Our Disneymoon: April 1-6, my first attempt at a dining review!

[KristinandChris]

Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at a dining review, so please be kind! My husband and I were married last September and since I'm a high school teacher we chose to wait until spring break to take our honeymoon. I have been to Disney several times but Chris had not been since he was in grade school. Of course it was crowded but we had a great time! The cast members we met went out of their way to make our honeymoon special.... and although we were always looking for a dream fastpass we didn't get one, we did get a free fastpass for Mickey's Philharmagic We stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort and were on the dining plan. Needless to say, we were STUFFED by the end of the week - good thing we did a lot of walking!

Here is a little background on us:
Chris - 27, a VERY picky eater! Chris loves pizza, burgers, and steak (he is a meat and potates boy). He is not adventorous at all - will not try seafood and does not like cheese (despite the fact that he loves pizza - go figure!)
Kristin - 27, I'll eat most anything! I like meat and potates but I like seafood and I LOVE cheese. It will be interesting to see what our children eat!

I honestly can't remember what day we ate at which restaurant so I'll organize the reviews by counter service and table service. Overall we really enjoyed the food....except for the last night - it's a very interesting story! Hope you enjoy!

~Kristin

 

[wilma-bride]

Looking forward to it Kristin - and belated Congratulations on your marriage

 

[KristinandChris]

Hi again! I forgot to say that sadly I do not have pictures of our food It's really hard taking pictures when it's just two people and we were usually so hungry that I forgot to get the camera out!

Here are the restaurants we went to:

Counter service
El Pirata Y el Perico Restaurante in Magic Kingdom
Morocco
Typhoon Lagoon
Tusker House in Animal Kingdom
China
Backlot Express in MGM

Table service
Kona Cafe
Mama Melrose
Pizza - Papa John's ok I won't review it, but it was good!
San Angel Inn
Le Cellier
California Grill

~Kristin

 

[TigerKat]

Congratulations!! Can't wait for your reviews, you guys stayed at one of my favorite resorts.

 

[KristinandChris]

Since I have no food pictures, I thought I'd include some pictures of us! Here we are standing in front of the castle:http://filebox.vt.edu/users/krdolson/_MG_2238[1].JPG
Here we are outside of Star Tours: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/krdolson/_MG_1953[1].JPG
And, finally, here we are with The Incredibles!! http://filebox.vt.edu/users/krdolson/_MG_1957[1].JPG
I have to say that I am very proud that Chris took this picture! He had told me very firmly before we left home that he would not, under any circumstance, take pictures with characters. Why? Who knows, but Mr. Freeze (I think that's his name) embarassed him enough to do it, hehe. Chris also took a great picture of me with Sleeping Beauty.... she was very pretty but I have to say I should move to Disney and grow out my hair, her wig was not very natural looking

Ok, first up: counter service meals!

~Kristin

 

[KristinandChris]

Chris and I drove to Disney from West Palm beach (we were visiting his grandparents who were unable to make it to our wedding) so we stayed outside the park the first night. I'm glad we didn't have to spend very long in our $35 a night hotel - it was interesting to say the least! Needless to say I was very excited and ready to get out of there early the next morning. We checked into Caribbean Beach, our room wasn't ready but we went ahead and went grocery shopping and dropped off our rental car. I have a very funny story about the rental car place that shows how great they were if anyone is ever interested..... After we dropped off the car we went back to the hotel and caught a bus to Magic Kingdom!

Amazingly enough it wasn't that crowded so we were able to get a few rides in before lunch. Our first Disney meal was at El Pirata Y el Perico Restaurante. We both had the taco meal and it was good, nothing spectacular but the fixings bar was good. As I said before, we were on the dining plan and we never left a meal hungry - it took some getting used to ordering dessert with lunch!

After that first day all the counter service meals kind of run together.... hey, it was our honeymoon and it was almost 3 months ago!

Here are some of our favorites:

Tangierine Café in Morocco: I LOVE this place! I've been here several times before and have never been disappointed. Chris had the chicken platter and forgot to tell them to hold the yogurt sauce.... like I said before, he is a really picky eater but amazingly enough he tried it and actually liked it! Hallelujah - Disney creates miracles!! I ordered the lamb and chicken platter, next time I think I'll stick to the lamb. It somehow tasted juicier. The baklava dessert was great although I couldn't finish it. We both loved everything there.

Tusker House in Animal Kingdom: I had read great things on this board and, again, we were not disappointed. We actually ate there twice in one day: once for breakfast and once for lunch. For breakfast I think I had an egg platter with biscuits, gravy, and maybe bacon. More food than I'm used to for breakfast but who cares if it's vacation! Chris (again, picky!) I think had a biscuit but he seemed happy. For lunch we both had the chicken - soooo good! It was a definite departure from burgers and fries, and the carrot cake was yum too. I'm heading to Disney again in August with my parents (love having the summers off as a teacher!) and we'll be eating here twice in one day again!

Lotus Blossom Cafe in China: This was good, nothing spectacular but it hit the spot. We actually could not decide where to eat and we walked all the way around the countries before finally stopping so I remember being very hungry! We both had the orange chicken with the caramel ginger ice cream for dessert. I think next time I'll try Japan for some sushi since, shocker, Chris doesn't eat sushi.

The not-so-good places:

Counter service at Typhon Lagoon (have no idea what it was called): Ok, it's not really fair to rate a restaurant when we were eating in bathing suits, but it wasn't all that great. I think we had burgers and fries, if I could advise anyone on eating in Disney: try to get something other than burgers! Except at this place our options were kind of limited. But, it ceased the rumbling tummies so we could go back to swimming..... although I do remember the lines being incredibly long!

Backlot Express in MGM: Ugh, this was just not very good. We both had burgers (I think they were double?!) and fries... it wasn't all that bad but this was halfway through our trip and we had had such incredible dinners that this lunch was just not good. Of course we still ate it all, we're such pigs! I'm really disappointed in the counter service options at MGM and, sometimes, Magic Kingdom. We really enjoyed Animal Kingdom and Epcot a lot more.

Coming up..... dinners!! My favorite

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
Thanks for sharing!! I'm looking forward to the rest. We're going to Kona for dinner for the first time in December and am anxious to hear your review. Thanks! And congratulations on your marriage.
Joan

 

[KristinandChris]

Thanks for all the great responses! I can't believe we've been married 9 months already - it has really flown by! I'm actually glad we waited to take our honeymoon after the wedding, I think I would have slept through most of it if we left right after the wedding

I do remember the restaurants we ate at each night so I'll go in order. First up..... Kona Cafe!!

We spent most of our first day at Magic Kingdom and then took the monorail over to the Polynesian. I had never eaten at Kona Cafe before but I heard good things about it. It is right off the lobby but we were lucky enough to have a seat in the back. We checked in a little early and had drinks at the bar and took them with us to our table. We were, therefore, very surprised when our waitress walked over with a bottle of wine! It turns out that my brother and sister-in-law ordered us a bottle of wine (I think it was Merlot) and a lovely card wishing us a happy honeymoon! It was a great surprise It really made us realize that, yes, we were in fact on our honeymoon! On to the food review.....

This was our first dinner on the dining plan and up until now Chris did not believe me that we were going to eat a lot! For appetizers Chris ordered the potstickers - it is one of his favorite snacks at home and he really enjoyed them. I ordered the crab cakes and they were good, looking back I should have ordered a salad because they were hard to finish. For our main course Chris had the Beef Teriyaki - his first night of many steaks on this trip! He seemed to really like it and the potatoes were really yummy. I ordered Char-Crusted Filet Mignon, which came with the same potatoes and asparagus, my favorite veggie. We both really liked the food (and the wine!) and our waitress kept teasing us to finish the wine. For dessert Chris tried the Apple Brown Betty and I had the caramel banana creme brulee. I have been on a creme brulee kick for months, and this really hit the spot. Chris loves any kind of dessert with apples (except with nuts - I told you he was picky!), and he liked this.

All in all, it was a great start to our vacation. Our waitress was great, the food was good, and even though the restaurant doesn't have much of a "theme" we really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it!

~Kristin

 

[Schucraig]

Great reviews so far! I can't wait for more!

 

[KristinandChris]

Day two: ESPN Zone..... or pizza in our pjs??

Our second day at Disney caused a bit of drama before we left home. Let me begin this by saying that my husband is a fan of....well..... pretty much anything. When we set our wedding date we had to make sure that it was not on the same day as anything sports related, mainly VA Tech football (we both graduated from there). Of course I read the schedule wrong and we did have a game that day but luckily it was before the wedding and, more importantly, we won! I am a proud Hokie as well and I have great memories of watching the game while getting my hair done in our hotel room Anyway, of course our second day at Disney was the same night as the NCAA finals soooooo I had to rearrange our dining schedule. We were in Epcot and we decided to try to get a table at ESPN Zone a few hours before the game. We had a lovely walk over to the restaurant.... only to see a line coming out the door! After weighing our options a bit we finally decided to call it a day and watch the game from our hotel room. It acutally worked out because we were able to relax with a nice swim and eat some yummy Papa John's pizza

As for the game..... Chris was second in his pool and had picked Ohio State to win. Apparently he forgot that since my family is from Indiana originally (Hoosier fans!) you NEVER root for Ohio State to win! Oh well - at least he had his favorite pizza for dinner

 

[KristinandChris]

Day Three: Ole!

For our second dinner (sorry Papa - pizza delivery doesn't count!) we went to San Angel Inn in Epcot. I had eaten here once before but it was years ago. I chose this restaurant because of the atmosphere and the fact that we eat at Chipotle once a week - surely Chris would find something on the menu he liked? Ummmm..... yeah..... wishful thinking

For appetizers I ordered the Sope Tradicional, which was a soft corn shell filled with chicken and refried beans with a fresh green tomato sauce and cheese on top. It was good, but nothing terribly exotic. Chris couldn't really find anything he liked so he ordered the house salad. He tends to oversnack on chips and salsa so he wasn't too terribly sad when the salad had cheese on it. I, of course, felt bad so ate most of it for him. Ugh - I'm going to be one of those moms who finishes everyone's plates As for main dishes, I honestly cannot remember what we ordered. I know I had some kind of sampler platter because I like eating different things at Mexican places. Chris would have had some kind of beef dish. I can't remember what we had for dessert.... I think I had flan?..... but the margarita I had was yummy!

We liked the food but it wasn't our favorite place and I don't think we'll go there again anytime soon. I love the atmosphere but we weren't seated anywhere near the water and the tables are sooooo close together. So close that we had conversations with people on both sides of us! One side was a man on a business trip who was spending time in Disney before his family joined him - we had a good conversation. On our other side was a family with I think 4 children. They were really nice and gave us lots of advice to wait a while before having kids We found this to be the theme of our trip when people realize it was our honeymoon! The conversations usually went like this: "Oh, you're on your honeymoon, how great! Congrats! DON'T HAVE KIDS RIGHT AWAY!!" We got a kick out of it. The ironic thing was that a few minutes after this nice couple advised us, their young daughter threw up in her plate, right at the table! At least she kept it all on the plate

And - yes - we are waiting a couple of years before kids, our dogs are hard enough to take care of!

 

[K and K's Mommy]

Thanks for taking the time to do the reviews! They're great! We were at Disney almost 12 years ago for our honeymoon!

I am a Hoosier and root for OSU! The coach and his wife went to Butler!

 

[wilma-bride]

Great reviews Kristin. Love your pictures too - you are a cute couple

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent Congrats to you both

 

[Princess Amy]

Congratulations to you both....DH and I were married last September too...on the 29th. Our honeymoon was the first week of October and we stayed at the Caribbean Beach too. How ironic...

Glad to hear you had a great time! Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[KristinandChris]

Day Four: Bonjourno!

On our 4th day we spent most of the day at MGM. Chris was very excited to finally ride "real" rollercoasters and we had a not-so-yummy early lunch at Backlot Express (see post above for review). We had a reservation at Mama Melrose for 4:40pm as part of the Fantasmic package. I'm really glad we did that because otherwise we may have not had a decent seat since it was during spring break. We still sat in our seats for a good hour before the show, but it was nice to relax with some frozen lemonade!

We were both pleasantly surprised with Mama Melrose. I've always thought that MGM did not rank very highly with food, but I liked Mama Melrose. My family and I have eaten at the Prime Time Cafe a few times but our last meal there wasn't very good so I was hesitant to make another reservation there. I had never seen Mama Melrose but read about it on here and since Chris and I both love Italian I'm glad we choose it. The atmosphere is cute - although they could stand to update the 80's/90's autographs on the walls in the lobby

For appetizers I smartly ordered the mixed green salad with gorgonzola cheese - after eating so many heavy appetizers a salad was just what I was craving! Chris also had the salad (no cheese of course) and liked it as well. For our entrees, Chris had pasta with spicy italian sausage and LOVED it! This was his favorite meal so far - he love spicy food. I had penne alla vodka which was also very good. The dessert was my favorite part: I love Tiramisu and it was very yummy here! I think Chris has chocolate gelato - not the same as true Italian gelato but good nonetheless. All in all I would highly recommend Mama Melrose - it's nothing too fancy but after a day at MGM it was just right.

By the way, after our first dinner at Kona Cafe I called my parents and teased them that we were waiting for a bottle of wine at every dinner! Well, after eating at Mama Melrose I called them to thank them that they did NOT send us a bottle of wine - we had fastpasses for Rock'n'Rollercoaster and with us being so full after dinner having wine on top of all that food would not have been very pretty!

 

[Praying Colonel]

And - yes - we are waiting a couple of years before kids, our dogs are hard enough to take care of!

Be careful (literally)--God has a sense of humor. DW and I told everyone who asked that we were going to wait a couple of years before starting our family. Well, God laughed and laughed and DW was pregnant 2 months after we were married.

And BTW, I'm liking your dining reviews. Good job!

 

[TigerKat]

Enjoying your reviews - good job!

 

[klinlin]

Be careful (literally)--God has a sense of humor. DW and I told everyone who asked that we were going to wait a couple of years before starting our family. Well, God laughed and laughed and DW was pregnant 2 months after we were married.

And BTW, I'm liking your dining reviews. Good job!

I was thinking the same thing! I returned home from our Disney honeymoon only to find I was expecting my first son. My parents had barely recovered from the wedding when we announced they were going to be grandparents!

 

[abk96]

Love your reviews! Congrats to you both!

And it must be something about Disneymoons because we too found out we were expecting 1 1/2 mths after our honeymoon.