jerseytinkerbell
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2010
I woke up the next morning at 6:45am and started to get ready for our morning at AK. We had an 8am reservation at Tusker House, so there is no time to waste!
Rob somehow managed to pack 2 pairs of socks for himself. The rest were apparently left behind in New Jersey. He tore apart his bags and never did find them. The Great Sock Mystery of 2014.
He finally gave up looking and threw on a pair of sandals and we were off!
I drove us to AK and we got a parking spot close to the front, so we were able to just walk right up to the park. No parking lot tram necessary. A nice couple stopped us and asked us to take their picture near the entrance to AK. They ended up being seated near us at breakfast and during breakfast we saw him propose to her. It was very sweet! She was beaming all through breakfast.
We made our way over to the left of the entrance, where you could enter for pre-park opening dining reservations. It was so weird to walk through an empty AK.
From there we made our way back to Africa.
It was time for our first ever dining experience at Tusker House!
We checked in and were sent around the back of the building for our family photo. I thought you got your picture with Donald here, but Donald is now inside and you get your picture taken up against a boring wall.
They then try to sell these pictures to you during your meal for a sick ridiculous amount of money. I get so heated about the upcharge on those meal pictures, but I've done this rant before, so I'll spare you. It was a cute picture of us though, which is really almost extra annoying since I would have liked to buy it, just not for the $25 or whatever it is they are trying to gouge you for.
As soon as they snapped our picture we were led inside by Jacki, who was very much flirting with Rob. She said, "If you leave hungry, you're in big trouble. If you try and leave here hungry, I get to keep him." She then latched onto his arm and led him all the way back to our table in the back of the restaurant. It was too cute.
Our very friendly server took our drink order and served up their Jungle Juice mixture (that name just cracks me up, since I don't recall Jungle Juice tasting like that in my 20s, but so be it
). Jungle Juice is the orange, guava, passion fruit mixture that is served in many of the breakfast locations under various names. We went through a lot of that juice during breakfast and she was always prompt with our refills.
The buffet setup is very cool looking. I did manage to get a shot of the overall buffet area.
The center section is all pastries and breads and the outside area has all of the hot and cold stations. There was a lot to choose from here! Lots of great standards like Mickey waffles, bacon and fruit and some items unique to Tusker. Here is a shot of Rob's first plate.
Starting at the top is the bobotie (I think), crumb cake, potatoes, carved ham with a mustard sauce, scrambled eggs (I think they had goat cheese in them), sausage patties, corned beef hash and in the center is some type of ham, egg and cheese dish. He really liked everything, but he did say that the mustard sauce was slightly different but better at Boma.
My first plate, which I packed full of fatty goodness.
Starting at the top I had a chocolate pastry, cheese blintz with an apple topping, a biscuit with gravy, a Mickey waffle, tater tots, bacon, a Krispy Kreme doughnut hole, a piece of veggie quiche, an apple turnover, which was on top of a slice of carved ham and some potatoes. Everything was delicious! I ate all of this too. I'm not proud, but it happened.
I went up for a second plate.
Since there was no room on my plate the first time I had to try their bread pudding with vanilla sauce. I also had to have some more tater tots and doughnut holes. Only the essentials! The bread pudding was the last in the dish, so I think it was a little dry and old, so it wasn't the greatest. I would like to try it again when it's more fresh. I weirdly LOVED the tater tots here. I had to have more. The doughnut holes were so fresh and soft and delicious.
And of course, Tusker House is a character meal, so here are some pictures!
Our picture with Daisy unfortunately turned out terrible and Rob was too antsy to wait around for Mickey, so these are the only two character pictures I got this time. This character meal took us a really long time for some reason. Usually we're out pretty quickly, but the park was already filling up by the time we left at 9:15.
I really enjoyed our first time at Tusker House! The food was delicious and it's always fun to grab a few character photos. The only drawback here for me was that it seemed extra packed in there and it was hard to maneuver around people standing in the aisles taking pictures. Definitely very loud and crowded in there. The price is also pretty high. I like the food at Trail's End just as much, if not more, and it is almost half the price of TH. I wouldn't eat here every time, but I would definitely come back every other trip or so. I'm debating about keeping it on our list for September. We'll see what happens!
Rob somehow managed to pack 2 pairs of socks for himself. The rest were apparently left behind in New Jersey. He tore apart his bags and never did find them. The Great Sock Mystery of 2014.
He finally gave up looking and threw on a pair of sandals and we were off!I drove us to AK and we got a parking spot close to the front, so we were able to just walk right up to the park. No parking lot tram necessary. A nice couple stopped us and asked us to take their picture near the entrance to AK. They ended up being seated near us at breakfast and during breakfast we saw him propose to her. It was very sweet! She was beaming all through breakfast.
We made our way over to the left of the entrance, where you could enter for pre-park opening dining reservations. It was so weird to walk through an empty AK.
From there we made our way back to Africa.
It was time for our first ever dining experience at Tusker House!
We checked in and were sent around the back of the building for our family photo. I thought you got your picture with Donald here, but Donald is now inside and you get your picture taken up against a boring wall.
They then try to sell these pictures to you during your meal for a sick ridiculous amount of money. I get so heated about the upcharge on those meal pictures, but I've done this rant before, so I'll spare you. It was a cute picture of us though, which is really almost extra annoying since I would have liked to buy it, just not for the $25 or whatever it is they are trying to gouge you for. As soon as they snapped our picture we were led inside by Jacki, who was very much flirting with Rob. She said, "If you leave hungry, you're in big trouble. If you try and leave here hungry, I get to keep him."
She then latched onto his arm and led him all the way back to our table in the back of the restaurant. It was too cute. Our very friendly server took our drink order and served up their Jungle Juice mixture (that name just cracks me up, since I don't recall Jungle Juice tasting like that in my 20s, but so be it
). Jungle Juice is the orange, guava, passion fruit mixture that is served in many of the breakfast locations under various names. We went through a lot of that juice during breakfast and she was always prompt with our refills.The buffet setup is very cool looking. I did manage to get a shot of the overall buffet area.
The center section is all pastries and breads and the outside area has all of the hot and cold stations. There was a lot to choose from here! Lots of great standards like Mickey waffles, bacon and fruit and some items unique to Tusker. Here is a shot of Rob's first plate.
Starting at the top is the bobotie (I think), crumb cake, potatoes, carved ham with a mustard sauce, scrambled eggs (I think they had goat cheese in them), sausage patties, corned beef hash and in the center is some type of ham, egg and cheese dish. He really liked everything, but he did say that the mustard sauce was slightly different but better at Boma.
My first plate, which I packed full of fatty goodness.
Starting at the top I had a chocolate pastry, cheese blintz with an apple topping, a biscuit with gravy, a Mickey waffle, tater tots, bacon, a Krispy Kreme doughnut hole, a piece of veggie quiche, an apple turnover, which was on top of a slice of carved ham and some potatoes. Everything was delicious! I ate all of this too. I'm not proud, but it happened.
I went up for a second plate.
Since there was no room on my plate the first time I had to try their bread pudding with vanilla sauce. I also had to have some more tater tots and doughnut holes. Only the essentials! The bread pudding was the last in the dish, so I think it was a little dry and old, so it wasn't the greatest. I would like to try it again when it's more fresh. I weirdly LOVED the tater tots here. I had to have more. The doughnut holes were so fresh and soft and delicious.
And of course, Tusker House is a character meal, so here are some pictures!
Our picture with Daisy unfortunately turned out terrible and Rob was too antsy to wait around for Mickey, so these are the only two character pictures I got this time. This character meal took us a really long time for some reason. Usually we're out pretty quickly, but the park was already filling up by the time we left at 9:15.
I really enjoyed our first time at Tusker House! The food was delicious and it's always fun to grab a few character photos. The only drawback here for me was that it seemed extra packed in there and it was hard to maneuver around people standing in the aisles taking pictures. Definitely very loud and crowded in there. The price is also pretty high. I like the food at Trail's End just as much, if not more, and it is almost half the price of TH. I wouldn't eat here every time, but I would definitely come back every other trip or so. I'm debating about keeping it on our list for September. We'll see what happens!
There are a lot of similar items at both buffets. I give Boma a slight edge actually.
I agree that there wasn't a particularly memorable item on the buffet, but I definitely did enjoy it. I'm a sucker for a good photo op too. I was disappointed with arrival photo, yet somewhat relieved since I then wasn't concerned about wanting to buy it.
And Rob's choice would have been right up my DH's alley, he loves a good rich piece of chocolate cake. He devours the Martha Washington cake at Liberty Tree Tavern in no time flat, LOL.
Hopefully everything works out a little better if you get back in 2015.
Yum! I dunked each one in the chocolate sauce and then the whipped cream. So good! When it said ricotta cheese I thought it had a creamy filling or something, but that must just give the dough balls a layer of richness, because there wasn't a filling. Just a warm and dense fried dough ball. Almost like the french toast puffs at CP, but more dense. 
) of Sam Adams Seasonal.
