Great Googly Moogly! Aug 16-23 DDP nearly whupped us!

[ajk912]

I agree that Tusker House wasn't anything to write home about. It was fun to do once, probably won't do it again. We didn't quite have the same experience at Le Cellier. For us, it's a "do it once but never again" type of place. Love the review!

 

[ajsmommy1129]

Great job! Can't wait for the Marrakesh review, we are thinking about booking there for September.

 

[butiflfeet]

Restaurant Marrakesh is on my list to try one day. I'm looking forward to your review!

 

[loveDmouse]

Thanks for the reviews.

 

[Tatania]

Am really enjoying the reviews. Were you using snack credits for the breakfasts and did that mean leftover DDP?

 

[PigletsPal2]

I'm really enjoing this thread; we live in Mickey's back yard (garden to you, I guess ), but don't eat many meals in the parks when we go. If you liked Kona Cafe for dinner, you'll LOVE it for breakfast - Tonga (french) toast, an enormous fruit platter (served in a half pineapple!), huge moist tasty muffins, and best of all, KONA coffee - the best in the world IMO. Our favorite breakfast is pineapple macadamia pancakes, no syrup necessary. OK, now I'm salivating; I think it's Kona Cafe for breakfast tomorrow!

Queen Colleen

 

[mmcguire]

Am really enjoying the reviews. Were you using snack credits for the breakfasts and did that mean leftover DDP?

Thanks! Twice we used our lunch desserts for pastries at the Pepper Market bakery. We also paid OOP one day, and used snack credits to get pastries a couple of days. One morning we ate some crackers & other snacks we brought from home, and we used a TS for breakfast at the Tusker House one day. We did end up with 7 snack credits left on our last day, but we used them to get a bunch of goodies for our 10 hour drive home.

 

[mmcguire]

Friday morning we didn't have any breakfast pastries, so we just ate some junky stuff we had brought to snack on in the car. Such delicacies as peanut butter crackers, oatmeal cookies, and pine nut hummus with pita chips (I told you, DH and I LOVE LOVE LOVE hummus - even for breakfast). As you can see, we had an elegant gourmet breakfast. I know you are all jealous.

At MK, we had an early (11:30) lunch at Cosmic Ray's since we had an early dinner reservation at Marrakesh. I decided to get a bacon double cheeseburger since I'd not had a burger the whole time we'd been at WDW. DS and DD also got burgers. DH walked around all the Bays, trying to decide what to get, but once he saw our burgers, he caved and got one too. I loaded my burger up with sauteed mushrooms, onions, mayo, lettuce, tomato and cheese sauce. I also got a little cup of cheese sauce for my fries. We all had the chocolate cake, except DS, who got carrot cake. The burgers were really good and huge. They came with a large side of fries, which were also good. The desserts were the pre-packaged little cakes, but they were tasty and moist. I was afraid the cake would be dry, but not at all. We all love Cosmic Ray's, and go there every time we visit WDW. We all agreed it's our favorite counter service place in all of the parks.

We hung around MK until the end of the 3:00 parade, then hopped the monorail over to Epcot. We rode SE one more time, then went over to the World Showcase and visited various countries until our dinner time. We checked in at 4:45 and were seated right around 5. We had a table near the back, right beside the dance floor and musicians. The restaurant was a lot lighter than I expected it to be -- I always pictured it as being a dark, cozy restaurant, but it wasn't at all. It was big and airy with very high ceilings, and was ornately decorated.

The server was good, but not as friendly as the servers we'd had at Le Cellier or Tutto Italia. She took our drink orders, then brought us some tasty bread and butter. Marrakesh has some unusual beverages that are included on the DDP. Moroccan Sunrise, which is pineapple, strawberry juice, and orange water, and Watermelon Delight Fruit Cocktail - Watermelon, cranberry juice and orange water. Two of us got the Morroccan Sunrise, and one got the watermelon drink, and they were both very tasty.

DH ordered the salmon, which was a TINY piece of fish, and barely had anything to accompany it. DS got the beef couscous, which had nice chunks of beef and what looked like stew vegetables. I got another type of beef couscous that had raisins and almonds in it -- it was a huge serving and luscious. I gave DH some of my couscous, and DS gave him his vegetables so that he would have enough to eat. DD got the chicken fingers (surprise!), and she ate some of them. DH finished off her chicken fingers.

While we ate, the belly dancer came to our table and took DD out onto the dance floor with her. She danced alone with her for several minutes, then several other children joined them. It was very cute and made for some good pictures.

For dessert, DH and DS got the bastilla, which was large pieces of crispy pastry, covered with a vanilla sauce and sprinkled with sliced almonds. It was tasty, and came as a huge portion that covered a dinner-sized plate. I ordered the Moroccan Symphony, which was a complete joke next to the bastilla. The menu describes it as "assorted pastries", but there was nothing assorted about it -- it was just a single, normal size piece of baklava, and could be called "pastries" only because it had been cut into three tiny pieces, each about the diameter of a quarter. I was a little miffed about it, but DH and DS's desserts were so huge that they shared with me, and we all had plenty. If I had paid OOP, I definitely would have sent it back -- no way would I have paid $6.00 for a piece of baklava that I could get for $2 at the Greek diner at home.

DD had the ice cream, and Marrakesh had a better selection than most places -- she got mint chocolate chip, and it was good.

All in all, we enjoyed the ethnicity and uniqueness of Marrakesh, but it's not high on our "must do" list when we return. It felt a little cold and impersonal, and didn't give us the warm, welcome feeling we got at Kona, Le Cellier and Tutto Italia.

Later on, we went to Boulangerie Patisserie in France with the intention of getting something for breakfast the next day. Everything looked so delicious and sinful, and the best looking pastries were all creamy or covered with icing, and would never had survived the night. Instead, we all picked out something and got it in a box for later. After we watched British Invasion and got caught in a sudden downpour, we sat down on a bench to reward our steadfastness with our French pastries.

DH and I both got the Napoleons. Hands down, best dessert of the entire trip -- so delicious and delicate! I was thankful that I once read a tip on eating Napoleons without mangling them -- you turn it on its side and eat it that way so you don't smoosh all the filling out from between the layers by trying to drive your fork down through the crisp pastry. That worked perfectly, and I was able to enjoy pastry and filling in every bite without turning it into a unrecognizable pile of mush.

DS got a cream horn (the cream looked to be a Bavarian cream not your run-of-the-mill white yuck cream found at the supermarket). He enjoyed it, and said he'd get it again. DD got a strawberry tart, which she was able to eat about half of. Sadly, DH and I took one for the team and finished for her. It was a tough job, but we stepped up. The strawberries were all plump and perfectly ripe, and sat on a layer of delicous vanilla custard, nestled in a tiny flaky pie pastry. Yum!

Boulangerie Patisserie was one we have somehow managed to miss over the years, but it is definitely on our list of must-do's from now on. And since we now own DVC at the Beach Club Villas, it will be easy for us to get pastries here and run them over to the room and stick them in the fridge for the next day. Mmmm mmm! Can't wait!

Last but not least: Breakfast at Pepper Market, and leftover credits for the road.

 

[DoBug]

You have made my day! I love lemoncello (limoncello sp?). and to make it into a slushie - life can't get better than that!

so cool I am learning such great stuff from you - where to find limoncello slushies and how to eat a Napoleon!

keep it up!

 

[mmcguire]

Our last morning we spent some time by the pool/hot tub early, then headed over for breakfast at Pepper Market. We all had a quick service credit left, plus we had one extra from our first day that wasn't used. DH, DS and I all got the breakfast platter with scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, sausage and a biscuit. DD got the Mickey waffle from the kids station, which also came with juice and some fruit.

I don't know WHAT I was thinking, but I was craving a bagel, so I also blew a snack credit on a poppy seed bagel, and I went to the condiments table and snagged 2 squares of cream cheese and 2 packets of blackberry jam. The platter was very good, but after I saw how much food there was, I knew the bagel & its friends would be going to the car with us as a delicious snack for later.

Since we had breakfast so late, we were there when they switched over to lunch, so DH ordered an individual pizza to go with our last quick service credit. That took a little while to prepare.

Since the bakery set-up at the Pepper Market had proven to be very inefficient all week, we decided to go to Cafe Rix to use our remaining snack credits. To briefly describe the bakery set-up, there was only one person getting baked goods for everyone at PM. None of the ladies we saw was able to reach the items on the back couple of rows of the very large display case, so they would have to walk all the way around to the back of the case, then come back around to the front if someone wanted one of the items toward the back. There always seemed to be a line, and none of the bakery ladies was breaking any speed records. One held an extended conversation with a guest while several people waited, and one day, the bakery lady walked over to the podium to talk with the PM greeters while people were waiting to be served.

One interesting thing we saw that morning was that someone apparently ditched out on paying for their meal. The manager was kind of pacing around up front with a card that had quite a few stamps on it. He seemed a little irritated, and I then saw him walk around and ask several of the servers about the card; I guess trying to figure out where the dine-and-dashers had been sitting before they made a run for it.

As we were checking out at PM, I spied the brick-sized rice krispie treats next to the cash register, and got two for the road. At Cafe Rix, we used the remaining credits to load up on snacks to enjoy on the ride home -- chocolate croissants, big chocolate chip & M&M cookies, and we also got 3 big flaky fruit pastries, which we ate for breakfast at home the next day (they held up great).

We had so many snacks that we didn't even have to stop to eat on the way home! We just got drinks whenever we stopped for gas, and nibbled on our snack credit booty the rest of the time. DH and I shared the bagel with cream cheese & blackberry jam about an hour into our journey, and the pizza made a good little lunch snack for the four of us. It was really good, even being cold. I was kind of surprised at that, having heard poor reviews about the quality of pizza at WDW. I don't know if PM's pizza is the exception, but I would get it again. The crust was crispy/chewy, and the toppings were plentiful and yummy.

The rice krispie treats were our next snack victims (very good -- how can you mess up a rice krispie treat?), and our final snack on our 9.5 hour drive were the chocolate croissants and cookies. Everything was delicious, although DS complained that the croissants didn't have enough chocolate in the middle, but it was so dark and rich that I think much more would have been way too sweet.

All in all, we enjoyed our first experience with the DDP, and are already debating on whether to do it again on our upcoming trip in June 2009. We have 5 others joining us, so it will have to be a joint decision. I hope they all want to so we can go back to some of our new favorites!!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Thanks, I got worried there for a second, since I have a few pre-park opening breakfasts.

I would not count on the early morning buses, we were at our bus stops at 7am and the buses did not get there until 20 minutes of 8am! Put us late for breakfast ressies twice, from now on we cab it