Get Your Ears On- It's a Good, Good, Good, Deluxe Time

DisneyBroadwayFan

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 10, 2018
D-E-L....U-X-E DINING PLAN For We
Hey DisBoards!
After your warm response in giving some ideas for our trip, we've decided to attempt our first dining review on this trip!
We're a pair in our early twenties and one of us is a former CM coming down to celebrate the new year and some new jobs. We will be trying out drinks and one of us is a vegetarian so you can expect to read about plant based options for sure!


Our Final Dining Itinerary for January 5th- January 10th, 2020:
Story Book Dining with Snow White
Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House
Minnie's Silver Screen Dine at Hollywood and Vine with Fantasmic! Seating
Topolino's Terrace Dinner
Sci- Fi Dine In Theatre Lunch
Teppan Edo Dinner
'Ohana Best Friends Character Breakfast with Lilo and Stitch
Satuli' Canteen
Be Our Guest
Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno
Chefs De France Lunch
Oga's Cantina Drinks
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall Dinner
A Buffet with Character at the Crystal Palace

Thanks for Following Along and I'm going to do my best to do some updating in real time as we journey!
 
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Hello Everyone!
Our Flight touched back down at 12:25am this morning and we are Exhausted but had so much fun!
I'm planning on starting to share the photos and reviews from our meals in order tonight and hopefully finish on Tuesday, but wanted to share this initial post first for those of you wanting to try Deluxe, but are wary of it being too much food or taking up too much of your time.


We found that eating breakfast early and having dinner late with lunch in the middle and a couple of signature experiences really worked for us and while we might have felt a bit full right after a meal, we never walked into one of our ADRs feeling like we were eating because we had to. Often we were actually hungry.....



The other thing we've often heard people say is that the Deluxe Plan has you sitting down to eat so often you won't have any time to do anything in the park. So to try and argue against that point here's an idea of what we did on our trip besides the 15 food and drink based experiences we had.

MAGIC KINGDOM

Space x2
Country Bears
Big Thunder
Splash
Dwarves x2
Pirates
People Mover
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin x4
Carousel of Progress
The Tiki Room
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Carribean
It’s a Small World
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Under the Sea: Little Mermaid
Seven Dwarves Mine Train x2
Many Adventures of Pooh x2
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Prince Charming Regal Carousel
Peter Pan’s Flight x3
Dumbo
The Barnstormer
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: Main Street
Happily Ever After
Dapper Dans
Festival of Fantasy
Haunted Mansion
Astro Orbiter


EPCOT
Soarin
Test Track
Frozen Ever After
American Adventure
Mission Space
The Seas with Nemo
Living with the Land
Journey into Imagination
Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
Epcot Forever
Gran Fiesta Tour with Three Caballeros
Epcot Experience
Spaceship Earth
World Showcase Countries


Hollywood Studios
Rise of the Resistance x2
Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam
Fantasmic
Millennium Falcon
Slinky Dog Dash x4
Toy Story Mania x3
Alien Swirling Saucers
Rock n Rollercoaster x3
Tower of Terror x2
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Star Tours x2
Lightning McQueen Racing Academy
MuppetVision 3D
Walt Disney Presents


Animal Kingdom
Flight of Passage x3
Navi River Journey
Kilimanjaro Safari x2
Expedition Everest x2
Finding Nemo the Musical
Festival of the Lion King
Dinosaur
Gorilla Falls Trail
Rafiki Planet Watch
Winged Encounters
Animation Experience
It’s Tough to Be a Bug


CHARACTERS WE MET
Dopey
Grumpy
Evil Queen
Snow White x2
Mickey x7
Minnie x5
Donald x4
Daisy x3
Goofy x4
Lilo
Stitch
Pluto x2
Pooh x2
Tigger
Eeyore
Piglet
Ariel x3
Rapunzel x2
Prince Eric
Flynn Rider
Cinderella x2
Belle x2
Aurora
Beast
Anastasia
Drizella
Pearla
Prince Charming
Peter Pan
Doug
Russel
Chip x2
Dale x2
Scrooge
Launchpad
Mike
Sully
Olaf
Bb8
Chewbacca
Darth Vader
Woody
Jessie
Buzz
Bo Peep
Ralph
Vanellope
Timon
Rafiki
Joy
Anna
Elsa
Elena
Tiana
Alice
Tinkerbelle
Fairy Godmother
Big Al
Cruz
Edna Mode
Mr Incredible
Pocahontas
Mulan x2
Vampirina


We felt like we accomplished a lot even though dining did take up a chunk of our time. It also gave us the excuse to try every type of transportation Disney Offers including the Skyliner, which is our new favorite especially during fireworks which we were lucky to see twice. I hope you'll have as much fun following along as we had the last 6 days and we can't wait to share our first review real soon!

PS. Can you tell we tried Memory Maker for the first time?​
 
Story Book Dining with Snow White at Artist Point
Reservation Time: 6:40PM
Check in Time: 6:25PM
Seated Time: 6:28PM
Meal Duration: 65 Minutes


Drinks Ordered:
The Enchanted Apple- Skyy citrus vodka, DeKupyer pucker sour apple and white cranberry juice
The Smoking Mirror- Johnnie Walker Black, wildberry, lime, rosemary smoke
Transformation Potion- lemonade, blue potion

OUR THOUGHTS: The Enchanted Apple was exactly what I was looking for to start my meal off right. There was a sweet, but fresh taste to it that was delicious and refreshing. The apple slice was a nice treat at the end. The Presentation of the Smoking Mirror was great and exciting, but boy was it strong. The smoke flavor and the whisky overpowered the fruit flavor and the smoke really ended up being a bit too much for our taste.I’m sure if you like a strong smoky whisky taste then this is fantastic, but we quickly realized we are not the target for this one. We also ordered the transformation potion because we had seen how cool it looked and wanted to give it a try. The trick was indeed neat but the taste of the drink was a really watered down lemonade for my taste and the candy stirring piece I’ve seen was noticeably absent. For $4 it was fine, but I wouldn’t need it again.


Appetizer Selection:
Mushroom Bisque with Crispy mushroom
Hunter’s Terrine-Chicken, black truffle, stone fruit preserve, house-made pickles
Wicked Shrimp Cocktail- soy, miso, avocado, Thai chili, greens
OUR THOUGHTS: Let’s start off with the real winner of this portion which was hands down the Mushroom Bisque. It was perfectly creamy and had a nice rich and hearty mushroom flavor. The one bite that had the piece of crispy mushroom was such a treat. We both cleaned our bowls on this one and seriously considered asking for more. The less said about the Hunter’s Terrine the better. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but I hadn’t realized they had changed this dish from what it had been and was disappointed. The jam and sausage as well as the crackers were all fine, but it all was more of a why situation. I was confused about what the mass appeal of what I was served would be a figure it is probably the one that goes most untouched. Our non- meat eater had just the jam and cracker on this one and said they were a pleasant combination alone, but was also perplexed by their appearance. The shrimp was very tasty and we enjoyed mixing it around in the jar to get the full intended flavor profile. There was a bit of a kick to it, but it was not too spicy at all and trust me if it was even the tiniest bit spicy you would have heard me from across the country. We felt one shrimp a piece was a bit of a small portion, but when coupled with the other two figured it wasn’t horrible. The meal at this point is off to a great start!


Entree Selection:
A Stroll Through Nature- Asparagus, leeks, arugula, gnocchi, sage, parmesan
Magic Mirror Pork Shank- Pork Shank on a bed of greens with Mashed Potatoes

OUR THOUGHTS: The main event and boy what an event it was! The Stroll Through Nature was so delicious that we both ended up trying more than one bite of it. The pasta was delicious and top notch. The gnocchi was just as good as the one I personally had as an appetizer at Topolino’s the following night. The fresh tasting vegetables and the cheese on the top were the perfect blend and every bite was truly a little bit of wonder. I would consider ordering this as my personal entree on a return visit even though I am a carnivore myself. Speaking of, let’s get to that delicious fall off the bone tender pork shank. It was so delicious was great flavor and expert seasoning and the cook on the meat was just right. It sat on a bed of mashed potatoes that were so delicious and some other greens. I’m sad to see this may no longer be on the menu, because this was a top tier dish. We both agreed that these dishes make artist point worth going out of your way to eat at even if this wasn’t a character meal.

 
ARTIST POINT CONTINUED!

Dessert Selection:

Miner’s Treasure- sponge cake, chocolate gems, and berry panna cotta
Gooseberry Pie- meringue, gooseberry
Poison Apple- dark chocolate-apple mousse, sour center
The Hunter’s Gift to the Queen- crackled maple popcorn, ganache heart


OUR THOUGHTS: What’s a first night at Disney without a sweet finish? Every single bite during this portion of the meal was awesome in our book. We started with the Miner’s Treasure and it was the best surprise of the night. I took one look at it and expected to have that tingling sweet sugary icing and was prepared for that sensation. So imagine my surprise when I found a nicely balanced berry flavor that nicely complimented the cake and was actually kind of light and refreshing. The dopey hat on top was a cute touch and the chocolate rocks were a fun contrast to the soft sponge. Next we had the gooseberry pie which I enjoyed despite the fact that I’m much more partial to a blueberry pie than an apple one that this seems to resemble more. It’s more so the inside of a pie than it is a pie itself, but it certainly was tasty and the meringue on tope really added to it. The poison apple was great for this chocoholic, but I can’t say that I tasted the apple or the sour that was present. Both were still very tasty and all three had great presentation. Speaking of which, The Hunter’s Gift to the Queen had such a lovely and flashy presentation which was honestly maybe a little too impressive for the end result. Don’t get me wrong the popcorn and little hearts were tasty, but were the lesser of the desserts.



Service: Our server Sarah was excellent and attentive and made excellent recommendations when we asked for them. Quick to refill our water and she even knew the Queen was going to be checking in on the kingdom in a little bit so she gave us the card to go and meet her before the end of our meal so we would not be waiting around for that long after we were done. Excellent service all around and we shared our positively feelings about her with WDW Guest Services.


Character Interaction: Let’s be honest, this is the reason everyone is going to Artist’s Point now including us and it did not disappoint. Every single character was so specific and so perfect that it is hard to single out a favorite. Snow White came to visit us first and initially she was the one we had the least excitement to see as she meets regularly in other places. Let me tell you, she does not meet like this anywhere else. She sounded so close to the movie and spent a good chunk of time talking to us about all sorts of wonderful things and really started the meal off on such a positive note. Next we saw Grumpy who was so delightfully curmudgeon like and really was so animated in the way he interacted with us. Next was Dopey who was so fun and playful and so enjoyed doing all kinds of different poses and spending time with us. Finally, we got our summons to go up and meet the Queen and yes she is as fantastic as everyone says. She was biting and quick with her responses and was so much fun to talk to and pose with.



Overall this was such a fantastic experience and spoiler now it was our favorite of all the places on our trip. This was so fantastic we actually considered canceling our final meal on the last day because we found one to do this again. We’re glad we didn’t for a very special reason, but more on that later!

Long Story Book Dining Short, this is the must get ADR at WDW for us from now on!
 

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