Celebrating 20 years of marriage with Disney Dining! COMPLETE 3/26

[sarahewoods]

Fantastic start!

We are have our vow renewal meal at citricos in October and I am going to have the chocolate banana dessert, I cannot wait.

I didn't realise Disney would be so accommodating to splitting meals, good to know for my teenage children.

Looking forward to more xx

 

[TigerKat]

Glad to hear the food was good at San Angel. We have fallen in love with La Hacienda and haven't been to San Angel in a long time but we have a lunch ressie there in three weeks!

 

[archdandy]

Happy anniversary! Great reviews so far. The grouper with risotto looks really good.

 

[DLFan123]

Can't wait to see the rest. We are having my DP's birthday at San Angel Inn in April and hopefully Fernando is not our server.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Fantastic start!

We are have our vow renewal meal at citricos in October and I am going to have the chocolate banana dessert, I cannot wait.

I didn't realise Disney would be so accommodating to splitting meals, good to know for my teenage children.

Looking forward to more xx

I hope you have a wonderful meal at Citricos. We've always had success splitting meals at Disney as we continued to do during this trip.

Glad to hear the food was good at San Angel. We have fallen in love with La Hacienda and haven't been to San Angel in a long time but we have a lunch ressie there in three weeks!

You are so lucky to get to be at Disney in 3 weeks. Hope you enjoy your lunch at San Angel.

Happy anniversary! Great reviews so far. The grouper with risotto looks really good.

Thanks so much! It really was wonderful grouper. I just made a ressie for Citricos for our next trip because I can't forget how good that fish was.

Can't wait to see the rest. We are having my DP's birthday at San Angel Inn in April and hopefully Fernando is not our server.

Hope you have a wonderful birthday celebration at San Angel. Be sure and ask for a table by the water. I hope you get better service than we did too.

Hopefull I'll have time to get the next review posted this evening.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Having such a hard time working on this since the boards have been so slow for me.

California Grill- Monday, Deceember 19th

Brian and I hopped on the monorail at the Grand Floridian and headed over to the Contemporary. We left about on hour before our reservation which ended up being way too much time. I was anxious to not be late since I had a credit card guarentee on this one. When we arrived at the Contemporary, Daisy and Uncle Scrooge were taking pictures in the lobby. Since we had extra time we got in line to have our picture made. I'm a big kid at heart.

Still having extra time, we headed over to the desk to see if we could eat a little early. After calling upstairs it was confirmed we could go on up. We were led over to the elevator and up to the 15th floor we went. We were told that there would be a bit of a wait so we decided to wander out on the walkway and take some pictures. This is so such a nice view, especially of Space Mountain. After only a few minutes our buzzer was going off and we were led to our table. We didn't have a window view, but did have a table right by the kitchen. I sat there in amazement watching the chefs create the sushi platters. They really were works of art.

I admit I had to persuade Brian to try California Grill. We had friends that dined here a couple of years ago and they weren't impressed saying they had had better meals at our local Carabba's. I was insistent that I wanted to try it so he agreed to go along.

Our server was Steven and I have to say he was excellent at his job. He was always there with whatever we needed but yet we hardly noticed him. Our table was decorated celebrating our anniversary and Steven asked us if we would like some complementary wine since we were celebrating, but we turned him down since neither of us are big wine drinkers. Instead he brought us this bread...


Bread at California Grill by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

This was good bread. I especially enjoyed the soft butter.

I knew I wanted to try one of the flatbreads. I was anxious to try the barbecue chicken one, but Brian had another idea so we got this one...


Cheese Flatbread from California Grill by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

The Triple Cheese Flatbread with Sundried Tomatoes and Arugula Pesto. This was very yummy and could have made a meal for me it was so big. I really enjoyed the sun dried tomatoes. Because of their color, I almost felt like I was eating pepperoni. I'm not much for pesto so I was scraping it off by the time I got to the last two pieces. I would definitely order this again, but without the pesto next time for me.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

We decided to try the salad. Our receipt refers to it as the Market Salad, but AllEars is refering to it as the Heirloom Apple Salad. This salad was good, especially the fruit and nuts. I especially enjoyed the vinagrette. This picture is showing the salad already split and missing a few bites.


Salad at California Grill by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

Brian and I split the pork with the goat cheese polenta and mushrooms. It lived up to the hype that I had read about it here on the DIS. The pork was super tender, melt in your mouth meat. The polenta was very creamy, but after a few bites I gave mine to Brian since the goat cheese was all I was tasting. He loved it and ate every last bite. Here's a picture of my portion that was split by the kitchen.


Pork at Cali Grill by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

Once again I was too satiated for dessert so I let Brian have free rein on what to order. I feel sure he consulted Steven and they settled on the Bananas and Caramel Custard. I love the way Disney sends a greeting with chocolate...


Banana Custard Dessert from California Grill by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

I admit I only had one bite of this. Brian is a big fan of bananas but me not so much. However this was very good blend of flavors with the bananas, marscapone, and caramel. Except I was afraid the carmalized phyllo might lead to a trip to the dentist since it was rather sticky.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

My final grade of California Grill will be...

A-

Steven was an excellent server and the food was very good. I like that the menu is unique. Not like anything we can get here at home at definitely much better than Carabba's.

I forgot to mention that Steven said we were welcome to come back and view the fireworks later even though we had an early reservation.

We ended up saving $15.00 with our TIW card so now we are only $41.70 away from having it paid for.

Up next will be a quick breakfast at Pizzafari and then lunch at Nine Dragons.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

A quick breakfast at Pizzafari- Tuesday, December 20th

After riding Everest and the safari I needed a little something to eat. We stepped into Pizzafari to split a breakfast, but Brian decided he could wait until lunch. I decided to have the cinnamon bun, which I regret I didn't get picture of. I've had many cinnamon buns at WDW and they are all the same at all of the quick service places. This one was especially good though. It was very fresh and hot.

I have to give my breakfast at Pizzafari an A

Very glad we stopped in at Pizzafari since there was hardly anyone there. Pizzafari does take the TIW card so I saved another $1.66. The card will be paid for once we save $40.04 more.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Lunch at Nine Dragons on Tuesday, December 20th

I booked a late lunch at Nine Dragons knowing that we wouldn't need much if any supper since we were going to the Wishes Dessert Party later. At 1:00 p.m. there weren't too many people at the restaurant. I was disappointed that the hostess was rude. We stood in front of her and waited for several minutes before she acknowledged we were there. Then she bothered herself to lead us to a table. Not what I expect from the typical Disney customer service.

Luckily our server was a sweetheart. Our receipt says her name was Ji Hui. I love these placemats showing the Chinese characters. Ji Hui even brought me some crayons saying I should try to draw them.


Nine Dragons by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

Brian was really hungry so we decided to start off with an appetizer. He ordered these egg rolls.


egg rolls from Nine Dragons by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

These looked like they were going to be tasty, but they just didn't live up to their looks. The egg rolls were stuffed full and had lots of meat, but just didn't have a lot of flavor.

For our entree we decided to split the Honey Sesame Chicken with a side of Vegetable Fried Rice. Here's my portion...


Honey Sesame Chicken from Nine Dragons by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

The rice in the left upperhand corner is the vegetable fried rice. The chicken was also served with a white rice that is in the left lowerhand corner of the plate. Again I was disappointed that this dish just didn't have a lot of flavor. The rice was especially bland.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

So my final grade for Nine Dragons has to be a...

C-

Honestly I would have graded Nine Dragons even lower if it hadn't been for the excellent service we received from Ji Hui. The bland food and the rude hostess have made me scratch this restaurant off my list to try again.

We saved $6.38 on this meal with the TIW card so we are down to needing only $34.06 to break even.

Up next will be a snack from Casey's and then the Wishes Dessert Party!

 

[sarahewoods]

GLad you both enjoyed your meal at Cali grill. It is one of my favourite places to eat.

Never tried 9 dragons, it's a shame when you are really looking forward to somewhere, and then it isn't all that.

Looking forward to more. Xx

 

[bearbear]

We leave wednesday for our anniversary trip without the kids. We are doing the wishes dessert party so I hope to hear your review before we leave. I'm so looking forward to that.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

GLad you both enjoyed your meal at Cali grill. It is one of my favourite places to eat.

Never tried 9 dragons, it's a shame when you are really looking forward to somewhere, and then it isn't all that.

Looking forward to more. Xx

Thanks for reading. Cali Grill definitely did deliver on a great meal. We really were disappointed that we didn't like Nine Dragons. There are a lot better Chinese restaurants here where we live to enjoy.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Snack from Casey's

We headed over the Magic Kingdom a couple of hours before the time we were given to get into the Dessert Party. Being kind of hungry we decided to search out a snack. We didn't want too much to eat since we planned on stuffing ourselves full of dessert so we settled on splitting these little nuggets.


Corn dog nuggets from Casey's by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

I enjoyed these but I am a lover corn dogs. Brian just thought they were all right so I think I got the bulk of them. Casey's was totally packed this night with no where to sit inside or out. Casey's always smells like sauerkraut to me so I didn't mind to head over to a bench near the Crystal Palace to eat these.

Next we'll head over to the Tommorrowland Terrace Desert Party!

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

We leave wednesday for our anniversary trip without the kids. We are doing the wishes dessert party so I hope to hear your review before we leave. I'm so looking forward to that.

Happy Anniversary and I hope you have a wonderful trip! Hoping to get the Dessert Party review done tommorrow.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

happy anniversary, loving your reviews. The TIW breakdown is really interesting - not something I was aware of before. also it seems you didn't have any major issues splitting meals - wasn't really aware of this either.

 

[DLFan123]

Dis boards moves really slow for us, too. Can't wait to see the rest of your reviews. Our trip is a little over 2 months away, so I'm sure the boards will move fast enough for you to get this completed by then.

We decided not to dine at Nine Dragons after reading other reviews on here. Yours confirms that our decision was the right one. I'm sorry it wasn't the best, but now you know for next time.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

happy anniversary, loving your reviews. The TIW breakdown is really interesting - not something I was aware of before. also it seems you didn't have any major issues splitting meals - wasn't really aware of this either.

Thanks so much for the anniversary wishes. We usually split meals and have never had a server have a problem with it. This is one of the reasons we switched from the DDP to the TIW card.

Dis boards moves really slow for us, too. Can't wait to see the rest of your reviews. Our trip is a little over 2 months away, so I'm sure the boards will move fast enough for you to get this completed by then.

We decided not to dine at Nine Dragons after reading other reviews on here. Yours confirms that our decision was the right one. I'm sorry it wasn't the best, but now you know for next time.

It's only been the last couple of weeks I've had problems with the DIS being so slow. It can be so frustating. But surely I will be done before your trip.

We've set a goal to try all of the World Showcase restaurants and I think we only lack 4 now so that was one of the reasons we tried Nine Dragons. Hope you have a wonderful trip filled with many great meals.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Tuesday, December 20th- Tommorrowland Terrace Dessert Party

I had dreamed of going to the Dessert Party many times, but was never able to secure a reservation. So I was thrilled that we were able to get a reservation the night before our actual anniversary. Wishes was at 10:00 this night so we headed over about 9:15 to check in. We were suprised there wasn't anyone in line. That was because most of the tables were already seated. We were led to a table for 2 right up front. The tables were all preassigned with name cards placed on them. It was a tight fit as they have put as many tables in there as possible.

We headed over to get some of the desserts. There were three small buffets of desserts lined up beside each other with room to go between them. Logisically it would have been easier to navigate if they lined the buffets end to end so that there could have been a line on both sides. The way the buffets were arranged lent to chaos trying to get the food. There has been a lot of discussion here about the lack of drink choices for the dessert party so I was prepared for that. I chose tea and Brian had coffee. Here's a picture of our plates...


Wishes Dessert party food by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr


Wishes Dessert party by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr

The first picturre is Brian's plate. You can tell who is the better photographer, or rather who has the iphone. I hate to say I was really disappointed in the quality of these desserts. Other than the fruit, there wasn't really any of them I would say were very good. Brian liked the apple one but I can't say the same. Many of them seemed like the same dessert to me with just a different topping. They reminded me of the mass production desserts you might find at a buffet like the Golden Corale. Brian hadn't eaten dinner and since we had an unsatisfying lunch he went over to the Tommorrowland Terrace and got himself a chicken sandwich and fries and brought it over. I didn't get a picture of it, but he said it was good. He was lucky to find food there because I don't think I've ever seen the place open.

Now for the good news. The view really was excellent. We had a front row table and noticed people started to line up along the railing when the parade was going by. The people beside us were angry and complained to the CMs at check in about this, but it didn't obstuct our view of the fireworks at all. As for the parade, you really can't see much of it at all from the terrace. But Tinkerbell is so close you can almost touch her it seemed when she flew over. Here are a couple of photos of the castle and Wishes...


Castle during Dessert party by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr


Fireworks during Dessert party by Smiling Cheshire Cat, on Flickr