My "I stayed off site, ate mostly QS but splurged on Frozen Desserts" Reviews

Nancy O

Mouseketeer
Joined
Feb 15, 2018
UPDATED 07/29/18 MK DAY

Due to time constraints my reviews will be short and sweet. I don't know about you but that's how I prefer them.

The players: Me -foodie and trip planner extraordinaire, DH -vegetarian and health food nut DD 24, DS 21 and DD 17.

We stayed at Windsor Hills Resort. That review can be found here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/windsor-hills-review.3685926/

On to our first meal.
We arrived very late on Saturday May 19. Those of us who don't tend to sleep in got up and went for breakfast and the to the grocery store on Sunday. I am a firm believer that when you travel you try new foods and avoid places you can go at home. While it is a chain we do not have access to Holler & Dash. This will be the only meal we had off WDW property. This was very close to a Publix as well and about 10 min from Windsor Hills.

Whole grain toast with peanut butter and banana and chia seeds. I think it was $6. It was worth $4.50 tops. Based on the description of participants, can you guess who got it? :P
WDW18DAY1A.jpg

Cheddar grits with bacon and an egg. The egg was not runny. Had the egg been runny this would have been to die for. The grits were good. I'm not even a fan of grits.
WDW18DAY1B.jpg

Biscuits and Gravy w/ egg added. DD said it was salty. I took a bite and didn't find it salty. Don't waste your time with an egg. It didn't seem like it was freshly prepared. It was something that belonged in a breakfast sandwich.
WDW18DAY1C.jpg

Well I didn't get as far as I thought. You will need to wait to see where we end up after breakfast.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for taking the time to review. Looking forward to more
 
So we shall continue with the day.

We did Epcot on our first day. . Even though we had just been to the grocery store we opted not to eat lunch first as Epcot has the best food. Our first stop was a fp for Living with the Land. We then had lunch at Sunshine Seasons as this is a place that everyone can find something and it is fairly decent food.

Mongolian Beef

WDW18DAY1D.jpg

Oak Grilled Rotisserie Chicken
WDW18DAY1E.jpg

Salmon with Succotash, green beans rather than grits. I had already had grits once and that is way above my limit.....but will I have them again? By the way the succotash was a meal in itself. Very yummy.

WDW18DAY1G.jpg


Vegan Korma (Sorry I had to get it mid bite. My family doesn't always cooperate when I want to take food pics).

WDWDAY1F.jpg

Next was Sorin', which we really liked the changes. By the way, this was my kids first trip in 9 years, 9 months. DH and I did a couples trip in Dec. 2009 which was our last trip.

We did a whole bunch of stuff. I think we did Nemo, Spaceship Earth and Pixar 3D movies. We then went onto World Showcase.

We got desserts from France.
DH talked me into the macaron. I am a big Great British Bake Off fan. I am currently working my way around Mary Berry recipes. I have made her Raspberry Almond Macaron. Mine was better. This one had too much raspberry jam in proportion to the butter cream. I did like the addition of fresh raspberries but as I found may way to the center with all the jam it was too sweet.

DD got the Fraises which was yummy.

WDW18DAY1H.jpg

DS21 and I are the only drinkers in the group. We got this which from the Japan F&G food kiosk which was similar to a mimosa with sake. I don't recall the name. It was tasty.

WDW18DAY1I.jpg

I was ready to try some more F&G Kiosks but right now I am having trouble uploading photos. I will have to continue later.
 


A real quick finish for our Epcot day. I had thought I finished but I think I was missing a photo and went to find it but never went back. Whoops.

Shrimp and Grits from the F&G Florida kiosk. Yes, more grits. Very good. Beer was tasty too and since I am getting too old to drink beer it was just the right size. (Beer makes me feel bloated and have to pee)
WDWDAY1K.jpg

Last photo of Epcot

DS and I had margaritas from La Cava del Tequila. They were about $15 each but well worth it.
I had the Wild Passion Fruit Margarita. I didn't think that I would like the Chili powder on the rim but it really worked!
I think DS got the Minty Pineapple Margarita but I could be wrong.

WDW18DAY1J.jpg

Hopefully Day 2 will be soon but I make no promises.
 


Day 2: HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

I barely got any photos but here they are. We made it to RD and were on and off TSM by 9:20. :yay: DD decided she needed some breakfast. She and some of the other crew went to grab something. They ended up at Trolly Car Cafe. I had asked them to grab me some water. Best cup of water the entire trip.
WDWDAY2A.jpg

I really don't like the dinning options at HS. They really need to step it up, especially with the QS options. I even considered doing a ADR but the only place that sounded appealing was Sci-Fi which was booked. We had already done 50's Prime Time during our last trip in 2008. DD17 (who was 7 obviously) had a hot dog. The waiter "made' her eat it. She then went on ToT and then later barfed outside the Walt Disney movie. She will now refuse to do both 50's and ToT. I found the best choice to accommodate everyone's needs would be ABC Commissary.

We usually eat lunch early. We were one of the first ones there. It took forever. DH, DD24 and DS21 all did ToT while DD17 and I did something else (for the above reasons). They were already waiting for their food when we met them. They waited probably 10 minutes after we arrived and we waited jut a little past that. I think the salad person was a little behind in the getting the day started prep. I enjoyed the salad but I wished we would have taken advantage of mobile ordering. More on mobile ordering later.

Here is my one photo of the meal which was the Mediterranean Salad with Chicken. It comes with hummus and flat bread. I liked the hummus but the flat bread was a little dry. A basic piece of pita would have been better. The vegetarian in the group got the same without chicken. I didn't hear complaints from anyone. It was just ok which is what we were expecting. I would eat it again and it would likely be my go to meal if I am forced to eat QS at HS again.

WDW18DAY2C.jpg




We like to take breaks so we left the park at around 3:00 or so. We had dinner at the condo. Dinner at the condo consisted of whatever anyone was willing to prepare themselves and clean up after themselves. Mamma was on vacation. :smooth:

DD17 and I separated from the rest so they could do ToT but I think it may have broke down. ToT was up and down literally and figuratively most of the day. :rotfl2: I only ended up riding one time.

No one else had an interest in Fantasmic and that our plan since DD17 missed the show when she was 7 due to the whole barfing thing. DH and I saw it in 2009 as he was the one who took DD back to the resort. We stopped at Hollywood Scoops and grabbed a sundae to share for the show. It was good but nothing exciting.
IMG_2621.jpg

That's it for day 2.
 
Last edited:
Day 3 Animal Kingdom

For some reason I also didn't' take very many photos on this day. I thought at least got everyone's lunch but I only got two. There are a lot of good choices at AK for CS. It was hard to decide but everyone agreed on Yak and Yeti Local Food Cafe (QS).

The vegetarian got the Vegetable Tikka Masala. I tried some but it had a lot of sauce not much substance. That being said the sauce had a really good flavor.
IMG_2935.PNG

They had a special that day of Korean BBQ ribs which were really good. They came with fries.

WDWDAY4B.jpg

The others in the group got the Teriyaki Beef Bowls which they liked.
I got a order of fried rice, egg rolls and mini mango pie. I saw another review of the best ten desserts of WDW so I thought i better give it a try. It did not disappoint. I have no idea how I missed getting photos of my food. SMH

At some point and not too long after lunch I found myself alone. I think DH and the DD that does coasters had a FP for EE and DD17 and DS had fp for Finding Nemo. I really like my time alone. Everyone else is always in a rush to get to the next attraction. I like to stop and smell the roses some. I was craving some the cool, fruity and sweet so of course what else does a person get at WDW? That's right a Dole Whip. It also did not disappoint and completely hit the spot.
IMG_2629.jpg

We had dinner at the condo again. Same drill as the previous night. Mamma is on vacation: You fix it and you clean it.
We came back to do Pandora at night. We had Na'vi fp and of course we were not blessed with FoP FP but our plan was to get in line towards closing which was a great plan. We still waiting over an hour but it beats the other alternative. DS and DD went to do some more EE first so while we waited for them to join us DD17 and I shared dessert from Satu'li Canteen. First there was a decent line and since I knew exactly what I wanted I decided to give mobile ordering a try. We stood at the door and ordered and we walked in and it was waiting for us. MOBILE ORDERING IS THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD!!!!!

We got the chocolate cake. OH MY!:love::love::love: I think I fell in love. One of the best desserts I have ever had. It will be a must on every trip. I think those little yellow pieces were pineapple. It doesn't sound like it would work with chocolate but it does.

WDWDAY3A.jpg

That's all I have for day 3. Day for 4 will be a big one.
 
Day 4 Epcot and Magic Kingdom "Our day of dreams"

This was just me and DD17. Everyone else went to US but since DD17 doesn't care for all the rides with dips there and said that she would just spend the entire time in Dr. Seuss land and tickets were $185 we decided we would rather spend the day at WDW and splurged on park hoppers. It was very nice just us and we did what we wanted without judgement and made some of dreams come true. IMG_2704.jpg

We were dropped off at TCC at about 8:00. Obviously we made it DD said that one thing she wanted to have was a mickey shaped waffle. I like to look at resorts so we got on the Monorail and went to The Poly. Breakfast from Captain Cooks. I had the bountiful platter which was really meh. I needed protein but nothing else on the menu appealed to me.

IMG_2645.jpg WDW18DAY4.jpg

It was nice to eat by the pool. We did go ahead and by a refillable mug just because I like them although since I wasn't staying on site I almost don't feel like I am worthy or that the cup is a lie.

IMG_2651.jpg


I've also wanted to go down the slide at The Poly. I was 7 on my first trip to WDW back when they had pool hopping. We stayed at the campground. I was a tiny little thing and couldn't touch/swim and was quite devastated not to be able to go down that slide that you had to go behind the waterfall to get to.
 
Day 4 Day of dreams continued:


We had a fun morning at MK. We made it to the opening show without even trying. I refused to watch as I wanted to see the new show with everyone present. We did make it on and off Peter Pan by 9:15.

We left the park at around 11:00 to grab some lunch. I wanted to see Wilderness Lodge as this was one of the few resorts I have not seen. We took a nice relaxing boat ride over to the resort.

IMG_2664 (1).jpg

We decided we would share a meal so we could eat dessert. We ordered a campfire cupcake and a bacon cheeseburger.

I didn't realize that food was made to order so paid for of meal and sat to wait to bring us our burger. We decided we would take a bite of our cupcake while we waited.

WDW18DAY4A.jpg


I must say this is possibly one of the best cupcakes we had ever had. It was well worth the boat ride from MK to WL just for this. Before we knew it our plate looked like this.
WDW18DAY4B.jpg

Our burger came out a few minutes later after we devoured our cupcake. It was a tasty burger. There were not too many people in Roaring Fork for lunch which made it a nice break from all the people at MK. I was surprised that most people were getting their order to go. If you are having a take it easy day at MK I highly recommend doing lunch here.
WDW18DAY4C.jpg
 
Loving your reviews so far. We really enjoy the QS option at Wilderness Lodge. The cupcake looks delicious, I've never had that one before.
 
We went back to MK until around 3:30 before heading to Epcot. We had a SM fp but it was down so we got to pick any ride. DD picked Jungle Cruise. I know this is for food reviews. I am only mentioning it because a) It is very high on top of the list of what CAN be missed at MK b) We still had to wait over a half hour during the warmest part of the day in an outdoor queue in which we were packed liked sardines c) I got stuck sitting next to the hot loud engine which did not improve my opinion of the attraction.

Since were were staying until close we road the monorail around 2 times so we could get some down time. We had a car to ourselves one of those times so we put our feet up and rested. We would have done a third time but we saw that TT was finally open. It had been shut down all of our Epcot day before. We opted for the 15 minute single rider line wait which was a good decision. :cool2:

DD wanted Chinese at Lotus Blossom Cafe. DS had chosen that for his dinner on our earlier Epcot day. Now how I missed two opportunities for taking a food pic is beyond me but I did. It was typical American style Chinese, nothing that you can't anywhere else in the USA.

I wanted to get something from the F&G Kiosks. I really wanted the lobster ravioli from Italy but I couldn't bring myself to pay $12 for only a sample. I kind of regret it now. You only live once. I ended up going to Hanami in Japan. I had really enjoyed that cocktail so wanted another. I got the Teriyaki Salmon which was tasty but not that exciting. It was only $6.75.

WDW18DAY4D.jpg

We watched Matboukha Groove while I ate. We had seen part of their show on Sunday. There was a group of teens dancing and DD and I wanted to stay but the rest of the group didn't so we didn't get to see the full show. DD and I vowed to come back so we did. :goodvibes No one got up and danced but we had fun anyway.

Here is a not so great video what I viewed while I ate.

I think that is all for now. I was going to try to finish "Our Day of Dreams" this morning but trying to figure out how to post videos was harder than expected. I am sorry if this is reading more like a TR than reviews but I hope it is close enough. Nest will be our ultimate dream..."Frozen Dessert Party".
 
FROZEN DESSERT PARTY!!!!!

At $80 a person this was a huge splurge for us but since the others were spending $180 for their US we went for it. DD is a huge, huge, huge Frozen fan. The original plan was to make it a complete Frozen day but we just didn't have it us to make it to HS for the Frozen Sing a Long. We had done it on our HS day but it would have been nice do it again.

The let us in a few minutes before the given time. There really is no bad seating except for two tables have a great view of a pole. I wish I would have taken a shot.

Here is the food.
IMG_2687.jpg IMG_2689.jpg
Those cupcakes were really sweet. I normally love sweet frosting but I took one taste and I could feel the sugar going through my veins.


IMG_2690.jpg

Believe it or not I wasn't feeling too much like dessert. I did like the cheese sauce. The macaroon was just ok.

IMG_2692.jpg

The cocktails were yummy. I tried not to drink too much though as the bathrooms were kind of far away. The dessert on the left was a sugar free lemon custard and I did not miss the sugar at all.
IMG_2693.jpg

The most impressive dessert was the "Frozen" caramel corn. It was popped fresh and the frozen in liquid nitrogen all in front of our very eyes.



You do have assigned seating. We were lucky and sat with the most delightful couple and their young daughter from the UK. We got along splendidly. Being able to ride Frozen afterwards was a huge plus with the dessert party. We did share a boat with them as well. The little girl said to my DD as we were getting on the boat "I get to ride with my friend" She was adorable. My favorite conversation was when DD asked me if dad knew how much money we spent on this event and the wife said "My husband doesn't know how many pennies we spent either. It was sooooooo many pennies".

All in all the $80 was worth it. I don't think I would do it for a family of 5 but just two of us is reasonable for what you get. We were able to see even with the pole. I didn't get any photos as I wanted to be in the moment.


Anyway we made it open to close. A little pinker than when we started. This is our $30 cab ride home.

IMG_2705.jpg
 
Last edited:
I am considering the dessert party for my next trip. Your review may have just convinced me .
 
Day 5 Magic Kingdom

This is day 5 out 6. I am almost done. This was our Magic Kingdom day. As you may recall the day before when DD and I went to MK I refused to watch the opening show even though we didn't try to make it on time, even though we were right there.... well on this day we arrived at TCC at 8:30 for the 9 am opening. The monorails were down so we had to take the ferry boat. Turns out that is a 50 minute process when there is one boat that is full and the next boat is just arriving. So no opening show for me this trip. By the way it is one of my favorite things about MK or at least the old show was. :sad:

I did stop at the coffee shop in the parking lot of TCC to get a coffee since I failed to pack enough and I was out at the condo. I think my kids got a doughnut too. I failed to take photos in the rush.

We try to eat early at the parks to beat the lunch rush. The two DD and DH went to Pinocchio Village Haus. DS and I weren't feeling it so we went to Pecos Bills. We decided to give mobile ordering a shot again and I am glad we did. Even though it was still early the place was already pretty crowded. We were able to avoid the lines and our food was ready withing minutes of us arriving. :yay:
IMG_2710.jpg
DS got the fajita platter.

IMG_2712 (1).jpg
I got the beef nachos. Those chips were nice and fresh. I also liked being able to pick my own toppings.

I do have another non Disney food pic. We took our break as DS who had just graduated college two weeks earlier had a skype job interview. We were all kicked out of the condo for the event so we hung out at the pool. At the Windsor Hills sundry shop they have a little snack bar with a pina colada machine. It was refreshing but I couldn't taste the rum. DD got a non-alcohol version. By the way....he got the job. pixiedust:

WDW18DAY5.jpg

We had a light supper/snacks at the condo and then headed back to MK. It was a crazy day at MK with everyone messing with my park strategy. We had a lot of going back and forth. "Look the line is down at SM, let's go" ...."Oh, look Pirates is finally up and running....Let's go"...never mind that it is raining and we are we just got off SM. The whole day was like that.

While some the rest of the crew did Winnie the Pooh DS and I thought we would skip it and get a snack. DS decided on a dole whip. I actually didn't realize that there were two places to get a dole whip so close to one another. We went to Sunshine Tree Terrace for an orange flavored Dole Whip. I prefer the pineapple and would have gone the extra steps to Aloha Isle to get the pineapple had a realized it.

It was tasty.
IMG_2728.jpg

But don't let the size deceive you. :oops:

IMG_2729.jpg
The center is air.

We did some more running around. We had a 10 pm SM FP or something like that. We got out just in time to get in line for 7DMT AT 10:50 for a 11 pm close. Literally in line for 10 minutes. Score!!!! :yay:

Another thing I didn't know was that Casey's was open until 11:30. I didn't get much of DS's dole whip and only had a little bit of hummus dip for dinner. I was starving. We had watched some of the show at the castle and I decided to mobile order as a I walked from the castle to Casey's. Just as I had Casey's and the huge crowd inside in sight I clicked that I was there and it was ready by the time I walked in. I forgot that it came with fries but DS was happy to oblige with those. I still can't figure out how to order something that is not a meal with the mobile ordering.

IMG_2733.jpg

This is actually the first time I had Casey's. I've always heard that there is no hot dog like Casey's Corner. I didn't really believe it. I don't know if it was that was incredibly hungry at this point or if it is actually true but this was a really good chili cheese dog. :love:
 
Last edited:

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