Dining Reviews 9-23/9-30..

[kellyg403]

We went again to WDW to take advantage of the Free Dining. It was wonderful when we paid for it and even better with the promotion. This trip my mom and dad came along. We were a party of 10 when we ate together and a party of 8 by ourselves. Cast included, me (42), dh (47) dsd 15, dd 14, dsd 13, ds 12, ds 10 and dgd 5. All of us thoroughly enjoyed seeing the world through the eyes of dgd.

Day 1 - Sci-Fi - We overall love this place for the atmosphere. The food is o.k. but I actually enjoyed my burger more this time than last. The appetizer of Onion Rings is so big you could eat that alone. I had the BLT soup and thought it was great. Overall, we will continue to go here as long as the kids want to. Service was a little bit off this night. We ended up in 2 cars with 2 servers. The one car had their dinners before we even ordered ours. The server noticed and slowed down that car's service. But, they were still great about everything. We did have about a 20 minute wait for our ADR at 4:40. After dinner we headed back to POR because our room was not ready when we checked in at 2 so we wanted to get the things in the room.

Day 2 - Biergarten - Again the atmosphere here is great. The Buffet did have a great dessert selection. But, my family is just alot pickier than I thought they were. My mom and dad joined us and this was actually something they had wanted to do. My mom and dgd went out and did the chicken dance and overall we had a great time. We left in time to get a great spot for illuminations. Service was wonderful here. Drinks were ordered and served before we even had time to get really situated at the table. Not sure if we as a family would go back, but dh and I both agreed that should we ever get the chance to take a "twosome" trip we would go back.

Day 3 - Crystal Palace for breakfast. The first time for us and we really really loved this place. The character interaction was fabulous. Pooh and friends are dgd's favorites. They stayed and played with her and didn't mind the camera happy lady The buffet was great with alot of choices and we all found something we liked. (yes, we did alot of buffets this trip since my dad was with us. He is the King of Buffets and really feels like that is the only way to get his monies worth)

1900 Park Fair - Again a first time for us, and a truly enjoyable experience. We stayed at MK for the day and took the launch over to the GF for dinner. My dgd was so in awe of Cinderella she barely ate. The first thing she asked Cinderella was if she could see her glass slippers. The characters were so accomodating and our server was great. And the stand out of the meal was the Strawberry Soup. Goodness that was good stuff. The salmon was not a big hit and the prime rib didn't get alot of votes, but the turkey was great and the salads were plentiful. The kids at this point were eating just enough of the regular food to get by and hitting dessert. The pasta dishes were also very good. Again, an experience we would enjoy doing again. Cindy and the Prince for the price of 1TS is golden in our book.

Kelly

 

[kellyg403]

Day 4 - We went to SeaWorld this day and had a late ADR at Boatwrights. I was so pleasantly surprised at this place. It was pretty crowded when we got there, but we were seated quickly. I had the pot roast with green vegetables. The collard greens were FABULOUS. DH had the Jumbalya and he thought it was wonderful as well. He didn't even use hot sauce which would be a first for him. He had the shrimp appetizer and they were large and good. I passed on the appetizer as I wanted to try the pecan pie. We all ended up having desserts to go. The kids all ordered the Herb Chicken but none of them really cared for it. Dgd had the usual Chicken nuggets and fries. I pretty much think she ate her weight in them. She tried mac n cheese one night and she was not impressed. So it was chicken nuggets the rest of the week. The service here was great as well. The portions are huge. The one thing we all agree we did not like was the potatos. I believe they were like a scalloped potato. We would definitely go back here.

Day 5 - CRT - this was a surprise for my mom and dgd. The others went to Typhoon Lagoon on this day and I took them to MK on the pretense that were would tour that park and shop. My mother was thrilled and dgd could barely contain herself when she realized we were going INSIDE the castle. I did pay OOP for this meal. I had eaten lunch here before but never breakfast. If we ever do this again, it will be for breakfast. Even with an ADR the wait was about 40 minutes to get into see Cinderella. When we got upstairs we had a window seat overlooking the carousel. Our server was great and brought out the muffin basket along with fresh fruit immediately. Afterwards we were given the standard breakfast for adults and child. Dgd ate the rolls and muffins and nothing off her plate. She just sat waiting for the princesses to come around. We had Belle, Alice and Snow White who was dgd favorite. The stuffed french toast is so good. I could have eaten my weight but did not. Overall, this a great experience if someone in your party has not done it. The awe and smiles on their face is well worth it. Dgd was given a wand and a wishing star which she slept with the rest of the week. But, I was glad this was really a "free day" for us. The wait is long before you get inside and then the service is really quick when you sit down. It does eat up a portion of your day. The "free" picture with Cinderella and dgd was beautiful and she also looked at it daily on our trip. So, for the experience I would do this again and again. For the food, though I found breakfast much more enjoyable than lunch, I would not pay OOP or use 2 TS to to again.

Kelly

 

[swankybeth]

Great reviews, thanks for posting them.

 

[kellyg403]

Day 5 - Since this was technically a free day, we intended to go to DisneyQuest at DTD. This was our teens favorite before this trip but, Typhoon Lagoon edged ahead. We ate at Planet Hollywood in DTD this evening before going over to DQ. I had the LA Lasagna and again skipped the appetizer. I thought it was good but not "wow", the kids had burgers and a the cheese steak and all agreed that they were good. DH had a steak he thought was o.k. We ordered only 3 different appetizers here and shared. I don't recall what they were since I didn't eat any. At this point it was all I could do but eat my meals! Oddly enough, none of us ordered dessert. Since we knew we would be out late we didn't order anything to go. Besides, we were hoping to convince dh to hit Goofy's Candy Factory before we left. DH dislikes this place for some unknown reason, but dgd gave us a little levarage! Overall, we enjoyed the memorabilia but unless the kids request this place dh and I won't make it a "to do". Service was pretty poor here. We normally do extra tipping even with the DP but did not here. Our server appeared to have more tables than he could handle. Refills were not given unless we asked and the dirty plates not removed unless he was called to take them. So again, glad we did it but wouldn't do it again unless it was requested.

Day 6 - Garden Grille- Another Family favorite. We were seated on the 2nd tier this time and thought we would have preferred the bottom. Will ask for that next time. Characters were great but Mickey and Pluto did not come up. We asked our server for them when we finished paying the bill so that dgd could see them. Pluto was a hoot and we were glad we requested he came by. The food as always was good, we asked for more of the flank steak and vegetables and salad. This was probably the healthiest the kids ate all week. Dessert had changed to a puff pastry with fresh berries. Disappointing at first since we liked the trio of desserts we got the last time. But this dessert was good and we didn't miss it for long. Our server was nice and was good about timely service. But, there were long periods when we did not see him. The restaurant itself did not appear busy so not sure. Of course, we will do again and again. The meal did not feel long but when we left we realized it was already 6 p.m. and our ADR was for 4:40. We had been seated promptly. BTW, we went to test track afterwards and the wait was 10 minutes.

 

[kellyg403]

Day 7 - MNSSHP - We did Tony's right before we were to go to the Party. We had an indoor table for 10. Our server here was FABULOUS..Steve did a great job explaining everything, recommendations and so forth. We had never eaten here and truthfully was a 2nd or 3rd choice but could not get an ADR anywhere else in MK or the monorail locations. Several of us at the Spaghetti and Meatballs and thought it was very good. The meatballs were large. None of us finished. We ordered the bread sticks to share as appetizers. Good, but the dipping sauce was pretty much the same taste as the spaghetti sauce. Mom had the chicken florentine and thought it was very good and dd15 also ordered and didn't really care for it. Did I mention I didn't realize what picky eaters these guys were? Two members of the party got the ceaser salad appetizer and thought they could have made a meal of that and the breadsticks. For dessert there was a trio of desserts including the tiramisu which was eaten first. There were several servers with faces done in a spooky way we thought was pretty neat. Overall, we did enjoy this meal but nothing stood out as "wow". We wouldn't hesitate to eat here again. Again, kudo's to Steve who was the best server we had all week. He got the extra tip!

We ate most our c/s for breakfasts at the resort. The kids and dh used one at Cosmic Ray's one day. Realistically for us, the heat was really bad a few days and we did not have much of an appetite. Last Dec we hardly ever used our snack credits but this trip found we almost wanted to ration them since we were eating alot of mickey bars and water during the day. We had a wonderful time trying new places and returning to old. I have yet to find a single place so far that I wouldn't return to if I had to.

Kelly

 

[PureTcrazy]

Sounds like yall had a good time. I know what you mean about seeing the world through DGD eyes. We had our 3 year old with us and it made the trip completely different than the one we had in May!

 

[Amy&Dan]

I really enjoyed all your reviews. That was quite a crew and it sounds like you had fun! Thanks for posting.

 

[Schucraig]

Thanks for the great reviews!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reviews ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Thanks for the great reviews.