When a Foodie and a Picky Eater invade Disney World A 9/5-9/10 Updated 9/29

[peteykirch]

So the titles sums it up;

My GF and I decided to splurge and take a last minute trip down to Disney World for a quick 5 night / 6 day stay.

We recently picked up Annual Passes and already had a trip scheduled for the week before Thanksgiving this November, but as it comes with an AP you get very tempted to make even more trips down to the World.

One late night in August I plug in random dates and end up finding a great deal at the Wilderness Lodge, for a rate that pretty much was less than rack rate at a Moderate. The WL is easily in my Top 2 of Disney resorts, and even under construction I couldn't even second guess it and we jumped head first into booking a room.

So here are the details;

I'm the foodie, I'm a Disney vet, while on the other hand my GF is the super picky eater and the total Disney novice. She's only spent about 3 hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios (MGM at that time) as her total Disney experience.

Since we have a trip planned in November, and this was a bit of a last minute thing we really didn't schedule many reservations and tended to just go with the flow.

I will tell you that we had meals at the following places;

Casey's Corner
Territory Lounge
Trail's End
The Wave
California Grill
Roaring Forks
Sunshine Seasons
Sci-Fi Dine In Theater
Mizner's Lounge
Flame Tree BBQ
Blaze Pizza

It's not an immense list, but there were some first time experiences for a Disney vet like myself (Trail's End, Flame Tree BBQ, and Mizner's Lounge).

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as we had experiencing everything while down at Disney World

 

[OasterP]

Fun line up! I look forward to reading it!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Signing up!

 

[peteykirch]

So, when we originally booked this trip; we had no intention on flying down to Orlando, and were going to make the long trek from NJ to FL....However that all changed when some late night web surfing found airplane tickets for 200 bucks round trip in total for both of us. Now, this opened up another challenge, how to get to the airport for our 5:45AM flight in a timely manner.

Luckily we were able to find an Uber to the airport 3:30 in the morning. I'll gladly pay someone 30 bucks to get us to the airport versus driving myself and paying over 150$ to leave my car there for the week. What we thought would be the most difficult challenge ended up being the easiest. Things got difficult when we finally got there, and the check in counter wasn't open until 4:15AM and the line was enormous. We already had boarding passes, but the line for checked baggage was ridiculous. We decided to go outside to the drop off point and use the premium check in stand since no one was lined up there. Well, it turns out the guy manning the post was having issues and couldn't get his kiosk up and running until well after 4:30 in the morning. He made such a big deal about having to open one of the compartments on the kiosk until a Supervisor came out and said he didn't need it open. He spent 20 minutes fiddling around with this one key trying to open something that didn't need to be opened. Outside of that everything went smoothly, and before you knew it we were finally there;

Since we arrived so early, there were only about 9 other people on the bus. This meant the bus would be taking an awkward meandering drop off route. The bus that was supposed to be for the WL, Poly, GF, and Contemporary, ended up going to Port Orleans Riverside, Saratoga Springs, then WL and finally the Poly.

Finally home;

Our room wasn't ready, so we decided to venture to the MK to activate our APs and get a bite to eat. After all we've been up since about 3AM and it was pushing Noon-ish.

We didn't have any reservations for the day so we decided to stop in at Casey's Corner for a quick bite;

We both didn't realize how much food this was going to be. Especially in terms for french fries, so many tasty tasty shoestring fries.The fries actually reminded me of what McDonald's french fries used to be especially when they used to fry them in beef fat. The corndog bites were actually pretty good, we both concluded they were much better than the corn dog nibblers they sell at White Castle, and infinitely better than the corndogs from Sonic's Drive In. I do miss the liquid hot cheese that they used to have at nearly all of the Quick Service restaurants though.

I also do enjoy the seasonal paper cups they have. It's these little attention to details that makes Disney truly magical to me at times.

So our first meal was in the books, and it went pretty well. I'm not used to doing much quick serve. Going to Disney well over 20 times, I was accustomed to Signature Dining and what not. I will easily say though, I'd take this meal well over anything that comes out of the kitchen at Tony's Town Square.

 

[suse66]

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[tluvstink]

You're off to a great start!

Terri

 

[vettegirl]

What a great line up! Those mini corn dog bites look quite tasty.

 

[peteykirch]

So, despite the idea and mantra of that we'll be back in less than two months we didn't have to go all out and get everything done in one day.

That...well....didn't happen. You kind of get lost in wanting to doing more and more while at Disney, so somehow we ended up at Epcot a few hours after exploring the Magic Kingdom.

We both went into this trip expecting the worst of Florida weather at the beginning of September, and honestly to start our trip it wasn't that bad. There was a short drizzle, but outside of that the humidity wasn't "THAT" insane and the temperatures were more than doable.

So onto Epcot.

As you can see it wasn't a very sunny day, a bit dreary, but I'll take the cloud coverage versus getting roasted in the open sun.

Now prior to our trip Disney made the announcement that Sunshine Seasons wouldn't be serving hot breakfast anymore which was a huge disappointment. Especially to my GF who I really talked up the amazing-ness of the Berry Croissant Pudding and the Breakfast Panini, so I decided that we should go for something else they are known for.

We got some sweets! I selected the Key Lime Torte and my GF got the Sunshine Season's Famous Strawberry Shortcake. My GF couldn't help herself and snatched the strawberry off the top of her dessert before I could get the picture.

My GF is a hard marker when it comes to Strawberry Shortcake and felt that this was okay to good. There wasn't anything special about it. She actually liked the key lime torte more and she isn't a huge fan of that key lime flavor. The one here was very mellow and slightly sweet compared to the punch you in the face super tart lime flavor a lot of places tend to hit you with.

What was even more shocking to us was the fact at this time of day Soarin was only a 15 minute wait. Praise be the Third Theater and the low Labor Day crowds.

We would spend some more time out and about around Epcot before finally heading back to the Wilderness Lodge to see our room and decide upon some dinner.

 

[Dismamx2]

Following, great so far, thanks

 

[TeresaNJ]

Enjoying your report! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[JerseyJanice]

Enjoying your report so far. Can't wait to read the rest.

 

[peteykirch]

So we made our way back to the Wilderness Lodge to finally get into our room, and hopefully to get a bite to eat.

I can't say it enough that the Wilderness Lodge is perhaps the best resort to photograph;

Seriously, even in 90 degree heat, this resort gives off a rustic, comfy, and homey feeling.

Well, to the room? All I can say is JACKPOT!

What's that over yonder in the distance? Let's go in for a closer look.

Now people may hate resort construction, but I'll gladly deal with the construction that turned this standard view into a Themepark view.

Well, after a little rest and relaxation we decided to venture out to get some dinner. Now, we didn't have any reservations so we decided to take a stroll downstairs to the Territory Lounge. I'm convinced that this is a true hidden gem. I never had bad food here, and it tends to be very quiet without the hustle and bustle you might find elsewhere.

The menu;

We decided upon the following;

Up first was the Pork Nachos, Corn Chips, Queso, Farmers Tomato Salsa, and Verde Sauce. This was so delicious. The chips fried fresh and a nice hint of salt on their own, but couple that with the shredded pork which is smoked on the premise. My GF loved this entire platter as did I. The plate was returned pretty much bone dry, devoid of any scrap of anything. The queso, which I assume was queso fresco melted slightly and added a very creamy undertone to the entire dish. For 13$ it was a massive portion of food, that could easily feed 3-4 people.

The second dish we decided upon was the; Oregon Chardonnay Fondue with Grapes and Pretzel Bread. Now this is where we differed on our opinions. My GF wasn't to thrilled with the fondue itself. She claimed it was too "winey" in that the wine hasn't really been cooked out of the fondue itself. I thought the flavor was pretty good, you could definitely taste the wine itself, but I don't think it overly detracted from the fondue.

However the real star of the meal were those pretzel rolls. These in my opinion were 100x better than the pretzel bread served at Le Cellier. They were piping hot, crusty on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside. Huge crystals of sea salt coated the outside of the pretzel and it was just perfection in every bite. We would've been content on just having the pretzels on their own, but I found the saltiness of the pretzel combined with the richness of the fondue was a match made in heaven.

So that closes out our first day, and I can't say that your day cannot end on a better note when you make it up to your room, and get this view from your balcony.

 

[OasterP]

Amazing view!!! Enjoying your report. And the pretzel rolls look amazing.

 

[keahgirl8]

Amazing view!!! Enjoying your report. And the pretzel rolls look amazing.

Agreed! I love the pretzel bread at Le Cellier, but it's pretty pricey to eat there!

 

[pepperandchips]

Loving your reviews and the fabulous photos! What did you shoot the pictures with?

 

[peteykirch]

Loving your reviews and the fabulous photos! What did you shoot the pictures with?

It's a mix of my Nikon D7000 with a 11-16mm f/2.8 or 35mm f/1.8 lens. I also use my cameras phone a Nexus 6P.

Fireworks were the D7000 with a 55-200mm zoom lens.

 

[vettegirl]

What a view!! The Territory Lounge is for a sure a hidden gem. Your offerings looks delicious.

 

[alohamom]

Following along. WOW-what an incredible view and your photos are very artistic too!

 

[keahgirl8]

What a view!! The Territory Lounge is for a sure a hidden gem. Your offerings looks delicious.

I had no idea! I have put that on my list for my next trip.

 

[pepperandchips]

It's a mix of my Nikon D7000 with a 11-16mm f/2.8 or 35mm f/1.8 lens. I also use my cameras phone a Nexus 6P.

Fireworks were the D7000 with a 55-200mm zoom lens.

I knew I liked you! I also shoot Nikon (poorly). I "need" a wide angle lens - at WDW I hate lugging around a big lens so I just keep my 35mm 1.8 on all the time, but I rented the Sigma 1.8 18-35mm zoom for my Flower & Garden trip and love the look of my photos from that trip. I'm constantly debating whether to buy that lens. Your pictures are great. Looking forward to the rest of the report!