Where we ate 12/17-23

[bubbasmom99]

The cast: Me (love all foods), DH (meat & potatoes guy), DS6 (pretty easygoing but has his favorites), DD3 (strictly a chicken nugget gal).

We visit every 1-2 years and have our favorites. Thought we'd try a couple new places this trip. Got APs and the DDE card for this trip.

All ressies were made 90 days (+7) in advance of our trip.

12/17 lunch - our arrival day. Not sure when we would actually get to the park so I didn't make a ressie... turned away at Crystal Palace (thought I'd try!) and wound up at Columbia Harbour House before they got busy. Had the combo (fish & chips & chicken strips), soup. DH had a sandwich. Pretty good -- but then I was famished at this point. Kids had chicken nuggets.

12/17 dinner - Ohana - one of our favorites. I was curious to see how the menu changes would affect our enjoyment. Turns out it was great. The dipping sauces were really good. Ate a little bit of everything. Chicken wings were yummy but soooo sticky, lol. The turkey was a little dry (as usual) but all the meats were great. Salad and veggies were good and we loved the potatoes. Dessert was to die for! I thought I'd miss the pineapple but the bread pudding was delish.

12/18 breakfast - Whispering Canyon Cafe - We had the all-you-care-to-eat skillet breakfast. Loved the waffles -- for some reason, they were just so tasty. We were there early so there wasn't much action but service was good and we left very full.

12/18 dinner - Hollywood & Vine - Buffet - pretty good stuff for a buffet. Good variety, nice dessert buffet. DS enjoyed the kids buffet and DD slept through the meal in the stroller so she was not charged. Service was great.

12/19 breakfast - We had a ressie for Ohana's character breakfast but decided to sleep in. Got to the park and hit Tony's Town Square for an early lunch. It was so mediocre. DH had spaghetti and meatballs (very generic) and I had an Italian sandwich (again, mediocre). No wonder we were able to walk up and get a seat right away. Definitely not making the must-do-again list.

12/19 dinner - Spoodles - Another new restaurant for us. I had the seafood stew and DH had fettucine alfredo with chicken. Mine was okay and he didn't like his. The service was okay. Atmosphere was kinda subdued. Didn't seem like people were happy to be there.

12/20 breakfast - Donald's Breakfastosaurus - DS woke up not feeling well but insisted on going to the park anyway. He threw up after getting off the bus and wound up sleeping through breakfast but DD enjoyed meeting the characters. The food was good as usual. They seem to have the character interaction down better now. Last time we came it was so very chaotic. They now seat in groups so the characters can work an entire section at once and not miss anyone.

12/20 dinner - Had ressie for Coral Reef but skipped it and headed to Downtown Disney instead and had a GREAT sandwich at Earl of Sandwich (the Scudetto). DH loved his club sandwich as well, and I bought a roast beef to bring to the room for late night snacking. I LOVE this place and for $4.99, it's a bargain to boot!

12/21 breakfast - Princess Storybook Breakfast at Akershus - This was good food and great interaction. DD loved meeting the princesses. DS was about as bored as you can get, lol.

12/21 dinner - Cape May Cafe clambake buffet - Really good clam chowder. The sliced beef (flank steak, maybe?) was horrible - rubbed in some sort of odd tasting spice. BBQ ribs were great, the seafood was good and plentiful (though I do not understand why people take so long in line to pick through each shell). Desserts were delicious. DD slept through this one too so we didn't have to pay for her (not that she would eat anything anyway).

12/22 lunch - I tried getting a ressie for Sci-Fi Dine Inn the day before and was told there was no availability for lunch until 3 pm. We hit there around 9:30 and were told that we could get in if we came right at 11 when they opened, so we did it. At 11, the place was barely half-full and not even full when we left an hour later. This was a great meal -- I had the steak sandwich and DH had the hamburger. Kids had a blast, especially when they discovered Tom & Jerry playing on the screen! Our server, Mike, was a hoot. Had the cheesecake for dessert - it was wonderful, surrounded by caramel corn, M&Ms, and drizzled with caramel. I need another one right now!!

12/22 dinner - Liberty Tree Tavern - character dinner. We tried this last year and loved it so we came back and it was still a great meal. Good basic food. They were very busy but our server tried her best. There was a table of 12 people seated next to us that kept her really busy. Spectromagic went by outside (we were near the window) while we were in there so it was a nice extra.

12/23 breakfast - Cinderella's Royal Table - Got DD all dressed up in her Cinderella outfit to meet her idol. Great pic (expensive, but a must-buy once we saw the shot). Food was yummy. The stuffed french toast was really good. Got 2nds on that and the potatoes. Princess visits were all very charming. Left full and happy.

We also dined counter service when the kids got the munchies, especially since they were napping at odd times (we took a red-eye and they never seemed to get used to the time change). Mainly picked up chicken nuggets for them at Cosmic Rays in the MK, ate at McDonalds in Downtown Disney... other than that, we had food in our villa so they were pretty happy with snacking.

Some disappointing new experiences so I think next year we will return to some old favorites that we missed this time (Coral Reef, Alfredo's, Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace).

Any questions??

 

[Kaycee]

Thanks for the reviews. Mediocre is the word we use to describe Tony's also. Too bad the food isn't better, since this resaurant is in a great location.

Sorry to hear you didn't like Spoodles. We haven't tried it yet, and I read so many reviews like yours, it's not moving to the top of our list to try.

Donald's, Sci Fi, and Earl of Sandwich are all on our list of must-dos every trip. Glad to hear you enjoyed them too!

 

[Uncleromulus]

Enjoyed the reviews! And too bad about Spoodles. With it's location, it should be a top draw every evening---.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reviews ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[swankybeth]

Thanks for taking time to share your reviews, I enjoyed them.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Thanks for the great reviews. Sorry you did not care for Spoodles. We ate there a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It was very busy on the night we ate there.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Enjoyed your reviews. TFS....

BTW, what airlines did you fly? I'm trying to figure who we should fly with from Sacramento for next Christmas.

Thanks! Tina

 

[bubbasmom99]

Enjoyed your reviews. TFS....

BTW, what airlines did you fly? I'm trying to figure who we should fly with from Sacramento for next Christmas.

Thanks! Tina

Hey Tina,
We actually drove to SF and flew Song out of SFO. It was a redeye, leaving around 11 pm and arriving appx 7 am local time. We were dead beat tired the first day -- I fell asleep on a couch at the Wilderness Lodge waiting for our room... but you don't miss a day for travel that way. It's the only nonstop SFO-MCO route that Song has anyway. In the past, we've flown Delta & Continental out of SMF. However, Delta has scaled back their flights alot so there wasn't much leaving out of SMF recently that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Next December, I am hoping to fly Song again -- we have frequent flier miles on Delta to use -- I only hope they don't change the flight schedules around too much between January (have to book early to get it on free miles) and December.

Continental was a fairly nice experience but it does involve a connection in Houston (most likely). I do much prefer connections in the south because I don't like to sit on the tarmac in a snowstorm being de-iced (such as Salt Lake for Delta or Chicago for United).

 

[OurDogCisco]

Hey Tina,
We actually drove to SF and flew Song out of SFO. It was a redeye, leaving around 11 pm and arriving appx 7 am local time. We were dead beat tired the first day -- I fell asleep on a couch at the Wilderness Lodge waiting for our room... but you don't miss a day for travel that way. It's the only nonstop SFO-MCO route that Song has anyway. In the past, we've flown Delta & Continental out of SMF. However, Delta has scaled back their flights alot so there wasn't much leaving out of SMF recently that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Next December, I am hoping to fly Song again -- we have frequent flier miles on Delta to use -- I only hope they don't change the flight schedules around too much between January (have to book early to get it on free miles) and December.

Continental was a fairly nice experience but it does involve a connection in Houston (most likely). I do much prefer connections in the south because I don't like to sit on the tarmac in a snowstorm being de-iced (such as Salt Lake for Delta or Chicago for United).

Thanks I was actually looking at that flight today for next Christmas too. How funny. We have family in SF so we might just leave Christmas Day night and fly all night. We did a red-eye last May to Orlando on Delta and had a layover in Atlanta. It was fine except the layover. I'm totally for those red-eye flights. Thanks for the tips.