We Really Should Have Listened to Miss Piggy: Deluxe Dining January 2009

[catne]

We really should have followed Miss Piggy's advice...

O.K., to explain this title: my dining review from September 2008 Free Dining on the regular plan was titled “Never Eat More than You Can Lift…Miss Piggy” We really should have listened to her for this time, too, she’s one smart pig!

We’ve always said the regular dining plan is plenty of food, and no way could we do the Deluxe, but this time, we were just going to be at WDW for two days on a very laid back Disney trip. Since it’s just DH & I, we splurged and booked the Contemporary with a Tower room, Magic Kingdom view. We would just do the two monorail resorts – one day at Epcot & one day at Magic Kingdom.

Since we were just at WDW in September, we had very few “must-do’s” at the parks, so mainly just planned to wander & enjoy the scenery, as well as try out some different restaurants at the monorail parks & restaurants. So then we thought – hey, this is a perfect opportunity to test our theory about the dining plans. So we upgraded the regular dining plan to the Deluxe. We figured two days worth of the deluxe would be manageable, right?

Well, 6 table service meals later…whew! Were we stuffed. Sorry, Miss Piggy…we definitely ate more than we could lift, lol. And we actually spread the meals out over 3 days…we had lunch & dinner on Tuesday, breakfast, lunch & dinner on Wednesday, and then breakfast on Thursday (the day we checked out.) We were so full, we actually did not eat a single Dining plan snack while we were there!

I booked all different restaurants for us this trip, and will be posting short reviews & pics of 6 meals…

Lunch at the Coral Reef - Review done, Post #4
Dinner at Le Chefs de France - Review done, Post #6
Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s Review done, Post #14
Lunch at the Plaza Review done, post #17
Snacks on the DxDDP & Contemporary Club room snacks Review done, post #20
Dinner at the Grand Floridian Café Review Done, post #21
Breakfast at the Kona Cafe REview Done, post #27

 

[danalee]

so much food so little time, I love it!

 

[catne]

so much food so little time, I love it!

yeah, you can see where our priorities were this time...and it's just as well the main point of this trip was to try restaurants cuz it was so darned cold we wanted to stay inside most of the time anyway!

Only bad part was it was so cold I wasn't tempted to get my usual supply of frozen adult beverages! Well, actually I did have a few adult bevs, just not the frozen ones so much

 

[catne]

We checked in a little early for our 12:10 reservation and we were seated within 15 minutes. Not too many people waiting with us. Place was relatively full, not too loud. I was surprised how small the actual restaurant is – that must be one of the reasons it’s so difficult to get seating. We were seated on the 2nd to the top tier, so view of the fish tanks was somewhat far away, but no big deal. (Didn’t see any obnoxious kids pushing by people seated at the tank-side tables. Course the number of kids in the parks was fairly low, too.) Service was excellent. We really enjoyed this meal – our favorite of this trip. As usual, we ordered different dishes & shared tastes…
We started with the delicious bread and dipping oil – this was very good:

DH had the lobster bisque for his appy…I had the grilled surf & turf. Both of these were good, but the lobster bisque was by far the better of the two.
Lobster Bisque

Grilled surf & turf - sorry the pic cuts off the steak/polenta on the right

I chose the pan-seared tilapia – this was outstanding - whatever they brush on the fish or maybe it's the oil in the pan - that glazing on the fish is soooo good. I wanted more! The salad it was on was o.k., no biggie…but the fish itself was so very good.

DH had the mahi mahi, served over jasmine rice. He loved his fish too - ate every bit & just about licked the bowl

For dessert, DH chose the Bailey’s and Jack Daniels Mousse…fabulous dessert

My choice was the crème brulee with biscotti and berries: perfectly crunchy on top & creamy below.

Service was excellent…we’d return in a flash. Cost had we paid cash would have been $104.09. On a scale of 1-10 we’d give it a 10.

O.K., that's all for today, will have more tomorrow!

 

[DWFan4Life]

Wow, that food looks yummy. It looks you had a great time. I'll better check it in our next trip.

Have a nice day everyone.

 

[catne]

It was so cold at Epcot on Tuesday 1/21…the wind just channeled between buildings in Future World which made it seem even colder than the 45 F. it really was. We thought it would be better over in the World showcase…NOT! This time we were getting “lake effect” with the wind and it felt even colder walking around the World. There would be no frozen beverages from Morocco or France for us: just the thought of drinking slushies made us shiver even more. Yet there were people having Grey Goose & Grand Marnier slushies...such brave souls! We did go see the movies in Canada, China & France this time...haven't seen any of them in years. With the rotten temperatures, we really enjoyed the inside attractions this time! And the park was so empty in World Showcase it was fun to see all the details on buildings & gardens...usually there's so many people around you can't see much because you're trying not to run into people. But it was so cold, we didn't pause to savor it very often. The only good part about the cold & all the walking we did was all that shivering helped us regain our appetite for dinner after getting stuffed at Coral Reef.

They had heaters going in the outside waiting area at Le Chefs de France which was wonderful. There seemed to be a big crowd waiting but we were seated in less than 5 minutes for our 6:00 P.M. seating.

We started out with drink orders. Even though it was warm in the restaurant, I couldn’t bring myself to order anything really cold, so I went for the Le Chefs de France wine cocktail – sorry, I lost my notes on exactly what was in it but it was some sort of sparkling wine and a fruity liqueur. Very good. DH had the Kronenburg beer…he enjoyed it.

The waiter served us each a French roll…these were very crispy on the outside, like a miniature French bread. But like a good French bread they were soft and chewy inside. We liked them, but did not finish the rolls because we wanted to have room for our dinner!
O.K., I’m going to be horribly rude American here & skip the French titles for our dishes. Actually, not really rude but just lazy. I can type the English version quicker! So for appetizers, I chose the French onion soup…figured a French restaurant would know how to do that well. They did. This was by far the best French onion soup I’ve ever had. Wish I had paid attention to what kind of cheese was on this, too because it was outstanding.

DH had the mushroom cheese tart…the picture is a bit misleading. The tart was actually as big as a full-sized dinner plate, looked kind of like a pizza. But the crust was very light & airy – more like a pie pastry than a pizza crust. It was delicious. We finished every bite of both my soup & his mushroom tart.

For entrée, DH had the short ribs with noodles. He enjoyed this dish – not the best ribs (he’d prefer American style with BBQ sauce, of course) but he finished every bit.:

I had the rotisserie ½ chicken with basil tomato and mashed potato (isn’t that a fancy way to do a scoop of mash?) This was very tasty, but not exceptional. So there was no way I would finish it and not have room for dessert. I figured the French are usually very good with dessert, so was saving room!

And, they are! Since we had not used our DDP-beverage yet, we had coffee with our desserts. DH had the apple/cinnamon crepe with some vanilla ice cream & a caramel sauce…he scarfed it down so fast there’s no way I could get a bite. Obviously, he enjoyed it immensely.

I had the “croustillant feuillantine,douceur au chocolat, glace noix de coco, tartare de banane”…just had to do one French description. What it was – a chocolate mousse with chunks of “cake” – more like a crispy wafer cookie…also had the rum-soaked bananas in it. And the scoop of ice cream was homemade coconut, not too sweet so perfect to offset the extreme richness/sweetness of the chocolate mousse.

We did serious justice to both these desserts. Really, the French DO know how to make a fine dessert. Service was excellent. The place was very busy (no empty table while we were there.) Although tables were fairly close together, it was not as noisy as I would expect. We’d give it an overall 9 out of 10 (But the drinks, appetizers & desserts were all +10, though. The entrees were just not spectacular. Good, but more like an 8 out of 10.) We could easily have made a meal with the mushroom tart, soup and desserts. In fact, if we ever go back, we might do just that...it would be perfect if they'd let us order the mushroom tart & the fr. onion soup as entrees. And we would have been comfortably full instead of OMG-full.

Since we were on the DxDDP, the coffee, apps, entrees, dessert & tax were included so the net cost of $88 for the two of us was covered. (Beer was $5.95, Cocktail des Chefs was $9.75)
Running tab on costs covered by the DxDDP:
$192.09 for two meals (outrageous, ain’t it, lol.)

 

[natalielongstaff]

Love the look of that mousse

 

[catne]

Love the look of that mousse

it really was very yummy -- that dark layer on top was like a chocolate bar, softened...I getting hungry just remembering it. And if you like coconut, the ice cream was superb...like fresh coconut, but creamy & frozen - and not sickly sweet like some coconut desserts are.

Oh, darn, ya really got me remembering it! And...now back to my diet!

 

[TigerKat]

I'm in!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Ooh yummy yummy yummy I'm in!

 

[skellingtonfreak]

I loved that French onion soup when I had it last time. It as by far the highlight of my meal there. The cheese is gueryere...try it in an omelet with ham...holy cow it is amazing.

Can't wait for the rest!

 

[catne]

I loved that French onion soup when I had it last time. It as by far the highlight of my meal there. The cheese is gueryere...try it in an omelet with ham...holy cow it is amazing.

Can't wait for the rest!

Thank YOU! I like to make french onion soup myself (though it's nowhere near as tasty as Le Chefs.) I usually use a good deli swiss cheese on top, which is good, but not close to the flavor as Le Chefs. Now I know what to look for.

 

[adsrtw]

Oh I gotta jump in! Great reviews so far.

 

[catne]

Breakfast on Wednesday, Magic Kingdom day

O.K., we really debated this one…two 50-something adults at Chef Mickey’s for breakfast – no children! I was severely tempted to go to over to The Grand Floridian for a table service breakfast but we were staying at The Contemporary and spending the day at the Magic Kingdom: you really could not beat the convenience factor of eating right in our hotel, then hiking over to the MK with no transportation hassles. I know we could have used a DxDDP credit at the new counter service there, or gone to The Wave, but we were trying to max out the number of new table service restaurants we could try in our 2-day get-away. We've been to The Wave for dinner, and we were going to the GF Cafe for dinner that night !

And then, DH really, really, really loves biscuits and gravy (don’t know where it came from – he wasn’t raised that way !) Anyway, when he heard CM has biscuits and gravy, that was all she wrote…

So we got there for a 7:30 reservation (our choice – we’re early risers) and had, at most, a 5 minute wait. We skipped the photo op with the giant plate…looks cute for a family photo, I guess, but I sure wouldn’t pay extra for it, and anyway, DH just wanted him a big ol' plate O’biscuits & gravy, stat.

Our server promptly brought coffee, juice and ice water, and we went off to fill our plates. DH went straight to the biscuits & gravy, filled a plate, and commenced eating. He’s usually quite good about waiting for crazy wife’s penchant for turning every meal into a photo shoot…but not when it’s biscuits and gravy: he was quite the rebel this time . He was half done by the time I sat down with my first plate. So, no pictures of his biscuits and gravy. Suffice to say, lots of biscuits, lots of gravy. Big ol' mess o’gooey breakfast. And he loved every bit of it .

I was a little pickier, so here’s my first plate:

Starting on the right, that’s the famous Mickey waffle, then a couple of sausage links, my own biscuit and gravy (yes, just ONE biscuit, DH!), then some bacon, a bit of scrambled eggs, some cheddar breakfast potatoes and a slice of breakfast pizza. I thoroughly enjoyed all of this, but my favorites were definitely the breakfast pizza and the Mickey waffle. The breakfast pizza was great, although I really couldn't tell you exactly what was on it besides cheese...maybe eggs & canadian bacon? . Oh well, it was good, and fresh. I have seen complaints about the waffles being hard & dried out: not this one. It tasted like it had just come off the waffle iron, just the right "crispy" on the outside, but soft on the inside. And they seem to be made with an unbleached wheat-flour batter? "Healthier" version I guess, but not really, since I slathered it with whipped butter & a 1/2 cup of syrup. Everything on this plate was fresh, hot and tasty (even the biscuit & gravy. Although one was enough for me.)

Here’s my second plate:

Top right, that’s a cinnamon roll, below that is blueberry yogurt, then strawberry-bananas, and a variety of melons. Oh, my this was all very good. The yogurt as really loaded with lots of blueberries – not just “top dressed”; the bananas had actual strawberries in, not just strawberry syrup like a lot of buffets do. The melon all tasted very fresh - and it tasted like different kinds of melon. It’s obvious they do not prepare the melon way in advance and mix it (which I don’t care for – what’s the point of having different kinds of melon if it’s stored in the same bowl long enough for the flavors to all meld into one generic “melony” taste? If they're going to do that, well heck, put it in a blender, add some rum & a little umbrella!) You can also kind of see DH's 2nd plate of biscuits & gravy in the background. Smaller helping, 2nd go round, and added a bit of bacon this time

Anyway, DH liked the look of my fruit plate enough to actually forego a third plate of biscuits & gravy. And he went to get some fruit for himself – he got the blueberry yogurt and the strawberry-bananas. Kind of like dessert for his main meal of biscuits and gravy.

While we were there, all the characters stopped by our table, and either shook hands or hi-fived us. I’ve seen reviews where adults have said they were ignored by characters…didn’t happen for us (although we really didn't care whether or not the characters showed up.) I did see them stop long enough for pictures at adults-only tables when the adults obviously wanted photos (there were some other adult-only tables besides us, I was relieved to see! Although I would say it was maybe one table out of ten with no children.) They did the Mickey song & the napkin-waving thing while we were there…while it was noisy, it wasn’t outrageously loud, and only lasted a couple of minutes. No one objects to people continuing to eat or getting up to get more food while it’s going on, so no big deal. The tables were all kept full (they really bus tables & clean up carpet fast in that place.) While we only waited a few minutes to be seated, by the time we left around 8:30 or so, there was a huge crowd waiting to be seated. The place is still very, very popular.

The food was better than expected, and so was the whole experience. The buffet was kept full the whole time we were there, I saw no evidence of grimy little kids pawing all the food (actually, a lot of it is set up so kids and small adults cannot even reach the food!) Our waitress was attentive with drink refills, and all the help & characters were friendly. On the food, I’d give it a 9 out of 10 (mainly because I would have liked a second egg choice, and some additional pastry choices.)

Anyway, would we go back? Probably not…for one table service credit we’d probably prefer a menu breakfast in a more adult-oriented location next time (even if DH has to forego the biscuits & gravy experience.) Unless we had kids with us or people who really were looking for the character experience.

Cost was 1 table service credit for each of us…cash would have been $48.97.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Thank you Catne! DH wanted to try CM for breakfast when we go next month, since it is one breakfast buffet he has not tried yet...sounds like we are in for a treat!!

 

[Ciciwoowoo]

Oh yum! Look forward to reading more!

 

[catne]

Magic Kingdom day...
Our reservations were for 12:40, but we had such a great morning at the MK (no crowds, no way! Here’s Fantasyland at 10:00 that day –

So any way, we blasted through all the attractions we wanted to do and we were getting hungry (and COLD! It was below 30 F. when we arrived at MK at 9:00 a.m. that day) So we went over to the Plaza and checked in right about noon. Was only one other party waiting, and they were seated as we were talking to the check-in person. We were seated in about 2 minutes. Place was somewhat busy, but there were empty tables the whole time we were there…I’d say 4 out of 5 were taken. Beautiful little restaurant and we really liked the view:

Those tables outside would be a fun place to sit in warmer weather (and believe it or not, it was still barely 40 F. while we were having lunch & people were sitting out there eating ice cream! BRRRRRH!)

So, with the DxDDP, we got appies, and being cold, we went for the soup. DH had the veggie chili on the left. He like it, too spicy for me (I’m a wimp about those kinds of foods,though. It probably wasn’t all that spicy.) I had the tomato bisque on the right. Loved, loved, loved this soup…and I don’t even like tomato soup, usually. This was more creamy tomato than regular tomato. And we loved the warm!

For entrée, DH had the reuben. Tons of meat on this, but I think he would have liked more kraut/sauce etc. But he liked all that meat., and bread was tasty. Said the fries were good, but didn’t finish them or the bread…saving room for dessert, of course.

I went for the cheesesteak sandwich and the homemade chips. Dee-lish. I think my sandwich was much, much better than DH's – bun was wonderful, steak with all that ooey-gooey cheese was fab. Liked the chips (I even dipped them in my soup for kind of a tomatoey dip.)

But, like DH, didn’t finish all this to save room for dessert. We’d heard good things about the ice cream at the Plaza, and even though it was a cold morning, we had been in the restaurant long enough to warm up. And Coffee helped, too! So, DH went for the Brownie Sundae. Which was very large, very rich, and try as he might, no way could he finish it. Said it was great, but thought the marshmallows were over-the-top-way-too-much sweetness…

In the interest of trying different foods, I had the banana split…wonderful! Love the Mickey sprinkles! The ice cream at the Plaza is very, very good…definitely premium-quality stuff. They’re lavish with the toppings on the sundaes. Again, too much for me…gave it my all and ate probably ½ of this. Yummy!

Service was excellent…décor is nice, and view is beautiful (Cinderella’s castle and all the flowers/gardens around the hub). Would give this place a 9 out of 10 on the food (reuben was good, but not outstanding.)
Would we go back – sure, once we’ve finished our pilgrimage to all the Disney restaurants! Cost was one table service each on the Dining plan. Cash cost would have been $49.87.

 

[TigerKat]

We fell in love with The Plaza on our last trip, thanks for bringing back some wonderful memories!

 

[momofdbsdc]

Yummy! Everything looks so good! I am in!

Thanks,
Kim
momofdbsdca

 

[catne]

Wednesday – finally buy some snacks!

Well, we finished the MK shortly after lunch…did a little shopping on Main Street. So far, we were on our 2nd day of the DxDDP and had not used a single snack credit yet! We were leaving the next morning after breakfast, and still had a dinner & a breakfast yet. And, we had received a free upgrade to the concierge level at the Contemporary (oh, boy!) so if we did happen to get hungry outside of the lovely meals, well there was an abundance of freebies in that club level lounge. I was pretty sure we would not use any of the 8 snack credits we had in the park or anything.

But we would be in Florida for about 2 more days after leaving WDW, then on the road for a couple, so we decided to get some things to take with us. I know folks love getting the Mickey-krispies heads dipped in chocolate, or going to Goofy’s Candy Co for fancy pretzels covered in goo, but we were so stuffed with good food, we really didn’t want to get pure sugar bombs to take with. We decided for sure to use some of our credit to get yogurt back at the hotel store (I know, boring, but we like yogurt.) But even if we got 4 yogurts for the road, we still would have 4 snack credits. When we returned to our hotel, we did stop by the new counter service place at the Contemporary and bought 4 yogurts (just the prepackaged yogurt/fruit combos...CM did explain that you could not use the snack credits for the yogurt parfaits...don't know why, it's not like the yogurt parfaits are humongous or ultra fancy or anything. Well, we didn't really care, anyhow, because we wanted regular yogurt. Just passing that tidbit on...no parfaits on the snack credits. Which actually, I think it was that way in September too...you could get the parfait as a dessert on a meal credit, but not as a snack. Even though you could get other desserts like cake for either a dessert on the meal credit or as a snack credit. I will agree the Dining Plan does not always make sense!)

So as we left MK that day, we stopped by the Main Street bakery to use some of those surplus snack credits. I learned my lesson on previous trips to bring giant zip-lock bag to store pastries…they come in nice to-go containers so they don’t get crushed, but those are not air-tight, and fresh pastries go stale fast if exposed to air. Anyway, after very little debate, we bought a cherry turnover, an apple turnover, a giant double-chocolate/chocolate chip muffin and an interesting concoction that looked like a cross between an apple fritter & an apple muffin. When husband ate it later (he’s the apple fiend in the family) I asked was it a fritter or was it a muffin…he replied “yes”. (And yes, he does think he’s really, really funny. What can I say, after nearly 34 years of marriage, I guess I'm used to it.)

Who knows what it really was…but it had apples in it, and it was very good, according to him. Sorry I didn’t get pictures, but the pastries were all delicious. I’ve heard reports that all the pastries have been down-sized…we got the choc. Muffin and the apple turnover in September 2008, and I think maybe they were a little smaller…but not by much. Still larger than most grocery store bakeries serve, and definitely still a large serving. By the way, there has also been some talk that those giant gourmet cinnamon rolls from Main Street Bakery are no longer allowed as a snack on the Dining Plan…but when I asked which pastries were covered as snacks on the dining plan the counter CM waved her hand over the whole case in front of her, and said “anything” in the bakery display was one snack credit, including the cinnamon rolls. They did not look smaller to me (had one of those in September, too.)

Anyway, enough on the snacks…after a break in our room at the Contemporary, trying to use that “high speed” internet. Sorry, OT, but those internet connections are NOT high-speed by any stretch of the imagination. O.K. to check email if you have lots of time, but don’t try to work on them! So after getting really frustrated with the internet connections, we gave up and did some shopping & exploring around the hotel (too cold to explore outside! Would have liked to wander more, but wind was way too brisk off the water that day.)

We did wander into the Contemporary Club room to see what’s offered in the afternoon…quite the spread. I can see why people who normally stay concierge level often say it’s not worth it to get the Dining Plan…look at all the food & beverages:

Cookies, pastries, tea chest, hot cocoa mix & lots of coffee-flavoring syrups

Coffee, hot water, espresso machine

Iced tea, variety of sodas, Perrier water, ice

fresh fruit assortment, and more cookies/munchies. There was also a jug of gold-fish crackers, and a basket of PB&J uncrustables was always in there, too.

In the morning, there were cereals, pastries, and fruit (as well as the beverages) In the late afternoon, some hot appetisers joined the snack array as well as beer and wine on the beverage offering (though the alcohol was set over against another wall on a higher counter within view of the concierge desk at all times to keep kids from helping themselves.) In the evening there were a number of cordials to choose from, including Bailey’s Irish Cream and Grand Marnier…ooh boy, that was some fine evening night-caps. One night we had Bailey's in de-caf coffee with lots of extra cream...like drinking a dessert. And the other night, I went for the Grand Marnier, since I had not braved a frozen one in France/Epcot when it was 42 F. out! I put a splash (large splash, actually on the rocks, and topped the glass off with Sprite. Was a wonderful drink to watch the fireworks by!

We were really too full throughout our time to really take advantage of the food offerings, except to split a nibble here & there. Everything we tried was fresh & tasty. It was very nice to have fresh fruit available all the time, and to have coffee (both decaf & reg) available all the time, too, especially since we were there on record-breaking cold days.