Graduated for the Food! May/June 2018 Dining Report: Updated 7/24 Crystal Palace

[kansasdisneygal]

Hello and welcome to my Dining Report for our most recent trip, which was from May 30th to June 7th. The purpose of this trip was to celebrate my recent Master’s degree graduation. Before I even started working on my Master’s, I asked my husband if we could take a celebration trip when I did graduate. He said yes and I held him to it!

Well, let’s get to the introductions! ​

On the right is my husband, Doug. He is a contractor and runs his business with his dad. He is super talented and does beautiful custom cabinetry. This trip was only Doug’s 2nd trip to Disney World. His first trip was two years ago for our honeymoon. I am proud to say that I have converted him into a Disney lover and he really enjoys our trips.

I am Jenn and I teach middle school math. This is my 6th trip to Disney World since I started going in 2009. Growing up, my family lived in Phoenix, AZ, so we were only a 6-hour drive away from Disneyland and we went frequently. So, I have been a Disney lover for basically my entire life!

All right, let’s get to the trip!

So we had an EARLY morning 6:10 am flight out of Kansas City, which means we landed in Orlando at 9:50am. We jumped on Magical Express with a very minimal wait and we were off to our resort!

We stayed at Pop Century for this trip. Now let me say, and nothing against the values, but this was tough for me because I have become a resort snob. My last three trips, I have stayed at Riverside, Beach Club and Saratoga, with Beach Club being my favorite so far. But, we were trying to do a more budget friendly trip, so I decided to put more money towards FOOD and less towards the hotel. (We both want to stay at Wilderness Lodge next trip!)



So, Pop Century it was! I was excited for their newly renovated rooms, which seemed so much cleaner. When we arrived at our resort; however, our room wasn’t ready yet, but that’s okay because we had a lunch reservation to get to! We hopped on a bus to Disney Springs and headed towards a new restaurant for both of us!

Alright, we will get to the first dining reviews in the next post! I will say we LOVED one of our meals today and really disliked the other meal. You’ll find out next time! Thanks for reading and let me know if you’re following along!
​

 

[goofy78]

Congrats on your Masters! Can’t wait to hear about your trip!

 

[Avery&Todd]

Great start and congratulations!!

 

[emsstacey]

Can't wait to hear more. I'm thinking of staying POP for the same reasons next time.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Following, can't wait to hear more!

 

[mekay1012]

Following along.

 

[amytech]

Following along!

 

[bluejasmine]

Following!

 

[kansasdisneygal]

Congrats on your Masters! Can’t wait to hear about your trip!

Thank you!! Glad to have you here!

Great start and congratulations!!

Thanks and welcome!

Can't wait to hear more. I'm thinking of staying POP for the same reasons next time.

The renovated rooms really are a huge upgrade from the previous rooms! I would definitely recommend it for those trying to save some money!

Following, can't wait to hear more!

Yay! Happy to have you!

Following along.

Woohoo! Welcome!

Following along!

Great! Excited to get this thing going!

Following!

Glad you're here!

 

[kansasdisneygal]

When we got off the bus at Disney Springs it was lightly sprinkling, but not enough to warrant breaking out the ponchos, so off we went. 40 seconds later we were running for cover in POURING rain! Yup, we got soaked. We camped out for a bit under an awning and waited for the rain to let up, then we threw on our ponchos and trekked over to Homecomin’!!!!

I was so excited for this lunch and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! I honestly booked this lunch only a couple weeks before our trip because I read some reviews on it and decided I had to fit it into the trip. We got a really nice waitress that explained some items for us since it was our first time. I ordered an ice tea and Doug got a lemonade. I did not take pictures of drinks on this trip (unless it was an alcoholic drink) because we all know what water, soda, etc looks like!

While our waitress went for our drinks, we decided on an appetizer – The Church Lady Deviled Eggs! I am a big deviled egg fan, we have them at every family get-together, so I was excited to try these.



As you can see we had already devoured two of these before I took the picture. This happened several times on our trip, so please excuse any pictures that have a bite already taken! These deviled eggs were decent. The fried green onion on the top really added some good flavor, just wish I could have had some in each bite. I probably wouldn’t order these again, just because my family makes better ones back home, plus there are other appetizers I would like to try!

For our entrees, I decided on the Thigh High Chicken Biscuits, which are on the appetizer menu, but I had read they are a large enough portion for an entrée. I also ordered a side of the Mac and Cheese for Doug and I to share.



Oh my goodness you guys! These were SOOOOO good! The chicken was tender and juicy and the outside was the perfect crispy crunchy goodness! The honey that is drizzled over them just makes them even better and those biscuits were delicious! My one and only complaint with this dish is that the biscuits basically fell apart after a few bites and I ended up eating most of this with a fork, but I would 100% order these again!



This Mac and Cheese was also super good! The noodles were those curly-q spirally noodles (that’s the technical name, right?) and the cheese was just the right consistency where it stuck to the noodles but also was creamy! Yum!

For his entrée, Doug chose the Fried Chicken Sandwich. I should probably add in here that Doug is a very picky eater. He does not do seafood of any kind and will not eat most vegetables. He is definitely a meat and potatoes type of guy. Since we have been together I have slowly been pushing him to branch out, which he did a few times this trip, but this was not one of those times.



Let me apologize for this picture, I know it’s not great! Anyway, Doug enjoyed this sandwich. I had to convince him to try the aioli – see picky – which he ended up liking and put it on his sandwich. He said the sandwich was pretty good but he would probably try something different next time. He said the chips were fine but was glad I had ordered the mac and cheese to share. I ended up only being able to eat two of my chicken biscuits and he ate the third one. He LOVED the chicken biscuit and said he would most likely get that on our next trip. We were both stuffed and decided to skip dessert.

Without tip included, our meal cost $63.79.

Homecomin’ is definitely going to be a repeat restaurant for us. It is actually the one restaurant that Doug has talked about the most since we got home. He even said that he could eat there multiple times in a trip and not get tired of it. At this point, we were very full and happily in a food coma, so we headed back to our resort because we had gotten the room ready text near the end of our meal!

When we got back to Pop, we headed out to find room 403, which was located in the 70’s building right next to the main food court/gift shop building. It overlooked the courtyard with the Foosball, Big Wheel, and Mickey Phone. Score on location! I was happy with the renovated rooms and was super excited that we got our request of a King Bed!



Once we got to our room, we waited for our luggage to be delivered, then unpacked, and relaxed before we headed out for the evening. Magic Kingdom was our destination and we had a dinner reservation at 6:20. This would end up being the one meal of the trip that neither of us enjoyed. Any guesses? We will get to that meal in the next update!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in, love dining reports!

 

[WDWNan]

Also joining in! Looking forward to your next review!

 

[jacksmom]

Great review.

 

[MiracleCream]

Joining the foodie love party!

 

[Kim J Mobley]

Following!! Glad you liked Homecomin. We are trying it for the first time on our next trip.

 

[iwasdaisy]

Reading along!

 

[princess aleya]

Following along!

 

[BabyPiglet]

Can't wait for more!

 

[GrantDB]

Joining in, that chicken looked amazing

 

[ncc1701]

Joining in. We enjoyed our dinner at Homecomin' so much we went back for lunch a few days later.