Tub-herini: a June '18 dining report *complete, 7/6

earfulofmagic

cranking out magic and assembly line whimsy
Joined
May 16, 2017
Jambo culinary travelers, and welcome to
my first ever dining report!

:wave2:


WHO:
Your culinary guides on this 5-night, 6-day adventure in the exotic, faraway, tropical landscape of Walt Disney World :rolleyes: will be myself, Chris, and my significant(ly hungrier) other, T.



:figment: I'm the Figment, with T sitting next to me.

We are both in our mid/late 20s and we both work in technology.

I thoroughly enjoy planning and research as much as I love spontaneity (you'll see some pivoting on this trip, like always, and something like 85% of my original plans ended up morphing and shifting, like always). T is thankful I enjoy these things because, to paraphrase his words, all he has to do is show up and have a good time!

I prefer trying new experiences and places, while T is an old curmudgeon who would pick familiarity 90% of the time yet *loves* new things, so long as I drag him out to try them. :thumbsup2

WHEN:
6/6-11, 2018.

WHERE:
We stayed at the Swan, one of our absolute favorite resorts :cloud9:

WHY:
Officially, we were here for a wedding -- it was actually the second we attended this summer in Orlando! Unofficially, we were also celebrating moving away from a Place-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named where we lived for the previous 6 months, back to the beautiful state of Oregon.

WHAAAT?:
This was my 6th trip to WDW since Aug '17, and T's 4th since Nov '17.

There are loooong stories behind all of that, but it turns out 2017-2018 had much in store for us that ALL took place in Florida: one funeral, two weddings, a birthday, and more! Naturally, it made sense for us to get annual passes, and for me to get a Tables in Wonderland card, way back in August '17. (We had planned on getting APs/TiW for a planned birthday trip way before all the other trips sprung up, so I really feel we squeezed maximum value out of both memberships.)

After spending 40ish days in WDW over this last year and untold amounts on food, and inspired by some lovely dining reports on this board, I feel like it's high time to try my hand at a dining report! And where better to start than with the trip we just returned from last night? :upsidedow

We did majority TS this trip, whereas past trips have been a mix of TS/QS (normally around a 70/30 split).

Up next: airport nomz and our arrival evening...
 
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Reading along. That’s a lot of trips in a short period of time !
 




Arrival Day Pt. 1: Airport Eats

(after writing this, I realize it's more exposition than food -- my apologies!)

Our journey begins around 6:00am sharp in a quiet, sleepy neighborhood of Portland, OR ...except I wasn't sleepy at all! I was terribly anxious the night before, incredibly alert, and tossed and turned all night -- sleeping maybe two hours total. I was worried for no real reason about our dog, thinking the petsitter would lose her in the neighborhood, accidentally feed her something toxic to dogs, or that she'd run into traffic. Zero of these things happened and by all accounts, they got along famously and had a great time together. But I panicked nonstop from the time we left for the airport until we were in a Lyft headed to the Swan. :o

After dropping off our checked bags at the Alaska counter and a quick, painless pass through security with precheck (Global Entry was the best $100 I ever spent, although precheck isn't necessary for PDX - definitely useful at MCO), it was time for breakfast.

We stopped at Bambuza, which is basically a QS Vietnamese place. It was in line sight of our gate and serving lunch/dinner foods at 8am -- 100% my jam.

Like our last visit here (this was my 2nd visit), I got the tofu banh mi and T got the chicken banh mi. For some reason I didn't take a photo of his -- probably because I was frantically checking my phone every 5 minutes until takeoff in case disaster struck :bitelip: But I tasted it and can confirm it was good; I'd made a mental note to skip tofu next time in favor of chicken.

Here is my highly unattractive digital memory of the tofu banh mi:

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(french baguette with house-made mayonnaise, cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro & soy sauce. Choice of grilled chicken, pork, beef or sautéed tofu. We add jalapenos as well)

I'd slathered it in sriracha by the second photo for extra heat. The baguette is inexplicably delicious, crisp, yet soft and chewy -- I could probably eat the bread on its own; the vegetables are always crisp and fresh, the protein is plentiful, and the marinades have excellent flavor. They're simple, but tasty and relatively healthful. The chicken banh mi was perfectly marinated and grilled as well, but again, no picture.

It's a little hard to tell but these are pretty sizable, and at $7.95 each I find them nicely priced for made-to-order airport sandwiches. I can't vouch for their other offerings and I remember checking their Yelp page a while back and seeing it had abysmal ratings -- but the banh mi are cheap and tasty and filling!

We eventually boarded our 5 & 1/2 hour nonstop flight to MCO and had an exit row to ourselves.

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(I believe we were soarin' over the Rockies here)

T instantly dozed off -- like shortly after the "you're in an exit row" conversation with the FA, before we started taxiing out of the gate -- and was fast asleep before 10,000 feet. I read one book, and the wifi kept disconnecting so I only watched half of The Greatest Showman before giving up. I later watched half of Battle of the Sexes, which I thought was worth dealing with the wifi annoyances, and at some point T woke up and I pestered him endlessly about my anxieties over our dog. :upsidedow (FWIW he was also worried, but had slept enough and wasn't quite so irrational.)

The flight had no turbulence at all and it was very quiet and peaceful. We landed early in MCO at like 5:50ish, but due to gate congestion, we didn't deplane until 6:30. We quickly picked up our bags from the carousel and made our way to a Lyft, and as soon as we drove out of MCO I got texts from the petsitter with updates and photos; all was well! We were both so relieved and happy to hear they were having a blast together.

When we got to the Swan we had to wait like 10 minutes to checkin, and then we made friends with the nicest SPG front desk folks I've ever met. They magically upgraded us to a resort view King room -- we had booked on priceline, which is usually a default 2 queens standard room -- and before we left they gave us a bunch of drink and ice cream vouchers for the Swolphin's lounges + The Fountain:

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(remember these vouchers for later in this report)

I was like yaaaaaaaaasssss, everything is going so perfectly! And then we got to our room and...

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They had put us in some massive king room! :worship: I had previously stayed in a resort view king w/balcony by myself and they're sized like the 2 queen rooms, but for some reason this one was huge. It had the normal furniture, but it also had a kitchenette and then another alcove with a second desk. (The kitchenette meant there wasn't the normal double bathroom vanity, but it also meant the closet was a lot bigger so I liked it.) I think it was probably part of a connecting suite because of the kitchenette and lockoff door, but I couldn't find info about it on the Swan site. It was a corner room, so maybe that was all. Anyway! It was too much space just for the two of us but we loved it. It was at the end of a short hall and incredibly quiet. We had a perfect view of one of the Swan courtyards and of the Dolphin, where we could see the causeway light show every night.

Up next, we make a quick jaunt to Hollywood Studios and then the food train picks up steam with an under the sea theme...​
 
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Following along! :wave2:
Hooray, welcome! I lurk your trip reports all the time :laughing:

Reading along. That’s a lot of trips in a short period of time !
Welcome! It felt excessive on the fifth trip, which was in May. I remember saying I felt Disneyed out.
But after this trip we're both experiencing Disney withdrawals!

Can’t wait to hear more.
:welcome:
Thanks for following along!

Hurry up! Can't wait lol!
I'm hurrying!!! :laughing:

Following!
:welcome:
Hooray, thanks for following along!
 
Arrival Day Pt. 2: bluezoo, blue who?

After the gate congestion at MCO and small gabfest at the Swan's checkin desk, we were a little behind my loose "schedule." I had expected us to be checked in and ready to hit Hollywood Studios around 7:30pm at the latest, but it was 8:30pm by the time we hit the walking path to HS. (Sitting for 40 minutes on the runway behind our gate, waiting for the plane ahead of us to take off, really disrupted my time estimates :thumbsup2)

We had a nice, humid but not too hot, 15 minute walk along the "river." The sun had already set by then and set the mood for Hollywood Studios, which we both feel really ~shines~ at night (but actually, because of all the neon signs!).

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In May we didn't get to go on Toy Story Midway Mania at all *or* visit HS at night, so that was one of T's requests for this trip. TSMM is one of his favorite rides, so I'd made a fastpass at 8:20pm for us. The park was already quite empty. TSMM's FP line was long, but not a horrible wait at all.

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Side story time: we overheard a family behind us talking about their plans to go to Starbucks tomorrow to use up some of their 38 leftover snack credits. I shot a look at T, who despite having degrees in economics, mathematics, and a job in the finance/data side of tech, really wanted to get the Deluxe Dining Plan for this trip (before we changed to the Swan, which put that conversation to rest). He insisted he knew it was rational for us to forgo the DxDP and knew we would end up spending more than doing TiW/OOP, and forcing ourselves to eat more than we would normally. But he also claimed that the idea of not worrying about prices and the feel of being "all inclusive" overwhelmed his senses. I countered he could let go of price inspection without prepaying for a dining plan, and that we could just load a gift card ahead of time to pay for meals, and that is what we did. I may have noted what he described is basically how dining works on a cruise, and that we should definitely go on a Disney cruise next. :rolleyes1

Also while in the TSMM queue, I moved our late dinner OpenTable reservation at Todd English's bluezoo from 10 to 10:30, since I didn't think we would be presentable without showering first. We rode TSMM, had lots of fun, soaked in a little bit more streetmosphere, and headed for the park exit.

By this point I was exhausted and hungry -- I'd only had the banh mi so far, while T ate like 300 protein bars on the plane. He suggested we stop for a snack and I thought he was insane. I wasn't about to eat a Mickey pretzel before dinner at bluezoo. We briefly considered taking the bus back (the boat service to HS was closed for refurbs) but we hoofed it instead, and I rationalized that mild exercise on an empty stomach = increased hunger = more room for food! (This is definitely not how it works, just btw.)

After showering and dressing in our Florida finest, we left the Swan to make the agonizingly long, gruesome walk over to the Dolphin:

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(the causeway light show was underway, and iirc Katy Perry's "Firework" was playing at the time)

ALSO quick mention here: I didn't bring any cameras on this trip, so hopefully you, dear reader, don't mind iPhone photos!

Pretty sure it took all of 3 minutes between exiting our room and entering the front door of the Dolphin's lobby, including the times we stopped so I could force T to take pictures of me. None of them came out well -- photography is not among his talents. Yet I, his loving partner committed to his personal growth, make him take photos of me anyway :upsidedow

We checked in at about 10:15pm and were seated immediately... because we were the only people in the restaurant, with the exception of a few folks drinking in the lounge. When the hostess walked us to our table, she pointed out the raw bar selections and this evening's "dancing fish" (fish rotating + roasting on display over a fire). She probably has to point these out by decree of restaurant management, but I thought this was a bold move considering the raw bar was empty except for maybe ten oysters, and the three dancing fish had obviously been at the ball for several hours.

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We were big fans of the decor, which is more or less an ~under the sea~ theme with lots of wavy designs, bubble lights, many shades of blue, and red-orange seats that resembled pops of coral. The purple light on the right of the photo above is a photobomb of the causeway light show through a window -- it wasn't actually this bright in person.

We began with drinks: a smoking watermelon sangria for me, and a cocktail called "the local's bee's knees" for T.

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The smoking watermelon sangria is a seasonal play on the normal smoking (red) sangria. It was fruity, light and refreshing, but overall it was all show, no go -- after the "smoke" dissipated it was disappointingly small.

T's cocktail really WAS the bee's knees: the glass was so cute! A little beehive, with a yellow-striped straw! It was quite strong as well as a much healthier pour.

The bread basket followed shortly after drinks came out:

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At this point I was empty-stomach-tipsy, so I don't have better pictures of the bread basket :guilty: It included slices of sourdough (good, but I have nothing else to add), some parmesan-rosemary flatbread crisps, and some focaccia (you can see just the top of one underneath the sourdough slices). They were literally the spongiest, moistest, most heavenly focaccia to ever reach my taste buds. It was "amazingly pillowy soft and moist holy ****!!!!!!!!" according to my iPhone notes. I remember saying those didn't even need the butter because they were so flavorful and delicious on their own.

Now for the butter... I don't remember exactly what the herbs were -- rosemary but a few others, too -- and I could've eaten this straight up with a spoon. It was to die for, SO GOOD. Neither of us usually go hog wild on the complimentary bread service at restaurants, but we indeed were like hogs, stuffing our faces with all of the bread and butter. We might've thrown elbows. I think we even licked the butter ramekin (I felt free to do this because the restaurant was empty and our server seemed nonjudgmental).

The focaccia was my absolute favorite, while T favored the flat crisps, saying they reminded him of bread service in certain places in Germany/Italy. I knew what he meant and I understood the nostalgia aspect, but the focaccia was objectively best of the carbalicious basket.

After tub-tubbing on the bread basket and behaving like sophisticated diners, we were full. We could've left and gone to sleep happy. But on the way from the kitchen were two entrees and a side:

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I ordered the "simply fish" and chose corvina out of that night's fish selections (I remember a tilefish was another choice, but I can't remember the third one). ((T read this and remembered the third fish was swordfish.)) For my sauce I went with the "warm crabmeat, dijon mustard, chives" because the sauce of the day was like a lemon-citrus beurre blanc, which is nothing new or exciting. The simply fish is served with "fresh spring pea puree, red skin mashed potatoes, buttered carrots, organic mache lettuce." Pretty sure there are some other lightly pickled vegetables hanging out by the mache lettuce, but I don't recall what they were.

The sauce was unbelievably good. I thought it would only be slightly preferable to a beurre blanc, but this was the bomb dot com! There was so much crabmeat -- the photo above shows about half of the sauce, as it's brought out in a small copper measuring cup (you can see the shadow of the cup's handle around 12'o'clock ^) and the server will pour some tableside. The name of this sauce is misleading because it seems like it'll be some ho-hum dijon mustard sauce, but far from it, it's delicious and a bit tangy and flavorful but not too rich.

I would probably pass on the corvina in the future. It was fine, but it was like a chewier halibut and the skin wasn't crisped well -- it was too chewy and fatty (it was pretty darn thick). T liked the skin. It wasn't quite flaky like cod but it wasn't quite meaty like a swordfish steak -- it was somewhere in limbo.

The "fresh spring pea puree" is just for appearances because it was, literally, just pureed peas -- no salt or any seasoning to speak of. It may have been cut with water because that is how bland it was. I like peas, but this was almost like a palate cleansing base to the dish, and seemed a little out of place with everything else. I thought the peas would have a hint of sweetness but it was like two shakes away from cardboard. I remember particularly loving the mache lettuce and the roasted carrots. The potatoes were good too, but it's hard to mess those up.

Overall I remember this being a well-balanced dish, with the crabmeat/dijon sauce standing out nicely against lighter (and still delicious) flavors. I wouldn't hesitate to order this again. Also, it was quite the generous helping. I was not expecting such, and I didn't finish all of this. (Were it not for our bread extravaganza, though, I probably could have.)

Now with my longwinded "simply fish" dissertation out of the way, we move onto T's entree, the "pecan crusted florida grouper - jumbo white asparagus, mashed sweet potatoes, savannah red rice, indian river citrus beurre blanc":

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I felt like my dish had better presentation for being more colorful, but his was a perfect tie-in of Florida-ish, southern influences. The grouper was excellent, definitely preferable to the corvina. The pecan crust was a light crust on the top of the grouper, not all the way around, and that too was delicious. The mashed sweet potatoes were good (but again, they're just potatoes) and the rice and sauce were good, though I thought my sauce beat out the beurre blanc. His dish was also a plentiful portion.

T especially loved the white asparagus and again said something about how very German they were, and how pleased he was that they came with the dish. After googling "Germany white asparagus", the hits include: a link from the Guardian with preview line "It is impossible to overstate the German obsession with white asparagus," a mention of the "revered white stalks" on another site, mention of "scenic asparagus routes" in the countryside, and guides to celebrating asparagus festivals while visiting Germany. After five years together, I finally have some context for why he beelines for asparagus in the grocery store and seems to only know how to season and sauté asparagus perfectly... it is in his DNA! :magnify:

For a side to share, we ordered the lobster mac and cheese:

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(unmarred)

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(dug into. notice the butter ramekin in the back, with just a few dregs we must've missed :snooty:)

Similar to the German obsession with asparagus, I cannot overstate how incredibly rich this was. I wouldn't be able to eat this on my own, even on an empty stomach. It was delicious, for sure -- that crust was perfect and it was definitely one of the most well made macs I've ever had -- but it was far too rich and cheesy for my personal taste. I blinked, and T devoured it with gusto; I had maybe three or four spoonfuls. I also didn't taste or see a lick of lobster, but T says it had good lobster flavor. :confused3 In addition to eating all of his entree and the mac, he finished my dish for me.

Next, a totally unjustified dessert course. I wanted at least three desserts because they all sounded delicious and I *knew* they would look beautiful, which at this point in the trip was totally a valid reason for ordering something (later in this report we will learn, beautiful ≠ stomach-worthy!). T, ever the voice of reason and cheapskates everywhere, insisted we get only one because neither of us were even hungry. I had already narrowed my choices to two, but he persisted.

I told him I would never forget this, nor would I forgive him for making me pass up the "citrus moon" (lime and almond frangipane cake, lemon white chocolate cream, grapefruit sorbet, orange caviar, grapefruit agar and lemon meringue). :laughing: He did not relent.

But ultimately it was the right choice, because the "blueberry angel food cake" was a diva, deserving of the sole dessert spotlight:

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(*heavenly choir, strumming of harps, etc.*)

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(and a brighter photo)

This was angel food cake, blueberry cream, whipped white chocolate ganache, blueberry ice cream, and blueberry agar. What an amazing, light, perfect dessert. Looking at this and looking at the menu description, it sounds like it'll be one-dimensional and fall flat since it's basically a compilation of different blueberry interpretations. I'm happy to say that is not the case! All of the different textures, temperatures, and blueberry flavors played together so, so well -- I felt like this dessert was the physical representation of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." The blueberry agar (the darker, more solid squares on top of the angel food cake, it alternates with dollops of blueberry cream) was probably my favorite part. This dessert was interesting and playful, and I thought the presentation was absolutely beautiful.

Despite being "totally stuffed" and unable to order a second dessert, T managed to find the stomach space to enjoy this too. At the time we were laughing it up and enjoying the evening, but a week later, I still haven't forgotten the citrus moon. :rotfl:

We finished eating around 11:35pm and got the check. Tables in Wonderland saved us $25.10, and in addition to the auto 18% gratuity we left a $20 bill because A) cash is king B) we felt bad for being the only diners there just before the end of dinner service, when our server probably could've gone home earlier.

After a lovely dinner, we began the long arduous journey back to our room, and we bumped into one of the awsome front desk ladies from earlier that evening! She was leaving to go home. We chatted, thanked her for the awesome room upgrade, and I tried not to let my uncomfortably full stomach spill over :bitelip: All in all, our dinner at bluezoo felt like a perfect cap to a perfect night, and a ~magical~ start to our trip.

Up next, we continue our adventures under the sea...​
 
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I have to say - the worst part about going to Disney is leaving our dog behind. Our good friends watch her and they love her but I still feel bad leaving. Your food looks great so far. We have never eaten at the Bluezoo but I would love to try it. The fish looked great. Thanks for the report.
 
I have to say - the worst part about going to Disney is leaving our dog behind. Our good friends watch her and they love her but I still feel bad leaving. Your food looks great so far. We have never eaten at the Bluezoo but I would love to try it. The fish looked great. Thanks for the report.

I agree, it's always the worst part. We know she's in good hands but still miss her. This was our first time at bluezoo as well, and we really liked it.

And thank you for reading!
 
Another Sea Expedition

The next morning I woke up super early at 7am, having slept maybe 6.5 hours max, but I felt energized and ready for our first full day in WDW. T evidently did not feel the same way, so I lounged and read for about two hours before he woke up.

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the morning view from our room

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the courtyard below us was empty, as usual, though some mornings I saw rope-droppers eating breakfast!

I've never rope-dropped any of the parks in my life and we weren't about to start now. But I had made an early FP for 9:10am at T's favorite Midway Mania (he prefers it to Chicago's Midway mania :thumbsup2), so we were nice and early when we entered the FP queue around 10:10am.

On our way we unintentionally caught March of the First Order, my favorite Disney parade ;) After riding TSMM we pressed some pennies, bought a park bag for T (he had forgotten his usual park bag at home), loaded a Disney gift card, and randomly found the Donald Duck annual passholder magnet distribution all in the same store. What luck.

At this point I had been up ~4 hours without any food and had at least 1.5 miles of walking under my belt -- I was Veritably Famished. Right as I said I didn't think I could walk to Epcot for our lunch ADR because it was too hot and I was on the brink of collapse, we saw a Yacht/Beach Club bus waiting just past the park exit. Score! We half-sprinted to the bus (amazing how the promise of an air conditioned bus motivated me) and were the last to get on before we headed to YC/BC.

After a quick pleasant ride, we got off at the Yacht Club, pressed some more pennies outside near Beaches & Cream, then walked from there to the International Gateway.

Since it was only a little after 11am and a Thursday, World Showcase was still empty, which meant it was time for a miniature photoshoot in the United Kingdom:

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(he wore his Zurg shirt especially for TSMM!)

We also took some photopass photos in front of the SSE fountains before making our way to our lunch ADR at Coral Reef!

***I feel I should explain, because Coral Reef turns up frequently on this forum and elsewhere as one of the worst places to dine in WDW. Rest assured, I intentionally made that ADR, it was planned, and I was excited for our first visit ever there. I'd wanted to go to Coral Reef for a long time, mainly for the aquarium experience and for my curiosity in finding out for myself whether this place was really as horrible as it's said to be. :magnify:

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We checked in and were seated shortly after at one of the two-tops by the aquarium, but not directly next to the aquarium -- it was like three feet away from the table right up against the tank. I understand why people dislike that setup, but I was happy with our view:

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The small ray right in the center of the photo was such a little ham - it was showing off with somersaults and backflips constantly - very cute! We were also fond of what I think was a baby hammerhead shark.

We were entertained and mesmerized by our friends of the sea(quarium) throughout the entire meal, which is enough for me to declare I liked Coral Reef. But to be fair, we must move on to the food!

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The party begins with a glass of "The Abyss": Skyy Vodka, Bacardi Superior Rum, Blue Curaçao, and Pineapple Juice

I remember at first taste I didn't think it was strong; T had a sip and neither did he. This was suuuuper smooth and drinkable, and as a result I sucked it all down in less than ten minutes. It turns out it *was* strong and made even more potent by virtue of my empty stomach. One moment I was admiring giant fish, the next moment my face was flushed and hot and I was basically drunk. It was excellent and I would've ordered more were it not for our plans to hit the gym later.

I don't want to go into the underwhelming "bread service" but I will just for the sake of a comprehensive review. I grabbed one roll, split it in half, buttered it, ate it, and immediately put the other half of that roll back among its tasteless brethren. I'm 99% positive these were stale dinner rolls from a plastic bag found on a clearance shelf. You can see the bread bowl photobombing my cocktail. Imagine plain butter shaped in a square on the side. I took pictures but don't feel these deserve the bandwidth it would take to host them, and they certainly are not worth the stomach space. :snooty:

Moving on!

For my entree, I ordered the lobster mac & cheese ("Tossed with Applewood-smoked Bacon, Baby Spinach, Peppadew Peppers, Herb Toasted Panko"):

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This was good, though I felt there was lots of bacon and not enough lobster for the price ($33). The lobster was chopped almost to the same size as the bacon so that was a little odd texture-wise. I thought the dish was smaller than expected for the price, but that might have been the empty stomach thinking. The cheese sauce was not too heavy and not too thin. Compared to bluezoo's way-too-rich lobster mac, this was doable as a meal. The peppadew really helped cut through the richness of the cheese. I thought the orecchiette were a cute choice because they looked like little shells (or ears! :listen:). Overall, I enjoyed this, but didn't find it outstanding.

T ordered the dish I had originally wanted for myself:

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Seared mahi mahi, with "Jasmine Rice, Coconut and Cilantro-Lime Sauce, Avocado-Mango Salsa"

The cilantro-lime sauce and avocado-mango salsa were both delicious and the flavors balanced nicely. Neither were overly sweet. The rice was just okay, and imo the mahi was waaaaaaaay too salty. I tried one bite and wondered if they were trying to preserve the fish with that much salt. It was still edible, cooked well, and T ate it all, but I found it to be the definition of overseasoned.

After finishing our entrees, it was time for another unjustified dessert. I informed T we would *definitely* be ordering two desserts this time and those were...

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Turtle cheesecake: "Pecan Florentine, Chocolate and Caramel Ganache, and Caramel Sauce"

and...

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Key Lime Tart: "Strawberry Sauce, Tropical Fruit Glaze, Boba Pearls"

First, the bad news: the turtle cheesecake was a swing and a miss. I love cheesecake, so this should've been a smash hit. I primarily ordered this because I had seen reviews and photos of it in years past, and in all of the photos it was a round cheesecake forming the "shell" of a turtle, then caramel sauce drawing the turtle's head and legs around the cheesecake, and the blue sugar candy sculpture. I was a bit disappointed they had changed the presentation, which I know is very silly, but it's the truth. As it turns out, this cheesecake was faaaar too rich and far too sugary. I passed most of it off on T, who suffered through it and also deemed it way too rich/sweet.

The key lime tart was undoubtedly better. It didn't really have any key lime flavor -- in fact, I thought this tasted suspiciously like a lighter cheesecake :scratchin But the strawberry sauce, tropical fruit glaze and boba pearls were better than expected. It was the perfect balance of fruit and cake, not too sweet, and I thought the boba was reminiscent of roe, which fit the under-the-sea theme nicely. While not quite as rich as the cheesecake, this was still a little heavy, and I found myself yet again trying to keep my stomach contents from spilling over.

I think this was when I realized we needed to rein ourselves in on the dessert orders. It was also the moment we both fully understood we could never do the DxDP, no matter how optimistic we are about each getting an appetizer, entree, and dessert.

We saved $18.20 with our Tables in Wonderland card, which officially makes Coral Reef an overpriced restaurant with an amazing view. We really enjoyed our lunch here because the aquarium is wonderful and it was a fun experience. I also want to stress that this was by no means a "bad" dining experience -- we had fine service, I liked almost everything we ordered, we left quite full, and I can't say enough good things about the atmosphere. We were happy campers (sea divers?) by all measures.

:fish:

Yet after comparing the food to the prices (good, but not $100 good), and especially when compared to our meal at bluezoo -- which only cost about ~$30 more -- I think this is probably a one-and-done. I know all Disney restaurants suffer from location price inflation, but for some reason I'm less willing to give this one a pass. Probably because I could just as easily eat elsewhere then walk around the Seas to admire marine creatures. Still, we had fun, I liked the atmosphere, and I was happy to have finally crossed Coral Reef off my list.

After this we swam around in some clamshells following a little clownfish's misadventures, then we rode Living with the Land. We had early dinner plans at 5pm so we walked back to the Swan to work out and swim. On the way we stopped to take photos in the Boardwalk photobooth, one of my favorite little perks of having an annual pass. The photobooth was absolutely sweltering and our faces turned out extra "sparkly" in those photos.

For our next installment, we hit the gym in preparation for an old favorite...


 
Super cute Figment sweater!!


They had put us in some massive king room! :worship:
SCORE!!!


The next morning I woke up super early at 7am, having slept maybe 6.5 hours max, but I felt energized and ready for our first full day in WDW.
It's funny how Disney always puts that extra pep in your step. Little sleep? Walking 10+ miles a day? Masses of people everywhere? No problem!


I've never rope-dropped any of the parks in my life
o_O I'm sorry, my brain cannot process this statement. :laughing:
 

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