Mickey Bars in Bed & Dole Whips for Lunch - Nov 15 Dining Report - Complete!

[Vernie822]

Now onto the FOOD that we consumed that morning! We probably started shortly after 11:30..


We started at the Hawaii booth, which was a favorite of mine last year (this booth is on the side of the park towards Canada).

We ordered a Kalua pork slider and a pineapple wine. I was back and forth between trying the Kona beers and the pineapple wine.

Kālua pork slider with sweet and sour Dole Pineapple chutney and spicy mayonnaise* – $4.00, DDP Snack Eligible

The pulled pork slider was fantastic as always. It’s on a soft bun and has a nice pineapple/red pepper chutney, plus a spicy mayo on top. We ate this right up. A solid 4.5/5.

Maui Splash Sweet Pineapple Wine – $3.50

The wine was nice too but not a favorite. I like fruity wine and I knew this would be fruity, but I decided it was too fruity (had that kind of fermented fruit taste) and I prefer a white wine with maybe just a hint of pineapple as opposed to a full blown pineapple wine. I gave this a 3.5/5.


Justin and I actually made these pulled pork sliders last weekend at home. We just googled the recipe and used the King’s Hawaiian slider buns instead of making our own (shout out to Disney but I am not making my own bread lol). The pork was just a pork butt in the crockpot, shredded after maybe 6-8 hours of cooking. The chutney was by far the most time and labor-intensive, it had to simmer on the stove for like two hours, but it was really delicious after all was said and done. The spicy mayo was just sriracha + mayonnaise! So we had these for dinner last Sunday and they were awesome.


We then parted ways (I’m really not sure why as it was not busy at all) – Justin headed towards Greece and I headed towards the Refreshment Port. I HAD TO HAVE a Cronut at some point on this trip and gosh darn it, now was the time! Justin also asked me to get him a Diet Coke (which I forgot and had to order separately, I was too busy staring at the Cronut in front of me). And Justin loves gyros so he wanted to get one of those at the Greece booth.

Croissant Doughnut - tossed in cinnamon sugar $4.99 (DDP Snack Eligible)

The croissant donut is not a Festival-specific item, but one I had been wanting to try. Having worked at a bakery back in the day, I have definitely sampled each of the 30 flavors of donuts on multiple occasions. This was something different though.

Perfectly fried, perfectly flaky, perfectly doused in cinnamon and sugar. Not too greasy at all, which I love. This was a fantastic purchase and I will be back for one again sometime. A 5/5 from me! You can also get these with ice cream but I don’t know that I’d like that – the soupiness of the ice cream would likely ruin the crispiness of the donut for me.

Justin loves gyros so he was pleased with his choice, a chicken gyro from Greece. I don’t really like lamb gyros but this was tasty, not a ton of meat as you can see, but a good sized sample gyro. It has a nice cucumber sauce on it which I always like. Note to self, this would be something fun to make at home. Justin rated this a 3.5/5. He was satisfied and enjoyed it but said it could've been better.

Justin decided to get another filet from Canada. We already had one of these on Saturday, but he loves it! One day we will eat at Le Cellier. I forgot to take a picture of this one.

Lastly, we stopped at the Cheese Studio for one last item: the cheese fondue with sourdough bread. I originally wanted the Cheese Trio but we decided on this instead because we'd heard it was good. We actually ended up talking to a CM from my hometown whose parents lived not too far from mine (though we didn't know each other). She was really sweet!

Cheese fondue with sourdough bread - $3.50, DDP snack eligible

I LOVE CHEESE so I was excited to give this a try, and unfortunately it kind of just fell flat. It had that chalky/floury taste to it, so it was overly thick and almost paste-y. The bread was fine but nothing spectacular, but it could’ve been. Some nice crusty bread would’ve been perfect. So overall this wasn’t fantastic but it was not terrible either. Just didn’t stand out to me. The Canadian cheddar cheese soup is way better. We gave this a 2.

We went back to the room for a rest after that, before coming back for our wine seminar at 4 PM.
​

 

[Vernie822]

Wonderful updates! Thanks so much. I really enjoyed the Chase lounge but completely didn't even think about taking photos, so thanks!

Thank you for reading! I really liked the Chase lounge too - it was such a nice, not-so-crowded place to cool off. A very much appreciated perk! And the free Coke machine was a plus as well.

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

I've fallen terribly behind so I'm just going to say that everything you've had looks delicious -especially that bread service.

And if only you could get a Dole Whip not a Mickey bar to back to bed - then I'd be a happy lady!

 

[kastoney]

I'm way behind, but all caught up now.

Your sampler meal at 50's looks great. I haven't been there in a long time, so what a great way to try a little of everything.

So glad to hear you all enjoyed Boma. I too read lots of good things about it, but have never been. It does looks similar to Tusker House, but I'm loving the idea of a calmer environment and of course a lower price tag ; ) And that bread pudding sounds absolutely devine.

Looks like you all really took advantage of food and wine. I don't think I'd heard of the savory waffle, but that looks and sounds delicious. And that scallop looks amazing too. The pork slider was our favorite item last year, though I never even considered trying to make it at home. May have to enlist my in-house chef to help with that one ; ) And so glad you loved the cronut. It really is an amazing creation.

Can't believe you had to wait to long at Sanaa. It certainly is picking up in popularity, but I"m shocked they couldn't get you in any earlier. So happy you all enjoyed the bread service. It is without question one of our favorite items on property. If you go ahead be sure to try some of the slow cooked items, they are delicious.

And love your mickey bar in bed ending. Perfect way to have your first one ; )

 

[happy2012]

Loving the reviews!!!!

 

[Baklava]

Someday I will be dragging my husband to F and W.

 

[Vernie822]

I've fallen terribly behind so I'm just going to say that everything you've had looks delicious -especially that bread service.

And if only you could get a Dole Whip not a Mickey bar to back to bed - then I'd be a happy lady!

Thanks for reading! I do love Dole Whips, maybe next time I stay at the Poly I'll have to have one of those in bed instead of a Mickey bar. Novel idea.

I'm way behind, but all caught up now.

Your sampler meal at 50's looks great. I haven't been there in a long time, so what a great way to try a little of everything.

So glad to hear you all enjoyed Boma. I too read lots of good things about it, but have never been. It does looks similar to Tusker House, but I'm loving the idea of a calmer environment and of course a lower price tag ; ) And that bread pudding sounds absolutely devine.

Looks like you all really took advantage of food and wine. I don't think I'd heard of the savory waffle, but that looks and sounds delicious. And that scallop looks amazing too. The pork slider was our favorite item last year, though I never even considered trying to make it at home. May have to enlist my in-house chef to help with that one ; ) And so glad you loved the cronut. It really is an amazing creation.

Can't believe you had to wait to long at Sanaa. It certainly is picking up in popularity, but I"m shocked they couldn't get you in any earlier. So happy you all enjoyed the bread service. It is without question one of our favorite items on property. If you go ahead be sure to try some of the slow cooked items, they are delicious.

And love your mickey bar in bed ending. Perfect way to have your first one ; )

Boma was so good! I do LOVE TH, but sometimes I don't really want the character meal (or the pricetag that comes with it).

Those Hawaiian sliders are SO GOOD. Now that we made them at home I think I'll need to have them more often.

I was so shocked. Especially because I had my pick of times leading up to the day before. I was so surprised when she said reservations only! I think I may need to try the shrimp or butter chicken next time - I'm definitely going back for that bread service, too!!

Loving the reviews!!!!

Thanks!!

Someday I will be dragging my husband to F and W.

Haha.. I am sure once you get him there he will love it! Mine went wild!

 

[samsteele]

Love that Cro-nut at Refreshment Port. Also loving that it is available year round. I agree with you about the ice cream. Doesn't need it at all. Perfect flaky goodness just plain jane!

 

[Vernie822]

I had booked a wine seminar back in July/August-ish when the Food and Wine festival events came out. This was held at the Festival Center, right past Test Track and Ellen's, at 4 pm. We knew it would be a beverage tasting featuring King Estate Winery.

I really like wine, preferably of the white variety. I like both dry and sweet, usually leaning towards a Riesling, or a Pinot Grigio if I want something a little more dry. I don't really drink red wine unless it's got some sweetness to it, so my wine tasting abilities still have a way to go. We actually live very close to a bunch of Lake Erie wineries. Fortunately their soil is perfect for growing grapes for sweet wines, so I do my fair share of tasting.

I think this seminar runs about $15/person, with a $2 or $3 AP discount. We got there shortly before 4, after stopping at a few Chew booths beforehand (pics of those to come). Since we had a Chase visa, we were given our priority seating vouchers earlier that day.

(Note that there were 2 lines.. one for those w/ priority seating and one for those without. We got to enter first and find a seat before everyone else was let in.)

We were definitely among the youngest in the crowd.

Our winery of choice was King Estate Winery, which is in Oregon. I wish I would've taken better notes, but I was really focused on just enjoying the experience.

I believe the guy who presented to us was John. He had a lot of good information. He was a distributor in Florida but he had been to visit the winery in Oregon numerous times. If I recall, the owner (who has since passed away) was a lawyer and he and his son decided to open up the winery. His son still does most of the operations. A lot of what they did was organic, which I found to be pretty interesting!

We were given three small pours of wine:

There was maybe two ounces in each. Honestly just enough to get a few sips and taste the wine. Of course the wine-o in me is thinking "really, that's it?!" I was a little disappointed with the size, but it was a seminar about the winery and their wine so I can see why they only gave us a small taste.

The wine was delicious, he let us drink them at the beginning of our seminar (we were all itching to taste them) and then he went over the different kinds. So I tried to take a few sips and leave some more for when he was going over the wines.

They also had little crackers and water to cleanse your palate, and they provided us all with some paper and pencils for note taking.

The first we tasted I believe was a Pinot Grigio. I really liked this one.

I have definitely had Pinot Grigio that is drier than this, so I really enjoyed this one.

I know I took notes on the wines we tried but I can't find them - I'll have to look and see (bad DIS'er!) I think the middle one, a red, was a Pinot Noir. I remember John saying that this was one of their best-selling and most famous wines. This one was REALLY good. Now I know I said I'm not much of a red drinker, but this was nice and smooth and I really liked it.

The third and final wine was white. I believe it was a Riesling because I remember really liking it!

Overall I did enjoy this. It was worth the $30 and was something we'll do in the future. We actually looked once we got back to the room that night to see if there were any other seminars that week that we'd want to try. We spent a lot of time at the festival so it was a nice break inside to learn about some wine. Justin enjoyed it too, he's not too big of a wine drinker but he does like it. I don't think he liked the red as much as the whites.

I highly recommend any of the tasting events for someone wanting an experience that's inexpensive, outside of tasting a few items. Sure I could've purchased 3 or 4 samples from the festival, but this was a nice change of pace. We'll definitely book one again next time we go for F&W, maybe even one of the lunches at the World Showcase.

The length of the seminar was about 45 minutes. So the perfect length to hear John speak, taste some wine, and be on our way!​

 

[kastoney]

Glad you enjoyed the wine tasting. We've had King wines before and they are all good. Though I'm not sure a 2 oz pour of anything would satisfy me ; )

 

[Vernie822]

Glad you enjoyed the wine tasting. We've had King wines before and they are all good. Though I'm not sure a 2 oz pour of anything would satisfy me ; )

I really enjoyed it, their wines were delicious. 2 oz was nowhere near enough!

 

[tweetylori]

Loving your report and pics...thank you! Looking forward to more!

 

[Vernie822]

This is somewhat out of order since the first few items we had were before our wine tasting. We got there and had some time to kill, so we thought we'd try the new Future World Chew booths that we had passed a few times already that week.

I had heard a bit about these booths so I was excited to see what they had to offer.

Our first stop was the Sustainable Chew booth.

We decided to order two items at Sustainable Chew. Justin wanted to try the Pork Spareribs and I chose the Beso Del Sol White Sangria (even though we were about to try some wine).

We also grabbed a couple of items from the Chew Lab..

These booths were right across from each other with plenty of green space and tables in between. We were able to snag a table.

The first item we tried was from the Sustainable Chew: The Pork Spareribs.

Pork Spareribs with red wine, fennel, and cheesy mascarpone grits - $5.50, DDP Snack Eligible

I asked Justin last week what he thought of these. He couldn't even remember the dish and I had to show him a picture to jog his memory - that's how unmemorable this was. I typically don't like meat on the bone, so it may be personal preference that I didn't care for them. I took one bite of the meat and it was all fatty. Justin said the ribs were fine but nothing spectacular. I do like grits so I ate some of those and they were fine. Overall this wasn't really memorable and we didn't really care for it. 2/5.

Beso Del Sol White Sangria - $3.50

Even though we were about to go drink some wine, I had been wanting some sangria over the last few days. This white sangria had hunks of fruit, I think some apples, maybe some melon or mango. It wasn't great, to be honest. I hate when the fruit ferments and has a really strong alcohol scent. Well, I guess I was drinking alcohol, so it's supposed to be that way! I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I gave it a 2.5/5.

We also had our items from the Sustainable Chew booth.

New York Strip, parsnip silk, balsamic glaze, and arugula foam - $6.75, DDP Snack Eligible

I really liked this. Justin thought it was good, but I don't think the additions of arugula foam and parsnip silk were something he really enjoyed. The meat was a bit rare for my taste and a LOT rare for Justin's taste but I think it was supposed to be served that way. I thought the parsnip silk was really tasty. I'd definitely get this again and we rated this a 4/5. Justin said it was not worth the $6.75.

Liquid nitro chocolate almond truffle with warm whiskey caramel - $4.00, DDP Snack Eligible

OK, this was one of the BEST things I had at the festival, and definitely the best dessert item! I had heard a few reviews here saying this was really good, so I had to try it. All of my favorite things combined - chocolate, almond, caramel - yum. The chocolate, crumbly-ness, and caramel drizzle all really added something unique to the dish. I wish I would have gone back for another! I rated this a 5/5. Justin only had a couple bites but he agreed it was good.


After our wine seminar, we decided to stop and get a few items from the promenade area. We had skipped most of these booths up until this point.

Justin wanted to try the venison from the New Zealand booth, so we stopped there first.

Venison is not something I have ever enjoyed, and I’ve only had it a few times, so I just had a bite. Deer also creep me out so I wasn’t keen on the idea but I took one for the team, in the sake of research, of course.

Seared venison loin with mild mushroom marsala sauce and kumara dumpling - $6.00, DDP Snack Eligible​

And it wasn’t half bad! Kind of tough, but the mushroom marsala sauce on it was really delicious. Neither of us ate the kumara (sweet potato?) dumpling. Justin just rated this a 3/5.


Next up was Australia, where Justin decided to try the lamb chop.

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I let him call the shots on a few of these booths since he was interested in a few of the items. I have not had lamb in a really long time, but Justin likes it so we thought we’d give it a try.

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Grilled lamb chop with mint pesto and potato crunchies - $6.75, DDP Snack Eligible

And this was good! The potato crunchies were clearly Lays potato chips (not a complaint from us) and the mint was a nice touch. However, I am NOT a fan of mint in my food (unless there is chocolate or a mocha coffee involved) so I really didn’t like that part. It was a bit overwhelming. The piece of lamb we had was a little fatty. We rated this a 3.5 because overall it was very good, and quite unique. I can see why it is a crowd favorite.


We headed in the direction of Mexico, where Justin and I HAD to stop at China. Really we wanted to try everything here, but we decided to each just pick one.

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I chose the black pepper shrimp with Sichuan noodles, and Justin chose the… you guessed it, potstickers.

Black pepper shrimp with Sichuan noodles - $5.50, DDP Snack Eligible

The black pepper shrimp with Sichuan noodles was definitely the surprise item of the day. I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. It was very flavorful and had at least 4 decent sized shrimp that were sort of lightly breaded with some spice. They gave me a HUGE serving of noodles too! Justin finished off some of the noodles for me and he agreed that they were really good. We rated this a 4.

Chicken Potstickers - $4.00, DDP Snack Eligible

Justin had his favorite item as of late, the potstickers. They give you two and they have a sauce that comes along with them (I believe it is sweet but I apologize, I can’t remember). He said that these were the best potstickers we had all week. I managed to steal a bite and I agreed. Really delicious. Hot, fresh, just like they should be. These got a 5 from us.


Our next stop was Africa. We decided to share the butter chicken with naan.

Butter chicken with micro cilantro naan bread - $5.00, DDP Snack Eligible

This was ok, not fantastic, and the naan was pretty stale tasting. However that could be because we had just been spoiled by some amazing naan at Sanaa the night before! The butter chicken was really tasty and we both enjoyed it. This got a 3 from us because the naan could have been much more fresh.


In Germany, I planned on a Riesling flight but decided against it (though Riesling is my favorite and it sounded delicious).

For $5 I wish I would’ve had one, but I decided on a dessert and a Schofferhofer instead.. and my dessert of choosing was:

Apple strudel with vanilla sauce - $3.50, DDP Snack Eligible

Apple strudel. Oh, heavens, this was SO GOOD. I love anything apple and I especially love apple pie. This had a really nice vanilla sauce over it, and I believe there was some cinnamon and raisins mixed in with the apples. Definitely a winner and for $3.50 it was not a bad price. I would get this again in a heartbeat. This got a 4.5 from me.

Justin had to have the bratwurst in a pretzel roll (gotta love pretzel rolls.)

Roast bratwurst in a pretzel roll - $5.00, DDP Snack Eligible

He rated this a 3 and said it was as good as it could be, for being a pretzel roll with a bratwurst in it. It’s not a bad size for the price, and we both really liked it. It’s nothing fancy but it’s good.


It was starting to get pretty crowded!

We stopped for a Schofferhofer Grapefruit, my favorite beer of all time.

I tried another grapefruit beer last weekend and it was also good, but not as good as this. Side note: I have found this at home in PA (the land of awful liquor laws!)


We moved onto Poland, where Justin wanted to try the pierogis and kielbasa.

Kielbasa and potato pierogi with caramelized onions and sour cream - $5.50, DDP Snack Eligible

He rated these a 3 and aid that they were good but were definitely Mrs. T’s mini pierogis. Which if you love Mrs. T’s, isn’t really a bad thing!


We made a quick pit-stop in the Chase Lounge (we totally visited here more often than is probably encouraged).. and relaxed with a Diet Coke for a bit.

Justin really wanted his favorite drink, a Tokyo Sunset from Japan, so we had one of those.

And then we stopped in Les Halles for some treats for breakfast the next day! I chose the roulade au fromage and a croissant for us to split.

Now, you’re probably asking, “how are these people STILL EATING?!” but, with portions as small as they are, and no other real meals that day, we were still hungry.. soo we strolled on over to Mexico for some nachos.


It was starting to get REALLY busy now since Magic Kingdom was closed for the Halloween party. Justin waited in line for some nachos while I tried to find us a seat – no luck – so we headed out towards the Illuminations FP+ area and found a bench somewhere.

We’d never had these before, but Justin had seen someone with them earlier and we decided to try them for our last item of the night. And the verdict – these were awesome. Sure you can get nachos anywhere, but we decided to try them and they were delicious! They had ground beef, liquid cheese, jalapenos, some beans, tomatoes, and sour cream. Really yummy and hit the spot!

And on that note, we dipped out slightly before Illuminations to head back to AKL. We had to pack up our stuff to be out of the room the next morning!

​

 

[SnowWhiteOz]

Wow that whiskey and chocolate dessert looks incredible!

I can't believe how many things you got to try in one day - my problem is going to be that I'll be at F&W alone so I'm probably not going to be able to try as many things!

 

[Vernie822]

Wow that whiskey and chocolate dessert looks incredible!

I can't believe how many things you got to try in one day - my problem is going to be that I'll be at F&W alone so I'm probably not going to be able to try as many things!

That's definitely a downside! When I did Flower and Garden earlier this year there were 4 of us. So we tried so much because we just split everything and it was great. Having someone to share with is definitely a plus. But yes that chocolate truffle was AMAZING!!!!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Looks like we were really on the same page for F&W this year. I tried a bunch of the same stuff and agreed with you guys. LOVED the liquid nitro dessert! Definitely my favorite dessert of the whole festival and one of the top items I tried. Also didn't have the nachos in Mexico this fall, but tried them last year and surprisingly loved them. I mean, how bad can crunchy chips with liquid cheese and toppings really be, I suppose? But they are seriously tasty.

I tried Sanaa in October for lunch and absolutely loved it. The bread service was amazing and agree that the red chile sambal was the best dip. Not sure if they do this at dinner, but at lunch you can get smaller portions of two separate dishes with a side of rice which is what I did. It was nice to be able to try a couple of different things!

Also unrelated to food, but I loved what you said about trying to be more present at Disney and to really pay attention. I feel the same way! It's so easy to just run from place to place, plan my trip down to the minute, and pore over my phone (both for the MDE app and to pass the time while waiting in line) but I've been trying really hard not to do that. I pretty much always wish I was at WDW, so when I'm there I really want to be in the moment and experiencing it. Even while waiting in line there is so much to see and appreciate!

 

[Vernie822]

Looks like we were really on the same page for F&W this year. I tried a bunch of the same stuff and agreed with you guys. LOVED the liquid nitro dessert! Definitely my favorite dessert of the whole festival and one of the top items I tried. Also didn't have the nachos in Mexico this fall, but tried them last year and surprisingly loved them. I mean, how bad can crunchy chips with liquid cheese and toppings really be, I suppose? But they are seriously tasty.

I tried Sanaa in October for lunch and absolutely loved it. The bread service was amazing and agree that the red chile sambal was the best dip. Not sure if they do this at dinner, but at lunch you can get smaller portions of two separate dishes with a side of rice which is what I did. It was nice to be able to try a couple of different things!

Also unrelated to food, but I loved what you said about trying to be more present at Disney and to really pay attention. I feel the same way! It's so easy to just run from place to place, plan my trip down to the minute, and pore over my phone (both for the MDE app and to pass the time while waiting in line) but I've been trying really hard not to do that. I pretty much always wish I was at WDW, so when I'm there I really want to be in the moment and experiencing it. Even while waiting in line there is so much to see and appreciate!

We may have to go back to Sanaa for lunch. I loved that bread service but we definitely didn't choose correctly on our entrees!

That liquid nitro dessert was the BEST! Ah. I honestly wish I could make it at home!!

You are so right, it's like you plan and wish all year to be at WDW, so when you're there you want to totally be present and enjoy it. If not for FP ease we would probably ditch our phones completely. Maybe we'll try that next time!

 

[kastoney]

I really should not read your dining reviews while hungry and drinking wine. I want to eat everything and there is next to nothing but booze in my house ; )

Thanks for all the great food and wine reviews. That sustainable chew booth really seems to have taken the cake this year. And who knew China was so good. And totally have to get myself some of those nachos next trip. They look unbelievable.

 

[TexasErin]

I just found your report and can't wait to dig into it. I have only read your first post board so far. Y'all are a cute couple!

We are headed back at the end of May after a 2-year break when we went to Disneyland instead. Thanks for posting your report; it will be helpful to fill in my gaps as I have made my ADRs, but am still fine tuning everything and trying to decide on our quick service meals.

 

[Vernie822]

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS with your families!! We did Christmas Eve with Justin's family, then I drove to my parents (about an hour and a half from his aunts) and spent the night there. We got together with my mom's side of the family during the day and my dad's for dinner. I somehow came down with the wine flu and I've been in bed all day.. Not sure how that happened.
Poor Justin had to work on Christmas but it's part of the territory with his job so he's okay with it.

Back to the FOOD!!

The next day (Wednesday) we were checking out of AKL and into the Poly..

We had our pastries from Boulangerie Patisserie to have for breakfast. Oh, and I had also picked up some Zebra domes in the little store at Kidani Village the night before while Justin was filling up his mug.

We shared the Roulade au Fromage, which we heated up in the microwave.

This was really yummy, definitely a good size. It was a bit greasy (probably from the bacon and cheese) so I'm glad we split this.

We also shared a croissant which we toasted (and burnt).

This was fine, nothing amazing and honestly pretty on par with the croissants in the food courts. Nothing wrong with it and we enjoyed it.

We tasted the Zebra Domes the night before. They came in a little container of 4.

The verdict on these? Not a fan. I'm not sure what I expected, but these just weren't my thing unfortunately. I honestly ate half of one and the rest didn't get eaten because they're not Justin's thing either. I know plenty of people rave about these but they're not something I'll be going after again.. That's okay though there is plenty of other wonderful WDW food to be had!​