So much food, so few pictures...

[smiths02]

Right outside of Chefs de France....I spotted the France Wine Kiosk. I had to try the Grand Marnier slush ($9.95 with tax)

This was really good. It was like an orange slush but with alcohol, but it also had a creaminess to it.

 

[smiths02]

At this point, I knew that we had a LOT of extra counter service left (we were leaving the next day and had 8 QS for the 2 of us). So I took Remy's advice and went to get 2 desserts

We went to the France bakery and ordered 2 QS meals.
Meal 1-
A ham and cheese croissant (had this a few days later on the road trip home, it was still yummy), orange juice (in my fridge now-the selection of bottled drinks was limited), and a Napoleon for my second dessert (I actually liked this, but I was too full, so I just took a few bites and threw the rest away, this is where I started not liking DDP so much-felt like a waste)

Meal 2-
Cheese Plate (I had for dinner the next night on the road trip home, it was good...I love cheese...it also came with a baguette), strawberry smoothie (since my son felt left out of the Grand Marnier slush), and a strawberry tart (again, my DS had a few bites and threw the rest out He mostly ate strawberries. Our local Farmer's Market has a bakery that makes marscarpone fruit tarts which are better than these, but it was a good basic fruit tart).

Total with tax $24.64
(I don't have the price for each individual item, around $3-4 for each item). I would not have gotten this food if not on DDP. It was nice to have some of the food on the way home, but it was a pain to pack a cooler (it would have been easier just to stop at Subway on the way home).

 

[smiths02]

Since I knew we had dinner on our way home the next day covered with the cheese plate and ham and cheese croissant...I decided to stop by the CBR food court on our way back for afternoon nap to pick up some side items.

The cashier at the food court said it was no problem to get a "continental" which basically means any three "side" items or snacks to be rung up as a CS meal. The cashier made this seems usual and customary.

I got a carrot and celery stick pack (for DS to have with his sandwich), a tossed salad for me to have the next day (it was just cheap iceburg lettuce), grapes (umm..these were nasty the next day and we could not eat them), and stawberries (about 1/2 of these were gross by the next day, even with refrigeration and on ice in the cooler)...and 2 Honest Tea Green Teas ($3.99 each).

The fruits and veggies were about $3.79 each.

2 QS meals for $24.33

 

[smiths02]

It was our last night and we had priority seating for Illuminations. Plus Epcot was open late.

I decided that we would use up snacks and CS credits.

Our first stop was Mexico. We ate at La Cantina. I ordered 1 CS meal. Jarrito mango soda (tip, this is bottled!) ($3.50), tacos de pollo (too spicy for DS) ($10.95), and Churro ($3.95). The churros were good, but the caramel sauce added nothing, I threw it away. Basically, DS drank the Jarrito soda, I ate the chicken out of the taco (threw the soft corn tortilla and the chips away), and we shared churros.
I wouldn't eat here again unless maybe I wanted nachos.

Total $19.60

Our next meal to split was in China (Lotus Blossom). We got orange chicken (basically chicken nuggets covered in an almost inedibly sweet orange sauce and steamed rice). ($8.49) DS ate a little of the chicken as he needed some protein, but most of this got thrown out. Ginger ice cream for dessert ($3.25)-never would have ordered this if not on DDP-just not good. Coke ($2.09)-I needed some caffeine.

Total $14.73

Lesson learned...I won't eat the CS in China or Mexico again. I know I can get something decent from Norway, UK, France, and Morocco (I just wasn't really near those places this night).

For a treat for Illuminations, I visited Fife and Drum and got my son the American Dream (I think it is called, blue and red slush and ice cream, red, white, blue). Yummmy!!! This is going on my list for next time $3.99 or $4.26 with tax. (snack credit)

We also stopped at Germany for some caramel.
We got 2 chococlate covered strawberries and a small caramel corn. (3 snack credits). I believe the strawberries were $3.95 and the corn was $2.95 Total $11.55 I had a strawberry for breakfast the next morning and dessert on the way home. I munched the popcorn on the way home the next day as a snack (it was so yummy even when it was chewy and a day old!!)

 

[smiths02]

I had originally planned on an 8 am 1900 Park Fare for our last day. With our priority seating for Illuminations and our special fast passes, we stayed at Epcot late. I was able to reschedule 1900 Park Fare for 11 am.

So we packed all our stuff, drove to MK, and hit rope drop. We rode several rides and got a few FPs...and then headed to the monorail around 10:15 am.

We got to 1900 Park Fare a few minutes early and were seated right on time. Since we had basically skipped breakfast (minus a chocolate covered strawberry), we were pretty hungry.

However, it took our waitress Molly a LOOOOONG time to get to us. To be fair, I think there was some confusion on her part that we were even there or counted as her table. She was good with the Grand juice (kind of like Jungle Juice-yum!) once she knew we were there.

It was nice to actually meet all the characters first THEN eat. The face characters were interesting...DS loved it, but he is shy that he hardly talked.

Then came the food. The strawberry soup was AMAZING. There was also an omelette station, carved ham, Mickey waffles, pancakes, breakfast pizza, pastries (good chocolate croissants and pecan cinnamon rolls) , assortment of breads, cereals, yogurt, fruit, bread pudding. I tried the lobster eggs benedict-this had the potential to be really good (the egg was cooked well), but I didn't see any lobster and the biscuit was like a biscuit rather than an English muffin. Did I also mention REAL bacon!!! My son was so excited The strawberry soup, real bacon, omelette, and Grand juice really made this a good breakfast.

Total $41.52 ($13.99 child, $24.99 adult)

 

[smiths02]

We then took the monorail back to MK and played.

Of course, I had to have one more of these on the way out.

$4.46

And DS got a Mickey ice cream sandwich ($3.50)

2 snack credits

We also stopped at Main Street Confectionary to use up our remaining 2 snack credits.

I let DS get a 12" make your own Pucker Powder $3.95 and some Mickey crackers (he ate these once he got home). We would not have gotten these if it weren't for DDP. $2.95

2 snack credits for $7.35

 

[smiths02]

We were leaving and had 2 CS meals to use. We already had dinner for the road trip from France (the previous day), so I decided to get lunch for the next day (I broke up the drive home into 2 days).

Meal 1
32 oz unsweet tea (I needed caffeine to drive)
Ham N Cheese (a decent sandwich-Panera is better)
Cinnamon Roll (had these a few days later, it was okay)

Meal 2
Honest T
Turkey Swiss Sand
Fruit Tart (again, not as good as local farmer's market)

Total was $29.12

I would not have purchased all these food if not on DDP, but it was pretty good

 

[smiths02]

2 adults, 1 child on DDP (peak season)
Total Cost $544.85

TS meals
$402.81

CS meals
$215.56

Snacks
$57.77

$676.14

Total "saved" $131.29

$131 seems like a lot, but there was at least $90 worth of food that I just took on the road with us.

We had "free" dining so we only paid $135 to upgrade to peak season DDP, but we got $676.14 worth of food. Basically, we got a discount of $541. So it was still a good deal.

However, as much as this vacation was wonderful, I felt stressed to use my credits and eat more in the end.

DH said that we could stay at the Poly next trip (maybe in 3 years or so)...so I will be hoping for some kind of room discount and probably just pay OOP for food. I don't want to be worried about credits or feel that I need to eat at WPE instead of T-Rex or not get my caramel apple b/c it doesn't count as a snack credit, etc.