KIMPUP and MLINDISNEY are back A Mini Off-Plan Dining Report UPDATE 3/3 VIA NAPOLI

[MLinDisney]

Seems like I just made a September dining report. (See link in my signature) In September, we had the deluxe dining plan. This time we went off plan. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. While there we tried to take advantage of tours that were only offered if you stayed at AKL. I have reviews of some of those too. We also ran in the 5K Family Fun Run.

Introductions:

My daughter Kim and I:

This photo was taken before the Wanyama Safari (see link below)
We met my brothers, SILs, and nieces down there too!

Here are some links to the reviews:

Wednesday, January 9th
Lunch - LIBERTY TREE TAVERN
JIKO WINE TASTING
Dinner - BOMA

Thursday, January 10th
Brunch - TUSKERHOUSE
Snack - LES HALLES BOULANGERIE PATISSERIE AND FIFE AND DRUM
Dinner - MARA

Friday, January 11th 5K day
Breakfast - MARA
Snack - WRITER'S STOP
Lunch - PIZZA PLANET
Dinner - SAANA
Snack - KARAMELL KUCHE

Saturday January 12th
Breakfast - MARA
Lunch - LA CANTINA DE SAN ANGEL
Snack - KRINGLA
Dinner - JIKO (WANYAMA SAFARI)

Sunday January 13th
Breakfast - PIZZAFARI (SUNRISE SAFARI)
Snack - KARAMELL KUCHE and TANGIERINE CAFE
Dinner - VIA NAPOLI


We went to some of the same restaurants as last time and some different ones. Because we were staying there, we went to tours and ate at the Animal Kingdom Lodge quite a bit.

FIRST REVIEW: Liberty Tree Tavern

 

[MLinDisney]

We started off our first day at JFK Jet Blue Terminal 5 in New York. It was around 5:15 AM when we got there. We stopped for a croissant sandwich and put it in our backpacks to eat on the plane after they served coffee. I have no photos of this.
We arrived at MCO, got our luggage and went to Alamo to pick up our car. We drove right to the AKL. We arrived at 10:30 AM and our room was ready!! We had standard view but this is the room we were given:

It was on the Sunset Savannah. Here is another view:

We left the room and headed for MK. We went on a few rides and headed for our 1:00 ADR at LTT. Here is my lunch:

Yes I had Ooey Gooey Toffee cake for lunch!!!! We went to LTT for a snack on the last trip in September and this was the best dessert in Disneyworld, so we had to go back to have it again. Here is DD's lunch:

She ordered it too! We knew that we were going to the Wednesday afternoon Jiko wine tasting and would have a little protein and fruit so we weren't being totally bad! We ordered water with this.
We rated this very highly on last trip and it was just as good on this trip!
We were off plan on this trip. Total cost $15.96 for the two and we paid for this with our Disney rewards card!
We went to enjoy a little more of MK and then went back to AKL to get ready for wine tasting!

NEXT UP: Jiko Wine Tasting.

 

[Terrie..]

That toffee cake looks so good! I think we may have to try it on our next trip!!!

 

[iloveeeyore]

I'm in! Such a funny lunch choice, definitely something my family would do (though we all preferred the Johnny Appleseed Cake to the Toffee Cake at LTT).

Can't wait to read more!

 

[MUFFYCAT]

Looks good! I wouldn't mind having that for lunch.

After a long absence, we went back to LTT in 2011 and it's now one of our favorites for dinner!

 

[jesswindsor]

I'm in!! Waiting for more

 

[MLinDisney]

That toffee cake looks so good! I think we may have to try it on our next trip!!!

It is so gooey and good! Definitely give it a try!

I'm in! Such a funny lunch choice, definitely something my family would do (though we all preferred the Johnny Appleseed Cake to the Toffee Cake at LTT).

Can't wait to read more!

I have to look up that Johnny Appleseed Cake!

Looks good! I wouldn't mind having that for lunch.

After a long absence, we went back to LTT in 2011 and it's now one of our favorites for dinner!

I hear they don't have the Ooey Gooey cake at dinner. Is that true?

I'm in!! Waiting for more

Updating right now!

 

[MLinDisney]

On our last trip in September, we had dinner at Jiko. Our waitress, Shelly runs the wine tastings on Wednesday afternoons. She invited us to come that Wednesday, but we already had ADRs for Raglan Road that I was looking forward to. We decided to try it this trip. Shelly was off this day. Here is what we saw when we arrived:

The placemat had the names of the wine selections that we were going to be served and the Cheese selection that accompanied it.

Here are the three glasses of wine we were served. There were four other people at the table with us.

These are the cheeses, fruits and other accompaniments that went with the wine. Our sommelier, Barbara spoke at length about the wine, where it came from and how it was made.

These are the cheese selections from left to right on the plate above. We were given this description of the cheese.
The first wine the Bukettraube was sweet and I liked it much better than the Chenin Blanc. The red, Pinotage I had before and I enjoyed that one too.

I enjoyed the wine tasting. It was very informative. The cost is $25 each and worth every penny. It was actually $31.25 each, prepaid on the credit card which included tax and tip.

NEXT REVIEW: DINNER - BOMA

 

[MUFFYCAT]

The wine tasting looks good!

 

[DLFan123]

Great start! Looking forward to reading more. I'll have to check out your old dining review while I wait.

 

[MLinDisney]

The wine tasting looks good!

It was a great experience! I haven't updated in awhile because computer has been down. It finally came back last night and went off again this afternoon. Now its back so I'm going to quickly update!

Great start! Looking forward to reading more. I'll have to check out your old dining review while I wait.

Thank you!! Couldn't update for awhile but hope to right now! Hope you enjoyed my September dining review. We were so stuffed

 

[MLinDisney]

After our afternoon wine tasting, we took a little walk around the AKL to view the pool, counter serve area, pool and décor. We were kind of tired from the flight, MK and wine-tasting so we went to our room to take in the view from our balcony. We saw a few giraffes in the distance and this right under our balcony:

I think these are Roan Antelope.
We had a 7:20 ADR at Boma.
We arrived a little early and were seated. I had some water and POG (a/k/a Jungle juice or Lilikoi), and DD had coffee. We immediately got up and filled our plates:

This is my first plate. The fufu is probably sweet potatoes and were very good. I had salmon, mac and cheese, barbeque beef and bobotie. The white mashed potatoes looking food is mealy pap. All very good.

DD's first dish. She also had rice, chicken, some sort of pasta salad and it looks like cornbread, not sure.

My second dish. I went back for three that I loved. I also had:

Curried Coconut Seafood Stew. This was delicious! I didn't get a photo of DD's second dish, but onto dessert!!

DD chose mousse, brownie, cheesecake, zebra dome, bread pudding and some other pastries.

I had a few pastries or mousse not sure what they were, a zebra dome and some bread pudding with caramel and vanilla sauces! In September, we bought the zebra domes at the Mara in a package. They melted a little and I didn't like the taste. I thought I would give them another try. These were much better. Not my favorite dessert but good. I think that the Mara sells non-alcoholic domes, but these were clearly labeled as having alcohol in them.
I loved the bread pudding with the sauces. Still not as good as the bread pudding at Raglan Road or 'Ohana!
I'm glad we tried this African buffet dinner. There were so many choices and we hadn't tried an African dinner buffet, only African Breakfast buffets.
This dinner came to $76.66 for two without tip. We used our Disney rewards card to pay for it!

NEXT REVIEW: BREAKFAST - TUSKERHOUSE

 

[Terrie..]

Wow! Looks good!! I didn't know Boma was a buffet. This review is making me hungry

 

[MLinDisney]

Wow! Looks good!! I didn't know Boma was a buffet. This review is making me hungry

Food is very good at Boma! I wonder how the breakfast buffet is.

 

[MLinDisney]

This morning, we had a 10:30 ADR for Tuskerhouse breakfast. I knew I couldn’t wait that long for something to eat, so I had half a protein bar that I brought along and some water. DD had a bite or two of it. We then stopped in the Mara for some coffee. We headed to Animal Kingdom rope drop and went right to the Safari ride. On the way to the turnstiles we saw this:

The Animal Kingdom Christmas Tree. Here is a close up of it:

It had animals and artifacts from Africa all over it. Very interesting tree! There were Christmas decorations at every park. This was January 10th and they were still up. The decorations for the resorts were taken down all ready though. Here are a few from MK from January 9th:

Ooops sorry so many, but before I left, I read on Disboards that all the decorations would be down by the 6th. This was such a pleasant surprise!
Onward to the review. After going to the Safari and Rafikis Planet, we met up with my whole family at Tuskerhouse. We all handed our cameras to the photographer:

We Sat down and ordered Coffee and juice and headed into the buffet area.

This is my first dish! I love the biscuits with sausage gravy and the bobotie quiche the best! The sweet potatoes were great too! They have such an unusual assortment of choices. We did this last trip at 8:00 and loved it! Looks like I also took plantains and corned beef hash.

This is DD's first dish. I see she has a blintz. I know I had one too but not sure where it was on my plate. On top is a Krispy Kream donut!!
I’m not sure whose plate this is. It may be my niece Tina’s or my brother John’s:

I went back and got that ham with the sauce on it. It was delicious. I also had POG juice here. I think this is my niece Celeste’s dish:

Check out Celeste’s great trip report: Pure Magic Wrapped up in Pixie Dust - A January, 2013 Trip Report Her disboard name is Celeste. <-- with a period at the end. I didn't take a photo of my cinnamon roll or my bread pudding. I had the bread pudding with vanilla sauce. It was delicious. We took many photos there with the characters:

My brother broke his foot and had to use a scooter at Disney. Here is a photo of Mickey taking off with his scooter:

At about 11:00. They started taking away the breakfast selections a little at a time and putting out lunch selections. We tasted some of those too! This was more like brunch than breakfast. What a great time to go! We had fun here with the characters and with the family!
This breakfast was $53.98 for two not including tip. I was full for the rest of the day! We paid for it with our Disney Rewards card! So far we haven't paid for any food or drinks.

NEXT REVIEW: SNACK AT EPCOT

 

[KBrown88]

I read your last dining trip report and loved it. I am enjoying this one too! I like how it's so nice and neat. Great report with great pictures!

 

[MUFFYCAT]

Love your Tusker House pictures! Looks so good!

My friends love Boma's breakfast, I think you would like it.
I've only had dinner there.

 

[maslex]

Can't wait to hear more....

 

[pumba]

thank you for your reviews so far..
I love Tusker House Breakfast too...and the jungle juice I think they called it..
It makes me ready and raring to go for May..
Thanks again ..look forward to more of your reviews

 

[MLinDisney]

I'm back. My hard drive crashed and I couldn't post photos on my ipad for some reason.

I read your last dining trip report and loved it. I am enjoying this one too! I like how it's so nice and neat. Great report with great pictures!

Thank you!! I wish everything in my house was nice and neat too!

Love your Tusker House pictures! Looks so good!

My friends love Boma's breakfast, I think you would like it.
I've only had dinner there.

We only had dinner at Boma too! I would love to try the breakfast one day!

Can't wait to hear more....

Thank you!! My computer and I are ready to update!

thank you for your reviews so far..
I love Tusker House Breakfast too...and the jungle juice I think they called it..
It makes me ready and raring to go for May..
Thanks again ..look forward to more of your reviews

Thank you for reading! I love that jungle juice. I had the same juice last trip at Kona, but they call it Lilikoi juice. I had it last trip also at Tusker. It was also served on the Wild Animal Trek tour from last trip and the Sunrise Safari tour from this trip!!

I'm going to update now!