Graduation and Birthday Celebration!

[ginalmarie]

Oh no!! I am so sorry about your luggage. What a pain to deal with on your vacation.
Also, sorry your food hasn't been that great so far. I hope it goes up from here!

The food gets SO MUCH BETTER!

 

[princess aleya]

A few weeks ago, K and I reserved seats at AMC Fork & Dine for the Maleficent midnight premiere on May 29. This was unfortunately the same night that we discovered our baggage was missing, so we weren't able to enjoy the experience as much as we would have liked.

AMC's Fork & Dine is a very interesting experience. You give your ticket stub to the front desk like at any other movie theater, and then they direct you to what theater you will be dining at. Each ticket is a specific seat, so K and I knew exactly where to sit.

It is incredibly dark in the theater, so much so that I had extreme difficulty taking pictures.

This was basically our visibility throughout the meal.

You take a seat in your theater/dining seat, and you have the option of reclining a few inches backwards, or leaning the chair straight up so you can eat at the table. In theory Fork & Dine is awesome, but the execution of eating in the dark attempting to watch a movie wasn't graceful or enjoyable.

If you can figure out a way to actually SEE the menu, and if you determine you're willing to order an overpriced menu item, you must push the button that is on the ledge in front of your counter space. We pressed the button and it lit up the color red, I believe. It took a good 15 minutes for someone to come take our order.

I couldn't get any pictures of the food- but K got a Classic Cheeseburger at $9.99 and a Sprite for about $4.00. They were all very basic and overpriced, and I didn't feel the need to order anything. The burger was apparently tasty, but I personally thought the fries were disgusting. I normally enjoy a good fry, but these were left uneaten.

The uneaten food and plates were left on the table for the remainder of the meal, and we got our bill after the movie ended and the credits began rolling. By the time our credit card was used to charge us, most people had already exited the theater.

The Verdict

Food: 3/5
Service: 4/5
Atmosphere: 3.5/5

I don't think I'd ever want to go to Fork & Dine again. It was costly, confusing, and just overall not as fun as I thought it would be. I like to look at my food before/during/and after I eat it. I also believe that going to a movie theater while at Disney World is a waste of time, as I'd rather be doing other fun things in Downtown Disney.

Up Next: Tusker House

I have to agree with you, while I do enjoy going to the movies. There are many other things I enjoy doing while at Disney and I still find myself not having enough time to do it all!! So going to the movies is not an option for us while we are there..LOL

 

[ginalmarie]

I have to agree with you, while I do enjoy going to the movies. There are many other things I enjoy doing while at Disney and I still find myself not having enough time to do it all!! So going to the movies is not an option for us while we are there..LOL

I'm glad we had the opportunity to see Maleficent in Disney but other than a Disney premiere, I don't see myself wasting time at a movie theater in DTD.

 

[ginalmarie]

K and I were at Animal Kingdom for our reservation at 8:00AM, and we were able to walk past all of the families and groups that were waiting for the 9:00AM park opening. It was absolutely amazing to walk through Animal Kingdom when it's empty, and I highly recommend people who want to go to Tusker House for breakfast to make a reservation before the park opening!

I didn't know what to expect when I walked into Tusker House on Friday morning. Before we even got into the restaurant, we got our photos taken (which they would later attempt to sell to us for $35!). The check-in was outside of the restaurant, but still had really awesome theming.

Here's a picture of K and me that they took with my camera. They had a similar photo they tried to sell me in a carboard frame.

This lovely woman Taylor gave us a brief tour of Tusker House, and brought us to our table. She continued to stop by our table to talk and give us fun facts about the restaurant throughout the meal- it was such a nice and personal touch. Taylor told us that when we're at Disney, we should always "look up." She then showed us a tribute to one of the Imagineers who created Tusker House.

When we sat down at our table, we were immediately given Jambo Juice. K loved it, and drank both of our glasses. I personally thought it was a glass full of heartburn, so I didn't drink more than a few sips. I found that every time the waitresses would clear the table, they would pile glasses of full Jambo Juice onto their dirty dish tray. It seems like a lot of the juice is wasted- perhaps they should ask the customers if they'd like to try a glass of Jambo Juice rather than automatically just placing it in front of every customer.

Jambo Juice

This was our first ever character breakfast, and we weren't sure what to expect in regards to meeting the characters. We ended up meeting Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy! They were all super fun, and took time to acknowledge us.

The food was very basic: eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, fruit, pastries, breads, and... rice?

My first and only plate of food- nothing was spectacular enough to get a second helping of.

K's plate- she loved everything on it. I've discovered her weakness is Mickey Mouse waffles.

The Verdict

Food: 4/5
Service: 5/5
Atmosphere: 5/5

The food was average- I felt the eggs weren't cooked too well, and the potatoes were incredibly salty. However the food was cooked in bulk, and you can't have incredibly high expectations.

The service and atmosphere will keep me coming back for years to come. The servers constantly checked up on us, and would continuously come by to take our picture when the characters came around. Even our host who simply brought us to the table continued to come by and talk to us and make sure we were enjoying our meal. Fantastic service and beautiful atmosphere.

Another aspect that will keep me coming back is the fact that we got into the park before everyone else. We missed the wait outside of Animal Kingdom, and were able to experience an empty park. Lots of animals were being fed, and it was overall just quiet and relaxing to walk through.

I loved Tusker House, and plan to go back every year. Just don't expect high quality food when you go!

Up Next: Via Napoli

 

[The Librarian]

Subbing in. Great reviews so far.

I'm a wee bit disappointed that TH menu looks a bit boring (although I love breakfast foods, so boring is still good!).

Can you please let me know what is on K's plate above the bacon. Looks like a bit of banana and then maybe a blintze? I couldn't see what it would be from the menu.

 

[ginalmarie]

Subbing in. Great reviews so far.

I'm a wee bit disappointed that TH menu looks a bit boring (although I love breakfast foods, so boring is still good!).

Can you please let me know what is on K's plate above the bacon. Looks like a bit of banana and then maybe a blintze? I couldn't see what it would be from the menu.

I believe it was a sweet cream crepe? If not a sweet cream then some sort of fruit. It was a good meal, but the experience and atmosphere is absolutely fantastic- there's always place that should go to just because its such a nice time, not necessarily because the food is superb.

 

[The Librarian]

I believe it was a sweet cream crepe? If not a sweet cream then some sort of fruit. It was a good meal, but the experience and atmosphere is absolutely fantastic- there's always place that should go to just because its such a nice time, not necessarily because the food is superb.

Thanks. I love character meals, the food is secondary to me after the "experience". Anyway, I'm excited to try out TH breakfast at our upcoming trip. Glad it was fun.

 

[ginalmarie]

So before my dinner at Via Napoli, we stopped off at Karamell Kuche for a quick treat!

Located near Germany in Epcot's World Showcase, Karamell Kuche is a hidden gem that took me three years to discover (courtesy of DisBoards).

While you wait in line, you can watch the cooks bag caramel corn and cover things in chocolate. It's pretty fun to watch, honestly.

K got the Chocolate Caramel Covered Strawberry, and I got the Chocolate Caramel.

Both were amazing, oh my god! The Chocolate Caramel was so rich, that I could only have a few bites. It's so big, it's meant to be shared or eaten in a couple sittings.

I wish I could have gone back at least one more time, because there's so many amazing options that I would have wanted to try!

The Verdict

Atmosphere: 5/5
Service: 5/5
Food: 5/5

I want to try the chocolate covered pinapple so badly! I want to go back for sure, I'd seriously recommend Karamell Kuche!

Up Next: Via Napoli

 

[ginalmarie]

I'm going to bump this because I'll be adding to this soon! The day I got back from Disney I started working full-time and found that I had no time to do this!

 

[ginalmarie]

I'm not going to lie, I had extremely high expectations coming to Via Napoli after reading many reviews on Disboards. My girlfriend and I were seriously disappointed with our experience here...

We checked in about ten minutes before our reservation, and we waited about 20-30 minutes before being seated. The entry way was busy and crowded and we couldn't find a seat for half of the time.

We were seated finally in a corner beside a window, thank goodness. Other seats were crammed near each other in the middle of the room, and I didn't feel like sitting so close to other people after Planet Hollwood the night before.

We were exhausted from our first day in the parks so we immediately checked out the menu and waited for a glass of water... and waited... and waited. It took about 20 minutes for someone to even bring water, no waiter or waitress came other than a busboy to bring us bread.

The bread tasted stale and chewy, not in a good way.

I noticed while sitting at my seat that the ledge beside my head was covered with dust. It was really gross to think that it hadn't been cleaned in a while. I tried to take a picture as best as I could to show it there. That white stuff you see is all dust. I put my finger through it and my finger was covered with it. It's not something I like to have beside me when I eat...

K's seat had a nice outside view however.

Throughout the night, a nice woman would come and fill our water. Our waiter was very busy- friendly, but busy. He only came to our table to take our orders, check on our food, and give us the bill.

As an appetizer, we ordered fried calamari. It was awesome. You can't really butcher deep fried calamari.

Fried Calamari with spicy marinara sauce, $14.00

We decided to get a large Margharita pizza (to have leftovers) and split that with a bowl of spaghetti. A bowl of pasta and meatballs was $21, so when we ordered just a bowl of pasta, we were expecting a lower price without the meatballs. We were wrong- he charged us the full price. $21 for literally spaghetti with watery tomato sauce... ridiculous.

Spaghetti, $21.00

The large Margharita pizza was big, and decent, but nothing great. I was disappointed, honestly. It was too thin to hold and eat, and the bottom was so burnt it just tasted like charcoal.

Large Margharita pizza, $28.00

The Verdict:
Service: 3/5
Atomsphere: 3/5
Food: 2/5

The total for the Calamari, Pasta, Pizza, and a soda was $70.29. It was a very disappointing meal, and I will never go back. The service lacked, and the food lacked even more.

It was a rocky start food-wise, but it definitely gets better as the days go by!

Up Next: Be Our Guest Lunch

 

[The Librarian]

If it makes you feel better, I wasn't impressed with Via Napoli either. I had seen too many amazing reviews, so I had really high expectations to start with, so maybe that was part of the problem.

I eat at Italian restaurants regularly (Toronto has close to half a million people of Italian descent) and have been to Italy as an adult and never had burnt pizza (at least not intentionally cooked that way) anywhere else except Via Napoli.

Ah well it is good I knocked it off my list of ADRs (did book it initially and then cancelled for something else) since I can't get a reservation now anyway. If I saw that amount of dust I might be busting out of there anyway.

 

[ginalmarie]

Let me start off by saying that I would never wait in line for over ten minutes for a quick-service lunch. Even this. It was a great experience, but the line was so long for people without reservations, and it looked miserable to wait in.

This line went from the entrance of the castle to the way past the gates opening up the entrance to the bridge. It was sooo long!

Anyways, we had a FP+ Reservation, and we literally walked right by everyone to to front of the line. We had pre-ordered, but the food wasn't on file so we had to order again. It wasn't a big deal. Plus, the Rose pager made up for it!

I got the Braised Pork.

Braised Pork, $12.99

I thought that the meal was pretty good, especially for a quick service. The issue was that it was super fatty. I had to get a bunch of napkins to pick the fat out, there was definitely a handful by the end. Otherwise, no complaints about the meal.

K got the Carved Prime Chuck Roast Beef Sandwich.

Carved Prime Chuck Roast Beef Sandwich, $12.49

This was definitely the winner! The toasted bread was spread with a garlic butter, and the sandwich was juicy and delicious.

For Dessert:

Master's Cupcake, $4.19

Triple Chocolate Cupcake, $4.19

Both were standard cupcakes. A little bit dry, but it was nice to have them both filled with cream/frosting to moisten it a bit!

The Verdict
Food: 4.5/5
Service: 4/5
Atmosphere: 3/5

I liked the experience. The meal was great for quick-service, and I think it was a much-needed addition to Magic Kingdom. Again, the lines are absurd for the meal, and it is pretty busy and hectic experience.

The two of us sat at an available table, and a waiter actually made us get up and move to a smaller table (which we had to find), because she said that big tables were for big groups only. It was just a weird experience I guess.


Up Next: Ohana!

 

[ginalmarie]

K and I wanted a cool drink while at Magic Kingdom, so we decided to try Sunshine Tree Terrace. We had a mission to get an Orange Bird drinking cup with Sprite, but it kinda fell through. The line was probably 20+ minutes, with people budging and cutting into different lines (there were three lines total for three registers). It was unorganized and hot hot hot!

When we finally ordered, we got an Orange Bird cup with Sprite and a Raspberry Lemonade Slush in a Tiki Tankard cup.

The slush tasted like pure lemonade, there was no taste of raspberry at all! What the heck! But worstly, there was peices of plastic in the Orange Bird cup that had come off into the drink, and the cap also didn't fit right and the Sprite spilled all over me. I had to wait another 15 minutes in line to trade Orange Bird cups, and it still had plastic inside, yuck.

 

[ginalmarie]

My uncle and aunt are part of the DVC, and go to Disney World all the time. They always gush about Ohana, and I'd never had an opportunity to go before now. This meal was very hyped up, especially because of the many reviews and experiences that I'd read about from many people.

When we went to Ohana, the menu had changed slightly. The menu consisted of:

• 
  Pineapple-Coconut Bread
  Mixed Greens Salad
  Veggie Lettuce Wraps
  Potstickers
  Chicken Wings
  Lo-Mein
  Vegetables
  Steak
  Pork
  Shrimp
  Bread Pudding

Prior to going to Ohana, I had not seen any reviews or info about the lettuce wraps or the lack of chicken, so that was interesting.

We were seated right around our reservation time, and our server was so freaking friendly! There is a server that offers up food, and then someone different who comes and takes plates away and fills your water cups for you.

The food is served quickly, and it really made us flustered because we felt incredibly rushed. Once all of the food was served, we were able to request extra of what we wanted (AKA STEAK STEAK STEAK!)

Pineapple-Coconut Bread: It was dry and basic bread, I didn't want to waste my time on it, honestly.

Mixed Greens Salad: The salad was great! I ate some of it, but I didn't want to get full before the rest of the food. I wish they didn't give such big portions, especially for a table of two!

K got the Lapu Lapu. Holy crap it was strong! We had to pour some out and put some Sprite in to make it a little more drinkable. Normally when a drink is super strong like that, I've found that there's a lot of sugar to not make it taste as strong as it is.

Veggie Wrap: I tried it, but it was cold and was entirely veggies that I'm not a fan of. This went almost entirely untouched. Again, it's sad that they put this out without asking, because we wouldn't have wanted to waste it!

Damn I love Potstickers. These were a little overcooked and a lot oily, but they were still great!

Wings, Lo-Mein, and Vegetables: They were all phenominal, no complaints! The veggies were fresh, the lo-mein was flavored and seasoned well, and the wings were cooked perfectly and coated with a basic teryaki sauce.

Steak: The first round of steak was cooked well done, and difficult to swallow. The second round, however, it was Medium and so delicious. If you don't like the temperature of one stick of meat, just ask for the next one, and it's bound to be a different temp!

Pork: Delicious! It wasn't overcooked as pork normally is, and I was surprised how much I liked it.

Shrimp: This was the LAST thing to come out, by at least fiften minutes. We waited and waited and waited and it never came, until we were literally finished with our meals. That was pretty disappointing, but I liked the shrimp! I don't enjoy peeling it normally, but my hands were already sticky, and I had to at least try it!

Bread Pudding: I normally hate bananas, so when I saw the bananas listed as an ingredient of the meal, I immediately was turned off. But with it sitting right in front of me, I decided to try a bite. Then I had another bite. And another. And another. It was amazing, oh my gosh!


The Verdict
Food:4.5/5
Service:4.5/5
Atmosphere:4/5

Wow! What a gem! Ohana is definitely one of my most favorite dining locations at Disney World. If I had one tip for people going around the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular Fireworks Show, it would be to make reservations at 8:30 at the latest for the 10:00pm showing. We got to Ohana at 9:00pm expecting to get good window seats for the fireworks, but we were unable to do so. The hostess actually told us that people will go around 8:00pm and stall and sit at their tables even when they're beyond done with the meal, so that they can have a nice view.

We sat towards the middle of the restaurant, but we were still able to see the fireworks. Although adults and children alike went right up to the glass windows and stood in front of tables to see the fireworks, which was kind of rude.

Overall, I loved Ohana. The food was spectacular, it just seemed really rushed.


Up Next: Liberty Inn Lunch!

 

[Niki Andiokno]

Nice review so far. Are you going again this year in June? I will be there May 31 through June 7.

Can't wait for more.

 

[ginalmarie]

Nice review so far. Are you going again this year in June? I will be there May 31 through June 7.

Can't wait for more.

Hi there! Thanks! We'll be going back this year May 21-30. Last year June got so hot and crowded. Sadly we're missing Gay Days, but I think we'll enjoy it more!