Family Dining:A joint report by mom and son w/pics *11/7 Complete

[SmallWorld71]

Hi All! Just got back a week ago and loved the Disney dining! We do have some pictures which hopefully we will be able to add in later, but we wanted to get started while things were fresh in our minds. So withour furthur wait, the introductions:

Me35 (going by Minnie Mouse in this report) I love most foods, especially veggies, pasta, meat and chocolate.

DH35 (Donald Duck) Loves to eat and will try anything once. Favorites include meat, seafood and potatoes.

DS11 (Donald Duck#2) Also loves to eat and will also try anything once. Favorites include chicken, ribs, and steak.

DS8 (Bambi) Fellow DISer whose favorites include fruit, seafood and meat.

DD4 (Alice) A pretty good eater at home, the lure of Mac & Cheese and ice cream were too much for Alice and these were her foods of choice at Disney.

Bambi and I are going to write this report together to hopefully help those of you with children decide what makes good family dining that will keep everyone happy and satisfied.

CS places we ate at:
POR food court- Posts 57,58
Great Britain and China in Epcot- Post 61
Pizza Planet- Post 70
Pizzafari
Wolfgang Puck Express- Post #67

TS places we ate at:
Biergarten - posts 9 & 13
Cinderella's Gala Feast at Grand Floridian Cafe posts 17,18,19
Sci-Fi post 31
Chef Mickey's post 38
'Ohana posts 46,47
Crystal Palace posts 51,52

We also sampled lots of snack which will try to include as well. Tomorrow we will start with Day 1.

*Edited to add that pics are working now. Yeah!

 

[TigerKat]

Subscribing.....

 

[Schucraig]

Looking foward to it!

 

[Minniespal]

Looking forward to reading more

 

[my3disneygirls]

cant wait

 

[SmallWorld71]

Thanks to everyone who has signed on. Bambi had his 1st night of homework, which I had him start too late to schedule in food report time. I will definitely have him start earlier so we can get this report under way soon.

 

[my3disneygirls]

I hear you. It's tough to get back into the school routine. It's takes me a couple of weeks to get back on schedule.

 

[mom2fivecs]

Looking forward to the reviews.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Bambi and I have decided to do this report with TS first, followed by CS and snacks.

On our first full day, we went to the Biergarten. It was the first time there for everyone. This was the only day that it rained for a long time and not just the quick summer storms. Our reservation was for 6:15. We got there about 10 past after trudging through the rain in our lovely Wal-Mart ponchos. We checked in at the podium and only waited a few minutes before being seated.
We were seated on the third level, right near the buffet. We didn't time this one perfectly - a show was just ending right as we arrived. However, another one started up as we were ready for dessert and we ended up sticking around and watching it.

What we ate: There was so much to choose from that I couldn't possibly list it all. Some of our favorites were the pork schnitzel and Bavarian Cheesecake.

Bambi's comments: I really liked the atmosphere and the music that they played. I liked that you could dance in one part of the show. There was a lot of strange food but there was plenty of regular food. I would go again.

Minnie: Our server here was wonderful. She was very sweet and answered all sorts of questions about Germany for Donald and I. In fact, she was so nice and efficient, that even though it was a buffet we left an extra tip. The buffet was clean and very fresh - I constantly saw food being replaced. Most of the food was very good - there was a nice variety. It can be a little strange sharing a table with someone else. The family we shared with wasn't very friendly at first. They had a screaming baby with them. As soon as they got the baby her bottle and food things got better. The big brother (around 12) had on a Patriots shirt) and Donald asked them where they were from. Turns out they were from Northern Ireland, not New England like us! Anyway, that broke the ice and things ended up being fine.

Bottom line: Check Steve Soares website and try to make your ADR's so that you can see the show - it was great! And don't be afraid to talk to your tablemates. Also, if you are paying OOP, I think you get your $'s worth here.

 

[SmallWorld71]

There seems to be a problem with my photos. I will try to upload to photobucket or something this weekend. Thanks for your patience.

 

[Busymom85]

Enjoying your review so far. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[mousescrapper]

Hi SmallWorld71,

justing letting you know I'm subscribing

Going in June 08 with 4 kids (ages to be): DD (9), DS (9) (who has special needs and food, needs to be familiar!), DD (5), DD (18 mo). We'll be on the DDP and I pretty much have my ADR's and CS picks done, but doing a little research now to get a feel for for everything as I axniously await my 180 day out call in Dec.

So thanks and I'll keep checking.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Yeah! Got my photos to work. Here are a few from Biergarten:

My 1st plate of food:

Alice's food:

The band:

 

[JamesLynn]

Wow! The Biergarten looks like it has super yummy food! I can't wait to hear about the rest of the restaurants.

 

[swankybeth]

Great start, looking forward to more.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Thanks to everyone who has joined in. Things should go more smoothly now that I have this whole picture thing figured out. Up next will be Cinderella's Gala Feast at the Grand Floridian.

swankybeth - You are our 10th reader. What do you think, can we look forward to the 100th?

 

[SmallWorld71]

Our 2nd full day of Disney we spent at Epcot. We got there for rope drop and didn't leave until 3pm because once my kids started their masks in Canada, they were determined to finish them. So, we visited every country in World Showcase, which is great but not so easy on a hot, humid, sunny August afternoon! We literally collapsed in the El Rio Del Tiempo boats - it was one of our favorite rides of the whole trip!

Anyway, the point of all this is that by the time we got back to Riverside we were exhausted and didn't want to rush. So, we decided to relax for an hour and take a cab to our 5:15 reservation at the Grand Floridian. This worked out well and we arrived in style about 15 minutes early. There is something to be said for arriving at the Grand Floridian - as we pulled up someone immediately ran up to the cab, opened our doors and got our stroller and bag from the trunk. A nice way to start an evening of royalty.

Here are a few pics from the GF before dinner:
Alice and Donald

Bambi and Donald2

Bambi, Alice and Donald2

Continued in next post

 

[SmallWorld71]

We checked in and were given a pager. I went to powder my nose and while I was gone the pager went off. We were seated immediately upon my return. The hostess led us to our table and I almost started dancing on top. (I didn't though, I thought that kind of behavior might be frowned on at the GF.) We had a table at the back of the restaurant right by a window which looked out on the beautiful GF grounds and had a view of Cinderella Castle! We were also at a table for 6 which meant we would have plenty of room. We were off to a great start!

Our server was here was great. She was friendly and efficient and was so cute and sweet that I wanted to pinch her cheeeks. She was so great all night that this was the 2nd place that we felt compelled to leave a tip above and beyond the 18% DDP tip. After we put in our orders the characters began to arrive:

1st came Perla

Then Suzy

Then Princess Aurora (a fill in for the Fairy Godmother and a bonus as far as Alice was concerned)

As lastly:

I have to say that this was the best character interaction I have ever had at a character meal. Because the place is small, we were able to see Suzy and Perla 3x and Cinderella and the Prince 2x. (Aurora passed our table a 2nd time while Alice and I were powdering noses) All the characters were great. I know that they can be rushed at some meals, but that was not the case here. They were wonderful with Alice and really made her feel like a princess. Cinderella even made her feel special by telling her "a secret" about where her bedroom was in the castle.

Bambi: If you are a boy, don't be afraid to go to a princess meal. They can talk and you can ask them questions about characters in their movies. I was able to ask Cinderella where Jaq and GusGus were and ask Aurora if the Fairies still fight over the color of her dress. Even though we went for my sister, it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

Minnie: We'll finally get to the food later after Alice is in bed.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Finally, on to the food:

Alice:
Fruit cup appetizer
Kids Beef and Macaroni

She ate a ton of this, so it must have been pretty good. It helped that we had seen all the characters already so she was more relaxed.

Bambi:
Fruit cup appetizer
Kids Salmon with brown rice and broccoli

I liked the fruit cup. The salmon was very good. I ate it all. The rice was very plain and boring so I put some pepper on it to try to make it taste better but I didn't eat a lot of it. I also ate some of my mom's shrimp which was very good.

Donald2:
Spicy Shrimp & Grit Cake Appetizer

The shrimp was pretty spicy but he liked it and ate it all. He did not like the grit cake. I tasted it and thought it was O.K.
Prime Rib entree which he really liked. (Same entree as Donald)

Donald:
Mushroom Triangoli Appetizer

He loved this and wished he had more.

Prime Rib with mashed potatoes and broccolini

Donald said the Prime Rib was delicious. He had prime rib 2 more times this week but said this was the best.

Minnie:
Strawberry Soup

This was absolutely delicious, like a strawberry smoothie. However, it was very rich and even sharing it I did not finish it all.

Shrimp & Prosciutto Pasta

This was wonderful! There was so much shrimp that I was able to give 5 or 6 to Bambi and still have plenty for myself. The combination of prosciutto, cheese, shrimp and the asparagus pieces in the dish worked really well together.

Dessert:

Although it doesn't look like a lot, we were so full by the time we got to dessert that we couldn't finish everything. My personal favorite was the fruit tart in the middle. Bambi really enjoyed a cream horn and a chocolate Mickey. The bread pudding was good but could not stand up to the one we had later in the week.

Bottom Line: This place was fantastic! I wish they were keeping the character meal here instead of moving it back to Park Faire. Anyway, a trip to the Grand Floridian is always a nice addition to a vacation.

 

[PrincessTiff]

Thanks for sharing, I can't wait for the rest!