My 'STOP! Don't take a bite until I've taken a picture!' live(ish) 22 day dining report!

[spincandy]

Hi everyone!!!


Welcome to my Disney Dining Report. I’m hoping to do a lot of this live, but we’ll see how caught up in the magic I get! We’re from England and we arrived in WDW last night. We’re staying offsite this year (boo!), but we’re pretty close to the World, and we’re here for 22 days, so will get plenty of chance to eat our way around Disney!


So, who are we? Well, I am Rachael- Rach, to everyone except my mother. I’m 29 and a Disney nut. Almost 12 years ago, I was lucky enough to meet a boy who was willing to indulge my Disney obsession. We’ve been every year since we got together (much to the disappointment of our bank account), culminating in our Honeymoon at the Grand Floridian two years ago. This trip we celebrate our two year wedding anniversary and will probably (fingers crossed) be our last without little people in tow. Here’s a piccy of me and Matt doing what we do best- taste-testing Disney’s cocktail offerings:

This year we will be joined by my family. They’re almost as Disneyfied as me, and we’re close enough for it to be a good thing that we’re travelling together. The fam includes my parents, my little brother Chris, and my adopted little sister Alishya. Here they are:

So we’re all Disney vetrans, especially Matt and I. Dining is one of our favourite things to do over there, and we love to indulge in signatures. I spend lots of time researching and planning our trip on here, so I thought it would be good for us to return the favour with some yummy food piccys!

I am a planner. If I could, I would plan everything down to the last minute. Matt is the exact opposite. If he had his way, we would go with absolutely nothing planned. So we’ve always compromised with a loose structure. This trip, things have swung even more Matt’s way. We don’t have much planned in advance ADR-wise. There’s a V&A’s for our anniversary, and a few places where the six of us are going, but not much else. I do have a list, however, of lots of places I want to try, so hopefully I’ll get them all checked off.


In terms of food likes. I’m a seafood fan, Matt isn’t. I’m a salad fan, Matt isn’t. Matt is a red meat guy, I’m not. I like fruity things, he likes chocolate-y things. I like cocktails, he likes beer. He likes spice, I don’t. So you’ll probably get to see a little bit of everything as we go! Ali will be representing for the kids’ section.


Oh, I’m also trying to instagram and snapchat a lot of our dining and Disney advantures (mainly to make people back home jealous ). Feel free to add me and join in- I’m spincandy on Instagram and rachbee1986 on snapchat.


Ok, just nipping for a quick dip in the pool and hopefully post the first of our adventures (a sneaky lunch at Raglan Road) later


Rach x

 

[ibcindyb]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Will be following along.

 

[spincandy]

Hello again!


Ok, so our first trip was to Downtown… I mean Disney Springs. This was our first time seeing it since the transformation and, wow, we felt like newbies again! It’s beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but it’s been a while since I’ve had to use a map to get around somewhere here! We had a mooch around the shops, spent too much money, and then met up with the fam for an old friend- the First Day Traditional Raglan Road Lunch Where We Discuss How Hot It Is, How Happy We Are To Be On Vacation, And How The Jet Lag Woke Us Up Early. It wouldn’t be the same without it.


Raglan Road is a staple for us. It’s an easy one with good food, reasonable pricing (by Disney standards, anyway) and unique entertainment. Alishya loves the dancers and the band- here's the customary dancer picture:

We went during the ‘Rollicking Raglan Brunch’, which is 10-3 at weekends. This was new. Quite good, actually. Lots of singing and dancing, but not as busy as it can get in the evening.


We were started off with a berry smoothie shot. This was a cute little freebie and so gorgeous that I would’ve ordered a big one if we hadn’t already placed our drinks order. It was sweet and refreshing and I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something cool on a hot day:

Then it was Diet Cokes all round apart from me. I ordered a strawberry fields mimosa. Confession: no picture. I’ll try not to make this a theme (cocktail pictures are the best!). This drink was uh-maz-ing. I could have had twelve. It was ‘Ciroc vodka, Aperol, lemon juice & house made strawberry puree topped off with prosecco’. One of those cocktails that is dangerous because it goes down so easily and, before you know it, it’s all gone.


First was the soda bread and Guinness dip thing-y. I’m not a soda bread fan but I always manage to eat a piece- the dip is really good.

So Chris and I both had fish and chips. As far as I as concerned, this was just meh, but Chris devoured it all. I thought the batter and the chips were both a little greasy. The fish was well-cooked, though, and the tartar sauce was nice. The other sauce you can see is the honey and mustard sauce from Ali’s plate.

Ali had the Gold’n Chicken- two chicken goujons and chips. She ate all the goujons apart from a bite she let me sneak (for review purposes only, obviously). It was tasty, fresh chicken, and quite a light batter. She said the chips were greasy too.

Matty had the Full Irish off the brunch menu. This was ‘Full Irish breakfast with sausage, black and white pudding, bacon, roasted tomato, mushrooms and fried eggs with roasties’. I did think this was a little expensive for what it was (21 dollars!), but Matt enjoyed it. He cleared his plate apart from the tomato (scary healthy stuff of course. But, don’t worry, dad helped him out).

Mum got the ‘Keen Eye for the Shepherd’s Pie’. Mum always gets this- she loves it. I must admit, it’s pretty good. A rich sauce and creamy mash. She got chips on the side but didn’t touch them- she felt bad but was way too full.

Dad got the smoked salmon omlette. This came with roasties. He said it was lovely and would have it again (which is a huge compliment from my dad).

Overall, another lovely Raglan Road visit. I’d recommend brunch for anyone looking for a Raglan Road experience without the busy-ness of night time.

 

[basketlacey]

Love your review of Ragland Road! I'll be watching!

 

[ariane37]

Joining! Let me say I know you come a long way so doing just a 7 day trip doesn't make a ton of sense, but I'm still jealous of your 22 days!

 

[SBWB48]

As ariane37 said, you come a long way to the World, so 7-10 days wouldn't do it justice, but 22 days!

So jealous of all the restaurants and food you all will be able to go through! We are there for 8 days, and I can barely get all the TS I want in!

 

[ml sumner]

Enjoying so far, never gave much thought to Ragland Road but after seeing some of your pics, I may be missing out. Hope you have a wonderful trip and yes I too am jealous of your 22 days!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Joining in

 

[KnK]

Bring on the food. Enjoy the live reports.

 

[phabric]

Looking forward to more reviews.

 

[mickeyheart]

Brilliant review & looking forward to more. Added u on snapchat too x

 

[DisneyJo]

Sounds like you're having lots of fun already

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Have a fantastic trip - we had a very ordinary meal at Raglan Road but glad yours was good. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[klacey1]

Subscribing! Can't wait to read about all of your adventures!

 

[Nohal]

22 days at Disney lucky you. Looking forward to your reviews

 

[Mich123]

I'm in! 22 days at WDW sounds just perfect! I will look for you on Instagram next...

 

[amycakes]

Joining in! Such fun already

 

[spincandy]

Love your review of Ragland Road! I'll be watching!

Thank you!!!

Joining! Let me say I know you come a long way so doing just a 7 day trip doesn't make a ton of sense, but I'm still jealous of your 22 days!

Lol! We know how lucky we are to get this long on vacation. Our bank accounts don't feel as lucky but it's more than worth it!

As ariane37 said, you come a long way to the World, so 7-10 days wouldn't do it justice, but 22 days!

So jealous of all the restaurants and food you all will be able to go through! We are there for 8 days, and I can barely get all the TS I want in!

I still don't think I'll get to eat everywhere I want to in 22 days! But we're definitely going to give it a good go!

Enjoying so far, never gave much thought to Ragland Road but after seeing some of your pics, I may be missing out. Hope you have a wonderful trip and yes I too am jealous of your 22 days!

Thank you!

Joining in

Welcome along!

Bring on the food. Enjoy the live reports.

Thank you, hopefully I can keep it up!

Looking forward to more reviews.

Brilliant review & looking forward to more. Added u on snapchat too x

Thank you! I apologise in advance if my Snapchat gets full of filter selfies!

Sounds like you're having lots of fun already

Definitely! We've had this trip planned for 18 months now and can't believe it's finally here!

Have a fantastic trip - we had a very ordinary meal at Raglan Road but glad yours was good. Looking forward to the rest.

Thank you! I find Raglan Road very hit and miss in terms of good and bad meals, but my dad is in love with the place so we always end up there when we're with the fam!

Subscribing! Can't wait to read about all of your adventures!

Thank you! Hopefully I can keep you entertained

22 days at Disney lucky you. Looking forward to your reviews

Thank you and welcome along!

I'm in! 22 days at WDW sounds just perfect! I will look for you on Instagram next...

Joining in! Such fun already

Thank you!

 

[spincandy]

Hello again!


Thanks everyone for following along. We’re having an awesome time already here in the World. Currently the fam have headed out to MK and Matt is sunning himself by the pool, so I figured I had time for an update.


Yesterday Matt and I hit Disney Springs again. We wanted to pick up some Magic Bands and Matt isn’t feeling 100% (only he could get a cold the day we arrived in Florida), so we figured another chilling day would be fine.


We had another mooch around the Marketplace and bought our Magic Bands before deciding on an early lunch at Earl of Sandwich. We got there at 11.15 and, jeez, the line was already huge. Matt was super generous and offered to go and save us a table while I waited in line (*rolls eyes*). His great sacrifice conveniently allowed him to catch a few Pokemon (yup, I also enjoy the game, but there is very little that is attractive about a man saying ‘can we talk later, there’s a Ratticate I’ve got to go catch’. Sigh.) His parting instructions to me were ‘something with turkey in’.


Me: I am no good at providing other people with food. It stresses me out. I have an issue with potentially disappointing people, so I always buy too much, both in terms of quantity and variety (come to think of it, this is probably why I am always assigned the task of purchasing food). Even with Matt, who I know better than I know myself most of the time, I struggle. So, stood in line at EoS, I would have been way happier to say ‘one of everything’ than to actually select something for Matt.


However, the menu at EoS is mercifully limited (especially when it comes to my ‘no rabbit food please’ husband). So I got him an Earl’s Club (turkey, bacon, Swiss, lettuce, Roma tomato and sandwich sauce). (Aside: what even is sandwich sauce? Whatever it was, it was good). I got a Chipotle chicken avocado sandwich (Grilled chicken, bacon, cheddar, avocado, lettuce and chipotle sauce). I also got us both a cup of tomato soup and chicken tortilla soup to share. We split a bottle of water. I was proud of my disciplined selections! Here are the pieces:

If you want a summary rather than my monologue: everything was awesome.


I couldn’t decide which soup I liked best. I’m kind of a picky soup-eater- my mum makes beautiful soups, so you have to try pretty hard to beat her, and counter service places don’t usually manage it. These, however, were yum! The tomato was sweet and thick with crunchy croutons. The chicken tortilla was spicy and creamy with good-size chunks of veggies and chicken mixed through. Both highly recommended.


My sandwich was pretty tasty. My only complaint is that they were a little mean with the avocado and chicken- it was more bacon and lettuce than anything else. I had a good amount of sauce but not so much as to drip all over me. Matty also liked his turkey offering (sorry, I couldn’t get much more out of him than that. He needs to work on his descriptive linguistics).


The water was water. It did its job.


After EoS we hit Goofy’s for the first time this trip. More on the tasty little number I created when I eat it. Then we headed back to the car. Obviously I couldn’t pass up one of these guys:

A frozen strawberry margarita from Dockside Margaritas. What can I say about this little beaut except he was just what I needed after the stress of Mr. Fussy selecting his Magic Band (I’m not exaggerating when I say it took him half an hour of fussing around to eventually choose a plain blue option).


We stayed home for dinner- Matt needed to rest. Today we’re going to be heading to Epcot. We have a dinner planned at La Hacienda de San Angel and hopefully I’ll get to indulge in a couple of kiosk offerings too


Have a good day everyone!

 

[DisneyJo]

Oooh we love Earl of Sandwich, I'm not sure where you live but there is now an Earl in Bluewater, the sandwiches don't seem as large but they're still delicious