Party of 2, "your tiny table is ready" DR 2/16-2/23/17. Complete

[disneyAndi14]

Hello Dis Foodies! I love reading DR and have written a couple myself for our past couple trips, the reports are in my signature if anyone is interested.

My name is Caroline, and I travel with my daughter Andi to WDW 2-3x a year. We love to try new places to eat each trip and this trip has several new to us places.


My daughter is 17 and she is a small eater and chicken nuggets are her favorite, so it can be challenging to expand her palate, however this trip she really enjoyed some unique places.

Our trip started on 2/16/17. We stayed at AKL Jambo House. We rented points for a studio and had a partial savannah view. The view was great.


I will be reviewing Skippers Canteen, BoG, Tiana's ice cream social, Pecos Bill, Yak and Yeti, Chefs de France, The Boathouse, Tokyo Dining, Garden Grill, Sci-fi, Sanaa and several other quick services and snacks.

We do not get a dining plan and I charge everything to our room then pay for everything with Disney gift cards, which I purchase from Sams Club. We took advantage of our AP and received 20% off of most meals as well.

Please join me for our dining adventure, the title fits the type of tables we had this trip, being a party of 2, we are use to the tiny table, however this trip our tables at a few places were so tiny and so close to another table. It was as if we were dining with these families lol. We had a great trip overall, the weather was cooler than we are use to at Disney and how dare it rain while we were there, but we had one day where the rain came down, down, down. I will also review the after hour hard ticket event we did the first day. We did get treats during this so I figure it will fit in.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Oooh, am I first?!?! How exciting!

Looking forward to your review of Skippers Canteen. We will be trying that for the 1st time in August!

 

[KnK]

joining in.

 

[nicoleakr]

Joining in too

 

[Sailormoon2]

Sounds great, and you're staying at my Dream resort!!

 

[kastoney]

Finally, I am not horrifically late for once. Can't wait to eat all about it!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Oooh, am I first?!?! How exciting!

Looking forward to your review of Skippers Canteen. We will be trying that for the 1st time in August!

Thanks for joining in, Skippers review is coming up next, we did it on our first day, we will be going again the end of August and also staying at the Poly, very excited!

joining in.

Thanks for reading, glad to have you here!

Joining in too

Welcome and thanks for reading!

Sounds great, and you're staying at my Dream resort!!

Welcome and thanks for joining in, we loved the AKL it was beautiful and such a comfortable place to stay, you do feel like your home!

Finally, I am not horrifically late for once. Can't wait to eat all about it!

Thanks for joining in, I know you just got back recently from staying at AKL, did you all like it? We loved it except for the long bus rides.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Arrival Day 02/16/17, The Mara, Skippers Canteen, After Hours Event with snacks.

Today, we were going to Disney, we had to get up in the middle of the night for our very early flight. My husband dropped us off at the airport at 4am, so early, but we were in Florida at AKL by 12:30 so it was worth it.

I received a text on the ME that our room was ready, we were in a studio on Zebra trail, room 5522, which I requested on TP. This was the first time I received the room I requested so we were off to a good start. The room was very nice, clean, and not to far from the lobby, buses, and food.

Andi and I were very hungry so we went to check out the Mara, Andi decided on the kids chicken nuggets and I got the hot dog meal. I don't have a picture of this food, pretty standard Disney quick service food.
Andi did get a refillable mug at this time as well. The food was hot, fresh, and good for a quick lunch. The Mara was not crowded either which was nice.


We decided to rest for awhile in the room before our night at MK, we headed out to MK at around 5pm, we had a reservation at Skippers Canteen at 6:40. We were seated fairly quickly, however our table was so small, and as close to the wall as could be, Andi was hitting her elbow the whole time. We also had a table of 8 right next to us, they were up and down and very loud. This was the start of the tiny tables awkwardly placed either in traffic flow or jammed in a corner. Oh well, our waitress was nice, she was new it was her first day, she was a little flustered. We decided to share an appetizer and meal. We decided on the S.E.A. Shu Mai and the "Tastes like Chicken because it is". The appetizer was a blend of pork, shrimp, beans, and spices. This was very good, we enjoyed the flavors. The chicken had an odd fried coating on it, we didn't really care for that, the chicken was moist under the breading and the rice and vegetable mixture it sat on was very tasty. We also like the Ethiopian welcome bread with the honey sauce. The bread was a little dry but we enjoyed it. We just had ice water to drink here. We would give the food and service two thumbs up. The only downer was the poorly positioned little table.



The after hours event started at 8pm and it was a blast we were able to do every attraction we wanted to with little to no wait. We did almost everything that was open. I am not a great judge of crowds but to me it was way less crowded than a Halloween party and even way less than EMH mornings. We had some areas all to ourselves. The cost was 89.00 per person with the AP discount and we got as much ice cream, popcorn, and bottled drinks as we wanted. We figure we ate and drank at least 25.00 to 30.00 dollars worth of the treats. We were able to take pop back to the room as well. I would recommend this if it is in your budget, a great way to do MK with very small crowds. We stayed until 11:00pm and headed back to AKL after a very long day.

 

[kastoney]

Looks like a great first day!!!!!

We did love AKL, hope you did too. We had stayed there once before so we were prepared for the bus rides, but IMO they really aren't longer than anywhere else except to get to MK.

Glad you all enjoyed Skippers. It's definitely become one of our MK favorites and you know i'm especially happy now that there is beer We also really liked the shumai. We've started just getting all appetizers instead of a meal because I think that is where they shine.

The after hours party sounds awesome. I had no idea they did an AP discount or had the free ice cream and popcorn. We totally would have done it for that price Hopefully they are still doing it when we go back again

 

[JuniorSkipper]

Wow skippers canteen looks great I'm joining in now as well can't wait to hear about your Tokyo dining experience it's one of my faves! I've done the after hours at MK and it was totally worth it and a great time

 

[Lmcc44]

joining in

 

[Sailormoon2]

That was a very long day, but an awesome way to kick off your trip-after hours party! Skipper's looks delicious, another one I can't wait to try!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

We were seated fairly quickly, however our table was so small, and as close to the wall as could be, Andi was hitting her elbow the whole time. We also had a table of 8 right next to us, they were up and down and very loud. This was the start of the tiny tables awkwardly placed either in traffic flow or jammed in a corner.

I know exactly where your table was since we sat in the same place (at the bigger adjacent table) in October. I don't know how they crammed a party of 8 in there. There were 5 of us and even then we felt like we were pretty close to the couple at the table you guys sat at--definitely close enough to exchange a few pleasantries with them.

Anyway, your trip looks like it's off to a great start! Looking forward to the rest

 

[nicoleakr]

Joining in

 

[Raeven]

Following along!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hi Everyone,

Before I continue on with the DR, I wanted all you foodies out there to give an opinion if you would care to. I need to make my ADR's tomorrow for our August trip, yikes! Our list so far includes Via Napoli, Teppan Edo (new to us), Ohana dinner, Bonvoyage breakfast (new), and Homecomin (new). That is it so far, we will be there 8 nights. Please give advice on your faves and what else we should include. I will make ADR for the Bon Voyage, Ohana, right at 180 days and Homecomin so we don't miss out on those but the others I usually can do a little later, with 2 people it is easier to snag ADR's.

I also have another question for you all, I booked a bounce back at WL for this trip, it includes 9 day PH tickets and free dining. It costs the exact same as our Poly room plus adding the AP for both of us, dining would be extra, so about $800.00 more. I think the AP route and Poly is the way I am going to go because we may take several more trips with the AP but I just don't know. Give me your thoughts. Thanks so much for taking time to give an opinion, I will really appreciate it.

I have to go back to work tomorrow after being off for a glorious 2 weeks, ugh! Here is a picture of my mug I bought this trip. I get one each trip, I have the 4 park mugs from Starbucks and several others.

 

[JuniorSkipper]

I agree with the AP and poly I think overall that is the best option especially for the discount and you'll
Probably end up going back. I think that you should try Kona if you are staying at the Poly

 

[disneyAndi14]

Looks like a great first day!!!!!

We did love AKL, hope you did too. We had stayed there once before so we were prepared for the bus rides, but IMO they really aren't longer than anywhere else except to get to MK.

Glad you all enjoyed Skippers. It's definitely become one of our MK favorites and you know i'm especially happy now that there is beer We also really liked the shumai. We've started just getting all appetizers instead of a meal because I think that is where they shine.

The after hours party sounds awesome. I had no idea they did an AP discount or had the free ice cream and popcorn. We totally would have done it for that price Hopefully they are still doing it when we go back again

Thanks so much, we did love AKL, I had to stand a few times to and from MK so it just seemed so long lol, The after hours was great, so fun to have the park almost to yourself, we did so much in the three hours.

Wow skippers canteen looks great I'm joining in now as well can't wait to hear about your Tokyo dining experience it's one of my faves! I've done the after hours at MK and it was totally worth it and a great time

Thank you, glad your following, we loved Tokyo dining and Skippers, just like your name lol. The after hours was awesome.

joining in

Yippee Thanks for following along, welcome!

That was a very long day, but an awesome way to kick off your trip-after hours party! Skipper's looks delicious, another one I can't wait to try!

I couldn't believe I was able to last the whole after hour party on about 3 hours of sleep, but when you have MK almost all to yourself you power through lol, it was amazing how much you can get done in 3 hours with small crowds. Skippers was really good, I think next time we will take @kastoney's advice and do more appetizers.

I know exactly where your table was since we sat in the same place (at the bigger adjacent table) in October. I don't know how they crammed a party of 8 in there. There were 5 of us and even then we felt like we were pretty close to the couple at the table you guys sat at--definitely close enough to exchange a few pleasantries with them.

Anyway, your trip looks like it's off to a great start! Looking forward to the rest

That table was so small and yes 8 people at the one right next to us, there were 4 little kiddos and 4 adults. The grandpa was almost touching my daughter and when you are 17 that is the last thing you want lol! They did finish up before we got our main entree so that was good. I was so excited walking through the restaurant and then I saw the table she was bringing us to and I was thinking no please not the worst table in this room but oh well, it gave me my title for the review. Overall what a great night we had at the after hour party, Thanks for joining in!

Joining in

Yippee, welcome, Thanks for following along!

Following along!

Yippee, welcome, I have enjoyed all your reports! Thanks for following along!

 

[Somnia]

Joining in! So glad you stayed at AKL, I love that resort. It's become very hard for me to book any other resort honestly. The theming and feel there just makes me feel like I'm home.... December is so far away lol

Skippers Canteen looks good! I've been debating about eating there this trip and may give it a shot for lunch.

 

[Sailormoon2]

I make it a point of always going to Sanaa, it would be on my must do ADRs. I agree, that if you know you are going back, APs are defintiely the most cost effective way!