Our Bellies Now Look Like Pooh’s! Our Dining Adventure Summary (8/26-8/30)

[CubanaMama]

We have returned from our MAGICAL 4 night/5 day Disney vacation at the Polynesian! I’m bummed to be back to reality now; but, it really was a very relaxing and fun time for us… full of many celebrations (our 1st family vacation with my daughter, her 1st birthday & our 6th yr wedding anniversary) and quality family time spent! All together we were a party of 6 which consisted of myself, my husband, his mother, his twin brother, his younger sister, and our daughter.
We were on the deluxe dining plan and we were stuffed to the gills by the end of our stay…it really was too much food (even for my ogre of a husband…LOL)! We ended up with extra snack credits at the end and just grabbed a bunch or rice crispy mickeys and candy for my nieces & nephews to take to them back home.
I completely forgot to take pics of our meals; but, did store some mental notes of each place away deep in my noggin’ so I could write up a summarized dining review of our eating adventures. Sooooo, without further ado, here we go with the reviews!
8/26
Breakfast: Chef Mickey’s ….This place really lived up to it’s reputation! It was a great place to start off our vacation; it really got us all in the Disney-loving mood! We were seated right away and our waitress greeted us and took out drink order very quickly. She kept our drinks filled and our table tidy throughout our meal; and even helped by taking some family photos of us with the characters! The character interaction was wonderful also, especially considering the size of the restaurant!
CHEERS: great service & characters, cheese potatoes, crepes,
JEERS: the photo package price for the Chef Mickey photo they take of you as you walk in, is STEEP! I couldn’t justify paying so much, especially since the meal is already higher than the usual character breakfast buffets!

Lunch: Captain Cook’s for snacks:
Pineapple Dole Whips, Blueberry muffin, chocolate croissant, Smuckers PB&J uncrustable

Dinner: Kona Café….Great place to celebrate our first night staying at the Polynesian.. We originally were going to do the Luau instead of this dinner; but, we were SO GLAD we didn’t…Kona was a perfect pick! Our waitress was very friendly and gave detailed descriptions of the meals and some recommendations. She also let us know the different drinks we could chose under our dining plan. Everything we ordered (which seemed to be practically the entire menu since everyone ordered something different) was great…no one had any complaints. I was even able to substitute the sticky rice to mashed potatoes with no problem. They had a nice variety of desserts, and yes, all were delicious!
CHEERS: friendly service, nice décor, sticky wings, crab cakes & sushi for two appetizers, Teriyaki Steak, Tuna Oscar, Mahi-Mahi, Chocolate Banana Crème Brule, Kilauea Torte, smoothie drinks
JEERS: NONE

8/27
Breakfast: Crystal Palace….our FAVORITE breakfast of the trip (and that says a lot because we really enjoyed all the character breakfasts). This place had it all…beautiful setting, great service, delicious food and very good character interaction from Pooh & friends…they even had a cute parade! They decorated our table with curly streamers and mickey confetti for my daughter’s 1st birthday and gave her a cupcake (and sang happy birthday to her) and presented her with a card signed by the characters.
CHEERS: Pooh’s french toast puffs (like little clouds of heaven in your mouth), potatoes, pancakes, grits, a very good variety of food in general, staff was very friendly & so were the characters.
JEERS: although we had an ADR, we had to wait about 20 minutes outside before being seated (lots of people trying to get in); but, we didn’t mind because we got some great shots of the welcome show in front of the castle from where we were situated.

Lunch: Everyone chose different snacks from (all were great):
Sleepy Hollow- Funnel Cake
Casey’s Corner- French Fries
Main Street Bakery- Cinnamon Roll & Cupcake
Plaza Ice Cream Parlor- Ice Cream Coke Float

Dinner: Tony’s Town Tavern…Tony’s is a special place for my husband and I because we went here for dinner on our 1st trip to Magic Kingdom together, back when we started dating in college (which was a big deal since we didn’t have much $ as college students); it was nice to now share it with our family and baby girl. We had a great table by the window with a view of Main Street. Our waitress, Jessica, was wonderful and very attentive, especially to our daughter. I know this place may not get the best reviews; but, overall, we had a decent dinner here.
CHEERS: Calamari appetizer, large portions for appetizers & entrees, Tiramisu, Ice Cream Bomb
JEERS: a little too much oil in the Shrimp Scampi Pasta & Seafood Diavoli dishes

8/28
Breakfast: Cape May Café…this ended up being our 2nd favorite breakfast. This character breakfast really seems like a hidden gem. It’s in a gorgeous location (we fell in love with the Beach Club décor), the food was GREAT & fresh, and the characters seem to spend so much extra time with you!
CHEERS: little waiting, great service, wonderful character interaction, omelets, muffins, asparagus, best scrambled eggs
JEERS: NONE

Lunch: Boardwalk Bakery for snacks:
Brownie, Fruit Plate, Rice Crispy Mickey, cheesecake slice

Dinner: Narcoossee…My husband and I dined here for our anniversary dinner. We were seated immediately and given a window seat which was perfect! We were also given personalized menus congratulating us on our anniversary, which was a very nice touch. Our waiter was not as attentive as the others around us seemed to be; but, we really didn’t let that bother us. The food was great and we were so stuffed that we decided to share a dessert (the crepes) and I ordered a cappuccino as my other dessert item.
CHEERS: great location, romantic atmosphere, fresh seafood (definitely recommend the Lobster dish; Calamari and Crab cake appetizers were very good also), great selection of wine
JEERS: Waiter not that attentive. The crepes weren’t necessarily bad; but, nothing special either. I wish we would have chosen the almond cheesecake instead.

Ohana ….the rest of our party dined here and they loved it! They really enjoyed the entertainment & service, the food and great view from their window table.
CHEERS: sticky wings, bread, salad, noodles, meats. They were very impressed with the bread pudding dessert….they said it was delicious and HUGE.
JEERS: Although they had an ADR and arrived 10 mins early, the wait still ended up being 25 minutes before they were seated. They did say it was very crowded in the waiting area.

8/29
Breakfast: Whispering Canyon Café…this was really the only place that disappointed us the entire trip. I was looking forward to this breakfast from all the reviews I read beforehand, mainly for supposedly fun atmosphere, and for the country style food…boy, did this end up being a BIG Downer! Even with the restaurant only being half full, our waitress never seemed to be around (didn’t offer to refill our drinks or our all-you-can eat skillet, we had to look for her and request this, they really didn’t do any special antics as mentioned before with past reviews (a family next to us asked for ketchup and straws, waited for something to happen and nothing did, we ended up passing some bottles that were around us to them & cracking some jokes because we felt bad that the waiters didn’t respond). The quality of food was also poor (our skillet items were practically cold when served & my mother-in-law’s Belgian waffle didn’t come with fruit topping as stated on the menu, she had to ask for it and got it 15 mins later). I wish we would have kept our ADR at Kona Café instead of this place…we could have enjoyed the Tonga Toast & Big Kahuna instead of eating chewy cold eggs & trying to round-up someone to get us a refill of OJ!
CHEERS: the only good thing I can say about this place was that the Wildreness Lodge was a nice resort to visit
JEERS: poor service, very little fun or “good-time”antics as advertised, quality & quantity of food is very poor for price

Lunch: Captain Cook’s for snacks:
French fries, Pineapple Dole whips, big chocolate chip cookie, apple charlotte

Dinner: BOMA…..Hands Down, our FAVORITE DINNER! Everyone in our party loved the food….even my sister-in-law, who is one of the pickiest eaters I know, liked it! The food was so flavorful and interesting- what a variety & spread! The staff, from the hostess to the waiter to the manager who came by to see how we were doing, was great!
CHEERS: Can I just say all of the food? Here are some favs: pasta salad, avocado/grapefruit/papaya salad, sweet potato pancakes, couscous marrakesh, Bobotie, ribs, the curried coconut seafood stew. My daughter seemed to practically eat half her weight in the mac & cheese (it was so creamy)! This place also had the best selection & variety of desserts...ZEBRA DOMES (need I say more? Those little suckers are DEVINE), upside down pineapple cheesecake, some kind of peanut butter torte, passion fruit pane cotta. I’m already dreaming of going back to this place…might make a date night one day soon and drive up to Orlando for a couples hours just to eat here!
JEERS: NONE

8/30
Breakfast: Ohana….wonderful character breakfast! We had so much fun with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey & Pluto, especially when they would do the maraca conga line throughout the restaurant. Service was friendly & our waitress was very good about checking if we needed refills or more food (it seemed like our skillet was always kep full).
CHEERS: great character interaction, the wonderful welcome bread & butter, potatoes, the tasty guava/passion fruit juice (oh man, that’s GOOD STUFF!)
JEERS: NONE

Lunch: Big River Grille & Brewing Works…this place was smaller than I imagined, layout was a bit strange but we had a nice window seat of the boardwalk so that kept my daughter entertained while we waited for our food (always a good thing).
CHEERS: Beer Cheese Soup, Nacho appetizers (though incredibly huge for one person), Chocolate Confusion
JEERS: Big Brew Cheeseburger & Shrimp & Scallop alfredo penne pasta were not impressive

Dinner: Wolfgang Puck Express…GREAT place to eat as a counter service credit in Downtown Disney!
CHEERS: Rosemary chicken & garlic mashed potatoes. 4 Cheese Mac was phenomenal!
JEERS: location- was a little difficult to find

Goofy Candy Shop for snacks…great place to use snack credits.
CHEERS: the icee glaciers, caramel apples
JEERS: one chocolate covered strawberry for 1 snack credit is pretty ridiculous if you ask me, should be at least 3 strawberries!


Overall, this was an amazing dining experience for our first time using the dining plan. We went, we saw, we ate like we’ve been on a deserted island for a month…but it was a whole lot of fun!
We will definitely do it again and look forward to trying new places and maybe go back to a couple old favorites
Hope this review will help others in planning their future Disney vacations!

 

[helloconnie]

Great review! Thanks for sharing your experience! I am soooo looking forward to my next trip.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Breakfast: Chef Mickey’s ….This place really lived up to it’s reputation! It was a great place to start off our vacation; it really got us all in the Disney-loving mood! We were seated right away and our waitress greeted us and took out drink order very quickly. She kept our drinks filled and our table tidy throughout our meal; and even helped by taking some family photos of us with the characters! The character interaction was wonderful also, especially considering the size of the restaurant!
CHEERS: great service & characters, cheese potatoes, crepes,
JEERS: the photo package price for the Chef Mickey photo they take of you as you walk in, is STEEP! I couldn’t justify paying so much, especially since the meal is already higher than the usual character breakfast buffets!

I totally agree with you on the Chef Mickey photo package. Since I did not do my homework ahead of time, I was not aware that there was a photo package and did not know it was going to be so much extra. The whole CM breakfast ended up costing the same as the CRT breakfast after the CM photo was purchased. I probably should have just said no. They ask you in front of your kids if you want the photo and you feel like a bad mom saying no, I don't want this picture of my darling kids, lol. Thanks for the report.

 

[Krissalee]

Thanks for taking the time to share your reviews!

 

[DDJen]

I enjoyed reading your reviews. Thanks!

 

[CubanaMama]

I totally agree with you on the Chef Mickey photo package. Since I did not do my homework ahead of time, I was not aware that there was a photo package and did not know it was going to be so much extra. The whole CM breakfast ended up costing the same as the CRT breakfast after the CM photo was purchased. I probably should have just said no. They ask you in front of your kids if you want the photo and you feel like a bad mom saying no, I don't want this picture of my darling kids, lol. Thanks for the report.

It would be nice if they offered an option just to buy 1 5x7 picture....but then again, they would probably still find a way to charge an outrageous amount for it.