We're back, 5% heavier! 7 days of free dining-8/19-8/26.

[mickeyplanner08]

OK, so here goes. I'm going to try to do a quick review since they were my favorite thing to read before our trip.

We were on the basic dining plan from 8/19-8/26. 2 adults, 2 Disney kids. We went last year in September, and overall it was busier but more relaxed the second time around.

There won't be many pictures, sorry to say! I tried, and failed

We are not gourmet by any means. We had 7 days and 5 buffets....

Overall, my 7 year old won the "Biggest Fatty" contest and gained the most weight over the trip-he was up 3 pounds or 6%. I came in second at 5%, my husband gained 4% and our 8 year old only gained 1/2%

So, here's the lineup:
Wednesday, August 19-arrival-Biergarten
Thursday, August 20-Animal Kingdom-Restraurantosaurus & Boma
Friday, August 21-Epcot-Sunshine Seasons & Ohana
Saturday, August 22-Magic Kingdom-Pecos Bills & Crystal Palace
Sunday, August 23-Epcot-Wolfgang Pucks Express (DTD) & Whispering Canyon Cafe
Monday, August 24-Magic Kingdom-Starlight Rays & 1900 Park Fare
Tuesday, August 25-Hollywood Studios-Rosie's/Starring Rolls & Mama Melrose
Wednesday, August 26-Hollywood Studios-Rosies/Starring Rolls & HOME

OK, so let's get started!

 

[kimnvbva]

How was 1900 Park Fare? We have ressies for dinner and I am hoping it will be good. How was the character interaction? Any info would be great!

 

[mickeyplanner08]

So, here we go. We arrived Detroit to Orlando and touched down at 2:45 or so.

(Note to self for future trips....do not ask husband who works 3rd shift to stay awake after work, ride 2.5 hours to airport, fly 2.5 hours to Orlando, ride 45 minutes on Magical Express, stand in line to check in, then stand in line for bus to Epcot, then run to Germany in order to make 5:30 ADR; and still expect him to be in a good mood )

Anyway, the food and entertainment at Biergarten was good. My picky eaters found something to eat. The standouts were the chicken and the potato leek soup. That soup was very yummy, but the pretzel bread we dipped into it was even yummier! There was large amounts of sausage consumed by my very tired husband. Diet Coke was plentiful-refills were fairly speedy, especially early in the meal. It took FOREVER to get our bill and get out of there.

Here is one of only a couple of pictures you will find in this review:

There's some pretzel bread, potato leek soup, some kind of potato ball which was very boring, tomato salad that was very yummy, a little piece of chicken and some cucumber salad that no one really cared for.

I tried the spaetzle...what is that stuff? Very boring and unexciting in my mouth.

Total was $97.94- 2A/2C credits.
Tip was $18, I believe. I put $20 into envelopes prior to leaving for our trip. I put a $10, a $5 and 5-$1 into each envelope and just grabbed one out of the safe each morning before we headed out. Each meal's tip was listed at the 18% and 20% level and I just kinda chose a round number in the middle to leave. Not very scientific, but it worked.

Overall we would give Biergarten a 7/10.

 

[mickeyplanner08]

Animal Kingdom

We made it through Expedition Everest and survived. The kids favorite ride was Primeval Whirl, so we ended up in Dinoland for lunch.

We hit Restaurantosaurus, and the air conditioning was heavenly.
We had 2 kids hamburgers with fries and cookies.
Husband had bacon double cheeseburger, carrot cake and Diet Coke and I tried the Mandarin Chicken salad, chocolate cake and Diet Coke. Total was $41.24

Overall good. The air conditioning was the best thing about this location.
Nothing exciting. Chicken salad was a nice change of pace from other counter service choices. Too many water chestnuts for my likings, but there was lots of chicken and the dressing was good.

We liked the air conditioning so much we stopped back in later and brought in an ice cream cookie sandwich and hot fudge sundae from the stand right outside.

Dinner was at Boma. Quick ride from Animal Kingdom. Seated within 5 minutes of getting a pager-about 5 minutes prior to ADR time.
Overall, this was also very good. We are not adventurous eaters, but no one went home hungry. My husband did not care for Potatoes with Afritude. I thought they were OK. I liked the couscous Makarresh. The meat from the carving station was good. We LOVED the potato bacon soup. There were many, many bowls of that eaten. The seafood gumbo-not a favorite. My husband also had a chicken soup that I can't remember the name of, but it was just OK. The fruit was delicious and fresh. Again, there was a good roasted chicken.

The deserts were very good. We enjoyed the zebra domes, but they were not to die for.....The presentations was cool. So fun to see the trays full of deliciousness coming out. Total was $91.55-2A/2C credits.

Overall, we'd probably give Boma a 6.5/10. We liked Biergarten better, and Boma would not be on a must do list for us.

 

[mickeyplanner08]

Day 3 was back to Epcot. The kids learned about Kim Possible missions and highly recommend them. It was super busy, and it was HOT!

Off to Sunshine Seasons for lunch. We did better than last year. My husband had the 1/2 chicken, and I had the pork chop. They were both very good, and we were full. The kids had the chicken leg and mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were excellent-a recurring theme this trip. For desert, my husband enjoyed the key lime pie, and I had the strawberry shortcake-it was OK...it did not wow me, but it was good. Total would have been $45.29.

Dinner was at Ohana. Husband was soooooo excited, and we were joined by one of his high school friends who lives in Winter Haven. We were all very, very happy by the time we were done. The salad was good. The pork dumplings were a little bland. The chicken wings were very, very good. We ended up with 2nds of everything, including broccoli and pea pods. It took a while to get to the meat, but eventually we got to that, too. The husbands were all about the steak. The pork was very dry, and no one got more of that. The shrimp were large, and the second time around, nice and hot. The first set had been off the fire for a little too long. The bread pudding was not quite as good as I remembered, but it was not as warm and gooey, so everything didn't melt into quite as much heavenly sloppiness. The husbands then requested steak for desert, and they got it....silly boys! The kids split one plate of chicken nuggets and fries and ate a few of the regular offerings. Total here was around $95, I think. I totally confused the waitress by giving her cash for our tip and our friends'. It took forever to check out, and I think that was part of the problem. We had a 8:10 ADR and we were still there when Wishes finished up at 10:25 or so.

Husband gives Ohana a 9.9 out of 10. I'd probably say 8.5. This remains a must do for us-if husband got his way, we'd do it twice!

 

[mickeyplanner08]

How was 1900 Park Fare? We have ressies for dinner and I am hoping it will be good. How was the character interaction? Any info would be great!

I'll get there, but we really enjoyed it!

 

[KatMark]

Great reviews. Can't wait for more.

 

[mickeyplanner08]

On to the Magic Kingdom, finally!

No trip to the Magic Kingdom would be complete without a trip to Pecos Bills. My husband would choose to eat there every counter service, if I'd let him. Loves that topping bar. We had 2 bacon double cheeseburgers with fries, 2 large Diet Cokes, 2 carrot cakes. The kids had 2 kids burgers with fries, carrots, grapes, and 2 cookies. The burgers were good, even better with the toppings. DH had lots of onions. I added a tomato and the kids ate their weight in pickles. I love having the cheese sauce to dip my fries in, too. Everything was good. The cookies don't travel well in a backpack, and one never got eaten. DD really wanted ranch for her carrots, but I couldn't find any, and wasn't going back up to ask for some. Total was $40.82.

Supper was at Crystal Palace. All in all this is another very good buffet. Lots of choices and if you can't find anything to eat, you are way too picky. I think DS only ate dinner rolls and some more roasted chicken that we forced him to consume. The rest of us made up for that. I tried the romaine and bleu cheese salad-a little too bleu for me. The mixed greens were very fresh, and I enjoyed them with a vinaigrette dressing. The smashed potatoes were again YUMMY, and I think I had thirds. DD tried a piece of the cheese pizza and declared it "OK." The chicken was moist and very good. All the buffets are starting to blur together, but I think this was where I had a very good penne pasta, too. The characters were relatively quick to get around. We were told it would take about an hour, but we saw them all in 50 minutes or so, but we waited FOREVER to get our bill taken care of here, too. Pooh made it back around to our table. Our waitress was OK, but seemed busy. I think she had 5 tables. Drink refills were not super efficient, but we didn't sit empty for more than 5 minutes ever, either. We give this one a 7.5/10. Total would have been $104.33.

 

[mickeyplanner08]

On Sunday, we slept in. We were exhausted, and we all needed the breather. Did a couple loads of laundry, let the kids swim, and then headed over to DTD for a trip to Goofy's and WPE.

For lunch we hit WPE and it was yummy. DH had the Italian sausage and red peppers pizza. I had the Chinois salad. DD had the kids pepperoni pizza and DS had the cheese pizza. This was again our favorite CS meal. Everything is very fresh and delicious. The Chinois salad is very, very large. I couldn't finish it. It had a ton of chicken in it. The wontons were crispy and yummy. I had enough veggies when I had made it about 2/3 of the way through, so I picked out the rest of the chicken and called it good. DH and kids ate every bite of their pizzas, and they all thought they were great. We all had the frozen yogurt for desert. You can pick one topping. DD had vanilla with chocolate chip cookies. DS had plain chocolate. DH had vanilla with strawberry topping and I had plain twist. Yummy! Drink refills are brought to your table, and the staff went and got the yogurt for us. I did leave a tip here. Our total would have been $69.95 Won't eat here without the dining plan!

We stopped to pick up the pretzel rods I had created earlier at Goofy's and found out the hard way that they are no longer considered snack credits. GRRRRR! DH said he never would have paid for them, but I am kinda anti-confrontational, and I really wanted those bad boys. They were good, too...not sure if they were $4.80 good, but I decided to enjoy them anyway!

Dinner was at Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. OK, Animal Kingdom Lodge didn't do it for me, but Wilderness Lodge....I want to stay there!!!! We arrived about 10 minutes before our ADR time and were seated in 5 minutes. The only place we waited until after our ADR time all week was Crystal Palace. DH and I both ordered the skillet. DD joined us for a skillet and DS ordered a hamburger. They all started with a milkshake. Strawberry x2 and orange. I had a diet coke. Well, somewhere towards the end of milkshake number 1, DH started to feel sick. Not just a little sick, he was turning green just sitting at the table. Don't know what happened, but he really didn't eat anything after that point. I was happily munching on some delicious corn bread. I did manage to get a picture of the skillet.

I enjoyed the chicken, the ribs were OK. The brisket didn't really do anything for me. The pulled pork was pretty good. I didn't care for the beans-kinda crunchy. The corn had OK flavor, but was quite soggy. Oh, and of course, mashed potatoes...YUM! DS only ate about 1/2 his burger and he was complaining of feeling sick too. DD happily ate her kids skillet with ribs and enjoyed her tato's, too. Kids had fun doing pony races, and we got a few ketchups. DS thought he would try to carry 4 over to the next table and dropped one. Our waitress was very kind and gracious as she mopped it up. DH kept on feeling worse and worse, so I ordered deserts to go. I enjoyed the cheesecake later that night. DH never touched his apple pie. I tried a bite, and it wasn't nearly as delicious as it looked. The apples were very crunchy, and it was sickly sweet. Not nearly tart enough apples for my liking. Once again, it took FOREVER to get and pay our tab. Then we waited a few more minutes for our deserts which had been ordered 15 minutes prior to be dropped off at the table. They do package them up nicely for you. Anyway, DH gives this restaurant a 0 rating. I'd give it a 7/10, but I'm not sure we will ever eat there again unless we are staying at the Lodge.