JaxDad
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2014
You should look into Ferg's for your gameday meal when you go to the Trop...
http://www.fergssportsbar.com
http://www.fergssportsbar.com
1900 Park Fare is BY FAR my favorite breakfast buffet. I dream of the crepes, omelets and strawberry soup! When we last went we were able to meet Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins. I think it's a great choice, despite the price. I don't think you'll be disappointed with your decision
Ok, coworker just brought in a chocolate mouse cake from Carlos Bakery that's also local. All I can say is, we have a shop right closer, (that's just like a publix) and well, that cake went so fast, and was so tasty, I've never seen a grocery store one get eaten that fast. I am sure it's probably more expensive at the bakery, but you might be getting a much better cake.
Ahhh, the joys of where to we eat is always a big part of any vacation. I have an S&S gift card, I got at a nice discount that I carried with me last year and returned with it unused. I will remedy that this fall.
I agree, good choice on the GF character buffet. I think that is such a great hotel to visit too, so pretty.
The dining schedule is always important in our house. We went to 1900 Park Fare in July and my DD loved it, and my nephew tried just about everying and finished off with 6 croissants! A growing teenager The omelette station was also good, the chef was very talkative and originally from New York.
We all enjoyed the Mad Hatter, he was really funny.
Hopefully you will be able to get a couple of your 'better' choices in. Have you ever been to the Cheesecake Factory?
We made it home from our trip and I was excited to see you started your PTR.
Looking at your snow pics I am so glad that's not us this year(at least not yet). We're having a very mild winter. It's actually supposed to be almost 60f here on Friday. It will feel just like it did in Florida last week.
Have you guys tried Perkins ever? I'd say it's similar to Friendly's. It's in the Crossroads area. Also in Crossroads is Chevys. I love Chevys! It's a tex-mex place. They make their own chips for the chips and salsa that you get for free when you eat there. They have excellent fajitas.
I am slow. Just barely found this!
And, although it sounds like you have a lot of dining figured out already,
I have to suggest....
Rocco's Taco's.
Its in the Dr. Phillips area of Orlando, right near Universal. If you like Guacomole, and good Mexican. I can't recommend it enough!
Anyway, look forward to perhaps running into you again!
4 rivers is excellent but I love the atmosphere and service that we get a bubbalou's!
Hi Gina!
Have you heard Chef Mickey's now offers brunch daily? Check out the online menu. For the price, I'd say Chef Mickey's offers more variety than 1900 Park Fare. Especially, if you go during brunch. BBQ ribs for your guys!!!
Chef Mickey's is my family's favorite non-park meal. Our favorite character breakfast of all is Tusker House in Animal Kingdom! Krispy Kreme donuts on the buffet!!!! The buffet is just massive, the most variety I have ever seen out of character meal. Cheese blitzes, carved ham, more unique items. And animal kingdom is not our favorite park but the breakfast is worth the shelp there for us!
My family is heading to WDW on 4/24. It's exciting counting down with you!
Mare
You should look into Ferg's for your gameday meal when you go to the Trop...
http://www.fergssportsbar.com
But the question is....would they welcome four Canadians dressed from head to toe in Blue Jays fan wear?
I wonder how packed it gets? I am guessing you are speaking from experience on this one.....so feel free to give me all the need-to-knows .
Yes! Florida is very transient, and there are always lots of fans from the other teams at professional sporting events. In fact, I've only been to the Trop (and Ferg's) twice, both times with a rabid Oriole fan in full regalia. I'm sure there was good-natured ribbing, but no violence! Now, college football games on the other hand...
It's been a few years, but I recall Ferg's being very busy but manageable. I also remember the wings were good (or maybe it was just the beer)!
Your food choices sound great Gina. I love Jake and Sunshine's
choices( but I have been told by certain people that I have the food tastes of a 10 year old).
We've done Chef Mickeys several time but I never really cared for it. We love Park Fare! We had to do it every trip for breakfast and dinner as it was my moms favorite restaurant in all of Disney. Y'all will have a blast and the food is great.
I've heard good things about Fergs. Don't worry, baseball fans down here are pretty mind mannered. But like JaxDad said, college football fans are a whole 'nother story!
Maybe you and Steve can get to try some of your other choices in October.
One of our favorite restaurants in Tampa is the Columbia.
I just checked out the link to Carlos bakery. Oh my, I know where I'm ordering David's birthday cake from. But how on earth do you decide on one? Do you happen to see the tie dye cake or the minions one? Decisions....
I think your character buffet choice is good. We ate there several years ago and the Mad Hatter was awesome. We found the food choices very similar to the Crystal palace breakfast.
I would advise to NOT choose Cape May Cafe for breakfast. We ate there last week and it was tiny. It wasn't much better than a free hotel breakfast one would get. We paid $120 (2 kids, 2 adults). It was the firstbad buffet I've had at Disney. The characters were cute in their beach gear (Minnie, Donald, and Goofy), but not $120 cute.
I also couldn't recommend Beaches and Cream unless you were going for just the ice cream. The food was not good and what is up with Disney using the whole wheat noodles for the kids Mac n cheese. Seriously kids don't like those noodles!
Maybe I'll do a trip report. Haven't done one of those in a while.
Loving your plans so far Gina and chuckling a little at some of the kids meal choices. My kids keep begging to go back to CiCi's too. It's tolerable, but I keep thinking "All the places we've taken you over all these Florida trips and CiCi's is at the top of the list?!?" . Oh well, at least it isn't expensive! I bet there will be a new Groupon for it before the next trip. The current one expires before Spring Break season starts I think.
So far our offsite meal plans for April/May include Hash House a go go (your review pushed my curiosity into trying it), sweet tomatoes (we can't even picture a Florida trip without it), Miller's Ale House (new location for us) and a first trip to Bahama Breeze, which I am looking forward to.
Even if you don't love the character breakfast (and I think you will enjoy it.. the face character interaction is outstanding) the Grand Floridian is so pretty and themed so beautifully it really is nice to stroll around and take it all in. It's on my bucket list to go there at Christmas time and see the gingerbread displays and decorations. I was actually doing the monorail loop to look at decorations on our December 2014 trip, but was coming down with an awful cold and fever. We stopped at the Poly to look around and have lunch and that was it for me, I went back to the Wilderness lodge and slept all afternoon. To be that close and not even care to continue on indicates how nasty that virus was. So I will just have to go back. Dh always jokes that he has to spend another $6000 because I wasn't willing to go one more monorail stop.
Not true though.. I want to see all the Epcot resort decorations too.
It looks like Ferg's is super close to Tropicana Field....would you suggest parking at the stadium lot and then just walking over? How tricky will parking be in the vicinity of the restaurant on game day?
We'll have to put Columbia on our list of must-do's....are they just in Tampa or elsewhere in Central Florida too?
What a relief to know we won't be run out of town . It looks like Ferg's is super close to Tropicana Field....would you suggest parking at the stadium lot and then just walking over? How tricky will parking be in the vicinity of the restaurant on game day?
I mentioned your suggestion to Steve this morning (he was just coming home from a night shift as I was leaving for work, so like good Florida wannabes our 10 minutes of conversation time was allocated to trip planning ) and he is totally on board. I think we may have found a winner!
I love that comment. It very much describes my Jake....and Sunshine too, for that matter. And you know what? I think it speaks to the fact that you all have a certain "fun" and youthful nature......which is a wonderful, loveable quality to posses .
We had the same experience with Chef Mickeys.....granted, not since 2009, but it was definitely a one-and-done type experience. Very hectic, and I know I might ruffle some feathers by saying this....but we are no fans of the Contemporary. To stark, to modern, to impersonal feeling. The monorail running through the building was kind of novel, but that is the best we can say about the atmosphere.
We also visited 1900 Park Fare on our 2009 Disney trip, but for dinner (not breakfast). We really, really enjoyed it....which is one of the reasons why we decided to give breakfast here a go this time around. I am so, so happy to know you guys loved it too!!! I'm actually starting to get a little excited about it now, with all this great feedback!
Ah yes, football.....I couldn't even tell you who won the Superbowl. While we follow basketball, baseball and hockey like groupies, football is totally off our radar. I guess we'll have to remedy that if we ever realize our dream of moving to the southern US. We want to fit in, after all!!
Definitely we will branch out a lot more in October . We were talking about "the plans" the other night, and Steve laughingly said "this trip we'll eat like teenagers, in the fall we'll dine like proper grown-up". We'll have to put Columbia on our list of must-do's....are they just in Tampa or elsewhere in Central Florida too?
Okay, I have to admit....you know me soooooo well. I saw the minions one and almost flipped out . I showed it to Steve and he says, "You know this is Sunshine's birthday, right?". Sheesh, such a party pooper . So I went back to the drawing board and took another look....I think I like the one that's called Flower Power (it really suits her personality and is sooo cute). But then I get to thinking, my birthday is only 2.5 weeks after our October trip......and it wouldn't be too early to celebrate a little ahead of time, would it? .... with a minions cake, of course .
Funnily enough, Cape May was the other character meal that we short listed to....we had never been to the Beach Club and wondered if we should give it a try.. I am glad to hear that you think we made the right choice .
I would love to read along if you happen to do a trip report! Be sure to post a link here if you decide to get one started.
Sweet Tomatoes is a favourite of ours as well, but I know the lunch menu won't appeal much to Jake (he's not a big salad guy). We missed it at Christmas time, so you can bet your boots we'll be there the first day of our October trip . Of course, we've always wanted to try breakfast there, so maybe this vacation would be a good time to give it a whirl (we are big breakfast lovers, all of us!). Now there's an idea I hadn't considered before now .
You will have to let us now how you like Bahama Breeze. We have tried twice now to go there, and both times it was PACKED and we didn't bother to wait for a table. So its still on the to-do list.....clearly, I need to start making notes for October.
The GF is really kind of "overdone" for us (I guess we aren't very fancy people!!) but I think Sunshine, especially, will enjoy the chance to see it. Steve and Jake will be much more in their element at Ferg's . Perhaps we will take a little monorail tour while we're there, as well....I don't think Sunshine has ever been on it. Can you just get on at the GF, and ride it in a loop back to the GF without getting off?
As I recall it was easiest to just park at the stadium and walk to Ferg's.
Columbia has a restaurant in St. Augustine, right in the middle of the historic district!
The Columbia in St Augustine is good, they also have ones in Sarasota,Clearwater and Celebration. We haven't tried any of those. The original is in Tampa, Ybor City and is our favorite.
I never cared for the Contemporary either and GF was too fussy for us. Believe it or not our favorite of all Disney resorts(and we've stayed at all of them) were the cabins at fort wilderness. We loved the buffet there.
And I say go for the minions cake in October!
The Monorail station is upstairs on the GF. You can just ride it in a loop but it might be nice to get off and look around the Contemporary and/or Polynesian if she hasn't been there. You could also take the monorail to the MK get off and take a boat back to the GF. That might be fun.
Days Inn again????? You're a brave woman. Although, I'm sure I would take them up on a free room as well. I bet they will put you in one of the business suites which are very large. If you change your mind and go back to the Aloft...make sure you join SPG prior to making your ressie. You will get a room rate of about $105 and parking is then only $5/day excluding the night you are in the hotel. I might have already told you that...I'm getting old and can't remember or maybe it's just the Grey Goose.
You should have a nice breakfast at 1900 PF. We've dined there several times. Cape May we have also dined at several times and it is also excellent, probably ranks a little higher with me that 1900. Chef Mickey's....don't waste your money. The food is consistently terrible as is the service and character interaction. Not to mention that the noise level is deafening in the main room. People that like CM's are usually first timers. You should also check out the Garden Grove at the Dolphin(might be in the Swan, I forget) it gets great reviews and also is much less expensive. I haven't dined there but some very picky friends of mine have and they were pleased.
You know, I've never had Mexican food in a restaurant. Not once. Other than homemade tacos at home, that's my Mexican experience. Spicy would be my biggest concern....