The down-and-dirty drive-by dining report! 8/1-8/5/11 *~The End~*

[mousegear]

I am enjoying your review! It's very fun to read!

 

[butiflfeet]

I'm loving your reviews! Very fun and insightful!

 

[25eels]

Day 5: Now It’s Time to Say Goodbye

Breakfast: Cape May Café (DDP)
Lunch: Beach Club Marketplace (CS and snack credits)

Breakfast: Cape May Café
I thought I was being pretty smart about scheduling a character breakfast in our own resort area for our last morning. The plan was for us to not have to hurry in the morning – sleep in, do some packing, then fuel ourselves in a magical fashion for a few hours in the parks before catching the Magical Express back to MCO that afternoon. We hadn’t done any TS breakfasts during our 2010 trip, so I was anxious to try me some Mickey waffles!

Of all our TS meals, we had the longest wait for Cape May, probably 15 minutes. By the time we were seated we were all pretty hungry, and the buffet looked great! I immediately took DS12 up to fill his plate, as he sorely needed food as fuel at that point; we’d been eating much earlier all week long so he was running on empty and acting it.

Plates filled, DS12 and I returned to find Donald Duck visiting our table. Perhaps it had been wishful thinking on my part, but I’d thought the characters (or their handlers, at least) would keep an eye out for the tables to have all members present, but that wasn’t the case. Oh well – DD7 was the only one who would really get a kick out of the characters … right?

Wrong! DD7 has Asperger’s Syndrome, so some of her reactions aren’t exactly typical. After four days of constant stimulation, I had noticed she was retreating more and more into the kids’ menu activities at meals, doing the puzzles and very carefully coloring whatever could be colored. So when Donald stopped by and DH excitedly brought her attention to the special visitor, DD7’s reaction was a curt, “No thank you.”

We were able to coax her out of her shell enough to pose for a picture, but she was anxious to get back to her work and summarily dismissed poor Donald with barely a glance. (Donald, to his credit, didn’t have the typical Donald tantrum.) The same happened for Minnie Mouse. So much for the magic of meeting the Big Five.

I was tempted to cut our losses and not put poor Goofy through the same treatment, but in the end decided to force DD7 into jollity once again. (Goofy also insisted on posing with too-cool-for-school DS12; A for effort, Goof!)

So while the character portion of Cape May was sort of a bust for our little group, the food was filling and satisfying, which ended up being more important for us. Still, for the most part, the offerings weren’t much better than what I’ve found in free Hampton Inn breakfasts. High points: The grapefruit juice was freshly squeezed and very sweet; we all sampled a bit of almost everything on the buffet. Mickey waffles, I learned, are more like Mickey cupcakes in texture. They were good, but half of one was more than enough for me!

I realize our character interaction experience was atypical, but as an overall breakfast experience, in all honesty I probably would have been a little disappointed if we had traveled farther than our resort for this breakfast. Breakfast is breakfast is breakfast and I didn’t really expect anything extraordinary, but for the price I expected something a little more magical. Next time, I’d try Kouzzina’s breakfast if we were to stay in an Epcot resort again.

Grade for Cape May Café:
B-. A weighted grade reflecting mediocre standards for a hotel restaurant breakfast buffet, and extra points given for enthusiasm of characters and servers who probably don’t encountered autistic, blasé, preoccupied 7-year-olds every day of the week. (Note to our future selves: Apparently we aren’t whimsical, game character-breakfast or mealtime-antics people, so book only staid, serious ADRs.)

Lunch: Beach Place Marketplace
The time had come to tally our DDP credits. We’d made an effort to blow through snack credits over the last two days, so in our last hour at the resort we found ourselves with 1 QS and 3 snacks total. We figured we’d pool these resources and eat a catch-as-catch-can meal in the BC Solarium before heading to the lobby to wait for the Magical Express.

We used the QS on a flatbread pizza, which was surprisingly hearty and tasty. So tasty, in fact, that I regretted that I hadn’t made it to the Marketplace for QS breakfasts during the trip after we’d gotten into the habit of the Boardwalk Bakery. I would guess that based on the quality of the flatbread pizza that the breakfast sandwiches would have been pretty tasty as well … and perhaps more freshly made than those from the (cough!) “bakery!”

Grade for Beach Club Marketplace:
B. We were pleasantly surprised at the offerings here, tucked in back of the store behind the pin and t-shirt displays. Certainly not worth a special trip, but it would have been a solid and convenient choice for us all week … maybe even for that first day when we were disappointed by Beaches & Cream. Live and learn!

Up next: Snack reviews & final thoughts

 

[25eels]

And then we came to the end! Here is my snack wrap-up and osme final thoughts.

Having missed a lot of Disney highlights during our 2010 trip, I was determined to keep track of everything I wanted to do this time around! Being me, this included trying a lot of the unique snacks. Some I got to, some I didn’t. Here’s a quick review of what I did get to:

• Mickey ice cream bars: I was pleasantly surprised to find that these were easily eaten bowl-style via the stick turning into a paddle-style spoon, because for a moment I was afraid I’d made a bad mistake in getting them in on a hot August day at Hurricane Hanna’s (after standing behind a woman ordering QS for six teenage girls with special requests). Well done, snack imagineers! DD7 and I salvaged the sweetness on a bench by YC and enjoyed every bite.
• Cloudberry Horn from Norway: No one understood why I made a special stop for this one, but we all enjoyed it. I’m generally not into sweets as a rule, and I wasn’t especially hungry, but the horn didn’t disappoint. The pastry was flaky and sweet with crystalized sugar; the filling was sweet without packing too much of a berry punch.
• Popcorn at MK: I’d read so much about the popcorn smell being piped into the entrance of MK, and Walt Disney’s aim of evoking a movie-theatre lobby, that I couldn’t resist. Too bad it ended up being … just popcorn. Good thing I had snack credits to burn!
• Ice cream floats at MK: Part of our desperate attempt to use up snack credits on our last day, we ordered these from the stand near the carousel. The cast members were very generous with the ice cream, making them a good value and a refreshing snack on a hot day.
• Grey Goose Slushie: I was so looking forward to trying this that I walked the long way around the World Showcase just to get one. Too bad I didn’t realize how hard it would be to walk around with the full drink (and that was before the alcohol took effect, lol)! I also felt very conspicuous toting the giant plastic martini glass in one hand and holding my DD7’s hand with the other. headachearent of the Year!) I guess Disney doesn’t want its guests strolling around with Slurpee cups filled with this intoxicating mixture. It was very nice – a must-do for the future (though next time I’ll savor it on my own on a bench!).
• Beverly: DS12 still hasn’t forgiven me for tricking him into trying Beverly. (Apparently he stashed a vomit-flavored Bertie Botts’ Bean into my yogurt container as revenge when we returned home, but DD7 ratted him out.) I actually thought it was pretty good; I’d totally buy a bottle for my tonic-loving parents if I could find it.

What I missed altogether:

• Dole Whip: I feel like I missed out on some secret initiation rite. Our MK time was just too rushed overall and we never made it to the Poly.
• School bread from Norway: My family thought it was odd enough I was buying the Cloudberry Horn that I couldn’t justify another random Norwegian pastry purchase.
• Karamell Kuche: We dashed through the store but not long enough to glance at the display but not long enough to contemplate a purchase. Apparently I run with a bunch of deadbeats.
• Anything from the Mexico Pavilion: I’d heard great things, but what can you do when your American family chooses to eat … American? Oh well. Another time, I hope!

Wish list for next time (come on, Disney, send Mama another nice code so we can have another trip in 2012!):
`Ohana/Poly overall: I’d been looking forward to our scheduled `Ohana meal, and while it was the right choice for us to switch to Kouzzina, I’m sure I would have enjoyed the `Ohana experience overall and my DS12 is angry I didn’t tell him about the chicken wings because he totally would have schlepped to the Poly just for that. I had also talked up the opportunity to mail a coconut from the Poly, so that’s something to tuck away for the future.

• Anything in Mexico: `Nuff said. (Though perhaps I will have to go alone while the rest of my family chows down on ham-slice hamburgers at the American Pavilion again.)
• Biergarten: It was one of our original ADRs and it sounds like such a fun experience. But again, I may have to drop off my family elsewhere so I can gorge on wurst and kraut.
• A return to Coral Reef. I hate to put this kind of pressure on Coral Reef, but our experience was so great there that it would make perfect sense for a future arrival dinner, assuming we stay at an Epcot resort again (which I’d like).
• Club Level. I’d tried my best to be charming enough at check-in to score a free CL upgrade as I’d heard countless others had, but no go. However, I can see this being a good alternative for our predominantly antisocial and unadventurous family, then paying OOP for a couple of special meals.

Well, if you got this far, thanks for reading! And HUGE thanks to everyone on DIS who posts dining reviews because it’s great to hear people’s opinions and experiences. Happy DIS-ing and eating!

 

[Tracerr00]

Very fun reviews! On my last trip I'd wished that I could eat more because I really wanted to try more snacks like the cloudberry horn. And I'm laughing at your description of walking around with a Grey Goose in one hand and while holding on to your daughter's with the other! I really enjoyed reading your reviews, they really crack me up!

 

[momtoccc]

I will probably be a mom like you - walking with dd and Grey Goose slushie (or margarita) in the other hand...