Just back- dining review with lots and lots of pics!

First I want to say that I hate when a server "fishes" for a tip. As a server in college, I found it unnecessary. When the dining plans came out in 2008, there were a few changes that were made. The biggest was that gratuities are not longer included. I am still reminding my clients about this relatively new policy. I would say 50% are still kind of surprised. I am sure there are servers who are more vocal than others, but I have found most to just make a notation on my bill, which IMO is perfectly acceptable.
 
Ok, now on to Monday. We got up early and went to Hollywood Studios. Very crowded! We really wanted to do the new Toy Story Mania so we went there first. I waited for a fast pass until the time widow to return was 11:00 so that we could eat our scheduled 10:00 breakfast first without pushing the window too much. We then got in the sandby line which was 40 minutes already 1st thing in the AM!

We rode the ride, watched the Mermaid show and went to breakfast at Play-N-Dine.

Like I said earlier, our daughter is 5 and has already outgrown JoJo, the Einsteins, etc. Hannah Montanna and iCarly have moved in but she still really wanted this breakfast. We liked it the last trip and liked it again, its just that sadly as she grows up we probably won't be going back unless they change the characters. It's just one of those things I guess!

Having said that, this place has a really good breakfast. We were seated right about on time.

Here was my daughter's basic plate:
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She was distracted by the characters but are most of it. We didn't really push her to eat everything. Just so she ate some kind of roll/bun, a piece of fruit and a little of everything else, she wouldn't get too crabby.

Here was my first plate... I love sausage gravy and biscuits!
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And my wife's plate:

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I went back up because they had a breakfast burrito station and I wanted to try one of those. I snuck in a Mickey waffle too!
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Again, if you like a good breakfast, the food here is great. Everything was fresh. Maybe the only downside was that they seemed to shut down at least one of the sides of the buffet very early. They didn't do that the last time but in fairness that time we were sitting on the other side of the restaurant and used the bar they kept open.

The service was a little slower. We got Cokes, OJ and water and they never came to refill the OJ plus the dishes pilesd up here a little. Not too bad but it wasn't as quick as the other places we had been to by that time.

This server really fished for a tip, which I thought was kind of funny since she didn't really work as hard.

Overall, we would go back here in a minute, but I just think the theme has passed us by! We will probably have to look for a replacement the next trip. Again I want to stress that it is not because of the food or anything, just the age of our daughter.

We killed some more time and got a lot done. It was well into the early afternoon and we decided to do Fantasia Gardens golf so we hopped a boat to the Swan/Dolphin and did that... bad idea because it was so hot!

When we finished it was obvious that we were in the middle of nowhere! To get back to our hotel we had to go to a theme park. We decised to just walk to Epcot (slowly) and get something to eat in the world showcase. We were hoping to get a few autographs, but our daughter fell asleep! Boy were we glad we brought the stroller!

We just went through Epcot's World showcase and ate at one of our favorire counter service places... The Liberty Inn. I always get the bacon cheese burger. It is a good basic burger with a nice fixins bar:
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It was good and I had the apple cobbler as a dessert. I was very full!

My wife opted for the salad with chicken. She liked it. She just had a mickey rice crispy for dessert because it would travel a little better:
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Our daughter was still out for the count. We just got her a hotdog (big surprise) at the All-Star food court later that evening when we got back but I didn't get a pic. I did get one of yet another hotdog I'll post later. She did remark that "It was the bestest hotdog she ever ate!"

I always talk up the liberty Inn. It is never crowded when we are there and it is good food with a neat atmosphere.

For example, there was a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary and a fellow came out in his coloniel outfit and yelled "here ye here ye... the Smith family from wherever is celebrating..." Everyone clapped and they were given free apple cobbler.

Neat place. I make sure we go every time!

More to come later. Thanks for the comments. It keeps this on the 1st page so more people can read the review!
 
First I want to say that I hate when a server "fishes" for a tip. As a server in college, I found it unnecessary. When the dining plans came out in 2008, there were a few changes that were made. The biggest was that gratuities are not longer included. I am still reminding my clients about this relatively new policy. I would say 50% are still kind of surprised. I am sure there are servers who are more vocal than others, but I have found most to just make a notation on my bill, which IMO is perfectly acceptable.

I agree with that 100%
 
I'm really enjoying your food review and pictures. Thank you for taking the time to share about your trip.
 

Thanks for the great reviews and the awesome pictures. Our daughter is turning 4 our next trip and we hope visit many of the same TS that you guys did. I wish there was some way to get out of taking those pics like they do at CM. Can you just say no we do not want our picture taken?

Looking forward to hearing more...
 
Thanks for the review and the great pictures. Hollywood and vine is a must for my son...I wish he would outgrow this place b/c I'm getting bored of the same characters too (wish they would change but my son is still into LE). we went to this place 4x w/i 2 years and its a must for him in our Dec trip. I was telling my husband we will not go here so we asked him 5 restaurant thats a must and this is his first so I got out voted. Maybe we will go for breakfast.
 
Thanks for the great reviews and the awesome pictures. Our daughter is turning 4 our next trip and we hope visit many of the same TS that you guys did. I wish there was some way to get out of taking those pics like they do at CM. Can you just say no we do not want our picture taken?

Looking forward to hearing more...

I saw people saying "No Thanks" so I'm pretty sure you could just skip it. I was going to, but I figures if everyone who didn't want the pics did that, there would be no incentive to change the policy.

It stinks either way. I'm sending them a letter. Maybe everyone who reads these boards should. Then, they will either be thrown in or will be eliminated that is if enough people complain!
 
Really enjoying your reviews!
I don't like the tip-fishers either! It should never be mentioned. We tip well but that kind of stuff gets you docked back immediately. (Don't be hatin'==I still tip well within guidelines, I just cut it back a little!)
 
Really enjoying your trip report! Thanks so much for taking the time & I love your realistic take on the TS restaurants! All too often I read reviews where people do nothing but complain about everything they eat @ WDW & how expensive it is. :sad2: Drives me crazy!! Our family is like yours, we don't go to WDW expecting 5-star quality food at Chef Mickey's!! :lmao:

One time we had breakfast at 1900 Park Fare & our coffee wasn't coming like it really should have been during breakfast so we tipped the middle amount (can't remember now what it was) & the server had the audacity to ask if that was what we really meant to do! It was crazy that she said that & she was annoyed when we said yes!
 
Enjoying your reviews! I thought the exact same thing about the pictures. Just include it! We went to Tusker House and it was the same thing. Or maybe they could just show you the picture on the camera or a laptop and then give you the code so you could add it to photopass that way you could print if you wanted and they wouldn't waste all those pictures!
 
Ok, on day 5 we got up early and hit the Magic Kingdom since it was Tuesday.

By the way , we met a really cool family on the bus wearing matching clothes that had breakfast at Chef Mickey's that day. We saw them again many times and have a great pic of their three kids with our daughter. I know it is a long-shot, but if they would happen to see this review, send me a message. I think they were from the panhandle of Florida. We saw them again at Crystal Palace, then again on the train later that week!

Back to the review. We got a ton done this morning. We did everything in Fantasyland and did quite a bit in Toontown and did Big Thunder and Splash Mt. also. Shortly after 11am we went to Cosmic Ray's. It was a little crowded, so I held a table while my wife got her meal and my daughter's. We were right in front of Sonny Eclipse, which was nice.

My daughter had some chicken nuggets and chips:
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She liked it and ate most of it.

My wife had a burger loaded with fixins from the fixins bar:

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She also liked it.

I went for the pig-out mode and got the chicken/ribs combo:
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This, like the last trip, was a great meal. The ribs were actually falling off the bone and to be honest were much better than Flame Tree BBQ... much better. The chicken was good also. I gave my leg to my daughter who loves them. The beans and potatoes were just fine also. This meal is a great value, especially on the dining plan.

Cosmic Ray's is another place on our constant to do list. The key here is variety. There is something for everyone. I give this a definite thumbs up.

Later that day we headed off to Epcot for a 6:35 dinner at Biergarten. We were seated very quickly as we just made the ADR time due to a bad thunderstorm holding things up.

Just a note here off the subject. As we were walking across the park it was kind of finished raining but stiill drizzling. I was trying to walk ahead of my family since my wife had a stroller. I figured this would be quicker. As I was hustling through the pathways, some kid jumps up and yanks a tree branch which caused a cascade of H2O to fall all over me and a bunch of other people. The kicker is that the parents just laughed! This is what's wrong with the world today! But back on to the food...

We were seated with some folks from New Jersey. They were nice and we both kind of kept to ourselves. It is a little weird eating with people you don't know so that could be a turn off at a place like this.

The food here is pretty good. There was quite a bit from which to choose. I can't really remember what everything was called, but there wasn't anything I really didn't like. They had a cold sausage salad that had little pieces of sausage and pickles in in that I got on a whim but it was really good.

My 1st plate:

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My wife's plate:

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Our daughter's plate after she ate some of it:

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Our neighbor's beer (after he finished thinking I was goofy for taking pics):

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dessert Plate #1- This stuff was really good!

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Dessert plate #2

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Now the food was very good but the service was a little slow. The plates were piling up a couple of times, especially for the folks we were sitting with. It even looked like they shared a plate because of it.

Also, the band that played was good, but not as entertaining as the last time. In 2007 they played songs with bells and it was very memorable. These guys just played polka-type music which was neat, but not as good as the last time.

Oh yes, maybe it is a "I'm not from the USA kind of theme," but the girl here didn't push the tip just like the girl from Akershus. Although the service wasn't the best I ever had, I stuck to my new "don't bust my chops" policy and gave her extra money.

We agreed that we like this place and would recommend it to anyone who likes German type food like saurkraut, sausage, etc. We have this place as borderline for the next trip just because we have done it twice and might like to try something else. Again, this isn't a reflection on Biergarten, just our desire to switch it up.

I'll get to our next day just as soon as I can!
 
I just stumbled across your report and I am loving it! I really enjoy how you organize things and the pictures are great, too.
 
2. The picture! Granted, it was a nice picture and all but one 8x10 and a few 5x7's for $30 seemed a little steep. It also kind of bugs me that they have the audacity to try and get this out of you when the bill for the 3 of us would have been close to $100 had we not been on the dining plan. If Akershus can give away the picture with the meal, so can every place else! It just kind of makes you feel cheap turning away the pic in front of your child, but we would have put out close to $100 extra dollars on pics had we taken them from every restaurant. It just seems wasteful to print them up and just throw them away.

I wish they would either eliminate the pics completely or just give them to you. It would even be acceptable if they just put it on a photopass so you could sort it out when you get home rather than have to make that decision right there on the spot.

I couldn't agree more! I don't remember this attempt to sell pictures to us from previous trips. I wonder if it is a new thing. It really put a bad taste in my mouth. The first time they took our picture was at Hoop De Doo. That meal is so expensive I just assumed they were going to give us the photo. If I had known they were going to sell it to us I would have given them our camera to use. They did the same thing at Ohana. I say either give us the photo or have a photopass photographer there. It really felt un-Disney-like to me.
 
Love these reviews - great pics - was tempted with H&V breakfast, wish I had booked it now, it looks lovely.

Thanks for sharing

Caz
:)
 















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