Our Sara-topia Dining Report-MNSSHP/F&W(Sep 24-Oct 2)(Pizza Planet-Complete 11/17)

[jenandjuice]

I agree that planning is half the fun. And the more I plan, the better our trips are. The last couple of trips have really gone smoothly due to good planning. I am not super commando and I am flexible, but I plan well and therefore our trips are very enjoyable. I just snagged a dinner ressie at Garden Grill for Thanksgiving Day. So we will have turkey that day after all - YAY !! I sooo excited.

I'm hoping to stay out of the parks next year on Thanksgiving day, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an early dinner at Artist Point. We'll see when ressie time comes.

 

[jecskc]

I'm hoping to stay out of the parks next year on Thanksgiving day, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an early dinner at Artist Point. We'll see when ressie time comes.

That shouldn't be a bad ressie to snag. Especially if you are planning ahead. I had a countdown app on my phone to remind me when our 180 day window would be open. How sick is that ??

 

[nutz2notz]

Hi! I am really enjoying your reviews. After reading about the Grand Floridian Cafe, and seeing the yummy looking dessert, I am going to try for a reservation for our June trip.

Looking forward to more of your great reviews.

 

[jecskc]

Hi! I am really enjoying your reviews. After reading about the Grand Floridian Cafe, and seeing the yummy looking dessert, I am going to try for a reservation for our June trip.

Looking forward to more of your great reviews.

Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to say hello. We LOVED GFC and would go back in a heartbeat. Excellent food, excellent service. Everything about it was wonderful.

 

[jenandjuice]

I have it in my day planner so I don't think it's crazy at all!

Just read your trip report and loved it, makes me wish it was next November already!

One question, do you have any tips for making shirts? I was going to order some from zazzle but figured I can save tons by making my own but have no clue where to even begin! Yours look awesome!

 

[vettegirl]

Wow that spaghetti looks good!

 

[jecskc]

I have it in my day planner so I don't think it's crazy at all!

Just read your trip report and loved it, makes me wish it was next November already!

One question, do you have any tips for making shirts? I was going to order some from zazzle but figured I can save tons by making my own but have no clue where to even begin! Yours look awesome!

It is SUPER easy. Go the Creative Disigns thread and choose a T-shirt design that you like or get some of the VERY generous dissers over there to make one for you. After that, print them out onto transfer paper. I get mine at AC Moore. I get the t-shirts at AC Moore, too. I always get the transfers for DARK shirts even when doing a light color because they are thicker and hold up better and are less see-through. It takes about 2-3 minutes to iron them on. You wait about 15-20 minutes for them to cool down and there you have it. It is really easy. The first time I did it, I was surprised at how easy it was. Go for it, girl !!

Wow that spaghetti looks good!

Thanks for stopping by !! The spaghetti really was good !! The meatballs were HUGE and they had a good flavor. Very yummy. I would order this again for sure.

 

[jenandjuice]

It is SUPER easy. Go the Creative Disigns thread and choose a T-shirt design that you like or get some of the VERY generous dissers over there to make one for you. After that, print them out onto transfer paper. I get mine at AC Moore. I get the t-shirts at AC Moore, too. I always get the transfers for DARK shirts even when doing a light color because they are thicker and hold up better and are less see-through. It takes about 2-3 minutes to iron them on. You wait about 15-20 minutes for them to cool down and there you have it. It is really easy. The first time I did it, I was surprised at how easy it was. Go for it, girl !!

Very cool, I've already had them make me some for magnets and so on, and I have plenty of time to experiment before my 2 trips

Thanks for the tips!

 

[jecskc]

Very cool, I've already had them make me some for magnets and so on, and I have plenty of time to experiment before my 2 trips

Thanks for the tips!

No problem !! I hope yours turn out great

 

[jecskc]

Day 6 – Whispering Canyon - Dinner

So we had a 6:25 PM reservation at Whispering Canyon. DH really enjoyed this dinner in June, so I booked it again. We hopped in the car about 5:45 PM and made our way over to Wilderness Lodge. I just love Wilderness Lodge. We stayed there on my birthday trip back in January. We really need to make a point to stay there again.

Anyway, we got there and checked in and I took some photos of the light fixtures, which I love.

Fire extinguisher

We got a buzzer and shopped some in the gift shop. I saw a puzzle that I wanted there that I sooo should have bought. Now I’m kicking myself for not buying it. It is a 1000 piece puzzle of a Thomas Kinkade painting of Cinderella’s castle. I so should have bought it. Durn.

Anyway, we waited quite a while before we got seated and we were super hungry by then. The previous time we ate there, it wasn’t quite as busy and we were seated in a quieter section. Not this time. We got seated in the middle of the action and it was REALLY noisy. So Whispering Canyon is really just a pretty name. Don’t let that moniker through you off into thinking this will be a nice quiet dinner …. Because it won’t. And to top it all off there was a large part seated right next to us. They had a little girl – not quite two – who screamed her head off the entire time we ate. Seriously, there were 8 adults at the table and they ALL ignored her for at least an hour and then finally someone got up and took her away. It was so loud in there that you noticed it, but only if you were close by. As a matter of fact, there was a screaming kid pretty much wherever we went. I mean I understand. I paid my dues with the screaming kids. I get how it is. But I would not have just let my child sit there and cry. I would have bagged dinner and gotten someone to bring me a box of food and took her back to calm down or sleep or whatever she needed. Seriously, this reflected badly on this whole table. And there was this other couple that had another little girl – about four, I think – and she spent the entire dinner under the table with her dress up over her face. Just kicking the table. At least she wasn’t screaming the whole time.

Anyway, rant over. Our server was Suzanne and she was really perky and fun. She teased DS the whole meal. She got out drink orders ….

I, of course, had to have another Magical Star Cocktail. I needed more light up ice cubes.

DH had the Margarita

There’s some yummy cornbread in the background there.

DS had soda. And DD had a chocolate milkshake.

For dinner, DH, DS and I got the all you can eat skillet and DD got chicken nuggets. Here is a photo of her meal.

It came with fruit and cookies. DH and I dug into the salad.

It was very fresh and yummy.

Then out came the skillet which we really enjoyed. There’s chicken and ribs and brisket. Corn on the cob, beans and mashed potatoes. DH LOVES this kind of food, so he was happy.

Seriously, the three of us barely made a dent in it. It was really good though.

While we were eating DD did the horse races. They have these horsies on a stick and they gallop all around the restaurant. It was cute.

I ordered another drink. And the kids had fun playing with my light up ice cubes.

For desert DD had her cookies that came with her kids meal. DS had vanilla ice cream.

I wanted the Smores cheesecake but our waitress told us they had switched just last week. I was bummed because we had that in June and it was really good. Why is Disney always trying to fix what isn’t broke ?? GAH !!! So I ordered the chocolate cake.

And it was really good.

DH got some kind of berry cheesecake which he really liked.

We enjoy Whispering Canyon and plan to go back for breakfast on our trip during Thanksgiving.

 

[Cin]

Mom and I will be staying at POP for just 1 night and I know what I want for breakfast now. Chocolate. Pastry. YUM. That alfredo looks great too and we will be having lunch as soon as we get checked in so I think that will be something I will suggest to her we split since we are paying OOP. Thanks for the pics! We have a tea at the GF tea room and I am sooo excited about going now seeing your pics of the hotel.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I have to tell you if we were at WCC and had a screaming kid like that we would have walked out and found another place to eat...we cannot stand screeching like that if the parents do nothing about it. When we were kids if we acted up our parents took us right outta there and that is how my sister is with her three girls. I know its WDW and there are lots of kids around and I would not care at a CS but at a TS gimme a break!

We had dinner at Tokyo Dining and it was super loud but no screaming kids until right when we finished dinner. A family with 4 kids sat next to us and the little one was just screaming her head off and the parents didnt do a thing...thank goodness we were done with our meal.

I think the noise can and crying/screeching kids that run all over the place can totally ruin a dining experience.

 

[jecskc]

Mom and I will be staying at POP for just 1 night and I know what I want for breakfast now. Chocolate. Pastry. YUM. That alfredo looks great too and we will be having lunch as soon as we get checked in so I think that will be something I will suggest to her we split since we are paying OOP. Thanks for the pics! We have a tea at the GF tea room and I am sooo excited about going now seeing your pics of the hotel.

Thanks for stopping by !! You must get that chocolate croissant. And I recommend the Alfredo, too. I love the Grand Floridian and it is hard to get good photos there. So when you actually go there, it will BE much better than it looks in the photos.

I have to tell you if we were at WCC and had a screaming kid like that we would have walked out and found another place to eat...we cannot stand screeching like that if the parents do nothing about it. When we were kids if we acted up our parents took us right outta there and that is how my sister is with her three girls. I know its WDW and there are lots of kids around and I would not care at a CS but at a TS gimme a break!

We had dinner at Tokyo Dining and it was super loud but no screaming kids until right when we finished dinner. A family with 4 kids sat next to us and the little one was just screaming her head off and the parents didnt do a thing...thank goodness we were done with our meal.

I think the noise can and crying/screeching kids that run all over the place can totally ruin a dining experience.

I agree. I would never let mine act like that either. As a matter of fact, we didn't go many places when they were little because we didn't want to get into a situation like that. Even at the ages they are at right now, we don't take them out too late. They just get too hungry and cranky. What blew me away about this particular occasion was that there were so many adults and they were just ignoring her. It was really dysfunctional. WCC is really loud anyway. I think the decibel level at the restaurant that night helped drown out the screaming. This was our 6th trip to WDW, and I think this trip I noticed more screaming kids. They were everywhere !!

 

[jecskc]

So I just wanted to share that our next trip to Disney will be exactly 14 days. Two weeks. A fortnight as they say across the pond.

We are staying at the Boardwalk and we are really excited and hope for good weather. We will be on the dining plan again and our ADR's are as follows:

Captain's Grill - dinner
Whispering Canyon - Breakfast
Garden Grill - Thanksgiving Dinner
Via Napoli - Lunch
Cape May Cafe - dinner
Crystal Palace - breakfast

We are looking forward to trying out some different CS spots as well. Mainly Flametree BBQ in AK. And I MUST get me a mickey head pretzel this time. Gotta have one of those !!

 

[jecskc]

Day 7 – Kona - Breakfast

We got up early because we had a 7:30 AM breakfast ressie at Kona. We got there a little early and Kona opens at 7:30 AM, so we just hung out and took some photos.

Sorry …. I stink at taking dark photos.

Finally, we got in and got seated. I made a note of DD’s nut allergy on our ressie. In some places, I don’t have to worry at all. But here, with all of the macadamia nuts they use to cook here I didn’t want to risk cross contamination. So we ordered drinks, coffee for us sodas for the kids, and waited for the chef to come out. He was really nice and smiled a lot and was very accommodating.

DH ordered this platter. It was called Two Eggs Your Way but it also came with potatoes, bacon and a biscuit – and a pineapple wedge.

The potatoes were good but the eggs were kinda runny. Bacon and biscuit were OK. DH didn't really enjoy this and he isn't a picky eater, so it must have been bad.

DD got Mickey waffles. They weren’t on the menu, but the chef said he could get some for her, so she was really happy. So loves the Mickey waffles.

I got pancakes with sausage

I was really in the mood for these and to me they were really good. The sausage is really good, too. It was thick and moist and had a lot of flavor.

DS got French toast.

He said it was really good, better than the French toast he had at Everything Pop and ate all of it.

I really liked the breakfast here and the kids seemed to like it but DH didn’t really enjoy his. And the ladies at the hostess stand were not super friendly. I really loved my pancakes and since I am now on a very strict low carb diet, I think of them often - and I miss them. But DH wasn't feeling it, so we will trying out some other breakfast spots instead of coming back here again any time soon.

 

[jecskc]

Day 7 - World Showcase Food and Wine Festival !!

We decided to head in over at the Mexico side. We waited a little while – about 5-10 minutes and then they had a little opening ceremony and we were let in.


And then I decided that it really wasn’t too early to drink, so I stopped and got a fiesta margarita. But I asked them to leave out the mango, which I don’t really like. And here is DH sharing it with me.

It was yummy and since this day was still pretty warm, we were all about some frozen margarita action. It wasn’t AS hot on this day as the others, but still …. It was high 80’s. What made it better was it wasn’t as humid.

Then on to Germany.

DS wanted a pretzel and I needed a beer, so we got some. I was a little peeved that their dining plan system wasn’t working and I had to pay for it instead of using a snack credit. I mean was had saved our snack credits specifically for Food and Wine.

I forgot to take photo before we ate it. It was really good and the beer, an Oktoberfest, was really cold and refreshing.

So then I went over the Karamel Kuche and got DD some chocolate covered mashmallows with caramel drizzled over them

Which she really enjoyed. I had a bite and I liked it, too. And for DH and I, I got a dark chocolate covered caramel with salt on top. Isn’t is beautiful ??

This was soooo yummy. The salt made it taste good with the beer. True story. Also, this would taste amazing with a cup of coffee. The same thing happened there with the snacks credits and I had to pay OOP. Annoying !!

Moving on to Italy. I hit the food kiosk here and got some ravioli and a frozen primavera. DS snagged us a nice shady bench and we ate.

Snack credits still not working and I had to pay OOP - AGAIN !! The manager was at the register trying to solve the problem and I told her it was really BAD that we couldn’t effectively use our snack credits. She said she was sorry and I knew that it really wasn’t her fault, but I was very frustrated with it. I wasn’t mean, though.

Anyway, I ordered two of the ravioli dishes and I got one bite. The kids LOVED these things and eat them so fast. I drank the primavera as the kids weren’t into it. It was good, but could have used some booze in it. DS asked if we could get some more, but I wanted to move on.

Next up France !!

DD always wants to stop at the kiosk that serves these ice cream cones. It is vanilla and chocolate swirl and they are really good.

France is my favorite Food and Wine kiosk. Mainly because it has my favorite drink, the Parisian Cosmo slushie !!

And their food is good, too. I got the coq au vin and even though it didn’t look very appetizing, it tasted really good.

I thought the short ribs that they had the last two years were better though. I contemplated getting another Parisian Cosmo slushie, but I didn’t want to wait in line again. We were all getting pretty tired by this point.

We moved to Canada.

I just love the landscaping here. So pretty.

I went to the Canada Booth and got us some soup.

I just love this soup. How can you go wrong with cheese, bacon and beer ?? Sooo yummy. I got a Moosehead to go with it. Too bad that they don’t serve that soup with pretzel rolls at the F&W booth. The soup is even better with those.

We had planned on eating more, but our Kona Breakfast filled us up so we weren’t very hungry. And I was sad that we had not planned to do this another day because there were so many things I wanted to try or experience again.

 

[jecskc]

Day 7 – Artist’s Palette - dinner

The plan for this day was to eat dinner at the Artist’s Palette for dinner. So we headed over there.

My DH is epitome of the Southern Gentleman. He ALWAYS holds the door for me.

DH and the kids got a table while I ordered. They had these little easels set up around so the kids could draw.

I thought that was nice touch.

The lights on the ceiling.

For dinner, DH and I shared the chicken toga wrap.

It was really good. The kids were disappointed that our meals didn’t come with French fries. But I really loved the chips. They were yummy, crunchy, carbohydrate goodness.

The kids each got chicken nuggets

They really liked the chicken. For dessert DH and I shared the carrot cake

DS got chocolate cake

And DD got worms in dirt.

All good. No complaints.

 

[jecskc]

Day 8 – Tony’s Town Square - Lunch

We spent the morning in MK enjoying the 40th anniversary with 100,000 other people and got to Tony’s for our noon ADR for lunch.

We were seated outside and since it was such a gorgeous day, we didn’t mind.

We had a good view and it was fun to people watch. I don’t remember our waitress’s name but she was really nice and did a good job.

DH and I ordered the zucchini fries as an appetizer.

We really liked these !! We got DS to try one and he was horrified when we told him what it was. He liked it until we told him what it was. Whatever. We are trying so hard to get them to try new things and like veggies. It is slow, but we are making progress.

Some more photos of our view.

The Celebrate parade went by, but this CM with the balloons was blocking our view the whole time.

DD and DS ordered Mickey ravioli.

DD didn’t eat much but DS ate all of his and the rest of DD’s. They both said that they were good, but not as good as the ravioli at the Italy F&W booth.

I had the baked ziti

I liked it and ate it all. The bread was good, too.

DH got the Chicken Parmesan

He liked it a lot, but wished it had more sauce. Mine had lots of sauce, so I gave him some of mine.

For dessert DS got vanilla gelato.

DD got an ice cream sundae

DH got the cheesecake of the day. Which was apple pie or spice or something.

He said it was really good.

I got the ice cream bomb.

It was really good, too !! We really liked Tony’s and would go back again.

 

[jenandjuice]

Bummer that balloonman was blocking your way!

I so want to try a parisian cosmo slushie, do they only have them during Food and Wine?

 

[jecskc]

Bummer that balloonman was blocking your way!

I so want to try a parisian cosmo slushie, do they only have them during Food and Wine?

Unfortunately, yes. They are only sold at food and wine. Which is tragic, really. Those things are soooooo good !! A nice substitute is the Grey goose slushie at the kiosk there in France that is always there. Everyone talks about the Grand Marnier one, too. But I haven't tried that one.