Disney845 & GardenGuy Birthday Dining Adventure 9/19/08-9/28/08 w/Pics

Disney845

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I love reading dining reviews from my fellow DISers, and especially seeing all the yummy food pictures. This is my first time submitting a review and hopefully other DISers will find our input helpful while planning their own vacations.

First…who are we, and why should you care what we think?

Disney845 - I have been going to Disney since I was a child and have 30+ trips under my belt. This is our 3rd time on the dining plan. Some might call me an obsessive (color-coded-spreadsheet-type) planner. I rarely eat breakfast at home but look forward to it on vacation. I love pizza, cheese, bread, and potatoes (Dr. Atkins would have had a field day with me). I don’t like seafood, peppers, broccoli, or warm fruit :scared: this includes fruit that was once warm and is now room temperature or cold (this does not apply to fruit that was warm from its growing environment, but rather fruit that was intentionally warmed for eating purposes). I know, I know…I’m a “fruit-loop” (to make use of a bad pun)…I mean who doesn’t like apple pie or berry tarts or peach cobbler? Ummm yeah….that would be me :wave:

GardenGuy - Rarely vacationed anywhere as a child. Had no real interest in Disney before he met me. Wasn’t even excited about the first trip I planned for him to go on in 2005, but ended up having a ball and was impressed that my compulsive planning was so useful. This is GardenGuy’s 5th WDW vacation and 3rd time on the dining plan. He is an incredibly picky eater both about the kind of food and the quality (although if you ask him for input he just tells me to pick whatever). He is also a SLOW eater…so slow in fact that many nights at home he will have to get up when he is about halfway through dinner and go microwave his food because it has gone cold it took him so long to eat. :sad2: He doesn’t like red meat (except hamburgers), doesn’t like bright or hard vegetables ( :confused3 ), and is hesitant to try new or interesting things (although he wouldn’t actual admit this). For this reason we have several buffets planned because this allows him to pick and choose. GardenGuy will be celebrating his 34th birthday on 9/21/08! :cake:

Sable- Our kitty will be staying home :guilty: but I had to throw in a little picture of her.

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She is gripping her Good Kitty/Bad Kitty pillow cat toy from Disney. As you can see, it has seen better days, but we couldn't find a new one, so we got her a collection of 4 round kitty toys this time, which she also loves!
 
We stayed at POP Century 9/19/08-9/28/08 with the DDP. We were in the 90s section for the first time, and it was a bit of a hike to the food court/buses (we have been in 50s and 60s before and enjoyed the proximity), however we did have a nice view of the WDW Gateway Arch on what I think is Osceola Parkway (please correct me if I have the road wrong).

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Also we were on the 4th floor :eek:

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This was GardenGuy trudging back up 4 flights of stairs to the room after he had forgotten the car keys (we were running late to our ADR for his Birthday Breakfast and decided to drive as opposed to waiting for the buses and having to transfer to get to the WL).

We enjoyed the following restaurants. Some were first time visits and some were repeat favorites. Reviews will follow including pictures.

Table Service
L-Tusker House (1st time)
B-Whispering Canyon Café- Birthday Meal :cake: (1st time)
D-Garden Grill-Birthday Meal :cake: (repeat for Disney845, 1st time for GardenGuy)
D-Hollywood & Vine (1st time)
L-Rose & Crown (repeat)
D-1900 Park Fare (1st time) Cancelled :sad1:
B-Cape May Café (1st time)
L-Crystal Palace (repeat)
D-Marrakesh (1st time)
L-50’s Prime Time Café (1st time)
B-Boma (repeat)

Counter Service
Everything POP (B/D)
Pecos Bill’s (D)
Electric Umbrella (L)
ABC Commissary (L)
Sunshine Season’s Food Fair (D)
Pizzafari (L)
Columbia Harbour House (D)

Snacks
Harambe Fruit Market and Train Station Ice Cream
Plaza Ice Cream Parlor
Beastly Bazaar
Sunshine Season’s Food Fair
Foutainview
Terrace Grill
Refreshment CoolPost
Drinkwalla
Main Street Bakery
Norway Kringla Bakery
 
9/19/08

We arrived at POP to check in around 8:30pm. After settling our luggage in our room we decided to just relax and have counter service at the resort.

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Everything POP Food Court

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(This picture of the beverage stands and seating if from another day in the afternoon when it was not crowded).

Disney845:
Pepperoni Pizza (sorry I forgot to take this first picture)
Chocolate Cake
Pint of White Milk

GardenGuy:
Cheese Pizza (no pic sorry)
Plain Cheese Cake
Powerade

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Total: 2 CS Credits
Food: 6
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 5
Comments:
The pizza was nothing to write home about, definitely standard fare. Only ate about ¾ of it. Used my refillable mug for coke to go with the pizza and brought the Cake and Milk back to the room to have. The cake was very yummy. A thick layer of fudgy icing (I can’t stand the sugary whipped kind of icing) and we put the milk in a bucket of ice as soon as we returned to the room so it was frosty just as I enjoy it. I only ate half as it was late and the cake was rich, and never got around to finishing it… :sad1: I tossed it out a few days later.

GardenGuy also used his mug for coke to go with the pizza and saved the Powerade for later. He ate all of his pizza and scarfed up the cheese cake. I managed one tiny bite of his cheese cake and wasn’t impressed, but then I am not a big fan to begin with. At least he enjoyed. The food court was loud and busy, even for so late in the evening. It took forever to check out as the castmember (who was a very young girl with an earning my ears badge from Delhi) got very confused by the Spanish speaking woman in front of me and had to call for 2 back up assistants to solve the problem.

Also, they have a cute new design on the napkins and drink cups (I think I have a drink cup pic coming up later) for the Halloween Season.

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9/20/08

Even though this was M-EMH at MGM I had not planned for us to attend as I originally thought we would have had a rough day yesterday what with work, traveling to WDW, and E-EMH at EPCOT (which we decided not to bother with), (also, on vacation I don’t enjoy getting up too early). We headed out to AK around 9am. We didn’t stop for breakfast first and lunch wasn’t for several hours. GardenGuy was getting restless so we stopped for a bottle of coke and an ice cream for GardenGuy.

Harambe Fruit Market and Train Station Ice Cream

Disney845: nothing

GardenGuy:
Coke
Cookies and Cream ice cream sandwich (sorry no pics)

Total: 2 snack credits
Food: x
Atmosphere: x
Service: x
Comments: The ice cream sandwich ended up having red dye in it so GardenGuy was upset (he tries very hard not to consume a huge list of ingredients including dyes as they trigger his migraines) so he tried to foist the ice cream off on me, but I didn’t want it, so after just a bite or two he threw it out :rolleyes: Then he proceeds to accidentally leave the bottle of coke (half full by now) on the train to Conservation Station, although he insists that he set it down next to me assuming I would get it...sure....:rolleyes1
 
Awesome report and happy belated B-day to Garden Guy!
 
9/20/08

AK is our favorite park and we were really excited that they were working to create further table service offerings at this park. We love Boma and upon research Tusker House looks very similar so we were anticipating trying this restaurant for the first time. Since we had not eaten breakfast (and GardenGuy had his disaster of a snack) we were starving!

Tusker House 1:10pm

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Disney845:
Plate 1 clockwise from top: butter, croissant, cold green beans, Caesar salad, cold cucumber and tomato salad, yellow rice, hot veggie couscous (yummy), slice of white bread with yellow cheese, ham, and turkey slices, Samoa?

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Plate 2 clockwise from top: seasoned potato wedges (this sounds silly, but to me they had the same seasoning taste as the potato wedges from KFC), mashed potatoes with gravy, hot green beans, tiny rice like pasta with feta cheese and spinach, curried veggies (yuck), tiny bit of salmon (by the knife), veggies with tofu (yuck), slice of white bread with yellow cheese, ham, and turkey slices tucked inside, rotisserie chicken, carved roast beef, and those little nuggets in the middle are mini corn dogs

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Dessert Plate clockwise from top: carrot cake, chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, vanilla sauce, bread pudding with vanilla sauce (I LOVE bread pudding, and thought this was horrible and gave it to GardenGuy to finish), passion fruit tart, and apple sauce in the middle

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GardenGuy:
Plate 1 (red) clockwise from top: 2 slices of wheat bread with cheese and carved turkey, 3 different kinds of couscous (none of which I liked)

Plate 2 (green) clockwise from top: 2 kinds of corn bread (the traditional one on the right was good, the one on the left was doughy and had actual pieces of hard corn in it and I didn’t like it at all), flat bread triangle, mac and cheese, and corn dog nuggets

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Plate 3 clockwise from top: rotisserie chicken (I had accidentally grabbed a dark meat piece and GardenGuy was nice enough to switch with me for his white meat), curry chicken (GardenGuy really liked this {me not so much}, he said it reminded him of chicken he had ordered at a jamaican restaurant we have been to), mac and cheese, some fruit preserves, mashed potatoes, and corn bread in the middle

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Dessert Plate clockwise from top: carrot cake (GardenGuy loved this and ended up stealing most of mine too), Passion Fruit tart, baklava, coconut macaroons?, strawberry whipped thing in chocolate cup?

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Unsweet ice tea for me and coke for GardenGuy

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I am very glad that they now offer paper straws at AK. I am definitely all about the animal safety, but I like using a straw to drink with.

Total: 2 TS Credits + $8 tip
Food: 7
Atmosphere: 6
Service: 8
Comments:
When we checked in we were given a pager and sat in the out door seating for the bar next door. An African drum/dancing performance was taking place and we were able to watch that as we waited.

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They were taking walk ups and I heard the cast member at the podium tell people a 25 minute wait. We waited about 10 minutes and we were called in. We had eaten here when it was CS a while back, so we knew what the inside of the restaurant would look like.

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The rugs/sheets? are decorating the ceiling directly above the buffet area.


We were seated at a table for 2 but it wasn’t overly small as some tables for 2 can be. The waitress was a smidgen slow on refilling my drink, but other than that the service was fine. They suggest on the receipt what an 18% or 20% tip would be and I just followed the 20% tip suggestion on the entire trip and charged it to the room. You have 2 separate receipts to sign this way, one for use of the dining plan credits, and one for charging the tip.

GardenGuy really seemed to enjoy the food, I wasn’t as thrilled. I was proud of myself for taking a tiny bit of salmon to try. As I said before I am not a seafood fan, but have never tried most seafood due to the smell, and I figured no better time than at a buffet where I could just take a bit. I thought it was good. Very “soft” and with a slight tuna flavor. GardenGuy, tried a bit of mine and thought it was nasty? We would probably go back again as the dinning at AK is limited.
 
Thanks so much for the TH pics, made me glad I picked breakfast there instead....the offerings just arent doing it for me.
 
9/20/08

AK closed at 5pm and we bused over to the MK which was open until 10pm this evening.

Pecos Bill’s 8:11pm

Disney845:
Double Cheeseburger
Fries
Chocolate Pudding
Coke
(sorry I had already taken a few bites before I remembered the pic)

GardenGuy:
Double Bacon Cheeseburger
Apple slices
Carrot cake
Ice Tea

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Total: 2 CS Credits
Food: 6
Atmosphere: 7
Service: 5
Comments:
We stopped at Pecos Bill’s because we were in the area and hungry. After ordering, we were waiting at the counter and when the tray was brought to the counter I could see that my burger had no cheese on it, yet I lifted the bun and patties to make sure before I even walked out of the line. I let the woman behind the counter know and she seemed incredibly put out by this. She said “well, do you want me to bring you a slice of cheese?” I said yes, and then proceeded to wait for several minutes while a plain slice of yellow cheese was placed in a fry tray for me. Then she brought it over and lifted the tray up in the air for me to grab the slice of cheese from her with my fingers.

In all the burgers were not great, kinda tasteless. GardenGuy pulled his bacon ring off, saying it had no taste. Of course there was a nice topping bar with grilled mushrooms and onions, but neither of us enjoys that sort of thing. I was able to ask for and receive the kid’s chocolate pudding dessert (as I didn’t like the adult offerings) and it was Kozy Shack, a brand we were familiar with from the supermarket. GardenGuy ordered iced tea and I was thinking it was going to be fountain drink type (which I hate) and it turned out to be brewed, so I was disappointed I had not chosen tea instead of coke.


*****Interesting un-food related side note.*******
After dinner we went over to Adventure Land and around 9 something we went to get on the Jungle Cruise. It was only us and another couple around our age in the boat. A ton of fireworks started to go off, but not in the direction of the castle, more like out by Bay Lake, they were super loud and we could hardly hear the Jungle Cruise skipper's spiel and the booms kept making it hard for him to keep up his running trail of corny jokes. He told us that this week Disney was auditioning fireworks companies for the job of doing the park's fireworks and they were setting them off over the lake. He said that it was a HUGE deal to get the Disney contract as the Wishes nightly show was about $50K and the Illuminations closer to $80K. I do not know how acurate his figures are, but it was interesting none-the-less.
 
9/21/08

:bday:

It is GardenGuy’s 34th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Honey!!! Boy you are getting old… :smooth:

To celebrate I planned for us to have breakfast at Whispering Canyon Café, hoping that GardenGuy would get a kick out of any antics that might go on.

After getting a late start, I realized we had better drive than take the bus to the MK and then a boat to WL, so we actually ended up about 25 minutes early, which we spent looking around outside WL.

We saw a duck swimming in the resort pool.

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It was actually quite foggy this morning and the beach was deserted. Here you see GardenGuy walking out towards the water.

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The WL boat dock with the Contemporary DVC being built in the background.

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Finally it was time for our breakfast.

Whispering Canyon Café 9:30am

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Disney845:
Breakfast Skillet (sorry again, I didn’t take the pic until we had already helped ourselves to the skillet, but for the remaining items….) clockwise from top: gravy, biscuit, egg, sausage, bacon, potato wedges with onion, and if you look really hard right below GardenGuy’s hand you will see the ears of the Mickey Head Waffle.
Milk

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GardenGuy:
Breakfast Skillet (same as above)
Coke

Total: 2 TS Credits
Food: 7
Atmosphere: 7
Service: 7
Comments:
We did see several families with the ketchup routine happen to them, 2 preteens riding the wooden horse sticks around the restaurant singing happy birthday to themselves (our waitress tried to get GardenGuy to participate for his birthday, but he didn’t), a whole table get miniature glasses of water (like 2 sips) with huge straws, and a few people get huge jugs of drink, plus the servers jokingly throw your straws at you and slam your food down. All in all it was fun, but I am not sure that we would return, at least not for breakfast as we thought it was good, but not great.
 
Thanks for sharing! Glad to see your review of Tusker House...we have lunch ADR's and have never been there. :)
 
Great reviews! I can't wait for more! popcorn::

LOVED the descriptions of your food preferences in the intro. I am like you... bread, potato, cheese etc. But I don't think I'm a fruit loop. ;)

What a neat view from your room at Pop!

I'm staying at Pop in Dec. You'd recommend a location in the 50's or 60's?
 
Great reviews! I can't wait for more! popcorn::

LOVED the descriptions of your food preferences in the intro. I am like you... bread, potato, cheese etc. But I don't think I'm a fruit loop. ;)

What a neat view from your room at Pop!

I'm staying at Pop in Dec. You'd recommend a location in the 50's or 60's?

The 50s and 60s are very close to the main building housing the food court, beverage stands for your refillable mugs, and the buses out front. We didn't hate the 90s section, we had a nice view of the computer pool from our room as well, but it was a looong walk after long park days. I would eventually enjoy staying in all of the different decades.
 
9/21/08

After breakfast we drove over to EPCOT where we planned to spend the rest of the day.

If you couldn’t guess from his pseudonym, GardenGuy is into gardens/plants/landscaping/etc, so as a surprise I had planned on booking the Behind the Seeds Tour at the Living with the Land attraction. However, I made the mistake of asking GardenGuy some months back if there was anything special he might like to do on his birthday, and wouldn’t you know, of course he picked the Behind the Seeds Tour totally ruining my surprise! :rolleyes: The Behind the Seeds Tour is run from 10:30-4:30 (I think) every day, and they accept reservations as well as walk-ups, I asked GardenGuy what he would prefer and he said lets do the walk-up so that we could kinda play it by ear, not knowing exactly when we would get over there from the WL.


Despite the large breakfast, by around 2 GardenGuy was getting hungry. We were in FutureWorld so we stopped by the Electric Umbrella.

Electric Umbrella 2:20pm

Disney845:
Island Chicken Salad
Fruit Cup
Sprite

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GardenGuy:
Chicken Nuggets
Fries
Strawberry Cheesecake
Coke

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Total: 2 CS Credits
Food: 7
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 7
Comments:
I wasn’t very hungry after breakfast so I sort of picked at my salad. I didn’t hate it, but I would definitely not order it again. I guess I am just not a big fan of fruit (it had pineapple, mango, and golden raisons) in a savory salad with Italian dressing, although it was a nice change from the normal. My fruit bowl wasn’t very good, all mushy. GardenGuy enjoyed his and was pleased that the cheesecake topping was served separately as he again tries to avoid “fruit pie style” topping as it usually has red dye in it.

We sat in the upstairs dining room section by the window and had a nice view of those coming and going through the breezeway by MouseGears towards Mission:Space, Test Track, etc.
 













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