A Vegetarian Vacation~8 days of food!

[PearlInABag]

***I will be continuing my report. Please be kind.

Hi Guys! This is my FIRST dining review, but hopefully it's a good one. Tons of pictures were taken and tons of food was eaten.
This trip was for my graduation from high school and for (finally) turning 18!

Sorry for the terrible photo, but this happens to be the ONLY picture that any of us got all together. There's my mom, dad, little sister, and little brother. I'm the odd red head on the end named Pearl.
The Food Itenerary is as such:
The Mara

Boma

Main Street Bakery

Crystal Palace

Tusker House

Whispering Canyon

Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian

La Cantina De San Angel

The Chef's Table at Kouzzina (My FAVORITE meal!)

Wolfgang Puck Express

O'hana

La Cantina

Columbia Harbor House

Boma

And all the lovely snacks in between! Thanks for joining me on my foodie adventure.

 

[PearlInABag]

I suppose I should start out by saying that I am a vegetarian who does not eat cheese or gelatin. My mother is also a vegetarian who does eat cheese. My other family eats like the carnivores they are.

Our first meal was while we were waiting around for our room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge to be ready. They changed our flights so that we had to wait around five hours to check into our room. Oh well! In the mean time we got went to eat at the Mara, the AKL's quick service restaurant.

There were a few vegetarian options there like the vegetable flat bread, but both mom and I ordered the falafel pita.

It was DELICIOUS! The falafel was warm and perfect. The greens had a yummy light lemon flavor. The tomatoes were flavorful. It was a perfect way to start off my Disney vacation.
We also got our refillable mugs. Black was the color for all the adults, pink for my sister and blue for my brother.

While waiting around, we found out there was a cookie decorating event down in Boma around two o' clock. We took the little brother to decorate and somehow ended up having my sister and dad do it too!

These are the cutest cookies~! I love the giraffes.

This was the night that we ate dinner at our favorite Disney buffet... BOMA! But that will wait to the next post.

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi there Pearl! Congratulations on your HS graduation and 18th bday! What a great reason to celebrate a trip to WDW. I'm looking forward to reading your reviews at some of our favorite places! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and photos!

 

[MrsWEsq]

Subbing! Another redheaded vegetarian here (but I eat cheese). Congrats on your 18th b-day and graduation.! Can't wait to read more.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Great first review, and congrats on your 18th birthday and graduation!

I'm excited to hear a vegetarian's perspective! I was a vegetarian for 2 months in high school - sadly, the place I gave up was WDW (we were having Thanksgiving dinner at the Brown Derby - I was extremely sad watching everyone else eat turkey and meat while I ate a noodle bowl. The next day, I gave up. ). Kudos to you for sticking to it!

The falafel pita at the Mara sounds great - can't wait to hear more (especially about the Kouzzina chef's table - I haven't heard much about it).

 

[scanne]

Great start! When we stayed at AKL last October, we found that the food at Mara was outstanding. My DH loved the falafel pita and we got to do the cookie decorating as well. It was awesome!

Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more!

 

[hpfan100]

subbing...

I'll be at AKL in a little less than a month and am excited to see all the veggie wonderfulness!

 

[wilma-bride]

Great start - love the giraffe cookies

 

[pigletto]

Great Start! DD is also a vegetarian, she does eat cheese at this point but no gelatin.
We stayed at AKL for our May trip and LOVED how easy it was for her to eat there. Some places don't offer her all that much to choose from, but every restaurant at AKL gave her a variety of choices. We were really happy with it

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great first report. Interested to see how a veggie manages at WDW. I love veggie food but couldn't completely go without my meat. Had the veggie flatbread at the Mara though and loved it.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Congrats on your 18th birthday and HS graduation! We will be celebrating DD's graduation and 18th on our trip in August!

That falafel looks so delicious, not dry at all, like falafel can get. Sadly, we missed the cookie decorating when we stayed at AKL. Those giraffes are adorable, and your family is quite artistic! I can't wait to read the rest of your report!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Great start! We are spending the first two days of our next trip at AKL and I know I will be having that falafel! I am not vegetarian but I do love good falefel!

Also looking forward to your Kouzzina chefs table review!

 

[DaisyD3]

Your subject caught my eye...can't wait to hear what you found! I'm a vegetarian who tries to avoid dairy. At home, I eat mostly vegan with cheese only once or twice a week. I find sometimes on certain vacations cheese is my ONLY option as a source of protein. Looking forward to hearing your reviews. I haven't spent enough time at Disney to become completely savvy-mostly I just come upon good options by luck so for our next trip I would like some more ideas!

 

[DsnyMama]

Eager for your reviews! My mom isn't hard-core veggie, she eats meat maybe once per week typically - she LOVES veg dishes though! This should give me a decent look at veg options at WDW! She's going on her first WDW trip ever with us in November

 

[Krissalee]

Yum! That falafel pita looks delicious! I may need to make my way to the Mara for one. I am always on the hunt for a great falafel.

Happy Birthday and congrats on the graduation.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Oooooh, I cannot WAIT to try that falafel pita!!! Hello fello Veggi-head! I'm a vegetarian, vegan on most days and love seeing how people conquer The World eating vegetarian! We are also staying at AKL in November when we go, so I'm excited that you ate there and would love to hear what you thought about the resort too thrown in there!

 

[PearlInABag]

Boma time!

(No fancy font this time.. It won't work! Oh well.)

Last time we went to Disney, we ate at Boma. This is where my mom at three plates of food and we stuffed ourselves to the point of waddling back to Kidani Village. We did a little better this time.

I love the decor in this place!

Our server was named Jeff. He came by, sat down, and proceeded to list off our drink options. We were not able to note that we were vegetarian/vegan online so my mom noted that we had an allergy. The servers always went to get the chef even if we knew what we wanted. It was very nice on the buffets to see exactly what was in everything We had a chef come out to see us at every sit down restaurant we went to in Disney. When the chef would come out, mom would say that she was vegetarian, so we were able to see both the hidden items and the veggie options. The chefs were lovely.

Of course... Boma has THE most vegetarian/vegan options that I've seen at Disney. All the stocks and meat was clearly marked so there wasn't much problems. The chef took us through the buffet and confirmed the few dishes that we had questions on.

My first plate! As you can see, I attempted to put EVERY option I had on one plate. I'll try to make sense of the mess... Starting on the left.. There's the fufu, mashed potatoes, Zaloouk(No idea how to spell it), a pasta salad, pita and hummus, couscous with dried fruit, pap, basmati rice, kouconut rice, couscous marrakesh, and a cornbread muffin. Whew. That's a lot of food! (And misspellings!) The most AMAZING things on this plate were the Zaloouk, the coconut rice (they spell it oddly!), and the mashed potatoes. What can I say.. I'm a starch girl. I love me some potatoes. The fufu was nice and sweet, the pap and the other rice were good. The rest was alright, not bad, but forgettable.

Then I went and got some soup.. MUSHROOM soup to be exact. I'm a mushroom freak. LOVE them. This soup on the other hand... Was like eating mushroom concentrate pureed. It was really good, but very, VERY strong. I ate it with the cornbread to dilute the flavor a little bit. My mom loved loved loved the soup. She even found the recipe online and sent it to me to make for her. The other soup in the picture was a peanut soup. Pretty much like eating peanut butter but a bit more savory. There's some tea in the background.. which turned out to be my staple drink pretty much everywhere we went. Disney doesn't have sweet tea though! So I had to sweeten it myself. Which tends to involve about ten empty sugar packets on the table. Either way I went back for dessert and more of my favorites.

Mom made me try the edamame salad (I didn't end up liking it.) The desserts were a brownie, a peanut butter... thing, a cinnamon chocolate mousse, and grapes. The peanut butter dessert was.. Just awesome! Dad enjoyed it a lot too. The chocolate was really good, but I didn't really get any cinnamon flavors. The brownie was just a brownie, good but not too special. The grapes were good. I also had more mashed potatoes, zaloouk, cornbread (For the rest of the soup), and more coconut rice!

Dad and mom ordered some coffee and Dad did his regular oddness. (You can see where I get it from.)

After the food was gone and mom drank her coffee, we headed back to the room for a good nights rest before our first park day.

 

[DsnyMama]

Everything looks great!! We LOVE Boma! It's a must for breakfast and dinner each trip!

 

[PearlInABag]

Great Start! DD is also a vegetarian, she does eat cheese at this point but no gelatin.
We stayed at AKL for our May trip and LOVED how easy it was for her to eat there. Some places don't offer her all that much to choose from, but every restaurant at AKL gave her a variety of choices. We were really happy with it

Thanks so much! Thanks for joining in! I'll enjoy telling you about my adventures!

Great start! When we stayed at AKL last October, we found that the food at Mara was outstanding. My DH loved the falafel pita and we got to do the cookie decorating as well. It was awesome!

Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more!

Thanks! We absolutely love AKL. Thanks for joining in.

Hi there Pearl! Congratulations on your HS graduation and 18th bday! What a great reason to celebrate a trip to WDW. I'm looking forward to reading your reviews at some of our favorite places! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and photos!

Thanks. It was a great excuse to go especially since it was two days within my birthday and graduation! Thanks for joining.

Subbing! Another redheaded vegetarian here (but I eat cheese). Congrats on your 18th b-day and graduation.! Can't wait to read more.

Always cool to meet another redheaded veggie. Thanks!

Great first review, and congrats on your 18th birthday and graduation!

I'm excited to hear a vegetarian's perspective! I was a vegetarian for 2 months in high school - sadly, the place I gave up was WDW (we were having Thanksgiving dinner at the Brown Derby - I was extremely sad watching everyone else eat turkey and meat while I ate a noodle bowl. The next day, I gave up. ). Kudos to you for sticking to it!

The falafel pita at the Mara sounds great - can't wait to hear more (especially about the Kouzzina chef's table - I haven't heard much about it).

Thanks. I've been vegetarian for about seven years now and the carnivores in my family are very considerate. They eat vegetarian most of the time anyways since that's what we eat at home. The falafel was awesome. I want one now! (Kouzzina was AWESOME)

subbing...

I'll be at AKL in a little less than a month and am excited to see all the veggie wonderfulness!

I'm excited for you! I'd love to be back in Disney.. Thanks for joining!

Great start - love the giraffe cookies

Thanks! Cookies are always awesome.

great first report. Interested to see how a veggie manages at WDW. I love veggie food but couldn't completely go without my meat. Had the veggie flatbread at the Mara though and loved it.

Thanks! I really didn't have any trouble eating anywhere. It was awesome. My Dad had the veggie flatbread too and loved it.

Congrats on your 18th birthday and HS graduation! We will be celebrating DD's graduation and 18th on our trip in August!

That falafel looks so delicious, not dry at all, like falafel can get. Sadly, we missed the cookie decorating when we stayed at AKL. Those giraffes are adorable, and your family is quite artistic! I can't wait to read the rest of your report!

I never really liked falafel before because of dry falafel. I have to now reconsider since that was the best pita ever! Thanks!

Great start! We are spending the first two days of our next trip at AKL and I know I will be having that falafel! I am not vegetarian but I do love good falefel!

Also looking forward to your Kouzzina chefs table review!

Thanks! Falafel is awesome. Kouzzina was just... amazing. But can't give too much away!

 

[PearlInABag]

Your subject caught my eye...can't wait to hear what you found! I'm a vegetarian who tries to avoid dairy. At home, I eat mostly vegan with cheese only once or twice a week. I find sometimes on certain vacations cheese is my ONLY option as a source of protein. Looking forward to hearing your reviews. I haven't spent enough time at Disney to become completely savvy-mostly I just come upon good options by luck so for our next trip I would like some more ideas!

Awesome! I just recently gave up cheese and thought I might have a hard time not eating it on vacation, but there was no problems at all.
Thanks for joining in!

Eager for your reviews! My mom isn't hard-core veggie, she eats meat maybe once per week typically - she LOVES veg dishes though! This should give me a decent look at veg options at WDW! She's going on her first WDW trip ever with us in November

There were tons of veggie options at Disney. I didn't eat half of the stuff I wanted! Disney is awesome at being accommodating for special diets.

Yum! That falafel pita looks delicious! I may need to make my way to the Mara for one. I am always on the hunt for a great falafel.

Happy Birthday and congrats on the graduation.

That the was best falafel I have ever had in my 18 years and I'm pretty sure Mom agreed. Thanks so much!

Oooooh, I cannot WAIT to try that falafel pita!!! Hello fello Veggi-head! I'm a vegetarian, vegan on most days and love seeing how people conquer The World eating vegetarian! We are also staying at AKL in November when we go, so I'm excited that you ate there and would love to hear what you thought about the resort too thrown in there!

It was awesome! Hey there Veggie. The resort was awesome! We didn't explore TOO much, but I love the decor there. The pool was awesome, pretty busy, but also pretty big. The safari's are always awesome of course! Everything is on the bottom floor food-wise.. and the store and lounge is on the third. It took a while to figure out there was a short cut to the Mara from our room on the fifth floor, but saved time eventually. Everyone is friendly and love the resort. Thanks for joining in!