DDP Dining Reviews-Day 4 added

[jenga1030]

We were at Disney World from 9/7 to 9/15 and stayed at AS Movies for 3 nights with free dining. Then moved to the BCV for 5 nights and paid for the dining plan. We had free dining last year and it is really a good deal. We paid $489 for the DDP at Beach Club, but over the 8 nights total, we ate (or brought home) about $1800 worth of food!

Each year we do the dining plan, I notice something else I'd change in my planning to make it work better for us. Next year we will do more TS lunches to free up our evenings to spend time being spontaneous, be at the parks when it's cooler out and also eat later if we are still full from lunch.

Also, next year we will have early lunches and late dinners so we can take advantage of all of the good snacks offered now. We were honestly too full to snack most of the time. And there were so many things I wanted to try. Oh well, next year!

One more thing, when we do a TS dinner at the parks, I will always get the last ADR. I hated feeling like our day ended at 6:30 at MGM because I knew the park would be closed by the time we got out of the restaurant. The DDP was great again, no problems at all, the service was all fine. We were seated right away almost everywhere and even changed some ADR's mid trip with no problems. The restaurants didn't appear to be crowded while we were there.

My group consisted of:

Me 33, planned my ADR's at 180 days out
DH: 35, along for the ride and loves Disney World
DD: 7, will try anything once
DS: 5, look up picky in the dictionary, you can see what he looks like!

Day 1

Wolfgang Puck's Cafe 4TS used $148 total
Our ADR was at 6:30, but we were starving so we checked in at 5:30 and were seated right away. The waiter was really nice and helpful. The restaurant was pretty and not very crowded. It was a fun atmosphere. We all ordered soft drinks, the kids were not offered appetizers here, the bread and oil was really good!

DH: spinach cheese dip: OMG! So good! We all ate this right up!
black angus filet: very good
chocolate fondue: served with strawberries, brownies, poundcake
and the chocolate was so good!

Me: caesar salad: very good
salmon: one of the best salmon dishes I've ever had!
chocolate raspberry cake: kind of dry, I ate the icing

DD: kids mini burgers: good
artist palette sundae: they had fun with this!

DS: chicken tenders: good
artist palette sundae: lots of fun!

Overall, we loved this place. We'll probably go back next year!

Coming up Cosmic Rays and AS Movies food court!

 

[jenga1030]

Continuing on...

Day 2 MK day

Lunch Cosmic Ray's 3 CS used $33 total
DS wasn't feeling well early in the morning so DH and DD headed to MK without us for awhile. DS slept it off and woke up bouncing around the room ready to go to MK , so we met them there around lunchtime. But DS didn't have an appetite for a couple of days.

I always love Cosmic Ray's, it reminds me of my childhood. We always ate here back when it was Tomorrowland Terrace. I remember watching the group Tabasco sing Huey Lewis and Pointer Sister songs in the 80's.

DH: Bacon cheeseburger: he liked it
chocolate cake: he ate it all
large coke: always ask for a large one

Me: chicken strips: yummy
chocolate cake: okay, I know these are prepackaged and not gourmet or anything, but I am obsessed with those things. I think about them all the time. They were just so sweet and chocolatey. I want one now.
large coke

DD: kids chicken strips: she liked 'em
chocolate cake: she too loved these
sprite


Dinner AS Movies Food Court 3 cs 2 snacks used $44 total
This was our first visit to ASMovies and we really like the food court. They had lots to choose from. It wasn't crowded at all.

DH: spicy chicken sandwich: it was spicy! Go figure! He liked it.
chocolate chip cookie: good!
large coke

Me: Hot italian sandwich: soo good!! DH wished he'd ordered it. It was hot and it had meat and cheese and caesar salad on it. Delicious!
chocolate cake: not as good as the prepackaged ones, but good
large cherry coke: my favorite! I love fountain cherry coke

DD: cheese pizza: it was good
chocolate cake: that little girl inhaled this!
large sprite

DS: split the pizza with DD, he liked it too.
raspberry lemonade: used a snack credit
ice cream cone: loved it! used a snack credit

We'll definitely go back to both of these places. Everything was really good!

Coming up...Flame Tree BBQ and 'Ohana!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Thanks for the reviews. It looks like we have the same taste. I'm going to be eating at pretty much the same places you ate at this December.

 

[Stacerita]

Great reviews. Thanks!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reviews ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[jenga1030]

Day 3 Animal Kingdom Day
Lunch Flame Tree BBQ 3 CS $34 total
We loved this place! It was our first time here and it will not be our last. We got a great table right on the lake with a beautiful view of Expedition Everest. It was nice and breezy and cool in the shade. It was not crowded at all, there were many tables empty all over. The food was great. DS still didn't have an appetite, so he only had DH's dessert, a frozen lemonade.
DH: rib combo with beans and corn: yummy!! everything was great!
large lemonade
frozen lemonade: DS loved it

Me: rib combo: delicious and plenty of food! I couldn't finish it.
large coke
chocolate cake: not the prepackaged one, it was really good, I did finish this!

DD: hotdog: she liked it
sprite
chocolate cake: she finished this just like her mom!

1 snack credit used at AK for a large lemonade to share.

Dinner at 'Ohana 4 TS used $95 total
This was our second visit to 'Ohana. We went last year during free dining. DD and I fell in love with it last year and now it's a must do. Their computers were down when we checked in and there were people everywhere! It looked like it would be a long wait, but it was only 15 minutes or so.

Last year we had a great table, we were in the main room, a great view of the castle, the fire pit and kid's activities. This year we were sat behind the fire pit and I thought at first it would not be that great back there. But it really wasn't bad. Whenever they had kid's activities, the kids and I would just walk over and participate, not a problem at all. But I saw a few couples that were in the main room right next to the kids and they looked miserable. One guy just put his head down and shook his head the whole time the kids "performed".

Last year we had the guy lead the kids, this year we had the lady, she was great. She did much more with them. They did coconut races, limbo, and learned to hula. They even got leis to take home. They had a blast. Our waitress was great. The food was slow coming out, but that's fine. Everything was delicious. I usually fill up on the salad and appetizers and only sample the meat a little. The bread pudding was good. I was able to order a non-alcoholic daquiri on the DDP. It was so good! And when the waitress saw I'd finished it, she brought me a coke, too. It was a very fun night.

Overall, both places were wonderful. Flame Tree gets added to my "must do" list and 'Ohana stays on it.

Up next, a double dose of Spoodles, the pizza window and the restaurant.

 

[swankybeth]

Great reviews, looking forward to the next installment.

 

[jenga1030]

Day 4 Check in to BCV Day
Lunch Spoodles Pizza Window 3 CS used $36 Total
Our room at BCV was not ready yet so we walked over to Spoodles pizza window to get lunch. It was not crowded at all. We grabbed a table and DH ordered. We had 3 cs left on our ASMovies cards, but we ordered 4 meals and the cashier said there was no way to ring through with 2 cards so she only charged us 3 cs credits for 4 meals!

Everything was fine here. This just didn't feel like that great a value with the DDP, you didn't get much to choose from, you got a drink, a slice of pizza (which was good, but kind of small), and a brownie. The brownies were good, DH didn't like his though. We brought the kids' brownies back to the room to snack on later.


Dinner Spoodles 4 TS used $151 total
Again, the restaurant wasn't crowded, we didn't have to wait for our table. It was nice inside, very open and you can see the kitchen. The waiter was very nice. DS was starting to get his appetite back today, so that was good. The bread and dipping sauce they had here was excellent.

DH: 4 cheese flat bread: really good!
NY Strip: he liked it
gelatto: he thought it was just ok
root beer

Me: garlic lemon shrimp: possibly the best shrimp ever!! they were so full of flavor and so lemony! yum!!
NY Strip: it was good, I wish it had had more of the horseradish sauce on it like I've seen in other people's pictures, there was barely any on ours, also I wish I had asked to substitute the sweet potato fries with something else
chocolate apricot pistachio cake: I like the frosting I just ate around the apricot stuff

DD: fruit salad: she ate every last bite of this! it had grapes and melon
macaroni and cheese: this was really good, I kept sampling it!
chocolate milk: her favorite
chocolate milkshake: she was pretty full by dessert, but managed to drink some of this it was good

DS: salad: it was delicious, the dressing was so good. We kept helping DS eat it! DS tried to get it boxed up to take home.
pb & j sandwich: he'd had enough of all this "fancy food" it was served with fruit and goldfish crackers which he gave to DD
lemonade
chocolate milkshake: yummy

Overall, these places were okay. We'd probably try them again, but not next year. Neither one is going on my "must do" list. The appetizers were really good at Spoodles, but the adult entrees and desserts weren't that great.

9 snack credits used $35 total
And to finish up all of the snack credits we had from ASMovies that were expiring at midnight(9 of them!), we went to BC Marketplace and bought a big bag of pretzels, a big bag of doritos, a jar of queso dip, 1/2 gallon of milk, bag of bagels, bag of peanut brittle and 3 packs of 3 mickey lollipops for friends back home. This worked out great, we had souvenirs for friends and food for the villa. We are still eating some of it here at home.

So the grand total for free dining was almost $600! It would have cost us just under $300.
Coming up next...Pinnochio Village Haus and 1900 Park Faire