There is no WAY we could have eaten it all-FINISHED!!!!

[Topper]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2410520

 

[sianell]

I really enjoy your reviews and your ratings! So please continue if you have the time

And as for things not on the menu anymore- things are often recycled and come back anyway

 

[livinlife25]

I'm still interested in the report! If you are willing to finish it now, I say go for it!

 

[dixonsontour]

I'm enjoying your reports - on a cold night in England.

Keep going

 

[mamasha]

Love your reviews!!
Did Garden Grill offer an alternative dinner for the kids?
Last time that I was there, I was able to get chicken nuggets with regular fries. Did your server ask? I have an ADR here and if it's not an option, I will cancel. DD will not eat the chicken leg.

 

[skitt]

Yum, those coconut paletas are one of my favorite things at WDW! I never thought I'd say that about a popsicle either

 

[Ro Z]

This is the same trip, I just never finished my review. But I checked the menus on this site and they still have all the items I'm putting pictures of today. (other than the seasonal items) Do you not want to see pictures if they aren't recent?

Love the pics! Didnt mean to offend

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

How do I quote multiple comments in one reply? I've seen others do it...

Lemme just do my best to get back to all of you.

Ro Z- I wasn't even close to offended, I hope I didn't seem that way!

Skitt- That's exactly how I felt! I loved that there was real fruit/coconut in there and not just fruit flavoring.

Mamasha- I really don't remember if there were other options. But I just looked at the sample menu Disney has posted on their website and it shows the same entrees we had but a different dessert. I'm sorry about that.

Sianell, Livinlife25 and Dixsonsontour- Thanks for the feedback, I'll get the rest of the pics up as fast as I can.

Topper- I'll try to pay closer attention to the guidelines in the future, sorry!

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

Back to day four now. I really was doing my best not to get anyone lost - and no one did except for me!

My dad was meeting us this day and just as we got the Universe of Energy Pavilion he called me on my cell phone. The line we were in really wasn't a line at all, it was just 15-20 people milling about in front of the attraction. My kids and I found a shady spot to sit while we waited for the doors to open. I tried to describe to my Dad where we were, but he had a hard time finding us. He asked me to describe what buildings he would need to pass to get to where we were. I'm a WDW newbie and didn't know, so I walked down to the end of this waiting area to look for landmarks to describe to him. I was gone for what felt like 2 minutes, but in that amount of time, the doors opened I came back in time to see the last of the people enter and the doors shut. I ran up to the cast member near the door and asked her to let me in. She said the next show would start in about 20 minutes and I had to wait til then.

Me-"But my KIDS are in there! Without me!"
CM- smiled and nodded sweetly.
Me-"They went in the door a minute ago...And I'm out here!"
CM-More smiling and nodding....(she's still not letting me in)
Me-"I don't want them to be in there alone!"
CM-"Oh! Are they alone? Why didn't you say so? I wish I could let you in, but I can't. You can go in through the exit though."

At this point my dad gets there, we both go in through the exit and found them right away. Last time ANYONE got lost on this trip, thank heavens!

That evening we hit Chefs de France- we wanted to see Remy! This was the only ADR we had that we had to wait for, it took them 25 minutes to seat us but that wasn't as bad as the times they were quoting walk ups! I heard them tell one person it would be 90 minutes- and the person signed in and waited!

For those who want to see Remy- please check the schedule in advance, he isn't there all the time. (I learned this tip on Disboards!) When I went the times were 12:30, 1:40, 2:50 & 5:20pm. I booked a nice early dinner so we would be there for the 5:20pm time. Since we where seated late, I was worried about missing him but we were seated about three minutes before he came to our table.

Unfortunatly, here's the rest of the Remy story- I've heard reports on here about the friendliness of the cast members here. I'll say our waiter was fine, but Remy's handler was a bit rude IMO. I was disappointed in that. He wheeled the chart to our table, removed the lid and we got about thirty seconds of Remy before he replace the lid and went to the next table. Long enough to take a picture, that's all. BUT-as he walked away, he looked down at my oldest and said "You are NOT little, not at all?" (as if that were a bad thing. It was like a sneer.) My son asked me if the handler was calling him fat and seemed hurt by it. I told him he must have meant his was tall. (my son is NOT fat, or even 'chubby', but he is tall for his age)

I saw him pause at other tables for longer, but no one got more than a minute or two. He did another section of the restaurant and as he was about to leave, a new group was seated near us. He came back and did that group and then redid all the tables between there and us. When he got to us he paused and then declared "You have already seen!" and walked off. We didn't say a word, I didn't know what to say to that...

 

[Ro Z]

OMG! This brings tears to my eyes, your son....! We like Chefs but the last time we had a snooty waiter. (really cute but...) We asked for a few things like sauce on the side. JIC we didn't like it and he was really put out by our requests. But to make a child think there was something wrong with them. Well that is just not right!! So sorry you had to go thru this!!
Kinda funny you got lost tho!

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

Les Chefs de France has a Prix Fixe 3 Courses Menu. So people on the regular dining plan, like us, can have an appetizer here. All three monkeys ordered of this menu, my Dad and I did not.

I don't know how to explain it, but for the most part they HATED their appetizers. The youngest got this:

This is the french onion soup. He loves cheese, he loves onions. I thought this would be a hit. But he took one or two bites and then set his spoon down and said "The Rat did NOT make this....." (meaning Remy) He gave this dish 4/10.
However, I pulled the soup over to me and LOVED it. I ate nearly all of it. I'd give it a 9/10.

Next my daughter got the lobster bisque.

She took one bite and pushed the bowl away. My oldest sitting next to her tried a bite and loudly proclaimed "It tastes like barf!" They gave this a 2/10. I asked why they didn't give it a 1 if it "tasted like barf." and DS said- "because I've had some Bertie Botts that were grosser." Sigh.

Dad ate this (the whole bowl) and gave it an 8/10.

My first born got the salad. It comes pre-tossed with a vinaigrette, but he asked the waiter if he could get ranch instead. I swear, the look on shock on the waiters face was hysterical. However, this was the only appetizer that my kids ate. It's also the only one I don't have a picture of, so sorry!

 

[DsnyMama]

I'm in

We are eating at Chefs de France, Crystal Palace, 50's Prime Time, Yak and Yeti, and Boma this coming trip as well!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Ro Z]

That sounds like the same look we got when we had the nerve to ask for the sauce on the side and OMG fries instead of the potato that was served with the steak! This said...it is the only place DH requested this trip. Food good, servers sometimes NOT! I say sometimes because the server we had last Oct. was great.

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

Our entrees were a different story-the monkeys liked their food! First born got the Demi poulet fermier roti, pommes rissolees et broccoli- Which was chicken, potatoes and broccoli.

He ate every bite- except for all the broccoli his sister kept stealing from him. He gave this an 8/10.

My daughter got the macaroni. (Yes, I'm afraid the pictures keep getting darker...)

It was pasta, so of course she liked it- but she didn't love it. She ate about half and gave it a 6/10. She said it was good, but she would have liked it better if there were 'things' in it. (I'm guessing she means veggies or chicken?)

The youngest monkey got salmon. Here's the monster sized name from the menu: Filet de Saumon, pommes de terre ecrasees au beurre et ciboulette, sur coulis de tomate et poivron rouge.

He liked the sauces on the plate. When the waiter stopped by to check on things, he pointed to it and asked what it was. The waiter said "You don't like it? I'll take it away!!" and grabbed the plate. I quickly explained he was asking because he DID like it.

He gave this dish an 8/10.

I had the tenderloin. Filet de boeuf grille, sauce au poivre vert Gratin Dauphinois et haricots verts

I thought this was pretty dang tasty and ate more than half when my oldest asked for a bite. He LOVED it and couldn't keep his hands off my food after that. (even though he had already eaten most of his dish). When I finally stopped eating, he pulled it in front of him and finished the rest. Now, I am NOT exaggerating at all when I say he licked that plate clean. I looked over to see him running his fingers over the plate and licking them off- Of course this happened just as our waiter walked by (another hysterical startled expression ensued...) Sigh. By now I was begging to wonder if this restaurant is just to fancy for simple folk like us..

But the tenderloin was cooked exactly as I ordered it, the green beans were tender and flavored very well and the potatoes were fantastic. 9/10 from me and 10/10 from my son.



Dad got Coquille St Jacques et crevette, gnocchis Provencales- shrimp and scallops.

The sauce on this was not as good as the seafood was in his opinion. He called the sauce 'alright'. He gave the overall dish 7/10

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

And finally the desserts!

These pictures turned out so dark that on some of them I couldn't tell what the picture is of. So for those ones, I had to borrow pics from the internet.

The youngest got the cake. I think they changed the recipe on this one. Here's the current description: Croustillant feuillantine, douceur au chocolat, glace noix de coco, tartare de banane - Crispy cake with chocolate milk mousse, coconut ice cream and bananas marinated in rum and lemon juice.
We got everything except the bananas marinated in rum and lemon juice. Instead he got fresh strawberries. (and for a dessert for a young monkey, the non alcoholic option is better anyway.)

He liked this, but just ate the ice cream and got a box for the cake. He ate that the next morning. Mmmm, sugar for breakfast. 8/10 from him.

My lovely daughter got the sorbets:

She ate all the fruit first and then played around with the sorbets- making patterns in her dish, shaping the sorbet into faces, that kind of thing. Cuz playing with food is so classy...
She gave it a 7/10

And the oldest got the creme brulee.

Now he ate all the food on his plate and nearly half of my food as well. By now he was stuffed. He still planned on dessert, but before he did more than nibble on the madeliene, I heard this loud gasp from him. I looked up and found what he was staring at- a woman across the way from us was nursing. Now, by no means am I saying I have any issues with nursing mothers, but she (at the time I looked) had everything out and she wasn't in a hurry to cover back up. IMO, if there is nipple in full view of a restaurant, it has crossed a line. DS was bright red. The other two monkeys had their backs to her, but they saw our expressions and turned around too. Thankfully by then the baby was back in place and they just saw partial cleavage. It was still enough to make the younger son squirm a little.

That was it for my oldest though, he didn't want anything to eat after that. (I doubt he had any room anyway)

I got the Profiteroles.

This was the star of the dessert options. I give it a 9/10, I would certainly order that again.

Dad got crepes.

He deemed this tasty, but very sweet. He couldn't eat very much of it as a result.

Now here's where things went odd. The waiter asked for my Key to the World card since we were on the dinning plan. I had mine and all my kids in my pocket and I pulled one out at random, slipped it inside the black guest check presenter and handed it to him. He didn't come back for a while and I could see him walking back and forth and talking to some one very fast in French. Finally he returned to the table and said he was very sorry, but I didn't give him my card. I told him I had and pulled out my stack to count them, there were three, and it was my youngest son's that was missing. The waiter looked most alarmed and walked off again. A few minutes later I had the manager at the table asking me if I was sure I gave it to him. I told him I was and my oldest piped up and said he had seen me do it. He thanked me and left.

At this point I could see the waiter, the manager and two other cast members frantically searching everywhere. The poor waiter looked like he was on the verge of tears. My oldest decided to be VERY helpful at this point and told his little brother that since his card was lost, he couldn't go to anymore parks. The littlest monkey was now on the verge of tears as well while I tried to assure him that wasn't true.

The host approached the table, but before he could say anything, my sweet little daughter let out a very adult sized belch. (Once more we got a shocked look of horror from the French) She let out two more while her brothers laughed loudly The host stood there for a second and then nodded and walked off to join the search.

After 15 minutes and five employees searching they finally found the card. Looks like it had bounced under the cash register stand after it was dropped. (big sigh of relief!)

The food here was good, it really was. But between the rude handler, the lost card, the nipple and the bleching/plate licking/barf-talking antics of my monkeys, it wasn't the best meal.

Oh well, we left with a belly's full.

As we walked away my boys started teasing their sister about her belching. She asked me if that was bad and I said it wasn't any worse that her brothers licking plates or talking loudly about rude things. Then I jokingly said (with a french accent):
"Uncultured swine! You may not return!" The monkeys laughed and my daughter said "No, we're uncultured monkeys!" that got a chuckle from most of us until my youngest (who looked very confused) said "what does yogurt have to do with anything!" Oh, we all lost it!

Looks like the only "culture" I've been providing my monkeys comes from the dairy section. I scheduled some museum trips as soon as we got back...

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

Day 5- First day in the Magic Kingdom!!

Oh, I was so looking forward to this. I managed to snag the very earliest possible reservation time at the Crystal Palace. This meant we would be able to enter the park before it opened, stroll down a practically empty mainstreet, take some incredible pictures in front of the castle, ect. It was going to be perfect. That morning as sunny and beautiful and I was soooo excited.

Then I remembered that I was vacationing with kids and reality came crashing down. The poor little monkeys were exhausted and trying to wake them up early was like competing in the indy 500 on a tricycle- or knitting a sweater with toothpicks while blindfolded.... I just didn't stand a chance.

By the time we managed to drag ourselves to MK, we were an hour late for our reservations.

And since we were late, we couldn't be seated right away, we had to wait longer to get in. They told me it would be thirty minutes, but it turned out to just be 15 or so.

The buffet was decent. Everyone was able to find something they liked. I don't seem to have very many pictures of our meals, but here's the three I do have:

This first plate has eggs, a pastry my son said was a 'Pooh Ear', sausage, bacon and hashbrowns. The pooh ear (if that's it's name) was my favorite thing that morning- followed by the made to order omelets. In my opinion, everyone who's posted about the crappy bacon was right. It really is the worst I've had in a while. I thought the sausage was better.

My kids ate more of the bacon than me, they didn't seem to mind as much. On this plate you'll note the fresh fruit. Yum, yum yum. It was fantastic!

This is from the oldest, who was feeling a little carbivore. Pancakes, bagel, cinnamon roll and before he ate it- a Mickey waffle.

Yes, that's my finger, I have no idea what I was doing in that picture. It looks like I'm touching his butter, but I can not imagine why I would do a thing like that! Maybe it's just the angle? Maybe I was trying to show he had something besides carbs on that plate?

I dunno, but lets go back to that Mickey waffle thing. I've seen so many positive reviews and I was expecting to be blown away, but I just wasn't a fan. To me it was cute, but not tasty. (Please don't take it personal!) Only one of my kids liked them, (my oldest) and the other two agreed with me.

This was a character meal and we got Eyeore first. My kids did their best 'gloomy' faces for the pictures, but just couldn't pull it off. They were beaming too hard. (Yes, they were dragging at first that morning, but got downright giddy walking into the park.)

Tigger was next and he was so fun and playful. My oldest didn't want to stand up for pictures and tigger really gave him a hard time over that!

We hadn't seen Pooh or Piglet by the time we finished eating, but our waitress told me they wouldn't be too much longer. We waited, and waited...Since I considered Winnie the Pooh more of a "little kid" thing, I thought it wouldn't matter and suggested we just leave. Firstborn agreed right away but the other two BEGGED to stay. After waiting a while longer, the hostess came by and asked who it was we were waiting for. We told her and she took us straight over to where both of them were and pulled them aside and said she had "special friends that would like to see them before they left." So we got our pictures and the monkeys were thrilled!

First born was a little too grown up for the characters, so he gave this a 6/10, the rest of us vote an 8/10

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

For lunch on Day 5 we went to Columbia Harbour house. We followed the advice I've seen posted on Disboards to go and eat upstairs. It worked great! We went around noon- so there was a bit of a crowd and downstairs looked packed, but upstairs had plenty of empty tables. We got one right next to a window and split four meals. Given how much everyone ate though, we should have split three meals. It's not that the food was bad, I think we just weren't that hungry.

The first was the Garden Harvest Salad.

This is the meal we ate the least of. There was nothing wrong with it, but the monkeys liked the other salad we got better. The dressing on this was just ok. 6/10


Salad number two was the broccoli peppercorn salad.

This was actually the most popular lunch we got and that only one that got finished. 8/10


Next we had the grilled salmon with couscous and broccoli.

I don't like salmon, so I didn't try this dish, but the monkeys all said it wasn't as good as the salmon we got on day 2 at Wolfgang Puck Cafe.They ate every single bit of the broccoli and half of the fish- the couscous was a different story. I think it was one of those times when they just weren't in the mood to try something new. First born tasted it first and said "Mom! There's something wrong with the rice! It tastes funny..." They still didn't eat much after I pointed out that it wasn't rice.
They gave it 9/10 for the broccoli, 7/10 for the salmon and 4/10 for the couscous.



Our last dish was chicken nuggets.

This was cold by the time we got it upstairs, perhaps it was platted before the others? It was about what you'd expect from chicken nuggets and fries. 7/10


For dessert we choose apple crisp and chocolate cake. No one was hungry enough to try them. The monkeys said they wanted to take them to go. About this time they noticed some kids drinking from Mickey Mouse shaped straws and they asked if they could get one. I ran down to check and you could buy them there, I don't remember how much they were, but I believe it was less than a dollar each. They loved the straws but in the excitement of getting them, the desserts got set down and we walked out without them. So we never tried them and I can't report on how they tasted!

Here's what they look like though:

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

My dad joined us and the rest of the day was a blast, we hit ride after ride with very little wait. I had made reservations for that night at Kona and was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately I didn't realize that day five was one of the days Magic Kingdom would close early for the MVMCP. I had gotten a later seating and I planned to go from Magic Kingdom over to the Poly. But now we would have to wait around for 2 1/2. I suggested that we walk around the MK resorts and look at Christmas decorations ,but that didn't interest anyone so my dad called Disney Dinning and asked them if we could get earlier reservations. The only thing they had that was close to us was Grand Floridian Cafe, he took that spot and we went straight there. I was actually perfect timing, by the time we took the boat to the Grand Floridian, we were 5 minutes ahead of the ADR, they sat us right after that.

This restaurant hadn't even been one I'd looked at when I originally made ADRs and I didn't know much about it. When we walked in there were several empty tables and that along with the fact that we got ADRs 40 minutes beforehand, made me worry that it wasn't going to be any good. I was wrong.

Right after we sat down, they handed us all warm cloth napkins- Which was nice, because there was a chilly wind outside and we had all just been on an even chillier boat ride. They gave everyone except me and Firstborn a white napkin- we got black napkins. I thought it was odd and it must have shown on my face because the hostess looked at me, smiled and said- "We don't want to worry about getting any lint on your dark pants." Very nice.

My dad and oldest monkey both got the Bone In New York Steak Strip

This was tasty. My oldest ate every thing except for the carrots. (he only eats raw carrots, never cooked ones.) I happily ate those for him and they were wonderful. After he was all done eating, he looked at me and said "The only reason I'm not licking the plate is because you told me not to after that other meal."
10/10 from DS and 9/10 from Dad.


I got the Pan Roasted Chicken Breast.

Yum!! This came with mushroom risotto and roasted mushrooms and I thought it was fantastic. My youngest (who is a huge Tolkien fan and always tells me he wishes he were a hobbit) loved this dish as well and told me "Bilbo would love it!" The other two monkeys didn't care for it, but that doesn't surprise me since they don't eat mushrooms. For that reason, I'll recommend this dish to anyone who likes mushrooms. 9/10 from me.


My youngest ordered the Grand Floridian Burger

This was an Angus Chuck Burger, butter-poached Lobster, with red onion marmalade, crispy prosciutto and arugala on a brioche bun with fresh made chips. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but that burger was huge! He liked it to a point. At first, the bun was great, but before he was half way through, the bottom bun became so incredibly soggy that he couldn't even pick it up any more and he had to start eating this with a fork. He hadn't put the marmalade on the burger, he was actually dipping his chips in that, it was the sauce from the lobster that was making the bun soggy. (look at the picture, you can see it running out and onto the plate) I also noticed he started picking out the lobster and setting it to the side. I asked if there was something wrong with it and he shrugged and said "I dunno." My dad snagged a piece and said it was a little on the rubber/overcooked side. The chips were yummy though! All of us tried them and they were crisp, flavorful and not greasy at all.
DS2 gave this a 10/10 for the chips and a 6/10 for the burger. He said it would have been higher if the bun wasn't soggy and lobster wasn't chewy.


Finally (no surprise here) DD got the pasta

This comes with shrimp, but you can switch it out for chicken or have it as a vegetarian dish. She got the shrimp and loved it! She only managed to get about half way through it, but she boxed it up and had the rest for breakfast the next day.
9/10 from her.


For dessert we saw the Sampler for two platter on the menu so DS1 and dad split one and DS2 and I split another.

Oh my- this was tasty. It had Fresh Berry Tart, Boston Creme Pie, Key Lime Tart, Lemon Cheesecake and a good sized chocolate Mickey Mouse.
The Lemon Cheesecake (top) was creamy with some good lemon zest to it, especially if you got some of the sauce in front of it. Under that was the Berry Tart which was a little too sweet from me, but not my monkeys. The Boston Creme Pie was gone before I got a bite, I heard it was good though And on the bottom was the Key Lime which was exactly tart enough.

The Chocolate Mickeys we packed to go and they made it all the way back to Utah unharmed. The monkeys kept them around for a week or two before digging in. None of the monkeys seemed to want to take the first bite. Mickey was just "too cute." Finally I bite off an ear and the rest was history. He was tasty.
9/10 from me, 10/10 from the monkeys.


My Daughter ordered the fondue

However she abandoned it once she saw the dessert sampler. She ask for the fruit to be packed to go along with her pasta and her younger brother and I ate them the next morning. It was fresh yummy fruit, I'll give it an 8/10. I never tried the chocolate ganache it came with so I can't comment on that.

 

[Ro Z]

I Love the GFC. Haven't been for a while tho and I am glad to hear it is still good! I love that chocolate fondue. Pineapple and chocolate go together like bacon and eggs Well ok bacon goes with everything!
Very nice attention to detail with the napkins!! Very Disneyesque!
Loving your pics!

 

[AwfullyBigAdventures]

I Love the GFC. Haven't been for a while tho and I am glad to hear it is still good! I love that chocolate fondue. Pineapple and chocolate go together like bacon and eggs Well ok bacon goes with everything!
Very nice attention to detail with the napkins!! Very Disneyesque!
Loving your pics!

Bacon with everything? You and my monkeys would get along great!!!