Ears to the Food! September 19-30, 2007 - 12 Days on DDP, COMPLETE!

[FirstMagic]

Today was going to be a “free” day, with no scheduled dining, so we could do attractions or shows we missed or wanted to do again. We still had a lot of Counter Service and even more Snack Credits left to use.

DH really wanted the pork sandwich at Captain Cook’s again, so we planned to have lunch there, and then split up: DH and I were going to the Magic Kingdom, and DS wanted to go to Animal Kingdom.

While waiting for the Magic Kingdom bus, an Animal Kingdom bus pulled up and we told DS that he might as well just go on to the Animal Kingdom, since it was already past noon and we knew he wanted to ride Everest some more. So we bid each other a fond adieu for the day, and after a while, a Magic Kingdom bus pulled up. When we got off the bus at the MK I told DH we might as well go into the Kingdom while we were there and see the Presidents, then go to the Polynesian.

Of course, we didn’t go straight to Liberty Square. I looked in the hat shop on Main Street, then we watched the Dapper Dans, and then we turned toward Adventureland, and while we were there, DH said we had to have a:

Dole Whip Float $3.99 (one Snack Credit)
Time: 1:04 p.m.

This was just to sustain us until we could have lunch at Captain Cook’s (with Dole Whip for dessert!)

We finally did get around to seeing the Presidents, and then wanted to ride Haunted Mansion one last time, but the line stretched way out to Liberty Square, so we decided to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority one more time instead, but got caught in a big rainstorm, and of all days, we hadn’t brought the ponchos! We ran into Tinkerbell’s shop, but soon it got so crowded that we stepped outside under the overhang, and then ran over to the Castle. It rained and it rained and it rained. (The deluge) When it settled down to a mere drizzle, we ran over to the TTA and rode it again, and then decided to exit the MK and go eat lunch.

But then I remembered that I had heard about fabulous ice cream cookie sandwiches at the MK Bakery, so I convinced DH we had to try one of those, for research purposes:

Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich $3.99 (one snack credit)
Time: 2:40

This was a very good snack! We watched as the Cast Member brought out two very large chocolate chip cookies, piled vanilla ice cream on one, and smashed the other one down on it. DH and I split this, and decided we’ll have to get one of these next time we go to WDW, it was very good!

We exited the Magic Kingdom, knowing it would be the last visit of the trip, which is always kind of sad. But it was shortly before parade time, so it was a good time to leave the park. We caught a launch to the Polynesian, went to Captain Cook’s and finally got our lunch:

DH –
Aloha Pork Sandwich - pulled pork with barbecue sauce, pineapple cole slaw, cheddar cheese, cucumbers, and tomatoes, served warm on a pineapple-coconut hoagie roll, with chips
Pint of Orange Juice
Dessert: Self-serve Dole Whip

Me -
Stir-fried Noodles - chicken and vegetables with Udon noodles in lemon-grass infused sauce garnished with fried wontons $6.99
Pint of Soy Milk
Dessert: Self-serve Dole Whip

Total: $25.91
Time: 3:32 p.m.

DH enjoyed his pork sandwich again, and the noodles and veggies were ok, but just a little salty. I was glad I found soy milk in the cooler; DH doesn’t drink this, so I had it all to myself! While we were eating the Dole Whip, DH got an idea to try pouring some of his OJ into the dish, and he said it was good, almost like a Dole Whip Float, just using orange instead of pineapple juice. I tried it too, and it was tasty!

We had been checking our snack and counter service credits, hoping that our son would be using some to eat, but so far hadn’t seen anything other than our use of them. I thought he might go back to Flame Tree for more ribs, since he had enjoyed them so much on our other visits there.

After Captain Cook’s, we took the monorail from the Polynesian to EPCOT, where DH wanted one last shake at Fountainview:

Chocolate Shake $3.99 (one snack credit)
Time: 5:44

I had a couple of spoonfuls, but was still quite full from all the Magic Kingdom snacking and the late lunch.

I saw we could catch the next British Invasion set if we hurried over to the United Kingdom, but just before their set, it started to rain (and rain, and rain) and we took refuge in the Tea Caddy, then dashed over to the store across the way where I hoped there was a bit more room. (not much!) When the rain because just a drizzle, we decided to escape the crowded shop and ran to France, where we decided to see the movie again and wait out the rain.

This evening wasn’t working out as I’d planned, and the rain was interfering with our final night at EPCOT!

We made our way around World Showcase, where I stopped at the Norway Kringla Bakery to pick up an item I’d never had before, and had heard so much about:

School Bread $2.49 (one snack credit)
Time: 8:16 p.m.

I had them package it “to go” so I could take it back to our room for breakfast the next morning, since at this point I’d had enough sweet stuff for the day.

I asked DH if he’d like to share a dinner at Cantina de San Angel, so we went there and read the menu and decided to order:

DH and me –
Plato Combinacion - chicken taco, beef burrito and a quesadilla served with black refried beans and Mexican salsa $8.75
Large Sprite $2.39
Dessert: Bunuelos

Total: $14.62 (one Counter Service)
Time: 8:23 p.m.

DH had the beef burrito and the black refried beans and I had the chicken taco and quesadilla. It was plenty of food for us to split, since we’d had so much to nosh on all day. We figured we wouldn’t be able to find any seating in the Cantina at that time of the night, but we did find a table near the front of the restaurant, where there was absolutely no view of the lagoon for Illuminations, but we didn’t need a table with a view, we just needed a spot to sit and eat. The food was ok, nothing special, but we’ve eaten here before and knew what to expect. The people who were working behind the counter were very nice.

For dessert we had our choice between churros or bunuelos, and since we’d never had bunuelos, we chose them. We were glad they were a packaged dessert so we could take them along and eat them later. (Note: we ended up taking them home with us and eating them as dessert with a Mexican meal I cooked.)

After eating, we headed back toward Norway to watch Illuminations. Something had caught DH’s eye in the bakery earlier, so he quickly dashed in to get a:

Kringla Sweet Pretzel $3.79 (one snack credit)
Time: 8:49 p.m.

He had this packaged “to go” too, and ended up taking it home. He said it was good, and I'll believe him.

By this point we did see our credits decrement more than what we used, so we knew our son had gotten something to eat using the dining credits too, we were just curious where he ended up eating. We still had 14 Snack Credits and 5 Counter Service credits left though!

We watched Illuminations and then took the bus back to Pop Century. A couple minutes after we walked into our room, our son came in the door and we compared our day’s activities.

He’d skipped eating at the Animal Kingdom, since he only had a few hours there, but did get a snack:

Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich (one snack credit, don’t have the price)
Time: 5:04 p.m. at the Dino Slush Cart

He ate this on the way out and caught a bus to what had been his original lunch destination, Captain Cook’s at the Polynesian!

DS –
Multigrain Turkey Club - sliced turkey breast with Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, bacon and honey-dijon mayonnaise on a multigrain sunflower bread. With chips $7.99
Fountain drink
Dessert: self-serve Dole Whip

Time: 5:51 p.m.
(He didn’t have a pen to write the price on the receipt)

This is a repeat of what he had the first day at Captain Cook’s. He liked it then and he liked it today!

We fly home tomorrow, but have plans for using some of the Counter Service credits!

 

[wilma-bride]

Great update - sounds like you had some great snacks there

Looking forward to the rest

 

[loveDmouse]

Thanks for the reviews.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Thanks FirstMagic for another great post. I have enjoyed reading your reviews.

 

[jayhjay]

Then I spied this on the menu:

House-made Lemon Curd - with pomegranate and blueberry compote, white chocolate biscotti and sour cream ice cream $8.00

Lemon curd! That struck a note with me, although I didn’t remember anybody reviewing this dessert, it just sounded so right after this meal that I got this instead of the cheese plate.

Now I won’t say this dessert is for everybody, “Mr. Chocolate” (DH) didn’t even try it, and if you don’t like lemon flavor or tartness you might not like it. But after a heavy steak meal, I found it so perfect. The lemon curd, the berries, some kind of “crust” mixed in it and I’m not even sure if that was sour cream ice cream or what, I was just happily spooning heavenly bites into my mouth. I kept saying “This is so good!”, “This is the best stuff I’ve ever tasted!” in a blissful reverie. I declared this dessert THE BEST THING I ATE ON THIS TRIP.

I just saw your comments about this dessert on my dining report so I thought I'd pop over and check out your review. I am glad to find someone else who enjoyed this as much as me!

BTW, this was the "seasonal" on your receipt b/c that is how it appeared on my receipt too. I hope this doesn't mean it won't be there next time!

 

[FirstMagic]

I just saw your comments about this dessert on my dining report so I thought I'd pop over and check out your review. I am glad to find someone else who enjoyed this as much as me!

BTW, this was the "seasonal" on your receipt b/c that is how it appeared on my receipt too. I hope this doesn't mean it won't be there next time!

ACKKKK! So that's what "Seasonal" means? I guess it did have fresh berries on it, so that might limit its availability!!!

Between you and me, I think we might be creating a run on this dessert! Hope it keeps it on the menu.

I hope we'll get to eat at Jiko next time we're at WDW, but if not, I wonder if they'd mind if I went to the back door with a plate and a bag of unmarked bills and asked them to slip me some of the lemon curd?

 

[FirstMagic]

Great update - sounds like you had some great snacks there

Looking forward to the rest

Thanks! We did have some great snacks. Stay tuned to see how we got through 14 Snack Credits in one day.

Thanks for the reviews.

Thank you, its been a fun write!

Thanks FirstMagic for another great post. I have enjoyed reading your reviews.

Wow, thanks for hanging in there with me Ron. One more Dining day and we'll go home and diet!

 

[FirstMagic]

Thanks everybody for reading my dining report! There's going to be a "hidden Mickey" in this one. (at least I though it looked like a Mickey)

All things must come to an end. It’s always so hard for me to walk out of a Disney park, knowing it will be my last time for the trip, but at least we still had some dining plans for today that we were looking forward to.

I opened our room door and found the “bad news” envelope, our list of charges we made to the room, which I knew should only be the refillable mugs I had purchased on our first day. We paid cash or used our credit card for everything else.

Imagine my surprise, when I found one more item on the bill:

Lobster Roll $6.75

Eeeek! So they really didn’t take a snack credit off for that lobster roll we ate at the USA booth for Food and Wine!

I mentioned earlier in the review that the Cast Member was having problems with the cash register when she rung up DH’s purchase of that lobster roll, but that the receipt did say said “Entitlements used: 1”, but then stated “Coupons remaining: call front desk.”

So, I got out our receipts, went back to the receipt just before we purchased the lobster roll, checked the receipt after the lobster roll, and sure enough, they did not use a snack credit for that item.

Now for the really strange thing: we hadn’t put room charge privileges on DH's room card, so that that it would only be used for the DDP and that they couldn’t screw up and charge meals to the room.

I thought I had better bite the bullet and go to the concierge desk at Guest Services and see how this mix-up could have occurred.

At least there wasn’t a long line at the desk, and we had a very nice Cast Member to deal with. She looked at my receipt, looked at the records on her computer and said “That $6.75 should have been a -$6.75” and I showed her my other receipts so she could see that my snack credits hadn’t decremented on that transaction, so she said she’d get the $6.75 taken off my bill and take a snack credit out. Since I still had a lot of snack credits, that was quite agreeable to me! So she got the charge taken off, but said she was having trouble getting the snack credit taken off, so she said “I’ll just let you keep the snack credit.” So I thanked her for her help, and wondered what we were going to do with 14 snack credits!

I wouldn’t have fussed for this small amount, but it still puzzles me how a card that has no room charge privileges still got charged. If it had been a much larger amount and we would have had a very early flight, it might have been a real mess to resolve.

We still had 5 Counter Service meal credits left, so DH and I went to Everything Pop, and DH told me just to get anything that looked good for breakfast. The other day I got a waffle with bacon and sausage, but as I was carrying that away from the counter, saw them making a yummy looking waffle with fruit topping, so that’s what I was going to order for us today with 1 CS credit:

POP Waffle with Topping $5.69
Pint of Orange Juice
Pint of Strawberry Milk

(sorry, I didn’t get the total of this written down)
Time: 9:27 a.m.

The waffle was great! They put strawberry topping on it and asked me “Would you like whipped cream on that?” WOULD I? Of course the answer was “Yes!” The trade off was that you didn’t get bacon or sausage with this waffle, but if my guys minded, they didn’t say anything. Again, we divided up the OJ into the room’s plastic glasses, and got our shot of vitamin C for the day.

DS and I split the School Bread I had bought at the bakery at Norway in EPCOT last night. I split it down the middle and started eating my half (DH didn’t want any since it had coconut on it) and DS took his half and scraped the coconut off it and I said “What are you doing?" He said he didn't want the coconut "stuff" so I said, "I’ll take that!” and I had my school bread with extra coconut. Guess I’m the only coconut lover in the family.

DS wasn’t too wild about the School Bread, especially with having to scrape coconut off the top, but I thought it was quite good. It’s huge though, and if I get another one, I’m going to have to be really hungry, or plan to eat it in installments. I had kept it on ice in our ice bucket through the night, it seemed like it was slightly chilled when I bought it, perhaps they just defrost them?

We consolidated some of our other breakfast snacks that were left into fewer boxes, packed up our stuff, and went to get our boarding passes and check in our luggage. The line was fairly long, but kept moving, so the process wasn’t too bad. We then went back to our room for a final goodbye, finished arranging our carryon bags and then took them to be stored while we left for a few hours. (Note: we kept our refillable mugs in our carryon bags, so we could refill them when we came back to Pop in the afternoon and have a drink while waiting for our Magical Express bus)

We then caught a bus back to Pleasure Island, took some pictures of Raglan Road in the daylight, and walked to the Marketplace for our lunch at:

Wolfgang Puck Express

DH –
Roast Beef & Cheddar Sandwich (oven-warmed) - Thinly sliced beef, sharp cheddar, mixed baby greens, tomato, horseradish sauce, and dijon aioli. Served on oven-baked herb bread with homemade potato chips. - $8.95
Fountain Drink $1.95
Crème Brulee $3.95

The roast beef sandwich! I think DH had already dug into the pile of potato chips, there seems to be an empty space on the plate.

DS –
Rigatoni Pasta (I don’t have the official description of this, it had red sauce and meat, and 2 little bread things with it, see the picture for details!) $10.95
Fountain Drink $1.95
Crème Brulee $3.95

A big bowl of YUM!

Me –
Italian Sausage and Roasted Red Pepper - Garlic-basil-pesto sauce, fresh thyme, oregano, garlic and chili flakes made with mozzarella and Grana Padano Parmesan 9.95
Fountain Drink $1.95
Crème Brulee $3.95

Pictoral evidence why Wolfgang Puck is known for his pizza, it was fantastic!

Subtotal: $47.55 + tax $3.09 = $50.64 total
Time: 11:50 a.m.

I just noticed that WGP Express gave me both the zeroed out receipt and the receipt with prices. That makes it easier to keep track of things!

We filled our drink cups, the guys got soda and I got some fruit-flavored ice tea, which I’m only mentioning because I didn’t like it, it was really weak! I do think it might not have been made properly and that next time it might be different. I was thirsty from my walk to the Marketplace though, so I drank it and my son went to refill it for me with pop.

We sat outside and it didn’t take long for our orders to be brought to us. I’m always amazed at how nice and efficient the people who bring the orders out at this Express are, at least the ones we’ve encountered! I don’t know if they just hire nice people, or if they pay them really well or what. They never seem to solicit tips, and they always seem super busy, but they still seem to find time to ask if everything is ok, if they can refill your drinks (my son beat him to it for my drink, but he did refill the guys drinks when they were empty), so we made sure to press some bills into our “waiter’s” (not sure what title they have there since they really don’t wait on tables) hands and thank him and tell him what a great job he was doing.

We had been looking forward to this Counter Service, and it did not disappoint! DH said his sandwich was great, and as much as he liked the homemade potato chips, he shared with us. (On the picture some of the chips look rather dark, and they were a little crisper, but I like them and those are the ones I grabbed!) He’s still talking about what a great sandwich this was and I’m sure he’d order it again.

I started in on my pizza, which was wonderful! The sausages were sliced lengthwise, and although I’m not a great fan of sausage, found these tasty. DS started on his pasta and I told him to grab a slice of pizza and he asked me to sample his pasta, and after a while, we switched. He said his pasta was ok, but he REALLY liked my pizza, and although I liked the pizza a bit better also, the pasta was delicious, and I enjoyed the little bread things they served with it. It was a LOT of food and normally we would have split 2 meals, but we figured we had the CS credits to use, and with airline flights ahead, had no idea when our next chance to eat would be.

We were offered three choices for dessert on the Disney Dining Plan at Wolfgang Puck Express: a packaged cookie, a packaged brownie, or a crème brulee. We all chose the brulee, although we knew we’d have to eat it here and couldn’t take it along for the flight like the other desserts. I don’t think any of us regretted our choice of the crème brulee, it was really good, especially for a counter service place.

Do you detect a famous Disney character in the arrangement of these desserts? I saw it when the waiter set them on the table and managed to get a picture before the guys got their spoons into it. (I should have taken the spoons away for a better picture, I guess they are just "whiskers"?)

DS noted that our first meal and our last meal at Disney World on this vacation was with Wolfgang Puck: we went to the Café on our first night, and now the Express on our last day. We all thought we had a great start and end to our Disney Dining.

We still had 14 snack credits left, and DH said he’d noticed that the ice cream place at Everything Pop had ice cream shakes too, and he wanted to use one on a shake before we left. I told DS that I had read that people used up some extra credits on stuff at Goofy’s Candy Company, some made fancy krispie bars or pretzel rods, and that we should go over there and see if we could use some of our credits too.

DH elected to stay outside, so DS and I went into Goofy’s and asked the first Cast Member we saw what we could use Snack Credits on. He was really nice (I wonder how many times a day they get asked that question? A lot I’m sure!) and said nothing in the first room, but most everything in the next room, just to look for items which were $4.00 and under.

So DS and I wandered in, and noticed a fairly long line of people getting krispie bars specially made, plus we wondered how they’d hold up in the heat and on the flight, so we went to look at candy bags. We browsed for a while, amazed at the variety and wanting to try several things, and ended up using 12 Snack Credits on Chip and Dale’s trail mix, Minnie’s cookies and Goofy’s candy.

DH was even more amazed when we came out with a bag full of stuff!

We went into a couple of stores (World of Disney, Lego store) but they were so crowded we could barely move, so we looked at some of the outdoor Lego displays, then went back to the bus stop to catch the bus to Pop Century.

When we got back to Pop, we got our bags from storage and went to Everything Pop so DH could get his chocolate shake:

Chocolate Shake $3.99 (one snack credit)
Time: 2:51 p.m.

DH said had he known that there was an ice cream place at Everything Pop, and that they made the same shake as they do at Fountainview (Edy’s Ice Cream), he would have used a lot more snack credits earlier in the trip!

We had all filled our refillable mugs while we sat in the food court and waited for our bus and at that time of the afternoon (3:00 p.m.) it was really quiet and there were a lot of tables and booths open.

We still had one Counter Service credit and DS had plans for it: He was going to get a sandwich to eat at the airport or on the plane.

DS –
Turkey Ciabatta - $6.99
Pint Whole Milk
Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar

Total $12.12
Time 3:00 p.m.

DS and I browsed a while before choosing a dessert and I voted for the Mickey bar, noting that none of us had even had one on this trip, which was a rare thing, especially for DH who always has at least one if not more every trip. We made DH take at least a bite of it, even though he protested he’d just had a chocolate shake, just so he wouldn’t come back later and say he never got a Mickey Bar on this trip.

DS and I also blew our last Snack Credit on this item –

Doritos 13 oz. $3.72
Time: 3:01 p.m.

DS could have some chips with his sandwich!

We split up the Goofy Candy Company loot and packed it into our carryons, good thing we hadn’t packed them very full this morning! DS packed the sandwich into his bag and I think I got the bag of chips.

We were finally out of credits.

We walked out to the bus stop to wait for the Magical Express to take us to the airport.

DS did eat his sandwich on the plane, he said it was very good and was glad he could use that last CS credit for a to-go sandwich. I was afraid the flight attendant would ask "Did you bring some for everybody?", she said it smelled really good!

We’ll definitely be going back to Wolfgang Puck Express again, and had no problems finding something good to eat at Everything Pop.

Next up: some final thoughts on the Disney Dining Plan and our trip….

 

[jayhjay]

Would we return to Kona Café? We’d go back anytime, just for the bread and butter alone!

Seriously, that stuff was amazing wasn't it? I found when I came home that was one of two or three things I was still fantasizing about eating. Mmmm!

 

[Belle5]

Looking forward to your final thoughts! Your reviews have been truly amazing! Thanks for sharing and putting all the hard work into your report!

 

[FirstMagic]

Looking forward to your final thoughts! Your reviews have been truly amazing! Thanks for sharing and putting all the hard work into your report!

Thank you Belle! I've been writing some notes for my final thoughts, hope to get them out yet this weekend! I've been a bit pokey since I've put the bulk of my review out here.

I think I just need a Dole Whip to get me motivated .....

 

[FirstMagic]

First of all, please don’t take my any remarks I made about our dining experiences as gospel!!! All our dining experiences bear our personal opinions, and we know a restaurant can change from day to day, depending on food supply, cooks, management and wait staff. I think we’ve all read posts about particular restaurants, one person will write “worst meal of my life!” while the next poster says “best meal I’ve ever had!”

We felt fortunate; nothing we had was really bad or something that couldn’t be eaten. There were some dishes I wish I had ordered instead of what I did, I guess that’s what a “next time” is for. (And hoping it’s still on the menu!)

I’m of the opinion that a great wait person can make a mediocre meal seem fantastic, while a bad waiter can make wonderful food seem less palatable. Waiting tables is a great skill, besides the obvious physical strength it takes to carry trays and plates, it takes timing, personality, and knowing when to interact more or interact less, all while taking care of multiple tables. We had some absolutely stellar people take care of us, and some who did at least more than an adequate job, considering how many tables they had to take care of that evening. We only had one who wasn’t up to par, but considering some of the horror stories I’ve read on these boards about people getting forgotten for long periods of time or worse, this person did get out food to us in a timely manner.

Some people have reported that they felt like they were not treated as well once the wait staff knew they were on the Disney Dining Plan. We never felt that way. Most asked courteously if we were using the DDP and explained very nicely how the plan worked at their restaurant. Our only “less-than-we-hoped-for” waitperson was not pleasant before even finding out we were on the DDP. I really don’t feel like any person who waited on our table had the “I’m getting 18% tip anyway” attitude.

I felt reading the DIS boards was extremely helpful: I found out I could ask for the Frunch juice drink for dinner at Boma, even though it wasn’t on the menu; in one restaurant the waiter forgot to mention we could get smoothies and I remembered to ask if they were still included on the plan; and reading all the reviews and looking at the pictures helped guide my food choices or help me make recommendations to my family. Thank you to everybody who takes the time to post their experiences on the boards!

To people who are deeply suspicious when Disney offers the free dining plan, if it’s really free: my DH kept wondering the same thing, and I’ll admit to a nagging doubt before our trip that it might not really be true, too! I hoped for pixie dust and it was indeed dusted on us with a CS, TS and a snack each day. Of course it was an incentive to go to WDW during a month when it was still very hot and humid and that hurricanes had interrupted travel plans a few years ago and could again anytime.

Is using the Disney Dining Plan right for you? That I couldn’t tell you, it’s something you have to decide if it is right for the way your family eats. The way the plan is structured in 2008 will change how it works, too. Eating did take a lot of time out of our day, something I knew when I booked this vacation and I discussed with my family to see if they would be agreeable to spending more time in restaurants than in attractions. Not only did the eating take more “park” time, transportation and travel getting to and from restaurants took more time. I tried to tie our restaurants with park schedules, but it is difficult to know exactly where you want to be, months in advance. Since our table service meals were all evening meals, it was difficult to get to the fireworks shows.

Not that I’m complaining at all, Disney offered us a wonderful experience, and we thoroughly enjoyed it! We got to visit a few old favorite restaurants, but tried many we had never been to before. Now we have several we want to return to, Dining Plan or not. I’ve spoken so glowingly about several places where we dined that friends are planning on eating there on their next trip to WDW.

Is it too much food? It was a lot of food, more than we are used to eating, but we were aware of Disney’s usual large portions and did our best not to waste food. What worked for us was the three of us sharing two counter services meals for lunch on most days, and using the other counter service meal for a breakfast several times. The heat did cut our appetites, and if the weather had been cooler, we might have used our counter service meals differently. We also had to consider our dining times, if we had an earlier dinner seating, we’d try to eat an earlier lunch. A later evening dining time meant we could have a later lunch or perhaps an afternoon snack. Also, I’m used to not eating much at one sitting, I prefer several small meals throughout the day. I’m a slow eater too, so have to hurry my eating so not to leave my family staring at their empty plates too long, or tying up a table in a restaurant: a two- or three-hour meal would seem about right to me.

We enjoyed trying each other’s food, and usually tried to each order different things so we could sample more items.

Here are our overall favorites -

Appetizer:
DS – Barbecue Chicken Quesadilla (Wolfgang Puck Café) and the Grilled Lamb Kebabs (Spoodles)
DH – Dalkey Duo (Raglan Road)
Me - Asian Style Vegetable Spring Rolls (Wolfgang Puck Café) and the Garlic Shrimp (Spoodles)

Entrée:
DS - Oak-fired filet of beef (California Grill) and the Oak-Grilled Filet Mignon (Jiko)
DH – Oak-Grilled Filet Mignon (Jiko)
Me - Macadamia Nut Crusted Breast of Chicken (This wasn’t even my entrée, it was my son’s! I had only a bite, but it was memorable….) and the Wood-grilled Pork Chop - with white bean cassolet [mainly for that cassolet!] (Spoodles)

Dessert:
DS – The “Strawberry Thing” (Jiko) [we do not have the name of the dessert!]
DH – The Dessert Sampler (Spoodles) and the Profiterolles au chocolat (Chefs de France)
Me – The Lemon Curd (Jiko) and the Butter Griddled Pound Cake (Liberty Tree Tavern)

Favorite Table Service Restaurant:
DS, DH, and Me – Wolfgang Puck Café and Jiko (we all agree!)

Favorite Counter Service:
DS – Wolfgang Puck Express, Captain Cook’s and Flame Tree BBQ
DH – Captain Cook’s and Wolfgang Puck Express
Me – Wolfgang Puck Express and Captain Cook’s

Favorite Snack:
DS – Dole Whip (Aloha Isle and Captain Cook’s)
DH – Dole Whip (Aloha Isle and Captain Cook’s), Chocolate Shake (Fountainview)
Me – Dole Whip (Aloha Isle and Captain Cook’s)

Choosing these was difficult, but if somebody said “Quick! Pick a WDW restaurant and you can eat there” or “Pick an appetizer, entrée and dessert and we’ll ship it to you”, that’s what we’d pick.

As for snacks, we’re hooked on Dole Whips!
DH: chocolate + ice cream = he’s happy.

Thanks for reading! I hope everybody who is going to WDW has a wonderful time, and everybody who is coming back had a fantastic time, we did!

 

[noahdove]

An awesome review Thank you so much...

 

[poohluvrs]

Thanks so much for all the time you put into these excellent reviews! We are contemplating the DDP for this fall, your reviews sound yummy!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I just read through all your reviews and just wanted to thank you for all the details and pictures. I've been having doubts about Wolfgang Cafe but I think I'm gonna go with it after reading your reveiw. Great job!

 

[FirstMagic]

An awesome review Thank you so much...

Thanks for the compliment and for making it through my reviews!

Thanks so much for all the time you put into these excellent reviews! We are contemplating the DDP for this fall, your reviews sound yummy!

Thanks, it was a fun write! I hope, if you do decide to go on the DDP, that it works well for you. I know we spent a lot more time on eating than we ever did before!

I just read through all your reviews and just wanted to thank you for all the details and pictures. I've been having doubts about Wolfgang Cafe but I think I'm gonna go with it after reading your reveiw. Great job!

Thanks! I've read some mediocre reviews here lately about WPC too, I can only hope that if you go, your experience there is as good as ours was.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Great reviews, thanks for sharing!