Forgive Me DISers For I Have Sinned...3/9/12 Sci-Fi Dine In Theater

[annnewjerz]

Well, I knew it was only a matter of time---and that time has come. Time for some changes!

When I started this pre-trip dining report, I was still in the stages of planning which days we should do which park just to get our reservations sorted. Sooo, I probably should have waited to start reporting.

Originally, Day 2 would be spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios with Day 4 being spent in the World Showcase at EPCOT. After seeing that DHS has evening EMH on Day 4 though, I decided to flip those parks and instead of: Arrival, DHS, MK, Epcot so far, the order will instead be Arrival, Epcot, MK, DHS. Easy enough for now, right?

So, since I technically covered our DHS day already, time to back-track and cover Epcot World Showcase now. Will do that next!

 

[annnewjerz]

Forgive me DISers, for I have been slacking...with a capital "S"! I guess technically there is really no rush since my trip is still 90+ days away, but I know myself well enough to know that if I don't stop in at least a few times a week to my own thread...it will slip slowly and quietly into the abyss with the rest of the started-but-never-completed dining reviews!

So, on with our EPCOT World Showcase day!

EPCOT (WORLD SHOWCASE DAY) FOOD PLANS

This morning, we plan to sleep in a bit. It'll be our first full day at Disney (Day 2) but since I'm planning on trying to stay up for Future World EMH the night before, I figured that sleeping in and maybe a swim if it's warm enough would be a good start to this "relaxed" Disney trip.

Breakfast No. 1 Breakfast today is up in the air. We have an early lunch reservation (more on that to come later) so I'm thinking a trip to the Boardwalk Bakery will be in order, just to grab a bagel or cupcake to tide us over until then. If for some reason we wake up really early and feel like a sit-down meal is in order, I'm sure we will be able to get a walk-up to Kouzzina, so that'll be plan B.

After some lazing around the resort, we will head over to the World Showcase where we plan to do some drinking around the world.

Lunch No. 1 A tried and true favorite for Erik and I who are very much Mexican food lovers, is San Angel Inn. We have eaten here every trip so far (except one) and have always had good experiences. The themeing is up there with Sci-Fi, you just feel absolutely transported to another place. The food (for us) has always been nothing short of delicious. I LOVE the Tostadas de Tinga. The margaritas since La Cava has opened, are reason enough for eating here. We have gotten both the Classic and Blood Orange in the past, but this trip I'm venturing out a bit and trying the Avocado per so many glowing recommendations on the DIS. The plan is to keep our ADR here, but if we get over when La Cava opens up and they have brought back the Tostadas to their menu, we may just grab a table there and spend an hour (or two) snacking and drinking.

Dinner No. 2 Keeping with my "trying to stick to 1 ADR per day to give us more flexibility" motto, I don't have dinner reservations. We are planning to start drinking around the world early (noon) so we will probably be ready to call it a day around late afternoon/early evening. If the drinks have gotten the best of us, we'll probably sleep a bit and then head out for one of two options. The first, is Kimono's. For me, the only food up there with Mexican and pizza, is sushi---so we can't very well be gone a whole week without having it once. PLUS, with the $25 restaurant.com coupon we have, it'll be a steal. The second option, if it has gotten to be close to karaoke time at Kimono's would be to grab dinner at Beaches & Cream. For Erik, that probably means an actual dinner. For me, it means a No Way Jose.


That wraps up our day in Epcot's World Showcase. I've still got another Epcot and Magic Kingdom day to lay out, as well as Animal Kingdom and Departure Day...so stay tuned!

 

[annnewjerz]

I made a promise to myself that I was going to stick with this dining review, and even though technically it's no review yet---I have to forge ahead!

I have been taking time off of the DIS the past few weeks just to deal with all of the holiday madness. Shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating, Christmas trees falling over in our living room (yes, that did happen this year ). I can hardly believe that our trip went from over 100 days away, to only 60 in what feels like the blink of an eye!

So, without further ado...

SECOND Magic Kingdom Day Food Plans

Our fifth day in The World will be spent doing a bit of sleeping in and swimming if the weather permits. It's also Valentine's Day, which isn't my cup of tea usually but in Disney who knows, maybe it'll be our most romantic V-Day ever!

Breakfast No. ?? I've honestly lost track of my numbering at this point, so...hopefully we will have a late breakfast today at Kouzzina. Last stay at the Boardwalk, we ate breakfast at Kouzzina and it was the worst meal of the trip. The restaurant was empty, yet the service was horrible. The meals were brought out barely warm and nothing was good enough to make us go running back like we have at Kona Cafe, etc. I'm not one to begrudge a restaurant our business because of one failed meal, so I'm hoping Kouzzina will redeem itself this go-round. I've been reading great reviews of their breakfast recently, so here's hoping we don't have an off day in February!

Lunch No. ?? The plan today is to skip a real "planned" lunch. We'll be heading over to the Magic Kingdom to get on some more rides, so maybe we'll just grab a snack or a CS meal to split. I don't know about anyone else, but the sound of a Dole Whip, one of those new waffle sandwiches or even an icecream cookie sandwich as lunch sounds perfect to me.

Dinner No. ?? Dinner tonight is one that I've really been looking forward to, and that is Artist Point. The reviews recently have become better and better and the food looks great. I'm hoping DH gets the Buffalo Strip and I'm looking forward to the Cedar Plank Salmon...washed down by their signature chocolate dessert. I know they have a port wine flight here that DH will enjoy, so I'm hoping the meal and atmosphere are all we are hoping for on this Valentine's Day. If all goes well, we will also hit up the Tambu Lounge for a lapu lapu or two before turning in for the night.

Sorry about the lack of pictures this update, but Kouzzina wasn't somewhere I wanted to remember with photos and the rest of what we eat should be new! Very much looking forward to this day.

 

[annnewjerz]

Well well well....I'm back! I didn't get through the whole pre-trip portion of the report, but that was mostly due to holidays, trip planning, work being crazy. You know, the usual!

But now that I'm back, I'm fully committed to getting this thing started and actually finished!

Our plans changed quite a bit when we were down there due to switched park days, a cold weekend and a few too many trips into La Cava and the R&C Pub, but we made out pretty well, so I hope everyone can join me as I recall every yummy bite, sip and slurp we took on this trip.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to your reviews!

 

[annnewjerz]

Day 1 - Leaving 2012 NJ for...1920s NJ?

Our trip started out a bit different than any others. We decided to skip up-at-the-butt-crack-of-dawn flight we'd usually take on a Saturday and head down at a reasonable hour on Friday instead, hoping to be well-rested and ready to enjoy a night of Disney's finest.

We made it over to the PHL without any hiccups, cleared security and soon found ourselves getting ready to dine with royalty.

Royalty? You may ask. In the PHL Airport waiting for a flight on Southwest? Why yes. One Earl in particular was calling our name, and had been since our previous trip many moons ago in December 2009.

EARL OF SANDWICH

I was thrilled to learn they had opened up a location at our airport. It was the perfect way to start a trip. Since our first experience with EOS in October 2009, we were hooked. I'm not a big sandwich lover, but I remembered the Caribbean Jerk Chicken being like heaven on a toasted roll so I decided that's what I should get.

Was it as good as I remembered? No, it was quite possibly better. I'm in love. The sweetness of the peppers with the bread and the slightly spicy chicken, everything was just awesome.

Erik apparently wasn't hungry for lunch yet (it was only about 11:15am at this point) but upon my reminder that we wouldn't be at the Boardwalk until 5:00ish, he decided a sandwich was in order. He got The Original.

For someone who "wasn't hungry" about five minutes prior, he sure did start tearing into his sandwich pretty quick. Quick enough that I could only get a picture of one-half. Ah well, better than nothing, right?

We each got a sandwich and bottle of water and the total price for both was $18.14. Not too shabby!

Next up? Beer, wings and nachos of mammoth proportions!

 

[annnewjerz]

Day 1 - Nachos for Two? I Think Not.

After a very nice flight, an early arrival at MCO and no wait at all for Disney's Magical Express, we were cruising along and found ourselves at the Boardwalk Villas checking in at 4:30pm, a whole 30 minutes early!! I don't think much can make a vacation start more pleasantly than Earl of Sandwich and an early arrival.

After checking into our room (Boardwalk View Studio, 5005 for anyone who is looking for a great room and amazing view of Crescent Lake), we decided it was time to get the ball rolling. Since travel in February from the Northeast can be iffy, we decided to skip any reservations for tonight and instead headed to...

ESPN CLUB

We checked in right around 5:20 and found no wait for the dining room. But, since it the bar area was open we decided to seat ourselves and sit in the main room you enter into through the front doors.

We were greeted by our waitress shortly after sitting and she informed us that were was a staff change coming up soon, so she probably wouldn't wait on us the whole meal and took our drink orders.

I don't have a picture of my drink because it was a water. Super exciting, right?

Erik on the other hand, knows how to do it up on vacation and started with a Sam Adams Boston Lager.

Beer is beer to me, but Erik seemed to like it.

Trying to be conscious of how much money we spent along the fact that I had a surprise back at the room for later that night (get your minds out of the gutter! ) I suggested to Erik that we split two appetizers for meals. At home if we went out to dinner, we would probably split an appetizer and Erik would get his own meal, while I'd get something lighter like a salad or an appetizer as my entree...so I knew Erik wasn't going to be thrilled at the idea of sharing what he probably thought would be tiny portions, but he agreed.

Soon enough, we saw this coming towards our table...

Surely this can't be what we ordered. The menu said "Macho Nachos for Two" and this looked to be enough to feed a small village in a third-world country. The sour cream "dollop" on top was literally the size of a baseball. They were HUUUUUUUUUUGE. These alone could have been a meal for Erik and I to split and still not finish. The picture really doesn't do it justice.

The nachos themselves were good, but not nearly as good as I remembered from our trip in 2007, so either my memory has failed or their nachos have changed. There were lots of tortilla chips, some cheese sauce, jalapenos, chili, tomatoes and sour cream with a sprinkle of shredded cheese. I can't describe why I didn't love these, but I didn't. They look nice and loaded in the pic, but underneath the main layer of stuff was a bunch of dry chips. They also weren't piping hot and all melty, which is how I prefer my nachos to be. Regardless, they were edible and for like $10, a steal.

The other appetizer we had ordered were the ESPN Dingers with a regular buffalo sauce.

This was again, a very large portion. These were definitely my favorite over the nachos (which again is a shock because I LOVE all things that even resemble Mexican inspired food). They were boneless nuggets tossed in wing sauce. Overall just fine, nothing any different than you'd get at a chain restaurant anywhere in the US like Applebees, TGIFridays, or your local sports bar.

Service at ESPN Club was a bit of a miss, mostly because our waitress who said she probably wouldn't be around the whole time WAS there the whole time, but seemed to be barely around when we needed drink refills, more napkins, etc.

Will we go back to ESPN Club? Sure, especially if we stay at the Boardwalk. The convenience of having it right there partnered with the fact that you don't need to make reservations makes it a no-brainer for us.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great start - don't see many ESPN reviews

Can't wait for more.

 

[sue and co]

A great start to your holiday - look forward to reading the rest of your reviews.

 

[annnewjerz]

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to your reviews!

Thank you! I believe I took pictures at every meal except one, so I should be able to get these finished no problem!

great start - don't see many ESPN reviews

Can't wait for more.

I did an ESPN review for our trip in December...the review that I started and never finished. The pictures from our meal are still sitting, somewhere on our computer, unpublished and in a place the world will never see. The horror!

A great start to your holiday - look forward to reading the rest of your reviews.

Welcome! Glad to see someone else joining in!

 

[raniroo]

subbing to read your great reviews....your photos are awesome and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the report.

 

[SweetSpot]

I was thrilled to learn they had opened up a location at our airport. It was the perfect way to start a trip. Since our first experience with EOS in October 2009, we were hooked. I'm not a big sandwich lover, but I remembered the Caribbean Jerk Chicken being like heaven on a toasted roll so I decided that's what I should get.

It's torture knowing that we have an Earl in the Airport, so close, but without an airline ticket so far away. I never eat sandwiches, really don't like them, but for some reason I love the Earl sandwiches. Worse is when you are in terminal A and you don't have get time to get to terminal D before your flight.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your reviews.

 

[annnewjerz]

subbing to read your great reviews....your photos are awesome and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the report.

Welcome! Unfortunately no awesome food pics this trip---they're all iPhone shots! For some reason when it came to meals this trip, my good camera was away.

It's torture knowing that we have an Earl in the Airport, so close, but without an airline ticket so far away. I never eat sandwiches, really don't like them, but for some reason I love the Earl sandwiches. Worse is when you are in terminal A and you don't have get time to get to terminal D before your flight.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your reviews.

Boy do I have good news for you. The EOS website has an Atlantic City location listed as "coming soon." not sure when it'll open but I can't wait!

 

[jedijill]

Where in the Philly airport is EOS? I'm flying in Sunday afternoon for business and leaving Wednesday night...sounds like a perfect dinner for the plane!

Jill in CO

 

[annnewjerz]

Where in the Philly airport is EOS? I'm flying in Sunday afternoon for business and leaving Wednesday night...sounds like a perfect dinner for the plane!

Jill in CO

Terminal D. The third person in our aisle had an EOS sandwich on the plane and I was jealous, even though I had just eaten one.

 

[TigerKat]

Welcome back! Looking forward to your reviews.

We just returned from a long weekend in the World. BWV is our home resort so we always manage a meal at ESPN Club but this past trip we stayed at BLT and on our DHS day we hopped into a boat and headed there. I just can't keep DH out of the place!

 

[annnewjerz]

Welcome back! Looking forward to your reviews.

We just returned from a long weekend in the World. BWV is our home resort so we always manage a meal at ESPN Club but this past trip we stayed at BLT and on our DHS day we hopped into a boat and headed there. I just can't keep DH out of the place!

Welcome! Glad to see we aren't the only ones who are there every trip! It's such a mediocre place in the grand scheme of things, but it's a safe bet when you have picky eaters and it's one of the few no-ADR sit down places, so I'm actually surprised it not usually busier!

 

[annnewjerz]

Day 1 - A Magical Evening That Ended With Cake!

After our dinner at the ESPN Club, we were pretty stuffed, but having gotten a full night's sleep the evening before, we knew it was too early to turn in and decided to head to the Magic Kingdom to catch The Magic, Memories and You and Wishes! Erik hadn't ever seen either and I figured it would be a memorable way to start the trip.

We made it in plenty of time, did some shopping, a ride or two and settled in for the shows to start. Afterwards, we decided to head back to Adventureland for some more rides and passed...

ALOHA ISLE

You all know what that means, time for a Dole Whip! I'm a huge pineapple fan, but for as long as I've known Erik (12 years) he has always refused to eat anything with even a hint of pineapple flavor. Before our trip, I started making homemade fruit salad with fresh pineapple. One day, he decided to steal a bite and his love for pineapple officially started. I told him about the Dole Whip before heading down and he was anxious to try it.

Sorry for the cruddy pic, it was night time with only an iPHONE in hand after all!

We decided to split one in case Erik wasn't a fan. Needless to say, he was, and we quickly wished we had gotten another...but I knew there was a surprise at the hotel so I didn't want to fill up.

I thought the Dole Whip was refreshing as always. I've never had a float, and I don't know that I ever will. Something about pineapple juice strikes me as sickly sweet, so a classic soft-serve is my speed. Erik loved it also. He thought it was refreshing on a warm night, light enough that it didn't fill you up and just the right amount of sweetness. Perfection! We vowed to make it back another day, but never did!

After being washed out of the MK by a late-night storm, we made our way back to the Boardwalk Villas.

We entered the room and found this on our table...

BOARDWALK BAKERY

It was Erik's birthday cake that I had ordered from the Boardwalk Bakery! For more specific info, you can check out the Cake Chatter Thread on the Restaurant Board, but here's a short and sweet summary.

Two-tier mini cake from the Boardwalk Bakery. Red velvet cake with cream cheese filling and vanilla buttercream icing. Decorated with fondant polka dots, stripes and a chocolate Mickey-ears topper.

This cake may very well have been the best red velvet cake I've had. I'm not a cake lover, because usually the frosting to cake ratio is wrong (cupcakes are better) and cake is more often than not too dry---but this was the exact opposite. Incredibly moist, so much frosting and the perfect size for two adults to share. In short, I would most definitely order a mini-cake from the Boardwalk Bakery again!

Here is a shot of the inside.

Mmmmmmmmmm, looking at is makes me want to run to Wegman's and pick up something from the bakery section.

Next up: A wild day in the Animal Kingdom, complete with free food & alcohol and lots of icecream!

 

[jedijill]

Terminal D. The third person in our aisle had an EOS sandwich on the plane and I was jealous, even though I had just eaten one.

Thanks! I'm on a mission to find it on Wednesday!

Jill in CO

 

[kelleigh1]

As soon as I saw "nachos of mammoth proportion", I knew it had to be ESPN. We did the dining plan for the first time on our 2007 trip and those were my appetizer. More like a meal for a small army. I don't even think I made a dent.

Back in Sept., I flew out to visit my sister from Logan (Boston) and I found the Earl of Sandwich there too. I think of it as a little piece of Disney! It is, however, in the International Terminal, which just so happens to also be the Southwest terminal. I sure hope they don't move Southwest to one of the other domestic terminals because there isn't another EOS in the airport.