The not so live version of dining w/ Disers, in Castles & on Safari! The Wrap! 2/26

[distripplanner]

I'm in and glad to be joining at the front end and not when I have 957 posts to read to catch up! I have my thanksgiving pants out and ready to read along! Oh how I wish I was hopping a plane this morning rather than dragging myself to work!

 

[wilma-bride]

Yay, an Emmysmommy Dining Review. Bring on the food - and the DISers

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Brenda I'm so glad to see you've started your dining report!

What a cute idea to bring Disney snacks along for your plane ride.

 

[kanadar]

Following along! I read the live report but theres been so many reports that I can't keep everyone straight so it will be nice to see some refreshers!

-Kathy

 

[bsjs0708]

Very excited about your reviews as you have all the restaurants we have chosen for our ADRs on our upcoming trip!! And BTW the Admiral Suite...all I can say is Holy Guacamole!!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Always enjoy your reviews and looks like a great line-up. Can't wait to hear about your new favorite signature!

 

[MrsB1228]

You know I'm definitely signing on!! Love your DR's and am really looking forward to reading about your latest gastronomic adventures.

Love that you started your vacation with Disney snacks for the plane, how awesome is that!

Waiting for more ...

 

[Linda67]

Oh my word I almost missed this thread!
I am here now
You made me laugh with your Chip 'n' Dale snacks - I am obsessed with them!
Sadly they are not so easy access for me as they are for you, but I always bring some home from Disney trips and I have a bag at home that I am saving for a trip to the English coast in a couple of weeks
It's the little things that keep me happy

 

[disneymomof1]

3Joining in, anxiously awaiting your reports !!!

 

[emmysmommy]

Excited to hear all the great food you enjoyed!

Yay! Thanks for popping over here too!!

Woohoo I'm so excited to read this ! Fifteen days of Disney food... does it get any better!?

Hi Roma! Thank you for joining. Perhaps 16 days would be better.

I've been soooo looking forward to the start of your DR!!

Barb!! The QUEEN of the Dining Board has dropped in. Thank you!! You deserve co-credit since you did half the work of my live DR.

Yum! Can't wait to hear all about it.

Thank you and I'm glad you are joining!

I'm subscribing to your DR. I worked for WDW for a few years (after first joining the college program) and still can't get enough of the place. Our daughter is young (she just started school) and we love taking her to WDW (next trip in December). I can't wait until she is older and we can go on mother daughter trips together like you and your daughter (it must be so much fun!) .

I am so glad that you are here and joining!!

Wow! A genuine former CM - get out! Lucky you!

I hope you have mother/daughter trips in your future.

Looking forward to your in-depth dining review!

Why thank you and thanks for joining!!

I'm in and glad to be joining at the front end and not when I have 957 posts to read to catch up! I have my thanksgiving pants out and ready to read along! Oh how I wish I was hopping a plane this morning rather than dragging myself to work!

Ha ha!! Thanksgiving pants!! That's funny. I'm glad you are here as well.

Yay, an Emmysmommy Dining Review. Bring on the food - and the DISers

Hi Joh! Glad you are here. I'll just help you out up front and say that the food was all blah, ick, you wouldn't want it. ha ha!!

Brenda I'm so glad to see you've started your dining report!

What a cute idea to bring Disney snacks along for your plane ride.

Hi Rachel! Thanks for joining.

I figure there are probably not a lot of people who bring Disney snacks WITH them to WDW!

Following along! I read the live report but theres been so many reports that I can't keep everyone straight so it will be nice to see some refreshers!

-Kathy

Hi Kathy! Thank you for following along. I should be able to bring the full dining review to this report instead of the condensed, I can't text anymore version.

Very excited about your reviews as you have all the restaurants we have chosen for our ADRs on our upcoming trip!! And BTW the Admiral Suite...all I can say is Holy Guacamole!!!

Why thank you very much and I'm so glad that you are here and joining!! Welcome!!

Yeah, that was a once in a lifetime dose of pixie dust! We were very blessed.

Always enjoy your reviews and looks like a great line-up. Can't wait to hear about your new favorite signature!

Hi excited. I see you've brought your own snacks!! Glad you are joining.

You know I'm definitely signing on!! Love your DR's and am really looking forward to reading about your latest gastronomic adventures.

Love that you started your vacation with Disney snacks for the plane, how awesome is that!

Waiting for more ...

Hi Carol!!! YAY!! I'm excited to see you here.

Oh my word I almost missed this thread!
I am here now
You made me laugh with your Chip 'n' Dale snacks - I am obsessed with them!
Sadly they are not so easy access for me as they are for you, but I always bring some home from Disney trips and I have a bag at home that I am saving for a trip to the English coast in a couple of weeks
It's the little things that keep me happy

Linda - I'm so glad you are here that my little friends are going to dance for you >>>

Thank you so much for joining!!

3Joining in, anxiously awaiting your reports !!!

Hi there! Thank you! I'm glad to welcome you!

 

[emmysmommy]

Day 1: Fri. Aug. 16th – dinner at Territory Lounge at Wilderness Lodge

Thankfully Jabead (Barb) shared her family’s dining experience at Territory Lounge earlier this year and thankfully I was paying attention. Based on that review, I now had a plan for our arrival night at Wilderness Lodge! It ended up being one of the best first meals of any trip we have taken.

Lounge:

We arrived down stairs around 8pm and took a seat in the nearly vacant lounge. Our server greeted us and shared that they also offer the full menu for Artist Point in addition to their limited bar menu. Good to know. However, I had my mind made up well in advance of this night that I wanted the fondue. Nothing else just that ooey gooey cheesy deliciousness. However, we were hungry and there were two of us and we couldn’t decide so we practically ordered one of everything. Bad move!

First the drink orders, Bloody Mary extra spicy and extra olives for me and a lemonade for Em. Here’s where I learned the word “spicy” is relative. Spicy for me means something completely different than spicy for someone else! After toasting to a fabulous girl trip I took one sip of my drink and my throat was ON FIRE!! What did they do throw some habanero chili into that puppy?? Water…. I need water…. It certainly wasn’t lacking on spice. I think my eyes were watering a bit and anyone looking on may have thought I was crying over my drink! Lovely picture, no?

Bloody Mary ($6.75) and Lemonade ($2.99)

Cheers to vacation... A Disney vacation is even better!

For the food portion of this dining experience, in addition to the fondue we also ordered the Wild Mushroom Flatbread and the Thai chili chicken wings – which were not wings at all but that was a good thing.

Our server actually “paced” our appetizers which was nice; however, by the third “course” our appetite had diminished sufficiently that it wasn’t as exciting as the first “course.” However, it was a really nice way to introduce the different apps and not overwhelm us with everything at once. Perhaps this was simply a matter of timing from the kitchen??

We started with the absolute best part of the meal – the fondue. Oh my word!!! Simply the best appetizer in WDW! The sweet of the apples with the tang of the sharp cheddar fondue – absolutely brilliant! The breads were soft and perfectly cubed for dipping. You know how important bite size pieces are, especially if you are dipping them in hot molten cheese!

Sharp Cheddar Beer Fondue – served with Pretzel sticks, house made sourdough, Washington state apples, and dried fruit (figs for this version) ($11.00)

We thought about asking for marshmallows so we could roast them by the fire of the fondue pot but decided that we may be labeled as trouble so we refrained.

Next to be served was the wild mushroom flatbread which interestingly should have been called the Bleu Cheese & Arugula Flatbread. Those flavors were much more prominent in the dish. But we’ll go with their name. This arrived at the table presented on an adorable wood board – presentation is important you know.

As mentioned, this had prominent bleu cheese flavor. I would have liked more balsamic onion but it was ok. The fig was a nice sweet touch for the flatbread. However, the flatbread itself just wasn’t anything more than a tasteless blank palate. It could have been crisper and had some herbs or something to give it a little pizazz but I suppose that was the job of the toppings. Or was supposed to be accomplished by the toppings but once you got to the flatbread it just wasn’t anything special.

I noted in my live dining review that perhaps we underrated this dish due to the fact that we were getting full. Since I only had one slice of the flatbread that could be true.

Wild Mushroom Flatbread; Caramelized Balsamic Onion, Smokey Bleu Cheese, Figs, and Arugula ($10)

Now for our final choice…. The chicken wings (menu description) or otherwise known as the chicken lollipops (receipt description) or the sweet and not so spicy chicken nuggets (my description.) They were more sweet than spicy; however, perhaps after the blast of spice from my Bloody Mary my taste buds were annihilated?? In any event I was only able to eat one of these little guys and to be fair, they may have been better than I recall but once you are sufficiently stuffed that food no longer sounds appealing, it’s time to put the fork down!

Territory Lounge Chicken Wings; Sweet Thai Chili Sauce ($9)

I fully intended to order the Artist Point Cobbler for dessert but there was no way that was happening at that point. The other alternative was to order it to go and hope that we had a late night craving that could only be satisfied with this delicious dessert. However, the reality was that we were not likely to eat it since it is best served hot/fresh with the scoop of black raspberry ice-cream. So we passed with a lesson learned that next time we will stick to the fondue and cobbler!

The reason we didn't order dessert! We ate all of this!

The lounge accepts Tables in Wonderland (TiW) so all together we saved nearly $8 since alcohol is included.

So with that I want to say THANK YOU BARB for introducing this place to those of us who follow dining reviews. This was a fabulous first meal choice!!

Here’s the photo that I sent Barb at the end of our meal: My empty cocktail!

Up Next: Whispering Canyon Café Breakfast

​

 

[wilma-bride]

I have just one question - where was your soda?

The Wilderness Lodge is probably our favourite resort at WDW. I can't really put my finger on what we love about it but it is the place which feels like 'home' for us (and, no, we don't live in a wooden lodge here in the UK ) The Territorial Lounge is a regular haunt of ours, when staying at VWL, however we have never eaten there, something which I will have to rectify on our next stay there.

 

[Nohal]

I'm in looking forward to the rest of your DR, now on to check out your TR.

 

[vettegirl]

We stopped by the Territory Lounge back in Feb and thought it was a beautiful spot. That beer cheese fondue sounds so amazing!! I had no idea they had food like that in there.

 

[tallen429]

oooohh fondue!!
Yumalicious!!
I must have missed that on the menu when we stayed there last summer.
Darn it!

 

[Linda67]

Count me in as another fan of the Territory Lounge
Can't wait to get back there in December

 

[emmysmommy]

I have just one question - where was your soda?

The Wilderness Lodge is probably our favourite resort at WDW. I can't really put my finger on what we love about it but it is the place which feels like 'home' for us (and, no, we don't live in a wooden lodge here in the UK ) The Territorial Lounge is a regular haunt of ours, when staying at VWL, however we have never eaten there, something which I will have to rectify on our next stay there.

Ha ha! Funny Joh! I am proud to say it was just alcohol for me that night!!

I know what you mean about the "home" feel. I wouldn't say WL is that for me necessarily but I liked it.

Order some of that fondue with your cocktails next time - you'll thank me!

I'm in looking forward to the rest of your DR, now on to check out your TR.

Thanks! And thanks for joining the TR!

We stopped by the Territory Lounge back in Feb and thought it was a beautiful spot. That beer cheese fondue sounds so amazing!! I had no idea they had food like that in there.

I know I don't always associate food with a bar other than snacks and such. However because of Barb's review I knew about the fondue.

oooohh fondue!!
Yumalicious!!
I must have missed that on the menu when we stayed there last summer.
Darn it!

Hi Trish! I like your yumalicious description. Very appropriate. The fondue makes for a fun meal too since they give you the bamboo picks that can be used for sword fights.

Count me in as another fan of the Territory Lounge
Can't wait to get back there in December

Hi Linda! See, all the classy dames like Territory Lounge!!

This will be an easy stroll for you from your room at the resort. I'm so glad I tried this place. Of course it wrecks it for me for AP since I wasn't a huge fan of their menu anyway.

 

[jabead]

Between Vicki's recently posted AP review and your Territory Lounge one, I'm really wishing we could add one of these to our already busy dining schedule in December. Oh, and add to that wish list...BOG lunch, The Plaza, Beaches & Cream, San Angel Inn, Shula's, Bluezoo, and maybe just a few others. Btw, many of these additions are due to your live reports. I suppose that is one of the pitfalls of hosting the live thread...whenever I do actually get to eat the wonderful Disney food that I see pictured each and every day, I WANT IT ALL!!

So anyway, I wonder if my family would notice it if I were missing for an extra week in December??? I figure another week there should about cover it all, right? Yeah, probably not.

 

[Couchy]

Following along. I am very intrigued with wanting to try the Territory Lounge. I can't wait to see what your new favorite signature is

 

[KatMark]

I must be living under a rock as I had no idea you had this going on as well as your TR.

I'm caught up now and looking forward to more.

I must admit I never heard of the Territory Lounge. I must say your drink looks yummy.