Better do the dishes, Cinderfella! 7 days of Free Dining!

[tggrrstarr]

Hello!
I just got back this past Saturday from a week of free dining in January! When planning this trip, I kept crossing my fingers that FD would be offered, but EVERYTHING I read indicated NO! This was the 5th trip for me and my husband, but it was gonna be my parents and brother’s very first trip to WDW. I knew right off the bat that I needed to save as much money as possible if I wanted my family to go, but we wanted them to experience Disney the way my DH and I do- All of it! So when FD was announced for 2011, we knew the trip was meant to be.

Why my family? Well 2 ½ years ago we went with our friends and my DH’s family. It was…interesting. No, seriously, we had a good time. I love my DH’s family, but mine is better.
My brother Eric just graduated from High School and this is his (belated) graduation present. He kinda prefers my DH to me. Sounds bad, but it isn’t. It’s a joke between us. Eric is special. For years all we heard from the doctors was that he was developmentally delayed. What does that mean? All we knew was that he was late talking and had very mild autistic tendencies. He just doesn’t relate the way other kids his age do. We have come to find out in the last few years that the real problem is that he is missing part of a chromosome. The best way to describe him is that he tends to focus mostly on those things that interest him. Rollercoasters, Disney, Videogames. He has a hard time with things that don’t interest him. Housework, school etc. As he’s grown, the autistic tendencies have pretty much disappeared and his speech has gotten much better. He graduated at 21 with a special program that has helped him to transition to a work program. This trip is for him.

Now, let me introduce ourselves! Here is a group picture:

I am Kelli (34). I'm the one in blue. This trip was my break from my diet. I started trying to lose weight in mid July of 2010. My goal was to lose 60 pounds in 6 months. I lost 55. I still have about 45 more to go now that I am home, but the only bit of dieting you will be seeing in this review is diet coke. I have recently started eating fish and I still love burgers, steaks and chicken, but I don’t eat quite as much of it as I used to. By the way, I only gained 4 pounds on this trip, and I pretty much lost it all within a few days of being back.

My DH is Mic (38). He is the one with the red hair next to me! His eating habits are picky, picky and more picky. He will eat burgers, steak, potatoes/fries, pasta and some chicken. Not too much more than that. I’m sure you will see what I mean as the reviews pour in.

My Brother is Eric (22). His nickname is Cinderfella. Hence the name of this review. We have lots of jokes that we tease Eric with, doing the dishes at restaurants is one of them. My mom jokingly started calling him Cinderfella a few years ago when she was having a hard time getting him to do housework, the name just stuck. We also tease him about eating pea green soup, which he doesn’t like, of course. In return, he teases Mic about eating ham and pickles. (Two of Eric’s favorite foods, not Mic’s).

My Mom is Kathie (no age mentioned for my personal safety). Her tastes are similar to mine, you will find that she took my lead in ordering many times during the trip.

My Dad is Pat (50ish). He has become a pretty healthy eater over the last few years, he avoids fast foods and burgers and likes to try new foods.

Oh, by the way, there will be pictures for all my reviews except one. I was so excited on our arrival day I kept forgetting to snap pictures!
This is my second dining review on the Dis Boards, my first one is located here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2439304

 

[tggrrstarr]

Saturday, January 22nd
Lunch – All Star Music Food Court
Dinner – 1900 Park Fare

Sunday, January 23rd
Snack – Starring Rolls
Lunch – Starring Rolls & Pizza Planet
Dinner – Cape May Cafe

Monday, January 24th
Breakfast – Cinderella’s Royal Table
Snack – Aloha Isle
Dinner – Cosmic Ray’s

Tuesday, January 25th
Lunch – Garden View Tea Lounge
Dinner – Biergarten

Wednesday, January 26th
Lunch – China/ Mexico
Snack - Fountainview
Dinner – Coral Reef

Thursday, January 27th
Breakfast – Boma
Snack – Kusafiri Bakery, Tamu Tamu & snack cart
Dinner – Wolfgang Puck Express

Friday, January 28th
Lunch – ASMu Food Court
Dinner – Le Cellier​

 

[basketkat]

Looks like some yummy places!!!

 

[tggrrstarr]

In my excitement of arriving at Disney and trying to make sure my parents understood how the dining plan works, I forgot to take pictures of our lunches! But we all pretty much got standard dishes, so I’m sure you’ll forgive me this time!

We arrived at All Star Music close to 1:00 pm, and by the time we got settled in our rooms, we were finally in the food court by about 2:30pm. This was a little later than I would have liked since our dinner reservation was for 6:25 pm, but it would have to do.

I had been planning my first meal for a few weeks, so it wasn’t a difficult decision. I chose chicken nuggets with French fries and a bottle of coke zero to save for later since we had the refillable mug. Chicken strips are one of my favorite foods and these did not disappoint! (Especially since I hadn’t had them for so long). The fries were good, but not spectacular. I think I might have lost my taste for French fries since these are one of the foods I’ve cut out of my diet.
The meal came with 8 nuggets, and this was one of the first signs that my appetite has shrunk, because I could only eat about 5 of them. Mic got the rest! For desert I chose the chocolate cake. I was pretty full, so I had about three bites of this and decided to save the rest for later. (I never did eat it). It was good, but a little bit dry.

Mic chose a hot dog and Fries. He also got a bottle of coke zero for later. The hot dog tasted ok, but the bun crumbled apart on him making it difficult to eat. He also got the chocolate cake, which he loved. I will say that this food court makes all their food as you order it, so while it was all very fresh, it did take a little while to get it all.

My dad ordered a chicken and cheese quesadilla platter with a desert of fresh fruit. He really liked this but my mom and I ate all the red grapes out of his fruit container since he didn’t like those.

My mom ordered the Turkey and Muenster on Focaccia with a fruit and yogurt parfait for desert. She didn’t like the sauce on the sandwich and pretty much just ate half the bread and turkey. (Too spicy).

Eric ordered cheese pizza and got a cookie for desert. I was surprised this didn’t come with a side of any kind since Pizza Planet offers it with a side salad. Note for next time, get your pizza at Pizza Planet!

Now my parents were planning on buying refillable mugs, and I told them ahead of time to fill their mugs at lunch and get a bottled drink with their meal to save for later, but this didn’t happen. They all got bottles of juice and drank them with their meals, mugs weren’t purchased until the end of the night. Oh well!

Dinner at 1900 Park Fare is next!

 

[tggrrstarr]

Now I mentioned before that Eric’s nickname is Cinderfella, so we really wanted him to meet Cinderella. So we planned for dinner on our first night to be at 1900 Park Fare as a surprise for him. We knew how much fun the character interaction was here with the stepsisters and Lady Tremaine and him getting to meet Cinderella was a huge bonus!

We left All Star Music an hour early to have plenty of time to transfer at the Magic Kingdom to the monorail and even explore the Grand Floridian a bit. We checked in a little early and got a pager for our short wait before dinner. It wasn’t more than 10 minutes before we were called, so we got our picture taken and our hostess explained to all of us about the characters. Eric was surprised and excited as we entered the dining room. It was a perfect way for him to find out about dinner.

Our waitress soon appeared and explained that Lady Tremaine would arrive shortly at our table and we had just enough time to get some salad if we wanted. Mic wasn’t very hungry yet, so he stayed at the table while the rest of us loaded up on salad, fruit and Strawberry Soup. My dad chose cream of asparagus instead of the strawberry.

This was the first time Eric and my mom tasted the strawberry soup and they both LOVED it! My dad broke down and tried a spoonful of my mom’s and reacted with, “Its Cold!”

Lady Tremaine showed up and my dad introduced Eric to her as Cinderfella and she lit up and told him she couldn’t wait to get him over to her house for some work! Eric responded with his usual, “Noooo!” He was a little shy with her, which we weren’t expecting, he is usually very social. Well, we did surprise him with this!
At this point we were done with our soup & salads and were about to go get some food, but we noticed that Anastasia was nearby. It turned out that all of the characters were so close, we just waited until after they all showed up to go get our food. Here they are:

Eric was so cute with them all, more shy than we expected and he kept looking at us instead of them. But this was his first day and he was a pro by the end.

Now for the food. Mic still wasn’t very hungry, so his plate pretty much consisted of carved prime rib and mashed potatoes. He liked what little he ate.

I got chicken marsala, prime rib, salmon with dill sauce, a little bit of mashed potatoes and brocollini from the kids area. This was all so good, I went up and got a little bit more of each. I will note that there were many items listed on my dining app on my ipod touch that I did not see at this buffet.

I was still a little out of practice with picture taking, so pictures here are a little bit limited. Sorry! Last time, I promise.
Now for desert. The desert table looked a little abandoned, with two trays of a key lime tart, a tray of bread pudding, some fruit tarts and some cookies. There was a sign that listed all of the selections, and there were quite a few missing items. I went up to one of the carvers and asked about it. She seemed a little unsure, but mentioned that the restaurant was phasing out the individual desert tables and would be bringing the desert to the table as a family style dish.
So I got the bread pudding and one key lime tart.

I love bread pudding, and it was good. I barely tasted the tart, I wasn’t too into it.
Everyone else waited for the icecream.

Soon enough, our waitress came out with a dish of 3 very large scoops of icecream. It was pretty much a giant banana split. Very yummy. We were all pretty full, but made room for some icecream anyway. There were two scoops of chocolate and one of vanilla, it had chocolate sauce and mickey sprinkles on top, a banana foster like sauce on one side and a strawberry sauce on the other.

Overall our experience was very good. Our waitress was fantastic, the food was great and the character experience was very interactive for Eric. My dad was thrilled with this restaurant and amazed that his bill (for 3 people) came to over a hundred dollars but was still covered on the dining plan. I told him, just wait!

 

[tggrrstarr]

Sunday morning after our mad dash to Toy Story Mania we stopped to use some of our snack credits at Starring Rolls for breakfast. It was pretty busy inside, so we all temporarily went our separate ways to find some goodies.

Here is a picture of the display case:

Last year I got the Banana Split, so this time I decided to try the Tiramisu.

Soooo good! I loved it.

Mic got his go-to pastry, a cinnamon roll.
He was pretty happy with it.

My dad got an apple turnover while my mom got a cherry one.

Eric got a croissant. I asked my dad why he got the most boring thing in the shop and he said that’s what Eric wanted! But it wasn’t quite enough, so they had to go back in. This time Eric came out with 2 chocolate chip cookies. I asked why two, my dad said probably because Eric knew we would all be stealing some. (Which we all did!) Smart boy!

We were all happy with our selections, and I had already decided to come back here for lunch later in the day. My mom and dad both decided to follow me back!

 

[Tinker12]

You look like you're having a great time! Love the reviews!

 

[basketkat]

We LOVE the character intraction at dinner at 1900 Park Fare!

Looking forward to more reviews!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great start - looking forward to more.

 

[Hootiss]

Enjoying your pics and reviews. I love your itinerary format!

 

[susieq76]

Love it! More please?

 

[tggrrstarr]

You look like you're having a great time! Love the reviews!

We LOVE the character intraction at dinner at 1900 Park Fare!

Looking forward to more reviews!

great start - looking forward to more.

Enjoying your pics and reviews. I love your itinerary format!

Thanks! Welcome! I saw someone else use this format and was hooked!

Love it! More please?

It's coming! I've been busier than expected but I will have some more up asap! Hopefully later tonight.

 

[tggrrstarr]

To me, Starring Rolls is one of those little places that once you discover it, is full of amazing choices you can’t find too many other places in Disney. Since we were only planning on being at the Studios this one day, I had decided ahead of time to make the most of it! My parents decided to eat there too, and instead of carrying our food all the way back to Pizza Planet, we just decided to split up from Mic & Eric for lunch.

We all got the same thing for lunch, the Black Forest Ham Focaccia Sandwich. I had heard the turkey version was spicy, and my mom’s turkey yesterday had been, so we all decided to go ham.

This was really good, but I only ate about half the bread so I would have room for desert. There was a sauce on the bottom slice of bread, it was kind of like a honey mustard, but I’m not sure what the chunky part was, maybe a cheese? The sandwich came with a choice of chips or fruit. We all wanted fruit, but it was a small, whole apple. It would have been nice if it was a type of mixed fruit. So chips it was. Not great. I like the occasional kettle style chip, but these just tasted kinda burnt. More room for desert!

My mom chose a brownie. She liked it enough to post a picture of it on her facebook page.

My dad chose the banana split. He loved it.

I had decided to try the Butterfinger Cupcake weeks before this trip, but when I got up to the counter, the Cheesecake Red Velvet Cupcake looked irrisistable. So I went with that. It was amazing!

We were all very happy with our meals, it was nice to eat a lighter lunch too.

Mic and Eric both got Pepperoni Pizza at Pizza Planet. Mic did not take pictures, but he told me they both got a side salad with it, which I’m sure neither ate! Eric got a cookie for desert and Mic got a Mickey Icecream Bar.

Just a note, my dad is a huge coffee drinker, and I had heard good things about Writers Stop, so we stopped there later for some drinks. He wanted an espresso, and was expecting something like you’d get at Starbucks, but it was just straight espresso. (Extremely small too, for the price). I got a mocha latte, not what I was expecting either. I didn’t like it at all.

 

[basketkat]

Mmmm....my mouth is watering!! Ha!

 

[wed100105]

Great reviews! Thanks for sharing!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Count me in! I was born in Shaker....my mom said I should have come out with a Geraci's pizza in my mouth since that is all she ate while preggo with me LOL

 

[Tinker12]

Oh My Goodness! The red velvet cupcake looks amazing!!!

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm really enjoying your review! I love the characters at 1900 Park Fare for dinner.....they don't have the same ones for breakfast. I agree with the pp, that red velvet cupcake looks awesome!

 

[kupperman]

Great reviews and pics to far. Looking forward to more!

 

[POOHS3]

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