The Aussietravellers Adventures continue... Updated - Day 26 - Part 1

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

50's Prime Time Cafe looks fun, we are eating there later in the trip so thanks for the great photos. The Boma food looks awesome, we are having breakfast there on our last day and I think it will be amazing.

 

[aussietravellers]

YAY for Animal Kingdom and FOOD! I read a lot of reviews about how some Dis-ers are disappointed with the food at AK. Perhaps there are really only two decent places to eat at AK but I loved the breakfast at Tusker House; and we eat at Yak and Yeti for lunch as well. My only complaint about Y&Y food is that it can be a little bit sweet. Not sure why people don't like food at this park ?

And I think the other character with Baloo is King Louie (I wanna talk like you, I wanna walk like you.....)

How fantastic to have a Melbourne DisMeet at AK. Hope to see pictures of you and Kyl????

Ah yes, it was King Louie, thank you Just couldn't remember the name, I am getting old after all, turning 40 Memory must be going

Do you know, Kyl and I didn't actually get a photo together. We were racing in to the table and our server was waiting and then when we chatted at the buffet, no camera in hand (what was I thinking, I take the camera everywhere ) and then we didn't see them again. I am not sure if they are still here or have moved on to their next stop.

Yay, another update! The baby gorilla and elephant are soooooo cute! I love baby animals (Who doesn't?) But wow!

I definitely have Tusker House on my ADR list and I think we will do Yak & Yeti too. My DS LOVES honey chicken and we all love asian food!

The baby animals were just gorgeous, I could watch them for ages, they are always so cute. That honey chicken was so good! I had the lomein but will be having the honey chicken when we go back to Yak & Yeti with our friends next week.

Hmmm yum. Yak and Yeti looks delicious. We are eating lunch there our first day so your photos were wonderful to see. Love your shot of the entrance.

I am already taking lots of food porn, can't wait to get to WDW to capture more.

Love the animal shots, that little ellie baby made me smile

I can't wait to see all of your photos, mine are ok, but just basic I hope you saw the baby animals on your safari and walks around AK.

I have to be honest and say that I was looking forward to AK the least. I think I've changed my mind!

Oh and thanks to everyone who provided tips for Mary Poppins sightings.

Oh Shushh, AK is great, we love it there. There are beautiful trees and it's a lovely park. They have done every thing so well and it feels very authentic walking through the different areas

Mmm...7am is too early to be craving honey chicken LOL. Glad the food was great, and wow, that baby gorilla is SO cute!

No it is never too early to be craving honey chicken!

I think a lot of Americans are very very very cautious about food, Chinese is a bit too out there for some of them! I remember last time at Y&Y there were so many people sitting around us asking for 'something normal'. I thought the Y&Y food was very American Chinese (very sweet) I had been hoping there would be something a little be Nepalese, since it was meant to be Nepal rather than China, but no. Y&Y is run by the same people as the Rainforest Cafe and T-Rex at Downtown Disney.

Yes we knew Y&Y is a Landry restaurant, but we like Rainforest and TRex, have always had good meals and service at them. Love Y&Y too

Yay! It looks like you've had a wonderful time. Love your New York pics. So glad you made it to Magnolia Bakery (yum). We just got back from WDW Sunday! Enjoy the rest of your stay. Keep the updates coming.

Thanks Amy, yes we loved NY and I had a couple of visits to Magnolia Bakery, well actually I ended up having a third after my second visit ended up all over the floor when I knocked them over I hope you had a great trip to WDW and did you go on a cruise also?

 

[aussietravellers]

50's Prime Time Cafe looks fun, we are eating there later in the trip so thanks for the great photos. The Boma food looks awesome, we are having breakfast there on our last day and I think it will be amazing.

Oh I hope you have fun at 50's. Don't go expecting to have the best quality meal of your life The food is really average, but the dining experience is so much fun. It's a must do for us.

Boma is just delicious I really hope you enjoy it. Good quality food and delicious, the baked ham and baked turkey were so good..... Enjoy!
mmmm I'm hungry, must hurry up and get to Kouzzina for breaky

Sounds like you're having a fabulous time! Take care of the neck.

We are having a fab time. Just a bit slow on the updates and I am getting further and further behind, but haven't had as much time to update, we always seem to be rushing off to do something

 

[Jade+3]

Yay, more photo's!! You are really selling me on the dining plan, more for the atmosphere than the food though.

 

[aussietravellers]

So I have jumped forward a few days. Not going to report on our full day at Blizzard Beach, will do that in order, but I just wanted to jump forward to our afternoon's activity from this afternoon. The food and wine festival! It started today and I have been desperate to try a lamington! We are so tired after being at Blizzard Beach today but as I had seen the Australia stall and knew it was just a couple of minutes walk inside the international gateway from our hotel room, we just ran out to grab a lamington. Well that one lamington ended up being a walk the entire way around the World Showcase sampling several things. We are now back in the room resting for dinner Luckily our ADR is late tonight.

So we ventured into the world showcase and the Australia stall is just past Morocco. Here is a picture of our Aussie stall.

The Menu

Some of the lamb under the heater waiting to be purchased

Aussie wines on display

So all we ordered was a lamington each. Didn't try the lamb or the barra. Now people were standing looking at the menu saying "what's barramundi", I chirped "it's a delicious fish", so they lined up (Disney should have employed me to do their sales ) Anyway was sort of expecting that they would have cast members from the country they were serving the food in, like when you go to Italy pavillion it's all italians etc. But no, not an Aussie in sight. So we paid for our lamington, then moved across the line to collect it.

This is what was placed before us. Oh we said (the coconut was much larger than we are used to but ok, it's still coconut ). Now we are big laminton eaters. We eat them often, favourite is from Brumby's bakery but really am quite fond of any type of lamington. Love them on their own or with jam in the middle or even with some icecream. YUM.

So we bit into this lamingon and it was SO heavy, a very heavy dense cake, unlike a true lamington that is supposed to be light and fluffy and it didn't have chocolate the whole way round. If I had thrown that at somebodies head I would have knocked them out Where as most of you know, if you threw an Aussie lamington at somebody (not that I have ever done that by the way ), but it's so soft it would just crumble away. Not this brick, it would have stayed together and just knocked them out It also left a terrible after taste in our mouth, we only had a couple of bites each. Actually DS (who LOVES lamingtons) had one bite and said "YUK" and threw it in the bin beside him!

So here are some photos of the lamington.

DS wanted to look at Japan to see if there were any new transformers or bakugan there and we could just not get that lamington taste out of our mouthes, so I looked at the menu and just ahead was Germany, then had "Spaetzle Gratin with Ham and Cheese" Now I have had this in Europe many many times and yum yum yum, so I said lets head there, I love Spaetzle that will get rid of the taste. But as we were walking there we passed Italy and saw a Ravioli with creamy bolognaise sauce Confused by how a bolognaise sauce could be creamy, and my love of ravioli, I decided to give it a whirl. Oh dear, it was ok, no nasty aftertaste but it reminded me or airline food. You know how it's been sitting in the warmer for quite a while. Here's a picture.

So it was not looking good, two dishes so far and both duds. So off we went to Germany and got my Spaetzle. It was nothing and I mean nothing like any Spaetzle I have ever had in Germany, Austria or anywhere else for that matter and they must have tipped in about half a bottle of salt! so again after about three bites into the bin it went.
Here it is...

That was it for me, I'd had enough, I was not impressed so far and we continued around as DS wanted a Churro from the Mexico stall. Success, he gobbled the whole thing down.

Then we walked past and saw the Desserts and Champagne and there was a thing called a Dark Chocolate Sensation. Now if this thing tasted as good as it sounded and looked (I saw them walking away from that stall, calling my name ) OMG....... It was out of this world!!!! So good! Very rich, but it was tiny, about two mouthfuls but so good!
Here is the Dark Chocolate Sensation (and a sensation it was!)

Walking along we passed the New Zealand stall but didn't try anything. Still here for 12 nights so plenty of time.

So we ended on a good note! Walking past the shop I picked up a copy of the food and wine festival cookbook which had some yummy recipes in it (if anybody wants to see what recipes are inside, let me know and I'll take a photo and post it below) and then passed the Charcuterie & Cheese. I spied a cheese fondue I lived in Switzerland for a little while and I absolutely love cheese fondue and have eaten lots of them. So my mouth was watering. Well it was OK. The potatoes were cold, they were warm on the outside but quite cold in the middle. But the cheese was ok, not fabulous but it was ok.
Cheese Fondue with Croutons and Roasted Potatoes

So all in all I was a little surprised by the food that we tried. Not at good or authentic as I was expecting but to be fair I sampled only a few things out of dozens! So maybe I just chose the not so great dishes. I will go back and try more and I will certainly be back for that chocolate sensation at the dessert stall.

Can't try the wine sadly. With some of the medications I'm on for my torn artery drinking is a no no, so just have to stick with the food. But I'm busting to see Taylor Dane who is on tonight and for the next two nights, hope we get time to go!

Now after all that food, I hope it settle quickly as we have a yummy dinner at Yachtmans Steak House tonight (not a good idea going to a food and wine festival for afternoon tea with a big dinner planned but we are on holidays right so eating is important ) So that's my first little review of the food and wine festival.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks for the update on F&W. I had been hanging out on the boards last night and checking out the blog. BTW - the blog really raves about the food.

Sadly, I had suspected that the Lamington was going to be a NOT affair; but I must say that I am surprised to read about so many other NOTs!

Oh well, I might have to stick with my backup plan of eating at the tried and tested places for the main meals and reserving the F&W for 'strategic snacking'. Back to tweaking my budget spreadsheet with more Disney Fuzzy Maths and upping the amount I'll be spending on food at Epcot. Thank goodness the dollar is GREAT and I will be topping up the travel card with a few more dollars this weekend.

And I'd be interested to see the recipe book. How much is it?

 

[aussietravellers]

Thanks for the update on F&W. I had been hanging out on the boards last night and checking out the blog. BTW - the blog really raves about the food.

Sadly, I had suspected that the Lamington was going to be a NOT affair; but I must say that I am surprised to read about so many other NOTs!

Oh well, I might have to stick with my backup plan of eating at the tried and tested places for the main meals and reserving the F&W for 'strategic snacking'. Back to tweaking my budget spreadsheet with more Disney Fuzzy Maths and upping the amount I'll be spending on food at Epcot. Thank goodness the dollar is GREAT and I will be topping up the travel card with a few more dollars this weekend.

And I'd be interested to see the recipe book. How much is it?

The recipe book was $14.95 and I got 20% off with my AP

I will take a couple of photos of the cover and the contents pages after dinner and post them tonight.

Maybe it's just my tastes Really I am not sure and as I said, I only tried 6 items out of dozens! So of the 6, there were three I would never have again , one that was ok and I'd consider it if the potatoes were hot as they should have been and I would (and will) be eating again from the dessert and champagne stall . But although my Spaetzle was not very good, the sausage and pretzel looked delicious (but I'd already paid and didn't want to line up again)! Some of the other dishes sounded yummy too but haven't seen or tasted them yet, Singapore and South Korea looked yummy, so I will give them a go next.

But we won't use it as a meal, it will be for snacking.

Just realised our ADR for dinner is an hour earlier than I realised, it's in 20 minutes Lucky I checked and lucky it's just downstairs so we don't have to take a bus or taxi being this late .

 

[aussietravellers]

And I'd be interested to see the recipe book. How much is it?

Here it is
Cover

Contents

 

[PrincessInOz]

aussietravellers - thanks so much for posting the pictures. I think this one is going to end up in my bag.
And the good news is that I had allocated $50 for purchasing a cookbook. So, either I can get another one or I have extra money for food or something else.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

aussietravellers thanks so much for the F&W review. We were in Epcot tonight but haven't tried any of the food yet. We were there purely for Taylor Dayne. We caught the 6.30 show and loved it so much we went back and watched the 7.45 show. She can really sing, did not miss a note. Lots of fun and I highly recommend you make time to go....

Next up Kool and the Gang on Monday night.

Sorry the food wasn't great. We plan on starting our food and drink crawl on Sunday, wish us luck

 

[aussiegirls]

Seriously, how did they dare call that thing a lamington - it was half naked!!!!

I think the rest of the world already thinks that Aussies have no taste because they don't understand how to spread vegemite properly - now that pathetic excuse for a lamington is being passed of as one of our fave dishes

Oh dear, at least we all know the truth

xxx

 

[kiwigirl]

How disappointing for you to have so many dud tastings! Not selling the countries food properly is it? I laughed at you having the lamingtons - we love them here too, soft spongy and delicious! How could they get it so wrong! Loving your journey, and feeling very hungry now!

 

[glara]

That is some freaky looking lamington!

But, no shrimp on the Aussie stand? I am waiting to see what's on the Kiwi menu, probably lamb...and pavlova. No, wait that's an Aussie dish, eh?

 

[aussietravellers]

aussietravellers - thanks so much for posting the pictures. I think this one is going to end up in my bag.
And the good news is that I had allocated $50 for purchasing a cookbook. So, either I can get another one or I have extra money for food or something else.

You're Welcome It is a nice little cookbook. mmmm for $50 you may get another book but the extra money for food would suit me But I love my food

aussietravellers thanks so much for the F&W review. We were in Epcot tonight but haven't tried any of the food yet. We were there purely for Taylor Dayne. We caught the 6.30 show and loved it so much we went back and watched the 7.45 show. She can really sing, did not miss a note. Lots of fun and I highly recommend you make time to go....

Next up Kool and the Gang on Monday night.

Sorry the food wasn't great. We plan on starting our food and drink crawl on Sunday, wish us luck

Oh I am so jealous you say Taylor Dayne and not just once but twice! We could have caught the first showing but were so tired after our already long day and people were already lined up for that show when we walked past and it was an hour to go. We have wishes cruise tonight and then my DS's party with friends (and a friend of his from school who is over here) on Sunday night so I may end up missing her altogether Oh well!

I hope you enjoy your food and drink crawl on Sunday, I think the drink crawl part will be successful, looks like lots of lovely choices all around and for the food, well just stay away from the ones I chose, or no you should really all give the lamington a try, share one as you don't want to waste the money on one each, trust me But if you like desserts, do not miss the desserts and champagne stall, it's near mexico, SO GOOD!

Seriously, how did they dare call that thing a lamington - it was half naked!!!!

I think the rest of the world already thinks that Aussies have no taste because they don't understand how to spread vegemite properly - now that pathetic excuse for a lamington is being passed of as one of our fave dishes

Oh dear, at least we all know the truth

xxx

I KNOW!!! How dare they! When I first bit into it, the flavour was not great but the texture, just not what I had been waiting for the last 10 days as I walked past the yet to open Aussie stall So it's been a big build up with a big letdown, then to turn it over and see it isn't even finished, no chocolate on the bottom People were gobbling down the lamb, so it may be good. Wish they had a vegemite sandwich there actually but as there aren't any aussies working in the stall I bet they would have that stuff pasted on so thick it would make everybodies eyes water

How disappointing for you to have so many dud tastings! Not selling the countries food properly is it? I laughed at you having the lamingtons - we love them here too, soft spongy and delicious! How could they get it so wrong! Loving your journey, and feeling very hungry now!

Yes the lamington really was disappointing after we had seen the buildings set up for days and spied where Australia was so was so excited about having a lamington.

That is some freaky looking lamington!

But, no shrimp on the Aussie stand? I am waiting to see what's on the Kiwi menu, probably lamb...and pavlova. No, wait that's an Aussie dish, eh?

glara, I don't think the Kiwi stall even had a dessert, but they do have lamb . They only have Seared sea scallop with vegetable slaw and lemon oil and Lamb slider with tomato chutney and they had the kiwi working at the dessert and champagne stall near by I said to her, "I thought they would have you at the kiwi stall".

 

[aussietravellers]

So after our absolutely delicious breakfast at Boma it was off to Hollywood Studios. We jumped on the bus and to our surprise, on our third day at WDW, we had made our third rope drop

It is not as good as Magic Kingdom rope drop. They let people about 3/4's of the way up the main street towards the large hat then a guy comes out in a vehicle (like a movie producer or director) and he gets us to countdown then opens the park.

Then the rush is on....... everybody together and they ask you to walk and not run. They have most areas roped off and herd everybody in the longest direction. Where is everybody going???? Toy Story Mania.

Now I found it ridiculous that the park was open now officially and asked why we had to go this long way and it's because the other ways have stairs and they don't want this herd of traffic on the stairs so they direct them the way that is all pathway! So we get to toy story mania and there is a line a mile long so we are about to join that line when we realise that's the fastpass line What the? So we continued on, following the rest of the herd and filed into Toy Story Mania. OH I do love this ride, I think it's my favourite! The actual line design is much better at WDW than DL. It's inside so it's aircon, but it's so well designed, so cute, so much to look at. I loved it! Good thing about the line is that it was moving, so whilst walking pretty slowly, we actually did not stop walking and it did take 10 minutes but we walked straight onto the ride (it's a blooming long line!)

And.... I won

But really it did not disappoint. Once we were off the ride we then went and grabbed fastpasses for later in the day (no line for fastpass now!) We then wandered along and went on the Studio Tour, no line there either which was good, the rest of Hollywood studios was lined up for Toy Story so the rest of the park was dead That tour was ok, I enjoyed seeing some of the behind the scenes areas, like the costume making area. It's fantastic, where they whip up a Mickey or Minnie costume in a flash. Saw Herbie (the car) whole and in half and a plane that Walt used to fly in.
They shot some movie scene at the beginning that was a little corny but show how some things in movies are made which was interesting. Here's a scene of a guy in a sub being flooded with water.

Here's another scene where an oil taker explodes and then water starts gushing down towards us

That was quite good.

After that we went to the muppet show which was quite good, I love the muppets but having seen the show a number of times, it was really just filling in time until the Indiana Jones show. Once that had finished we raced over the Indiana Jones show and it was standing room only. Too bad we thought, we will just stand there with a few other people, not many. Well nobody turned up in the disabled area so they sat us there! Great seats.

When that show finished it was time for our lunch ADR at....

Sci-Fi is my DS's favourite restaurant. He loves sitting in the cars.
Some scenes from inside the restaurant (sorry they are not great! but gives those who haven't been there an idea on what it's like). It's set up like a drive in with a diner at the back of the room.

We had yummy milkshakes

Then the spinach and artichoke dip, that was nice but not as nice as I remember.

Followed by... (nothing has been eaten off that plate, it comes looking kind of bare like that)

and

The food was all ok, nothing that would send me rushing back, but it was not bad, great atmosphere, it's really fun sitting in the dark, with the movie playing and feeling like you are in some 50's drive in.

After lunch we had a wander around, looking at some shops, making some purchases and then it was time to use our..

After that we had had enough and didn't have an awful lot more to do, so decided to go back to the hotel for a rest. I am medically not allowed to ride any rides with warnings, so sadly TOT and Rock and roller coaster was out. We will go back later for lights motor action and fantasmic another day. So off we go and there is an AKL bus waiting for us so we hop straight on and back to the hotel for the afternoon for laundry and a rest.

 

[aussietravellers]

After our afternoon rest it was off to DTD for dinner. So we made the trek from our room to the bus stop at AKL and took the DTD bus. We arrived at the marketplace

with about 5 minutes to spare and went straight to....

Here are some pics from inside the restaurant for anybody who has not been there.

We love Rainforest Cafe, have never had a bad meal there or service there. It can be really busy but that add's to the atmosphere.

This is what we ate.....
Started off with spinach and artichoke dip which was absolutely delicious, as good as I have had at other rainforest cafes and much much nicer than the one I had at lunch at Sci-Fi!

For main I had a caeser salad

DS had shrimp

And for dessert....... The Volcano

Oh I can tell you that the volcano was absolutely delicious! SO GOOD! We didn't get through half of it, but it's vanilla icecream in the middle, with chocolate brownie stacked around the outside, then with another scoop of vanilla icecream and whipped cream (not fresh but the american can variety ) then it is covered with warm caramel fudge and hot chocolate fudge. It was just SO delicious!

Another great meal at Rainforest Cafe.

After dinner we had a wander around DTD, made a couple of purchases and then caught the bus back to the hotel.

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a fabulous day! For some reason, I love the Indiana Jones show, so that was a great picture you posted. Sometimes I can't work out if it is Indie that I love or Harrison Ford....

YAY for TSM! And you got a good score. I can whoop everyone in the family on the Buzz Lightyear Astro blasters at DLR but I complete suck at TSM.

I've never eaten at Sci Fi Dine In. It sure looks fun for pure ambiance and the food looks like it is typical of DHS.
Great looking meal at RFC. We always try and eat there at least once in every trip.

 

[aussiegirls]

Hmmmm. that kids meal at Sci Fi Dine In looks quite sad doesn't it!!!!

We attempted the volcano at RFC last year. Just try and picture a mum and 2 very small little girls sitting in front of that and trying to eat it - I don't think we even made a dent. But the girls thought it was worth it because it meant the waitresses sang to us

xxx

 

[aussietravellers]

I can't seem to find any of my photos from day 11. Maybe that's because we didn't end up doing much this day, but we did go to Chef Mickey's for breakfast. If I find the photos I'll add them later.

So up we got and took a taxi from AKL over to Contempory resort as we didn't quite have enough time to take the bus (didn't want to be late). We arrived in plenty of time for our 8.30am ADR. We checked in and were taken for the photo at the front which we declined like we did at the Polynesian! You just stand infront of some fake background, it if was a real character we would have, but I knew we were not going to buy the photo so there was no point in getting the photo!

Eventually our pager went off and we were seated. We had a lovely waitress and off we went to the buffet. Now I am not even sure if I took any photos of the food. It was really very very basic! A major disappointment food wise after our delicious meal at Boma the day before. I had some rockmelon and it was as it's name suggests, rock hard So not ripe and not enjoyable! Had some scrambled eggs, SO SALTY! Had some donut holes, yes they are krispy kreme and I love krispy kreme! They were delicious, had a banana and a mickey waffle and that was about it. Characters came around, did they photo and off they moved. Donald just plain walked straight past us as our waitress was at our table. I mentioned it to her and she said that he was just going for change over "he'll be back", but he was not coming back He was in another room. So on our way out we stopped in the room and one of the handlers bought Donald over for a photo.

But that was our meal, not very exciting... I honestly don't see what all the hype is about Chef Mickey's. The food is very basic (for breakfast anyway) compared to some of the other character meals (Tusker House, Cape May's, Ohana's, Crystal Palace).

I have just read Ms.Shuttergirls report of the Contempory Resort and I have to agree. After staying somewhere like AKL where the themeing is just so amazing, I find the CR to be just like any other modern hotel, it doesn't have a great Disney feel to me, walking into the lobby it just feels like I was in Sydney or NY. Once upstairs with the monorail going through, that is pretty cool, but aside from that, it's not high on our must stay list, actually it's not even on the must stay list

After breakfast we wandered around the shops. I was not feeling great that day, my neck was very sore, after our busy first few days at WDW, so luckily this was our planned rest day, well not specifically a rest day but I had left it as a blank day for shopping/waterpark/resort time, so we went back to the hotel and spent the day at the resort, where we did some laundry, went to the pool, posted on Dis. It was a very relaxing day!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I hope your neck is feeling better now.
Nice that you had a rest/laundry day!

I think CR gets good wraps because it is a monorail resort and because you can walk to MK from this resort. But it's not high on my list to stay, although the new Villa complex does look fantastic.