jenjersnap
yadda yadda yadda
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2004
- Messages
- 7,226
The super-short summary of first-time dining plan users: We've loved most Disney buffets until this trip. Variety and quality was lacking this time. Had great meals at Kona and Coral Reef. We had good to wonderful service at every TS. We just don't like park CS very much (couple exceptions), but found resort CS to be pretty yummy. We love to eat but I understand why others say it's too much food. We had CS left and ended up shoving 9 boxes of cookies, candy and Mickey crispies into our bag last minute as we left for the airport. Pretty burnt out on dessert right now. We used most of our snack credits on cold treats to keep us cool - ice cream, smoothies, Dole Whips, etc.
Day 1: We arrived at the resort after midnight. We stayed at ASMO for the first night. Only thing open was the McD's and they were out of every food item we tried to order that wasn't deep-fried so we gave up and scrounged granola bars from the bottom of my bag. So no review there.
Day 2: Breakfast at the ASMO food court. Same stuff we'd see a lot of this week. Breakfast platter. Yogurt parfait that tasted old.
Dinner at Chef Mickeys. 15 minute wait to be seated. Our first night tradition no more unless I read reports that they have added some value back to the place. Where was the food? The amount of white space on the hot board was truly pitiful. I counted 5 dishes plus the sliced meats and the kids section. Desserts were fine and plentiful.
Day 3: Lunch at Pizza Planet. It was ok. Apparently no one orders the vegetarian pizza cos it took 20 minutes to appear.
Dinner at 'Ohana. Waited 15 minutes to be seated. Depressing. This has been another favorite restaurant and it was just not as yummy as usual. All the meats were dried out - we wondered how you suck all the moisture out of fatty sausage but they did it. The potatoes, always so great in the past, tasted like they were missing a vital ingredient. The stir-fried veggies were swimming in oil. Bread pudding was fantastic. Everything else was fine. We'll be taking a break from 'Ohana next trip, I think. I hope it was just an off night for them.
Day 4: Lunch at Sunshine Seasons at Epcot. We all enjoyed our meals very much. I had the grilled salmon and others shared the Asian entrees. Desserts were HUGE. (Actually, we never had a bad dessert anywhere, just too many of them!)
While we were gone, the glorious anniversary cake we ordered was delivered to our room. It was beautiful with a handmade edible lei on top. It tasted even better. Pics to come on the cake thread in the main restaurant forum. The bakery at the Poly really out-did themselves.
Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Five minute wait to be seated. We all had the skillet, except for one DS who insisted on the mac and cheese. When they both got a look at the skillet, neither was happy with their choices so they switched and all was right in the world again. It was pretty good. Honestly, it's not my style of food. I am a vegetarian with a seafood weakness in the real world but decided to relax my dietary issues on this vacation. I stuck with the shrimp, corn, cornbread and baked beans and not the meat hunks. We did not need seconds. We all had milkshakes or smoothies as drinks. Yum. We had the banana tortilla ice cream thingamajig for dessert. Oh, the server told us upfront that he lost his voice and so there'd be no antics. DSs were disappointed - we've never had a rowdy server - but enjoyed carrying ketchup and crayons over to those who needed them.
Day 5: Lunch #1 at Main Street Bakery. We split two CS meals early on, thinking we'd get more food later. We had the turkey and brie sandwiches, pastries and more smoothies. Refined carbs and sugar - what could be better?
Lunch #2 was at Capt. Cooks back at the Poly. We ate in shifts because we came back separately from MK that day, but we nibbled on veggie flatbread, noodle bowl and the aloha pork sandwich (DH raved about it!)
Dinner at Raglan Road. Exceeded my expectations by a mile. Waited 20 minutes to be seated. The food passed by in a blur, LOL, I remember being liking all of it. I know we got a Goat's Town and seared scallops for appetizers. Then it gets hazy, I think we got Paddy's Pork at the waitress' suggestion and a Posh Chicken. One DS got shrimp (good), the other got fish and chips (fish wasn't seasoned). I really wanted to get the "not chowder", not sure why I didn't. I was clearly out of my mind that night since I ordered a hard cider but received a Bass instead but drank half of it before I noticed. The server cheerfully replaced it with the cider. DH got the bread pudding - yes, it IS as great as other reviews have indicated. I ordered a Dunbrody Kiss but was informed after a few minutes that they were out of them for the evening ... only to see a few pass through the kitchen doors over the next 20 minutes or so (an advantage to being seated next to the kitchen, I s'pose). This was the only time I felt that perhaps I was being treated to a little dining plan second class citizenry. I, of course, have no idea if my suspicion was true but the dessert is the most expensive on the list. I ordered the mousse trio instead. It was fine but I wished I'd ordered the bread pudding. We were parked right next to the stage as well as the kitchen and my kids were enthralled by the music. The lady musician came over to chat and my middle DS fell in love. He hugged her over and over and we had to drag him away. He is still talking about the pretty lady who "talks nice" (the Irish lilt) and plays in a band. We will go back to RR, for sure.
Day 6: Our anniversary! We had the second to last breakfast seating at CRT and waited about 15 minutes to be seated. It was magical. We haven't eaten at the castle in a couple years; it was nice to go back. We had a lovely window table which was decorated for our anniversary. We ate lots and lots of the fruit. The menu was the same as last visit but DH, DS1 and I all believed the food was improved. Our server, Paul, was fantastic. By the time, we were finishing the meal and some surprises were appearing (chocolate mousse Cindy slipper which I sorta knew about and an engraved glass slipper from DH that was a complete shock, plus champagne flutes that were gifts from CRT), we were the only customers left. Paul told us to take our time. It felt very special and left us with a great memory of the day.
Dinner at Kona. Fave meal of the trip, as usual. 20 minutes to be seated, I had the all macadamia meal of mahi and the chocolate tart with crab cakes as the starter. DH had the potstickers, teriyaki steak and the banana creme brulee. All superb. My only complaint is the kids menu is so limited here. Both older boys had hot dogs and they came without anything else. Some grapes or something would have been nice, My oldest was still hungry and ate some of our food (we were already sharing with the littlest guy ... I wasn't willing to give up much more, LOL)
Day 7: Lunch at Flame Tree at AK. I had the fruit plate with honey yogurt (HUGE!) with a side of fries - only fries the entire trip, I am glad to report - and a frozen lemonade I gave to one of the kids. Everyone else had chicken. We ate at 11 a.m. and it was already very busy. All in all, one of the better CS.
Dinner at Coral Reef. 15 minutes wait. A new favorite. Food was wonderful. The view was spectacular. We had personalized menus and a diver held up an anniversary sign. We had a table at one end of the glass so we had a perfect view into the tank. I had the cod cake and catfish which I gobbled right up. DH had the land and sea and mahi, as did the boys. The kids got lobster chowder as appys and I distracted them with a lot of "Hey, look at that sea turtle!" so I could dunk my bread into their soup. Delish. I was worried about this place and it was fine. They also let the boys have smoothies as their drinks which, other than WCC, was unusual.
Day 8: DH got his precious Tonga toast from Capt Cooks for breakfast. The boys split a breakfast platter. I used a snack credit for a yogurt parfait and Kona coffee cos I had to run an errand to MK (pick up our MNSSHP tix)
Lunch was another flatbread and pork sandwich from Capt Cooks. We stuck to the resort today
Early dinner at Crystal Palace. Another bummer. 25 minutes to be seated. Our first table only seated 4. The hostess tried to convince us that the baby could sit perched on a corner. Um no. I booked a table for 5 and waited 25 minutes for it. She moved us, again she was cheerful about it which is really impressive. I think the sheer mass of humanity with their separate and competing needs would make me very crabby if I had that job. Which brings me to Pooh. Pooh was having a bad day. Pooh was rude, a first in many, many character meals. Pooh made it very clear s/he was upset that we had 4 autograph books and that I wanted him/her to switch pens (I had a sharpie for the boys homemade books and the regular fat pen for my Tinkerbell book since the sharpie bleeds through. I've never done a book for myself before but DH gave it to me as part of my gift. Maybe Pooh thought that was a stupid idea). Anyway, Pooh threw the book down on the table. Hard. It landed in the baby's food and made a mess - Pooh probably can't see where s/he is throwing - then stomped off. DH and I were left exchanging "Wow"s. I hope Pooh's day improved.
It's always frenetic here but seemed even more crazed than usual thay day. Again, the food was lacking though there was more of it than at CM. My oldest who has a pretty adventurous palate pronounced the food "Yucko" and stuck to the kids selections.
After the early dinner, kids got hungry again. DS1 is studying Pecos Bill in school and really wanted to go there so I got a couple veggie burgers while waiting for the second MNSSHP parade. They were limp Boca patties on limper bread. No one liked them. I didn't eat since I was feeling ill by that point. In fact, I had to leave the party shortly after ... I apologize to anyone riding the monorail with me that night. let's just say an empty treat bag came in handy. Blech. I had a rough night but was fine the next day so I am guessing it was too much rich food and not enough water? Who knows?
Day 9. While the older boys were on the pirate cruise (which included a lunch of champions: uncrustable, goldfish crackers and rice crispy treat), we ate at Gasparilla's at the GF. We were surprised at the lack of selection at Disney's flagship hotel so we retreated to the same old things - breakfast platter, coffee, smoothie and yogurt. our poor baby was heartbroken to return home and find sugary smoothies will no longer be a staple of his diet.
Our last dinner featured the princesses in Norway. We waited about 20 minutes. I ordered the salmon, DH ordered the kjottkaker. Boys ordered the oh-so-Norwegian cheese ravioli and the waitress brought a little pizza for free for the baby. Honestly, we've had pretty rotten service here in the past but this was nice. The food was good - I got my fill of gjetost (cooked goat cheese) from the cold board as did the boys who also gorged on beet salad. The dessert sampler they used to have was better. We passed on letting the kids to eat cappuccino cheesecake - one of the new selections - at 8 p.m. at night but I enjoyed it! FYI, the menu listed on allearsnet is the old one, not the current one. They are slowing beating down every morsel of true Norwegian flavor, I guess, cos there's less of it every time we go.
Day 10: We were supposed to have on last hurrah at the Lilo and Stitch breakfast at 'Ohana. We showed up and it was madness. It took 10 minutes merely to check in! No pagers left. I didn't ask how long it would be. We waited about half an hour, the natives were getting restless, so I inquired and they said about 25 more minutes. We decided to bail. We were paying OOP and had plenty of CS left; it was nearing hotel checkout time. I took the boys to wave to Lilo and Stitch when they had a break. Lilo hugged DS1 and that was all he needed. So off to Capt. Cooks we went for more Tonga toast and Mickey waffles. No regrets. We'll do it again some other time.
Our final lunch was at Saratoga Springs. We went there for the DVC presentation intending to go onto DTD but it didn't work out. It was pouring rain and we were running late. Again, no regrets. It was fun trying another resort's CS. The dining room is lovely there. Food was good too - more veggie flatbreads and a panini with oatmeal raisin cookies.
I gained a bunch of weight but it was well worth it. We booked our next trip and we're doing the Deluxe dining plan then. Thinking I might need bigger pants by the end!
Let me know if you have any questions. This is so long but still rather breezy on details, I know.
Day 1: We arrived at the resort after midnight. We stayed at ASMO for the first night. Only thing open was the McD's and they were out of every food item we tried to order that wasn't deep-fried so we gave up and scrounged granola bars from the bottom of my bag. So no review there.
Day 2: Breakfast at the ASMO food court. Same stuff we'd see a lot of this week. Breakfast platter. Yogurt parfait that tasted old.
Dinner at Chef Mickeys. 15 minute wait to be seated. Our first night tradition no more unless I read reports that they have added some value back to the place. Where was the food? The amount of white space on the hot board was truly pitiful. I counted 5 dishes plus the sliced meats and the kids section. Desserts were fine and plentiful.
Day 3: Lunch at Pizza Planet. It was ok. Apparently no one orders the vegetarian pizza cos it took 20 minutes to appear.
Dinner at 'Ohana. Waited 15 minutes to be seated. Depressing. This has been another favorite restaurant and it was just not as yummy as usual. All the meats were dried out - we wondered how you suck all the moisture out of fatty sausage but they did it. The potatoes, always so great in the past, tasted like they were missing a vital ingredient. The stir-fried veggies were swimming in oil. Bread pudding was fantastic. Everything else was fine. We'll be taking a break from 'Ohana next trip, I think. I hope it was just an off night for them.
Day 4: Lunch at Sunshine Seasons at Epcot. We all enjoyed our meals very much. I had the grilled salmon and others shared the Asian entrees. Desserts were HUGE. (Actually, we never had a bad dessert anywhere, just too many of them!)
While we were gone, the glorious anniversary cake we ordered was delivered to our room. It was beautiful with a handmade edible lei on top. It tasted even better. Pics to come on the cake thread in the main restaurant forum. The bakery at the Poly really out-did themselves.
Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Five minute wait to be seated. We all had the skillet, except for one DS who insisted on the mac and cheese. When they both got a look at the skillet, neither was happy with their choices so they switched and all was right in the world again. It was pretty good. Honestly, it's not my style of food. I am a vegetarian with a seafood weakness in the real world but decided to relax my dietary issues on this vacation. I stuck with the shrimp, corn, cornbread and baked beans and not the meat hunks. We did not need seconds. We all had milkshakes or smoothies as drinks. Yum. We had the banana tortilla ice cream thingamajig for dessert. Oh, the server told us upfront that he lost his voice and so there'd be no antics. DSs were disappointed - we've never had a rowdy server - but enjoyed carrying ketchup and crayons over to those who needed them.
Day 5: Lunch #1 at Main Street Bakery. We split two CS meals early on, thinking we'd get more food later. We had the turkey and brie sandwiches, pastries and more smoothies. Refined carbs and sugar - what could be better?
Lunch #2 was at Capt. Cooks back at the Poly. We ate in shifts because we came back separately from MK that day, but we nibbled on veggie flatbread, noodle bowl and the aloha pork sandwich (DH raved about it!)
Dinner at Raglan Road. Exceeded my expectations by a mile. Waited 20 minutes to be seated. The food passed by in a blur, LOL, I remember being liking all of it. I know we got a Goat's Town and seared scallops for appetizers. Then it gets hazy, I think we got Paddy's Pork at the waitress' suggestion and a Posh Chicken. One DS got shrimp (good), the other got fish and chips (fish wasn't seasoned). I really wanted to get the "not chowder", not sure why I didn't. I was clearly out of my mind that night since I ordered a hard cider but received a Bass instead but drank half of it before I noticed. The server cheerfully replaced it with the cider. DH got the bread pudding - yes, it IS as great as other reviews have indicated. I ordered a Dunbrody Kiss but was informed after a few minutes that they were out of them for the evening ... only to see a few pass through the kitchen doors over the next 20 minutes or so (an advantage to being seated next to the kitchen, I s'pose). This was the only time I felt that perhaps I was being treated to a little dining plan second class citizenry. I, of course, have no idea if my suspicion was true but the dessert is the most expensive on the list. I ordered the mousse trio instead. It was fine but I wished I'd ordered the bread pudding. We were parked right next to the stage as well as the kitchen and my kids were enthralled by the music. The lady musician came over to chat and my middle DS fell in love. He hugged her over and over and we had to drag him away. He is still talking about the pretty lady who "talks nice" (the Irish lilt) and plays in a band. We will go back to RR, for sure.
Day 6: Our anniversary! We had the second to last breakfast seating at CRT and waited about 15 minutes to be seated. It was magical. We haven't eaten at the castle in a couple years; it was nice to go back. We had a lovely window table which was decorated for our anniversary. We ate lots and lots of the fruit. The menu was the same as last visit but DH, DS1 and I all believed the food was improved. Our server, Paul, was fantastic. By the time, we were finishing the meal and some surprises were appearing (chocolate mousse Cindy slipper which I sorta knew about and an engraved glass slipper from DH that was a complete shock, plus champagne flutes that were gifts from CRT), we were the only customers left. Paul told us to take our time. It felt very special and left us with a great memory of the day.
Dinner at Kona. Fave meal of the trip, as usual. 20 minutes to be seated, I had the all macadamia meal of mahi and the chocolate tart with crab cakes as the starter. DH had the potstickers, teriyaki steak and the banana creme brulee. All superb. My only complaint is the kids menu is so limited here. Both older boys had hot dogs and they came without anything else. Some grapes or something would have been nice, My oldest was still hungry and ate some of our food (we were already sharing with the littlest guy ... I wasn't willing to give up much more, LOL)
Day 7: Lunch at Flame Tree at AK. I had the fruit plate with honey yogurt (HUGE!) with a side of fries - only fries the entire trip, I am glad to report - and a frozen lemonade I gave to one of the kids. Everyone else had chicken. We ate at 11 a.m. and it was already very busy. All in all, one of the better CS.
Dinner at Coral Reef. 15 minutes wait. A new favorite. Food was wonderful. The view was spectacular. We had personalized menus and a diver held up an anniversary sign. We had a table at one end of the glass so we had a perfect view into the tank. I had the cod cake and catfish which I gobbled right up. DH had the land and sea and mahi, as did the boys. The kids got lobster chowder as appys and I distracted them with a lot of "Hey, look at that sea turtle!" so I could dunk my bread into their soup. Delish. I was worried about this place and it was fine. They also let the boys have smoothies as their drinks which, other than WCC, was unusual.
Day 8: DH got his precious Tonga toast from Capt Cooks for breakfast. The boys split a breakfast platter. I used a snack credit for a yogurt parfait and Kona coffee cos I had to run an errand to MK (pick up our MNSSHP tix)
Lunch was another flatbread and pork sandwich from Capt Cooks. We stuck to the resort today
Early dinner at Crystal Palace. Another bummer. 25 minutes to be seated. Our first table only seated 4. The hostess tried to convince us that the baby could sit perched on a corner. Um no. I booked a table for 5 and waited 25 minutes for it. She moved us, again she was cheerful about it which is really impressive. I think the sheer mass of humanity with their separate and competing needs would make me very crabby if I had that job. Which brings me to Pooh. Pooh was having a bad day. Pooh was rude, a first in many, many character meals. Pooh made it very clear s/he was upset that we had 4 autograph books and that I wanted him/her to switch pens (I had a sharpie for the boys homemade books and the regular fat pen for my Tinkerbell book since the sharpie bleeds through. I've never done a book for myself before but DH gave it to me as part of my gift. Maybe Pooh thought that was a stupid idea). Anyway, Pooh threw the book down on the table. Hard. It landed in the baby's food and made a mess - Pooh probably can't see where s/he is throwing - then stomped off. DH and I were left exchanging "Wow"s. I hope Pooh's day improved.
It's always frenetic here but seemed even more crazed than usual thay day. Again, the food was lacking though there was more of it than at CM. My oldest who has a pretty adventurous palate pronounced the food "Yucko" and stuck to the kids selections.
After the early dinner, kids got hungry again. DS1 is studying Pecos Bill in school and really wanted to go there so I got a couple veggie burgers while waiting for the second MNSSHP parade. They were limp Boca patties on limper bread. No one liked them. I didn't eat since I was feeling ill by that point. In fact, I had to leave the party shortly after ... I apologize to anyone riding the monorail with me that night. let's just say an empty treat bag came in handy. Blech. I had a rough night but was fine the next day so I am guessing it was too much rich food and not enough water? Who knows?
Day 9. While the older boys were on the pirate cruise (which included a lunch of champions: uncrustable, goldfish crackers and rice crispy treat), we ate at Gasparilla's at the GF. We were surprised at the lack of selection at Disney's flagship hotel so we retreated to the same old things - breakfast platter, coffee, smoothie and yogurt. our poor baby was heartbroken to return home and find sugary smoothies will no longer be a staple of his diet.
Our last dinner featured the princesses in Norway. We waited about 20 minutes. I ordered the salmon, DH ordered the kjottkaker. Boys ordered the oh-so-Norwegian cheese ravioli and the waitress brought a little pizza for free for the baby. Honestly, we've had pretty rotten service here in the past but this was nice. The food was good - I got my fill of gjetost (cooked goat cheese) from the cold board as did the boys who also gorged on beet salad. The dessert sampler they used to have was better. We passed on letting the kids to eat cappuccino cheesecake - one of the new selections - at 8 p.m. at night but I enjoyed it! FYI, the menu listed on allearsnet is the old one, not the current one. They are slowing beating down every morsel of true Norwegian flavor, I guess, cos there's less of it every time we go.
Day 10: We were supposed to have on last hurrah at the Lilo and Stitch breakfast at 'Ohana. We showed up and it was madness. It took 10 minutes merely to check in! No pagers left. I didn't ask how long it would be. We waited about half an hour, the natives were getting restless, so I inquired and they said about 25 more minutes. We decided to bail. We were paying OOP and had plenty of CS left; it was nearing hotel checkout time. I took the boys to wave to Lilo and Stitch when they had a break. Lilo hugged DS1 and that was all he needed. So off to Capt. Cooks we went for more Tonga toast and Mickey waffles. No regrets. We'll do it again some other time.
Our final lunch was at Saratoga Springs. We went there for the DVC presentation intending to go onto DTD but it didn't work out. It was pouring rain and we were running late. Again, no regrets. It was fun trying another resort's CS. The dining room is lovely there. Food was good too - more veggie flatbreads and a panini with oatmeal raisin cookies.
I gained a bunch of weight but it was well worth it. We booked our next trip and we're doing the Deluxe dining plan then. Thinking I might need bigger pants by the end!
Let me know if you have any questions. This is so long but still rather breezy on details, I know.
