The Calories Don't Count When the Food is Free! (Complete 11/24) Pics!

[sissyfromcab]

I read so many dining reviews when I was planning for our recent trip, that I wanted to write one myself to help others who are planning.

Let me introduce us - myself (Kristi) and DH (Travis). We are both high school teachers outside of Raleigh, NC. We stayed at Caribbean Beach for a week with free dining.

Here is where we ate:
Tuesday Sept 28
Dinner - Columbia Harbor House
"Snacks" - MNSSHP candy
Wednesday Sept 29
Lunch - La Cantina de San Angel
Dinner - Teppan Edo
Thursday Sept 30
Lunch - Pizzafari
Dinner - Boma
Snack - Beverly Sunset
Friday Oct 1
Lunch - Starring Rolls Cafe/ Rosie's All American Cafe
Snack - CBR Grab 'n Go
Dinner - 50's Prime Time Cafe
Saturday Oct 2
Lunch - Pecos Bill
Snack - CBR Grab 'n Go
Dinner - Ohana
Snack - Aloha Isle
Sunday Oct 3
"Lunch" - Chef Mickey's
Dinner - Wolfgang Puck Express
Monday Oct 4
Snack - Ice Cream Kiosk
Lunch - Food & Wine Booths (Argentina, China, USA, Germany, Belgium)
Snacks - Karamelle Kueche, France Bakery, Starring Rolls Cafe
Dinner - Le Cellier
Tuesday Oct 5
Breakfast - Whispering Canyon Cafe
Lunch - Earl of Sandwich

 

[mamaboogie]

Fantastic title - I heartily agree!

We stayed at CBR 2 years ago - can't wait to read your reviews!

 

[MickeyNicki]

You hooked me with the title! Cannot wait to hear about your dining reviews...can I ask a favor? Can you tell me your thoughts on CBR? We are staying there for 10 days next month and it has been 6 years since our last stay at CBR....you can PM me if you want

Thanks!

 

[M-J's Mommy]

Your picks look good. I'm looking forward to your reviews!

 

[jessrose18]

I love that MNSSHP candy is listed as one of your meals I'm in!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Joining in...

 

[disneymom2twins]

From your "neighbor" in Holly Springs..Joining In. Staying at CBR next month too!

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Another neighbor joining in. (Clayton) We are going on our first visit to the world (May 2011)!!

 

[sissyfromcab]

Fantastic title - I heartily agree!

We stayed at CBR 2 years ago - can't wait to read your reviews!

You hooked me with the title! Cannot wait to hear about your dining reviews...can I ask a favor? Can you tell me your thoughts on CBR? We are staying there for 10 days next month and it has been 6 years since our last stay at CBR....you can PM me if you want

Thanks!

We liked CBR resort. I had requested to be in Jamaica and we were, so we were close to the main building and pool, even though we didn't use them that much. The rooms were clean and well decorated and the resort had a very tropical feel. The main pool was fun with the two slides (sit up on both of them or you will get a face full of water!) and the quiet pool was nice too. We both decided that we prefer the feel of CSR, but if it's not available we'd be fine staying at CBR again.

Your picks look good. I'm looking forward to your reviews!

I love that MNSSHP candy is listed as one of your meals I'm in!

Joining in...

From your "neighbor" in Holly Springs..Joining In. Staying at CBR next month too!

I actually taught at HSHS for a year!

Another neighbor joining in. (Clayton) We are going on our first visit to the world (May 2011)!!

Enjoy your first trip!

I'm so excited that people are actually reading this!

 

[sissyfromcab]

We got to our CBR resort in the early afternoon. Our room wasn't quite ready yet, so we wandered around until it was. The sky started to look quite dark, so we hurried to get everything inside before it started pouring. It started pouring just as we finished and poured and poured and poured so hard we couldn't see out the windshield of the car as we made a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up some milk for cereal in the room for breakfast. Since Travis can easily drink 3 gallons a week by himself, I make him ration it out when we are on vacation!
(Random Gallon of Milk from Google)

Then headed off to MK for MNSSHP. It was still pouring and people were leaving MK in massive numbers, even though it was only about 5pm. By this point Travis was starving and would have eaten just about anything, but I had read that CHH was really good, so I steered us in that direction.
We both decided to get the shrimp with french fries, but no coleslaw, Coke, and the chocolate cake.

The shrimp was fantastic! It was fresh and warm and delicious! I think the only better shrimp I have had was at the Oceanic Restaurant on the coast of NC and it was fresh. The french fries were just normal fries, but they were good with the shrimp. We had the chocolate cake many times on our trip in March 2009 and they have changed it since then. It used to be milk chocolate with "frosting from a can" but it's now dark chocolate and the frosting is more syrupy. It was still good, but I liked the old cake better.

I was super excited to go to MNSSHP, since I read so many things about it here. Unfortunately, because it was still pouring, they didn't bring out the charaters (at least that we could find) at the beginning of the party, so we just enjoyed the rides and trick-or-treating.
We each filled our bags about half full. We got quite a good variety of candy - sour Smarties, Snickers, Air Heads, Now 'N Laters, M&M's, suckers, and so on... It wasn't very warm, so the chocolate wasn't melting, but some of the Snickers got squashed under all the other candy. We both at quite a bit that night (sugar high!) and tossed pieces in our bags the rest of the week.
I took a picture, but it's not showing up in my photo bucket account and my regular computer decided it doesn't want to boot up tonight, so I will try to add it for you later. - Well, my old computer died, so I had to buy a new one, but the good news is that I have the pictures that didn't uplaod originally!
My Candy

Travis' Candy

 

[catne]

That's not a title...it's a statement of fact Especially for 2 brave souls (high school teachers...come from a family of teachers - 3 sisters, niece/nephew, etc. Appreciate the effort you folks make!)

Great start on the reviews...Looking forward to all your meals...even the Halloween candy

 

[lswheatly]

Joining in!!

 

[butiflfeet]

I can't wait for more!

 

[plutosgirl]

So glad we got the free dining...didn't realize we that the Calories now will not count! GREAT!! (love that)

Signing on...can't wait to hear more!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Great start...

 

[sissyfromcab]

That's not a title...it's a statement of fact Especially for 2 brave souls (high school teachers...come from a family of teachers - 3 sisters, niece/nephew, etc. Appreciate the effort you folks make!)

We might be a little crazy, but we enjoy what teaching (most days)!

Great start on the reviews...Looking forward to all your meals...even the Halloween candy

With as much as we got, it was one of the best "meals" of the whole week! And we're still eating the candy!

Joining in!!

I can't wait for more!

So glad we got the free dining...didn't realize we that the Calories now will not count! GREAT!! (love that)

Signing on...can't wait to hear more!

Yes - it's one of the best little known facts about free dining!

Great start...

 

[sissyfromcab]

I was excited to try the new menu at La Cantina, since we ate here last year and enjoyed the food.

I ordered the nachos with a Coke and churros. Travis ordered the tacos de carne (beef) with a Coke and churros.

The nachos were a huge portion. We could have almost split this as one meal for the two of us. I only ate about half of them before I was stuffed. There was a lot of meat and cheese on the chips and everything was very tasty. The only problem was that some of the chips were very very very very very salty! There were a few chips that I bit into and had to gulp Coke to handled the salt, but overall this was a good meal.
The tacos were a tiny portion! Travis at them in about two minutes and inhalded the chips that came with them, then finished about half of my nachos, since he was still hungry. He said the meat was dry, but there was a lime that came with it, so that might have helped with the meat being dry.
The churros were ok, but they were cold. They tasted ok, but it seemed like they had been sitting for a while before they were served to us, and we ate lunch at 11:45, so they hadn't even been open for an hour. I tried the caramel sauce that came with it and it was just ok - I like the churros better by themselves.

We would definitely eat here again, but not order the tacos de carne since the portion was so small.

 

[Linda67]

Just caught up and love your reviews so far. We have two weeks of free dining in May so I guess that means I will actually weigh less when I get home

 

[vettegirl]

I was excited to try the new menu at La Cantina, since we ate here last year and enjoyed the food.

I ordered the nachos with a Coke and churros. Travis ordered the tacos de carne (beef) with a Coke and churros.

The nachos were a huge portion. We could have almost split this as one meal for the two of us. I only ate about half of them before I was stuffed. There was a lot of meat and cheese on the chips and everything was very tasty. The only problem was that some of the chips were very very very very very salty! There were a few chips that I bit into and had to gulp Coke to handled the salt, but overall this was a good meal.
The tacos were a tiny portion! Travis at them in about two minutes and inhalded the chips that came with them, then finished about half of my nachos, since he was still hungry. He said the meat was dry, but there was a lime that came with it, so that might have helped with the meat being dry.
The churros were ok, but they were cold. They tasted ok, but it seemed like they had been sitting for a while before they were served to us, and we ate lunch at 11:45, so they hadn't even been open for an hour. I tried the caramel sauce that came with it and it was just ok - I like the churros better by themselves.

We would definitely eat here again, but not order the tacos de carne since the portion was so small.

That looks so good

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Thanks for the update...