Our once in a lifetime Disney adventure - w/ photos, tips & dining reviews *Updated

[Tauwillow]

I have loved reading everyone's trip reports over the years, dreaming about the time it would be my chance to take my kids to Disney. I'm so excited to say that nows the time!

I fell in love with Disney when I was young. I went once with a friend when I was 9, again with my parents when I was 17 and then took my (then) future husband in 91. Disney has gotten under my skin, and I longed for the time when I could take my own kids. I've been hoping for the chance for the past 15 years!! (and have been reading the Dis for the past five) I've never been to Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. I've never used fastpasses or made an ADR! While I feel like Ive had this long love affair with Disney, there is so much thats new for us.

A handful of weeks ago, my 13 year old son was offered a full scholarship to a ballet intensive in Miami! We arranged for his stay in a flurry of activity and drove him down, got him settled and then came back home. Shortly thereafter, the opportunity to go to Disney after we picked him up fell into our laps. I was SO excited!

This was terribly last minute, though - so I had a metric ton of work to do! I got a travel agent, booked the trip, signed up with Tour Guide Mike, bought trip insurance, combed through the Dis boards for all the best tips and advice, made my ADRs (DxDP for the win), mapped out my tour plans and started shopping for the neccessary items. (all in 3 weeks!) I start packing today and we leave on Thursday for our trek down to Miami before hitting Disney.

Link Menu:

Pre-trip
ADR plan - totally subject to change
Guess what I packed - an exercise in overplanning

Trip Report
Day 1 - Twinkle toes, birthdays & sardines in a can
Day 2 - Russians, cheesecake and outlet malls!
Day 3 - DHS - late cascade, garden goo, and geek bliss (with a sort-of review of Chef Mickey's)
Day 3 - DHS - Lunch at the Sci Fi!


Our cast of characters:

Me! I'm an artist, stay at home mom, and a sometime surrogate. I'm newly pregnant, so while I love all rides, I'll avoid a few. I know this is often a flame worthy topic, so be aware that I'll be riding some coasters that a lot of folk wouldn't. I've done the research, talked to the right people, and am confident that I'm in the clear.

My husband Thom. (we were high school sweethearts!) He's an IT geek & the most wonderful father and husband. He's working toward his masters, delivers newspapers in the mornings with me, and can make a mean vegitarian chili! He is good with all kinds of rides - he just puts his foot down on really old wooden rides that jerk you around too much. (he had an innner ear vertigo incident after one particularly bumpy coaster)

My 15 year old son, Brodny. He's a band geek who looooves his anime/manga. He's a good student, has his own newspaper route, leans toward being goofy and has a bashful streak in him. He tends to have fewer friends, but has really close ties with them. Hes a thrill seeker to the core, and will go on any ride that threatens to scare the willies out of him.

My 13 year old son, Ashler. He has been a ballet dancer for 6 years, is a junior member of our city's ballet company, and hopes to make it his career. He is gregarious and sensitive, struggles more with school but maintains good grades, and is well liked by everyone who knows him. Hes not a big roller coaster fan, but occasionally has his brave moments.

My 10 year old daughter. She is passionate in everything that she does, creative, funny, sharp as a tack, and has a knack for reading people and using it against them. She wants to be a teacher when she gets older, just performed in her first musical through the park district, and loves art. She has a group of close friends, but as is often true of girls her age, she has a love/hate relationship with them. Drama, drama, drama! Shes a semi-vegitarian (still eats dairy, fish and eggs) and being on the DxDP should be a fun challenge for her. She a take it or leave it ride girl - it will be fun to see where she shakes out with the Disney rides.

My mom. She lives close to us, and we're lucky to have her as a regular part of our lives. She is creative, outspoken, and anything but shy. She is really excited about going on this trip with us, especially when I showed her the Disney food thread! She had foot surgery a couple of months ago, and while shes healing well - shes not 100%, so we'll be using a manual wheelchair for the lions share of the parks. Shes scared of coasters and doesn't want anything too bumpy - but doesn't want to miss anything either. Shes still deciding on a number of rides.

Thats us! As a visual person, I tend to take a ton of photos - so you have lots to look forward to. I'll be taking food pics with reviews, and with 6 of us, thats a lot to drool over.

 

[OhMari]

Hi,
I would maybe look into renting a motorized scooter for your mom.
But it is up to you.
I just think they are easier to manuever with, especially after
your mom would figure out how to use it.

I'll will admit the sometime surrogate. I'm newly pregnant, caught my attention.
You don't have to say anything more if you don't want too. But I am impressed.

Hope you have a great trip.

 

[Tauwillow]

My mom can be funny about certain things, and she won't go NEAR any of the ECVs! I tried to get her to use one after her surgery, so she could go shopping on her own, but she wouldn't have any of it. Its a manual wheelchair all the way for us. I figure that it will, at least, help us shed more of the DDxP calories!

This will be my 5th surrogacy. I love doing them, and its been an amazing experience for my whole family.

 

[kimnvbva]

I'm excited to hear about your upcoming trip. It sounds like you are going to have a great family vacation! Where are you staying? We are going in Sept. and staying at CBR. This will be our first family vacation. Have a great time!

 

[Tauwillow]

I don't know how I missed mentioning that! (did I mention that we're driving 20+ hours down to Miami from Illinois? Thats 5 people in one car on the way down, and 6 people on the way up - in one, not so big, crossover vehicle.)

We'll be staying 3 nights at Port Orleans Riverside in Alligator Bayou - and doing 4 action packed days at the parks.

Here's our ADR plan:

**Dis Studio day - Sunday Aug 2
Chef Mickey's- 7:10
Sci Fi Cafe - 11:35pm
California Grill - 9:25pm

**MK day - Monday Aug 3
Grand Floridian 7:00am
Columbia Harbour House
Chefs de France (trying for Le Cellier) - 4:30pm

**AKL day - Tuesday Aug 4
Boma for breakfast - 7:45 am
Flame Tree BBQ lunch (Restaurantosaurus has vegi burgers)
Jiko for dinner - 6:05 pm

**Epcot day - Wednesday Aug 5
Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory - opens at 6am (check for Kona)
Marrakesh - 12pm
?Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe (sandwich and school bread)/Lotus Blossom Cafe/Yakitori House

Snacks we're thinking about angling for:
school bread (norway epcot)
funnel cake (Sleepy Hollow in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom)
Dole whip
Smoothies (from Auntie Gravities in the MK)
strawberry shortcake (at Sunshine Season's The Land at Epcot)
Frozen Lemonade (from DHS)
corndog (mk - sold in Adventureland and Frontierland)
The spicy cheese filled pretzel (from DHS)
crab cakes (hops and barley markey)
sour Tinkerbell twist (frozen drink from the MK)
Neapolitan (France epcot)
french toast loaf (Main Stree Bakery)
ham crossaint (bakery in France in Epcot)
Creme Brulee (bakery in France in Epcot)

Any other "cannot miss" snack recommendations are more than welcome!

Up next: Guess what I packed - an exercise in overplanning

 

[OhMari]

ham crossaint (bakery in France in Epcot)
Creme Brulee (bakery in France in Epcot)

My 2 favorite snack places.
There will be 2 lines, for some odd reason, there are more food choices along the back wall. I was doing a solo day, when my dh was attending a conference. I took my baked goods over to England and watched the British Invasion. I had a few people ask me, where I got the sandwhich and creme brulee. No one thought you could buy brulee unless you went to a TB resturant.

Have fun with the road trippin. We just came home from PA and I live north of you in WI. We pull our trailer right down town chicago to avoid those nasty tolls. But we still got killed on the IN, Ohio and PA turnpikes.

 

[Tauwillow]

I have scoured the boards over the best things to pack on our trip, and I thought I would share the items I chose.

I bought pearl cages off of Ebay for a song! I really hope we can all use the carriages - but in case someone hits the large pearl jackpot, I got a larger cage as well. My mom's birthday is on Friday, and while thats before we get to Disney, I thought I'd surprise her with this fun activity in Epcot/Japan.

I also got a 'lot' of Disney pins to put on our lanyards from Ebay. I know the risks involved, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that we'll have a good time.

All of our lanyards! I had so much fun picking them out. I purchased them off of Ebay as well, and got the best prices of anywhere online that I could find. I later learned that I bought them from the Character Warehouse outlet in Orlando!! (we'll be going there in person to pick up tshirts and such before we hit the parks)

I also made Neck Coolers. I know you can buy them online, but they are super easy to make (and I'm no seamstress), and are way cheaper to do yourself. ( http://www.p2designs.com/ShipCooler.htm - instructions here )

I picked up the crystals at the garden center, as I didn't have a lot of time to get them online once I started. I know most people tie them - but I decided to sew in some velcro instead.

So everyone is wearing fanny packs - even the kids! They may not be fashionable, but I love being prepared and having my hands free.

Between us we'll be carrying:
Hand sanitizer
SPF 30 chapstick
Disposable rain ponchos
A medicine pouch with everything a body could need
Protien bars
Personal fans
Mini flashlight
Bandaid Blister Block
Shammi (its a Sham Wow!)
Pressed Penny Book
Autograph book

I've also packed glo sticks and some 'auto' cold packs!

I have a soft sided cooler that will go in the backpack that hangs on my mom's wheelchair. I figure we can use it to keep the neck cookers cold, as well as pack in 'must have' leftovers from DxDP.

We also have the neccessary generic Imodium-D, SPF 50 sunscreen, aloe burn relief and lemonade powder. (these go in the backpack)

I will be tracking gas, tips (to include DxDP), meals oop, souveniers, and hotel costs. Since we're staying in Miami before Disney - we don't have everything prepaid. I want to stay on budget, so I'll be keeping receipts and a running tally of expenses in these envelopes.

My daughter decorated our Mousekeeping envelopes ahead of time - and I have all the cash inside and ready to go.

I also made my own mini parks book!! (this took a crazy amount of time, but Im really hoping its worth it) It has our itinerary, confirmation numbers for both hotels and ADRs, my park touring plans with important notes from TGM for each attraction, hidden mickeys, pressed penny locations, and Best Kept Secrets (from wdwinfo). Its all color coded by park and in order! It even fits in my fanny pack!

I also have park maps, more hidden mickeys, trivia and more on my iphone!

I don't know if I'm a chronic overplanner - or if this was the culmination of lusting to do this for the past handful of years.

I'm just about all packed - we just need to tie up loose ends and pack the car. We leave in about 8 hours! I should be sleeping, but I can never seem to do that the night before a trip anyway. Fortunately Thom takes the first driving shift, so I can nap before its my turn to drive.

(Oh, and I'll be updating my Twitter throughout the trip. If anyone is into that sort of thing, you can read me here: http://twitter.com/Tauwillow )

Up next: Day 1 - Twinkle toes, birthdays & sardines in a can

 

[heaven2dc]

Joining in on this one for sure! Those pearl cages are so pretty - what a great Ebay hunter you are!

Hope you all have a great time - your children are beautiful and you must be so proud of each of their accomplishments

 

[OhMari]

Got you back open.
Looking forward to hearing about your report.

 

[Tauwillow]

We made it back home, and I have sooo much to share! I have dining reviews with a metric ton of photos (with six people on the DxDP, what can you expect?), I have handy tips to share based on my preparations, as well as stories and a few surprises.

So lets get started! We begin with a mini detour from Disney. My 13 year old son is a ballet dancer who was invited to attend the Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida for 4 weeks - it was really the reason we made it to Disney this year.

They had initially found him Youtube, of all places! They saw an old audition video of his from 2007, and asked to see more. I uploaded more recent videos and the invitation was secured. If interested, you can see them here: http://www.youtube.com/tauwillow (its fun seeing how much hes changed in those short years!)

packed into a car like sardines

5 of us piled into our crossover vehicle (read: bigger than a car - smaller than a minivan) with our stuffed roof bag on the top of the car. We packed our coolers full of goodies so we wouldn't have to spend much to eat on the road, grabbed the essential Starbucks, and hit the road. The kids and my mom traded off with the portable dvd players (a lifesaver) while my husband and I listened to audiobooks and music. (woohoo for Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book!)

We did the whole 22 hours in one shot! Its not really bad at the front end of the trip - there is so much to look forward to, and we're all fresh for the road. The other end of things is another story, and thats yet to be told.

Sendra standing with the crocs! This is her first time in Florida

We had fun hitting the tourist traps while getting gas, and shopping for kitsch - which is the true hallmark of being on vacation for me. We also got some yummy oranges for the road.

We arrived in Miami and checked in at the Hyatt Summerfield Suites near the airport. If you're looking to stay somewhere in the area, I cannot recommend this hotel enough! Its clean, spacious, comfortable - and you cannot beat having a small but fully functional kitchen. The prices were incredibly reasonable. You aren't on the beach, but I felt the trade-off was well worth it.

We unloaded our gear and grabbed our ready-prepped beach bag and shimmied into our bathing suits before hitting Lummus Park, south beach. We knew we'd be there for just a short time, since we had Ashler's big performance to attend that night. We had no idea how horrendous the traffic would be - but it was worth it. How can you go all the way to Florida and not go to the beach??

We grabbed what we thought was going to be Italian fast food, on the way back to the parking garage - but apparently they made it all from scratch right there! We were now super late, and had to rush back to the hotel for 2 minute showers and quick changes.

Ashler is in the center, with the white top and black tights

In spite of all the crazy stress, we made it to the show in the nick of time. It was *amazing* - they did a series of modern pieces, flamenco (which I nearly died over, they were so good), selections from Don Quixote, and ballet. I was so impressed with how much they challenged Ashler, and how far his skills were stretched. He did things Id never seen him attempt before. It was just so inspiring to watch.

Ashler said goodbye to his wonderful host family, that had taken care of him for the past month. We'll be forever grateful to them! He also said goodbye to the girlfriend he made while there. (all very innocent, mind you) We would be leaving directly after open studios the next day for Disney.

mmmm cake! .................................................................................. The kids got goofy while we were shopping

It was my moms birthday that day! So we went to the Publix, just around the corner, on the pretext of getting milk for the morning - and picked up a mini cake and my moms favorite wine to go with the small gifts we had brought. She was so surprised and tickled. Having that kitchen space was such a godsend, and her birthday was extra special as a result.

It was a terrific end to an action packed day!

Up next: Day 2 - Russians, cheesecake and outlet malls!

 

[MrsSpratt]

A Neil-Gaiman-listening-son-ballet-dancing family with a Cool Grandmother who won't ride an ECV?

Can't wait for more!

Mrs. Spratt

ps - Fans of Terry Pratchett? And heard of/researched Houston Ballet's Program? BTW, it is SO COOL you could see a difference in your son's skills - you must be so proud!

 

[Tauwillow]

A Neil-Gaiman-listening-son-ballet-dancing family with a Cool Grandmother who won't ride an ECV?

ps - Fans of Terry Pratchett? And heard of/researched Houston Ballet's Program? BTW, it is SO COOL you could see a difference in your son's skills - you must be so proud!

What can I say, we're an eccentric bunch.

I have never read Pratchett, but you must be the 11th person to mention him to me in the past few months. I'll take that as a definite sign for a future library trip!

I'm enormously proud of Ashler's accomplishments! He is growing up to be a really dynamic young man, and its exciting to see where all of this leads him.

He tried out for Milwaukee and the Washington ballet this summer, and got scholarships - but not room and board, which is another $2.5k, so we had to decline. The florida intensive landed in our laps 1 week before it started, and it took a whole lot of scrambling, but we pulled it together and got him there. We were thrilled!

I finally got pregnant with my surrogacy after he was at the intensive, so the Disney trip naturally followed! The timing and location was perfect - and we had wanted to go for so long. Its like the universe was conspiring in our favor. Woohoo!

 

[choirchic]

I'm joining in...you have such a beautiful family! I'm very much into the arts and enjoyed the pics of your son Ashler dancing! What a proud parent you must be! I look forward to hearing more! We leave in a month!

 

[Tauwillow]

We got to see the open studio class the next morning, and watch the types of routines Ashler had been working on all those weeks. It was impressive how many students they had!

The instruction was all Russian, and most of the instructors were directly from the Kirov Ballet, and they had just come down for these handful of weeks before returning. Most didn't even speak much English! Thats Ashler with Vladimir, the school director who seemed really pleased with Ashler's work.

I put together a video of selections from that days class. You can see it here if you're interested:
Ballet Class 1
Ballet Class 2

happiness is having everyone together again, and eating good food!

He got a beautiful certificate with everyone's signatures and we said our final goodbyes before piling back into the car for Orlando!! We stopped briefly at Cheesecake Factory, which was our first real indulgence on the trip. We don't have one locally, so it was a lot of fun for everyone.

We checked into the Radisson Hotel Lake Buena Vista, since we were only going to be there for a few hours that day. They were nice rooms with sleep number beds - which the kids had a blast playing with. The hotel was close to everything, and I was glad I had chosen it.

I have to stop a moment and plug tripadvisor for a moment. What an amazing resource it has been! I was able to pick the best hotels in our budget, and I know I will be using it for other trips. You can even find the best activities in your chosen area! I love the Dis for all the hidden tips and advice - tripadvisor fills a similar role, and I cannot plug it strongly enough.

In that vein, we had learned about the hidden savings by getting souvenirs at the outlet stores before hitting the parks. We decided to hit Disney's Character Premiere that night, and got everyone tshirts to wear for our first day at the parks! It was a ton of fun, and we really did save a bundle. Of course, we made up for it by buying Disney Jibbitz for our crocs at the Croc store. I wish I had known how cheap the crocs there were going to be! I wouldn't have bought crocs before we left! (and I got them on sale, online too)

Honestly, if you're in the market for Crocs - the croc outlet store there cannot be beat!

We also picked up some mini luggage locks for the backpack we were going to take into the parks, and hang off of my moms wheelchair. That way we werent going to have to take it with us every time we got on a ride. I knew it wasn't going to be foolproof, but we hoped it would be enough of a deterrent so that someone wouldn't just lift it and run.

long day of driving and shopping can wear a body out!

It ended up being a super late night. We caught a quick bite at the food court and headed back to the hotel for some shuteye. It was going to be a SUPER early morning the next day. We intended to check in, eat breakfast AND hit rope drop at Disney Studios the next day!

Up next: Day 3 - DHS - late cascade, garden goo, and geek bliss

 

[choirchic]

We decided to hit Disney's Character Primiere that night, and got everyone tshirts to wear for our first day at the parks! It was a ton of fun, and we really did save a bundle. Of course, we made up for it by buying Disney Jibbitz for our crocs at the Croc store. I wish I had known how cheap the crocs there were going to be! I wouldn't have bought crocs before we left! (and I got them on sale, online too)

Honestly, if you're in the market for Crocs - the croc outlet store there cannot be beat!

Where exactly are these outlets...? I'm thinking maybe I need to convince the husband to make a stop just for those 2 stores alone!

Can't wait to hear more...

 

[Tauwillow]

Where exactly are these outlets...? I'm thinking maybe I need to convince the husband to make a stop just for those 2 stores alone!

This is where I got the info for the different outlet stores.

Both the Disney store and the Croc store were at the Orlando Premium Outlets - along with a gazillion other stores. Its a really beautiful mall, and my husband who loathes outlet centers said he would shop at these all the time if we had one at home.

 

[Tauwillow]

We got up bright and early (5am - which resulted in our regular wake up time for the rest of the trip), dressed in our new Disney tees, and packed up all our belongings onto the car once again before heading to Port Orleans Riverside!

We were supposed to get there a little before 7am, but were a touch late and registration itself took a lot longer than anticipated because of reservation snafus. This started the cascade of late arrivals for the rest of the day, but we hung in there!

We secured my mom's free resort wheel chair for the rest of our stay and dropped off 24 (!!) bags with bellhop services as it was too early to secure a room. Then we piled into our car to head to the Contemporary for breakfast at Chef Mickeys!!

As another theme to our vacation, we got lost on the way there. Even with the map the resort gave us - the looping, multiple turn-off signs, and lack of visible street signs made getting anywhere on property a real headache! I still think it was faster than the buses, though.

We were late for our reservation, but the staff couldn't have been more kind about it. We knew we needed to wolf down our food in order to try to make it to rope drop. What a shame too, because it was soooo good! In my absolute panic, I neglected to get pics of both the buffet and our plates, but did manage to snag some character shots.

What a great way to start our vacation! The food was fresh, delicious and filling. I know some folks have complained about a decline in quality there, but we found it to be excellent. Getting to see all the characters and get a jump start on the kids' autograph books was a special perk too.

We learned that our server had been working for Disney for 21 years! He was funny, attentive, and managed our complicated 2 room dining credits with aplomb. Disney must treat their employees well, because most of the cast members we spoke to had worked for them 7 years or longer.

Well, we missed rope drop at Disney Studios by about 10 minutes. (which, given all we'd managed to do, I still think is rather impressive) We learned the procedure of getting through bag check with wheelchairs and multiple fanny packs, managing the turnstiles with fingerprint readers, and handing off our Disney magic cards to the fast pass volunteer.

Thom took the lead as the FPV, and 'ran' himself over to Toy Story Mania for fast passes while the rest of us got reoriented. I was really thankful for my subscription to Tour Guide Mike, who not only helped with our touring plans - but also gave us the best routes for getting to the FP machines! Between the written instructions, and my wdw ipod app maps, we were really prepped for our park starts. This was especially important, as we had never been to two of these parks - and hadn't been to the others in 19 years!

Since we were late, our FP return time was later than I'd have liked, but it was doable. We hadn't quite figured out that the next FP time could be different from the return time. This whole trip was a huge learning exercise!
We broke up into our thrill riders and safe ride groups and ventured into the parks. (ToT, VotLM, TSM and more) We all had a ton of fun and found some great surprises. Disney really does a great job of involving ALL of your senses during their attractions.

The Star Tours ride was a lot of fun for the kids. Mom and I abstained - she doesn't like being rocked around and I get carsick from using my iphone in the car. It was disappointing, because I was a fan of the franchise from way back. I had passed the love onto my kids, however, and in particular to my eldest. He went completely bonkers in the store and bought himself a Boba Fett hat and Goofy/Vader + Donald/Maal tshirt. He was in geek bliss.

While mom and I waited for the rest of the group, I pulled out the neck coolers that we had soaked that morning. We kept them in a cooler in the backpack on the wheelchair with a ziplock of ice, so they were really cold. It was fabulous relief! It worked so well that day, and we were all grateful to have them. That said, using them again subsequent days wasn't as foolproof. I'm not sure if the gel started to break down, but they got stickier and just didn't feel as good. In the end, we stopped using them - and I don't think I'd try making them again, in spite of how well they functioned at first.

For anyone who wants to try them on their own - it could have been that using the garden center crystals was a bad move on my part. I know they tend to be smaller than some of the commercial varieties found online. (many of the tutorials on the web share their sources) I was in a rush when I made mine, and couldn't wait for shipping. Using the larger crystals may solve the problem I ran into. For the amount of work I put into them, however, Im not willing to risk trying it again to find out myself.

Can you believe we've done all of this and haven't eaten yet?

Up next: Lunch at the Sci Fi!

 

[Tauwillow]

We had ADRs, so walked right into the dark restaurant and got settled in our 'car.' For those who haven't been there, the entire restaurant is set up as a drive in theatre. There are stars overhead, fences lining the walls with bushes and the works, and a large movie screen in the front showing clips of vintage movies, commercials, and cartoons. The ambience is totally on key.

The food, however, not so much.

BLT Soup - Ashler thought this was the best part of his meal. He loved it. Crispy Onion Rings My mom got the onion rings, and while she liked them, she wasn't wowed.

Spinach & Artichoke Dip - Sendra loved her dip, and like Ashler, declared it the best part of her meal. I sampled some myself and enjoyed it as well. 7 Bean Beef Chili - Thom and I both thought this was way too salty, and most of it went uneaten.

Mixed Greens - I neglected to ask for the dressing on the side, and as is typical for most places, there was way too much. That said, it was a good fresh salad and after a hot day it was refreshing. Milk Shake Mom and Thom both got them as their beverages and mom sent hers back! She complained that it was just ice cream in a glass - and let me tell you, I heard about it for DAYS afterward. The rest of us got flavored sodas - I got a vanilla coke and have declared it the best part of my meal. (which is kind of sad, to tell you the truth)

The Reuben - Thom got this, for the sake of variety. It came with the bread already soggy and even if you could get past that, the flavors were far too 1 note for all the things in the sandwich. A big thumbs down. Shrimp Penne Pasta - my daughter is a vegetarian, and got this. Let me state that shes a very adventurous eater and likes a whole range of flavors. That said, the combinations in this dish are really odd and kindof off putting. Thom thinks that if you weren't eating it in the dark, it might be a little bit easier to anticipate what you're putting in your mouth, but not by much. Sendra didn't eat it, and Thom who usually eats everything - didn't want it either.

Angus Chuck Burger - The rest of us got the burger, as I had read it was the best thing on the menu, so I figured it was a safe bet. We were unanimously disappointed. We are not food snobs, and can enjoy one burger as well as the next. This one just missed the boat for us - it was too greasy, the flavors too salty and rich, and didn't have that grand MEAT vibe going that I love in a burger. They went mostly uneaten as well.

At this point, the kids kept turning around to let me know how much they didn't like the food at this restaurant, which isn't something I hear very often. I knew that of the places I had picked to eat on this trip, this was going to be on the bottom of the pile - but I had no idea how much we wouldn't like it. Its the only place I regret going, and we would have been far better off using our dining credits getting pizza instead.

Still, theres dessert:

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Cake - I think Thom nabbed the best dessert. It was warm and crunchy on the outside while soft in the middle, the chocolate was rich without being overpowering, and the ice cream balanced the whole thing. Apple Crumble - this is traditionally one of my favorite desserts, but this one was too syrupy and sticky and it really really needs its own ice cream to complement it.

Hot Fudge Sundae - Sendra didn't like the flavors and said the fudge tasted "weird." A Sweet Ending To Your Celebration... Cheesecake Ashler said it was "ok, for cheesecake".

As fun as the environment was, this restaurant just isn't worth the money or the credits. I suggest folk avoid it.

 

[choirchic]

As fun as the environment was, this restaurant just isn't worth the money or the credits. I suggest folk avoid it.

We completely agree...DH and I had dinner there and the only things we liked were his steak and my soda. Well...he doesn't eat steak anymore so we sure won't be going there just for the soda! Good review!