Abra Cat
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2002
- Messages
- 793
We just got back Saturday from our week-long Disney trip. We stayed at the AKL, which was lovely, as always. We did the dining plan, for which our family of 5 (which included our kids, ages 8, 6, and 2) paid $540, and ordered approximately $700 worth of food and drink.
Here's where we ate:
Sunday-- Arrival day. We arrived mid-afternoon and used 4 snack credits at Mara for chips, 2 ice creams, and a soda. For dinner we ate at Boma, which had absolutely incredible chicken corn porridge. I could have eaten just that and been happy, but everything else was wonderful as well. My husband particularly liked the prime rib at the carving station, and we all loved the desserts. Oh, by the way-- my 8 year old daughter and I did the culinary tour of Jiko and Boma that afternoon before dinner, and really enjoyed it. We got to sample breads and dips at Jiko and soups and zebra domes at Boma, plus listened to the chefs talk about the food.
Monday-- We got breakfast at Mara, an adult breakfast platter and a child's breakfast platter, which was plenty for all of us to share. The biscuits were very good, as was the scrambled eggs. The potatoes were a little cold and had obviously been sitting a while. For lunch, we had an 11AM ADR for the Plaza, but wanted to try Pinocchio's, but we didn't want to miss ice cream at the Plaza, so we ate dessert at 11 and lunch at 3 (hey, it's vacation!). We shared 3 brownie sundaes, which we paid for out of pocket. Later, at Pinocchio's, we shared a pizza combo meal, a turkey panini (yum!), Figaro fries (OOP), chocolate cake, and a cannoli. It was all surprisingly good, and the restaurant was quiet and mostly empty. Dinner was Mara, which we took back to our room so we could watch Arrested Development (please watch-- it's an awesome show, but it's about to be cancelled. Mondays at 8, on Fox!), where my kids shared a pizza, I ate the butternut squash soup (mmm!) they got as a side, and my husband got the fish and chips, which he said was good. Dessert was zebra domes and chocolate mousse crunch-- soooo good!
Tuesday-- Breakfast at Mara again; same items as above, except we replaced the child's breakfast platter with a Mickey waffle and also got a bagel sandwich. Everything was good, including the potatoes this time. Lunch was at the Earl of Sandwich, where my daughter and I split Le Frenchy, which strangely was a bit spicy on the half she ate, but not on mine. My husband had the jerk chicken, and my sons shared a PBJ. Dessert was a brownie and cake, which we saved for later, since we were next heading to Ghirardelli. There my sons and I shared a Cable Car and my daughter and husband shared a Foghorn. The boys and I definitely got the better end of the deal, as my husband thought there was too much raspberry sauce and not enough hot fudge on theirs. We paid OOP for this, using a "buy one, get one" coupon from the Ghirardelli website. We had dinner at Chef Mickey's, which I thought wasn't as good as I remembered it, although I enjoyed the parmesan mashed potatoes, the breads, and the desserts (yay, carbs!). My husband and kids liked it fine though, and once again my husband was thrilled with the prime rib. The character interaction was great, and even my 2 year old was excited to see the characters (rather than terrified).
Wednesday-- Breakfast at Mara again, same items as Tuesday. Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, where we shared the 1/2 chicken and the ribs, along with fries, key lime pie, and chocolate cake. Everything was good, and we enjoyed the view of Expedition Everest from the lakeside gazebo. Dinner was Boma again, but I wasn't feeling well before dinner and didn't eat much, other than the grilled chicken (very good) and chocolate mousse crunch (I don't care how sick I feel-- I'm not missing an opportunity to eat these!). I was disappointed there was no chicken corn porridge or butternut squash soup on the buffet. I can't even remember what my husband and kids ate-- pretty much a little/lot of everything. My daughter DID go crazy over the passionfruit meringues, though. I have the recipe-- I'm going to surprise her with it sometime soon.
Thursday-- Breakfast at Boma. We LOVED the frunch! I'm not a big juice drinker, but this was really good. Another one I plan to make at home. My husband had pork loin from the carving station, which he enjoyed. I had waffles and my kids had pancakes, all of which were good. The pastries were excellent, as was the breakfast pizza (cheese, eggs, and bacon), and the quinoa, which I had for the first time. The flavor was great, but the texture probably takes some getting used to. I kept thinking about sawdust while eating it. For lunch we wound up eating at Pinocchio's again-- same meals as we had Monday-- but the turkey panini wasn't as good. There was plenty of turkey, but very little cheese, and only a tiny piece of roasted red pepper. Dinner was Pizza Planet, where we shared 3 combo meals and cookies for dessert. Good as always. We were very disappointed that the Osborne Lights, which we'd planned to see after dinner, had been canceled due to rain (which had stopped hours before, but whatever).
Friday-- Breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Great character interaction, as we were there at 7AM. We had a little of everything, all of which was very good, but tried not to overdo it, as we were heading to Epcot to eat around the World for lunch. There, we had chocolate in Canada (very disappointed Trapper Bob's is closed-- no more pretzel bread, at least until we get around to trying Le Cellier), chips in the UK (a bit undercooked, plus my husband was in line 20 minutes), chocolate mousse in France (yum!), chocolate rugalach in Moracco (I wanted baklava, but my daughter begged for the rugalach-- it had a strawberry filling. It wasn't terrible, but not great, either), kaki gori in Japan (we got 2 and all fought over them-- should have gotten more), nothing in the US (we decided to skip the food, as we eat it all the time), cappuccino and biscotti in Italy, with chocolate gelato for the kids (I didn't get to try the gelato, but it was gone pretty quickly. The cappuccino and biscotti were both good, especially when dunking), in Germany a pretzel for the kids and me and a beer and frankfurter for my husband (pretzel was a bit cold, but I heard no complaints from my husband-- perhaps because his mouth was full). After this, the rain was coming down pretty hard (did I mention there was rain? Because there was.), and it'd been a long day, so we headed out without hitting the other countries, except for a quick stop in China to try the bubble tea I'd read so much about here. It was different than I expected-- I didn't know it was mocha-flavored-- but very good, and I'd definitely try it again. My husband was nauseated by the tapioca pearls, but my daughter loved them. I was sad to miss the other countries (particularly the school bread in Norway), but it was too cold and wet to continue, and we were so bedraggled we had lots of repairs to do before dinner. Which was at Jiko. We were looking forward to this dinner, and it did not disappoint. I started with the bacon-arugula tomato flatbread, and it was WONDERFUL. My husband ordered the cucumber tomato and red onion salad, which didn't appeal to me as I'm not a cucumber fan, but I tried some and it was terrific. So sweet! I'd definitely order it for myself next time, although maybe not if it meant I couldn't have the flatbread... My entree was the chermoula roasted chicken, and it was very good, especially the mashed potatoes that went with it. My husband had the filet mignon, and he said it was to die for. He also liked the mac and cheese that was with it. The kids weren't very hungry, so they shared the carrots, celery, and peanut butter for an appetizer, and then had the pizza, which they said was good, but not as good as mommy's.
Dessert was the Jiko sundae for my husband, which he shared with the boys. My daughter had the make your own s'mores, which she wasn't impressed with (I think the chocolate wasn't very spreadable). She said it wasn't what she was expecting, although what she was expecting, I don't know. And I... I had the pistachio creme brulee. Oh, so good! I don't think I spoke more than 10 words while I was eating it-- it seemed like a time for silence. I shared a very little bit with my daughter, and she thought it was very good, too.
Saturday-- Departure day. We left around 8AM, but first used up our final counter service and snack credits at Mara to stock up for the road. We got a big container of yogurt and granola parfait, a big container of honeydew, sodas, juices, several rice crispy Mickeys, and some muffins.
Throughout the trip-- Various snacks included chips, hot chocolate, water, ice cream, turkey leg (glad I tried it-- now I don't have to again), and Strawberry Swirls, some with plan credits, and some OOP.
Lessons learned-- There was plenty of food for all of us, even when sharing meals. I don't think I had a truly "hungry" moment while we were there-- not that that stopped me from eating! I will definitely never again plan a breakfast buffet, eating around the world, and a dinner at Jiko on the same day again, though. Too much food!!!
Wow, this was long!
Here's where we ate:
Sunday-- Arrival day. We arrived mid-afternoon and used 4 snack credits at Mara for chips, 2 ice creams, and a soda. For dinner we ate at Boma, which had absolutely incredible chicken corn porridge. I could have eaten just that and been happy, but everything else was wonderful as well. My husband particularly liked the prime rib at the carving station, and we all loved the desserts. Oh, by the way-- my 8 year old daughter and I did the culinary tour of Jiko and Boma that afternoon before dinner, and really enjoyed it. We got to sample breads and dips at Jiko and soups and zebra domes at Boma, plus listened to the chefs talk about the food.
Monday-- We got breakfast at Mara, an adult breakfast platter and a child's breakfast platter, which was plenty for all of us to share. The biscuits were very good, as was the scrambled eggs. The potatoes were a little cold and had obviously been sitting a while. For lunch, we had an 11AM ADR for the Plaza, but wanted to try Pinocchio's, but we didn't want to miss ice cream at the Plaza, so we ate dessert at 11 and lunch at 3 (hey, it's vacation!). We shared 3 brownie sundaes, which we paid for out of pocket. Later, at Pinocchio's, we shared a pizza combo meal, a turkey panini (yum!), Figaro fries (OOP), chocolate cake, and a cannoli. It was all surprisingly good, and the restaurant was quiet and mostly empty. Dinner was Mara, which we took back to our room so we could watch Arrested Development (please watch-- it's an awesome show, but it's about to be cancelled. Mondays at 8, on Fox!), where my kids shared a pizza, I ate the butternut squash soup (mmm!) they got as a side, and my husband got the fish and chips, which he said was good. Dessert was zebra domes and chocolate mousse crunch-- soooo good!
Tuesday-- Breakfast at Mara again; same items as above, except we replaced the child's breakfast platter with a Mickey waffle and also got a bagel sandwich. Everything was good, including the potatoes this time. Lunch was at the Earl of Sandwich, where my daughter and I split Le Frenchy, which strangely was a bit spicy on the half she ate, but not on mine. My husband had the jerk chicken, and my sons shared a PBJ. Dessert was a brownie and cake, which we saved for later, since we were next heading to Ghirardelli. There my sons and I shared a Cable Car and my daughter and husband shared a Foghorn. The boys and I definitely got the better end of the deal, as my husband thought there was too much raspberry sauce and not enough hot fudge on theirs. We paid OOP for this, using a "buy one, get one" coupon from the Ghirardelli website. We had dinner at Chef Mickey's, which I thought wasn't as good as I remembered it, although I enjoyed the parmesan mashed potatoes, the breads, and the desserts (yay, carbs!). My husband and kids liked it fine though, and once again my husband was thrilled with the prime rib. The character interaction was great, and even my 2 year old was excited to see the characters (rather than terrified).
Wednesday-- Breakfast at Mara again, same items as Tuesday. Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, where we shared the 1/2 chicken and the ribs, along with fries, key lime pie, and chocolate cake. Everything was good, and we enjoyed the view of Expedition Everest from the lakeside gazebo. Dinner was Boma again, but I wasn't feeling well before dinner and didn't eat much, other than the grilled chicken (very good) and chocolate mousse crunch (I don't care how sick I feel-- I'm not missing an opportunity to eat these!). I was disappointed there was no chicken corn porridge or butternut squash soup on the buffet. I can't even remember what my husband and kids ate-- pretty much a little/lot of everything. My daughter DID go crazy over the passionfruit meringues, though. I have the recipe-- I'm going to surprise her with it sometime soon.
Thursday-- Breakfast at Boma. We LOVED the frunch! I'm not a big juice drinker, but this was really good. Another one I plan to make at home. My husband had pork loin from the carving station, which he enjoyed. I had waffles and my kids had pancakes, all of which were good. The pastries were excellent, as was the breakfast pizza (cheese, eggs, and bacon), and the quinoa, which I had for the first time. The flavor was great, but the texture probably takes some getting used to. I kept thinking about sawdust while eating it. For lunch we wound up eating at Pinocchio's again-- same meals as we had Monday-- but the turkey panini wasn't as good. There was plenty of turkey, but very little cheese, and only a tiny piece of roasted red pepper. Dinner was Pizza Planet, where we shared 3 combo meals and cookies for dessert. Good as always. We were very disappointed that the Osborne Lights, which we'd planned to see after dinner, had been canceled due to rain (which had stopped hours before, but whatever).
Friday-- Breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Great character interaction, as we were there at 7AM. We had a little of everything, all of which was very good, but tried not to overdo it, as we were heading to Epcot to eat around the World for lunch. There, we had chocolate in Canada (very disappointed Trapper Bob's is closed-- no more pretzel bread, at least until we get around to trying Le Cellier), chips in the UK (a bit undercooked, plus my husband was in line 20 minutes), chocolate mousse in France (yum!), chocolate rugalach in Moracco (I wanted baklava, but my daughter begged for the rugalach-- it had a strawberry filling. It wasn't terrible, but not great, either), kaki gori in Japan (we got 2 and all fought over them-- should have gotten more), nothing in the US (we decided to skip the food, as we eat it all the time), cappuccino and biscotti in Italy, with chocolate gelato for the kids (I didn't get to try the gelato, but it was gone pretty quickly. The cappuccino and biscotti were both good, especially when dunking), in Germany a pretzel for the kids and me and a beer and frankfurter for my husband (pretzel was a bit cold, but I heard no complaints from my husband-- perhaps because his mouth was full). After this, the rain was coming down pretty hard (did I mention there was rain? Because there was.), and it'd been a long day, so we headed out without hitting the other countries, except for a quick stop in China to try the bubble tea I'd read so much about here. It was different than I expected-- I didn't know it was mocha-flavored-- but very good, and I'd definitely try it again. My husband was nauseated by the tapioca pearls, but my daughter loved them. I was sad to miss the other countries (particularly the school bread in Norway), but it was too cold and wet to continue, and we were so bedraggled we had lots of repairs to do before dinner. Which was at Jiko. We were looking forward to this dinner, and it did not disappoint. I started with the bacon-arugula tomato flatbread, and it was WONDERFUL. My husband ordered the cucumber tomato and red onion salad, which didn't appeal to me as I'm not a cucumber fan, but I tried some and it was terrific. So sweet! I'd definitely order it for myself next time, although maybe not if it meant I couldn't have the flatbread... My entree was the chermoula roasted chicken, and it was very good, especially the mashed potatoes that went with it. My husband had the filet mignon, and he said it was to die for. He also liked the mac and cheese that was with it. The kids weren't very hungry, so they shared the carrots, celery, and peanut butter for an appetizer, and then had the pizza, which they said was good, but not as good as mommy's.
Dessert was the Jiko sundae for my husband, which he shared with the boys. My daughter had the make your own s'mores, which she wasn't impressed with (I think the chocolate wasn't very spreadable). She said it wasn't what she was expecting, although what she was expecting, I don't know. And I... I had the pistachio creme brulee. Oh, so good! I don't think I spoke more than 10 words while I was eating it-- it seemed like a time for silence. I shared a very little bit with my daughter, and she thought it was very good, too.Saturday-- Departure day. We left around 8AM, but first used up our final counter service and snack credits at Mara to stock up for the road. We got a big container of yogurt and granola parfait, a big container of honeydew, sodas, juices, several rice crispy Mickeys, and some muffins.
Throughout the trip-- Various snacks included chips, hot chocolate, water, ice cream, turkey leg (glad I tried it-- now I don't have to again), and Strawberry Swirls, some with plan credits, and some OOP.
Lessons learned-- There was plenty of food for all of us, even when sharing meals. I don't think I had a truly "hungry" moment while we were there-- not that that stopped me from eating! I will definitely never again plan a breakfast buffet, eating around the world, and a dinner at Jiko on the same day again, though. Too much food!!!
Wow, this was long!
We are going to eat at some of the same places, and I cannot wait.
