Our Magically Deluxe Dining Sept 20-27 UPDATED Day 2 9/30

[srdipert]

We just returned from a really great dining trip September 20-27. We had free dining but upgraded to the deluxe dining plan. We loved the deluxe dining plan and would definitely do it again if going during free dining or another discounted period not sure we would pay the full price. I know we definitely got our monies worth but I have not totaled the receipts. I will do so as I write about each one.

Most of the places were very good and we would definitely want to do them again. The kid’s meals still leave a lot to be desired even at TS esp for older kids but we didn’t have a problem sharing the adult meals with the kids. We received good or excellent service at all but one restaurant and the service was BAD! We didn’t have to wait for a table at any of the restaurants and some we even checked in about an hour early and still no wait. Also as you will be able to see from the review is there was a “best” table in a restaurant we had it without request…there were many truly magical dining experiences.

We have been on the regular dining plan many times so we have many old favorites. We had never tried many of the 2TS credit restaurants before so this was a great opportunity. Although DD thought before going they would be a waste of credits we will see if he changed his mind.

The players:

DM: Me, Mom about 8 weeks pregnant with our third child and thanfully this time no nausea so all the food was good to me! 

DD Dad loves to eat but like really nice places and good service

DS1 Son # 1 is 7 and a very picky eater but loves steak which can be a challenge on the kid’s menu but we did succeed many times!

DS2 Son # 2 will be 3 in December so free not on the dining plan but probably ate more than anyone else where he puts all of that food in his 25lb body is beyond me. Also he declared the during the trip he was eating more so he could be bigger to ride more rides poor baby was just ¼ of an inch shy of the 38 inch mark.

Snack credits: We used many snack credits for different things. Some of the favorites were dole whips, school bread, ice cream waffle cones and many more. We did save about 20 snack credits for the last day for the food and wine festival at Epcot. This was a nice experience but it was very hot and crowded so we tried and few things and moved on. We had 8 snack credits left so we stocked up on some treats to bring home from goofys. We didn’t have any trouble using up the snack credits. We rarely paid OOP for any snacks the only time we paid for a couple of drinks b/c we didn’t have the card.

Day 1 *Pg 1 Post 12

Lunch: Columbia Harbour House (the only CS we did)
Dinner: Jiko

Day 2 Pg 2 Post 16

Breakfast Donald’s Safari Breakfast
Lunch Yak and Yeti
Dinner Kona Café

Day 3

Breakfast Princess Storybook At Akershus
Lunch Biergarten
Dinner Narcoosees



Day 4

Breakfast Crystal Palace
Lunch Pop (We bought a pizza and took it to the room no on the DDP)
Dinner California Grill

Day 5

Lunch Sci Fi
Dinner Ohana

Day 6

Lunch Liberty Tree Tavern
Dinner Boma

Day 7

Lunch Tusker House Buffet
Dinner Whispering Canyon Café

Day 8

Breakfast Boma
Dinner Ragland Road

Sorry there are no pictures with two hungry kids taking pictures was just too hard! I will try to get day 1 up very soon and keep the days coming very quickly.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Sounds awesome! Congrats on baby #3!

 

[TigerKat]

Signing on......

 

[John's Mom]

Count me in!

 

[HonnyDipp]

I'm in!

 

[Jenvenza]

I am ready!

 

[Nohal]

Anxiously waiting your reviews.

 

[sherry8253]

I'm in.

 

[luvfigment]

Count me in also!!!

 

[matthew&haleysmom]

Can't wait to hear how you liked DxDP. We are going in June and are thinking about many of the same places you went to.

 

[jeminni]

I'm in too

 

[srdipert]

Day 1

Lunch: Columbia Harbour House (the only CS we did)
Dinner: Jiko


We arrived at Pop about 9am. We had ADR for Cape May Café for 10:30 but the kids were not interested in going to breakfast they just wanted to get to the MK. So we headed out to MK and had CS lunch at Columbia Harbour House. I am not a fan of CS at Diseny one of the reasons we chose to do the Deluxe plan, but I love the CHH.

I had the Anchors Aweigh Sandwich - white tuna with lettuce and tomato on toasted multigrain bun with chips, a diet coke, and apple crisp. It was all great! I love the tuna here and the bread it amazing!

DS1 and DD had Chicken Breast Nuggets and Fish and French Fries, Diet Coke, and chocolate cake. They liked the food a lot and even liked the nuggets that replaced in the strips.

DS2 shared with us but I did buy him OOP a side order of grapes.

The total for this meal was 42.52 plus we got 6 extra snack credits (this was a little hassle to explain to the cashiers but they called a manager and she brought some up no problem.) We later used the snack credits for 4 dole whips and 2 coke floats so that was an extra 24.00 for a total of 66.52.

For dinner we tried Jiko for the first time. This was one meal that I was very excited about and it was good but not as great as I had hoped. Our ADR was for 5:30 so we checked in about 5:20 and the host said they would seat us in about 5 mins. Many people were called and we waited and waited about 5:45 I went up the podium just to check and he said oh yes your seat is ready. So I am not sure if we were skipped or they were just about to call us but it really didn’t matter we didn’t wait very long.

We all had diet coke to drink except the little one he had sprite (none of the places charged us for his drink even though he wasn’t on the ddp).

We also got a bread basket for the table none of us really cared for the breads.

I had:
Kalamata Olive Flatbread - with four cheeses, and Laura Chenel's soft goat cheese and this was wonderful. The kids also really liked it and shared a lot of it. I have to warn you that the flatbreads are a lot of food so I would expect to share them or you might be too full for the rest of the food.

Oak-Grilled Filet Mignon - with macaroni and cheese and red wine sauce. This was good but Filet was not that great of a cut. It had a lot of fatty places in it and wasn’t all that tender. DS2 loved the mac and cheese and ate most of mine.

Dessert was a special they were having a Peach cobbler with ginger ice cream. It was pretty good but nothing special.

DD had:

Barbecued Chicken Flatbread - with grilled onions, apple julienne, and four cheeses. This was great and had a very unique flavor. I was really worried about the apples but they were a very good combination with the other things.


Oak-Grilled Filet Mignon - with macaroni and cheese and red wine sauce. DD also thought that the meat was not that great quality.

Tanzanian Chocolate Cheesecake - with chocolate ganache, Amarula sauce, and lavender ice cream. He liked this it was a little rich for my taste and the lavender ice cream was just too strange of a “flower’ taste.

DS1 had:
Mixed Fruit Salad this was a nice assortment of fresh fruits, watermelon, grapes, cantaloupe etc… Both of the boys loved it.

Grilled Filet of Beef with mashed potatoes, veggies and fruit. DS1 loved the steak he ate his in a matter of minutes than had a about half of mine. DS2 ate the potatoes and veggies.

S'mores and More -- Build your own with marshmallow fluff, peanut butter,
melted chocolate, and graham crackers. This was a big hit with both boys and I almost ordered 2 so there would not be any fighting but decided not to. I am glad I didn’t there was a lot of food on this and plenty to share.

The total was 145.00.

The total spent for the day without the 2 snack credits per person was 211.52.

 

[disneybound31]

Nice job!

 

[Finally - A Vacation]

Sounds good so far!

Now were you able to get the extra snack credits because you were eating at CS on the DXDP?

 

[srdipert]

Sounds good so far!

Now were you able to get the extra snack credits because you were eating at CS on the DXDP?

From August 24 thru September 27, Disney had a special that if you used you TS credits at a CS place you got 2 extra snack credits per person so that is why we got the extra credits. They were trying to free up space in the TS restaurants. Honestly I think there were many people who must have booked TS ADR and didn't show up or canceled at the last min. b/c the restaurants (and we ate many popular ones) were not full.

 

[srdipert]

Day 2

Breakfast Donald’s Safari Breakfast
Lunch Yak and Yeti
Dinner Kona Café


We had breakfast at Donald’s Safari Breakfast in Animal Kingdom. Our ADR was for 8:10 so we got in early before the parked opened. That was nice and we did it a couple of mornings but it got very tiring getting up early so I would reserve it only for a few mornings unless your family really are morning people. This was a fun breakfast for the kids with Goofy, Donald, Mickey, and Pluto. The buffet was pretty standard eggs, meats, quiche, fruits, pastries etc… The food was good and I slipped out and grabbed fast passes for the Safari ride which isn’t far away. We were finished by about 9:15.

The total here was $52.

Lunch was Yak and Yeti scheduled for 1:30 but by 12:45 we had ridden every ride and did everything we wanted at AK (the crowds were really low DS1 rode Dinosaur about 3 times walk on). So we headed over to Yak and Yeti at 1:00 and we were seated in 5 mins. I know a lot of people have given this restaurant mediocre or bad review but we really liked it and DD loved it!

DD and I had the same things except for dessert:

Lettuce Cups - minced chicken breast, chopped vegetables, maple tamarind sauce, crisp lettuce cups. We thought these were very good maybe not as good as a local place we have but still good. They were big portions the kids loved them also and we had plenty to share.

Shaoxing Steak and Shrimp - skirt steak, tempura-battered shrimp, jasmine rice, stir-fried vegetables, chili plum dipping sauce. The shrimp was big and I think we got about 5 and a large piece of thin steak. The shrimp and steak both had a great flavor.


Fried Wontons - Skewers of fresh pineapple and cream cheese wontons, vanilla ice cream, honey vanilla drizzle. Everyone at the table really liked this but we were stuffed from the food and this is kind of a heavy dessert.


Mango Pie - shortbread cookie crust, fresh whipped cream, raspberry sauce. This was very good and DS1 really liked it also. I had a few bites and he the rest. This was a lighter more refreshing dessert.

The kids menu here leaves a lot to be desired but we had plenty to share with the kids. DS1 did order the chicken bites with fries and fried rice and got ice cream for dessert. Both of the kids picked at the food and ate mostly ours. I tried the fried rice and didn’t really care for it.

The bill here was $104.

Dinner was at Kona Café at 8pm but by 7 we were hungry so we headed on over to the Poly and checked in about 7:25 and we were seated right away. We love Kona and eat here every trip. One change that we noticed is that they now allow you to order Sushi from the sushi bar next door as your appetizer. This made DD very happy!

I had:

Lump Crab Cakes - with Asian tartar and pineapple relish. I have to say these are one of my favorite Disney foods. They are fabulous. The crab cakes have a lot of meat and the sauce and relish salad they are served on it great also…I cleaned my plate! 


Teriyaki-style New York Strip - sirloin strip grilled with pineapple teriyaki glaze served with mashed Yukon gold potatoes and stir-fried broccolini. This was a very large steak. I shared half with DS1 and still couldn’t finish all of my food. The potatoes and broccolini are also very good.

Coconut Cream Kiki Tart This is a new item and I really miss the old Macadamia chocolate tart but it was okay. It really wasn’t anything special just a standard coconut cream pie with some raspberry sauce drizzled on the plate.

DD had:

Kona Combo Plate - luau California roll, salmon sashimi, tuna poke. I am not a sushi fan but DD loved this. He thought the tuna poke was really good it was a tuna cube on a tempera flake.

Slow Roasted Prime Rib - mashed potatoes and stir-fried broccoli florets. He really liked this and it is a HUGE piece of meat.


Kona Kone This is waffle cone with ice cream, mickey sprinkles, chocolate sauce, chocolate candies and nuts all of the sides are in little cups so you can add was you want. Typically it comes with cotton candy but they ran out before we ordered this was disappointing to the kids they were looking forward to it.

This is another place I am never impressed with the kids menu so they mainly shared with us. DS1 ordered the salad with ranch, Mac and Cheese and Ice cream Sundae. He hated the mac and cheese as he would as most of the restaurants but DS2 ate it (but honestly he will eat anything  ) The sundae is nice it is like the kona kone minus the cone but they bring out all of the topping for the kids to put on themselves. Also DS loves wings so I told the waitress that I would pay OOP for him an order of (Sticky Wings - glazed chicken wings wings with a tangy mustard drizzle and toasted sesame seeds) well she just included them on the bill as his App. I brought it to her attention but she said it was okay so I just added 10.00 to her tip. DS1 loved these and you get quite a few…I think like 8.

The total here was 107.50.


So the total for the day was 263.50