maybe 16. It was great then, and the reviews indicate it is still AMAZING)

January 18 (Leaving )
- Crystal Palace (Need to say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom...and Don loves the buffet because it has good pizza, and chicken nuggets. No, my fiance is not 5...I swear.)

I can't wait to get down there and get started with the pictures! Hopefully I will figure out how to upload pictures since I am technologically inept. It's also our first time using Tables in Wonderland, so I will report back on how that goes!

I am not taking my computer down there, but I will be here until January 12th, and hopefully be reporting by January 19th!

 

[MishyMouse]

Congratulations on your engagement! Can't wait to read your review.

 

[athenna]

Congratulations on your engagement! Looking forward to your report!

 

[amandadisney]

Congratulations on your engagement! Can't wait to read your review.

Thanks, and WELCOME!

Congratulations on your engagement! Looking forward to your report!

Thank you! WELCOME!

 

[sophie832]

Looking forward to reading your reviews. DH and I will be eating at a few of those restaurants about a week after you do!

 

[amandadisney]

Looking forward to reading your reviews. DH and I will be eating at a few of those restaurants about a week after you do!

Welcome! Where are you and your DH eating on your trip? We wanted to try a few new places this trip, and we always try and correspond our ressies to the parks we might be at.

 

[amandadisney]

T-minus 12 hours from getting up in the morning to head to the airport. I'm at school waiting for my last class (Secured Transactions...blech...interesting subject, not so interesting combing through very long and detailed statutes)

...and by waiting for my last class I mean counting down every minute that passes and brings me closer to leaving my apartment tomorrow morning. Can't wait to try all our new restaurants and some oldies, but goodies.

Don is insisting on getting a Dole Whip as soon as we enter the park tomorrow. And I quote, "I am getting a Dole Whip and taking it on Pirates. I don't care if let me because if they try and take it away I am whipping out a pirate sword and going YARGGGG." At which point I pointed out that we could just wait until he was finished before going on. That's my man...thinking of the food before the rides.

I can't wait to update when I get back! Hopefully I will remember to take pictures of everything.

 

[amandadisney]

We just got back last night. We had so much fun down in Disney, and we can't wait to go back in two months. The weather was awesome. We got to see the new Hollywood Studios parade and witnesses the changing of the park celebrations. The new theme is "Let the Memories Begin!" Not exactly sure what that means...it's kind of implied when you head down to WDW anyway...but it's still a new celebration!

Dining ended up being an experience. We had great meals, okay meals, memorable moments, great character experiences, and some changes! We got rained out (think monsoon at Animal Kingdom) our last full day, so we ended up changing our plans that last full day and our last part day.

Here's where we actually went:

January 13
- ADDED Columbia Harbor House (pre-dinner since we were starved)
- Liberty Tree Tavern (dinner)

January 14
- Kona Cafe
- Via Napoli
- San Angel Inn

January 15
- Kouzzina
- Chefs de France
- Garden Grill

January 16
- ADDED Sunshine Seasons (we needed some fuel)
- Le Cellier
- CANCELLED Hollywood Brown Derby
- ADDED Backlot Express (I still needed fuel)
- Tony's Town Square

January 17
- Rainforest Cafe
- CANCELLED Tusker House
- ADDED Paradiso 37
- CANCELLED Flying Fish Cafe
- ADDED Chef Mickeys

January 18
- CANCELLED Crystal Palace
- ADDED Yak and Yeti

So we didn't end up anyplace extremely fancy. Brown Derby went out the window when we ended up being stuffed. Flying Fish got cancelled because we didn't want to swim our way over to the Boardwalk in the downpour.

I should have my first review by tomorrow.

 

[Mom2KandK]

Congratulations on your engagement!

We were at Chefs de France for lunch on the 15th too. We sat next to a young couple who were celebrating an engagement. I wonder if it could have been you?! We were there between 1:30 and 2:30.

 

[TigerKat]

Congratulations on your engagement!

 

[lblume91]

Congrats on your engagement!! We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary in WDW this summer & it seems like only yesterday that we were in your shoes. Wow. That makes me sound old. I'm not. I swear. Anyway... Looking forward to your reviews!

 

[jakenjess]

Congratulations on your engagement! Looking forward to your reviews!

 

[klacey1]

Excited to join in!

 

[amandadisney]

This has nothing to do with WDW dining, but I had to take pictures of our airport food. We got up sooo early to fly to WDW...4 o'clock should just not be allowed. So we get to the airport and settled around 6. And we're starved.

Options for eating...nothing. Apparently the Louisville airport does not believe in breakfast. So we were walking around and passed this bar/grille in the airport. At first we thought there were a lot of people getting sloshed in the morning (there were) but then we realized there was breakfast!

This looked like the big adult platter you can get in a lot of restaurants:

It actually hit the spot in the morning. And sadly enough, the bacon was better than the paper bacon (pacon, if you will) that they now serve EVERYWHERE in WDW. sadness

 

[amandadisney]

We had dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern on our first night...but we were starved by the time we got to the MK on our first night. I knew Don wasn't going to make it to dinner, but I didn't want anything heavy. He loves to ruin eating his real meals by snacking too much!

We headed to Columbia Harbor House for a snack. Since it was a little chilly, I knew I wanted clam chowder! Plus there was a zillion people in line for haunted mansion even though the park was dead, and we wanted to wait for them to clear out.

We were wearing our engagement buttons, and the woman in the register wanted to treat us to a special experience! She lead us upstairs to this roped off area that had silverware and napkins all set out on the tables. She even waited and picked up our food for us. Plus she gave us a freebie chocolate cake dessert! (Which we actually never ended up eating, even though we took it back to the hotel)

[/IMG]

This is clam chowder and chicken nuggets, plus the chocolate cake! The clam chowder is actually pretty good here. It is chock full of potatoes and clams, which makes it a very hearty snack. It also came piping hot, which I love! I absolutely HATE lukewarm soup. The chicken nuggets have also been changed since last year (resort-wide, we found out later). They are so good now. Real big chunks of chicken breast in a flavorful batter. These nuggets beat McD's or any other fast food place hands down.

All in all, the wonderful unique service was a great start to our week. Even though it was just a snack!

Here's the look out from above...

[/IMG]

 

[amandadisney]

Congratulations on your engagement!

We were at Chefs de France for lunch on the 15th too. We sat next to a young couple who were celebrating an engagement. I wonder if it could have been you?! We were there between 1:30 and 2:30.

Thank you! I actually don't remember when we ate! We ended up going to almost all our ressies early because we were hungry

Congratulations on your engagement!

Thanks!

Congrats on your engagement!! We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary in WDW this summer & it seems like only yesterday that we were in your shoes. Wow. That makes me sound old. I'm not. I swear. Anyway... Looking forward to your reviews!

Thank you! We actually ended up eating next to a lot of couples celebrating like their 40th or 50th anniversaries, which was awesome. I hope you have so much fun celebrating your anniversary in WDW! It is seriously the best place to celebrate love and commitment. So much fun.

Congratulations on your engagement! Looking forward to your reviews!

Thank you, and welcome!

Excited to join in!

Welcome!

 

[amandadisney]

I think half the reason why we always eat at Liberty Tree when in the MK is that the mugs are AWESOME! We bought one, but the manager ended up giving us another one for free because of our engagement. So sweet of her!

This is the first time we ever did the dinner. It's served family style. I wasn't expecting much, but it was actually better than I thought it would be. There were some highs and lows, but overall we liked it. We also ate at Garden Grill later in the trip, so I'll compare the two later on since they are so similar.

First Don needed to have this Patriot's Punch thing. Think 9 dollars for the mug and some frozen orange slush. (We later found out you can buy the mugs for 3 dollars without the over-priced slush).

Then we moved on to yeast rolls and honey butter. The rolls were warm, and the butter was sweet. You can't go wrong here.

Next we have some wilted salad. Seriously...I ate the cucumbers, and that was it. I am pretty sure the salad was sitting in its dressing since 9am.

Then our main meal arrived. We had a platter of meats and the stuffing (or dressing...which to me means something you put on your salad, but I guess it also means stuffing ) The stuffing was very good. All of the meats, ham, turkey, and some sort of steak were seasoned very well, but were a little dry. The gravy got rave reviews from Don. We also got a bowl of mashed potatoes, and another of macaroni and cheese. The potatoes were AMAZING. Real potatoes and extremely creamy. The macaroni and cheese was another story...think Stouffers gone bad. There were also green beans that had been sauted in garlic. These were delish. Garlicky and still crisp!

Plate of meats minus some...

This is my full plate. The ham had some yummy pineapple sauce on it.

Empty plate. Note the macaroni and cheese that still remains. And I love mac and cheese.

Ending...Apple crumble. Basically warmed apples with some crumble on top with vanilla bean ice cream. The dessert was good, but it was basically warmed apple pie topping. Nothing wrong with that though!

Bonus. Awkward photo of us on Flying Carpets later in the night. The MK closed at 8 that night, and we ended up getting on Pirates, Jungle Cruise (with the BEST skipper ever), and Flying Carpets in like 20 minutes.

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Great reviews! And congratulations on your engagement!!!

That stinks about the mac and cheese at LTT - I'm a big fan as well!

 

[amandadisney]

Great reviews! And congratulations on your engagement!!!

That stinks about the mac and cheese at LTT - I'm a big fan as well!

Thank you! I know the mac and cheese used to be Stouffers...it's sad that they changed it because I can take down some Stouffers mac and cheese!

 

[amandadisney]

I have never been to Kona Cafe for breakfast (that I know of). My parents used to take my brother and I here almost every trip we took to WDW, but I remember this being a dinner stop. We also frequented CRT, Chef Mickeys, Coral Reef, and Cape May Cafe. But this was the first time for Don and I to try to breakfast.

Don is a HUGE breakfast fan. He would eat it three meals a day if he could. Hence why our wedding is having a brunch instead of a dinner reception. We need some eggies to be involved.

Kona was empty, so we checked in early and were seated next to a lovely couple celebrating 50 years of marriage. Overall the meal was fantastic. The server was okay. She was really nice, but I finished my lilikoi juice quickly and she never asked if I wanted a refill or anything else to drink. But here's an interesting tidbit I learned from her: castmembers, at least at Kona, can't wear rings (or any jewelry I think) to work. She was explaining why she wasn't wearing her wedding ring. Random, haha.

Picture of scrumptious strawberry syrup. Wanted to take this home by the gallon...or ask for it in a glass so I could drink it! Also there was whipped butter, syrup, and ketchup. Lilikoi juice (sooo good, but a little sweet for those of you who don't like to sweet) in the background.

TONGA TOAST! It lives up to its hype. DELICIOUS! I could eat this every day if I had the metabolism of a little kid. (One can dream right? haha) Also my plate has paper bacon on it. Still good, but just thinner and chewier than normal thickness bacon.

The Big Kahuna for Don. He loved this, and wanted me to say he ate it all...but really I ate the ham and some french toast This has paper bacon, a juicy sausage link, a nice grilled piece of ham, two eggs over easy, two pieces of amazingly flavorful french toast, and the pancakes...macadamia nut pancakes with pineapple on top and macadamia nut butter. Not for me, but he loved them.

The breakfast stare down.

My attempt at the tonga toast cross-section. Note the banana goodness in the center.

Defeat. I could not tame this monster. I did try to eat the edges though because it had more Cinnamon and sugar!

Engagement cupcakes! We were stuffed be we still managed to down one of these puppies. The normal kind of cupcake, but still moist with delicious frosting.

If you've never been to Kona for breakfast you must go ASAP! We are trying it for dinner in early April, but we'll be back for breakfast on our May trip. It's too good to pass up.