Free QSDP Trip Report -Eats in the Summer Heat 2012 Updated 7/30

[englishrose47]

Subbing to see the food porn

 

[chimilady]

Nice! Though I must say you need to think about your priorities, food pictures are Mandatory!!!

 

[we3travellers]

I'm in! I just love QSDP reports! And don't worry about photos, your descriptions are very thorough. And as a PP said, there are LOTS of photos to be found out there.

 

[Lauralooneyfordisney]

Subbing! We absolutely LOVE POP and will be staying there next year again. One reason is because like you we can walk over and check out AoA plus the Disney cruise bus picks up at POP. Not to mention that POP has their own buses to the parks.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Great details in your report. Thank You! I also love to see what the out of pocket would have been had you paid cash, if you wouldn't mind sharing.

 

[nicole0992]

I check into Pop next month and cannot wait to the have chicken you had the first night. It's soooo good! Looking forward to more of your reviews.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

DAY 2 MK

First I want to say thanks for reading my reports. I've had the Disney blues this week, and this is helping . Sorry, I just looked at our pics and I have only found 2 food pics. I guess we were too hungry to snap photos. But I'll make up for it by giving you lots of descriptions. Also, the receipts you get now on the QSDP do not have the prices on them, just zeros and how many credits left. I did see the totals flash quickly on the register but did not write them down. Our lunch and dinner meals averaged from about $45-$75.

Breakfast-8 AM
We started our day at the POP food court and got a bounty platter which included scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuit, french toast sticks, and cubed hash brown potatoes. This food seemed hotter than other breakfast meals we would get later during the week. I especially liked the biscuit and it is a very large portion of food- really enough for 2-3 people. We also got a choc. chip pancake platter. Pancakes were not good and have choc. chips only on the top center. They were sorta cold. We had bacon with it and dd liked that.

Two things about breakfast I should point out 1. You can have turkey bacon or sausage if you want something other than the pork kind. Turkey bacon has a smoky flavor ( like you are camping - yum) and sausage was just good and had just the right amount of spices.
2. If you get a breakfast other than the bounty platter you only get one meat. For example the pancake photo shown above the station has pancakes and both meats on it, but in print it says choice of meat. And they will ask you which one you want.

We also got 2 milks with our food and drank our juices from the night before. We just brought them in with our backpack cooler. You do not get a dessert if you use your meal credit for breakfast.

After eating we filled up our brita water bottles at the drink station. No one seemed to care. There was a lady there that seemed mad that I was rinsing out both our mugs and the brita bottles in the mug washing sink. I guess she didn't want to wait or go to the other sink.As I set down two of our mugs down she stuck her mugs right in front of me under the faucet. There is no soap there, just warm water. Sometimes when it is hot during the day they do run out of ice at the stations.

Lunch- Columbia Harbour House-12 PM
We ordered 3 meals
Breaded Shrimp with fries- dd 11 ate almost all the shrimp
Breaded Fish with fries- 5 or 6 small fish sticks - the portions were smaller than what we got a few years ago
Grilled salmon with couscous and broccoli- DH ordered this b/c it was expensive! Everyone tasted a little of it. Broccoli was very fresh!
All 3 of the meals were good. But the best part was the choc. cake we had. The choc. frosting was so rich! There were also 2 apple crisps but they were just OK or maybe we were too full. The desserts here are prepackaged just like many in the MK.
We sat upstairs where there was plenty of space, a station with condiments and utensils and bathrooms.

Snacks in the MK-
DH and DD11 each had frozen treats in the afternoon -an itzakadoozie and a no sugar strawberry bar.
DD15 stood in line for about 15 min. for her dole pineapple float. She loved it! And since she is lactose intolerant this was great for her.
I bought a pc. of choc. walnut fudge from prairie outpost in frontierland. The CM there can cut your fudge into pcs. if you ask. The fudge was just OK. It didn't have a lot of flavor to it. It was soft and I like my mom's fudge more b/c it is a hard fudge.

Dinner-POP- 5:15 and 6PM
DD was starving when we got back to pop so she and I split the Chicken Penne Alfredo meal and also got milk and banana bread. I was hesitant about the bread even though it was from the bakery but it was moist and delicious. Had walnuts in it too! We ate everything.
Then dd15 and DH woke up from a short nap and had another order of chick penne and a 6 inch meatball sub and salad., cranberry juice and nestea. We were still trying to use our mugs in POP and saving the drinks for later. DD11 sometimes had cereal in the room that we brought and used a bottle of milk. Both liked their meals, but I wasn't with them at the time. For dessert they got a fruit cup of melon and grapes to save for breakfast and a big choc. chip cookie. DD15 at half of it and ended up throwing the rest away later. You just get so many sweets with the meal plans! Both of my girls are really skinny so I let them eat whatever junk they wanted on this trip as long as they were eating healthy meals, too.

We did have a few food items in our room that we brought, but used not even half of them: boxed cereals, 3 kinds of granola bars, bag of apples, fruit snacks, and cheese it crackers.

Next review will be at Epcot!

 

[ADisneyQueen]

I think I just figured out something from the receipts that I didn't know during the trip b/c I was so overstimulated. You only have to sign a receipt if it is over $50 and then you get a total on it. We don't have many of these b/c either we were under $50 b/c DH and I charged separately sometimes . Is this why I don't have totals?

 

[KELLY]

I think I just figured out something from the receipts that I didn't know during the trip b/c I was so overstimulated. You only have to sign a receipt if it is over $50 and then you get a total on it. We don't have many of these b/c either we were under $50 b/c DH and I charged separately sometimes . Is this why I don't have totals?

We didn't have totals either. This year I'm going to try to write them down.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

Day 3- EPCOT

BREAKFAST 8:45 AM
Today we ate in POP for breakfast again. I would like to try to eat breakfast in the parks sometimes but our family just can't go that long w/o food. We ordered 2 bounty platter and 2 juices. It was more than enough and not all was eaten.

Lunch- La Cantina 1PM
This was one of my favorite places this trip. My DH went to get us more fastpasses for soarin and the girls and I ordered food at an outside station. I got ready to pay using my meal credits and ooops I don't have my KTTK card and I wasn't going to use cash! It was embarassing, but I had to tell the cashier to cancel my order.

They have some nice covered outdoor seating but all the tables were full so someone directed us to the inside. This is where the TS is at night. It was really nice inside with mosaic tiles and Mexican decorations. We chose a big booth to sit at and there was a lot of seating compared to outside. The girls sat at the table while I waited for DH outside since his phone wasn't working.

When we finally got to order we had:
Tacos de Carne- Yuck ! would not order these again. The meat was beef brisket and I tried to tell dd15 that she may not like it since it wasn't ground beef but she wanted to try something new. They gave us 3 (soft)tacos and she ate one, DH at another and I ate half of one. It also came with tortilla chips which were good.
Tacos de Pollo- The chicken tacos were pretty good and all were finished. Also came with chips.
Nachos- These were fantastic- we had everything but jalapenos on them. Ground beef, sour cream, beans, cheese, and tomatoes. We couldn't finish all of them b/c the portion was so huge.

For our drinks my dd15 had a mango mexican soda in a bottle that was included in the meal plan and she loved it. We also had 2 lemonades and 3 orders of churros. The churros( fried dough with cinnamon and sugar) were good, but we would get some even fresher ones from Pepper Market later in the week. One thing I thought was weird was that the CM put our 3 meals and drinks on one tray and then piled up the 3 containers of churros on top. DH ended up carrying the tray and I took the churros off so they wouldn't fall.

I would definitely go here again. It was so pretty inside and quiet other than the soft Mexican music and felt like a TS spot.

DINNER-Sunshine Seasons 5:15 PM

I can't believe we were all hungry again, But we walked so much during this trip and took less breaks. We had not left Epcot yet.

We ordered:
DH and I - 2 Sweet and Sour Chicken with Jasmine rice- it was just ok, I would not get it again. It has a lot of sauce and not enough meat.
DD15-Spicy Cashew Chicken with rice- ok, but too spicy for her
The portions for both of these entrees were so small compared to what they used to be and were barely enough for 1 person. Also, in the good ole days you used to get an entree and two sides. I remember when 2 meals was enough for all 4 of us! And where are the egg rolls?
DD11- Got the kid's macaroni and cheese with a cookie and yogurt. We paid out of pocket for this -5.85. It was good and was not "kraft" macaroni but more of a homemade kind.

We each had a drink and our desserts were:
chocolate mousse cake- moist and so good!
pineapple/coconut cupcake- dd said it was delicious but had cream cheese frosting which she couldn't eat
I've lost the receipt and I don't know what dessert DH had!

I love the desserts at SS and the air conditioning, but the food has gone downhill.

Snacks we had that day:
Liberty Inn- Around 8 PM the kids wanted a snack so dd15 got chili fries ( one snack credit) and they made her feel sick, dd11 got a kids chicken nugget meal with apple juice which we paid OOP $5.85

DD11 also got a Goofy Sour Power candy tube at Mouseworks. You get to choose what kind of flavored sugars to put in the 12 inch tube. This was one snack credit.

Next review will be Hollywood Studios and some Star Wars food and AOA!

 

[DisneyMom5]

Great review! Thanks so much for taking the time to share!

 

[ADisneyQueen]

DAY 4 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Breakfast-8AM- Well, we wanted some different foods this morning, so we ordered a waffle with bacon, western omelette that had cheese and ham? in it, two drinks, a bagel with cream cheese and a chocolate muffin. Everything was edible, the omelette was moist and cooked well, which surprised me. Bagels were fresh and you could take 2 cream cheese or peanut butter packets with it. I think we ate everything in our room so that we could take turns getting ready b/c we wanted to get to Star Wars weekend as soon as we could!

Lunch -Starring Rolls-1:15

I really don't like the CS at DHS, and had wanted to go to Pepper Market on this day, but with the SWW parade at 12:40 and the PM closing at 2, I didn't think we could do it. So, I had done some dising on the dining review board and thought that SR would be an ok place to eat. The only thing I did not like was that the seating is outside under umbrellas and it was hot. The food we ordered was:
2 Ham sandwiches
1 Turkey sandwich-All of the sandwiches had thick,fresh bread, cheese and some kind of spice/dressing on them. They were big, but we ate them all! DD15 said it was nice to get fresh non - greasy food and this was one of her fav meals.
3 oranges(were included w/ meal)- were huge and juicy. We shared one and put the others in our backpack. We even ate one on the plane going home as we said goodbye to FL!
2 Butterfinger cupcakes- they were ok, but had some kind of cream cheese filling inside that we didn't like
Darth Vadar cupcake- DH and I split this, it was so good! Peanut butter frosting with a fudgy filling. There was a Darth Vadar shaped choc. mold on top.I wish I had one of these right now!
DD11 had the R2D2 kids power pack for 10.99. Since it was a collectible, it was not on the meal plan. We got this b/c she wanted to collect it and also we knew she would not eat the sandwich b/c of the spices in it. It was the robot and inside was milk, golfish crackers, cheese stick, yogurt, carrots, and ranch dressing. It was enough for her and she ate some of the cupcakes.

That was a great meal and at least there was an umbrella on the table. Later in day the girls each had a box of popcorn using snack credits.

DINNER- AOA-6:50 PM

We hiked over to AOA for dinner. Very low crowds, I think there were only 5 other people getting food when we did. A CM was giving out samples of salmon, but I didn't take any. The CMS at each station were so nice! Some of them stood in front of the stations and would tell you all about each meal. Many of the stations had plates of each food displayed so you could see what everything looked like.

They had odwalla drinks in the fridge, dd15 was happy with that.

We had come for the make your own pasta bowls!. It did not disappoint us! You could choose your own pasta, meat , sauce and veggies.
I had a wheat spaghetti, chicken, alfredo sauce, mushrooms, spinach. It was so good! Probably the best thing I had all week and tasted similar but better than olive garden's.
DD15- had bow ties, chicken, marinara sauce and tomatoes. She said it was ok, but too tomatoey and she wished she had gotten the sausage instead.
DD11- had bow ties, shrimp, alfredo and no veggies. She liked it a lot, but wanted more shrimp.

They also sprinkle grated fresh cheese on it w/o asking. Luckily, I stopped them before they put it on dd15's. Cheese was good. I'm so hungry now!
You also got a yummy breadstick.

Sadly, DH felt sick to his stomach and could not eat dinner. We had way too
much food leftover! The kids could only eat half of their bowl. Also, forgot to mention, we had real silverware and real plates/bowls at AOA. The plates are not heavy though. Maybe they are like corelleware?

For dessert, I had my receipt stamped for choc. gelato which was heavenly. It was in a small cup and not a large portion, but I couldn't finish it. The girls got marshmallows dipped in choc. and sprinkles which were on mickey straws. There were not a huge amount of desserts to pick out at AOA, but there was a bakery section like at POP. No ice cream parlour, just the gelato.

There was a CM from research there asking people to do a food survey on some laptops they had there, but we declined b/c we were heading back to DHS. We took the buses from AOA. I think there was only one other family on it.

We stayed for the late show of Fantamic! and got back to POP at 11:30. DH felt fine by then and was hungry! A lot of stations were closed, so he just got a turkey sub out of the fridge, banana bread, and milk. It was ok, just like anything you would get from a grocery store. I feel bad he missed the pasta bowls!

This was a great day of dining. I thought the pasta bowls were as good as something I would get at a TS and they took less time to get.

 

[FirstMagic]

I'm enjoying your QS reviews! That was a good idea to split the meals.

Writing a report like this does help the Disney blues and brings back memories, it is also a nice "souvenir" of your trip!

 

[nebo]

Day 3- EPCOT


Lunch- La Cantina 1PM
This was one of my favorite places this trip. My DH went to get us more fastpasses for soarin and the girls and I ordered food at an outside station. I got ready to pay using my meal credits and ooops I don't have my KTTK card and I wasn't going to use cash! It was embarassing, but I had to tell the cashier to cancel my order.

so funny how you plan to the max, but with little things like this, the nickel just doesn't drop in!!! sounds like something I would do.. OK honey you go get the fastpasess (give him my KTTK) I'll get the meal...DOH!
(nope on 2nd thought, that wouldn't happen cause I am ALWAYS the FP runner)DINNER-Sunshine Seasons 5:15 PM


We ordered:
DH and I - 2 Sweet and Sour Chicken with Jasmine rice- it was just ok, I would not get it again. It has a lot of sauce and not enough meat.
DD15-Spicy Cashew Chicken with rice- ok, but too spicy for her
The portions for both of these entrees were so small compared to what they used to be and were barely enough for 1 person. Also, in the good ole days you used to get an entree and two sides. I remember when 2 meals was enough for all 4 of us! And where are the egg rolls?

I actually remember when you got 2 entrees and 2 sides!! (we would split one CS credit)nebo and I tried to get them to put one entree and one side on one plate, and the other entree and side on another.. no go. she just couldn't grasp the concept. so the fork that had been in MY MOUTH might have touched some of Nebo's entree)

I love the desserts at SS and the air conditioning, but the food has gone downhill.

we actuall really like the pork chops meal at sunshine seasons!!


!

thanks again!

 

[smidgy]

ok, this is really smidgy here. nebo did'nt log off again!!!
******************
They had odwalla drinks in the fridge, dd15 was happy with that.

************what the heck is odwalla?

gee, you should have asked us all first what we wanted you to order! I wanted to find out about the tandoori meals with naan bread.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

Don't worry, I will be reviewing the tandoori meal in my next installment- our day at AK and dinner again at AOA. Also will be reviewing lunch at the pepper market buffet.

Now that I think about it, I do remember getting 2 entrees and 2 sides at SS long ago.

Odwalla is a bottled drink of different flavors. It is like a smoothie yogurt drink.

 

[KELLY]

Thanks for your latest review. I'm not a huge pasta person. Did they have make your own salad at AOA? If they have that I may have to make the walk over one time.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

It says they do have the salad on the all ears dining menus, but I don't remember seeing it but it was probably there. We weren't looking for salads.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

Time for another dining review! Sorry, I've been busy! We had friends here this weekend and went to the lake yesterday.

DAY 5- Animal Kingdom

Breakfast- We ate at POP, again. We were getting a little bit tired of it by now and decided that maybe we would go to AOA for breakfast sometime. I had a french toast platter with turkey bacon and it was very good. I think this is the day I figured out they had turkey meats. The french toast was just like you would get at a diner, they pieces were thin, just reg. bread. They would put powered sugar on it if you wanted. I ate this whole meal myself since it was small and I was hungry. My younger daughter had a mickey waffle with bacon. DH and dd15 joined us a little later and I don't know what they had. A few receipts are missing.

We headed over to AK and decided we would go here for lunch b/c it was so hot:
Lunch- Pepper Market at Coranado Springs Resort- 1:30 PM

We did want to eat at Flame Tree but the temps were getting high and it was humid. I did not want to eat outside. Unfortunately, it took us almost an hour to get to CSR. We waited 20 min. for a bus and then the first stop was Blizzard Beach. The family was cranky and hungry by the time we got to CSR. But they were surprised and excited about the buffet. The first thing DH said as we walked in was " are you sure this is a QS place"? Yes, it is, I've done my research on the dis! You are seated and drink orders are taken. DH and I had iced tea and the girls had lemonade. The decor is very pretty and there were lots of stations of food. I did ask the server if it was true that the food would be taken away at 2PM. She said yes, they( the workers) had all been there since early in the morning and wanted to go home. HMMM, this doesn't sound like a Disneyish response! I read on here later that the restaurant is not run by Disney so that explains it. They had a small salad bar, sandwiches, mexican foods ( dd said her quesadilla was yummy) and some really fresh churros. There were kid friendly foods, too, like pizza, fries, and a pasta with meat sauce. Cookies, rolls, and muffins were in the bakery section. Oh, and a small ice cream and toppings area. I didn't really like the fish and meats here, but DH said the carved meats were good. The sides were delicious and included smashed potatoes and some kind of mexican corn. Our bill came to 72.38 and was it nice to know it was FREE!

We looked around in the gift shop and also went outside by the lake for a few minutes. We've stayed here before and I like it but it sure looked spread out compared to POP. I also went into the cafe rix to fill up our water bottles. It's really small inside. I do want to stay here again, but I don't like the fact that PM is a buffet for breakfast and the cafe doesn't have many choices of food.

It was nice to go to an air conditioned place and eat leisurely. It felt like at table service buffet. Except for characters, there wasn't much difference.

We went back to AK and left right at 7. I was sad that all the QS places were closed. I really wanted to try the honey chicken at Yak and Yeti. The girls both had some fruit icee drink for 2 snack credits.

Dinner-AOA- 8 PM
DH had the portuguese sausage, tandori bread, squash,and some rice(?). He said the food looked very fancy but was nothing special. DD15 had the custom burger and really liked the angus beef. She said it was the best burger she had ever had. DD11 had the surf and surf burger. I was hesitant about letting her get this. It is a crab cake topped with popcorn shrimp on a bun. I tasted it and it was gross, but she loved it! They both got house seasoned fries but didn't really eat many. I just picked a little of everyone's meal b/c I just wasn't that hungry. Our desserts were the four little cupcakes, and two gelatos. Gelato was good again. I think it was banana and chocolate.

I did the online survey at AOA about the dining. I thought maybe they would ask for my email and that would help me get a code, but they did not. The staff at AOA were again really nice and friendly and since there were few customers in there, they told us a lot about the meals. My dd15's burger took a long time to arrive. I think they didn't have much that was ready to go b/c they weren't getting many customers.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

DAY 6- EPCOT

Breakfast at POP 8:30-
Nothing much to say about this breakfast except that the crowds in the food court were much thicker today. I guess more schools were out and more people had arrived over the weekend ( it was a Monday). We got a bagel, bounty platter, pancake with bacon and drinks.

Lunch- Lotus Blossom and Yorkshire Fish 12:45

It was really hot this day ( 90's ) but dd15 really wanted to eat at Yorkshire Fish and Chips. DH took the girls there and I went to lotus blossom b/c I did not want anything greasy.

They ordered 2 fish and chips meals, 2 lemonades and 2 sugar cookies ( I don't think there was any other dessert to get). DD15 said the fish was fresh ( she was going to ask for some just made but that is what they had). There were 2 pcs. and some thick cut chips. The fish is fried, but not overly greasy. It wasn't quite enough food for all three of them b/c the fish was a smaller portion than they expected. However, the sugar cookies were huge and not prepackaged!

I walked to China for my meal and the sun was so intense! I ordered orange chicken which was very good and had a lg. portion. I also had iced tea and an apple egg roll which was not on the menu. It was apple pie filling in an egg roll and I think some sugar on top. I ate some of my meal there b/c I was too hungry and tired from the heat to go all the way back to England. Finally I left and the sun was really draining me walking over there. I gave the rest of my meal to DH. Of course, it was not cold food b/c of the heat!

Later in the day the girls each had a caramel square from the Karmel Kuche in Germany. It was one of their favorite snacks and very fresh! The line was kinda long but we didn't mind being in the air conditioning.

Dinner Sunshine Seasons- 7:15

I really wish we had just eaten at POP. This was a bad night of food for us and my worst meal.

We had just been on Soarin and wanted to stay in air conditioning so we just ate at SS. The food platters displayed looked really good but most are not. DD11 and DH each had a reuben pannini which was ok, but the hot potato salad with it was not . There were no other side choices. I had the rotisserie chicken dinner. The chick was ok, but a very small portion of a breast and wing. There was not much meat. The side was black beans and yellow rice and I was looking forward to it b/c I had those sides at CBR a few years ago. They were terrible. I don't know what kind of spice they put on it, but I could not eat it. I couldn't even tell you what it was except it was kinda bitter.
I used to love SS, but I don't think I will be going back.

DD and I got Mickey bars (yum) and dh had a apple crunch cake.

DD15 did not want to eat there (wise choice). We walked over to lotus blossom and she got the beef rice bowl. The beef was good but she just wasn't hungry and the portion was large so we ended up throwing out about 2/3 of it. For dessert she ordered the apple egg roll and saved it for later.

I didn't enjoy my food very much on this day. One of the factors was that the temps had gone up so much.

Next up to review will be AOA for breakfast, Captain's Cook, Pecos Bill and using up snack credits.