No calories in a picture, unless you eat the picture -COMPLETED 12/8/14

So sad you had poor service. I would think that Disney wait staff would know you want to get to a park, especially a buffet server, and get you the tab right straight. Looks good though. Too funny your DH has milk gravy over everything. He is just like my 91 year old aunt. She would love the look of his plates.
 
I have heard amazing things about Starring Rolls, so even though it has a limited menu, I was anxious to try it. For those of you who have not been there, the café is very small and offers a very limited menu of primarily pre-made sandwiches and pastries. The advantage of a small menu is that it doesn’t take long to figure out what to order. I ordered the ham sandwich and DH ordered the turkey. I was nervous because they were pre-made, but they were actually really good. Everything on the sandwiches was very fresh and the meat and bread were a much higher quality than I would expect. I don’t quite know what kind of sauce was on it, but it was some kind of mustard-ish thing that was very tasty. When on the dining plan, you also get a piece of fruit or a bag of chips with your meal.

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Now, on to dessert. I have heard that Starring Rolls cupcakes are the best thing ever, so we had to try them. We ordered 2 and split them both. The first one was the Butterfinger cupcake. It was a moist chocolate cupcake topped with buttercream frosting and rolled in crushed Butterfinger. This cupcake was very tasty, but it didn’t live up to the hype for me.

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The other cupcake that we tried was the red velvet cheesecake cupcake. This was a red velvet cake with a cream cheese icing and toffee bits on top. I can’t remember if there was any kind of filling. The cake was moist and delicious. The cream cheese icing had a strong cream cheese flavor, which we really enjoy. We liked this cupcake as much, possibly a touch more, than the other. However, it didn’t live up to the hype either. I actually prefer the cappuccino cupcake at Pizza Planet.

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Overall, we enjoyed Starring Rolls. The food was good and the cast members were friendly. It didn’t quite live up to the hype for me, but I would return in the future.
 
We left Hollywood Studios around 3 or so on Halloween so that we could relax and enjoy some resort activities. We took DD to the playground, met Minnie Mouse and just enjoyed our resort for awhile. Dinner time rolled around and we decided to try Everything Pop. On our last trip we had enjoyed several items there including burritos, nachos and pasta. I have heard that there were some negative changes to the menu since 2012, so I went into this with low expectations.

I was in the mood for pizza so I chose to order the monster slice of pepperoni pizza, which came with a Caesar salad. I actually really enjoyed the pizza. It wasn’t anything spectacular or out of the ordinary but it was quite tasty. The salad was fresh and a great addition to the meal but it was slightly overdressed. This was a huge portion of food and could easily be shared.
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DH ordered the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans. When he cut into his meatloaf it was still red on the inside. DH gets weirded out about undercooked meat more than I do so he asked my opinion. I am not one to send food back but I told him that I would take that right back to the counter. He took it back, they apologized profusely and immediately replaced it. The replacement was still a bit pink for meatloaf, but edible at least. DH did say despite it being a bit on the rare side, it tasted over cooked. The mashed potatoes were a much better quality than we would expect. There were bits of red skin in there which was impressive for quick service. The green beans also tasted fresh and were properly cooked.

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For those of you who do not know, if you are on the dining plan and would rather get a dessert from the ice cream/specialty drink counter, you can just let the cashier know when you are paying for your food. They will stamp your receipt and you can return within a certain period of time (I believe it was 30 or 45 minutes). I decided to take advantage of this and get the GIANT ice cream sandwich. I ordered mint chocolate chip ice cream between two chocolate chip cookies. It was so amazing. The cookies were a bit well done, but if they weren’t as crisp, they wouldn’t be able to hold all the ice cream. I made DH share this with me because there is no possible way that I could finish this. I would absolutely order this again.

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DH ordered the tie-dye cheesecake, which we stored in our fridge and ate a couple days later. We tried this in 2012 as well and both times I thought that it was just okay. It’s fairly creamy, but it’s nothing special. The colors are fun but they weird me out a bit. I don’t plan to order this again, but DH might.

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Since we had our refillable mugs, we used those for our drinks to enjoy with the meal. However, since a non-alcoholic beverage is included with the quick service credit, we both grabbed a bottled beverage for later.

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Overall, I enjoy Everything Pop. I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there but I would absolutely eat another meal there if I was hanging out around Pop and needed a quick meal.
 
Tusker House was not on our original plan. A couple weeks before our trip I all of the sudden felt the urge to try it. I heard good things, but it had never really been on my radar. I asked DH’s opinion and he said to go ahead and book it. Spoiler alert: best decision ever!

When we arrived we had our photo taken in front of a wall outside the restaurant. Since we had the Memory Maker, we decided to go for it. If we didn’t have that, we probably would have skipped the photo op. This was a particularly chilly day, as you can tell from our outfits.

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After a few minute wait, we were escorted to our table. The atmosphere is amazing, this is definitely one of the most well themed restaurants on property- which is saying a lot. Our server promptly greeted us, explained the restaurant and let us know what characters we would see and which way they moved around the restaurant. When he took our drink orders I ordered the awesome juice everyone loves, which I believe is a combination of passion, orange and guava. It was amazing! DH was boring and ordered a diet coke.

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During our meal we saw Donald, Goofy, Mickey and Daisy. They were all fantastic and spent plenty of time at each table. I was very impressed by the character interaction here. Here are a couple of my favorites from our meal:

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Now, on to the food, that’s what you’re all here for right? Our meal was around 11:15, which was perfect because they were transitioning from breakfast to lunch. DH loves breakfast foods so he was thrilled that he could experience both meals during one reservation. They had a wide variety of unique food items and several safer options as well. It really is the perfect balance for a family that has a mix between adventurous and picky eaters. We went back up for seconds, maybe thirds? I don’t remember, it was super yummy. I just didn’t get a chance to get pictures of all of our plates unfortunately. This is DH’s first plate, some kind of frittata, scrambled eggs, bacon, Mickey waffle and corn dog nuggets. It doesn’t look exciting at all, his second plate was more adventurous. Everything was very good though.

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My first plate consisted of carved bbq pork loin, carved beef strip loin, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, a roll, macaroni and cheese and a basil couscous. The meats were phenomenal. They were flavorful, tender, juicy…absolutely delicious. I went back for seconds of the beef for sure. The roasted potatoes were alright but I remember not loving them. The mashed potatoes were flavorful and creamy. I didn’t care for the macaroni and cheese. The basil couscous was a bit too basil-y for me, go figure….but I see how someone else might enjoy it. The roll was the standard Disney dinner roll, which I actually enjoy. They had soft butter for the rolls too, which is something I am picky about...how is one supposed to spread hard butter on soft bread??? I tried some of the fruit chutneys and salads on my next trip to the buffet and they were great.

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DD’s plate consisted of a ham and cheese frittata, green beans, a few cheese cubes, a pita and a couple different fruit chutneys. DH also gave her a corn dog nugget, which she thought was disgusting- I have to agree with her on that one. She seemed to enjoy everything but she was really digging her green beans, so we got her a whole plate full of them.

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Now, my favorite part of every meal, dessert. I don’t even know where to begin. There was a huge assortment and everything looked amazing. Here is what I tried (don’t judge me). Chocolate brownie, lava cake, carrot cake, coconut macaroon, strawberry mousse and a layer bar. I remember everything being amazing and can’t remember what I liked most. DH also tried an assortment of things but I forgot to get a picture of his plate.

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We ended up loving Tusker House. Amazing food, great service, incredible atmosphere and interactive characters. It went from not even being on my radar to being a must do for all future trips. I plan to schedule an 11ish reservation at Tusker House every time we go to Animal Kingdom.
 

The food at Tusker House looks great! I'm glad because we have a pre-park opening reservation on our upcoming trip. No Minnie Mouse?
 
The food at Tusker House looks great! I'm glad because we have a pre-park opening reservation on our upcoming trip. No Minnie Mouse?


I don't remember seeing Minnie and we don't have a picture of her. My husband doesn't remember seeing her either, but I'm not 100% positive that she wasn't there.
 
I don't remember seeing Minnie and we don't have a picture of her. My husband doesn't remember seeing her either, but I'm not 100% positive that she wasn't there.

I'm sure I've seen her in some photos before because I thought her hat was adorable, but maybe they've taken her away or they rotate :confused3
 
After our day at Animal Kingdom, we hopped a bus over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma. This was my first visit to AKL and I really was impressed with the beauty and theme of the entire resort. After walking around and looking at the animals a bit, we headed inside to check in for our reservation. A few minutes later, we were escorted to our table. Our server, Steve, promptly greeted us and explained a bit about the restaurant. He really was amazing throughout our whole meal, definitely some of our best service all week. I ordered a chocolate milk, DH ordered a Diet Coke and we ordered a white milk for DD. Our drinks arrived quickly, but DD got an exciting surprise…chocolate milk! She only ever gets water and white milk, so she was in heaven. We didn’t have the heart to take it away or alert Steve about the mix up, so we had one very lucky toddler.

I am going to be up front here and say that the food wasn’t for us. DH enjoyed it a bit more than I did but the spices used just aren’t our style. I enjoy certain more ethnic dishes and foods from other cultures but this wasn’t it for me. With that being said, there was nothing wrong with the food.

First up is DD’s plate: Plain pasta (because I wanted to limit the mess), broccolini, some kind of bobotie, and probably something else. Clearly DD was excited to dig in. She picked at everything but didn’t take a liking to anything in particular. The bobotie was probably her favorite thing on the plate if I had to guess.

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Next, is DH’s first plate, I feel bad but I have no idea what a lot of this was. Here is what I know was on there, VERY rare carved beef strip loin, ribs, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, bobotie, spinach and paneer cheese samosa, some kind of hummus and some kind of cold salad. He really liked the hummus and said it was some of the best he ever had. DH said that the samosa tasted like deep fried spanakopita and it had a pleasantly surprising bit of heat to it. The beef was way too rare for his taste. When Steve noticed that DH barely touched it, he offered to get him a slice that was more well done, which was very considerate of him. I honestly can’t remember what DH got when he went back for seconds.

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On my first plate there is carved beef strip loin, ribs, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, mashed sweet potatoes, broccolini, a spinach and paneer cheese samosa and a roll with butter. The beef was a bit rare for me and I didn’t care for the spices on it, so I barely touched it. The mashed potatoes were actually some of the most bland potatoes that I have had on Disney property, which was a shock. The flavor of the ribs were amazing!!!! They were a bit tough and fatty which made them difficult to eat, but I went back for seconds. The sweet potatoes and broccolini had a spice blend that I didn’t care for but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was… I did pick at them though. The roll was a standard Disney dinner roll, but I enjoy those. Unfortunately, it came with hard butter which was disappointing. I didn’t get pictures of my second plate but I had salad, and an assortment of breads and dips. They had some great hummus options and fruit chutneys. The salad was standard ice berg lettuce with limited topping options. I tried the apple vinaigrette which was good, but a bit sweet for me.

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DH sampled two soups while we were there. The first was a carrot ginger soup. He took a couple bites, said it was very carrot-y and he didn’t care for the spices.

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The other soup he tried was sausage and lentil stew. He said it was flavorful and very good.

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I didn’t take a picture of DH’s dessert plate but mine included zebra domes, a brownie, pumpkin cheesecake, coffee mousse, and a sugar cookie for DD. After hearing that the zebra domes are one of the best things ever, I couldn’t wait to try them…unfortunately they fell below my expectations. They were very gooey and okay, but not great. The brownie as hard enough that it could probably double as a weapon. The pumpkin cheesecake was creamy and very pumpkin-y, as it should be. I honestly don’t remember much about the coffee mousse and my notes just say, “nothing special”. DD’s sugar cookie was rock hard, but she gladly ate most of it.

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Despite this not so great review, I am very happy we tried Boma. AKL and Boma are both absolutely beautiful and I am pleased with our decision to take time to experience them. Steve gave us some of the best service that we had all week. The food was not our style, but I still would recommend this restaurant for someone who might be into that kind of food.
 
Thanks for the review for Boma. I plan to visit the resort in a couple of weeks and was debating on whether or not I should eat at one of the restaurants. I'm not into Indian/Thai food and the menus I've seen sound like they lean that direction. It's the spices that I don't like. So I'm just going to look over the resort and eat somewhere else.
 
Enjoying the reviews so far! :) I have been on the fence about Boma for our last few trips and always decided to skip it. My DH and DS are not very adventurous eaters, and I was afraid that the different spices may turn them off to even the American-type foods.
 
Thanks for the review for Boma. I plan to visit the resort in a couple of weeks and was debating on whether or not I should eat at one of the restaurants. I'm not into Indian/Thai food and the menus I've seen sound like they lean that direction. It's the spices that I don't like. So I'm just going to look over the resort and eat somewhere else.

That's probably a good idea to skip it. The resort is definitely worth the visit but if you aren't into the spices, you probably won't love the food.
 
Enjoying the reviews so far! :) I have been on the fence about Boma for our last few trips and always decided to skip it. My DH and DS are not very adventurous eaters, and I was afraid that the different spices may turn them off to even the American-type foods.

That's a bummer that you want to try it but haven't because of other family members. Have you considered splitting up and trying it without them? I know some families don't like doing that on vacation but it definitely works for others.
 
On Sunday morning we had breakfast planned at Kona Café. I really thought this one through and scheduled it on Sunday because that was the weekend we gained an hour of sleep with daylight savings time. Our reservation was at 8:30, but to us that felt like 9:30. I have heard amazing things about breakfast at Kona so I was excited to try it. Did it live up to the hype? Read on to find out.

One thing that I don’t like about the layout of Kona, is that you can see the entire dining room from the waiting area. We waited for awhile while seeing lots of empty tables. I get that for staffing reasons it needs to happen sometimes, but while wrangling a rambunctious toddler, it is frustrating. We arrived at our table and waited almost 10 minutes to be greeted by our server…not a great start. By then we were ready to place our entire order, not just drinks, and the server acted like that was a huge inconvenience.

I started off with a mimosa…which took 10 minutes to arrive at the table. The sparkling wine they used was a bit dry for my taste preferences, so I wasn’t a huge fan of it. I enjoy dry wines later in the day, but prefer something sweeter with breakfast. DH probably ordered something not very interesting like diet coke.

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After all of the rave reviews about Tonga Toast, I had to try it. For those of you who are not familiar with this menu item, here is the description: Banana-stuffed Sourdough French Toast rolled in Cinnamon Sugar and served with a Strawberry Compote and your choice of Ham, Bacon, or Sausage. I also requested a small plate so that I could split our entrees with DD. Our entrees arrived without my strawberry compote and without the extra plate. One of my biggest pet peeves is when food arrives without all of the necessary components. I didn’t want to try the Tonga Toast until I had the strawberry compote. The server who delivered our food didn’t say a word as she dropped off our meals and just as I opened my mouth to ask her for the missing items, she walked away. I sat there staring at my food while waiting for our server to come back. A few minutes later she dropped off the items, without saying anything. At least she noticed without me asking, but what the heck? Okay, so now I had everything I needed to try the Tonga Toast, what did I think? It was very good, and would have been quite bland without the strawberry compote. It was crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and simply delicious. I had sausage with it, which was flavorful and better than the sausage served at buffets and quick service restaurants on property.

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DH ordered the Big Kahuna: French Toast, Pancakes topped with Pineapple Sauce and Macadamia Nut Butter, Eggs, Home-fried Potatoes, Ham, Bacon, and Sausage. I was excited he ordered this because I was looking forward to trying the pancakes. The pancakes themselves were nothing special for me and the pineapple sauce was a disappointment. It tasted like putting canned pineapple on regular pancakes, I don’t get the hype on this one. DH enjoyed his meal but said that he would not make a special trip for it.

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Now, back to the service. As you can tell, our server was less than fabulous. She never once asked how our food was, didn’t clear our plates and didn’t interact with us when taking care of the bill. She didn’t seem busy with other tables (DH and I have worked in the food industry and we are understanding when that is the case). I can not understand why we had such horrible service but it left a really bad taste in our mouths, especially after service at dinner there wasn’t great either.


Overall, we enjoyed the food but would not go out of our way to get it. Since I don’t think we will be staying at the Poly anytime soon, I do not see us returning to Kona for breakfast.
 
Here's another place I was thinking of trying just for the Tonga Toast that I've heard so much about. Do you think it's worth a stop? I'm not a real big fan of bananas. Glad you mentioned the strawberry compote. I would never have thought to ask for it.
 
We spent Sunday morning in Tomorrowland, which means we had to grab lunch at Cosmic Ray’s. In my opinion the food is nothing special, but a Disney trip isn’t complete for me without a Cosmic Ray’s burger and fries. Typically I try to plan our quick service meals at off peak times, but this day that plan failed miserably. We were there around noon and the place was packed! For how busy they were, I was impressed that we were able to get our food so quickly. There were cast members policing the dining area and only allowing people to sit down once they had their food. Personally, I love this system because it makes it easier for those with food to get a table.

DH and I both ordered Angus Bacon Cheeseburgers with fries and chocolate cake for dessert. The burgers are served plain and then you top them any way you like at the toppings bar. As I said before, these burgers are nothing special, but they are a must do for us. The fries are the standard Disney fries, again nothing special.

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The chocolate cake is the standard packaged cake that you can find all over Disney property, but I enjoy it. It is rich, chocolatey and delicious.

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This review was short and sweet because there isn’t a ton to say about the food here. It was just okay, but we will continue to go back at least once a trip.
 
Another must do for us is a float from Aloha Isle. This was a particularly cold weekend in Orlando, so we were surprised when we saw a rather long line early in the afternoon. We split a float with pineapple juice and orange and pineapple soft serve. It was refreshing and delicious. I do have to admit this is much more satisfying when it is hot out, but definitely still a delicious treat in cooler weather.

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Before leaving Magic Kingdom for our dinner reservation at Wilderness Lodge, I wanted to stop to get something sweet. We stopped at the Main Street Confectionary and I pointed out several different options to DH that looked good to me. We really should have each gotten what we wanted but instead, I let him pick something for us to split. DH ended up choosing a milk chocolate s’mores square, which was not even on my possibility list. It is basically marshmallow fluff sandwiched between two graham crackers and dipped in milk chocolate. It was very sweet and the graham crackers were more crisp than I expected. This was good enough, but not my first choice.

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Since I am grouping all Magic Kingdom snacks into one post the next treat was from our visit 2 days later.

It was our last full day at Disney and we still hadn’t seen the Festival of Fantasy parade. I made sure that we grabbed a spot with plenty of time to spare. While we were waiting, we decided to get some ice cream. I talked DH into splitting one of the giant cookie sandwiches from Plaza Ice Cream Parlor. His only requirement was that he didn’t want mint chocolate chip ice cream. We agreed to order chocolate ice cream between chocolate chip cookies. It was huge and delicious.

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Our plans for Sunday night changed roughly 233,483 times before our trip actually happened, and then twice more once we were down there. I had Whispering Canyon Café booked a month or two out and thought I was happy with that plan…finally. Once we got down there, I realized I wasn’t really dying to eat there and probably wouldn’t be up for that kind of heavy food after several days of Disney dining. We cancelled our reservation. Then a day or two later, I decided that I actually did want to eat there and thankfully we were able to pick up a reservation for 20 minutes later than our original reservation. After a day at Magic Kingdom, we took a relaxing boat ride to Wilderness Lodge. I wasn’t feeling great that day, probably just too much un-healthy Disney food catching up with me and my body begging for real food again. Once we got there we explored the resort for a bit before checking in for our reservation. We were seated a few minutes after checking in.

Our server Laura promptly greeted us and threw our napkins on the table. We aren’t too into the antics that this restaurant is known for (although we would be good sports about it), and I’m pretty sure Laura caught on. She stayed in character but wasn’t over the top about things with us, which was absolutely perfect. I asked her if the bottomless milkshakes count as a non-alcoholic beverage on the dining plan, and sure enough they did. I knew that I had to have a chocolate shake. This is one of the best shakes that I have had in my life. It was rich, creamy, chocolatey and delicious. Boring DH ordered a diet coke.

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We decided to order the all you care to enjoy skillet: Slow-Smoked Pork Ribs, Barbecue Pulled Pork, Roasted Chicken, Oak-roasted Beef Strip Loin and Western-style Sausage. Sides for Sharing: Seasonal Farm Fresh Vegetables, Mashed Yukon Potatoes, Cowboy-style Baked Beans, and Corn on the Cob. Served with Family Style Mixed Greens tossed in an Apple Vinaigrette dressing and fresh-baked cornbread. I love meals like this. It is nice to be able to try a wide variety of options without having to get up from your table.

First up was the salad and cornbread. The salad was fresh and delicious, it was very refreshing. Typically pre-dressed salads are over dressed or underdressed but this one was perfect. DH was bummed that it had bleu cheese on it because he is not a fan at all. I only like bleu cheese in moderation and it was just fine for me.

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I don’t really care for cornbread, but I tried a bite anyway. I still don’t care for it but this one was moist. DH loves cornbread and said this one was the best he ever had. It also came with softened butter which was easy to spread.

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Now, on to the main course. The meats were all fantastic. I probably could have used a bit more bbq sauce, but to be fair, I didn’t ask for it either. The ribs came off the bones easily and there was a lot of meat on there. I don’t remember much about the pulled pork, but I did enjoy it. Roasted chicken can often become dry, but this one was very moist. The beef was amazing, and one of our favorite things on the skillet. I am not a huge sausage fan and since I wasn’t feeling great, I decided not to try it; DH said it was amazing. The potatoes were creamy, fresh and flavorful. The corn on the cob was alright, but a bit overcooked, which I expected. I don’t remember much about the vegetables and didn’t take notes on them but I think they were pretty good. DH said the baked beans were good but nothing special, I didn’t try them.

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When it was time to order dessert I was way too full to eat another bite. I asked Laura if we could take our dessert to go and she said that we absolutely could. I ordered the apple-caramel pie and it was amazing. There were a ton of fresh apples, a flaky pie crust, and a yummy crumble on top, it was delicious. If I ate this at the restaurant, it would have been served with ice cream as well.

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DH ordered the pumpkin cheesecake. It was creamy and full of strong pumpkin flavor with a good amount of spices added to it. It was very good. Both of these desserts travelled well.

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I enjoyed the atmosphere at WCC more than I thought I would. It was loud and rowdy. We all did the hokey pokey, we watched stick horse races and watched a lot of people get very embarrassed. I would have gotten into it more if we had older kids with us. The atmosphere was good for a couple with a toddler though because it covered up the occasional outbursts that come along with dining with a one year old. Our server, Laura, was fantastic throughout our whole meal. She was friendly and attentive. Definitely one of the best cast members we met all trip.

This was a meal that I originally planned for DH even though I wasn’t thrilled about it. He enjoys a lot of the more down home comfort food kind of stuff. I am so happy that we decided to try it. We both really loved this meal and we definitely will be back.
 
On Monday morning we decided to walk over to Art of Animation for breakfast at Landscape of Flavors. I had planned to walk over earlier in our trip but while we had made time to explore the resort, we had not made it over for breakfast yet. It had been a chilly weekend so I was craving a warm breakfast and some hot cocoa. Once we battled through the crowds, got our food and paid for it, we went on a search for a table. We finally found one in a back corner. I had DH start getting DD settled with food while I filled our mugs. As I said before, I was craving hot cocoa. The three dispensers that I checked were all out, so no hot cocoa for me.



DH and I both decided to order the bounty platter: scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, sausage, biscuit and pancakes. I wasn’t in the mood for plain pancakes so I asked if I could substitute chocolate chip pancakes instead and they said that would be no problem. Since AoA is known for more ethnic foods, I was looking forward to trying this. Most of the bounty platter was standard Disney quick service food, the biscuit, eggs, and bacon were all exactly what you would expect, nothing special but definitely edible. The chocolate chip pancakes were delicious but average- they didn’t wow me, but I don’t expect to be wowed by QS pancakes. Instead of pork sausage, I believe this had chicken sausage. At home I actually prefer turkey sausage so I was excited to try it. Unfortunately, it was lacking flavor and I prefer the regular sausage served at many Disney restaurants. I immediately noticed that these potatoes looked different than the ones served at Pop, they were lighter in color. Unfortunately, they were lacking flavor as well. These were probably the most bland potatoes I have ever tasted, they were a huge disappointment

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I am happy that we decided to eat at AoA one day. It was nice to eat on real plates and the change of scenery was nice. I was disappointed that the food fell flat and I actually prefer the bounty platter at Everything Pop.
 
Thanks for the AOA review, sounds like I not missing much on the breakfast side of things ;)

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