GADISNEYGIRL
<font color=red>Maelstromer!<br><font color=purple
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2003
Hi all, cast for this trip included:
Me (31, WDW Veteran)
DH (32, WDW Veteran)
DS (not quite 3, WDW Veteran)
MIL (not new to WDW, but not Vets, either)
FIL (see above)
Wednesday, 12/01
DH, DS and I enjoyed breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. This was our second time here, and although the character interaction wasn't as fabulous as our first time (September), it is still probably our favorite character breakfast. We saw Alice, Pooh and Tigger. Mary Poppins was in the lobby~in her "normal" attire, instead of her white dress. Our food was excellent (love those cheese blintzes!). Our server was Gloria, but all she did was bring our drinks and take our money. Anything we really needed was taken care of by Tiffany, who was serving the table next to us. That was kind of odd. I felt bad that Gloria got the tip! Total, with tip: $43. DS and I will be eating here again in February. A-
We met MIL and FIL at Downtown Disney. They hadn't eaten yet (though we had just finished "brunch"), so we ended up at Earl of Sandwich. They both had the Club, and said they were terrific. DH and I split the Full Montagu (I think), and it was excellent. Very reasonable prices, too. Not sure what the cost was, as inlaws paid for it. Somewhere around $30, I believe, for three sandwiches, 3 chips, and four drinks. We will definitely eat there again. A
DH and I had a special dinner date at California Grill, since inlaws were there to babysit! (They went to Rainforest Cafe. I have no idea what they had, but DS had the hotdog platter for kids. He ate them all, they said, so he must have enjoyed them! Also don't know about price. We've all eaten there before, and probably will eat there again.) Anyway, for our dinner: Where to start? Bert showed us to our table, and told us on the way that it was "fabulous". It was! We weren't right by a window, but one table over. Very nice location. Our server was Andy. We started with the Goat Cheese Ravioli (split it). Oh my word! We were already smitten! We both settled on the Pork Tenderloin as our entree, although the Pumpkin Lasagna sounded intriguing to me. Andy said he hadn't tried it (new menu item), but that it had gotten rave reviews so far. Between the two, though, he said he would have to recommend the pork. So...that's what I went with. He was very helpful with wine pairings, also. DH chose a white zinfandel, and I had a pinot noir. The pork was perfectly cooked, and the goat cheese polenta was wonderful~with the cremini mushroom sauce and the fried sage leaves...oh my, we would've died happy then! We both agreed that it was one of the best meals we've ever eaten~and we've eaten some really terrific meals! DH was stuck on the butterscotch creme brulee (and wouldn't share!) so Andy helped me (again) make a decision. I was torn between the huckleberry/caramel thing and the blueberry clafouti and figs in port wine sauce, and he said the blueberry dessert was one of his favorites...that's what I had. It was good, but I'll bet it's much better in the summer, when blueberries and figs are in season. DH enjoyed his creme brulee, but it was a litttle too sweet for my taste. He said later that he likes my recipe better. Still, a very nice ending to the meal. We hope to be able to do this again! Total, with tip: $125. A+++
Thursday, 12/02
Surprisingly, though I said Wednesday night that I was so stuffed I would never eat again, I was hungry Thursday morning! We were headed to Epcot, so we took a detour by McDonald's. DH, MIL, and FIL all had a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. I had an Egg McMuffin, minus the egg. DS had pancakes. What is there to say about McD's? It's always the same! However, it is faster and cheaper than breakfast food at the resorts (we were staying at Pop Century this trip).
For lunch, we knew we would be at Tangierine Cafe; it's one of our very favorites. We were somewhat surprised that MIL and FIL decided to eat there, as well~they aren't very adventurous when it comes to food. DH and FIL had the combo platter (chicken and lamb), I had the vegetarian platter, and MIL had a chicken wrap. (DS had an Uncrustables that we brought with us.) With drinks, I would guess the total was around $40. The lentil salad had more bell pepper in it than usual (we aren't pepper fans), and the couscous tasted a little different, too. This trip, I'll give it an A-.
Originally, we chose the Biergarten as our CP Package dinner. However, we were planning to eat at the Garden Grill in February, and when we realized it would be closed then, we decided to switch. It turned out well for several reasons: one, we wanted to try it; two, MIL wasn't thrilled about Biergarten; three, it's a character meal! We've done the Ice Cream Social previously and enjoyed it, so we were pretty sure we'd enjoy the dinner, too. We were seated on the lower level, as we requested. Our server was Barry. I have to say, he was one of the worst servers (I THOUGHT!) we'd ever had. Took forever to get our drinks, refills were practically non-existent. He did bring us more food once. He had a very large table to our left, so maybe they were keeping him busy. The food was all good (average), nothing spectacular. Consisted of: salad, flank steak, catfish, pork with pineapple raisin chutney (very good), stuffing, steamed veggies (broccoli, carrots, squash), braised red cabbage (very good). Maybe something else I'm forgetting. The bread with maple honey butter was quite good. Dessert was a little disappointing. Apple crisp with cranberries and vanilla ice cream~the apples were very tough. There also seemed to be some odd spice in there that I couldn't identify. We ate it, but none of us thought it was great. DS had chicken strips, mac and cheese, and a dirt cup for dessert. He ate the gummy worms, but wouldn't touch the "dirt". Character interaction was pretty good. I've noted before, we always seem to get the least interaction from Mickey! The table to our right had two Asian girls, and Mickey seemed in a hurry to get past us and on to them. He spent quite a lot of time with them. Pluto was great with DS, but Chip and Dale (Chip, in particular) were fabulous!! Chip was actually with us for about 15 minutes, at one point. He and DS were on the floor looking out at the scenery, pointing things out to one another. He showed DS how to "ride the rail" (as DH put it) of the restaurant. He would "whisper" to DS, and they both would just cackle with delight. They crawled around on the floor together, and just had (apparently!) a terrific time! We also got several pictures with Chip and Dale together. (Dale joined them in their floor time for a couple of minutes.) This was neat, because in September we asked at Chef Mickey's for a picture with both of them, and the handler told us no. So we have mixed feelings about this restaurant. Probably when it reopens, we'll stick to the Ice Cream Social. We've always had great character interaction here (except for Mickey), and this time was outstanding. Food was so-so. Service wasn't good. I'd give service a C, food a B, characters an A+~so I guess that equals about a B+, overall. Total, including tip, was approx. $145 (CP Package).
Friday, 12/03
We slept in (woke DS up at 11am, finally), and headed to the Wilderness Lodge for our 12:00 PS at Whispering Canyon Cafe. It was our first time here. Our server was Gail. She was fun, but not overly loud or obnoxious. I think it was good, because DS doesn't do well with loud people. He was a bit taken aback by some of the yelling the other servers were doing. DH and FIL had the all you can eat skillet (chicken, ribs, corn, beans, slaw...not sure what else), MIL had the pulled pork sandwich, DS had mac and cheese and fruit (I thought that was a nice option, instead of fries), and I had Cousin Al's Vegetarian Platter: cannelini beans, oven dried tomatoes, sauteed spinach, roasted butternut squash, fried potatoes, with a basil honey sauce. It was no California Grill ;-), but mine was wonderful!! I asked Gail if the chef would give me the recipe. Well, he did, kind of, but it will take some deciphering and experimenting to get it right! Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, although I think I was the happiest with mine. (It was REALLY good!!) Total, with tip, approx. $75. Solid A~we're trying to work this in for February.
Dinner was at the Liberty Tree Tavern, another first. Food was similar to Garden Grill, but better. Salad with strawberry viniagrette was very good. MIL loved the bread. Flank steak, ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots...that's all I remember. The apple crisp was much, much better than Garden Grill. We all enjoyed this meal. Our server was Maria, and she was great. Character interaction was pretty good, especially with Pluto. We also saw Minnie, Chip, Dale and Goofy. One of the character handlers was very, very helpful. She kept checking on Daisy's schedule for us (we need her signature on DS' T-shirt). Daisy didn't make an appearance, but Clancy was a big help, anyway. Total, with tip: $120. I'd give it an A-, I think.
Saturday, 12/04
We chose to have a character breakfast at 'Ohanas, because it is one of the few we haven't tried (I think Donald's is the only one we haven't done). Well, I can assure you, we will never have one there again! Remember Barry, our poor server at the Garden Grill? He was a GEM compared to Joaoun (or something like that). This guy stunk from the word go. He took our drink orders: decaf coffee for me, diet coke for DH, hot cocoa for DS, hot tea for FIL and a glass of milk, and milk for MIL. When he FINALLY came back with drinks, he brought: decaf coffee, diet coke, hot water, and one glass of milk. He came back later with tea bags and the other glass of milk. We asked about the cocoa, and he laughed and said he had given it to another table. Guess what he didn't bring for FIL? A cup for his tea! He finally brought both the cocoa and the cup. (He also brought a pitcher of diet coke for DH, so at least he didn't have to worry about refills.) I needed a refill on coffee, so instead of bringing the pot to the table, he picked up my cup by the top (gross!!) and took it to refill. When he brought it back to the table, he gave it to MIL, who was on the opposite side, so she, FIL and DH all had to touch it before it got back to me. By then, I didn't even WANT the coffee anymore! The food was pretty good (scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, Mickey waffles, biscuits, and the pineapple coconut bread you get initially), the character interaction was okay, nothing outstanding. The service was awful. We are good tippers (generally 20%+), but we gave him 15% only because we felt obligated to. Looking back, I wish we hadn't left that much. In fact, every single time, a server would say, I'll be back with your change (and we'd say, we don't need any, thanks). But this guy picked up the thing and said, Do you need change? DH said YES, I DO. The parade with the characters was very unorganized (we had no idea where to get the maracas, until finally another dad handed one to DH, who brought it to DS), and the characters didn't really seem to be "into" it. So...food A-, characters, B, service, F...that comes out to about a C, I think. Nope, won't be doing this one again. Total, with tip, $86.
Too bad that's what we ended on. Oh, well, we'll make up for it in February! So far, our dining choices for then are: Le Cellier, Crystal Palace for DS' birthday, and 1900 Park Fare. Most others will probably be counter service, since it will be just me and DS at the parks for the majority of the time.
Enjoy!
Me (31, WDW Veteran)
DH (32, WDW Veteran)
DS (not quite 3, WDW Veteran)
MIL (not new to WDW, but not Vets, either)
FIL (see above)
Wednesday, 12/01
DH, DS and I enjoyed breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. This was our second time here, and although the character interaction wasn't as fabulous as our first time (September), it is still probably our favorite character breakfast. We saw Alice, Pooh and Tigger. Mary Poppins was in the lobby~in her "normal" attire, instead of her white dress. Our food was excellent (love those cheese blintzes!). Our server was Gloria, but all she did was bring our drinks and take our money. Anything we really needed was taken care of by Tiffany, who was serving the table next to us. That was kind of odd. I felt bad that Gloria got the tip! Total, with tip: $43. DS and I will be eating here again in February. A-
We met MIL and FIL at Downtown Disney. They hadn't eaten yet (though we had just finished "brunch"), so we ended up at Earl of Sandwich. They both had the Club, and said they were terrific. DH and I split the Full Montagu (I think), and it was excellent. Very reasonable prices, too. Not sure what the cost was, as inlaws paid for it. Somewhere around $30, I believe, for three sandwiches, 3 chips, and four drinks. We will definitely eat there again. A
DH and I had a special dinner date at California Grill, since inlaws were there to babysit! (They went to Rainforest Cafe. I have no idea what they had, but DS had the hotdog platter for kids. He ate them all, they said, so he must have enjoyed them! Also don't know about price. We've all eaten there before, and probably will eat there again.) Anyway, for our dinner: Where to start? Bert showed us to our table, and told us on the way that it was "fabulous". It was! We weren't right by a window, but one table over. Very nice location. Our server was Andy. We started with the Goat Cheese Ravioli (split it). Oh my word! We were already smitten! We both settled on the Pork Tenderloin as our entree, although the Pumpkin Lasagna sounded intriguing to me. Andy said he hadn't tried it (new menu item), but that it had gotten rave reviews so far. Between the two, though, he said he would have to recommend the pork. So...that's what I went with. He was very helpful with wine pairings, also. DH chose a white zinfandel, and I had a pinot noir. The pork was perfectly cooked, and the goat cheese polenta was wonderful~with the cremini mushroom sauce and the fried sage leaves...oh my, we would've died happy then! We both agreed that it was one of the best meals we've ever eaten~and we've eaten some really terrific meals! DH was stuck on the butterscotch creme brulee (and wouldn't share!) so Andy helped me (again) make a decision. I was torn between the huckleberry/caramel thing and the blueberry clafouti and figs in port wine sauce, and he said the blueberry dessert was one of his favorites...that's what I had. It was good, but I'll bet it's much better in the summer, when blueberries and figs are in season. DH enjoyed his creme brulee, but it was a litttle too sweet for my taste. He said later that he likes my recipe better. Still, a very nice ending to the meal. We hope to be able to do this again! Total, with tip: $125. A+++
Thursday, 12/02
Surprisingly, though I said Wednesday night that I was so stuffed I would never eat again, I was hungry Thursday morning! We were headed to Epcot, so we took a detour by McDonald's. DH, MIL, and FIL all had a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. I had an Egg McMuffin, minus the egg. DS had pancakes. What is there to say about McD's? It's always the same! However, it is faster and cheaper than breakfast food at the resorts (we were staying at Pop Century this trip).
For lunch, we knew we would be at Tangierine Cafe; it's one of our very favorites. We were somewhat surprised that MIL and FIL decided to eat there, as well~they aren't very adventurous when it comes to food. DH and FIL had the combo platter (chicken and lamb), I had the vegetarian platter, and MIL had a chicken wrap. (DS had an Uncrustables that we brought with us.) With drinks, I would guess the total was around $40. The lentil salad had more bell pepper in it than usual (we aren't pepper fans), and the couscous tasted a little different, too. This trip, I'll give it an A-.
Originally, we chose the Biergarten as our CP Package dinner. However, we were planning to eat at the Garden Grill in February, and when we realized it would be closed then, we decided to switch. It turned out well for several reasons: one, we wanted to try it; two, MIL wasn't thrilled about Biergarten; three, it's a character meal! We've done the Ice Cream Social previously and enjoyed it, so we were pretty sure we'd enjoy the dinner, too. We were seated on the lower level, as we requested. Our server was Barry. I have to say, he was one of the worst servers (I THOUGHT!) we'd ever had. Took forever to get our drinks, refills were practically non-existent. He did bring us more food once. He had a very large table to our left, so maybe they were keeping him busy. The food was all good (average), nothing spectacular. Consisted of: salad, flank steak, catfish, pork with pineapple raisin chutney (very good), stuffing, steamed veggies (broccoli, carrots, squash), braised red cabbage (very good). Maybe something else I'm forgetting. The bread with maple honey butter was quite good. Dessert was a little disappointing. Apple crisp with cranberries and vanilla ice cream~the apples were very tough. There also seemed to be some odd spice in there that I couldn't identify. We ate it, but none of us thought it was great. DS had chicken strips, mac and cheese, and a dirt cup for dessert. He ate the gummy worms, but wouldn't touch the "dirt". Character interaction was pretty good. I've noted before, we always seem to get the least interaction from Mickey! The table to our right had two Asian girls, and Mickey seemed in a hurry to get past us and on to them. He spent quite a lot of time with them. Pluto was great with DS, but Chip and Dale (Chip, in particular) were fabulous!! Chip was actually with us for about 15 minutes, at one point. He and DS were on the floor looking out at the scenery, pointing things out to one another. He showed DS how to "ride the rail" (as DH put it) of the restaurant. He would "whisper" to DS, and they both would just cackle with delight. They crawled around on the floor together, and just had (apparently!) a terrific time! We also got several pictures with Chip and Dale together. (Dale joined them in their floor time for a couple of minutes.) This was neat, because in September we asked at Chef Mickey's for a picture with both of them, and the handler told us no. So we have mixed feelings about this restaurant. Probably when it reopens, we'll stick to the Ice Cream Social. We've always had great character interaction here (except for Mickey), and this time was outstanding. Food was so-so. Service wasn't good. I'd give service a C, food a B, characters an A+~so I guess that equals about a B+, overall. Total, including tip, was approx. $145 (CP Package).
Friday, 12/03
We slept in (woke DS up at 11am, finally), and headed to the Wilderness Lodge for our 12:00 PS at Whispering Canyon Cafe. It was our first time here. Our server was Gail. She was fun, but not overly loud or obnoxious. I think it was good, because DS doesn't do well with loud people. He was a bit taken aback by some of the yelling the other servers were doing. DH and FIL had the all you can eat skillet (chicken, ribs, corn, beans, slaw...not sure what else), MIL had the pulled pork sandwich, DS had mac and cheese and fruit (I thought that was a nice option, instead of fries), and I had Cousin Al's Vegetarian Platter: cannelini beans, oven dried tomatoes, sauteed spinach, roasted butternut squash, fried potatoes, with a basil honey sauce. It was no California Grill ;-), but mine was wonderful!! I asked Gail if the chef would give me the recipe. Well, he did, kind of, but it will take some deciphering and experimenting to get it right! Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, although I think I was the happiest with mine. (It was REALLY good!!) Total, with tip, approx. $75. Solid A~we're trying to work this in for February.
Dinner was at the Liberty Tree Tavern, another first. Food was similar to Garden Grill, but better. Salad with strawberry viniagrette was very good. MIL loved the bread. Flank steak, ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots...that's all I remember. The apple crisp was much, much better than Garden Grill. We all enjoyed this meal. Our server was Maria, and she was great. Character interaction was pretty good, especially with Pluto. We also saw Minnie, Chip, Dale and Goofy. One of the character handlers was very, very helpful. She kept checking on Daisy's schedule for us (we need her signature on DS' T-shirt). Daisy didn't make an appearance, but Clancy was a big help, anyway. Total, with tip: $120. I'd give it an A-, I think.
Saturday, 12/04
We chose to have a character breakfast at 'Ohanas, because it is one of the few we haven't tried (I think Donald's is the only one we haven't done). Well, I can assure you, we will never have one there again! Remember Barry, our poor server at the Garden Grill? He was a GEM compared to Joaoun (or something like that). This guy stunk from the word go. He took our drink orders: decaf coffee for me, diet coke for DH, hot cocoa for DS, hot tea for FIL and a glass of milk, and milk for MIL. When he FINALLY came back with drinks, he brought: decaf coffee, diet coke, hot water, and one glass of milk. He came back later with tea bags and the other glass of milk. We asked about the cocoa, and he laughed and said he had given it to another table. Guess what he didn't bring for FIL? A cup for his tea! He finally brought both the cocoa and the cup. (He also brought a pitcher of diet coke for DH, so at least he didn't have to worry about refills.) I needed a refill on coffee, so instead of bringing the pot to the table, he picked up my cup by the top (gross!!) and took it to refill. When he brought it back to the table, he gave it to MIL, who was on the opposite side, so she, FIL and DH all had to touch it before it got back to me. By then, I didn't even WANT the coffee anymore! The food was pretty good (scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, Mickey waffles, biscuits, and the pineapple coconut bread you get initially), the character interaction was okay, nothing outstanding. The service was awful. We are good tippers (generally 20%+), but we gave him 15% only because we felt obligated to. Looking back, I wish we hadn't left that much. In fact, every single time, a server would say, I'll be back with your change (and we'd say, we don't need any, thanks). But this guy picked up the thing and said, Do you need change? DH said YES, I DO. The parade with the characters was very unorganized (we had no idea where to get the maracas, until finally another dad handed one to DH, who brought it to DS), and the characters didn't really seem to be "into" it. So...food A-, characters, B, service, F...that comes out to about a C, I think. Nope, won't be doing this one again. Total, with tip, $86.
Too bad that's what we ended on. Oh, well, we'll make up for it in February! So far, our dining choices for then are: Le Cellier, Crystal Palace for DS' birthday, and 1900 Park Fare. Most others will probably be counter service, since it will be just me and DS at the parks for the majority of the time.
Enjoy!
