IMDORY
"Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2006
We just returned from our trip to WL for the holidays-we had a wonderful time! This is my first ever dining review post...
We ate at:
CS:
MK: Columbia Harbor House
DTD: Earl of Sandwich
MK: Pinnochio's Village Haus
MGM: Backlot Express
WL: Roaring Forks
TS:
Whispering Canyon(Breakfast, Dinner)
Boma (Breakfast)
'Ohanna (Dinner)
Hollywood & Vine (Breakfast)
Cape May Cafe (Dinner)
Le Cellier (Dinner)
Concourse Steakhouse (Diner)
Artist Point (Dinner)
Coral Reef (Dinner)
The Garden Grill (Lunch)
Kona Cafe (Breakfast)
Best Breakfast-Boma
Best CS Meal-Tie-Columbia Harbor House MK/Earl of Sandwich
Best TS signature-Artist Point well, it was our only signature TS
Best Lunch-The Garden Grill
Best TS Dinner-Le Cellier
Biggest Disappointment-Coral Reef
We did not do the DDP.
First, our overall observations:
We never waited more than 5 minutes with ADR's-even as busy as it was. That was really nice.
One exception-probably a 20 minute wait for Coral Reef.
Here comes my "editorial" of the DDP-it seems that the DDP had really changed the menus. Our last trip was litterally days before the DDP began..so we had the last of the pre-DDP menus. It seems like the buffets/all you can eat places now have a lot of "cheesy" filler items to make it look like a lot of food(chips and stir fry veggies at 'Ohanna, teeny tiny clams at Cape May..etc.) The TS restaurants also were different than our last trip, same basic choices everywhere we went... for the first half of the trip it didn't bother us too much, by the end of the trip it was really annoying. A chicken, strip steak, prime rib, shrimp pasta dish, and a fish choice. blah, blah, blah.
A great deal I guess if you are doing DDP-but crummy for OOP people. The signature restaurants did have better choices. Also, the wait staff at the buffet/all you can eat restaurants weren't very eager to give us great service, I assume that was b/c most people were on DDP and the staff were assured an 18% tip automatically no matter how poor the service was. 
We did have better wait staff service at the TS restaurants. We've vowed next time to simply eat at the "Signature" restaurants a few times to actually get better meals, do CS more, and very few regular TS meals.
Kids meals-YUCK. Same stuff at every restaurant with a few exceptions. And when there was something different it was like salmon or mahi mahi-certainly not anything my picky 5 year old would order. He ordered mac n cheese everytime with the exception of steak one night. CS seemed even worse-one night he wanted chicken strips, so I had to order the adult version at the adult price, which he ate 1 strip and no fries. It's a good thing he's not a big eater-b/c there wasn't much that he would want anyway. As far as breakfast goes-no problem-that is generally where he got his "fuel" for the day I think.
Ok, on to the reviews!
Day #1:
Lunch:
MK-Columbia Harbor House-probably best CS food I had on the trip (we didn't do any CS in EPCOT WS-that would have been better) I had the 1/2 Lighthouse sandwich and clam chowder soup. All really good-better than I thought for CS. DH had fish & chip-he liked them. DS (5) had mac n cheese
Dinner:
Earl of Sandwich(me)I had to do some Christmas Shopping in DTD-This sandwich was sooo good. I had the "American" Turkey, cranberry, cheddar cheese-everything about it was so good!
WL Room Servicegrilled cheese and fries-they split it-DS raved about it all week-I think it was the thrill of getting room service
Day #2:
Breakfast:
Whispering Canyon Cafe-We didn't have an ADR, got in w/no problem. I got the french toast with the cinnamon topping(yummy)DS-pancakes, DH-pancakes. All was really good, and we did enjoy some "antics" by the wait staff. The server put all 3 of our plates in front of DS and made a big deal about what a pig he was-he really got a kick out of that!
"Lunch":
Pool drinks 
We really can only eat 2 main meals a day...and we were lucky if DS even ate 1 (even when we ordered him food)
soooo, I told DH to get something he'd think I'd like-and he sure did: a mango passion fruit cosmo-really good! DH had a beer.
Dinner:
'Ohanna-We were so excited to eat here-it was one of our favorites 2 years ago...we were disappointed big time!
We checked in and went to the bar. I saw the new lounge menu that people have been talking about...saw a few things that looked ok..I got a "French Cosmo" featured at Disney Paris-yuck! It tasted like pure gasoline! 
It sounded good when I ordered it: Grey Goose vodka, pineapple juice, chambord-not good! DH got a beer. We were paged within 5 minutes- 2 years ago we waited about an hour w/an ADR-so we were a bit surprised-in a good way. We were seated and given salad, chips and sauces. It was ok. Missed the "appetizers" from the old menu. After that, bbq wings, stir fry veggies, and peel and eat shrimp came along. I only ate the shrimp-really liked it-a pain to peel it, but good. DS did the hula dance, and we still waited, and waited for the meats! We were there a really long time and so I finally flagged down our server to get us the meats, which they brought out a tiny bit at a time-not like our last trip-it seemed like last time the meats were constantly coming to our table-more than we needed even-not this time-we needed to flag down someone everytime to get more meat. Trust me-we weren't totally pigging out either-they gave us a little each time and we had to specifically request which meats we wanted. We never got the sausage at all b/c we had a hard enough time getting the beef and turkey. The meat was ok, kinda dried out. I mostly ate the peel and eat shrimp. I missed the grilled shrimp from last trip. I flagged our waitress down to order another drink(I couldn't even finish the first one it was so gross) This time I went with the safer choice of a Bahama Mamma. Waited for like forever for it to come out-in fact, I flagged down our waitress at one point to ask about it, after another lengthy wait, it finally arrived. It was ok, VERY sugary-as if sugar had been added. Don't get me wrong-I have a massive sweet tooth-I'm a sugar over salty snacks person for sure. Oh well, not the exciting drink night like I had enticipated. The highlights would be the entertainment for our DS-he had a lot of fun-and we enjoyed watching him. We paid full price for his "kid's meal" he ate nothing-just drank some chocolate milk-so we figured we paid for his "entertainment" The best part of the whole meal was the dessert-SO GOOD! Bananas foster bread pudding w/homemade vanilla bean ice cream-one of the 2 best desserts on the trip.
Day #3:Christmas Eve
Breakfast:
Playhouse Disney Play 'n Dine @ Hollywood and Vine-We really liked this breakfast. Standard food-mickey waffles, scrambled eggs, pastries, all good. The entertainment was great! JoJo & Goliath, Leo & June..LOTS of character interaction-they were out the whole time, they danced w/the kids, JoJo tickled my son-all our favorite Playhouse Disney songs in the background...we had a good time and the food was good, wait staff very attentive, and asked to make sure that we had a chance to see all of the characters.
Dinner:
Cape May Cafe-Disappointment #2 of our trip. We had been here 10 years ago on our honeymoon and it was one of our favorite nights-that is why we chose it for our Christmas Eve dinner- this time, not so good. We got right in within 5 minutes of our ADR-that was about the best part-well, that and the paper table cloths and crayons for DS-another night that we paid for the "entertainment" again, we paid the child's price for the buffet, and all he had was chocolate milk...I don't know where this kid is getting his energy from!
DH was totally excited to dig into the clams-big disappointment-teeny tiny clams-like 1/2 the size of regular clams-and a long, slow moving line to get them. It looked like they added a bunch of portable tables and chairs to cram in more people. The restaurant was difficult to get around in and very noisy. I started with clam chowder-no soup spoons, had to use a teaspoon-not the end of the world, but...the clam chowder at MK Columbia Harbor House was by far much better. You would think it would be great here. I had some roast beef-nothing special, a small piece of salmon-really strong tasting(and I like salmon) mashed potatoes, ceasar salad(it was good)and the desserts. I liked the little key lime pie tarts the best. Everyone always talks about how great the Oreo Bon Bons are, but I didn't care for them-tooo sweet for me. Even my son who loves Oreoes didn't want one. The only one I really didn't like was the flan-yuck. I didn't try the brownies or cookies, b/c they just looked like ordinary fare to me-nothing special. DH had many servings of clams, roast beef, salad, and the cheesecake tartlet for dessert. Our server was not so great, again, we had to flag her down for the bill etc. We waited on her a lot that night. It was early in the trip and it was Christmas Eve, so I just let it go.
Nightcap:
Territory Lounge WL-We stopped into the lounge to get champage glasses for our Christmas morning mimosa tradition, and got 2 glasses of Bailey's on the rocks to bring up to our room and drink on the balcony while we waited for Santa to come. Beautiful balmy night on Christmas Eve.
Day #4:Christmas Day
Breakfast:
WL Room Service-DS got pinecone shaped waffles and bacon-he really liked them and wanted more! DH and I shared a bottle of Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee and OJ for mimosas over the course of the morning while we all opened the presents Santa left for us. Really nice champage. We got it for $28 at the WL store the night before rather than the $55 I think it was to order it through room service. We did order the continental breakfast to share-a basket of big: croissant, cheese danish, pecan sticky danish, cranberry juice and a big pot of our "favorite"
Nescafe coffee. Ugh. Next time I need to remember to bring our own coffee and filters!
Pre-Dinner Drinks:
We walked around World Showcase and DH & I shared some beers: Dos Equis, Becks, Harp. In France we each had a Christmas Kir-Mumm Champage and pomegrante liquor-very good!
Dinner:
Le Cellier-I booked our trip in late August, so I didn't get a chance to get ADR's 180 days out-BUT I did snag a Le Cellier for Christmas Day dinner at 8:50 pm...kinda late for us, but by day #4 we were adjusted to our Disney schedule-7:30am wake up-do something for a few hours, Pool until 2pm, nap 2-5pm, park/dinner until 11:30ish. Easier to deal with the crowds and not feel exhaused we find by keeping this type of a schedule. So, 9pm wasn't too bad to sit for dinner-our other dinners were around 7pm. We were seated within 2 minutes, we had a wonderful server, great meal-restored our faith in Disney dining after a few not so stellar meals. I had the smoked salmon timbale(REALLY good!)pork tenderloin w/sweet potato-again, really good. I couldn't decide which Chardonnay to get-no problem-our server brought both of them out and poured a tasting for me to decide! I can't remember the one I picked-not the Mission Hill, the other one-but they were both good. DH got the shrimp cocktail, it was ok-had a little wasabi kick to it-and the prime rib. He said the prime rib was really good, however, I thought the cut was a thin cut for prime rib. He also got a Labbatt's-I think the only place in all of Disney you can get a Labbatt's. DS got the steak and carrots for an appetizer. He actually ate 1/2 the carrots, tried one stalk of celery, and 1/2 the steak(it was good and tender-big piece too for a child's size ) We all skipped dessert-too full, too late-just after 10pm. Good meal, quiet, peaceful the restaurant was 1/2 empty by this point, cozy. Nice Christmas dinner.
Day #5:
Breakfast:
Boma-I called at 8:15am and got a 9:15 ADR for Boma at the last minute. With all of the bus waiting we had to do, we were 15 minutes late, but no problem, got in after about 5 minutes. The restaurant was full. Really good breakfast-Probably the best breakfast of the trip food wise. Lots of choices-some more "wild" than others. First, the special juice-wow! Loved it-I'd come back just for that. We did order coffee. It wasn't bad-is it the Nescafe there too? DS got lots of waffles, some bacon, scrambled eggs,and little cinnamon rolls. DH got got pretty much the same. I am the daring one. I tried some egg/corned beef thing w/an African name-didn't care for it. Kinwoa-is that how it is spelled? I really liked that-it is the worlds best protien grain or something like that. I also had: a waffle, sausage, sampling of the pastries/bread-great banana bread! The baked goods were really superior to other breakfast buffets. I also sampled the smoked salmon spread for the bagels-very good too. There was much more offered-meat carving stations(ham,pork) more African dishes, oatmeal, cereals, yogurt, lots of fruit...too much to ever try it all in one sitting. Really good breakfast.
Dinner:
Whispering Canyon Cafe-We almost cancelled this ADR b/c we weren't sure if the menu was what we really wanted and we weren't really up for our server yelling at us tonight...but DS wanted to keep it, so we did. It turned out to be a good decision. We were seated in the "fireplace room" looking out on the huge WL Christmas tree. We could hear the beautiful WL Christmas music in the background. Our server didn't get too crazy with us-we were fine with that. My son did do the pony race and one of the highlights of his trip was getting the wooden nickel! Which is good, b/c yet again-he had like a piece of cornbread, 2 bites of mac n cheese and a glass of chocolate milk!!! DH got the strip steak-loved it. I really just wanted the chicken and a salad, but it was more cost effective to get the skillet w/those items on it. I tried a little bit of everything on the skillet except the sausage(it was very overcooked looking) everything I tried was very moist and good. The chicken was my favorite-very good. The cornbread was really good too. No dessert-too full. Good meal.
Day #6:
Breakfast:
In Room-Oatmeal to go bars and apple juice boxes
Lunch:
CS-Backlot Express-DH-Chicken Strips & Fries, Me-Grilled turkey sandwich & fries(ok, that's it, way too greasy)DS-not hungry-glass of ice water- again-I don't know where this kid gets his energy from!
Mid-Day drink:
Some Bar by the exit to the Backlot Tour-Me-180 degree margarita-good-DH Beer-bar server a miserable man-not very Disney-like!
Dinner:
Concourse Steakhouse-Seated in like 3 minutes, Didn't order a drink b/c I was getting sick of the same old lounge drink menu everywhere you go. I just got a Coke. I loved the lobster bisque so much 2 years ago, so I ordered it and so did DH...not as good as I remembered. VERY salty. DH got prime rib-done just how he requested-and a cut double the size of the piece he had at Le Cellier. He said it was VERY good. I got the filet mignon-ordered medium rare-it came rare-very rare and cold. I just ate it-returning meat to the kitchen is not something I like to do. We each got mashed potatoes. And that was it...not even a sprig of broccoli or something. Just meat and potatoes. Kind of plain. It was fun to watch the monorails go by. Our waitress was ok/good. DS got the usual: Chocolate milk and mac n cheese. How much mac n cheese & chocolate milk can one kid order in a trip???? He certainly didn't eat more than 2 bites of this mac n cheese b/c it came sprinkled with grated cheese on top-way too groovy for my picky 5 year old. No desserts-we just didn't see anything that looked interesting.
Day #7:
Breakfast:
Coffee to go from Roaring Forks-yuck, I forgot-Nescafe! I threw 1/2 of mine down the sink it was so nasty. Breakfast to go oatmeal bars and apple juice boxes in our room.
Lunch:
The Garden Grill11:30am ADR-seated in like 3 minutes-this is amazing! This was one of our best meals. DH & I both got a Corona. The food was really good. Served family style: flank steak, turkey w/cranberries, fried catfish, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, really yummy carrots and snap peas, homemade rolls and biscuits w/orange honey butter. All was so good! Dessert: vanilla bread pudding-ok, not the greatest. DS-make your own cupcake-he loved doing this-whipped frosting, m & m's (disney version) and Mickey shaped sprinkles. He of course, had 4 bites of flank steak, 1/2 a roll, and chocolate milk. DH & I had everything that came out-all great. We had a really nice seat on the lower level so DS could see easily, great character interaction, and right at our table-relaxing and fun. Mickey even tried to get DS to eat something!
Dinner:
Artist Point(DH & I) Cub's Den (DS)-DS had a blast at the Cub's Den-he didn't want to leave when we came to pick him up! He had chicken strips & fries (didn't eat fries) chocolate milk, and they gave him a Mickey Head rice krispy treat to go.
Our dinner-1st Territory Lounge-I asked the server if there was anything different or special to the WL b/c I was pretty much sick of the standard lounge drink menu. She asked me what I like-I said vodka drinks, she started pouring me a Lodge Fizz-I really liked it! Basically a Shirley Temple w/vodka and triple sec. Yum. DH had the Heiwerwisen(spelling??) he liked it too. We enjoyed a couple of drinks and then checked in with the Artist Point-we were seated right away. It was 8pm and the restaurant was full. We had a wonderful meal. We both did the 3 course wine flight, I got the portabello mushroom soup-very good, DH-mixed field greens-he said it was good, I got the cedar plank King Salmon-really, really, good-huge piece-I couldn't finish it! DH-Buffalo sirloin-he said it was his favorite of the trip. Tender, moist, done to perfection. I had the cobbler for dessert-good. DH got the coffee two ways-creme brulee mocha style and bread pudding mocha style-he loved the bread pudding-the creme brulee was too rich for him-he had a few bites of it. I tried both and agreed. My wine flight was a Chardonnay, a Pino Noir, and a dessert Gurwerstraminer(sp?) all good. DH got a white?, a cabernet?, a dessert zinfendel that was port like.
After dinner: DH-Beer, Me-WL coffee (Baileys, Kaluha, chocolate, & coffee) we took them to the beach to watch the electric light parade.
Day #8:
Breakfast:
In Room-Oatmeal to go & apple juice boxes
Lunch:
Roaring Forks-DH & DS got chicken tenders & fries, I got the turkey/brie sandwich-good-but BIG!
Dinner:
CS: Pinnochio's Village HausMe: Veggie Pizza-ok/yuck. DH: Cheese pizza: ok. DS-Adult menu chicken strips & fries-ate one strip and no fries. He didn't want mac n' cheese again. We ordered him a chocolate milk assuming he'd get a kid's size-no-she rang up a huge bottle of chocolate milk. Oh well, I drank 1/2 of it.
Day #9:
Breakfast:
In room-DS-Oatmeal to go & apple juice drink boxes
Kona Cafe-DS went on the Pirate Cruise out of the Grand Floridian Marina. DH & I had a 10am ADR for Kona. I ordered Tonga Toast-ugh. Way too much-food, sugar, fried grease...I wouldn't order it again-it was more than a dessert let alone breakfast! The sausage I had was really good! Oh-and the Kona Coffee-thank the Lord for Kona Coffee-I've wanted a good cup of coffee for days!!! It was soooo good!
DH got regular french toast-said it was good-and the coffee also. Our server was very good, she even offered to get us to go cups to take the coffee with us-boy she got a good tip from us!!!
Lunch:
DS: Pirate Cruise-pb&j uncrustable & goldfish. He said he ate them.
Snack:
MK popcorn
Dinner:
Coral Reef-we waited the longest for this restaurant (20 minutes-not too bad!) We walked in-cool atmosphere-the tanks of fish and the cool mosaic tiles all around. A diver just unrolled a "will you marry me?" sign and we witnessed a couple get engaged...all fun. Then came the menu...appetizers looked good, regular menu-blah. The only thing that looked good to me was the Ahi Tuna-but I just wasn't in the mood for tuna that night. I decided to start with the seafood chowder-it was really good, and I got 2 appetizers instead of an entree. I got the crab claws and the lobster soufflee. Crab claws good. Soufflee-YUCK! It was so "fishy" and there was some spice in it that tasted so gross to me. I finished about 1/2 of it and then thought-why am I eating this-it is gross. DH got the Shrimp pasta-yuck. It was shrimp over Thai like noodles-but not even good ones-I love Thai food. There was all sorts of celery spice in it-it was really gross. DS got-you guessed it-mac n cheese and chocolate milk-and you guessed it-he ate like 2 bites of the mac n cheese and then proclaimed it to be "too cheesy" I don't know why we let him order anything this trip, everytime he swore up and down how hungry he was and how he was really going to eat this...yeah, right. I had heard the desserts were very good, so I tried to salvage the meal by ordering one. I got the chocolate wave-it was really good-DH & I shared it. I also got coffee. WHY??? I keep forgetting it is that nasty Nescafe stuff!
I drank about 1/2 of a cup. DS got a make your own sundae-he ate that! Well, at least he ate something. We were really disappointed with this restaurant. We thought that this place would have great seafood offerings...no-tuna, salmon, and shrimp pasta. very disappointing. In fact within the next 45 minutes I was not feeling well and was kinda sick for the next 12 hours. 
Day #10:Our last morning at WL
We had to leave on ME at 12:05pm so, we just had oatmeal bars in the room and juice.
That's it-we had a great time-and overall the food was really good, with a few exceptions. The best part was me not cooking for 10 days!!!
We ate at:
CS:
MK: Columbia Harbor House
DTD: Earl of Sandwich
MK: Pinnochio's Village Haus
MGM: Backlot Express
WL: Roaring Forks
TS:
Whispering Canyon(Breakfast, Dinner)
Boma (Breakfast)
'Ohanna (Dinner)
Hollywood & Vine (Breakfast)
Cape May Cafe (Dinner)
Le Cellier (Dinner)
Concourse Steakhouse (Diner)
Artist Point (Dinner)
Coral Reef (Dinner)
The Garden Grill (Lunch)
Kona Cafe (Breakfast)
Best Breakfast-Boma
Best CS Meal-Tie-Columbia Harbor House MK/Earl of Sandwich
Best TS signature-Artist Point well, it was our only signature TS
Best Lunch-The Garden Grill
Best TS Dinner-Le Cellier
Biggest Disappointment-Coral Reef
We did not do the DDP.
First, our overall observations:
We never waited more than 5 minutes with ADR's-even as busy as it was. That was really nice.
One exception-probably a 20 minute wait for Coral Reef. Here comes my "editorial" of the DDP-it seems that the DDP had really changed the menus. Our last trip was litterally days before the DDP began..so we had the last of the pre-DDP menus. It seems like the buffets/all you can eat places now have a lot of "cheesy" filler items to make it look like a lot of food(chips and stir fry veggies at 'Ohanna, teeny tiny clams at Cape May..etc.) The TS restaurants also were different than our last trip, same basic choices everywhere we went... for the first half of the trip it didn't bother us too much, by the end of the trip it was really annoying. A chicken, strip steak, prime rib, shrimp pasta dish, and a fish choice. blah, blah, blah.
A great deal I guess if you are doing DDP-but crummy for OOP people. The signature restaurants did have better choices. Also, the wait staff at the buffet/all you can eat restaurants weren't very eager to give us great service, I assume that was b/c most people were on DDP and the staff were assured an 18% tip automatically no matter how poor the service was. We did have better wait staff service at the TS restaurants. We've vowed next time to simply eat at the "Signature" restaurants a few times to actually get better meals, do CS more, and very few regular TS meals. Kids meals-YUCK. Same stuff at every restaurant with a few exceptions. And when there was something different it was like salmon or mahi mahi-certainly not anything my picky 5 year old would order. He ordered mac n cheese everytime with the exception of steak one night. CS seemed even worse-one night he wanted chicken strips, so I had to order the adult version at the adult price, which he ate 1 strip and no fries. It's a good thing he's not a big eater-b/c there wasn't much that he would want anyway. As far as breakfast goes-no problem-that is generally where he got his "fuel" for the day I think.
Ok, on to the reviews!
Day #1:
Lunch:
MK-Columbia Harbor House-probably best CS food I had on the trip (we didn't do any CS in EPCOT WS-that would have been better) I had the 1/2 Lighthouse sandwich and clam chowder soup. All really good-better than I thought for CS. DH had fish & chip-he liked them. DS (5) had mac n cheese
Dinner:
Earl of Sandwich(me)I had to do some Christmas Shopping in DTD-This sandwich was sooo good. I had the "American" Turkey, cranberry, cheddar cheese-everything about it was so good!
WL Room Servicegrilled cheese and fries-they split it-DS raved about it all week-I think it was the thrill of getting room service
Day #2:
Breakfast:
Whispering Canyon Cafe-We didn't have an ADR, got in w/no problem. I got the french toast with the cinnamon topping(yummy)DS-pancakes, DH-pancakes. All was really good, and we did enjoy some "antics" by the wait staff. The server put all 3 of our plates in front of DS and made a big deal about what a pig he was-he really got a kick out of that!
"Lunch":
Pool drinks We really can only eat 2 main meals a day...and we were lucky if DS even ate 1 (even when we ordered him food)soooo, I told DH to get something he'd think I'd like-and he sure did: a mango passion fruit cosmo-really good! DH had a beer.
Dinner:
'Ohanna-We were so excited to eat here-it was one of our favorites 2 years ago...we were disappointed big time!
We checked in and went to the bar. I saw the new lounge menu that people have been talking about...saw a few things that looked ok..I got a "French Cosmo" featured at Disney Paris-yuck! It tasted like pure gasoline! It sounded good when I ordered it: Grey Goose vodka, pineapple juice, chambord-not good! DH got a beer. We were paged within 5 minutes- 2 years ago we waited about an hour w/an ADR-so we were a bit surprised-in a good way. We were seated and given salad, chips and sauces. It was ok. Missed the "appetizers" from the old menu. After that, bbq wings, stir fry veggies, and peel and eat shrimp came along. I only ate the shrimp-really liked it-a pain to peel it, but good. DS did the hula dance, and we still waited, and waited for the meats! We were there a really long time and so I finally flagged down our server to get us the meats, which they brought out a tiny bit at a time-not like our last trip-it seemed like last time the meats were constantly coming to our table-more than we needed even-not this time-we needed to flag down someone everytime to get more meat. Trust me-we weren't totally pigging out either-they gave us a little each time and we had to specifically request which meats we wanted. We never got the sausage at all b/c we had a hard enough time getting the beef and turkey. The meat was ok, kinda dried out. I mostly ate the peel and eat shrimp. I missed the grilled shrimp from last trip. I flagged our waitress down to order another drink(I couldn't even finish the first one it was so gross) This time I went with the safer choice of a Bahama Mamma. Waited for like forever for it to come out-in fact, I flagged down our waitress at one point to ask about it, after another lengthy wait, it finally arrived. It was ok, VERY sugary-as if sugar had been added. Don't get me wrong-I have a massive sweet tooth-I'm a sugar over salty snacks person for sure. Oh well, not the exciting drink night like I had enticipated. The highlights would be the entertainment for our DS-he had a lot of fun-and we enjoyed watching him. We paid full price for his "kid's meal" he ate nothing-just drank some chocolate milk-so we figured we paid for his "entertainment" The best part of the whole meal was the dessert-SO GOOD! Bananas foster bread pudding w/homemade vanilla bean ice cream-one of the 2 best desserts on the trip.Day #3:Christmas Eve
Breakfast:
Playhouse Disney Play 'n Dine @ Hollywood and Vine-We really liked this breakfast. Standard food-mickey waffles, scrambled eggs, pastries, all good. The entertainment was great! JoJo & Goliath, Leo & June..LOTS of character interaction-they were out the whole time, they danced w/the kids, JoJo tickled my son-all our favorite Playhouse Disney songs in the background...we had a good time and the food was good, wait staff very attentive, and asked to make sure that we had a chance to see all of the characters.
Dinner:
Cape May Cafe-Disappointment #2 of our trip. We had been here 10 years ago on our honeymoon and it was one of our favorite nights-that is why we chose it for our Christmas Eve dinner- this time, not so good. We got right in within 5 minutes of our ADR-that was about the best part-well, that and the paper table cloths and crayons for DS-another night that we paid for the "entertainment" again, we paid the child's price for the buffet, and all he had was chocolate milk...I don't know where this kid is getting his energy from!
DH was totally excited to dig into the clams-big disappointment-teeny tiny clams-like 1/2 the size of regular clams-and a long, slow moving line to get them. It looked like they added a bunch of portable tables and chairs to cram in more people. The restaurant was difficult to get around in and very noisy. I started with clam chowder-no soup spoons, had to use a teaspoon-not the end of the world, but...the clam chowder at MK Columbia Harbor House was by far much better. You would think it would be great here. I had some roast beef-nothing special, a small piece of salmon-really strong tasting(and I like salmon) mashed potatoes, ceasar salad(it was good)and the desserts. I liked the little key lime pie tarts the best. Everyone always talks about how great the Oreo Bon Bons are, but I didn't care for them-tooo sweet for me. Even my son who loves Oreoes didn't want one. The only one I really didn't like was the flan-yuck. I didn't try the brownies or cookies, b/c they just looked like ordinary fare to me-nothing special. DH had many servings of clams, roast beef, salad, and the cheesecake tartlet for dessert. Our server was not so great, again, we had to flag her down for the bill etc. We waited on her a lot that night. It was early in the trip and it was Christmas Eve, so I just let it go. Nightcap:
Territory Lounge WL-We stopped into the lounge to get champage glasses for our Christmas morning mimosa tradition, and got 2 glasses of Bailey's on the rocks to bring up to our room and drink on the balcony while we waited for Santa to come.
Beautiful balmy night on Christmas Eve.Day #4:Christmas Day
Breakfast:
WL Room Service-DS got pinecone shaped waffles and bacon-he really liked them and wanted more!
DH and I shared a bottle of Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee and OJ for mimosas over the course of the morning while we all opened the presents Santa left for us. Really nice champage. We got it for $28 at the WL store the night before rather than the $55 I think it was to order it through room service. We did order the continental breakfast to share-a basket of big: croissant, cheese danish, pecan sticky danish, cranberry juice and a big pot of our "favorite" Nescafe coffee. Ugh. Next time I need to remember to bring our own coffee and filters!Pre-Dinner Drinks:
We walked around World Showcase and DH & I shared some beers: Dos Equis, Becks, Harp. In France we each had a Christmas Kir-Mumm Champage and pomegrante liquor-very good!
Dinner:
Le Cellier-I booked our trip in late August, so I didn't get a chance to get ADR's 180 days out-BUT I did snag a Le Cellier for Christmas Day dinner at 8:50 pm...kinda late for us, but by day #4 we were adjusted to our Disney schedule-7:30am wake up-do something for a few hours, Pool until 2pm, nap 2-5pm, park/dinner until 11:30ish. Easier to deal with the crowds and not feel exhaused we find by keeping this type of a schedule. So, 9pm wasn't too bad to sit for dinner-our other dinners were around 7pm. We were seated within 2 minutes, we had a wonderful server, great meal-restored our faith in Disney dining after a few not so stellar meals. I had the smoked salmon timbale(REALLY good!)pork tenderloin w/sweet potato-again, really good. I couldn't decide which Chardonnay to get-no problem-our server brought both of them out and poured a tasting for me to decide! I can't remember the one I picked-not the Mission Hill, the other one-but they were both good. DH got the shrimp cocktail, it was ok-had a little wasabi kick to it-and the prime rib. He said the prime rib was really good, however, I thought the cut was a thin cut for prime rib. He also got a Labbatt's-I think the only place in all of Disney you can get a Labbatt's. DS got the steak and carrots for an appetizer. He actually ate 1/2 the carrots, tried one stalk of celery, and 1/2 the steak(it was good and tender-big piece too for a child's size
) We all skipped dessert-too full, too late-just after 10pm. Good meal, quiet, peaceful the restaurant was 1/2 empty by this point, cozy. Nice Christmas dinner. Day #5:
Breakfast:
Boma-I called at 8:15am and got a 9:15 ADR for Boma at the last minute. With all of the bus waiting we had to do, we were 15 minutes late, but no problem, got in after about 5 minutes. The restaurant was full. Really good breakfast-Probably the best breakfast of the trip food wise. Lots of choices-some more "wild" than others. First, the special juice-wow! Loved it-I'd come back just for that. We did order coffee. It wasn't bad-is it the Nescafe there too? DS got lots of waffles, some bacon, scrambled eggs,and little cinnamon rolls. DH got got pretty much the same. I am the daring one. I tried some egg/corned beef thing w/an African name-didn't care for it. Kinwoa-is that how it is spelled? I really liked that-it is the worlds best protien grain or something like that. I also had: a waffle, sausage, sampling of the pastries/bread-great banana bread! The baked goods were really superior to other breakfast buffets. I also sampled the smoked salmon spread for the bagels-very good too. There was much more offered-meat carving stations(ham,pork) more African dishes, oatmeal, cereals, yogurt, lots of fruit...too much to ever try it all in one sitting. Really good breakfast.
Dinner:
Whispering Canyon Cafe-We almost cancelled this ADR b/c we weren't sure if the menu was what we really wanted and we weren't really up for our server yelling at us tonight...but DS wanted to keep it, so we did. It turned out to be a good decision. We were seated in the "fireplace room" looking out on the huge WL Christmas tree. We could hear the beautiful WL Christmas music in the background. Our server didn't get too crazy with us-we were fine with that. My son did do the pony race and one of the highlights of his trip was getting the wooden nickel! Which is good, b/c yet again-he had like a piece of cornbread, 2 bites of mac n cheese and a glass of chocolate milk!!! DH got the strip steak-loved it. I really just wanted the chicken and a salad, but it was more cost effective to get the skillet w/those items on it. I tried a little bit of everything on the skillet except the sausage(it was very overcooked looking) everything I tried was very moist and good. The chicken was my favorite-very good. The cornbread was really good too. No dessert-too full. Good meal.
Day #6:
Breakfast:
In Room-Oatmeal to go bars and apple juice boxes
Lunch:
CS-Backlot Express-DH-Chicken Strips & Fries, Me-Grilled turkey sandwich & fries(ok, that's it, way too greasy)DS-not hungry-glass of ice water-
again-I don't know where this kid gets his energy from!Mid-Day drink:
Some Bar by the exit to the Backlot Tour-Me-180 degree margarita-good-DH Beer-bar server a miserable man-not very Disney-like!
Dinner:
Concourse Steakhouse-Seated in like 3 minutes, Didn't order a drink b/c I was getting sick of the same old lounge drink menu everywhere you go.
I just got a Coke. I loved the lobster bisque so much 2 years ago, so I ordered it and so did DH...not as good as I remembered. VERY salty. DH got prime rib-done just how he requested-and a cut double the size of the piece he had at Le Cellier. He said it was VERY good. I got the filet mignon-ordered medium rare-it came rare-very rare and cold. I just ate it-returning meat to the kitchen is not something I like to do. We each got mashed potatoes. And that was it...not even a sprig of broccoli or something. Just meat and potatoes. Kind of plain. It was fun to watch the monorails go by. Our waitress was ok/good. DS got the usual: Chocolate milk and mac n cheese. How much mac n cheese & chocolate milk can one kid order in a trip???? He certainly didn't eat more than 2 bites of this mac n cheese b/c it came sprinkled with grated cheese on top-way too groovy for my picky 5 year old. No desserts-we just didn't see anything that looked interesting.Day #7:
Breakfast:
Coffee to go from Roaring Forks-yuck, I forgot-Nescafe! I threw 1/2 of mine down the sink it was so nasty. Breakfast to go oatmeal bars and apple juice boxes in our room.
Lunch:
The Garden Grill11:30am ADR-seated in like 3 minutes-this is amazing! This was one of our best meals. DH & I both got a Corona. The food was really good. Served family style: flank steak, turkey w/cranberries, fried catfish, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, really yummy carrots and snap peas, homemade rolls and biscuits w/orange honey butter. All was so good! Dessert: vanilla bread pudding-ok, not the greatest. DS-make your own cupcake-he loved doing this-whipped frosting, m & m's (disney version) and Mickey shaped sprinkles. He of course, had 4 bites of flank steak, 1/2 a roll, and chocolate milk. DH & I had everything that came out-all great. We had a really nice seat on the lower level so DS could see easily, great character interaction, and right at our table-relaxing and fun. Mickey even tried to get DS to eat something!
Dinner:
Artist Point(DH & I) Cub's Den (DS)-DS had a blast at the Cub's Den-he didn't want to leave when we came to pick him up!
He had chicken strips & fries (didn't eat fries) chocolate milk, and they gave him a Mickey Head rice krispy treat to go.Our dinner-1st Territory Lounge-I asked the server if there was anything different or special to the WL b/c I was pretty much sick of the standard lounge drink menu. She asked me what I like-I said vodka drinks, she started pouring me a Lodge Fizz-I really liked it! Basically a Shirley Temple w/vodka and triple sec. Yum. DH had the Heiwerwisen(spelling??) he liked it too. We enjoyed a couple of drinks and then checked in with the Artist Point-we were seated right away. It was 8pm and the restaurant was full. We had a wonderful meal. We both did the 3 course wine flight, I got the portabello mushroom soup-very good, DH-mixed field greens-he said it was good, I got the cedar plank King Salmon-really, really, good-huge piece-I couldn't finish it! DH-Buffalo sirloin-he said it was his favorite of the trip. Tender, moist, done to perfection. I had the cobbler for dessert-good. DH got the coffee two ways-creme brulee mocha style and bread pudding mocha style-he loved the bread pudding-the creme brulee was too rich for him-he had a few bites of it. I tried both and agreed. My wine flight was a Chardonnay, a Pino Noir, and a dessert Gurwerstraminer(sp?) all good. DH got a white?, a cabernet?, a dessert zinfendel that was port like.
After dinner: DH-Beer, Me-WL coffee (Baileys, Kaluha, chocolate, & coffee) we took them to the beach to watch the electric light parade.
Day #8:
Breakfast:
In Room-Oatmeal to go & apple juice boxes
Lunch:
Roaring Forks-DH & DS got chicken tenders & fries, I got the turkey/brie sandwich-good-but BIG!
Dinner:
CS: Pinnochio's Village HausMe: Veggie Pizza-ok/yuck. DH: Cheese pizza: ok. DS-Adult menu chicken strips & fries-ate one strip and no fries. He didn't want mac n' cheese again. We ordered him a chocolate milk assuming he'd get a kid's size-no-she rang up a huge bottle of chocolate milk. Oh well, I drank 1/2 of it.
Day #9:
Breakfast:
In room-DS-Oatmeal to go & apple juice drink boxes
Kona Cafe-DS went on the Pirate Cruise out of the Grand Floridian Marina. DH & I had a 10am ADR for Kona. I ordered Tonga Toast-ugh. Way too much-food, sugar, fried grease...I wouldn't order it again-it was more than a dessert let alone breakfast! The sausage I had was really good! Oh-and the Kona Coffee-thank the Lord for Kona Coffee-I've wanted a good cup of coffee for days!!! It was soooo good!
DH got regular french toast-said it was good-and the coffee also. Our server was very good, she even offered to get us to go cups to take the coffee with us-boy she got a good tip from us!!!Lunch:
DS: Pirate Cruise-pb&j uncrustable & goldfish. He said he ate them.
Snack:
MK popcorn
Dinner:
Coral Reef-we waited the longest for this restaurant (20 minutes-not too bad!) We walked in-cool atmosphere-the tanks of fish and the cool mosaic tiles all around. A diver just unrolled a "will you marry me?" sign and we witnessed a couple get engaged...all fun. Then came the menu...appetizers looked good, regular menu-blah. The only thing that looked good to me was the Ahi Tuna-but I just wasn't in the mood for tuna that night. I decided to start with the seafood chowder-it was really good, and I got 2 appetizers instead of an entree. I got the crab claws and the lobster soufflee. Crab claws good. Soufflee-YUCK! It was so "fishy" and there was some spice in it that tasted so gross to me. I finished about 1/2 of it and then thought-why am I eating this-it is gross. DH got the Shrimp pasta-yuck. It was shrimp over Thai like noodles-but not even good ones-I love Thai food. There was all sorts of celery spice in it-it was really gross. DS got-you guessed it-mac n cheese and chocolate milk-and you guessed it-he ate like 2 bites of the mac n cheese and then proclaimed it to be "too cheesy"
I don't know why we let him order anything this trip, everytime he swore up and down how hungry he was and how he was really going to eat this...yeah, right. I had heard the desserts were very good, so I tried to salvage the meal by ordering one. I got the chocolate wave-it was really good-DH & I shared it. I also got coffee. WHY??? I keep forgetting it is that nasty Nescafe stuff! I drank about 1/2 of a cup. DS got a make your own sundae-he ate that! Well, at least he ate something. We were really disappointed with this restaurant. We thought that this place would have great seafood offerings...no-tuna, salmon, and shrimp pasta. very disappointing. In fact within the next 45 minutes I was not feeling well and was kinda sick for the next 12 hours. Day #10:Our last morning at WL
We had to leave on ME at 12:05pm so, we just had oatmeal bars in the room and juice.
That's it-we had a great time-and overall the food was really good, with a few exceptions. The best part was me not cooking for 10 days!!!
But, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, you blew it at Boma! 
