Happily Ever After Begins Here -- An Oct. 2012 TR Updated! 11/17!

[happenin2you]

Mmm.. I'll have to add Citricos to my list of places to eat. I also love Prime Time! The PB&J shakes are to die for!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Finally caught up again! I was stuck in last year. The holidays made me fall waaaaay behind on the DIS again.

Anyway! Loving your report and your food countdown! You know if we ever end up touring the World together we won't have to worry about what each other likes - I'm nodding at every single restaurant you list. Though, I haven't tried Critico's...yet! Franklin's picture of the Corn Dog Nuggets made made me want to reach through my screen at 8 AM and gobble them up! I missed them in October (too busy/distracted touring with first timers), so it's been over a year since I had those nuggets!

Loved your Characterpalooza pictures!!!!!! That is on our list for March! I haven't told Henry that is what happens, I think he'll really get a kick out of seeing all those characters around, and I will too!

 

[teekathepony]

Citricos looks beautiful, I say this a lot but some day I need to try that place.

 

[natebenma]

Finally had a chance to catch up on your trip report/restaurant countdown and I definitely don't want to miss out on a chance to say to Franklin and wish you both a wonderful, magical trip!

So it just occured to me that you will be at BW while the slide at Luna is down. Will you be hiking over to SAB if the weather is nice? Or is pool time not a priority for this (winter) trip?

Back to the food:

Beaches & Cream- I know it is wrong that I have never been (well, except for the trial breakfast). Someday.

Have I asked you for permission to link the restaurant parts of your TR to the BC/FAQ thread? Because I am limited to 25 pictures per post, I don't have nearly the number of Food Porn pictures I want on the dining post. What I have been doing is putting links to dining reports for the resort restaurants so people can read and drool. I would love to put up a link to your Beaches and Cream visit, and Cape May.

Plaza- haven't been. The sandwiches and desserts look amazing. But like you said, it is not the best use of a TS credit, and all of our trips have had the dining plan, so we haven't tried it.

Prime Time- I have been once, Mark and Ben twice. The fried chicken was outstanding, but my, the portion was HUGE!!! I would love to try Mom's favorites! The only antics we experienced were the boys being scolded for using Game Boys and Nate, who was not feeling well, brought in a slice of pizza from Pizza Planet and offended Mom by refusing her cooking.

Citricos- all I'm going to say is if you ever need evidence that Food is Art, you just need to look at the pictures from your meal. Masterpieces!

 

[CandleontheWater]

I can't believe your trip is so close, awesome!

I know I'm a little behind, but I enjoyed your restaurant list, I have to say, I agree with you on all accounts!

I also loved your pics from characterpalooza! Someday I'm going to give it a try. I keep hoping that Everett will get more into the characters, because I think it would be so much fun to do with him!

 

[tallen429]

Missy, if you see this I replied to the PM with my contact info!!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Have a great trip!!!

 

[Missyrose]

Wow, your trip is so soon, I didn't even realize! Loving all the food pics. Yum yum yum.

So soon! Speaking of the trip, I've got to go pack!

Have so much fun on your trip! And Happy Early Birthday to Frank-a-lin!! Enjoy spending your day at Disney!

Thanks Kel! We wish you guys could all fit in our suitcases! I hope Franklin has as much fun at his Disney birthday as Ryan and Jack had.

Mmm.. I'll have to add Citricos to my list of places to eat. I also love Prime Time! The PB&J shakes are to die for!

Can't wait to hear what you think of Citricos!

Finally caught up again! I was stuck in last year. The holidays made me fall waaaaay behind on the DIS again.

Anyway! Loving your report and your food countdown! You know if we ever end up touring the World together we won't have to worry about what each other likes - I'm nodding at every single restaurant you list. Though, I haven't tried Critico's...yet! Franklin's picture of the Corn Dog Nuggets made made me want to reach through my screen at 8 AM and gobble them up! I missed them in October (too busy/distracted touring with first timers), so it's been over a year since I had those nuggets!

Loved your Characterpalooza pictures!!!!!! That is on our list for March! I haven't told Henry that is what happens, I think he'll really get a kick out of seeing all those characters around, and I will too!

You haven't had corndog nuggets in more than a year?!?!?! What the heck happened, you love them!

Henry will love Characterpalooza. It's a bit of a whirlwind, but at the same time, the lines are short and everything is just very casual.

Citricos looks beautiful, I say this a lot but some day I need to try that place.

Yes! You need to try it. The food is as delicious as the restaurant is gorgeous. And it's a perfect place for dinner on an MK day. Quick monorail ride and you're at dinner, then back to the monorail to get back to the park.

Finally had a chance to catch up on your trip report/restaurant countdown and I definitely don't want to miss out on a chance to say to Franklin and wish you both a wonderful, magical trip!

So it just occured to me that you will be at BW while the slide at Luna is down. Will you be hiking over to SAB if the weather is nice? Or is pool time not a priority for this (winter) trip?

Thanks Dee. Now that the weather forecast is looking like it will be around 80 degrees for much of our trip, we definitely might mosey over to SAB for a little lazy river fun.

Back to the food:

Beaches & Cream- I know it is wrong that I have never been (well, except for the trial breakfast). Someday.

Have I asked you for permission to link the restaurant parts of your TR to the BC/FAQ thread? Because I am limited to 25 pictures per post, I don't have nearly the number of Food Porn pictures I want on the dining post. What I have been doing is putting links to dining reports for the resort restaurants so people can read and drool. I would love to put up a link to your Beaches and Cream visit, and Cape May.

Plaza- haven't been. The sandwiches and desserts look amazing. But like you said, it is not the best use of a TS credit, and all of our trips have had the dining plan, so we haven't tried it.

Prime Time- I have been once, Mark and Ben twice. The fried chicken was outstanding, but my, the portion was HUGE!!! I would love to try Mom's favorites! The only antics we experienced were the boys being scolded for using Game Boys and Nate, who was not feeling well, brought in a slice of pizza from Pizza Planet and offended Mom by refusing her cooking.

Citricos- all I'm going to say is if you ever need evidence that Food is Art, you just need to look at the pictures from your meal. Masterpieces!

I still can't believe the chief of the BC thread has never eaten at B&C, do you get demerits on the thread for the transgression?

Of course you have our permission to use whatever you need for the BC thread. We're glad to help.

The Plaza is as good for non-DDP people as it is terrible for people with the DDP. With our Tables in Wonderland card, our meals there end up costing maybe a dollar or two more than a CS meal. A huge win in our eyes!

The food at Citricos was unbelievably gorgeous. They were the type of plates that you felt a little bad taking the first bite because you were destroying the work of art.

I can't believe your trip is so close, awesome!

I know I'm a little behind, but I enjoyed your restaurant list, I have to say, I agree with you on all accounts!

I also loved your pics from characterpalooza! Someday I'm going to give it a try. I keep hoping that Everett will get more into the characters, because I think it would be so much fun to do with him!

Characterpalooza is great for kids (at least the ones that like meeting the characters). So many meet and greet locations have ridiculously long lines and you only get to meet a character or two at the end. At Characterpalooza, there are lots of very short lines and you get to meet a ton of characters, really good bang for your buck!

Missy, if you see this I replied to the PM with my contact info!!

Yay! I'll text you when we arrive tomorrow.

Have a great trip!!!

Thanks!

Hahaha, I just realized how many exclamation marks I used in this post, I think I'm a little excited about tomorrow.


​

 

[Missyrose]

Hi friends! Here we are, the day before Franklin and I head home to Disney. I'm so excited for this trip. We're trying a bunch of new restaurants and we're both really excited about the Keys to the Kingdom tour and the Dine With an Imagineer lunch -- two new experiences for us. But most importantly, I'm so excited to go "home" to Boardwalk for the first time as DVC owners. I'm looking forward to lounging on our balcony, watching the Boardwalk below.

I'll be live tweeting/Facebooking if anyone wants to follow along.

My Twitter handle is @MissyRosenberg

And if you want to friend me on FB, it's facebook.com/missyrosenberg

But before we leave, it's time to give you our top five restaurants...​

​

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Favorite Disney Restaurants

5. Brown Derby

We had our first meal at Hollywood Brown Derby on the October trip. I don’t want give away too, too much about our wonderful meal. And let me tell you, it was wonderful. I’ll give you a sneak peek of two of the most iconic foods you can order there.

The cobb salad was every bit as perfect as everyone has reported.

And the grapefruit cake was unlike any other dessert I’ve ever tried.

Perfectly acidic, with the perfect hint of sweet.

Hopefully this little taste of Brown Derby will leave you hungry for the rest of the meal!

4. Jiko
We were lucky enough to eat at Jiko for the first time as part of the Wanyama (sunset) Safari at Animal Kingdom Lodge. They take a small group of you on a safari truck into each of the different savannas at the lodge and then you come back to the lodge and eat a family style dinner at Jiko. Everything about the safari package was incredible. But one of the best parts was the family style dinner, because that meant we got to try almost everything on the menu! And the food was so, so good. All the African spices were so new to us, but everything tasted so good! Again, I don’t want to give away the whole meal on the countdown, but how gorgeous is the bread service?

I could have seriously made a meal out of that alone!

3. Le Cellier
Oh Le Cellier, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. There’s the cheddar cheese soup.

Oh, and the soup.

And the mushroom filet.

And the soup.

And the pretzel bread.

And the soup.

Oops, that’s what the soup looks like about three minutes after we get it. Here’s the bottom line, everything at Le Cellier is delicious! Seriously, it’s easily one of the best menus in the World.

It typically is on our must-do list, but we skipped it in October. Why in the world would we do that? Because this year at the Food and Wine Festival, the Canada kiosk had both the cheddar cheese soup AND the mushroom filet. So we missed Le Cellier on the last trip, but it is definitely BACK on the list on this upcoming trip. Cannot wait!

2. California Grill

There’s no restaurant in Disney that has a view like California Grill.

But we don’t only visit Cali Grill for the scenery, the food is to die for! Franklin is very much a sushi snob and Cali Grill’s sushi platters are among his favorite ever.

I’ve had wonderful luck with the flatbreads.

And the duck two ways was AMAZING.

The restaurant is about to go under a total refurb, they’ve only said the space will be completely transformed. No word yet on if they’re also planning to overhaul the cuisine, but I hope some of our favorites remain once it reopens.

1. ‘Ohana

‘Ohana is, hands down, our favorite meal in the World. I know what you’re thinking, the restaurant gets decidedly mixed reviews on the Dis. It seems you either have a truly fabulous meal or a severely subpar one. We’ve only ever had the former. Every dinner we’ve eaten at ‘Ohana has been really spectacular. The service has always been excellent (and who knew we had so many cousins in Florida?) and the food is always plentiful and fresh.

Speaking of the food, there’s a secret about Franklin I have to tell you. He doesn’t like vegetables, like, won’t voluntarily eat them very often. But he inhales the salad at ‘Ohana like it’s the only course we’re going to eat.

Next comes the chicken wings and potstickers, the course that I could make an entire meal out of.

Nom, nom, nom. The sides typically come out next: noodles and broccoli.

Then our fine cousins start to bring around the skewers of meats, chicken.

Steak.

Pork.

And shrimp.

But let’s face it, everyone comes to ‘Ohana for the dessert. That bread pudding, I have dreams about it all the time.

Here’s what I’ve said in the past about the ‘Ohana bread pudding: I’m not a big bread pudding fan. I don’t like bananas or caramel. And yet? The Bananas Foster, caramel bread pudding may be my favorite dessert OF ALL TIME. So freaking good.

That’s it, that’s our list. Our favorite restaurants at Disney World. Before we leave (tomorrow!) I want to open the floor to you. What are your three favorite restaurants at WDW? Can’t wait to hear your must-dos!​

 

[natebenma]

No time to do a formal reply, but

HAVE A SUPER FANTASTIC TRIP!!!

(and Kona-breakfast & dinner and Boma for TS and Columbia Harbor House and Sunshine Season for CS)

 

[Missyrose]

No time to do a formal reply, but

HAVE A SUPER FANTASTIC TRIP!!!

(and Kona-breakfast & dinner and Boma for TS and Columbia Harbor House and Sunshine Season for CS)

Thanks Dee, we're all packed! It's amazing how much easier it is to pack when most of what you need will be waiting for you in your Owner's Locker. Franklin and I kept looking at each other and asking, "What are we missing?"

I love all your restaurant choices. We need to try Sunshine Seasons for lunch, we've only ever eaten there for dinner.​

 

[marDgreen88]

Have a great trip, Missy and Franklin!

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Love Beaches & Cream... always must have a No Way Jose... Plaza is great too... I think some people do overlook it which is sad... good sandwiches and ice cream too and lovely, lovely interior and location...

I really need to try Citricos and I love CG and am dying to see what they are going to do with it... that's a while to be closed so I'm guessing it's going to be significantly different inside...

I booked a Lunch with an Imagineer for Eric and I (he's been dying to do it) in July and I'm really curious to see what you think... I've read some iffy food reviews from there so I'm really hoping the meal is good... I'm sure the experience will be...

I don't think you've quite left so:

Have a fabulous magical time and Happy Birthday Franklin....​

 

[Missyrose]

I’m back, I’m back! Sorry it’s been so freaking long. As you all know, we were at Disney from January 26 through February 2 and we had an amazing trip! I loved being “home” at the Boardwalk, everything about the resort was perfect: the location was great, the decor is gorgeous and our Boardwalk view was stunning!

I won’t get into too many of the details here, because I’ve started a separate TR for the January trip: A Disney Geek-tastic Trip to the World!


But we had some really cool new experiences on the trip. Dine With an Imagineer and the Keys to the Kingdom tour both lived up to the rave reviews both get on the Disboards. And both really brought out the Disney nerd in Franklin and I. And we had so many amazing meals, it’s almost too hard to pick a favorite.

Enough about January, let’s get back to the October tale. We last left off with quite the character blitz at Characterpalooza.

We came out of the animation building only to find some very threatening skies. So we decided to not venture too far for our next attraction...

Voyage of the Little Mermaid!

The sun was setting on a damp Hollywood Boulevard.

Franklin had one thing on his mind.

So while he went to voluntarily fall down an elevator shaft, I grabbed a cupcake from the villains store and headed for Fairfax Fare to hang out.

And now, a photo tour of Franklin’s favorite queue in all of Disney World.

And while I finished my treat...

… and dodged a sudden downpour, Franklin apparently also got in a single-rider ride on Rock-N-Roller coaster. Something I didn’t know until I saw these photos.

It was pouring pretty steadily when Franklin finally decided to meet back up with me. And not a moment too soon. Despite my poncho, I was freezing and wet, and we were running late for dinner! Another new restaurant for us and you’ll hear all about it, coming up next!

So folks, any questions about a winter trip to the World? The next-Gen system has definitely begun rolling out down there, let me know if anyone has any questions about that, I might have some answers.​

 

[blabbermouth]

Welcome back!

Too bad it rained so hard. The hardest rain we had on our trip was at DHS too At least you had a cupcake!

 

[teekathepony]

Welcome back! I already checked out the new TR!
Love the pictures inside the ToT queue!! I was too scared while waiting to ride to really appreciate the beauty in that place.
Too bad about the downpour! Hope your dinner is somewhere warm and dry!

 

[natebenma]

Incredible pictures of the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show!

I'll take those as a downpayment on your promise to take me to that attraction on our fantasy girls trip!

You were dodging the weather, but it rains in there too!

Also loving the pictures from the ToT queue and of the ride. Franklin- have you taken any pictures during the ride through the open window? Maybe with a point & shoot?

I would like to say that the cupcake looked good, but you didn't leave much for the rest of us.

OK, seriously, has the Aerosmith guitar always been on top of a keyboard? I seriously never noticed that before! Great angle.

ETA: Just went back to some of my old pictures. In 2012, plantings obscured the keyboard, but there it was plain as day in my 2010 photos.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Awesome pictures as usual!

I love the Little Mermaid show. It's so cute, and fun because of the different formats.

 

[Missyrose]

Welcome back!

Too bad it rained so hard. The hardest rain we had on our trip was at DHS too At least you had a cupcake!

I also feel like DHS is a hard park to navigate in the rain because there's so much space between attractions. You just poncho up and go.

And yes, pink frosting cupcakes make EVERYTHING better!

Welcome back! I already checked out the new TR!
Love the pictures inside the ToT queue!! I was too scared while waiting to ride to really appreciate the beauty in that place.
Too bad about the downpour! Hope your dinner is somewhere warm and dry!

I've actually gone through the ToT queue with Franklin (and gone out the chicken exit) because there's just so many details to see. It's so cool in there.

Dinner was in a dry, warm and AMAZING place!

Incredible pictures of the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show!

I'll take those as a downpayment on your promise to take me to that attraction on our fantasy girls trip!

In the immortal words of Michelle Tanner (of Full House fame): You got it dude!

You were dodging the weather, but it rains in there too!

Also loving the pictures from the ToT queue and of the ride. Franklin- have you taken any pictures during the ride through the open window? Maybe with a point & shoot?

I would like to say that the cupcake looked good, but you didn't leave much for the rest of us.

I will take the LM "rain" over a Florida downpour any day of the week. The cupcake was one of those times where I said, "Oh crap, we forgot to take a picture." And Franklin replied, "There's still cupcake left, here's a picture."

OK, seriously, has the Aerosmith guitar always been on top of a keyboard? I seriously never noticed that before! Great angle.

ETA: Just went back to some of my old pictures. In 2012, plantings obscured the keyboard, but there it was plain as day in my 2010 photos.

I never noticed it until you said something!

Awesome pictures as usual!

I love the Little Mermaid show. It's so cute, and fun because of the different formats.

It's such a great show, so unique! There's nothing else at Disney like it.
​

 

[khertz]

Welcome back from your trip! I'll have to head over to the new TR today.

Somehow I missed the update with your Characterpalooza pics! Looks like you got a great batch. I would have loved to see Meeko or Mary Poppins for ours! Our last trip was our first time since knowing about Characterpalooza, so it was really fun to surprise my parents with it. They had no idea! It was so fun and I can't wait to do it again!

Franklin's pictures from Voyage of the Little Mermaid and ToT are stunning, as always!