Our 6-night Disney Christmas Feast! 12/25-12/31-Updated 1-24 w/ Crystal Palace
- Thread starter mrg013
- Start date
teacherkaren
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 78
Matt,
I will be going to DW with a group of 8 Dec 08 so reading your postings has been great to do some planning. I am from WA so the thought of getting up early with the 3 hour time difference makes me cringe but it makes sense if you want to get the rides and have time to rest in the afternoon. Your thoroughness has been very helpful. I am a teacher and I would at least e mail him/her to take a look at this. You should be proud of your writing.
I will be going to DW with a group of 8 Dec 08 so reading your postings has been great to do some planning. I am from WA so the thought of getting up early with the 3 hour time difference makes me cringe but it makes sense if you want to get the rides and have time to rest in the afternoon. Your thoroughness has been very helpful. I am a teacher and I would at least e mail him/her to take a look at this. You should be proud of your writing.
Sorry I haven't updated in a while---I've been busy, but finally I had a chance to write about our last full day. Unfortunately, it doesn't include anything too amazing!
Day 6-12/30
Lunch: Food & Fun Center
Dinner: Crystal Palace
We were up early again for our final full day in the World! We were pretty much done all of the parks, so we decided to go back to Magic Kingdom to redo our favorite attractions and do those that we had missed. We were at the park for early opening at 7:00. It was fun to watch people make a mad rush for Space Mountain as soon as the turnstiles were opened. We enjoyed a leisurely walk down Main Street without crowds. We walked right onto Space Mountain, grabbed fastpasses for later, rode Buzz Lightyear, and did some of the Fantasyland attractions before official park opening at 8:00. At 8:00, we did Big Thunder Mountain twice, and had a traumatic experience with Splash Mountain. Dad and I went on it the other day, and told Mom and Andrew how fun it was. We hadnt gotten wet. This time, however, we all got drenched! This set the tone for a bad morning, since no one was in the mood to be sopping wet on a lukewarm day! We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and the Magic Carpets of Aladdin before deciding to use snack credits for breakfast at the Main Street Bakery.
The bakery wasnt too crowded, with a small line of people. We got there around 9:30, and I expected it to be worse. Mom got one of the large cupcakes, which she had been craving all week after seeing it at Roaring Forks. Dad went with a chocolate croissant, Andrew got a cherry turnover, and I had the French toast loaf. We took everything outside to one of the tables by the water. Everything was very good. It was about on par with Starring Rolls. Here, however, there were better choices. The pastries were all fresh, and my French toast loaf was huge! I cant believe that it counts as a snack credit. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and did a few more attractions before it got too crowded to handle around 1:00. We decided to leave the park for lunch. Since we enjoyed Captain Cooks so much the previous day, we thought that we would try the counter service at the Grand Floridian. We took the monorail and were so hungry that we only made it to the Contemporary before deciding to stop there instead.
Food & Fun Center Lunch
The renovations at the Contemporary have it looking very sleek and new, and the Food & Fun Center is in drastic need of an overhaul. We were shocked that it was so junky and in bad condition. The place itself was a mess, with snacks and things lying disorganized all over the place. The inside is very depressing; it reminded me of a hospital cafeteria. The neon lighting and bright colors dont really do anything for it, except continue a cheesy theme. However, the food wasnt bad, and we enjoyed our meal anyway. Heres what we ordered:
Me: Chicken Fingers Basket
Mickey Premium Bar
Large Soda
Dad: Double Bacon Cheeseburger Basket
Large Cookie
Large Soda
Mom: Cuban Sandwich Basket
Large Cookie
Large Soda
Andrew: Chicken Fingers Basket
Popsicle of some sort
Large Soda
We got our food and took it outside to a table by the pool. It was wonderful to sit outside in the warmth with beautiful views of Bay Lake and the Contemporary pool. The food was surprisingly good. I loved the chicken fingers, and knew that I just had to have them for my last counter service meal. I also had neglected to get a Mickey premium bar all week, so I was glad to get one here. It got slightly melted by the time I ate it, but it was wonderful. Mom was pleasantly surprised by her Cuban sandwich. As soon as it came out she was upset to have ordered it, because it didnt look like what she expected. However, she thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. Dad enjoyed another cheeseburger. It wasnt the best counter service meal we had all week, but it was pretty good. The food was made-to-order and all tasted great. My only recommendation is to take your food somewhere other than in the Food & Fun Center to eat. We took it out by the pool and had one of the nicest, most peaceful meals all week.
3.5 out of 5
CS Credits Remaining: 0
TS Credits Remaining: 4
After lunch, we took the boat right back to the hotel. Andrew and I decided to go in the pool, since it was the warmest day yet. There were lots of people in the pool everyday, but Im pretty picky; I will only go in if I wont be frozen when I get out. We loved the Wilderness Lodge pool! Its great, with plenty of space to move around. After seeing adults go on the slide, I went on a couple of times with Andrew. Its not the best slide ever, but its a slide, which we dont have at home! The water temperature was perfect- cold enough to cool us off, but still very warm as to make it comfortable for swimming. It was neat to see how the spring from the lobby feeds all the way down into the pool. Some ducks even came in with us, which was fun.
After swimming, we decided to leave early to get back over to the Magic Kingdom for our 4:55 ADR at Crystal Palace. We ended up getting there very early, and we had enough time to ride the train all the way around the park. We enjoyed listening to a woman behind us who was a Disney know-it-all, but really knew nothing! She was convinced that the Magic Kingdom was closing at 7:00, when in fact it would be open until midnight. She was convinced that the rates at Port Orleans Riverside are higher than at Port Orleans French Quarter for a comparable room. She was convinced that Florida is three hours ahead of her hometown in Texas, which is impossible. It was fun to listen to her, though.
Anyway, we ate breakfast at Crystal Palace on our last trip, so we decided to come back, but for dinner this time. I had actually had a premonition after our other great meals that this wouldnt be too good. I called all week to find something else, but everything we would be interested in was booked!
Crystal Palace Dinner
The Crystal Palace was pretty crowded, but they said that they were on time with seating. We were seated right around 5:00. We had a window table on the left side of the restaurant. However, we were extremely cramped! There was a family on our left that had a baby in a stroller that was significantly cutting into our space, and the table to our right was just way too close for comfort. At a regular sit-down restaurant, this wouldnt have been such a big problem, but at a buffet it is. It was such a chore for Mom and I to get up because we had the seats by the window and it required someone to move their chair a couple of inches.
Our server seemed nice enough, and he came right over after we were seated to take drink orders. However, the good service ended right after that. He was very sporadic with the drink refills and clearing plates away. At a buffet, those are the only two responsibilities of the server, and he couldnt even do either one well. It became really annoying because he was so lax in performing his duties, but didnt even seem to know it. He was always so pleasant! Most of the time, a bad waiter is pretty dour and rude. He was so friendly. He seemed to have not a care in the world, and think that his job was solely about socializing. If we werent on the dining plan, he definitely wouldnt have gotten an 18% tip!
The server wouldnt have been a huge deal if the food and characters were good, but they werent good either! We found the buffet selections to be very odd. I know that every buffet isnt going to have all typical American food, but some of the stuff was just bizarre. For one, there seemed to be tons of salads. Maybe its just because I dont eat salad, but it seemed redundant. Almost every single thing that can possibly be put into a salad was represented. Mom and Dad each tried one or two of the salads each, which were ok. At least the bread was pretty good! I tried the cheese soup, which was nothing like the one at Le Cellier, of course. It tasted gross. It was cheesy to an extreme, and had a bit of chalky texture. Nothing looked too appetizing, and I ate a lot from the kids buffet, which had chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, and string beans. They were all good. Im not exactly sure what everyone tried, but we have pretty similar tastes, so I doubt that anyone elses choices varied too much from mine. I tried three different kinds of meat- chicken, pork, and the prime rib that the chef was cutting. They were all just alright. The pork and chicken were both a bit dry, and the prime rib was a little tough. They werent awful, but after having had so many other wonderful meals, we werent too impressed with the quality of the food. I tried a few of the side dishes, the best of which was the mashed potatoes. There were a lot of what I considered to be odd things with curry, kale, etc. The desserts were all very good. There were lots of choices, and I particularly enjoyed the red velvet cheesecake, peanut butter cake, and soft-serve ice cream.
The characters here were not the best. They moved at a frenetic pace, barely stopping at each table before moving on to the next. It was very hard to take pictures because of our crowded table, as well as the fact that they were constantly ready to move on. We arent character-obsessed, so it wasnt a big deal, but I believe that they should spend more time per table considering the premium that many people pay to eat there.
All in all, we didnt have the best experience at the Crystal Palace. The service wasnt very good. The food was mediocre at best, and the characters were extremely rushed. Our table was excessively cramped, which made doing anything very difficult. The restaurant itself didnt even seem as nice on the inside as it had before. We ate breakfast here before, and loved it. Maybe the fact that light wasnt streaming in revealed that it isnt quite as nice as we thought? We went for the food, when most people go for the characters. That may have been the problem. Also, we probably would have liked it better earlier in the week. After eating at so many wonderful places, with California Grill the previous night, we probably had very high expectations. We were very disappointed in this meal, and definitely wont return for dinner. I would come for breakfast again instead!
2 out of 5
CS Credits Remaining: 0
TS Credits Remaining: 0
After dinner, we went to the front of the park to pick up a package that we had bought around 11:00 that morning. Of course, as icing on the cake after a bad dinner, the package had never made it from the Christmas Shop to there, even though we were told it would be there hours ago. They eventually called to get a new item shipped over, but we wanted to get to MGM for Fantasmic, so we didnt want to wait for long. Mom requested a refund after waiting for close to half an hour, and of course, right after the refund was processed, the ornament shows up! In the end, after a lot of aggravation we ended up buying the ornament back. Later on, I felt really bad because we got angry at the package delivery people, when it wasnt their fault if the store never shipped our package over.
We ended up having enough time to go back to the hotel via bus to drop the ornament off. We left for MGM around 7:00, for the 8:30 show. We arrived at the Fantasmic Theater about an hour before the show, and we got good seats in the center, so we were happy to wait. I thoroughly enjoyed Fantasmic. Everyone else was a little bit less enthusiastic. Its not my favorite nighttime show, but its a good one.
After Fantasmic we went to see the Osborne lights one last time. They are spectacular. They are one of the things that make going at Christmastime worth it. We saw them two years ago, but they seemed even better this time, especially with the synchronization to music!
We made sure to leave after seeing the lights, because park closing was soon, and we wanted to beat the rush. It was tough to say goodbye to our last full day in Disney World, but we would still have time for a nice breakfast and morning and early afternoon of park time tomorrow before flying home!
Day 6-12/30
Lunch: Food & Fun Center
Dinner: Crystal Palace
We were up early again for our final full day in the World! We were pretty much done all of the parks, so we decided to go back to Magic Kingdom to redo our favorite attractions and do those that we had missed. We were at the park for early opening at 7:00. It was fun to watch people make a mad rush for Space Mountain as soon as the turnstiles were opened. We enjoyed a leisurely walk down Main Street without crowds. We walked right onto Space Mountain, grabbed fastpasses for later, rode Buzz Lightyear, and did some of the Fantasyland attractions before official park opening at 8:00. At 8:00, we did Big Thunder Mountain twice, and had a traumatic experience with Splash Mountain. Dad and I went on it the other day, and told Mom and Andrew how fun it was. We hadnt gotten wet. This time, however, we all got drenched! This set the tone for a bad morning, since no one was in the mood to be sopping wet on a lukewarm day! We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and the Magic Carpets of Aladdin before deciding to use snack credits for breakfast at the Main Street Bakery.
The bakery wasnt too crowded, with a small line of people. We got there around 9:30, and I expected it to be worse. Mom got one of the large cupcakes, which she had been craving all week after seeing it at Roaring Forks. Dad went with a chocolate croissant, Andrew got a cherry turnover, and I had the French toast loaf. We took everything outside to one of the tables by the water. Everything was very good. It was about on par with Starring Rolls. Here, however, there were better choices. The pastries were all fresh, and my French toast loaf was huge! I cant believe that it counts as a snack credit. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and did a few more attractions before it got too crowded to handle around 1:00. We decided to leave the park for lunch. Since we enjoyed Captain Cooks so much the previous day, we thought that we would try the counter service at the Grand Floridian. We took the monorail and were so hungry that we only made it to the Contemporary before deciding to stop there instead.
Food & Fun Center Lunch
The renovations at the Contemporary have it looking very sleek and new, and the Food & Fun Center is in drastic need of an overhaul. We were shocked that it was so junky and in bad condition. The place itself was a mess, with snacks and things lying disorganized all over the place. The inside is very depressing; it reminded me of a hospital cafeteria. The neon lighting and bright colors dont really do anything for it, except continue a cheesy theme. However, the food wasnt bad, and we enjoyed our meal anyway. Heres what we ordered:
Me: Chicken Fingers Basket
Mickey Premium Bar
Large Soda
Dad: Double Bacon Cheeseburger Basket
Large Cookie
Large Soda
Mom: Cuban Sandwich Basket
Large Cookie
Large Soda
Andrew: Chicken Fingers Basket
Popsicle of some sort
Large Soda
We got our food and took it outside to a table by the pool. It was wonderful to sit outside in the warmth with beautiful views of Bay Lake and the Contemporary pool. The food was surprisingly good. I loved the chicken fingers, and knew that I just had to have them for my last counter service meal. I also had neglected to get a Mickey premium bar all week, so I was glad to get one here. It got slightly melted by the time I ate it, but it was wonderful. Mom was pleasantly surprised by her Cuban sandwich. As soon as it came out she was upset to have ordered it, because it didnt look like what she expected. However, she thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. Dad enjoyed another cheeseburger. It wasnt the best counter service meal we had all week, but it was pretty good. The food was made-to-order and all tasted great. My only recommendation is to take your food somewhere other than in the Food & Fun Center to eat. We took it out by the pool and had one of the nicest, most peaceful meals all week.
3.5 out of 5
CS Credits Remaining: 0
TS Credits Remaining: 4
After lunch, we took the boat right back to the hotel. Andrew and I decided to go in the pool, since it was the warmest day yet. There were lots of people in the pool everyday, but Im pretty picky; I will only go in if I wont be frozen when I get out. We loved the Wilderness Lodge pool! Its great, with plenty of space to move around. After seeing adults go on the slide, I went on a couple of times with Andrew. Its not the best slide ever, but its a slide, which we dont have at home! The water temperature was perfect- cold enough to cool us off, but still very warm as to make it comfortable for swimming. It was neat to see how the spring from the lobby feeds all the way down into the pool. Some ducks even came in with us, which was fun.
After swimming, we decided to leave early to get back over to the Magic Kingdom for our 4:55 ADR at Crystal Palace. We ended up getting there very early, and we had enough time to ride the train all the way around the park. We enjoyed listening to a woman behind us who was a Disney know-it-all, but really knew nothing! She was convinced that the Magic Kingdom was closing at 7:00, when in fact it would be open until midnight. She was convinced that the rates at Port Orleans Riverside are higher than at Port Orleans French Quarter for a comparable room. She was convinced that Florida is three hours ahead of her hometown in Texas, which is impossible. It was fun to listen to her, though.
Anyway, we ate breakfast at Crystal Palace on our last trip, so we decided to come back, but for dinner this time. I had actually had a premonition after our other great meals that this wouldnt be too good. I called all week to find something else, but everything we would be interested in was booked!
Crystal Palace Dinner
The Crystal Palace was pretty crowded, but they said that they were on time with seating. We were seated right around 5:00. We had a window table on the left side of the restaurant. However, we were extremely cramped! There was a family on our left that had a baby in a stroller that was significantly cutting into our space, and the table to our right was just way too close for comfort. At a regular sit-down restaurant, this wouldnt have been such a big problem, but at a buffet it is. It was such a chore for Mom and I to get up because we had the seats by the window and it required someone to move their chair a couple of inches.
Our server seemed nice enough, and he came right over after we were seated to take drink orders. However, the good service ended right after that. He was very sporadic with the drink refills and clearing plates away. At a buffet, those are the only two responsibilities of the server, and he couldnt even do either one well. It became really annoying because he was so lax in performing his duties, but didnt even seem to know it. He was always so pleasant! Most of the time, a bad waiter is pretty dour and rude. He was so friendly. He seemed to have not a care in the world, and think that his job was solely about socializing. If we werent on the dining plan, he definitely wouldnt have gotten an 18% tip!
The server wouldnt have been a huge deal if the food and characters were good, but they werent good either! We found the buffet selections to be very odd. I know that every buffet isnt going to have all typical American food, but some of the stuff was just bizarre. For one, there seemed to be tons of salads. Maybe its just because I dont eat salad, but it seemed redundant. Almost every single thing that can possibly be put into a salad was represented. Mom and Dad each tried one or two of the salads each, which were ok. At least the bread was pretty good! I tried the cheese soup, which was nothing like the one at Le Cellier, of course. It tasted gross. It was cheesy to an extreme, and had a bit of chalky texture. Nothing looked too appetizing, and I ate a lot from the kids buffet, which had chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, and string beans. They were all good. Im not exactly sure what everyone tried, but we have pretty similar tastes, so I doubt that anyone elses choices varied too much from mine. I tried three different kinds of meat- chicken, pork, and the prime rib that the chef was cutting. They were all just alright. The pork and chicken were both a bit dry, and the prime rib was a little tough. They werent awful, but after having had so many other wonderful meals, we werent too impressed with the quality of the food. I tried a few of the side dishes, the best of which was the mashed potatoes. There were a lot of what I considered to be odd things with curry, kale, etc. The desserts were all very good. There were lots of choices, and I particularly enjoyed the red velvet cheesecake, peanut butter cake, and soft-serve ice cream.
The characters here were not the best. They moved at a frenetic pace, barely stopping at each table before moving on to the next. It was very hard to take pictures because of our crowded table, as well as the fact that they were constantly ready to move on. We arent character-obsessed, so it wasnt a big deal, but I believe that they should spend more time per table considering the premium that many people pay to eat there.
All in all, we didnt have the best experience at the Crystal Palace. The service wasnt very good. The food was mediocre at best, and the characters were extremely rushed. Our table was excessively cramped, which made doing anything very difficult. The restaurant itself didnt even seem as nice on the inside as it had before. We ate breakfast here before, and loved it. Maybe the fact that light wasnt streaming in revealed that it isnt quite as nice as we thought? We went for the food, when most people go for the characters. That may have been the problem. Also, we probably would have liked it better earlier in the week. After eating at so many wonderful places, with California Grill the previous night, we probably had very high expectations. We were very disappointed in this meal, and definitely wont return for dinner. I would come for breakfast again instead!
2 out of 5
CS Credits Remaining: 0
TS Credits Remaining: 0
After dinner, we went to the front of the park to pick up a package that we had bought around 11:00 that morning. Of course, as icing on the cake after a bad dinner, the package had never made it from the Christmas Shop to there, even though we were told it would be there hours ago. They eventually called to get a new item shipped over, but we wanted to get to MGM for Fantasmic, so we didnt want to wait for long. Mom requested a refund after waiting for close to half an hour, and of course, right after the refund was processed, the ornament shows up! In the end, after a lot of aggravation we ended up buying the ornament back. Later on, I felt really bad because we got angry at the package delivery people, when it wasnt their fault if the store never shipped our package over.
We ended up having enough time to go back to the hotel via bus to drop the ornament off. We left for MGM around 7:00, for the 8:30 show. We arrived at the Fantasmic Theater about an hour before the show, and we got good seats in the center, so we were happy to wait. I thoroughly enjoyed Fantasmic. Everyone else was a little bit less enthusiastic. Its not my favorite nighttime show, but its a good one.
After Fantasmic we went to see the Osborne lights one last time. They are spectacular. They are one of the things that make going at Christmastime worth it. We saw them two years ago, but they seemed even better this time, especially with the synchronization to music!
We made sure to leave after seeing the lights, because park closing was soon, and we wanted to beat the rush. It was tough to say goodbye to our last full day in Disney World, but we would still have time for a nice breakfast and morning and early afternoon of park time tomorrow before flying home!
disneyquilter
It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow...
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- Messages
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Lovin' the reviews!! 
natalielongstaff
<font color=deeppink>I need a cup of tea and a big
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great reviews matt
poeticeclipse
Mouseketeer
- Joined
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