Dining Review - 16 days in Feb March with an egg allergy from uk

[jf256]

I've managed to massively mess up some of the days lunches.. when we had them so apologies.
To counter this i think i will just note restaurants / qs etc for lunch / dinner nad not worry too much about the specific dates. We didnt snack a huge amount after the first week - as we were not really enamoured with a lot of the snacks so where i remember a specific snack I will include it. Note: we did not like rice krispy treats at all - and bought a few back as 'gifts' they eneded up getting chucked becasue nobody wanted them.

 

[jf256]

Ale and Compass Breakfast:

This was one of the very few breakfasts we actually had at disney outside of the beignets and snack bars we bought with us.

I really enjoyed my meal - jack on the other hand not so enamored. I had an allergy version of the dark chocolate espresso waffles. I loved them.

The vegan / gluten free waffle mix was not the best it had a bit of a bicarb of soda taste. But the toppings were divine. The cherries were the best. But it was way too sickly and i had far to much food. I had it with the buffet because i wanted coffee and a yoghurt so it made sense. I was surprised that a juice did not come with the buffet and you had to pay seperate. But it is what it is. Orange juice was freshly squeezed and tasty but i think it was almost 5 dollars - so not sure i would bother next time.
I tried to convince jack to get pancakes but he went with the american breakfast and did regret it I think. It was very basic. But filled a hole. He had a couple of pastries on the buffet and some fruit. I think next time he would listen to me.

Fish and Chips at Epcot

We had a table booked for La Hacienda but was hungry when we went into epcot. We wanted to have a day wandering around world showcase and trying a few bits and pieces but honestly jack was feeling a bit home sick and we ended up at the UK at the fish and chip stand.

We asked the girl working there what she thought of it - and she said yeah they were good. No idea if she has to say that or not. But we got a portion anyway between us..and they were pretty good. One thing i wouldn't suggest is putting loads of sugar on the chips because you thought it was a salt packet.. but i scraped that off and managed to put a ton of vinegar on...then actual salt. So it was okay.

They aren't the best fish and chips i've ever had. But they did a pretty good job. If you want the best chips in the south of england there is a chip shop in a coastal village in kent called whitstable. They have been around since the victorian times and cook their chips in beef dripping - which is the traditional way to do this.

The fish was actually pretty good considering it wasn't cod. Overall pretty impressed.

Maple popcorn

Heard good things about this - and was looking forward to it. But it was a bit basic and wasn't really my thing. I didnt really see what was special about it.

 

[jf256]

La Hacienda.

We had a dining reservation at La Hacienda. They didn't serve Mexican coke which I thought was a real shame - I wasn't a huge fan of the Cokes in the US and would have liked to have a cold sugar-based coke.

But guys your sprites.. omg they are incredible. Realised why when I checked the back of the packet - the calories and sugar in those things compared to the UK are insane.

Anyway, I digress.

One thing I will say about La Hacienda. It is my type of food - another thing I will say is that Mexican restaurants in the UK are not good.

Jack was full up from the popcorn and the chips and the extra toffee popcorn he got from karamel kuche and- didn't really end up eating his meal. Tbh he wasn't the biggest fan as he is a creature of habit and his habit is my not-so-authentic enchiladas, chili, and chimichangas when he goes out. So it is understandable. I think he would prefer San Angel Inn.

But I was going to try to get at least something resembling authentic Mexican food - as I doubt we will ever end up going to Mexico itself.

We probably ended up getting the least authentic things we could. But I really liked it. We shared
Cochinita Pibil and Alambre de Res. Jack liked the pork but did struggle with the beef as it was a little chewy (probably because we asked for it well-done to be fair to them).
Honestly we shared way less meals than we should have done over the two weeks. Because a) we didn't really know if we could b) my allergy can make it a bit akward c) we have different tastes. But this was one place that if i went back - I would get the gucamole and the pork and share it as it really would of been plenty. Even if we hadn't had the fish and chips.

Honestly the amount of food waste - was really shameful on us.

It isn't like it was massive portions but with tacos/tortillas etc you dont really need a huge amount to fill up. Plus the rice etc. It just easily could have been shared.

We watched the fireworks in the evening and went to extra evening hours.. which was partially successful. It was successful because we managed to get on guardians after joining the virtual queue at 6pm at dinner. It was unsuccessful because it broke down we spent the whole two hours bascially in the queue and never got to do anything else. We were fine with it as we had genie plus the previous epcot day so had done all the other rides and weren't overly fussed. But other people were rightly a bit irritated that they had spent all that money on a deluxe hotel just to be stuck in a queue for the whole night.

Allergy Awareness: I forgot to mention this was not a disney run restaurant so no allergy menu but they handled the allergy situation perfectly. Now mexican food is pretty good for an egg allergy but they had a good system and the server knew his stuff.

 

[erinch]

Great report!

 

[jf256]

Big River Grille
We ate at Big River Grille during one of our days. But I cant for the life of me remember when it was, as we didnt book it. We were definately staying at the Swan but other than that its a bit murky. I want to say we did it before our MK extra evening hours .. I have an uncanny ability to remember the food I ate - regardless of whether i remember when or where it was so the review will still be accurate ( I think its something to do with my allergy - naturally remember food options as its more difficult and i have to study menus, ask questions etc).

We didn't have a reservation and they were able to fit us in. I know it was a day that we slept a bit later - I think I went to the pool and gym so I'm leaning towards evening hours being the date.

We really enjoyed the food here. But there was a metric tonne of it!

Following on from the amazing spinach and cheese dip at Sci-FI - I saw that they had one on the menu. It came with chips - it now says tortilla chips. But these were more like kettle chips. At this point, i knew full well that we wouldn't need to have a starter and entrees. But I did anyway and I did try - I promise I tried to adjust the meal for that - but I just made it worse!!

The dip was incredible but it wasn't as good as the one at Sci Fi. Spinach Cheese Dip is not something you get a lot of in the UK so i did really enjoy this. They gave us about a kilo worth of chips... and most of them were left. The server was cracking up when he saw our faces... The number of chips at sci-fi was substantial and It would be better if they left over around 2/3s and got people to ask for extra if they liked them.

I got the salmon as my main. It was cajun creole salad. I'm not the biggest rice or vegetables fan and I prefer a side salad generally. I initially asked if i could have the cajun pasta but it was egg based so it wasn't an option for me.

Jack ordered the cheeseburger.
After having left a mountain of cheese dip and chips. I was handed my 'side salad'. It didn't have any salmon in it - and i thought maybe i wasn't clear as i had asked lots of questions. It did have cheese, croutons, and dressing and was also the size of a buffet cart. I whispered to Jack that i was secretly happy they forgot the salmon as i was struggling to think how i could have managed it. Jack tried some but isn't a salad person - so i ate quite a bit of it. Jack's cheeseburger arrived about 10 minutes after my salad - with even more chips. Like another whole family-size bag.

I was cracking up because our table just looked so ridiculous and was winding him up about having to eat everything to not offend anyone.

That's when a huge salmon fillet and guess what - another metric tonne of chips was brought out to us. I honestly couldn't believe it. What I ate was really tasty.. but there was so much food!

If you do go to Big River Grille - the food is definitely sharable.

 

[jf256]

Failure at a 'Progressive Monorail Meal'

I had lofty ambitions to do progressive dining at The Grand Floridian, Contemporary, and the Polynesian.

A) Forgetting that i'm not a spontaneous diner.
B) Trying to Attempt this at peak 7pm dining time.
C) Not knowing our way round any of the resorts.
D) Not knowing that we would need to keep going through security at each of the mono rail resorts.

Tambu Lounge:

We started off at Tambu Lounge. Was absolutely packed. We managed to get one seat at the bar. I had a POG juice. Jack had a coke. We ordered just the Ohana Noodles as I knew they were vegan and everyone raves about them. They come out on a plate even if you order them to take away - they give you a box they wont do it in the kitchen - which is a bit difficult at a packed bar area.

We went down to the outside eating area at Captain Cooks - Got some cutlery, hot sauce and soy sauce from the quick service counter and then ate our noodles near the pool.

They were okay. They were a decent price but they weren't really anything special. They were sweet and i prefer more of a savoury noodle. Jack also wasn't crazy about them. Not being able to the pot stickers or the bread pudding, and hearing about the sometimes poor quality of the meat at ohana we were quite glad we didn't manage to get a table.

I thought the polynesian would be my favourite resort - but i found it a bit too much - everything was very busy and loud. The theming was amazing but it might of been 'too themed' for me.

Grand Floridan

Enchanted Rose Lounge

We then moved to the Grand Floridian with every intention of eating in Citricos lounge - we even had nice clothes on. But we never got that far. We popped in to the Enchanted rose lounge. I had the non alcoholic tea and it was not for me - incredibly bitter. Jack had a pot of coffee and really enjoyed it - even though we hadn't exactly liked joffreys up until this point. But the stuff in the restaurants was night and day compared to the parks - i think they might burn it in the machines in the park potentially.

We also got some jerky - which was incredible. I am normally a biltong over jerky kinda gal. But this was absolutely amazing.

After our 'meal' we decided not to go to citricos or carry on. Honestly hopping between different restaurants is not something we are used to - and i found it a bit akward trying to get seating, only ordering one item etc. I'd try it again but with a set itenary and plan because it honestly stressed me out too much.

It is a shame because I think I would have enjoyed citricos.


Magic Kingdom:

Caseys Corner.

Caseys corner was a total bust. There was an incident outside - that required apparently every manager to attend to and the staff were not allowed to serve me without a manager. I asked if i could just have the vegan hot dog but i had already asked about the allergy so that was a no go.

I honestly waited around 20 - 25 minutes. It didn't look like anyone was going to come. So I gave and we went to cosmic rays. I wouldn't of minded if I was told about the incident and that it might be a while - but they let me stand there for 15 minutes, then told me but said it wont be long.

Cosmic Rays.

Cosmic Rays has a bad reputation. I wasn't expecting much. But they had allergy mobile order and i knew we wouldnt need to wait for a manager. We thoroughly enjoyed our quick service meal - so much so that we went back on another day.

They were also absolutely flipping brilliant with my allergy. I ordered online - using the mobile order allergy request and got jack a burger. I had a kids chicken strips and fries. They were not busy but they did initially put the order without an allergy stick.

I asked about the allergy and they said yes it was. But just incase it had been messed up with someone elses they insisted on redoing the whole order. They gave jack a free drink for the wait and tried to insist that they would make him a new burger so we could eat together. Which was genuinely lovely. We didn't take them up on it but then they added an extra bowl of fries to my dinner when it came just incase he was still hungry.

They were honestly three of the nicest cast members we encountered. Now this was just after fireworks, they were very quiet and obviously your mileage may vary.

But the strips were piping hot. The chips were crispy and really well done. I really liked it.

On a busy day - I imagine its just like when McDonald's is busy. The food does not end up being as fresh and if the food was soggy/ cold it would have been terrible. But it was really very good and the service elevated it to another level.

We stayed for extra evening hours and had a great time. There wasnt much open so i am glad we got a filling dinner before hand.

 

[pinkxray]

Really enjoying your reviews. DD18 and I are headed to Disney this week. I have plans to eat around the monorail resorts too. I’m sure in my mind it is looking better than it will probably work out. I’m thinking will head to Tambu Louge for noodles and breading poodles as soon as they open, Citricos lounge for salad and apps, and maybe Steakhouse 71 lounge for onions and soup. I’m am hoping by starting early we have a good shot of making it work but who knows. Back up plan is doing mobile order at Kona and Steakhouse is we find ourselves fighting for a seat.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

I just stumbled across your post and I'm very much enjoying your reviews. My DD22 has several food allergies including egg so your experiences are quite noteworthy. We have not been to Universal in several years but from your experience, I can see they haven't "upped their game" to accommodate allergies in the parks. Sigh.... Yet another reason why we love WDW. They really do food allergies well.

 

[jf256]

I just stumbled across your post and I'm very much enjoying your reviews. My DD22 has several food allergies including egg so your experiences are quite noteworthy. We have not been to Universal in several years but from your experience, I can see they haven't "upped their game" to accommodate allergies in the parks. Sigh.... Yet another reason why we love WDW. They really do food allergies well.

It was a little disappointing. I am just used to better. Having travelled for work bit now and leisurely i have to say that i am incredibly grateful to live in the uk when it comes down to allergies.

City Walk restaurants were much better overall than our experience in disney springs. That review is coming. When we do eventually go back we will probably just exit the park and go back in to get snacks etc.

It depends on how severe your allergy is but as im generally okay with fryer contamination. I didnt starve at universal but snacks were definately an issue.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

It was a little disappointing. I am just used to better. Having travelled for work bit now and leisurely i have to say that i am incredibly grateful to live in the uk when it comes down to allergies.

City Walk restaurants were much better overall than our experience in disney springs. That review is coming. When we do eventually go back we will probably just exit the park and go back in to get snacks etc.

It depends on how severe your allergy is but as im generally okay with fryer contamination. I didnt starve at universal but snacks were definately an issue.

I do agree that City Walk has pretty good options for allergies. Disney Springs has been pretty good for us but we tend to go to the same places....lol Frontera Cocina, Paddlefish, and Erin McKenna's bakery. My DD22 loves everything from the bakery there. I find some of it very dense and not as flavorful as I was hoping. There are a few standouts though. The lemon tea cake is delish. The doughnuts are good. And.....I think her brownie bites?? were good?? Although everyone's tastes are subjective. DD22 is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, bananas, melons and unprocessed soy.......so, for her to find ANY fresh baked goods on vacation is a blessing.

 

[jf256]

I do agree that City Walk has pretty good options for allergies. Disney Springs has been pretty good for us but we tend to go to the same places....lol Frontera Cocina, Paddlefish, and Erin McKenna's bakery. My DD22 loves everything from the bakery there. I find some of it very dense and not as flavorful as I was hoping. There are a few standouts though. The lemon tea cake is delish. The doughnuts are good. And.....I think her brownie bites?? were good?? Although everyone's tastes are subjective. DD22 is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, bananas, melons and unprocessed soy.......so, for her to find ANY fresh baked goods on vacation is a blessing.

Unfortunately we never got to erin mckennas because the time we tried to go in one of the employees had unfortunately fallen over and they were having to handle that. So we left. I did have the tea cake, brownies, and cookies at the dessert party and i didnt particularly like anything. Very dry - but i can pretty much guarantee that they aren't freshly delivered to the dessert party. So i'm not going to judge too harshly.

Because I only have an egg allergy - and (fruit intolerance but cooked is fine) I didn't really feel the need to go to go back as there were quite a few vegan stand outs. Elsewhere. That Carrot Cake at Space 2020 i've already described was genuinely the best i've ever had.. and i love carrot cake and get it whenever i can. Flower and garden had some stand out vegan options aswell.

 

[jf256]

Apologies for the delay. I have been working away from home a lot and then had a little break in the IOW.

Disney Springs Day

We checked out of the Swan Reserve and put our luggage at the Bonnet Creek Hilton Hotel. The hotel was beautiful and we stayed fully on points so got 5th Night Free and got a $ 30-a-day credit with our gold status. I actually preferred this to a 'free breakfast' but we wasted our credit pretty much. I will go into a bit more detail on that.

If Hilton allowed you to pool your credits the pushback from people over changing from a free breakfast will be a lot less. But I guess they are hoping you dont use it every day.

We checked in and left our bags in the baggage hold and then went to Disney springs. We had free tickets for Cirque with our UK 14-day package stay. So it was a nice change of pace from some hectic Disney days.

Homecomin'

Homecomin' we thought was going to be a stand-out meal. It was just fine. Our server was amazing. But I would have some concerns if you have cross-contamination severe allergies as it wasn't the best. Definitely wasn't the worst - see Jaleo for that.

I asked about the Fried Chicken. Fried chicken is a weird one sometimes it has eggs sometimes it doesn't. The chicken itself is buttermilk brined but the coating has an egg white powder mixed in. The manager - was a bit flippant and said that it would probably be okay as a lot of people with egg allergies order it - which I thought was a bit of a strange comment. I told him that I categorically couldn't have anything with egg as an ingredient so could I have suggestions for what I could have?

Apparently, the safest thing was the bbq pulled pork. This was fine - but I honestly should of gone for something else. I realised during our trip that i find pulled pork really boring its okay as a topping on something but as a whole meal. It was just fine. I had the collard greens and mac and cheese - both have rave reviews but all i could taste was salt. I also asked to try the gravy - and it wasn't for me very sweet.

They did bring me a biscuit on my plate - which I am okay with as I would have just given it to jack. But the server was very annoyed when she saw it and insisted it went back to the kitchen for a new plate. She definitely took the allergy way more seriously than her manager.

Jack had the fried chicken and said it was okay but definitely wasn't the best-fried chicken he had ever had. He felt the same about the gravy - not for us.

I probably wouldn't go back to Homecomin' again but I can see why people liked it. If we travelled with someone who really wanted to try it - i wouldnt say no but i'd probably just get a starter and a side.


Jaleo

Jaleo was without a doubt one of the worst dining experiences of my life. I would go as far to say it was the worst despite me having had 2 allergic reactions in restaurants before where i've had to have an ambulance called... It was worse than that just because of how much they did not care.

We booked a table after our Cirque showing. I was quite hungry because I didnt eat a huge amount at homecomin. Jack wasn't because he did eat a lot but tapas is small plates anyway so he could just get a couple.

Our server was an absolute d**k - first he groaned when i asked about the allergy menu - not a great sign. We were definitely an inconvenience for him. Then when it came time to order i suggested starting off with a couple of plates as we weren't too hungry and then we could order more if we wanted it. He was irritated by that as well and audibly groaned. I understand you want to get an order in - but it is a tapas restaurant. That is what you do at a tapas restaurant. So we just did as we were told and ordered all the food at once.

I asked for the octopus without sauce - as it's my favorite and the sauce was mayo based. He wouldn't let me order it without the sauce as it is designed with it. If you need a lot of garlic mayo or whatever the sauce was to make your octopus taste good - you are not getting good quality ingredients. I couldn't be bothered with him so I ordered prawns instead. Jack had a chorizo dish. I asked about the paellas available and what the differences were and went for a meat paella which definately shouldnt have egg in it as long as you dont put aioli on top.

I wanted the pan con tomate - they had run out of this so he suggested another bread. I was surprised because pan con tomate should not really be a dish you run out of at a high end restaurant - as the bread element was the same as the one we ordered. This made me think that nothing is cooked freshly.

I'm annoyed at this point by his attitude to us. It felt very much like he was doing us a massive favour by allowing us to be dining there.

Then he came out with the bread he suggested - that we checked on the allergy menu. With the bread in his hand he said 'you can't have this the chef said it has egg in it'. Okay but we dont want it then - why cook it if someone has specifically asked for egg-free bread.

The next encounter was just bizarre. We were waiting on our paella - and he comes back literally 20 minutes later with the same bit of bread saying i've checked with the chefs and only 1 of them said it has egg in. Then tries to put it down and walk away. I told him a) there is no way i'm eating it if even 1 of the chefs has said it has egg in it. b) i'm not eating bread that has sat out for 20 minutes.

Remember how I asked about the paella? 10 mins later he brings out the paella pasta dish.. which I specifically told him I didn't want. I mentioned specifically i wanted the rice one without aioli.

The paella is not cheap but I wanted to try it. You could order it by the plate at the time. I dont know if this is still available as the menu just seems to show the full $150 pan.

He started arguing with me that is what i ordered. I know for a fact I didn't - as someone with an allergy i am always very careful with ordering as it can be the difference between having a reaction or not. I asked to speak to a manger. This is not something i do very often but this had real potential to be a safety risk to someone in the future and there was no way i was paying for that pasta dish.

The manager came over - very lovely and apologetic but i explained i really wanted to try the paella - and he bought me a side plate of cold paella that had been clearly left out from the last batch. I tried to pay for what we had eaten but he insisted that i didn't.

I did not tip - i understand that might bring the servers overall salary down. But no way was he getting a tip.

The manager gave us his card and tried to get us to rebook for later in the week - even if it was free there is no way i would ever go back.

Frustrated we just went back to the signa and got a load of crisps and snacks with our 30 dollar credit and ate them in bed.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

WOW! What a disappointing day at DS. I hope at least that the show was nice.

We have never gone to Homecomin' even though everyone raves about it. We went to a Chef Art Smith restaurant in Washington DC many years ago and honestly weren't all that impressed for the hype. I can see this restaurant isn't much better for food allergy issues. Having grown up in South Carolina, I know good southern food and his restaurant in DC had some odd flavor spins that I did not appreciate.

Jaleo sounds like a nightmare. Reminds me somewhat of our experience at Yak and Yeti where we will never go back. Those kinds of attitudes from staff at a restaurant are unforgiving in my book. Between the server's attitude, the lack of understanding allergies and the quality of the food, it's surprising they are still in business. I will mark that off my list as well.

 

[jf256]

WOW! What a disappointing day at DS. I hope at least that the show was nice.

We have never gone to Homecomin' even though everyone raves about it. We went to a Chef Art Smith restaurant in Washington DC many years ago and honestly weren't all that impressed for the hype. I can see this restaurant isn't much better for food allergy issues. Having grown up in South Carolina, I know good southern food and his restaurant in DC had some odd flavor spins that I did not appreciate.

Jaleo sounds like a nightmare. Reminds me somewhat of our experience at Yak and Yeti where we will never go back. Those kinds of attitudes from staff at a restaurant are unforgiving in my book. Between the server's attitude, the lack of understanding allergies and the quality of the food, it's surprising they are still in business. I will mark that off my list as well.

Honestly, everyone else in Jaleo seemed to enjoy their food. But I have an excellent tapas restaurant 10 minutes away from where I live and it wasn't even close. Jack did say the toilets were vile as well.

Maybe they were just having a bad day but unfortunately, a bad day when you haven't trained staff properly can b the difference between having a reaction and not.

The food just wasn't worth the stress at all. I am hoping that saying something might have pushed some additional as training as the manager did mention that he was going to brief the staff but I can't guarantee that wasn't just lipservice.

Homecomin I wouldn't write off but considering your previous comments about your daughter's allergies sticking to safe options and really stressing how important it is. The food we had was okay enough but it's not what they are 'famous' for so I felt a bit bummed. The pulled pork was very good pulled pork but after 2 bites I was a bit bored lol and sort of felt like i had to go for it after the convo with the manager.

 

[erinch]

We had a bad experience with Jaleo too. I have a fish allergy, but it wasn’t allergy related. Indifferent servers who disappeared. Ordered items that they insisted were cooking, while my daughter sat there, and an hour later admitted the order never went in. Cold croquettes and tomato bread. I know people love it, but the reasons why were unavailable to us.

 

[jf256]

Universal / Shopping Day

We had a bit of a chilled day. Woke up late. I went to the pool for a little bit. We had some snacky bits in our room from our $ 30-a-day credit and had a coffee as well. Then we went to the outlets. Was going to get some food there but the food court was insanely busy and I didn't really fancy having to go through the whole allergy situation.
So I got a ridiculously expensive Kinder Bueno from one of the shops instead. Jack got reeses.

Toothsome

We arrived at Toothsome around 2 pm.

The waitress got a chef for us without asking and they were really attentive and lovely about everything. They assured me I would be well looked after and almost everything could be modified in some way to give me something I fancied. That is except for the obvious items like pancakes etc.

This was our second favorite meal of the whole holiday. We had totchos which were nice. But I probably wouldn't go for those again - just because the topping-to-tots ratio was definitely off on it. There were nowhere near enough toppings for the size portion. But it was also way too big a portion and kind of ruined me for our main.

For my main, i had a pub-it-up burger. That was amazing but way too big. I have always thought that pretzel buns are the most superior of all of the burger buns because they tend to hold up a lot better than brioche or other buns. They also aren't as sweet.

I managed about 1/4 of it. It's a shame they don't offer a quarter-pounder option because half a pound is just far too much meat for me.

Jack had the braised short rib and insisted it was one of the best things he had ever eaten. He managed a lot of it but there was a lot of food left over.

Jack then insisted that he had to get a desert which i understand at toothsome but i did try to encourage him not - as i would not be able to share with him (We are different dessert people and wouldnt of been happy with the vegan option) he got the may contain nuts sundae. At $14 we thought it was a one person serving...

Well it wasn't i dont know if the link below is going to work but disney food blog have pic up on their website and it was absolutely massive. He gave it a good go - said it was without a doubt the best dessert he had all week but barely managed a dent.

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/wp-co...y-Feast-Kitchen-May-Contain-Nuts-Sundae-3.jpg


Evening at Universal:

We spent the rest of the day and evening at universal and got hungry about 8pm. I think we were really lucky because we walked past green eggs and ham and it was still open. It closed about 10 / 15 minutes after i got my food.

I asked about the allergy info. It took a while for them to get it sorted. But it was fine as only the eggs have egg in them. We ordered 2 portions one carnitas and one vegan pizza tots. Looking at the menu it looks like neither is now available. Which is a shame - the carnitas were my favourite tots i had all week - i've mentioned before but most of them had pulled pork and i thought the carnitas were a much better personal option. The vegan tots were okay and i'd of prefered 2 portions of the carnitas.

Hopefully the new options are as good.


We were cheeky and walked to Hard Rock and got an uber back from there - got a coffee from the onsite starbucks which was not great i think it had been sitting there a while. I'd like to stay at hard rock next time but we will need to see what the new gates hotel options are like first!

 

[jf256]

Apologies I have had an absolutely manic time at work and just remembered I still need to finish this! No Idea on days now but i will post locations, how good the food was and what the allergy processes were like.

 

[jf256]

Animal Kingdom
Nomad Lounge. Was a bit of a disaster getting a table the walk-up waitlist didn't seem to like our international phones and we kept getting thrown out. After the 3rd time we went and spoke to someone and they just gave us told us to wait in view and gave us the next available table.

I've mentioned before that the restaurants were a bit meh - but the lounges were a different story and it was the same at Nomad. We had a few small plates most on the special menu so i'm not sure they will always be there. Including mac and cheese; ribs and the sliders.

Really enjoyed it - but the people on the table behind us were awful to the cast members who were hosting; they had to wait for a table as well but some people just clearly want to get something for nothing. So we made sure to go speak to the manager after to tell them that the host did a great job for us.

 

[jf256]

Tusker House

Tusker was one of the best meals we had. We went for lunch on a split park day and all the cast members and characters were amazing. We missed mickey because we were getting food and they made sure we saw him before we left.

Food was pretty accessible combination of med / african food. It had mostly kebab stuff, pita, salad and houmous. It was fine - it was the sort of food i can do better myself at home but it was good enough and plenty of it.

The vegan mouse cake thing was one of the best desserts i had the whole time we were there - had a good texture, and flavour which can't be said for a lot of the desserts which just tasted sweet.

The allergy menu was via a booklet - most stuff was suitable for egg free minus some of the sauces, breads, and desserts but there was definitely enough for people with some of the more common allergies.

 

[jf256]

Signia - Pool Bar (Beech)

Overall the Signia was an absolutely beautiful restaurant with a great pool. The only problem was a conference had booked out all of the cabanas on our pool day and they had a DJ who didnt quite understand the term 'family friendly' music. I dont have kids but I could see a few families become noticeably uncomfortable with the level of drinking in the pool and the music that was playing.

So this is something to consider if you are planning a family vacation and your kids are sensitive to those sorts of things. In my family our nieces and nephews wouldn't of been bothered by it but I know not everyone is okay with it.

I did mention it to the receptionist when we checked out.

We ate at the pool bar one day for lunch. It was fine. One of the other issues i have with Signia is how short their restaurant opening hours are - we dont tend to eat at peak times and were in the parks a lot which mean that we didnt get to try most of the restaurants.

It was really standard pool fare. Free credit meant we only spent about $5 so it was fine.

I got some sort of salad and Jack had a burger.