Mom & Daughter & Me Dining PTR June '09

[schimj]

Hi everybody!

First off, this is my first attempt at any kind of trip report on my own, and first for dining only. So if I'm not doing this right, please feel free to correct me.

I'll first give you the crew on this trip. There my DW and DMIL, both celebrating their birthdays on the trip, and myself. I'm 29, DW will be turning 29 on this trip, and DMIL is putting another year of experience on her 29 years.

We'll be arriving at WDW on June 7th and checking out on the 9th. It's just a short birthday trip so they can both take advantage of the What Will You Celebrate promotion. We'll be staying at AKV@Kidani in a Studio w/ Savannah view. We're really looking forward to staying at Kidani, as DW & I are thinking about expandind our current DVC contract to include AKL...but that's getting too far off topic.

Today is our magical day where the 90+10 came into effect. I was on the phone right at 7:00 (little before, actually...called a few times when there was still the "office closed" message). I was on hold for maybe 20 seconds after hearing the "due to high call volume..." message, and someone picked up. I said I wanted to make some dining reservations, and he asked when our check-in date was. I answered that we were checking in on June 7th, and he said that he needed to get me to a special operator for June ADR's. I found that a bit strange, but whatever.

I figured if he answered inside a minute, the other person would answer promptly as well. More the fool was I. After waiting on hold for 35 minutes scared1: ), someone picked up the line. To make a long story short[er], we were able to get all of the meals we wanted, and most times we wanted weren't an issue either. We are no more than an hour off of any time that we wanted for a meal, so thats great in my book!

Here are the meals that we'll be enjoying:

June 7 (DMIL's B-day)
Lunch: Teppan Edo (first time)
Dinner: Captain's Grille (first for dinner)

June 8 (DW's B-day)
Lunch: LTT (a must)
Dinner: 'Ohana (previously impressed DW & I)

June 9
Lunch: 50's Prime time (we enjoyed this once out of two times, this is a tie-breaker)
Dinner: Sci-Fi (another must)

We'll be on DxDDP for this trip, so we figured our snacks could cover most breakfasts, as well as mid-day breaks around the parks. DW & I go frequently since my first trip (New Years Eve '06), DMIL hasn't been since a few trips with her DD (my wife) when she was a child. We are really looking forward to this trip, and hope to have a full dining report when we're back. I'll post periodically if we change a reservation (we've been known to be a bit wishy-washy on our ADR's).

Hope you all enjoy the report. When the full report is available, I'll either post here or link it from here...we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.

 

[TifffanyD]

subbing

 

[wilma-bride]

Looking forward to it -just for the record, there is no real right or wrong way to writing a trip report - but also for the record, we foodies like lots of pictures

 

[schimj]

subbing

Thanks! Hope you enjoy the report...your visits look like they're around the same time as mine. Straaaaange

Looking forward to it -just for the record, there is no real right or wrong way to writing a trip report - but also for the record, we foodies like lots of pictures

Thanks for the tip! I've picked up on the love for food porn around here...so I'll do my best to get great pics of our food before we attack the plates.

 

[KatMark]

I'm here for the reviews!

 

[TifffanyD]

I think you should post condensed reviews of the places you've eaten at before on the list

And you will be responsible for taking the pics

 

[schimj]

I'm here for the reviews!

Welcome aboard!

I think you should post condensed reviews of the places you've eaten at before on the list

And you will be responsible for taking the pics

Yes dear.

 

[schimj]

Hi again!

I don't have pictures for any of the previous dining experiences, but I plan to have a good number of photos for the June trip. The first meal that's a repeat for us would be Captain's Grille. We [DW & I] had lunch there on the first day of our Disneymoon this January.

For an appetizer I had the Spinach Artichoke Dip for 2 (they were kind enough to let me have it even though I was the only one eating from it), and DW had the Crab Cakes. Both were very good, and I would highly recommend them to others.

For my entree, I had the Classic New England Lobster Roll. I figured this could go either of two ways based off of previous lobster rolls I've had in the past: one would be mayo-based lobster salad, and the other would be lump lobster meat with a garlic butter sauce. It was the former, and I enjoyed it.

DW had some order entery issues with her lunch...she stepped away from the table and had me order. That was the error. She wanted the chicken sandwich with only chicken, cheese, and apples. I ordered what I heard: Chicken sandwich, no onion or bacon. In my defense, the menu doesn't state that there's lettuce, tomato & mayo on it as well. She liked it, but not as much as she probably would have if I'd ordered correctly. C'est la vie.

On to dessert. I had the chocolate gelato, which was great. DW had the vanilla creamery cake, and enjoyed it as well. The waiter said it was infused with maple flavor, but we did not notice it. Nevertheless, cake is cake. We did have 2 small issues with the meal. One was out of the resturant's control...there was an annoyingly loud group at a table just out of arm's reach for us. So we were treated to their "knowlege" of in's and out's of WDW, politics, or whatever else they felt like discussing at lunch. The other issue (complaint would be too strong of a word), was that the server seemed a bit...appathetic. We were there rather early (we like early lunches), so it was pretty empty in there. It took our waiter a good 15 minutes to drop by and take drink orders, and it didn't get much better from there. We are all for slow meals and we don't like to be rushed, but this was a bit extreem. We waited a good 20 minutes at the end for the check as well, but at least we were on vacation.

We both enjoyed our meals, so I'd give Captain's Grille a 4 out of 5, docking one point for the service.

I'll try to post more reviews of resturants we've dined at in the past as time allows.

 

[schimj]

Hi all!

Here is the review of the 2nd meal we've have went to in the past, Liberty Tree Tavern lunch. DW & I love this place. We have never had a bad meal there from the first time we went, which was on a free dining trip in Sept. '07. Since then we've had lunch there a total of 3 times, plus one dinner at the now no-more Goofy's Pilgrim Feast on Christmas Day this past year. We are both HUGE fans of the Tavern Fried Cheese. On the first trip, I think I might have had the crab cake for my app, but I ended up with order envy for DW's fried cheese. Since then, we both typically get that as our app. I read somewhere that it's now fried cheese for 2, but no menus have that update at this point. We'll see what happens...worst case scenerio, we have one order of fried cheese for the 2 of us and DMIL has an alternate app.

For entrees, DW really enjoyed the now-gone Sandwich Heard 'Round the World, but has found a good runner-up with the Pilgrim's Feast. I had the William Penne Pasta once, but found it a bit too much for a lunch. I think I was just kind of tired that day, so more a poor choice on my end than a bad dish. I have since stuck with the Pot Roast, which is quite good, but I've been looking at the Tri-Corner Sandwich recently, so I might give that a shot.

As far as desserts go, LTT has been killing us a little. Once upon a time they had a Buttered Grilled Poundcake which DW realllllllly enjoyed. It is now gone, but she found a good replacement dessert with the Ooey-Gooey Toffee Cake. My favorite dessert is gone as well (it's terrible, but I don't remember what it was...I know the Cherry Chambord Ice Cream was involved though). I found a replacement with the Triple Chocolate Brownie w/ Cherry Chambord Ice Cream, but that was recently changed to Vanilla Ice Cream. It's still good, just not the same. That's all for now!

 

[TifffanyD]

The butter griddled pound cake was my favorite dessert in ALL of Disney - even though I only had it once! If I could have the tavern cheese, the mahi mahi from Le Cellier and the butter griddled pound cake I could die a happy woman. And that does include all of the meals we've had at "signature" places as well - those are still my faves!

 

[schimj]

Hi Everyone,

The third meal that will be a reapeat for DW & myself on the upcoming June trip will be dinner at 'Ohana. We both loved this when we went during free dining in Sept '08. We arrived a little late (mostly due to a planning error by yours truly), and got to the podium about 20 minutes after our ADR time. We were given a buzzer, and had a seat between the check-in podium and the bar area where there was someone playing music. There were a couple princesses in training dancing near their respective families, so that was cute to observe. After a wait of about 10 minutes, we were seated and given the backstory of the resturant, as well as what to expect over the course of the evening. The hostess also gave us our first loaf of Welcome Bread. It was easily one of...if not the best breads we've had at any sitdown on property. After our server dropped by and introduced themself & took our drink orders, they came by with the first wave of appetizers. We liked the wings and broccoli, and I enjoyed the pot stickers (DW doesn't eat pork or red meat). We were both looking forward to the potatos that received such great reviews here, but were disappointed to find that they had been replaced by a noodle dish. We both tried and really enjoyed the noodles, but DW ate most of them since I was given free reign over the pot stickers.

As for the entrees, we both enjoyed the turkey & peel-and-eat shrimp, and I liked the pork and beef offerings as well. We didn't exactly feel rushed at 'Ohana, but it was a bit of a sensory overload with the amount of activity going on, as well as people coming to you with skewers of food every few minutes. As the meal progressed, we were treated to local music as well as having a front row seat for the coconut races that 'Ohana is popular for. Luckily, we were having a good day...had this happend on a day where we were a bit more tired, the noise might have been a bit bothersom, but we both had a blast. Soon after the first heat of the coconut races finished, our server dropped by with dessert. We again loved the bread, but this time it was in bread pudding form. This, like the Welcome Bread, was one of, if not the, best bread pudding on property. The Bananas Foster sauce was a nice touch as well.

We are both looking forward to the meal very much, especially since it's DW's Birthday Dinner. We tried for a 7:00ish reservation so we could watch Wishes from the Poly Beach afterwards, but the only times available were a bit closer to when Wishes will actually be taking place. We might try to ask for a window seat facing MK if it seems like it won't be that hard, but we won't be disappointed if that doesn't come to be.

Hope everyone is enjoying the thread so far!

 

[oybolshoi]

As someone else already stated ... there's no right or wrong to this. Just share the food love with us. And pictures ... yeah, lots and lots of pictures!

Have a great trip!

 

[schimj]

Hi All,

First off, thanks for all the positive feedback on the thread so far.

The next meal DW & I have had on previous trips would be 50's Prime Time Cafe. We've done this meal twice, and we've had a 50% positive experience rating with them. The first time we were there was for a dinner in Sept '07, and we weren't that impressed. I had a chocolate shake and I think DW had a Coke (possibly w/ cherry syrup), and we liked those. At that time, the dining plan still had the appetizers included, and DW had the fried cheese. We weren't that impressed with the fried cheese at 50's, especially after the great cheese at LTT. If I remember correctly, I had a shrimp cocktail, and it was pretty good. Try as I might, I cannot recall what I had for my entree, but I don't recall it being either great or terrible. Just midline...nothing special, but edible. DW had the fried chicken, and she didn't much care for it. It was on-the-bone, so it seemed to have not cooked evenly, and it was a bit on the greasy side. Our server was ok, but didn't really get into the whole schtick that others tend to. He seemed to be either a bit overworked or just not having a great day. He wasn't rude, just seemed like he had better things to do than wait on us. We were kinda full and not feeling the best, so we just got brownies to go for dessert. I don't think we even got around to eating them.

The second time we went to 50's was this past Sept. for free dining. We had a lunch there, and it was a much better experience. The only negative was a family near by who was being rather rude to their server about things out of their [the server's] control. DW & I each had a shake...I had the chocolate, DW had PB&J, and both were enjoyable. I think I had the meatloaf for my entree & DW had the chicken sandwich. Our entrees were great this time, and the resturant seemed much cleaner and a more inviting envrionment. For our desserts, we both selected the S'mores from the View-Master dessert menu (which I don't think we were offered the first time). All in all, the 2nd trip was much better than the first, so we might have had a better experience had we researched the menu before we went the first time. That's all for now...I'll post the final previous experience (Sci-Fi Dine-In
Theater) when I have a moment.

 

[TifffanyD]

As someone else already stated ... there's no right or wrong to this. Just share the food love with us. And pictures ... yeah, lots and lots of pictures!

Have a great trip!

Hey I used to live in St Charles and shopped at the Ofallon Mall!

 

[TifffanyD]

Actually I had the fish sandwich the 2nd time. It was quite yummy - I love getting fish out since I don't cook it much at home.

And the smores were SO GOOD and not heavy after the big meal!

 

[oybolshoi]

Hey I used to live in St Charles and shopped at the Ofallon Mall!

I'd say you're living in the better place at this point.