Violet & Chernabog Do Disney Dining: Veggies and seafood abound!

[TillyMarigold]

I forgot to mention that on Sunday the 6th, after DownTown Disney we went to Epcot. We got there about 12:30 or so, I think, and Chernabog volunteered to grab Test Track FastPasses while I limped over towards Imagination (where I used to work ... I worked at the original ride, then transferred to HISTA when the ride closed). I hung out waiting for him and taking photos, and then realized it was incredibly hot.

I scouted out snack options, then realized I couldn't actually get one until Chernabog brought back my KTTW card from getting FPs. Oops. Anyway I texted him to ask if he'd like frozen lemonade.

When he got back, we got a frozen raspberry lemonade from the cart just outside the Land pavilion. We split one ... Chernabog had been thinking we'd each get our own so he was confused when I only ordered one, but when he saw the size of it, he understood. (I'd seen people walking around with it while I was waiting ... but hadn't looked very closely, as you'll see.)

Now, I'd been expecting this to be one of the Minute Maid frozen lemonades that comes in a cup with a little wooden spoon, so I was looking forward to that. This turned out to be more like the Icee you'd get from the machine at the snack counter at K-Mart or Target (I should have been tipped off by the fact that the flavor choices were raspberry lemonade or blue raspberry).

It was pink and fluffy and sweet and sour, and tasted more like chemicals than actual raspberry lemonade. It was nice and cold, but not very substantial. However, if you like that kind of whipped icee sort of treat (which I actually do, once in a while), it was a very nice example of it. Sort of like drinking a raspberry-lemonade-flavored pixie stick (what is the singular of pixie stix?).

So that was at about 12:30 pm; the gelato came later, at about 3:00.

 

[TillyMarigold]

Back to the present day, which of course is not actually the present, but back to what happened after lunch at Columbia Harbour House on Monday, September 7.

We had ended up on Main Street, but took the train around to Toontown. After stopping in Mickey's House and doing a couple attractions, we decided to get ice cream. We saw that Mrs. Potts' Cupboard was selling soft serve sundaes (they had brownie or strawberry shortcake sundaes too, but that would be overkill ). I sent Chernabog to order while I went to find a ladies' room ... I mention this only because it was at that point that I discovered that the back of the castle was walled up and you could no longer walk through it.

When I came back, he'd gotten the sundaes ... mine was chocolate/vanilla swirl with hot fudge and whipped cream. His was the same, except with caramel. (Or butterscotch? I actually thought it was butterscotch, but the AllEars menu says the choices were hot fudge, caramel, or strawberry. Unfortunately all I wrote down was "Mrs. Potts' sundaes.")

Let me tell you, this sundae was amazing.

Getting back to expectations: was this the best hot-fudge sundae ever made in the history of the universe? I'm sure not. But given it was 90° and 75% humidity and we really wanted some ice cream, how was it? Absolutely outstanding. Were they the best soft-serve sundaes we'd ever had at a theme park? Far and away ... in fact, it was far better than you'd have any right to expect a theme park soft-serve sundae to be.

The soft serve was very cold and creamy and exactly thick enough. The hot fudge was warm and thick and rich and there was exactly enough of it to have some with every bite but not have a thick pool of it left over at the end; and again, the whipped cream was fresh. Chernabog claimed the caramel (or butterscotch, whatever) was even better than the ice cream or the whipped cream, but as I don't like either caramel or butterscotch, I took his word for it.

That hot fudge sundae may well have been my favorite snack of the trip. (I'll have to ask Chernabog what his favorite was--he's not a sweets person, so I doubt that was it.)

 

[TillyMarigold]

Our Kona reservation was for about 5:25. Kona was sort of a "filler" restaurant for us--we'd needed one more restaurant that would be in or near the Magic Kingdom. My aunt (who's a Disneyholic) had suggested Kona, and the menu looked good, so we went for it.

We took the monorail from the MK to the Polynesian and got to Kona at about 5:05. We had to wait a minute for someone to check us in. She gave us a pager and told us it would only work on the second floor. We wandered around the second floor, taking pictures and looking at the sushi bar and the posted menu, until around 5:10-5:15, when our pager went off.

The hostess walked us past the dessert tray and showed us the desserts, which seemed a little weird. Don't most restaurants (at least in the real world) bring the dessert tray to you after your meal?

We were seated in Jason's section, and he took quite a while to bring us the menus. We ordered glasses of water and a Diet Coke for me, Coke for Chernabog. I have to mention that unlike Narcoossee's, this was straight tap water and it was disgusting [in the parks we'd carried flavor packets to put in our water bottles when we refilled them]. I'm not a water snob, btw, I drink tap water all the time. But Florida's was even worse than I remembered.

Anyway, so we got bread. It was the standard Kona bread and it was really nice and soft and warm. It came with a sweet macadamia-nut butter that we found too sweet, and ended up eating the bread plain (which TBH is usually how I eat my bread anyway).

We are big sushi people, so as an appetizer (OOP), we ordered the Sushi Platter for Two.

I can't remember what the one on the left was ... I think it was some variation on a Philadelphia roll, which is smoked salmon and cream cheese. It's not listed on the Kona Island Sushi Bar menu, whatever it was.

The one in the middle was the Volcano Roll. Now, most "volcano rolls" are absolutely overflowing (get it?) with spicy tuna, but this was mostly just a regular tuna roll stacked up, with spicy sauce drizzled on top. However, there were little bits of spicy shrimp salad on the plate around it.

The one on the right was the Citrus Hamachi Roll, which had citrus-marinated yellowtail snapper and cucumber, with tempura crunch on the outside.

All three rolls of sushi were ... fine. Just fine. The fish was fresh enough and not at all fishy, but not as melt-in-your-mouth fresh as really good sushi is. The rice was done correctly, the presentation was beautiful. The flavor combinations were unusual, but not exceptionally creative. No one roll was a standout, but we thought they were all pretty good. The tempura crunchies were perfect, not too heavy. Actually the best part of the appetizer was that spicy shrimp salad, which really was incredible. We fought over it.

For our main courses, I ordered the Tuna Oscar: rare peppercorn-crusted tuna over fried green tomatoes, topped with tempura lump crab meat, wasabi hollandaise sauce, and asparagus.

I love tuna steak, so I was pretty excited about this one, but I don't know. The tuna steak was very good and tender and well-seasoned, but it didn't seem as flavorful as what I expected. Chernabog, however, keeps bringing up the tuna steak as an example of a truly excellent dish we had, so maybe I just wasn't in as much of a tuna mood as I'd thought, though--I did have it for lunch that day.

I'd never had fried green tomatoes before. They tasted exactly like you'd think a green tomato slice, breaded and fried, would taste. I like tomatoes a lot, so I liked the tomato part, but the breading seemed a little heavier than I would have wanted. Not at all greasy, but not as fluffy as (for example) the breading on the fish and shrimp we had eaten at Columbia Harbour House. The asparagus was fresh and perfectly cooked, and I wished that there was more of it. The wasabi hollandaise was short on wasabi, but I guess that's to be expected ... not many people like wasabi as much as I do! The hollandaise flavor, not being cut by the wasabi, was a little too overpowering to eat with the tuna. OTOH, it went very nicely with both the tomatoes and the asparagus.

But ... the best part was the tempura lump crab. I think I mentioned in a previous review that I don't really like crab. I almost never order it. I thought of it as an unfortunate side note to this dish, and even contemplated asking them to leave it off, but decided to be adventurous. I am so glad I did! The crab was very, very fresh, and really stood on its own, perfectly accented by the light, golden tempura frying. There were only 3 pieces. I think a whole meal of it would have been way too rich, but I wouldn't have minded maybe 5-6 pieces instead.

As Chernabog loves miso, soba noodles, and bok choy, I was completely unsurprised when he ordered the Miso-Glazed Mahi Mahi over Soba Noodles with Baby Bok Choy:

He had three comments about this dish.
1. "There's nothing 'baby' about this bok choy." That said, he like bok choy whether it's baby or not, and this was very well cooked.
2. The soba noodles were thinner than he expected. He thought they were okay, but not like most soba noodles you'd get. They were properly prepared.
3. The best part was the fish, which was cooked exactly right and fork-tender. He wished there had been more fish, a bit less noodles, and a lot less bok choy (and that's coming from someone who really likes it).

For dessert, I went way outside my comfort zone and ordered the Coconut Cream Kiki Tart:

I rarely, if ever, order a coconut-based dessert. Chernabog's comment on looking at it was that the tart looked like way too much coconut for him. However, most of the filling was actually the whipped cream, which again was light and fluffy and delicious (what is it with Disney whipped cream? I'm not even a big fan of it normally, but man, the stuff we had there was universally incredible). There was maybe about 1/4" of very dense, very rich coconut custard in the bottom. It was good, and it was in exactly the right proportion to the much lighter whipped cream. I ended up eating about 2/3 of the tart. The pastry next to it was sort of like a homemade ice cream cone texture, very light, and frosted lightly with sugar and coconut. It was yummy and not too sweet, and I ate most of it.

But again, the highlight of this dish was a surprise: the side of raspberries and lychees. Now, I've had lychees before, and they're okay. I've never voluntarily bought them, but I've had them occasionally. I don't hate them, I just think of them as not particularly interesting. BUT. When served with raspberries, they are PERFECT. I don't know why, but the raspberries and lychees complimented each other perfectly and were by far the most interesting and creative thing about this dish. (Again, overall I thought it was a good dessert, well-executed, but not terribly inspired.)

Chernabog ordered the White Chocolate Cheesecake with Strawberry Coulis:

This was a very good, fresh, light, fluffy cheesecake, and the strawberry coulis tasted like strawberries and not like strawberry syrup. Again, not terribly inspired (and not much at all like white chocolate), but it was good, solid dessert if you like cheesecake or are in the mood for it. The twirly things were colored white chocolate. He ate half of one of them and pronounced it very good but too rich to eat more than that.

Overall, I'd say this meal was good to very good ... it ended up being ranked 6th out of 9 for us, IIRC.

However, our server, Jason, seemed not the slightest bit interested in us, which is unfortunate for him because we can be very generous tippers when it's warranted. He seemed to be most interested in doing stuff for the tables around us that had kids, bringing them crayons and extra paper umbrellas. He was very matter of fact with us, never offered anything we didn't ask for, never recommended anything or volunteered anything. That said, he was reasonably prompt with just about everything. The one exception was that when he brought us the dessert menu, he offered me another Diet Coke (he had brought Chernabog another Coke earlier in the meal) and I said yes ... but I never got it. He visited the table five more times after that (to take the dessert order, bring dessert, bring the check, pick up the check, and bring us the receipts) and still I never got it. I even think at one of those visits he said "Oh! Your Diet Coke!" but still he never ended up bringing it.

Overall, I think we'd go back if we really wanted something on the menu for some reason, or if we were with someone else who wanted to eat there, but not otherwise. We're not at all sorry we ate there, but there are other new (to us) places we'll try instead next time.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

wonderful updates and enjoying your reviews.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Great reviews, wonderful details!

 

[TiggerCL]

Loving your reviews - thanks for posting!

 

[TillyMarigold]

Tuesday, September 8

This was our first chance to go to the Animal Kingdom, and we had an 8:20 reservation at Boma. Chernabog had originally wanted Boma for dinner, but since we were going to Jiko later in the trip, we (I, aka the reservation-maker) decided on breakfast instead. (Besides-- I'm a breakfast person!)

We took a cab from POFQ to the Animal Kingdom Lodge (the driver was, er, rather enthusiastic to have gotten such a fare--of course AKL is about as far away as you can get from anything; it was $20 including tip). We got there about 8:00 I think, and wandered around the lobby awhile, went out to the nearer savannah overlook by the firepit, then went back in and started looking for the restaurant in earnest. (It was a bit hard to find, and the pseudo-hand-drawn map was less than helpful.) Hint: from the lobby, there is a staircase to the right that curves down to Victoria Falls Lounge. From the top, you can't see that it curves down again in the opposite direction from VFL to Boma and Jiko, but it does.

Anyway so I guess we got there about 8:15, and it was almost totally empty.

We waited just a minute before we were seated, in the glass-enclosed bump-out on the pool side right next to the windows (lovely location). Our server, Rosa Ana from Venezuela, asked if we were on the dining plan (we were paying OOP for this one) then asked if we'd been there before. When we said no, she had the kid who was with her (whose name I didn't get) pour us some Jungle Juice, which was orange, guava, and passionfruit juice. We both tasted it and said we'd have that and coffee. Rosa Ana asked if we wanted milk or cream or creamer (milk for me, nothing for Chernabog) and said we could go up to the buffet whenever we wanted, and coffee would be waiting when we got back. (By the way, we did *not* get the press pot of coffee, which is an extra charge; but the regular coffee they serve there was pretty decent, better than standard Disney ... junk.)

Oh, as for the Jungle Juice, I should mention that I'm not a big fan of either guava or passionfruit, but I was enjoying trying something different. If I were to eat there a lot, I probably wouldn't have it every time, though. Chernabog flat-out loved it.

There were several stations. Starting from the right (the end we were seated on), there were:
1. African dishes: grilled tomatoes, tomato onion curry, mealie pap
2. Carved meats (ham and some sort of beef) with sauces that I wished I had something to put them on, because they looked great ... particularly the spicy mustard and the sambal
3. Make your own oatmeal and make your own quinoa
4. Eggs, meat, and potatoes: regular scrambled eggs, goat cheese and chive scrambled eggs, make your own omelet (I think?), breakfast pizza, breakfast meats, bobotie, roasted red potatoes
5. Assorted cereals
6. Assorted fruits
7. Two tables of assorted pastries.

I may have forgotten some things. Anyway, here is my plate (Chernabog's looked much the same):

Top: Goat cheese and chive scrambled eggs. These eggs were cooked exactly right, neither dry nor runny, with just enough goat cheese to be interesting and not enough to be overpowering, and the chives were very fresh.
Clockwise around the plate:
Roasted red potatoes with herbs: These were nice and earthy and still had the skins on. I don't remember what the herbs were, but all breakfast potatoes should be just like these.
Grilled tomatoes: These were what it sounds like: thickly sliced tomatoes, thrown on a grill. If you like cooked, grilled tomatoes, you'll like these. (I do, and I did.)
Tomato and onion curry: This was an African curry, obviously, not Indian, so it was very rich and had either cinnamon or nutmeg in it. It was very good, but I don't think I could have eaten much more than I did. I dipped the scone in it, which worked okay except in the parts with raisins. What it really needed was some very savory bread. Like chapatis, maybe.
Pineapple: I don't know how Disney does it, but their pineapple is never too acidic. This pineapple was very nice, although I prefer it with the outer layer off so I can eat the whole thing.
Cinnamon roll: This was the most bizarre thing! It was not sweet at all; it was very flaky bread twirled around with cinnamon in between. The only sweetness was from the raw sugar sprinkled on top--no icing. It was delicious! Very light, fluffy, not too rich--I could have eaten a dozen of them easily. Not at all what you think of as a cinnamon roll normally, but absolutely lovely.
Scone: I'd thought this was a plain scone, which was relatively freshly made but otherwise not at all special (most useful for dipping in tomato-onion curry); but then at the end I found a few raisins in it, which really didn't work.

I went back up and got a few strawberries (all nice and fresh and perfect, not at all green but not going soft or anything either ... probably pretty standard fruit altogether, actually, but here in New Mexico it's just about impossible to get most types of fruit fresh, so we really appreciate it when we go elsewhere). I also got a small bowl of quinoa, to which I added cinnamon (far more than I meant to), raisins, and a bit of brown sugar. Sorry, no pics. I really liked it, and Chernabog tried it and then went up to get himself some. He'd never heard of it before, but now that we're home he's talking about how much he liked it and whether we can start using it in cooking.

At this point came the only bump in service, Chernabog went to use the men's room and when Rosa Ana brought the check, she asked if I/we wanted some coffee to go, to take with us and I said yes. But when she brought he receipt, she only brought one coffee (and she brought me milk, too, which was awesome) so I had to ask for another cup for Chernabog, which took forever and I sort of stood there while the table was cleared. But I couldn't even find her again to tell her to forget it if it was going to be a hassle. (Darn English for having only one word for "you"--I'd thought she meant, do both of you want coffee, and she meant do you individually want coffee.)

In any case, we really liked Boma a lot. The food was some of the best we had both in terms of quality and uniqueness, although Chernabog was disappointed there weren't more traditional African foods (although I pointed out that, excluding the cereals and pastries, it was probably close to 50/50 between American and African, or at least African-inspired, dishes). We really liked everything we ate and thought it was very well-done, and so even though there wasn't quite as much variety as we'd expected, there was plenty of food for us. (Plenty to not try everything we would have liked to try, too!)

The service was just okay, perfectly adequate for a buffet but nothing special.

I'm not sure we'd necessarily go out of our way to have breakfast there again, there wasn't really enough that was different to make it worth the trek out to the far end of property; but we'd definitely be interested in going back for dinner, and of course we'd eat there probably several times if we ever stayed at AKL. Maybe even if we were to stay more over on that side, or even on another Animal Kingdom day like we did this time. But I wouldn't go all the way from POFQ to Boma and then go to, say, Epcot.

Boma was the dividing line between "would definitely considering doing again on its own merits" and "would probably only do again under special circumstances like being with someone else who wanted to go." If you're keeping track, so far we have two of the "would consider" meals (Boma and Narcoossee's) and one "only with someone else etc." meal (Kona). We haven't gotten to the "would definitely do again ASAP because we absolutely loved them" meals yet.

 

[FortWildernessLoopy]

(Darn English for having only one word for "you"--I'd thought she meant, do both of you want coffee, and she meant do you individually want coffee.)

We do...at least here in the south we do...it's "Y'all" and if there's more than two, it's "All Y'all"

Your reviews were wonderful and helpful! My DH and I are both pescetarians and were really looking forward to a review by others who eat primarily a vegetarian diet but with seafood. I have to say that so far, we've been most pleased by Fulton's Crabhouse at lunch, but I really want to go to Ohanas!

 

[TillyMarigold]

We do...at least here in the south we do...it's "Y'all" and if there's more than two, it's "All Y'all"

Your reviews were wonderful and helpful! My DH and I are both pescetarians and were really looking forward to a review by others who eat primarily a vegetarian diet but with seafood. I have to say that so far, we've been most pleased by Fulton's Crabhouse at lunch, but I really want to go to Ohanas!

I actually went to school in Virginia, so I say "y'all" quite a bit, but I have trouble thinking of Disney World as the South because it's such a mix of people from all over the world.

We didn't do either Fulton's or 'Ohana, but our best meals are still to come.

 

[TillyMarigold]

After we got to the AK, we decided to ride the safari first off. When we got off, I knew we wanted to order the Picnic in the Park but all I could remember was pickup is at Kusafiri Bakery, so we went over there to ask where to order.

The woman said she could take our order (there was no one else there) so she did! We ordered one tuna pita, one portobello mushroom vegetarian wrap, the side of tandoori tofu + zucchini, and cookies. It was only $19 for both of us, so we decided to pay out of pocket and save our QS meal credits (since we were finding that our QS meals usually had a value of $13-15 each).

It was about 11:00 and she told us the first available pickup would be 12:15, so it is *not* true that you always have to allow 2 hours from order to pickup. However, since we'd had a big breakfast but knew we'd probably have a lighter dinner, we decided to ask for a 1:30 pickup time.

We headed over to Asia, rode Kali, poked around looked around, and then on the way to Maharajah Jungle Trek, passed a cart selling jalapeño-cheese-stuffed pretzels. We bought a pretzel to share (yes, it was a snack credit) and were even happier to discover that it was cream cheese, not cheddar/jack/generic yellow cheese. It had a bit of a kick, but not too much. (That was fine, though--it was hot out!) It was a great snack, although I wished we'd had somewhere shady to eat.

We did Maharajah Jungle Trek, then the safari again, and it was our pickup time. We were the only ones picking up at that time, but even so we had to wait a few minutes while they packed it.

We walked around the side of the building to grab extra napkins, then headed for some picnic tables we'd noticed earlier just outside Africa. (They do give you a map of picnic table locations.) By the way, the meal comes in a dark green canvas bag that says "PICNIC IN THE PARK." It's the same size as the Mickey topiary green canvas bag that they used to use (and that they still sell in the gift shop) but not as pretty. Definitely reusable, though--we used it again later in the week.

Sorry for the color, it was a very shady spot!

We had decided to split the two sandwiches. You can see the wrap was cut in half but the pita was not. I started with the wrap. It had portobello mushrooms, lettuce, cucumber, shredded carrots (a LOT of carrots), and ... I see something red but I forget what it was, which is probably not a good sign. It had sort of an Asian vinaigrette on it (yes, it was vegan, so no cheese). All I can say about the wrap was that every one of the ingredients individually was just fine, fresh, good quality, and well-prepared, but together they didn't work together very well and also there was something missing. I remember saying to Chernabog I wished it had either sun-dried tomatoes or roasted peppers on it. Overall, it was just fine, nothing at all wrong with it, but I was glad I ate it first because it was the worst part of the meal.

The tuna pita was very good, however. I think it's the same tuna they use in the Anchors Aweigh sandwich at Columbia Harbour House, but prepared a little differently (I want to say that one had celery and one didn't?). It also had lettuce on it but I don't think there was anything else on it. The pita was nice and soft and chewy. I love pitas, so that was a huge bonus. Overall, it was good quality tuna salad and fresh lettuce on a nice, soft pita. A great example of what it was, but nothing more.

But ... then we got to the tofu. O.M.G. This was just absolutely wonderful. The tofu was perfectly prepared and had been well pressed so it was very firm with edges that were just a little bit crispy. The zucchini was fairly fresh and had been cut at peak ripeness. Both of them had been well-marinated in the tandoori spices (you can see everything was a rich, dark yellow color) and were very flavorful. The spice level was a bit more than what you'd get as "mild" in most Indian restaurants, but definitely closer to "mild" than "medium." (We like spicy, but this was plenty spicy enough for how hot it was.) The side is meant to feed either 2 or 3 people, and really it would have been enough for 3, but the tofu was so good that we ate it all anyway.

By the way, while we were eating, we saw a family freak out over a tiny snake that was in the wall at the other side of the path (all the picnic tables are just along random paths, the same way benches are). There was a man who was trying to get it to come close enough so he could smash it, and a CM came running over and told him to leave it alone and she'd call animal control. When the family left, we could see that she was both exasperated (I gather the snake was something harmless but really shouldn't have been in a guest area) and angry (that he'd wanted to kill it).

We packed up, through out our trash, and nibbled at our cookies as we walked. They were good, nice and soft, but really just your run of the mill chocolate chip cookies.

 

[FortWildernessLoopy]

We didn't do either Fulton's or 'Ohana, but our best meals are still to come.

Whoops...I meant Boma's, lol. Your reviews are making want to go right now!

 

[Flossbolna]

Picnic in the Park starts to sound really good. I have read quite a few reviews from people who really enjoyed their meal. I think it really is on my list of possibilities for AK now. So far I always ended up eating at Flame Tree, but our next trip is 10 days, so we might eat lunch at AK twice...

 

[TillyMarigold]

Picnic in the Park starts to sound really good. I have read quite a few reviews from people who really enjoyed their meal. I think it really is on my list of possibilities for AK now. So far I always ended up eating at Flame Tree, but our next trip is 10 days, so we might eat lunch at AK twice...

We didn't eat at Flame Tree, but after our Wild by Design tour, we did go look around. You did realize that the theme of Flame Tree is "predator and prey" right? Every animal is shown in a predator/prey pair; every table has prey on it and every chair has predators ... so when you put your BBQ down on the table then sit in a chair, you're making yourself part of the theme!

 

[Flossbolna]

We didn't eat at Flame Tree, but after our Wild by Design tour, we did go look around. You did realize that the theme of Flame Tree is "predator and prey" right? Every animal is shown in a predator/prey pair; every table has prey on it and every chair has predators ... so when you put your BBQ down on the table then sit in a chair, you're making yourself part of the theme!

You did the Wild by Design Tour?? Was it good? My sister and I are planning to do it in January and there seem so few reviews on that tour available, so any information would be appreciated!

I have the "Imagineering Field Guide to the Animal Kingdom", lovely little book, and it mentions the prey/predator theme. I was checking it out last time we were there. I had not realized however that it was "chair eats table" - what an amzing idea!

 

[TillyMarigold]

You did the Wild by Design Tour?? Was it good? My sister and I are planning to do it in January and there seem so few reviews on that tour available, so any information would be appreciated!

I have the "Imagineering Field Guide to the Animal Kingdom", lovely little book, and it mentions the prey/predator theme. I was checking it out last time we were there. I had not realized however that it was "chair eats table" - what an amzing idea!

It was definitely the highlight of our whole trip, way better than Keys to the Kingdom (except WbD doesn't have backstage parts ... but being a former Cast Member, I don't find being backstage very exciting). We talked to a gibbon keeper and a bird keeper, but it was really more about the details that went into the themes of each of the different areas. There is a *lot* that wasn't in the Imagineering Field Guide (I have it too). Also you get to go into the park early (tour starts at 8:30), which is pretty cool.

 

[TillyMarigold]

Sorry for the lack of updates--my father-in-law is visiting from England so I haven't had access to the laptop that has the pictures on it since he's been using it. He'll be here another week and I don't think I'll get a chance to upload any more pictures before then.

 

[TillyMarigold]

First, a note about Boma breakfast. I was at Starbucks last weekend (it's our Saturday morning tradition to walk the dog to Starbucks and eat breakfast, then go for a hike) and they had something there called a "morning roll" which closely resembled the Boma cinnamon roll, except that it had white sugar instead of raw sugar on top. The one at Boma was better, but the Starbucks one was pretty good if you want something just a little sweet but not *too* sweet.

Back to Tuesday night ... After the Animal Kingdom I have absolutely *no idea* what we did, but I can tell you that eventually we ended up at Epcot at around dinner time (so I lost about 3-4 hours in there somewhere)

Anyway, we decided to stop by Sunshine Seasons for dinner. I hadn't been there in 10 years (obviously) but I can't say it looked much different except for having more seating (although later we took the Undiscovered Future World tour and the guide pointed out some more differences). Honestly it was at Sunshine Seasons that I most noticed how much Disney has reduced the number of different options on their menus, because I remember each station having at least 8-10 options.

Anyway, in the end I got the seared tuna over mixed greens salad, the apple flan, and a lemonade.

]

This salad was absolutely *enormous* and the vegetables were *so* good! It was mostly just lettuce and wonton strips, with two pieces of seared tuna on top. The dressing was on the greens, not on the tuna, and there wasn't so much it was dripping but there was enough that the salad didn't seem dry. I swear it must have been nearly a whole head of lettuce on that plate. Probably about half as much lettuce would have been the right amount for one person. I ate a little over half of the veggies and one and a bit pieces of tuna. This turned out to be a good thing because ...

Chernabog ordered the veggies and tofu noodle bowl, the key lime pie, and a vitamin water. As you can see, the noodle bowl was quite small.

This was sort of like the very hearty soups you get in Japanese restaurants, with a little bit of broth and a ton of noodles and other filling. He liked it a lot, and the tofu was very well done. But there wasn't a lot of it. (By the way, we can't vouch for whether or not this is actually vegetarian, he didn't ask what sort of broth was in it.) So he ate more of my salad and and about half a piece of tuna (btw the pieces of tuna were probably about 3"×4" ... a pretty good size but not ridiculously large).

On the other hand, his dessert was one of the best CS desserts we had all week. The key lime filling was somehow both lighter-tasting than most key lime pies and less liquidy, more like a mousse, and not too sweet or too tart. And it had dollops of meringue on top. Even the graham cracker crust was not too dry. It was excellent.

My apple flan was ... How can I explain this? The custard was denser than flan and not as sweet, I have no idea what it could have been since flan basically only has three ingredients (milk, sugar, and sometimes eggs) and if you mess with the proportions, it doesn't set. But this was much denser and didn't really taste like flan. Which isn't to say it wasn't good, if you want a dense custard type dessert, but it wasn't flan. Then on top of it there was a thin, transparent layer of apple jelly with a couple bits of apple in it ... like canned apple pie filling but with less apples and more of the jelly it sits in. So it didn't taste very much like apples either. All that said, if you happen to want a dense vanilla custard with apple jelly on top, this was pretty good. It tasted nice and was clearly relatively freshly made; it just didn't bear much resemblance to apples or flan. I didn't dislike it, but I wouldn't order it again.

Overall, we're happy we went there, Chernabog more so than me. We were hungry when we got to Epcot so we didn't want to walk all the way to the World Showcase, and I'm happy we didn't go to Electric Umbrella because (although I didn't know it yet) the onslaught of veggie burgers was about to begin.

 

[eventamy]

Sunshine Seasons is a must do for us, we love it! Last time I had the Seared Tuna salad as well and really enjoyed it. I would definitely get it again!

 

[cinderella_mom]

We - DH, DD8 and I - are pescetarians (going on 15 years) and have enjoyed the food at WDW each time we've been there. Thank you for taking the time to write these reviews. They are great.

 

[Flossbolna]

Thanks for the revoew of the Wild by Desgin tour. We are very much looking forward to do it and I am excited about getting into the park early! But I will miss the opening show which really is very cute! We will just need to catch it on another day!