hello. sorry for the delay with my part of the dining review for friday. i was in disney for the long holiday weekend & returned late last night.
despite emme & i staying the shortest amount of time (1.5 days), we had a great time meeting everyone. my only regret is that i wish i had more time or could have cloned myself to be in 3 places at one time.
emme & i arrived in disney early friday evening. we had dinner adr's at ohana and after changing out of my scrubs and into disney attire at AOA, we made a frantic drive to the polynesian for our ADR.
emme & the beautiful AOA christmas tree
rachel & corey would be meeting us & afterwards we would be attending
MVMCP. our dinner was early enough so that we wouldn't miss any of the party (or so we thought). after texting rachel (you probably read about her super late bus ride), i decided to grab a drink at tambu lounge while we waited.
Ice cold Stella Artois
the stella went down too quickly & easily. i contemplated another one but decided that i needed to make room for dinner.
rachel asked if i could check us in earlier & then the pager went off. still no corey & rachel. i let them know and the hostess said that once they arrived, they would seat us immediately. if any disney hostess tells you this ever, this is a LIE! LOL.
finally, we see rachel & corey. unfortunately, our immediate seating turned into another 25-30 minute wait for the table. it was inevitable now that we would be getting a late start for the christmas party but at this point, all i wanted to do was eat. i was starving!
rachel had her DSLR and i had no desire to use mine so i snapped a few pictures with my iphone.
even though i consider the salad a "filler" (we're all there for the meat, aren't we?!), the salad is so refreshing and delicious. i love that the salad is lightly dressed and the papaya is so yummy! i don't feel like such a gluttinous pig when i eat some of the salad with the meal. big props to disney for not drenching the lettuce in dressing....that is one of my pet peeves. i can't stand over dressed salads. this salad is dressed perfectly.
i crave these potstickers from ohana. the filling is VERY authentic tasting. my mom makes a filling very similar to these. the wrapper is a bit thick which is why i'm a weirdo and only eat the middle of the potstickers. the potstickers were perfectly hot & incredibly tasty.
however....the wings. i really dislike these wings. i have issues with these wings. the skin is always soggy. i love me a crispy chicken wing but these wings are always cold and soggy. my aunt had a hot wing place and wings should be crispy hot. initially, these wings are totally crispy but because the sauce is so thick, it completely ruins a perfectly good wing. it is really tragic.
items not pictured as i was too busy stuffing my face: friendship bread (emme ate the inside of two loaves), veggies & lo mein, steak, shrimp & chicken plus dipping sauces
usually the pork is my least favorite meat of the bunch. but on this trip, the pork was deliciously moist and it had a really nice flavor. i enjoyed it very much.
my favorite meat was the steak on this trip. i had 3 pieces of perfectly cooked medium rare pieces. then it would be pork, shrimp & chicken (i have a fear of undercooked chicken)...but corey literally had 2 skewers of chicken & enjoyed it very much.
this was my portion of bread pudding. rachel & corey split a portion. i don't have much of a sweet tooth but the bread pudding is pretty good. it's not life changing like others have reported and i like it with just a tiny amount of sauce. the best part is right smack in the middle. i had about 3 bites and was finished.
so what did emme eat for $16.95?!
she had some rice, milk and the insides of 2 loaves of bread. i did ask for some macaroni & cheese which they brought out of us. the sinfully good nuclear orange macaroni & cheese.
i wish they had a separate ala carte menu for kids like emme. $16.95 is such a huge price for a kid who doesn't eat much. it's not that she doesn't eat, we just don't eat a lot of american food at home. it's tough eating at disney with her & my wallet suffers for it. but i was talking to vicki about it & she made a good point that some children 3-9 eat like adults so $16.95 is a bargain. but until emme can eat $16.95 worth of food, i guess i will keep complaining. HA!
our server was kind of all over the place. i can't really fault her as it's a very tough place to be a server in but sometimes she'd just disappear and reappear. i enjoyed dinner but was still bitter about the cost of the child's meal & that emme ate so little. overall, i would return to ohana (seems like i always do!).
onwards to MVMCP!
i really hated starting the party so late. it is a very EXPENSIVE party and we were already about 1 hour late. i don't like feeling rushed & i felt like we were running out of time even though the party just started. the weather was sticky for december & it was pretty crowded.
emme & rachel! (so happy i brought my flash with me even though it's so dang heavy)
last year, emme got the cutest picture with scrooge & scrooge was a character rachel really wanted to see. the line was SOOOO long for scrooge, daisy & donald. when it was our turn to see scrooge, he LEFT. so we took pictures with daisy & donald and as we were finished, here comes scrooge.
ever see the family (or better yet, standing behind the family) who takes FOREVER with pictures and has like 10 different photographic devices going off at the same time? that would have been us. it was a total hot mess trying to get a picture with scrooge but we did it to the dismay of those behind us in line.
and after all that talk about scrooge, i didn't get a single decent picture.
picture from rachel's camera & one of the few with all three of us (emme's doing a great job looking at her feet)
donald & daisy were so cute in their winter outfits. i love donald!
during
MNSSHP & MVMCP, the princesses are escorted by their princess! it's such a great photo opportunity. i haven't posted my MNSSHP pictures yet (that will be in my other dining report) but emme was so excited to see the princes again.
anyone notice the pink piggy bank? emme (or rather me) carried that thing everywhere. she gets obsessed with one toy a week & drags that thing everywhere. cinderella & prince charming were totally geeking out over it. it was the funniest thing as did emme. they spent about 10 minutes with emme & asked emme to show them how the piggy bank worked. the piggy bank talks & sings too and they thought it was hilarious.
then we saw some more friends who also loved the piggy bank:
after emme & i finished our character meet & greets, rachel & corey had saved us a spot for the parade. we had a great view right on main street usa.
i loved the interaction between peter pan & pinocchio.
and our hosts for the evening:
donald & daisy looking so cute together!
more parade pictures:
it's snowing on main street!
and my favorite part of the parade...the toy soldiers!
and of course santa's helpers....
btw, emme passed out at the end of the night but i still got a picture with minnie.
after working 8 hours, driving 2 hours, dinner at ohana & MVMCP, i was exhausted. i felt rushed all day and was so happy to get to our room at AOA and sleep. it was a great 7 hours at disney and an awesome start to our very very short trip.
emme & i missed breakfast at crystal palace with barb, brenda & emily the following morning but we were looking forward to dinner at YSH later on in the evening.
Glad your meal there was so great!
The food was good but not good enough to make up for the poor service that we received. The first time was bad, the second time was worse. Yet I had decided that I should give Citricos one more try before permanently crossing it off my list and this was it...the last chance. It's now or never again. 
Thanks Citricos, and in the words of the Terminator..."I'll be back!" 
