April 2021 Vegetarian Dining Trip Report

[Katie4747]

This was a Mother/Daughter trip. We flew into Orlando on April 11, 2021, and flew out on April 18th. Although it was pretty hot, we lucked out on not getting any rain (Yay!)

I'm a vegetarian (NOT vegan) and I'm typically a picky eater. My mom is not a vegetarian so I'll also give her opinions as well, if I can remember them. We usually ate quick service breakfast and lunch and then we did a dining reservation at night.

Day 1 (Flew in)
-since the weather was so awful in Orlando, our flight got delayed and then cancelled and we didn't get into Orlando until around 8 pm. Our luggage didn't make it to us until the next morning (but that's another story ). We stayed at the Swan Hotel, so we decided to get a quick bite to eat for dinner at The Fountain (located in the Dolphin Hotel). I got the grilled cheese sandwich with fries, which was pretty good (I mean you can't really go wrong with a grilled cheese. I was dissapointed they didn't have tomato soup, but oh well.) I also got a mint chip shake, which was delicious, but once again you can't really go wrong with a mint chip shake. My mom got the Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese and she said it was the best grilled cheese she's ever eaten!

-Day 2 (Hollywood Studios)
Breakfast
-since we're diamond medallion members at Marriot, we got a free voucher for breakfast each morning. This would either get us a continental breakfast at Garden Grove (so choice of pastry, and choice of fruit, oatmeal or yogurt, and coffee or juice). You could also do a quick service breakfast. At quick service breakfast locations (like java), you could spend up to $20 on anything.
-We ate at Garden Grove the first morning since we planned on taking our time getting to the park after we got our luggage so late and the day before was a disaster. I got a blueberry muffin (tasty although a little dry), an orange juice, and fresh fruit. All standard breakfast food, nothing to complain about. The waiter also brought us each an extra bowl of oatmeal (no cost), that came with brown sugar and walnuts. Huge bowl but kind of plain tasting.

Lunch
-For lunch, we mobile ordered at Docking Bay 7. I got the Felucian Kefta and Hummus Garden Spread, which I was disappointed in. Like I said above, I'm kind of a picky eater and I wasn't impressed even though I was really looking forward to trying it since I love hummus. There was some flavor that they put in the hummus and "meatballs" that I really didn't like. Definitely a miss for me. My mom ordered the Endorian Fried Chicken Tip Yip. She wasn't impressed either, although she ate all her food. The Batuu-bon cake, though, was delicious! Definitely my favorite thing I ate there. I'm not a huge coffee fan, but the coffee taste in the mousse was perfectly flavored and delicious! I would definitely get it again.
-I mobile ordered a drink from Ronto Roasters called the Tatooine Sunset. It's unsweetened tea and lemonade with melon and blueberry. Pretty tasty although a little sweet.

Dinner
-We stayed at the park until closing, so we just ordered food to go from IL Mulino (at the Swan Hotel) and ate it in our room.
-I got the kids pasta alfredo. A nice portion for a kids item, and pretty tasty, although nothing exceptional. My mom got the kids pepperoni pizza which she said was good. We also got a Ricotta Cheesecake. Cheesecake is my absolute favorite dessert so I was really looking forward to this, but it wasn't very good. The texture (because of the ricotta) was definitely different and there wasn't any crust. Pretty bland flavor. Even though it came with some whipped cream and a few berries, it needed something else like chocolate sauce or strawberry syrup.

 

[Katie4747]

Day 3 (Magic Kingdom)

Breakfast
-We got breakfast to go from Java. I got the Egg and Cheese English Muffin breakfast sandwich and a vanilla latte. The breakfast sandwich's english muffin was soggy, which ruined the whole thing. My mom got an egg and cheese and meat sandwich, which also had soggy bread. Definitely wouldn't recommend these unless they make it fresh for you.

Snack
-Since it was hot, I decided to get the I Lava You Float from Sunshine Tree Terrace. It has Fanta Strawberry Soda and passion fruit flavor served with dole whip orange and topped with popping candy. Super yummy but also super messy! Also, very, very sweet, so unless you have a big sweet tooth, I wouldn't recommend it. But it was definitely refreshing. We sat down in Frontierland in front of the Frontierland Shootin Arcade for about an hour to watch the cavalcades. This was the perfect location since the arcade is closed and you're out of the way of people and the sun, and the cavalclades go right by it. The calvaclades came around every 15 minutes (we timed them). They were all pretty short but fun to see, especially since the regular parades aren't running.

Dinner
-For dinner we had a reservation for Cinderella's Royal Table (inside Cinderella's castle). This is something I really wanted to do, even though the princesses don't go around right now. We were seated next to a window, so probably as far away from Cinderella as you can get, but we didn't mind since we're both adults. The window was nice to sit next to because of the view of the carousel outside. Cinderella came out every fifteen or so minutes. She would stay out for five minutes or so, but only stayed on one side of the room so she was away from the tables. But she stopped and waved quite often and talked to some of the tables that were closer. Definitely not the experience they used to have (when all the princesses used to come around to all the tables for photos and autographs) but it was still worth it in my opinion.
-We started with the Castle Salad, which I really enjoyed. I ate every bite! They allow substitutions since we asked for no raisins. Very tasty salad, especially for being plant-based. I would definitely get this again!
-Since I'm a picky eater and I knew I wouldn't like the vegetarian option on the adult menu, I asked for an adult portion of the children's menu mac and cheese. I also asked for some vegetables. They brought me a nice size bowl of the mac and cheese (which was pretty tasty) and some asparagus and green beans. The green beans needed butter and salt, which I'm sure you could ask for.
-My mom got the Tenderloin of Beef, which came with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables (asparagus). She said it was delicious!
-For dessert we each asked if we could get a The Clock Strikes Twelve Mousse and also if we could share a Jaq & Gus Cheesecake (which the server had no problem with). They didn't charge us anything extra for the extra dessert. The Clock Strikes Twelve Dessert is super choclately! If you don't like dark chocolate, you won't like it. It would have been nice to have some other flavor in the mousse, like more of the caramel, to cut down on some of the chocolate. It was ok. The best part was the Hazelnut gelato, which was light and refreshing. Although this was definitely the prettiest dessert, the cheesecake was a lot better! The cheesecake came with berries and a raspberry compote. I think they change it every season, but it was refreshing and very yummy. I would definitely order the cheesecake over the mousse next time.

 

[sparkle78]

Ill pass it on to my sister , thanks

 

[Katie4747]

Day 4 (Epcot)

Breakfast (Topolinos Character Breakfast)
-Since Epcot opened pretty late (11 am), we decided to get breakfast at Topolinos and take the skyliner over to epcot. This was a super hard reservation to get! I couldn't get it during our 60 days out, but there were a few last minute cancellations the night before. I used the Mouse Dining Alerts and managed to snag a reservation. We took an uber to the Riviera resort. There was a guard at the front gate who asked us what our reservations were for. He also asked for our last name, but I'm not sure if he had a list or added our name or whatever. He let us through, though. This hotel is super nice! Worth it just to check out the new resort. Topolinos is on the 10th floor. I got the POG juice to drink (passion fruit, orange and guava juice). It was pretty good. They started us off with assortments of pastries along with sides of honey butter, some kind of jam, and hazelnut spread. The pastries were butter croissants, maple danishes, and chocolate chip muffins. Super yummy.
-For my entree I chose the Sour Cream Waffles, which were pretty tasty. I'm not sure I would order them again but they were nice to try and the flavors were very interesting. My mom ordered the Quiche, which she said was good too. I got a plant based sausage with my entree, which was probably my favorite part of my meal. So delicious! My mom said her sausages (real meat) were really good too. Although the sausages didn't come with the Quiche, they let my mom order some on the side (for no charge). We also ordered the fruit plate to share. No, they didn't charge us extra for the fruit plate. The fruit plate was really pretty and had a good selection. I really liked the sunflower butter, but I don't think the price of breakfast would be worth it if that's all the food you got. A nice plate to share, though.
-The characters came through every ten or so minutes. There was Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy and Donald. They came out by themselves and then they would come out all four together to dance to a song while they walked around the dining room. Super cute and fun interactions (even though they couldn't get too close).

Lunch/Snacking
-Since I knew the Flower and Garden Festival was going on, I wanted to do a little snacking around the world to try out a few of the booths.
-The Honey Bee-stro - We got the Local Wildflower Honey Mascarpone Cheesecake and a Honey Peach Freeze. The cheesecake was a disappointment. It wasn't really tasty and the honeycomb was very strange. Wouldn't order it again. The Honey-Peach Freeze on the other hand was so tasty! It was a little peachy and very creamy. Nice and Refreshing although you get a pretty small cup. I would get this again.
-Trowel and Trellis - We got 2 grilled street corns (since people rave about these) and I got a boneless impossible korean short rib. The grilled corn looked kind of gross and didn't taste very good. Would not get it again. The korean short rib on the other hand was pretty tasty. I like the cilantro lime rice it came with and the slaw and mayonnaise. It was pretty salty, though, but I would try it again next year.
-Refreshment Port - We got the popsicle trio since it was hot and we were feeling for something refreshing. Not a big fan of these, either. The raspberry was definitely my favorite since it was thick and creamy. The other two weren't anything special, and the cake crumble or whatever they served with it, was kind of weird. I wouldn't get it again.

Dinner (Via Napoli)
-We had dinner reservations at Via Napoli. They originally seated us at a tiny table right next to a doorway. We weren't comfortable there since there was so much traffic that walked right by us to get to the bathrooms, so we asked to be moved. They were super nice and moved us to the back room which has booths, which were great because they were comfortable and super quiet. For drinks we got the iced teas, since people rave about them on these forums. They were delicious! Refreshing and tropical tasting. The waitress said they add guava to the iced tea, which is why it tastes so good. At the end of our meal, she also gave us two cups to take to go, which was definitely appreciated but we had to take many bathroom breaks .
-We started with the House Salad, which was ok. My mom liked it more than I did.
-We split a large pizza. We asked for one half Quattro Formaggi (with added red sauce) and one half the Piccante. We both loved our pizzas. Super tasty! This was our first time at Via Napoli and I would definitely go back. It might even be a must-do each time we go to Epcot.

Dessert
-we skipped dessert at Via Napoli and went to Karamell Kuche instead. I got a chocolate caramel turtle, which was pretty good! Thick and caramely deliciousness!

 

[margareton27]

Thanks for the reviews! Makes me want to visit Topolinos even more

 

[olive]

Thanks for these! Love to hear reviews of the vegetarian offerings.