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

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.
You are I think the 4th or 5th recent review of Ohana that was just not good. I'm seriously thinking of just doing the longes option too on our next trip. I can get a Lapu Lapu, potstickers and bread pudding...so really, that's the important stuff, right? I'm sorry this experience wasn't up to par for you, but I definitely appreciate you sharing.
 
You are I think the 4th or 5th recent review of Ohana that was just not good. I'm seriously thinking of just doing the longes option too on our next trip. I can get a Lapu Lapu, potstickers and bread pudding...so really, that's the important stuff, right? I'm sorry this experience wasn't up to par for you, but I definitely appreciate you sharing.

Wow, that's crazy! When we first went in 2014, it was SO good, and I hadn't read great reviews about it. Lately I've heard people say it's a lot better, but ours just wasn't as good as it has been. I think I'm feeling the same way - all of the reasons I love going, and I can get those elsewhere and not pay $40/person! ;)
 
Yay! So glad you enjoyed the cheese danish. I could go for one of those right now.

Pecos Bill looks delicious! I think I need to go there on my next trip.

Great reviews!
 


I don't know what I did here, :) we love Ohana its a must for every trip..everything looks so yummy..













































    • 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.

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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!?

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

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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!

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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.

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And the steak:

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And shrimp, which I love!

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

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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!
[/QUOTE]
 
Hi there! I'm really enjoying your reviews so far! It looks like you guys had an amazzzzzzzing vacation so far! We love Tambu lounge too. can't wait to be there!
 
Hey Ashley! I agree about 'O Hana's. I think we go more out of nostalgia than anything, but we've put it on the back burner for a while. The service is definitely rushed, and it's no small change to go there! Thanks for asking about Dom! He's doing okay. We're going through a bit of an issue right now with placement again. He's been at an acute care rehab hospital after having a Baclofen pump placed, and now he's ready for discharge, but there's apparently a shortage of male beds at all the facilities his mom's okay with him going to. Other than that, he's hanging in there. I'm going to try to do an update this weekend, when I have more info. :flower3:
 


Hiiiiiiiiii!! Congrats on the wedding, the pictures of your Disneymoon looked fab! :goodvibes

Following along and loving all the foodie pics!!

An ice cream flight?!?!?! SHUT. UP. Now I have to see if there is any time we can squeeze in a quick visit to BW :scratchin hahaha. My goodness that looks amazing. Okay well now that might solidify us heading over because I wanted to check out the Abracadabar as well. hmm hmm hmm..

Looking forward to visiting Ohana's when we go in May with my DH & his family. When we went in Sept I ate my fair share of the wings with room service so I can't wait to enjoy those again :rotfl:

I wasn't overly thrilled with FEA either.. it was adorable, but quick.. and the FP for me and DH ended up just being me riding at the last minute. So here I am, all alone, in the front row... ALL ALONE.. and then the part where they take your picture I look so confused and after that I was like yep, no.. I'm good. Possibly the worst MM photo we have hahaha.

How exciting to have all those future trips planned! Good luck at your race (if you haven't gone already!) and definitely post about it. I'm so curious!
 
If my calculations are correct you should have finished your 10K just a little bit ago. Hope all went well. And enjoy homecoming. We LOVED it!!!!

Your Pecos Bill meal looks great. I can't believe they have guacamole on the fixins bar, total steal. And you completely just reminded me that we could have used our AP for discounts at some of the counter service places. DOH!!! Completely spaced on that on our trip.

Sorry O'hanas wasn't great. And what a chintzy plate of appetizers. Sounds like they are just trying to get as many people through there as quickly as they can these days
 
Hi there! I'm really enjoying your reviews so far! It looks like you guys had an amazzzzzzzing vacation so far! We love Tambu lounge too. can't wait to be there!

Yayyy! Tambu Lounge is the best :)

Hey Ashley! I agree about 'O Hana's. I think we go more out of nostalgia than anything, but we've put it on the back burner for a while. The service is definitely rushed, and it's no small change to go there! Thanks for asking about Dom! He's doing okay. We're going through a bit of an issue right now with placement again. He's been at an acute care rehab hospital after having a Baclofen pump placed, and now he's ready for discharge, but there's apparently a shortage of male beds at all the facilities his mom's okay with him going to. Other than that, he's hanging in there. I'm going to try to do an update this weekend, when I have more info. :flower3:

Aww, glad he's doing okay. I hope things improve for him!

Hiiiiiiiiii!! Congrats on the wedding, the pictures of your Disneymoon looked fab! :goodvibes

Following along and loving all the foodie pics!!

An ice cream flight?!?!?! SHUT. UP. Now I have to see if there is any time we can squeeze in a quick visit to BW :scratchin hahaha. My goodness that looks amazing. Okay well now that might solidify us heading over because I wanted to check out the Abracadabar as well. hmm hmm hmm..

Looking forward to visiting Ohana's when we go in May with my DH & his family. When we went in Sept I ate my fair share of the wings with room service so I can't wait to enjoy those again :rotfl:

I wasn't overly thrilled with FEA either.. it was adorable, but quick.. and the FP for me and DH ended up just being me riding at the last minute. So here I am, all alone, in the front row... ALL ALONE.. and then the part where they take your picture I look so confused and after that I was like yep, no.. I'm good. Possibly the worst MM photo we have hahaha.

How exciting to have all those future trips planned! Good luck at your race (if you haven't gone already!) and definitely post about it. I'm so curious!

Hey there!! Thank you so much. I love those darn chicken wings. They are sooooo good. I was so pumped for that ice cream flight.. amazing!!! Cracking up at your FEA story hahahaha :rotfl2: The race was lots of fun, thanks! I'll share some pics. We had a 2:45 AM wake up call that left us nearly non-functional that day, but it was a blast nonetheless.


Great reviews we love Pecos Bills, we discovered it in October and went again this past week!

Thank you!!

If my calculations are correct you should have finished your 10K just a little bit ago. Hope all went well. And enjoy homecoming. We LOVED it!!!!

Your Pecos Bill meal looks great. I can't believe they have guacamole on the fixins bar, total steal. And you completely just reminded me that we could have used our AP for discounts at some of the counter service places. DOH!!! Completely spaced on that on our trip.

Sorry O'hanas wasn't great. And what a chintzy plate of appetizers. Sounds like they are just trying to get as many people through there as quickly as they can these days

Thank you! It was loads of fun. I am SO sad we didn't end up at Homecoming :crazy2::sad: but with Justin driving to Daytona the day before with his brother, he wanted to sleep in and hit the road on our last day so I guess a food court breakfast burrito had to suffice. I WILL get there next time!!

Chintzy is right, lol!! Part of me can't wait to go back again but I think it's just the bread pudding :lovestruc

Subbing!!! Your have made me very excited for Cali Grill!

Thank you! Looking back it was an amazing meal! I cannot wait to go back sometime.
 
DLUXE BURGER

Hey everyone! Swear I posted this update before we left, but I guess I actually hadn't, haha.. whoops! We're back and it was a quick yet enjoyable trip. It was different traveling with anyone other than family or my husband. We went with friends this time. It was a really busy and jam-packed trip, but it was a different touring style than we're used to and it was a chance to catch up with some friends we don't see too often. And I may officially be a runDisney junkie. Man do they suck you in!

Justin and I decided to head to Hollywood Studios that morning. We packed everything up and got there maybe around 9:10. We did Great Movie Ride first, since Toy Story already had a 50 minute wait.

We decided to skip the food court for breakfast that morning and opted for one of our favorite spots.. Sweet Spells!


This cute little shop is at the beginning of Sunset Blvd, to the right when you're making your way down Hollywood Blvd. in the front of the park.

They had these cute little whoopie pies in a few different varieties, this one being an oreo:
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Justin decided on the Mickey Pants Shortbread cookie:

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He liked this and said it was fine, something different from his usual fave, chocolate chip.

I had to get my all-time favorite the.. Carrot Cake Cookie!!


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:lovestruc:lovestruc:lovestruc:lovestruc:lovestruc

Words can't really describe this goodness, although I did find a similar carrot-cakey love this trip! This cookie sandwich is sooooo very rich that there's no way I needed to eat the whole thing for breakfast.

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I cut off a chunk and saved the rest for later, I ended up eating it for breakfast at home over the next few days ;)


We continued to mosey around HS, stopping to take some pictures of the new Pizzerizzo.

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I think it looks awesome! They probably serve the same ol' Digorno pizza though :scratchin

Not long after, we decided to head to Disney Springs for some lunch. Again, I had been wanting to try Homecoming. But in an effort to leave around lunchtime, we decided to opt for quick service. That meant we'd find ourselves at DLuxe Burger. We have a Blaze Pizza at home in NC, and Justin surprisingly doesn't love it :eek: but I enjoyed it. They have a pizza called the White Top and it's deeeeeelicious.

We walked right up to DLuxe not long after it had opened. There was virtually no one inside, so we walked in and ordered pretty quickly.

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Those shakes sounded soooooo good, but I decided to save my afternoon sugar bomb for a cupcake at Sprinkles :cool1:

I was pretty torn between the Bacon and Bleu burger, and the Southern Burger.. Helloooo, pimento cheese!

We placed our order, along with all of the dipping sauces we wanted to try (which was all of them). We also decided to order our burgers medium well, instead of medium. The cashier told us that they cook everything medium by default, but I had heard from a few people/podcasts that their medium burgers were way too medium.

We found a seat outside along the balcony.. I love the water here, even if it is a putrid blue.

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They give you a pager to take to your table, and bring your food out to you.

Our burgers came out probably within 5-10 minutes, we didn't wait long at all.

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Justin had ordered the Barbecue Classic Burger. I landed on the Bacon Bleu Burger, and we shared a large fry ($7.49). The fries were Five Guys status, where they just give you a ton!

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We also decided to try all of the dipping sauces, which was pretty fun.

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Here are the flavors we tried:
Garlic ranch
Horseradish
Chipotle Mayo
3 Mustard and honey
Buffalo blue cheese
Curry ketchup

Unfortunately I don't remember which was which. Oops. I do remember really liking the garlic ranch and buffalo bleu cheese. Justin really liked the ranch, 3 mustard and honey, and chipotle mayo.

Here was my burger, the Bacon and Bleu.


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Bacon and Bleu Burger - topped with bacon, bleu cheese, onion jam, lettuce, tomato and onion $11.99

And Justin had the Barbecue Burger.


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Barbecue Classic Burger - beef patty topped with a fried onion ring, smoked Gouda, bacon, barbecue sauce, onion and lettuce $11.99

You can see the thick bacon and gouda on his burger. Yum.

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So, the food: it was excellent. I love a good burger, but I can take or leave a so-so theme park or Mcdonald's-esque burger. I like a good patty, with neat toppings and a unique bun. No point in wasting calories or stomach space on a mediocre burger, in my opinion!

I'm happy to say that these lived up to the hype, for us anyways. I thought getting my burger medium-well was a good choice. It was juicy without being greasy. The bun was soft with kind of a crunch on the outside. I thought the patty was seasoned really really well. I hate when you're eating a burger and the patty is so greasy or juicy that it runs through the bun and makes it soggy, fortunately we didn't have that issue.

My burger had too much onion jam on it, so I ended up using a knife and fork for the last half of it and scraping some of that off. The lettuce and tomato was a little too thick as well but that probably won't bother some - just made it slightly difficult to eat because the burger kept sliding.

Justin also really enjoyed his burger, he loved the onion ring on top!

Overall we were really pleased with our quick lunch stop & we even remembered to ask about an AP discount, which was 20%!

Following our lunch, I wanted to make a pit stop at Sprinkles to check out what the hype was all about.

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I've heard about Sprinkles for years, but had never visited one until now.

They've got way more than just cupcakes here: mini cupcakes, cookies, ice cream, sundaes, cookie/ice cream sandwiches and cupcake top/ice cream sandwiches (!!!!)



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I decided to just go with a mini cupcake. I wanted to try the real-deal sprinkle covered cupcake.



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They also had red velvet minis, and regularly I believe they also have chocolate and vanilla (I say that because I went back this past weekend, ha!)

They also have DOGGIE CUPCAKES!!! This was the first time we'd left our dog, so I picked up one of those for her. I remember the cashier saying they were gluten free and had a yogurt icing.

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About halfway home I decided it was cupcake time. I opened the bag to find that they'd actually given me a full-sized cupcake instead of a mini one :cool1::cool1::cool1:

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YAY! How nice! I don't know if it was accidental (the people taking and filling orders were different) or on purpose, but it was a nice surprise.

Unfortunately, overall, I have to say I wasn't thrilled with the cupcake. The icing was okay as well as the sprinkles, but the cupcake itself was pretty dry. They didn't have a massive selection that day, so I'm not sure if we were just super early and everything wasn't ready, or if maybe I had a cupcake from the day before. I used to work at one of the best bakeries around when I was younger, and their cupcakes blow this out of the water! So maybe I'm biased but this was good, not great.

We picked up our dog, Callie, from the PetsHotel that night. It was her first time overnight without us and she got a doggie cupcake as a reward!




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Callie enjoyed her doggie cupcake! Considering this is the girl who broke into the fridge (yes, you read that right) on her first day home alone, and managed to eat almost an entire leftover Thanksgiving pie... her standards are high after that one.

Well, I know that was long overdue but, thanks for following along! I'll get to posting from our February trip as soon as I can! :thumbsup2
 
FEBRUARY TRIP!

I swear our most recent trip came and went SO quickly. I love living so close, and I am so happy we are fortunate enough to drive down so frequently, but dang if I could say there a week each time, I would!

This trip was a bit different, as it included some girlfriends of mine. Two of my college BFFs, C and D, asked if I'd want to do the Princess 10K back in July. I said yes, thinking I had plenty of time to train. Well, a wedding, a move, and working WAY more hours than usual happened, and I didn't train. Good news is they didn't train much either, HA! I've run 3 half marathons before but I'm by no means a great runner, just a casual one. So I was really worried but it ended up being so much fun. C's boyfriend B, and another friend of ours, A, also joined us, but didn't run.

I'm sure you all know what it's like traveling with people other than your immediate family :-) :faint: OK, sometimes vacationing with family is like that too.. everyone has different ideas, eats at different times, some sleep in, some don't, etc.

They flew in Wednesday and stayed at All Star Music, we got there Friday and stayed at SSR. They left on Sunday, we left Monday. So they had a park day on Thursday and did AK and HS!

In the month before this trip we had ZERO Fastpasses planned :eek: and ZERO dining reservations :eek::eek:. The obsessive Disney fan inside me was freaking out. I am the Type A planner of the crowd for sure, and I knew with 6 people we'd have trouble walking up anywhere. I also didn't want my friends calling me a you-know-what because I was a bossy kielbasa and dragged them all around Walt's green earth doing whatever I wanted to do. So I backed off but suggested we make at least an ADR or two. That's when one of the girls said "Well I'd really like to eat dinner at Be Our Guest."

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Six of us, on a Friday, over a race weekend? I was hesitant, slightly annoyed (we had this trip planned 9 months out), and optimistic. We booked Via Napoli as a back up plan and I kept checking. Lo and behold, Thursday (the day before our MK day), I found a handful of breakfast and lunch ADR's, but none for 6. Finally on the way down, I found an ADR for 6 at 8:45 PM!

It all worked out and we were able to have a great dinner at BOG (more on that later) but moral of the story is.. keep checking, you may get what you're after! :goodvibes
 
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I also didn't want my friends calling me a you-know-what because I was a bossy kielbasa and dragged them all around Walt's green earth doing whatever I wanted to do.

This made me LOL. I make my family crazy with all my planning, I'm sure my friends would disown me! ;) I have a feeling you made it magical for them. Can't wait to hear more about it!
 
This made me LOL. I make my family crazy with all my planning, I'm sure my friends would disown me! ;) I have a feeling you made it magical for them. Can't wait to hear more about it!

Hahahaha.. thank you!! I really did have a great time, and I think they appreciated the minimal planning that we did!
 
On our last trip this past November we ate at D-Luxe Burger for the first time, and I had my first Sprinkles cupcake! Our burgers were great, and I equally loved my Sprinkles cupcake, which was the gluten free red velvet version. Normally I hate all cakey/bready/pizzaey gluten free foods. They're just not worth the calories. That Sprinkles cupcake though, I drool thinking about it! My hubby did his first half marathon on that trip, the Wine & Dine half marathon. He did well, and is thinking about doing next year, 2018's, the Dark Side half marathon. Can't wait to read the rest of your report!
 
MAGIC KINGDOM & COLUMBIA HARBOR HOUSE

Thursday night started out with us heading to Jacksonville and spending the night before the rest of our drive Friday morning. We left Jacksonville around 8:15 and were due to get to WDW around 10:45. We made the decision to stop at SSR, check it out a bit, and see if our room was ready (knowing it likely wouldn't be). It wasn't, and we headed to MK soon after that. Coincidentally my friends texted me around the same time telling us they were on their way, too.

We left SSR to head to Magic Kingdom. Usually we wouldn't drive to MK, but for some reason this day we thought it would be a good idea (WRONG)! We knew we'd have to leave at some point to pick up my race gear at the Expo, and thought we'd swing back to SSR and drop the car off and settle in to the resort before getting back to MK via the bus. Easier said than done!

We took the GPS route for some reason, since we'd never come from out by SSR, and it ended up taking us back towards the resorts instead of through the big MK sign into the parking lot. A little bit of bickering (anyone else only argue with their spouse when it comes to driving and GPS directions!? ha!) and we were finally at MK! It was pretty busy at that point, nearing 11:30. We're usually rope drop (or close to it) kinda people, so the crazy crowds to get on the monorail or boat was pretty new to us. We waited nearly 40 minutes for a boat and finally, we were inside MK!

Our friends were in line for the Magic Carpets (you won't catch me on that.. barf), so we decided to grab a quick snack while we waited for them. 10 minutes in the MK and we were already eating.. :rolleyes1

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Dole Whip Float! :sunny:

We actually always get the pineapple soft serve and had never tried the float, so it was new to us. Well, I gotta be honest.. I think I'm a bigger fan of the plain soft serve. The pineapple juice was just way too sweet, although it was nice to try something different.

After that we all reunited, then hopped on Pirates for a ride. We were all pretty hungry and decided as a group on Columbia Harbor House.

I wasn't feeling 100%, I think it was the heat and some thirst, so seafood sounded gross to me at the moment. Justin doesn't like seafood so his options were limited, but he found something.

I went with the Broccoli Peppercorn Salad.

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Mixed greens, garden vegetables, chicken, broccoli, sunflower seeds and parmesan cheese, tossed with a peppercorn dressing, $9.99

Justin went with the Chicken Nuggets Platter.

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Just your normal chicken nuggets and fries, I think this was maybe $9.99 as well.

We also ordered a side of fries (pictured with my salad) since I felt like I needed something other than just salad, and a Diet Coke.

Our friends ordered (disclaimer.. these are not my pics, they're way better, HA! Thank you Allears and DFB)

Chicken Pot Pie w/ Green Beans
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Shrimp Mac and Cheese
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Fried Shrimp Meal (w/ Fries and Coleslaw)
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Gluten Free Chicken Fingers and Fries

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One of my friends has recently tried to switch to a gluten free lifestyle. It's purely by choice that she's trying to cut it out, so she tried in WDW to make GF choices but didn't stress too much. She'd just order off an allergy menu if there was one available. By the end of our trip she was trying more non-GF foods and wasn't having tummy issues. Her food took a little longer to come out because they had to fry everything separately.

Overall, high marks from everyone for CHH.
My salad was exactly what I needed, nothing too heavy. There was a ton of chicken in it, so much that I left some behind. The dressing was creamy and garlick-y. I definitely had garlic breath the rest of the day :crazy2:

Justin liked his chicken nuggets and fries, nothing too special but we all know Disney has great nuggets! :rolleyes:

No complaints from our friends either. D loved the shrimp mac n cheese, and left at least half behind. She said it was really rich and a little too much to eat on a hot day (she's not a big eater to begin with). I wish I'd been in the mood for that because it looked delicious.

C's pot pie wasn't the least bit appealing visually, but she said it was great.

After that, we stopped to watch the parade and headed towards Frontierland for a spin on the wildest ride in the wilderness :dogdance: Fortunately we'd booked a FP+ for this one, the line was LONG! But we all loved it, it's one of my faves.

Sorry this update is so wordy- I really didn't take a ton of non-food pics on this trip. After that it was probably about 3:30 and we needed to head to the expo at some point, so now was that time! We didn't really plan this well (I can say that about pretty much the whole trip, lol) but we needed to get to ESPN Wide World of Sports to pick up our shirts and stuff for the race.

This next tidbit is probably skippable, but I figured it may be of help to some of the people who were clueless like me and had no idea how race weekends work!

We didn't think you could grab a bus from MK to WWOS, and for some reason didn't think to walk to the Contemporary to get one. B (C's boyfriend) didn't want to make the trek to WWOS with us :sad2: so we had to take a bus to All Star Music to drop him off first before going to WWOS. Once to ASM, there were signs clearly there explaining the transportation for race weekend. But did we look at those? Heck no! We waited for 20 minutes in the HS/WWOS bus stop area for a bus! Finally we walked from the front of ASM to the side, where the buses were actually picking up. Oops!

We made our way to WWOS where we were able to print waivers and get our race bags for the weekend. They had a huge selection of race specific merchandise, I wanted to buy everything but I resisted. They also had a ton of great vendors there with shirts, shorts, skirts, headbands, all of the running essentials.

After that we headed back to ASM to pick up B before heading back to the park. We probably could have bypassed this step and taken a bus to one of the monorail resorts but it was B's first time in WDW and C said he'd probably get lost on the way to MK :laughing:

We had a Buzz Light year FP from 6-7, and unfortunately we got back to the park just after 7. So yes, it took us three and a half hours to get to the expo and back. So if I could do it all over again, I would have done our race stuff first thing before heading to MK. It got us out of the heat for a bit, but it was such a hassle!

Fortunately for us, the CM at Buzz let us on even though we hustled and were a few minutes late. It was so nice of her! I was so happy she did. After that, we did our Peter Pan FP and Its a Small World before our dinner at... Be Our Guest!
 
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I'm totally craving a burger right now and have no idea why :-) Deluxe burger looks great though. I like you love a good burger (though the rarer the better for me) so I usually forgo any in disney. Good to know there is a great one around now.

I can't believe all the hassle you had getting to WWOS and the race stuff, but score on snagging BoG. Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip
 
BE OUR GUEST DINNER

Finally it was time for dinner at Be Our Guest!! Like I said, we had a tough time getting this one but in the end, it was so worth it. Two of my girlfriends came on a trip together about 3 years ago and didn't do too much planning so they couldn't get a BOG reservation. Justin and I were the only ones who had eaten at BOG before.

We checked in just before 8:45 and waited on the bridge for less than 5 minutes before our table was ready.

This is my absolute favorite part on the way in!

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We were seated in the main dining room.

Our server brought us a basket of rolls w/ a special basket of GF rolls for our GF friend. Along with those came a few pads of butter with sea salt. Yummmmmm. I swear that is one of the best parts of the meal sometimes. Butter with the fancy salt! I definitely ate two. Hey gotta carb up for a race, right!? ;)

I was really tempted to order a drink. A wasn't running the next day so she ordered a wine flight and really enjoyed it. I think they were all 3 lighter wines, I know one was pink, maybe a rose.

Justin and I tried the French Onion Soup once before at lunch, so we decided to order it and share it. BOG makes their onion soup with a vegetable based broth rather than beef, so it is vegetarian friendly! It is so delicious. I don't order French Onion soup too often but I really enjoy it here. The cheese on top is gruyere I believe, and it's amazing!

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For our meals, I didn't want anything too creamy or heavy since I knew I'd be running the next day. I have ordered the pork chop dish and the scallop & shrimp dish in the past, prior to both of those changing. I was in the mood for red meat, so I decided to go with the steak.

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Grilled Strip Steak with herb butter and pommes frites, $35

This also came with a veggie medley of mostly green beans, plus a few pieces of onion and carrot. The mayo-esque stuff on the side is basically just a garlic mayo.


Justin decided to go with the braised beef entree.

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They used to have a braised pork on the menu, but it seems to have been replaced with the braised beef!


  • Braised Beef - served with Seasonal Vegetables, Baby Potatoes, Balsamic Caramelized Onions, and crispy Potato Curls - $32.00 (The veggie here was asparagus)

Our friends also ordered:

Strip Steak (Gluten Free)

Braised Beef

Pork Chop - served with Carrot-Ginger Purée, Cauliflower Au Gratin, and crispy Pancetta - $28.00



    • Pan-seared Chicken Breast - finished with fresh Herb-Truffle Butter and Spinach Cream Sauce, Seasonal Vegetables, and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes - $26.00


Thoughts on the food!
Steak: I thought my steak was great. The Gluten Free option was the exact same as mine, except it came with roasted fingerling potatoes instead of the fries. Heck, I wish I could have had the fingerling potatoes with my meal! I like fries but if I'm gonna waste the calories on them I'd rather have a fresh cut fry, not something out of a freezer bag, which is what these seemed to be. The fries went uneaten and Justin finished them for me. I ordered my steak medium well, because after an experience with a too-rare steak at Le Cellier, I'm nervous and would rather have it slightly overcooked than undercooked. This was a perfect medium, so I was happy about that. I love a good butter on top of steak, so I really liked the herb butter here. I ended up eating the whole thing! My veggies were okay, it was a mixture of green beans and carrots, a little onion and bell pepper in there too. They were pretty flavorless and nothing special. Overall, I think this is a good 1 TS steak but we have had better at signature restaurants. I wish this dish was done a little differently, maybe with some fingerling potatoes and a different, less-plain veggie.

Braised Beef: This went over really well with Justin and D. Justin loves asparagus so he was happy that it was the seasonal vegetable featured that day. I thought it was delicious as well, the beef shredded apart perfectly and there was no knife required. The potatoes were little marble baby potatoes. I definitely would go back and order this again. At $32 I think it is slightly more expensive than the braised beef was (I think it was $25ish) so there is a difference there. Justin is becoming less and less picky about his vegetables and enjoyed the sauce an the way this all went together.

Pork Chop: Previously, the pork chop used to come with a macaroni au gratin and a seasonal veggie, which I think was green beans when I had it. I absolutely loved this dish in its previous life, and C loved it as well. She raved about it, and said she was surprised that she liked the cauliflower mash so much. The pork chop was served over top of the carrot-ginger puree, and the cauliflower mash was served in a little crock. She said it tasted just like mashed potatoes!

Chicken: I am always hesitant to order chicken at a restaurant because I feel like we eat chicken at least 2 times a week at home. We definitely do! But, I thought this dish sounded excellent, and I would've ordered it had I not wanted steak. Truffle butter, spinach cream sauce, roasted fingerling potatoes.. all sounds great to me. B really liked this and practically licked his plate clean.


So on to dessert..

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(You can see the wine flight's empty glasses here! It's served in a cute little carrier)

We all ordered the Grey Stuff! Justin and I decided to share. So BOG used to serve the Grey Stuff as a cookie. We must have caught them in between the switch, because now it looks different. That night, they only had the cupcakes served at lunch, so we all got those.

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YUM! These are so good, yet I always forget how small they are. We both wished we'd ordered our own!

We checked out the other rooms and D took this awesome picture of the rose.

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Overall, BOG was a great meal, food-wise. They did offer a 10% discount for Annual Passholders!

We enjoyed our meal but afterwards Justin mentioned that it wasn't that great. Maybe we'd rather just spend the little bit more to have a signature meal? I'm not sure. I liked it but it wasn't the best meal we've had on property, nor would I expect it to be. But for theme park food, it's pretty good.

The service that night was a little slow. Our server was friendly, and this was my first experience as a party of 6 or more, with the 18% gratuity added automatically. Our service was great up until we got our meals, then we didn't see our server until about 20 minutes after we'd finished eating. We were really wanting to order dessert, or we would have just grabbed the check when she finally came back around. She told us "sorry, I got sidetracked talking in the back!" I mean at least she owned up to it, lol. We are always 18-20% tippers anyways, but it's kind of annoying when it's just added on my default and you don't even have a choice when the service is lacking.

We enjoyed our meal but ran out of there as fast as we could, it was nearing 10 PM and we had a race to run the next morning! By the time we got out of the restaurant and to the front of the park, the monorail and boat lines were packed since the park was also closing. We walked to the Contemporary and then monorailed over to the TTC. We ended up walking to our car since the lines for the tram were insane! We were actually right near a family who was walking back to their car and encountered a little girl walking around crying, lost from her family. The dad walked back to the TTC and found a police officer while his family stayed with the little girl. Turns out we were walking towards the family as well. The girl's mom and older sister saw her from a distance and yelled her name and started running towards her. Ugh talk about a tear jerker at 10:30 PM. I was crying too! I was so glad they found her, and it was really nice of that family to wait with her while the dad found a police officer.

We were finally back to SSR by 11 PM and I was asleep by 11:45 for our early 2:45 wake up call!
 

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