First trip on the dining plan! Reviews 12/14-19

[MyGoofy26]

Just got home yesterday afternoon from a long weekend at WDW - first trip on the dining plan. My mom and I flew down Wednesday afternoon and stayed at POFQ. Since we had the dining plan, we decided to try some places we'd never tried before. This was actually the first time we'd ever made ADR's - in 27 years of vacationing, LOL!

*I have reciepts but haven't figured out WHERE yet, so I'll edit and add what things should have cost when I find them. . . I'll estimate for now.

Wednesday:
Dinner: I had a $25 gift card for Rainforest Cafe so we headed there for dinner since we wanted to look around DTD and see what new souvenirs they had. I had the barbecue chicken wrap, mom had the blue mountain chicken sandwich (I think that's what it's called) I love those wraps - so good! Our bill was $25.65 so with tip we ended up spending $5.65 for dinner.

Thursday:
Breakfast: Mom and I split a ham and cheese omelet with potatoes, and I took the apple juice while she got a cup for water. Used a counter service credit for that. We paid OOP for beignets and a side of bacon. Can't remember the bills for here, but we used 1 CS credit.

Lunch: We were headed to the outlets to do some shopping so we swung by DTD to grab lunch. The intention was to try Earl of Sandwich since there have been so many rave reviews - apparently everyone else heard those reviews because the line wrapped around every corner inside, then out the door. We headed to Wolfgang Puck Express instead. I got the 4 cheese pizza and mom had the margherita. Very good pizza - while not quite *as* good as the stuff I had in Italy, it has to be one of the closest I've ever found here in the States. We each got a brownie as our dessert - they were ok, nothing I'd ever crave, but they were massive. Took us days of picking at it in the hotel room to finally finish them. Our bill was around $30 here, used 2 CS credits.

Dinner: We had a reservation for Citrico's. First time at a signature restaurant for both of us. It's usually hard to justify the cost of a meal at these places when you plan you trips with just a couple months notice. This was the BEST meal we had all week. We paid OOP for drinks - I had the lemon drop (I LOVE limoncello so I had to try it) and mom had the cherry kiss. Both were very good.

For appetizers, I had the wam goat cheese salad and mom had the shrimp. I enjoyed my salad but couldn't eat too much of it. Had to make sure I left room for dessert!

For entrees, I had the Citrico's Steak Sicilian -SO good! I'm picky about meat and don't like to see too much pink so I order well done and run the risk of a dry steak. This steak was perfectly well done and still VERY juicy - not at all dry or tough. It came with roasted fingerling potatoes that were also very yummy. It seemed as though they were just salted and tossed in olive oil so I think we'll be trying that at home. Mom had the veal shank that she loved - she went to cut her first piece and the entire side fell off the bone it was so tender!

For dessert we had Tiramisu and the Cinderellabration chocolate mousse. Both were good, but the Tiramisu was definitely my favorite of the two. The ladyfingers were perfectly soaked so that they had all the flavor without being a drippy soggy mess like you find at some places.

We would DEFINITELY go back and highly recommend it. It'll be tough next trip on the dining plan. I want to try more signature restaurants, but I'll want to go back here too!! MIght have to allot more table service credits for signature, haha.

Our bill came to about $119.xx for the dining plan portion before gratuity was included. We used 4 TS credits.

Friday:
Lunch: We were in Epcot and ended up at the Electric Umbrella for lunch. I had the chicken strips, and mom had the bacon double cheeseburger. We both had the cheese cake. They gave us the large drinks with the dining plan. Both of us enjoyed our food - as much as can be expected for burgers and chicken, LOL!

Dinner: After reading all the reviews of Le Cellier over the past couple years, we decided we had to try it. I don't know if it was that the expectations were too high or what but this seemed to be the most overrated restaurant in all of Walt Disney World. It wasn't bad - but it certainly isn't something I'd be rushing back for. I think I would have been upset had I been paying cash. We had a late ADR, and only waited about 10 minutes before they got us a table - which was actually a few minutes before our scheduled time. Our waiter was a little strange - and maybe I was just tired but it seemed that he paid a LOT more attention to the people right next to us who were paying cash than he paid to us, who were using the dining plan and his tip was guaranteed. He wasn't rude or anything - but he seemed significantly more attentive to the people next to us.

I had a salad and mom had the cheese soup. My salad was very good and I had a taste of mom's soup and about gagged. SO not my thing. I was so happy I didn't order it. I think the consistency got to me before the flavor did - although I didn't particularly enjoy the flavor either. For entrees, mom and I both ordered the 7 oz. filet - hers was medium, mine was well. Mine looked like the stuck a brick on it to flatten it to cook it through, LMAO. It was so thin! But like I said in my Citrico's review, I know I run the risk of a tough, dry steak. . . and that's just what I got. It was still good though - just not $27 good. The potatoes were excellent though! I could have just had the cream cheese mashed potatoes and been happy, LOL.

For dessert, the waiter let us pool our dessert credits for the sampler. There was no room for a real dessert so this was perfect. The raspberry sorbet and the maple creme brulee were excellent - I couldn't take more than one bite of the cake. Way too rich. You'd definitely have to have a scoop of vanilla ice cream to cut down the richness of that cake.

Our bill here was $97.xx and we used 2 table service credits.

 

[Piglet54]

Thanks for the reviews. I loved Citricos when we were there last year. We've got to go back there. Thanks for mentioning the potatoes. We're having company for dinner tonight and I'm going to try making those.

 

[MyGoofy26]

Continued:

Saturday:
Lunch: We hadn't eaten breakfast (we're not big breakfast eaters - it's usually lunch by the time I'm functional, LOL) so we were pretty hungry when we got to the MK. We decided to try the Half a Chicken and Ribs from Cosmic Rays that we keep reading about. So good! I was suprised how good it was for counter service. The chicken and ribs were pretty yummy, the potatoes were great and the carrots were good as well. Mom and I split this and still didn't clean the plate. We split the chocolate cake as well. We bought an extra coke and used 1 CS credit. We were full for awhile.

Dinner: We were going to head to a resort to get dinner at a TS but didn't really feel like it and decided to use that TS credit for lunch the following day. We decided to try the new menu at Pinocchio's and weren't disappointed. We both had the turkey and bacon panini. They were VERY good. Nice change from burgers and hotdogs. The sandwiches were pretty big - and they had a big piece of basil on them. . . love the taste of basil so when I bit into it, it was a nice surprise, LOL. I didn't know the sandwich had it on there. We also got drinks and the Mickey Rice Crispy treat with the meal that we ended up bringing home.

Snacks: We used all of our snack credits at the MK this day. I got a Mickey Premium bar and mom got an ice cream sandwich, and later we got a box of popcorn and a coke. On our way out of the park we finished out our credits on chocolate chip cookies from the Main Street Bake Shop since we were bringing a dozen of them home. We used 6 snack credits and paid OOP for the other 6.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reviews ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[MyGoofy26]

Sunday:
Lunch: We decided to try out Whispering Canyon Cafe. Since we had an ADR for Ohana's already for dinner, and we were leaving in the AM this meant lunch. We stopped by the concierge desk in the lobby of the hotel and they got us an ADR for about 30 minutes later - just enough time to hop in the car and drive over. We waited about 10-15 minutes for our seats. Both of us got the skillet. Way too much food, LOL. Had the milkshakes as well - might have had more room for food if I hadn't already downed a shake before the skillet came out. It didn't seem *as* rowdy as some of the reviews I've read, but I assumed that was because it was lunch and a little slower. Our waitress threw our napkins and straws at us, lol. Then for the people behind us, she stood against the railing yelling across the lobby for a couple people in their party that their food was ready, LOL. For dessert mom had the apple pie, which was kinda gross and I had the dustbowl which was ok. Certainly not the *best* meal, but a fun atmosphere. I think if we go again, I might have to try something off the regular menu.

Dinner: We had an 8:20 ADR for Ohana and ended up getting to the hotel before 8. We checked in and the girl asked if we had any preferences or allergies. At first I said no, then thought, "we probably wouldn't be able to get a table by the window, would we?" and she smiled and wrote it down and said, "sure!" We grab a seat and they have our table ready within minutes. We were right by the window with an excellent vew of the castle. Ive heard mixed reviews so I wasn't sure what to expect. LOVED the salad, the wings were ok (I prefer hot, LOL), and the wonton chips were slightly addictive. As for the meat - the steak and turkey were excellent. I'm not a shrimp fan, didn't get around to trying the sausage, and the pork was ok. . . but I'm not a huge pork fan either, LOL. Neither of us cared for the bread pudding, it's not exactly a family favorite, but the ice cream and the sauce were good. We were just finishing up when the fireworks started for MVMCP so we got to see part of them. They piped the music into the restaurant, but the clouds were so low that most of the fireworks were going off above them so all you could see were the bits that fell low and the ones that shot off immediately around the castle. I'd definitely come back - especially if I were travelling with kids. Such a fun place!

Monday:
Breakfast: We still had 2 CS credits to get rid of so we stopped by the food court before we left for the airport. I had the Mickey waffles and mom had a breakfast sandwich. Waffles were good.. . mom's sandwich didn't look *too* appetizing, but she ended up tearing it apart and eating the eggs and bacon separately. We each had orange juice to drink.



The dining plan is a LOT of food. We did eat more than we ever would have if we were paying out of pocket. But it is nice to look at a menu and not even acknowledge the price column. And it was fun going to places we'd never been.

I hate that places get so booked up - and this whole 6 month thing is a little ridiculous and punishes people who can't book way early. I'm a college student so we had NO idea when we could go until classes started and I got my syllabi so that I knew what finals, if any, I'd have during finals week and when. We didn't get to book til October and didn't add dining til November. . . by then, only late ADRs were available, if at all. Maybe if they only booked 2/3rds way ahead and opened part of them a month earlier? Not sure - but I definitely feel somewhat cheated because I have no way of booking even 6 months early.

I also think that they need to consider adding more TS restaurants to the parks. I've noticed that they've become increasingly popular over the past few years, but with this dining plan it's become almost impossible to eat anywhere in the parks. Granted, you could hop a bus and go to a resort - but how many people really want to do that everyday?