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

[emmysmommy]

August 27, 2010:

Since we had not eaten lunch but snacked earlier in the afternoon, we were ready for a hearty meal! Our meal timing for this day had been changed due to being in the parade.

As a reminder since it has been so long..... we were selected on Wed. 8/25 to be in the MK Celebrate a Dream Come True parade!!! However, we got rained out so were invited to select another day to return and participate. We decided to give up a second day at Animal Kingdom to participate in the parade. (small price to pay, I know!) So we were still on a parade high and had smiles still plastered on our face when we made our way to Epcot via the monorail.

Our sweet parade Photopass photo:

There was a lovely couple from Michigan celebrating their anniversary who were also in the parade with us. They had been our parade buddies on Wed. and also selected Friday to return.


Now back to the dining review.

This restaurant was really very lovely and had a good Italian vibe. I was a bit nervous about this ADR since I had read some not so good reviews but our experience was great for one of our last meals at WDW.

We were seated at a window table for two in the annex dining room which was narrow but nicely appointed with dark woods and beautiful fabric for the drapes that frame the windows.

Maria was our server and she was awesome! She did an amazing job and was very friendly and cordial. Our dining plan choices were explained and we were started with a basket of various breads, rolls, and cracker breads with a dish of parmesean herb butter. They also give you a small bowl of antipasti items – olives, marinated mushrooms, and peppers.

These little guys looked lovely but we didn't touch them.

For appetizers I ordered the ‘bufala mozzarella’ - mozzarella, tomato and basil dish while Em ordered the Caesar salad. My appetizer was ok – I did ask for some balsamic vinegar since it really needed something to give it a bit more taste.

Em’s salad was essentially a head of romaine with dressing, shaved parmesean, and pomodorini tomatoes and a crustini with olive tapenade. It may have looked odd but it tasted good. Now, I wouldn’t have paid $16 for her appetizer salad if not on the dining plan – that is CRAZY!! My appetizer was a bargain at only $15!

For our entrees I wanted to try the lasagna as well as the cannelloni al forno. We ended up getting one of each so that we could share with each other. However, we almost had to fight over the cannelloni – it was the clear winner! The lasagna was good just not awesome like the cannelloni. As for serving portion, the cannelloni was right on with two tubes. However, the lasagna was HUGE! Way too much – in fact it could have fed two people.

Dessert was not going to happen for me – I was too full and nothing on the dessert menu whispered to me to just have one bite! Em had the tiramisu and loved it! She had a big smile on her face while she ate that.

The bill for the meal came to $99.05. Again, this is crazy for a non-signature meal for two people and I didn’t even get dessert. We used 2 dining credits so had 9 credits remaining on our dining plan.

Up Next: Cape May breakfast

 

[emmysmommy]

August 28, 2010:

Cape May character breakfast at Beach Club Resort

We were actually up and ready for breakfast earlier than our 8:30 ADR. We went down to the restaurant and it was no problem to seat us at 8am. The restaurant was not full at all.

This restaurant had plenty of good looking food choices and of course, I was excited to see the Mickey waffles and lots of yummy danishes. This is a character dining restaurant so we were able to get some food with plenty of time to start eating before any of the characters started to come around.

By far, this was the best character dining experience – perhaps because the restaurant was not very busy. However, the characters came around 2-3 times each and spent plenty of time at our table. They celebrated some birthdays with some of the kids (Donald kept blowing out the cupcake candle when we would sing happy birthday!)

There were so many choices and I wish I could have attempted to try some more variety but I only ended up eating; scrambled eggs, a mini bagel, a cherry Danish, and of course Mickey waffles. How lame but all of it was very good.

My plates:

Some characters:

Food choices:

There were some breakfast choices that I had not seen at previous buffets like fresh asparagus and pan French toast with maple syrup. Again, all of the food items looked amazingly good.

At one point I had gotten up to get more food and Goofy had seated himself in my chair. Goofy even moved my purse to another table and had settled in…so I did what I had to do. I approached the table and announced that I would be their server that morning and did he want me to get him anything from the buffet? I think he said – get me some biscuits and make it quick! Naw… he just did his goofy-ness thing and eventually moved on.

The bill came to $44.71 without tip. We now had 7 meal credits remaining and we were leaving in 5 hours.

Next Up: Final meal at WDW - Beach Club Marketplace

 

[sophie832]

Can't believe I didn't read all your reviews sooner! I just finished the whole thing, and it's great! You and your daughter look so pretty in the different dresses, and it looks like you really enjoyed your mom/daughter time. I don't know how you managed all that food! Everything looks tasty, but I don't think I could eat 3 meals a day. We're doing DxDDP in a week, but we're just doing TS breakfast and signature TS dinners. I figure we'll burn through our snack credits in-between.

Glad to see you've reviewed a lot of places we've been to, as well as a lot of places we'll be going to. It's nice to compare experiences and see what we might be in for on our upcoming trip.

Great job!

 

[emmysmommy]

August 28, 2010:

This was our official last meal at The World.

Late in the morning we had walked over to Epcot and even though we were not hungry, I decided to just start burning credits by going to the various food places in World Showcase and get a little something...take a few bites and then (bad Brenda) toss it if we couldn't finish it! However the first place that I went - Cantina San Angel - the unhelpful cast member told me that they do not take the Deluxe dining plan there. What??? You are kidding me! They will take the regular dining plan but not the deluxe. If I was speaking to Pinnochio I would have had to duck her growing nose!! Oh well, I had no energy or desire to argue so I just walked on..... At that point, it just seemed like a stupid idea to waste food so we gave up on that plan.


Before we had to catch the DME bus to head to the airport early in the afternoon, I HAD to get rid of some of these meal credits. Em wasn’t hungry but I was getting there so I went to the Beach Club Marketplace and got a turkey and mozzarella sandwich. It came with your choice of a dessert – I chose the coconut bar – yummy! I saved the meal for later on the plane. I was also able to unload a few snack credits with some packaged fruit…I have to say that although I ate part of the sandwich on the bus and the rest on the plane – it was plain but very good. They asked me if I wanted it hot or cold – cold please. The mozzarella was a bit smoky flavored and the turkey portion was generous.

Beachclub Marketplace:

So.... we left WDW with 6 meal credits left. Yes, the deluxe dining plan with club level (which we didn't really use) kicked our Disney butts!!


Up Next: snacks and club level offerings

 

[emmysmommy]

We had a really hard time using up 20 snack credits each. We did use them for waters and other drinks but for the most part we didn't need or want snacks the entire time. I had read of people buying tons of sweets at Goofy's Candy Co. but when we were there we only got 1 item each since I didn't want to lug around bags of candy and treats.

As for the refillable mugs, we redeemed them at BLT and used them twice but they sat in our room the entire week at BC Resort. They are a great idea but we were always on the go and it wasn't convenient to use them since we had so many dining reservations.

Back to the snacks:

here's how we redeemed our snack credits

6 waters
1 ice-cream at MK
1 chocolate cake at Contempo Cafe
2 fruit tarts at Kringla Og Bakeri
4 bakery items at the French bakery in Epcot
1 chocolate pretzel rod at Goofy's Candy Co.
1 chocolate marshmallow at Goofy's Candy Co.
2 cookies at Main Street Bakery
1 sprinkle marshmallow treat at MK


We used a total of 19 snack credits - 1 was left unused!!!

Ice cream

Kringla Og Bakeri thing

Another Kringla Og Bakeri item

Sugar cookie from Main Street bakery

Peanut butter cookie and marshmallow treat

My next post will cover the club level food.

 

[Kathy Z]

Brenda, I so enjoyed having "another breakfast" with you as I read your posts from last night. I have not found time to write up a report from our December trip but still hope to do so at some point. I'm so grateful for the folks like you who took the time to write such detailed and helpful dining reviews which assisted me in making our dining plans for our trip.

 

[Sam'sMom0126]

great reviews! I LOVE your dress at Cape May...where did you get it???

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Great reviews and pictures! Thanks for taking the time to do it!

 

[weswife]

What a wonderful review!!!!!

 

[emmysmommy]

Can't believe I didn't read all your reviews sooner! I just finished the whole thing, and it's great! You and your daughter look so pretty in the different dresses, and it looks like you really enjoyed your mom/daughter time. I don't know how you managed all that food! Everything looks tasty, but I don't think I could eat 3 meals a day. We're doing DxDDP in a week, but we're just doing TS breakfast and signature TS dinners. I figure we'll burn through our snack credits in-between.

Glad to see you've reviewed a lot of places we've been to, as well as a lot of places we'll be going to. It's nice to compare experiences and see what we might be in for on our upcoming trip.

Great job!

Thank you very much! I think your dining plan will be perfect. We just couldn't eat 3 meals a day and when I tried, I ended up not being able to eat everything. (Which was probably good since I would have lugged home another few pounds!)

Enjoy your upcoming trip!

Brenda, I so enjoyed having "another breakfast" with you as I read your posts from last night. I have not found time to write up a report from our December trip but still hope to do so at some point. I'm so grateful for the folks like you who took the time to write such detailed and helpful dining reviews which assisted me in making our dining plans for our trip.

Thanks! I HAD to finish this since I echo your sentiment. It was so many people taking the time to write their reviews and share their experiences that helped me to choose our ADRs.

great reviews! I LOVE your dress at Cape May...where did you get it???

Well, thank you very much! I got the dress at Macy's.
Here's a better (?) picture:

Great reviews and pictures! Thanks for taking the time to do it!

You are very welcome!

What a wonderful review!!!!!

It was my pleasure!

 

[emmysmommy]

This post is dedicated to all the lovely and delicious food that was offered in the club level lounge at the Beach Club Resort.

Of the 7 nights that we stayed club level, we only ate appetizers in the evening once (I think I grabbed some apple slices another time) and breakfast a few times.

Here were some of my favorites:

I loved the hard boiled eggs:

Coconut danishes were amazing!!

I loved the carmel cups with the apple slices!!

Yummy yogurt covered pretzels:

Olives, they're not just for fingers!

Assorted cheeses:

fresh fruit:

I love oatmeal and I can't believe that I didn't have any the entire time I was staying club level:

I frequented the refrigerator case for some diet coke:

I may have grabbed a cookie... or two sometime during our stay

Veggies:

Chips:

And then there was the bakery case:

Dessert selections:

Beverage choices:

tea selections:

Coffee and syrups?

other beverages - lemonade:

Next up: Photos of the club lounge and staff

 

[emmysmommy]

Here's misc. pics of the lounge:

View from lounge balcony:

concierge desks on 5th floor:

Debbie and Em:

Pete and Em:

Judy and Brett:

Selection of DVDs:

DVD library selections - yes you can check out DVDs:

5th floor elevator lobby:

By the way....
All of the food had these little framed signs that described the food selections:

 

[Redheaded Sunshine]

I loved your dining review...it has only now FUELED my fire to go to La Cellier. We're considering DDxP...well....I'M considering it and hoping that DP will go along with it in the fall. We are there for the food and wine! It will allow for more snack credits for the festival, right?

I'm certain it took quite a bit of effort, thanks! Question...in some of the signature restaurants, how did you feel that younger children were received? My DS will be 8 and DD will be 6 at the time....

 

[emmysmommy]

I can say that I FINISHED this sucker!!!! Whew! It almost didn't happen but guilt got me back here since I really, really, really appreciated all of the reviews that others had completed.

Em and I will be going back to WDW during Spring Break in April so now it is back to planning and checking out others' dining reviews for some ideas.

We have already decided that there are some favorites that we will repeat like:

California Grill
1900 Park Fare
Teppan Edo
Tutto Italia
Kona Cafe
Le Cellier and
Cosmic Rays (I know nothing special but that rotissiere chicken was awesome!)

We are trying some new restaurants...
Tony's Town Square
Crystal Palace
The Wave
Nine Dragons and
Yak & Yeti

So thanks y'all for hanging in there to the very end!

Now to start a PTR....

 

[auntfrannie]

Loved your reviews! If you haven't finalized your ADRs for your spring trip, try to fit Citrico's or Flying Fish Cafe into your schedule. Both are outstanding!

 

[emmysmommy]

I loved your dining review...it has only now FUELED my fire to go to La Cellier. We're considering DDxP...well....I'M considering it and hoping that DP will go along with it in the fall. We are there for the food and wine! It will allow for more snack credits for the festival, right?

Oops - double post... see below.

 

[emmysmommy]

I loved your dining review...it has only now FUELED my fire to go to La Cellier. We're considering DDxP...well....I'M considering it and hoping that DP will go along with it in the fall. We are there for the food and wine! It will allow for more snack credits for the festival, right?

I'm certain it took quite a bit of effort, thanks! Question...in some of the signature restaurants, how did you feel that younger children were received? My DS will be 8 and DD will be 6 at the time....

Le Cellier is an awesome restaurant!!! I can't believe how easy it is to get a lunch ADR right now for April!! You are planning to go at a great time!

As for the kids at signature restaurants - good question! The two signature restaurants that we visited both had many kids your children's ages. California Grill was great for kids because of the views from the windows to keep them occupied and it was not a "quiet" restaurant so it was fine for the little ones. Artists' Point was a little more intimate but there were several families with kids.

It shouldn't be a problem and you should all enjoy the experience!

 

[emmysmommy]

Loved your reviews! If you haven't finalized your ADRs for your spring trip, try to fit Citrico's or Flying Fish Cafe into your schedule. Both are outstanding!

Hmmmm.... Citricos sounds interesting. Is Flying Fish at Downtown Disney or by the Boardwalk? They are both signature resturants correct?

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[ILoveMK2008]

Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your reviews! You're so funny... I especially enjoyed your bit about the straws at the Animal Kingdom . Was wondering where the picture in your siggie was taken... it's so cute! Looking forward to April reviews

 

[hollyrose]

Nice updates-- but I feel the need to point out a trend on disboards I've noticed-- Am I a really strange person because I don't eat dessert?? In all these dining reviews it seems like everyone partakes in dessert with every. single. meal.....I just don't get it...