Dining Reviews: 12/15-12/22

Amy&Dan

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2004
We just returned from our trip last week and it was our first time on the DDP. I have to say this was one heck of a lot of food. It was great to try new things and it was a great deal but I felt it restricted us a bit and also since my kids are 10 and 12 it was even more over the top on the portions scale. But I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys full service meals. I didn't take pictures of the food but with some help from Allears am pretty much able to remember everything we got at each place!

12/15:
This day was originally supposed to be our late arrival day. Instead our airline cancelled our flight and we had to rebook to arrive a day early. I know, how unfair to get to spend two extra days at WDW (they also cancelled our return flight so we came back a day later). So by the time this all came up just two weeks before our trip I was limited on where we could eat. So I ended up booking us in to Sci Fi, no problem we really enjoy eating there. But first for lunch we ate at the CBR food court (we slept through breakfast). We split one double bacon burger and one cheese pizza between the four of us since we wanted to be hungry for our early adr at Sci Fi. For dessert we got two carrot cakes. The food was all good and the cake was REALLY good! The portions were huge, we didn't finish quite all the pizza. This was a preview of things to come. At Sci Fi that night, Dh had the ribs, I had some sort of shrimp penne pasta and the kids both had cheeseburgers. For appetizers dh and I each got the spinach artichoke dip and the kids got salads. Dh's ribs I thought were dry and not too meaty but he enjoyed them fine. My pasta was very good and the kids enjoyed their burgers. The appetizers were very good. None of us came anywhere near finishing our meals. For dessert the kids had milk shakes, dh had some sort of apple pie and I think I had a hot fudge sundae. Didn't finish those either. We were seated promptly, the service was great and other than the dry ribs I would give this an A.

12/16:
For some dumb reason I had made a 7:00 a.m. adr at Chef Mickey's. This was some sort of lame attempt to get us going early. I realized shortly before the trip how incredilby stupid I was to do this since we are from Denver and therfore it would be 5:00 a.m. by our clocks and we are so not morning people. Couldn't get a later ADR of course and the kids love Chef Mickey's so we went. We slept walked to the bus stop and actually one came by and took us right to the CR. We got there got seated right away and the food was good I think but we were so tired we couldn't eat! The night before we had gone to the pool and swam until 11:00 then none of us could get to sleep until probably around 1:00 a.m. When the alarm went off at 5:45, had this meal not already been paid for I would have just turned it off and gone right back to sleep. But off we went in the dark to our breakfast with Mickey. I have a picture of my daughter sound asleep in our booth. I had some oatmeal and some potatoes but felt ill I was so darn tired. Ds who is 12 ordered coffee at Goofy's sign languaged suggestion! Food and service were great but what a shame to not enjoy this breakfast. And we got done by 7:50 and had to wander around the CR because MK didn't open until 9:00. DD fell back asleep on the monorail! We spent exactly 40 minutes at MK doing Peter Pan and Mickey's Phil and then I made the executive decsion to go back to CBR and to bed! We had the bus to ourselves because who in their right mind leaves MK at 9:40? We took naps and got some energy back. We headed to Epcot around 2:00. We were all starved from not eating much breakfast so we split a fish and chips basket in England even though we had a 5:00 p.m. ADR for dinner. But ds was about to pass out and we needed something. The fish was really good and it was good snack to tide us over. Dinner was at San Angel Inn. We all four got nachos because the server told us they were tiny. Wrong, they were huge. We finished them because they were so good. Which meant we didn't finish our entrees. I had the platter which had a flauta, small steak and an enchilada and Dan and the kids had the filet. The filet was incredible. Dan did finish his meal plus most of my daughter's. I ate my flauta and enchilada but didn't finish the steak because I ate a few bites of ds' filet. For dessert I had the flan, Dan had the rice pudding and the kids had a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Everything was delicious. We love this place and scored a table waterside. This meal was a definite A+. We also did this as part of the CP package. I might add they were turning away walk ups right and left here and everywhere else we ate this week.

12/17:
Skipped breakfast. Lunch was Tusker House. We split one chicken sandwich and one salmon platter. We wanted to be hungry for our early ADR at Boma later. The food here was great as usual. We also got one carrot cake and one chocolate cake. The carrot cake was incredilbe but the chocolate cake was too rich for us. We don't really eat much chocolate, no idea why we got that! Boma: This was really good. We got there early, it wasn't crowded yet so we didn't have long lines at the buffet. We just sampled some of everything. I thought the prime rib was not that great but there was so much other stuff it didn't matter. I really liked the seafood gumbo. And dd and I each got a huge plate of fruit. Desserts were wonderful, esp. the Zebra Domes. We had wonderful service and just enjoyed the evening greatly. Last time we ate here I didn't like it that much but this night I give it a definite A+.

12/18:
We just hung out at the resort today since we were doing MVMCP and had had a late night at MK's EMH the night before. So we slept through breakfast and then split two double bacon cheeseburgers for lunch and two rice Krispy treats for dessert. The burgers were great and it was just right for the four of us since they were doubles. I somehow threw away the rice Krispy treats later but nobody remembered we had them so it didn't matter! Dinner was the big surprise of the trip. I booked Tony's because I wanted to eat in MK before the party and it was all I could get. After the reviews I had seen I had no expectations. Can I just say this was our favorite meal of the trip? We had a 4:30 ADR so we and many others waited and then they began to promptly seat us all. For appetizers we had one calamari, one salad and one spinach dip I told the waitress we only needed three which was fine with her. The calamari was great and the dip was too. But the bread dipped in the red pesto they bring to every table was to die for. I could have just eaten that. And I did which is why I could eat very little of my dinner. Dan had the steak, I had the chicken Florentine and the kids had the spaghetti and meatballs. I should have had them share it was so huge. I feel so bad to have wasted that much food but we did. For some reason I thought I had read the portion of spaghetti was small but it wasn't the night we ate there. I also couldn't come anywhere near eating all my chicken. For dessert Dan and I split the pistachio creme brulee and that was some of the best creme brulee I had ever eaten. My son had the amaretto cheesecake which I of course proceeded to eat about half of (in honor of my friend who loves cheesecake and was having a birthday that day so I had to honor her right?). That cheesecake was also incredible. I cannot say enough how much we enjoyed the atmosphere and food at this restaurant. It is now on our must do list for our trip in October when we will share two of those orders of spaghetti with meatballs!

12/19:
Ate breakfast in our room from the CBR food court. We each got our own because we were so not coming anywhere near using our cs credits. Ds got a croissant sandwich, dh got a breakfast platter, dd got strawberry pancakes and I got regular pancakes. It was all fine but would have been better had we eaten it over there. It sort of lost its flavor in the transport! DD spilled her strawberry sauce on her bed which made it look like someone had been the victim of viscious crime in our room! Dinner was at Prime Time. We had such a ball here, our server was the best. I wish I could remember his name! Dh had a steak that he loved (the man loves beef can you tell), dd had meatloaf, ds got the chicken pot pie (a lunch item but they had some leftover) and I got a grilled chicken breast. For appetizers we all got shrimp. The shrimp were nice and big. All the food was good except my chicken breast tasted like shoe leather. I ate maybe two bites. So dd and I split her meatloaf which was very good. For dessert dh had the berry cobbler, ds had the angle cake with berries and dd and I split a hot fudge sundae. It was all great. I give this place an A even with my dried out chicken breast. Had I been paying for this meal outright I would have sent it back but no way was dd eating all her meatloaf so it worked out fine. The waiter didn't make a fuss me not eating it, had he instructed me to sing "I'm a Little Teapot" I would have cried foul because I can't eat all my food if its nasty!

12/20:
Skipped breakfast and had lunch at Pizzafari. I prefer Tusker House but we were hungry and this place serves at 10:30. I like Pizzafari okay but its always so slow. Even when you are the first in line its slow because they don't have the food ready anyway. They were very nice and apologetic that we had to wait 15 minutes however. We got the Italian sandwich, the chicken parmesan sandwich and one cheese pizza. The sandwiches were really good the, pizza was so so. We had them just give us one dessert to share, I think it was apple pie that was pretty crummy. We didn't want to eat too much because dinner was: Wolfgang Puck's. This meal was incredible. This was the one where we really got our money's worth and then some. We had a 5:00 adr and got a nice table with a nice view of Saratoga Springs, our home resort where we will stay in October. So it was fun to see that from afar. Our server was wonderful. For appetizers we had: crab cakes, bbq chicken quesedilla, calamari and spinach dip. It was all incredible but I did think the calamari was very salty. The chicken quesedilla was my favorite part of the meal, next time I will just order that. For our entrees dd got the macadamia nut encrusted chicken breast, dh got a steak (surprise surprise), ds got chicken alfredo pasta and I got the pumpkin ravioli. We sort of shared everything except ds' pasta. I thought it was not that great and he didn't like it at all. Again, had I been paying for this meal or had we not been so overloaded with food I might have considered sending this back. But probably not, I think it was fine, just not to our liking. Dh's steak was outstanding and the ravioli was incredible but so, so rich. I couldn't even finish it. The chicken breast was also outstanding and the kids finished it. It was actually two chicken breasts. For dessert we got one carrot cake, one creme brulee and dd got a build your own kids sundae off the kids menu. I have no idea what this meal would have cost since they just have some sort of flat rate listed on the ticket . I would eat here again and hopeuflly will but will order about half that amount of food. Again, it was such a waste how much we didn't eat but I really wanted to try everything we got.

12/21:
Skipped breakfast and had lunch in our room. This day was pretty much shot since we were in a panic about the fact that Denver, our hometown, was in the midst of a huge blizzard. We had no idea if we were able to get home on the 23rd as planned, I was worried sick about my elderly parents snowed in with nobody to look in on them and was also worried that our family coming for Christmas on the 24th might not get in or might get in even if we couldn't! So we spent the morning in the room on the cell phone with family and watching the weather channel. We were supposed to go to Coral Reef but we cancelled that early on. We were so overdosed on food and so tired of running to ADR's. This was to be our last ts credit since the day we had done Chef Mickey's and San Angel had used eight total. I had an ADR for the next day at the Plaza I had intended to pay out of pocket for, so we decided to keep that and just use our last four ts credits there. At this point I think we had something like 12 cs credits to use in two days however, which meant that if we had gone to Coral Reef we would have cancelled the Plaza to use those up (does that make sense? Not trying to confuse just trying to illustrate why the DDP made me dizzy with details at times as we tried to use those credits). We used three for lunch in the room and then headed to Epcot and used three in Japan on one in Morrocco that night. It was so nice to not eat table service and just eat what we wanted. Japan is a favorite of ours and I loved the meatball platter from Morrocco. We were still stressed about getting home but starting to feel better as they said the airport would open the next day at noon and that all scheduled flights would be fine. The poor people that had gotten bumped were screwed however. But it looked like we could get home.

12/22:
Skipped breakfast and on the bus to MK I suddenly realized we wanted to spend our last day riding rides not eating ts. MK was closing at 7:00 due to MVMCP. So from my cell on the bus I called Disney Dining and cancelled our ADR at the Plaza and made an 8:30 dinner adr at Shutters the restaurant at CBR. We had an early lunch at Columbia Harbor House and all four got fish baskets and two apple pies. We had five cs credits left, so later we shared a turkey leg meal in Tomorrowland four ways and decided to get sandwiches from the grab n go at CBR for the plane the next day. Dinner at Shutters turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It has very little atmosphere but the food was great. For appetizers I had a caesar salad, dh had chicken wings and the kids had coconut shrimp. The shrimp had five big pieces in it so dh and I ate some of that . It was delicious but so rich! For entrees, dh had steak (of course), I had prime rib, ds had salmon and dd just ordered pasta and meatballs off the kids menu. Finally something she coud finish except the waitress very nicely had the chef make a double portions since my 10 year old is an "adult" meaning it was huge and she didn't eat but about half at most. The prime ribe was excellent, it was smoked. But after a huge fish basket for lunch, some turkey leg for a snack and our appetizers I couldn't eat much of it. The potatoes were to die for, I did finish those, they were the same ones they serve at O'Hana. For dessert we asked if we could get it to go, we had one cheese cake and three fresh fruit bowls. We ate that much later in the room after we had packed. Dan grabbed four turkey sandwiches, chip bags and rice Krispy treats from the grab n go for the plane the next day. We had managed to use all of our credits!

We had some great meals. I might add that for snack credits we got one Mickey Bar, maybe four popcorns and the other 27 snack credits we got water bottles. Dh and I are big eaters but with the kids getting these huge meals and the dessert they serve with the cs we just didn't need anymore food. I would have to say my biggest surprises were Tony's and Shutters. I had heard such awful things about Tony's and had never heard one thing about Shutters and was really just eating there to use up my ts credits. Just goest to show you, you never know! Now time to lose the weight I gained from 8 days of pigging out at WDW! Thanks for reading.
 
Thanks for the reviews. We're eating at San Angel for the first time in january. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
 
Great reviews! You dined at several places we intend to try next week. Am glad to hear you had such nice experiences.

Myrtle
 
Great reviews!!! I must say that I am really glad that you liked Tony's. It gets such a bad review on here and it's one of our favorite places to eat. We usually try to eat there everytime we go.

It's also funny that you said that you were going back in October and that Saratoga Springs is your home resort. We too are going back in October and as of right now staying at Saratoga which is our home resort. Hope you have a wonderful trip when you go back!!!
 


Amy, great reviews friend:) . We are eating at San Angel, Boma, and Sci Fi on our March trip. I'm glad to see that you really liked them. I'll definitely take your recommendations. DDP does seem like a tremendous amount of food and as you said, running from ADR to ADR. That is something to think about. Glad you were able to use the snack credits for water bottles though. Good Luck and stay warm in the snow!
 
Maybe enough people complained about Tony's and made some changes. I can't imagine people who had really bad meals not say anything to management. I know my dh would.

Thanks for the review.

Did you guys make it back to Denver, I remember seeing people stranded even on christmas yet.
 


We ate at Tony's in June even though I had read all of the bad reviews and just like you, we loved it. We had a party of 7 and everyone loved every part of their meal. We definately will eat there again!

My husband just told me on Christmas Day that he wants to go to Disney next Christmas and I can't wait.:woohoo: We will be keeping it a secret from the kids until then.:rolleyes1 I am looking at the same dates that you went. How were the crowds? We have only been in the summer.
 
Thanks for taking the time to post such detailed reviews. I enjoyed reading along. pooh:
 
Thanks for the review and all the details! It didn't seem like you guys were big breakfast eaters!! lol I think thats what happens when Disney stuffs you for dinner....your still stuffed in the morning! :laughing:
 

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