Grand Gatherings & more! 1 year of Disney Dining! Illuminations Grand Gathering 5/26

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Tammy! These look yummy! I'm going to have to try some of these in August! I'm going to make a section in my notebook just for snacks and where they are located!

Check out my Snack Thread! You would be surprised at all the good stuff you can get! It used to be a lot better...now they took away a lot of the good stuff.

Love your DR, thanks for sharing!

Thank you. Much more to come...

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Garden Grill.....our families favorite! We were all very sad to see Lunch disappear! How could they? We always had lunch here. Once again this is one we had to share with my parents and sister. The character interaction is THE BEST out of any WDW restaurant! You get to see Pluto

Farmer Mickey

And Chip n Dale. They used to dress like farmers too but now they look like this...

Normally this restaurant spins slowly while you eat but on this visit it was broken. We've eaten here at least a half a dozen times and it's always been realy good. Sometimes the service is okay, other times it superb but I've never dealt with anyone bad. The food is always great! I always order my steak medium well and ask for crispy friend catfish (sometimes it's a little "soft") and they are always happy to do it. We've never left hungry or unsatisfied! I prefer a table on the bottom level. I forgot to ask for it last time but the upstairas table we had was okay since it was two pulled together. The booths are just better. When we get in a booth the characters sit with us, hang out, draw pictures...things like that. The kids love it!

Dinner starts w/ a salad...

Some bread....w/ the BEST honey butter in the World!

The family style platter...all you can eat of course!

And potatoes

Again if you want more Garden Grill details look back a little. There's more in an earlier post. I wanted to add a picture so you could see how things were when we went. It was December 17th, 2008 when I took this at dinner time. Epcot was like a ghost town!

As long as this one sticks around we'll be there! It never disappoints!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Tusker House breakfast...Another family favorite. Wide variety of food. Something for everyone! The characters are a lot of fun here. It can be loud and it's always busy when we go but it's a must do for us! It's one of our favorite character meals!

If you want to see more details of the food look back to our first Tusker House review. It shows the buffet. In this post it's pretty much characters only. How cute are they!?

Here you can sort of see the food on the table...

Donald

Mickey

Daisy

Goofy

 

[tchrrx]

Where in Morocco did you buy the pastries? I love Marrakesh, but we aren't eating there this year. I would love to have a pastry though. Thanks!

 

[lisalonglash]

I so look forward to your updates - wonderful, as always

So, when I try to plan our ADRs for our trip in September, can I run the list past you? I know next to nothing about the table service restaurants really

 

[tchrrx]

OT- But, do you think that you can share your Dad's pulled pork recipe. I found one online, but it didn't turn out that great. Thanks!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Where in Morocco did you buy the pastries? I love Marrakesh, but we aren't eating there this year. I would love to have a pastry though. Thanks!

They are inside the place where you get your counter service. I forget the name of that place but they have a bunch of things in there to choose from.

I so look forward to your updates - wonderful, as always

So, when I try to plan our ADRs for our trip in September, can I run the list past you? I know next to nothing about the table service restaurants really

For sure! I'm planning August right now too. We're doing deluxe dining again. We plan to try a lot of new places too. Can't wait. Think about the kinds of places you will like. Character meals? Some people hate them, others love them. Where do you want to eat? Epcot has the biggest selection of all the parks but you wont find a cool drive in movie theatre there. (Sci Fi is wonderful) The food is okay but it's not about the food there...it's the atmosphere. For my parents I planned a lot of buffets/all you can eat places. For us we like a mixture of both. I leave for WDW in one day! When I get home I will start posting menus.

OT- But, do you think that you can share your Dad's pulled pork recipe. I found one online, but it didn't turn out that great. Thanks!

I would love to...but it's in his head. No matter what he configures it's always delish. The pork he cooks the same way but the sauces...he does a vinegar based mustard sauce...a super spicy "so hot it lights you on fire" sauce....he makes about 30 different kinds! People have told him forever to open up his own restaurant.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Hi guys! I took a little break and went to WDW March 4th through the 12th. I'll have a bunch of new stuff to add from that trip pretty soon. For now I'm going to go ahead and finish up December. Next up ~

Pepper Market at Coronado Springs ~ This is a gorgeous resort! We stayed here once two years ago. They are in the process of being refurbed right now and the new rooms are gorgeous! This has some people calling it the new "deluxe" resort. I definitely want to check it out again!

I had the chicken and pasta. It was very very good! Enough for two people to share really! The chicken was so tender and the sauce had a great flavor.

My parents had the steak. They said this was the best counter service meal they had.

And these were the desserts. These were heavenly. They have a huge selection of desserts to choose from!

Everything was great. The service was good too. The night we ate here it was very slow! It was us and two other tables in the entire place. I'd totally eat here again!

If you guys want to check out my entire December report or the brand new March trip report you can find them here...

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2044727

Those are updated all the time. This thread tends to go at a much slower pace.

 

[danalee]

Glad your back with more!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Glad your back with more!

Thanks! This March we even ventured outside of the gates. I'll be telling you guys all about that soon! Thanks for sticking around!

 

[CharacterFan]

Thanks! This March we even ventured outside of the gates. I'll be telling you guys all about that soon! Thanks for sticking around!

There's food outside of the gates? I thought it was just that "other park" and the depressing airport.

I can't wait to read more

 

[dmaz]

Great reviews - making me reconsider some of our upcoming choices. Trying to decide between Teppan-Ido, Garden Grill and The Wave.
We will we on the reg dining plan this Aug and planning on some of your choices - 'Ohana(D), Tusker House(L), Chef Mickey's(B),Tutta Italia(D), Le Cellier(D) and 'Ohana(B).
Love your idea of a year of dining - only wish we were able to do the same
Can't wait to read more!

 

[annie1995]

How the heck did I miss this??!! I am so in!!! I have lots of catching up to do tonight!!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

There's food outside of the gates? I thought it was just that "other park" and the depressing airport.

I can't wait to read more

Well, yeah. Most of it is pretty bad but there is food out there.

Great reviews - making me reconsider some of our upcoming choices. Trying to decide between Teppan-Ido, Garden Grill and The Wave.
We will we on the reg dining plan this Aug and planning on some of your choices - 'Ohana(D), Tusker House(L), Chef Mickey's(B),Tutta Italia(D), Le Cellier(D) and 'Ohana(B).
Love your idea of a year of dining - only wish we were able to do the same
Can't wait to read more!

Teppan Edo is wonderful! It's the best place for steak and my kids LOVE it!? I never thought that would become one of their favorites but whatever. We also love Garden Grill...the food (if you like that menu) is superb. (And the characters are so much fun here...I have a LOT more pics in the trip reports if you wanna see more). The Wave we never tried but I did go in last month. The walkway is really neat but the menu did not sound good at all to me.

Did you know even with free dining you can upgrade to deluxe and pay the difference? That's what we do. That way you get three nice meals each day about anywhere you want them. It makes the shows (2 credits) easier to swallow and CRT. You've made some excellent choices in your planning!

How the heck did I miss this??!! I am so in!!! I have lots of catching up to do tonight!!

Where have you been? Glad to have ya back!

 

[TigerKat]

Thanks! This March we even ventured outside of the gates. I'll be telling you guys all about that soon! Thanks for sticking around!

Oooohhhhh, can't wait!

 

[disneyquilter]

I am so in for more food pics!!

 

[Goofy22]

Those food pics look great! I better not look to much1 I'll be changing my adr's all over again! Even though that may happen when park hours are released!

 

[Busymom85]

Great reviews and pictures. Thank you for posting.

 

[dmaz]

Did you know even with free dining you can upgrade to deluxe and pay the difference? That's what we do. That way you get three nice meals each day about anywhere you want them. It makes the shows (2 credits) easier to swallow and CRT. You've made some excellent choices in your planning!

As I was reading I was wishing for DXDp but we are going under the 4/3 at the Poly. Its almost $700 cheaper for us than free dining. We are a family of 5, like you, only our kiddos are between 3-8yrs old. First trip that we have to pay for all 5 - boy was that a sticker shock.

Glad to hear you approve of my plans
Can't wait to read more!

 

[annie1995]

Question for you!

The potatoes from Garden grill, did they change? From your earlier pic they look like cheesy hashbrowny type, then your Dec pic looks like mashed taters. Love the pics, and your kids are adorable as ever!!!