chai latté
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2008
- Messages
- 33
We were at WDW from Sept 6 - 13th for free dining and thought I'd share our thoughts. We had an absolutely fantastic time! Whoe went: me (29) and DH (30).
We flew out of Buffalo with Jetblue. Would highly recommend them. We were on time both there and back, and I absolutely loved the tvs at every seat! You had the choice of about 30 different stations, and also satellite radio. Just remember to bring your headset (although they only charge $1 if you need to buy one). We also used resort airline check-in on the way back and it worked extremely well.
Got to MCO at 2:30pm, we took Magic Express and we were checked into Pop by 4:00pm. Very quick and efficient. We were in the 80s section at Pop.
We used Disney transportation the whole time. The longest wait for the bus was 20-30 minutes to get to Epcot from Pop. But the rest of the time the wait was less than 10 minutes. Very pleased with the bus service.
In terms of the parks, they might have seemed busy, but the lines were practically non-existent so we didn't feel the need to use fast passes (with the exception of TSM). I should also put a disclaimer that we were at rope drop every day, and got on a large portion of the rides by the afternoon for this reason. But even in the afternoon the lines were still short.
At Animal Kingdom, the longest wait was 15 minutes for EE. MK, the longest line was 15 minutes for most rides, with the exception of Peter Pan's Flight which was 30 minutes. But this may be attributed to the fact that it started raining and the lineup was covered so everyone took coer for here. Epcot, the 3 big rides (MM, Soarin', TT) were no more than 10-15 minutes.
Now HS was the only exception. TSM was busy. We went there on rope drop and went directly to TSM. The line took about 20-25 minutes. We then got a fast pass for later in the afternoon, and then another fast pass for later that night. Yes, we loved this ride so much we rode it 3 times (and 2 times the following day). We periodically checked the line and it went up as high as 70 minutes. We went back to HS the following day at rope drop. We were a little further back this time. We decided to pick up a fast pass before riding, the fast pass was already for 11am-12pm, and it took us 30 minutes to get through the line. When we rode if for the 2nd time this day (at noon), the line was up to 50 minutes and fast passes were gone. Loved this ride, and it's well worth riding, but make sure you use those fast passes! As for the other rides at HS.....the lines were short, 15 minutes or less.
Now of course, there was the dining! Ate lots of good and delicious food. Our ADRs were scheduled for 7pm every evening, except the breakfast at Crystal Palace. We were seated within 5 minutes every time we checked in, with the exception of Liberty Tree Tavern which took 20 minutes. We ate at:
Table Service
San Angel Inn: I read lots of negative reviews about this place, but we loved it! Some of the best food we had the whole trip, and the atmosphere was awesome. I wouldn't have paid OOP for a dinner here, but well worth it on the DDP. I ate the Filete Motuleno (a beef dish) and bread pudding for dessert (mmm) and DH had Puntas de Filete (a beef dish). I can't remember what he had for dessert. As a side note, I saw menus posted online that showed rice pudding was available here. Alas, there was no rice pudding
Les Chefs du France: DH had the lamb, and I had salmon. The lamb was fantastic! It was so tender and flavourful. I had salmon. It was good, but not great. For dessert, DH had vanilla crème brulée, very yummy. I had the apple crèpe with vanilla ice cream. Also very yummy. The service was very good, but where we were seated was rather close to the 2 tables right beside us, and we could hear everything they were saying.
Grand Floridian Café: We both had the shrimp and prosciutto penne pasta. Very yummy! The shrimp's tails were removed and very plentiful. Also, for dessert the menu listed a chocolate fondue dessert, and then a bunch of other desserts for less than half the price. These are all considered mini desserts, so under the DDP you could order 2 of them. I order the chocolate fondue with fruit, and DH ordered the lemon cheesecake and tiramisu. All very yummy. The service here was good but a bit on the slow side. I also highly recommend everyone take the opportunity to check out Grand Floridian...all I can say is "wow!"
Liberty Tree Tavern: Loved this dinner. The character interaction was fantastic. Chip and Dale, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto were at this dinner. The food was also fantastic. It was all served family style....you start with a salad and really really yummy rolls, then green beans, stuffing, mac and cheese, roast beef, turkey and pork, and mashed potatoes and gravy. All very delicious! For dessert, we had apple crumble/crisp. Service was excellent
Mama Melrose: Probably our least favourite dinner of the week. The service was slow and the server didn't seem on top of his game. Forgot our bread, forgot our appetizer, forgot to order our drinks....the food was ok. We had bruchetta, which was pretty good. Then for dinner I had pork marsala with mushroom risotto. While the pork wasn't anything to write home about, I loved the mushroom risotto! Of course, I love mushrooms. DH had the spicy italian sausage and it was ok.
Cap'n Jacks: We had a fabulous time here. The service was top notch. Probably the best of the week. Our drinks were refilled without us even noticing, and our food came out quite quickly. We both ordered the twin lobster tails. There was quite a bit of lobster meat on the lobster tails, and was all fantastic. We both had the double chocolate cake too. Very delicious.
Crystal Palace: Great food here, although I prefer family style over buffet style. When you could see characters approaching your table, I felt like we were pressured to get our food quickly, but the line prevented us from doing this. We also didn't get a chance to meet all the characters. Apparently the characters make the circuit in a 1.5 hour time period, but we were done in 1 hour, so we missed out on Tigger and Piglet, but got to meet Pooh and Eeyore. The food itself was very good though. Standard breakfast items with a few more unique items.
Counter Service:
Our only requirement for counter service was that it had to be an indoors location with air conditioning. That limited our options since every park seemed to have only 1 indoor eatery, but well worth sacrificing food options for cool air! So in case anybody wants to follow this same strategy, here is where we ate:
Pizzafari at AK: Good...not much to say about it. It's pizza! The cheese pizza had some nice seasoning on it.
Cosmic Ray at MK: I had the turkey bacon wrap with grapes. DH had bbq pork sandwich. We both had carrot cake for dessert.
Sunshine Seasons at epcot: The best CS we had all week. We both went to the Asian counter and had the two entrée items and 2 sides. It was something like noodles or rice, broccoli or stir fry veggies, with your choice of meats. For dessert I had crème brulée, which was good. But my DH had a butterfinger brownie, and it was possibly the best brownie we've ever had! I would recommend going just for the brownies. You won't be disappointed!
ABC Commissary - HS - We both had the fish and chips. Pretty good.
Toy Story Pizza Planet - HS - What can I say? Another pizza place. Pizza seemed to taste the same as at Animal Kingdom.
Anyways, the only other thing I think I should mention is that we went to La Nouba and it was fantastic! If you can fit that into your budget, you won't be disappointed!
If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!
We flew out of Buffalo with Jetblue. Would highly recommend them. We were on time both there and back, and I absolutely loved the tvs at every seat! You had the choice of about 30 different stations, and also satellite radio. Just remember to bring your headset (although they only charge $1 if you need to buy one). We also used resort airline check-in on the way back and it worked extremely well.
Got to MCO at 2:30pm, we took Magic Express and we were checked into Pop by 4:00pm. Very quick and efficient. We were in the 80s section at Pop.
We used Disney transportation the whole time. The longest wait for the bus was 20-30 minutes to get to Epcot from Pop. But the rest of the time the wait was less than 10 minutes. Very pleased with the bus service.
In terms of the parks, they might have seemed busy, but the lines were practically non-existent so we didn't feel the need to use fast passes (with the exception of TSM). I should also put a disclaimer that we were at rope drop every day, and got on a large portion of the rides by the afternoon for this reason. But even in the afternoon the lines were still short.
At Animal Kingdom, the longest wait was 15 minutes for EE. MK, the longest line was 15 minutes for most rides, with the exception of Peter Pan's Flight which was 30 minutes. But this may be attributed to the fact that it started raining and the lineup was covered so everyone took coer for here. Epcot, the 3 big rides (MM, Soarin', TT) were no more than 10-15 minutes.
Now HS was the only exception. TSM was busy. We went there on rope drop and went directly to TSM. The line took about 20-25 minutes. We then got a fast pass for later in the afternoon, and then another fast pass for later that night. Yes, we loved this ride so much we rode it 3 times (and 2 times the following day). We periodically checked the line and it went up as high as 70 minutes. We went back to HS the following day at rope drop. We were a little further back this time. We decided to pick up a fast pass before riding, the fast pass was already for 11am-12pm, and it took us 30 minutes to get through the line. When we rode if for the 2nd time this day (at noon), the line was up to 50 minutes and fast passes were gone. Loved this ride, and it's well worth riding, but make sure you use those fast passes! As for the other rides at HS.....the lines were short, 15 minutes or less.
Now of course, there was the dining! Ate lots of good and delicious food. Our ADRs were scheduled for 7pm every evening, except the breakfast at Crystal Palace. We were seated within 5 minutes every time we checked in, with the exception of Liberty Tree Tavern which took 20 minutes. We ate at:
Table Service
San Angel Inn: I read lots of negative reviews about this place, but we loved it! Some of the best food we had the whole trip, and the atmosphere was awesome. I wouldn't have paid OOP for a dinner here, but well worth it on the DDP. I ate the Filete Motuleno (a beef dish) and bread pudding for dessert (mmm) and DH had Puntas de Filete (a beef dish). I can't remember what he had for dessert. As a side note, I saw menus posted online that showed rice pudding was available here. Alas, there was no rice pudding
Les Chefs du France: DH had the lamb, and I had salmon. The lamb was fantastic! It was so tender and flavourful. I had salmon. It was good, but not great. For dessert, DH had vanilla crème brulée, very yummy. I had the apple crèpe with vanilla ice cream. Also very yummy. The service was very good, but where we were seated was rather close to the 2 tables right beside us, and we could hear everything they were saying.
Grand Floridian Café: We both had the shrimp and prosciutto penne pasta. Very yummy! The shrimp's tails were removed and very plentiful. Also, for dessert the menu listed a chocolate fondue dessert, and then a bunch of other desserts for less than half the price. These are all considered mini desserts, so under the DDP you could order 2 of them. I order the chocolate fondue with fruit, and DH ordered the lemon cheesecake and tiramisu. All very yummy. The service here was good but a bit on the slow side. I also highly recommend everyone take the opportunity to check out Grand Floridian...all I can say is "wow!"
Liberty Tree Tavern: Loved this dinner. The character interaction was fantastic. Chip and Dale, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto were at this dinner. The food was also fantastic. It was all served family style....you start with a salad and really really yummy rolls, then green beans, stuffing, mac and cheese, roast beef, turkey and pork, and mashed potatoes and gravy. All very delicious! For dessert, we had apple crumble/crisp. Service was excellent
Mama Melrose: Probably our least favourite dinner of the week. The service was slow and the server didn't seem on top of his game. Forgot our bread, forgot our appetizer, forgot to order our drinks....the food was ok. We had bruchetta, which was pretty good. Then for dinner I had pork marsala with mushroom risotto. While the pork wasn't anything to write home about, I loved the mushroom risotto! Of course, I love mushrooms. DH had the spicy italian sausage and it was ok.
Cap'n Jacks: We had a fabulous time here. The service was top notch. Probably the best of the week. Our drinks were refilled without us even noticing, and our food came out quite quickly. We both ordered the twin lobster tails. There was quite a bit of lobster meat on the lobster tails, and was all fantastic. We both had the double chocolate cake too. Very delicious.
Crystal Palace: Great food here, although I prefer family style over buffet style. When you could see characters approaching your table, I felt like we were pressured to get our food quickly, but the line prevented us from doing this. We also didn't get a chance to meet all the characters. Apparently the characters make the circuit in a 1.5 hour time period, but we were done in 1 hour, so we missed out on Tigger and Piglet, but got to meet Pooh and Eeyore. The food itself was very good though. Standard breakfast items with a few more unique items.
Counter Service:
Our only requirement for counter service was that it had to be an indoors location with air conditioning. That limited our options since every park seemed to have only 1 indoor eatery, but well worth sacrificing food options for cool air! So in case anybody wants to follow this same strategy, here is where we ate:
Pizzafari at AK: Good...not much to say about it. It's pizza! The cheese pizza had some nice seasoning on it.
Cosmic Ray at MK: I had the turkey bacon wrap with grapes. DH had bbq pork sandwich. We both had carrot cake for dessert.
Sunshine Seasons at epcot: The best CS we had all week. We both went to the Asian counter and had the two entrée items and 2 sides. It was something like noodles or rice, broccoli or stir fry veggies, with your choice of meats. For dessert I had crème brulée, which was good. But my DH had a butterfinger brownie, and it was possibly the best brownie we've ever had! I would recommend going just for the brownies. You won't be disappointed!
ABC Commissary - HS - We both had the fish and chips. Pretty good.
Toy Story Pizza Planet - HS - What can I say? Another pizza place. Pizza seemed to taste the same as at Animal Kingdom.
Anyways, the only other thing I think I should mention is that we went to La Nouba and it was fantastic! If you can fit that into your budget, you won't be disappointed!
If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!
