An Aussie Perspective on Disney Dining - updated 3/9 - Citricos FINALLY!

[eurasian81]

Is it difficult for you all to make the mental transition when you see a menu and know you will be tipping 15-20% on top of that, or is that just kind of a given when you travel to the U.S.? also is it common knowledge that in the U.S. tips differently? I know we found out only because my husband and I took a kind of "Welcome to Germany" class when we first moved there, but had we not i am sure we would have tipped as we usually do here.

On my prior visits, the $A has been so low that it was disheartening to see a price on a menu and then add the tax and the tip (our tax in included in the price) and then convert to $A. Luckily, this trip the $A is very close to the $US so we didn't do the mental conversion and I had been saving for months so I wasn't as concerned about the costs (the dining plan played a big part in that) as opposed to when I came in 2001 as a poor uni student when the $A was worth 50c USD.

For us, we know that we need to tip and have never "not tipped because it's not what we do back home".

My friends that have travelled to the States know about tipping waiters and bellhops, but I'm not sure everyone would know to tip housekeeping and hairdressers.

There were a few occasions where we weren't sure if we were meant to tip or not and had to ask others (e.g - we were told that: you are meant to tip the driver of the Alamo van who picks you up from your hotel, but you don't need to tip the Segway tour instructor) - so it can be a little confusing.

 

[flamom]

I'm really enjoying your reviews,pictures and hearing about Australia. thanks for sharing!

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

On my prior visits, the $A has been so low that it was disheartening to see a price on a menu and then add the tax and the tip (our tax in included in the price) and then convert to $A. Luckily, this trip the $A is very close to the $US so we didn't do the mental conversion and I had been saving for months so I wasn't as concerned about the costs (the dining plan played a big part in that) as opposed to when I came in 2001 as a poor uni student when the $A was worth 50c USD.

For us, we know that we need to tip and have never "not tipped because it's not what we do back home".

My friends that have travelled to the States know about tipping waiters and bellhops, but I'm not sure everyone would know to tip housekeeping and hairdressers.

There were a few occasions where we weren't sure if we were meant to tip or not and had to ask others (e.g - we were told that: you are meant to tip the driver of the Alamo van who picks you up from your hotel, but you don't need to tip the Segway tour instructor) - so it can be a little confusing.

I never thought about all the "extra" folks we tip here. Thanks for your perspective

 

[mcrabeck]

Enjoying your reviews! Look forward to hearing more

 

[mom2ee]

curious about the CP and dining plan. did you have Deluxe or Regular? Were the app included at Chefs because of CP or was it DxDP?

 

[DizOz]

Its great to get a fellow Aussie's opinions on the food. Most of the restaurants you visited are on our list for our next trip. Look forward to reading the rest of your reviews.

Two of the things I hate about travelling in the US is the coffee (Its like dish water so weak) and the bacon (More like chewy bits of rubber). Other than that you are right the service is much better than here in Australia. It seems sometimes they think they are doing you a favour by bringing your meal.

The staff at WDW have always been fantastic to us and have never had any problems with the food.

We have been lucky the past few times we have travelled ot the US. The dollar has been near parity both times, makes things a lot cheaper.

 

[eurasian81]

curious about the CP and dining plan. did you have Deluxe or Regular? Were the app included at Chefs because of CP or was it DxDP?

We were on the regular dining plan. Appetizers were included as part of the CP package (and thus the two credits used per person).

 

[eurasian81]

Its great to get a fellow Aussie's opinions on the food. Most of the restaurants you visited are on our list for our next trip. Look forward to reading the rest of your reviews.

Two of the things I hate about travelling in the US is the coffee (Its like dish water so weak) and the bacon (More like chewy bits of rubber). Other than that you are right the service is much better than here in Australia. It seems sometimes they think they are doing you a favour by bringing your meal.

I'm not a coffee drinker but I have heard that comment from fellow Aussies often. If you read Pete Werner's blog on his Disney Adventures trip to Australia, he had the opposing view about our coffee which I found amusing!!

However, the bacon - I agree. I don't like it cooked to a crisp the was at Disney (but I know I'm odd on that point). The bacon at Pop Century was all fat and very little meat (may just be Pop though).

We picked those restaurants based on the menus and style of food (similar to Australian style of cooking but with ingredients that aren't as common (or affordable) here in Australia such as duck, lobster, buffalo etc. Burgers, prime rib, fried chicken, creamy pasta etc all have their place but it wasn't what we were looking to eat on this trip.

 

[eurasian81]

I wasn't as diligent at taking photos of our counter service and snack food so I'll try to keep the word pictures succinct.

Day 3 started with breakfast at the Crystal Palace. The ADR was for 9am. We were able to enter the Magic Kingdom at 8am and take lots of photos of the empty park. We checked in at 8.25am and were seated at 8.30am so it worked out perfectly (there seemed to be a lot of empty tables that morning).

There was confetti on our table which was to celebrate that I had a pending birthday. I saw cupcakes being handed out and was actually relieved I didn't get one as I'd rather have a donut hole from the buffet as my sugar hit!!

Buffet food never looks as appetizing on one's plate so I don't have photos, but some quick highlights:

Scrambled Eggs - light and fluffy
Pastrami smoked salmon - 10 out of 10 - LOVED IT!!

I'm actually not a huge fan of the Winnie the Pooh characters as I didn't grow up with them but picked this venue as our character meal so we could get into the park before everyone else (I'm a photo buff) and the building itself is very grand. That being said, I have developed an affinity for Eeyore so was pleased to get a photo with him.

We then split snacks for most of the day:

Sweet Cream Cheese Pretzel - we didn't care for this at all - very doughy and tasted uncooked
Salt Pretzel - better than the sweet one but still a bit doughy for my taste
Brownie from Main Street Bakery - heavenly and huge

For dinner, we went to Cosmic Rays and split a chicken burger and got apples as our side and dessert. We cut the burger in half and then loaded up on the fixins bar all the salad we could fit. The chicken breast was moist and generous. The bread was a little soft but overall it was a good meal.

Next up, Day 4 (Pop, Fruit, Flame Tree BBQ and Boma) which was our attempt to cut back on the carb-overdose that was Day 3!!!

 

[eurasian81]

I just realised I've missed a meal.

After checking in we headed to Everything Pop for lunch. Dad and I split a Reuben Flatbread and tub of grapes.

We both enjoyed it a lot; it wasn't greasy (which we thought it may be) and it was quite flavourful.

 

[PearlySwan]

Wow! I'm loving you culinary report. Thanks for sharing and please keep it coming!

 

[Zeebs]

On my prior visits, the $A has been so low that it was disheartening to see a price on a menu and then add the tax and the tip (our tax in included in the price) and then convert to $A. Luckily, this trip the $A is very close to the $US so we didn't do the mental conversion and I had been saving for months so I wasn't as concerned about the costs (the dining plan played a big part in that) as opposed to when I came in 2001 as a poor uni student when the $A was worth 50c USD.

For us, we know that we need to tip and have never "not tipped because it's not what we do back home".

My friends that have travelled to the States know about tipping waiters and bellhops, but I'm not sure everyone would know to tip housekeeping and hairdressers.

There were a few occasions where we weren't sure if we were meant to tip or not and had to ask others (e.g - we were told that: you are meant to tip the driver of the Alamo van who picks you up from your hotel, but you don't need to tip the Segway tour instructor) - so it can be a little confusing.

It is terrible when you dollar is so bad against the currency of the country you are travelling in isn't it? on our first trip to the USA from NZ it was 38 cents in the $1, I remember a juice and toast at breakfast one more costing me nearly $20.00 nz dollars with tip and tax........

Yikes, although now I live in the UK it was nice on our last trip in 2008 as the pound was nearly double the US dollar so good for us.

Am enjoying the report, it is good to read from a prespective such as my own coming from NZ and having lived for 5 odd years in Australia.

Kirsten

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Joining in. Enjoying your food report.

 

[BecBennett]

Joining in.

I agree with you on the cheese, and my fiance would agree emphatically with you on the coffee.

However one thing I've found is the mince meat over in the states is completely totally awesome compared to our mince meat . I often get a craving for an American burger, but can never recreate it at home. I've bought DF a mincer for Christmas, and we're going to have another go at it

 

[Flossbolna]

I Love your Australian perspective to Disney Dining. I think it is actually quite similar to my German perspective! Lot's of the things you describe I notice as well.

I am looking forward to your signature dinners, we have some of those planned as well!

 

[Sandy321]

enjoying your trip report - and your pictures are great!

Thanks for sharing it with us!!

 

[mossyflossy]

signing on too. really interesting to hear the aussie perspective. I too don't get the yellow cheese thing in the US, and totally agree that the portion sizes are way too much, but that's from a British point of view!

 

[eurasian81]

Sorry for the delay, started back at work yesterday and the holiday is officially over......

I’m going to combine the next few days into one post as these are the “without photos part”. I promise I have photos of HBD, AP ,WCC and Citricos!!

Day 4

The pretzel disappointment from the day before had me craving salads and protein.

For breakfast, we ventured into Everything Pop and ordered the Bountiful Platter (eggs, bacon , sausage, potato, biscuits and French toast fingers) but only got the eggs, bacon and sausage part. It was “meh” – not horrible but nothing to write home about.

Morning tea was a pineapple tub at the Harambe Fruit Market – very fresh and sweet.

For lunch we split a serve of Ribs, Coleslaw, Beans and Choc Mousse from Flame Tree BBQ. We both enjoyed the ribs – the spice rub was very good. The coleslaw was OK and Dad raved about the beans (but did note that they must have been sitting in a warmer for a while as they have formed a skin). I had a grand total of two mouthfuls of the mousse (it was delicious but sweet and I had a little “food guilt” from the day before so didn’t want to eat too much).

Finally, it was time for dinner at Boma. We checked in for our ADR about 45 minutes early as we both exhausted. Sidenote: I had chosen fashion over comfort that day as I figured that given the size of Animal Kingdom and the rides there, we’d knock it over in half a day and wouldn’t walk that much. Suffice it to say, walking around 12 miles in flip flops because someone wanted to go on Everest 7 times and we had to keep trekking back to Asia each hour was terribly terribly painful. I actually gave up wearing the pedometer after this day as we were averaging 25,000 steps a day so I gave up keeping track.

Back to the food, I was really bad with the camera today – no photos of food but will point out some the highlights for me:

Spinach and Quinoa salad – I had platefuls of this as it was fresh, zesty and exactly what had been lacking in the diet after travelling for so long
Pork Shoulder – tender, moist and flavourful
She-Crab Soup – I don’t usually like soup but it was great (I asked for the recipe!!)

I know that the big thing to do here is the Zebra dome and I was looking forward to trying one very much after reading these boards for months. I would describe them as “small balls of sickly sweet white chocolate icing covering a little bit of cake”. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it a lot, but one was enough for me.

Day 5


The next day we couldn’t face another day at the parks – I felt like my toes were broken and Dad was also limping so we decided to head to the Outlet Malls instead for a couple of hours shopping which ended up being about 8 hours!!

We made it to HS for Fantasmic – we were one of the last to leave the theatre and split a Churro on the way out. It was terrible; it must have been sitting there for a couple of hours as it was very leathery. After a mouthful we went back to the kiosk and they gave us a fresh one. Beware: get your Churro before the show!!

We limped back to Pop for dinner and I had the Chicken Penne Alfredo which was surprisingly good. The chicken breast was large and it was proper chicken (not processed and reshaped) and the penne was al dente. The sauce, well… you know how sometimes you taste something that you know isn’t great but it’s familiar and you enjoy it anyway?? That was the alfredo sauce; it didn’t taste gourmet, it was processed, it was thick and a little gluggy but it reminded me fondly of many meals at Sizzler with my teenage friends from many years ago and it tasted like comfort.

Day 6

I was so excited about today as it was our “Around the World on a Segway Tour”!! Excitement turned to disappointment when at the crucial “you may now take pictures” moment, my camera battery completely died. I asked another girl on the tour to take our photo and e-mail it to us, but alas, have yet to receive it – here’s hoping.

Actually, you think of all sorts of solutions after the event…if you are ever in a similar predicament, the smarter idea would have been to see if anyone else’s camera used an SD card and get them to use their camera with your card – wish I would have thought of that two weeks ago!!!

Anyway the tour was great – highly recommended. We spent the middle of the day at Florida Mall but made it back for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

We just snacked for dinner – the cookies were OK but the hot chocolate was very nice. I tried my first dole whip and I liked it a lot. I saw the size of the cup so we got one each which was a mistake as it was filled about 10cm over the top of the cup so neither of us could finish more than half! I also had a hotdog at Casey’s Corner which I always enjoy.

OK, that was the last of the “dull part in the middle”…next up, Hollywood Brown Derby (with pictures I promise!!!)

 

[MomsOf2boys]

I just wanted to say that I am very much enjoying your report and love hearing the Austrailian differences as well. I also noticed you refer to morning tea a couple of times, is this a regular daily thing among Australians? Very interesting as I always have heard afternoon tea. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Zeebs]

I just wanted to say that I am very much enjoying your report and love hearing the Austrailian differences as well. I also noticed you refer to morning tea a couple of times, is this a regular daily thing among Australians? Very interesting as I always have heard afternoon tea. Thank you for sharing.

Morning tea is the general term for a drink and snack between breakfast and lunch also termed as smoko depending where you are from. In the UK they also refer to this time as elevenese. Afternoon tea is the term for the break between lunch and dinner (also called tea again depending where you are from)

It gets very confusing

Kirsten