Disney's gift to us: $1870 in Free Dining! 12/21-12/28 Updated 1/3

[kerri0616]

We've never been able to go during a time when free dining has been offered. We do typically purchase the DDP, so we wanted to give it heck! We loved nearly every meal and had great servers. I didn't take pictures of food, but I'll write up a description of the meals, if anyone is interested! I'll go chronologically so you'll see a mixture of CS and TS...

Our family consists of me, DH, DS16, DS19. The boys love to eat.

12/21 Late Lunch at WPE. After arriving and checking in to CBR, we headed to Disney Springs. No one in line!
Me: Rotisserie Chicken/Taters/Green Beans. Cheesecake for dessert. Loved it.
DH: Meatloaf. Cheesecake. Loved it!
DS16: Pepperoni Pizza. Brownie. Pizza was a bit limp but he ate most of it. Great brownie.
DS 19: Mac n Cheese. Cheesecake. Pasta was great. I would order this!

Value: $100! Off to a good start!

 

[auntfrannie]

Definitely interested in reading your reviews!

 

[vettegirl]

I am all ears for your reviews

 

[chocolateMinnie]

lovely to see you giving the OOP value - makes it all make sense :

 

[Xclusive2WDW]

Thank you for giving the OOP for comparison, it really helps (never used the ddp before but may be going at a time it is offered).

 

[kerri0616]

?

 

[kerri0616]

Later on in the evening of 12/21, we visited our CBR food court and picked up our mugs...$72 value.

Older son decided he was hungry so he used a CS credit for burger, fries, soft serve for dessert. $15 value.

The next morning, 12/22, we ate our sad poptarts as we headed to the bus stop. MK day! We arrived at the tapstiles by 6:45 am! Got to see the Welcome Show and then we headed in...we accomplished so much and were starving by 10:15 am! What the heck, we headed to see if CHH was ready to open...yep! We were almost the first guests for lunch. We enjoyed our meal upstairs and only one other family was up there with us! Nice to have the place to ourselves:

3 of us had Fish and Chips. I had Fish, Chicken, and Fries. I only ate one nugget but my boys managed to finish them off! 3 of us got chocolate cakes, DH had the blueberry cobbler. I like about 3 bites of the choc cake and then the richness is too much...DH made the best choice for dessert. We all had fountain drinks as well. Value: $76.

Dinner 12/22 was at The Wave. We have eaten here before and have always found the food and service to be top notch. We enjoy taking the monorail from MK and visiting the shops before our reservation. DH and I each ordered a glass of wine...I had Pinot Grigio...DH had Riesling. 3 of us ordered the beef tenderloin which came with whipped potatoes and green beans. DS16 ordered the fish special which was swordfish. He loved it! A bit of a risk since he'd never had swordfish before...it was grilled and I know one of the sides was green beans...there was another veggie on his plate I cannot recall. The 3 of us loved our tenderloin. Wonderful food, wonderful service! We will always include The Wave on future trips. Desserts...oh dear...all of us ordered trios and I cannot remember them perfectly. Mine was seasonal and had something appley, something pumpkiny, and something else. We all really enjoyed our desserts. Nice to have a few bites of each just as a taste. DH ordered a cappucino and I had hot tea. Wonderful evening! We paid cash for the wine/tip so the value of our free meal was $205!

 

[kandb]

Great reviews. We love the tenderloin at the Wave too. Great food.

 

[vettegirl]

The Wave does sound incredible, I need to try it on a future trip.

 

[kerri0616]

Headed into Epcot on 12/23. Had great plans to ride TT standby since we had a Soarin FP for later. Alas. TT was down for quite a while. We hung in there and managed to enjoy our ride. For lunch, I thought everyone would just choose their favorite CS lunch from one of the countries...

DS16 and me: We had Fish and Chips in the UK. Cake with jam for dessert. It was just what we expected. Yummy and super hot! We ate early and had no trouble getting a table outside of R & C. Thumbs up! Quite a bit of food...I shared my fries with everyone. Value: $36.

DH: He loves the Japanese food at the mall (we are gourmet eaters, can't you tell?) so I thought he'd enjoy the teriyaki in Japan. He ordered the Beef and Chicken combo. Ice Cream for dessert. He didn't really enjoy it. He thought the chicken was sort of icky. DS16 managed to eat some too. Thumbs down on this meal. Value: $18. After walking through Germany, DH wishes he had chosen a bratwurst instead.

DS19: His favorite mall food (see, we are gourmets!) is Panda Express, so it had to be China's Orange Chicken for him. He enjoyed it but said Panda is better. Ice Cream for dessert. Comparing ice creams...we enjoyed Japan's "strawberry" more than China's ginger flavor. Probably just a matter of taste. Value: $17.

 

[kerri0616]

Dinner on 12/23 was another family favorite...'Ohana. You either love it or hate it and we happen to love it. Little bit of a backstory...Like a good DISer, I made our dinner ADRs 180 + 10 and I got stuck with a 9:30 pm reservation at Ohana. This is too late for us. For about 176 days, I tried to change it to an earlier time with no success. Finally after obsessive checking on day 176, a 4:30 pm ressie appeared. I switched us even though we would normally never eat this early. But, it freed up our evening and we made it to MK to see all of the castle festivities and Wishes. And we got to see the "opening" at Ohana. Also had a nice view of the castle.

We all know the menu at Ohana and we enjoyed everything. Got a second helping of the potstickers and the boys took seconds on the sirloin when it was offered. Love love love the bread pudding! We waddled out to the monorail and onto the MK. Value: $171.

 

[kerri0616]

On 12/24, I surprised the boys with Star Wars tickets! We drove to Disney Springs for a 9:30 am show. Such a great memory seeing episode 7 at Disney. For lunch, we stopped in at Cookes of Dublin and were able to sit outside in the beautiful mid-80's temperatures. Gotta love Florida in December!
Me: I had a grilled chicken sandwich and fries. Wonderful. I highly recommend this. Trifle for dessert.
DH: Chicken and mushroom pie. He seemed to like it, but I don't think he loved it. I'm not a mushroom person, but DS16 also liked it. Dessert: Fresh fruit. A wise choice.
DS19: Chicken and fries. Loved it. Recommends it. Zucchini cupcake for dessert. Really liked this too.
DS16: Chicken and fries also. (He'd been eating lots of fish!) Choc Chip cookies for dessert. Enjoyed everything.

I wish one of us had gotten the fish and chips which I know would have been fabulous. But, we all enjoyed everything. I would say this was the meal where we started to really feel like we've been eating so much! I'm not sure any of us finished our food. But we gave it our best!
Value: I've written down $60 but this seems low considering we all had sodas and desserts...I'd say $70-$80 would be a better estimate.

For dinner 12/24, we headed to Epcot's Rose and Crowne. I started with the Imperial Sampler beer flight. Stolen image:

DS19 fell in love with Guinness last summer when we visited Ireland and he was able to order a pint legally. So, being the mother of the year, I let him sip on the Guinness in between visits from our server. No judgment, please. Turns out he liked the Strongbow too. Anyway, back to dinner:
All 4 of us had the Steak and Fish combo. It came with potatoes and green beans. Another very nice meal. The tenderloin at The Wave was a nicer cut of meat, of course, but I really enjoyed the fish that came with this meal.
Dessert: My boys and I all had the sticky toffee pudding for the first time. Wonderful! No complaints! DH tried (I'm sure I have the name wrong...) Banofee Tart. It included whisky sauce and bananas. I didn't try it, but he rates it on par with the Ohana Bread Pudding!(That may be hard to believe!) I honestly think he would book another meal here just to have this dessert!
Another stellar meal with wonderful service. I will say this...it was Xmas eve and our ADR was for sometime in the 6:00 hour. Tons of people were milling around outside waiting to be called in for a table. Two tables near us were never seated during our meal! ( I don't think it was us...we are clean, well mannered people.) One was a two-top and one was a four-top. Weird.
Value: $200 (not including the beer and tip, of course).

 

[Xclusive2WDW]

You sound like a pretty awesome mom to me That dessert your husband had sounds sinfully divine, I'm a whiskey girl who likes bananas foster so that sounds right up my alley. May have to consider Rose and Crown one day.

 

[kerri0616]

On to 12/25...we visited AK and had a wonderful day! Most of the crowds migrate to Epcot or MK, so we were able to experience everything we planned! We had an ADR at Yak n Yeti for lunch. We love this place!
Me: I went out of the box and chose the Chicken Tikka Masala. I typically stick to familiar food, but since Disney was paying for my meal, I took the risk. You need to like curry if you plan to order this...and I like curry, I just don't love it. Loved the Naan bread that came with it. My family was impressed I ordered something unexpected. I learned that my family does not like curry! Dessert: The wontons of course! I'll give my entree a B+ and my dessert an A!
DH: Chicken Lo Mein. He didn't love it. I think he likes things "saucier." Wontons for dessert. Loved them.
DS19: Honey Chicken. Wontons. Loved both! I think he'd get the Honey Chicken again.
DS16: Mahi mahi. My little fish lover! He really enjoyed this entree. He had the chocolate cake for dessert and ate every bite.

Excellent meal and service! We had an 11:30 ressie and by the time we left, the restaurant was full!

Dinner on Christmas night...we tried our very first Signature Meal!! Narcoossees. I'm usually such a miser with our meal credits, I've never been willing to give up 2 credits for one meal. It was a wonderful night. We took the bus to MK and were planning to catch the monorail to GF, but as we headed toward the monorail station, I saw a boat just sitting there ready to head to GF! The weather was perfect and it was wonderful to boat leisurely over to the resort. And the dock is right next to Narcoosees! I could not have planned it better. During our meal, the full moon rose over the Contemporary and it was just beautiful.
We started the evening with a Prosecco. Yummy. No appetizers for us though.
Three of us ordered the filet. Perfectly cooked. Delicious. Could have cut it with a butter knife!
DS16 decided to try scallops for the first time. And he loved them. We have yet to find a seafood he doesn't like.
Desserts:
Me: The chocolate coconut creme brulee. Oh my. This was amazing. I wish I could have finished it! A+++++
DH: Honey Pecan Tart: Neither of us liked this! I cannot explain why...just had a weird flavor.
DS19: Almond cheesecake. Loved it. Again, we couldn't finish it!
DS16: Cannot remember what he had! Probably some kind of ice cream...sorry.

I'm glad we finally tried a Signature restaurant. Everything was wonderful (except that one dessert) including the service. And just to cap off our perfect evening, as soon as we finalized the bill, we were invited to step outside to watch Wishes! Could not have timed the evening any better!! This has to be one of the best Christmas Days we've ever experienced.