FOODIE HEAVEN! A Foodie Nov 2016 trip report (updated 12/2)

[LCoulter]

Hey!! Nope...we ended up doing yak and yeti the night I was thinking about doing HDDR! Liberty Tree was awesome...hubby's fav meal of the trip sp far! Yes....hope to see you in Epcot....if you come to the aquarium tanks around 12:30 or 1 you might see us snorkeling

Snorkeling...sounds like fun!

hDDR is great fun so if you haven't done it yet, try to hit it on your next trip. We are at Liberty Tree now enjoying turkey dinner. The muppet show in Liberty Square was really cute.

 

[fallonkendra]

Hope you're enjoying your time in Disney!

 

[mzpoirot]

Snorkeling...sounds like fun!

hDDR is great fun so if you haven't done it yet, try to hit it on your next trip. We are at Liberty Tree now enjoying turkey dinner. The muppet show in Liberty Square was really cute.

LOVED the muppets! I can't wait to go see them again. While we were waiting for the show to start I told hubby that if there was a muppet meet & greet I would be the first in line!!! LOL

Hope you're enjoying your time in Disney!

Yes! It was a fun, but very tiring, trip! About to get ready for my first post-trip post

 

[mzpoirot]

Hello all!

We just got back from our Disney trip this past Friday so I thought it would be the perfect time to start my trip report!

Saturday Nov 12th:
We woke up before the crack of dawn...around 4:00am to get ready and had to the airport. Luckily we only live about 25 minutes away from the airport so we didn't have to travel very far! Regardless, I knew waking up so early would definitely put some of a damper on the rest of the day and make us groggy. When I say us, I particularly mean my hubby who does not sleep well on planes....

We arrived at the airport, grabbed some quick dunkin Donuts and waited at our gate. Our flights were pretty seamless and on time. I can definitely say now (after having been on 60+ planes in the past) that I HATE flying. I love the convenience and time saving factor....but HATE the seats and how dirty planes are. I am a "pooh sized" gal and about 6'1". There should be some sort of law in place saying that people sitting in front of you cannot recline their seats. GAH!!! Rant over.....

We landed in Orlando and headed to the Dunkin Donuts there (we must love Dunkin) to meet my Mom! After a quick bathroom break and snack stop (hubby and I split this bagel) we headed to the magic express area.



I was stunned to see this line there....



We waited for 50 minutes....50....to get through this line and finally made our way onto the Magical Express!

I'm going to stop here for the night because I'm about to fall asleep!!!

Also...if someone reading this can move my thread to the trip report board it would be much appreciated! I tried contacting two people about it but so far it hasn't been moved....

 

[mzpoirot]

Good morning!
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We ended up going to hubby's relatives house and gorged ourselves throughout the day and played board games and cards. I love playing cards! What's your fav Thanksgiving dish? I am obsessed with the combo of stuffing, turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce. We actually didn't have our traditional stuffing this time (don't get me wrong, it was delish and homemade but I'm used to my stovetop stuffing...LOL) and no cranberry sauce! I've already decided that we are having a repeat Thanksgiving dinner for Christmas

Back to the trip report...

So after our 50 minute in line for the Magic Express we finally boarded our bus!


Here is Mom - I think she was soo tired that she was hysterically laughing which led to this pic...



I don't know about you but I love the video on the bus while your on you way to the resorts. I especially love this guy....



We then arrived a while later at Port Orleans French Quarter! It is a beautifully small resort. I had already been texted our room number (5225 - I had requested building 5 ground floor but our room ended up on the second floor....at least we got the requested building!). I knew that because we had already done online check-in and that since we already had a room number we could skip check-in at the front desk. Little did I remember needing to setup a pin number for our room charges....
So....while I was blissfully ignorant of needing to make a pin we strolled back to our room!

p.s. - I has planned to add many more photos to this post but the thread is having problems accepting my photo size regardless of how I upload them! Verrry frustrating. I'll leave you with this short post and update more tomorrow

 

[mzpoirot]

Good morning!

Here are some resort pics...





View from the door of our room




Picture of our room....

Levi had already crashed on the bed by this point for a little power nap. I LOVE the animal towels. I was excited to see what other towel creations we would get throughout the week. We refreshed quickly and then headed over to the boat dock to head for lunch in Downtown Disney! It was about 2pm-ish by this point and even though we had our bagel snack at the airport we were STARVING...

The boat dock is towards the back of the resort (again, very small resort - not a long walking distance between anything at this resort) and because we were in building #5 it was a pretty close walk. The boat was ready to go when we arrived!




The boat to Disney Springs takes you to the dock near Wolfgang Puck Express and Earl of Sandwich. I had read tons of good reviews about Wolfgang Puck Express so we headed there. Here is where we ran into a problem - I had not made a PIN for our account yet.....

So we ordered and then I scanned my magic band and of course it didn't work. The guy taking our order explained that we could just charge it to the credit card and then make our PIN later and the credits could be applied to our dining plan/get a refund on our credit card! Ok, great. I was not liking the idea of paying $70 out of pocket so I'm glad he mentioned the idea of the refund.

I ordered the Oven Roasted Salmon $20 - it was on a bed of cauliflower puree with a side of marinated tomatoes and broccolini. I purposely ordered this because we were scheduled for an O'hana dinner that night and didn't want to be overly stuffed. Mom and Levi had a different idea....



Mom & Levi ordered the Half Rotisserie Chicken with a side of mashed potatoes - $16 per person



Levi and I ordered the cheesecake for dessert - it was "creme bruleed" on top (as Levi said) because they flambeed (I believe) the sugar on top to make it a bit crunchy - $6 per person. Mom ordered a cookie for dessert which I don't have a picture of.



OVERALL: We thought lunch was good, but not great. My salmon was overcooked and Mom and Levi said their chicken was slightly undercooked. I realize that this is a quick-service place so it is still probably a good option for quick service credits but I would order something different in the future. I did thoroughly enjoy Mom & Levi's mashed potatoes though! The manager passed by our table and Mom did mention the chicken being slightly undercooked - she said she would mention this to the chefs and offered to get something else for Mom to eat. Mom had already eaten most of her chicken and had not intention to send it back but wanted to just let her know - she seemed thankful for the critique.

By this point I am clearly seeing how exhausted Mom & Levi are. Instead of going back to sleep we did the only thing anyone can do in Disney Springs...we shopped!

Photo op near Earl of Sandwich (we both need a nap - not our best pic):



I love that Disney Springs was all decorated for the holidays



We purchased a shirt for Levi's sister in World of Disney - love that store! Then headed over to Guest Services to set up our PIN. After a short wait our name was called and we got our PIN - easy peasy!

We then headed over to the Coca-Cola store to try all the different sodas! I was thinking that there was a place to try all the sodas from around the world for FREE....no....no such place in Disney Springs. Only Epcot. Don't make my mistake! Since we were already there we decided to get the $9 tray of samples and quickly grabbed a table. Pictures in my next post....

 

[mzpoirot]

So when we arrived at the Coca Cola place I saw tons of people walking down the ramp that runs along the outside of the building. I also thought this was the way to get upstairs. I think Mom was going to kill me by the time we got to the top!!! LOL. I then realized that people mainly used the elevator to go up - not the ramp like us....owell. More steps added to my pedometer!

As I said earlier we purchased the $9 tray of soda "shots" that had samples from around the world. Both trays come with a little guide and numbers corresponding to each soda. I think my favorite was the Fuze Tea from Georgia.....



Mom with the sodas!



The first one we tried was The Beverly. I wish I had my camera ready...but alas, I did not. Everyone hated it. I thought, based on all the reviews I'd read online, that it would be downright HORRIBLE. It was bad, but not as bad as I thought...which was nice! I can't remember which drink Levi was holding for this pic though....





These pictures CRACK ME UP! Mom is very well known for taking about 1,289 pictures each time I say "hey could you take a picture of us?" so I'm glad she caught this shot.

While we were sitting there we got some pictures with a photo-pass photographer that was roaming around, however, when we went to link them our account downstairs they were missing! Ugh. I was kinda looking forward to seeing them Since those photos were missing we decided to go pose with the Coca-Cola bear....he's a cutie pie!



After looking through the store we left to go do some more shopping!

 

[mzpoirot]

Some more decorations setup for Christmas....





I am addicted to purses (have been ever since I was a kiddo) so of course I had to go into the Vera Bradley store. I did not buy ANYTHING - I was very tempted to but decided to hold off. I did find this ridiculously small bag though so I had to take a picture with it ($47)!



Mom also bought this little dongle somewhere along the way....



So after we left this store I made a quick pit-stop at Sephora to get a new lip gloss! We then made our way to the bus area to wait for a bus to the Polynesian for our 8:35pm O'hana dinner reservation! We stood at the Poly bus stop for FOREVER and then crammed into the bus (standing room only) and finally got to the Poly!





It was still very early before our reservation and I knew that I wanted to check out Traders Sams Groggs Grotto. I had not read any previous reviews about people waiting to get into this place....I thought it was some small hidden gem that I could easily get in to......
Not the case.
We checked into Groggs Grotto and were told it would be about 45 minutes before we could get in. We added our names to the list and took a buzzer. We had about 60 minutes before our O'hana reservation. We knew that we wouldn't have much time in Trader Sams but were hoping the wait would drop and we could get in sooner than stated. We were told we could sit on the patio in the meantime. I was also grossly misinterpreting how busy the patio was - we had to watch tables and "attacked" a free table as soon as someone left! A wonderful ukulele player started to play/sing shortly after sitting down!


It was soooo busy that the service was kinda horrible. We were passed by several waiters and then one finally stopped and apologized for the wait. I ordered the Castaway Crush and Mom ordered the Tikix4 Rum.



Do yourself a favor and NEVER order the Castaway Crush. We all tried my drink and unanimously agreed it tasted HORRIBLE! Our waiter was nowhere to be seen and after a while our buzzer went off for Trader Sams. I grabbed my drink and headed to the waiter station while Mom and Levi headed inside to check into Trader Sams. I talked to our waiter quickly and explained that the drink tasted as if it had something sour/bad in it - he stated that it's the worst drink on the menu and nobody likes it!!!! As soon as he said that I was wondering why the heck he didn't mention it when I ordered the drink!?!?!? He was ok with taking my drink off of our tab and I paid for Moms drink. I will say that this was our first time sitting on the patio and it was not a great experience. Luckily, it was beautiful outside that night and the ukulele player was great.

We headed inside to Traders Sams and returned our pager. There was nowhere to sit. Instead of ordering a drink and standing I opted to take this pic and leave....



The volcano had just erupted before I had a chance to snap the pic. Lesson learned: Trader Sams is busy on a Saturday night (who knew, lol) and you should expect to wait. Once your pager goes off it does not guarantee a seat and the area itself is pretty small.

I will go to Trader Sams and sit on the patio for drinks in the future....but I would say that both places were a disappointment to us that night.

 

[ariane37]

Holy 50 minute ME wait My DH would have a cow lol. At least once you made it to your resort you had the building you wanted, if not the floor. Your view was nice!
We've been to WPE and also Earl of Sandwich and while we really enjoy WPE, we LOVE EoS. Just ate there on our trip over Thanksgiving week
We didn't go into the Coke store in DS but I'm very surprised the samples aren't free, and that stinks. The original Coca-cola factory does offer free samples of all the sodas, as many as you want. I'm sure the reason they aren't free in DS is $$. That kind of made no sense lol, of course it's the $$!
DH and I also went to Trader Sam's on our adults only trip in January-no patio though, it was pretty chilly. We got seats at the bar and while it wasn't a Sat. night it was still crowded in there, and we went right when they opened. We each had a drink which we thought were ok but not the best. The theming is cool and I like some of the souvenir glasses you can get, but after that one drink we went upstairs to Tambu Lounge and enjoyed that much better.

 

[LCoulter]

Great picture of you guys with the bear

I agree that Beverly is bad but it is not "OMG, I gotta spite it out bad". I tricked DD9 into trying Beverly but saying it is the best one....she tried it, made a face, said yuck and threw the rest out. I was apparently very convincing because a couple nearby was asking if it was the best....I mouthed "NO" to them.

Before DVC, we stayed at POR most of the time....love that resort. We have never stayed in the French Quarter section but that looks pretty too.

 

[mzpoirot]

DH and I also went to Trader Sam's on our adults only trip in January-no patio though, it was pretty chilly. We got seats at the bar and while it wasn't a Sat. night it was still crowded in there, and we went right when they opened. We each had a drink which we thought were ok but not the best. The theming is cool and I like some of the souvenir glasses you can get, but after that one drink we went upstairs to Tambu Lounge and enjoyed that much better.

I like your Tambu Lounge idea! I noticed that you can order the Ohana bread pudding there - so basically I'm definitely going to need to go there our next trip just for that! LOL

I agree that Beverly is bad but it is not "OMG, I gotta spite it out bad". I tricked DD9 into trying Beverly but saying it is the best one....she tried it, made a face, said yuck and threw the rest out. I was apparently very convincing because a couple nearby was asking if it was the best....I mouthed "NO" to them.

LOL! How funny! I will have to do the same trick when we have kiddos

 

[mzpoirot]

Remember in my earlier posts when I said we were ready to take naps?
Well by this point I was ready to go to sleep on the lounge chairs outside of O'hana. We checked in for our 8:35pm reservation at about 8:20ish. I requested a table by the window (just like we did our last trip) and then we proceeded to wait. And wait. Mom was falling asleep on the chair so I decided to wake her up and take selfies with her



She loves to do this face when we do selfies....oh Mom.....

FINALLY! Our buzzer went off at about 8:50ish and we headed to our table.


We headed back to our table - I would say our table was "window view" in that you could see a window from the table....but definitely not as close as I had hoped. We were seated by the center section though which looks very nice....



As we were seated we were immediately given the tasty coconut bread - I was determined not to fill up on bread...but hubby had already grabbed a chunk off the bread by the time I was able to take a picture. It cracks me up because this very same thing happened the last time we were at O'hana (see my previous trip report)! Shortly after sitting down we realized that the electrical water parade started. It was pretty cool to see the whole parade as I remember only seeing bits and pieces before.



The salad was delivered (forgot to snap a pic) and we all inhaled it. It was muchhhhh more tasty this time than I remember it being two years ago. Our waitress was very efficient throughout our meal and would swing by quickly asking what we wanted more of and filled our drinks throughout dinner. She seemed to be covering many large tables so there was some periods of waiting for the next protein to be brought out to our table - but we could see that she was working as quickly as she could! I was happy to have such great service because the service during our last visit was pretty horrible.

Here is the main dish of goodies (again, we were starving so we started eating before I could snap a pic)



I absolutely love their dumplings, sauteed veggies and chicken wings. We were served shrimp (shell on), chicken and steak whenever they had fresh skewers cooked. The only one that was sub-par was the steak. Our first portion of it was kinda cold - Mom asked for some warmer steak and our waitress apologized and waited for some fresh steak to be cooked. It was all delicious! I fill up on sooo many of the side items that I honestly don't even care that much about the skewers when they come by! I don't remember the shrimp still having their shell on them last time so I was surprised when they were served this way this time - but still very tasty

Wishes started at 10pm - they didn't dim the lights until halfway through the fireworks. I just love Wishes <3



Then my favorite part of the whole meal was delivered....



O'hana bread pudding. Soooooooooo delicious!!!! Levi doesn't care for bananas and forgot that the caramel sauce had bananas in it before he dumped it all over the bread pudding! LOL. More for Mom and I - we inhaled as much as our stomachs would let us and then paid our check.

By this time it was around 10:40pm. We were dead tired. I wasn't dead tired enough though to stop us from taking more pics....



We then headed to the front of the Poly to wait for a taxi. There was one family in front of us and they had already been waiting for about 5 minutes. We check Uber and the cost for a taxi to our resort was about $26 (high demand time) so we eventually opted to take the monorail to Magic Kingdom and walked over to the bus stop. We waited a while for a bus and headed back to the resort (now 11pm something). I snapped this shot before heading to the room...



I took a shower before crashing for the night.
Total step count for the day: 15,007
Lesson learned take two (or three?! for the day losing count...): Don't schedule O'hana for dinner on arrival night after flying during the day and waking up freakishly early AND don't schedule O'hana dinner for the last night of our trip (mistake made last time) - both of these days tend to be overwhelmingly tiring days and we don't enjoy dinner as much as we probably could.
END OF DAY 1!