Burning the Candle at Both Ends - A Holiday Dining Report

[SmallWorld71]

The grilled cheese and tomato soup reminds me of the same I ordered at the Holly Jolly Bakery in Disneyland. It is their "specialty" and not on a kid's menu. I loved it though. The tomato soup was kinda orange and thick and perfect for dipping the grilled cheese, which was cut the same as at BOG. Sorry Hermione didn't like it.

This soup was actually very thin and watery, though it doesn't look that way in the photo.

I hope to get to Disneyland one of these days!

 

[michael's mom]

We've been tossing the idea of canceling BOG for dinner because we arent' sure the kids will like the menu...BUT, Harry's meal is making me rethink things

 

[Vernie822]

Totally agree on the BOG experience. My aunt didn't love the pork chop (even though I had it before and loved it), but my brother did. I really enjoyed the scallop dish. And that strawberry cupcake.. should've gone with the grey stuff! The braised pork looks like a real winner.. yum.

I agree that this restaurant varies.. the first time I was here, I had hyped it up a lot so I think I just thought everything was so amazing. In reality, we had far better meals that week, but it was still a decent meal.

The Grey stuff wins every time!

 

[SmallWorld71]

We've been tossing the idea of canceling BOG for dinner because we arent' sure the kids will like the menu...BUT, Harry's meal is making me rethink things

As long as you get there for some meal, the inside is just gorgeous! The big advantage of dinner, of course, is meeting Beast. Even with the mixed food reviews, we'll be back on our next trip for one meal or another.

Totally agree on the BOG experience. My aunt didn't love the pork chop (even though I had it before and loved it), but my brother did. I really enjoyed the scallop dish. And that strawberry cupcake.. should've gone with the grey stuff! The braised pork looks like a real winner.. yum.

I agree that this restaurant varies.. the first time I was here, I had hyped it up a lot so I think I just thought everything was so amazing. In reality, we had far better meals that week, but it was still a decent meal.

The Grey stuff wins every time!

Maybe I should have just asked the dishes for their recommendations, LOL.

 

[kastoney]

I'm in the same boat as you on BoG. We've done dinner once and lunch twice and nothing has ever wowed me and I think I'm finally over it. I can't get over how they could mess up tomato soup of all things. And how sad to pair that delicious looking lamb with such a poor sauce. The grey stuff does look great though and you can't beat a beer (or milk) in MK ; ) Love the family picture.

 

[totebagg]

Just found your report and loving it! So just a few of my thoughts...first and foremost, love the family pics - you have a very nice looking family. I especially love the Lady Tremaine picture - they are always such fun. I have always wanted to go during the Christmas holiday time to see all the decorations but will try to go outside of Christmas week - the crowds look insane, but you guys seemed to have a good plan get there early ride all you can then get out.
Secondly, the reviews are awesome and how nice to have reviewing buddies to help. We haven't tried Coral Reef but I've been seeing some good reviews lately and your Mahi Mahi looked delicious, so may have to try this at some point. You have reviewed several restaurants that we have for our upcoming trip that will be firsts for us: HDDR, Dinner at Ohana and the Mama Melrose F! Dinner glad to see positive reviews and they have me looking forward to trying these new places! Looking forward to trying the fried chicken at HDDR and the caprese salad at Mamas.
We love Crystal Palace too. It's my daughter's favorite and we eat there every trip. I think the character interactions are some of the best and I absolutely love hermione's outfit - so cute and creative!! I also love that your husband brought his rocker side to Magic Kingdom...love the Motley Crüe tee. Sorry about your less than stellar meals at CHH and BOG.
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip! Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I'm in the same boat as you on BoG. We've done dinner once and lunch twice and nothing has ever wowed me and I think I'm finally over it. I can't get over how they could mess up tomato soup of all things. And how sad to pair that delicious looking lamb with such a poor sauce. The grey stuff does look great though and you can't beat a beer (or milk) in MK ; ) Love the family picture.

BOG reminds me a lot of CRT, the food is inconsistent but the atmosphere is great! I will admit that I am a bit intrigued by the new breakfast that they are doing at BOG and am interested to see if it continues and in what form.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Just found your report and loving it! So just a few of my thoughts...first and foremost, love the family pics - you have a very nice looking family. I especially love the Lady Tremaine picture - they are always such fun. I have always wanted to go during the Christmas holiday time to see all the decorations but will try to go outside of Christmas week - the crowds look insane, but you guys seemed to have a good plan get there early ride all you can then get out.
Secondly, the reviews are awesome and how nice to have reviewing buddies to help. We haven't tried Coral Reef but I've been seeing some good reviews lately and your Mahi Mahi looked delicious, so may have to try this at some point. You have reviewed several restaurants that we have for our upcoming trip that will be firsts for us: HDDR, Dinner at Ohana and the Mama Melrose F! Dinner glad to see positive reviews and they have me looking forward to trying these new places! Looking forward to trying the fried chicken at HDDR and the caprese salad at Mamas.
We love Crystal Palace too. It's my daughter's favorite and we eat there every trip. I think the character interactions are some of the best and I absolutely love hermione's outfit - so cute and creative!! I also love that your husband brought his rocker side to Magic Kingdom...love the Motley Crüe tee. Sorry about your less than stellar meals at CHH and BOG.
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip! Thanks for sharing with us.

Welcome!
Thanks for the kind words about my family.
I definitely recommend the holiday season, but Christmas week was unlike anything we have ever encountered! And, this from a group who only travels on school vacations. President's Week, summer etc... don't even come close to the crowds we saw that week. I do think that Easter crowds can be tough as well when Easter is at a certain time of year.
DH got more compliments on that shirt than you could imagine! You would have thought he was wearing his Disney finest! I am not a big fan of that shirt so his smug look grew with each compliment, LOL.
Overall, we had fabulous meals this trip. Sending some pixie dust for your trip!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Dear readers,
I have been a bit lax in my updating lately. The next day of the trip was not the best for me (not really because of the food) so I've been procrastinating. I promise to be a big girl this weekend and get the next update over with so we can move on!

 

[SmallWorld71]

December 30th - The one where I am mad at Epcot

So, this update will probably have more whine (unfortunately, not wine) than food. If you're not interested in listening, no worries. Just wait for the next update. But, I feel like I need to at least give you the abridged version as my mood undoubtedly affected my opinion of the days' food. In fact, if I were you, I would go with Harry's ratings over mine on this day.

Back story: I have always loved Epcot! In fact, most of the time, I would probably even say it's my favorite park. I was just a little girl back in the 70's when I went to the MK for the first time and my memories of that first trip are very few. But, I was 14 the first time I went to Epcot and we became fast friends. I especially loved the Living with the Land (what a catchy tune!) and Horizons. Epcot has always been guaranteed to make me smile.

This WDW trip was different from most, as it was to be the only time that we would likely ever get there during December as we typically can't travel at that time. With that in mind, I had exactly 4 must do's for this trip and they were all Holiday related: see the parade at MK, see the Osborne lights at DHS and see the Candlelight Processional and the Holiday storytellers at Epcot. The first 3 had already been accomplished (loved them!) and today was the day set aside for the storytellers.

On with the day:
We had decided to sleep in a little today. We had been up early for the 7am EMH at MK yesterday and tomorrow was New Year's Eve, so we knew we'd be out late. So, we didn't leave our resort until about 9am or so. It was cold and overcast this day which was a big change from the other days of our trip. When we got there, Epcot was mobbed as we knew it would be. It was open 7am - 10:30pm! Illuminations was at 10:30. No worries though, we only had 2 things left to accomplish in Future World and we had FP+ for them.
Sadly, it was around this time that Hermione started to not feel well. (When we got home, we learned she had a sinus infection). Her head was bothering her, so I agreed to head to First Aid for some Advil while the rest of the group headed to Figment to use FP+. (Yes, it was crowed enough to need the FP+ at Figment!) I would then meet up with them at Soarin. Unfortunately for me, it started raining on my way so I was cold and wet by the time I met up with the group. No worries, though! Being wet at Disney is OK, right?

After Soarin (3+ hour wait without FP+!) we headed toward Mexico and explored that pavilion while it rained. We were all hungry at this point. Arthur suggested we eat in nearby China. Normally, I would have suggested something more interesting like Morocco or France, but China fit in nicely with the storytelling schedule so I agreed.
Off to Lotus Blossom cafe we went.
Arthur had: Shrimp Fried Rice with Egg Roll
He enjoyed it.


The rest of us chose: Orange Chicken with Steamed Rice. What can I say. It tasted just like the stuff from my local mall's food court which is good or bad, depending on how you look at it.


The dessert choices were: Caramel-Ginger Ice Cream or Lychee Ice Cream and we tried both. Ewww! These made the cheesecake in a glass seem like a good dessert! Next time I may just choose our CS by the dessert, we had such bad luck this trip. (Except Pepper Market) In any case, all 5 of us hated them and into the trash they went.


Ratings:
Me: food 6/10, dessert 0/10, atmosphere 5/10 (it was a pretty boring location)
Harry: food 8/10, dessert 2/10, atmosphere 5/10
Hermione: no ratings from her today, she ended up barely eating anything all day

After that, it was starting to clear up, so we headed to Italy to see La Befana. Only we couldn't find her. I asked around and all the CM's didn't know where she was either. We decided to head to America and see their holiday storytellers and then back track. We headed inside to wait for the Voices of Liberty. While waiting, I looked over the Times Guide and my heart sank; the holiday entertainment had ended yesterday! Everything I had checked when planning the trip had said Holidays Around the World went through the 30th. It even said so on all the signs around Epcot. Unfortunately, that only meant the holiday food and not all the entertainment.
I was so upset! We had actually seen the storytellers in France and UK on our first Epcot day and they were wonderful. But, the two I'd been most looking forward to were La Befana in Italy and Helga & The Nutcracker in Germany. Now, I would never get the chance! If I had only known, I would have done things differently and swapped our days.
I know that in the grand scheme of things, this really isn't a big deal, but at the time it really saddened me. And now, we had nothing to do until our evening dinner reservation. The lines in FW were insane, FP's were long gone, going to another park would have been just as crowded and it was too cold to go back to the resort and swim. But, I couldn't stand another minute in WS. So, I suggested we head over and take a look around the Epcot resorts.
This was tough on our feet, but the peace and quiet was just what the Doc ordered.
A few pictures:
At the Beach Club:




Chocolate dragon:


At the Yacht Club:




And The Boardwalk:


If you read along, thanks for listening. The next update will have us back on track.

Up next: We return to Epcot for Arthur's pick and Harry proves that his legs are indeed hollow

 

[kastoney]

I'm with you on the storytellers. When you've done everything to plan and have a set schedule in mind based on info from Disney itself, how disappointing to not have it available. Hopefully dinner can turn it around.

 

[Vernie822]

The dessert choices were: Caramel-Ginger Ice Cream or Lychee Ice Cream and we tried both. Ewww! These made the cheesecake in a glass seem like a good dessert!

Cheesecake in a glass is absolutely the worst thing I have ever tasted at WDW, so this must be really bad!!! Lol.

I am 100% with you on the frustration. Especially to have planned knowing that they would be there, and then they weren't - that's not right! Also you spend how much time and money planning the vacation, and it stinks when something you can't control throws a wrench in your plans, when it's something you had your heart set on doing. I'm sorry you missed them - but it seems like the resorts were a good option to check out during a super busy time in Epcot.

 

[jettablonde72]

December 28th - resort day
Pepper Market breakfast

After four days of early mornings and late nights, we finally slept in! We headed to Pepper Market for some breakfast.
* Note: breakfast hours were until 10:30 and then lunch began at 11. As long as you were in the Pepper Market before 10:30, you were good to go for breakfast. However, they lock the door at 10:30 to incoming guests and then reopen it at 11. This is how they do the changeover to lunch. So, don't show up in the 1/2 hour they are not letting people in.

I only have one picture from breakfast. The waffles are Hermione's and the other meal is mine. We had to wait a bit for waffles - very popular! So, the boys (who all got omelets) arrived at the table first and were so hungry they forgot to take photos. I'm pretty sure I have omelet pictures on another day.


Rating: 8/10 Tasted exactly as expected.

We spent the afternoon at our resort doing laundry and this:


and this:


And then headed out to explore the Contemporary:


And the Grand Floridian:




Coming up: Ron's choice - dinner at the Poly

So, you mentioned that they stop serving breakfast at 10:30, lock the doors and reopen at 11:00; does that mean if you are already in the restaurant you can have both breakfast and lunch? Or you only get one or the other?

 

[SmallWorld71]

So, you mentioned that they stop serving breakfast at 10:30, lock the doors and reopen at 11:00; does that mean if you are already in the restaurant you can have both breakfast and lunch? Or you only get one or the other?

Good questions.
While we were eating, they were definitely only serving breakfast. We left about 10:45, so I'm not sure exactly when the changeover occurred. I don't know if they would make you leave and then come back in or not. I wouldn't think so, but I don't actually know.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I'm with you on the storytellers. When you've done everything to plan and have a set schedule in mind based on info from Disney itself, how disappointing to not have it available. Hopefully dinner can turn it around.

Thank-you for the kind words and not making me feel like a big baby for getting upset about my messed up plans. Things do get better.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Cheesecake in a glass is absolutely the worst thing I have ever tasted at WDW, so this must be really bad!!! Lol.
LOL! Maybe they are really tied for worst and my disappointment just clouded my judgement.
I am 100% with you on the frustration. Especially to have planned knowing that they would be there, and then they weren't - that's not right! Also you spend how much time and money planning the vacation, and it stinks when something you can't control throws a wrench in your plans, when it's something you had your heart set on doing. I'm sorry you missed them - but it seems like the resorts were a good option to check out during a super busy time in Epcot.

Thank-you. It was so frustrating because if I'd known ahead of time, I could have easily switched the schedule around. The only day that we really couldn't change was our Candlelight Processional day. They rest could have been arranged any which way.
The resorts were lovely. I hadn't been in that area for years and I'd forgotten how pretty it was.

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

I know that in the grand scheme of things, this really isn't a big deal, but at the time it really saddened me.

Aw, I would be upset, too! That was a nice idea to go look at the resorts, though; holiday decorations always make me feel a little better. The Yacht Club looks especially lovely!

 

[michael's mom]

I'm sorry your day didn't turn out as planned! It stinks to have a plan in place and then not be able to do anything. If it weren't such a busy time you would have been able to enjoy some rides at least

Now you have an excuse for a return trip...maybe a long weekend early December?

 

[totebagg]

So sorry that you missed the two storytellers that you were looking forward to...and you do not have to apologize about it! I know how it feels to have a plan not go the way you want it on top of looking so forward to something and it not happen plus you had yucky weather and crowds! But sounds like to soldiered on and saw some cool things. And like the others said now you have an excuse for a quick trip in December! Looking forward to Arthur's pick!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Aw, I would be upset, too! That was a nice idea to go look at the resorts, though; holiday decorations always make me feel a little better. The Yacht Club looks especially lovely!

Thanks for the sympathy. I love the resorts in that area; they manage to be elegant without being stuffy at all.

I'm sorry your day didn't turn out as planned! It stinks to have a plan in place and then not be able to do anything. If it weren't such a busy time you would have been able to enjoy some rides at least

Now you have an excuse for a return trip...maybe a long weekend early December?

I like your thinking!

So sorry that you missed the two storytellers that you were looking forward to...and you do not have to apologize about it! I know how it feels to have a plan not go the way you want it on top of looking so forward to something and it not happen plus you had yucky weather and crowds! But sounds like to soldiered on and saw some cool things. And like the others said now you have an excuse for a quick trip in December! Looking forward to Arthur's pick!

Thanks! I knew Disers would understand.