MinnieGi
DVC/BWV
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2001
- Messages
- 4,264
Cast of Characters: Myself, DH, & DD (2yo)
We really had great restaurant experiences throughout our trip. Great service and good food! We had a car so we did some meals off-site as well. I'm just going to review our World eateries here though.
Olivia's
We came into Olivia's around 7:30 very weary from our travel day and in desperate need of food. That pretzel and soda snack aboard the plane just didn't do it! We walked in w/o a ps and had a very nice waitress named Bonnie with a big smile who welcomed us and took time to talk to us about our travel day. We ordered drinks and an appetizer (chicken wings) and she brought the drinks right away. She also asked if we wanted DD's pizza out early as she saw how hungry and tired we all were and we said that would be great. The pizza came out soon after nice and hot and DD began eating right away! She was hungry and she didn't want just snack foods, so the pizza was a big welcome for her. DH and I both ordered the special soup of the day, a seafood combo and decided to split the club sandwich. The food was brought out w/o much wait and Bonnie kept our drinks filled.
We all felt much better after our meal.
Chicken Wings: Yummy! A nice spicy flavor, but not too hot
Seafood souP: Very Yummy! I wish I could remember its menu
name.
Club sandwich: Tasty! (Not to hard to screw up anyway)!
Kids' Pizza: Decent.
Tony's Town Square: Winnie-the-Pooh & Friends Lunch
We had an 11:30 ps on Sunday, Nov. 3rd. Lots of people in the lobby, but we waited only about 5 minutes before being called in. This was DD's first character meal this year and she was floored when she saw Winnie-the-Pooh as we entered the dining room. As we were seated Tigger came by bouncing and he left my DD speechless and pointing and finally she manged to utter, "Tigger!" We then spotted Piglet and Eeyore around the restaurant also and DD got very excited! How precious! Of course it was caught on film and that's why we were here. But we were impressed with the food as well and the service! Al was our waiter and did a terrific job keeping our drinks filled and asking if he could get us more. This is an all you can eat meal, but you order off a pre-selected menu.
We selected:
Salads: (field greens w/ feta cheese in house dressing) Yummy!
Calzone: (me) (cheese and meat wrapped inside pizza dough)
They give you two thick slices - I could not eat it
all, so DH helped a bit and I left the rest.
Good!!
Chicken Parm: (DH) Good!! DD had some too and I had a bite,
it was tasty.
Pizza: (DD) DD likes pizza! She ate a slice and had some
chicken too.
We had a blast meeting all the characters! DD gave them all a big hug and kiss. W/o realizing it I had dressed DD in a horizontal pink striped dress that looked alot like Piglet's shirt, so several cm's made a big deal about that. And Piglet noticed too!!
Cinderella's Royal Table for Princess Breakfast
We had an 8:25 ps for Cindy's Breakfast. I just have to say it was so awesome coming onto Main St. w/o hardly anyone else there!! We were in the park by 8:00 so we had a wonderful time just slowly strolling Main St. and taking pictures and soaking up the atmosphere, I could tell already this was going to be a wonderful memory! When we got to CRT we were seated right away and what a seat - our table overlooked Fantasyland!!!!!!! Again we had an excellent server - Alexis. He of course played in character the whole time calling us "my Lady" "my Lord" "my Princess" Alexis turned into DH's favorite waiter. He had the oj, milk, and coffee flowing and made a big fuss over DD all the time. To start us off he brought out a large cup of fresh fruit, an assortment of sweet rolls and pastries, and a bowl of yogurt and granola. This is also an all you can eat breakfast that comes pre-plated. I ordered the healthy breakfast that consisted of granola, yougurt, and fruit. DH had the traditional breakfast with sausage, eggs, apple compote, bacon. DD had french toast sticks with syrup, but mostly ate the large fruit cup. So DH and I split those french toast sticks - Yum!! Alexis brought us more in a heartbeat! Yum!
As I said b/4 we come to character meals for all the fun and excitement of having a little character interaction and we were again surprised that the food was tasty and the service grand.
Now for the Princesses!!!!!!!
At our breakfast we saw: Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Mary Poppins, & Prince Charming. Fairy Godmother was downstairs in the throne room.
Snow White came to our table first. Tatiana was a little shyer with the "face" characters than she was with Pooh etc. But Snow got her to smile and then gave her the biggest kiss right on the forehead that left bright red lip marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DH and I were ROFL!!!!! It was soooooooooooo cute!! I wish I could show you the videotape, it was just precious. Anyway Cinderella soon followed and made a big deal out of the Snow White kiss and said she just had to get a great big kiss in too - so a lighter pink shade of lipstick marks were left on DD's right cheek by Cinderella!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, and DD offered Cindy some of her honeydew which Cindy politely refused but was grateful for DD's offer. Next Belle came over and when she saw the other two kiss marks, you can guess what happend!! Yes a third big kiss for DD, this time on the left cheek. Belle's kiss left a brownish-red pair of lip marks. So now unknown to DD she has three big kiss marks and DH and I are just LOL!! Alexis fussed over DD some more with her kiss marks and several other servers did too. We then met Mary Poppins who also made a big deal out of the princess kisses and finally Prince Charming came over. He told us he was quite jealous as he wished he had gotten three lovely kisses from the princesses!!!
We thought all the characters were great and really looked the part. An awesome breakfast - It so paid off to wake up early and get this priority seating!!!!!
As an added bonus since we left Cindy's around 9:10 and were right in Fantasyland we walked right onto Pooh, Dumbo, and the Carousel - very cool to have an early seating!!!!!!
Holllywood Brown Derby
We headed to MGM on Tues. Nov. 5th and I had already made a ps for the Brown Derby for lunch. I've always wanted to try this place and I'm so glad I did. I know we'll be back! Our ps was at 11:30, the beginning of lunch. Cory was our server here, she was nice but did not have the extra pizazz of Alexis, Al, or Bonnie. But the food was outstanding and at lunch prices!! Also it is very relaxing in here and we needed it after a big morning on a hot, sunny day. We'd been in the park right at EE entry so we needed the atmosphere this restaurant provided. The Brown Derby also has a full bar which is very nice.
I started with the appetizer salad. (field greens with cranberries and goat cheese) Super yummy ate every last bit! For my main meal I ordered the appetizer chicken quesadillas topped with a very fine sweet tasting salsa. The chicken was extremely tender and I just loved the salsa!! Scrumptious!!!
DH ordered the grouper. It came served on top of some steamed veggies with a clear light sauce. DH loved it. He gave me a bite of the grouper also and it was excellent.
DD had the Mickey Mac 'n Cheese which was so cute! I tasted a bite of this too and it had a nice flavor to it, not boxed instant. They also served piping hot rolls with the meal.
I know we'll be back here on future trips!
San Angel Inn - Mexico in WS
We visited Epcot on Wed., Nov. 6th and again were there b/4 EE even opened so we were ready for lunch around 11:30. We didn't have a ps, but have always wanted to try the San Angel Inn in the Mexico Pavilion. We were seated w/o a wait. We highly enjoyed this meal too, the food, atmosphere, and quick service made for a memorable meal. I didn't get our waiters name, he was to fast. He wasn't as social as some of our other servers, but he was efficient. The scenic setting here is just awesome and again this turned into a very relaxed meal that made you feel miles away from the busy parks. We were seated close to the canal and could see the boats going by, very cool.
They serve you chips and salsa when you're seated and we devoured those as we were very hungry. I ordered a stawberry Margherita and DH had a Dos Equis Beer. Aaah, refreshement! DD and I split the nachos de pollo which were quite tasty! DH doesn't remember the menu name of his but it contained pork tips and was very good. In fact later he said it was his favorite!
Excellent!!
Flame Tree Barbeque - AK
Now I wasn't going to include counter service places, but this one deserves a big mention. We were surprised at the food and atmosphere. First this eatery is located between Asia and Dinoland and it contains lots of open air but covered pavilions to eat under all in back of the counter area. The vegetation around it can make it appear as if there is only one or two pavilions, but if you keep following the path you will find more eating areas including one right on the water canal! This is where we ate. Most people did not find this one and there were not many people eating in our water view pavilion. Each pavilion contains a condiment stand with napkins, untensils, & straws. Of course the view of the water and vegetation all around was very serene and relaxing. The imagineers even have an Asian boat docked on the far shore and a recreation of a coastal village. The waters edge was filled with lilly pads and pink flowers not to mention lots of sun fish in the water.
The food was also tasty for counter service. DH and I both had a shredded pork sandwich which came with a cup of beans and small corn on the cob. The pork was very tender and tasteful and the roll was fresh. The beans were also decent. I didn't care for the corn that much but I'm used to white sweet corn and this was yellow and not very sweet. But DD ate quite a bit that I cut off the cob for her. DD also had the mini-hot dogs. These were two very tiny in width hot dogs on two buns, perfect size for a little one. DD ate one whole hot dog and roll. Hers also came with a bag of chips.
AK offers mostly counter service places, but this felt a notch above the normal counter fare.
Chef Mickey's - Breakfast
On our last day as our last ps I arranged a 10:30 seating for Chef Mickey's buffet breakfast. We checked out of OKW and made our way to CR and arrived at 10:05, they didn't make us wait and seated us quickly. DD and I went to check out the buffet and I was impressed at the selection. I've read several reports on these boards expressing disappointment in the variety and amount of food on their buffet line. (Now we just had brunch this morning at our country club and the selection at CM's was not as
diverse or high quality, but it was still very decent, IMHO) We loaded up on lots of fresh fruits and these french toast wedges from the children's bar area that were oh so good!! Also had a Mickey waffle and Mickey pancake and scrambled eggs. OJ, milk and coffee were served at the table. There were quite a few breakfast cassarole and quiche dishes as well as loads of pastries. I had a wonderful cinamon roll. After we loaded our plates, the character assault began!!! Pluto came over first then Minnie, Mickey, Chip, and Dale soon followed. It was a rush of excitement and a flurry of pictures!! DD hugged and kissed them all. This was followed by the "party" where everyone waved their napkins and the characters danced around. Goofy was dancing in our section. It was a very fun breakfast to have on our last day and a great last chance to see all the characters one last time in person. But don't go there looking for a relaxing meal!!
We had a wonderful time eating around the World - can't wait to start planning the next trips meals!!!
We really had great restaurant experiences throughout our trip. Great service and good food! We had a car so we did some meals off-site as well. I'm just going to review our World eateries here though.
Olivia's
We came into Olivia's around 7:30 very weary from our travel day and in desperate need of food. That pretzel and soda snack aboard the plane just didn't do it! We walked in w/o a ps and had a very nice waitress named Bonnie with a big smile who welcomed us and took time to talk to us about our travel day. We ordered drinks and an appetizer (chicken wings) and she brought the drinks right away. She also asked if we wanted DD's pizza out early as she saw how hungry and tired we all were and we said that would be great. The pizza came out soon after nice and hot and DD began eating right away! She was hungry and she didn't want just snack foods, so the pizza was a big welcome for her. DH and I both ordered the special soup of the day, a seafood combo and decided to split the club sandwich. The food was brought out w/o much wait and Bonnie kept our drinks filled.
We all felt much better after our meal.
Chicken Wings: Yummy! A nice spicy flavor, but not too hot
Seafood souP: Very Yummy! I wish I could remember its menu
name.
Club sandwich: Tasty! (Not to hard to screw up anyway)!
Kids' Pizza: Decent.
Tony's Town Square: Winnie-the-Pooh & Friends Lunch
We had an 11:30 ps on Sunday, Nov. 3rd. Lots of people in the lobby, but we waited only about 5 minutes before being called in. This was DD's first character meal this year and she was floored when she saw Winnie-the-Pooh as we entered the dining room. As we were seated Tigger came by bouncing and he left my DD speechless and pointing and finally she manged to utter, "Tigger!" We then spotted Piglet and Eeyore around the restaurant also and DD got very excited! How precious! Of course it was caught on film and that's why we were here. But we were impressed with the food as well and the service! Al was our waiter and did a terrific job keeping our drinks filled and asking if he could get us more. This is an all you can eat meal, but you order off a pre-selected menu.
We selected:
Salads: (field greens w/ feta cheese in house dressing) Yummy!
Calzone: (me) (cheese and meat wrapped inside pizza dough)
They give you two thick slices - I could not eat it
all, so DH helped a bit and I left the rest.
Good!!
Chicken Parm: (DH) Good!! DD had some too and I had a bite,
it was tasty.
Pizza: (DD) DD likes pizza! She ate a slice and had some
chicken too.
We had a blast meeting all the characters! DD gave them all a big hug and kiss. W/o realizing it I had dressed DD in a horizontal pink striped dress that looked alot like Piglet's shirt, so several cm's made a big deal about that. And Piglet noticed too!!
Cinderella's Royal Table for Princess Breakfast
We had an 8:25 ps for Cindy's Breakfast. I just have to say it was so awesome coming onto Main St. w/o hardly anyone else there!! We were in the park by 8:00 so we had a wonderful time just slowly strolling Main St. and taking pictures and soaking up the atmosphere, I could tell already this was going to be a wonderful memory! When we got to CRT we were seated right away and what a seat - our table overlooked Fantasyland!!!!!!! Again we had an excellent server - Alexis. He of course played in character the whole time calling us "my Lady" "my Lord" "my Princess" Alexis turned into DH's favorite waiter. He had the oj, milk, and coffee flowing and made a big fuss over DD all the time. To start us off he brought out a large cup of fresh fruit, an assortment of sweet rolls and pastries, and a bowl of yogurt and granola. This is also an all you can eat breakfast that comes pre-plated. I ordered the healthy breakfast that consisted of granola, yougurt, and fruit. DH had the traditional breakfast with sausage, eggs, apple compote, bacon. DD had french toast sticks with syrup, but mostly ate the large fruit cup. So DH and I split those french toast sticks - Yum!! Alexis brought us more in a heartbeat! Yum!
As I said b/4 we come to character meals for all the fun and excitement of having a little character interaction and we were again surprised that the food was tasty and the service grand.
Now for the Princesses!!!!!!!
At our breakfast we saw: Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Mary Poppins, & Prince Charming. Fairy Godmother was downstairs in the throne room.
Snow White came to our table first. Tatiana was a little shyer with the "face" characters than she was with Pooh etc. But Snow got her to smile and then gave her the biggest kiss right on the forehead that left bright red lip marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DH and I were ROFL!!!!! It was soooooooooooo cute!! I wish I could show you the videotape, it was just precious. Anyway Cinderella soon followed and made a big deal out of the Snow White kiss and said she just had to get a great big kiss in too - so a lighter pink shade of lipstick marks were left on DD's right cheek by Cinderella!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, and DD offered Cindy some of her honeydew which Cindy politely refused but was grateful for DD's offer. Next Belle came over and when she saw the other two kiss marks, you can guess what happend!! Yes a third big kiss for DD, this time on the left cheek. Belle's kiss left a brownish-red pair of lip marks. So now unknown to DD she has three big kiss marks and DH and I are just LOL!! Alexis fussed over DD some more with her kiss marks and several other servers did too. We then met Mary Poppins who also made a big deal out of the princess kisses and finally Prince Charming came over. He told us he was quite jealous as he wished he had gotten three lovely kisses from the princesses!!!
We thought all the characters were great and really looked the part. An awesome breakfast - It so paid off to wake up early and get this priority seating!!!!! As an added bonus since we left Cindy's around 9:10 and were right in Fantasyland we walked right onto Pooh, Dumbo, and the Carousel - very cool to have an early seating!!!!!!
Holllywood Brown Derby
We headed to MGM on Tues. Nov. 5th and I had already made a ps for the Brown Derby for lunch. I've always wanted to try this place and I'm so glad I did. I know we'll be back! Our ps was at 11:30, the beginning of lunch. Cory was our server here, she was nice but did not have the extra pizazz of Alexis, Al, or Bonnie. But the food was outstanding and at lunch prices!! Also it is very relaxing in here and we needed it after a big morning on a hot, sunny day. We'd been in the park right at EE entry so we needed the atmosphere this restaurant provided. The Brown Derby also has a full bar which is very nice.
I started with the appetizer salad. (field greens with cranberries and goat cheese) Super yummy ate every last bit! For my main meal I ordered the appetizer chicken quesadillas topped with a very fine sweet tasting salsa. The chicken was extremely tender and I just loved the salsa!!
Scrumptious!!!DH ordered the grouper. It came served on top of some steamed veggies with a clear light sauce. DH loved it. He gave me a bite of the grouper also and it was excellent.
DD had the Mickey Mac 'n Cheese which was so cute! I tasted a bite of this too and it had a nice flavor to it, not boxed instant. They also served piping hot rolls with the meal.
I know we'll be back here on future trips!
San Angel Inn - Mexico in WS
We visited Epcot on Wed., Nov. 6th and again were there b/4 EE even opened so we were ready for lunch around 11:30. We didn't have a ps, but have always wanted to try the San Angel Inn in the Mexico Pavilion. We were seated w/o a wait. We highly enjoyed this meal too, the food, atmosphere, and quick service made for a memorable meal. I didn't get our waiters name, he was to fast. He wasn't as social as some of our other servers, but he was efficient. The scenic setting here is just awesome and again this turned into a very relaxed meal that made you feel miles away from the busy parks. We were seated close to the canal and could see the boats going by, very cool.
They serve you chips and salsa when you're seated and we devoured those as we were very hungry. I ordered a stawberry Margherita and DH had a Dos Equis Beer. Aaah, refreshement! DD and I split the nachos de pollo which were quite tasty! DH doesn't remember the menu name of his but it contained pork tips and was very good. In fact later he said it was his favorite!
Excellent!!
Flame Tree Barbeque - AK
Now I wasn't going to include counter service places, but this one deserves a big mention. We were surprised at the food and atmosphere. First this eatery is located between Asia and Dinoland and it contains lots of open air but covered pavilions to eat under all in back of the counter area. The vegetation around it can make it appear as if there is only one or two pavilions, but if you keep following the path you will find more eating areas including one right on the water canal! This is where we ate. Most people did not find this one and there were not many people eating in our water view pavilion. Each pavilion contains a condiment stand with napkins, untensils, & straws. Of course the view of the water and vegetation all around was very serene and relaxing. The imagineers even have an Asian boat docked on the far shore and a recreation of a coastal village. The waters edge was filled with lilly pads and pink flowers not to mention lots of sun fish in the water.
The food was also tasty for counter service. DH and I both had a shredded pork sandwich which came with a cup of beans and small corn on the cob. The pork was very tender and tasteful and the roll was fresh. The beans were also decent. I didn't care for the corn that much but I'm used to white sweet corn and this was yellow and not very sweet. But DD ate quite a bit that I cut off the cob for her. DD also had the mini-hot dogs. These were two very tiny in width hot dogs on two buns, perfect size for a little one. DD ate one whole hot dog and roll. Hers also came with a bag of chips.
AK offers mostly counter service places, but this felt a notch above the normal counter fare.
Chef Mickey's - Breakfast
On our last day as our last ps I arranged a 10:30 seating for Chef Mickey's buffet breakfast. We checked out of OKW and made our way to CR and arrived at 10:05, they didn't make us wait and seated us quickly.
DD and I went to check out the buffet and I was impressed at the selection. I've read several reports on these boards expressing disappointment in the variety and amount of food on their buffet line. (Now we just had brunch this morning at our country club and the selection at CM's was not as diverse or high quality, but it was still very decent, IMHO) We loaded up on lots of fresh fruits and these french toast wedges from the children's bar area that were oh so good!! Also had a Mickey waffle and Mickey pancake and scrambled eggs. OJ, milk and coffee were served at the table. There were quite a few breakfast cassarole and quiche dishes as well as loads of pastries. I had a wonderful cinamon roll. After we loaded our plates, the character assault began!!! Pluto came over first then Minnie, Mickey, Chip, and Dale soon followed. It was a rush of excitement and a flurry of pictures!! DD hugged and kissed them all. This was followed by the "party" where everyone waved their napkins and the characters danced around. Goofy was dancing in our section. It was a very fun breakfast to have on our last day and a great last chance to see all the characters one last time in person. But don't go there looking for a relaxing meal!!
We had a wonderful time eating around the World - can't wait to start planning the next trips meals!!!
