Part III
Friday 10/10
Breakfast - Cape May Cafe
We try to do one character breakfast each trip, and we decided to try the Cape May Cafe character breakfast this trip. We had 9:00 PS and were seated right on time even though they were very busy. They have little two person booths that are very cute. The bench of the seat sticks out past the end of the table so it's easy for the characters to sit right down next to you. The buffet was pretty good with eggs (the omelet of the day was spinach, sausage, onion and cheese), bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, hashbrowns, krispy kremes, fresh fruit, french toast stick, Mickey waffles, and lots more. It also includes your beverages, and we kept our servers busy refilling our coffee and orange juice. Minnie was near the entrance, and Goofy, Chip, and Dale were going from table to table. We had a lot of fun and already have PS to take my brothers in January.
As a side note, I hit my 90 day window for the January trip while we were there for this trip so I would call every night to make PS for the upcoming trip. When I called to make the Cape May Cafe breakfast PS, the CM commented that she still had PS available for Cindy's and the Princess Storybook Breakfast for that day. I wasn't interested, but I thought it was strange - especially because I called at 9:00 at night!
Dinner - Wolfgang Puck Cafe
It rained off and on all day on Friday, so we went to Downtown Disney to shop and watch movies. Between movies we caught an early dinner at Wolfgang Puck's. We ordered tea to drink, and they have two choices - sweet tea and unsweetened mango tea. I took mango and DH took sweet. We started with the spinach and 5 cheese dip which was good. We especially liked the dipping bread, which was a very thin and crispy parmesan flatbread. This is another restaurant where I already knew what I was going to order. I know it's very boring to order the same thing I had last time, but when I find something good I go with it. I had the roasted pumpkin ravioli, which was fabulous. It sounds weird, but it really is wonderful. I know that DH had the pizza bianca, but since it isn't on the menu on Deb's page I can't remember what was in it. Chicken, I know, but beyond that I'm not sure. Sorry! I know he enjoyed it and we had a very nice, very quick meal.
Saturday 10/11
Lunch - Big River Grille
I hadn't heard much about this restaurant, and what I had heard hadn't been all that great. However, we were very hungry and didn't want to take our chances on being able to get in to a sit down restaurant at the parks. I was guessing that Big River Grille wouldn't be very busy for lunch, and I was right. DH tried the Red Rocket beer, which was pretty stout but he seemed to enjoy it. I stuck to diet coke as I had just taken a sudafed and didn't want to jeopardize the rest of my day
I ordered the flame grilled meatloaf and DH had a half slab of the Rocket Red ribs. While we were both surprised by how good the food was, we wouldn't make a point of coming back unless we were looking for a not very crowded air conditoned restaurant on a hot day again.
Dinner - 'Ohana
We didn't have any advance plans for our last full day of vacation, and I had told DH all I wanted was a sit down dinner to relax and enjoy our last evening. We first made a dinner PS at Brown Derby, but we were ready to leave the park about 2 hours prior to our PS time. Next we thought we'd try Narcoossee. We were originally going to eat there on the previous Sunday before MNSSHP, but when we had decided to go to ESPN for the game I had cancelled those PS. So we took the bus from MGM to the Grand Floridian (By the way I saw Jennifer and Dave, the Passporter authors, while in line for the bus. I wanted to say hi, but they didn't make it onto the same bus as us. DH thought I was crazy for recognizing them ). We walked back to Narcoossee's, which looked about half empty. It was probably around 6:00 and they must have had a private function planned because I was told that they wouldn't be able to seat walk-ins until 9:20. So we left.
DH decided sticky wings sounded good, so we hopped the monorail for the Polynesian and dinner at Kona. We put our names on the list for a 25 minute wait, and while we were waiting we strolled past 'Ohana and DH decided he wanted to eat there instead. I didn't care one way or the other, so we took our name off the Kona list and on the 'Ohana list. After they tried to seat us at a table that was already occupied, the found a table near the window for us with a perfect view of the lake and the castle. Dinner was good - wings, fried rice, salad, shrimp wontons, turkey, pork, steak, shrimp, and pineapple with caramel for dessert. The pineapple was better than what I had last time - so juicy and flavorful. At precisely 7:30 our server brought our check, the lights dimmed slightly, and they started piping in Jimminy Cricket's narration of Wishes. Our server was shocked and said they were only told about 10:00 fireworks that night. We had seen Wishes at the debut on Thursday night and loved it, so we hung around to see it again. It really is wonderful, and it felt so magical that we had ended up at the right restaurant, at the right table, at the right time without planning any of it to see the fireworks one more time before we left.
Sunday 10/12
Breakfast - Spoodles
The breakfast menu at Spoodles has changed slightly since our last trip and the all you can eat breakfast is not as exotic as it used to be. I went for the cheese frittata with a large orange juice and DH had the all american breakfast with strip steak and a large orange juice. The breakfast potatoes were very flavorful - almost too salty but not quite. DH loved the all american breakfast and ate every bite. He was also thrilled when a group in the lobby recognized him from playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire the day before (I think it helped that he was discreetly wearing his 32,000 point winner polo shirt
) This was a nice relaxing meal to end wonderful, if very hot and crowded, trip.
Friday 10/10
Breakfast - Cape May Cafe
We try to do one character breakfast each trip, and we decided to try the Cape May Cafe character breakfast this trip. We had 9:00 PS and were seated right on time even though they were very busy. They have little two person booths that are very cute. The bench of the seat sticks out past the end of the table so it's easy for the characters to sit right down next to you. The buffet was pretty good with eggs (the omelet of the day was spinach, sausage, onion and cheese), bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, hashbrowns, krispy kremes, fresh fruit, french toast stick, Mickey waffles, and lots more. It also includes your beverages, and we kept our servers busy refilling our coffee and orange juice. Minnie was near the entrance, and Goofy, Chip, and Dale were going from table to table. We had a lot of fun and already have PS to take my brothers in January.
As a side note, I hit my 90 day window for the January trip while we were there for this trip so I would call every night to make PS for the upcoming trip. When I called to make the Cape May Cafe breakfast PS, the CM commented that she still had PS available for Cindy's and the Princess Storybook Breakfast for that day. I wasn't interested, but I thought it was strange - especially because I called at 9:00 at night!
Dinner - Wolfgang Puck Cafe
It rained off and on all day on Friday, so we went to Downtown Disney to shop and watch movies. Between movies we caught an early dinner at Wolfgang Puck's. We ordered tea to drink, and they have two choices - sweet tea and unsweetened mango tea. I took mango and DH took sweet. We started with the spinach and 5 cheese dip which was good. We especially liked the dipping bread, which was a very thin and crispy parmesan flatbread. This is another restaurant where I already knew what I was going to order. I know it's very boring to order the same thing I had last time, but when I find something good I go with it. I had the roasted pumpkin ravioli, which was fabulous. It sounds weird, but it really is wonderful. I know that DH had the pizza bianca, but since it isn't on the menu on Deb's page I can't remember what was in it. Chicken, I know, but beyond that I'm not sure. Sorry! I know he enjoyed it and we had a very nice, very quick meal.
Saturday 10/11
Lunch - Big River Grille
I hadn't heard much about this restaurant, and what I had heard hadn't been all that great. However, we were very hungry and didn't want to take our chances on being able to get in to a sit down restaurant at the parks. I was guessing that Big River Grille wouldn't be very busy for lunch, and I was right. DH tried the Red Rocket beer, which was pretty stout but he seemed to enjoy it. I stuck to diet coke as I had just taken a sudafed and didn't want to jeopardize the rest of my day
I ordered the flame grilled meatloaf and DH had a half slab of the Rocket Red ribs. While we were both surprised by how good the food was, we wouldn't make a point of coming back unless we were looking for a not very crowded air conditoned restaurant on a hot day again.Dinner - 'Ohana
We didn't have any advance plans for our last full day of vacation, and I had told DH all I wanted was a sit down dinner to relax and enjoy our last evening. We first made a dinner PS at Brown Derby, but we were ready to leave the park about 2 hours prior to our PS time. Next we thought we'd try Narcoossee. We were originally going to eat there on the previous Sunday before MNSSHP, but when we had decided to go to ESPN for the game I had cancelled those PS. So we took the bus from MGM to the Grand Floridian (By the way I saw Jennifer and Dave, the Passporter authors, while in line for the bus. I wanted to say hi, but they didn't make it onto the same bus as us. DH thought I was crazy for recognizing them ). We walked back to Narcoossee's, which looked about half empty. It was probably around 6:00 and they must have had a private function planned because I was told that they wouldn't be able to seat walk-ins until 9:20. So we left.
DH decided sticky wings sounded good, so we hopped the monorail for the Polynesian and dinner at Kona. We put our names on the list for a 25 minute wait, and while we were waiting we strolled past 'Ohana and DH decided he wanted to eat there instead. I didn't care one way or the other, so we took our name off the Kona list and on the 'Ohana list. After they tried to seat us at a table that was already occupied, the found a table near the window for us with a perfect view of the lake and the castle. Dinner was good - wings, fried rice, salad, shrimp wontons, turkey, pork, steak, shrimp, and pineapple with caramel for dessert. The pineapple was better than what I had last time - so juicy and flavorful. At precisely 7:30 our server brought our check, the lights dimmed slightly, and they started piping in Jimminy Cricket's narration of Wishes. Our server was shocked and said they were only told about 10:00 fireworks that night. We had seen Wishes at the debut on Thursday night and loved it, so we hung around to see it again. It really is wonderful, and it felt so magical that we had ended up at the right restaurant, at the right table, at the right time without planning any of it to see the fireworks one more time before we left.
Sunday 10/12
Breakfast - Spoodles
The breakfast menu at Spoodles has changed slightly since our last trip and the all you can eat breakfast is not as exotic as it used to be. I went for the cheese frittata with a large orange juice and DH had the all american breakfast with strip steak and a large orange juice. The breakfast potatoes were very flavorful - almost too salty but not quite. DH loved the all american breakfast and ate every bite. He was also thrilled when a group in the lobby recognized him from playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire the day before (I think it helped that he was discreetly wearing his 32,000 point winner polo shirt
) This was a nice relaxing meal to end wonderful, if very hot and crowded, trip.
--Now I simply can't wait! My family already thinks I am a little crazy--I think I will keep getting to see the fireworks that first night a secret for now. They won't think I am so crazy that night! It sounds wonderful!
