Where and what we ate-on the DDP

[sadiwest]

We're still in FLA., but not at WDW .

Here's where/what we ate during our 9-night stay.

Night 1:
Pepper Market (CSR).
Me: (Chinese food) sampler with Kung Bao Chicken, beef stir fry and egg roll
DH: A kids' meal with chicken fingers (they wrote 'adult' over 'kids' on the ticket and I am SURE they gave him extra chicken)
We each got a sugar free blueberry muffin 'for later' as our bakery item. I LOVED the stir fry, but the chicken was WAY too spicy (and I like spicy food!).
Later that night we went to DTD and used one snack credit each to get a bottle of diet lemonade.

Day 2:
I ate in the room & DH used a CS to get a breakfast burrito at PM. He took a cookie as his bakery item and the register woman told him this wasn't allowed....tried to charge him extra. The manager came over and gave DH the extra 'credit' the woman had charged him and going forward he was always allowed to get a cookie as his bakery item.

We had made an ADR that morning before the rope drop for same day at Tony's.
Me: Garlic Breadsticks, grilled italian panini, nsa chocolate gelato
DH: Minestrone soup, meatballs and spaghetti, and some sort of shake-type drink with crumbled cookies in it.

We ate dinner at PM again, but had the Market Nachos this time. They were OK...but neither one of us could finish them. This is when we started talking about sharing things.

Day 3:
Lunch was at 50's PTC.
Me: Fried Herbed Cheese, Chicken Ceasar Salad, Sugar free cheesecake.
DH: Fried Herbed Cheese, Pot Roast, Diet Coke float with No Sugar Added Ice cream.
By far the best item was the appetizer. We both LOVED it (enough to come back for another meal just to eat it). DH's pot roast was HUGE and very tender. I poked my fork in it and it nearly fell apart. He said it was very good. I thought the salad was OK but I was unable to finish it. It wasn't the best I'd ever had......but good. The SF cheesecake was tasty...served with fruit...a little dry, but I ate all of it.

While DH was riding RNR at MGM for the second time (once was enough for me) I called for ADRs for that night, because mom and her dh wanted to take us our for our anniversary. We were doing a specialty cruise, so I explained to the CM that we wanted "nice but not overly expensive; availability for 4 adults that same night early enough to make an 8pm spec cruise at Yacht Club; and easy to get between the two places. She suggested Yacht Club Galley at 5:30. Here's what we had:
Me: Braised beef 'sandwich', SF Chocolate Brownie for dessert
DH: Pork chop with cauliflower mash, boston creme pie
mom: Cod (shared dessert with her DH)
Mom's DH: Seafood (shrimp, mussels, etc) with penne, shared cheesecake with blueberries with mom.
We also all shared an appetizer of Spinach Dip.
The chef had come to speak to me after I'd mentioned my 'sugar problem' and told me what to stay away from.
Everyone agreed the food was EXCELLENT. Mine was very flavorful and tender...I tasted the cod & it was good....even though I'm not a fish person.
Overall one of the best meals beginning to end.


Day 4:
Mom and her DH were meeting us for lunch (we took them out for Mother's Day) but mom doesn't like to wait for food. When she gets hungry she gets angry and headachy. We kept it local (again) at PM on CSR property.
Me: Beef stir fry
DH: cold cuts on a plate (he ordered a sandwich and told them to keep the bread.
Mom: 1/2 rotisserie chicken with veggies
Mom's DH: Steak fajitas
Everyone loved their food and the portions-as always-were huge.

DH and I were 'on site' for the whole day, so we had a complimentary toast at Fransisco's for our 1st anniversary (thank you, CSR!) then had dinner @ PM AGAIN. This time we shared a 'chef special' chicken parm pizza. It was VERY good. Took about 10 minutes for them to make it.

Day 5:
It's very clear by now that neither of us had the patience for lunch outside the room, mostly because I was always in a hurry to GO GO GO to the parks. We had tons of food in the room (both leftovers and from a trip to Publix, thanks to mom & mom's DH)...hence rare mention of breakfast food.

We checked in at 10:07 for a 10:30 ADR at Donald's Breakfastasaurus (AK). The CM told me it'd be a while because they were still seating 9:50 people. I said we were early & just wanted to eat as soon as they could get us in. We were seated at 10:27. 20 minute wait, but before our ADR time. Since it's a buffet, it's hard to specify everything we had. I will say that the quiche (which I had with salsa on the side) was AWESOME. We each had some fruit, I had biscuits and gravy, DH had some yogurt...it was all Yummy. DH was impatient and left before the characters came over. No matter...I got a picture with Goofy anyway.

We decided to go to MK later that day so I made an ADR for The Plaza.
Me: Salad, Cheese steak sandwich, NSA butter pecan ice cream for dessert.
DH: Tomato Bisque, Plaza Club (sandwich), NSA chocolate/vanilla swirl ice cream.
The cheesesteak was good and so was the ice cream. There was a choice of soup or salad as an appetizer...that was it. He said his sandwich was good....overall an OK meal. Not gourmet. No restroom INSIDE the place which was inconvenient...

OK. That's enough typing for now. LOL...more later. I didn't always share in the above other people's opinions of the food (ie DH) but that's mostly because I forget....lol.
If you have questions about the food or the places we ate...let me know.
Coming up:
EPCOT, including Seasons, Rose & Crown, and Coral Reef (yes, all in one day. How did we EAT so much?!). Le Cellier, more sugar free or NSA options for DESSERT...etc.


Sandi

 

[fredw]

Thanks for the excellent review. sounds like you had a fantastic time. Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip.

 

[MamaKate]

Thanks for the reviews!! I look forward to reading the rest.

 

[Tinkerbell_Girl]

Thanks for the great review!

 

[sadiwest]

Day (?) Six: (I lost track already...LOL)
We had a snack at Seasons in The Land Pavillion at EPCOT.
Me:I had a tuna croissant, diet lemonade, baked Lay's and bought a NSA chocolate brownie. The tuna was VERY good, I thought, and ate it as a sandwich on the croissant...The brownie was too much food for me so I saved it. The cashier had told me that I took an 'extra' item not included on the DDP (either the brownie OR the chips were OK, but not both, apparently) but when I checked the receipt, she'd only charged me for one CS. So I dunno about that.
DH went with some cheese he'd smuggled in, and bought a brownie for "later" that he ate on the spot. He said the brownie was good (NSA, remember...) and I agree now that I've tried it. Yummy!

We ate 'lunch' at Rose & Crown in WS. (For this we'd made an ADR same morning...Only maybe 3-4 of our TS meals were planned before we arrived at WDW.)
Me: Potato Leek soup, fish & chips, and because they don't have **ANY** SF or NSA dessert, a cup of coffee to finish the meal.
DH: Fruit & cheese platter, cottage pie, and warm apple crumble with ice cream.
The fish & chips were very good. It was a BIG portion of fish. The soup was tasty...DH didn't like many of the cheeses (and he eats a LOT of cheese) and said the cottage pie was "good". He enjoyed the dessert as well.
This might have been not the worst meal we had...but one of the most disappointing. Mostly I was disappointed because of the lack of options for those of us who cannot eat sugared desserts. I felt kind of ripped off dessert-wise. After all...it came with the DDP LOL . Did I need it?? Heck no...especially since we stopped at Norway for some NSA chocolate mousse. I'd heard about it here on DISboards and it was YUMMY!. Highly recommend it to those looking for a lower-sugar option when everyone else is eating treats.

Finally this day, it was our anniversary, so we planned a dinner at Coral Reef. I'm sure I'll get her name wrong, but I spoke to (I think) Debbie Sacleux a couple months prior to our arrival and ordered a SF cake for a surprise. She'd also suggested I send her a picture of us (which I emailed to her) so she could create personalized menus.
We decided to share a meal (did you SEE how much we'd eaten up 'til now?), so we ordered: Ceasar salad, strip steak (or some sort of steak) and I added a shrimp cocktail. Didn't love the salad...thought the shrimp & sauce were VERY good...and when DH asked the waiter about SF/NSA desserts Bob replied: "We'll look into that later". Remember, DH didn't know about the cake.
So....we looked over our personalized menu (a menu printed on regular paper with our picture on the inside left of the folded page & it said "Happy 1st anniversary Timmy and Sandi".
The steak was OK....nothing special. Just as we finished eating someone scuba'ed over to us and held up a sign "Happy 1st Anniversary Timmy & Sandi". That was a surprise for BOTH of us. We were given a laminated copy of the sign to keep....Just after taking pictures and video of the scuba-diver and sign, Bob showed up with a cake beautifully decorated with whipped cream, a candle, and tons of strawberries and raspberries. ALL SF (well....no refined sugar, anyway. Fruit is OK. ). It was yummy...enough for at least 8 people (today is a week later and there's still cake left in the fridge)...definately sugar free. Jeez I miss buttercream.
Overall they did a fabulous job. WELL DONE Coral Reef! No, what we had wasn't spectacular, but DH doesn't eat fish and we were sharing. So....steak....maybe not the best way to judge the place.

Day (?) Seven:
I went to EPCOT (again) alone because DH wanted to go to BB. I ate the same tuna croissant from Seasons that was very good, again. Consistency. Gotta love it.
We'd had an ADR at Le Cellier and by gosh I was going to KEEP it. So I ate there solo. Patrick -my waiter- was awesome. Thanks, Patrick, for making my meal extra special. I had Cheddar Cheese soup, sauteed shrimp with garlic, oil, spinach and lemon over linguine, and an AMAZING SF dessert...SF citrus mousse over raspberry whipped cream. I took pictures...wish I knew how to post them, but I'm not yet home where I could do it anyway. The soup was good. I only tasted 3 soups during our WDW stay & this was the best of the 3 (others were minestrone at Tony's @ MK & Potato Leek @ UK/WS). The shrimp were fantastic, but by this time I was forcing myself to eat. LOL I ate way too much at EPCOT. The dessert WOULD be my favorite of the trip, but I have to 'tie' it with the SF Chocolate Brownie at Yacht Club Galley because...well, because chocolate is chocolate.
I love eating at EPCOT. I topped everything off with one piece each of SF and NSA chocolate from Italy. Not cheap but WOW was that good. Two pieces were just right for me.

Later that night DH and I met up again after I got our rental car. We were going (brace yourself) offsite to SW the next day, so we needed our rental to start that leg of our trip. Last meal of the day, we ate at PM again.
Me: cheeseburger (no bun), fries and 2 SF muffins. One apricot and one blueberry. He snuck me an extra.
DH: Chicken Calzone, apple cobbler with ice cream, sprinkles, and M&M's. We paid an extra $1.50 above what the DDP allows for his dessert. I would assume it was worth it. LOL The burger was good (it was a burger. Nothing special...but hit the spot). I was tired of the muffins by now.

Should I include the SW food experience??
I will say that it was tough taking cash out to buy food. It seemed unnatural.
Let me know if you WANT to know. Otherwise, I'll skip it (being DIS boards and all).
Between SW and La Nouba I ate at PM again. DH decided he'd rather sleep. I had the beef stir fry again. I ate that most often of anything for the entire trip. LOVED it.
At DTD/Westside, I tried a Wetzel's Pretzel, jalapeno cheese. It was TOO big and a little too spicy for DH. It hit the spot for me, though.

Our last full day at WDW I went to MGM early solo. I grabbed breakfast at ABC Commissary (sp?), and ordered the scrambled egg platter and OJ. Was actually very good, but I couldn't finish it. Skipped the bacon altogether, and ate some eggs and some sausage on the biscuit. I tried the hash browns, but left most of them over.

For lunch, DH met me (too late for the SWW opener parade. I was right at the beginning!) so we could go back to 50's PTC. This time, we both ended up singing "I'm a little teapot" in front of the room. DH was mad at me because I did it too quickly for him to video tape it.
Me: fried herbed cheese, chicken pot pie, NSA cheesecake
DH: fried herbed cheese, meatloaf, NSA ice cream/diet coke float
Food was good, again. ESPECIALLY that appetizer. You've got to try it.
This time, the cheesecake came out all alone on the plate. No fruit. I think she thought I was lucky to get it: "they SAID they were all out" she noted.
Still a little dry...but tasty.

We decided to shop a little at DTD, and we knew we had 4CS and 2TS meals left before we went to my mom's on Saturday morning. We chilled out in the room until dinner time, after which we went to PM for food
Me: Pizza
DH: Prime rib

We went to Ghirardelli's for a snack (like we needed it?!?!?!) while at DTD.
Me: NSA Butter pecan with almond and whipped cream
DH: NSA Choc/vanilla swirl with choc chips
YUM!

Back to PM to use our last CS and bring it back to eat after packing .
Me: chicken ceasar salad (too big to finish & I wish the chicken wasn't HOT)
DH: got the "OK" from Bryan the manager to get all fruit. He picked out 3 bowls ($15 worth!!).

Last morning:
Breakfast at Maya Grill buffet. It was OK. Nothing major...nothing spectacular. Especially when you can't eat sugar. YES, they had SF syrup...but...eh. I wanted cereal but couldn't eat the frosted flakes or whatever it was.
No biggie. I had fruit, biscuits and gravy....and OJ. It was good.

I'm SURE I left something out. Any questions?
LOL
Sandi

 

[plutospup]

First of all, thanks for the info on the Pepper Market. We will be staying there this summer.

I didn't know Ghiradelli was part of DDP! What types of "ice cream snacks" are available?

 

[maggs]

Thank you for the reviews. I agree about the Yacht Club Galley. It is a gem of a restaurant. We had the best food of our whole trip there last time. I love it!

Maggs

 

[kcrew]

Thanks for the review. Pepper Market sounds like the BEST CS anywhere. I don't think it is really feasible from POP but if anyone knows please pass it on to me. As far as the bakery item with breakfast, is that just a PM thing? It semed like you were eating nonstop! Cool! I had also heard that CS places were letting you take alternate items if you didn't want dessert? Do you know anything about that? Also, you went to 50's twice so other than the food how did you find the experience? I am not impressed with the menu but have an ADR for the "experience". I have read some posts where others weren't impressed so please share that aspect. Thanks!

 

[swankybeth]

Thanks for taking the time to post your reviews, I enjoyed reading them. It's so nice what they did to celebrate your anniversary at Coral Reef!

 

[sadiwest]

First of all, thanks for the info on the Pepper Market. We will be staying there this summer.

I didn't know Ghiradelli was part of DDP! What types of "ice cream snacks" are available?

Whoops. Sorry. We did this place OOP. They very well could do something on DDP...I don't know. We didn't even ask...
Sorry I misled you

Sandi

 

[sadiwest]

Thanks for the review. Pepper Market sounds like the BEST CS anywhere. I don't think it is really feasible from POP but if anyone knows please pass it on to me. As far as the bakery item with breakfast, is that just a PM thing? It semed like you were eating nonstop! Cool! I had also heard that CS places were letting you take alternate items if you didn't want dessert? Do you know anything about that? Also, you went to 50's twice so other than the food how did you find the experience? I am not impressed with the menu but have an ADR for the "experience". I have read some posts where others weren't impressed so please share that aspect. Thanks!

I didn't realize we'd eaten at PM so often until I wrote the reviews. LOL We both enjoyed it, overall. It was very confusing the first time, but once we got the hang of how it worked, we were eating fools!

My understanding is that when you do a TS credit, you get an appetizer, entree, beverage and dessert. A CS credit gets you an entree, beverage, and I don't know what...I THOUGHT dessert...but my problem was/is that I can't eat most of the desserts they offered at PM. I'd often get a bagel or biscuit to save for next day's breakfast because I couldn't eat what they'd normally allow: Cookie, danish, etc. DH got a cookie a few times as his, and that was fine until he tried to get a cookie 'for later' with BREAKFAST. For some reason, they said there's a difference between what you get with a BREAKFAST CS and a LUNCH/DINNER CS.

We decided at the time of the first snafu to ASK AT EVERY MEAL. The CMs were happy to explain their restaurant's policy. We were led to believe that each place has it's own 'rules' for the DDP.

Both times DH and I got into the antics at 50's PTC (he's never even been to WDW!) and our waitstaff were great. The second time we went, the "teapot videotaping incident" caused an argument between DH and I (yeah...I know....sad, but true) and the waitress kept on keeping on, even telling DH to finish his green beans.

Overall, I enjoyed the food at 50's PTC...ESPECIALLY the fried herbed cheese. I'd go there again JUST FOR THAT. If there's nothing you will enjoy on the menu...it's your call, really, if it'd be worth it to go just to have the experience.
Here's my feeling about this type of restaurant. I think WDW goes all the way when it comes to what they do. They really do it the best...even my worst experience there was better than some I've had at non WDW places. I enjoy the experience even when I don't particularly care for the food. After all of the 'bad'...all I remember is the good.
Let's put it this way: If you hated your meal but were told to sing "I'm A Little Teapot" how would you feel/what would you think? Me? I would love it.

Also, I have read reviews of places people hated and ended up loving it and vice versa. I honestly don't just solely on other peoples' experience. GOOD EXAMPLE is that every restaurant I went into, I was expecting crummy service from waitstaff because we were on the DDP (I'd read that that was some peoples' experience). To my/our surprise....it was quite the opposite. Most waitstaff were happy to spend as much time as we needed them to explain the plan or menu. The only 'iffy' service we had was at Maya Grill buffet. The waitress didn't come over to offer drinks until the hostess told her to.
(I know that was way long-winded. Sorry. I've been away from the computer for two weeks now! LOL)

 

[tinkerbeth]

Thanks for the great reviews. We're hoping to stay at CSR as well so I especially like the PM reviews.

Beth

 

[angel's momma]

Dessert is no longer included for breakfast, for both TS & CS.

 

[angel's momma]

I don't think it is really feasible from POP but if anyone knows please pass it on to me.

We've gone there several times, and stayed at Pop.

12/2004 we were using vouchers & eating only CS. The parks close early, so we took the CSR bus from the parks. Then we took the bus to Epcot to get a bus to Pop. I think we ate there 4 times, because it offered "real food".

Fall 2005 we were on the ddp so we had planty of "real food". We still went there once because DD requested it. It was our off day. We took the bus to MGM, then CSR, then back to MGM to return to Pop.

 

[sadiwest]

Thanks for the review. Pepper Market sounds like the BEST CS anywhere. I don't think it is really feasible from POP but if anyone knows please pass it on to me. Thanks!

POP was just down the road from CSR (everything is close to CSR) but we were told that in order to get from resort to resort, you need to go DTD. We'd have to go from CSR to DTD then catch a bus to POP, etc. HOWEVER, you CAN go from any park to any resort if you didn't require a trip to your room in between. THEN after dinner, go to DTD then your resort. Honestly, no bus ride we took was longer than 10 minutes and we generally didn't wait long.
I truly enjoyed the food at PM...so if you're thinking of giving it a try...do. Then be sure to leave time to walk/look around. It's beautiful!

 

[sadiwest]

Thank you for the reviews. I agree about the Yacht Club Galley. It is a gem of a restaurant. We had the best food of our whole trip there last time. I love it!

Maggs

Maggs,
it's one of those places we'd never have considered without the help/guidance of a WDW CM. She listened to our needs/wants and suggested a place that ended up as the PERFECT start to a PERFECT evening. The weather was beautiful (full moon, too...) and that was the night we took our Illuminations cruise (also from YC Marina).
**sigh**
I wanna staaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[Aimeedyan]

Thanks for the reviews! I have always enjoyed the food at 50's PT and am taking the ILs there in Sept. I think they'll enjoy the antics =)

We also want to try PM on our midweek day off; it's the only moderate we haven't stayed at so I wanted to check out the resort anyways. The CS value there is amazing!

 

[Princess4Eeyore]

Thank you for the great reviews - I gotta try the fried herb cheese - sounds good!

 

[emma'smom]

Great to hear about all of the NSA and SF options that are available....

 

[sadiwest]

Great to hear about all of the NSA and SF options that are available....

Yes...I'd asked on here a few times but didn't get alot of feedback. Turns out they do have an awful lot of choices throughout WDW...sometimes you just have to ask.
Most of them were really good.