The Whole Family's Here...Let's Eat! - COMPLETE!

thanks so much for your photos and your reviews....Our most favorite resort is also FQ, we went there on our very first trip....the year it first opened..we have gone to other resorts...Like "Dixie Landings aka Riverside" and Movies and Pop and Dolphin......but we always say that FQ is our most favorite..
Your photos are getting me in the ressie mode for our upcoming trip with our family......thanks again for taking the time to do this
 
Thank you all for the nice comments. I am glad people are enjoying my reviews. :hug:

Today's reviews will be from Saturday, October 29 - MY BIRTHDAY!

Well, it wasn't "really" my birthday. Let me explain. My birthday is actually in September. For my birthday gift from my family this year, I said all I wanted was one day of our trip to Disney to do whatever I wanted.

Now granted, I am the planner in the family so I do pick a lot of what we do already, but as other Mom's know, you typically plan out the days, ADR's, park experiences, etc. based a lot on what you know your family will love.

I wanted one day where I got to call the shots all day and no one would complain or argue. ;)

So, Saturday of our trip was that day.

I wanted to sleep in and laze around all morning. DD19 did have some homework for college that she HAD to get done, so she stayed in the room with me and quietly did her homework all morning.

DH and DD15 headed off to Animal Kingdom. While there, they ate a CS breakfast at Pizzafari (2 bounty breakfasts) but didn't take any pictures! :scared1: They also got a root beer float and ice cream cone as snacks. Again - no pictures. Sorry! :rolleyes1

Back at the room, after I felt I had enough relaxation time (uh, all morning), DD19 and I got ready and took the boat to Downtown Disney.

First stop was Wolfgang Puck Express for lunch.

DD19 ordered the meatloaf.

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She really enjoyed it.

I had the chicken strips and fries.

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DD15 and DH joined us at DTD while we were eating.

For dessert, we both got the frozen yogurt with cookies pieces. I thought I had pictures of this, but don't seem to see them. Again, sorry! :headache:

After lunch, we did a little shopping and wandering around DTD then headed back on the boat to POFQ. I wanted a relaxing late afternoon by the pool.

Unfortunately, it was not super hot outside and the pool at POFQ was pretty cold. So we did more relaxing at a table poolside than in the actual pool. Although, the hot tub was enjoyable.

The girls & DH did laundry in the laundry area near the pool while I relaxed - gotta love that! :love::banana:

Around 6pm, we took the bus to Magic Kingdom and rode a few rides to kill time before our ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe at 9pm.

We did get a little snack in Adventureland (2 of them actually):

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We also took in the newly revised (since the fire) Tiki Bird show. I liked the old, pre-fire one much better. This seemed to go way back to possibly the original Tiki Show and I thought it was really dumb. Actually several people walked out mid-show. I guess they agreed. We did stick it out through the whole thing, but I doubt I'd go back.

DD19 was starting to feel a little sick, but she was being a trooper. WCC is one of her all-time favorite places to eat, so she didn't want to miss it again! Remember we slept through our previous ADR there the other night. :sad2:

So we enjoyed the beautiful boat ride from MK to Wilderness Lodge. I love that resort also! We spent some time walking around and enjoying the beauty of that resort and then checked in for our ADR.

After a short wait, we were seated. The hostess kept walking through the dining room and I was getting disappointed. YEP - they put us in that very far back room. She saw our disappointment and asked if we wanted to move. DD19 said she preferred it back there since she still wasn't feeling well, so we stayed and it wound up being kind of nice since it was late and a more quiet dinner seemed like a good option from the normally wild and loud WCC.

Us 3 girls ordered the all-you-can-drink bottomless milkshakes - 2 vanilla and 1 chocolate.

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DH winked at Dalia, our wonderful server, and ordered a "LARGE" diet coke. Fortunately, Dalia was one smart server and knew exactly what he was looking for. So this is what he got:

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Along with his enormous diet coke came their oh-so-yummy cornbread!

For entrees, we all ordered different things again. DH got the skillet, which came with salad:

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DD15 got the Chicken Pasta:

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DD19 got the meatloaf again (maybe that's what made her sick - 2 meatloaf meals in one day):

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I got the steak:

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Overall, DH loved the skillet. DD15 enjoyed her chicken pasta. My steak was really good, although I didn't like the potatoes it came with. DD19 basically picked at her meatloaf. By now, she was really feeling sick.

Actually after we finished our entrees, DD19 asked to go outside to get some fresh air. She was gone for awhile and we ordered our desserts to go after she left so we could get back to the room sooner.

DD15 went to check on DD19 and reported back that she had thrown up outside. :scared1:

So Dalia proved to be one of the best servers ever. She packed up our desserts, ran our check quickly and brought a bag filled with ginger ale and saltines for DD19. That was thoughtful and very sweet!

Here are the desserts we got to go:

2 Cheesecakes - one plain, one with berries:

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One apple caramel pie and one bread pudding:

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One very sad fact is those extremely delicious looking desserts never did get eaten. As you know, when you have the ddp, it often is just too much food. I think DD15 ate a little bit of her bread pudding the next morning, but everything else wound up being thrown out. :guilty:

We went outside the entrance of Wilderness Lodge and they hailed a cab for us. With DD19 being so sick, we did not want to deal with the long boat or bus ride back to MK and then wait and ride yet another bus to our resort. The cab ride was worth every penny, especially to DD19!

So we hit the hay and hoped DD19 would be better for the next day's adventures!

I won't leave you in suspense, by morning, she was fine! :goodvibes:)

Sunday was spent at Hollywood Studios, DTD movie theater and Epcot. So you can look forward to the next installment including a lunch feast at 50's Prime Time and eating around the WS at Epcot for dinner.
 
Great reviews! Thanks for taking the time to post them:goodvibes

I'm glad your DD felt better the next morning. Being sick at WDW is no fun....been there done that!:sick:

I'm looking forward to more

Terri
:dance3:
 
We once had a wonderful lunch at WCC but we've never tried it for dinner
Sorry that your DD was not feeling to good, I hope she soon felt better :goodvibes
 

I was having some computer issues this past weekend and so I couldn't correct my last post, but meant to show a picture of the salad and skillet DH got at WCC. So here they are:

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More to come soon!
 
That was super nice of your waitress (Dalia) to give ginger ale and saltines for your daughter! I'm sorry she wasn't feeling well, but I'm glad she felt better the next morning. :goodvibes

Bottomless milkshakes?!?! I would have finished a tub of ice cream, if I had one of those. :lmao: All the food looks so yummy too! Thanks for the updates.
 
So Saturday we celebrated my birthday, but Sunday, it was DH's turn. His birthday is Nov. 3 and Sunday was October 30, so it was pretty close to his actual birthday.

We started out that morning splitting 2 CS meals from the POFQ food court. Sorry no pictures. We got 2 croissant sandwiches and water to bring back to the room.

Then we caught the bus to Hollywood Studios. We made it right at park opening and snagged fast passes for Star Tours and got in line for Toy Story Mania. We also squeezed in the Muppet Show before lunch too. We even had a little time for shopping and taking goofy pictures.

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Saw these guys as we left the Muppet Show:

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We had a lunch ADR at 11:20am at 50's Prime Time Cafe for DH's birthday celebration. 50's PTC was the very first sit-down Disney restaurant we ever dined at. So it will always hold a special place in our hearts!

It's been hit-and-miss as for "fun" servers when we've dined here over the years and this time, we had a definite winner! Her name was Marnie and she was really "into" the fun spirit. :banana::woohoo:

Here's Marnie hugging DD19 after she "punished" her (more on that later):

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Caught this familiar face on the black & white TV in the room where we dined:

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We decided to share at this meal. If you recall, DD19 and I dined alone at Wolfgang Puck Cafe, so our ddp credits were a little "off" and we figured this would be the best place to share. Even sharing, we walked away very full!

For drinks, we shared 2 shakes - a vanilla and a peanut butter & jelly. I have to say, I would never have ordered a pbj shake because it really did not have an appeal to me, but I tried a few sips and it was actually really good! It truly did taste like pbj and ice cream!

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We also ordered onion rings to share for an appetizer (paying out of pocket).

DH made a hidden Mickey out of the onion rings and then he added to the hidden Mickeys even more with ketchup!

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While we were waiting for our food, Marnie gave all of the tables in our room "homework." Our table was assigned to write down at least 7 Presidents with one syllable last names. Amazingly we did really well at this and had it done before she came back. She was really shocked! She said usually people get a few, but hardly ever get 7. I believe there are 9 total.

Anyone want to try to guess them all?

Of course the hard part was NO cheating - meaning NO cell phones or other devices to help. We obeyed the no cheating rule for that homework - we were not as "good" when it came to helping the table next to us with their homework.

The table next to us was assigned to come up with 20 one-word Disney movies. That was much harder than it sounds - you could not use Pixar movies. It was fun working with them and DD15 was just spouting them off remarkably well. No wonder - she was googling Disney movies in her lap with her phone! How could I raise such a cheater???!!! :sad2::scared1:

Well Marnie came back and DD19 told on DD15 for cheating and Marnie made DD19 stand with her nose on the wall for tattling.

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When her "punishment" was over, that's when Marnie gave her the big hug (see above). It was all in fun and we were laughing and having a blast with all this! :rotfl:

Entrees, dessert and a fun birthday celebration coming up next!

Plus, still to come - eating our way around the WS at Epcot!
 
Subscribing (I know I'm a little late). I am really enjoying your reviews! :goodvibes I love the picture of your girls in the muppet hats!!
 
Okay I'm back - sorry to have to split this meal up into 2 posts, but we took a lot of pictures.

As you recall, the 4 of us were sharing 2 credits here because DH and DD15 didn't come to WPC with us the other night.

So DD19 and I shared the Grandma's Chicken Pot Pie - A creamy cheese mixture of chicken, mushrooms, carrots, celery, onions, and peas topped with a flaky pastry (descriptions from allears)

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This was absolutely delicious! I have to say, I wasn't too excited about this choice when DD19 suggested it, but I figured I should try it since she really wanted it. The pastry was indeed flaky and buttery and there were huge pieces of chicken and the sauce was creamy & yummy. Overall, this was an excellent choice!

DD15 and DH shared the Sampling of Mom's Favorite Recipes - Crispy-fried Chicken, Fork Tender Pot Roast, and Traditional Meatloaf with all the fixings

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They both said they really enjoyed this too.

For desserts, we ordered one 50's Boston Cream Cupcake - White Cake filled with Pastry Cream and covered with a Chocolate Glaze

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I have to say, I ate most of this one myself. In my humble opinion, it was one of the best desserts I've ever had at Disney. I do love Boston Cream anything though and this had a true, authentic Boston Cream taste to it.

DD19 and DD15 shared the Dad's Brownie Sundae - Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream, Hot Fudge, and Caramel topping

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Just for fun, I found a picture of the Dad's sundae from 2007. It seems it has changed slightly - a lot less cracker jacks!

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We've had this at 50's PTC many times and they gobbled it up happily so it must have been as delicious as always.

DH kept reminding our server Marnie that it was his birthday. ;) He was hoping for some special attention and he got it! Marnie did not disappoint.

I'll just let the pictures tell the story:

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Overall this was a super fun meal! The ONLY down-side was how LONG this meal took. Our ADR was for 11:20am and we hoped to make a movie at DTD by 1:45pm. However, we didn't leave the restaurant until about 1:15pm, so the meal took about 2 hours in all.

After lunch, we did make it to Downtown Disney and watched the movie Courageous. If you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it!!! However, bring kleenex as its an emotional journey.

After the movie, we met a very nice couple at the bus stop. They were trying to figure out the best way to get to Epcot and we overheard them talking and since we were also heading to Epcot from DTD ourselves, we told them to come with us. Ironically the first bus to show up at the bus stop was for the Yacht/Beach/Swan/Dolphin. So we all jumped on that bus and had a nice chat with our new friends. We got off on the first stop, which was the Swan and walked through that beautiful resort to the boat landing and just as we walked up, a boat arrived for Epcot. We got on with our new friends and continued to chat with them. All in all, it was a lovely way to get to Epcot and fun to meet new friends!

Coming up next - we eat our way around the WS! LOTS of Food & Wine Festival pictures coming up!!
 
Great reviews so far! I'm sorry your DD threw up. But it is nice that she got better by the next morning. I know from experience that it's not fun to be in Disney when you're sick! That chicken pot pie from 50's PT looks delicious! I hope I can convince my DH to go back there one day. He wasn't a big fan of the fun that the servers have! :laughing:
 
Once we arrived at Epcot on Sunday evening, we had one objective - eat our way around the World Showcase using up snack and counter service credits.

At this point, we had I think 6 quick service meals and about 10 snack credits remaining. Also, because we had been eating so many table service meals at Epcot, we were never there when we were hungry enough for enjoying the samplings of the Food & Wine Festival. So tonight was our chance!

First stop was at the France Bakery. We used 2 quick service meals here. One included the ham tartine, lemon tart and large soda. The other included 2 sweets and one drink, which was the chocolate chip cookie, chocolate eclair and a large specialty coffee.

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It was all very good and a great start to our night of dining!

Next stop was Belgium for this oh-so-yummy Belgium waffle with berries and whipped cream.

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I know its not all that fancy, but it was crisp and sweet and one of my favorite offerings at the Festival.

The next 2 things members of my family enjoyed so I'm not 100% sure what they were. I believe the item on the left is a beef pita pocket from Morocco and the other item looks like an egg roll.

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Here's a beautiful picture of the Epcot ball from the World Showcase (around Italy).

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Next up, both girls enjoyed this tasty dish from the Italy booth. It is Ravioli Di Formaggia all Emiliana (Baked Cheese Ravioli with Creamy Beef Bolognese Sauce, Parmesean Cheese, and Melted Mozzarella). They both LOVED this and it was a large serving!

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Next up was the cheese fondue from the Food & Wine Festival Cheese stand. It was Cheese Fondue with Sourdough Bread. I didn't care for this one at all. I didn't like either the fondue or the bread, but other members of my family did, so it was nice we were all sharing.

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DH got this from Germany - Nurnberger Sausage in a Pretzel Roll. He liked it. I thought it looked a little "yucky." He actually wound up dipping some of the pretzel roll in the cheese fondue.

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We then stopped at the South Korea booth and DD15 got the Barbecue Short Rib with Steamed Rice and Cucumber Kimchi. No one really liked this and most of it got thrown away (plus we were getting pretty full by now).

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We also stopped in China and used one quick service meal to get orange chicken. Sorry no photo!

The last stop of the night was at the Mexico booth for the rib-eye taco. This was really good!

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All in all, we really enjoyed our evening of eating around the World Showcase. It is always fun to try samplings of the Food & Wine Festival! I love it even more when you have quick service and snack credits from FREE dining to burn doing it! :banana::love:

This was our last night at Disney. :sad1:

Tomorrow we head to Chef Mickey's for breakfast and then head home.

I'm not too sad though. We had bought annual passes in Oct. 2010 and this was our 5th trip using those passes in 1 year, so it was an amazing year and we had so many fun times and memories created!
 
The next 2 things members of my family enjoyed so I'm not 100% sure what they were. I believe the item on the left is a beef pita pocket from Morocco and the other item looks like an egg roll.

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The second thing is probably the harissa chicken roll, also from Morocco. Loving your report so far!
 
So our last morning at Disney was on Halloween - Monday, October 31.

We were celebrating DH's birthday since his real birthday is Nov. 3. It has become somewhat of a tradition for us to end our trip at Chef Mickey's (when we can afford it).

I didn't take food pictures here. It was typical breakfast buffet food. My favorite thing on the buffet was the Mickey waffles. I must have gotten a fresh batch because mine was hot, crispy and delicious!

We were seated right by the window facing out from the front of the Contemporary. Great views! Our server was Ruth Ann and she was wonderful - made DH feel very special for his birthday celebration. I did notice they had one room that looked like it was for birthday celebrations but it was probably more for kids birthdays.

Here is DH's birthday treat - Halloween themed. :goodvibes

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Here are a few pictures of us with the various characters that came by our table.

DH being a little "goofy" with Goofy:

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The girls with Donald:

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The girls with Minnie:

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Minnie flirting with DH! :scared1:

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The girls with Pluto:

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Our flight wasn't leaving until 4pm that day, so after breakfast, we had a little time to kill, so we wandered around the shops at the Contemporary and wound up using our last ddp credits at the Contempo Cafe.

We used up 3 CS credits this way:
  • One turkey BLT with chips, a powerade and jumbo cookie
  • One stacked sandwich with chips, orange soda and worms-n-dirt (see photo below)
  • One continental combo - 3 snack items consisting of 3 bags of chips

We also had 3 snack credits left and got 3 Mickey rice krispy treats.

Here's a photo of the worms-n-dirt dessert. This actually made its way all the way back to Appleton, WI with us and DD15 ate it the next day and it was still good!

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So that concludes our FREE dining 2011 food report. Thanks for following along. As I said before, it is so fun to re-live the trip this way and I appreciate all of you coming along for the ride. Happy Disney Eating Everyone!!

Up next, a few random photos (non-food related) from our trip.
 
As promised, here are some random other photos (non-food related) from our trip.

This was the trip of family photos! As I told you in the beginning, DD19 who is a sophomore in college, wasn't sure she could make the trip until literally a few days before we left, so I was thrilled to have the whole family there and so everyone indulged me when I repeated said "let's take a family picture!" :thumbsup2

Here are some of them.

My favorite one (at the Great Piggy Bank Adventure - Innoventions Epcot). I actually made this into our Christmas card this year. ;)

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Our free 5 x 7 Disney Visa photo:

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More fun at this photo shoot:

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Shopping:

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The girls in front of the castle (this was near the rose garden). This is actually the spot my nephew proposed to his girlfriend June 2010. Now they are married and expecting a baby, so it is a special spot for our family.

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For the first time ever, we tried the character fast pass system. Extremely short wait and got to see all of these beautiful princesses. I highly recommend getting a FP for this!

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So that concludes my report. Again, thanks for coming along!

We currently have 3 trips planned for 2012 - a 4 night cruise on the Disney Dream to celebrate DD's 16th birthday in April; a summer trip in July with all 4 of us; Christmas and New Year's at Kidani.
 
LOVED your review!! Especially because you're from WI! ;) You included so many of my favorites in your review and I'm pretty sure that we stayed in that exact same room at POFQ and we loved it just as much! I too love the chicken at WP so I'm sorry to hear it wasn't your favorite this time. My niece who is 24 also got in trouble at 50s PT for tattling on my DD12 for not eating her veggies and she got the same punishment as your DD (by my niece was not so good natured about it, she was a crab!) but I sure thought it was funny! :rotfl2: Lovely family and it looks like you had so much fun!
 
Looks like y'all had an awesome time. You ate at some of the places that were on my list to try when I go in May. Thanks for the photos too. :)
 
Really enjoyed reading all your reviews!! They make me want to go back so bad, and of course I was only there 3 months ago lol!
 















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