Just returned - 10/23-10/29 - Complete!

[queenmum2]

Cast of Characters: Me - Tracie (39 forever); DH - Billy (42); DS - Tyler (9); DD - Sarah (6) - oh and of course, the DDP!

With 7 days/6 nights in the world, I have tons of reviews to share as well as my opinion (still forming) of the DDP.

First up, the first couple of days of CS restaurant meals: Backlot Express, Main Street Bakery, Pinocchio's Village Haus and Main Street Bakery (yes, again).

Rating scale: (icky) to (scrumptious)

First up, Backlot Express: This was our check-in day...we arrived at the WL early - around 9:00 am - to check in before our 10 am ressie at BOMA (I'll rate TS in another thread). Their computers were down, so they couldn't do anything about a room (which I was prepared for) but we were able to get keys to the world (as I wanted). We had an enormous breakfast at BOMA, so we didn't eat at MGM until dinnertime. I was aiming for the Flatbread Grill, but it closed early so Backlot it was. Now, it's a good thing I had read up on reviews beforehand and knew that GOOD CS existed -- because this was nothing like GOOD. DH had a burger & fries, I had chicken strips & fries and each kid had the chicken nuggets with carrots and grapes. Deserts were: Chocolate Cake or Strawberry parfait for the adults and sugar free jell-o (hereafter refered to as Nasty Gel Treat, or NGT for short) for the kids. We used 4 CS here.

DH's Burger was dry, not much flavor and toppings were a bit scant. Kids didn't have a problem with the chicken nuggets, but neither liked their "desert". Whoever thought sugar free "gel treats" were an exceptable substitute for desert should be fired. Especially since that is the only available kids desert at any CS we could find. Oh - and all of them are red (strawberry? cherry? couldn't tell ya). My chicken strips were the only bright spot in this dismal dinner. They were crisp and tasty. As mentioned, the kids didn't like the nasty gel treats, so I gave them my chocolate cake - I tasted it and it was a little too...um... mouth-filling/dense...for my taste.

Rating: -plus

Main Street Bakery - Again - the DIS came through. This place gets high marks and for good reason. The ONLY problem we had was decyphering the DDP as it applied to breakfast. We ended up using 3 CS and got: 2 ham, egg & cheese croissants, one PB&J "uncrustable" (DD was having a fit for it), 1 cherry turnover, 1 french toast loaf and after reaching the check-out and finding we "needed" one more item, 1 apple turnover. I had coffee, DH had OJ and the kids shared a chocolate milk (ugh! well, we're on vacation!). DS ended up being not very hungry, DD inhaled her uncrustable, leaving WAAAAY too much food for DH & Me. The kids did help with the pasteries. Everything was very tasty - we just had to toss some of it, though. Oh - and outside seating was very nice. Got to listen to the "trolly" bit as we ate.

Rating: (plus) (plus) out of

Pinocchio's Village Haus - Having learned our lesson at breakfast, we were wary of ordering too much food. I had planned on ordering two adult meals to split between the 4 of us, but both kids were clammoring for mac-n-cheese. So - using 3 CS - we ordered 1 Turkey Panini, 1 Italian sub and 1 kid's meal mac-n-cheese, which came with the ubitiquitous "nasty gel treat"...made nastier by the fact that it was partially frozen! Adult deserts were again "cake in a cup" - one chocolate and one...I don't remember, it MAY have been carrot cake. Somewhere we had carrot-cake in a cup and it was the most tolerable of the cup deserts. The kids ate up the mac-n-cheese (no surprise there) and shared the carrots and grapes. They passed on the NGT and shared the chocolate cake again. DH said his panini was OK - it was fairly large and had plenty of meat, but he didn't like whatever seeds were in the bread. My Italian Sub was fine - again, plenty of meat, but not much in the way of lettuce & tomato. The pepperoncini was good. The sandwich was served on a sub roll which promptly fell apart, making the sandwich tough to eat. The kids shared bites of our sandwiches and enjoyed them. All in all, it was a successful meal. Oh - and the kids enjoyed waving to the boats embarking on It's a SMall World.

Rating: (plus)


Main Street Bakery - we did this again the next morning. This time, we economized and used only 2 CS plus 1 snack (for a drink) to get: 2 Ham Egg & Cheese croissants, 1 cherry turnover and 1 chocolate chip muffin. This we all shared and had JUST the right amount of food. I had coffee, DH had OJ, I think, and the kids shared a water. We stalked for and got an outdoor table again.

Rating: (plus) (plus)

So for those keeping score, Main Street Bakery is the front-runner, followed by Pinocchio's and Backlot bringing up the rear....about 3/4 a lap back.

Next up: Cosmic Ray's


Tracie

 

[kaylie&laurensmom]

Great reviews so far! I wonder if they have changed or are enforcing the rules more since we came back (Oct 2) - we were able to get any dessert on the menu with the kid's CS meals at every place we ate. They never had to suffer through the "red gel"! They got chocolate cake, cheesecake, carrot cake, ice cream, etc. like everyone else.

 

[Buzzandthemermaid]

Thanks for your reviews. Enjoying them.

 

[angipoo]

More, More!!

Can't wait to read TS reviews too - please let us know on this thread about the TS one once you get it started

 

[Dani&TJsMom]

Enjoying your reviews! I'll be travelling to the World in two weeks with my dd8 and ds3. Neither of them like jello, and that's the regular sweetened kind! At any of the CS you ate at, did they offer something else? Did you try to substitute? I know you get a lot of food on the DP and that dessert really isn't necessary at a CS. Last year, we rarely even asked for dessert (dh and I); but my kids look forward to their dessert. I'll gladly give them mine, but they really just want a cookie or a scoop of ice cream -- jello is something you eat when you're home sick with a sore throat; not on a greatly anticipated trip to Disney! Oh well, I guess that's what the snack credits are for...until those can only be used for a piece of fruit!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reviews ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[queenmum2]

Enjoying your reviews! I'll be travelling to the World in two weeks with my dd8 and ds3. Neither of them like jello, and that's the regular sweetened kind! At any of the CS you ate at, did they offer something else? Did you try to substitute? I know you get a lot of food on the DP and that dessert really isn't necessary at a CS. Last year, we rarely even asked for dessert (dh and I); but my kids look forward to their dessert. I'll gladly give them mine, but they really just want a cookie or a scoop of ice cream -- jello is something you eat when you're home sick with a sore throat; not on a greatly anticipated trip to Disney! Oh well, I guess that's what the snack credits are for...until those can only be used for a piece of fruit!

We asked for something else at the Backlot and were told no. After that, we didn't even try. Seriously, we ordered kids meals only twice, so we got the NGT only twice. Each time, I just handed over my desert - it was plenty big enough for the two of them and DH shared his with me...if I wanted any.

The Tusker House MAY have offered something else if we had gotten kids meals...but I think the sign said sugar-free Jell-o. Tusker House had THE best deserts of any CS we encountered. REAL slices of cake -- or HUNKS of cake, really. Very tasty. I'll write more about TH later on as that was our next-to-last day.

Tracie

 

[queenmum2]

We lucked out here, as the lines weren't tooooooo long and there was seating to be had in the main room. DH & I both got "meteor meals" to split with the kids. I got carrots on mine and he got fries. The meteor meal is a bacon double-cheese burger with fries (or carrots). We split two large drinks (Coke for us, lemonade for them), getting an extra small cup to pour some of the lemonade into for DD.

You gotta love a toppings bar that includes sauteed mushrooms and onions! Since DH was splitting with DD, he could load up with mushrooms, and got his onions on the side. I had to get my mushrooms on the side since DS is not a fan. They were delicious -- just like I make at home to go with steak!

We all four ate and had enough. No NGT this time since we didn't have a kids meal. Once again, Chocolate cake-in-a-cup and I'm pretty sure this was the carrot cake-in-a-cup, which was good.

All told, we used 2 CS and were completely filled up (so much so that we couldn't do justice to our dinner at WCC later that night!)

Atmosphere was just fine...I had remembered from our last trip (2003) that the singing alien (Sony? Ray?) was very loud. However, this time, that wasn't the case. The noise level was fine.

Rating: (plus)

Tracie

 

[queenmum2]

Today was Day 2 of EPCOT. Having decided that Roaring Forks didn't have what we wanted for breakfast, we decided to head on to EPCOT and try Sunshine Seasons.

Once again, the counter service thing was confusing. And I'm not REALLY sure how many credits and of what sort we used. I'll try to tally them up and let you know.

We ended up with one adult breakfast platter (eggs, sausage links, bacon and potatoes), one ham/egg/cheese croissant for DS, one pastry and one chocolate chip muffin. I had coffee as usual and DH got juice again, I think. There - that should be 2 CS credits. Then I think we went back and got a drink for the kids for 1 Snack.

My platter was pretty good - not great. The meats were fine -- well, I handed over my sausage to one of the kids as I'm not a big fan of those links. The potatoes were good, but not very warm. The eggs were veeeeeerrry processed. They tasted OK but were an odd consistancy. DS enjoyed his croissant and the pastries were pronounced "yummy".

Rating: (plus)

Next up - Electric Umbrella...

 

[TigerKat]

Love reading your reviews - keep em coming!!

 

[fws]

Agree with you about Cosmic Ray's - the food was great - in fact the only restaurant we returned to in 10 days. The veggie sandwich was the best all holiday and DS really rated the chocolate cake.

 

[lpbm4]

I love how you're splitting your meals. Thanks for posting!

 

[queenmum2]

Really, just about on-par with Cosmic Ray's. The ONLY "minus" is the lack of exotic toppings on the bar.

DH & I both got double cheese burgers (I forgot to mention that at Cosmic Ray's, DH commented that he could have done without the bacon) and split with the kids as we did at Cosmic Ray's. I THINK we both got fries this time around. The desert selection this time was strawberry cheesecake or cookies. I am allergic to strawberries so I got the cookies while DH got the cheesecake. Come to find out, the strawberry sauce is served separately, so I could have had this. By the time we had eaten our burger halves and fries, nobody had much room for desert anyway. I tasted the cheesecake - it tasted pretty good, but had a really thick consistency. The cookies were two to a package - decent sized and soft-baked. Not bad. I am not a big fan of packaged chocolate chip cookies --- much prefer home baked. But it was a nice sweet ending to the meal. 2 CS meals.

Rating:

Tracie

 

[queenmum2]

On this day at EPCOT, we had eaten breakfast at Sunshine Seasons and lunch at the Electric Umbrella. We were really hoofin it to get around the world showcase so the kids could finish up their masks. Dinnertime came around and we were in Germany. I could not see my kids getting excited about brats and kraut, and I was not particularly hungry for dinner. DH, however, WAS excited about brats and kraut having lived in Germany for a time when he was a kid. We ate here in 2003 and he really enjoyed it.

So - he got his brat and a beer, paid OOP for the whole thing. DD and I were craving a pretzel, so I got that and a water for 2 snack credits. Both kids tasted the brat & kraut and liked it. DS really got into it (made his Dad proud!). I tasted the kraut, too and liked it. Now, I normally don't like saurkraut, but this was milder than other krauts I've tried.

DH liked his meal, but wasn't bowled over. The bratwurst came on way too much bread...that was his main complaint.

The pretzel (which I had to retrieve from the cart outside of the restaurant because the restaurant was out) was good. I like them to be a little warmer, but it was good. The kids dove right in and we ate the whole thing up.

Rating: (plus)

Tracie

 

[ont/ohana]

Great review so far. Thanks for posting on the CS's.

 

[jillyjoey]

I'm loving your reviews too. Love how you are posting breakfast ideas-- that would have never occurred to me.

 

[Flossbolna]

thanks for the reviews! I think we need to have a breakfast at the Main Street Bakery, sounds great that you get two pastries for one CS, ideal for sharing!

 

[queenmum2]

Saturday was Animal Kingdom day for us. It was a gorgeous day - though it had rained in the early morning so we got some drips from overhanging trees. But the sun came out (and dried up the landy landy... ) and the temperature was PERFECT!

We came in hungry and headed back to Africa for Safari FP and to have some breakfast at Kusafiri. I didn't realize until I got there that Kusafiri is attached to Tusker House. The sign at Kusafiri directed us to order inside TH and we did. The counter is inside TH, but it is not where you order lunch - over to the side. The pastries looked WONDERFUL! There was a cinnamon bun just about as big as my head! - small exaggeration, but it was huge! We used snack credits this time (I *think* -- again, I didn't keep the receipt so I'm going by memory) (edited: now that I think about it, I think we used one CS and 2 snacks). We purchased the cinnamon bun, an apple danish and a blueberry muffin. I had a cappuccino and the others had water. All were tender and delicious. The cinnamon bun was the stand-out for me, but I LOVE cinnamon buns.

Rating at breakfast: (plus) (plus)

For lunch, I already knew that TH was the place I wanted to go. While I've also heard GREAT things about Flame Tree, we were going to the HDDR for dinner so I knew we'd have BBQ ribs there. Unfortunately, we had to walk clear across the park back to Africa for lunch.

It was not crowded here - just had to wait behind about 3 other people to order. Again, we split two adult meals among the 4 of us -- this was a great strategy for not overeating! DH thought the turkey wrap looked good and I was all set for the Rotisserie chicken (DD was clammoring for a chicken leg and DS helped DH settle in on the turkey wrap -- so they were "choosing up sides" already). We got one chocolate cake and one carrot cake for desert. Again, DH & I split a large coke and the kids split a large lemonade.

When I got to the table with the food, DH was dissapointed that his wrap was a 1/2 wrap. The menu does not describe it as such - but it came with a side of corn chowder and a cucumber/tomato salad so it WAS a full plate. My chicken (1/2 of a chicken) came with garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies, which turned out to be greenbeans with some carrots and a mushroom or two. My lunch was the clear winner. I handed over the drumstick to DD and shared the rest of my chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans with DS. The chicken was moist and flavorful. Some have complained that it is greasy...well, yes, there was some grease -- but it was worth it for the tenderness of the chicken. The white meat was not the least bit dry. The green beans were just the way I like them - crisp/tender and seasoned with garlic, I think. The potatoes were yummy, too.

DH's wrap was nothing special, but the corn chowder was a standout. The salad that came with it was just cucumbers and tomatoes in a light dressing - maybe buttermilk, but it was not ranch...it was very different - was also highly regarded by DH and DS. It was not my favorite, but to me it was ok.

OK - here is where TH REALLY made the grade -- dessert! No cake-cups here...no pre-packaged cookies...REAL cake. With layers! And icing! And decorations! The chocolate cake - I don't think DH or I had much of this as it was demolished by the kids - had halloween sprinkles on it. It looked delicious. The carrot cake had a yummy cream-cheese icing and a carrot piped onto the top. And these weren't puny slices of cake -- no, they were HUNKS.

Tusker House lives up to the sign outside ("Good Food") and all the great reviews I've read on it.

Rating: (I might have bumped this up a little, considering the turkey wrap was just "ok" - but those desserts were YUMMY!)

Tracie

 

[mamamary]

Thanks for the reviews. We leave tomorrow and plan on hitting some of the same places to eat.

 

[queenmum2]

Thanks for the reviews. We leave tomorrow and plan on hitting some of the same places to eat.

We had a GREAT time -- I hope you do too.

Tracie