So Many ADR's, So Little Time...COMPLETE 7/24!

Aww...that's awesome, and a great memory to have of your grandmother.

We really like Tusker House, too. We went a few years ago for breakfast and had an impromptu trip for a late lunch this year. The food was good for both meals, and we will probably go again! It's such a nice cool break in the middle of the day, too!

I really like it there, and it's Luke's favourite character meal so it's already on our list for our trip again next year!

Following along and happy to see a fellow Albertan (we live in Sherwood Park) :)

We're practically neighbours! We live in southeast Edmonton.

I was super sick the first time we went here too! I missed the bread pudding :sad2:

That bread pudding was so good...mmm...

Congratulations on your engagement.

Thank you!

Thanks for your fab reviews. I have a dinner ADR for homecoming and I am even more excited after seeing this!

We are from UK, so I am excited to try actual Florida food. AO, I will know what the *real* versions taste like. I have my eye on the pecan pie. Among other things. Also, I am pretty certain a moonshine flight might find its way into my life.

Hope you enjoy! That pecan pie almost had me, but I just couldn't say no to the moonshine cake!
 
January 6, 2017 - Olivia's Cafe

We wanted to try Olivia’s Cafe for both breakfast and dinner, and we figured the night before the half marathon was the best time to schedule a dinner. This forced us to be back at Old Key West at a fairly decent time, and we knew from looking at the menu that it would have lots of great options for Luke the night before a big race.

Our reservation was at 6:30pm. We ended up checking in a few minutes late, due to waiting for a bus at Animal Kingdom, but the hostess assured us it was ok (I was worried we’d be charged the no-show fee and be unable to be seated – we were pushing 15 minutes late). We ended up only waiting a few minutes before being led to our table, a 4-top close to the hostess stand.

A few minutes later, a waitress came over apologizing, and told us our actual waitress had a large table and would be another few minutes, but was willing to get us any drinks we might want. We weren’t in any rush, we knew once we finished our meal we were just heading back to our room to go to bed so we were not upset by our waitress taking a few minutes to reach us.

I was boring, and ordered a glass of water and a Coke.

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Luke also ordered a glass of water, and a Turtle Krawl – Siesta Key White Rum, Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, and Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum with grenadine, Pineapple, Orange, and Key Lime Juices, $9.75. He was celebrating his half marathon before it happened haha! He enjoyed it, and did finish it all.

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Now on to the food! Here’s the menu:

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First, they brought us out some warm rolls and butter. There was nothing special about these, but I love my carbs!

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Luke ordered the Southernmost Buttermilk Chicken – mashed potatoes, southern gravy and seasonal vegetables, $18.

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This was pretty good, but since we had just been to Homecoming a few days prior this couldn’t even compare to that amazing chicken. The southern gravy was really great and full of flavour. The breading could have been a little crispier than it was (but we assume it had to sit under a heat lamp since I asked for my meal well-done). Overall though, Luke was pleased with this meal, and it is one of the cheapest options on the menu. He says he would order this again!

I ordered the Slow-cooked Prime Rib – 10oz cut with Olivia’s potatoes, seasonal vegetables and cabernet demi-glace $32. I specifically asked for this to be cooked well done, and it wasn’t an issue at all – and came out cooked perfectly! I was also very happy when I saw that the “seasonal veggies” were beans and carrots – two of my favourites! (I have such simple tastes haha).

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As for those Olivia’s potatoes – oh emm gee. I can’t believe I actually just typed that, but I don’t know how else to describe them. So freakin’ good. They were thinly sliced and layered – basically scalloped potatoes. Mmm, they were so amazing they deserve a close-up:

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Our waitress was very apologetic, since she was serving a very large party, but we really didn’t mind or care at all. When she brought us our receipt though, she had given us a 10% discount for “making us wait”, which was really nice of her! If we were in a rush to get somewhere, I’m sure the speed would have bothered us a bit more, but we were busying checking the internet and discovering the news about the cancelled half marathon.

We both love this restaurant, it has a great ambiance and a decent menu. It’s considered a bit of a hidden gem on Disney property, since people don’t typically travel to Old Key West just to check it out, but the restaurant was fairly full this night! This restaurant is one of the reasons we love OKW so much <3

The total for our bill (after the 10% discount) was $61.66.​
 
Thanks for the photo of the prime rib - I am hungry just looking at it! I have had the chicken dish before and it hits the spot when you want some comfort food. I love all three meals at Olivia's! Made an ADR for September and I am hoping that prime rib is on the prix fixe menu for Orlando's Magical Dining month.
 
Thanks for the photo of the prime rib - I am hungry just looking at it! I have had the chicken dish before and it hits the spot when you want some comfort food. I love all three meals at Olivia's! Made an ADR for September and I am hoping that prime rib is on the prix fixe menu for Orlando's Magical Dining month.

Olivia's was so good! We're staying at OKW for 11 nights on our next trip, so I'm looking forward to eating there again!
 


Hi I just binge read your dining review and am enjoying it and your great pictures.

I loved the picture of the snack on the airplane, I love those plane pictures, they just scream "i'm on vacation!"

Glad you made your Disney springs ressie. I loved the garden grill pictures, I haven't had dinner there in 5 years, looks like they changed the salad (I don't remember bacon in it). I remember the greens were so fresh & delicious (they said they were grown in the land), were the greens still that fresh?

Looking forward to reading more, Marina :cutie:
 
Hi I just binge read your dining review and am enjoying it and your great pictures.

I loved the picture of the snack on the airplane, I love those plane pictures, they just scream "i'm on vacation!"

Glad you made your Disney springs ressie. I loved the garden grill pictures, I haven't had dinner there in 5 years, looks like they changed the salad (I don't remember bacon in it). I remember the greens were so fresh & delicious (they said they were grown in the land), were the greens still that fresh?

Looking forward to reading more, Marina :cutie:

Thanks for reading!

The salad from Garden Grill was so good! We were told that most items in it were grown in the land, so it was nice and fresh :)
 
January 7, 2017 - Earl of Sandwich
This review will be slightly different than all the rest up to this point, I let my fiance, Luke write this one - he's much more knowledgeable about sandwiches than I am :) Also - he's a much better writer than I am, seeing as he does it for a living...

Hi, Luke here. That’s why it’s written in italics. Fallon commissioned me to tackle this blog post because when it comes to eating sandwiches – she’s a novice and I am the Jane Goodall of eating these things. I wish I could go live with sammitches in the wild. Roam free with them in the delis of New York. Become a part of their hoagie tribe. Then when they’re not expecting it – devour every last one of those suckers as they sleep or whatever sandwiches do in this oddball scenario,

What’s important is that you know my answer to what I’d eat if I were marooned on a desert island with only 1 thing to eat for the rest of my life is the humble sandwich. Think about it. If you value variety in your 1 food option for the rest of your life, it’s the only right answer. There’s no such thing as ice cream spaghetti that I know of.

Anyways, for years I’d heard anyone who’d visited Vegas rave about Earl of Sandwich. I hadn’t realized there even was one of these places in Orlando in 2016 so we didn’t go. But we were on the Disney Dining Plan that trip so we wouldn’t have gone to Earl anyhow. It’s a poor value on the DDP for those unbeknownst. That said, as an out of pocket food stop – NOTHING BEATS EARL OF SANDWICH. HEY, CAPS LOCK IS ON. I’LL ALLOW IT.

So when we were laying out our plan for Disney World 2.0, the idea was to head to Earl of Sandwich to consume all of the carbs in celebration of my finishing my first half-marathon since 2013. It was a solid plan. Supple, but apropos. You know what they say about the best laid plans and lightning storms cancelling road races because people working it are averse to lightning strikes. It’s like they don’t even want to see if they’d get super powers…

You know what the next best thing to eating sandwiches of victory after accomplishing your goals? Eating consolation sandwiches cause **** – I can’t help that they cancelled the race. May as well carbo-load. It’s just so comforting.
So we get to Earl of Sandwich on this rainy/gloomy day and it’s lined up out the door. This is not out of the ordinary. Cause hot damn – these sangs you guys. You get to the counter and order your choice(s) and shuffle along for the other stuff (chips/drinks/mac and cheese/salads/a giant vat of horseradish if you’re one of those weirdos who’s into that sort of thing). Fallon orders a holiday turkey with no cranberry sauce. This displeased the clerk who gave her quite the ribbing. I ordered a Hawaiian BBQ. Then I ordered a The Earl’s Club. In case the first one broke down. Hey – I was coping and these turned out to be super-terrific. I was in the right and a half.

So we move along, make ours a combo with kettle cooked potato chips and fountain pops ($2.99 extra each). Canadians call soda pops because that’s terminology approved by the queen of England so we’re like “k” about it. My point here is whenever there’s Cherry Coke on tap I’m all in.

Fallon grabbed a table because seating here is at a premium. Yeah you can take it out or sit outside if it’s not barely above zero Celsius in the rain. That was not the case that day. So Fallon hovered waiting for a spot to open up while I held the pager thing… eagerly awaiting it’s buzz to alert me that it’s my time to indulge in crispy flavoured deliciousness.

The buzzer sounds. The crowd roars (1 man can be a crowd if he’s hungry enough). I go grab the food and I’m all whisky tango foxtrot?!?!? Fallon ordered a soup. Gimme gimme gimme. Which in Canadian sounds like “Oh excuse me… I believe you forgot our soup. And I didn’t order whatever is in this aluminum tray.” The server was aghast. The politeness was too much. He got the soup, and told me to keep the mystery tray.

I think before Fallon unwrapped her sandwich I’d already polished off half of that Earl’s Club sandwich. Oh man… so good. There’s not too many ingredients on any of Earl of Sandwich’s offerings and that simplicity is what makes them all work so well. They have 12 options on the menu, with 3-7 ingredients each, on 1 type of amazing delicious bread. It’s sandwiches done right in every sense of the dish. Sandwiches are either $6.99US or $7.45US. Which would be pretty much the best deal anywhere at Disney even if the food wasn’t fantastic.

Hawaiian BBQ – 10/10. I would text back the next day.
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The Earl’s Club – 9.75 out of 10. Would inhale again.
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Free Mac and Cheese – surprisingly good. I’d recommend as a side item provided you haven’t eaten 2 sandwiches and some chips and a Cherry Coke or three prior.
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Holiday Turkey – I don’t know/10 – but Fallon did rave about this and she isn’t the sando aficionado.
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Broccoli Cheese Soup – yes. I would taste again. Worthy of the Premium Plus crackers crumbled into it.
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Cherry Coke from a fountain – 3 pops out of soft drink deliciousness.

Canada needs an Earl of Sandwich in whatever city I am in at all times.


Luke didn't list all the prices for each item, so if you were curious, here you go:

Broccoli cheddar soup, $2.99
Holiday Turkey – Turkey, cornbread stuffing, turkey gravy, cranberry sauce and mayonnaise $6.99 (no cranberry)
Hawaiian BBQ – ham, grilled chicken, BBQ sauce, Swiss and pineapple $6.99
The Earl’s Club – turkey, bacon, Swiss, lettuce, Roma tomato and sandwich sauce $7.45
Mac N Cheese $4.99

As for the chips we added to our combos, Luke had Original Chips – which are really only good when they’re kettle cooked. I went for Sea Salt and Vinegar Chips – because America doesn’t seem to understand the amazing thing that is flavoured chips, so when you see them you need to grab them. Seriously – try All Dressed or Ketchup chips sometime, and tell me they aren’t life-changing.

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You know what they say about the best laid plans and lightning storms cancelling road races because people working it are averse to lightning strikes. It’s like they don’t even want to see if they’d get super powers…

Thoroughly enjoyed Luke's EOS review! I seriously :rotfl2: at the quote above!
 
All Dressed chips are amazing!

On a side note, every carbonated drink in my neck of the woods is called a "coke" Seriously. I think it's a southern thing.
 
So we move along, make ours a combo with kettle cooked potato chips and fountain pops ($2.99 extra each). Canadians call soda pops because that’s terminology approved by the queen of England so we’re like “k” about it.
:rotfl:

Free Mac and Cheese – surprisingly good. I’d recommend as a side item provided you haven’t eaten 2 sandwiches and some chips and a Cherry Coke or three prior.
Awesome! I've heard it's very good. I did go to EOS once a few years back, but I didn't even realize they had mac and cheese as a side.

Worthy of the Premium Plus crackers crumbled into it.
Soup is just not the same without the crackers. I thought that was a Newfoundland or Canadian thing, but I guess not.
 
First of all, I'm having a crappy day and reading this review made me :rotfl2: which I definitely needed. I didn't love EOS when we went a few years ago, but I am not a sandwich aficionado and very picky about toppings. Maybe I'll give it another go sometime.

Canadians call soda pops because that’s terminology approved by the queen of England so we’re like “k” about it.

This was my favorite part. I'm from Ohio. It's definitely pop. Next time someone tries to correct me, I'll tell them the queen of England says I'm right!
 
I showed Luke all of your comments about his report, and he was quite pleased haha. He did write one more dining report from this trip which I'll post eventually, and he also wrote some of our Disneyland trip report (link in my signature). I just need to remember to proof read it and remove the swear words, since I got in trouble over the post above... oops!

PS: I'm going to get Luke to do the replies to your messages on this post :)
 
Love your trip report. So want to fit homecoming into our plans after reading your review
 
Trader Sam's - January 7, 2017

Trader Sam’s was a place we were both really looking forward to trying out. I actually did minimal research on the place so I wouldn’t know about the special things that happen when certain drinks are ordered – I wanted to be surprised

We took a bus from Disney Springs to the Polynesian, and arrived around 3:30. I love the lobby there, that hotel is on my must-stay list for one day in the future!

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Trader Sam’s didn’t open until 4pm, but we went to check in around 3:40. We were told there were 28 people ahead of us on the list, and then we were handed a pager. I did research enough to know the capacity of the bar is about 40 people, so I knew we wouldn’t have to wait too long!

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We found a seat along the bench in the hallway outside Capt’ Cooks. Luke decided to run to the bathroom, so he completely missed out on the family that sat down beside me and yelled at each other for the next few minutes… They were definitely at the tail end of their vacation, and I’d say they were sick of spending that much time with each other, coupled with a lack of sleep. The kids were fighting with each other, the parents were fighting with each other, the kids and parents were fighting each other. It was really lovely Disney Magic to be a part of (that last sentence was sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell…)

Once 4pm hit, we noticed people walking past us with buzzing pagers, so we knew they had begun letting people in to Trader Sam’s. Around 4:10 we were buzzed, and in we went!

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Most of the smaller tables had already been grabbed, so we sat down at a large round table, fully prepared to share. Before long a family came over and asked if they could sit with us, and of course we said yes. There was one couple who were DVC owners, and if I remember correctly they had two of their adult children with them, as well as a teenage grandchild and a few family friends. They were extremely friendly, and we enjoyed chatting with them for the next hour or so.

We had our dinner reservation coming up at ‘Ohana, so we knew we didn’t want to order any food at Trader Sam’s. Let’s be serious here – no one goes to Trader Sam’s for the food, it’s all about the fancy drinks!

I really wanted to try the Nautilus, but it’s huge (recommended for 4 people), and costs $55, so I scaled back and went with the 2 person, $40 Uh-Oa

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This is described on the menu as: Myer’s original dark rum, bacardi superior rum, orange, passion fruit, guava, pineapple and grapefuit juices, falernum, cinnamon and fresh lime juice. It is served in a souvenir glass, and your server will light it on fire at your table. The cinnamon sits in the top of the head of the three little tiki guys, and you can throw it into the flame to make sparks. It’s pretty entertaining! If you want just the drink, the cost is $20, but if you want the glass to take home they will charge you an additional $20 for it. They just mark it on your receipt, and as you’re leaving they will give you a brand new, unused mug securely boxed up.

Luke decided to go for the Dark & Tropical Stormy – Gosling’s Black Seal Rum, fresh lime juice, ginger beer and falernum, $8.50.

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This one obviously has a much cheaper price tag, since it is a significantly smaller serving than my Uh-Oh, and it is not served in a souvenir mug. I really loved the broken umbrella to add to the “stormy” name of it. Luke loved this drink, it had a lot of booze and a lot of kick and a really great flavour. He did end up ordering a second one (and says he could have continued drinking them all night if we didn’t have a supper reservation).

Of course with certain drinks, there is a bit of a “show”, and it was so much fun to just be in that little bar enjoying some drinks and taking everything in. I highly recommend making time to go check out Trader Sam’s on every trip!​
 
OH! I love that tropical dark and stormy. I now make those at home (and drink them all night, if I want) :)
 
'Ohana - Supper - January 7, 2017

When we made our ADR’s, we decided on ‘Ohana for our non-park day, since it was the day Luke would be running the half marathon and we figured he would be hungry. Of course, the half marathon was cancelled but we still stuck with our initial plan of having a non-park day, and kept all of our planned meals the same.

‘Ohana is located at the Polynesian Resort, and is one of the most difficult ADR’s to secure, this place books up quickly. We booked this within minutes of our 180 day window opening up – highly recommended if you want to eat here.

After enjoying a few drinks at Trader Sam’s (review above), we headed upstairs to check in for our ‘Ohana supper. I’ve read horror stories of people waiting an hour or more past their reservation before being seated, but we only had to wait maybe 5 minutes before being buzzed.

As a hostess led us to our table, she pointed out the fire pits where the meats are cooked, and then stopped to pick up a loaf of the pineapple coconut bread.

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The only adjective I can give this is ok. You can definitely taste the pineapple, which gives this bread a bit of a sweet taste, but they don’t give you butter for it so it’s just dry bread. Not my thing, I ate a single little piece and that was enough. No worries though, I knew there was still more than enough food coming to fill me up!

For drinks, I kept it simple and had a glass of water and a Coke. Luke had the same.

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They also brought us some warm towels, but I’m not fancy enough to even know what to do with those….

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Next, we were brought out a salad, which I believe had a passion fruit vinaigrette on it. This was good, it was salad, but I didn’t plan on filling up on this. I believe Luke and I finished all of this though.

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Next up was this giant platter of food:

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This had stir-fry veggies, teriyaki noodles, pot stickers and honey coriander chicken wings. I’m not a huge fan of chicken wings, so I only ate one of those, but the veggies and noodles were amazing! The pot stickers were also really great!

While we were loading up our plates with food from this platter, they came around with the skewers of steak, chicken and shrimp. I don’t eat anything from the sea, but Luke tried a shrimp (despite the fact he has a mild shellfish allergy…). I took one piece of chicken, but I wasn’t a huge fan since it was thigh meat – I’m definitely a white meat only person when it comes to chicken. I knew the steak would not be cooked to my liking, so I asked our server if I could have some well-done pieces (they typically serve medium). A few minutes later, our server came back with steak they cooked extra long just for me

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It was cooked perfectly well done, and was so tasty! At some point we were asked if we wanted more of anything from the platter with noodles, and we just asked for everything haha. I seriously loved those noodles! And it was nice to eat some vegetables, broccoli is one of my favourites.

Once we had finished stuffing our faces, it was time for dessert! And oh man, was I looking forward to this one! ‘Ohana bread pudding with banana foster caramel sauce – yum!

This is what it looks like when it first comes out:

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And a close up of the sauce:

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And after pouring that amazing sauce all over it:

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This was seriously amazing. It’s also a HUGE serving, and we were barely able to put a dent into that thing. So, so, so good though!

This is a pricier meal, at $45/person but it is something I would not hesitate to do again – I’ve already added it to our plans for our next trip in 2018 with an ADR for 18 people.​
 
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So I just came across your dining report and I'm glad I did because your food pictures look amazing. Also congrats on getting engaged! I know it's a few months late, but you must be really excited about it still. I love your Ohana pictures they look great. And it's good to know you can ask for the steak well done because that's how I like it.
 
I’ve read horror stories of people waiting an hour or more past their reservation before being seated, but we only had to wait maybe 5 minutes before being buzzed.

That's how it was for us on our trip in May, too! It was so weird, because we usually wait much longer.

They also brought us some warm towels, but I’m not fancy enough to even know what to do with those….

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Haha...I always eat several chicken wings, so it's nice to be able to clean up with this. Whether or not that's what you're supposed to do, I don't know!

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This had stir-fry veggies, teriyaki noodles, pot stickers and honey coriander chicken wings. I’m not a huge fan of chicken wings, so I only ate one of those, but the veggies and noodles were amazing! The pot stickers were also really great!

I love the pot stickers and dream of those noodles! Seriously, SO GOOD!

Luke tried a shrimp (despite the fact he has a mild shellfish allergy…)

Well, at least it was just one?

Glad you enjoyed 'Ohana. It is probably our favorite dinner. I keep thinking maybe we'll go a trip and skip it, but we never do.
 

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