Just Killing Time Between Meals in the Happiest Place on Earth~Sept DR *COMPLETE

[kastoney]

Woohoo you've started. Glad to see there is some place you can still walk up to these days. Your dinner (and more importantly drink) looks great. Congrats on the promotion. Can't wait for more...

 

[JoeyEmmaMomma]

Following along!

That carrot cake looks awesome!

 

[blairzo]

I would trade one of my children for a piece of that carrot cake!!

I'm following you on Instagram! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the food!!

 

[Linda67]

Oh my word - that carrot cake looks like heaven on a plate!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Great start Jeri!! CONGRATULATIONS to the promotions!!

As I am reading your already drool-worthy report of one of my favorite dishes, I am eating Spitz Black Pepper sunflower seeds. I seriously need to go on vacation soon. It's been too long.

How do you like SSR? I have never stayed at a DVC resort, so just curious.

Thanks so much!

I feel your pain. It's always hard to write these reviews and stare at my pictures when I am eating boring food back at home. A Special K bar is not the same as bacon wrapped meatloaf.

SSR is okay. It's my least favorite DVC to be honest. The one thing it has going for it is the proximity to DTD. To be able to walk there from certain room locations is a big plus in my book.

Happy to follow along! I love dining reports!!! Also from South Jersey and my Nov trip will be my 21 trip to WDW also!!!!

Thanks for joining in! The dining reports are my favorite part of this site. What a funny coincidence! Hope you have an awesome time on your upcoming trip.

Great first review Jeri! Glad WPC was a winner and that carrot cake looks AMAZING!

Would you recommend Saratoga Springs for a longer stay? I've thought about booking it in the past as there's often some good deals available. What are your thoughts on the resort overall?

Thanks Carol! WPC definitely surprised me. It was worth it for that carrot cake alone. Yum!

SSR is not my favorite, but it is far from being a terrible resort by any means. I find the theming clean and pretty but a little boring. The pools are great and the location to DTD is great, especially with as big of a mess it is to get there right now. Outside of the location to DVD I definitely prefer OKW. The rooms are bigger and the overall resort theming is more well done. We have stayed at SSR 4 times, but my resort time there has never been very memorable.

Yay! Excited to see this report- Love you reviews

Awesome! Thanks so much for joining in!

how magical: you both got promotions at work, AND you left a day early!!!

(how unmagical: sitting in traffic when you're THISCLOSE to wdw!!)

your first meal (that meatloaf) looked & sounded great! (not at all like the meatloaf i made at home last night! )

now bring on those F&W reviews!!!!

I know, talk about magical!

So, for F&W this year I stuck very closely to what I loved from last year. I didn't try much new stuff. However, I did try the new version of escargot and HATED it! So sad they changed it from the version I love. Also, the Craft Beer section is in the Odyssey building this year and it is wonderful! It provided relief from the heat one day and relief from the rain another. As usual I would say stick to Canada, Mexico, France and Ireland. Those were once again my favorites!

YUMMY!! I love WGPE but haven't been to the cafe. It looked good!! I'm so happy you were able to get a table and get filled up!!

Looking forward to more yumminess!!!

I love WPE as well! The Cafe was definitely a pleasant experience this trip, but overall I will continue to stick mainly to Express since they actually have more on their menu than the Cafe.

Love your review so far . DTD is one of my favorite dining spots after Epcot . Looking forward to the rest .

Thanks so much! I totally agree with you. We love Epcot and DTD for dining as well. I could pretty much leave MK, AK and HS out of my dining plans entirely.

What a great start to your trip. Arriving early! A night staying @ SSR! The food looks great @ WPC. Especially that carrot cake, YUM!! How was the construction going in DTD? Was it madness?

It was definitely a great start! The construction was totally bonkers! They had the path that goes past the Lego Store completely closed off. You had to walk in the other direction around the Lego Store and find an alternate path between the back of the Lego Store and the far right hand side of World of Disney. It was so bizarre. If there were signs about this we didn't see them and kept walking until suddenly we were faced with a large wall. I was all turned around! My issue there right now is total lack of parking if I want to drive myself there and complete claustrophobia when it is very crowded and you're packed in with a lot of people in between large construction walls on one or both sides of you. I can't wait until this construction is over!

Wow! Congrats on your promotions! I started following you on Instagram just before your trip and I loved seeing your pictures there. Can't wait for more reviews!

Thanks so much! Glad you joined in on Instagram. I love it! I've almost entirely abandoned Facebook in favor of Instagram. I pretty much use it to look at other people's Disney pics. It's fun to be there even when you're not really there.

If you all eat breakfast at WPE will you confirm if they still have the breakfast pocket. The new menu doesn't show it and I was so excited to try it. For lunch their new chicken salad with grapes and apples as a sandwhich sounds good. Can't wait for more reviews.

We did not eat breakfast there this trip but I did grab a copy of the menus they have for you to take and I do not see it listed in the menu items. Looks like they replaced it with a breakfast sandwich. Bummer! I know Rob likes that item as well. I will say though, the breakfast pizza is super amazing! And the breakfast pocket was basically the pizza kinda rolled up and folded over but with slightly different ingredients. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Hope you still enjoy your breakfast there!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

I knew you were back (from Instagram) so I was hoping you had started a report! YAY!

What a great way to start a trip....an impromptu day early departure and just receiving work promotions!

So WPC has never been on my radar but oh my word...that Carrot Cake looks so perfect. Yum!

It was definitely an awesome start to the trip. We both start our new positions tomorrow. So excited!

I would highly recommend that carrot cake! That alone is worth a stop in there. In fact I think I might try and just get a to go piece next time and see how that works out.

Hey Jeri,
Looks like a great start! Your dinner looked delicious. I Can't believe you were considering a movie after that long drive. I'll be waiting to see more!!!

Hey there! Dinner was so delicious and filling. Can't ask for more than that! Considering how fast we fell asleep once we got back to the room I can't believe we were thinking about doing a movie either. I think we would have taken a $25 nap in the theater.

Joining in! Congrats on the promotions and Happy Anniversary!! Dinner at WPC looks amazing- glad you enjoyed it (sorry about the bread and drink- I hate when they bring the bread out with your entrees-totally defeats the purpose!) Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

Thanks so much!

That definitely does defeat the purpose with the bread. I was so hungry too at the time that I really wanted it right away. Since it wasn't very good anyway I didn't get too worked up about it. I do love some good bread though!

I love the meatloaf WGP makes, its amazing! I had it at the express location in May and was so glad with my choice. Glad to hear you had a good experience. Also congrats on the promotion

Thanks so much! The meatloaf is definitely very much back on my radar for when I am dining at WPE next trip. It was even better than I remembered! Plus I'm a sucker for great mashed potatoes.

You two are adorable! I just read one of your other reports and am thrilled to be able to read along with this one, too. Congratulations!

Awww thanks so much! So glad you are joining in with me for this report as well!

Woohoo you've started. Glad to see there is some place you can still walk up to these days. Your dinner (and more importantly drink) looks great. Congrats on the promotion. Can't wait for more...

Finally started, now I just have to keep up with it. They have me on a funky work schedule right now, so I'm going to try not to let this get away from me. Don't they know I have a DR to write!

Dinner was awesome! I wish I could have that meatloaf right now!

Following along!

That carrot cake looks awesome!

Thanks for joining in!

The carrot cake alone was definitely worth a trip to WPC. I may not be able to resist it on future trips.

I would trade one of my children for a piece of that carrot cake!!

I'm following you on Instagram! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the food!!

I am cracking up!

Thanks for following along on Instagram as well! More reviews coming up today hopefully!

Oh my word - that carrot cake looks like heaven on a plate!

It most definitely was Linda! It was sinfully delicious. The cream cheese icing on that thing was ridiculous.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

The next morning we woke up and quickly got what few items we had brought into our room at SSR packed up and got ready to switch resorts. Our stay at SSR felt extremely short, but it served it's purpose. It got us through our travel day driving hangover and gave us a comfy place to rest our heads for the evening.

We were back in the car and on our way to AKL Jambo House!


We tried to check in around 9am, but our room wasn't ready. No big deal. We left our stuff in the car and hopped on a bus to Epcot! Once we were on the bus a text came through to my phone that our room was ready. Seriously! We just left! Oh well.

We had no plans for that day since we were originally supposed to still be in the car at this point. I looked through the availability for Epcot restaurants on the WDW app on my phone and we booked a lunch reservation. Exciting! We arrived at Epcot to beautiful weather! It wasn't too hot out yet on this day.


No line for Spaceship Earth, so we jumped on that ride. It was awesome as always! We wanted a little something but didn't really want to eat since we had an early lunch reservation. Coffee it is!

We stopped in at the Starbucks location inside Fountainview for our usual order. I wasn't feeling the pumpkin flavored drinks so I stuck with a Caramel Frappuccino and an extra shot of espresso.


Rob went with his favorite, Java Chip Frappuccino with an extra shot of espresso.


Thank you Starbucks! We needed a little pick me up.

Next we rode Living with the Land. That might be my favorite ride. I said to Rob towards the end of the trip. "You know how you know you're getting older? When Living with the Land is your favorite ride and you've been on it 5 times in one trip and it still doesn't feel like you rode it enough times." Why do I love that ride so much?! It's so peaceful and just generally awesome.

Next up was a ride on Nemo and an exploration of the aquarium which is always super fun.


My belly is getting rumbly. It's time for lunch!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Our lunch reservation was at Coral Reef!


I love the theming here. Everything is so cute. I even like the menu display outside.


The lunch menu.


I noticed along the bench area right outside the front doors that the soil for the plants was made up of seashells. Such a cute touch!


Love the door handle!


We checked in a few minutes before our 11:30am reservation and asked if we could get a seat in front of the aquarium. They weren't seating anyone yet and it didn't seem like a lot of people were waiting so I thought we had a pretty good shot at a great seat. It turns out I was right! We were the first people seated and we were right in front of the aquarium.

Our view of the restaurant.


Our view of the aquatic life!


Yay! This restaurant has the best atmosphere in all of WDW. Hands down. Say what you will about their food but the atmosphere can't be beat. This isn't Rob's favorite place, so I was surprised he wanted to eat here. He has never been crazy about their food, but I always enjoy it. This was our first time here in 4 years. I was excited to be back.

We also had our fish guide on the table so we know what we're looking at on the other side of the glass.


Our server Amy was awesome right from the start. She was super friendly and she had a lot of great suggestions. The suggestions seemed like items she genuinely enjoys and not what management tells her to try and push.

She brought out our rolls and butter right away.


These were delicious but I was trying not to fill up on these.

Rob ordered a Captain's Mai Tai to start. Captain Morgan Original Spiced rum, Amaretto and tropical juices topped with a float of Myers's Dark rum.


He loves a good Mai Tai and said this one was amazing.

I really wanted to try the octopus to start, but my belly wasn't really up for anything too out of the ordinary, so I went with soup instead. The soup of the day was some kind of asparagus soup which sounded great, but I went with the Creamy Lobster Soup.


There weren't a lot of lobster chunks in this soup, but the lobster flavor was very strong in every spoonful of soup, which was fantastic. A great start!

For his entree Rob went with our server's suggestion and tried the Seared Mahi Mahi with Shrimp, Hearts of Palm, Jasmine Rice, Cilantro, and a Coconut-Lime Sauce.


He absolutely loved this dish! He's not much of a seafood eater, but he has been trying to branch out the last couple of years. He said this dish had a ton of flavor and he loved the large amount of shrimp the dish had as well.

I went with a dish I have been dying to try here. The Lobster and Shrimp Orecchiette Pasta with White Cheddar Cheese and asparagus.


This was good, but not as great as I hoped it would be. I loved the large chunks of lobster, but I did not care for the asparagus in the dish. I LOVE asparagus, but this was only the ends of the stalks of the asparagus and they weren't cooked enough for me. They were still waaaaay too crunchy for my taste. I really really hate that at restaurants. They always feel the need to barely cook my vegetables. I roast or saute my veggies for a long time when I cook at home. I usually avoid ordering any kind of mixed veggies out at restaurants because I never care for how they are cooked.

I was too full to finish most of my pasta. I ate out the seafood and left a lot of pasta and asparagus behind. Rob helped me out a little bit though and took over my plate.

All of a sudden our server appeared with this special surprise!


How sweet! She had noticed our anniversary buttons and was chatting with us for awhile at the beginning of the meal, so she decided to bring out a Chocolate Wave dessert for our anniversary.

Here is the ooey gooey center of the cake.


Yum! This was delicious! The raspberry gelato paired perfectly with the rich chocolate cake. As full as I was I tore this dessert up!

In addition to our server, the manager also came over to our table and we had a very pleasant conversation with him as well.

This was such a great meal! Even though I wasn't in love with my entree, everything else was fantastic. From atmosphere, to service, to food, this meal got it all right for us. We were so glad we ended up eating here. Totally unexpected surprise!

 

[disnut1149]

I'm really enjoying reading your reviews! My DH were at Coral Reef on 9/10 for dinner and also got seated right by the tank. Thanks for sharing and can't wait to read more!

 

[suzimar57]

your meal at coral reef looked wonderful!

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Coral Reef is one of our favorites The pasta looks different now than it did when we ate there in 2012.

 

[ShannonMB]

We love Coral Reef, too! Great review and the pics are awesome!!

 

[smiths02]

Great reviews!

I am upset about your Coral Reef review, though, because I had *just* decided that we would save the money and skip it on our next trip mostly due to all the negative reviews. The prices are high, the food gets bad reviews, and the menu doesn't appeal to everyone in my party....but it looks so cool!

 

[Vernie822]

Your coral reef food looks great! I agree with the veggies comment. I hate when I'm eating veggies at restaurants that may as well be dipped in ranch and served cold because they're barely done. Yuck! I'm looking forward to reading the rest!

 

[kastoney]

What a great way to start a surprise day at Epcot, a ride in the land and a lunch in the sea. The land is one of those great nostalgic rides for me. As a child if was excruciating. But the old listen to the land song that accompanied if was so bad it was good to my tween self, and thus my love affair began. Disney may want us to live with the land, but it will always be listen to me ; )

Your lunch at coral reef looks great. I'll admit I've never been due to the not so great reviews and the menu not appealing to me that much, but the atmosphere looks great and your hubby's mahi sounds right up my alley. And so nice of them to bring desert. Our trip last month was the first I wore a button in honor of my bday and I was shocked at the amount of free desert that came our way.

 

[ashleyc1113]

I love Living with the Land. I ride it a million times whenever we go to Epcot.

 

[OasterP]

I hope your new job/promotion is going well! I can't wait to read more!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

I'm really enjoying reading your reviews! My DH were at Coral Reef on 9/10 for dinner and also got seated right by the tank. Thanks for sharing and can't wait to read more!

Thanks so much! It really is a treat to get a seat by the tank isn't it? They always seem very accommodating with that request too.

your meal at coral reef looked wonderful!

It definitely was! Biggest surprise of the trip!

Coral Reef is one of our favorites The pasta looks different now than it did when we ate there in 2012.

I quite enjoy it as well. The only thing that has kept us away has been Rob's indifference, but I think this meal may have swayed him to add it back into our rotation.

We love Coral Reef, too! Great review and the pics are awesome!!

Thanks! So happy to hear that other people enjoy it there as well.

Great reviews!

I am upset about your Coral Reef review, though, because I had *just* decided that we would save the money and skip it on our next trip mostly due to all the negative reviews. The prices are high, the food gets bad reviews, and the menu doesn't appeal to everyone in my party....but it looks so cool!

Too bad you have to skip it this trip. There really are so many negative reviews on here and I really don't understand why. All of my experiences there have been very positive. But, that's why there are so many different restaurants to choose from. Not everything is going to appeal to everyone.

Your coral reef food looks great! I agree with the veggies comment. I hate when I'm eating veggies at restaurants that may as well be dipped in ranch and served cold because they're barely done. Yuck! I'm looking forward to reading the rest!

Glad you are with me on this veggie issue! I say the exact same thing about the ranch! I would prefer to have it that way than the way almost every restaurant seems to serve it. If it's raw, let it be raw. If you are going to cook it, than please fully cook it!

What a great way to start a surprise day at Epcot, a ride in the land and a lunch in the sea. The land is one of those great nostalgic rides for me. As a child if was excruciating. But the old listen to the land song that accompanied if was so bad it was good to my tween self, and thus my love affair began. Disney may want us to live with the land, but it will always be listen to me ; )

Your lunch at coral reef looks great. I'll admit I've never been due to the not so great reviews and the menu not appealing to me that much, but the atmosphere looks great and your hubby's mahi sounds right up my alley. And so nice of them to bring desert. Our trip last month was the first I wore a button in honor of my bday and I was shocked at the amount of free desert that came our way.

I would look past the negative reviews and give it a try sometime. It's worth it just for the atmosphere. That is so awesome that your birthday button got a lot of recognition! So fun to have some extra special moments on vacation.

I love Living with the Land. I ride it a million times whenever we go to Epcot.

It really is the best! If they ever change it I will chain myself to a tomato plant in protest!

I hope your new job/promotion is going well! I can't wait to read more!

Thanks so much! It definitely is going very well. Although the hours are a little odd and they are keeping me away from the DIS too much!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

After our meal and a few more rides we decided to skip WS in Epcot for the day because it was getting pretty hot out. Plus, I wanted to go back to AKL and get all of our stuff in our room and enjoy our resort for our one and only day here.

We managed to catch a bus just before it pulled away which was incredible timing. We unloaded our bags from the car and found our room on the fifth floor. Here we are on the walkway on the fifth floor that looks out onto the lobby.


I was happy to get into our room and take in the spectacular view of the savanna.


The zebras were so playful while we were there.


Always love the giraffes.


Now it's relaxation time. I couldn't get Rob to go in the pool here unfortunately. Although I must say that I'm not a fan of the layout to get to the pool. You have to take the elevator downstairs and walk past Jiko and Boma in your swim attire to get outside. Not the best planning in my opinion. It feels awkward. However, I did enjoy our down time in the room. I took in the lovely view we had out on the balcony and also enjoyed an evening bubble bath. It is vacation after all!

A few hours later we got ready and made our way downstairs to our favorite signature restaurant, Jiko. I love this view of the restaurant from outside.




We checked in and had quite a bit of confusion with the girl checking us in. She was somehow not understanding that we already had a reservation. I had to tell her that multiple times and I'm glad I pushed the issue because I don't think she would have checked us in as showing up for our reservation properly and I did not want to go through the hassle of speaking with Disney billing again about a no show reservation charge like I did last trip. She also asked if we were staying at the Lodge, which I said we were, but I don't think she heard me because that point was never acknowledged by our server like it normally is.

We were seated after a few minutes and taken to one of the areas of the bench seating two person table top rows. Minor rant. I hate this seating style where it is one long bench with lots of two person table tops and a regular chair on the other side of the tables. I hate it. I feel like you are right on top of the other people eating next to you. We fell victim to this seating style so many places this trip. Totally annoys me, but I digress.

Our server was with us right away and she was pleasant and on top of most things throughout the meal, but nothing about the service stood out this meal.

We started out with the bread service, which I enjoy more and more each time we come. I never used to care for it, but the flavor has really grown on me.


We also enjoyed a drink to celebrate our meal this evening. I totally spaced on exactly what Rob got but I know it was a Chardonnay and I had a Graham Beck Rose. It was very lovely.


For an appetizer I knew I just had to have the same flatbread I enjoyed on our last visit here. Rob agreed to split it with me, so we had the KG's Peri-Peri Roasted Chicken Flatbread. Lime chakalaka, lamb chopper cheese and pickled sweet bell peppers.


This is so unbelievably delicious! Rob really loved it and I enjoyed it just as much this time as I did last time. It has so much great flavor. I HIGHLY recommend it!

For our entrees Rob had the Spice-crusted Berkshire Pork Loin.


He was so thrilled by the look of this when it came out. He was worried it would be a small portion, but this piece of pork was huge. However, it was very undercooked. He asked for it well done and it looked practically raw in the center. It looked gross to me. He left a lot of this untouched. He hates to send things back, but he should have. Our server never really came around to ask us how our meal was anyway, so he never really had a chance to. He was very disappointed.

For my entree I had the Maize-crusted Monkfish with the vegetables of the moment and tomato-butter sauce.


Oh wow! This was amazing! Our server said the monkfish was almost like lobster and she was correct. It was so succulent. I loved the crust on the fish too. And that tomato butter sauce is absolutely to die for! I could have slurped up the bowl of it. The veggies of the moment were a rainbow carrot which was cooked to perfection and some type of root veggie similar to a mushroom but crunchy which I didn't particularly care for but I just ate around those. This dish was fabulous!

We looked at a dessert menu but nothing on there interested us, so we decided to skip dessert.

With our bill our server brought out their amazing chocolate pistachio cookies which I love beyond all reason. They have a slight crunch on the outside and they are chewy and moist on the inside. They are so unique. Rob was a sweetie and let me have his cookie. What a guy!


While I felt there were a few missteps with some of the service elements to our meal this trip, overall I loved it. My food was amazing as always. Rob on the other hand was very disappointed with his entree. I felt bad for him. That pork really did look nasty inside.

We did still kind of want something sweet, so we decided to get in the car and drive over to the Boardwalk to check out the bakery and go for an evening stroll. However, our plans were thwarted when we were denied parking at the resort. If you weren't stay at the resort and you didn't have a reservation at a restaurant you could only valet. I was beyond annoyed. We had this issue last trip at other resorts, but I thought that at this resort it wouldn't be an issue since they have ESPN Club and Jellyrolls and nightlife that they encourage you to visit in the evening. I was beyond annoyed. Total waste of time and we had no dessert. It was a Saturday night so I was not even remotely about to fight with the parking nightmare that is DTD right now. We made our way back to AKL empty handed and got a hard time from the security guy at our resort. I had a parking pass and my MagicBand to scan and he was acting like I was lying about staying there. Look buddy, I'm a guest here. Don't even give me any grief. I am in no mood to deal with more mean security people tonight. Just let me park my darn car and go back to my room already.

Not the best end to the evening, but once we were back in the room we found a Big Bang Theory marathon on TBS and Sheldon Cooper made everything right in the world.

 

[vettegirl]

Great update! I totally agree about the pool there, they could have laid it out better. Your meal at Jiko nice except for the hostess. We had a bad experience there four ago and my husband won't go back. If I ever go without him I'm definitely going to try it again.

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