We only live 8 hours away now, that means we can go once a month, right?! -- 7/19 Homecomin'

[Vernie822]

So much good stuff to reply to here! I'm not going to quote it, just go with my random comments

on the lavender focaccia... I didn't have it myself but the kid did but if you didn't detect any floral notes that explains why I had to wrestle a second piece out of his hand, lol. I was surprised he liked it but now less so.

on the sushi roll... umm I had no trouble finishing it. oink oink? lol. That said I did NOT finish my entree so there is that!

on the tacos, I am a taco fiend too and agree that the best tacos I've ever had were the cheap ones. We went to San Diego and had the best tacos of my life for about $2 a piece, some less. We make tacos at home too (fresh ingredient toppings as well as the traditional taco kit type). I have some great filling recipes. After having such great tacos elsewhere it would be hard to convince me that any taco could be worth $17, lol. They do look good though, chunks of avocado are WAY better than "crema."

on the pork.... you just made me cry a little. This is my favorite dish at CA Grill (and it has changed so much over the years) but I went with the filet because we were on the DxDDP and I figured it would be a good time to have it, next time I will get my beloved pork again when paying cash. Gosh I miss my pork. I am going to have to fit CA Grill in on the next trip come heck or high water!

on the steak ... it looks like they neatened up their presentation quite a bit. I am not really a steak gal, to me it is more about the entire plate as a whole than the purity of the steak and even though mine looked revolting it was delicious with the sides and roasted garlic.

on the fritters... agree with EVERYTHING you said. Mind if I steal the sauce names for mine? it was not on the menu photo I took and I completely forgot. I don't even really like donuts except for cider ones. Yum!

Please use the sauce names haha, go for it! Those were just so good, I can still taste their fluffiness and sugary goodness!!

I was so glad I went with the pork. I really really hate ordering the same thing as Justin because I know we'll always share. I was going to comment on how different the presentations were! Actually, the next day I read a post on a FB group I'm in where someone said they went to Cali Grill and her husband ordered the filet... and the server offered mashed potatoes because he said he didn't like duck fat.. and then she offered string beans or corn so he chose string beans.. the whole thing blew my mind because it was so opposite from our experience. And then she was saying how awful the meal was because you see a basic TV dinner mashed potatoes & corn underneath a beautiful butter-topped steak!! It was so bizarre, but that + your pic + my pic showed how much they can vary.

I probably should have ordered the sushi anyways because it did sound sooo amazing! We are going to try Splitsville soon and I hear theirs is great too so I'll have to try it there. I'm not too well-versed with sushi, just hate the raw stuff. Heck I get mine at the grocery store usually, ha!

Recently went to Cali Grill for first time finally. I went with SIL and BIL after DH had to leave early to go back to work. I will be taking DH there soon because it was awesome. I got the scallops and they were huge and delicious. We shared the BLT flatbread app and I totally recommend it and the scallops if you ever go back. We were seated right at the window too. It's my new five.

Yum, that sounds amazing! I thought about a flat bread but ultimately he chose the tacos but a BLT flatbread sounds great. I was also considering the scallops, they sounded delicious.

What a fun year you have ahead of you! I'm excited to follow along with your dining report.

I'm super envious of the oatmeal ice cream you had at Ample Hills. It looks amazing.

Welcome! Thanks for joining. I am seriously still dreaming about the hunks of cookie in that ice cream.. so good!

 

[ariane37]

ICE CREAM FLIGHT..

OMG I totally missed this when we went to Ample Hills in November!

I love old lady ice cream, aka anything with nuts such as butter pecan, turtle, etc..

I just find this funny

The Ooey Gooey Butter Cake was, just like the Nonna D’s, amazing. CREAM CHEESE in the ice cream? Yes, please!

Steve and I both LOVED this!

They also have a specific Disney flavor, the Sally’s Sea Shells with orange and chocolate. I’m not big on orange so I didn’t try that one.

I thought the name sounded so cute and before we went in to Ample Hills, I thought I might try it. I hadn't read a description though and the orange turned me off So not an orange fan.

We got lucky and there was a Studio available for 4th of July weekend, so we’ll be staying at the Boardwalk/Beach Club area for the first time and I CANNOT WAIT

Awesome! Steve's favorite area to stay in is the Boardwalk! I love it there too because of the proximity to Epcot (and HS),although WL is my favorite resort. But you can't beat the BW/BC area for location and at night it's fabulous

I’ve already got Beaches and Cream and Il Mulino booked (@ariane37 you have inspired me to try it and I can't wait!)

Yay!! I truly hope you love it

This has Pimm's No 1 Liqueur, Hendrick's Gin, Lemonade and Wild Strawberry. I loved this! It was sweet and refreshing. I can't lie, I sucked it down rather quickly!

I've seen this on menu's also and have debated trying it but never have. Now I think I will.

Strawberry Lime Rekorderlig.

I've also wanted to try this! The only other place I've seen it on the menu is Raglan Road, good to know it's at the Wave, also.

Warm Homemade Fritters - apple-stuffed, Cinnamon-dusted Fritters complemented with a Trio of Dipping Sauces $13

This came with three sauces, a vanilla chai (white), cranberry (red), and apple caramel bourbon (orange).

These. Were. So. Good.

I had these when we went to CG in January, and I didn't taste apple, either. Also my sauces were different; I remember a caramel and a chocolate but can't remember the 3rd Your sauces sound good!

 

[Vernie822]

OMG I totally missed this when we went to Ample Hills in November!


I just find this funny


Steve and I both LOVED this!


I thought the name sounded so cute and before we went in to Ample Hills, I thought I might try it. I hadn't read a description though and the orange turned me off So not an orange fan.


Awesome! Steve's favorite area to stay in is the Boardwalk! I love it there too because of the proximity to Epcot (and HS),although WL is my favorite resort. But you can't beat the BW/BC area for location and at night it's fabulous


Yay!! I truly hope you love it


I've seen this on menu's also and have debated trying it but never have. Now I think I will.


I've also wanted to try this! The only other place I've seen it on the menu is Raglan Road, good to know it's at the Wave, also.


I had these when we went to CG in January, and I didn't taste apple, either. Also my sauces were different; I remember a caramel and a chocolate but can't remember the 3rd Your sauces sound good!

I can't wait to get back to that Ooey Gooey ice cream. So delicious! I definitely recommend both the Rekordelig and the Pimm's Punch! Yum. I feel like I don't order cocktails too often, but this one was good. They go down easy, lol. I'm pretty excited for the BW/BC area at night, especially its close proximity to the back of World Showcase & Hollywood Studios. Yay! I feel like they switch the fritters and their sauce pretty often for the season?! Pretty cool!

 

[MamaMeggie]

That Ample Hills ice cream looks so good! And I adore brown sugar and oatmeal cookies so I might have to get
a whole cone of that for myself...

 

[Lisa F]

JANUARY TRIP: Ample Hills Creamery!


After we’d walked around a little bit and let our lunch settle, Justin wanted to try an item on his list.. Ample Hills Creamery! So we headed over to the Boardwalk to give it a try.


We have both seen some reviews floating around on various blogs, and once he saw that they had an ICE CREAM FLIGHT.. he was all over it.


Ample Hills is somewhat new, I believe it opened earlier this summer. We decided to split an ice cream flight. I think their prices are a little expensive (cones are like $7.50 apiece and go up to $9.50 for a large specialty one) but the flight was priced right around $10.

Uh, how awesome do those adult concoctions sound!?

You get to choose six flavors, so we each decided to choose 3 that appealed to us and share them. We have similar ice cream tastes but also like completely different things. I love old lady ice cream, aka anything with nuts such as butter pecan, turtle, etc.. and he likes kiddie ice creams such as cookies n cream and his all-time favorite, cotton candy. We’ll both eat just about any ice cream but he hates my “old lady” ice creams and I hate his Cotton Candy!

He chose his three: Cotton Candy, Chocolate Milk and Cookies, and Baked/Unbaked. I chose my three, Nonna D’s Oatmeal Lace, Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, and Peanut Butter Takes the Cup. Here are some descriptions from the Disney menu:


Cotton Candy: 100% All-Natural Blue Cotton Candy Ice Cream made with no Artificial Colors of Flavors

Chocolate Milk and Cookies Ice Cream: Creamy Milk Chocolate Ice Cream with Pieces of Back-To-Nature Sandwich Creme Cookies

Baked/Unbaked Ice Cream: Vanilla Ice Cream with pieces of Housemade Chocolate Chip Cookies and Brown Butter Cookie Dough

Nonna D's Oatmeal Lace Ice Cream: Dark Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream with Housemade Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Ice Cream: The creamiest Vanilla Ice Cream made with Cream Cheese and gobs of House-made St. Louis-Style Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. A staff favorite!

PB Wins the Cup Ice Cream: Vanilla Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Chocolate flakes and House-made Peanut Butter Cups

(Clearly I just walk around snapping pictures without focusing or lining up my camera.. half of my pics are cooked, whoops!)

Overall I’d say this is more than enough for one person, definitely enough for two people to share. Maybe even a small family. I’d say that you received about ¼ cup of each ice cream flavor. It’s not overly generous or gluttonous, so it was the perfect after-meal snack. We took our ice cream out to the Boardwalk and found a seat overlooking the water. Perfection. I just love the Boardwalk area!

It was warm enough that our ice cream started melting pretty quickly!

Multiple people came up to us and asked “Hey, where’d you get that?” and then proceeded to go inside and order ice cream.. Sooo, perhaps Ample Hills should give us a kick back, because I think we generated a few customers for them


So let’s start with the flavors..

Starting with the blue cotton candy around 2 oclock and going clock wise, we have the Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, Baked/Unbaked, Nonna D's, Chocolate Milk and Cookies, and PB Takes the Cup.

You can really see here how big those cookie chunks were. The Nonna D's has a great brown sugar color, and the Ooey Gooey, you can see the cream cheese and Ooey Gooey cake.. yum. I am drooling just thinking about it.

I didn’t taste Cotton Candy because it’s Justin’s absolute favorite and I don’t like it. He really did like it though he’s not hard to please when it comes to ice cream.

The Chocolate Milk & Cookies was his favorite of the three he chose. I thought it was a unique flavor, and you could really taste the richness of the milk chocolate. The whole scoop was creamy and rich. The chocolate cookie pieces were large and plentiful, which we found to be consistent throughout all the flavors we tried.

The cookie/brownie dough one was delicious as well. Reminds me of the Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked flavor, which is always good.

The Nonna D’s Oatmeal Lace Cookie was just… in a few words.. outstanding and scrumptious. It was very unique and unlike any flavors I’ve had before. The ice cream had a brown sugar flavor and HUGE chunks of delicious oatmeal cookie. I love anything oatmeal or oatmeal raisin and this was just to die for. I really thought about going back later on in our trip for more.

The Ooey Gooey Butter Cake was, just like the Nonna D’s, amazing. CREAM CHEESE in the ice cream? Yes, please! This was again super creamy and not too rich. With huge chunks of cake.. Oh my gosh, it was so good.

Lastly, I also chose the PB Wins the Cup. This was good too, but nothing compared to the other two I got. Justin also liked this one. I love peanut butter/chocolate ice cream, so I feel like I have had similar ice creams before. It wasn’t bad at all, just not as great as the other two I had.


Overall, we really enjoyed this experience. I think a lot of their flavors were unique and not something you’d find just anywhere. And of course they had the old favorites such as cookie dough and Oreo (but theirs are made with Back to Nature sandwich cookies so that means they’re healthy, right?) They also have a specific Disney flavor, the Sally’s Sea Shells with orange and chocolate. I’m not big on orange so I didn’t try that one.


There is something so calming and fun about the boardwalk area. I just love it, and walking over during a busy, crowded Epcot day is one of our favorite things to do. I think they have so many good restaurants to try, too. We got lucky and there was a Studio available for 4th of July weekend, so we’ll be staying at the Boardwalk/Beach Club area for the first time and I CANNOT WAIT! My employer gives us off the 3rd and 4th, so why not give it a try! We fully intend to NOT spend much time in the parks because I’m sure they’ll be crazy, so it will be a fun spot to be in. I’ve already got Beaches and Cream and Il Mulino booked (@ariane37 you have inspired me to try it and I can't wait!) Justin also really wants to do Flying Fish again, we have not tried it yet since the renovation (torn between that and Yachtsman).


Anyways, Ample Hills gets two thumbs up from us. I know Disney has a LOT of ice cream offerings, but I feel like for actual ice cream flavors (no crazy sundaes or anything like that), it doesn’t get much better than this. The No Way Jose still is the best sundae in my book, but I think as far as ice cream, you cannot beat Ample Hills.


After that, we walked back into Epcot and spent some more time there before heading back to the resort. We stayed at Caribbean Beach for the first time.

We were in the Aruba section, building 54. We ended up booking a King room, even with a great AP discount, they didn't have any queens left and the King was still cheaper than any other moderate resort.

The buildings were a real loud Pepto Bismol, Golden Girls pink!

The resort was really pretty and spread out, as moderates seem to be.

The room itself reminded me a lot of Coronado Springs, with the layout and the big doors into the bathroom.

It was a nice resort and we liked it!

We spent a little time in the room relaxing and showering/getting ready for our date at California Grill that night.​

HOW DID I MISS THIS?

I mean your review and while staying at BWV. The review I think because you tagged me in the other one, lol. I think I need another trip just for ample hills. as a rule not much of a dessert person but ice cream is my FAVORITE food.

 

[Vernie822]

That Ample Hills ice cream looks so good! And I adore brown sugar and oatmeal cookies so I might have to get
a whole cone of that for myself...

It is sooo so good. I never understood the hate for oatmeal/oatmeal raisin cookies! Also, there's a brand of ice cream called Halo Top that makes an oatmeal cookie ice cream. I've been meaning to try it, I doubt it's as good (it's lower calorie ice cream) but if it's anything close I'll take it!

HOW DID I MISS THIS?

I mean your review and while staying at BWV. The review I think because you tagged me in the other one, lol. I think I need another trip just for ample hills. as a rule not much of a dessert person but ice cream is my FAVORITE food.

Haha! We love ice cream too, without my husband seeing the ice cream filghts online somewhere, I doubt we would've made it over this time. Now I'm not sure how we'll manage to go without stopping there.

 

[MamaMeggie]

It is sooo so good. I never understood the hate for oatmeal/oatmeal raisin cookies! Also, there's a brand of ice cream called Halo Top that makes an oatmeal cookie ice cream. I've been meaning to try it, I doubt it's as good (it's lower calorie ice cream) but if it's anything close I'll take it!



Haha! We love ice cream too, without my husband seeing the ice cream filghts online somewhere, I doubt we would've made it over this time. Now I'm not sure how we'll manage to go without stopping there.

I've seen the Halo Top brand but have been suspicious, ha! If I can find the oatmeal cookie kind I'm definitely trying it though. Thanks!!

 

[kastoney]

Late as always, but all subbed in now. Can't believe you are so close to Disney now. Guess I must have missed the change of address card in the mail Can't wait to eat and drink more

 

[Vernie822]

Late as always, but all subbed in now. Can't believe you are so close to Disney now. Guess I must have missed the change of address card in the mail Can't wait to eat and drink more

LOL! Thanks for joining. We just moved in early October to Charlotte. Job changes for both of us and got the heck out of the snow belt, haha!

 

[cwiklamama]

Following- I have always enjoyed your reports and that ice cream flight looked great!

 

[Mom2m&k]

We love the fish and chips in Epcot! Enjoying your trip report. Your dinner at California Grill looks delicious!

 

[samsteele]

As usual, I'm much later than @kastoney following along. Excellent food report & I'm loving the pics. CBR is beautiful & I almost stayed there a year and a half ago. Almost because I had it booked but then realized that with an international flight at 6:30am (Canadian), I was going to have to get to the Magical Express pickup point at 1:30am. Not a magical time of the night & given it is so spread out, thought I'd worry the whole vacation about walking myself there in the dark dragging my suitcase. But I love visiting CBR on my free day. Gorgeous resort. Looking forward to your report & reviews!

 

[MrsIncredible1974]

Oh wow, am delighted to stumble across your report.
I had been asking for recommendations for an ice-cream stop off for me and my DD aged 13. Think we've found it

 

[SweetSerenity]

Jumping in! Great report so far!

 

[Vernie822]

Following- I have always enjoyed your reports and that ice cream flight looked great!

Welcome! Thanks for joining!

We love the fish and chips in Epcot! Enjoying your trip report. Your dinner at California Grill looks delicious!

Thank you!! I was so impressed with California Grill. Sooo delicious.

As usual, I'm much later than @kastoney following along. Excellent food report & I'm loving the pics. CBR is beautiful & I almost stayed there a year and a half ago. Almost because I had it booked but then realized that with an international flight at 6:30am (Canadian), I was going to have to get to the Magical Express pickup point at 1:30am. Not a magical time of the night & given it is so spread out, thought I'd worry the whole vacation about walking myself there in the dark dragging my suitcase. But I love visiting CBR on my free day. Gorgeous resort. Looking forward to your report & reviews!

Haha! Well it's okay because I'm behind on updating it, HA! CBR was definitely a gorgeous resort. I totally wouldn't want to walk around by myself in the dark early in the morning either.

Oh wow, am delighted to stumble across your report.
I had been asking for recommendations for an ice-cream stop off for me and my DD aged 13. Think we've found it

Definitely consider it! I also love Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club resort. Although I think B&C is great for sundaes, I think flavor-wise and unique-wise, Ample Hills was better!

Jumping in! Great report so far!

Thank you! Welcome.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Finally catching up on my favorite Disney Dining Reporters! Started on yours with this trip, but have to go back & read your September Trip & Dining Reports! Congrats on your marriage, your move, and new jobs! Yay for us, as since you're within driving distance to WDW, that means more awesome dining reports!

 

[Sailormoon2]

Intrigued and following along!

 

[Vernie822]

Finally catching up on my favorite Disney Dining Reporters! Started on yours with this trip, but have to go back & read your September Trip & Dining Reports! Congrats on your marriage, your move, and new jobs! Yay for us, as since you're within driving distance to WDW, that means more awesome dining reports!

Hey Teresa, thank you so much for following!! How is your nephew?

Intrigued and following along!

Thanks! Welcome

 

[Vernie822]

Hi friends! Sorry it's been foreverrrrr since I last updated. Things have been busy around here, but our next trip is this Friday for the Princess 10K and I cannot wait! We're meeting up with 3 of my college girlfriends. One is also bringing her boyfriend. 3 flying in from Pittsburgh, and one from Chicago. It'll be great fun, I'm sure! We have been trying to get into Be Our Guest for a while now, with no such luck. We haven't planned a whole lot (which drove me crazy a bit, but I didn't want to seem like the crazy anal friend, haha), but we have brunch at The Wave after the race, and I finally squeezed in lunch at Homecoming, which I've been absolutely dying to try.

So on to our last trip, where we started our day off at Epcot again!

That morning we stopped by the Old Port Royale food court at Caribbean Beach for a quick breakfast, Justin grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and I hemmed and hawwed over which pastry to get for a solid 5 minutes. They're not the best pastries in the world, but they're not bad either. Crumb cake would be too messy for the car, although they looked delicious. I always love the chocolate croissants, but I decided to try something new.. the infamous cheese danish! I often see @jerseytinkerbell post these and they always look yummy but I'd never tried one before.

And for the record, it was delicious!!

No picture of Justin's chocolate chip cookie, oops. Someday I'll have to explain to our kids that cookies aren't a breakfast food, even though Dad says they are!

We headed back to Epcot that morning for one thing... we wanted to ride Frozen! We got there probably by 8:35 and by the time we got parked and through the turnstiles, it was probably around 8:45 and the gates were already open, so we hustled off to Norway with everyone else. Lots of parents and kiddos trying to get on!

Fortunately there was only about a 20 minute wait. The queue was adorable and I didn't mind the wait.

Overall, I thought it was a really cute ride. I basically sat there with my mouth open the whole time because I was in awe. Although I don't think the ride flowed all that well, it did seem a bit choppy, but I doubt all of the Frozen loving kids cared. I did absolutely love it though.

We did a few more things, I know we rode Soarin' and waited maybe 30 minutes for that. We had FP's for Magic Kingdom later that afternoon.

After a few hours we decided to head to MK for a semi-early lunch. We took the monorail and browsed some quick service menus on our way. I feel like we don't eat a ton of QS in Magic Kingdom, but I could always go for Columbia Harbor House. We decided to split a QS meal since we'd be eating at Ohana later that night.

We ultimately decided on Pecos Bill, which was new to us since their menu change.

We hopped in line and grabbed a menu..

And decided on the Fajita Platter. I'd seen that it was a large serving and could easily be shared.

And who can forget the fixins bar!

Cheese, sour cream, pico, salsa, corn salsa, and guacamole..

And green salsa with jalapenos:

You won't find me making my own salad off of the fixins' bar (I've heard people suggest it, ha) but I think they had plenty of nice options to choose from! Justin hates all of the guac and salsas but I was able to load up on some for myself.

Here's our tray, we also got a side of chips ($3.99) and a drink, as well as an ice water, and used our AP for a 20% discount!

Our lunch came with cilantro rice, black beans, chicken, barbacoa, and peppers/onions. It also came with 3 tortillas, but the portion on the plate was MORE than enough food for both of us. I think Justin ate 2 tortillas, I had one, and we split the rice and beans with the chips.

I am a sucker for Chili's, we hardly eat at table service chain restaurants, but for some reason I love Chili's for chips and salsa when we're feeling a casual meal. I actually think this was better quality meat, I don't really think the meat quality at Chili's is that great and it is obviously a frozen pre-portioned chicken breast. This wasn't like that at all. The beef wasn't spicy, at least I didn't think so and I don't like a lot of heat. The onions weren't cooked through (still crispy) but they made a nice addition with the peppers to the meal.

In all, we'd definitely eat here again!! For less than $20, the two of us had lunch that kept us full for a while. Two thumbs up.

We did our FP's and a few other rides and headed back in the later afternoon to CBR to change and freshen up before our dinner ADR at Ohana.

Justin wanted to walk over to the food court for a drink, and I wanted to see some of the resort, so we took a walk.

The resort is actually really pretty and serene.

Next up, dinner at Ohana. ​

 

[Vernie822]

OHANA

That night, we'd been able to get a reservation for Ohana! I think it was around 6:30 PM, which is a decent time since a lot of times when I'm late to make reservations, the only available time is like 9 pm.

We got there a little early, there was a playoff football game on and Justin loves to have a drink beforehand at Tambu Lounge and watch whatever sporting event is currently playing.

I don't have a photo of Justin's drink, I can't remember if he had a Diet Coke or maybe another Moscow Mule.

I think I had a Tropical Macaw:

• 
  Tropical Macaw - Coruba Coconut Rum, Melon Liqueur, Pineapple Juice, and Cranberry Juice - $9.75. This was really good!

We didn't wait long at all before our table was ready.

We were seated on the right side of the restaurant, to the right of the grill. In the past we have always been seated at the main dining area, along the windows. I don't like the right side as much.

First we were given the welcome bread, which is always delicious. I always ask for butter with it because.. more butter is always better, right!?

Next up was the salad, which has a light and delicious dressing.

And then, in a bit of disappointment, they brought us all 4 appetizers on the same platter, literally 2 minutes after we sat down. I say disappointed because there was only TWO CHICKEN WINGS on this whole thing! I can see why they wouldn't want to be wasteful.. but that's only one wing per person, and my husband can EAT!

I think our server could tell we wanted to take our time, since we asked for more pot stickers and wings. We always love the appetizers the most!

Next came the chicken, which is always delicious and nicely charred.

And the steak:

And shrimp, which I love!

I think Justin ate a dozen potstickers total.. no shame! Finally it was time for dessert.

This is my absolute favorite part of the meal. Hands down! It is soooo good. Justin ate most of the ice cream, I got the bread pudding to myself. I can't lie, I almost finished all of it.. but it's SOOO good!

Overall, I think we decided to give Ohana a rest for a while. We've been there 5 times, which means we've gone every trip that we've taken together! We always have a great experience, but this time it wasn't amazing. The service was rushed, we felt like we were seated off on the side and forgotten about, but overall the meal was just fine. I think we felt like the food was just okay, and wasn't anything outstanding. We like hanging at the lounges, so I think maybe I'll just pop in to Tambu Lounge for some bread pudding sometime!

Ohana is a fun experience for sure, and the food is good - but having been there 5 times, there are lots of other places we'd like to go to, especially since it's at least $100 every time you go!​