DxDDP, a pedometer, DH and me...Feb. 27-March 5 trip to WDW

[Jen12573]

DH and I returned from WDW on Sunday at 1AM. We are still Disney-tired, but we had an amazing trip again, third year in a row. We celebrated our anniversary later than usual - we normally go in January, but we moved our trip to Feb. 27-March 5 because DH started a new job in January. It was crowded, but not as bad as we expected. As you can see, I now have photos! More to come as I progress through the report.

Cast of characters:

DH and I are planning to adopt in the coming year, so this is our last trip for at least 18-24 months, so we did it up big with the DxDDP and ate everywhere we really wanted to eat!

DH - Grant, 44, full time soccer coach, first time we've been to Disney in 3 years that we weren't at Wide World of Sports for the 3v3 soccer tournament with his kids for the first half of our trip. Eats anything except peas and isn't a fan of onions on his steak. Loves breakfast buffets! Loves Goofy, bought the Goofy colorful dreadlocks hat to wear to soccer practices with his kids for fun - they'll love it. Addicted to WDW popcorn!

Me - Jen, 37, Director of Marketing & Communications for a military school. Loves everything WDW, all about the Character breakfasts, and eats anything but was trying to choose healthy options. You'll note, that stopped shortly after our first meal ! Loves sweets especially! Loves Eeyore, but sadly did not get to see him on our trip, only as a topiary (very pretty by the way!) YUM, Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bars!!! a.k.a. Julie the cruise director from Love Boat, or Monica from friends because of my overplanning, detailed nature.

The pedometer - I was curious on this trip how much we'd walk during any given day at any given park. I wore the pedometer for the park portion of our days, but once we went back to get ready for dinner and left for a signature restaurant, I stopped wearing it and estimated the additional walking. Our theory - for every step we took, we stepped approximately 2-feet since we have long strides (even for a short person like me). So, 12,000 steps would be equivalent to 24,000 feet, at approximately 6,000 feet per mile (rounded up since I wore the pedometer while standing in lines taking steps that were much shorter than 2-feet in stride), we would say we walked 4 miles that day.

Details:
CSR - 7-day/6-night stay. 3rd trip there in three years to celebrate our anniversary. Grainger convention at the resort (again!) we were upgraded to a 1BR suite. Last year they were there in January when we were there. We met three folks from TX who joked that they heard we moved our trip and because we were so much fun last year, they moved the Grainger convention just to be with us again! Also said that with my personality, I'd be great as a Grainger employee. If it means a convention in WDW, I may look into it! LOL.

All pools were closed, we were offered a water park ticket to compensate, but we declined as we didn't really plan for a water park, and only wanted to have a pool to dangle our feet in after a long day at the parks. We normally go in January - March is definitely busier but not awful. But no biggie, it wasn't the end of the world.

The Grainger folks were nothing but nice, considerate and respectful. Did they take over the entire resort? Yes. Were we one of very few groups of actual vacationers? Yes. Did we ever have to fight for a seat on the bus? Nope - in fact on many occasions we were the only ones on it. Did it bother us having them there? No, after all it is a convention resort.

ADRs:
Day 1 - Arrival/Magic Kingdom
Lunch - Gasparilla Grill
Dinner - HDDR

Day 2 - Epcot
Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare
Lunch - Yorkshire Fish & Chips (shared fish & chips)
Dinner - Yachtsman Steakhouse

Day 3 - DHS
Breakfast - Cape May Cafe
Dinner - 50s Prime Time Cafe

Day 4 - AK
Breakfast - Tusker House
Dinner - Narcoossee's

Day 5 - MK
Lunch - Kona Cafe
Dinner - Flying Fish Cafe

Day 6 - Epcot
Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare
Dinner - back to Narcoossee's (originally planned Chef Mickey's but had extra credits to use!)

Day 7 - DHS/Departure
Breakfast - Chef Mickey's - kept trying because we love the characters there, finally got an ADR there at 9:45 the night before while leaving Narcoossee's!
Lunch - Pepper Market (shared)

Side trip - Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores - DH was hell bent on finding the plaid Nike golf shorts he saw at our Nike outlet. Hated having to go shopping on vacation, but it made him happy and what's not to love about a happy DH!

I hope someone finds this report helpful! I love The Dis, and want to give back any way that I can, everyone is so amazingly helpful!

My (almos) complete trip report link is in my signature, but I figured I'd highlight the food here for you! So, coming soon, food reviews! Enjoy.

Enjoy!

 

[Jen12573]

Gasparilla Grill - Buses were empty, thank you Grainger. We made it to MK in no time, then took the monorail over to GG for lunch. DH had his heart set on the Southwest Chicken sandwich - they changed the menu and the one on allears.net was dated. No Southwest Chicken sandwich. Epic fail! We had a regular grilled chicken sandwich, it was good but not great, but the beers and fries made up for it.

HDDR 9:30 show, nice and empty we were all on tier 1 seating - it was HILARIOUS! Food was amazing! My BFF told me "you have to go for dinner there, you just have to" we'd never been. We can't wait to go back. The salad was delicious (a little over dressed but still awesome), I could have eaten a loaf of corn bread myself (practically did because DH doesn't really like it with dinner), fried chicken was moist, crunchy and delicious. Ribs were OK. Mashed potatoes, yum! Cowboy beans, they were OK. The entertainment was terrific, DH and I are both so glad that we went. We will absolutely go again.

Pedometer: 16,728 steps = 33,456 feet = 5.5 miles walked (estimate)

FOUR STAR DAY out of five / 3 BOXES OF POPCORN, 1 MICKEY BAR!

 

[Jen12573]

1900 Park Fare - we love the food here, we are big fans of made to order omelets, and the strawberry soup is to die for (and we now have the recipe). Our waitress was fantastic, she kept the coffee pot filled, chatted with us for a while, and made sure the characters came over. We had a later ADR and we missed Tigger and Pooh, but got to spend some quality time with Alice, Mary Poppins (my brother will be so jealous, she was his first crush!!) and the Mad Hatter. Food was incredible as always. Everything is always so fresh, even later in the morning they kept on replenishing everything. The bread pudding, wow! DH had an omelet, I had eggs over medium (and for once a chef got it right, not too runny, just right!) and we went back for seconds of course - another omelet for DH, and carbs for me - first Mickey waffle of the trip, a little bread pudding (yum!) and a biscuit. Delicious! And there went the diet for me. DH is a rail, so he can eat anything and it melts off him, darn him!!!

Yachtsman Steakhouse - this was our first time here. We had free dining so I decided that since this will be our last trip for a couple of years, we upgraded to Deluxe. SOOOO WORTH IT! But it was definitely a lot of food.

Our waitress was amazing, she told us about her favorites, and we ultimately decided on the crab cake for DH's appetizer, cheese board for mine, and she highly recommended we share the 24-oz Porterhouse steak and the lobster which was fresh and taken completely out of the shell. I ordered the porterhouse and DH the lobster, it was pretty comical seeing this giant steak in front of me and this small plate of 9 oz of lobster in front of DH.

Dinner was amazing, we ate nearly every bite of both the steak and the lobster. DH had a potato which truly wasn't that great and the waitress said the same, took it back and replaced it with mashed potatoes. I had the creamed spinach instead of a potato, it was very heavy and with lots of garlic. We barely ate any of it, sadly.

Dessert, DH got fruit (strawberries, blueberries and blackberries with whipped cream - no wonder he's so skinny!) and I had the sorbet. The pineapple chili sorbet was incredible - my favorite of the three they brought me.

Pedometer: 18,780 steps = 37,560 feet = 6.26 miles walked.

FIVE STAR DAY, 2 boxes of popcorn, 0 Mickey bars.

 

[Jen12573]

Cape May Cafe - DH, still in a good mood at this point (today was when I considered leaving him in a park and going elsewhere on my own!). This was our first time here, and we went because we heard that you get some quality time with the characters. That is so true, they were amazing. They came over to the table, sat with us, joked with DH, and it was all in all very fun. Food was basic, but still delicious. I loved the yogurt bar, and DH and I both enjoyed the fruit and the potatoes here were better than 1900 Park Fare (with peppers and onions, yum!)

From here we went on our side trip - off to Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores. We went to Nike, he found two pairs of the shorts he wanted, that crisis was over. He was pre-occupied and so focused on going to Nike to find those shorts that he had blinders on. Yes, I have a husband who shops, and when he wants something it has to be soon! I rearranged our schedule to get him there. So, that was done, stopped back at the resort to drop off his loot and back to DHS.

50s PTC - again, this is where DH ended up in a complete funk. He got a few emails, had to get work done, snapped at me and I considered leaving him there to fend for himself. But I trudged on, what's Disney without a little meltdown by someone, it doesn't always have to be a child who has the meltdown right?

I had the wedge salad as my app, DH had the crabcake, both were delicious. I had meatloaf, he had the pot roast. Again they were delicious, but DH was a little disappointed that he could tell the veggies were not simmered all day with the pot roast like I make mine. Glad to hear mine is still better! It's my signature dish at home in the crock pot. Amazingly we both cleared our plates, and got our "clean plate club stickers" that brought a smile to DH's face for a little bit. Before he focused again on the emails he needed to repsond to.

For dessert, because I could tell he wanted to get going, and we were both stuffed, we got fruit to go. Our "cousin" was great - I know she would have really given us a hard time if DH was in the mood, but she could tell. She gave us an amazingly giant platter of fruit, and showed us how pretty she asked them to make it for us. It was delicious, we had it later that night for dessert.

Pedometer: 14,654 steps = 29,308 feet = 4.88 miles walked.

3 STAR DAY (DH's fault) / 1 box of popcorn, 1 Mickey bar

 

[Tracerr00]

Loving your reviews so far! Very funny about DH's meltdown. The last time I went to Disney back in April I went with my sister, her 25 year old DD and my 10 year old DD. My 10 year old was great but the 25 year old had quite a few meltdowns! My sister and I decided to make up for it so we're going by ourselves in August without our daughters! Can't wait to hear more about your dining experiences!

 

[Jen12573]

Loving your reviews so far! Very funny about DH's meltdown. The last time I went to Disney back in April I went with my sister, her 25 year old DD and my 10 year old DD. My 10 year old was great but the 25 year old had quite a few meltdowns! My sister and I decided to make up for it so we're going by ourselves in August without our daughters! Can't wait to hear more about your dining experiences!

Thank you so much!!! t's not a Disney trip without a meltdown right? I was definitely going to harm him, but he got over it. Although I did tell him that he now owes me an extra day in WDW to make up for it. So our next trip, we have to spend one extra day entire on him, and entirely to my liking! HA!

More to come shortly...

 

[Jen12573]

Tusker House - what can I say, jungle juice is amazing! We had a blast here, as soon as we walked in Daisy was taking our section around with the instruments, making all sorts of 'music' and having fun with the kids. It was awesome. This was our first time here. We were a little bummed that Donald is out front, we chose not to get a photo with him, but I got a photo OF him as we left. The fare was the usual breakfast buffet fare, with a little twist, plus tater tots - DH's favorite. We were excited, the meal was delicious, and we saw all the characters and it was just a really fun atmosphere! We will definitely go here again.

Mmm, Mickey Bar for dessert!

Narcoossee's - this is our favorite signature restaurant. DH loves the surf & turf, and I'm a fan of their crab crusted fish, I checked the menu in advance and this time it was mahi mahi.

We had a 7:30 ADR, sat at the bar until our table was ready, the fireworks were getting ready to start, our buzzer went off and we had a table by the window, perfect viewing of the fireworks.

We started with a crabcake for DH (you are probably starting to see a trend here, he tried the crabcakes everywhere we went), and I had the Brie en Croute - absolutely amazing!

For dinner, DH of course had the surf & turf, delicious. And I had the crab crusted mahi mahi. During dinner, as DH was raving about his meal again, I said you know we have some extra credits if you want to eat here again we can. He looked at me like, why would you even ask, of course I want to eat here again.

For dessert, DH had fruit - strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and sugar free mango sorbet, it's on the menu (damn him) and I had the chocolate mousse which was outstanding, there wasn't a drop left on my plate! We watched the water show with a delicious pot of pressed coffee and then headed back to our resort for the night. The rest of that night, I checked reservations online to see if we could find something at Narcoossee's for our last night, they had a 9:20 but we wanted something a little earlier.

Pedometer: 21,243 steps = 42,486 feet = 7.08 miles walked.

FIVE STAR DAY - without a doubt! 2 boxes of popcorn, 1 Mickey bar.

 

[Jen12573]

We were up early and off to MK first thing in the morning for AM EMH. By 10AM we tackled Space Mountain, Small World, Mad Tea Party, Thunder Mountain, and were on our way to Tom Sawyer Island. This was the first time we'd ever been over there, and it was such a fun little 'excursion' if you will. All the while we were on the raft I was checking for that elusive Narcoossee's ADR that wasn't at 9:20PM. Jackpot - we found one! It was for 7:30 on 3/5. We decided that since we had a window seat on Day 4, we didn't care if we could see fireworks again, so I called when we got to the island while sitting at the checkerboard, and made the ADR. Next up, trying to find an ADR for Chef Mickey's for Saturday morning, 3/6 to replace our original dinner there on 3/5. Oh boy!

Kona Cafe - this was our little hidden jem when we were in WDW in 2010. We changed an ADR on our last trip in January 2010 and while sitting in the club lounge at CSR, a CM named Willie recommended that we give Kona Cafe a try for dinner. We did, and we loved it. But because of all our signature ADRs, we couldn't fit it in for dinner, so we opted for lunch.

DH had - the crabcake for his appetizer (good, but not as good as Narcoossee's), and I had my coconut shrimp curry soup, oh how amazing that soup is! DH followed that with the Asian Noodle Bowl - delicious and I was very jealous, and I had the Island Chicken Sandwich. Also delicious, but the noodle bowl was far better, I will definitely get that next time. DH loved it too. He ended with the kilauea torte and I had the chocolate fondue mostly for the fruit that came with it. Delicious.

Flying Fish Cafe - this was our first time here and we were amazed. Getting there was really easy on the transportation system, the buses just worked out perfectly for us each time we needed to transfer. The food was amazing, atmosphere was awesome, our waitress was terrific although a little high pitched and perkier than I was looking for during a relaxing later dinner, but she was fun regardless, and very informative about our selections and recommending some of her favorites.

I started with the tomato and mozzarella salad - and we learned that 90% of all tomatoes are flash-ripened, meaning they are picked well before they are ripe and the farmers will flash-ripen them. The tomatoes in this salad were grown and ripened on the vine, and picked fresh, from a family owned farm on the west coast of FL. They were, hands down, some of the best tomatoes I've ever eaten in my life. DH had, you guessed it, the crabcake. Again, very, very good but not as good as Narcoossee's. That was his basis of comparison for every one that he ate.

For dinner DH had the salmon, also very good, and I had the surf and surf which was "EPCOT TILAPIA" and rock shrimp. At first, I felt a little funny having the tilapia I saw only days before while riding Living with the Land at Epcot, but it was the best darn tilapia I've ever eaten. This was by far, one of my favorite restaurants in WDW! For dessert we each had the sorbet, we just wanted something cool and refreshing, and it was delicious.

And finally, end of the night, we headed back to the resort and bed. Finally. We were exhausted.

Pedometer = 15,724 steps = 31,448 feet = 5.24 miles walked.

FIVE STAR DAY / 1 box of popcorn, 0 Mickey bars.

 

[princess aleya]

Subscribing

 

[mrmdisneyfl]

Great reviews, I am in

 

[Jen12573]

Subscribing

Welcome - it's all about the popcorn!!

Great reviews, I am in

Thanks, and welcome.

I'll post the final days before the end of the day today. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the reviews. We had an amazing trip, and I'm ready to go back already!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Great reviews!

 

[Jen12573]

Great reviews!

Thanks! I'm so glad you like them!

 

[Jen12573]

1900 Park Fare - oh how we love this restaurant. It was so much fun. We were there a little earlier and got to spend alot of quality time with Tigger, Pooh, and we had fun joking around with Alice (who was teasing a young man behind us who said that his partner's shirt was blue, and we were all saying it looked more grey than blue). Alice enlisted everyone seated around them to try to prove it was grey - and when DH agreed that it looked grey, she said - see there you go, even a man said it's grey so it must be! Alice, the Mad Hatter and Mary Poppins were a riot today, we had a lot of fun today. If you want to know what we ate, you can check out Day 2 - we ate exactly the same things, in exactly the same order. For me, eggs first then carbs, for DH it was two omelets, and both of us enjoyed the strawberry soup again - along with a ton of fruit. I'm telling you, I'd eat more fruit at home if I had someone to prepare it for me all the time!

After breakfast, we returned to Epcot, used our Soarin' FP and on the way out, stopped off for a decent pretzel (we don't like the ones in Germany), because we are heading to the countries! We went the same direction, stopped off at the pub in England to get some Harps. DH wanted to get another batch of fish & chips but the line was insane, so we skipped it. Good thing because we would not have had enough room for dinner at Narcoossee's! Even though we started on the side with England (we never seem to make it around once we've hit England unless we go the opposite direction), we actually made it all the way around the countries, stopping off for my annual sombrero photo in Mexico.

I even made DH put a mini-sombrero on this year!

We had a great time! Although it was a bit crowded today.

Back to the hotel, relax for a bit, and then off to Narcoossee's for another dinner.

Narcoossee's - We were seated right after we got drinks from the bar, yet again just in time for Wishes, and while we were one row back from the window, we could still see perfectly!

There was no doubt that DH was going to get the crabcake and surf & turf. As for me, I wanted something different. So I had the crabcake (my first of the trip) and the filet mignon, with of course my glass (2) of King Estate pinot noir. For dessert, DH had the strawberry lemon tart (delicious) and I had the chocolate mousse (again, I intended to eat fruit or sorbet but that didn't happen!). We enjoyed two pots of pressed coffee, watched the water show again, and then back to the resort to start packing up because we are departing on Saturday, Day 7.

I should add that this entire day was also spent looking for a breakfast ADR at Chef Mickey's. After an entire day of looking, I found a 10:40AM ADR for Saturday morning, so we booked it. I loved that we changed our Chef Mickey's dinner on day 6 to Narcoossee's again (we love it there) but I hated not going to Chef Mickey's, it's one of DH's favorites. So we were very happy to find the ADR for Saturday morning.

Pedometer: 19,156 steps = 38,312 feet = 6.38 miles walked.

FIVE STAR DAY / 1 box of popcorn, 1 Mickey bar (before the beer).

 

[lblume91]

Enjoying your reviews so far! And I totally agree that there's always a meltdown in WDW and it's not always the kids...

 

[chocolateMinnie]

loving your reviews so far - good luck with the adoption.

 

[kelleigh1]

Did you feel that the DxDP was too much food? We are planning on it for our next trip and we have about 6 2TS places to try too, so I think that will help eat up credits and give us a chance to try them.

 

[Tink rules]

Glad to hear you love Narcoosees!!! It's my favorite too!!

 

[kylieh]

Very much enjoying your review. We're planning to eat at Narcoossee's too later this year. Glad you enjoyed it.

Is that a Vera Bradley backpack? I've been thinking of getting one.

 

[Jen12573]

loving your reviews so far - good luck with the adoption.

Thank you! Our first meeting was on Valentine's Day and we are really excited!

Did you feel that the DxDP was too much food? We are planning on it for our next trip and we have about 6 2TS places to try too, so I think that will help eat up credits and give us a chance to try them.

It's all what you make of it. It was more food than we would normally have at a dinner if we were home, but we love apps and a full entree each. The dessert was a bit much but the sorbet options and fruit for skinny DH, and fruit to go from 50s PTC worked really well for us. I also think spacing meals out having a late AM buffet breakfast, 2TS dinner and a snack in between was the best option for us. And we still had 10 snacks left on our last day to bring things home.

Glad to hear you love Narcoosees!!! It's my favorite too!!

There is just something about Narcoossees that is so relaxing and magical to us. And the food is delicious!

Very much enjoying your review. We're planning to eat at Narcoossee's too later this year. Glad you enjoyed it.

Is that a Vera Bradley backpack? I've been thinking of getting one.

It is a Vera backpack! But a very old one I could use a new one. I love it and bring it on every vacation we go on. It easily holds my phone, wallet, camera, and water. The front pouch I use for itinerary and park maps. The back pouch that is against my back holds more valuable items. Love it! I hope you enjoy Narcoossees as much as we do! Say yes to the crabcake!!