Dining reviews. Most everywhere we ate was good. Some better than others. I’ll put pictures on the appropriate boards....some day. To me, the only meal that really warranted pictures is the huge meal (shwarma platter) at Morocco, and the huge dessert (s'mores) at Canada in EPCOT. Since we have a 10yo this year (9 last year so kids’ meal prices), we added everything up from last year’s trip with 3 adults and 1 child and decided it was about the same for the dining plan, so we’d try it. One major complaint was there were too many desserts. Why oh why can’t I substitute a side salad for yet another chocolate dessert? I LOVE dessert but by the third day myself, DH, and even the kids were grossed out at the thought of having dessert with every meal. Loved the fresh fruit at all the buffets.
We did have some snack credits left as we took some snacks with us, like granola bars, fruit cups. We were really so full from the CS and TS meals with all those desserts though. We packed water in our camelbaks as well. We should have bought more water with the SC than carried it around.
The extra snack credits we used to take home the chocolate covered rice krispie treats from the Contempo cafe. Worked great as stocking stuffers for relatives.
Made our ADR 90 in advance in Sept. Worth it to get up at 3A to get everything we wanted.
Contempo café at CR: decent selection of sandwiches and kids’ food. I asked the food prep people if I could sub a salad instead of a dessert with my sandwich. It was a NO.
Chef Mickey’s at CR: ate here last day, have eaten here before so we knew what to expect. It was fine. Food was as expected, but the characters this time were really disoriented. They were constantly going back to their handlers and hopping around tables, missing many along the way. We were there an hour and 10 min and never saw Mickey. The table next to ours yelled at Minnie to come over and thank goodness or she would’ve missed our whole row. Since we’d been finished eating at least 20 min, we kept asking our server when he’d come around, she said, just stay there and wait and he’d be around again. As he was nowhere in sight, I told the table organizer person (who has the handheld computer table thing) when she came into our room, that we’d like to leave (as would the 3 other tables along our wall), but we were waiting for Mickey. Of course she wanted to turn the tables ASAP, so she got the handler from across the restaurant, who came to ask if we’d seen Mickey, how long we’d been there, etc. He very politely said to follow him and he would be happy to take a family picture for us. So our row of tables collected our things and followed him across the restaurant to the large separated room. We all stood in the hall by the kitchen service entrance and the handler took pics of us, so it all worked out fine.
Crystal Palace in MK: had the character lunch the first day. It was a good selection of salads, cold cuts and hot items. Character interaction was good and loved the flowered topiary animals at the entrance. Definitely eat here again.
Columbia Harbor House at MK: across the board pretty bad. I had Lighthouse sandwich, which I think they toast to mask the old bread. DH had AnchorsAweigh sandwich, which was fine, but not good by any means. 10yo had chicken nuggets, 7yo had PBJ pre-made sandwich, grapes and carrots. 7yo threw up within an hour of this dinner and he didn’t even eat any dessert! Oh yes, we were waiting for Spectromagic to start, it was lovely.
Mama Melrose at DHS: had the Fantasmic package. Food was good, but so heavy for 4p in the afternoon, we all barely ate half of it. We had 3 appetizers as part of the dining package and then the pasta and dessert. The desserts (except for kids’ ice cream) we had packaged to eat at Fantasmic. Again, major food wastage. We were done in plenty of time for Fantasmic, the server was good.
1900 Park Fare Supercalifrag….whatever….breakfast buffet at Grand Floridian: made last reservation possible, 11:05, on MK early opening day. Went to MK at 8. Spent some quality time on rides with NO wait….I rode Buzz 3 times while kids and DH went on Space MTN at rope drop. Then headed to Grand Floridian. When we followed the greeter to our table, it was one right inside the doors where people were entering and exiting. It also had a high chair for our 7yo. DH and I cringed at being directly in front of the main entrance/exit, so we asked for another table. The seater looked panicked (she was very young) and started hemming and hawing. We scanned the dining room and saw one in the middle of the restaurant with one side of booth seating. I asked for that and she said this is your table, not sure what to do, so she then led us over to the open table. The head mistress gal, who made announcements about people’s birthdays and directed the seaters, came up to us and told our seater nastily, “you are looking for table # 47 and it’s right over there”, and pushed the poor gal towards it. We said it had a high chair and we’d rather not sit by the door. She told the seater to change out the chair and scurried off. We stood there a minute not budging, as we were definitely the last seating, there wasn’t someone coming in after us to throw off their system, so she led us to the table that was open in the middle of the dining room. At that point, experience with their seating system paid off for us, as it was really no big deal where we sat as the dining room emptied, some parties stayed later, some ate and ran. There was a table of 10 next to us that was finished eating when we got there, but was still there when we left. As for the food and characters, it was good, as to be expected. The made to order omelet station puts this above Chef Mickey’s. We’d go back here before Chef Mickey’s.
EPCOT: went to EPCOT two days, so here’s the run-down. Had counter service at Morrocco, Mexico’s outside restaurant, and France’s Boulangerie Patisserie. All good. One HUGE TIP is knowing that when there is no children’s menu choices, they aren’t as restricted; they can order off the adult/regular menu. At Boul Pat in France there isn’t a specific kids’ menu, so 7yo got a ham and cheese sandwich, drink and dessert (large choc chip cookie) for the child’s CS credit. Sandwich was big enough that both kids could have split it. Tangerine Café in Morrocco (conveniently next to France, so we got kids’ meals at Boul Pat and adults’ platters here) both adults got Shwarma platters. I was so stuffed, I had to skip the baklava…..although I ate everything on the plate. I think for the CS credit, it’s a great meal, meat, hummus, couscous, bread. We’ve travelled all around the world (the real world, not just DW!) and yet thought it was good, not just good compared to other WDW park food.
EPCOT: TS at Le Cellier. Ate last dinner here, so we were really stuffed from the big meals all week. We tried to have a lighter lunch, knowing we’d be doing steak for dinner. Two adults and 10yo all got the New York Strip. All were very good. Of course if we weren’t on the dining plan, I would think twice about buying 10yo steak knowing she would only eat half of it. DH and I got the gratin potatoes, very yummy, 10yo got fries. If we were paying cash, 10yo and I could have split one steak (I could only eat half as well) dinner and get a veggie or salad side with it. 10yo had S’Mores dessert, which was incredible, look for pic on dining board. I had the apple tart, good as it was not too sweet.
DTD: CS at Cookes of Dublin by Raglan Road. Cookes was good, even picky 10yo liked it. All 3 adult meals got fish and chips. Not greasy, big piece of fish, yummy. 7yo had chicken and chips, which was a large piece of actual chicken, not nuggets of questionable origin. Nice you can get a fruit cup for a dessert, so we got that with our meal.
DTD: TS at Wolfgang Puck. Not very good. Food was really mediocre. We had 4:30 ressie as we went to Cirque after, which started at 6. Not very crowded at all, but filled up as we left at 5:30. Got a nice window table and watched it rain over the lake, very pretty. DH had spinach salad, which he said was fine. I had pumpkin ravioli which was tasty, but heavier than I thought it would be (pasta was cut very thick) and barely warm. It was cold around the edges, but I didn’t send it back, as the whole meal took a while to get there, I was concerned we wouldn’t have enough time to eat. 10 yo got the pizza Magherita, which she only ate a few slices of. She was stuffed from an earlier snack. So sad to waste almost an entire pizza. I tasted some of hers and while it tasted fine, it was very greasy. I don’t think I had a pre-conceived high expectation for this restaurant that was not met. I think for whatever reason, the kitchen didn’t put out it’s best product at that time.
Pictures when I have more time!!!!
We did have some snack credits left as we took some snacks with us, like granola bars, fruit cups. We were really so full from the CS and TS meals with all those desserts though. We packed water in our camelbaks as well. We should have bought more water with the SC than carried it around.
The extra snack credits we used to take home the chocolate covered rice krispie treats from the Contempo cafe. Worked great as stocking stuffers for relatives.
Made our ADR 90 in advance in Sept. Worth it to get up at 3A to get everything we wanted.
Contempo café at CR: decent selection of sandwiches and kids’ food. I asked the food prep people if I could sub a salad instead of a dessert with my sandwich. It was a NO.
Chef Mickey’s at CR: ate here last day, have eaten here before so we knew what to expect. It was fine. Food was as expected, but the characters this time were really disoriented. They were constantly going back to their handlers and hopping around tables, missing many along the way. We were there an hour and 10 min and never saw Mickey. The table next to ours yelled at Minnie to come over and thank goodness or she would’ve missed our whole row. Since we’d been finished eating at least 20 min, we kept asking our server when he’d come around, she said, just stay there and wait and he’d be around again. As he was nowhere in sight, I told the table organizer person (who has the handheld computer table thing) when she came into our room, that we’d like to leave (as would the 3 other tables along our wall), but we were waiting for Mickey. Of course she wanted to turn the tables ASAP, so she got the handler from across the restaurant, who came to ask if we’d seen Mickey, how long we’d been there, etc. He very politely said to follow him and he would be happy to take a family picture for us. So our row of tables collected our things and followed him across the restaurant to the large separated room. We all stood in the hall by the kitchen service entrance and the handler took pics of us, so it all worked out fine.
Crystal Palace in MK: had the character lunch the first day. It was a good selection of salads, cold cuts and hot items. Character interaction was good and loved the flowered topiary animals at the entrance. Definitely eat here again.
Columbia Harbor House at MK: across the board pretty bad. I had Lighthouse sandwich, which I think they toast to mask the old bread. DH had AnchorsAweigh sandwich, which was fine, but not good by any means. 10yo had chicken nuggets, 7yo had PBJ pre-made sandwich, grapes and carrots. 7yo threw up within an hour of this dinner and he didn’t even eat any dessert! Oh yes, we were waiting for Spectromagic to start, it was lovely.
Mama Melrose at DHS: had the Fantasmic package. Food was good, but so heavy for 4p in the afternoon, we all barely ate half of it. We had 3 appetizers as part of the dining package and then the pasta and dessert. The desserts (except for kids’ ice cream) we had packaged to eat at Fantasmic. Again, major food wastage. We were done in plenty of time for Fantasmic, the server was good.
1900 Park Fare Supercalifrag….whatever….breakfast buffet at Grand Floridian: made last reservation possible, 11:05, on MK early opening day. Went to MK at 8. Spent some quality time on rides with NO wait….I rode Buzz 3 times while kids and DH went on Space MTN at rope drop. Then headed to Grand Floridian. When we followed the greeter to our table, it was one right inside the doors where people were entering and exiting. It also had a high chair for our 7yo. DH and I cringed at being directly in front of the main entrance/exit, so we asked for another table. The seater looked panicked (she was very young) and started hemming and hawing. We scanned the dining room and saw one in the middle of the restaurant with one side of booth seating. I asked for that and she said this is your table, not sure what to do, so she then led us over to the open table. The head mistress gal, who made announcements about people’s birthdays and directed the seaters, came up to us and told our seater nastily, “you are looking for table # 47 and it’s right over there”, and pushed the poor gal towards it. We said it had a high chair and we’d rather not sit by the door. She told the seater to change out the chair and scurried off. We stood there a minute not budging, as we were definitely the last seating, there wasn’t someone coming in after us to throw off their system, so she led us to the table that was open in the middle of the dining room. At that point, experience with their seating system paid off for us, as it was really no big deal where we sat as the dining room emptied, some parties stayed later, some ate and ran. There was a table of 10 next to us that was finished eating when we got there, but was still there when we left. As for the food and characters, it was good, as to be expected. The made to order omelet station puts this above Chef Mickey’s. We’d go back here before Chef Mickey’s.
EPCOT: went to EPCOT two days, so here’s the run-down. Had counter service at Morrocco, Mexico’s outside restaurant, and France’s Boulangerie Patisserie. All good. One HUGE TIP is knowing that when there is no children’s menu choices, they aren’t as restricted; they can order off the adult/regular menu. At Boul Pat in France there isn’t a specific kids’ menu, so 7yo got a ham and cheese sandwich, drink and dessert (large choc chip cookie) for the child’s CS credit. Sandwich was big enough that both kids could have split it. Tangerine Café in Morrocco (conveniently next to France, so we got kids’ meals at Boul Pat and adults’ platters here) both adults got Shwarma platters. I was so stuffed, I had to skip the baklava…..although I ate everything on the plate. I think for the CS credit, it’s a great meal, meat, hummus, couscous, bread. We’ve travelled all around the world (the real world, not just DW!) and yet thought it was good, not just good compared to other WDW park food.
EPCOT: TS at Le Cellier. Ate last dinner here, so we were really stuffed from the big meals all week. We tried to have a lighter lunch, knowing we’d be doing steak for dinner. Two adults and 10yo all got the New York Strip. All were very good. Of course if we weren’t on the dining plan, I would think twice about buying 10yo steak knowing she would only eat half of it. DH and I got the gratin potatoes, very yummy, 10yo got fries. If we were paying cash, 10yo and I could have split one steak (I could only eat half as well) dinner and get a veggie or salad side with it. 10yo had S’Mores dessert, which was incredible, look for pic on dining board. I had the apple tart, good as it was not too sweet.
DTD: CS at Cookes of Dublin by Raglan Road. Cookes was good, even picky 10yo liked it. All 3 adult meals got fish and chips. Not greasy, big piece of fish, yummy. 7yo had chicken and chips, which was a large piece of actual chicken, not nuggets of questionable origin. Nice you can get a fruit cup for a dessert, so we got that with our meal.
DTD: TS at Wolfgang Puck. Not very good. Food was really mediocre. We had 4:30 ressie as we went to Cirque after, which started at 6. Not very crowded at all, but filled up as we left at 5:30. Got a nice window table and watched it rain over the lake, very pretty. DH had spinach salad, which he said was fine. I had pumpkin ravioli which was tasty, but heavier than I thought it would be (pasta was cut very thick) and barely warm. It was cold around the edges, but I didn’t send it back, as the whole meal took a while to get there, I was concerned we wouldn’t have enough time to eat. 10 yo got the pizza Magherita, which she only ate a few slices of. She was stuffed from an earlier snack. So sad to waste almost an entire pizza. I tasted some of hers and while it tasted fine, it was very greasy. I don’t think I had a pre-conceived high expectation for this restaurant that was not met. I think for whatever reason, the kitchen didn’t put out it’s best product at that time.
Pictures when I have more time!!!!
