Is it a vacation? It's a whirlwind 10 days of fun,no dining plan, Universal - Oct 16 COMPLETE 11/30

kristie73

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Our vacation or, let's just call it our trip...This was our 2nd time to Disney World and we choose Port Orleans Riverside in the Magnolia Mansions again. 4 years ago we did Disney World for 6 days during Spring Break. This trip was during our kid's Fall Break. And we also did one hopper day at Universal Studios in between. We had 9 days total for our vacation. Okay, it's a vacation from work, but it's not that relaxing, but my feet did a little better this time. :)

I'm Kristie and my DH is Kelly. Our sons are DS, the 13 year old and DS, the 9 year old. This is my first extensive trip report/dining review so I'm trying to figure this out. I forgot a few times to take pictures of food. My camera is not very good either, so sometimes I resorted to phone camera in hopes it would be better. So I apologize for not great quality pics. We did not purchase a dining plan, but I feel like we planned pretty well with ADRs, counter service meals, and sharing, etc.


ADRs, Counter Service, Etc
Day 1 T-Rex Café (dinner)
Day 2 Food and Wine Festival (lunch/snacks)
Day 2 La Hacienda de San Angel (dinner)
Day 3 Columbia Harbour House (lunch) and The Wave (dinner)
Day 4 Starring Rolls Café (lunch) and The Sci-Fi Café (dinner)
Day 5 Riverside Mill Food Court (breakfast)
Day 5 Raglan Road (lunch) and The Boatwright (dinner)
Day 6 Universal Studios (breakfast, lunch, snacks) and Maragarittaville (dinner)
Day 7 Food and Wine Festival (lunch/snacks)
Day 7 Via Napoli (dinner)
Day 8 Kona Café (breakfast)
Day 8 Pecos Bill (lunch) and Be Our Guest (dinner)
Day 9 Snacks, Restaurantasaurus (lunch) and Yak and Yeti (dinner)
Day 10 Riverside Mill Food Court (breakfast)


Us_Mexico_Donald.jpg

Day 1 – Arrival day. We flew on Frontier from Denver, CO and reached Orlando. We rode the Magical Express and arrived to Port Orleans Riverside at about 2:30pm. Our room was not ready for checkin yet, so we grabbed a light bite (lunch) at the food court. My husband and I split the meat flatbread pizza, but I think it got mixed up, because it was just pepperoni. My kids split the kids mac n cheese and the younger DS had some of our pizza. The mac n cheese serving was a bit larger than what is pictured below. I think I was still in a travel daze, so I forgot to take pictures of our meal. Here are pictures found on Google, similar to what we got. This satisfied us.
Kids-Macaroni-and-cheese.jpg Pizza.jpg

Then we hung out at the pool. We brought a carry on with our swim suits. Good tip from the boards here. We got our room about an hour later. I was happy with the room and location. Our bags weren’t there yet, but we freshened up for dinner and headed to the boat for our visit to Disney Springs.

4 years ago, we did the T-Rex café and the boys wanted to do that again. We had 6:30 reservations for the T-Rex café so went straight there. I went to the check in line even though I had a reservation and I had a Landry’s card. I was told later I could have cut the line and showed the card, but that feels rude. We waited about 15 minutes after our reservation before we were sat. They sat us in a similar location that we had before, in the red room? I ordered the Paleo Shrimp. It was blah. Not really any flavor. It says parmesan crusted shrimp, but it seems just like any ordinary fried shrimp. It also says Pomodoro cream sauce, but it just seemed like a tomato sauce.
TRex-Shrimp.jpg
My DH got the Guaca-saurus burger and that looked so good. I should have gotten that or just a burger.
TRex-guacburger.jpg
My 13 year old DS ordered the kids cheeseburger and liked it. Sorry it's so blurry.
TRex-kidsburger.jpg
My 9 year old DS ordered the kids pizza and he said the pizza from POR food court was much better.

TRex-kidspizza.jpg
I also ordered the cotton-tini so I got a souvenir cup.
TRex-drinks.jpg
Even though our waitress knew we had a Landry’s card, I didn’t feel our service from her was good. She kept forgetting to bring us things. I had to flag down someone else for ketchup. She forgot to bring my husband his 2nd beer. But the kids got a kick out the dinosaurs. I hope we don’t have to do this restaurant again though. It’s too overpriced and not very good. I feel like it was a disappointing first ADR.
T-Rex-table.jpg
We shopped a bit then headed back on the boat to POR. Our groceries and luggage were delivered to our room when we got back.


Next up is our first park day at Epcot...

 
Last edited:
Following along! Sorry about your first meal. I've had that cotton-tini though, and its not too bad at all. :-) A little something to balance out the food. Fingers crossed that things improved for you over your vacation!
 
I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion of T-Rex. We also felt very underwhelmed by both the food and service. Hopefully your dining improves!
 
We felt the same way about T-Rex, it will be a one and done for us. It just was nothing special, we can get that kind of food at home. Hope the rest of your meals were better!
 


Day 2 – Epcot day. We had Garden Grocer deliver some items to the room, so we ate bananas, yogurt, and donuts for breakfast then headed to the bus. We got to Epcot for rope drop, EMH. It was so chaotic and unorganized for lines with bags vs no bags. But we got through and headed out to ride Test Track according to our plan. Without doing a total review of our day, our very first ride, Test Track broke down while we were on it, so our morning was kind of shot for the Extra Magic Hour and rides. But we made up time and things worked out sort of. It felt really hot by the time we got to the World Showcase. So the boys were starting to already feel irritated. UGH! Not exactly a good start for our first park day. But we stuck to our plan for the most part. We bought the Remy's Ratatouille Hide & Squeak and the kids were actually excited to do this.

DH and I were so excited to finally check out the Food and Wine Festival. It's okay with our kids tagging along, but I could tell they didn't get it. So it would be good to go back one day without them. We stopped in Farm Fresh and ordered the Loaded Mac ‘n’ Cheese. Delicious! 13 year old DS liked it, but 9 year old did not and he was getting whiny.
FW_macncheese.jpg

DH went to the Hawaii booth and ordered the Big Wave Golden Ale (I forgot to take a pic of the beer) and a Kalua Pork Slider but neither kid wanted to try the pork. DH and I enjoyed it. I think it was a good ratio or meat and bun.

FW_porkslider.jpg

Then we bought the Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri Sauce from the Patagonia Booth. The kids tasted this and liked the meat. DH and I really enjoyed this too as well as the Boniato Purée.

FW_beefchimichurri.jpg

But the heat and hunger were kicking in with the kids, so we stopped at the Refreshment Port and I ordered the Croissant Doughnut, Fried Chicken Chunks with fries, and the Dole Whip with Rum for me.
FW_chickenfries_donut.jpg

FW_rum_dolewhip.jpg
Then we found shade and kids and parents got happy again.
FW_ME_rum_dolewhip.jpg
We wanted to stop in Canada but we felt full and the line was super long in the sun. We thought we’d get back here, but we never did. :(

We also tried to do the Phineas & Ferb: Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure, we started it in United Kingdom, but that was long and boring. We ended up not doing anymore of that. My kids liked finding Remy better.
FW_DS14remy.jpg
Next we stopped at the Belgium booth and ordered both waffles with chocolate and berries. We all liked both! DH got the Leffe Blonde Belgian Pale Ale and said it was good.
FW_waffles.jpg
We made it to Morocco but we didn’t order anything else. We found Remy here and then took the boat back to Canada. Still an even longer line, so we left the World Showcase. We wanted to do Joy and Sadness but that line never let up. We had fastpasses for the Epcot character spot. The kids were feeling really hot and annoyed though, so we bought a Mickey ice cream and then did the characters.

FW_icecream.jpg

We planned to leave and come back for the evening. So we went back to our room, took a nap, freshened up, and headed back... I'll update with the rest of the evening in another post.
 
Still Day 2 – Epcot day. After our nap, we took the bus back to Epcot. We walked back to the World Showcase on the other side stopping first at Craft Beers, DH got the Beer Flights. I think he liked all beers. I'm not a big beer drinker, so I tasted and I think I preferred the lighter beer. I wanted to try food, but I didn't order anything from here.
FW_craftbeer.jpg
Then we stopped at Mexico and I got the Shrimp Taco and the Jalapeno Margarita. YUM! Neither the taco or the margarita was spicy, but both had great flavor. Compared to the Rum Dole Whip, this was a good amount for the margarita. I don't think DH thought the taco was anything special, but I love all things shrimp.

FW_shrimptaco_margarita.jpg

The Frozen ride was down during our fast pass window! They said we could come back later and try. Then some lady (another guest):wizard: said they had Anytime Fast Passes and they were leaving. So she gave them to us, all 4. Thank you random lady!!! So we headed to our dinner reservation at La Hacienda de San Angel early. We asked to sit near the windows so we could watch the fireworks. I overheard another guest arguing that they didn't like their seat, that they weren't near the windows. I heard the host explaining that some guests were waiting 45 minutes. Anyway, I was very kind with the host and we were early for our reservation and told him we didn't have to sit right next the window, and we were willing to wait. We waited about 15 minutes. We were seated at a table 2nd from the windows. Chips and salsa was pretty good. We asked for salt and pepper for the table and salted the chips a little more.
Hacienda_chips.jpg
I felt a bit tired and thirsty and I had already had a margarita, so I just stayed with water. I wanted to try that avocado margarita, but didn't want to spend that money. DH ordered beer, Dos Equis Amber. DH and I shared the La Hacienda with the steak, chicken, and sausage. This was just okay for us. We asked for flour tortillas because I thought the corn tortillas that they served with it weren’t as good. I wish we would have ordered something else, like maybe just the steak. We didn’t like the sausage, it seemed burned. The chicken was kind of sweet. It was good, but it could have been better. The beans are more like a dip, it’s all mashed and the rice was just average. It could have a few tablespoons of guacamole to help this feel worth the money.
Hacienda_LaHacienda2.jpg
My 13 year old DS ordered the cheese quesadilla and he ate it all, except the green beans it comes with, so I’m glad he didn’t share with his younger brother on this one. My camera didn't take very well here, so I copied one from Google.
kids_quesadilla.jpg
My 9 year old DS ordered the grilled chicken, and it was not “grilled”. It didn’t have any grill marks on it, it looked pan-seared. It was so bland. He barely ate it and we told the server he didn’t like it. He was kind of like oh well. Bummer, it was a waste there. So I'm really glad I saved the money and didn't order the margarita. I wish he would have just ordered the quesadilla too or maybe the steak taco. So this kids meal was a real disappointment. Sorry the pic is blurry.
Hacienda_kidsgrilledchicken.jpg
But the fireworks from the window was really cool. We left right after.
Hacienda_fireworks.jpg
We rode Three Caballeros and Frozen was open so we rode it with our original Fast Passes. Then we left Epcot. Buses from here to POR were awful! It took forever. :mad: I think our hotel had the most people waiting. Why no double buses? Anyway the day was done. It had some ups and downs for our first park day. Epcot definitely doesn't seem as organized with certain things (security lines, buses) as the other parks. I liked our first round of the Food and Wine Festival. We didn't try several booths that we wanted to, but we have another day planned here later in our trip. I'm glad we tried Hacienda, but it feels one and done for me. Last time we tried San Angel Inn and if I had to recommend Mexican at Epcot, I'd go with San Angel. But the view of the fireworks was pretty cool at Hacienda. :confused3


Next day, is Magic Kingdom and we eat dinner at the Wave...
 
Last edited:


Great TR. We have found the kids meals usually suck and in the past ordered a regular meal and split it amoungst my 2 DD. What is finding Remy?
 
@DisOrBust Thank you! I felt bad for my little guy that really wanted to like that grilled chicken. At least he ate some of ours because we had plenty. It just stinks paying $8-10 and it's not very good. And they don't want the green beans and rice.

So the finding Remy is something offered during the Food and Wine Festival. Remy's Ratatouille Hide & Squeak is a sticker sheet you purchase. I think it was $8 and then it's like a scavenger hunt, you search for a little Remy statue in the World Showcase countries. Once you find Remy, he will be holding a vegetable or some food related item and you match that sticker to the country you find him in. Then you can show your sticker page to the Port of Entry and receive a Remy pin. It was fun and something to do for them in the World Showcase.
 
Day 3 – Magic Kingdom day. We again, ate a light breakfast in the room, yogurt, bananas, and donuts. Got to MK for rope drop for EMH. Security went much smoother. We started in Tomorrowland with Space Mountain and kept to our schedule/plan pretty good. We needed another breakfast snack, so we stopped at Cheshire Café for coffee, juice, muffin, and Danish. I wish we would have went to Gaston’s instead, but I forgot and not sure they had coffee. These were fine to share and we continued with rides.
cheesedanish.jpg

blueberrymuffin.jpg
We got over to Liberty Square by 11:00 so we stopped in Columbia Harbour House for lunch. I’m glad we got there when we did because that place filled up quick! We sat up upstairs near a window, like the tips I had read on the boards. :disrocks: It was a really nice atmosphere. I had the fried shrimp and fries. At first DH was annoyed that they didn't have just a fried fish plate. I thought they used to have that, so we ordered 2 plates of the fish and chicken with fries. My kids split the chicken and DH ate the fish. So not ordering a kids meal worked out good on this one. I know, everyone order fried, but hey it's a "vacation". :blush: I considered trying the lobster roll, but went with the shrimp. I love shrimp! Everyone was happy. I also love that they have iced tea with lemon here.
HarbourHouse_shrimp.jpg

HarbourHouse_fish.jpg
HarbourHouse_chicken.jpg

We also purchased the popcorn bucket so we used that $1.50 refill option often for a snack here there. popcorn::

We continued with rides, the parade, etc, then headed out the park around 4pm. It was a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party and we opted to not do this. We rode the monorail to the Contemporary Resort. We had dinner reservations at The Wave at 5pm. They brought delicious bread and butter to the table. I loved it and the little salts on the butter is a nice touch.
Wave_bread.jpg
I ordered a Pinot Grigio and DH ordered a beer. We felt the entrees were a bit expensive, so we decided to do some sharing. We ordered the The Wave Appetizer for Two -2 Lump-crab and Florida Rock Shrimp Crab Cakes with lemon emulsion and 2 citrus-marinated shrimp tacos. This was so good. I liked both the crab cakes and the tacos. It could have been enough for just this, but we wanted to try an entrée.
Wave_crabcakes_shrimptacos.jpg
We ordered the Grilled Beef Tenderloin - green beans, Yukon mash with American accoutrement, crispy shallot, and Vidalia onion glaze to split. They did NOT split this in the kitchen. I was kind of hoping for each of us to get a plate of the sides, but they just brought us a separate plate and we split it ourselves. It was cooked to a perfect medium plus for us. It was all very delicious! I was so happy to finally have a great tasting ADR meal.
Wave_tenderloin.jpg
We were full though, so no dessert, however, my kids split the Grilled Beef Kabob. This was really good too, I think filet. It was perfect for them to split. It came with fries and the waiter said they could order a dessert.
Wave_kidssteak.jpg
So they got the Create-Your-Own Ice Cream Sundae and we all had a few bites. My kids really enjoyed this meal too. We headed back to POR and spent the evening in the pool and hot tub. It was a great day!

Wave_makeownsundae.jpg
 
I love Columbia Harbour House, eating upstairs to escape the crowds & that fried shrimp platter is also my go to meal! Glad it worked out well for you! :-)
 
Joining! Glad your day at MK was better than your first day at Epcot :)
I have to say, I'm in awe that your boys can split a meal and that your DS13 can be satisfied with a kids meal! My DS14 hasn't been satisfied with a Disney kids meal (or a kids meal anywhere else) since he was about 11, and my DS11 RARELY if ever orders a kids meal. And if I ever suggested sharing? I think they'd send me to an asylum lol!
We ate at San Angel for the first time last Aug. and while we thought it was just OK, I tried the avocado margarita and that made the meal worthwhile :drinking1 Delicious! We haven't tried La Hacienda but that view of Illuminations looks breathtaking :goodvibes
 
@DisOrBust Thank you! I felt bad for my little guy that really wanted to like that grilled chicken. At least he ate some of ours because we had plenty. It just stinks paying $8-10 and it's not very good. And they don't want the green beans and rice.

So the finding Remy is something offered during the Food and Wine Festival. Remy's Ratatouille Hide & Squeak is a sticker sheet you purchase. I think it was $8 and then it's like a scavenger hunt, you search for a little Remy statue in the World Showcase countries. Once you find Remy, he will be holding a vegetable or some food related item and you match that sticker to the country you find him in. Then you can show your sticker page to the Port of Entry and receive a Remy pin. It was fun and something to do for them in the World Showcase.

WHY IS THIS NOT A THING ALWAYS!!! My kids would LOVE this! It might be for little kids but my DDs (22yo,20yoa nd 14 yo) Always make a mask, yes we still call them masks, and would totally get a charge out of this.
 
Joining! Glad your day at MK was better than your first day at Epcot :)
I have to say, I'm in awe that your boys can split a meal and that your DS13 can be satisfied with a kids meal! My DS14 hasn't been satisfied with a Disney kids meal (or a kids meal anywhere else) since he was about 11, and my DS11 RARELY if ever orders a kids meal. And if I ever suggested sharing? I think they'd send me to an asylum lol!
We ate at San Angel for the first time last Aug. and while we thought it was just OK, I tried the avocado margarita and that made the meal worthwhile :drinking1 Delicious! We haven't tried La Hacienda but that view of Illuminations looks breathtaking :goodvibes

Yes, my kiddos have a bird like appetite. I can tell my DS13 is getting more of an appetite, but they are both picky picky eaters so they eat less and aren't as willing to try things on a regular menu. Plus we had snacks in between so they manage. The view at Hacienda was great. I was glad we did it.
 
Day 4 – Hollywood Studios day. We ate bananas and donuts in the room. Then took the bus, and got to the park right before it opened. Once they let us in, it was mad rush for Toy Story Mania. Whew! That was crazy, but we rode that once in line, then again with our FastPass. That worked out really well. We tried to do Tower of Terror, but one side was down, so the FastPass line was extremely long. We talked to CM and they gave us anytime passes for ToT. So we headed to the Beauty and Beast show, ate some granola bars that we brought in. The rest of our ride and shows went smooth with our schedule. We stopped at the Starring Rolls café for lunch. Two of us split the ham sandwich with chips and the other two split the turkey sandwich with chips. These were okay but messy. The kids didn’t want all the lettuce on it. They also ate through some other snacks that we brought in, rice krispie treats, fruit snacks, and beef jerky.
HS_StarringRoles_Turkey.jpg

HS_StarringRoles_Ham.jpg
We also got a chocolate cupcake to split, but I forgot to take a picture of that. We went on with ToT, RnR, Star Wars stuff, Frozen show, Muppets, etc. We got some ice cream for snack from Dinosaur Gertie's Ice Cream of Extinction.
HS_gerties.jpg

HS_icecream.jpg
Then we went to our Sci-Fi dinner reservations a little early. But they didn’t seat us until quite a bit after our reservation and we weren’t sat in one of the cars. We were sat on the bench type car, in the back, right next to some other family, so I was disappointed. The kids split a chocolate milkshake and DH and I split a cookies and cream milkshake. It was plenty to split, especially since we had just had ice cream an hour or so earlier.
HS_SciFi_milkshake.jpg
Then DH and I split the make your own burger and we subbed the fries for onion rings. The boys split the kids burger and fries. It doesn't seem like much food with the split, but it was plenty of food. It wasn’t the same experience as last time. I think I was just annoyed with the seat and how long we waited after checking in. I kind of wish we would have tried 50’s Prime Time instead, but oh well. It was good though.
HS_SciFi_splitburger.jpg

HS_SciFi_splitkidsburger.jpg
We went to the Indy show, rode RnR and Star Wars again, Great Movie ride, met some characters, then waited it out for Star Wars fireworks. We also had been taking advantage of that popcorn bucket and the $1.50 refill. Those fireworks were so awesome!
HS_StarWarsFireworks.jpg
It was a good day at Hollywood Studios. I do think there should be other options for quick service meals here. I was a little disappointed with Sci Fi, but I'm comparing it to our first visit. Those Star Wars fireworks were definitely worth the wait to stay in the evening.

Next up...our relaxing down day at POR and Disney Springs...POR Food Court, Raglan Road and Boatwright!
 
Day 5 – POR and Disney Springs. Since this was a down day, we slept in a little, then ate breakfast in the River Mill food court at POR. DH and I each got the Bounty Platter, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, waffle. It was good to have a more substantial breakfast than just yogurt, donuts, and bananas.
POR_foodcourt_bountyplatter.jpg
My 14 year old DS got the Mickey Waffle with Bacon and Sausage and 9 year old DS got the kids breakfast platter, with eggs, etc. I forgot the pictures of their plate, so I pulled these from Google images. After breakfast we headed to the pool for a bit. We did a load of laundry too. Then we freshened up and headed to the boat for Disney Springs.
POR_waffleplate.jpg
POR_kidseggplate.jpg
 
Last edited:
We had lunch reservations at Raglan Road for 1pm. We were looking forward to this, because we really enjoyed dinner here the last time. I was happy that their brunch service also featured the dancers, but we were seated in the back. It was fine though because it was kind of loud! Our waitress brought little sample drinks of some smoothie thing. The kids didn't really care for it. She did bring the bread and we all liked that.
DS_RaglanRoad_bread.jpg
I remember we all liked the Dalkey Duo so we ordered that again. Still yummy, like little corn dogs!
DS_RaglanRoad_DalkyDuo.jpg
My DH wanted to stay with what he remembered and he ordered the fish & chips. Still good he said. He had beer too.
DS_RaglanRoad_fishnchips.jpg
I tried the Lobster Club and I really liked this. I was glad I chose this and I would order it again. Lots of lobster and avocado. And the fries are good too with a sprinkle of malt vinegar and salt. My husband wanted to watch football too, but no TVs at Raglan Road, so he propped up his phone with the NFL Red Zone channel. :cool2:
DS_RaglanRoad_lobsterclub.jpg
The boys split the kids Macaroni & Cheese. The waitress tried to get us to order two or the adult version, but I said, no that will be plenty. And it was. They couldn’t even finish it. With bread, Dalkey Duo, fries, mac n cheese, they were full.
DS_RaglanRoad_kids_macncheese.jpg
We really wanted to order that bread pudding again, but we were stuffed. Maybe we should have skipped the appetizer in favor of dessert. :scratchin We finished up some shopping and headed back to POR.
DS_RaglanRoad_dancers.jpg
Then for dinner we had reservations for Boatwright. We never did this restaurant the last time, so I was excited to try it. She brought corn bread and butter to the table. Everyone liked the bread! I would have asked for another round of bread but our entrees came out. So quick service.
POR_Boatwright_cornbread.jpg
DH ordered the Voodoo Chicken and Waffles. He likes fried chicken and this was good, but he was expecting something more I think, maybe more spicy? He was feeling a bit allergy, sniffles like and didn’t eat very much. So I think he was disappointed, but just because he wasn't feeling good.
POR_Boatwright_chickennwaffles.jpg
I ordered the Shrimp and Grits, traditional style. I liked this. I think the shrimp were smaller than I expected, but it was still good. I could not finish it all. I would order it again though. I loved all the vegetables and flavors. I don’t know traditional shrimp and grits well so I don’t have a comparison.
POR_Boatwright_ShrimpnGrits.jpg
My boys split the kids cheese pizza. They added pepperoni to it. It came with green beans but they didn’t eat it. My older son ate some of DH’s chicken and waffles too. No dessert. We headed back to the room to relax.

POR_Boatwright_kids_pizza.jpg

Next day we go to Universal Studios...
 
Glad you had a good meal at Raglan Road! One of my favs. The dancing & bands just put it right over the top. Haven't tried Boatwrights but if their cornbread is anything like that at Trails End Buffet, then it would be wonderful appy all by itself. :-)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top