We ate and ate for 8 days w/ some pics

[carmie3377]

Hi everyone! This is my first dining review so please bear with me. I had intended to take pics of ALL of our food, but after just a couple of days, that was interrupted when my camera battery died. Instead of pulling out our big SLR, I just decided I would pick back up the next day after I had a chance to charge my battery. Well, realizing everyone just wanted to eat instead of waiting for me to take pictures, I opted to forgo taking pictures. Now, I'm kicking myself. I should have stuck with it since I wanted to do some awesome reviews. I know those with pictures are usually better since we eat with our eyes first! SORRY!

Anyway, let me introduce the members of our party :
Me - Carmen (31) - the obsessive planner. Loves chicken the most but you can't tell from this review.
DH - Jarrod (33) - loves Disney more than he admits. A big eater and can always finish what everyone else doesn't. How he remains slim is a mystery to me. I wish he would pass that secret on to me!
DD - Haley (9) - loves Disney almost as much as I do. This will be our last trip with her as a Disney child. Got really tired of the same old kid choices.
DS - Cameron (2) - still talking about "flying on a big plane to mic mouse house". Usually a big eater but was a bit picky on the trip.
MIL - Tisha aka Ma'ama (54) - her first trip to Disney. Loves steak, you'll soon realize that!

Here we are at MNSSHP:

DH, MIL, and DD on the left of the sign, me and DS on the right.

I know, not a great pic but I haven't upload pics from our SLR camera yet. We opted to be doctors since DH is a resident doc and costumes could be borrowed for the adults. We heard so many comments like "Look, a group of surgeons" and "Is there a doctor in the house?" That one got really old. Anyway, it was fun.

Here are the places I'll be reviewing:
Day 1:
Casey's Corner - page 1, post 3
Grand Floridian Cafe - page 1, post 4

Day 2:
Boma Breakfast - page 1, post 13
Flame Tree BBQ - page 1, post 14
Spoodles

Day 3:
Sunshine Seasons
Coral Reef

Day 4:
Cosmic Rays
Mara
Whispering Canyon Cafe

Day 5:
50's Prime Time
Toluca Legs Turkey Company

Day 6:
Mara
Pinocchio Village Haus

Day 7:
LeCellier
Marrakesh

Day 8:
CRT breakfast
Mara

Here we go.....

 

[MickeyMomTo2]

Can't wait to read more.

 

[carmie3377]

DD had been talking about eating at Casey's corner since we ate there in January. We arrived at All Star Sports at about 11:00am for our one night stay and everyone was hungry. But since Casey's was on DD's mind, we took the bus over to MK for lunch. All of the adults got hot dogs with fries and both the kids got the corn dog nuggets. The hot dogs were good, but nothing special. The hot dog wiener was quite a bit longer than the bun, something I didn't remember about it the last time we ate there. I guess it had something to do with the new buns, which were okay by the way. We topped our dogs with cheese and also used the cheese for dipping our french fries. That was probably the best part of the meal. I love cheese with my "fry fries" as my DS says. The kids also loved their corn dog nuggets. DH ate what was left and stated that he liked those better than the hot dogs.

Had the camera fully charged, but due to excitement of our first day there and hunger, I totally forgot to take pictures. Overall, a pleasant experience and somewhere I will eat again, but not rush too. Perhaps next time I'll get the corn dog nuggets for the kids and head over to Main Street Bakery for myself.

Up next, The Grand Floridian Cafe.

 

[carmie3377]

After Casey's we had to hit a few of our favorite attractions.
The wait for POTC was less than 5 mins:

and of course we had to ride Splash Mountain:

DD enjoyed one of her favorite snacks - The Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bar:

We had dinner reservations for 6:30 but we began heading over to The Grand Floridian around 5:30 in hopes of being seated earlier. We arrived at 6:00 and was at our table within a couple of minutes. Our waiter (can't remember his name) was fantastic. Probably our best server all week. There was a sticky substance on my side of the table and he had it clean promptly. I also asked for a cup of milk for DS before everyone else had decided what they wanted and within seconds, he had it at our table.

First, our server brought out the delicious bread and salted butter with lime. The rolls were chewy, but we all liked them. The other bread, well, we didn't quite know what it was. It was okay, but I was saving room for our meal.

We were on the DxDP the first night so we got an appetizer tonight.
MIL got the Caesar salad and really enjoyed it:

DH ordered the French Onion Soup and it was delicious. He enjoyed it too!

I ordered the Field Greens which was a salad with strawberries, roasted cashews, and Crumbled Feta tossed in Strawberry Vinaigrette. I opted against the Feta Cheese. The salad was fantastic, even though DS ate all the strawberries off my salad. The cashews gave the salad a nice crunch and the strawberry vinaigrette was great - not too strong.

DD got the chicken noodle soup that would become a staple the rest of the week. Not because she wanted it, but because it was about the only appetizer she'd eat. She is not a salad person at all.

Now for our entree's. DH and MIL order the same thing - Grilled Rib-Eye - with house-made French Fries. Both steaks were cooked perfectly and they said that they were wonderful. I tried some of the french fries and they were great but seemed more like the fries that would be served with BBQ or a hamburger.

I had the New York Strip with Red Bliss Mashed Potatoes. The steak, like the other 2, was cooked perfectly but it did have some fat on it. I don't eat a lot of steak, so perhaps that is normal. That was fine though as there was more than I could eat anyway. I just cut the fat off and proceeded. The potatoes were very creamy. Green beans, but nothing special.

Now for DD's meal, grilled chicken with broccoli and rice. She is extremely picky but did like the chicken. The trees, oh I mean broccoli, was played with by our son and he ate a couple of bites of them. He just wanted the "trees" to play with. He did eat the rice though as DD refused to eat it since it was brown rice. Our DS, never found rice he didn't like.

Now for dessert. MIL got the New York-style Lemon Cheesecake. Since we were on the DDP, she was able to choose 2 of the mini desserts so she got 2 of the same. She ate one and gave DH the other. She loved it but was very full from her meal. Said the cheesecake was very rich.

DH enjoyed the Tiramisu and the Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse Cake. Again, both of those were the mini desserts. He says the Tiramisu wasn't as good as mine but he did eat every bit of it. He also ate all of the cake. Desserts were creamy and rich.

I had the Chocolate Fondue - Dark Chocolate Ganache with Fruit. The Ganache was good, but it had a strange taste. Not bad, but different, hard to pinpoint. I ate it all if that tells you anything. The strawberries, again, DS took all my strawberries so I didn't get to enjoy those. The pineapple and bananas though were very good dipped in the ganache. The marshmallows was a nice change from the fruit.

DD got the worms in dirt. She loves sweets, but is not really a dessert person. Anyway, her and DS ate the worms out but the rest went uneaten.

This was a fantastic meal. We would definitely go again. The restaurant was quite but yet we didn't feel out of place if our DS said something loud. Service was wonderful.

Sorry the pics didn't turn out great. My little cheapo camera (Kodak Easyshare) is hard to figure out. The viewing screen is almost impossible to see unless the area is well lit, which most restaurants aren't. I didn't want to have our Canon SLR out in case something on the table spilled. So, I had to deal with Kodak. Good because it's handy, but I guess I'm spoiled by the quality and ease of the Canon SLR.

 

[TigerKat]

Signing on for the fun.......

 

[DLo]

great start. Looking forward to more.

 

[Nohal]

Looking forward to your reviews. We also ate at the Grand Floridean Cafe and found the steaks to be very fatty. We have 2 rib eyes and 2 ny strip, and all of them were fatty. I was really disappointed, as we have eaten there before and the food was excellent.

 

[John's Mom]

Great start!

 

[HonnyDipp]

Everything looks good! Can't wait to see more!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Uh its dinner time and your pics just got my tummy rumbly! Awesome report!

 

[KatMark]

I'm in--we are trying some of your spots next year so bring on the reviews.

 

[carmie3377]

Can't wait to read more.

Signing on for the fun.......

great start. Looking forward to more.

Great start!

Everything looks good! Can't wait to see more!

I'm in--we are trying some of your spots next year so bring on the reviews.

WOW! I have followers! Thanks for following along and the kind words. Don't know how long it will take, not easy with a two year climbing all over me. He's cutting a molar and has been a bit cranky and clingy the last few days. I plan on starting day 2 either tonight after I get him to bed or during nap time tomorrow.

Looking forward to your reviews. We also ate at the Grand Floridean Cafe and found the steaks to be very fatty. We have 2 rib eyes and 2 ny strip, and all of them were fatty. I was really disappointed, as we have eaten there before and the food was excellent.

Hate to hear that. At least mine just had a bit of fat.

Uh its dinner time and your pics just got my tummy rumbly! Awesome report!

Well, Nicki, thanks to you I tried this place. I hope that through my reviews I can inspire people to try some new places like you did!

 

[carmie3377]

We checked out of AS Sports on Sunday and headed to our home for the next 6 nights - AKV. We had ADRs at 7:45 and we barely made it on time. You can see how thrilled DH is to have early reservations on vacation but DD is having fun taking her own pictures:

Within a few minutes, we were seated and our server brought juice for all:

The juice was very good. I usually don't drink a lot of juice, I'd rather have milk with my breakfast. However, I had at least 3 glasses of this wonderful juice. It was probably the most unique part of the meal.

I took some pics of the pods, but they didn't turn out very good, but I know they've been posted on here before. I did get pics of our individual plates.

DS's plate - oatmeal, pancakes, and bacon. He was already reaching for a pancake when I snapped the picture. He ate probably 5 or 6 of these little cakes during this meal. They were fluffy, moist, and just the right size for little hands to hold. He also enjoyed his oatmeal and bacon. This little guy would eat oatmeal every meal if I let him.

DD's plate - pancakes, croissant, bacon, cheese omelet, chocolate croissant, and a waffle. She ate most but the two croissants. She didn't even touch the regular one and the chocolate one she said she was just full at that point. As much as she loves other chocolate croissants she's tried, I'm guessing she didn't care too much for it. This chocolate croissant had chocolate chips/pieces baked in. The ones she's had before was a regular croissant with chocolate in the middle, liked a filled donut.

For my meal, I had the breakfast potatoes, bacon, eggs, some type of nut muffin (don't remember what kind but it was great), the chocolate croissant, and a pecan sticky bun. The eggs were just normal scrambled eggs, nothing special. The potatoes were really good and the pastries were good. I would have liked to have tried the brioche, but they had to ruin it by putting raisins in. I really wish places would leave out or make some without raisins of things like french toast and bread pudding. Yuck, raisins.

A couple more of our plates - belonging to DH and MIL. They stated it was all good but didn't rave about it.

Boma had a good breakfast, but I felt like most of it was just standard breakfast fare. It didn't "WOW" me like I was hoping it would. Again we liked it but most of it was nothing special, except for the juice. As long as I have young kids, I think I'll hit the character breakfasts instead of the non character ones. If I'm going to spend a meal credit for breakfast, it would be nice to get some of the characters out of the way too. I knew ahead of time that Boma didn't have characters and I'm glad we tried it, but I don't know if I'll be going back anytime soon. Maybe we'll try Kona instead. I think I would have preferred that one better and I'm still waiting to try Tonga Toast!

Anyway, we were off to Animal Kingdom. Next up, a quick review of Flame Tree BBQ!

 

[carmie3377]

Sorry guys, no pictures for this one. Forgot. This one's my fault.

Anyway, Flame Tree BBQ is a great place to eat at AK. The portions are big and they are quite tasty. The rest of my party left me in charge of ordering while they went down by the water to find us a table. There is no indoor seating but a lot of outdoor seating. The weather was pleasant so we enjoyed it out there.

Anyway, since we were planning a big dinner at Spoodles, I opted to order 2 meals to split between us. I ordered one 1/2 Slab of St. Louis Ribs (served with baked beans and corn muffin) and one Smoked 1/2 Chicken (served with baked beans and corn muffin). The ribs were delicious. The meat pulled off the bone with ease and had a lot of great flavor. In fact, they were more tender and tastier than the ribs we had at Whispering Canyon Cafe later in the week. I think all of us wished I had ordered 2 rib plates instead of 1 rib plate and 1 chicken plate. Anyway, the chicken was good - moist and very flavorful, but still didn't beat the ribs. The beans were okay, just regular ole baked beans. DH liked them though and ate both sides of them (thank goodness the sides were small!). Anyway, most of the cornbread went uneaten as they were a little dry. I ate half of one but no one else wanted any. We saved the whole one for DS, who was asleep at this point. When he woke up, he went to town on the corn bread. Corn bread is another thing he'd eat all day if I let him.

Overall, a great counter service meal. Just enough to tide us over until our meal at Spoodles. We will definitely eat here again on our next trip to AK.

 

[CanadianPaco]

Oh those breakfast pics are sooooooooooooo yummy!! can't wait!

 

[vikkii19]

Great review, can't wait for more.

 

[mcrabeck]

I'm in. Can't wait for more! Great Job

 

[SunnieRN]

Your children are adorable! Looking forward to more! How did you like the animal kingdom lodge?

 

[carmie3377]

Your children are adorable! Looking forward to more! How did you like the animal kingdom lodge?

THANKS! We thought AKL/AKV was a beautiful resort. My only complaint would be how far the resort is from everything else. It took forever it seemed to get to the parks. It took at least 25 mins to get to MK every time. If you want a lot of down time, I think AKL/AKV is great. However, since we spend most of our time in the parks, I will choose a different next time such as Wilderness Lodge/Villas or maybe even the new Bay Lake Towers

I'm so glad we stayed there. It had been a dream of mine ever since I discovered WDW 4 years ago. We had a savannah view 1 BR and a few times had giraffes right outside our window - it was really cool. I think everyone should try it at least once. That's the beauty of WDW. If you try something that's not quite you're style, there's always something else out there to try out.