Dream come true trip - Birthday at Disney dining report - Update 10/23 (Crystal Palace bfast)

[Dislover1991]

Hey everyone!

My name is Ashton and I will be leaving for Disney in 19 (what seem very long!) days. I tried doing a trip report in 2013, post trip, and it was unsuccessful. So I figured if I start a pre-trip DR, i'll actually complete this one

Our actual Disney vacation is 9/8-9/16 but we are leaving on 9/7 since we have a 13 hour drive and staying in Jacksonville, FL overnight so I will share a few reviews for Jacksonville (mainly snacks) if y'all don't mind We will be staying at Caribbean Beach Resort and have the free dining plan but will pay for a few meals OOP. Our meal style is basically a big breakfast and big dinner with snacks in between.

The trip report will include me (Ashton), my mom (Jeanie), and dad (Barry). My birthday is September 10th, my mom's birthday is actually today (8/19) and my dad's birthday is 8/30 so we will actually be celebrating all 3 birthdays on the trip.

First off, let me say that we are BIG dessert lovers - mainly huge cupcake fans! And since I am gluten intolerant and we have no gluten free bakeries here in Memphis, I plan to hit up any cupcake bakery in Jacksonville & Orlando that bakes gluten free cupcakes...just a warning I must eat gluten and peanut free while my parents are very lucky and have no allergies or intolerances.

So here is the lineup:

9/8 - check in
Old Port Royal Food Court

9/9 - Epcot
Breakfast - Cape May Cafe
Snacking around the World
Dinner - Tutto Italia

9/10 - Downtown Disney/ My Birthday Celebration!!
Breakfast - Wolfgang Puck Express
Snack - Ghirardelli
Dinner - Flying Fish Cafe

9/11- Magic Kingdom & Night of Joy
Breakfast - The Wave
Dinner - The Plaza Restaurant

9/12 - Shopping around Orlando
Breakfast - Olivia's Cafe
Dinner - Wolfgang Puck Express

9/13 - Hollywood Studios
Breakfast - Old Port Royal Food Court
Dinner - Mama Melrose (Fantasmic package)

9/14 - Animal Kingdom
Breakfast - Tusker House
Dinner - Yak & Yeti

9/15 - Magic Kingdom & MNSSHP
Breakfast - Crystal Palace
Dinner - Be Our Guest

9/16 - Departure day
Breakfast - Kona Cafe

Can't wait to get it started!

 

[DisneyCAL]

We may bump into you at AK and Crystal Palace! Following...

 

[Rafikifan]

Looking forward to your reviews!

 

[Dislover1991]

We may bump into you at AK and Crystal Palace! Following...

Awesome! This is our first time going to Crystal Palace in 15 years and our first time every doing Tusker House - first time doing a pre-park opening ADR for both too

Looking forward to your reviews!

Thanks for joining

 

[pamster]

Happy birthday to mom and happy early birthdays to you and dad!

Looking forward to your dining reviews!

 

[samsteele]

Following along!

I've had a good dining experience at Kona (dinner) and Yak & Yeti (lunch(s) and dinner).

I'm really interested to hear how your Tutto Italia, Mama Melrose and BOG dinners are as they are all new to me.

Have a wonderful & safe vacation!

 

[kastoney]

Subbing in and happy early birthday. Looks like we will be overlapping with you for a too ; ). My bday is tomorrow and our anniversary is your bday so we'll be celebrating too ; )

 

[Dislover1991]

Happy birthday to mom and happy early birthdays to you and dad!

Looking forward to your dining reviews!

Thank you

Following along!

I've had a good dining experience at Kona (dinner) and Yak & Yeti (lunch(s) and dinner).

I'm really interested to hear how your Tutto Italia, Mama Melrose and BOG dinners are as they are all new to me.

Have a wonderful & safe vacation!

Thank you! They are actually all new to us except for Kona breakfast, Olivia's breakfast, and Cape May breakfast so we are definitely excited to try out some new restaurants.

Subbing in and happy early birthday. Looks like we will be overlapping with you for a too ; ). My bday is tomorrow and our anniversary is your bday so we'll be celebrating too ; )

Awesome! Happy birthday & happy (almost ) anniversary!

 

[Vernie822]

Joining in - have a blast on your trip! Can't wait to read your reviews.

 

[Dislover1991]

We had to change our Kona Cafe dinner to Plaza Restaurant at MK. Disney announced the Night of Joy schedule and one of the artists we want to see is on at 7:40- we didn't want to rush through dinner and rush trying to get back into MK so we're just going to stay in MK and eat at the Plaza.

 

[Dislover1991]

I'm back from my trip! We had such an incredible time! After a 14 hour drive (which luckily we split into 2 days!) and a very busy trip, I am so tired! I'll try to start my dining report tomorrow but overall we had an incredible time! There were some restaurants we may not go back to again because they weren't necessarily our favorites, but by no means did any Disney meal disappoint! They were all good - no bad experiences at all!

I think I mentioned in the 1st post that we had the free DDP and after keeping up with all the expenses, the plan would have cost us $1564 for 3 adults for 8 nights/ 9 days. Our total came to $1381 so the DDP wasn't for us. We could've maximized it a bit more (we had too many QS credits and just converted them to snack credits) so we probably could've come out on top, but we didn't. Plus who can handle dessert at EVERY meal? Yep- it's time to hit the gym and start doing a cleanse!

And maybe by tomorrow i'll figure out how to upload a photo

 

[vettegirl]

Looking forward to your report

 

[Dislover1991]

I have my photos uploaded to photo bucket so when I get home today from work, I will start with out breakfast at Cape May Cafe!

After a big lunch on our arrival day and a late arrival to CBR, we decided to skip dinner at Old Port Royale food court

 

[Dislover1991]

Cape May Cafe Breakfast 9/8​

We chose this after loving it in 2013! And it's perfect for an Epcot day! We had a 7:30am ADR and it was MUCH busier than it was back in 2013!

At the time of booking, I didn't have a gluten intolerance so it wasn't listed although my peanut allergy was. I informed them upon checking in about the allergy and they assured me the chef would come speak to me. We were seated in a separate room from the main dining room, but it was much quieter! I think they tried to seat the families with children in the main dining room. While waiting on the chef, me & my mom ordered some coffee while my dad went with the unsweetened iced tea. After the chef spoke with me and took me on a tour of the buffet, she offered to bring me some gluten free toast & Mickey waffles. She also had gluten free cinnamon toast and donuts but I just went for the toast & waffles.

Here's a look at my first plate - I wanted to start off with a healthy plate before the gluttony began with the Mickey waffles In the bowl is oatmeal of course. I also had some cottage cheese, strawberries, and pineapple. Next were your standard scrambled eggs topped with some of the roasted tomatoes they serve on the buffet. I discovered that adding those tomatoes to the plain scrambled eggs really adds a lot of flavor! Overall - your standard oatmeal, fruit, & cottage cheese. The eggs were great thanks to those tomatoes!

Then came the Mickey waffles & toast!! All gluten free of course The chef bought out some syrup and butter from the back to prevent cross contamination. The toast is Udi's, which I eat at home so I enjoyed it. The Mickey waffles were incredible! I gave my mom a piece of an ear & she couldn't tell the difference between those & the non gluten waffles!

My mom's first plate was next. Starting at the top & going clockwise - their is some bacon, a Mickey waffle, a biscuit, roasted potatoes topped with Ketchup, a cream cheese croissant, banana bread, scrambled eggs, and in the middle is a banana nut muffin. Obviously she loves banana bread She said the first plate was good, with the banana bread being her favorite. All standard options but prepared well!

She also got a big bowl of fruit including oranges, watermelon, and grapes. I usually don't like watermelon but my mom told me to try it because it was really good. Well, this watermelon was great! It was sweet and delicious. She also asked for some orange juice to go with her coffee so i'm assuming the buffet includes 2 drinks per person.

Now my dad's first plate - starting at the top and going clockwise. We have roasted potatoes, a croissant (which kind of blends in with the bacon ), tons of bacon, scrambled eggs with chorizo, and potato & vegetable frittata, and a few blueberry muffins. He loved the frittata! It was basically scrambled eggs with cheddar and provolone cheese, spinach, mushroom, and some peppers. He loved the eggs with chorizo on our last trip but said they were "just ok" this time around. He loved the potatoes as well. The bacon was standard Disney bacon. He went back up for more of the frittata and ate a bit of the bowl of fruit my mom got for the 3 of us to share and that's really all he ate. He works at night, so he sleeps during the day & it isn't use to eating breakfast.

My 2nd plate - gluten free toast (which was left over from the last plate with the waffles & toast - so no i didn't have 3 slices of toast ) I had some swiss cheese slices, pepper jack cheese squares, scrambled eggs, and the vegetable frittata my dad loved so much. I liked the frittata so much that I even went back for a second serving of it No tomatoes with the eggs this time - I just put the eggs on my toast & they were great!

Mom's 2nd plate(s) - the top plate consists of a lemon cranberry bread and crepes with bananas foster sauce & whipped cream - YUM! She really liked the crepe. They were prepared fresh towards the back of the buffet near the waffle station. The bottom plate consisted of a Mickey waffle & some toast with bananas foster sauce. She loved this as well! She thought it was much better than the first plate.

We were all so full and ready for a day at Epcot after meeting each of the characters - Minnie, Goofy, and Donald. We love this place because the characters typically come around at least twice while we're there and really take up time with each table, despite our table being full of 3 adults The interactions are great as well! Goofy is always hilarious and jokes around. He hugged me and wouldn't let go

Before bringing our check to the table, the waitress brought out these beauties. BabyCakes brownies!! She snuck up on me and had the entire room sing happy birthday to me (my birthday was the next day). They normally serve a cupcake, but since I can't eat gluten, they brought out some yummy BabyCake mini brownies. The one with pink frosting is vanilla & the one with chocolate is mocha. This was my first time trying them and as you will see throughout my future reviews, these won't be the last time I eat them

I also received a card signed by Minnie, Donald, & Goofy

So very full (but satisfied with our yummy food) we used the dining plan and walked over to Epcot for a fun but VERY hot day! I soaked up all the birthday wishes & celebration that week because it was so hot that I doubt i'll be going back in September again I believe our bill, before paying with the dining plan, was $89 so it was roughly about $29.50 per adult after tax.

No doubt about it - we will definitely return on our trip next year!!

Next up - snacks around the World Showcase!

 

[AllyinWonderland]

I am looking forward to following along, it looks like you have some great restaurants lined up! Cape May is a must do for us, we really love it! I have never seen crepes there, but will be sure to keep my eyes peeled when we are there in a few weeks.

 

[kastoney]

Looks like Cape May was a great start to your trip!!!! How awesome the gluten free mickey waffles tasted like the regular ones. Can't wait for more.

 

[Dislover1991]

I am looking forward to following along, it looks like you have some great restaurants lined up! Cape May is a must do for us, we really love it! I have never seen crepes there, but will be sure to keep my eyes peeled when we are there in a few weeks.

I don't recall them from our last trip there but they were between the waffle station & the section with cheese, smoked salmon, and boiled eggs. A cook was behind the counter making the crepes and she would sprinkle some of the bananas foster sauce on them & top it with whipped cream

 

[Klinger13]

That breakfast looks great! And that's terrific that they had yummy gluten free options for you. (My oldest DD has to do gluten and dairy free so I know it can be challenging to eat out.) I'm looking forward to more of your reviews and belated Happy Birthday!

 

[Dislover1991]

That breakfast looks great! And that's terrific that they had yummy gluten free options for you. (My oldest DD has to do gluten and dairy free so I know it can be challenging to eat out.) I'm looking forward to more of your reviews and belated Happy Birthday!

Thank you! We drove (and live in Mississippi) so once we reached Alabama, my parents wanted to stop at a fast food restaurant to eat. When I asked about a gluten free menu, the girl taking our order said she would ask the cook. The cook looked at her like she was crazy and said "I have no idea what gluten is". What a great welcome out of Disney

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Great review of Cape May - can't wait to read the rest. We loved our meal there in 2012, although not completely gluten free I do try and eat as little as possible as I have an intolerance (but not an allergy) so I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on at your other meals. Thanks for posting