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

[GoofySon'sMom]

I love the Cape May Buffet! I had an ADR for our last trip and ultimately ended up cancelling due the A&J wanting to sleep more than they wantd to eat!

Everything looks really good...I am sorry we missed it!

 

[Dislover1991]

Snacks around the World Showcase ​

First we headed to Les Halles in France.

I was a little scared to try Les Halles being gluten free this trip. On the past trips i've usually had plenty of options since I only had a peanut allergy but I was sure that so much would contain gluten! I asked the girl at the counter if any items were gluten free and she quickly found one of the head bakers who showed me all the gluten free options. They only had about 5 options, but that was more than I was expecting and I actually had a difficult time making a choice Gluten free options included the creme brûlée, chocolate covered meringue, yogurt parfait, salad with anchovies, and the macaroons. The macaroons were out because they contain nuts and I was not eating a salad at a bakery I didn't get a photo of the chocolate covered meringue but here's the link from Disney Food Blog. As you can tell, it's HUGE so I knew I couldn't eat something that sweet alone. I chose the berry yogurt parfait. Yum!!

My mom & dad chose to share a quiche & 2 desserts. At the top is the fraises which was a strawberry & vanilla cream tart. I believe my parents described the cream as a vanilla cream cheese flavor. Next is the quiche florentine - quiche filled with spinach, eggs, and mozerella cheese. The quiche had just been heated up so the cheese was melted perfectly. They liked it, but thought it had too much creamed spinach on the inside. Below that is the flan & cerises which is basically a soft tart filled with flan and some bing cherries. I don't think my dad even asked what it was because he isn't a fan of flan at all. I believe he just saw the cherries and said "I'll take that one!" Lastly, between the quiche & flan is the parfait aux fruits which is basically a yogurt filled with strawberry filling and topped with strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. I eat Greek yogurt most of time and i'm not a fan of plain vanilla yogurt because it's just too sweet so I was hoping this wouldn't be too sweet like vanilla yogurt. Oh my gosh, it was incredible! It was more of a cream cheese flavor - kind of like a cheesecake pudding. I would order this again for sure!

I loved my choice! I gave my mom a small bite of the parfait and after eating all their choices, she said my parfait was the best choice of them all We love Les Halles and will definitely go back!

And here's the reason why I only chose 1 snack at Les Halles despite having plenty of snack credits.....L' Artisan des Glaces!

Starting at the bottom left is the lemon with meringue, cinnamon caramel apple, macaron sandwich (not exactly sure of the flavors), mixed berry sorbet, mango sorbet, & strawberry sorbet. Starting at the top left is the nougat with honey & nuts, coffee, caramel, vanilla pear, mint chocolate, & vanilla.

According to nutrition information i've seen on gfinorlando.com (I worship that site!), most choices are gluten free but very few are actually peanut free, which is odd! So my only choices were chocolate, vanilla, caramel, & the 3 sorbets. Vanilla looked the creamiest, so I chose that - just 1 scoop in a cup so I could use my snack credit. It was delicious! So creamy and just perfect. While 1 scoop was pretty large, I honestly wish I had gone for 2 scoops (it was just so good!) but my thighs & hips didn't need the extra calories & we had more snacking to do And just a heads up, 1 scoop in a cup or cone is a snack credit but 2 scoops is not!

Next up is Germany! We stopped by Karamel Kuche, which is the bakery in Germany. We always look forward to coming here because we are huge fans of Werthers caramel. My choices were limited but still plentiful! The 3 of us chose to share each item we ordered (except I didn't eat those I couldn't have of course!) and take a few back to the room to snack on throughout the week. I chose the strawberry, the pineapple, a chocolate covered caramel, & a regular caramel. My dad chose the caramel filled chocolate cookie (on the 2nd row), and one of the salted caramel fudge brownies. My mom chose caramel cluster with milk chocolate & pecans & the chewy caramel bar with shortbread pieces & walnuts.

Here's the pineapple. It was good but VERY messy! It was difficult to keep the pineapple & chocolate covering together so we basically ended up eating them separately. Just the chocolate & caramel were delicious on their own though! And hey, that's a serving of fruit, right?

Here's the Chewy caramel bar with shortbread & walnuts. My mom is obsessed with these! She orders one on each trip and always goes back for another one before we leave

And the delicious caramel. This is all my dad talked about! We went back on our last day and he got 6 more to take home

And I forgot my dad ordered some caramel popcorn! He ordered 2 large bags of this, which are now considered a snack credit on the dining plan! I believe only the small bags use to be a credit but now the large bags are as well!

Just a few tips for those on the dining plan - All the apples at Karamel Kuche are considered snack credits now! And they are one of the places that will allow you to use 1 QS credit and purchase 3 snacks. So we each used a QS and got 3 snacks each. Not a bad deal when you have a ton of QS credits left over! I believe the total saved on those was $71.43.

And of course, we will be coming back to Karamel again for sure!

Next up is dinner at San Angel Inn.

 

[jesswindsor]

Nice Reviews!! Can't wait for more!

 

[AllyinWonderland]

It looks like you had a great time snacking around the world. We love Les Halles and stop there every trip. I keep meaning to try L' Artisan des Glace but we haven't made it over there yet. All of your caramel treats look delicious!

 

[Dislover1991]

San Angel Inn Dinner - 9/8​

We had a 6:30 dinner ADR for San Angel Inn. I booked it at 180 days out then we ended up changing our minds & switching to La Hacienda, then Tutto Italia, then back to San Angel Inn. It always smells so good when we go inside the Mexico pavilion so we knew we had to try it! We arrived 30 minutes early so we checked in early & requested a table by the water. They said it would be an extra wait, but we ended up only waiting a few minutes - even though we were half an hour early! And we were led to a table by the water.

I ordered water with lemon and debated on trying the avocado margarita. But after a ton of snacking, I decided to go without those extra calories. My parents both ordered an iced tea. First they brought us chips & salsa. They had the mild salsa (red kind) and the medium salsa (the green kind). I didn't try any because the waitress said they don't have a dedicated fryer for the chips & I didn't want to risk cross contamination. My parents ate 2 baskets of chips & 2 bowls of the green salsa - that was their favorite!

We decided to skip an appetizer and stay on the dining plan.

My mom ordered the carne asada - it's a NY strip steak topped with sautéed peppers & onions, a side of guacamole, refried black beans, poblano rice, and a cheese enchilada. Apparently my mom didn't realize the NY strip usually contains some fat so she didn't really enjoy that too much. She said the steak did have a good flavor but was just very fatty. I ate the guacamole since she hates avocado and I thought it was good! I think the enchilada was her favorite. She was in the mood for an enchilada or tacos anyways, so that's probably why she liked it best

Dad chose the camarones en tequila - tequila flamed shrimp served over a pepper sauce with cilantro and poblano rice. The waitress warned him it would be pretty spicy but he went with it anyways. He said it wasn't too spicy but then again he just ate the shrimp without the pepper sauce & also just ate the rice. The rice is hidden under the white stuff which I can't recall what that was & neither can my dad so it obviously didn't stick out to him

I can't seem to find the photo of my entree (or my dessert either!) so I apologize for the lack of photos! But I tried the huachinango a la veracruzana - grilled red snapper served over roasted potatoes & a cilantro lime vinaigrette & veracruzana sauce that contains capers, olives, bell peppers, onions, & tomatoes.

I asked to substitute the potatoes for veggies because I get paranoid if I don't have at least 1 serving of veggies per day (yes even at Disney! ). The waitress said it was no issue. And I also ordered a side of black beans. When my meal came out, the veggies were missing but I had potatoes on my plate. I reminded the waitress about it and she said she was still waiting on the veggies. I dug into the snapper. It was delicious! I've never had snapper before but loved this! It was probably better than salmon (which I love) and tasted similar to trout. The waitress soon bought my veggies which were green beans. Since she never mentioned anything about the potatoes or took my plate away when the potatoes were all that was left, I took a bite of them just to try them- they were delicious! The black beans were ok. I'm use to actual black beans and not refried black beans. I definitely prefer regular black beans!

And next was dessert! Like I said, I can't find the photo of my dessert but I went with the fruit plate from the kids menu It was a huge bowl! It consisted of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries - and the waitress topped it with a candle & had all the servers sing happy birthday to me

My dad went with the pastel de quest con caveat - cheesecake topped with caramel sauce & almonds

He liked it, but said it wasn't something he had to have- he said he's definitely had better.

Mom chose the creme bavaria - creamy bavarian mousse with berries, cinnamon, and orange liquor.

Since this was on the allergen menu & was peanut & gluten free, I tried some I loved it! The mousse had the consistency of flan and had somewhat of a caramel flavor. The cinnamon complimented it perfectly! I actually don't recall an orange flavor so they must go very light on the liquor. My mom liked it, but said she probably wouldn't order it again. My dad tried a small bite and preferred it over his cheesecake.

Our total was $122.19. While the meals weren't bad at all, we probably won't return the next time. The meals were fine, just not overwhelming or anything to write home about. Maybe Mexican food just isn't the best when you're hot & tired? We finished our night at Epcot with Illuminations, which is always incredible!

Next up is breakfast at Wolfgang Puck Express & tons of cake for my birthday

 

[Dislover1991]

Birthday Cake from BW Bakery & Wolfgang Puck Express Breakfast - 9/10​

And now we move on to my birthday day! Just a little backstory - we stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort 21 years ago (I was almost 3 years old) and this was our first time back at the resort since that trip! So it was very special to spend my 24th birthday here. I always started out the morning with a walk around the lake over to Old Port Royale for some coffee but on this morning my parents wanted me to stay gone a little longer so they could decorate the room. I won't bore you guys with the photos because we're all here for the food But they had a huge banner with photos from now & 21 years ago. We did order a cake (gluten free!) and it was delicious!

We added some decorations to it that we ordered on Etsy

We were VERY happy we didn't go with our original plan and have this delivered to dinner that night because this was a perfect pre-breakfast snack!

We barely made it on time to order off the breakfast menu! They serve breakfast until 11am. We tried WPE for breakfast on our last visit and my dad got the breakfast pizza so he knew how huge it was! He decided that since he didn't want to feel miserably stuffed but wanted pizza, he would half the pizza with my mom. The pizza contained 6 HUGE slices and was topped with cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, chives, bacon, and eggs. As usual, they loved this! And both were VERY happy they shared.

I went with the egg white omelet and asked for a side of fruit instead of the potatoes. Well, of course I received potatoes with my omelet! Even though they were safe for me to eat, I didn't want to add more carbs to my breakfast so my dad ate them instead. These potatoes apparently outdid the pizza because they were all he talked about They had garlic salt on the outside and he said that gave them a ton of flavor!

My omelet contained spinach, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese.

A close up of the inside of the omelet. It looks a little gross, but was delicious! The mushrooms were very juicy so it made the entire omelet a little moist due to the mushrooms but overall I enjoyed it!

We'll be back here for dinner later but we all enjoyed breakfast much more! WPE doesn't seem to be as busy during breakfast (maybe some don't know they serve breakfast? ) but i'd definitely suggest trying it out! The total for these 2 entrees with 2 coffees & 1 tea was $38.13 - so definitely a great use of 2 QS credits!

Next up - Ghirardelli & Erin McKennas!

 

[tweetylori]

Enjoying your report...please keep it coming!

 

[quandrea]

Your cake was great. Great price too. It looks similar to the one I got in June. I too had an etsy seller do ears. Love the colours. Great reviews.

My daughter has a peanut allergy and we avoid the French bakery and caramel Kuche due to cross contamination. How did they make it safe for you?

Also, love the Frozen wrapped presents in the background.

 

[Dislover1991]

Ghirardelli + Erin McKenna's Bakery - 9/10​

First I made a little pit stop at Erin McKenna's Bakery. With a gluten and peanut allergy, this place is like heaven for me! And i'll admit that I went just a little crazy with my order because the only place within 200 miles of me that serves gluten free cupcakes is GiGis and they usually only serve 2 flavors per day. So 10+ flavors was incredible!

Besides cupcakes, they also serve brownies, donuts, pound cake, scones, bagels, & dessert breads. All items are sweetened with agave and are vegan, gluten free, and peanut free. Since they do use coconut, they don't claim to be tree nut free though! Once I saw all the flavors, I knew I was in trouble. 9 flavors of cupcakes at $4.95 each is steep when you want to try everything. Well luckily Erin McKenna has thought of everything and had cupcake tops - basically the tops of the cupcakes. Since the frosting is my favorite part (but there was still some cake in there too!) and I wanted to sample all the flavors, I decided to order 1 of each flavor. Plus these are just $2 each instead of $4.95 for the entire cupcake. These cupcakes are much smaller than gluten filled cupcakes you'll find at Disney so these are a perfect little treat if you don't want a huge cupcake! Ps these are just $2 each instead of $4.95 for the entire cupcake.

So here was my order - Brownie with vanilla frost, brownie with mint frosting, brownie w/ mocha frosting, french toastie (vanilla cake w/ maple syrup frosting), banana cake w/ chocolate frosting, banana cake w/ vanilla frosting, chocolate chip cupcake w/ chocolate frosting , vanilla cake w/ vanilla frosting. Me and my mom found a bench and split each one.

I didn't take an individual photo of each- I just took a few so everyone could see the size and what they look like. This must be the French Toastie.

Banana w/ chocolate frosting

Brownie w/ vanilla frosting

Banana w/ vanilla frosting

My absolute favorite, hands down, was the chocolate chip! It tasted just like chocolate chip cookie dough! I also loved all the brownies because they had chocolate chips cooked in, which gave them a great chocolaty flavor. Banana was great too. My mom said it could've been a little more moist, but gluten free & vegan cupcakes are often much more dense than those with gluten - so just a heads up! The texture is different and the taste isn't as sweet, but they are delicious! The only cupcake I didn't care much for was the vanilla w/ vanilla frosting. It wasn't horrible, it just didn't have much flavor. Everything at the bakery IS a snack credit on the dining plan! And I did indeed come back a few days later to use some snack credits on the delicious beauties

Now to Ghirardelli. This place always has a line but we don't care how long the line is because the wait is worth it We always stop in the store first (the entrance closest to World of Disney) and look around at the packaged chocolate. According to the CM, a snack credit can be used on one of the chocolate bars or any of the drinks on the menu - but no ice cream They were handing out free samples of the candy as usual though

Even though I was starting to go into a sugar coma (birthday cake, cupcake tops), I wasn't saying no to Ghirardelli! A sundae sounded too sweet so I ordered 2 scoops in a cup of vanilla & mint chocolate chip. I always choose the mint every time we come here but this time tried some vanilla with it too. It was delicious - hands down the best vanilla ice cream i've ever had!

My dad orders vanilla milkshakes everywhere we go (even when we go to Ghirardelli during our trip to Disney), so me & mom told him he wasn't ordering a shake here. He was looking at the Crissy Field Cookie Bits Sundae - vanilla ice cream between cookies & cream ice cream & smothered in hot fudge. It's topped with whipped cream, Ghirardelli's chocolate chip cookie crumbles, and 2 of the Ghirardelli chocolate caramel minis. I've heard nothing but great things about this sundae so I tried to get him to order it. Well what did he order? A vanilla milkshake What can I say? He's obsessed with them!

And my mom's choice - the Ocean Beach sea salt caramel sundae- vanilla ice cream smothered with creamy caramel, hot fudge, & sea salt; topped w/ whipped cream, caramel sauce, sea salt, & Ghirardelli squares milk chocolate. Hello caramel overload! She loved it, although it was VERY sweet! But I did try a few bites and it was delicious. I love Ghirardelli's caramel sauce! The sea salt wasn't a very dominant flavor, but it was the perfect mix since she doesn't really like salty too much.

Next is my highly anticipated birthday dinner at Flying Fish - our first signature meal at Disney!

 

[Dislover1991]

Your cake was great. Great price too. It looks similar to the one I got in June. I too had an etsy seller do ears. Love the colours. Great reviews.

My daughter has a peanut allergy and we avoid the French bakery and caramel Kuche due to cross contamination. How did they make it safe for you?

At each place I let them know about my allergies so I could see the options I had. At France, the head chef (at that time) offered to get my dessert from the back and changed gloves before doing so. At Karamel Kuche, they were actually bringing out a fresh batch of the chocolate covered items (pineapple & strawberries) so those hadn't been put into the case yet. With the caramels, they offered to bring those out from the back so those had not been in the case either. One of the CMs also said they have different machines for those items made with just caramel and those made with caramel & nuts.

I didn't have one bad allergy experience this trip!

 

[Dislover1991]

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.

It definitely was! I miss my Mickey waffles

Thanks for joining in!

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! I'm so happy Disney is so accommodating!

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

They have so many choices for all allergies! Thanks for joining

Enjoying your report...please keep it coming!

Thank you

 

[quandrea]

At each place I let them know about my allergies so I could see the options I had. At France, the head chef (at that time) offered to get my dessert from the back and changed gloves before doing so. At Karamel Kuche, they were actually bringing out a fresh batch of the chocolate covered items (pineapple & strawberries) so those hadn't been put into the case yet. With the caramels, they offered to bring those out from the back so those had not been in the case either. One of the CMs also said they have different machines for those items made with just caramel and those made with caramel & nuts.

I didn't have one bad allergy experience this trip!

That sounds great. I will stop in to those spots in October. Dying to try them.

 

[Dislover1991]

I love the Cape May Buffet! I had an ADR for our last trip and ultimately ended up cancelling due the A&J wanting to sleep more than they wantd to eat!

Everything looks really good...I am sorry we missed it!

Haha I would never choose to sleep in over eating breakfast at a buffet

 

[hogwartsdropout]

Really enjoying your report! Thanks for the report on San Angel Inn, we are eating there in just over a week.

 

[Vernie822]

Hi Ashton! Great report so far. I'm not gluten free but it is certainly interesting reading about what you can or can't have, and how they will accommodate you at each restaurant. I'm sure it's very helpful for those with allergies!

I think the Babycakes treats look SO yummy.. wow! I might have to stop in there next time.

I don't think I've ever seen more than a few Wolfgang Puck Express breakfast reviews, but your entrees look so delicious. Yum.

I can't wait to read about Flying Fish. We'll be going there for the first time in November.

 

[vettegirl]

All caught up!

 

[Dislover1991]

Hi Ashton! Great report so far. I'm not gluten free but it is certainly interesting reading about what you can or can't have, and how they will accommodate you at each restaurant. I'm sure it's very helpful for those with allergies!

I think the Babycakes treats look SO yummy.. wow! I might have to stop in there next time.

I don't think I've ever seen more than a few Wolfgang Puck Express breakfast reviews, but your entrees look so delicious. Yum.

I can't wait to read about Flying Fish. We'll be going there for the first time in November.

Disney was incredible with my allergies! Since options were limited at QS locations, the chefs were willing to pretty much make me anything that sounded good!

Flying Fish was incredible! It was expensive, but definitely worth it. I think it's the perfect restaurant to celebrate at as well.

 

[accountingbabe08]

Great reviews looking forward to more

 

[Dislover1991]

Flying Fish Cafe - 9/10​

Ok, so I am very excited to post this review. Why? Not only was it my birthday dinner, but it was also the first time dining at a signature restaurant in the 21 years i've been going to Disney World! My parents looked at photos on trip advisor and were pretty worried they would be starving after dinner because the servings looked pretty small - and the prices scared them! But since we had the free dining plan (well, we paid for park hoppers), we went for it! Plus we stayed at BWV in December 2013 and it was our favorite stay yet, so we had to eat somewhere on the Boardwalk.

We had a 5:30pm ADR and showed up 5:25 - we were seated promptly at 5:30. From the time we walked in, it was such a great atmosphere! I absolutely love the theming, so I hope they don't change it up too much during the long refurb coming up.

We were all given menus and I received a special birthday menu to keep as a souvenir

Desserts aren't listed here since they have a separate dessert menu.

We passed on any wine. My parents both ordered their usual - unsweetened iced tea and I ordered my usual - water with lemon. I've heard such great things about the mozzarella & tomato salad so we decided to split one between the 3 of us (hey, my parents were treating me so I went for it ). The waitress asked if we wanted to order 2 because they were a bit on the small side. We just went with 1 order. We also went ahead & ordered our entrees.

Ok, so I was hoping my parents would both try something different so I could get a review on a few different dishes but we all apparently were in the mood for the same thing that night We all ordered the Chefs Special which was the Thunder From the Sea bass & shrimp with Asian vegetables.

The bread course began and I was so happy that for the first time since being diagnosed with a gluten allergy, I was able to participate in the bread course! Here's a look at the gluten filled bread. I believe it contained olives? They were served with salted butter.

My gluten free rolls - which were heated so they were perfectly soft! (Those of you who can't have gluten KNOW how hard the bread can be!)

Then our mozzarella salad arrived. Sorry, but my dad dug in and didn't give me a chance to take a photo of the entire plate!

Fresh Mozzarella di Bufala - yellow, ugli, ripe tomatoes with balsamic, basic, mozzarella cheese, & Sicilian olio verde. It was a small portion - what's on my plate (shown below) is the serving each of the 3 of us received. But we were filling up on the yummy bread so we didn't care It was delicious and the balsamic & olive oil drizzle made a delicious dip for the bread!

And the entrees arrived a few minutes after we finished the mozzarella & tomato salad.

Chefs Special Thunder from the Sea - iron seared Epcot Land Pavillion bass & grilled Key West shrimp w/ Asian greens, banana squash, snow peas, Epcot peppers, mushrooms, & yellow tomato butter emulsion.

At first glance, the portion does look a bit on the small size, however, I began to fill up VERY fast! I've never had sea bass before but I absolutely loved this and will be shopping for some sea bass when I go to Whole Foods this weekend The shrimp was cooked perfectly and the vegetables were incredible! I love how they were crispy but not too crispy (if that makes sense). I was getting so full, but I wasn't letting any of this amazing meal go to waste! My dad said his was pretty good but me and my mom raved and raved over this meal. It was very well worth the money! I tried just a small portion of the tomato butter sauce and it was good, but I definitely couldn't eat a lot of it so I was happy I had asked for it on the side.

And a view of mine - I asked for the sauce on the side because I like to control the amount that goes on my plate

And here's a photo of it kind of torn apart so you can get a better view of everything

We thought we were about to receive our check since we decided to not go for any dessert (I had splurged enough for 1 day!) but then we received this with our check - house made sorbets! The waitress brought them out as a birthday dessert and chose this specific dessert because it was gluten free. I received a scoop of strawberry, coconut, and raspberry & they were topped with fresh berries. Me and my mom shared and we both loved it! The coconut was our favorite flavor. I didn't try any of the cookies that came with it, but my mom did and said they were pretty good. They looked crispy but they were actually soft. If we come back here again, I would definitely get this as a dessert!

Our bill came to $149.52 before tip. I believe that was well worth it and a steal for a signature restaurant. We didn't use the dining plan for this dinner - 2 credits just didn't seem worth it when our entrees were all $32 each (the same as some 1 credit TS restaurants) and we did not care to all have dessert since we had cake & Ghirardelli.

Overall, I give FF an A+. It was incredible and I would love to come back here again!

Up next - The Wave breakfast

 

[jesswindsor]

Your Birthday Cake is so cute!!!