Is That A Crab Leg In Your Pocket? 10 Days of Dining with Pics!

[DLFan123]

During our morning and day at Epcot, we toured some of our favorite attractions (most of which involve boats apparently):

A motto to live by


Everybody's favorite caballero!


Living with the Land

Since our morning had started later, we were still feeling fresh and energetic when we walked through the back door of Epcot to go check-in at BC. We'd used the luggage transfer earlier in the day, and it was nice to just be able to walk right over when it was check-in time.

Finally, like coming home:

I love the lobby of the BC. It has such an airy, summery feel, and it's so beautiful! Then there's that soothing, familiar smell! Can't get enough of it...

We'd made a special room request, asking to be placed in the very same room we'd had last year on our trip, and they were able to fulfill our request!

Here it is:


It's such a great room, because it's in a corner, so it has windows looking out to stormalong bay, as well as looking directly out to the lagoon.


Here are those side windows:


This room is nice, because there is this long hallway between the sleeping area and the corridor, which makes it quieter than some of the other rooms at the BC:

For us, that is the thing that really makes us appreciate this room. We just sleep better since it is at the end of the hall, not near any housekeeping doors or elevators, and has this long hallway for insulation.

It is room 3565, and it doesn't have a full balcony, just the little Juliet style balcony. For us, it's been sufficient, although the furnishings and wall paper are starting to look a little tired.

Finally, this is our view of the lagoon:

You can lie on the bed and actually see this. Love it at night!

Ok I know most of you are going "Where are the pictures of the food? Isn't this a dining review?" It is, but I just got kind of distracted!

I had intended to include Beaches and Cream in this update, but now I'm running out of time, so for now, here is a shot of our sundae:

I won't spoil the update to come later, and I'll let you all guess which sundae this is, but....it was absolutely divine! Yummy yummy!

More to come asap!

 

[DLFan123]

First of all, totally trying breakfast quinoa at home after this. I like the texture of quinoa so much more than that of oatmeal so thank you for that.

Second, that situation at Cantina with the back and forth was just ridiculous. So sorry you had to go through that!

What a great idea to try quinoa at home! You'll have to let me know how it goes! There was something about the taste that I preferred to oatmeal, too. It seemed like it had MORE taste.

OK your experience with the Nachos would have driven me crazy

The CMs really should all be aware of what is and isn't a vegetarian option and someone should have just taken the initiative and fixed the situation without you ever having to get back in line

Thanks for your sympathy on this. I seriously must have been having a magical day that I maintained my composure and really didn't get snarky at all. Maybe it was because all the CMs at this particular restaurant just looked so overwhelmed to begin with. They were all working so hard. I also don't think vegetarianism is super popular in Mexican cuisine. We have a hard time with local Mexican restaurants in Denver even. Thankfully, this really was the only time on this trip that we encountered the confused blank stare when we ordered something without meat.

By the time you had waited in line 3 times, I would have expected new nachos with beans and cheese!

Good point. I probably should have asked for that, but by the time I got my beans, I was scared to risk starting over...

What a nice breakfast selection at the AKL CL. I am staying CL at the BC next monthf for the first time and hope the breakfast is as good as the pics your just shared with us

Ooh BC CL sounds so nice. You'll have to post pics and info about the room you are assigned. Our room at AKL was immaculate. I kind of wondered if they mousekeeping and wear on the room is just better for CL rooms...would like to know if that is true at BC. Our BC room seemed so old, with patches in the wall paper, dusty corners, scuffs in our headboard, and some stains on our bench. Would love to know if staying CL gets you a **** and span room instead! I'm sure the breakfast will be delicious, though! I'm pretty sure you get Swedish Fish in the afternoon, too.

 

[DLFan123]

Hello everyone. Sorry for the delay. Everyday life got in the way of the best laid dis plans.

After we got settled at the BC and walked around a little, we decided to head over to Beaches and Cream. It was early, which we thought might work to our advantage, because we'd heard it is possible to wait a very long time for this restaurant. Finally...after two years of dreaming about eating here but never quite making it, we walked up to the podium feeling so satisfied...

Then the experience got a little weird. A couple had walked up directly ahead of us, and they were taken to a table immediately as a walk-up. Great, I thought, no wait. We gave the hostess our name, and she said we'd have to wait, wrote our name down, and then her companion hostess came back out from seating the other table.

Me: No problem, we don't mind waiting.

There seemed to be some confusion going on at the hostess podium. Finally, one of the hostesses called us over and gave us a pager. No big deal, but really...since we were next, why would we need a pager?

Me: How long do you think we'll need to wait?

Her: Oh maybe an hour and a half.

What?! I was just so confused.

Me: That other couple just walked right up and you were able to seat them immediately, so how can you go from having absolutely no wait, to having an hour and a half wait?

I just wanted to make sure she understood...but I said it in a nice way.

Boy she did not like that. She told me that it was her responsibility to properly seat the tables and couldn't have people making their own decisions about when they were seated, where they were seated, or if they were seated.

I smiled nicely.

Me: Of course I understand. We don't mind waiting. We're not in any hurry.

So we waited a bit, and we had plenty of time to observe some other things that were odd about this situation. Both she and the other hostess were wearing he cute/silly/corny Beaches and Cream ice cream shop uniforms with white aprons, but both of their aprons were absolutely covered in food. I don't mean a little bit of food, I mean huge smears of various ice creams, toppings (I'm guessing) and also some ketchup? I'm pretty sure that was ketchup on there. It was terribly unappetizing, but we weren't going to let two confused, power-tripping hostesses with dirty uniforms stop us. We'd seen the reviews, and we knew what was in store if only we could make it through this process.

In a few minutes, I saw some of where the hostess' attitude was coming from. A woman with a pager walked up and was very rude to the hostess. She belonged with a large party, and she was overall being demanding and condescending. After this woman angrily walked away, the hostess looked at me, rolled her eyes, and then tried to strike up a conversation about this woman's bad habits. I definitely did not want to get into this conversation, but I also wanted to remain sympathetic, if only to improve my chances of being seated. I was starting to see how it worked...if you cross the gatekeeper, your chances of making it to the Emerald City are less and less...this woman held the key to our happiness! Ok that's being dramatic...she held the key to our ice cream, though, which is closely linked to happiness. Studies have proven this.

So my smiling and nodding paid off... Within minutes, we were seated with a warm smile and an enjoy your meal.

Phew finally!

I was pleased to see that our waitress was dressed more cleanly than the hostess crew.

She was prompt, efficient, and no nonsense.

For dinner, we decided to split the grilled cheese and a dinner salad, because we wanted to be sure we'd have room for dessert.


Our server had the sandwich split and brought us each our own plate, which was appreciated.

This was good, but nothing as special as what we expected. It was pretty much just a grilled cheese, although I believe there was some parmesan on our bread, which was a nice touch.

Here is an inside shot:

See, some kind of white cheese, not American or cheddar. This was fine with us. Overall we both enjoyed the sandwich.

The fries were just ok. I'm not a huge fries person, but later DP said that she thought the fries tasted like meat. Maybe they were fried in the same grease with meat. I didn't really notice.

Then we split this salad, too:

This was the driest, weirdest salad ever. First off, I'm fairly sure some or all of it had been recently frozen. The radishes were a nice addition, or so we thought. They were shaved very thinly, and they were all stuck together in a congealed lump. They tasted sort of pickled...but they were supposed to be fresh...It is never a good sign when your radishes taste pickled. The lettuce was also odd. It was so tough and chewy, and exceptionally dry. I don't even know what you do to get lettuce this dry!

We'd ordered this salad with ranch, and you can see that it was delivered with fat free ranch in the packet.

After she dropped off our food as if it was just what we'd ordered, we stopped her to ask if we could have some regular ranch, to which she replied, "I know you ordered ranch, but we can't find any." Ok...so we'd eat the fat free.

About 5 minutes later, she walked by and literally tossed two packets of regular ranch on our table. Good news was now we had plenty of ranch to put on basically the worst salad ever. Ok seriously one of the worst salads I have ever had.

We got full enough from our little dinner, and so we were ready to order dessert. Initially, I'd planned on having a banana split, and DP was going for the mini version of the No Way Jose. By this time, I knew I was too full to really eat the banana split, so we decided to share this:


The small version of the No Way Jose.

No way! is this small! All I can say is that all we'd been through to this point...all the messy uniforms, weird salads, and fat free ranch in the world could not keep this from being one of the best things I have ever eaten.

I was a little bit afraid that the peanut butter would overpower everything, but this was just delicious. Just plain delicious.

We managed to eat it all, even though we were both seriously full by the end. Trust me on this, the small No Way Jose is enough to share.

It was so good, and it made us totally understand why people are packing into this place in spite of the less than magical overall experience of it.

After this sundae, we were pretty satisfied as we walked out of Beaches and Cream...satisfied although still shaking our heads about how odd the whole experience had been.

The next review won't be so wordy, I promise! Things got a lot smoother after this day of bizarre customer service!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[DLFan123]

Great pics!

Thanks! I promise more pics and less complaining in future installments.

 

[DLFan123]

Great report! Thanks for sharing the pictures from your balcony, one if these days I will stay there. Can't wait to hear more

Thank you! I'm glad you are enjoying it so far. I hope you will be able to stay there one day soon!

 

[darnheather]

Oh wow, you've had some pretty bad luck with CM's. You are certainly right however that ice cream equals happiness!

 

[DLFan123]

Oh wow, you've had some pretty bad luck with CM's. You are certainly right however that ice cream equals happiness!

Just bad luck with this particular day. Overall, our trip was totally magical with lots of provided by a group of well-trained and eager CMs all over WDW! Although the experience at Beaches and Cream was "odd," it truly wasn't bad, even with the ice cream aside.

Oh how I wish for a No Way Jose right now!

 

[darnheather]

Just bad luck with this particular day. Overall, our trip was totally magical with lots of provided by a group of well-trained and eager CMs all over WDW! Although the experience at Beaches and Cream was "odd," it truly wasn't bad, even with the ice cream aside.

Oh how I wish for a No Way Jose right now!

That is nice to here. I'm very much enjoying living at Disney via your trip. You're a great writer.

 

[DLFan123]

That is nice to here. I'm very much enjoying living at Disney via your trip. You're a great writer.

Aw thanks! You are too kind!

Next update will be 50's Primetime Café, our first time! Hopefully I can get this done tonight or early tomorrow morning.

 

[DLFan123]

After our first night at the Beach Club, we were headed over to Hollywood Studios for RD and to catch our favorite attractions.


The boat dock to HS from the YC and BC

After taking a spin on Toy Story Mania, a plunge on Tower of Terror, and a trip through the movies, we were ready for lunch.

We were both excited for 50s Café, as we had never been there before and have heard so many things about it.

Upon entering, we commented that we really liked the theming.

This was the only picture I could get without a ton of people in it. The waiting areas were crowded, but they were rapidly calling people back to their tables.

We waited just a few minutes before being seated. DP was nervously hoping we didn't get an enthusiastic CM for a waiter who would make a big fuss over her like we've read can happen at this restaurant. Thankfully, our server seemed to sense that, and he was pretty subdued.

Although we already knew what we'd be eating, here is a shot of the menu:


I was pretty excited to try the crab cake, so even though it was an appetizer, I decided to have that as my meal:

Doesn't it look beautiful?

Here is the issue, the waiter delivered this, I began eating it, and the crab cake was yummy, the crispy onion strings on top were delish, and then I got to the nice veggie mix underneath and I tasted bacon. So I asked the waiter if this dish is made with bacon or some other pork, to which he replied "No." So I kept eating, until I could see and pick out hunks of bacon or ham or whatever the pork was. I called him back over, pointed out the pork, and then he said, "Yes, I went back in the kitchen and asked, and there is a small amount of pork in it." I understand that the concept of people who eat a strictly vegetarian + seafood diet is not totally understood by those who eat any and all meat, but for me, it makes perfect sense. Besides that, there are some who eat seafood, all other meats but NO PORK for religious reasons, especially on certain days of the week. So I will say this again and hope someone at WDW hears me: WHY IN THE WORLD MUST THE FOLKS AT WDW PUT BACON (OR SOME VERSION OF BACON, CALL IT PANCETTA IF YOU'D LIKE) IN SO MANY OF THEIR SEAFOOD ITEMS? This is not a common practice in California, where fewer people eat fatty pork for health reasons. We only encounter this issue at WDW.

Ok I will end my rant soon. At this point, the waiter looked horrified and asked if he could have them make me a new crab cake without the bacon. After all I'd already eaten, and because I absolutely hate wasting food, I did something I never do: I removed the crab cake from the plate of porky accompaniments, and I just ate it anyway. For me, this is not easy. I'm not one of those people who doesn't eat meat but still eats gravy...or even marshmallows...or soup made with chicken broth. I won't take a vitamin if it's got gelatin in it. I'd rather go hungry than pick the pepperoni off a pizza at a pizza party and eat the remains. I just didn't feel like making a fuss, and the waiter already looked so upset. Add to that the fact that we were sitting about a foot away from a whole family of meat eaters (we were sandwiched between two families at one of those bench tables) who were rolling their eyes and I felt being judgmental over my personal choices...so I just ate it. That's probably what I would have done at my meat-loving grandpa's kitchen table, and considering the décor of this restaurant, that's kind of where I felt like I was.

All that aside, the crab cake is delicious, and so is the topping and the sauce. If you eat crab and pork, this dish is for you. It seriously was one of the tastiest things I had all trip, but the enjoyment of it was ruined by the pork. If you eat seafood but not pork, better mention it up front, because they will need to know to leave the bacon off. I will admit this is partially my fault-I'm looking at my menu photo, and I'm pretty sure I see the word "bacon." So I should have read the menu, but I didn't, because I had decided in advance I would be having the crab cake.

DP ordered the vegetarian lasagna (a safer bet, because everybody knows "vegetarian" means no bacon):

This was prettier than it was good. It just tasted kind of like frozen lasagna. The table of meat eaters next to us agreed, although the dad at the table actually complained to the waiter about why a restaurant would bother serving lasagna that didn't contain meat.

I guess you can't please all of the people all of the time...unfortunately the lasagna didn't really please anyone. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't good.

To sum it up, our experience with the food wasn't so good. The décor of the restaurant was neat, though. It brought back old memories of being a kid in my grandparent's home. It was a nice air conditioned spot on a hot day. I can't say we won't be back, but we don't feel like we ever really need to go back.

Coming up next, some snacks and then dinner at Kona! No complaints there! I swear!

 

[YCFAN]

Enjoying your reviews. Keep them coming!!

 

[DLFan123]

Enjoying your reviews. Keep them coming!!

hi. Thanks for reading. I'm glad you are enjoying the reviews. Another one will be along shortly.

 

[alomba11]

Thanks for the reviews and the pics

 

[DLFan123]

Thanks for the reviews and the pics

You're very welcome. It's nice to have you reading along.

 

[DLFan123]

We had intentionally skipped dessert at 50's in order to save room for a treat from Starring Rolls. The red velvet cupcake we had from this quick stop in 2012 was just so delicious. On top of that, I'd been drooling over all the Starring Rolls pics here on the boards for about 10 months, dreaming of which dessert I'd choose.

Funny, when it came time to order one, I just couldn't really decide. Nothing really struck my fancy this particular day. Maybe I was just full from lunch. Whatever the reason, I ended up choosing this:

A cream filled éclair with chocolate frosting.

This was ok. I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking. I like eclairs, but they are never my favorite thing. I guess I wanted this to taste like a frosted donut, and it really didn't. It wasn't very sweet. Besides that, we ate this while we stood in the sun waiting for Beauty and the Beast, so the frosting was kind of melting off by the last few bites. It wasn't bad, but I probably wouldn't get it again. Next time I'm going for an actual dessert, not a dessert disguised as breakfast.

After we finished the éclair, we decided it was a good time for another snack. Who said anything about full?

We chose this:

Some nice Disney popcorn

This was good as usual, salty and satisfying. We ate it while we watched the show.

We had a pretty good seat for the show, because we'd been willing to wait in the hot sun:

It's not the greatest photo, I know, but I love this scene!

After the show wrapped up, we headed back to our resort to cool off and get ready for dinner at Kona.

Today's towel animal:

A sting ray!

Coming up next, dinner at Kona, one of our favorite restaurants!

 

[Poohforyou]

After our first night at the Beach Club, we were headed over to Hollywood Studios for RD and to catch our favorite attractions.


The boat dock to HS from the YC and BC

After taking a spin on Toy Story Mania, a plunge on Tower of Terror, and a trip through the movies, we were ready for lunch.

We were both excited for 50s Café, as we had never been there before and have heard so many things about it.

Upon entering, we commented that we really liked the theming.

This was the only picture I could get without a ton of people in it. The waiting areas were crowded, but they were rapidly calling people back to their tables.

We waited just a few minutes before being seated. DP was nervously hoping we didn't get an enthusiastic CM for a waiter who would make a big fuss over her like we've read can happen at this restaurant. Thankfully, our server seemed to sense that, and he was pretty subdued.

Although we already knew what we'd be eating, here is a shot of the menu:


I was pretty excited to try the crab cake, so even though it was an appetizer, I decided to have that as my meal:

Doesn't it look beautiful?

Here is the issue, the waiter delivered this, I began eating it, and the crab cake was yummy, the crispy onion strings on top were delish, and then I got to the nice veggie mix underneath and I tasted bacon. So I asked the waiter if this dish is made with bacon or some other pork, to which he replied "No." So I kept eating, until I could see and pick out hunks of bacon or ham or whatever the pork was. I called him back over, pointed out the pork, and then he said, "Yes, I went back in the kitchen and asked, and there is a small amount of pork in it." I understand that the concept of people who eat a strictly vegetarian + seafood diet is not totally understood by those who eat any and all meat, but for me, it makes perfect sense. Besides that, there are some who eat seafood, all other meats but NO PORK for religious reasons, especially on certain days of the week. So I will say this again and hope someone at WDW hears me: WHY IN THE WORLD MUST THE FOLKS AT WDW PUT BACON (OR SOME VERSION OF BACON, CALL IT PANCETTA IF YOU'D LIKE) IN SO MANY OF THEIR SEAFOOD ITEMS? This is not a common practice in California, where fewer people eat fatty pork for health reasons. We only encounter this issue at WDW.

Ok I will end my rant soon. At this point, the waiter looked horrified and asked if he could have them make me a new crab cake without the bacon. After all I'd already eaten, and because I absolutely hate wasting food, I did something I never do: I removed the crab cake from the plate of porky accompaniments, and I just ate it anyway. For me, this is not easy. I'm not one of those people who doesn't eat meat but still eats gravy...or even marshmallows...or soup made with chicken broth. I won't take a vitamin if it's got gelatin in it. I'd rather go hungry than pick the pepperoni off a pizza at a pizza party and eat the remains. I just didn't feel like making a fuss, and the waiter already looked so upset. Add to that the fact that we were sitting about a foot away from a whole family of meat eaters (we were sandwiched between two families at one of those bench tables) who were rolling their eyes and I felt being judgmental over my personal choices...so I just ate it. That's probably what I would have done at my meat-loving grandpa's kitchen table, and considering the décor of this restaurant, that's kind of where I felt like I was.

All that aside, the crab cake is delicious, and so is the topping and the sauce. If you eat crab and pork, this dish is for you. It seriously was one of the tastiest things I had all trip, but the enjoyment of it was ruined by the pork. If you eat seafood but not pork, better mention it up front, because they will need to know to leave the bacon off. I will admit this is partially my fault-I'm looking at my menu photo, and I'm pretty sure I see the word "bacon." So I should have read the menu, but I didn't, because I had decided in advance I would be having the crab cake.

DP ordered the vegetarian lasagna (a safer bet, because everybody knows "vegetarian" means no bacon):

This was prettier than it was good. It just tasted kind of like frozen lasagna. The table of meat eaters next to us agreed, although the dad at the table actually complained to the waiter about why a restaurant would bother serving lasagna that didn't contain meat.

I guess you can't please all of the people all of the time...unfortunately the lasagna didn't really please anyone. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't good.

To sum it up, our experience with the food wasn't so good. The décor of the restaurant was neat, though. It brought back old memories of being a kid in my grandparent's home. It was a nice air conditioned spot on a hot day. I can't say we won't be back, but we don't feel like we ever really need to go back.

Coming up next, some snacks and then dinner at Kona! No complaints there! I swear!

I'm really enjoying your thread for quite a while and really enjoy it. I'm sorry about the issue with your crab cake and don't understand the meat/seafood combo but the menu clearly says the crab cake dish has bacon.

I hate mushrooms and have the read through menu items very carefully to make sure they aren't in a dish and if they are I just request having them left off.

 

[DLFan123]

I'm really enjoying your thread for quite a while and really enjoy it. I'm sorry about the issue with your crab cake and don't understand the meat/seafood combo but the menu clearly says the crab cake dish has bacon.

I hate mushrooms and have the read through menu items very carefully to make sure they aren't in a dish and if they are I just request having them left off.

Glad you're enjoying it. Yes, I should have paid more attention. I just keep forgetting that bacon can be lurking in dishes where it isn't very typical. After this, we became a lot more vigilant and paid more attention to the menus. Like I said, I didn't even read the menu (although I managed to take a picture of it), because I had seen on a non-Disney website that this restaurant has a crab cake. I love crab cakes; they are one of my favorite things to eat, so I was just really excited. Lesson learned for next time, though!

 

[SunnieRN]

Loving your reviews so far!! Some of my most favorite places are Tangieriene Cafe, staring rolls (for a cupcake), and Columbia Harbour House!!!

So sorry about your crab cake fiasco! The waiter should have known right away that ther was bacon in the appetizer!!

Lovely pictures! We have stayed at Kidani and Jambo house with savannah views. I love it there! Sanaa is also one of our favorites!

 

[CaliBear]

Sorry for the bacon issue. I am wondering, did you have a reservation? If you include your food preferences on the form next time, the chef will always make sure you don't get anything you won't eat. They're good with food allergies too.