"What the heck, Italy?" - 7 days of DxDDP + bonus USO and DLR; 10/20 50sPT

Mocharilla

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Setting the Stage

Last summer, our family of three spent 2 weeks in Florida (which followed 2 weeks in Michigan, a week in San Diego at SDCC, and an extra week I spent in Minnesota on a business trip - I didn’t even remember what my apartment looked like by the time I got home). We spent 10 total days on the Disney property, with six nights of free dining we upgraded to the Deluxe plan because we're crazy like that. We also did two days at Universal and a day at Busch Gardens, so I'll be including photos from Universal in a post. This was our first trip back since our honeymoon and our little one’s first trip since he was a baby (when we got engaged as well), and we were celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary.

Then this past March, we headed out to California for a week to celebrate my college graduation a little early. We caught a Kings game and a Ducks game, spent two days at Magic Mountain, a day at Knott’s Berry Farm, and (most importantly) three days at Disneyland - a first for all three of us!

So why am I only posting about it now? Well, I was in college last year and working 40+ hours for our various student media organizations, and anything that wasn’t directly related to that kind of fell by the wayside. I’ve graduated finally and we’re heading back to WDW next month (this time with my mom, step-dad, and step-brother in tow), so it seemed finally time to get this finished.



Introducing the Cast

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Me
Name: Summer
Age: 28 now, but 27 at the time
Profession: Sports journalist
Favorite Disney Movie: The Little Mermaid
Favorite Pixar Movie: Brave
Favorite Disney Character: Ariel
Favorite Marvel Superhero: Wasp (Janet, not Hope)
Favorite Star Wars Character: Mallatobuck (who our dog is named after)
Favorite Park: Epcot at WDW, DCA at DLR
Favorite Magic Kingdom Attraction: Jungle Cruise
Favorite Epcot Attraction: Journey into Imagination (the original)
Favorite Hollywood Studios Attraction: Tower of Terror
Favorite Animal Kingdom Attraction: Festival of the Lion King
Favorite Disneyland Attraction: Space Mountain
Favorite California Adventure Attraction: Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout! or Radiator Springs Racers
Favorite Parade/Fireworks/Explosion Extravaganza: Happily Ever After or World of Color
Favorite Restaurant: Jiko or California Grill

DH
Name: Nic
Age: 28 now and at DLR, but 27 at WDW
Profession: Structural Engineer
Favorite Disney Movie: Big Hero 6
Favorite Pixar Movie: WALL-E
Favorite Disney Character: Captain Jack Sparrow (but only in the first movie)
Favorite Marvel Superhero: Star-Lord
Favorite Star Wars Character: Han Solo
Favorite Park: Epcot
Favorite Magic Kingdom Attraction: Splash Mountain
Favorite Epcot Attraction: Test Track before the newest renovation
Favorite Hollywood Studios Attraction: Toy Story Midway Mania
Favorite Animal Kingdom Attraction: Flights of Passage
Favorite Disneyland Attraction: Space Mountain
Favorite California Adventure Attraction: Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout!
Favorite Parade/Fireworks/Explosion Extravaganza: Illuminations
Favorite Restaurant: California Grill

DS
Name: Jacques
Age: 10 now and at DLR, 9 at WDW
Grade: Fifth now, Fourth at the time
Favorite Disney Movie: Lilo and Stitch
Favorite Pixar Movie: Cars
Favorite Disney Character: Stitch and Pluto
Favorite Marvel Superhero: Rocket Raccoon and Groot
Favorite Star Wars Character: Luke Skywalker
Favorite Park: Epcot for theming and food, Hollywood Studios for rides, California Adventure for DLR
Favorite Magic Kingdom Attraction: Space Mountain
Favorite Epcot Attraction: Test Track
Favorite Hollywood Studios Attraction: Toy Story Midway Mania
Favorite Animal Kingdom Attraction: Expedition Everest
Favorite Disneyland Attraction: Space Mountain
Favorite California Adventure Attraction: Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout! or Radiator Springs Racers
Favorite Parade/Fireworks/Explosion Extravaganza: Fantasmic
Favorite Restaurant: California Grill and Ohana



Why the Title?
Since it was my son's first "real" trip (where he was old enough to know what was happening), we stopped at Club Cool on our first day in the parks. He tried the Beverley, of course, and after making a face, he stared at the machine for a minute and said "what the heck, Italy?" This ended up being something of a catchphrase for the trip whenever things would go wrong, especially after the fiasco that was our Via Napoli experience on our first DDP night.



The Main Event
Alright, let’s get to the food, the real reason everyone’s here. We made an effort to use our 18 meal credits mostly on new (to us) restaurants at WDW, though a few we’ve done before. We also didn’t do much in the way of breakfasts, because none of us are particularly fond of breakfast foods (except cereal) and the boys don’t eat eggs.
 
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Daily Poutine/Aristocrepes/Cookes of Dublin

We started out by driving overnight from Michigan. DS woke up around 8 AM and we were just north of Atlanta, but he had no idea where we were headed. He didn't even know what state we were in. We knew we couldn't keep the surprise up for much longer because of signs on the road, so we gave him the MagicBand box to open for his surprise. He was so shocked and we got it all on video.

After that, we drove the rest of the way and then checked into our hotel. We stayed off-site for the first week. Our room was ready, so we put our bags down and headed over to Disney Springs.

We went by Guest Services and had them get our tickets activated early so we could use them during the week, knowing we wanted to do the water parks and mini-golfing and an extra day in the park before our on-site package started.

After that, it was time for some food. We started at The Daily Poutine and split an order of the classic poutine.

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Classic Poutine
French Fries, Beef Poutine Gravy and Cheddar Curds
$8.99

(Apologies for the vertical photo - some of them my son took early in the trip and I didn't notice until after a few days. I promise they're mostly horizontal.)

Now, my husband's Canadian and he's very particular about his poutine. We were surprisingly impressed. Good cheese-curd-to-fry ratio, well-seasoned, overall good. The portion was a little small in my opinion, but I was happy with the purchase.

Next up, we went over to AristoCrepes and split the Ham and Cheese crepe.

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Ham and Cheese Crêpe
Smoked Ham and Cheese with Dijon Spread
$8.99

At first, we thought there was no way it would be worth the price, but it was actually more filling than we expected. The cheese was perfectly melted, which made me happy. We also got the dijon on the side, since DH and I love it but DS isn't a super big fan. It was a perfect compliment to the crepe.

To end the night, we went to Cooke's of Dublin to split an order of fish and chips.

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The Original One & One (Fish & Chips)
Served with Chips and our freshly made Tartar Sauce
$11.95

This was $10.95, $11.66 after tax. The portion size here was great and it came out scalding hot (I literally burned my tongue in my excitement to start eating). I thought the fries were a little underdone and the food was a little bland, but overall not bad. DS said "it tastes like a normal fish and chips, but not a really good fish and chips."

Overall, we enjoyed the stop by Disney Springs as a little teaser before we got to the real food party the next week.

Up next: we do four parks in one day with a pit stop for food in Epcot.
 
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Hi! I’m following along. I love the “what the heck, Italy?” Response from your kid! Maybe I should try this with my kids and see what they say! Could I ask which hotel you stayed at when offsite? We are thinking of one of the Disney springs hotel for the first night in December. Can’t wait to read more!
 
Your trip looks fantastic! Following along!

Following along!


Hi, everyone! Welcome to the party! party:

Hi! I’m following along. I love the “what the heck, Italy?” Response from your kid! Maybe I should try this with my kids and see what they say! Could I ask which hotel you stayed at when offsite? We are thinking of one of the Disney springs hotel for the first night in December. Can’t wait to read more!

You definitely should try it!

We used Hotwire to find a place for the week to keep it cheap and ended up at the Quality Inn over on 192 down past the Fun Spot. It wasn't amazing, but it was clean and had breakfast, so I was happy, lol.
 


La Cantina de San Angel/Katsura Grill

So, after our arrival on Monday, we spent Tuesday at Busch Gardens. We're huge theme park nerds, so we had to get our coaster credits. DS was too young to ride anything when we'd last been, and they've added a few coasters since the last time DH and I had visited, so that was fun. We actually ended up eating a lot because they were offering a deal with a one-day dining pass for free. Their dining pass worked so that we got an entree, a side, and a drink every 90 minutes. However, I didn't end up taking any pictures because I didn't think about it, so shame on me. The food was decent, though.

Originally, we planned for a stop at Dollywood, but with Lightning Rod being very finicky last summer, we didn't want to risk making the stop just for it to be down. We planned to replace it with a stop at Six Flags Over Georgia, but because they go back so early to school in GA, it wasn't open in the week. So, we decided to use one day of our WDW passes to spend the free day at the park. We had an extra day because I figured we might want to pop in on arrival day, but we just moved it around instead.

We decided to use that day's pass to ride GMR and Ellen's because they were closing the following weekend. However, DS really wanted his first park to be MK, so we figured we could stop in to MK, pick up SotMK cards, ride PotC and the railroad, and then head to Epcot. After we were done at MK, we took the monorail over and hit Ellen's first, then decided to grab a few entrees there to share before heading to DHS.

First up, we stopped at La Cantina de San Angel and put in an order for chicken tacos.

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Tacos de Pollo
Seasoned Chicken, Homemade Corn Tortillas, Mexican Rice, Refried Black Beans and Red Salsa
$12.50

These were alright, but nothing to write home about. We live in Texas now, though none of us were born here, so we've certainly had much better tacos at home, but they weren't as bad as I was afraid they would be.

After devouring our plate, we walked around the Showcase until we got to Japan, where DS requested stopping at Katsura Grill. He was really excited after looking at our schedule and seeing that we were going to Tokyo Dining, so he had a craving for some chicken teriyaki.

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Chicken Teriyaki
served with Steamed Rice and Mix Garden Salad
$10.00

This was pretty good, and a decent portion for the price. I was pleasantly surprised with it and it's definitely somewhere I'd go back to if we were looking for a CS in Epcot. The view was nice and I'm all for indoor seating in August.

We originally planned on going to another CS while we were at Epcot, but between the breakfast we ate in the room, the snacks we brought with us that day, and the heat, we ended up just going with those two.

After we were done eating, we took the boat to DHS and rode GMR. It was a decent wait since it was almost the last day, but I've waited longer in the past. When we were done, I jokingly suggested that since we had three out of the four parks done, we might as well hit DAK since it was mid-afternoon.

Out we went to the bus stop and we made our way over to DAK. Between the boat, the bus, the train, the monorail, and the parking lot tram, we were laughing that we had our own Disney version of planes, trains, and automobiles.

At DAK, we decided to do standby of Na'vi River Journey so it was out of the way for our scheduled day in the park. We waited about 45 minutes in the standby line to get on, and we really appreciated the water fountains in the queue. That was a great decision by Disney, since we could refill our water bottles while we were near them.

Next up, three days in USO, where I somehow managed to only get pictures from one meal and a tiny part of another. Luckily, I didn't miss pictures of any other food during our trip.
 
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Sounds like an amazing trip! I am looking forward to read about your other dining experiences!
 
Universal Studios

We started with the Studios and it took everything in me to be logical about our touring plan and not run to Diagon Alley. I'm a huge HP fan and that's the real reason we were at Universal. We crossed a whole bunch of stuff off of our list and headed back to Diagon Alley for lunch.

We chose to eat at the Leaky Cauldron. I started with the obvious choice for a drink.

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Butterbeer™ - $6.99

We got it in the souvenir mug to bring home, knowing we pretty much wanted that and a wand to bring home. This was just as good as I'd hoped it'd be, oh my goodness. The foam on the top, though. That is what absolutely makes this delicious. I just want to eat a cup of the foam.

We also bought a pumpkin juice later because I wanted to save that bottle, too. It was also good, but not nearly as good as the butterbeer.

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Fish & Chips - $6.99

DS went with the fish and chips of the kids' menu. He's never met an order of fish and chips he didn't like, so he enjoyed them. However, I thought they were a little bland and the portion was sort of small. Overall though, it was a good choice for him.

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Toad in the Hole - $10.99

DH and I decided to get two things and share. The Toad in the Hole was better than I was expecting. It was well done and pretty tasty. The peas were a little overcooked, but everything else was pretty great. I'd definitely get this again.

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Mini Pie Combination - $15.49
We also split the mini pies. These were decent but nothing to write home about. I'm kind of particular about my pies though. The cottage pie was the better of the two, but they weren't that different in quality.

We tapped out a little early that night because we finished everything up. The next morning, we made our way back over for IoA. We hit a bunch of stuff until lunch time again, when we went back to Hogsmeade. We ate at the Three Broomsticks, but I had a mishap with my phone a few hours later that led to me not having any photos.

DS ordered the fish and chips again and they were about the same. I ordered the pasties and they were quite delicious. DH ordered the rotisserie chicken, but he was pretty disappointed with how dry it was.

We finished earlier than expected, so we made our way over to WDW after a quick stop at our hotel.

We played a round of mini-golf at the Fantasia course with our WPF&M passes, then headed to TL.

We had some fun at TL right up until I fell out of the tube in the lazy river because we were messing around and the bag that keeps my phone dry ripped because it caught on the tube. My phone didn't get too soaked, but it was enough to put it out of commission for a while.

This started the fiasco of the next week, where I had to use DH's phone all week instead of my own for photos. In the end, my phone was fine, but it wasn't reliably fine until the day before we left to go back home. I did, however, lose my photos from Friday afternoon in the mess of everything

Next up, the real fun begins because the next meal is the start of our dining plan (and therefore, the much more organized posts, lol).
 
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Butterbeer!!! :cloud9: You writing about it made we wonder when and how I can get myself back to USO for some butterbeer.
 
Joining in!

I see from your signature that your husband is from Moncton - I was born and raised in New Brunswick, about two hours from Moncton! I now live in Alberta, but, small world!
 

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