Our delicious Deluxe Dining Adventures! Lots of pics! Final thoughts - All Done!!

[Lynn5700]

Aww Happy Birthday!!

OMG YUMMY TONGA TOAST!!!!! That Omelette looks very good too!!!

Tonga Toast is so healthy for you LOL!!!

 

[AussieAngel]

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everybody!! I had a great day! (Even though it was on a Monday!)

Wow...that sure is ALOT of cheese on that omelette! By the looks of both plates, I'm sure you were full for a pretty long time!

We were definitely full!! But that's okay... it just meant we didn't have to buy much food at Universal Studios that day! Heh!

YUM! Thanks for the review of Kona...I will definitely add that to my breakfast list! Your description of the Tonga toast was awesome--people keep mentioning it, but I had no idea what it was...until now. Thanks!

I'm glad I could be of help! Tonga Toast is great - you should definitely try it, if you like donuts and bananas!! (And sugar!)

is today your birthday or am i late and it was yesterday? well, regardless....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

breakfast at 7:30? i don't know if i could roll myself outta bed that early!

TONGA TOAST....

Thanks, Dawn!! You weren't too late at all with your birthday wishes! Perfect timing!
And I know, 7.30 is very early for breakfast. We had about 4 of those early breakfasts in a row. And I'm so not a morning person!!! How did that happen!?

Aww Happy Birthday!!

OMG YUMMY TONGA TOAST!!!!! That Omelette looks very good too!!!

Tonga Toast is so healthy for you LOL!!!

Thanks for your birthday wishes!! Tonga Toast, woohooo! It is definitely healthy! Because... you know... there's banana in there. And stuff.

You'll never guess what, everybody. You know how I started a new Photobucket account a few days ago? Well, now my new account is exceeding its Bandwidth!!! Whaaat!? Golly. So anyway, I decided to just pay to upgrade, so now I shouldn't have any more problems with it! Phew!

New review coming up tomorrow!

 

[AussieAngel]

So after our big, yummy breakfast at Kona, we drove straight to Universal Studios. Today was our Islands of Adventure day! Wahoooo!!

For lunch that day, for some reason we decided to stop at a counter service restaurant in the Dr Seuss land. The restaurant was called... Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-Pendous!

Wow! Sounds exciting, right!? The actual restaurant was fantastic. It really felt like you were sitting in the middle of a crazy Dr Seuss book. Colourful and lots of fun!

We only felt like something quick and not too big, after such a whopper breakfast. I ordered a Fried Chicken Sandwich, served with Fries, and an apple juice. DH ordered a Cheeseburger with Fries, and a Coke...

Can I just say.... ewwwwwwww!!!! It even looks bad, doesn't it!?

The fries were lukewarm and hard. DH's burger was cold in the middle. The toppings on our burgers were, well, kinda non-existant! I got a crusty old piece of lettuce (1 piece!), a squishy piece of tomato, and some stinky old pickles. No mayonnaise or anything! Heh!

My piece of chicken was okay, but I ate it with a worried thought in the back of my mind that it might have been sitting there for 4 days. But phew, it was fine! I ended up eating only the chicken, and DH nibbled on his burger. Our drinks were good though!

So, ew! That was lunch! We won't be going back to Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous. It really wasn't very stoo-pendous at all!! Oh well!

We gave Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous 1 out of 5 smiley men, and that's only for the cool setting!

Before we left Islands Of Adventure, we grabbed a funnel cake! You might find this hard to believe, but neither of us had ever tried a funnel cake before. We just don't have them in Australia!! I'd seen photos of them here on the DIS boards, so I fancied trying one.

It was humungous!!! I couldn't believe the size of it! We shared it, and even then, we didn't finish the whole thing. It was great - very sugary and tasty. We enjoyed our first funnel cake!!

Up next... Whispering Canyon Cafe dinner

 

[AussieAngel]

That night, we had a dinner reservation at... Whispering Canyon Cafe!

Since we were staying at the Wilderness Lodge, it was SO nice to not have to leave the resort to go to dinner! We were feeling a bit exhausted by now, after lots of full-on days with early mornings and late nights. So it really was lovely and very refreshing to be able to just head downstairs for dinner.

Apart from feeling pretty tired though, the deluxe dining was beginning to kick in. It was just SO much food, and SO many meals. We were beginning to feel it! We weren't full exactly, but we just weren't hungry! I know, you're probably thinking, "How can that be!?" We were surrounded by fabulous Disney restaurants. I'd been planning and dreaming about our vacation for SO long, and I'd been so excited about eating at all these fantastic places... and now all I wanted to eat was an apple. Oh dear!!

But nevertheless, we headed to the Whispering Canyon Cafe without hungry tummies. We'd been smelling the food and hearing the fun from the restaurant for days now, so we were still keen to try it out!

We were seated without a hassle within 5 minutes of checking in, and met our server. His name escapes me now, but he was great! He was relaxed, friendly and just seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He seemed about our age, and told us about a good friend he has in Australia. He wasn't over-the-top with his cowboy-type role, but that was perfect for us! As I said before, we were both sleepy and didn't really fancy riding around the restaurant on a wooden pony!!

We ordered our drinks first - we both went for the refillable milkshakes. I had vanilla and DH chose chocolate...

We both loved them! I just love vanilla flavoured things, and this was REALLY vanilla-y! It tasted like my really strong vanilla cupcakes I sometimes make. Heh. DH loved his chocolate shake too.

When he gave us our drinks, our server threw our napkins and straws at us. I'd heard about this happening, but totally wasn't expecting it, and DH and I both jumped and laughed our socks off! Silly!

Next came the cornbread and butter - which luckily he didn't throw at us.

This was delicious! I don't know if I've ever tried cornbread, but it was sweet and soft and I could have gobbled up the whole thing, even though I wasn't hungry! DH is a bit more sensible than me and only had a taste because he didn't want to fill up on bread.

For my appetizer, I ordered the Fried Chicken Wings, with a sweet chilli glaze...

Again, yum!! These were great! A tiny bit spicy, just the way I like my food. The glaze was delicious. A very tasty appetizer! But no, I didn't eat them all - it was a huge serving! DH and I could have easily shared this.

DH didn't quite know what to order. Nothing was jumping out at him. Eventually he chose the Southwestern Chicken Soup - creamy, spicy chowder with chicken, corn and potatoes...

He really enjoyed this, and if my memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure he ate it all! Pretty good from non-hungry people!

Throughout our meal, there were lots of crazy shananigans happening around the restaurant. Someone up the other end of the restaurant had to sing a song to his wife, and the guy at the table next to us asked for ketchup, so of course, he received 684 bottles of ketchup on his table. Heh. It was someone else's birthday too, and we all had to sing Happy Birthday while flinging our napkins madly on top of our heads.

So our entrees arrived next. I'd been looking forward to my dish for months! I just love a good pasta, and I'd been dying to try it... The Western Chicken Pasta - with fresh vegetables tossed with Roasted Garlic Chipotle Cream Sauce...

I really liked this dish, but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. I expected a bit more a garlicy flavour, and a bit more cream! It was still great, just not as flavoursome as I'd thought it might be. Again, I only ate about a third of it. I felt bad wasting so much food, but my belly just wasn't having it!!

DH ordered the Grilled Rib Eye Steak - with mashed potatoes and season vegetables...

He said the steak was a bit grissly and definitely nowhere near as good as the Yachtsman Steakhouse, but I think he still liked it. The potatoes were delicious - I had to have a try of those!

And so came dessert. We really, really didn't need dessert, but the Deluxe Dining Plan was calling again! Augh!

My choice was the Apple Caramel Pie - crumb-topped deep dish apple pie with vanilla ice cream...

Awesome! I chose this because I thought it might not be as heavy as some of the other desserts, and who can go wrong with a nice apple pie? Plus, I satisfied my apple craving. Heh. I only ate about half of it, but I really enjoyed it!

DH's dessert was the S'more Cheesecake - New York style cheesecake on a graham cracker crust topped with chocolate ganache and marshmallows...

Oh my goodness, he loved this. DH LOVES cheesecake. And he LOVES marshamallows. And he LOVES chocolate. So seriously, of course he was going to LOVE this!! Sadly though, he was so full that he only ate about half. If only we could pop back there now and finish our yummy meals!!

We really enjoyed our time at Whispering Canyon Cafe. We went into it, not really knowing what to expect, feeling tired and not hungry. But we ended up having lots of fun and really enjoying our meals. We'd definitely go back there. It was relaxing and fun - a nice change to some of the other really formal restaurants we'd been to. And most importantly of all, the food was great!

We gave Whispering Canyon Cafe 4 out of 5 smiley yellow men...

Next up... Breakfast at Chef Mickeys! (Oh no, not more food....!?)

 

[Mich123]

YUM! WCC looks awesome...I might have to change a reservation!

In reading your descriptions of cornbread and funnel cake, I have to ask...were there American foods that you liked, hated or were surprised by on your trip?

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We enjoy WCC from time to time. Like you said, it is a nice change of pace from the other more formal restaurants. Glad nobody had to ride a pony or anything like that. While I love watching the goofiness, I don't like to be a participant while I'm eating. Definitely a fun place.

 

[MinnieMom]

Thanks so much for the WCC review. I have always wanted to eat here, but I was afraid it would a bit too much for my shy DD. She's finally coming out of her shell and I think she'll really enjoy it now so I made an ADR for our upcoming trip in March. I can't wait!

 

[punkin413]

sorry about your meal at universal! that funnel caked looked good - haven't had one in years! they are so filling. and your food at WCC looks good, too. we ate there for lunch last year and we liked it too.

i hear ya on too much food! the first time we did the regular DDP we were both like, "NO MORE FOOD!!!!" even though it was all very good it's just too much. i can't imagine being on the deluxe DDP. i'd explode!

 

[morgy827]

mmmm...we love whispering canyon but we always have the all you can eat skillet. This year we are going for lunch so I'm excited to try some other things on the menu.

 

[trixiequilts]

Would you ever do deluxe again?

 

[babytrees]

Love the report, pics and the writing style!!!

Can't wait to share it with the kids who are picking the meals for our next trip!!

 

[LPNmom]

Seeing your review of the Wispering Canyon Cafe, makes me so excited to take my grand gathering group there in Oct. The cheesecake looks SOOOO Good. Thanks for the great review!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Great update! We enjoyed WCC on our last trip. DD would totally agree with you about the vanilla milkshakes and corn bread; she practically made a meal out of them.

 

[Jaimee]

Thank you for your wonderful report! DS and I are going to WDW next week for his birthday, and I can't wait to eat lol. I think I'm going to try to add a few restaurants to our schedule thanks to your pictures. Can't wait to read more!

 

[NMAmy]

There was a cute old lady on the table next to us, who couldn't stop looking at my dessert. She asked me what it was. Then she asked me if it was good. Then she asked me what the ice-cream was. Her husband joked that I should just give her a bite so she'd stop asking questions. Hehee. Cute. She ended up ordering it as her dessert too, and adored it.

If I didn't know my mother hasn't been to WDW since the 1970's, I'd suspect she'd been sitting next to you that night. I'm sorry your meal wasn't all you'd hoped for. It's disappointing to pay that much for a meal and have a bad server. Even though the picture was blurry, you both looked very nice that evening!

For lunch that day, for some reason we decided to stop at a counter service restaurant in the Dr Seuss land. The restaurant was called... Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-Pendous!

Wow! Sounds exciting, right!? The actual restaurant was fantastic. It really felt like you were sitting in the middle of a crazy Dr Seuss book. Colourful and lots of fun!

I hope to go to IoA someday just to go to the Dr. Seuss area. Although now I know to skip Circus McGurkus.

Before we left Islands Of Adventure, we grabbed a funnel cake! You might find this hard to believe, but neither of us had ever tried a funnel cake before. We just don't have them in Australia!! I'd seen photos of them here on the DIS boards, so I fancied trying one.

I've lived in the U.S. all my life and I've never had a funnel cake. DD likes them but I've just never tried one.

My choice was the Apple Caramel Pie - crumb-topped deep dish apple pie with vanilla ice cream...

One time when we ate at WC, our server asked if he could pick my dessert since I was having a hard time deciding. He told me he'd bring me his favorite and it was the Apple Caramel Pie. And he was right--it was wonderful!

Happy belated birthday, my friend!

 

[AussieAngel]

YUM! WCC looks awesome...I might have to change a reservation!
In reading your descriptions of cornbread and funnel cake, I have to ask...were there American foods that you liked, hated or were surprised by on your trip?

Hi Mich! WCC was great! What would you change to go there?

To answer your question... this was our third trip to America, so we kind of knew what to expect food-wise. It's not really that different to the food we serve here in Australia. BUT!!! The one thing we were constantly surprised at is the serving size. We've never gotten over the massive servings you get in America!! There have been many times where we've received our meals, and we just couldn't help but laugh. SO big!! Then it's awkward because there's no way I could finish a meal like that. Servers usually say something like, "Didn't you like it?!" And we have to explain that we're not used to such big servings!

Breakfast food in America is pretty different, actually. Here in Australia, we're used to cereal or toast, or if we're really spoiling ourselves, eggs and bacon. So we were surprised by seeing breakfast pizzas, breakfast steaks, breakfast donuts, breakfast lasagnes... ahhh!

I often think that if Americans come to Australia, they must be horrified by our small meals and our piddly little breakfasts! Heh! Plus, we don't get free soft drink refills either! Wah!

Wow, I raved on! Sorry!

We enjoy WCC from time to time. Like you said, it is a nice change of pace from the other more formal restaurants. Glad nobody had to ride a pony or anything like that. While I love watching the goofiness, I don't like to be a participant while I'm eating. Definitely a fun place.

Yep! I'm with you - it was fun to watch other people do silly things, but I don't want to actually do it! Heh!

Thanks so much for the WCC review. I have always wanted to eat here, but I was afraid it would a bit too much for my shy DD. She's finally coming out of her shell and I think she'll really enjoy it now so I made an ADR for our upcoming trip in March. I can't wait!

Ooh, yay! I hope you enjoy it in March! And your DD too. I think the servers are pretty good at reading people - if they see she's a bit shy and doesn't want to play much, hopefully they won't make her.

sorry about your meal at universal! that funnel caked looked good - haven't had one in years! they are so filling. and your food at WCC looks good, too. we ate there for lunch last year and we liked it too.
i hear ya on too much food! the first time we did the regular DDP we were both like, "NO MORE FOOD!!!!" even though it was all very good it's just too much. i can't imagine being on the deluxe DDP. i'd explode!

Auh! Definitely too much food! By around the middle of our Disney vacation, we were constantly full. Imagine how we felt at the end!!
Hope your wisdom tooth is feeling better!

Would you ever do deluxe again?

No!! We wouldn't. We realised that around half way through our vacation. It really was too much food. I had a blast in planning out all our meals and working out what I'd eat, but the planning turned out to be more fun than the eating. We were full all the time, and we were wasting so much food because we could only eat a few nibbles of our food. Plus because we were full from meals all the time, we missed lots of the snacks I wanted to try. So... nope. I think we'd stick to the normal Dining Plan next time.

mmmm...we love whispering canyon but we always have the all you can eat skillet. This year we are going for lunch so I'm excited to try some other things on the menu.

The skillet looked good! I just really wanted to try that pasta. I hope you enjoy your lunch this time!

Love the report, pics and the writing style!!!
Can't wait to share it with the kids who are picking the meals for our next trip!!

Thanks for popping in and for your nice comments! Lucky kids, getting to choose your meals!!

Seeing your review of the Wispering Canyon Cafe, makes me so excited to take my grand gathering group there in Oct. The cheesecake looks SOOOO Good. Thanks for the great review!

No worries! The cheesecake was delicious! Have a great time there in October, lucky things!

Great update! We enjoyed WCC on our last trip. DD would totally agree with you about the vanilla milkshakes and corn bread; she practically made a meal out of them.

Yay for vanilla milkshakes and cornbread!!!

Thank you for your wonderful report! DS and I are going to WDW next week for his birthday, and I can't wait to eat lol. I think I'm going to try to add a few restaurants to our schedule thanks to your pictures. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad my review helped you out a little bit! Have a blast with your DS!

If I didn't know my mother hasn't been to WDW since the 1970's, I'd suspect she'd been sitting next to you that night. I'm sorry your meal wasn't all you'd hoped for. It's disappointing to pay that much for a meal and have a bad server. Even though the picture was blurry, you both looked very nice that evening!

Thanks Amy! Funny about your mother!

I hope to go to IoA someday just to go to the Dr. Seuss area. Although now I know to skip Circus McGurkus.

The Dr Seuss area was fabulous!! We loved it so much that we ended up going on little kiddie rides just because we wanted to stay there for a bit longer. Lots of fun!

I've lived in the U.S. all my life and I've never had a funnel cake. DD likes them but I've just never tried one.

Amy!! You should totally try a funnel cake!! That should be your mission for your vacation next week - to try a funnel cake!!

:One time when we ate at WC, our server asked if he could pick my dessert since I was having a hard time deciding. He told me he'd bring me his favorite and it was the Apple Caramel Pie. And he was right--it was wonderful!
Happy belated birthday, my friend!

The Apple Caramel Pie was great! Your server must have had good taste!
Thank you for the birthday wishes!!

Next review coming up later on today, everybody! I'm going shopping this afternoon with my birthday money! Woohoo!

 

[AussieAngel]

The next morning, was....... hooraaaay! Our first sleep-in!!

It was also our morning to eat at Chef Mickeys!

Our ADR wasn't until 11am, which gave us a lovely, much-needed sleep-in!

We caught the little boat over to the Contemporary, and checked in at Chef Mickeys about 10 minutes before our ADR time. We were seated straight away in a room to the left of the buffet. I didn't even realise there were different rooms until much later!

Hmmm. As soon as we sat down, I had the distinct feeling we'd been transported to a children's birthday party at McDonalds. I know lots of people love Chef Mickeys and it is kinda fun, but this is the only place in the whole of Disney World that DH and I felt as though we were out of place. There was one other couple in there - everybody else had kids.

Nevertheless, we decided to make the most of it and gobble down on some breakfast! We actually hadn't eaten in over 13 hours - that has to be a record on the Deluxe Dining Plan!!

I was a little bit worried that because we were eating at 11am, the food might not be as fresh or plentiful as it would have been at 8am. But alas, the food was great! And lots of it, of course!

Here's my first plate...

From the top - Egg & Bacon Pizza, a Cinammon Roll, Bacon & Cheese Potatoes, Bacon, French Toast, and some Breakfast Potatoes in the middle.

Yum!!! Seriously, everything on that plate was delicious. Maybe except the French Toast, which could have been a bit crispier. I especially loved the bacon and cheese potatoes - they were awesome!

DH's first plate was a bit more piled on than mine!

In there somewhere is - scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, cheese & bacon potatoes, bacon, French toast, pancakes, and a donut.

He liked everything too, although maybe not as much as me. I think he especially liked the pancakes. He's a sucker for good pancakes!

And so began the onslaught of characters! They came really quickly, one after the other, and really didn't stay for very long. Not that I wanted them to pull up a chair and have a 10 minute chat, but some of them wouldn't have even stopped for a photo if I wasn't already holding the camera, ready to go.

First came Donald...

Then Goofy...

Then Minnie... (who waved and walked past us, until I asked her to stop for a quick photo!)

Then Mickey...

Then Pluto!

And last of all... Donald came back again!! I'm pretty sure Donald was, uh... a new Donald and not the same Donald who we'd met before. But nevertheless, DH posed for another photo with him!

I was a bit disappointed with the character interaction. We got our photos taken, but we really just didn't get to see any of their personalities, you know!? It wasn't really fun or playful - it was just a wave and a quick photo and then off again. It's totally understandable that they spend more time with families with kids, but we wouldn't have made an ADR at Chef Mickeys if we didn't want to play, you know?! Oh well!

There was more food to be had, by, er... me!

Some nice fresh fruit, a Krispy Kreme donut (woohoo!), chocolate croissant and an apple pastry thingy. Again, these were all great. I don't think I ate everything on my plate - just nibbled at it really!

The only thing I was sad about in regards to the food was the lack of the peanut butter and jelly pizza! That's at Chef Mickeys, right?! Cause it wasn't there that morning! I was really looking forward to trying some, but nope! Never mind, there was plenty of other yummy food to more than satisfy us!

I think we were done at Chef Mickeys in around 40 minutes. The characters were certainly speedy!

We really liked the food at Chef Mickeys. I guess I wasn't expecting much in terms of deliciousness, but it was actually better than I imagined! The atmosphere and the characters let our experience down though. It would be a fun place to bring kids, but I don't think I'd recommend it for just adults. We ate at lots of other great places for breakfast and met lots of other characters, and Chef Mickeys was the only place we felt a bit out of place. Lucky the food was good!!

We gave Chef Mickeys 3 smiley yellow men out of 5!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Great review again - we have a DD but even so the interaction is sometimes little more that a quick photo & wave.

Just a question - did you artfully arrange your food just for the camera??

 

[NMAmy]

. I especially loved the bacon and cheese potatoes - they were awesome!

When I saw your plate, I was thinking, "Man, I want some of those potatoes. I love those things!" Then reading on a little further, I realized I'd be preaching to the choir. They ARE awesome.

And I solemnly promise to make an effort to try a funnel cake this time. My only problem is that the American Adventure is right by my very favorite dessert at Epcot--France's crepe cart. I love those things with chocolate and strawberry sauce.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We have teenagers who still insist at times that we go to CM's. Last time we were placed in the same area you guys were in and we felt like we were put in the Twilight Zone. We just weren't feeling the Disney love tucked away back there. I'm glad you enjoyed the food, but totally understand about the atmosphere and character interaction. We've noticed as our kids got older, the characters stayed for less and less time at the table and yes, if you don't have your camera whipped out and ready to go, some will fly right by you.