Better late than never! Reviews from 7/2/06-7/8/06!

[Scornelius]

Hi there everybody!

Much to my surprise and delight, I got a package in the mail from Disney yesterday, and it contained my journal from our honeymoon trip last July! I'd left it behind and now, 8 months later, it found it's way back home! I should clarify that it was my dining journal, not a diary-type one. That would have been much more embarassing to leave behind on one's honeymoon, I think. Anyhoo, now that the journal is back, I think it's time to do some meal reviews! Woohoo!

A little background: the travellers on this trip were my dashing 25 year old husband, and my sweet 24 year old self . I'd been to WDW a few times as a child, but not since before the Animal Kingdom opened. My husband had never been there. (Wait, I'm wrong. He wants me to point out he was there once- in utero! ) We were on the DDP, and we will never return without it!

The restaurants that we visited and will be reviewed are:

Crystal Palace
Tony's Town Square
Garden Grill
Mama Melrose's
Biergarten
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Pinocchio Village Haus
Cantina de San Angel
Rosie's All American Cafe
Earl of Sandwich
Old Port Royale Food Court

So, if you're interested, stay tuned!!

 

[Scornelius]

Day 1: Crystal Palace

I don't think I could have chosen a better place for our first magical day at WDW. Though we arrived about 20 mintes early for our dinner reservation, there was a huge crowd and a looooong wait. No worries, though. We were in the happiest place on earth! On our honeymoon! Wearing bride and groom disney ears! We were happy to wait...and wait... and wait. About 50minutes later they showed us to our table, which was all decorated with streamers and Mickey confetti. So pretty.

Our amazing waitress Susan made a big fuss out of us and made us feel all special, which was lovely of her. She also took great care of us when we told her of my husband's allergy to fish. She had the chef come out and he walked us through the buffet, showing my husband exactly what he could and could not have, and what he should probably stay away from just for safety's sake. We really appreciated how attentive he was! Throughout the whole trip, we only once had problems with DH's allergy, and that was at the Garden Grill. But that's a story for... 2 days from now.

Back to the buffet. It was awsome! I'm a sucker for peel and eat shrimp, so I was happy from the get go. My picky husband, however, was just as happy with the prime rib and chicken fingers from the kid's buffet. Seriously, we think Disney chicken fingers are the best in the world.

I tried a little of everything, and was particularly happy with the pasta salad, garlic mashed potatos (lord, these were good!), and the aformentioned prime rib. Honestly, everything we had was fresh and delicious. Our waitress was awsome, refilling our drinks before we even knew we needed it. And she was great with offering to take our pictures with the characters.

Oh, speaking of which, the characters were great! Since we were there so late, the characters had few children to entertain, so they spent a lot of time with us. This was a big test for me, as my husband wasn't really a disney-type guy before we took this trip. I thought he might think he was too cool for Tigger and give the characters the cold shoulder, but he was really into the interaction! And at the end of the evening, Susan came by with a little cupcake as well as a certificate signed by all the characters. And to top it off, just as we left the restaurant, Wishes began. It was an amazing first night at the Happiest Place on Earth!

 

[Disneymoon]

We must be twins!

My DH and I are taking a delayed honeymoon to Disney in August and our first night we will be eating at the Crystal Palace. I am so glad to hear that you had a good experience. I was worried that we were being a little "lame" by choosing a character dinner for the first dinner of our honeymoon, but then we thought about it and thought "what screams Disney more than a character dinner".

Can't wait to read the rest of your reviews

 

[Scornelius]

We spent the morning wandering around MGM, and spent most of our time running between Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster, giggling like fools.

We stopped at Rosie's All American Cafe for lunch, and had what was to be a very common counter service meal: Chicken Fingers for one of us and a Double Cheeseburger for the other. In this case, we each had the chocolate cake for dessert. I don't know what it is about Disney World, (of course I do, it's the pixie dust!!) but everything, even fast food, tastes better there!

For dinner we headed over to Tony's Town Square. I know the DIS boards aren't always kind to Tony's, but like many couples we draw a comparison to the Lady and the Tramp, so the theme appealed to us. And the food was nice, too! There was a tv set up in the lobby playing Lady and the Tramp that entertained both the children, and the easily amused like my husband and I. Once again we had a really long wait, but it was worth it.

First our waiter brought some bread to the table with this great olive oil and sundried tomato sauce to dip it in. Since this was our first non-buffet Table service meal on the DDP, we didn't yet have an appreciation for just how much food was coming our way. We ate all the bread. Whoops.

For our appetizers, I had the spinach and artichoke dip and DH had a ceasar salad. DH didn't see anything on the menu that appealed to him and they were happy to oblige his request for the more mundane ceasar. The spinach dip was amazing! It was so cheesy and gooey. Oh man, I need to time these reports better. I'm getting so hungry thinking about it all!

For our entrees I had the New York Strip Steak Served with roasted potatoes, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and spinach tossed in a warm Pancetta vinaigrette, topped with red wine gorgonzola butter. Ooooohoho, it was delicious. I wanted so badly to eat the whole thing, but I just couldn't. DH had the Veal T-Bone served with sweet russet mashed potatoes and shallot-balsamic sauce. He really, really liked his meal too. Unlike me, he could finish it all. But I could tell from the look in his eyes that he couldn't have handled much more!

For dessert we were just too full to indulge in anything too rich, so we shared a bowl of vanilla gelato. It was the perfect ending to our bella notte!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoying reading your reviews ~ Looking forward to more.

 

[disneyfan551]

Love hearing about your Disneymoon! Sounds like you guys had a blast!!

 

[Scornelius]

After an early morning in the magic kingdom, we headed to Pinoccio Village Haus for lunch. I loved the decor in here. Very Alpine. Being a good German frauline, I got a kick out of it. It was über crowded, (ha! über! more german!) so I found a table while DH ordered an Italian Sub Sandwich for me and (brace yourself) Chicken fingers and fries for himself. We each had a cannoli for dessert, or rather, tried to. We were so stuffed we could only manage a bite or two each. A cute place to eat. However, that whale freaks me out big time.... what's his name, Monstro? So did the donkey-boys, too, for that matter. Hmmm. The more I think about it, the more the movie in general freaks me out. Strange foxes luring boys into becomming donkeys, giant whales swallowing families. It's not right I tell you!

We headed over to Epcot in the evening for dinner at the Garden Grill. I was really looking forward to this meal, as it was one of the only restaurants we were visiting that I could remember from my childhood. I had hoped for seat down on the main floor, but it was pretty crowded so we were seated in the upper tier, right by the entrance to the kitchen. Oh well, at least scenery is lovely. I knew that catfish was served, so I was clear about Dh's fish allergy when I booked the ADRs, when we checked in at the restaurant, and when our waiter first came to our table. Everyone promised us there would be no problem, that they would substitute chicken for the dreaded fish. Even when our waiter delivered the platter to the table, I verified that it was fish-free. He assured me it was. So, the platter arrived, we happily and securely divvied it up and began to eat. (Can you see where this is going?)

Luckily my husband is a true carnivore a heart and started on the flank steak (which we found a little tough, by the way, and too strongly flavoured). I had some of the greenbeans and carrots, which were crisp and delicious, and some turkey, which was a little dry but good. Then I took a bite of the 'chicken'. Immediately I was suspicious. It didn't taste like fish, but it didn't have the texture of chicken. It was much softer and flakier. But it didn't taste like fish at all, so I didn't want to jump to any conclusions. After all, we were in Disney world! Nothing bad ever happens in disney world, right? My husband wasn't about to go into anaphalactic shock right there at the dinner table, was he?
Well, no, thank goodness, because just as he was about to take a bite, I saw a plate of what was obviously disney chicken fingers being delivered to a kid at the next table. I practically slapped the fork out of DH's hand and called over the waiter. I asked again whether we had been served chicken or fish, and as he looked at our plates his eyes got super wide. It was painfully obvious that he was thinking 'holy crap, I've killed this man' while not wanting to admit any fault. And I don't blame him for that. I'm sure he's had it drilled into him that CMs are not to admit fault for anything where a lawsuit could be involved. Not that we'd ever sue, but you know what I mean.
So, he hastily mumbled something about being sure we were given chicken, but he'd replace it none the less. We had him take away all the food that had been on the same plate as the alleged fish and waited for a few minutes to see if my husband was going to die. His throat started getting a little tight, so we doused him up with some meds just as our new food arrived. My suspicions were confirmed, as the new stuff was the classic chicken fingers. We were able to laugh it off, but it was one of those thinly-veiled angry laughs that you give just so someone doesn't feel bad that they nearly killed you.

Dessert was a sampler of a brownie cake, a lemon cake and something else that couldn't have been that good, cause I don't forget good desserts.

The character interaction here was great. They all came around 3 or 4 times, except for Mickey, who seemed to be shunning us. Chip and Dale were a blast! Pluto got tried to steal me away from my DH. I have some pictures, which I will add once I learn how. I'm sure there's a sticky about that somewhere...

So yeah, yay Garden Grill, just be VERY careful if you go there with an allergy!

 

[Disney owl]

Thanks for sharing

glad to hear you got your journal back

 

[natalielongstaff]

great reviws so far....pleased to hear your dh survived the fish/chicken !!

 

[KAC2005]

Great reviews so far, looking forward to reading more!

 

[Pooh Bear Hugs]

That is frightening in 2000 DH had a similar problem with LTT, they messed his meal up several times and in the end we had to eat somwhere else.

 

[Scornelius]

Ah, finally, our favourite meal of the trip. The Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose's!!

We added this deal at the last minute, so we didn't have much choice in our times. We arrived at 3:15 for our 3:30 reservation and waited for about 45 minutes. Hey, we were there at one of the busiest times of the year, we knew we were in for some long waits. The restaurant was beautiful. Grape vines and white lights all over the ceiling, old hollywood postcards on the wall, it was all very lovely. Now, back to food!

I know they've changed this now, but last year you had a special Fantasmic menu to choose from. It came with a salad and flatbread to share, and then each person could order their own entree and dessert. If I remember correctly, there was also bread of some sort.... but don't quote me on that.

For our salad, they were kind enough to give us a caeser instead of the gorgonzola-laden balsamic-vinaigretted one they were offering. What's with Disney's obsession with gorgonzola? It's like the sun dried tomato of the new millenium or something. Anyway, yes, salad. Very good. Boo gorgonzola.

The flatbread was the part of the meal my husband raves about to this day. We have 2, yes 2 dinners planned at Mama's next trip JUST because of the flatbreads. DH is a fairly picky eater and none of the standard offerings appealed to him, so they subbed pepperoni for the ubiquitous gorgonzola on the 4 cheese flatbread. Heaven I tell you, heaven! Cheesy and crispy and just plain amazing. If you try only one food in all of MGM, try these flatbreads! That's an order!

By the time we got this far in the meal, we were pretty full. But there were entrees to be had, so fullness be darned. Next came the chicken parmesan for DH and a steak for myself. Both were really, really good. I think the chicken parm was baked, which was a nice change. My steak was cooked to perfection, and once I'd rid it of.. yeah, you guessed it, gorgonzola butter I thoroughly enjoyed it. Neither of us could come close to finishing our meals, try as we might. It was just so dang delicious!

I don't remember what we had for dessert, but by then we were in a food coma so it's entirely possible we skipped it. Actually, I'm getting a gelato vibe. Yeah, that's right. Vanilla gelato. I'm sure it was fine. I might not remember good food, but I remember bad food. There was no bad food at this table... as long as we forget the...
can you say it with me?
GORGONZOLA!

 

[princesscarrie30]

I'm loving your reviews. Thinking seriously about changing a few of my ADR's now. Keep em coming.