Dining Plan Review - 10/1-10/06

[AnninIowa]

I posted my full trip report on the “Trip Reports” Board (“Newbie Trip Report – All In One Thread”)…but thought I’d post the dining only reviews here:

My dad and I were on the Dining Plan. We got a special rate from AAA of $25 per person per day for 5 days. I didn’t keep an exact total, but would do the basic math in my head each day and I know we came out way ahead, getting AT LEAST $40 in “free” food per day. We also got a free UPGRADE to Conceierge Level at the Beach Club, and the breakfast and snacks there almost eliminated any out-of-pocket food expenses. While it was fun to go anywhere and order anything, it was way too much food for us and in the end hard to use up the Snack and Counter Service credits. However, not having to carry around cash and physically pay for some of the not-so-great food was a big plus! I don’t think I’d pay the $38, but would get it if it was at a reduced cost.

SNACKS:
We used our 10 Snack Credits for 5 Waters, 2 Pops (or Soda, as some of you call it!), 2 Ice Creams (Mickey Sandwich and Nestle Crunch Bar), and 1 Chocolate Chip Cookies.


COUNTER SERVICE:

Earl of Sandwich (Marketplace) - 2 Counter Service Credits
BBQ Beef Sandwich, drink and cookie
Le Frenchy Sandwich (ham, brie and dejonaise), drink and brownie.
The sandwiches were so good – hot and on baguettes - and very filling. We took the desserts with us to eat later.

Pizzafari (Animal Kingdom) - 2 Counter Service Credits
Cheese Pizza, Apple Tart and drink
Hot Italian Deli Sandwich (came with a bag of Lay’s Chips), Chocolate Cake and drink
Everything was really good! I was a little worried about the pesto tomatoes on my sandwich, but I was able to pick them off easily enough. The cake was to die for!

Boulangerie Patisserie (Epcot – France) - 2 Counter Service Credits
2 Ham & Cheese Croissants
Cake of the Day (chocolate!!)
Strawberry Tart
2 drinks
The croissants were amazing – I actually had 1 and a half as Dad couldn’t finish his. My chocolate cake was amazing, and dad liked his tart. So good!!!!

Main Street Bakery (Magic Kingdom) - 1 Counter Service Credit
Blueberry Muffin
Apple Turnover
Chocolate Milk
Both pastries were excellent, although finding a seat was ridiculous! Finally a group left and we snagged one of the two outside tables and ate fast to free it up for others. Chocolate Milk was Nesquik – yuck!

Wolfgang Puck’s Express (Marketplace) – 1 Counter Service Credit
Caesar Salad, Brownie and Coke. I only ate about half the salad and took the brownie with me – I was trying to use up a CS credit. It was too hard to eat the salad with plastic utensils; ate the brownie later that night, but it was rather bland.

Earl of Sandwich (Marketplace) – 2 Counter Service Credits
So good we came back a second time!
Earl’s Club – I liked it better than the Le Frenchy
Tuna Melt – Dad loved it
2 cookies – ate on the plane home
2 drinks
The staff was rather rude, putting the damper on a great meal. I would LOVE to have an Earl of Sandwich in my town!!!


TABLE SERVICE

Boma (Animal Kingdom) – 2 Table Service Credits
Boma was packed; we were a bit early for our 6:00 p.m. ADR, but only waited about 5 minutes to be seated. It took a while for our server to take our drink order, and even longer to actually get the drinks. The place was really busy and people were piled in the waiting area. I’d heard such great things about Boma and was really excited to try it. While I’m glad we did try it, I would definitely never go again. I wasn’t expecting it to be so LOUD! I’d read all about the little “pod” areas for food…whatever, the “pods” are all in a line so I didn’t see how it was really different from other buffets. Anyhow, I was still looking forward to trying the food…but it just wasn’t appealing to us. I tried a number of different dishes, taking a little of each. Other than the “Potatoes with Afritude” and some of the breads, there wasn’t anything I liked. I forced myself to eat a few bites of the nut-crusted salmon, trying to get just the nuts. We found the food to be spicy – not in the traditional way of American spicy – but so “spiced” that it did bother us. We “tried” enough to fill up, however, then hit the desserts…which were awesome!!! We each had a famous Zebra Dome, and they were okay…but my favorites were the Chocolate Moose Crunch and the Chocolate Brownies. I went back for seconds of these – so good!! So, dessert made up for the food, definitely. Since our server was scarce – my drink was never refilled – we didn’t tip any extra, just the 15% that was included with the Dining Plan. Again, I was glad we at least TRIED Boma, and now I can say I’ve eaten African foods.

Wolfgang Puck’s Café (Downtown – West Side) – 2 Table Service Credits
We were early, but that got us a seat outside, which was perfect as it had cooled off and there was a nice breeze coming from the water. I had the Caesar Salad (yum!), Three-Cheese Ravioli (best I’ve EVER had!!), and Warm Dark Chocolate Soufflé Cake (very disappointing – just plain chocolate cake with a scoop of chocolate ice cream – only ate about half). Dad had a hard time here, as he just couldn’t figure out what to get. He tried the Asian Style Vegetable Spring Rolls (too spicy), Adventure’s In The Kitchen Meatloaf (he hated it), and Chef Marian’s Carrot Cake (which he thought was wonderful – fortunately, that filled him up). I had a Coke and Dad had the Mango Ice Tea (which he loved), and they gave us the bread, too (which I loved, Dad hated…oh well, more for me!). We tipped an extra $5 here, which the waiter seemed to really appreciate. Despite my dessert, I loved my food…Dad just ordered the wrong things for him – he should have gotten a salad and Fettuccini Alfredo, which I know he would have liked. I would definitely recommend Wolfgang Puck’s Café!!

Cape May Café (Beach Club Resort) – 2 Table Service Credits
Breakfast with the characters. Dad loves breakfast foods, so I wanted him to have a nice breakfast on the trip. I was dreading the character part, but figured I could suck it up for one meal. People in costumes make me…”uncomfortable”!! This was a 2 Table Service Credit meal for us, and there was plenty on the buffet: Mickey waffles, Krispy Kreme donuts, bagels, croissants, two types of eggs, bacon, sausage, fruits, potatoes…plus we each got drinks. The characters were Goofy, Minnie, and Dale (minus Chip for some reason)…and we did take a few pics of each other with the characters. I didn’t want to, now, but the CHARACTERS insisted!! Our server was so sweet – we ended up tipping her an extra $3.


Big River Grille & Brewing Works (Boardwalk) – 2 Table Service Credits
What an overlooked gem!! The view, the service and the food were outstanding!! I got the Classic Caesar Salad (really good!) and the Big Brew Burger (with added bacon and Swiss cheese) with homemade kettle chips (awesome); Dad got the Clam Chowder (loved it) and a BBQ (sweet sauce) Pork Sandwich with the chips (loved it, too). I had a Coke, dad had the lemonade, and we each had the Chocolate Confusion Cake (too die for!) for dessert. This was probably the best meal of the trip, and we tipped the waiter an extra $5 (he was very appreciative).

Liberty Tree Tavern (Magic Kingdom) – 2 Table Service Credits
We were seated in less than five minutes (how awful would it be to work here and have to constantly say – and here – the “Here ye, here ye…now seating…”?! Our server asked me is we were a couple! I said no, that was my Dad!! She said that was too bad as we were getting the most romantic seat in the house, the one that men request when then want to propose. Well, that kind of grossed me out!! Our server was less than pleasant – not rude, but clearly not enjoying her job. This was by far the worst meal we had! For appetizers, I had the Tavern Fried Cheese (mozzarella cheese sticks with marinara sauce – strangely half the plate were “sticks” and the other half “nuggets” – these were your typical mozzarella sticks, although a bit too greasy) and dad had the New England Clam Chowder (he said it was very good). For entrees, I had “The Sandwich Heard Around the World” - grilled turkey panini with Swiss cheese, applewood smoked bacon, avocado tartar served on multi grain bread with arugula and mache salad. YUCK!!! The avocado tartar was slimy and make the sandwich soggy…and the bread had more grain in it than a bird feeder. The “salad” looked more like extra condiments for the sandwich. I barely ate ¼ of this – it was awful. Dad had the “Pilgrims' Feast” - traditional roast turkey with herb bread dressing, mashed potatoes and a garden vegetable. While he liked the turkey, he said the dressing was terrible. With the heat, he just wasn’t able to get down a “Thanksgiving” meal. For dessert, I had the Chocolate Liberation Cake - warm chocolate lava cake with raspberry sauce. The cake was very small, but good. When it first came out, it has a strawberry on it – and I’m allergic to strawberries. Even though the waitress was pretty sure the sauce was raspberry, she insisted on taking it back and making one with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce for me. Dad had the Caramel Apple Tart - shortbread crust, sugared apples, and vanilla bean ice cream. He said it was just “okay” – the apple turnover at the Main Street Bakery had been much better. After eating here, I’d wished we’d eaten at Tony’s Town Square instead. Oh well! We did give our server an extra $5 tip – and she seemed very pleased!


OUT-OF-POCKET

Ghirardelli Soda Fountain (Marketplace) – Had “buy one, get one free” coupon. I ordered the Warm Brownie Sundae (plus a bottle of water), and Dad got the Very Berry Sundae; and we sat down to wait for them to be brought out. They certainly LOOKED amazing, but after digging in and getting to the ice cream at the bottom of the 5 inches of whipped cream, well, there wasn’t much there. There was hardly any hot fudge in mine, and quite frankly the whole sundae was rather bland – the brownie was pretty dry and not even warm. Dad said his was “okay”, but nothing great. Neither of us bothered finishing – although it would have been easy to as, in the end, there just wasn’t much to them. Definitely not worth the $7 each, even with the coupon!

Beach Club Marketplace (Beach Club Resort) – Pistaccio Gellato (dad loved it), water, milk (for dad to take him nightly medication)

 

[DaisyGirlAllTheWay]

Very nice Dining reviews! How did you get AAA dining @ 25 dollars pp?

 

[Rafikifan]

Thank you for your reviews. Did you get a table outside at Big River Grille?

 

[AnninIowa]

I have no idea how we got the $25 rate! When added the dining plan on after the trip was booked, too; I'd read about the plan her on DIS, emailed my TA about it, and she told me about the special! Even if we had ended up breaking even, it was still worth it not to have to carry around money or physically "pay" at the meal. Our sit-down dinners were $50 and up...would have definitely been hard to hand over that in cash!!

We actually sat inside at Big River Grille - they were doing construction on the Boardwalk right outside, and there were only a couple of outside tables. However, we were seated by the window.

 

[susan137]

Thanks for the great reviews. I've been wanting to try Big River Grille.

Since you got the discount on the dining plan, did you also get a room discount from AAA?

Susan

 

[AnninIowa]

Thanks Susan - you will LOVE Big River Grille! You know, I was pretty lazy with the trip planning. Other than telling my AAA TA when we wanted to go and where we wanted to stay, I let her handle it - I never got an itemized bill, just one lump sum. I can tell you that we aren't AAA members - joining would have cost about the same as the discount we would have gotten. For me, not having to worry about the details was worth the cost. It was especially helpful when Northwest cut flights at our airport; we ended up having to go to Disney a day earlier than planned. I was thankful my TA could handle that for us!!

 

[susan137]

It's funny. I think all AAA offices dance to the beat of a differnt drum!

Just trying to weigh the options of joining vs just hoping for a good "code" during our trip next year. Lots of time to consider things.

Thanks again for the reviews!

Susan