Just back...food report (without pics)

[aprilp]

Just got back and although I dont have any food pics, I do have food reviews and prices. On the trip were myself (35) and my parents (in their mid 60s). We used the DDP for five days and ate around $700 worth of food, including snacks. Though we would not have eaten quite as much if not on the plan, we still figured that we saved at least $400 on food since we literally only paid for our gas down there and back (as well as one fast food meal each way). I'm at work right now and my receipts are at home, so I will post the reviews and prices tonight. But in the meantime, here are the places we ate (our favorites are marked with a star):

Monday, November 30 (we arrived around 4:00, checked in, and immediately went to MK)
Columbia Harbor House*

Tuesday, December 1
Lunch - Crystal Palace*
Dinner - Morroco (Epcot)

Wednesday, December 2
Lunch - Tutto Italia
Dinner - Contempo Cafe*

Thursday, December 3
Lunch - Sci-Fi Drive in
Dinner - Wolfgang Puck Express*

Friday, December 4
Lunch - Tusker House*
Dinner - Pepper Market

Saturday, December 5
Breakfast - Boma*

We stayed at the Coronado Springs, in Casitas 3, room 2215, overlooking a courtyard. The rooms have been recently redone and the queen beds were added last year.....I have no complaints with the room whatsoever as it was spotless and gorgeous and the beds were fabulous. We used Bus Stop 2, which was a couple minutes away but never seemed too far. We usually got a bus right away or within a few minutes...I think one day we did wait about 15 minutes for a bus but that's probably because one had just pulled away by the time we got there. We used bus, boat and monorail to get around and never once got in our car to drive except for on the last day when we went to Boma because we wanted to leave directly from there. I loved this resort and, money permitting, will come back and stay here again.

More to come!

 

[KatMark]

Just got back and although I dont have any food pics, I do have food reviews and prices. On the trip were myself (35) and my parents (in their mid 60s). We used the DDP for five days and ate around $700 worth of food, including snacks. Though we would not have eaten quite as much if not on the plan, we still figured that we saved at least $400 on food since we literally only paid for our gas down there and back (as well as one fast food meal each way). I'm at work right now and my receipts are at home, so I will post the reviews and prices tonight. But in the meantime, here are the places we ate (our favorites are marked with a star):

Monday, November 30 (we arrived around 4:00, checked in, and immediately went to MK)
Columbia Harbor House*

Tuesday, December 1
Lunch - Crystal Palace*
Dinner - Morroco (Epcot)

Wednesday, December 2
Lunch - Tutto Italia
Dinner - Contempo Cafe*

Thursday, December 3
Lunch - Sci-Fi Drive in
Dinner - Wolfgang Puck Express*

Friday, December 4
Lunch - Tusker House*
Dinner - Pepper Market

Saturday, December 5
Breakfast - Boma*

We stayed at the Coronado Springs, in Casitas 3, room 2215, overlooking a courtyard. The rooms have been recently redone and the queen beds were added last year.....I have no complaints with the room whatsoever as it was spotless and gorgeous and the beds were fabulous. We used Bus Stop 2, which was a couple minutes away but never seemed too far. We usually got a bus right away or within a few minutes...I think one day we did wait about 15 minutes for a bus but that's probably because one had just pulled away by the time we got there. We used bus, boat and monorail to get around and never once got in our car to drive except for on the last day when we went to Boma because we wanted to leave directly from there. I loved this resort and, money permitting, will come back and stay here again.

More to come!

I'm in...and I can't wait to read about your food porn. And, I am so glad you enjoyed your stay at the CSR.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

I'm in too, and waiting for the details.

 

[aprilp]

November 30th
Columbia Harbor House

This was one of our favorite counter service places to eat. My mom and I got the lighthouse sandwich (hummus, tomatoes and broccoli slaw on multigrain bread), which came with sea salt chips. My dad got the fish basket, which came with fries. We each got a different dessert and sampled them all. The strawberry yogurt was really good, as was the apple crisp. My favorite, though, being a chocoholic, was the chocolate cake. It tasted so good! This place got an A+ from all three of us. Total cost, had we paid for it, would have been $45.20.

 

[aprilp]

December 1
Crystal Palace and Tangerine Cafe

We ate lunch at Crystal Palace this day. We liked it so much we all agreed we wouldnt have minded eating there again the next day! Its a buffet but its done so well with so many different types of ways to eat your vegetables without minding at all! Here is a link to the allears website that shows some of the items on the buffet (hope that is allowed here): http://allears.net/menu/menu_cpl.htm ... So anyway, we maybe waited for ten to fifteen minutes to get in, and the place was packed outside. Inside, though, it didnt feel crazy (as opposed to 1900 Park Fare which I walked into briefly to see what it was like-wow! what a madhouse! the tables felt so squished together and it was so loud!). I got pictures with Pooh and all the others....even my dad got into it after he saw other adults without children with them getting their pictures with the characters. Our server was not that great, but the food and the atmosphere were fantastic. The place was gorgeous. Total cost would have been $73.46 to eat here.

We ate dinner at Tangierine Cafe. We got the Mediterranean Sliders combo, the vegetable platter,and the schwarma platter with lamb and chicken. My dad and I didnt really like the lentils, but my mom did. My dad doesnt like hummus (he says it tastes like dishwater, but how does he know what dishwater tastes like? he doesnt do dishes, much less drink the water!) but my mom and I love it. The tabbouleh and the tangierine couscous were both very good and the lamb and chicken were fabulous. Didnt like the falafel or the baklava, though. Total cost here was approximately $45.00-$50.00 (keeping track of the counter service meal costs are tricky, because they dont give you a receipt showing the amount like the table service places do...you have to look at the register when they ring it up and you have to be quick or you miss it).

 

[WeLuvDiz]

I'm in, can't wait for the food porn, sounds like you saved a ton with DDP

 

[aprilp]

December 2
Tutto Italia and Contempo Cafe

We ate lunch at Tutto Italia this day. I had the scalloopine di vitello alla caprese, my mom had the salmon al forno, and my dad had the linguine with clams. For dessert my mom got the tiramisu, my dad got the copetta sotto bosco and I got the...hmm, looking at the allears menu, its not on there. It was a small portion of three different desserts actually. I dont remember what it was called. Anyway, our waiter was a nice fellow from italy, of course, who was on his last day (they get one year visas to come here). The food was delicious and the atmosphere was great. My dad is half italian half spanish (his mother's family was from Sicily) so we got a kick out of the zest in which the italian waiters and waitresses sang "Happy Birthday" in italian. They were quite loud and funny and I told my mom that it was apparently true what they say (that italians are loud) and that she would have to cut my dad and I some slack when we got loud from now on, since we came by it honest! ha ha! This meal would have cost us $126.74. While it was delicious, I would not eat here if I was paying OOP. (bear in mind none of these prices I am giving you includes tip, which we paid cash for).

After finishing our day and half in Epcot, we took the monorail to MK then took the boat to the Wilderness Lodge to look around. Then we took the bus back to MK and then rode the monorail around to look at the Poly, Conteporary and Grand Floridian. The plan was to eat a counter service at one of these places, since we would never spend the money to stay there. The winner was the Contempo Cafe in the Contemporary. I had printed us out a menu to look at and we were all in the mood for salads, so we knew what we wanted when we went up to the touch screens to order. It was super easy. We ordered the steakhouse salad, the chicken chop salad, and the roasted curry vegetable bulgur salad. For dessert we got the fruit salad. You get your dessert then you go to the cashier, who gives you your drink cups and takes your payment. Then he/she gives you one of those things that goes off when your food is ready and you get a seat. When our salads came, they were huge!!! And they were delicious!!! I would so eat there again! It would have cost us $42.50 to pay OOP for this meal.

 

[aprilp]

December 3
Sci-Fi Dine In and Wolfgang Puck Express

We went to DHS this day and ate lunch at the Sci-Fi dine in. I warned my parents in advance that the best thing to order on the menu was the burger, which my mom was not too happy about (she's a very healthful eater, and I understand why....her side of the family has a history of heart problems and cholesterol issues). I explained to her that we could get a veggie burger which I had been told was pretty good, so she decided that wouldnt be all that bad. We maybe waited about ten minutes here before they took us in. The cars and the deco was super neat! My mom and I each got the veggie burger with mushrooms and onions, with me getting a side of fries and her getting the side of relish. My dad got the burger and a side of fries. We all got the hot fudge sundae for dessert because its our favorite thing and by and large its usually the least fattening of all ice cream type desserts. Anyway, the food was quite good and overall we were pleased with our experience. We had a good waiter, and though there were three of us and "hitchikers" in the back of our car, it didnt feel weird to eat at different seats (my dad likes alot of room anyway, and its close enough to where you can talk back and forth between the seats). The clips were very funny and the atmosphere made it totally worth trying at least once. This meal would have cost us $66.58. I probably would not go here if I had to pay that OOP, unless I was taking someone who had never been before, just so they could see it for the first time would make it worth it to me. This was a really neat place.

For dinner, we had originally planned to eat at DHS but my parents didnt like what the counter service places had to offer and it was supposed to rain the next day so we decided to change things around and go to DTD and Wolfgang Puck Express this night instead of the next. So we stayed long enough to see the Osborne Dancing Lights which were amazing as usual and then we left to go to DTD. Wolfgang Puck Express at first look seemed totally packed. My dad about freaked when he saw the line out the door. But upon second glance, it didnt seem that packed...there was just nowhere else for the line to go but outside, which was fine as you got to look at the menu posted out there. They had like 3 cashiers going, so we got to order pretty quickly. I got the Mediterranean Vegetable which is veggies and cheese wrapped in a warm thick foccacia bread that was simply fabulous! My dad got the Rosemary Rotisserie Chicken and my mom got the Rigatoni with Chicken Bolognese. Both my mom's dish and mine came with a salad of mixed greens. For dessert we got a frozen yogurt for my dad and creme brulee for me and my mom. I didnt think i would like the dessert because it looked a little like flan, which I dont like, but it was quite good. Everything here was delicious. And you get to eat with silverware, your food is brought out to you, and your "waiter" will get your drink refills etc. And its a counter service. It was great. This would have cost us $63.95. Expensive but delicious! Afterwards we shopped around and my mom was cold so I was showing them Rainforest Cafe (which I love to eat at but it wasnt on the DDP so we didnt go there to eat) and we found her a light jacket on sale for $13.95. I got a few small things at World of Disney and we were back to the room to rest our feet.

 

[aprilp]

December 4
Tusker House and Pepper Market

This day it rained all day. Luckily, the first part of the day it was a light rain and we had brought our ponchos so it was all good. We went to Animal Kingdom as planned and did Festival of the Lion King and saw alot of animals on the safari, then went and ate at the Tusker House. What a neat place! Its set up like a marketplace, so you have all these different stations and there are plates at every station so you can go to one station at a time if you want and there are no long lines to wait in. I really liked this buffet. It had some great dishes (see allears: http://allears.net/menu/menu_tus.htm) and it was a close second to Crystal Palace. Total cost would have been $63.87. After we ate here we tried to go to Flights of Wonder before seeing Finding Nemo: the musical, but they cancelled the show halfway thru when the rain got bad so we just ended up going to Finding Nemo earlier and sitting there drying off. After that we did Dinosaur and then left and went back to Epcot to do some things we missed. It started getting cold and windy then so we decided to just go back and eat at the Pepper Market at our hotel.

Pepper Market was interesting. I get the whole concept, and it makes sense, but the cheerleaders for Pop Warner had arrived the night before and they were all scrambling to get food before going to a practice, plus everyone had come back to the resort to eat since it was raining so bad outside. So the lines at each station where you went to get your food were really long. It took forever. I ended up getting the margherita pizza, which was good. My mom got the half chicken rotisserie and my dad got the steak. For dessert, we all got the chocolate mousse cake . It was good food, so no complaint there. I think i would eat there again, but only if they were not busy. Our waitress was funny, I dont remember where she was from, but she had a funny way of talking....she kept talking about these "dizzy" people and I kept thinking she was saying "disney" until we figured out that she really was saying "dizzy" and she meant it like "these crazy people". She was telling us that it wasnt usually like that, etc. I think her name was Kathy so if you get her be prepared to laugh because she's quite funny if you get her talking. This meal would have cost us $62.50.

 

[aprilp]

December 5
Late breakfast at Boma, then home

I had made us a 10:00 reservation at Boma so that we could eat and then leave. We drove the short drive over to Animal Kingdom Lodge and got there early so we walked around a bit.....the lobby is quite impressive. We went down to let them know we were there and man the area in front of Boma and Jiko is insane! There were lots of people there and everyone had to wait, which took a while. This was the longest wait we had, but then again, we had gotten there at 9:15 which was our fault not theirs. Anyway, there was a group of carolers that came down the stairs and got everyone singing, so that was fun. when they finally called us it was 10:00 and we were good and hungry! My parents got the coffee, which my mom said was the best all week, and we all got the jungle juice, which is simply fabulous. My favorite things there had to be the french toast, because they put fruit in their toast, and the eggs with the goat cheese and chives. Yum! The bacon was good too, it didnt have any of that white fatty stuff on it. I did not try the pap or the babotie because it didnt look good to me, but the african fruit salad was good as were the orange fiber muffins. This was a good meal and total cost was only $54.29, which is cheaper than some of the counter service meals we'd had during the week.

After that, we had to leave.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say that we used our snack credits sometimes for frozen drinks or cokes and sometimes for ice cream....with both a table service and a counter service a day, the snacks were really unnecessary. And my mom, not understanding how it all worked, brought bottled water so it seemed dumb to use the credits for that. We ended up using our last 5 snack credits for these delicious chocolate covered rice crispy things we got at the resort's gift shop for little gifts to bring back to the girl who came to check on my cat and for my sister, etc. The dining plan was totally worth it for us. We got to eat at places we would not have been able to afford to eat otherwise. We probably would not have eaten $700 worth of food had we not had the plan, but we would have at least spent $400 or so on the counter service meals and the food we would have brought to eat in our room, so I would say it was a great thing to have. I would totally do the DDP again!

**Forgot to say that we could have gotten even more for free on the DDP if we had eaten dinner instead of lunch for our table service, but it just was too hard trying to figure where we would be at dinner time so I didnt want to tie us down in that way since we were going to be going to different places on the same day, etc.