Quick reviews 12/5-12/11/15

[WDWAurora]

Hi! Thought I would share some quick reviews from our recent trip. Our group consisted of myself, the mommy, DH, who only tolerates the Disney love, DS, age 5, DS, age 3, and my dad (in his mid 60s). I have been to Disney more times than I can count, DH is about 6 or so trips in, and my boys have been 3 times and 2 times. We have been doing the dining plan for awhile, but opted out this time due to cost-$160 a day for our family seemed outrageous when the boys don't eat that much. Plus, we kind of liked the idea of not having reservations all the time. So-mostly a QS trip for us!!

This should be the list of where we ate:
Earl of Sandwich (lunch)
Old Port Royale (dinner)
Pinocchio's Village Haus (lunch)
The Plaza (dinner)
Backlot Express (lunch)
Pizza Planet (dinner)
Yak and Yeti counter service (lunch)
Old Port Royale (again)
Biergarten (CP lunch)
Sunshine Seasons (dinner)
Be Our Guest (lunch)
Pecos Bills (dinner)
Old Port Royale (breakfast this time)
A few snacks and other thoughts

We arrived really early on Saturday morning. Our room at CBR wasn't ready, so we headed to Disney Springs. We initially stopped outside of a traditional favorite, WPE, but decided against it after looking at the prices. Instead, we headed to EOS-a restaurant we have loved in the past, but haven't gone to recently because of it being a bad value on the dining plan. We had a ham and Swiss, holiday turkey, full montague, and kids pizza sub. Everyone was happy, and it was by far the cheapest meal of the week!

After returning to CBR and finding our rooms, we spent the afternoon at our resort pool. We decided to eat in the food court, rather than venturing out again. Two of us had the BBQ sandwich, one a Cuban, and two kids pizzas. I actually thought the BBQ was pretty tasty, and I'm from a major BBQ area. The slaw was not my style at all. The kids pizzas were gobbled up, and appeared to be typical Disney kids pizzas.

On Sunday, we went to MK. Breakfasts were in our room all week. We had an Amazon pantry delivery. For lunch, we headed for Pinocchio's. I hadn't eaten there in recent memory, and it was convenient. The kids had pizzas again, and DH and I both had the chicken Parmesan sandwiches. I actually thought this wasn't bad. The chicken was of decent quality.

For dinner, we had one of our very few ADRs at the Plaza. This is another of our old favorites that we have avoided due to its poor value on the dining plan. DH had never been here. I had the cheesesteak, DH had the Reuben, dad had the meatloaf, and the boys split the cheeseburger kids meal. Mine was yummy. DH said his was bland. I remembered the bathroom being outside the restaurant, but didn't plan on both kids deciding at separate times that I needed to take them to the bathroom. Ugh! I miss them bringing individual teeny tiny ketchup bottles. I'd eat there again, DH would not.

More tomorrow!!

 

[samsteele]

EoS is always a good choice when paying OOP. That full montague sammy is very good! The Plaza at MK is also a great choice. I haven't been for a while but I remember the veggie sandwich was tasty and their banana split was divine!

 

[WDWAurora]

EoS is always a good choice when paying OOP. That full montague sammy is very good! The Plaza at MK is also a great choice. I haven't been for a while but I remember the veggie sandwich was tasty and their banana split was divine!

I so agree! I told DH that EOS would be somewhere I would eat at home, if we had one. The food is good, and the prices are so reasonable. I really do enjoy the environment at The Plaza. I am always surprised at how small it is in there! One of my favorites for atmosphere, but I doubt I'll convince DH to go back anytime soon.

 

[WDWAurora]

On Monday, we headed to HS. We were there bright and early to get our oldest DS signed up for Jedi Training. That went well, and we got our Star Wars-crazed 5 year old signed up for an afternoon show. For lunch, we headed to Backlot Express, as I had read about some Star Wars themed offerings. My crew all had the Dark Side Chicken and Waffles-DH the adult portion, and myself and the boys had the child sized portion. This was great! Now, clearly it was theme park quality frozen chicken pieces, but they were freshly fried. The kids meals came with fries and one waffle (AND a cookie!), while the adult portion came with 2 waffles and a little more chicken. No fries, no cookie, no drink. The kids meals were a great value here, and came with probably more food in total than the adult meal. I would heartily recommend this one, especially since I was able to refill my little drink cup several times at the beverage station. My dad had a chili dog and fries, and was fine with that.

At dinner, we gave in and went to Pizza Planet. We knew the boys would be happy. DH and I...not so much. The pizza was exactly as expected, so edible, but not good. I did get the combo with the salad (and gave a fair amount of my pizza to the boys). The salad wasn't bad at all. The lettuce was fresh and quite green. The dressing and croutons were good. No complaints with the salad, but definitely would prefer to not eat here. Like, ever.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

Pizza Planet makes me incredibly angry. The food is just terrible and always disappointing. Sorry to hear you didn't experience anything different.

 

[samsteele]

For lunch, we headed to Backlot Express, as I had read about some Star Wars themed offerings.

I grabbed lunch here in early Nov before they switched the menu up to Star Wars themed food. Have they also changed up the decor inside BE to Star Wars? While that would be interesting, the old decor was definitely the highlight for me (and actually better than my food).

 

[WDWAurora]

I grabbed lunch here in early Nov before they switched the menu up to Star Wars themed food. Have they also changed up the decor inside BE to Star Wars? While that would be interesting, the old decor was definitely the highlight for me (and actually better than my food).

Nope, same normal decor. I like it, also, partially because I liked the original theming at the studios.

 

[WDWAurora]

Pizza Planet makes me incredibly angry. The food is just terrible and always disappointing. Sorry to hear you didn't experience anything different.

Same old, same old!

 

[Vernie822]

Great reviews. Pizza Planet could be SO GOOD. My fiance has begged me to eat there for like 3 trips so finally we ate there and he declared it the worst pizza ever. The theming is there somewhat but they could do so much better.

 

[WDWAurora]

I'll get a few more in later today!

 

[WDWAurora]

Tuesday, we headed to AK. This tends to be one of my CS faves, as I love flame tree! For lunch, we instead tried a new one for us-Yak n Yeti's CS. I had the Mongolian pepper steak, the boys shared chicken tenders, and DH and my dad had honey chicken. The taste was good on all, but mine was too veggie heavy, not enough meat. Nobody had complaints, but the boys had to dip their chicken in ketchup because they didn't have sauce. That's fine, but something to be aware of.

We ended up staying at AK for most of the day. We headed to flame tree for dinner, but it was closed. Bummer! We ended up just bussing it back to CBR and eating at Old Port Royale. I had the chicken Marsala, the boys shared pasta with a meatball (literally one-got the meatball instead of ground turkey), DH had a turkey plate, and I think dad had another hot dog. Mine was pretty good, for fast food pasta. I would eat it again. I did get extra sauce. The boys liked their noodles. DH was fine with his, but not impressed. Overall, it was fine. I did have to tell some pop warner kids that they couldn't cut me off in line, which was annoying, but whatever.

 

[WDWAurora]

Wednesday was Epcot day. This is probably the favorite park for all of the adults. Because I had booked a CP package, I knew we had a packed day between a meal and the show, so I knew our boys would stay entertained.

For lunch, we headed to our CP ADR at Biergarten. This is definitely a family favorite!! We prefer dinner because of the sauerbraten, but we weren't willing to pay the higher price on our OOP trip. This was for sure our splurge meal for this trip. We got in promptly for our ADR, and timing ended up being perfect for the show. We got seated right after a show, which gave us just enough time to order our drinks and get our first plates. I loved the cheese soup, but more as a dip for the pretzel bread than as soup. I liked several other things a lot, like the cucumber salad, cold potato salad, and apple streusel. DH likes a lot of the sausages and he enjoyed some kind of chicken in gravy. The men were a little shocked at the price, but were ok once they realized it included the show.

We saw the 5pm CP show, which was fantastic. I hadn't seen it in years. After, we were ready for dinner, and we thought Mexican sounded good, so we headed for the CS there. After taking a look at the already full seating area, we decided against it. Instead, we headed for Sunshine Seasons. We always enjoy our meals there, so we knew it would be a good choice. DH and I got Chinese, and I ordered the kids portion. My portion was in a different plate, but was as much food as his. It was yummy-the Mongolian beef, I think. The boys shared a pizza panini. Now, I have some issues with the kids meals. The quantity on these two meals (mine and the pizza one) was not even in the same ballpark. Through all our various sharing, we were ok, but the panini (which wasn't even technically a panini) was not enough food for my oldest, and he's only 5. I would not consider him to be a huge eater, either. So...yeah. Order with caution.

Sunshine Seasons ended up being a great choice for us since my little guy, who was afraid of everything (even spaceship earth) loved living with the land, so he got to ride his fave one more time after we ate.

Final park day up next!!

 

[Klinger13]

Great reviews! Our upcoming trip we're paying OOP so we'll be doing primarily CS too (CRT & Morimoto will be our splurge meals.) I'm enjoying reading about the adult & kid CS offerings you tried!

 

[WDWAurora]

Thursday, our final park day, was another MK day. I managed to score a lunch ADR for BOG. I was so excited, because we missed out on our dinner reservation on our last trip due to my oldest getting a stomach bug (and sharing with the rest of us once we got home, but all that is another story). This time, everything was looking good, although my dad didn't feel super that morning, but not due to any new illness, rather to his various medical conditions.

In the end, we all were able to make it. We had one of those perfect mornings of touring, where went from ride to ride with no waiting. We got to BOG a little before our ADR time, but were sent right across the bridge. I had preordered our food, so we went straight to a guy with an iPad. We weren't able to split the check, nor did he review our order with us. We literally were only able to pay him.

Now, just outside (after crossing the bridge), I saw some people I know (acquaintances). They entered the hallway where you order on the screens right when we went to iPad guy. Remember this.

After paying, we headed in. The restaurant is gorgeous, but somehow I imagined it as being bigger. We looked at the ballroom, but I knew I wanted to see the other rooms, so I kept going. The restaurant was hard for my dad to navigate with his ECV due to how close tables are to each other. I found the west wing first, and saw a group leaving an 8 seat table. This gave us space for the ECV, so I snatched it. As soon as it was clean and we were seated, a really nice CM came over and told us to get our drinks and showed me where to find everything. He heard me asking my oldest to choose between two drinks and told me to get him both. Super nice. I loved the fancy drink dispensers, but they were hard to read in the low lighting. The room was awesome, but it was disruptive when people constantly came in to take pictures.

Dad and I ordered the braised pork, DH ordered the croque Monsieur, and we had a kids pasta with marinara. My little one picked at everything. The pork was awesome. Completely tender, with tasty gravy. I liked the potatoes, and the green beans were fine, just not really to my taste. My dad grows them and we can them, so I tend to prefer home canned to green beans anywhere else. DH and the boys liked theirs, but not as much as I liked mine. No desserts.

Before we left, I tried to go to the restroom. The line was insane. I waited because I knew it would take forever. Probably my only real complaint about the restaurant is the level of chaos. I didn't enjoy all the picture snapping, noise, and just general over busy environment here.

On the way out, we glanced into the rose room (no pics, promise), which was lovely. Right as I was walking out of the ballroom, I saw the people I knew again. They were just sitting down. We had already finished eating, and we walked in at exactly the same time!! Order in advance, people! It clearly made a huge difference the day we were there.

I'm torn on this one. Prices are higher for a CS, and the food is good. The chaos is a lot...prices and chaos make me think I won't be back often, though I definitely love that pork.

 

[WDWAurora]

Our final dinner was at Pecos Bills. I really wanted to try the new menu. It was right up our alley, because we love "Mexican" food, like Moes, chipotle, our local Mexican restaurants, etc. While this hasn't traditionally been my dad's favorite, he does love salsa, fajitas, and has a favorite entree at moes. Progress.

DH had the chicken burrito, I had the spicy beef burrito, dad had fajitas, and the boys both had the kids quesadillas. Dad and DH were both very happy with their entrees and the choices on the toppings bar. DH and I both found the burrito hard to roll up, but we just ate it taco style and/or with a fork. I think I would have liked the chicken better than the beef, but I was happy with the beef. I wish they had black olives on the toppings bar, but everything else was well done there. I also think the entrees should come with some tortilla chips to round them out. The boys were super happy with quesadillas, but would probably have enjoyed meat and beans on them, if it had been an option for kids. Overall, though, this was a nice change for our family. I feel confident we will return if this menu stays in place.