Half the Calories, All the Fun - A "Healthier" Food-Focused Trip Report (12/2-12/13) RL update 4/10

[mickey916]

Love the look of those grilled veggies! I am unfamiliar with the Riviera Resort….did it used to be called something else?

The Riviera Resort is a DVC resort on the skyliner that opened in Dec. of 2019. It is near the Caribbean Beach Resort and it replaced a section of that resort. It is a very small beautiful resort.

 

[flowergirl45]

The Riviera Resort is a DVC resort on the skyliner that opened in Dec. of 2019. It is near the Caribbean Beach Resort and it replaced a section of that resort. It is a very small beautiful resort.

Ahh I get it now. DVC, generally not on my radar. Thank you for the explanation! Glad the restaurant is open to all!

 

[mickey916]

12/11 One Last Lunch Before Heading Towards Home​

Sadly this was our day to start heading back home. Since our plan was only to drive as far as Santee, SC, 6 hours away, we decided to have one more Disney meal. I booked a lunch ADR at Chef Art Smith’s. We opted to share the Harvest Salad: Mixed greens tossed with fire-roasted red peppers and corn, shredded white cheddar cheese, heirloom cherry tomatoes and house-made balsamic dressing. Topped with grilled chicken, avocado, and hushpuppies. The server offered to split it for us ahead of time. Here’s our two portions:

The salad was excellent and certainly big enough for us to share. The chicken was perfectly cooked, the vegetables fresh and the hushpuppies delicious!

We also ordered a side of cheddar biscuits to share.

These were excellent as well. The biscuits were full of flavor and not at all dried out. Delicious! While this meal may not have been completely dietary, it was certainly much better for us than fried chicken and mac n cheese, our usual go-to items here. We were very satisfied with our choices.

We walked around Disney Springs to make sure we got most of our steps in for the day and then hit the road. We stopped for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse in Pooler, GA just outside of Savannah. We each ordered the Critter Salad, which is usually a favorite of ours. Unfortunately though it just didn’t compare to the salad we just had at Chef Art Smith’s and I didn’t take a picture. It was fine but we both felt like we didn’t enjoy it as much as in the past. We made it to the Fairfield Inn & Suites, Santee, SC for the night.

12/12 Departing South Carolina​

The next morning we hit the road with our next planned stop in Quantico/Stafford, VA. When it was time to stop for lunch DH was feeling like getting a soda and asked me to find a restaurant that had Coke Zero in a Freestyle Machine. I located Moe’s Southwest Grill in Wilson, NC. Ironically the Freestyle Machine was out of order which we didn’t learn until after we purchased drinks. They did fix it though rather quickly. We both ordered the Homewrecker bowl: featuring fresh guacamole, choice of protein (we chose chicken), rice, beans, shredded cheese, shredded romaine, pico de gallo, and sour cream.

We both enjoyed our bowls filled with lots of tasty ingredients. We gave this a B+ and ranked it just above the bowl we got from 4 Rivers Cantina Food Truck. It was quite filling so it ended up being our lunch and dinner. Truth be told, we finished off leftover Gideon’s cake for our actual dinner that night at the hotel.

12/13 The Homestretch​

Since the next morning we were eager to get around the D.C. area, we got up super early and hit the road by 5 am. Traffic was already pretty heavy but moved right along.

Here’s the Washington Monument through our windshield at 6 am.

We stopped for lunch in West Haven Connecticut at a newly opened Chick-Fil-A. What we didn’t realize when we pulled in was that this particular restaurant was take-out/delivery only. There was no indoor seating. There were a few picnic tables outside but it was 28 degrees out so we opted to eat our Market Salads in the car. Not a very glamorous final meal on our trip and the reality that we were back in New England weather was all too apparent.

We made it home safely by the afternoon of December 13. Overall we had a great trip, enjoying all that the holidays have to offer and also enjoying our healthier eating challenge. I will write a few more posts about our rankings of our meals as well as some things we learned about our healthy eating attempts. It was definitely great preparation for our upcoming trip for four weeks, beginning in April.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Is each plate of salad 1/2 a portion? If so, that's one huge salad!

 

[mickey916]

Is each plate of salad 1/2 a portion? If so, that's one huge salad!

Yes! We told the server we wanted to share the salad and they came out with those 2 huge plates!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I loved reading through your trip report! You highlighted so many food items that I’ve never seen on trip reports - thank you for mentioning so many tasty things that I didn’t know about! I’m glad you were able to find a nice balance of healthy things with a few treats.

I’m so impressed with your Christmas decoration touring. I’ve never seen someone so dedicated that they even looked at the All-Star resorts!

I look forward to hearing your final rankings.

 

[mickey916]

I loved reading through your trip report! You highlighted so many food items that I’ve never seen on trip reports - thank you for mentioning so many tasty things that I didn’t know about! I’m glad you were able to find a nice balance of healthy things with a few treats.

Thank you! It was fun reporting about new things!

I’m so impressed with your Christmas decoration touring. I’ve never seen someone so dedicated that they even looked at the All-Star resorts!

Haha! I'm a completionist!

I look forward to hearing your final rankings.

Thanks for reading along, coming soon!

 

[mickey916]

Lessons Learned​

Truth be told, I was nervous about attempting to eat healthier at Disney. Food is such a big part of what we enjoy at Disney World that I was afraid we would feel deprived if we didn’t eat all our usual favorites. However we were both very happy to discover that there were many delicious healthy options to choose from. We didn’t feel like we sacrificed much at all. We still had treats and found many new healthy dishes to enjoy. There were so many benefits to our healthy eating plan that the benefits outweighed any feelings of deprivation.

The benefits were:

1. We tried many new restaurants that we truly enjoyed: Le Creperie, Coral Reef, Sunshine Seasons, The Mara, Contempo Cafe, Primo Piatto (for dinner), 4 Rivers Barbacoa Food Truck, and El Mercado de Coronado.
2. We tried new foods in previous favorite restaurants: Superfoods salad at Captain Cooks, Harvest Salad at Chef Art Smith’s, Saratoga Salad at Artist’s Palette, Grilled Masa Flatbread and Lettuce Bowl at Pecos Bills.
3. We discovered that Quick Service restaurants offer great quality, interesting options, and good value, enabling us to be more flexible without having as many ADRs in addition to saving money.
4. Related to #1-3: I had so many new and different things to write about in my trip report!
5. We felt better! We didn’t end up feeling overly full at our meals (except for the day we got the huge cinnamon pretzel). We didn’t feel bloated and uncomfortable, as so often happens by the end of the trip.
6. We didn’t gain any permanent weight! Typically, depending on the length of our trips, we tend to gain anywhere from 2 to 5 pounds. This time, we each were up less than a half a pound which we lost within a day or two of being home.
7. We had more stamina and didn’t feel like we “ran out of steam” by the end of our long days.
8. We spent $160 less on food, which is remarkable given the price increases from last year to this.

Here’s some stats comparing what we ate on our December 2023 trip versus this trip:

​

​	2023​	2024​
Sweet Treats	28​	20​
Salads	1​	10​
Mac & Cheese/Alfredo/Grilled Cheese	6​	0​
Vegetarian Option	0​	10​
Burger	2​	0​
Fries	2​	0​
Coca Cola	7​	0​
Diet Coke/Coke Zero	7​	6​
Table Service	8​	6​
Quick Service	10​	12​

 

[mickey916]

And now for some rankings...First up, Salad Rankings (We included 2 "bowls" in this list as well). Ranked from Best to Worst

Capt Cooks Superfoods Salad	A
Chick-Fil-A Market Salad	A
Fords Garage Thai Chicken Salad	A
Chef Art Smith Harvest Salad	A
Pecos Bill Caesar Salad with Chicken	A-
Sunshine Seasons Powergreens Salad	A-
Artists Pallet Saratoga Salad	A-
ABC Commissary Mediterranean Salad	A-
Moe's Homewrecker Bowl	B+
4Rivers Burrito Bowl	B
Texas Roadhouse Critter Salad	C+
Coral Reef Caribbean salad	C

 

[Counting Stars]

Really excellent report- very encouraging for those of us who want to enjoy our visits in a more balanced manner. I appreciate the detail you shared and the very helpful pictures. You have given lots of ideas for options to try on our trip coming up. Your rankings and stats are also very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I really enjoyed your report with all the healthier options out there at Disney!
You real do feel better mixing in some salads with other foods on vacation!
I look forward to your next report!

 

[mickey916]

Really excellent report- very encouraging for those of us who want to enjoy our visits in a more balanced manner. I appreciate the detail you shared and the very helpful pictures. You have given lots of ideas for options to try on our trip coming up. Your rankings and stats are also very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Thank you so much for your kind words. Glad to be of help!

I really enjoyed your report with all the healthier options out there at Disney!
You real do feel better mixing in some salads with other foods on vacation!
I look forward to your next report!

Thank you! We were very surprised at how much better we felt. That's incentive enough to try to include more veggies on our next trip!

 

[mickey916]

Here's our sweet treat rankings:

Riviera Cookie	A
Peanut Butter pie	A
Beignets from Scat Cats	A
Ohana bread pudding	A
Peanut Butter Cookie from Sunshine Seasons	A-
Peppermint Brownie sundae from Plaza Ice Cream	A-
Rugelach from L'Chaim	A-
Gideon's Chocolate churro cake	B+
Gideon's Bites	B+
Mickey Chocolate chip cookie from Big Top Treats	B+
Linzer cookie from Bavaria booth	B+
Mini gingerbread bundt cake from End Zone Food Court	B+
Peach Melba Crepe from Le Creperie	B+
Chocolate pudding cake from Yak & Yeti	B
Cinnamon pretzel from El Mercado de Coronado	B
Gideon's Salted Caramel Cake	B
Creme Brulee Croissant from Gaston's Tavern	B
Gideon's cookie butter cake	B-
Sipping Cocoa from the Ganachery	B-
Smore from the Ganachery	C
Gingerbread Funnel cake from Funnel Cake Stand	C
Linzer Cookie Mousse Torte from ABC Commissary	C
Toffee from Holiday Sweets & Treats	D+
Bouche Noel from Marche de Noel	F

As you can see we definitely didn't deprive ourselves of treats. We were very surprised that Gideon's cakes slipped down a bit in our rankings and shocked that the Riviera Cookie took the top spot!

 

[Simba's Mom]

I also really appreciated your report on healthier eating options at Disneyworld. I recently committed to eating healthier since I was diagnosed as pre diabetic. I appreciated knowing how I can continue going to Disney, eat healthier and best of all, benefit from it! Now to put that Harvest Salad from Homecoming on my list for next time! Thanks!

 

[mickey916]

I also really appreciated your report on healthier eating options at Disneyworld. I recently committed to eating healthier since I was diagnosed as pre diabetic. I appreciated knowing how I can continue going to Disney, eat healthier and best of all, benefit from it! Now to put that Harvest Salad from Homecoming on my list for next time! Thanks!

Thank you very much! Best of luck with your healthier eating quest, glad I was able to help!

 

[mickey916]

Here's our rankings of all our lunch spots:

Primo Piatto	A
Chef Art Smith's	A
Fords Garage	A
Pecos Bills	A
Sunshine Seasons	A
Chik-Fil-A	A-
ABC Commissary	B+
The Mara	B+
Jersey Mikes	C
Contempo Cafe	C

We took into consideration food, atmosphere, service and overall experience.

 

[mickey916]

Final Ranking...Dinners!​

'Ohana	A
Sassagoula Floatworks	A
Capt Cooks	A
Le Creperie	A
Tony's	A-
Coral Reef	A-
Yak n Yeti	B

We very much enjoyed all our dinners. Not sure that anything will ever outrank 'Ohana for us. Tony's took a slight ding due to the noise level and not being able to sit on the porch. Coral Reef suffered only in the salad department and Yak n Yeti was fine but service was slow and we didn't choose the tastiest options. Le Creperie was a surprise for us and now on our "must do" list for future trips.

 

[BellaBaby]

Just catching up on your trip report. 12/10 was actually our party night at MK! But we didn't get there until 6 pm, which was a perfect amount of time for us to do everything we wanted, ride Tiana's Bayou for the first time, watch the late parade and leave at midnight. So we just missed you, lol.
We ate at Tony's on 12/12 around 4:00 pm and watched the party goers arrive from the restaurant.
Those salads and the bowl all look delicious!

 

[mickey916]

Just catching up on your trip report. 12/10 was actually our party night at MK! But we didn't get there until 6 pm, which was a perfect amount of time for us to do everything we wanted, ride Tiana's Bayou for the first time, watch the late parade and leave at midnight. So we just missed you, lol.
We ate at Tony's on 12/12 around 4:00 pm and watched the party goers arrive from the restaurant.
Those salads and the bowl all look delicious!

I often wonder how many DisBoards members I cross paths with in the park! Sounds like you had a great party night. It is so fun to watch the party goers arrive from Tony's. Hoping that new policy gets reversed in the future. Initially when we planned our healthy eating quest we both figured that we would have some not-so-great meals but honestly we truly enjoyed all the salads and bowls (with the exception of the Caribbean Salad at Coral Reef, which wasn't bad just nothing special.) Thanks for reading along!

 

[mickey916]

Conclusion:
​

Thank you to everyone for reading along. We are happy to report that this trip showed us that we are capable of making healthy choices, sprinkling in treats, and still having a great time. We are very excited for our 2025 spring road trip. In 2023 we did a grand tour of all of Florida going up and down both coasts including the keys. We spent only a couple days in Orlando for that trip. Last year we revisited some of our favorite spots: Ormond Beach, Cocoa Beach, and Bradenton and we ended up spending 16 days in Orlando. After assessing that trip, we reached the shocking to no one conclusion that our best vacations are in Orlando, so this year we’re planning on spending all of our time there with day trips to places such as Cocoa Beach, Kennedy Space Center, Lake Apopka, and Deleon Springs.

Initially we toyed with going for six weeks beginning in March or April. However after looking at spring break crowd predictions, we finally settled on April 21-May 21. It’s a little shorter than we planned but we just love that time of year in Florida. We will initially be staying offsite at the Residence Inn Flamingo Crossings. Then, our two adult sons are flying down to join us at the end of our trip. With them, we’re booked to spend one night at Portofino Bay for express passes at Universal and then finishing up at the Swan for 7 nights.

I’m coming up on my 60 day marks for booking ADRs and we have a whole bunch of “new to us” places planned. We also have some returning favorites, especially when our sons join us. We are still planning on making healthier choices whenever possible.

Here’s my initial list of Table Service restaurants planned for this trip:

New to us:
Frontera Cocina
Shiki-Sai
Kona Cafe
House of Blues
Amare
Maya Grill
Toothsome (with our sons)

Returning Favorites for us:
Coral Reef
Le Creperie

Returning Favorites with our sons:
Columbia (in Celebration)
‘Ohana
San Angel Inn
Chef Art Smith
Sci-Fi Dine-In (maybe for lunch)
Tony’s Town Square
Il Mulino
Boma (breakfast with our DS-26)
Via Napoli (maybe for lunch)

“See you” on the next trip!