Taste of Disney

Pre-Trip Intro

My name is Barb (and the “B” in jabead) and I confess that I am both a Disney food addict and also very much an enabler of others here that also suffer from this somewhat rare addiction. Evidence of this can be seen by viewing the pictures currently in the Camera Roll on my cell phone. Yes folks, 99% of them are of Disney food and oddly enough, I didn’t take any of them. But it’s now time for me to “feed” my addiction and take some Disney food pictures of my own. And even better than that, I actually get to eat it too!

While I plan to do some live updates on that “Coming to you Live from Disney World” thread that I’ve heard about , I’ve also decided to attempt to do a full dining report after our trip.

My last dining report was written last summer and concluded with a DISmeet with Linda (Linda67) & her DH on Labor Day here in my hometown of Lexington, Illinois. So I’m going to begin this dining report where I left off with my last, by introducing you to the whole jabead family with the pictures taken at that DISmeet.

Linda, Philip, and the whole jabead family (minus my husband, who was taking the picture)

Sadly, Linda and Philip will not be joining us on our trip to Disney World and neither will our DD (Emily, the “E” in jabead). So for this trip, we will actually be the jabad family. This could be interesting!

While I have a DISmeet (or two?) pre-planned during our trip, if anyone should happen upon the jabad family at the World during the week of March 23 – 30, please take a minute to say hi. I’m sure the parks will be like ghost towns during the week before Easter, making it very easy to spot us, right?

Our Trip Begins

As some of you may know, this trip had been on-again, off-again since I first made our room reservations back in September. But each time it appeared to be hopeless, I kept the faith and also those hotel reservations. Finally, less than 6 weeks before our departure date, I was given the Green Light to go ahead with the plans for a trip to Disney World. Of course, by this time I would have had to give up at least one arm and leg to purchase airfare for 4 to Orlando during Spring Break week here in Central Illinois. I therefore resigned myself to making the 18 hour drive… I mean with 4 drivers, how bad could it be?  My husband and I figured the kids could do the overnight driving, since they are always up long after he and I are fast asleep.

So my goal was to leave at 3:00ish on Friday afternoon, March 22, but my family doesn’t do so well with time deadlines and we didn’t leave the Lexington city limits until after 6:00. My son asked to take the first driving shift and lasted a mere 2 hours before he said he didn’t feel well (coming down with a cold).  My daughter was up next, downing a Red Bull and cranking up the music from her iPod…she lasted about 3 hours. Yes folks, we had just left Illinois and entered the state of Kentucky. That left 13 hours of driving for my husband and me, half of it during the overnight hours! But somehow we persevered and at 1:30 p.m. (ET) on March 23rd I was deliriously happy to pull up our mini-van to this…

Disney’s Wilderness Lodge

We were surprised to find that our room was ready, so dropped off some of our way overpacked bags in the room before going back downstairs to have lunch. Oh, and in case you were wondering, we had a standard room booked and the room we were assigned was on the 5th floor overlooking the resort’s beautiful…

ROOF TOPS!

(Sorry for the lack of a visual aid here, but I seem to have forgotten to take a picture of the lovely view from our balcony ).

But no worries, because each time we walked out our door we were treated to this gorgeous view…

 

…which my iPhone photo does not come close to doing justice.
We were also lucky that our room was conveniently located by the stairs and that we were on the OPPOSITE side of the lobby from this…

 

…which just so happens to be the location of the first Disney meal of our trip!
Whispering Canyon Cafe Lunch – COMPLETE

Following our tasty lunch at Whispering Canyon, thankfully we had only a few flights of stairs to ascend before we could crash on the comfy beds of our Wilderness Lodge room.

Here is one of those comfy beds…

 

…picture taken just seconds before my son did a body slam onto it and was out like a light.
And because of my hurry to take the picture, I see that I completely cut off one of the best parts of the bed, the animal wood carvings at the top of the bedposts. That’s my story anyway, and I’m sticking to it.

Now I tried to lay down and take a nap, but in all honesty I was just way too excited, or maybe it was that 5 hour Energy drink that I took while I was driving a couple of hours ago. Anyway, I did some unpacking, posted my WCC update on the Live Thread, and headed to Downtown Disney to purchase my Annual Pass and Tables in Wonderland membership. Now Downtown Disney on that late Saturday afternoon was a madhouse. I have never seen it that busy before, and I only went as far as Guest Relations from the bus stop. YIKES! But I successfully completed the task, and with my precious TIW card in hand I was ready to do some real Disney Dining, starting with before dinner drinks and an appetizer at the Wilderness Lodge’s…

A Visit to the Territory Lounge – COMPLETE

Those of you who have read my previous Dining Reports know that I often have a background story behind my Disney dining choices. For my family, Artist Point is one of those places that comes with baggage…and not the good kind that can easily be hoisted into the overhead compartment but the bad kind that is way over the weight limit and requires you to pay an amount equal to having its own seat on the plane. So anyway, this Artist Point “background story” installment of my Dining Report could be titled either, “How I got to dine at Artist Point again!” or “How to successfully manipulate your family.” I’ll let you decide for yourself which of these is most appropriate.

Here is my story…

I first must confess that I had a few dining related ulterior motives for wanting to stay at Wilderness Lodge. One of these was to greatly increase my chances of getting my family to return to Artist Point. Let me explain. I have previously dined at Artist Point twice. Each time I ordered the Portobello Soup and the Salmon. Both times I loved it, not one bit was left in my bowl or plate. The first time I was accompanied by my husband. He ordered the Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. They were not good…he didn’t love it, not one bit. Fast forward 1 1/2 years to my last trip in May 2012 with my daughters. My oldest is a salmon lover, so I encouraged her to also order the salmon here. She refused, couldn’t possibly order the same thing as me. Her second choice would have been the (beef) steak entree, which at that time was a NY Strip. However, her dad had warned her to stay away from the steak here. And so she ordered the Buffalo Steak…she didn’t love it, not one bit. Traded entrees with her sister, who had “pooh-poohed” her father’s advice and ordered the NY Strip…(yep, you know the drill by now so all together now), “SHE DIDN’T LOVE IT, NOT ONE BIT!” In her defense though, I respectfully submit to you this photo as evidence…

To me her steak looked like an old leather shoe, well-worn at the toe and heel but with maybe just a little life left in the middle. Even after trading, the girls were only marginally happier with their entrees and left with a less than stellar first impression of Artist Point. So my odds of returning to Artist Point with my family were definitely stacked against me. But once I got them to agree to doing a split stay on this trip, with the first three nights at Wilderness Lodge, I could almost taste that soup and salmon. Just needed to go one step further.

That conversation went something like this…

Me: “Our first night we will be tired, so I think we should just stay at our resort to have dinner.”

Everyone else agreed.

Me: “I also think we will want something quiet and relaxing, so that eliminates Whispering Canyon.”

Everyone else agreed.

Me: “And since it’s our first night there, I think we should celebrate and dine at a nice Signature restaurant.”

Husband: With one eyebrow raised (probably from the $$$ sign alert going off in his head), “I guess so???”

Me: “Ok then, I will plan on us having our first night dinner at Artist Point.”

A few seconds pass before my last two words register, then my daughter and husband give me nearly identical looks of dismay.

Me: “Don’t worry, they have many other entrees on their menu besides beef and buffalo. Trust me, you will surely find something to your liking.” (with the words “I hope” added, but only inside my head ).

Artist Point Dinner  – COMPLETE

Day 2

During the very busy last week of March, Magic Kingdom opened at 7:00 each day for its resort guests. Yes, that’s a.m., which in terms of vacation time, stands for “absolutely mad” when it’s preceded by numbers such as 5 (the time I got up that morning ), 6, or 7. But being the Disney-wise person that I am (and my kids would probably say a little sadistic ), I somehow convinced my family that we needed to be at Magic Kingdom at park opening on the first full day of our trip.

A couple of minutes after this picture was taken, a bus rolled up and we and one other “absolutely mad” family boarded. We were off to Magic Kingdom to “open the gates and seize the day!” (Bonus points for anyone who gets that Disney reference. )

Not long after 7:00, my kids took this picture of themselves in front of the castle with the sun rising in the background. They of course immediately sent this to their sister back in Illinois, where it was just after 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. And they call me sadistic?!?!

By 8:00 a.m. when the park opened to the general public, we had already seen the “Enchanted Tales with Belle” show and walked on to the Little Mermaid ride. Since we had only had coffee up to this point, we decided we could afford to take a short breakfast snack break at…

Breakfast at Gaston’s Tavern – COMPLETE

We finished up our breakfast snack from Gaston’s Tavern right around 8:30 a.m. Now is when our early start paid off in a big way. For the next 3 hours we rode every ride on our “to do” list without ever having to get a Fast Pass…Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Space Mountain were all pretty much walk-ons. And my husband kicked our butts on Buzz Lightyear, not once but twice.

Here is his score from Round II…

 

When asked what the secret was to his success, his reply was, “I have no idea!”

We actually did all of this in about two hours, so even had time to take a half-hour nap at (um…I mean see) the Hall of Presidents show.

It was then time for our 11:30 lunch ADR at…

 

Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern – COMPLETE

Since we had already checked off everything on our Magic Kingdom list, we decided it was then time to head back to Wilderness Lodge for an afternoon nap. As we were walking down Main Street to make our exit, my family took note of how crowded the park had become while we were inside LTT having our lunch. I know this because on the bus back to our resort they actually thanked me for making them get up early that morning in order to avoid the massive crowds that had now descended upon Magic Kingdom.   Oh, and though we didn’t yet know it, they actually owed me a double-dose of gratitude for our early arrival (which then allowed for our early exit), because the sea of people we had just seen on Main Street would soon be replaced by a sea of water…

Meanwhile, we were happily napping in our room at the Wilderness Lodge and with our drapes closed, were completely oblivious to the storm which was developing. My phone alarm went off 15 min. before we needed to leave for our tea (My husband had agreed to drive us to the Grand Floridian). My daughter and I had just enough time to change clothes and then the three of us were out our door and on our way out to the parking lot to retrieve our car. However, upon reaching the lobby we stopped dead in our tracks when we saw what was happening outside. This was not the usual quick and light rainstorm that we have experienced many times during our trips to Florida. You know, the kind where you pull out your umbrella and continue on your merry way and then before you know it, the sun is shining again. No this was the “Mighty winds a’blowing, sideways deluge” kind of rain that no umbrella could possibly protect you from.

So needless to say, I made a quick about face and headed directly to the Guest Services desk to change our reservation to another day. I then soon discovered that there were no other available times that would work with our schedule. While I was breaking the bad news to my daughter, the Guest Services CM called over a manager to see if there was anything that could be done to remedy our situation. We were then pleasantly surprised when the manager handed us a voucher for a complimentary cab ride over to the Grand Floridian and promised to call over and let them know that we were on our way. And so, with the help of a little pixie dust, we arrived for our tea 45 minutes late, but more importantly we arrived DRY!

Tea for Two at the Garden View – COMPLETE

Our original plan for after our tea was for Allison and I to take the monorail to the Polynesian to meet up with Vicki (GoofySon’sMom) and Andrew. My husband and son were to drive from the Wilderness Lodge and meet us there as well. However, during our tea, I received a text from Vicki saying they had been forced to return to their resort to dry out after getting caught in the storm at Magic Kingdom. Consequently, they wouldn’t be able to make it for our DISmeet at the Poly. But don’t worry folks, ’cause neither rain, nor wind, nor soaking wet clothes would keep us from meeting. We would just have to wait a bit longer.

But with the Polynesian DISmeet cancelled, my husband picked us up when we finished our tea and we returned to the Wilderness Lodge. It was about this time that my husband told me that he didn’t want to go with us to dinner that night because he wanted to stay in the room and watch the Illinois basketball game (NCAA tourney). Being the good wife that I am , I not only let him off the hook for dinner but I also offered to go down to Roaring Forks to get him something to eat while he watched the game.

And so that is why my next dining review is titled,

Dinner for One from…

 

Dinner for One at Roaring Fork – COMPLETE

The jabead family has not been to Tony’s Town Square Restaurant for a very long time, probably more than 10 years. I know that for a very short time when she was about 9, Tony’s was my othedaughter ‘s favorite Disney World restaurant. It was during this time that we dined here a few times. I don’t really remember why we quit going there, but we did and Tony’s has long been off the jabead family radar. However, a few weeks before this trip I came down with a horrendous case of Disney dining indecisiveness. My children were concerned, so concerned that they decided to stage an intervention. The two of them made me give them a list of the restaurants that I was still considering and then after looking at their online menus, they made the final decisions. One of these decisions was that we would have dinner at Tony’s. Now this had been a recent addition to my list … added on a whim after Brenda (emmysmommy) & Emily dined there. I really didn’t think that Tony’s was a strong contender to make the final cut, but the Disney dining gods (cleverly disguised as my children) thought otherwise.

Dinner at Tony’s Town Square – COMPLETE

Following our dinner, I did have the honor of meeting this lovely lady from the DIS Dining Reviews Board at Magic Kingdom on this very night.

Breakfast at Kona Cafe

My original plan for this day was to return to Magic Kingdom after our breakfast at Kona. However, since we were able to see/do everything on our combined list in one morning the previous day, we decided on a new plan of attack. Sadly I had to cancel our lunch ADR at The Plaza though (hadn’t been there since 2006 and really wanted to try it again) since Plan B involved going to Epcot to check out the Flower & Garden Festival booths. So after our breakfast, my husband drove the car back to Wilderness Lodge while the rest of us walked to the Transportation & Ticket Center to catch the monorail to Epcot. Once there, we headed to World Showcase but couldn’t walk by Club Cool without stopping in. I told my kids about all the pics I’ve seen of Club Cool newbies getting “Beverly’d”. So my daughter offered to stage a “Beverly’d” pic for me to post on the live thread. Now I figured that she would just pretend to take a sip of that nasty drink but she took her role-playing quite seriously and took a big gulp.

 

On the evening of Day 3 the four of us headed back to Magic Kingdom for our much-anticipated dinner reservation at Be our Guest.

Dinner at Be our Guest

Anyway, following our very “musical” dinner at Be our Guest , we met up with my brother-in-law at the Polynesian resort’s….

 

My brother-in-law lives in the Tampa area and was to drive over after work to have dinner at Be Our Guest and spend the evening with us at Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately he got a later start than he had hoped and got stuck in terrible traffic coming out of Tampa. So I had to come up with a Plan B, which was for him to meet us at the Tambu Lounge.

We arrived just as he was finishing his dinner there (so unfortunately no pic), but I did get a picture of their menu…

 

And FYI, he had the Pork Sliders and said they were very good.

We ordered a round of drinks…

 

Blue Moon for my husband, Pina Coladas for my brother-in-law and me, Virgin Pina Colava for my son, and the most interesting of them all, the Island Sunset, was my daughter’s choice.

 

Now I must confess that I have never had the Tambu Lounge’s most famous cocktail, the Lapu Lapu. I had fully intended to try it but when it came my turn to order I chickened out and ordered a Pina Colada. Oh well, maybe next time.

And just in case you weren’t aware of it, your Tables in Wonderland card can be used at the Tambu Lounge for a 20% discount on all food and beverages. We had 7 drinks (the guys both had a second) and our bill was around $50 with the discount and tip.
Not too bad.

And here is a pic of all of us…

 

 

Day 4

Okay, time for another confession here. To the best of my recollection , I have never had a Mickey waffle. I know, I know…shameful. But before you revoke my membership in the DIS Dining boards, please know that on this trip I rectified this grievous situation at the Wilderness Lodge’s…

 

Breakfast at Roaring Fork – My First Mickey Waffles – COMPLETE

Then it was off to Epcot where we had lunch at Canada’s…

Le Cellier Lunch – COMPLETE

Next that day was a stop at Epcot’s friendly neighborhood pub…

 

…where nobody knows your name, but perhaps that is a good thing.

Rose & Crown Pub Imperial Sampler and English Chips – COMPLETE

For dinner, we left the UK and traveled across the pond…and we somehow got lost and ended up in Mexico?!?!

 

La Hacienda de San Angel Inn Dinner – COMPLETE

Day 5

The next day, March 27, 2013, this Epcot-loving family was back again at their favorite park, where we had breakfast at France’s…

 

Boulangerie Patisserie Breakfast – COMPLETE

It seems that we didn’t get very far before we were hungry again, because our lunch was right next door in…

 

Morocco

 

Restaurant Marakesh Lunch – COMPLETE

So what did we have in mind for our dessert???

 

Where we shared a…

No Way Jose – A Peanut Butter and Hot Fudge delight featuring Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Morsels, Whipped Cream, and a Cherry

If you like ice cream, peanut butter, and chocolate then I guarantee that there is NO WAY you will not love JOSE.

If we had followed our pattern of eating our way around the World (Showcase), after having breakfast in France and lunch in Morocco, our dinner would have been at Teppan Edo or Tokyo Dining in Japan. But instead our dinner plans took us outside of the park and to the Yacht Club’s…

 

Yachtsman Steakhouse Dinner – COMPLETE

Day 6

On March 28, 2013 the four of us divided and conquered…or at least half of us conquered Animal Kingdom, while the other two slept in.

After riding Expedition Everest, my son and I decided to have breakfast at…

Rainforest Cafe Breakfast at Animal Kingdom – COMPLETE

Then for lunch we went to…

Yak & Yeti Lunch – COMPLETE

While my son and I were at Animal Kingdom having our lunch at Yak & Yeti, my daughter and husband finally ventured out of our room at the Swan and walked over to the Beach Club to have lunch at…

 

Beaches & Cream Lunch – COMPLETE

After our lunch at Yak & Yeti, my son and I went back to the Swan where we met up with the other two. Then the four of us headed to Downtown Disney to do some shopping, followed by a round of bowling at…

 

Splitsville Loaded Fries – COMPLETE

Next was our dinner at…

Raglan Road Dinner – COMPLETE

Day 6

We began our next day, March 29, 2013, at Hollywood Studios. My husband remained behind to make some work phone calls…which btw, could only be done by going outside on the balcony. Oddly, our AT&T cell phones did not work when we were inside our room at the Swan. Also, we found that the wi-fi that you pay for as part of the daily resort fee at the Swan & Dolphin resorts was awful here too. I was posting a few live updates during the trip and several times I was forced to walk over to the Boardwalk and sit in the lobby with my laptop. Of course, my kids and husband (who was needing to do work emails) hated this. Now I suspect though that this had something to do with the location of our room, as I’d never heard of others experiencing these problems. But even though we paid far less for our room at the Swan than we would have during Spring Break time at the Boardwalk or Yacht & Beach Club and the room itself was perfectly fine (very comfy beds ), I doubt that I could convince my family to return to the Swan…or the technology “dead zone”, as my son referred to it.

But I digress, so back to our food reviews which on this day did not begin until lunch. We had a bit of a disagreement about where to have lunch. I really wanted to try a couple of new (to me) things at Prime Time Cafe. My son, however, had looked at some online menus prior to our trip and decided he wanted to eat at Big River Grille. My daughter wanted to remain neutral so we we didn’t have a tie breaking vote. Therefore I decided that we would compromise and do both. So for this reason, we skipped breakfast and started our food intake for the day with an early lunch ADR at…

50’s Prime Time Cafe Lunch – COMPLETE

On our way to the Boardwalk to meet up with my husband for our second lunch (his first), my son says he is tired and not hungry and would rather just go back to the room to take a nap. What?!?!

My daughter and I decided to go on with our plan without him and met my husband for lunch at…

Big River Grille Lunch – COMPLETE

Our dinner that night was just a little further down the Boardwalk at…

 

Flying Fish Cafe Dinner – COMPLETE

Day 7

We spent the final day of our trip at Epcot. Following our flight on Soarin’, the kids and I grabbed a breakfast snack from…

 

Sunshine Season’s Berry Croissant Bread Pudding & Chocolate Chip Muffin – COMPLETE

Then lunch was in World Showcase, at Italy’s…

Via Napoli Lunch – COMPLETE

For our last meal of this trip, we had an early dinner at Japan’s…

 

Tokyo Dining Dinner – COMPLETE

After our dinner we returned to the Swan…

 

…to retrieve our van and begin our long 18 hour drive home to Illinois.