Marathon Weekend 2023

[camaker]

On the topic of Columbia Harbor House - does it have calm chowder in a bread bowl? Both my daughters have Celiac Disease so no gluten ever in our house and when we eat out. But a few weeks back I was in California Adventure and had a couple hours to myself and I went over to Fisherman’s Wharf area and had the chowder in a bread bowl - it was sooo good! I saw it being sold in Disneyland the next day but was with the family so I skipped it. But I am sure I can work it in at Marathon Weekend, just don’t normally go to CHH. Do they have it and is it good?

Columbia Harbour House stopped serving clam chowder in a bread bowl many years ago, unfortunately. It was one of my favorites. They did have it available in a bread bowl as a limited time special offering during this year's MW, though, so keep an eye for it just in case.

The other thing to be aware is that WDW has simplified their clam chowder recipe over the years. I don't know recipe what DL is serving right now, but when I was there in 2016 & 2017 their clam chowder was FAR better than WDW's offering.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy WDW's clam chowder. A lobster roll with clam chowder on the side is one of my "go to" meals at WDW (3x this past MW). It's just not as good as DL's so I don't want you to be surprised when it doesn't match up.

 

[pluto377]

SAFD- CRT for me. So expensive and the choices are blah and don’t even taste good. For the restaurant in the symbol of Disney world it’s completely lame. This was both pre and post covid but it was even worse post.

I also wasn’t impressed with Sanaa or Boma. I wouldn’t say they were bad, but I just didn’t love them.

 

[bovie]

SAFD: I'm the literal worst about participating consistently in this thread, but I'd really like to do better, because I've always found it to be so encouraging. That said, I think I've generally been pretty happy with the food at Disney? Maybe it's just because I'm happy to be there. I will agree that the veggie sides could use some work- the ubiquitous pan- fried green beans are not my fave. Chef Mickey's was probably my least fav. I ate there after the Marathon in 2019, still sweaty (huge mistake, and not really my call). My stomach hadn't quite recovered from the race and I just sorta remember it being average.

 

[Barca33Runner]

People rag on Nine Dragons because every town in the country has at least one decent Chinese restaurant.

This is an interesting idea. I think Nine Dragons experiences this critique (I can get better from my local place) more than others but I think it’s becoming commonplace among a lot of Disney restaurants. As we’ve become more of a foodie nation there has been a proliferation of more diverse selections in most local markets.

I’m in the Midwest, home of the blandest and least open-minded palates on earth, and I’ve got decent (or better) options for sushi, Thai, Greek, Mexican, Chinese and I’m sure others if I wanted to look a little harder. It used to be that Disney was a place to find things you couldn’t get back home but, from a cuisine perspective, I don’t think that’s true any longer (at least not to the same extent). I think this can explain some of the underwhelmed opinions.

Disney has to try harder to create separation from the average local or chain establishment and I don’t think corporate has any vision for Disney to try hard at anything other than selling Disney+ subscriptions.

 

[steph0808]

Worst Disney dining for me would be The Plaza Restaurant in MK. Service wasn't great, and the food was pretty terrible.

I didn't used to be an adventurous eater, and I'm not compared to some of you, but I'm better than my mom (who always goes to Disney with me). That means that we don't get to experiment with restaurants too much.

 

[GreatLakes]

SAFD: This last trip we had two, 'Ohana and Be Our Guest. Be our guest is definitely one and done but we may give 'Ohana another chance down the road. Our waiter was great but the food was just ok and not worth the "have to have it" hype. I know they are not fully back to normal service but that only impacts the presentation, the food it self should have been better.

The food at Beaches N Cream is also not very good. I know that isn't their main attraction but I've had two meals there and it wasn't great even by Disney standards. The ice cream was ok but it is miles below any local place that hand makes their ice cream.

I feel kind of sad now lol. Does anyone have really good Disney food experiences they want to add?

I have way more positives than negatives but some of it is mindset. I know, with a few exceptions, the food will be overpriced for what it is due to being a Disney restaurant. I also know that anything ethnic will be toned down because anything overly authentic would get complaints from the many non-adventurous Disney guests that want just a little bit of authenticity but not too much.

From just this past trip we had two outstanding meals. One was Topolino breakfast and the other was Cape May. I don't eat crab legs so don't care about the decision to charge more for them but everyone on our trip thought it was our best meal. Two of our party don't even eat seafood and still felt that way.

Boma dinner never disappoints and the only character meal, other than Topolino, that I thought had good enough food to stand on its own without characters is Tusker House. We only do AK every few trips down but when we do Tusker House is a must do.

 

[azrivest]

I feel kind of sad now lol. Does anyone have really good Disney food experiences they want to add?

We loved Beaches & Cream, Brown Derby and Wine Bar George.

I know Beaches & Cream is standard Edy's ice cream, but maybe because of the more reasonable prices, our expectations weren't so high. I was super happy with my No Was José We're also not foodies, so we'll never be the family who excitedly pays 200$ for a meal, no matter how good. My kids still go for the nuggets.

 

[Barca33Runner]

My dad is a non-adventurous eater and early in our lives this had very much rubbed off on my brother, sister and I. One of the weird memories I have from our two trips when I was a kid was walking around Epcot for what seemed like an eternity trying to find something “acceptable” to eat. I’m sure Epcot was much different in the early 90’s but I know we rejected multiple places and eventually ended up in whatever quick service was in the America pavilion at the time for burgers and fries .

It’s kind of painful thinking back on what a nightmare we must have been on those trips.

 

[HangWithMerida]

I'm curious as to your thoughts on Columbia Harbour House at MK. It's always been one of my favorites and I've always found the food to be good there.

We have eaten there several times over the years because they have a vegetarian chili that my husband loves. As lackluster as most MK food is, the vegetarian options are downright boring. So he loves that chili! And it's a snack so reasonably priced for a decent sized cup.

 

[HangWithMerida]

I guess my statement may have been overly harsh; I would classify a lot of MK fare as “fine” (CHH, Pecos Bill’s, Casey’s, Skipper Canteen). My go to has become the waffle sandwiches or hand dipped corn dog from Sleepy Hollow, and those are usually quite good (although the Nutella and fruit version doesn’t really solve my sweets issue).

I love the spicy chicken waffle sandwich at Sleepy Hollow! It's the perfect spicy-sweet combo. The nutella one is too much for me but my kid likes it. I like Pecos Bill's. Burrito bowl!! And my husband can get food there easily as well. I love tex-mex and I can only do so much fried stuff, which is my biggest complaint with MK food. So much chicken tender, burger, fries type food. I just can't do that more than once every couple of days.

My husband and I are pretty adventurous eaters. And I love spicy food. Being a theme park, a lot of the food at WDW definitely favors crowd-pleasing. We actually do a fair bit of table service dining because overall I think you can find more interesting food and options that are seasoned with more than just an ungodly amount of salt.

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

SAFD- CRT for me. So expensive and the choices are blah and don’t even taste good. For the restaurant in the symbol of Disney world it’s completely lame. This was both pre and post covid but it was even worse post.

I also wasn’t impressed with Sanaa or Boma. I wouldn’t say they were bad, but I just didn’t love them.

I'm a vegetarian, and the lone veggie option was strange. It was ok. The appetizer (mushroon soup) and desert cheesecake thing I had were fabulous and it was fun to eat in the castle. I'm glad I did it, but I probably wouldn't do it on again.

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD- CRT for me. So expensive and the choices are blah and don’t even taste good. For the restaurant in the symbol of Disney world it’s completely lame. This was both pre and post covid but it was even worse post.

I'm a vegetarian, and the lone veggie option was strange. It was ok. The appetizer (mushroon soup) and desert cheesecake thing I had were fabulous and it was fun to eat in the castle. I'm glad I did it, but I probably wouldn't do it on again.

They rely on location and experiences (character dining) to justify high price tags for ho hum fare. It would be less offensive if it wasn’t so clear that they aren’t even particularly trying to have the food meet the experience. I’d say CRT, BOG, and Chef Mickey’s are some of the most obvious culprits but it, unfortunately, creeps in almost everywhere on property.

ETA: It has been interesting to see the initial reactions and subsequent opinions on Connections Eatery in Epcot. Initial reviews were very strong but since I’ve seen multiple opinions from the DIS podcast crew that quality has fallen off. Disney seems very cognizant of hitting their soft openings and the first week of service for any new/revamped restaurants knowing that is when social media will send in its verdict.

 

[bryana]

Slightly off topic from the great conversations right now about restaurants:

is anyone else in here running through St Jude? I haven't received my registration link yet, and while I know of at least one other runner who hasn't, I'm just wondering if that's the case for all St Jude Heroes.

 

[flav]

SAFD: We had good, ok and one to two bad meals at Disney.

The bad meal we had was Citricos in 2015. I don’t know what happened in the kitchen that night but all five plates were not good. They offered to compensate us but we were on a DxDP (more food credit that we could enjoy) so they covered the bottle of wine. That was the last time we took a dining plan.

Honorable mention to Yak and Yeti which we used to love but that became oversalty to the point of being inedible.

With the kids growing up it became easier to shift to QS and snack all day with the occasional sit down dinner. It is easier to shake off an average snack than a big meal costing 85$ (two points) per person too.

 

[BigEeyore]

SAFD: It's sad that being disappointed in a meal at WDW is becoming more the norm than the exception, but like so much at WDW dining has gone downhill in the past few years.
Whispering Canyon was a big let down - so many people go on about how much fun it is, how great the food is, and it just wasn't great. The ketchup thing made us laugh but that was the highlight
Olivia's was a one and done for us - another restaurant many people rave about that was just meh.

There are many restaurants that have been mentioned already that used to be really great that we used to scramble to get an ADR for, that now we avoid like the plague: Ohana's, Tusker House, Crystal Palace.

Only ate at Jiko once several years ago and that one was also a let down, but I hear nothing but rave reviews since it reopened so might give it another chance someday.

 

[wdwjoe13]

Slightly off topic from the great conversations right now about restaurants:

is anyone else in here running through St Jude? I haven't received my registration link yet, and while I know of at least one other runner who hasn't, I'm just wondering if that's the case for all St Jude Heroes.

We were very excited to get a bib for our 11 year old for the 5k. DW and I are doing Dopey and were excited to run the 5k with him, but it filled right as I finished registration. I am been stalking charities for bibs and was happy to find St. Jude's still had some. Our 7 year old son went through chemo in the fall, so the charity is one that will be close to our heart.

We received the registration link on June 15th. First time doing it through a charity, though, so I am assuming we did it correctly and are good to go baesd on what I see on his fundraising page.

 

[Barca33Runner]

We were very excited to get a bib for our 11 year old for the 5k. DW and I are doing Dopey and were excited to run the 5k with him, but it filled right as I finished registration. I am been stalking charities for bibs and was happy to find St. Jude's still had some. Our 7 year old son went through chemo in the fall, so the charity is one that will be close to our heart.

We received the registration link on June 15th. First time doing it through a charity, though, so I am assuming we did it correctly and are good to go baesd on what I see on his fundraising page.

Can’t provide any insight on charity bibs but it seems like you are doing things correctly. I hope it works out. Sounds like this is something very meaningful for your whole crew. Good luck!

 

[wdwjoe13]

Registration is currently showing available for all events on Marathon Weekend.

 

[lukemorenus]

Hurry!

 

[jpeterson]

Registration is currently showing available for all events on Marathon Weekend.

Just came here to post this!