I Got Work to Pay for My DISNEY FEASTS w/PICS! COMPLETED 11/14 - Whispering Canyon

[NorweJenNY]

As a compliment to my trip report (I Got Work to Pay for My Disney Vacation), I thought it would be appropriate to share my dining experiences as well.

Just a brief summary to explain my title... I was really going down to Disney for a work-related conference. It just so happened that the deals Disney was offering at their resorts were cheaper than the conference rate at Regal Sun, so I saved work money by staying at POR for 7 nights on the Buy 4, Get 3 Promo. I also was floored by the conference meal plan, as the cost was going to average out to more than the Disney Dining Plan each day (without including dinners!)

So to save more money, I got the Dining Plan attached to our 7-night stay at POR. And work paid for it, at least for mine.

Ok, so I did bring my family along, hubby and my two boys (whom I refer to as Big Guy - age 6 & Little Guy - age 4). We did have to pay for the dining plan for them, but it was only about $60/day for 1 adult and 2 kids.

Boy, we did get our money's worth! We tried meals we would have never tried without the DDP! We were completely spoiled!

I'll be reporting on mostly table service restaurants, with a few counter service and snacks mixed in. I can't be as thorough with the CS meals and snacks because I'd often be by myself with those because of my conference, but anything worthy of note I tried to take a picture of...

... and I do have plenty of pictures, so stay tuned!

Page 1, post 4 - Chef Mickey's Dinner
Page 1, post 5 - Riverside Mill Bakery Counter
Page 2, post 18 - Sunshine Seasons & Cantina de San Angel
Page 2, post 23 - Chefs de France Dinner
Page 3, post 35 - Tusker House Breakfast
Page 3, post 42 - Milkshake?
Page 4, post 47 - Pizzafari & Flame Tree BBQ
Page 4, post 54 - Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory (POFQ Food Court)
Page 5, post 73 - 'Ohana Dinner... without the Nuts
Page 6, post 86 - Sci Fi Dine-In Theater & Writer's Stop
Page 7, post 100 - Le Cellier!
Page 8, post 112 - Snackin' at Magic Kingdom
Page 8, post 116 - Whispering Canyon Cafe

...and that's all for this trip... but be sure to check out my future reviews (see signature for links!)

 

[PixieDustandEeyore]

Cannot wait to read your reviews

 

[NorweJenNY]

Cannot wait to read your reviews

What a coincidence! I can't wait to write my reviews!

Thanks for joining in the fun!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Chef Mickey's - Big Guy's Birthday Dinner

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Big Guy was 6 years old this day! We spent the late morning and afternoon at Magic Kingdom and then headed over to Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary.

Let's dive in to the good stuff now, shall we?

Here's my first plate...

This was very similar to hubby's selections, so I didn't bother taking a picture of his plate.

Our favorites were the roast beef (from the carving station) and the parmesan mashed potatoes! The meat was good and juicy... very flavorful. The mashed potatoes were perfectly creamy and delicious!

I personally love covering my veggies in cheese, so the broccoli worked well for me! I hesitated to take the pasta because it looked like red and green peppers throughout, which I don't like, but upon closer inspection, I realized that it was just more tortellini that just happened to be very boldly colored! I love the cream sauce on it. I also had some other pork and beef. Good, but not particularly memorable.

Apparently, my tummy was still warming up, so I reserved my second plate for a little later... and just filled it with desserts...

Oh, and I got the raspberry lemonade for a drink... and it was light! But it was some of the best raspberry lemonade I ever had! Very flavorful!

The boys had mostly pizza and apples. Little Guy had a bunch more fruit and chicken nuggets too. Big Guy had some Mickey-shaped ravioli, which he gobbled up. (I can't believe I missed taking that picture! Sorry!)

Here's some more good stuff though...

Big Guy's birthday cupcake! It had cute little chocolate Mickey on it! Of course, Big Guy did some more gobbling... and he didn't realize at first that the Mickey was edible, but when we told him, he gobbled that too.

But what good is a trip to Chef Mickey's without visiting the dessert buffet?

Big Guy's Choices:

He had a chocolate fudge brownie, oreo cookie, and gummy bears.

Little Guy's Choices:

He had the brownie too, along with a chocolate chip cookie and some chocolate ice cream.

Note how similar Hubby's choices are to Little Guy's:

And I thoroughly enjoyed my Mickey Dome:

The Mickey Dome was very chocolatey... it was kind of like a cross between fudge and mousse on top of an oreo cookie. Yummy!

I also ate the cheesecake, which was just ok. I know that cheesecake is made with cream cheese, but in my opinion, for it to be good cheesecake, it shouldn't taste like cream cheese. This tasted a little bit too much like cream cheese. I guess it needed more sweetness and flavor.

The brownie I took was awful. I tried the "sugar free" brownie. It was not worth even sugar-free calories!

For comparison, I did have a pre-packaged sugar-free brownie at Cosmic Ray's at lunch time this day, and I loved that. I wouldn't classify it as a brownie though, as brownies should be chocolatey IMHO. It tasted like a really good, moist, spice cake there. I would have much preferred that one to this CM's sf brownie.

And... last but not least, I "garnished" my plate with Reese's pieces. It's one of my favorite candies, but I haven't had them in a couple years (away from Disney I am a low carber). I love Reese's anything! Peanut butter is just a wonderful food, IMHO!

Next up... a sneak peak at POR's food court bakery...

 

[NorweJenNY]

Port Orleans Resort's Riverside Mill had lots of options for food, but I think my family utilized their bakery for the most part!

Here's a little peak...

(Just note that at breakfast time, this is mostly muffins and bagels instead of all this extra sweet stuff.)

And I admit to splurging here... our first night at POR, I picked up a piece of cheesecake for a snack credit. (It's in the upper left corner of the picture.) The girl asked if I wanted it with strawberries... I didn't realize that was an option, but since it was, I said, "Sure!"

I saved the treat for breakfast... and actually had half one morning and half the next morning. I must say the strawberries really made something good even better! I loved it! I hoped to get more another time, but I just didn't get a chance... maybe on another trip.

Next up... Sunshine Seasons counter service...

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Thanks for sharing, can't wait to read more yummy reviews.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[onelilspark]

Cheesecake for breakfast? That's the way to vacation

 

[MickeyNicki]

Count me in! When we were in WDW last month DH had to add on 4 extra days for work, well the Swan price was cheaper than the hotel they wanted him to stay at so we booked the Swan and his company paid the bill and they paid for all of his meals...it was perfect!

 

[natalielongstaff]

Sounds yummy so far

 

[Ms. Heimlich]

Yummy.

And the pictures of your boys are cutecutecute.

Can't wait to see the rest!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Thanks for sharing, can't wait to read more yummy reviews.

Glad you're enjoying it!

Can't wait to read more!

I can't wait to write more!

Cheesecake for breakfast? That's the way to vacation

Well, I like starting my day with a little protein... cheese has protein!

Count me in! When we were in WDW last month DH had to add on 4 extra days for work, well the Swan price was cheaper than the hotel they wanted him to stay at so we booked the Swan and his company paid the bill and they paid for all of his meals...it was perfect!

Sweet deal! How perfect! Glad something worked out so well for you!

Sounds yummy so far

Tasted yummy too...

Yummy.

And the pictures of your boys are cutecutecute.

Can't wait to see the rest!

Thanks... more to come soon...

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Great reviews! Can't wait for more!

 

[butiflfeet]

What a great birthday dinner! I can't wait for more of your yummy reviews

 

[Disneyof3]

Yummy in the Tummy


Keep the pictures coming with the reviews please. CM looks so good, we had to cancel our ADR last trip due to our flight was cancelled due to weather and we got into WDW late. I want to book it for our next trip again. We have been to the breakfast one and we loved it. POR bakery section is so yummy. We love the muffins and treats in the am for breakfast, we use our SC for these. The make your own yogart parfait is amazing and huge too.

 

[scoot241]

Chef Mickey's looks like a good choice. Glad I'll be going there in about a month and a half.

 

[NorweJenNY]

Great reviews! Can't wait for more!

More's comin'

What a great birthday dinner! I can't wait for more of your yummy reviews

Yes, great place for a kid's birthday!

I forgot to mention, they actually recognize all the birthdays at one time, so you don't hear singing at this table, then at another table in 2 more minutes, another in 4 minutes, etc. They seemed to bring out birthday cupcakes at roughly the same time too.

Yummy in the Tummy

Keep the pictures coming with the reviews please. CM looks so good, we had to cancel our ADR last trip due to our flight was cancelled due to weather and we got into WDW late. I want to book it for our next trip again. We have been to the breakfast one and we loved it. POR bakery section is so yummy. We love the muffins and treats in the am for breakfast, we use our SC for these. The make your own yogart parfait is amazing and huge too.

Dining reviews just cry for pictures, don't they? A picture really is worth a thousand words!

Yeah, try for CM's again. We're going back for a dinner there on our fall trip too.

I didn't get a chance to try the yogurt parfait... I should have. Something to save for next time, right?

Chef Mickey's looks like a good choice. Glad I'll be going there in about a month and a half.

That's great! You'll enjoy it!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Sunshine Seasons

Sunday, July 12, 2009

I only had a few hours with the family on this particular morning before heading to Regal Sun to register for my conference, so we couldn't wait for 11:00 to get lunch when we were at The Land in Epcot.

That's how we decided we'd just get brunch at Sunshine Seasons!

I'll start with the boys...

French toast! (It came with sausage, which I took because the kids don't like it.) The boys decided they felt like having strips to dip in the syrup, rather than use a fork. Some might think that's messier, but if you've ever seen my left-handed Little Guy use (or misuse) a fork, you might understand.

And syrup is very sticky... not good to mess with that when it's still just the morning!

Hubby and I shared a breakfast platter

This was hubby's part of it...

(Though I think he already ate a sausage when I snapped this picture.)

This was the rest of it (plus the boys' sausages)...

Decent breakfast, not very special. I can sometimes be a little picky about sausages, but these were good. The bacon wasn't cooked or cut the way we liked it though... it was too floppy and thin, but I ate it anyway. Eggs... were eggs... and the potatoes were ok. Hubby liked them. I just ate a few, but I didn't feel like they were really worth the calories.

And knowing that I'd be having a long afternoon-into-early-evening sitting in workshops, I decided I'd take something with me for break time...

I went up to this counter...

...and got a piece of this (with a snack credit)...

Just the best way of having strawberry shortcake! I know some people might say this isn't the way strawberry shortcake should look, but thinking of it as "short cake" instead of "shortcake" helps one understand it better. The three layers of cake are very thin (or "short"). The majority of it is thick layers of cream and strawberries... simply magnificent!

And it actually held up a few hours in my bag after I had traveled to Regal Sun and sat through a couple hours of workshops.

As far as the rest of the day goes, I met up with hubby and the kids at Epcot again that evening. I had some issues getting there in a timely fashion... long story... so anyway, Hubby grabbed a spot between Mexico and Norway since it was after 8...

My task was to grab dinner. Exhausted, I stayed local and went to Cantina de San Angel. (Sorry no pics... it was getting kinda dark, and I had my hands full!) I grabbed an order of Cantina Nachos for one adult CS credit, which came with beef, beans, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes and jalapenos... I didn't realize those last two came on it, so that kinda spoiled it for me, but I picked them off and found the rest to be decent. Hubby had a bunch of these nachos.

I also picked up a Plato del Nino, knowing that I'd want the chicken quesadilla it came with (more like a soft taco with chicken & cheese), and the boys love tortilla chips. Well, I didn't realize it came with cheese all over the chips, and Little Guy doesn't like cheese. He kept looking for dry ones (and I mean not even a dot of yellowy-orange stuff on them!) Big Guy is my cheese boy... but oddly enough, he didn't want this kind of cheese.

It's a good thing that on the DDP dessert came with these two meals. I got a churro with each, and that pretty much served as the majority of the boys' meals! Chocolate milk helped too, which they shared. Other places had 16 oz. bottles, but I didn't realize this was only an 8 oz. carton here. Sharing chocolate milk meant only half a cup per boy this time! (Don't worry... we had juice and water for them in the room later!)

I had gotten a soda with our meal. I goofed! On DDP, you can get a medium or large soda. I didn't think to say large, so they just gave me a medium. Always ask for large! It's common sense - doesn't cost a penny more on DDP! I just didn't remember to do that each time throughout the week. I hope someone reading this can learn from my mistake!

The next day, I'd be conferencing again, but this time all morning, into early afternoon. I met up with Hubby and the boys again later that afternoon in Epcot for an experience in France...

Stay tuned to read about it (and see it)!

 

[Steph9072]

Your boys are adorable. Thanks for taking the time to share!! Can't wait to read more.

 

[wilma-bride]

Great reviews so far - I wish I could get my work to pay for my Disney vacation, although I suppose they do in a round about way since they pay my wages which, in turn, pays for my Disney vacation