The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Menus - 4/2013: La Hacienda COMPLETE! 7/26

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Hi there ! We're just back from 9 nights at WDW (April 13-22) with lots and lots of yummy eating that I'm excited to share with you!

I made quite a few changes to our dining plans on the fly once we were down there. I had great luck using the Mobile Magic app to book new reservations just a couple of hours in advance. Several times I said to myself, "tell me again why I got up at 6 a.m. 180 days ago?!" But all's well that ends well and we had some really great meals this trip.

A little bit about us, we are a party of three: me, DH and our DD (age 8). We were not on the dining plan this trip and we did a split stay POR/BC.

As a starting point, I'll list out our original plans and I'll note how things changed as I go through my reviews (changes now indicated in blue).

Day 1 Saturday:
Arrive and wing it for dinner at DTD (ended up at Epcot with dinner at Biergarten)

Day 2 Sunday:
Be Our Guest dinner

Day 3 Monday:
Yak n Yeti lunch; DTD dinner

Day 4 Tuesday:
Epcot F&GF food booths for lunch; San Angel Inn dinner (switched to Marrakesh)

Day 5 Wednesday:
'Ohana breakfast; Kouzzina dinner (switched to Beaches and Cream)

Day 6 Thursday:
Sci-Fi lunch, Hurricane Hannah’s dinner (switched to HH lunch and 50s PTC dinner)

Day 7 Friday:
Via Napoli lunch, date night Tutto Gusto and La Cava del Tequila

Day 8 Saturday:
Cape May breakfast, Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party

Day 9 Sunday:
Restaurant Marrakesh lunch (switched to La Hacienda dinner)

I hope you enjoy my report!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Day 1

We arrived at POR at around 12:30 p.m. The original plan was to head to Downtown Disney but we were all feeling fairly energetic, in-spite of the early wake-up, and the weather was decent so we decided to head over to Epcot instead.

One big item on my dining "to do" list for this trip was to hit the new food booths that were introduced at the Flower & Garden Festival. The first booth we passed had the Dole Whips with spiced rum, which sounded really great right about then , but I decided that since I hadn't had anything of substance to eat all day I'd better hold off.

The next booth we came upon was the Florida Fresh booth:

There were a couple of items I wanted to try here so we got in line and ordered a Strawberry Slush for DD:

And DH and I shared the Shrimp with Grits and Watermelon Salad:

The shrimp with grits was a nice sized portion and served nice and hot. It also had a bit of a spicy kick to it! The watermelon salad was really refreshing, the balsamic was very good quality and I liked the combination of the sweet balsamic and watermelon against the tangy feta cheese.

As we walked on in search of more booths (specifically one that had something DD would enjoy), we quickly realized that fatigue was starting to catch up with us and we probably didn't have the stamina to continue on with the booths. Sitting down for a meal sounded much more appealing so I hopped on the Mobile Magic site and was pleased to see there were plenty of options for an early dinner. First I booked Chefs de France, by then I had a head slap moment realizing we were having French food the next night, so I cancelled that and booked Biergarten for 4:30 p.m. I was excited to have a second shot at Biergarten as the last time we'd eaten there (first meal of our April 2012 trip) I wasn't feeling well so I didn't get to really fully experience the food options.

 

[starousse]

Joining in.

 

[wilma-bride]

I'm in. You're off to a great start and I love the title of your reviews

 

[Lauralooneyfordisney]

Great start.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

I am in!

 

[jpessa]

Subbed

 

[RachaelA]

Good start!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Joining in.

Yay! My first reader!

I'm in. You're off to a great start and I love the title of your reviews

Thanks! I'm glad you like the title - I was wracking my brain for something clever .

Great start.

Thank you!

I am in!

Yay! Thanks!

Subbed

Good start!

Thanks so much!


I'll have my Biergarten review up tomorrow. Have a good night everyone!

 

[jecskc]

Joining in !! We loved the shrimp and grits, too !!

 

[jacksmom]

Can't wait for more!

 

[jedijill]

I'm in!

Jill in CO

 

[MamaJessie]

Great title, looking forward to reading more!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Joining in !! We loved the shrimp and grits, too !!

The shrimp and grits were so good! And I thought the portion size was really generous for the price!

Can't wait for more!

Thank you! More coming right up !

I'm in!

Thanks for joining in!

Jill in CO

Great title, looking forward to reading more!

Thanks so much!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Day 1, Part 2: Dinner at Biergarten

We headed over to Germany shortly before 4:30 and checked in at Biergarten.

Our buzzer went off right on time and we were shown to our table. Like last year, we were seated on the lowest level, right near the railing by the stage/dance floor. We had a nice view of the waterwheel from our seat:

And of course a great viewing spot for the show:

I have to mention that we had the nicest table mates you could ask for! The sweetest couple from the UK, their two small kids and the wife's brother. We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them and it really enhanced our experience!

The dining room was pretty empty when we got there but I had seen there was a very large group of high school senior trippers just about to get seated so I figured it was a good time to hot-foot it up to the buffet before the crowds!

Here's my first plate:

Starting at the top and going around to the right I had: pretzel bread, pork schnitzel, brusell sprouts, mac n cheese, sausage (can't remember which one), warm potato salad, roasted potatoes, green beans, cold garbanzo bean salad and in the middle was spatzle. Everything was so good!!

My favorites were the schnitzel (although I found years chicken schnitzel more tender than this year's pork), spatzle and the garbanzo bean salad. The pretzel bread is also a staple not to be missed! When I made a trip up to get some dessert for DD, I noticed that there was cheddar cheese soup and was kicking myself for missing that the first time! I couldn't leave without checking it out (you know, research purposes to compare it to Le Cellier) so I took just a smidge and it was quite good. Okay, full disclosure, I also took "just a smidge" more spatzle and schnitzel while I was up there.

We enjoyed the show and conversation for a while and even though I was stuffed, I couldn't leave without something sweet. My choices from the dessert bar were berry compote, apple strudel and pear cake.

I have to admit, I wasn't wowed by the desserts. The berry compote was my favorite of the three and the other two were just "meh" for me.

I'm so happy that we decided to go back to Biergarten. I enjoyed it last year inspite of not feeling well, but being able to fully enjoy all the food offerings made me like it even that much more! This is definitely one we'll return to.

Tomorrow's update will be our first MK day including Be Our Guest!!

 

[wilma-bride]

So glad you liked your table mates - we UK people are very sweet, you know

Biergarten looks like a great option. I really think we would love it. I lived in Germany as a teen and always loved the German food.

Am looking forward to more

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

So glad you liked your table mates - we UK people are very sweet, you know

Biergarten looks like a great option. I really think we would love it. I lived in Germany as a teen and always loved the German food.

Am looking forward to more

You are indeed!!!

Definitely give Biergarten a try, I think you will be pleased!

 

[bluejasmine]

YAY! New food porn! LOL Enjoying it!! Cant wait for more!

 

[Fairy Floss]

Joining in - really interested in the concept of booking on the day with MDE

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

YAY! New food porn! LOL Enjoying it!! Cant wait for more!

Thanks for joining in! I'm glad to contribute!!!

Joining in - really interested in the concept of booking on the day with MDE

Thank you! I was surprised how well we did making last minute ADRs.