Eating Our Way Through WDW (photos!)--Bring an Extra Fork! (Completed 2.5.11)

Schoolbread

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Sep 12, 2010
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OK, Karin says I can do this, so here I am to do this.

Dates--December 1-15, 2011 (I was only there from Dec 4-12th)
Eaters--Mom (69); Dad (80); Me (grateful daughter--41). I'm a WDW vet.
Reason--We need one? Eh....Dad's 80th birthday celebration. It was only supposed to be mom and dad on the trip, but then mom invited me as a surprise to my dad (it was). My dad has terminal cancer, so we don't know if this is his last trip or not. They graciously paid my way, so I took a week off, left hubby and sons at home and took off to my happy place.

I planned all of their park days (which wasn't much b/c Dad can't walk far and refuses any wheelchair or ECV), resort (POFQ), and dining choices. I did pretty well. Only one dish at one place was a huge thumbs down. Everything else was fair to excellent. More on that to come.

Day2

In the few days before I got there, Mom and Dad went to Sassagoula Food Court (POFQ) for lunch where Dad had a nugget basket, mom had a chicken salad, a couple of Mickey Crispies, and a couple of fuze's. They are on the regular DDP, so I don't have prices on these.

For dinner on that 2nd day, they went to Boatwright's. Being the anal Disney planner I am, I told Mom to write prices for any TS on the receipt for me. So I do have some prices here. Mom had the grilled tenderloin medallions. She said they were absolutely perfectly cooked and that the beef was tender and had terrific char on them. The red wine demi-glace was fabulous. She gave my Dad the side of mac & cheese (not her favorite), and said the crayfish beignet was pretty good. What she LOVED was the cornbread. She asked (and got) the recipe. I made it for Christmas and she said it was dead on.

Dad got (at my pitiful suggestion) the Voodoo chicken with red beans, rice, and collard greens. He gave mom the red beans and greens. He also ended up with one of Mom's medallions. He said the chicken was inedible. It tasted rotten to him, but my guess is that he didn't like the rub on it. I wasn't there yet, so I don't know what the issue was.

For dessert, they got pecan pies. One they shared there; one they took back to share for breakfast the next day.

Tenderloin Medallions $27.49
Pecan Pie $5.49
Coffee $2.39

Voodoo Chicken $17.99
Pecan Pie $5.49
Coffee $2.39

Day 3
The Wave was their lunch spot. I don't have the $$ info or details on this meal (again, I wasn't there yet to take notes and pictures). I do know that Mom was told they had the best reuben, so she tried it. She said it was the best reuben she'd ever had. Dad had a burger. I don't know which trio of desserts they had, but Mom commented that the creme brulee was one of her top 3 ever (and she gets it EVERYWHERE!). Sorry about not having info on this.

Curious happenings here, though. The server was awful. She was so bad that the manager ended up serving my parents. Then the system went down and the computers wouldn't work at all. So they paid a tip and were promised by the manager that the cost of the meal would be on the DDP as 2 credits. I was skeptical, but without reason. Not only did the charges for the meal never show up on their room charges, it never showed up as a credit on the DDP! If we would have had enough time to use that last 2 credits, we could have had another meal somewhere. We are rule followers, so we didn't use the "freebees."




Dinner Day 4
Plaza Restaurant


I figured an easy dinner for the 1st night would be the best. Mom and Dad were on the regular DDP, but I was not. There's SO much food, I figured we could order me an ap and a drink and then just pick at whatever they didn't want. This plan worked well for us. I never felt hungry or deprived.

PLEASE forgive me. I forgot to take pics at this first dinner (GASP). It gets more consistent--I promise. Mom and I had cokes; Dad had a coffee. This will be a recurring drink order. I had a bowl of that wonderful tomato soup. It was thick, flavorful, creamy.....just as I remembered it. DELISH! Mom ended up swiping about 1/2 of it, which worked out fine because I swiped about 1/2 of her nummy cheesesteak sandwich (Dad had it too). There was NO fat on the sandwich, the onions and peppers were caramelized perfectly, and the provolone was melted to its ooey, gooey maximum. Fries were tasty too. I think these are one of the best fries on property.

Mom and I were stuffed, but she managed to eat about 1/2 of a hot fudge sundae. Dad plowed valiantly through an enormous banana split. He said it was the best he'd ever had, but he's never met a banana split he DIDN'T like. The man can eat like a horse and is a whopping 130 pounds. Wow. To me, it looked like a standard (but large) banana split.

Off we went. VERY happy.

Cheese Steak x 2 $23.98
Cokes 2.69, 2.69
Coffee 2.39
Sundae 4.99
Banana Split 7.49

OK, thanks for reading. LOTS more to come with LOTS of pics. Here's a tantalizing pic of pecan pie to hold ya'all over!

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Day 5

I was trying to kill time at The Land so that I could get back-to-back Fastpasses as the window allowed, so I went on Livin' with the Land, and then had a tasty treat at Sunshine Seasons. Usually, I get the Strawberry Shortcake:
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The last time I got it, though, the icing put that weird layer of shortening-like oil on the roof of my mouth. Very off-putting.

This time, I went outside my "usual" and got a pineapple upside down cake. I was really quite shocked. It wasn't airy and spongy (and I mean this in a good way). It was a nice, dense cake with a lot of flavor. It was a little unusual to have raisins on it, though, isn't it? We always see pineapple rings and maraschino cherries. At any rate, it was quite good ($5.27).
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OH, and I'm sorry for putting these on after the fact (post), but I did find photos of the soup and the cheesesteak from the Plaza:

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Next: Lunch at Coral Reef.....Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. It wasn't THAT bad....just not that good.
 
To capture my dad at his best time of day (morning and early afternoon), we USUALLY ate our TS at lunchtime. This seemed to work well and there wasn't any HUGE item that I expected to see on the menu that wasn't also available at lunch.

We ate lunch at Coral Reef. My last experience with CR wasn't that great. Eh, it wasn't bad. The view is, of course, amazing. The server was pretty good. The food was just ok. I need to state, though, that I am not a seafood eater (allergies), so that surely limits my enjoyment here. Who knows. I hear such 50/50 reports on Coral Reef. I decided to give it another go because of the view. We walk in, and they seat us on the lowest level (there are, what, 3?) in the U-shaped booths. PERFECT seating. Absolutely perfect. It wasn't all that busy, but it was around 2:00 when we got there.

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View to the right of our booth. Straight in front of us was our constant companion (other than occasionally rising slowly for more air then settling back down in the exact same spot). Crush!

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It's so flippin' hard to take good photos in here! Argh. Here's the best that I could do. This is straight ahead of our seats.
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OK, on to the food! Dad and I ordered the strip steak with TS credits and mom ended up paying out of pocket for a roasted beet salad. My steak was nicely cooked (medium) and had a lot of flavor. Dad's, however, was very, very tough. In retrospect, it was just a bad hunk of meat. I should've just sent it back. I ended up giving him about 1/2 of my steak. The potatoes and the asparagus were fine, even good maybe, but not memorable. At this point in the trip, we were ranting and raving about how good this was. By the end of the trip and after comparing it to the other meals, it tumbled WAY down the list.

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Mom's beet salad was stupendous! There were red and golden beets with nice greens and an excellent light, vinegar-based dressing. The best part was the nuggets of blue cheese (maytag, I think) and the candied pecans. She LOVED this and said if she ever ends up here again and it's on the menu, she's getting this and an order of crab cakes! :rotfl:

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They did acknowledge Dad's b-day, which we found to be hit or miss. He ordered the almond gelato. It was REALLY good. Probably one of the better desserts. I especially liked the "garnish" of this chewy laced cookie. Caramelized sugar!!!!:banana:

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No great surprise, Mom got the creme brulee. She said it was just fine, but no where near the excellence she had at The Wave.

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New York Strip Steak (Lunch sized, per receipt) 28.99
New York Strip Steak 28.99
Goat Cheese/Beet Salad 6.99
Creme Brulee 7.99
Almond Gelato 7.99
Coke 2.69 (I had one; mom had one. The server didn't charge me for mine for some reason and we even asked her about it)
Coffee 2.39
 
Out of pocket snacks today included caramel corn and marshmallow caramel swirlie things from Werther's. We have this company in the Twin Cities that has EXCELLENT caramel, so my standards were impossibly high. I'd heard such great things about Werther's and stood in line for 30 minutes for these puppies, but they weren't that great. I don't know if that's fair. It may have just been us. It was nothin' in comparison to Abdallah's caramel, but it was ok. It sure was a popular place and it smelled GREAT in there!

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See the marshmallow swirlie thingie? That's what I got--$3.95

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More selections!
 

We needed somewhere close for dinner, so we took the boat to Riverside (Food Mill). YIKES!!! There were thousands of cheerleaders! Well, maybe not THOUSANDS but it seemed like it. They were all well behaved and, for lack of a better word, cheerful.

We went with the carved turkey dinner for dad, which came with very juicy turkey, cornbread, mash & gravy, and a green bean/carrot mix. He said it was very good. I found the turkey to be good, but the mashed potatoes were slightly gummy and the veg were WAY overcooked. I'm probably being a little too negative, though. It is counter service! Mom ate about 1/2 of this.

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I have had this before, and would certainly get it again. Just know that it's a poor cousin to your Thanksgiving meal. It was a good bang-for-the-buck, though, if you're paying out of pocket!

I ordered the choose-it-yourself pasta. I got penne with marinara, chicken broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, and parm. It was ok. I don't think I'd get it again. The penne was beyond al dente (although I suppose it's hard to get it right at a food court). The sauce was good, as was the veggies and parm. The chicken was a grilled breast that had been sliced and tossed in. It was fairly fatty and that grossed me out, so I picked out the chicken. I did like the garlic toast that came with it. Dad (Hoover that he is) ended up eating 1/2 of the pasta, 1/2 of the turkey dinner AND still found room for an apple blossom! I used the second "dessert" for a salad. Yep, you can do that! We did that a lot, as we are pretty heavy salad eaters.

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Food Mill is fine. I don't mean to be Debbie Downer. I'm just trying to be open about our feelings regarding the food. More tomorrow! Time to go out with some friends!
 
Joining in, We too had bad food at Coral Reef and bad service. My husband refuses to ever give it a second chance.
 
Great reviews so far! :hug: to your dad, mom and you!
What a wonderful special trip ... but I hope you all are able to do another!

I loved the turkey plate - I never met a turkey plate I didn't love even with soggy veggies as long as the turkey was real. It looked good!
 
Hi Tina! :wave2:

I am here! Great reviews so far! I love the photo of your dad!!! So nice to get to know more of your family! ;)

I love your reviews - so much detail! And your photos make my mouth water!

Can't wait for more! :hug: popcorn::
 
Great reviews
Love the picture of your Dad with his birthday dessert :)
 
Really enjoying the reviews, Keep it up!
Thanks! I should have some more tomorrow.

Joining in, We too had bad food at Coral Reef and bad service. My husband refuses to ever give it a second chance.
Yeah, I don't know if I would go back for another go unless someone I was with REALLY wanted to go there. It wasn't BAD, but certainly not good for the price, IMHO.

Joining in also. Hope you've got room for one more!
Of course! Welcome!

Great reviews so far! :hug: to your dad, mom and you!
What a wonderful special trip ... but I hope you all are able to do another!

I loved the turkey plate - I never met a turkey plate I didn't love even with soggy veggies as long as the turkey was real. It looked good!
HAHAHA! That's funny. When we go to a restaurant, we always ask, "Is it REAL turkey or the pressed crap?" It was pretty good!

Hi Tina! :wave2:

I am here! Great reviews so far! I love the photo of your dad!!! So nice to get to know more of your family! ;)

I love your reviews - so much detail! And your photos make my mouth water!

Can't wait for more! :hug: popcorn::

Hugs, K! Thanks for the encouragement to go ahead and write it all up. I'll post more tomorrow.

Great reviews
Love the picture of your Dad with his birthday dessert :)
Thanks so much! Appreciate having the opportunity to celebrate that 80th b-day with him.

great reviews and pics...thanks for taking the time
your dad is a cutie pie!
Isn't he though? He really had the time of his life!
 
Morning noon and night, all I can think about is the caramel roll with marshmellow cream. I think I might have a problem:confused3
 
Pictures are great....I suddenly have an intense craving for Werthers!

Morning noon and night, all I can think about is the caramel roll with marshmellow cream. I think I might have a problem:confused3

It sure was a popular spot. The line was insane! Part of the problem was that they were giving free samples of caramel corn for any AP holder. I think 3/4 of the line was AP holders. You had to show your card, though, and they still had to run it through the computer system, so it was slowing things down tremendously!
 
Next day, we wandered to the Boardwalk for breakfast. Ended up being a bust. Flying Fish was open because Kouzzina's was not.

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BTW, I have tons of pics of all of the gingerbread ALL OVER THE WORLD. I didn't bother to post it here, but if you want to see them, let me know.

We had a muffin, coffee, and hot chocolate. We used 3 snack credits, and admittedly, this was not a good use of the credits. However, you know--you have dozens of snack credits at the end if you don't use them up somewhere. It was $7.52 for the three items. (See, a REALLY bad bang for the buck....We were naughty!)

The muffin tasted like sawdust, and it was suggested as the best thing by the CM! We ate about a bite each. Ick. The hot chocolate was so horrible that we threw it all out. The nescafe coffee....well....need I say more? Dad is a coffee-holic, though, so he drank it happily.

We leisurely went through all of the Epcot resorts and looked at the decorations. Eventually, it was time for lunch at Captain's Grille. The food was FANTASTIC! Such a quiet place to eat lunch. Service was SLOWWWW. Thank goodness we had nowhere to be because it took 2-1/2 HOURS to eat sandwiches! :eek: This issue rested squarely on our chatty but painfully lethargic server. It didn't matter to us b/c we weren't going anywhere that day, but still!

Dad went old-school and got the hamburger. It was fine, if not good, but the fries were EXCELLENT. Salty and crispy and the inside was SO flaky! I thought for sure he'd go fish & chips, but alas....

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Mom got the grilled chicken with ham, Vermont cheddar, and arugula sandwich. This was really my call as it is one of my favorite sandwiches at the World. The side grilled veggie and barley salad is the BOMB! I asked for (and received) the recipe, then lo and behold, it was already in the new cookbook they're selling.

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I went for an ap and tried out the spinach artichoke dip. OH BOY! :love:Super creamy. It was not as thick as others I've had, but it was very flavorful. It was a rather large quantity, really. We all ended up cutting up sandwiches and sharing, along with the dip. YUM!

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I screwed up and forgot to take pics of the desserts, but mom had key lime pie and dad had an apple tart. The presentation on these were just as nice as Cali Grille. They said they tasted "fine." Not a huge rousing applause, but they liked it. Again, we're not big sweets people, so don't think I'm blasting the desserts. They were good!

Coke $2.69
Spinach Dip 9.99
Burger $12.49
Chicken $12.49
Apple Tart $5.49
Key Lime Pie $5.49
Coffee (REAL COFFEE) $2.69

We weren't that hungry for dinner, so we just went to the Sassagoula Food and Floatworks. We had a couple of chicken quesadillas, a tossed salad, and a rice krispie. We shared it all, got chocolate milk for the drinks (to pop in the fridge for breakfast), filled our mugs and chilled out. 2 CS credits, and $30.83 as a value. I didn't take pics of this one. It looked like a quesadilla. :rotfl2:

More soon!
 







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