Celebrating a 21st Birthday Around the World. A DxDDP Review. Update 08/22 'Ohana

[MissKIA]

We are back! It was a great trip!

We had way too much food and I got pictures of almost everything! Here we go!

Day 1:

We had to get up to leave for the airport at 2 am and I managed to get about 90 minutes of sleep that night, so needless to say we were all very tired the first day. We finally arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge at around 3 pm.

We had originally planned on going to Disney Springs our first night and going to Morimoto Asia for dinner, however the more I looked over the menu, the more I couldn't justify using 2 dining credits here for dinner.

We ended up changing our reservation to Whispering Canyon Cafe a few weeks before we left. As happy as I was to not be going to DS on our first night, seeing as we were so tired, going to WCC probably wan't the best choice either. I'm sure we would have enjoyed it a lot more if we had gone another night, but on our first night, we just wanted to go bed and sitting in a loud room with people hootin' and hollerin' wasn't exactly a great match. I kinds felt like a Debby Downer, but as happy as I was to be in Disney finally, I just wasn't in the mood for all that is going on at WCC!

On to the food cause I know that's what you're all here for!

As I mentioned earlier, we had the Deluxe Dining Plan so we were each allowed an appetizer, entree and dessert.

My Mom and I both ordered the
Pacific Northwest-style Crab Cake
with Whole-Grain Mustard Rémoulade Sauce $17.99


I forgot to take a picture before we started eating. Each order came with 2 crab cakes. Here is a picture of one. They were very good, but we both only ate one since we knew we had a lot more food coming.

Carly ordered

Duck Pot Stickers
with Soy Dipping Sauce 12.00.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of these. (don't worry, I get a lot better at this as the week goes on!) She loved them and I also had a taste and agreed that they were great.

For our entrees my Mom and I both ordered the skillet,

All-You-Care-To-Enjoy Skillet
Starting with Family-style Mixed Greens tossed in an Apple Vinaigrette Dressing and Fresh-baked Cornbread. Featuring Slow-smoked Pork Ribs, Barbecued Pulled Pork, Roasted Glazed Chicken, Beef Brisket, and Western-style Sausage served with Seasonal Farm Fresh Vegetables, Mashed Yukon Potatoes, Corn on the Cob, and Cowboy-style Baked Beans $30.00 per person.






We all enjoyed the corn bread. The salad was tasty, except it had blue cheese crumble in it, and I do not like blue cheese, so I tried to avoid it as much as possible. Neither of us particularily enjoyed the skillet. The ribs were tough and we both had a hard time getting any meat off of them. The chicken had some kind of spice on it that I didn't care for. The brisket was just okay and the pulled pork was very smoky tasting. I enjoyed the mashed potatoes and the corn though! I don't know if it was just because we were tired or what, but we just didn't enjoy this very much.

Carly fared much better than us. She ordered

Dusty Trails Oak-roasted Pork Loin Rib Chop
with Stone Ground Cheese Grits and Roasted Corn, Broccolini, Apricot-Mango Relish, and Cherry Demi-glaze $24.00



This was delicious! The pork was thick and HUGE - much bigger than it looks in the picture. It was slightly dry which pork tends to be, but the mango salsa on top made up for that. This was a very good dish and she loved it.

For dessert we just wanted to get out of there and get back to our resort, so we each got a milkshake to go. Carly and I got chocolate and My Mom got caramel. $7.50 each. I didn't take a picture since they were just given to us in to-go cups. We enjoyed them on the way back to the resort before jumping in bed and getting a good night's rest since we had an early alarm the next morning for a pre park opening breakfast at Be Our Guest.

Coming up next: Be Our Guest! (or is it?...)

 

[Candycane83]

Great start!!! The crab cake looks good but it's too bad about the skillet.

 

[MissKIA]

Great start!!! The crab cake looks good but it's too bad about the skillet.

Thank you! One thing that surprised me, was that a lot of the restaurants and dishes that I was really looking forward to and I thought I would love, well, I didn't love at all. And some were pleasant surprises! WCC was definitely one of the disappointments. I really thought I would love it, but it was just okay.

Which reminds me, I was planning on putting at the end of each review whether or not I would return. YES, NO or MAYBE!

With that said:

Would I return to Whispering Canyon Cafe? MAYBE

I won't say I'll never return, but it certainly isn't at the top of my list for our next trip. Maybe I'd give it another chance if I was with others who I thought would enjoy the whole experience.

 

[Candycane83]

Thank you! One thing that surprised me, was that a lot of the restaurants and dishes that I was really looking forward to and I thought I would love, well, I didn't love at all. And some were pleasant surprises! WCC was definitely one of the disappointments. I really thought I would love it, but it was just okay. Which reminds me, I was planning on putting at the end of each review whether or not I would return. YES, NO or MAYBE!

With that said:

Would I return to Whispering Canyon Cafe? MAYBE

I won't say I'll never return, but it certainly isn't at the top of my list for our next trip. Maybe I'd give it another chance if I was with others who I thought would enjoy the whole experience.

Like you said, maybe it was timing

Very excited to read some more reviews from you and find out what you actually loved!

 

[tinabina919]

excited for your review, there's a lot of great places in your line up!

 

[Niki Andiokno]

Joining in on the fun. That pork chop at Whispering Canyon was amazing. It looks huge in the picture, so I can't imagine how huge it was in real life. You were not off on the all-you-can-eat Skillet. I have been there one other time, and no one liked the meat on the skillet. Looking forward to the rest of your reviews.

 

[cwiklamama]

Following along- looking forward to you reviews!

 

[phabric]

Looking forward to more reviews with pictures.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great start -my DS has chosen WCC for a return visit for our next trip but I think he only goes for the milkshake

 

[ariane37]

Welcome back, hope you had a great time! We have WCC booked for our Nov. trip but for lunch. We did dinner there a few years back and I didn't enjoy the skillet, either. I'm always up for cornbread though And I agree being so tired most likely had something to do with your experience there.
Looking forward to your review of BOG breakfast. We've had all 3 meals there so I like to hear others' thoughts

 

[iloveeeyore]

I'm in!

We had a similarly disappointing experience at WCC several years ago. I think the keys to enjoyment there are go in NOT tired and stay away from the skillet. That pork looks delicious. We would give it another try if we were staying at WL, but would definitely not go out of our way!

Looking forward to more.

 

[MissKIA]

Day 2

I had set my alarm on my iphone for 6 am this morning since we had an 8:05 pre park opening ADR at Be Our Guest. Imagine my surprise when I woke up and looked at my phone and it was 7 on the nose! I had accidentally set the alarm for my weekday alarm and it was Sunday so it never went off! I said loudly, "you guys it's 7 o'clock, get up!" My plan had been to leave between 6:45 and 7. Obviously that was not going to happen! I thought, oh well, if we don't get to ride 7 Dwarfs Mine Train at least we have fast passes for later in the week. That wasn't really the purpose of this ADR anyway so no big deal!

I think we got going at about 7:30 (which I was pretty impressed with!) and thankfully a MK bus came almost immediately. We arrived just before 8 and got in line. I couldn't believe we made it! As we walked through MK we noticed that it smelled like pancakes and bacon and we were no where near any restaurants. They must pipe that smell in first thing in the morning. Cool!

We managed to sit down at BOG at 8:25. Of course the West Wing was full already, so we found a table in the corner of the Ballroom.

On to the food!

For my breakfast, I ordered
Open-Faced Bacon and Egg Sandwich* $24.00
Poached Eggs, Applewood Bacon, Brie Cheese, and Arugula on a toasted Baguette served with Fresh Fruit and a selection of pastries.

(Apparently I can't upload this photo because the file is too big? I don't know how to change this! If I figure it out I will get it up here.)

Edited to add: I figured it out!





This was pretty good, but I hated the brie cheese! I have had brie many times before and like it, but I don't know what it was about this cheese. It just had a funky taste to it that I did not like at all. It looked fine, so I don't think it was actually "old", it just had a weird flavour to it. At first I couldn't figure out what it was that tasted so bad so I tasted each ingredient individually and then discovered it was the cheese. Once I removed the cheese it was good. If I am able to post the picture you will see that my yolk was not hard as others have previously reported. It was just right. In the picture of my sandwich is also the pastries that come to the table. These were very good and seemed fresh!

Carly ordered:
Assorted Cured Meats and Cheese $24.00
Alpine-smoked Ham, Serrano Ham, Sopressata, and Cheese with Marmalade, Fresh Fruit, Toasted Baguette





She said that was just okay and there was nothing special about it. The meat was your average deli meat and she would have liked more cheese. She didn't really have too much to say about it other than that.

Mom ordered:
Scrambled Egg Whites* $24.00
Scrambled Egg Whites with Roasted Tomatoes, Chicken Apple Sausage, Fresh Fruit



This doesn't look very exciting, does it? She also said this was just okay. (I think it looks terrible, but I didn't have to eat it! )

Over all our breakfast at BOG was pretty much what I expected it to be - nothing special.

We did order some of the $5 souvenir cups they have and I thought I would take a picture of them for you since it seems to be almost impossible to find one online anywhere.




There is a piece that flips over to cover the opening to keep your drink hot or cold, and it is shaped like a Mickey head!



I absolutely loved these and thought they were adorable! What a great deal too for only $5!

Once we had had enough to eat I looked at the time and it was only 8:45! We actually might make it if we head out RIGHT NOW!

We quickly left and found the line for 7DMT and as we approached the end of the line the stampede was feet away from us coming directly towards us! We literally JUST made it!

..... only to hear an announcement a few minutes later that it would not be opening on time today.

We decided to wait a bit and see what happened. We didn't want to give up our great spots in line! It finally opened up about half an hour later. We were relieved that we didn't waste out time, but it did seem a big counter productive to wait for half an hour after our PPO breakfast.

Would I return? YES

I would like to return, but probably not for breakfast. I would like to try dinner next time.

Up next! Liberty Tree Tavern

 

[MissKIA]

excited for your review, there's a lot of great places in your line up!

Welcome! A lot of them were great! I know it doesn't seem that was so far, but I did enjoy many of my meals!

Joining in on the fun. That pork chop at Whispering Canyon was amazing. It looks huge in the picture, so I can't imagine how huge it was in real life. You were not off on the all-you-can-eat Skillet. I have been there one other time, and no one liked the meat on the skillet. Looking forward to the rest of your reviews.

Thank you! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who wasn't a fan of the meat on the skillet. I thought I was just weird or something.

Following along- looking forward to you reviews!

Thank you, welcome!

Looking forward to more reviews with pictures.

Thank you! Hopefully I don't have any more issues with the pictures being too big.

great start -my DS has chosen WCC for a return visit for our next trip but I think he only goes for the milkshake

I did enjoy the milkshake, so I can't disagree with him there!

Welcome back, hope you had a great time! We have WCC booked for our Nov. trip but for lunch. We did dinner there a few years back and I didn't enjoy the skillet, either. I'm always up for cornbread though And I agree being so tired most likely had something to do with your experience there.
Looking forward to your review of BOG breakfast. We've had all 3 meals there so I like to hear others' thoughts

Thank you! We did have a great time! It was extremely hot and it was pretty hard on our Canadian thermostats. But we managed. How can you not have fun in Disney World!

I'm in!

We had a similarly disappointing experience at WCC several years ago. I think the keys to enjoyment there are go in NOT tired and stay away from the skillet. That pork looks delicious. We would give it another try if we were staying at WL, but would definitely not go out of our way!

Looking forward to more.

I agree that I would not go out of my way to go to WCC again. I didn't hate it, but I definitely enjoyed other places much more!

 

[MissKIA]

Apparently I'm not very good at this review thing. I forgot that we also ordered one of the grey stuff cupcakes at BOG.

The Master's Cupcake $4.99
Chocolate Sponge Cake topped with Lumiere’s special “Grey Stuff



Of course we don't normally eat cupcakes for breakfast, but Carly wanted to try the grey stuff. This is the only cupcake they offer at breakfast. I'm assuming they added it since a lot of people wanted to try the grey stuff!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Sorry you were underwhelmed with the first few offerings of the trip--I have a feeling that things get better from here! Can't wait to read more!

PS: Waking up an hour late sounds exactly like something our family would do, LOL! Glad it worked out OK.

 

[suse66]

Another Canadian joining in to hear all about your culinary adventures! I am not bothering with BOG on my upcoming trip as I hear such mixed reviews. If you do get back to WCC one day, I can highly recommend the grilled red quinoa cakes.... so, so good! The skillet did not look that appealing to me either. Looking forward to hearing about Liberty Tree!

 

[MissKIA]

Sorry you were underwhelmed with the first few offerings of the trip--I have a feeling that things get better from here! Can't wait to read more!

PS: Waking up an hour late sounds exactly like something our family would do, LOL! Glad it worked out OK.

It's funny because I am usually pretty meticulous about being on time and making sure my alarm is set properly. Thank goodness I woke up when I did! It's actually kind of weird that I woke up at 7 am and it would have been 6 am at home. It's like my internal clock was telling me it's 6! Time to get up! Not knowing we were an hour ahead of our usual time zone.

Another Canadian joining in to hear all about your culinary adventures! I am not bothering with BOG on my upcoming trip as I hear such mixed reviews. If you do get back to WCC one day, I can highly recommend the grilled red quinoa cakes.... so, so good! The skillet did not look that appealing to me either. Looking forward to hearing about Liberty Tree!

Welcome! The best part of BOG breakfast was getting into the park early. I would like to try it again, but not for breakfast. Dinner would have been our first choice on this trip, but it just didn't work into our plans. Those quinoa cakes sound interesting! Thanks for the tip!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Another great review - we have BOG breakfast booked for our first morning.

 

[MissKIA]

Another great review - we have BOG breakfast booked for our first morning.

Thank you! I know I'm not the best story teller or writer, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. (When I remember to take them ) I hope you enjoy your breakfast at BOG! Make sure to double check your alarm before you go to bed.

 

[MissKIA]

After leaving finally making if off 7DMT we stopped in at Gaston's Tavern to get a Le Fou's Brew to share. Carly went in to get it and what do you know, they gave it to her for free since she was the cast members first customer of the day and she was celebrating her birthday! Unfortunately I did not think to take a picture of this. This was the first of many times she was given extras for her birthday. The pixie dust was definitely alive and well this trip!


I thought I would also mention that we brought along with us some brita water bottles. These worked out great. We were able to go to any quick service and ask for a cup of free ice water. We just dumped them into our bottles and we had free filtered water! It worked out great (when we remembered to bring them with us of course!).


After making our way through new Fantasyland and Frontierland, we headed over to our 1pm ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern. Carly and I have both had dinner here in the past and loved it, so this time we thought we would try the lunch. I had to try the much talked about Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake of course!

For our starters my Mom and I both had:
Sweet Corn Fritters $7.00
with House-made Pepper Jelly



These were tasty! I had to stop myself from eating them all since I knew I still had a lot more food coming! The pepper jelly was almost more like a sweet salsa. It was very fresh and full of chunks of peppers.

Carly ordered:

Today's Soup Kettle $6.50
Which today was chicken (or was it turkey?) noodle soup



As you can see from the picture this was a very hearty soup! She loved it, but also didn't eat too much of it as she knew what was coming. This alone would have been plenty to have for lunch.

For my entree I had:
Freedom Pasta with Sautéed Shrimp $23.00
Pasta, Artichokes, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes tossed in a Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce




This was DELICIOUS! It was exactly I had hoped it would be. I'm not usually a huge fan of creamy sauces but this wasn't too heavy. The shrimp were huge and there were plenty of them. I really enjoyed this!

Carly ordered:
Pilgrims' Feast $19.00
Traditional Roast Turkey served with Herb Bread Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, and a Garden Vegetable



I knew she would order this since she LOVES turkey and stuffing. She was not disappointed at all. They only negative thing she had to say was that they only put gravy on the top piece of meat so there was none left for the lower pieces. It didn't end up being a big deal since I don't think she ate any more than the first piece, but if you have a big appetite you might want to ask for extra gravy.

My Mom ordered:
Colony Salad $16.00
Grilled Chicken, Washington Apples, Sweet Pecans, Applewood-smoked Cheddar, Dried Cranberries tossed with Field Greens in a Honey-Shallot Vinaigrette




I thought about ordering it, but I prefer salads with more of a spring mix or spinach base rather than just iceberg lettuce as this appeared to be. Still it was a great salad and my Mom thoroughly enjoyed it!

Last but definitely not least, to no one's surprise, for dessert all 3 of us ordered:
Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake $7.50
Vanilla Cake with a Gooey Toffee Filling, Caramel Sauce, and Vanilla Ice Cream



This lived up to the hype and we all enjoyed it. To be fair, I'm not sure if I would order it on my next visit ONLY because all of the desserts at LTT looked wonderful. Too many great choices!

Would I return! YES!

Duh! Obviously!! This was one of my favourite meals of the trip. (See I told you it wasn't all negative )

Up next - Jiko!