The Non-Foodie Food Report-Deluxe Style 5/22-6/1(Final Thoughts)

[crabbygal902]

I am enjoying your dining reports. I love how you just put it all out there and say what you mean!

 

[pinkxray]

I've really enjoyed reading your reviews. Your pics are great, too.

Thank you for reading. I wish I took more pictures but it was tough with DH and DD not wanting their food photographed.

Joining in!
I'm lovin all your pics!
We live in NC and Sonic is the "king" of fast food places around here. Gotta love some Sonic
Tuskar House's food looks yummy, never eaten there before, it looks fun though

Tuskerhouse was great fun!
We lived in NC for two years while DH was in the Marine Corps and we would get in pretty much everytime we went into the main town where it was located. They run the commercials in CT even though there is no Sonic in CT yet(soon though). It was like a cruel joke when we first moved back to CT.

The picture of your daughter with Jasmine is just precious... She is SO excited! Love it.

Thank you. She was very excited. I had my fingers crossed the whole meal that Jasmine would be there and she ended up being the last princess. DD was so excited to see them all but having her favorite there took it to a whole new level of happiness.

I am enjoying your dining reports. I love how you just put it all out there and say what you mean!

Ha! I'm glad you appreciate it. I am not a good person to take shopping when you want an honest opinion about what looks big in your jeans.
But why sugarcoat it? As with everyones reviews they are only my opinions and other people will love certain items I hated.

Thanks for reading.

 

[SunnieRN]

Your daughter is adorable! She looks so cute in her Jasmine outfit!! I am happy that she had such a wonderful time in the castle!! Your reviews are great! Looking forward to more!

 

[pinkxray]

Your daughter is adorable! She looks so cute in her Jasmine outfit!! I am happy that she had such a wonderful time in the castle!! Your reviews are great! Looking forward to more!

Thanks for reading!

 

[pinkxray]

Friday May 28

Today was our last day on the deluxe dining plan. I knew we needed 6 TS for lunch and dinner so we were left with one dining credit and some snacks credits for breakfast. We headed to POR's food court. DH had a platter and gave DD the pancakes. I got a cinnamon roll and a package of grapes to split with DD.

Overall it was pretty good. It was nice to have a simple breakfast after all the huge buffet breakfasts we had been to. (Although I definitely prefered the buffets). It was also the first time we went to the food court at the peak breakfast time. Wow, there were a lot of people. The lines moved pretty quick though and there were plenty of places to sit.



Lunch was at 50's Prime Time Cafe. I was so excited about this. I added it a few days before our trip when I rearranged our schedule to attend SWW.
I have always wanted to eat here.

We checked in a few minutes early for our 12:45 ADR. The place was packed. It was most likely 100 degrees on this day and everyone waiting looked miserable. This ended up being the longest wait of the trip. I think we waited over 45 minutes. I forget the exact times but it was pretty close to an hour. I remember them telling people who walked in the wait would be an hour and fifteen minutes. So if you don't have an ADR you only have to wait an extra 15 minutes?

Finally we were seated. I was starving and grumpy so I skipped the picture taking.

I forget the name of our waitress. She was older and had short blonde hair. She was very nice, very in her role as mother. We set our places and kept out of trouble. We weren't really in the mood after waiting so long so she didn't get into her role too much with us which was great. We did she her feeding our neighbor his greens and another waitress had a teenage boy standing in the corner for something.

DH had a sprite for his drink, DD had lemonade, and I had a peanut butter and jelly milkshake. Yum. This was one of the reason I wanted to try 50's. The milkshake was very good. It reminded me of when you have a Reese's sundae at Friendly's with the peanut butter sauce. Peanut butter sauce in melted vanilla ice cream. I didn't taste any jelly flavoring. While it was good I would make a special trip here to get in.

For our appetizers I tried the crab cake. I have never had a crab cake so I am not a fair judge but I didn't like it at all. I didn't like the sauce on it, it was too sweet for me.
DH didn't want an appetizer but I told him to get the onion rings in case I didn't like the crab cake. They were very good. I think Sci-fi's beat them as the best of the trip but the were a close second.

For her meal DD ordered a hot dog. She didn't like any of the choices on the sides so our waitress gave her some grapes and goldfish. It was a perfect meal for her. She heard the little boy next to us getting a clean plate sticker and she wanted one too. She ate every bite of her hot dog. She didn't eat all of her grapes or goldfish so I didn't think she had a clean plate but the waitress thought so and DD got the sticker.

DH ordered Aunt's Liz Golden Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and greens.
He said it was okay but way too greasy. He ended up eating all of the meal except the greens. When he saw our mother feeding our neighbor the greens he covered his up with his chicken bones and some napkins.
Luckily she was in a rush when she picked up our plates and didn't notice.

I had Cousin Eric's Char-grilled Chicken Sandwich with no lettuce or tomato. It was nothing special. I wish I had tried the pot roast or meatloaf but it was so hot and I didn't want anything too heavy.

Dessert-
DH had a vanilla milkshake which was pretty good.
I was torn between the brownie sundae and the seasonal cobbler. I had seen the brownie sundae pass and it looked massive. When I found out the seasonal cobbler was apple I choose that. It was good. At this point I was pretty full and didn't eat much. The topping was a little crunchy for me, but the ice cream and apples were great.
DD had a dish of vanilla ice cream.

Overall I left disappointed. I am sure the long wait had something to do with it though. Our waitress was nice but she never refilled our drinks or came around to see if we needed anything. At one point she came around with one of those huge silver plates to take our dirty dishes. She left for some reason (to get a sticker maybe?) and never took the tray of dirty dishes. Awhile later another waitress walked by and saw it and she took it away. I have wanted to try this place since I was a kid and it did not live up to my expectations. The food was pretty average. It is not on my list of places to return.



Dinner at Chef Mickey.
I had read many horrible reviews about this dinner but I could not fit the breakfast in anywhere and DD really wanted to go here.
We arrived on time for our 5:30 ADR. There was a huge line just to check in which moved pretty quickly. They bring you right over to the Mickey plate to have your picture taken. We skipped that part. Why would I want to pay to have a picture with a Mickey statue? I don't get that.

We were seated in a few minutes. Our waitress arrived and told us about the buffet and told us the soup of the day was beef barley. Nope. It was clam chowder. She didn't get any better throughout the night.

DH had a sprite, DH had apple juice, and I had an iced tea. I also got a Passion Fruit Mojito. Yummy.

There were no characters around so we headed to the buffet.
DD and DH stuck to the kids area. I think DD had a few pieces of pizza. She grabbed a few chicken nuggets but didn't like them.

DH started with some pizza, a few ravioli


I started with the clam chowder and crackers which was okay.

I tried the salmon which was okay, some type of potatoes which were gross, a mickey ravioli which could have been okay if it wasn't cold, and some rice which was okay.

Next plate I tried the beef with au jus , mashed potatoes and corn. I had a few peel and eat shrimp. Everything was pretty good. .

For my dessert plate I had the key lime tart which I did not like at all, the Mickey oreo that was yummy , and my favorite the cheesecake. I also had some swirl ice cream. The cheesecake was so yummy.

Overall we loved Chef Mickey's. The characters were great. The food was fine. We didn't expect too much going in and there was plenty of choices were no one should leave hungry. Our waitress was awful. I really wanted another mojito but I never saw her again until it was time for the check. I think she may have brought us regular drink refills while we were at the buffets but I can't remember. I know it it busy but I saw all of the other waiters coming around.
As long as DD is interested in meeting the characters we will return. I am hoping to try breakfast next time but would return to dinner if we could get into breakfast.

DH saw the bill before we paid it and with the extra drink and everything it was almost $100. He was like "We're paying a $100 for a few pieces of pizza?" No, you're paying $100 to eat your pizza while your daughter dances with Pluto. It isn't so bad when you just hand over your dining card, but it will be a little tougher to hand over $100 cash if we were to pay OOP.

After dinner we stopped a the cs place at the CR to use up 7 snacks credits we had left over. Since we were still going to be in FL for a few days we picked up a few things we could use.

Up next: Final dxdp thoughts, favorites and a few offsite stops

 

[nicole0992]

I just read all 5 pages and love your reviews. Your daughter is so adorable!

 

[tink too]

Great update. However, it's a pity that you had below average servers at these two popular restaurants.

We've never tried either - DH wouldn't like the banter at the 50's Prime Time and it doesn't seem like Chef Mickey's would live up to our visit to Goofy's Kitchen at Disneyland.

 

[Sassagoula Billy]

Thanks for your reviews - and the Tusker House photos! I do love reliving that...

Cheers

 

[ChickenCarlos]

what a great food review, thanks for all the great pictures.

 

[pinkxray]

Great update. However, it's a pity that you had below average servers at these two popular restaurants.

We've never tried either - DH wouldn't like the banter at the 50's Prime Time and it doesn't seem like Chef Mickey's would live up to our visit to Goofy's Kitchen at Disneyland.

It was disappointing to have service that was lacking. I was happy with the waitress at 50's though b/c DH wouldn't really like the banter either. It would have been nice to have a few drinks though.

Thanks for your reviews - and the Tusker House photos! I do love reliving that...

Thanks for reading! We loved Tusker House
Cheers

what a great food review, thanks for all the great pictures.

Thanks for reading. I wish I had taken more pictures. By the end DH and DD didn't seem to mind too much. Next trip I am taking pictures of everything!

 

[pinkxray]

Our Disney dining is done. Once Sat. started DH took over paying for food No more adr's or TS meals

I'll just give a brief run though so you can see the difference if I planned the meals and if DH does. Then, I do a final wrap up of our favs.

Sat-
We had a lazy morning and just grabbed a few doughnuts for breakfast.
We headed to Sea World which turned out to be a waste of time. Wow, it has gone downhill since our last trip in 2003.

We left after a few hours and headed to Steak and Shake.
Along with Sonics we stop here each trip. The place was pretty empty and the hostess was a disorganized mess. New maybe? She had us wait for about 5 minutes while she cleared a table. She came back and lead us to a table that needed to be cleared and cleared it once we got there. What were we just waiting for? Once we ordered we had about 3 different people checking to make sure we had drinks which was nice. We all had burgers, fries and drinks. The place may have had strange workers but the food was very yummy. We love their burgers. DH ended up ordering another to go. DD was free since kids were free whatever day we were there so we paid about 18 for the meal. We will come back here every trip as long as the food stays the same.

Dinner was Pizza Hut in the room. Since we had a late lunch DH didn't need dinner
DD and I wanted something and there was a Pizza Hut Express in the resort.

Sun. we headed to Universal Studios. After a few rides we headed to a pastry shop. DD didn't like any of the choices so DH let her get a giant cookie for breakfast.
DH and I split a bacon,egg and cheese on a crossaint. It comes with strawberries and cantaloupe. Oh wait. A strawberry and a tiny strip of cantaloupe. The sandwich was good but after Disney fruit this fruit was seriously lacking.

For lunch we had hot dogs and doritos from the hot dog stand outside the Simpsons ride. They were Nathans hot dogs and were pretty good. After our last US meal at the Comic Strip place these were a safe choice and we were happy with them.

I have no idea what we had for dinner that night. I think this is the night we got lost on the way back to the hotel and stuck in traffic from an accident so it may have been Wendys.

Monday we were back to Disney for our last full day. DD had her pirate cruise out of GF so we had breakfast at Gasparilla Games. DD had a bagel and cream cheese, DH got a platter with eggs, waffles, bacon,etc. I got a yummy cheese danish. We all got drinks. The total was over $20. DH was not happy being back on Disney property and not being on the dining plan
My danish was yummy. DD had to use the bathroom so we left for a few minutes and when we came back DH said a bird flew down on the table and ate a piece of my danish.
DH had a bunch of food left so I tried to eat some of his food and nothing on the plate was good. No wonder there was so much left. We had enjoyed the platters at POR and POFQ so we were disappointed with this one. Maybe the food was sitting out awhile? It was gross.

After the pirate cruise and some sea racer riding at CR we headed to WL to check it out and had lunch at Roaring Forks. DH had the bacon double cheeseburger, I had pasta with meatballs, and DD had a cheeseburger with fries and grapes. We all got drinks. It came to $28. Once again I got the dirty look from DH. The pasta wasn't good. I don't know why I got this after not liking the ziti at POR, but it looked so good! It tasted the same but with meatballs. I hate the sauce, so maybe others will enjoy it. It tastes like bad microwavable food with icky sauce. I tried DH burger and it was yummy. Next time I'll get that. I ended up eating DD fries and grapes for lunch. Unfortunately DH and DD put mayo on their burgers and I hate mayo so I could steal any of those.

Once again I forgot what we had for dinner. We were in the MK but I don't remember eating there. Maybe since we had a late lunch we skipped dinner?

As you can see once DH took over we had no more fun meals.

Next up:
Final thoughts on DXDP and our favorites

 

[tink too]

Yup - there's definately a noticable difference between DxDP and no dining plan at all.

We've only eaten at a Steak & Shake once - maybe 3 years ago - and enjoyed the food, but also found the service a bit odd. The place was pretty empty, but there seemed to be 1 server only.

 

[pinkxray]

Yup - there's definately a noticable difference between DxDP and no dining plan at all.

We've only eaten at a Steak & Shake once - maybe 3 years ago - and enjoyed the food, but also found the service a bit odd. The place was pretty empty, but there seemed to be 1 server only.

I was dreading the weekend when DH took over our food choices, but it was a nice change to just grab a hot dog when you wanted instead of having to wait for an ADR.

The food was great at Steak and Shake. On our last trip in 2003 DH and I stayed offsite and we ate there about 4 times. It was much busier back then, but it was nice to have the place to ourselves. As long as the food is good we will go back. The service was odd, not bad though. They all just seemed a bit confused on what they were doing

 

[pinkxray]

I finally finished uploading most my pictures on Photobucket and found out where we ate one of those nights I couldn't remember.

McDonald's of course!

When DH and DD saw the McDonald's that is on Sand Lake featured on the Travel Channel as one of the top ten most unique it was agreed we would go there. On the show you see one of McDonald's largest play areas and when DD saw it she said we should cut out one of our Disney days and go to Mcdonalds (I don't know where this child came from sometimes)
I assured her we could still go to Disney and have time for McD's.

This McD's also has the new gourmet selections. You can look those up online if you really want. When you walk in the door they give you a paper menu since the choices are a little overwhelming.
We stuck to regular chicken nuggets and burgers with fries so I didn't take any pictures.

The show on the travel channel makes it seem as though the play area is the size of the whole second floor or something. It really wasn't that much bigger than a normal McD's. DD didn't even play in it. Too many kids running around and screaming. They did have a separate section for toddlers. It was hot and gross in the little waiting area for the parents. I think there may have been 5 chairs?

Definitely wasn't worth the detour and we wouldn't go back unless staying right next to it. No wonder I couldn't remember eating there.

 

[vettegirl]

I have always wanted to visit that McDonalds due to how unique it is. Just like you I would probably get something that I would have at a normal one.

 

[pinkxray]

I have always wanted to visit that McDonalds due to how unique it is. Just like you I would probably get something that I would have at a normal one.

It was so not worth the trip to get there. I didn't really see many people with any items that were off the new menu either

 

[pinkxray]

Okay. I've dragged this out enough. Time to wrap this food report up.

Final thoughts on deluxe dining:

I loved it. I liked having so many TS meals. If I was someone who was able to go to WDW every year and got to try a few places every trip I wouldn't bother, but since I only seem to make it there every few years and have so many places to try it works for me.

It is a lot of food though. DH hated the deluxe plan and will not do it again. (As if he has the choice)
He said he felt pressured to get a dessert every time(I never felt pressured, the servers did make sure to say it was included if we declined)
He didn't like have to make an ADR time everyday, while I didn't mind since almost all of our ADR were in the parks that we were in that day.

I also loved the ability to check out some resorts such as Poly. AKL, and GF I would not have stopped in if we didn't have a meal there.

I added up our receipts when we returned home and we ended up saving about $400 which is pretty good. But there is always that logic of if paying out of pocket would I have dessert at every meal (DH probably would not have had one) or would I have needed all of these snacks?

Since DXDP is most likely out I am having a hard time deciding what do next trip. I have so many places I still want to try. As the trip approached I will do the math again. DDP just doesn't see to fit for me. We'll have to see if 2011 brings any changes. We will like to try the QS plan but that will be in a few years. We will most likely just try paying OOP next trip. We love character breakfast and those don't really give any value to the DDP.

Family Favs
We all loved Sci-fi for the food and the atmosphere.
Chef Mickey and Tuskerhouse were great. CM not as much for the food though.
DH and DD loved Ohana for breakfast and I think this will be their one choice they want to return to next year.
Out of all of our dinners DD and DH didn't really have anything that they would have to return to although they enjoyed Mama Melrose and we would most likely book that again if doing the Fantasmic Package. They also liked the food at Ohana but DH didn't like having so much food brought to you.


My favs
Ohana for dinner. I loved the food here. It was a little bit overshadowed that I was only able to get an ADR late on our arrival night but the food was still so good. I would love to try it again on our next trip. They also had my favorite dessert which was the bread pudding. I have heard that you can get this at the Kona Sushi Bar. If we don't go to Ohana for dinner I will head there to get the bread pudding.

Favorite breakfast: Wow , tough call. As I said we love breakfast foods and we loved all the meals we had. I guess it really depends which characters you like. I would have to say Crystal Palace was my top choice. The puffed french toast and Winnie and friends. The whole building is so bright plus already being in MK when you are done is great. All the others would be tied at second.




Top choices for next trip:
Breakfast:
Cape May (asparagus for breakfast)
Akershus
Chef Mickey

Lunch:
Plaza
Liberty Tree

Dinner
WCC
Tutto
Boma and Jiko

Thanks to all who followed along.

 

[wilma-bride]

Only just found your dining report but I have just booked an ADR at Grand Floridian Cafe based on your reviews - it had better be good now

Great reviews, thanks so much for posting them. I loved that you mentioned Steak & Shake as well - since we are from the UK, we don't have anything like that here and DH and I had already made up our minds to give it a try next month.

 

[pinkxray]

Only just found your dining report but I have just booked an ADR at Grand Floridian Cafe based on your reviews - it had better be good now

Great reviews, thanks so much for posting them. I loved that you mentioned Steak & Shake as well - since we are from the UK, we don't have anything like that here and DH and I had already made up our minds to give it a try next month.

Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great trip. I am so jealous, I can't wait to check out the WWOHP!

 

[The Tabasco Kid]

Day 5 Magic Kingdom Day

Just saw this post and had to comment.

The CM waiter in the background is "Jay from New York" (according to his name tag). He's been our server 2 out of the three times we've gone to CRT. If I remember our conversation with him correctly, he's been with WDW for over 20 years with the past 12 at CRT.

He is simply awesome and a consummate professional.