DlxDP w/ CL Kicked Our Butts! See us expand before your eyes! 1/19 All Finished!

[emmysmommy]

August 24, 2010: Sci Fi Dine In (dinner)

We had a 6:40 ADR for this restaurant. We checked into Sci-Fi around 6:20 but they were backed up and told me to check back in 10-15 minutes. No problem. Ten minutes later when we checked back they had us wait only a few more minutes before calling our name.

This was our favorite restaurant as far as theming goes. It was incredibly fun and although I wouldn’t book for the food, I would definitely go back for the experience.

We were seated in a car near the back of the restaurant and it was so cool!!! I loved watching the corny movie clips.

They even had speakers:

Our waitress provided excellent service and it couldn’t have been a better dining experience if they had shot off fireworks in that place. Well, that would just be dangerous but it would be cool if they had simulated fireworks on the ceiling since it is supposed to be the dark starry sky.

Anyhoo….back to the reason for this review – the food. We ordered Double Dip appetizer for two which included spinach artichoke dip and chili with tortilla chips. Em wanted the artichoke dip and I was craving the chili dip. The chili dip could have used an extra 40 second zap in the microwave – it wasn’t very hot. The other problem with the chili dip was it wasn't very spicy - it was rather watery. So I ate only a small portion of the cool, non-spicy, watery chili dip. The spinach artichoke dip must have been good because Em ate most of it.

For our entrees, Em ordered the Shrimp Pasta that had bowtie pasta with sautéed shrimp with artichoke hearts and kalamata olives, baby spinach and feta. I don't recall if this was a thumbs up or thumbs down....it looked decent.

I ordered the Ruben sandwich with fries. Considering I wasn’t really hungry to begin with I didn’t eat much but what I did have was pretty good. It is what I would expect from a Ruben. It did have good corned beef. I don’t recall tasting the thousand island dressing but perhaps it was very light on that sauce. The marbled rye bread was toasted perfectly. The fries were very good.

I was going to pass on dessert but the cheesecake caught my eye and I thought I may have a few bites and then push it away. Yeah right!! I ate the entire cheesecake and even a few of the caramel corns.

Em had the apple crumble and said that it was very good – evidenced by it being a 100% consumption rate!

The bill was $63.52 pre-tip and after using 1 meal credit each we had 24 credits remaining.

Next Up: 'Ohana

 

[emmysmommy]

August 25, 2010: 'Ohana Breakfast at Poly

We took a taxi to the Poly from the Beach Club for our 8:30am ADR. We arrived with plenty of time to spare so we took a few photos of the lobby and then went upstairs to check in.

Errr… they didn’t have a record of our reservation. Giving them your reservation number apparently doesn’t help at all. Not sure why they give those out except that before hand you can be lulled into a false sense of your dining reservations being secured. Ok, I exaggerate… it was only slightly annoying. They went ahead and accommodated us. They gave me a pager and a slip of paper with an estimated wait time of 15-25 minutes and we got the coveted silk floral leis. We waited about 15 minutes before we were seated. We did the photo op with the photographer but she used our camera so we dodged having to purchase the photo packet for $31.90.

This is a character dining experience with food served family style. I wouldn’t necessarily go for the food – and not the characters for that matter - but I had heard such rave reviews that I wanted to give this place a try.

We were seated at a table for 2 near the rear of the restaurant – at a window overlooking the marina. It was a very good spot – out of the way of traffic and the conga line. Our server, Kathleen, was very good and did everything that she could to make the most of our dining experience.

The host grabs a basket of bread from the kitchen counter/area as they escort you to your table. I didn’t really pay attention to the bread at first since the food arrived fairly quickly. However, the basket contained two kinds of bread; pineapple bread and cinnamon bread.

“Stitch” juice is served which is the same lilikoi juice that is served at Kona Café. I really liked this stuff!

The first course is fresh fruit (melon, grapes, and pineapple) served on a metal serving dish in the shape of a leaf. I really liked the fruit – it was fresh and ripe. A perfectly refreshing start to the meal!

The food is served family style – meaning in a big metal skillet. You can have as much of any of the items as you wish. We didn’t even finish half of what they served so I don’t image too many people ask for seconds. The dish contained the following:
 Scrambled eggs
 Home fry style potato wedges
 Bacon
 Sausage
 Buttermilk biscuits

Mickey waffles were served separately by the waitress – she gave us two to start but told us we could have as many as we wished.

What I did eat/try:
 Let’s start with the best dish. I love me some Mickey waffles!! I could just eat those and be happy. But alas, a girl can’t exist on Mickey waffles alone.
 I thought the eggs were good.
 The home fried type potatoes were not very good – a bit salty and soggy.
 1 piece of bacon and it was meh.
 I had a few bites of the pineapple bread and it was a bit dry but I liked the part on the bottom with the pineapple.

I didn’t try the sausage, biscuits, or the cinnamon bread.

During the course of our meal the following characters made their rounds:
Aloha Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. The character interaction was very good and we enjoyed getting licked by Stitch!!!

Two adult buffet meals before tip was $44.71. After using our 2 meal credits we had 22 meal credits remaining.

Next Up: Casey's Corner

 

[emmysmommy]

I believe I have made good progress tonight with publishing 7 reviews in one night!! I will be back tomorrow with more.

 

[bjakmom]

I believe I have made good progress tonight with publishing 7 reviews in one night!! I will be back tomorrow with more.

You did AWESOME!! LOL
Thanks for the review of O'hana's - I have this breakfast scheduled with DGrD(7) in 2 weeks. Our first stay at the Poly and this is one meal we have never done. I love a character meal where I don't have to leave the table for the buffet line.

 

[Kathy Z]

I'm so glad that you are back to finish your dining review. You did an awesome job yesterday catching us up with your entertaining perspective of your DxDP experience.

 

[Lzylitnin]

Thank you for taking the time to post your reviews! I'm really enjoying them!

 

[emmysmommy]

You did AWESOME!! LOL
Thanks for the review of O'hana's - I have this breakfast scheduled with DGrD(7) in 2 weeks. Our first stay at the Poly and this is one meal we have never done. I love a character meal where I don't have to leave the table for the buffet line.

She will love the Stitch conga line! The kids had a blast! Plus the characters were pretty good.

I'm so glad that you are back to finish your dining review. You did an awesome job yesterday catching us up with your entertaining perspective of your DxDP experience.

Hey, this is harder than it looks! I need to pace myself! It is crazy to think that over 2 months have passed since we got back from our trip.

Thank you for taking the time to post your reviews! I'm really enjoying them!

You are welcome! More to come.

 

[emmysmommy]

I said I'd be back and I am! Pretty good considering my long absence!

August 25, 2010: Casey's Corner - Lunch

Now here is where our trip became super magical! Since I've not updated my trip report in a long time (actually, I think I got 3 days into it and lost interest since it was going soooo slow) I'm going to allow you guys the priviledge of getting a sneak peak.... ......wait for it.....We were selected to be in the PARADE!!!! We had been asked by a CM if we wanted our socks to be knocked off. Well, I was wearing flip flops so I wasn't sure what he was talking about but - heck yeah we wanted to be in the parade.

All this has nothing to do with my lunch dining review other than to say that we didn't want to eat a big meal before getting in the parade firetruck for the magical journey down Main Street and beyond.

So... we needed to eat.... we didn't have any lunch ADRs and I was craving a hot dog. Good thing WDW has Casey's Corner!!

Em wasn't too excited about a hot dog so I ordered a hot dog meal while she went across the way to the ice-cream shop for her "lunch" - using a snack credit for an ice-cream cup. (Good thing I'm not too particular about making sure my kid eats a properly balanced diet of fruits and veggies!)

The hot dog meal included fries and a drink. For dessert I chose a brownie. The condiment bar at Casey’s Corner had a great selection of dawg toppings. However, I couldn’t figure out how to use the ketchup dispenser without taking 5 minutes to fill a tiny cup. (Someone give me a clue how those air pump dispensers work. I felt silly wrestling with the dispenser so I walked away with about teaspoon of ketchup.)

As for the actual hot dog – I gotta be honest – it wasn’t that great. I’m a huge fan of the Hebrew National 97% fat free hot dogs that only have 40 calories. So I do love dogs. However, it couldn’t have been that bad because I ate the entire hot dog but only a few of the fries – they were not that fresh and hot.

Now, the brownie was pretty good – for a packaged dessert item.

What I liked about Casey's Corner - at least inside - is the old school charm of being at a ball field. There are mini bleachers and pennants, and a movie screen that shows old ball clips.


Here's a not so great photo but you get the point:

The total for this meal was $12.43 and we had 21 meal credits remaining.

Next Up: Teppan Edo

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm not sure there is much interest but I'm gonna keep posting these until I'm done - so there!

Continuity note: I mentioned we were selected for the Main Street parade at MK....well, our "Honorary Voluntears" part was rained out due to the storms but we "re-scheduled" for two days later. I'll make a note of it when I review our meals that day and throw in a photo or two!!

August 25, 2010: Teppan Edo - dinner

So this was a dinner inspired by some great reviews as well as our love for Japanese food.

We checked in with the hostess for Teppan Edo and were seated right at our dining time. We were with a family of 6 that included grandparents and 2 children under 6 years of age. The kids were adorable and the waitress helped them use ‘beginner” chopsticks.

We really enjoyed our teppan dining experience. The teppan chef dude was very good and the servers were bowing after every sentence. Such signs of respect I rarely see. It put a big smile on our faces for the entire meal – well except when we were chewing!

Since we were on the deluxe dining plan we were allowed an appetizer – for which we chose to share the edamame. It was good – not sure how you could make it better or worse but I enjoyed it.

Edamame:

My beverage:

For our entrees, I ordered the chicken and shrimp combo. Em ordered the chicken and sirloin steak. I LOVED my chicken and shrimp. It couldn’t have been more perfect!

Chicken and shrimp:

The teppan chef starts with cooking the veggies with the usual volcano onion. The meat course quickly follows. A bowl of steamed rice is also served.

The dipping sauces were a mustard type one, a ginger soy one, and Japanese “ranch”. I didn’t try the “ranch” but the other two sauces were amazing!!

I skipped dessert – there wasn’t anything that I wanted to try. Em ordered the chocolate ginger cake and said that it was good.

Ginger chocolate cake:

Overall, I really enjoyed our meal and would definitely eat here again.

The bill came to $72.72 without tax. We used 2 dining credits so had 19 meal credits remaining.

Next Up: Grand Floridian Cafe (breakfast)

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

great updates, wow you got pick for the parade...cant wait to read and see pictures.

 

[amandadisney]

Great reviews. I am thinking about DlxDP and CL for my honeymoon next year so I am enjoying your reviews of the experience!

 

[Cinderella94]

Great updates!

 

[athenna]

I'm not sure there is much interest but I'm gonna keep posting these until I'm done - so there!

I'm still reading, and still interested Loving the reviews

 

[pigletforever]

glad you are back.

 

[DiggleBelle]

Still here and enjoying your review and pics.

 

[Schoolbread]

OK, this is all your fault.

I was perusing the dining reviews on my way to bed and somehow realized I'd missed yours. Well, now it's after midnight, but I snacked on cheese stick and settled in for a nice read. I think I'll dream about food!

Really enjoying the report. Looking forward to the parade story!

 

[emmysmommy]

Ok, I admit that this is really lame....I should have finished this months ago and just got lazy and didn't put any effort into this.... now it is bugging me since so many people's reviews really helped us decide where to make dining reservations!!

So here goes... it may be a little late but I am going to finish this even if no one reads it!!!!

As a reminder, this was a girls' trip for me and my 14 year old daughter. We were in DWorld for 11 days (10 nites) and this was day 9 of 11.

August 26, 2010:

Grand Floridian Cafe - Breakfast

We took a taxi from the Beach Club Resort to the GF. (Sometimes it is just quicker and easier to get to the dining reservations if you don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to get somewhere on Disney transportation!)

As with most of our ADRs, we arrived early and checked in to be seated. The hostess lady didn't see our reservation at first but I just repeated my name a second and third time before she found us. (The place wasn't busy so I wasn't worried about not being seated.)

Without any wait, we were seated in the back of the restaurant by the windows that overlook the courtyard pool. Our waitress was Elizabeth and she was fantastic.

Em and I both ordered the maple vanilla French toast. I asked to have a side of fresh fruit instead of bacon or sausage and that was no problem.

The portion size was 3 triangles of challah bread dipped in maple vanilla batter with a dusting of powdered sugar. It was pretty good – especially with the whipped butter.

The fresh fruit was fresh and delicious and the perfect portion.

The meal was a perfect start to our day!

The total cost of the meal without tip was $29.46 which I believe was our cheapest TS meal yet. But remember cheaper isn’t necessarily better with the dining plan!!! We want to see value for our pre-paid dollars gosh darn it. Although the downside of that plan is that the more your meal costs proportionately the tip increases!!

We had 17 meal credits remaining. It was about this time that we realized that we were not possibly going to be able to use all of our meal credits. Even with throwing in an extra Signature dining experience we were going to leave at least a few credits remaining. Although I did come up with an idea on the last day ….. stay tuned for that.

More to follow....

Up next: Mama Melrose's

 

[emmysmommy]

August 26, 2010:
Mama Melrose's Fantasmic Package

We arrived a little early for our 3:30pm reservation. After a short wait in the lobby we were seated. Our server left a lot to be desired but the food (mostly) made up for any shortcomings in the service.

We were given the yellow card of entry into the Fatasmic! Show at 8:30. It instructed us to show up 30-40 min. early.

On to the food….We were served a basket of rolls that were accompanied with olive oil with cracked black pepper. The rolls were ok.

I wasn’t too hungry and I was going to pass on appetizers but the mozzarella and tomatoes caught my eye. I ordered that and didn’t regret it. It was really fresh and delicious. Em ordered the bruschetta which looked good but….looks were deceiving because she didn’t like it. I had to taste it because it really looked good. Blech! Yuck! The bruschetta was very stale tasting. I’m not sure how that passed the taste test in the kitchen.

Good:

Bad:

I ordered the chicken parmigiana for my entrée and again, it was very good. It was served on a bed of spaghetti, light on the sauce just like I preferred. Em ordered the goat cheese ravioli. She described it as very “Chef Boyardee” with not a lot of flavor – or at least not a lot of good flavor. I didn’t try her dish so I can’t confirm that description.

I was not excited about anything on the menu for dessert; however, the waiter talked me into getting the Crema Limone saying that is was light and tasty. I hadn’t read the description so wasn’t sure what was “off” on this dish when I first tasted it. It was a lemon custard with berries and whipped cream. It took a couple bites before I said, hey, this whip cream isn’t sweet, in fact it tastes really blah! Em informed me that it was a no-sugar added dessert. Well, that was a true statement. I ate the berries out of it but didn’t finish the rest.

Em had the tiramisu flavored gelato. She didn’t particularly like it since she was expecting the actual tiramisu dessert. We both must not have paid attention to the dessert menu!

I actually liked this restaurant based on what I ordered (with the exception of the dessert – but once I knew it was sugar free it didn’t seem so bad!) Em probably would have a hard time coming back for a repeat visit.

The bill totaled $70.27. We used 2 dining credits total and had 15 dining credits remaining.

Oh, and one piece of advice. Even though you have "reserved" seating for Fantasmic! - get there at least a 1/2 hour early for best selection of seats. You will definitely have a seat if you don't come early but it may be way up in the nose bleed section!

Up Next: Room Service Breakfast

 

[emmysmommy]

August 26, 2010:
Mama Melrose's Fantasmic Package

We arrived a little early for our 3:30pm reservation. After a short wait in the lobby we were seated. Our server left a lot to be desired but the food (mostly) made up for any shortcomings in the service.

We were given the yellow card of entry into the Fatasmic! Show at 8:30. It instructed us to show up 30-40 min. early.

On to the food….We were served a basket of rolls that were accompanied with olive oil with cracked black pepper. The rolls were ok.

I wasn’t too hungry and I was going to pass on appetizers but the mozzarella and tomatoes caught my eye. I ordered that and didn’t regret it. It was really fresh and delicious. Em ordered the bruschetta which looked good but….looks were deceiving because she didn’t like it. I had to taste it because it really looked good. Blech! Yuck! The bruschetta was very stale tasting. I’m not sure how that passed the taste test in the kitchen.

Good:

Bad:

I ordered the chicken parmigiana for my entrée and again, it was very good. It was served on a bed of spaghetti, light on the sauce just like I preferred. Em ordered the goat cheese ravioli. She described it as very “Chef Boyardee” with not a lot of flavor – or at least not a lot of good flavor. I didn’t try her dish so I can’t confirm that description.

I was not excited about anything on the menu for dessert; however, the waiter talked me into getting the Crema Limone saying that is was light and tasty. I hadn’t read the description so wasn’t sure what was “off” on this dish when I first tasted it. It was a lemon custard with berries and whipped cream. It took a couple bites before I said, hey, this whip cream isn’t sweet, in fact it tastes really blah! Em informed me that it was a no-sugar added dessert. Well, that was a true statement. I ate the berries out of it but didn’t finish the rest.

Em had the tiramisu flavored gelato. She didn’t particularly like it since she was expecting the actual tiramisu dessert. We both must not have paid attention to the dessert menu!

I actually liked this restaurant based on what I ordered (with the exception of the dessert – but once I knew it was sugar free it didn’t seem so bad!) Em probably would have a hard time coming back for a repeat visit.

The bill totaled $70.27. We used 2 dining credits total and had 15 dining credits remaining.

Oh, and one piece of advice. Even though you have "reserved" seating for Fantasmic! - get there at least a 1/2 hour early for best selection of seats. You will definitely have a seat if you don't come early but it may be way up in the nose bleed section!

Up Next: Room Service Breakfast

 

[emmysmommy]

Friday August 27, 2010:

Room Service Breakfast for Beach Club Resort:

Since we had 15 remaining meal credits (as well as 17 snack credits) and we had cancelled our breakfast reservation at Tusker House – Donald’s Safari Breakfast (we would not be at Animal Kingdom today due to being in the parade) we decided to order room service and redeem 4 meal credits (2 each). Note: I had also cancelled our Yak & Yeti lunch ADR.

We seriously should have just gone to the lounge and grabbed a plate of food but I was in the mood for something hot and delicious....and we had all of those meal credits to burn!

Room service was delivered pretty quickly and the gentleman asked if he could enter our room to set up the food. Sure! He did the whole white tablecloth on the table and set everything up nice and pretty – between the beds! I hadn’t given a thought to eating in bed but hey it worked out perfect.

I ordered the ham and cheese omelet with breakfast potatoes and wheat toast while Em ordered the French toast with sausage. Everything was so hot, fresh, and delicious. I couldn’t finish everything but it wasn’t for lack of effort.

They even included the little jars of ketchup! So cute!

Oh, and the OJ and apple juice that they serve in a bucket of ice are the largest glasses of juice I had ever seen. They were probably 20 ounces of juice!

We used 4 dining credits (2 each) and tip was included. (They stressed that an 18% gratuity was included with the room service order.) We had 11 meal credits remaining on our dining plan.


Next Up: Tutto Italia