Author's note: Thank you all so much for your very kind comments and good thoughts. My pain medication has started working so I'm feeling a lot better than I did even two days ago. I have my first physical therapy session tomorrow morning ... I have a feeling I'm gonna need those meds once I'm finished. 
Let me offer a warm welcome to the new posters and de-lurked lurkers and a warm thanks to everyone for putting up with me. You're all a wonderful bunch of food lovin' DISers. 
Friday, October 10th - We Might as well Enjoy a Last Meal before the Bottom Falls out of the Stock Market ... Again.
I've said it before and I'll say it again ... Jay and I just aren't big fans of buffets. Seems like most of them are long on quantity and short on quality. If we do hit up a buffet most likely it's for the morning meal - it takes a special kind of stupid to muck up scrambled eggs, snausage, and fruit. Im not saying that it can't be accomplished, but it requires a real dedication to failure the likes of which hasnt been seen since we invited Grimace to vacation with us at WDW in 2006.
Our original dining plans did not include Boma, but after reading so many great reviews and seeing so many drool-worthy pictures (a big thanks to MickeyNicki for finally pushing me over the edge!) I had no choice but to make an ADR; besides, I had a feeling that my lovey would really enjoy a buffet that offered some alternatives to the standard breakfast fare.
And so Friday morning rolled around and we got ourselves onto an Animal Kingdom bus with plenty of time to spare. We had to switch buses at the park and find ourselves a new bus to the lodge but luckily one was waiting for us when we got there.
Thank you great and glorious gods of air conditioned mass transportation!
We actually made it to Boma with about ten minutes to spare - just enough time to check in and visit the bathroom because that's what I did on this trip. I'm thinking of writing a completely separate review just about the complex and varied bathroom options that Disney offers its guests.
We were seated at a four-top table in the very back of the restaurant next to a window - it was a nice, peaceful little alcove, well out of the way of foot traffic, and very quiet. We had a really friendly young waiter whose name escapes me, but who would add some new gray hairs to the strands I already had before the meal was finished.
The first thing we did before scoping out our buffet options was to put in an order for some of that pressed pot Kenyan coffee along with water for me and Frunch for Jay. He likes weird juice combinations and I usually think they're disgusting - I did like the word 'frunch" though.
There were so many great words on this trip: Mofongo ... Frunch ... Wattleseed ...
Ahem.
Frunch, by the way, is a combination of lemonade, pineapple juice, guava juice, orange juice, and papaya juice. Here's a picture ...
Hmmmm, looks like Tang!
Deep, dark, caffeinated goodness...
By the time we returned from the buffet our coffee had arrived. It was good, but not quite as good as I thought it would be. I think I like the Kona pressed pot better.
The buffet itself is comprised of several small stations, or pods, as they like to call them at Boma. The chefs are nearby to answer questions, which I thought was pretty cool since there were some things being offered that I'd never heard of before. I really wanted to try to get some pictures of the buffet to post here but there were always people trying to serve themselves food whenever I whipped out my camera ... the nerve!
In addition to the standard breakfast buffet items you would expect (fresh fruit, pastries, dried cereal, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, waffles, and an omelet station) there were some interesting new things to consider and, in some cases, eat: bobotie, carved ham, carved corned beef, spicy breakfast 'taters, pap, quinoa, brioche, and some kind of egg-casserole type thingie.
Bendy's breakfast plate...
No surprises on my plate, but I did hit the pork trifecta! Homer Simpson would be so proud ... ham, sausage, bacon ... delectable meats from a magical animal.
Jason's plate o' plenty ...
Lemme see ... what's he got there? There's that egg casserole thingie, bobotie, spicy 'taters, another pork trifecta, and something unidentifiable. He also brought back a bowl of quinoa to which he'd added some cinnamon. Quinoa is a type of high-protein porridge - I tried some and it was actually pretty tasty. It reminded me of oatmeal but was less chunky, oatie, and mealie.
We shared even though we didn't have to
Glorious fresh fruit ... it tastes so good! I hate living in Missouri; by the time October rolls around the only produce we can get our hands on with any regularity are apples and bananas. Now and then rogue strawberries or melons make an appearance at the grocery store, but it's obvious that they're the dregs of the fruitworld and we know they'll taste like sour socks and yet we buy them anyway. It's a puzzlement.
The pastries - a miniature cinnamon roll and a chockie chip muffin were fresh and tasty; the mini croissant was dried out. Why oh why can't anyone provide a fresh croissant for a cranky crohn to enjoy with her breakfast???
Even though I was pleasantly stuffed after eating all this food, I went back to the buffet for some pap
anything called pap just begs to be eaten its right up there with orphan's choice gruel. I added some brown sugar and raisins to my pap - it reminded me of Cream of Wheat, only creamier and tastier.
Pappy!
Now, I must make a confession to everyone. In the spirit of continuing to try new stuff, I took a taste of Jay's frunch fully expecting to wrinkle my nose in distate while sticking out my tongue with a definitive "gack!" But it was actually very good - so good that I had to order my own glass in order to prevent myself from sucking down Jay's frunch.
It's true ... I actually liked Frunch!
While we were finishing up the remains of breakfast and trying to decide what to do with our day, we went ahead and gave our room charge and DDE card to our waiter. Imagine our horror when he reappeared a few moments later to tell me that the charge had been declined!
This was particularly horrifying to me because I had contacted our credit card companies before leaving Stinktown to let them know we were going to be taking a vacation and to expect charges from Florida. This isn't part of my normal pre-vacation routine, but considering the turmoil in the financial markets and concern over tightening credit availability I wanted to make sure that we could use our cards as planned - gotta get those rebates and points for the next trip! After being assured by said companies that we had no reason for concern, my blood pressure began a rapid ascent when our waiter informed us of our little problem.
I looked at Jay, whose disbelief must have mirrored my own, and sputtered, "I called them ... those wank..."
Jay reached for his wallet, "We'll just pay with cash and call..."
And then our waiter jumped in, "Gosh, I was just kidding around ... everything is fine. I didn't mean to freak you out; I'm really sorry."
Jay and I shared one of those relieved, shaky laughs that usually mean you just wet yourself and are awfully embarrassed about the subsequent mess and odor. Then I spoke to our waiter, "Dude ... never mess around about declined credit charges to a woman who works in finance. I think you just gave me more gray hair to cover up when I get home."
The waiter apologized repeatedly, perhaps having realized that scaring two middle aged dinks in the middle of a nationwide financial crisis was not the best way to ensure a generous tip.
Final assessment: Boma's breakfast buffet definitely lived up to the hype and we both recommend that anyone reading who enjoys buffet dining give it a try. There is a great mix of traditional, "safe" breakfast items mixed in with more adventurous selections. And that frunch is addictive - I think they put crack in the juice pitcher!
Jay paid the bill (for real this time) and we made our way upstairs to look for some coffee beans in the market for a friend of ours back home. As we were headed upstairs the opportunity presented itself for a few pictures...
Cast members playing drums...
Beery selections for later in the day...
And a couple of pictures from outside of the restaurant ... it's really quite large:
We discovered at the market that no one has coffee beans ... there were plenty of bags of ground coffee but no beans. We even asked a very nice gentleman working in the marketplace if he knew where we could find some and he was stumped, although he finally suggested Downtown Disney. Sadly, we already knew, just as there is no joy in Mudville that there were no beans in Disney's Hyper-Global-Mega-Shopping-Mart.
What gives with the woeful shortage of coffee beans? Beans are more fresh and they travel better ... who wants grounds when they can have beans? Oh wait, let me guess ... if I write Disney and ask that question they will respond by telling me that the decision was made after serious deliberation and massive guest feedback.
And that's the reason that I couldn't bring Kenyan coffee beans home from WDW as a gift for my friend Anila.
Jay and I wandered out to the bus stop, still unsure about how we wanted to spend the rest of our day. We finally decided that we'd let the bus decide for us. If a DTD bus showed up we'd head back to the resort and lounge at the pool all afternoon; if an Epcot bus showed up we'd take it and make our way over to Fantasia MiniGolf after some F&W snacking.
The bus that eventually decided for us: Downtown Disney. Watch out pool ... we're headed for a lazy afternoon of margarita drinking and lounge chair napping.
Here's a self portrait while we waited for transporation to show up:
Smile - you're credit worthy after all!!!
Thanks for reading ... next up: F&W Fest V.2 and another adventure in dining where everything eventually works out OK and Zweihund and her hubby share sushi with Jay and me at Tokyo Dining!
that will have to be scheduled for our next trip!
Really looking forward to all of it, but especially your review on Blue Zoo. We ate there for the 1st time this past trip & thought it was fabulous!
I can't wait till next year when I get to. Until then, I will just keep reading great reviews like yours and MickeyNicki's 
)
Definately NOT cool dude!!
This is one of our favorite places to dine at WDW. I am glad you and DH finally took the plunge. I would drink Fruunch all day long if they had it in one of those camel back pack-y things. And the sausage? OMG! Thanks for another great review. The waiter would have been missing a limb or two had he done that to us. What in the heck ever possessed him to do that? 
culinary tour of Jinko and Boma before they open thats alot of fun. It is first come first serve very small group nice. Oh buy the way did I mention its FREE
