Eight Excellent Nights of Disney Dining - Deluxe Style

[scanne]

Hi everyone! If you read my live report, then you know that we had some amazing meals and tons of magic on our WDW vacation.

We were in WDW for 9 nights, but the first night was room only because we added it on at the last minute and left Universal one day early. More on that when I start my trip report.

So we were not on a dining plan the first night. On that day, we had lunch at Captain Cook's at the Polynesian and dinner at Paradiso 37 at Downtown Disney. I will include those and Universal dining in this review.

But first, the cost analysis. We spent $1487.68 for the deluxe dining plan for 8 nights, 2 adults and 2 children. After calculating our receipts and what we would have paid out of pocket for the same things, we would have spent....


$2021.96

I would say we really got a GREAT value out of the DxDP!

Um, and amazingly, we didn't gain any weight.....seriously, with all the walking and using a lot of snack credits on the Smart Water (which is $3.25 a bottle oop), we actually lost a pound or two. Oh, and most of our appetizers were salads, nothing deep fried or laden with cheese. Plus I drank unsweetened iced teas at most meals, we had a bottle of wine at Narcoosee's, some wine at the Hoop De Doo Revue and I had one grand marnier slushie.

I will be back with a FULL report, complete with pictures tomorrow.

Here is where we ate, so you can anticipate the awesome reviews.

At Universal:
Trattoria del Porta x 2
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
Sal's Market x 2

At Disney:
Captain Cook's x 6
Paradiso 37
'Ohana (breakfast and dinner)
Tusker House (lunch)
Coral Reef (lunch)
Crystal Palace (dinner)
Sci Fi Dine In (lunch)
Narcoosee's (dinner)
Liberty Tree Tavern (lunch)
Cinderella's Royal Table (lunch)
Tokyo Dining (dinner)
Hoop De Doo Revue (dinner)
Kona Cafe (breakfast and dinner)
Cosmic Rays (snack/lunch)
Casey's (snack)
Seasons x 2
Pecos Bill (late night snack)
Grand Floridian Cafe (dinner)

I think that's most, if not, all of them.
I'll be back soon with the reviews and pictures!!!

 

[The Three Cabs]

I'm so excited I was following your live report (well I found it today and read the whole thing at work ) I can't wait to read your reviews!!!

 

[mefordis]

Can't wait for the pics and reviews! You have a great list of restaurants. Any reason why you didn't choose to go to Calif Grill? Just curious.

 

[Aristocath]

I'm in and can't wait for your reviews and pictures!

 

[Symans3honeybees]

I'll be looking forward to your pictures tomorrow

 

[Symans3honeybees]

sorry double clicked

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Looks like you ate at a lot of great places!

 

[irgaudin95]

subbing!!!!

 

[Golf4food]

I'm in - a few places we haven't been yet or meals we haven't had at places we like (such as dinner at the GFC).

 

[bluejasmine]

Im here lets get started~ LOL

 

[wilma-bride]

Sounds great, looking forward to reading the reviews. Whenever you're ready

 

[scanne]

Universal reviews and pics, first......don't worry, Disney isn't too far behind!

We were staying at Portofino Bay at US/IOA and by the time we got to the hotel after a 2 hour flight delay, it was 8pm and we were starving. So, the closest restaurant to our room was Trattoria del Porto.

It turned out that this was a great place to eat! They have a pasta bar for $19.99 per adult. It comes with soup and salad and you go up to the pasta bar, choose what you want in your dish, and then give it to the chef and he/she prepares it right there. The choices were great. There was broccoli, asparagus, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, sausage, chicken, meatballs, shrimp, pepperoni, mushrooms, squash, onions.....lots and lots of options for you pasta.

The chef sautees everything in olive oil and will add garlic, herbs, salt and pepper and white wine, then marinara, alfredo or a blush sauce and even a vodka blush sauce (he adds vodka in lieu of the wine). They also had pesto which I had the first night we ate there.


Here is the salad and bread from our first night.

Our DS ordered chicken fingers or chicken nuggets for nearly every meal. He is NOT an adventurous eater at all!

DD, on the other hand, loves to try new foods and flavors and LOVED the pasta bar!

 

[scanne]

My pesto linguini.

DD and her pasta creation!

DS with his beloved chicken!

It was DD's 6th birthday on the day we left and the restaurant brought out this special dessert for her!

It was delicious!!!


Up next, Wizarding World of Harry Potter goodies!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Can't wait to hear about the food at Harry Potter!

 

[scanne]

Now I am a huge Disney fan, I like Twilight and Harry Potter and any other fantastical type thing. So I was looking forward to all the different yummies that are associated with Harry Potter.

We tried Pumpkin Juice.

Gotta find my pumpkin juice photo....

DH and I really liked it! It was like Thanksgiving in a drink! The kids were not as impressed....

We had breakfast at The Three Broomsticks. Here's the digital menu.

They had a traditional British breakfast but it wasn't appealing to us, so we ordered your typical American breakfast. Eggs, sausage and bacon, croissant and potatoes plus one with pancakes.

We had butterbeer with breakfast, except for me. I had an orange juice. I wasn't too fond of the butterbeer. It is sickly sweet, but my DH and DS just loved it. DD, not so much. She has tastes like her mama! The frozen butterbeer was much better. I think the ice crystals in the frozen version dilute the sweetness. I have to find my butterbeer picture and post it later.

Breakfast was fine. I mean, it's really hard to mess up eggs, pancakes, croissants and the like.

Up next, sweet treats from Honeydukes!

 

[pigletforever]

can't wait to hear more.

 

[scanne]

Honeydukes cases of goodies!

Lightening Bolt rice krispy treats.

Fudge Flies. (Gross concept!)

Cauldron Cake - also delicious!!!!

Pumpkin Tart!

I think that's it for the Harry Potter treats. I will review the other food places from our Universal/IOA portion of the trip in my next post, probably this afternoon or this evening. I've got to get caught up on laundry and such!

Hope you're all enjoying!!!!

 

[wilma-bride]

Wow, a great start to your reviews. We are so excited to visit WWOHP next month. DH will definitely want one of those pumpkin tarts.

As an aside, could I suggest that you post your pictures over on the Universal boards as well - the fans over there would absolutely love them There is a thread specifically for pictures of Universal food.

 

[scanne]

As an aside, could I suggest that you post your pictures over on the Universal boards as well - the fans over there would absolutely love them There is a thread specifically for pictures of Universal food.

Absolutely! I'll get on that this afternoon as well!

 

[wilma-bride]

Absolutely! I'll get on that this afternoon as well!

Thank you