April 2011 - Newbies on the DxDP - Updated 5/12 - Akershus & Sunshine Seasons

[chasemac]

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Thanks for the help... I was making this WAY harder than it needed to be!

 

[chasemac]

I'm in!

I hope you will say in the end if you thought the Deluxe was worth the additional money. I keep going back and forth with my decision.

Yes! I am definitely planning on doing a cost analysis at the end!

 

[chasemac]

So we had a filling breakfast at Akershus, and made it to Soarin' where we got our Fast Passes then rode the ride right away, saving the FP's for later. After this,we met up with DH and DS3, and headed into the Living Seas area. By this point, it is shaping up to be a very hot day. My touring plan had worked great the day before at MK, but for some reason fell apart at Epcot. We were way behind schedule. I had planned on eating Counter Service for our lunch this day because we were having to make an early day of it because of our evening plans, so we didn't want to lose a bunch of park time eating at a table service meal. This was actually our only planned counter service meal of the trip (i am not counting breakfasts at our resort in this statement.) I had read great things about Sunshine Seasons and figured it was the place to go.

We ate early-ish for lunch, around 11:30, but Sunshine Seasons was packed. I made a tactical error here, in that I should have printed menus and prepared my DH, DS15 and dad for the set up of the restaurant, being that it was our first real counter service meal. Up to this point we had only done counter service once at our resort for breakfast and this was snack items. I was really the only one who had a real understanding of the dining plan, and was kind of letting them in on it on a "need to know baiss". So, it was confusing and we were rushed because the place was filling up quick. I was trying to keep up with my younger ones and explain the process and it was just very stressful!

Me, my dad, and my DH all got the same thing: Turkey & Cheese on Foccacia, while my DS 15 got the sweet and sour chicken with noodles and rice. The two kids got uncrustables PB&J , which they had never had before, so I wasn't sure how this would go over. Once we finally made it through the line and past the cashier, we had our next obstacle: finding a table that would fit all six of us. We finally found one about as far back as you could go, and it was actually 2 tables side by side, which worked out fine. By this point my kids were super cranky (actually, so was I ).

All three of us that got the sandwiches agreed that they were pretty bad. I am not surprised my DH didn't like it because he really is not a sandwich person. But for me not to like a sandwich, especially one on focaccia is very unusual. The bread was not fresh, it was hard in places and just very thick and dry and at the same time the sandwich was a little soggy. I don't know how to explain it, but none of us ate more than half of our sandwich. I can't remember what the side item was, but I remember it wasn't terrible, it just didn't have much taste to it. My son really enjoyed his sweet and sour chicken and noodles. He said the chicken was just average asian buffet style chicken but the noodles were great. Indeed, I snuck a taste and they were really good. I really regretted not getting an asian dish with the noodles as a side. My daughter loved her PB&J, which really surprised me. I have actually been buying these at home now to put in her school lunch on mornings we are rushed. One bright spot here at Sunshine Seasons... fountain Coke Zero! Yay!

This lunch was probably one of the most stressful times during our whole trip. Some of this can be attributed to the heat and the collapse of our touring plan, and also poor planning on my part in relation to preparing for the counter service experience. But the sandwiches were just not good. At this point, I was also over the counter service option. I was very glad that being on the DxDP, I had planned almost all table service meals, a few of which I did at the last minute. I had really been second guessing myself on adding these table service meals for lunches, but after this experience, was super glad I did it. I am just not a fan of loading up a tray and waiting in line to pay and then hunting for a table amongst a crowd to eat mediocre food. Add in cranky kids, being hot and sweaty and it was not a gold-medal hour for us. I know I am probably being whiny, but it is just not how I like to vacation. My rating for this meal was a 4 out of 10. It was our worst overall dining experience during the trip.

It still took us an hour to eat here start to finish, so looking back, I think I would have like to have done a table service meal instead.