Alliecat33
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2015
- Messages
- 70
I'm not one to write long reviews about something (yet?) but I did want to give my thoughts on our dining experiences at WDW. We stayed 11/21-11/28 at Art of Animation (we LOVED this hotel, but this is the wrong board ;-))
*Let me start by saying that we will likely NEVER go back to Disney Springs. It was a mess, and I know there's construction, but Downtown Disney for us was fun and relaxed and this new concept is just jumbled and crowded and there's just more of the same everywhere you look. Really, World of Disney is fun to go through but I'd rather browse through the Emporium on Main Street or Mouse Gears and get pretty much the same stuff and more. The buses were AWFUL. We waited forever for a return bus to the hotel. Not happy with the whole situation.
First meal we at was CS at the new Pecos Bill cafe. Much like Chipotle, and it was really good. Everyone liked it, but that kids quesadilla meal was TINY. I know kids can order from the adult menu for CS but we weren't sure about it and one of my kids really wanted a quesadilla. Churros were yummy.
Next day we were at Epcot and had lunch at Sunshine Seasons at the Land. That place was a madhouse. The food was good---but talking later I was really the only one of our group that liked it! I had a pork chop and it was really too much food for a lunch, especially since we had ADRs later.
Biergarten was dinner. Not one of us really liked it. It was loud, I didn't enjoy sitting with strangers, even though there were just 2 vs the 6 of us, just awkward, and the food was really just meh. Nothing stood out. We ate it because we had reservations. No one was even hungry. i think this was the first sign we shouldn't have paid for the dining plan.
Next day was Animal Kingdom. We ate lunch at the Harambe market. Really really good food here. Everyone had ribs, I had a flatbread sandwich, ds had chicken skewer. I liked it. Dessert was the African milk tart and I am the ONLY person in our group that ate it. Again, too much food!
Dinner was Yak and Yeti. This meal, again, we weren't really hungry for. We tried eating lunch early but it never mattered once that dreaded ADR time came around. Seriously we were like guilty about going to all these meals barely hungry. I had a kind of forgettable steak and coconut shrimp. I really loved those shrimp. Everyone at the table liked their food, and the wontons were really good (though not life changing), but our waiter charged another tables bill to our room. My husband checks the bill/remaining credits for every meal every time we pay so luckily he caught that a party of four had their meal on us. (Hope you all enjoyed your free meal if you're reading this! They had no way of "recharging" them and we just had it refunded.) This resulted in us leaving AK well past 8:00. We were literally the LAST people in the park, which made it pretty fun. Cast members were on walkie talkies tracking our movements on our way to the gate! Kind of a once in a lifetime thing, even though it was a pain in the butt ;-)
Next day we had Pizza Planet at DHS and I know this place gets a bad rap here but my kids always like it. They have good cupcakes too and always plenty of seating upstairs. We like it.
50s Primetime we had such high expectations for! We had soooo much fun at our meal here in 2012. I don't know what the deal was. It was boring. No one was fun except the waitress at the next table of course. Our waiter was...tired? I don't know. The only fun thing was when he forced the kids to each eat green beans and they didn't laugh much about that. Probably will eat elsewhere next time. The food was good but nothing great like we had last time.
We had lunch at Columbia Harbour House the next day at Magic Kingdom. I had the tuna sandwich and seasonal cobbler. FINALLY a meal that wasn't too heavy or gigantic! It was good and tasted fresh.
Dinner was Be Our Guest. We had lunch here when it was just in soft opening stages in 2012. We liked it and thought it was fun enough to revisit. Many in our group thought this was our best meal, although I wouldn't order the shrimp and scallops again. None of it was cooked enough, and the scallops were very soft. I like them seared well. Anyway, the desserts were amazing. Our waiter Bill was awesome and the Beast was sweet.
Thanksgiving we went to breakfast at the AofA Landscape of Flavors or whatever its called. We liked this meal and were hoping it would keep us from getting too full for dinner which was early. Good french toast, but a weird greasy piece of Naan bread on my husband's breakfast plate, although he ate it all....
Dinner was Minnie's Holiday Dine at Hollywood and Vine and this was my favorite meal! The food was all fresh tasting and we were all actually hungry! The lobster mac and cheese was awesome. Turkey and dressing hit the spot, soup was hot and fresh, and all the veggies were cooked well. Low spot was definitely dessert. Although they all looked good, none of them besides maybe the red velvet cakes tasted that great. The little pumpkin pies were good too. The characters were so great and interactive, and came around and spent plenty of time, Goofy was so fun, and our waiter Brian was fantastic. He talked to the kids so sweetly and asked them questions and answereed their silly questions.
Loved it!
Last day in the park was Friday, starting at Magic Kingdom. We had burgers at Cosmic Rays and everyone liked it. This place isn't too highly thought of here either but its convenient and we like how its so big inside and we can always have a good seat with a nice view. I had a bbq pork sandwich and there wasn't any nasty fatty pieces inside! You know what I mean--I hate that. Grilled chicken sandwiches were good too. By that time several of the kids were over having a huge piece of cake with their meals and were ordering yogurt! Ha!
Dinner we headed over to Akershus. I'm the only girl in this family and I just felt like I wanted to try a princess meal. Well, I tried it. The meal was so expensive and although we were on the dining plan, the tip for that kind of bill really adds up. The princesses were ok, but I felt like I could barely hear them and we were in the VERY back of the restaurant right by the exit door where each princess left. I thought my boys would get a kick out of it and they insisted they wouldn't, and I guess they were right. They loved on Tigger much more than Ariel. Oh well. The food was ok, but cold (I had the ravioli). Dessert was just not great. It was a fun meal to do once and done. Everyone else at the table liked it, and my kids couldn't get enough of the Taste of Norway appetizer bar! We loved that.
Saturday morning we went to the Grand Floridian for 1900 Park Fare, my second favorite meal! The characters were great, especially the mad hatter and Alice. The food was just so good. I loved the sticky buns, the mickey waffles, the bread pudding, the eggs benedict! That strawberry soup---I'm still thinking about it! Only bad thing was that my youngest downed an entire cup of coffee in practically one gulp and it came right back up! Luckily we were sat right by the exit again (something about a table full of little boys!!???) and made a quick retreat to the bathroom while I stayed to apologize to the waitress. Also we were the only table left in our section. Besides that incident I really loved this place. We will be back.
There you have it! I think if we are able to get free dining, we will take it, but we won't ever pay for the meal plan again. It is just SO MUCHFOOD. I don't know how people do it with all those credits. I'm sure they're doing signature meals but for us I think we'll just schedule one or two really good ones and the rest do counter service. That way we can eat when we're really hungry and everyone can get whatever they want. Our youngest complained a TON about being the only one to have to order from the kids menu!
Hope this didn't sound too critical! We had tons of fun and can't wait to go back, we just tried some places we won't go back to. You win some, you lose some
*Let me start by saying that we will likely NEVER go back to Disney Springs. It was a mess, and I know there's construction, but Downtown Disney for us was fun and relaxed and this new concept is just jumbled and crowded and there's just more of the same everywhere you look. Really, World of Disney is fun to go through but I'd rather browse through the Emporium on Main Street or Mouse Gears and get pretty much the same stuff and more. The buses were AWFUL. We waited forever for a return bus to the hotel. Not happy with the whole situation.
First meal we at was CS at the new Pecos Bill cafe. Much like Chipotle, and it was really good. Everyone liked it, but that kids quesadilla meal was TINY. I know kids can order from the adult menu for CS but we weren't sure about it and one of my kids really wanted a quesadilla. Churros were yummy.
Next day we were at Epcot and had lunch at Sunshine Seasons at the Land. That place was a madhouse. The food was good---but talking later I was really the only one of our group that liked it! I had a pork chop and it was really too much food for a lunch, especially since we had ADRs later.
Biergarten was dinner. Not one of us really liked it. It was loud, I didn't enjoy sitting with strangers, even though there were just 2 vs the 6 of us, just awkward, and the food was really just meh. Nothing stood out. We ate it because we had reservations. No one was even hungry. i think this was the first sign we shouldn't have paid for the dining plan.
Next day was Animal Kingdom. We ate lunch at the Harambe market. Really really good food here. Everyone had ribs, I had a flatbread sandwich, ds had chicken skewer. I liked it. Dessert was the African milk tart and I am the ONLY person in our group that ate it. Again, too much food!
Dinner was Yak and Yeti. This meal, again, we weren't really hungry for. We tried eating lunch early but it never mattered once that dreaded ADR time came around. Seriously we were like guilty about going to all these meals barely hungry. I had a kind of forgettable steak and coconut shrimp. I really loved those shrimp. Everyone at the table liked their food, and the wontons were really good (though not life changing), but our waiter charged another tables bill to our room. My husband checks the bill/remaining credits for every meal every time we pay so luckily he caught that a party of four had their meal on us. (Hope you all enjoyed your free meal if you're reading this! They had no way of "recharging" them and we just had it refunded.) This resulted in us leaving AK well past 8:00. We were literally the LAST people in the park, which made it pretty fun. Cast members were on walkie talkies tracking our movements on our way to the gate! Kind of a once in a lifetime thing, even though it was a pain in the butt ;-)
Next day we had Pizza Planet at DHS and I know this place gets a bad rap here but my kids always like it. They have good cupcakes too and always plenty of seating upstairs. We like it.
50s Primetime we had such high expectations for! We had soooo much fun at our meal here in 2012. I don't know what the deal was. It was boring. No one was fun except the waitress at the next table of course. Our waiter was...tired? I don't know. The only fun thing was when he forced the kids to each eat green beans and they didn't laugh much about that. Probably will eat elsewhere next time. The food was good but nothing great like we had last time.
We had lunch at Columbia Harbour House the next day at Magic Kingdom. I had the tuna sandwich and seasonal cobbler. FINALLY a meal that wasn't too heavy or gigantic! It was good and tasted fresh.
Dinner was Be Our Guest. We had lunch here when it was just in soft opening stages in 2012. We liked it and thought it was fun enough to revisit. Many in our group thought this was our best meal, although I wouldn't order the shrimp and scallops again. None of it was cooked enough, and the scallops were very soft. I like them seared well. Anyway, the desserts were amazing. Our waiter Bill was awesome and the Beast was sweet.
Thanksgiving we went to breakfast at the AofA Landscape of Flavors or whatever its called. We liked this meal and were hoping it would keep us from getting too full for dinner which was early. Good french toast, but a weird greasy piece of Naan bread on my husband's breakfast plate, although he ate it all....
Dinner was Minnie's Holiday Dine at Hollywood and Vine and this was my favorite meal! The food was all fresh tasting and we were all actually hungry! The lobster mac and cheese was awesome. Turkey and dressing hit the spot, soup was hot and fresh, and all the veggies were cooked well. Low spot was definitely dessert. Although they all looked good, none of them besides maybe the red velvet cakes tasted that great. The little pumpkin pies were good too. The characters were so great and interactive, and came around and spent plenty of time, Goofy was so fun, and our waiter Brian was fantastic. He talked to the kids so sweetly and asked them questions and answereed their silly questions.
Loved it!Last day in the park was Friday, starting at Magic Kingdom. We had burgers at Cosmic Rays and everyone liked it. This place isn't too highly thought of here either but its convenient and we like how its so big inside and we can always have a good seat with a nice view. I had a bbq pork sandwich and there wasn't any nasty fatty pieces inside! You know what I mean--I hate that. Grilled chicken sandwiches were good too. By that time several of the kids were over having a huge piece of cake with their meals and were ordering yogurt! Ha!
Dinner we headed over to Akershus. I'm the only girl in this family and I just felt like I wanted to try a princess meal. Well, I tried it. The meal was so expensive and although we were on the dining plan, the tip for that kind of bill really adds up. The princesses were ok, but I felt like I could barely hear them and we were in the VERY back of the restaurant right by the exit door where each princess left. I thought my boys would get a kick out of it and they insisted they wouldn't, and I guess they were right. They loved on Tigger much more than Ariel. Oh well. The food was ok, but cold (I had the ravioli). Dessert was just not great. It was a fun meal to do once and done. Everyone else at the table liked it, and my kids couldn't get enough of the Taste of Norway appetizer bar! We loved that.
Saturday morning we went to the Grand Floridian for 1900 Park Fare, my second favorite meal! The characters were great, especially the mad hatter and Alice. The food was just so good. I loved the sticky buns, the mickey waffles, the bread pudding, the eggs benedict! That strawberry soup---I'm still thinking about it! Only bad thing was that my youngest downed an entire cup of coffee in practically one gulp and it came right back up! Luckily we were sat right by the exit again (something about a table full of little boys!!???) and made a quick retreat to the bathroom while I stayed to apologize to the waitress. Also we were the only table left in our section. Besides that incident I really loved this place. We will be back.
There you have it! I think if we are able to get free dining, we will take it, but we won't ever pay for the meal plan again. It is just SO MUCHFOOD. I don't know how people do it with all those credits. I'm sure they're doing signature meals but for us I think we'll just schedule one or two really good ones and the rest do counter service. That way we can eat when we're really hungry and everyone can get whatever they want. Our youngest complained a TON about being the only one to have to order from the kids menu!
Hope this didn't sound too critical! We had tons of fun and can't wait to go back, we just tried some places we won't go back to. You win some, you lose some
