Party of 4 DDP Dining Reviews- CS and TS...Updated w/ Casey's and snacks

[disneybound31]

We just returned last night from our first trip to WDW and the dining reviews were so helpful to my planning that I decided to add my own. We paid for the dining plan and I estimate (with reciepts in hand) that we got about $500 in "free" food. DDP for 2A and 2C for 6 nights = $588 Total reciept tally's including snacks approx. $1100.

Day 1-

CS- Pinnochio's Village Haus (total cost $41.53)
THis was our first experience with the DDP and it was a very good meal. We had the childs mac/cheese with grapes and carrots, the turkey&bacon panini with chips, cheese pizza meal with salad and for dessert shared the chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake. The panini was especially good and the shortcake was one of the best desserts I ate the whole trip! It was a ton of food and we (2A, 2C) all shared between ourselves so eveyone could try what they wanted.
*note: there was a messup with our DDP and we had to pay for this meal OOP and then get reimbursed at the POP check-in desk upon returning mid-day for a break. I think I saw it mentioned somewhere else that if you check-in and your room is not ready yet your DDP is not activated and this is what happened to us. It ended up not being too bad to fix-- but I would have liked a head's up from the POP people- luckily I had taken extra cash into the park that first morning or we would have gone hungry.

TS- Tony's Town Square (total cost $118.88)
After a relaxing midday break complete with a swim and getting settled into our POP room we returned to the Magic Kingdom for our 7pm ADR at Tony's. This was my DH birthday dinner, but they 'gave' our table to another family with our same last name even though the spelling was different and the man of that family kept telling them they were making a mistake because they were a party of 5 and WE were the party of 4, but the CM's kept acting like they couldn't understand the difference. So, long story short, the other family got our table (decortaed for my DH's birthday) and we had to wait another 30 min for a table to open up. Very wierd. And our server ignored us pretty badly. We had to flag her down twice and then we felt like we were bothering her. She also made fun of us for asking a question about the DDP even though we explained to her it was our first DDP table service meal. Anyhow, on to the food. Dh had the strip steak with he said was bland. I had the chicken fiorentina which was pretty good and I gave half to DH who was starving. The kids had pizza- good. Our apps were the spinach/artichoke cheese dip with crusty bread- so great! Even the kids loved this! Kids had fruit plate app which was good and I have no idea what DH app was. His meal was a sad affair from start to finish. He even ate half my tiramisu because his dessert was so bad. His was the Ice Cream Bomb and the middle was soggy.

Overall we probably would not do Tony's again. It's one of those 'have to do it once' kind of places. Pinocchio's was a great tasting meal and so much food we could have shared one adult meal and one childs meal. Very fresh.

One more note... the disboard tip about hitting the CS right at 11am proved to be invaluable. Sometimes I would look behind me at just 11:10 and the people would be 10 deep in line whereas I was number one or two just a moment before. No waits for tables and you can hightail it out of there when it gets too loud and crowded. It is also so much cleaner at 11am than at even 11:30. Obvious point, I know, but the difference was amazing.

More to come... next up... Pecos Bill's and Crystal Palace

 

[saschab]

Very informative review, looking forward to more!

Thanks for the heads-up on the early check-in issue with DDP. I'm sure our room won't be available, as we're checking in at the crack of dawn.

 

[susieq76]

This is great!

 

[Local_Girl]

Thanks for the reviews...Pinocchio's has been getting pretty good reviews and we may have to try it...as for Tony's...I think we'll skip it for sure. It seems to be really hit or miss...Sorry it wasn't a great meal for your DH's birthday!

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent reviews ~ Looking forward to reading more.

 

[disneybound31]

Very informative review, looking forward to more!

Thanks for the heads-up on the early check-in issue with DDP. I'm sure our room won't be available, as we're checking in at the crack of dawn.

Thanks!
Yes, we also checked in very early in the morning after driving all night (wanted to get to the Magic Kingdom at opening!) and had no idea that our first attempt to use the DDP would have such drama. They consulted managers and made phone calls, all the while the line was getting longer and longer and I ended up having to go to the back and reorder using cash. It was very easy to get reimbursed later on, however. So if it happens to you, don't worry. It will work out!

 

[disneybound31]

Day 2- CS- Pecos Bills - (total meal cost $42)

This meal was overall pretty good. DH and I had the double bacon cheeseburger meal- his with fries, mine with carrots and 2 peanut butter mousse brownie things. The burgers were a bit dry but still tasted pretty good. I was looking forward to the fixings bar but there was no melted cheese sauce. We added grilled onions and mushrooms and that helped the dryness. Fries were great... brownie thing was super rich and we both just had a small bite and gave the kids a little. The kids shared a sloppy joe meal (both hated this) and chilled chicken meal (also disliked) so they subsisted this day on the grapes and carrots and applesauce that we chose for the kid meal sides. I will say that it made me happy to see so many more healthful choices as well as the standard fries and chips. We would choose as many different sides as each meal allowed to get a better variety of food to share amongst the four of us. We ate surprisingly healthy on this vacation meal plan.
Again we ate close to 11am and again, no waits. Plenty of tables. Back to the rides while others rushed to eat at noon.


TS- Crystal Palace- (total meal cost $102.00)

We had to wait a bit past our ADR time for this one, but that was fine because we got to watch a really neat performance happening on the steps of the Castle. The restaurant really is beautiful and has a relaxing atmosphere. I have read alot of reviews that say the food here is just okay but we really liked it. Our waiter was very nice and attentive, especially as this was a serve yourself buffet and he didn't 'have' to come around alot. But he got us refills without us having to ask and made sure we got to see all the characters. We were never rushed and stayed for quite a while to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. Now the food; there were lots of fruit choices for the children and tons of different salads. At least 6. There were assorted breads and desserts that were pretty standard. But the buffet itself had a great penne dish- almost like an alfredo with a few mushrooms. Great garlic mashed potatoes (and I don't really like potatoes so these had to be good!) and the corn spoonbread was so good I got three helping of it! I'm not ashamed to admit that. It was that good! I didn't try any of the meats, but DH said they were all good. Salmon, a pulled pork and prime rib. He tried all three. The kids bar had standard mac and cheese, chicken tenders and green beans but the kids ate off our plates as well and enjoyed it. The desserts were red velvet cheesecake (just okay), tiramisu (really good!) some kind of brownie and an apple crisp I didn't try. The kids made ice cream sundaes and had a ball. This was one of our favorite table service meals for the week and DD4 loved hugging Pooh and friends. DS7 looked pretty happy too.

Next up... Sunshine Seasons and Garden Grill

 

[swankybeth]

Great reviews, looking forward to the next installment. Sorry to hear about your experience at Tony's, it sounded very disappointing.

 

[disneybound31]

CS- Sunshine Seasons - (total meal cost $45)
The look of this counter service was a bit intimidating to me. The menu boards were a little confusing to figure out as far as the DDP was concerned and the pictures were digital and would switch before I could figure out what each meal included. I ended up just asking each vendor and being so flustered I forgot to get any desserts and had to go back through the crowds. Just remember drink, entree, dessert... for every counter service meal. Between the four of us we had: Veggie Cuban sandwich (a bit soggy and huge- hard to eat- tasted just ok) DH had Mongolian beef with rice and broccoli (said it was great and was a nice size and presentation) kids both had the 'make your own sandwich' kids meal which consisted of a very hard, crusty roll (they both hated) ham, salami, cheese, lettuce and tomato with either a side of applesauce or grapes. I have forgotten to add that the kids almost always drank white milk, DH almost always had Sprite and I usually got a bottled water so I could take it with me in the parks. So... when I realized nobody had any dessert I took my reciept back in there and got a fruit tulip (great!! thanks Dis reviews) a piece of chocolate layer cake (yum) and 2 frosted chocolate brownies for the kids. The 'bakery' guy said I could pick anything I wanted out of the case for our 4 dessert credits. They had some really wonderful looking things in there! Side note: there were plenty of tables here and separate dining areas. Except for the rare table where people left their trash this was a very clean, restful place to eat lunch. We liked it.

TS- Garden Grill (total meal cost $102.04)
We were so happy with this restaurant experience. First, the rotating aspect through the Living with the Land pavilion was neat for the kids and allowed us to enjoy our meal leisurely which has happened exactly twice since our becoming parents. (excluding 'date nights' of course) We asked for and got a table on the lower level where the view is best. Our server Jennifer was very friendly and earned an extra tip for being so accomodating. The family style meal included a salad with some kind of walnut vinagrette that was very good and fresh. Rolls with that good citrus butter. The platter of food had turkey, catfish and flank steak which were all very good. Some report the turkey is dry and maybe it is a little, but it is still good and anytime I can get food I didn't have to slave over... The sides were mashed potatoes (standard) and dressing that tasted familiarly like Stove-Top but for some reason I really snarfed this up. It had some little extra kick or something. Carrots (the kind with the green top ) and a few green beans. DH and I easily put the whole plate away and were so stuffed we only requested a bit more catfish even though this is all-you-can-eat. The kids platter was made up of; altogether now... mac and cheese, chicken tenders and fries. Good job, everybody. No veggies, which surprised me being as their m.o. is to serve what they grow. We shared with the kids.
Dessert was decorate your own cupcake for the kids, which they really got into and made neato creations. Have not figured out how to post pics yet. Sorry. And the adult dessert was like a banana bread pudding thing with chocolate topping and Bailey's hard sauce(?). I really dislike bananas so only DH ate some of this. Must not have been too great- he left most of it I noticed- and this is a man who will eat your socks if you're not looking. Luckily we are an active family or we would have had to be "rolled out" like they say at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Speaking of...

Up next...Tusker House and Whispering Canyon Cafe

 

[The Sweetness]

That dessert sounds icky. Maybe they'll let me have a cupcake instead

 

[angel's momma]

Thanks for the great reviews!

Are you sure it was Banana Bread Pudding? It was Vanilla when we were there on 10/1. (I too really dislike banana) I had never actually had Bread Pudding before. This tasted like the French Toast Loaf at MK, but not as cinnamon -y. That Bailey's stuff was EEWW, but I ended up eating almost all of the Bread Pudding, DD & DH just had a little.

I read on allears about Pecos not having the cheese sauce anymore.

I looked op allears for CP's garlic potato recipe (we loved them too), but they don't have it it. They do have the spoon cornbread though.

 

[disneybound31]

Thanks for the great reviews!

Are you sure it was Banana Bread Pudding? It was Vanilla when we were there on 10/1. (I too really dislike banana) I had never actually had Bread Pudding before. This tasted like the French Toast Loaf at MK, but not as cinnamon -y. That Bailey's stuff was EEWW, but I ended up eating almost all of the Bread Pudding, DD & DH just had a little.

I read on allears about Pecos not having the cheese sauce anymore.

I looked op allears for CP's garlic potato recipe (we loved them too), but they don't have it it. They do have the spoon cornbread though.

It might be just the bread pudding, no bananas. I thought the menu said with banana but you're probably right. I hardly tasted it and it was just mushy and not good. Thanks for the spoonbread recipe tip... I have to try to recreate this. It was fab.

 

[disneybound31]

Hi guys, I'm too tired to do any tonight. I'll add the next 2 tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

 

[phabric]

Looking forward to your next review.

 

[disneybound31]

Tusker House- CS (total meal cost $45-ish)

This meal did not disappoint. We tried to hit this right at 11am after our Safari ride (FP), great experience... as was Expedition Everest. Our DD4 wanted to ride EE and although we were hesitant, she loved this ride! We called her our roller-coaster girl the whole trip. She wanted to do rides that made made the rest of us think twice. She was close to a trantrum when she found out she did not make the height requirement for Rockin' Roller Coaster. But this is about food, not rides... Back to Tusker House. I had the salmon/green beans/ rice meal and this was just as great as everyone describes. I don't see how they get every salmon meal to be perfect. I have never read where anyone has said uh, I didn't like this so much. If you exist then please post so we know the one person out of the thousands who have loved this meal. Truly great. And, by the way, I really liked this food. Moving on... DH had the fried chicken sandwich and folks it is huge. With fries and Sprite. The kids had --- I can't remember because I lost the reciept, but I'll get back to ya. Whatever it was they ate it pretty well. Then they snarfed up the chocolate cake and cheesecake that I got with the meals. The cake was very rich and the cheesecake was that REAL and thick kind that one can usually eat just a couple bites of, but for the sake of the disboards I made sure to finish the remainders in order to give a true and honest review. Yep, I did it for you guys. I know you've done it for me. Tusker House. A+. Go there.

After leaving the Animal Kingdom around 4:00 ish we went back to POP for some arcade time and a small rest with a side of cartoons. Then we headed via bus and boat to the Wilderness Lodge and Whispering Canyon Cafe . I'm really not into audience participation at restaurants, but I wanted a wide range of dining experiences for my family so I booked this. It ended up being a very fun evening after my family got into it a little and after I eyeballed my husband into submission regarding ketchup calls. He is used to just eating-- not moving around and 'getting into character'. But he quickly found his inner child and we had fun. DH got the all-you-care-to-eat skillet with the cornbread (so good- can be recreated easily with Jiffy mix) the salad with vinagrette and he was happy. I ordered the nachos as app with my meal 'cause I knew everyone would like to share these. Threre were not tons of them but it was plenty. They were not as greasy as I expected and the chili on them was particularly good. DD4 and I ate most of these. I had then ordered the chicken pasta as my entree. It had penne pasta in a rich, creamy, spicy alfredo type sauce with grilled chicken and broccoli. I think it also had a little grilled red onion in there. The first few, hot bites of this were fabulous! Then suddenly it got way too rich and I had it boxed up to take back to the hotel. After refridgeration it was not edible... just a big ... I decided to stop there because this WAS good until I got too full and I don't want to discourage anyone from getting it. I'll just say it was NOT good as leftovers and leave it at that. The kids had a hotdog and fries meal and a hotdog and fries meal. We should have just ordered one and had them share it, but this being our first trip I was fearful about sharing and always got each person thier own meal. (I know- sharing in that sense is not the debate- I just wanted to be sure everyone was full and happy) For dessert the kids had worms and dirt. This was pretty much chocolate pudding with crushed oreos and gummy worms. Cute, but not so tasty as reported by both children. I had the chocolate cake with some kind of liqeur on it.. let me check back in on that. Have no idea what DH got but he ate all of it. I have lost the reciepts for this whole day so I need to consult the allears menu and then I'll add them later.
Overall, this experience was worth the bus/boat ride over and just seeing the Wilderness Lodge was a treat. Parts of it were under refurb but it was still beautiful. As a matter of fact, the kids say the short boat ride was one of their favorite things about this evening. It's fun to try as many things as possible and sometimes they end up being "free".

Up next...La Cantina in Mexico and Coral Reef
(plus snacking around the Food and Wine Festival)
(plus the "I can't find my kids any lunch" fiasco)
(plus my DH has one too many ethnic beers)

*Update--- At Tusker House the kids shared between the mac/chees with applesauce and grapes and the Drumstick/Mashed potatoes meal with carrots and grapes. Neither liked the drumstick... it was very greasy and had the skin on.
At WCC I had the kiluea chocolate cake (it was layered and very yummy) and DH got the bottomless chocolate shake which he didn't even finish once to refill after eating the skillet. Good meal.

 

[disneybound31]

Cantina at Mexico -- The plan for this day was to eat around teh world since it is Food and Wine Festival time. But as soon as we got to Mexico (we decided to go left to explore World Showcase Epcot) everyone said they were hungry. So I got one combination platter to share amongst us. It had a beef burrito that wasn't too bad. The black beans and salsa (too hot) were not really eaten. The cheese quesadilla was pretty much a fried dough concoction with a little cheese in the middle. Very greasy and not so tasty. The chicken taco had very little flavor. So all in all we wish we had just kept walking. This cost $14.85/ one CS credit.

By the time we got past Norway the kids were very hungry and I said 'Don't worry, there will be hotdogs or hamburgers around the bend at USA'. I was wrong. Or at least I didn't look hard enough. I'm pretty sure that if I went into the big white building I would have found that, but I seem to remember that there might be like a cart or something. But no luck. We were so hot and tired that we grabbed a big pretzel and they split it with the promise that we would find real food shortly. That never happened. I had to keep reminding myself that they would not die from missing a 'real' lunch one day of their lives. Some of my friends kids hardly eat anything of nutritional value ever and they are still standing. So... we progressed. Stopped into Italy to get a pinot grigio (very good on a hot day- just enough too, not a big serving to make one feel bogged down while walking) DH stopped in at Germany to have a cold one. A Beck's that is. Then he stopped again at Ireland and had a Guinness (I'm raising an eyebrow because we hardly ever drink and I'm not sure he's done 'sampling') I used a snack credit to get a relatively tiny cup of leek and potato soup. This was so great and had parmesan crisps on top. Salty and flavorful. Almost wish I had gotten a Guinness with it, and I really dislike beer. My son wanted a try ((of the SOUP)) (because I think he was starving) and loved it so he used a snack credit too. We moved on to France. Does anyone know how you get to the eiffel tower replica? Can it be done? We really wanted a picture but were too tired to ask anyone if it's possible. On to Canada where I needed to try the cheese soup. Again a snack credit. Again a tiny serving, but man was this good! I should have gotten more. DS7 tried mine and went straight into the line to procur his own micro-serving of soup. DH had a LeBatt. And we concluded our tour of World Showcase and returned to POP for a rest before our 7pm ADR at Coral Reef. I was excited about this but it turned out to be a bit disappointing. A few parts were nice, but I need to take a break to do a bit of laundry so I will finish up later. Thanks for reading.

 

[disneybound31]

Is anybody out there? I'm getting a bit discouraged by the lack of posts and worry that no one is out there or worse, no one likes ANYTHING about my reviews. I admit to being tired and limited in my wit this quarter... but hi? anyone?

Pressing forward with the reviews---

Coral Reef - (total meal cost $133.42)

I both liked and disliked this meal. First off, when I made this ADR eons ago I did with the intention of getting the shrimp cocktail appy, crabcake entree and chocolate wave to finish. Then the dread menu change. So then I searched for the next four weeks here on the dis reviews for an alternate meal that was getting raves. Here's where I got into trouble. I went with the lobster soup which in my humble opinions was way too thick and rich. Very, very little lobster or crab to be found. I tried dipping the table bread in to it (standard thin sliced floured bread with standard butter) and it was better. But I had to stop eating after just a few bites of this soup. For entree I had the much raved and touted blackened catfish on cheese grits with balsamic/smoked tomato compote. Terrible. I mean it, and I really love all fish and seafood. I look forward to trying new things, but this was too spicy and then the cheese grits... obviously I had a different expectation. These were thick and the "cheese" flavor was almost like.. well, I don't even have any way to describe how strange. And blah. And blech. I almost sent this back and I never do that. DH tried it and agreed that maybe something was just wrong with it. The chocolate wave was everything wonderful that has been said about it. It is warm and gooey and melty and super chocolatey and has a very small amount, although unique and tasty vanilla ice cream/sorbet on the side. Run-on sentence aside... this is one great dessert.

DH had ceasar salad appy. This was several large leaves of lettuce with an appropriate amount of really tasty ceasar dressing and large crunchy croutons. He pronounced this great and allowed me one small bite to for the sake of reviewing. It was good. For entree he ordered the shrimp pasta even after I mention that it may not be what he is expecting. (DH loves any seafood pasta with cream/alfredo style sauce) It turns out to be more of an Asian dish with wheat look like rice noodles and some diced veggies. The shrimp are a nice size and plentiful. He says I was right; not what he expected, but very nicely done and tasty all the same. He finished all of this. For dessert he also had the choc. wave. I think I left him no choice. He loved it.

The kids again had a mix of different foods as we would split everything we ordered for them down the middle to give them more of a variety. So between the two of them (with 2 child TS credit used) they ate pita pizza (good they say), carrots and celery with ranch dip (good), mixed fresh fruit plate (good they say), and for dessert they both had the create-your-own-sundae and were so enthralled with the presentation and the 'creating'.

All in all we had a very relaxing and enjoyable dinner. The ADR was running on schedule so no wait. We were on about the third tier (not farthest away) so we could have been closer to the tank, but that is my fault for forgetting to request closer. We could still see it fine even though the water was a bit murky. When a front table vacated I took the kids up for a close-up look (I would never peer over someone's shoulder to show my kids some fish! Just wait til someone finishes.) We probably would not do this dinner again even though we are glad to have tried it once. It's one of those 'try it once' kinda places. I see the mahi mahi gets pretty good review though... might need to plan another trip...hmm

Up next-Backlot Express (MGM) and Mama Melrose (Fantasmic Pkg)

 

[TyRy]

Tusker House- CS (total meal cost $45-ish)

*Update--- At Tusker House the kids shared between the mac/chees with applesauce and grapes and the Drumstick/Mashed potatoes meal with carrots and grapes. Neither liked the drumstick... it was very greasy and had the skin on.

I have to agree with your kids - I had the adult chicken meal. It just tasted slimy - that's the only word I can think of to describe it. It was the WORST meal of our whole trip. My DH had a salad and that was great - we ended up splitting that. Glad I was on free dining - we won't be going back to Tusker House any time soon.

Ty

 

[Tarheel Tink]

Enjoying the reviews! I'm looking forward to the Mama Melrose Fantasmic review- I've never eaten there and have it booked in December.

 

[shovan]

Thanks for the great reviews & tips! Can't wait to hear more!