wrldpossibility
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2005
We just got back yesterday from 10 wonderful days! I haven't tackled a whole trip report yet, but I thought I could start with a dining review while it's still fresh in my memory! We were a group of 7 (2 grandparents, 2 parents, and 3 kids--7, 5, 2) and were on the DDP. The kids and I are vegetarians (ovo-lacto). I'm going to review the TS places, and just give an overview of most and least favorites for the CS.
Overall, we felt the DDP was a good choice for us. It was our first trip to WDW, and the DP allowed us to venture to restaurants I would not have known about if I hadn't planned on TS. It also allowed us to go to Hoop and two character meals that we may have had to cut from the budget otherwise. Our only frustration with the DP was that a few times, we really would have rather have been spending time in the park instead of stuck at a TS for an hour +. The meals were good, but we have small children and they became impatient at times. In hindsight, I should have scheduled one more character meal in place of a regular TS. Otherwise, a good choice for us! We used all our credits by the last day, so no problem there.
Chef Mickey's
We began our whole trip with a "brunch" at CM, at 10:30 on a Monday. We checked in a few minutes before, took our picture (yes, we bought it...we're suckers), and were seated within 10 minutes. Keep in mind that my kids have never been to WDW or a character meal in their lives. They had their autograph books in hand and were READY! They loved it! I didn't know what my 2-yr-old would think, but he was more excited than anyone. He waves and called to the characters, but once they were at our table, he got shy, and wouldn't look at them directly. All my pictures have him looking down at his feet. The characters came fairly quickly and regularly to our table, and did not rush away. My kids had Disney shirts with their names on them (thanks NickandJuliasMom) and the characters made a fuss over them. The food was good (I hardly ate, spending all my energy on getting my camera out and making sure DSs ate a few bites between characters). I do remember the cheese blitzes were good, and the Mickey waffles (our first for the trip). Honestly I would have loved CM no matter what the food was like, because the kids loved it so much!
Coral Reef
Unfortunately, I have to post about our worst meal early in the review. (I'm going chronologically or I'll forget where we ate!) First off, why oh why didn't I listen to you, the wise DIS boards?? I read many bad reviews of Coral Reef, but just enough good ones to keep our ADR. I wish I had changed it. We got there after 4 hours touring FW, so the kids were tired but not completely mushed. Hungry, though! We checked in 10 minutes before our ADR (6:10) and were seated about 10 minutes later. We had a good table one tier back from the tank. I have to say I pictured this restauarant differently. I thought the aquarium wrapped all the way around, since I had read you "can't have a bad table". I don't think that's accurate. I was glad we were seated where we were, because I don't think we could have seen much further back. We sat near the giant sea turtle, which was cool. We also had some scuba divers pass by. Fun.
Now onto the bad. Keep in mind that we are not complainers. It has to be pretty bad to get a squeak out of us. Our server arrived and was out and out rude. He slapped menus down and walked away. 10 minutes later we got drinks. He didn't seem to speak English well, so it is possible that was the reason he appeared rude, but I don't think so. We were suddenly worried that this would be how we were treated everywhere on the DDP (first TS besides CM, remember). We finally ordered. My mom ordered the salmon, and my husband some kind of steak. I can't recall exactly. I ordered the vegetarian dish, which was a vegetable strudel pastry. The kids both ordered the pita pizza with no chicken. We asked that an extra plate be brought, as DS2 would share. Our server seemed very annoyed by that, which led to us clarifying if we were allowed to do that (wanted to make sure it was ok). He acted like we were trying to get a free meal for him--he was just going to share.
By this time DS2 is squirmy, hungry, and tired of the aquarium (of course no one's fault but our own). The adults procede to take turns taking him out to play by the Nemo entrance (he loved the "mine" seagulls). So through the rest of this review you have to picture the adults all tag-teaming it with the toddler. Our appies arrive (salad for the adults, veggies for the kids). They are fine. Then we wait 50 minutes for the entrees. (Enough time for DS2 to go on Nemo 5 times, BTW...no wait!) By this time the other kids are very hungry and grouchy too, but they behave well. The kids' pizzas arrive with chicken on them, my mom's salmon is completely raw in the center, and DH's steak is rare (he asked for well done). We really don't like to complain, but I do need to send the pizzas back because the kids are starving and can't eat them with the chicken. We get those 25 minutes later. By this time DS2 is crying he's so hungry. They eat the pizzas and like them.
Meanwhile, my mom can't even eat her salmon (just tried a few bites). When the server comes to clear, he asks about it, and she explains that it was too raw to eat. He tries to convince her that that's how salmon is supposed to be prepared. No. Just no. He asks if she wants another, but it will just take too long for the kids to wait, so she declines. My veggie pastry was very good, by the way. Usually the token veggie dish in a seafood or steak place is pretty bad, and I was expecting that, but I was pleasantly surprised.
We wait another 20 minutes for dessert. I would have left before, but we had promised the kids the make-your-own sundaes. They only get one dessert a day, and had been "saving up" for it. I had the chocolate wave, which was ok, but nothing too exciting, and DH had the creme brulee, I think. My mom was currently running outside with DS2. In the end the server comped my mom's salmon (we did not ask him to), so that was nice. But he continued to be short and rude throughout the meal. By the time we got out of there, we were scared to death of the DDP! We thought every TS would be like this...maybe this is the norm?! My mom was sick the whole night from the salmon, too. I'm not saying it was food poisoning, but it definitely upset her stomach. Luckily, this was our ONLY bad meal the entire trip!
Up next, Sci Fi and Boma!
Overall, we felt the DDP was a good choice for us. It was our first trip to WDW, and the DP allowed us to venture to restaurants I would not have known about if I hadn't planned on TS. It also allowed us to go to Hoop and two character meals that we may have had to cut from the budget otherwise. Our only frustration with the DP was that a few times, we really would have rather have been spending time in the park instead of stuck at a TS for an hour +. The meals were good, but we have small children and they became impatient at times. In hindsight, I should have scheduled one more character meal in place of a regular TS. Otherwise, a good choice for us! We used all our credits by the last day, so no problem there.
Chef Mickey's
We began our whole trip with a "brunch" at CM, at 10:30 on a Monday. We checked in a few minutes before, took our picture (yes, we bought it...we're suckers), and were seated within 10 minutes. Keep in mind that my kids have never been to WDW or a character meal in their lives. They had their autograph books in hand and were READY! They loved it! I didn't know what my 2-yr-old would think, but he was more excited than anyone. He waves and called to the characters, but once they were at our table, he got shy, and wouldn't look at them directly. All my pictures have him looking down at his feet. The characters came fairly quickly and regularly to our table, and did not rush away. My kids had Disney shirts with their names on them (thanks NickandJuliasMom) and the characters made a fuss over them. The food was good (I hardly ate, spending all my energy on getting my camera out and making sure DSs ate a few bites between characters). I do remember the cheese blitzes were good, and the Mickey waffles (our first for the trip). Honestly I would have loved CM no matter what the food was like, because the kids loved it so much!
Coral Reef
Unfortunately, I have to post about our worst meal early in the review. (I'm going chronologically or I'll forget where we ate!) First off, why oh why didn't I listen to you, the wise DIS boards?? I read many bad reviews of Coral Reef, but just enough good ones to keep our ADR. I wish I had changed it. We got there after 4 hours touring FW, so the kids were tired but not completely mushed. Hungry, though! We checked in 10 minutes before our ADR (6:10) and were seated about 10 minutes later. We had a good table one tier back from the tank. I have to say I pictured this restauarant differently. I thought the aquarium wrapped all the way around, since I had read you "can't have a bad table". I don't think that's accurate. I was glad we were seated where we were, because I don't think we could have seen much further back. We sat near the giant sea turtle, which was cool. We also had some scuba divers pass by. Fun.
Now onto the bad. Keep in mind that we are not complainers. It has to be pretty bad to get a squeak out of us. Our server arrived and was out and out rude. He slapped menus down and walked away. 10 minutes later we got drinks. He didn't seem to speak English well, so it is possible that was the reason he appeared rude, but I don't think so. We were suddenly worried that this would be how we were treated everywhere on the DDP (first TS besides CM, remember). We finally ordered. My mom ordered the salmon, and my husband some kind of steak. I can't recall exactly. I ordered the vegetarian dish, which was a vegetable strudel pastry. The kids both ordered the pita pizza with no chicken. We asked that an extra plate be brought, as DS2 would share. Our server seemed very annoyed by that, which led to us clarifying if we were allowed to do that (wanted to make sure it was ok). He acted like we were trying to get a free meal for him--he was just going to share.
By this time DS2 is squirmy, hungry, and tired of the aquarium (of course no one's fault but our own). The adults procede to take turns taking him out to play by the Nemo entrance (he loved the "mine" seagulls). So through the rest of this review you have to picture the adults all tag-teaming it with the toddler. Our appies arrive (salad for the adults, veggies for the kids). They are fine. Then we wait 50 minutes for the entrees. (Enough time for DS2 to go on Nemo 5 times, BTW...no wait!) By this time the other kids are very hungry and grouchy too, but they behave well. The kids' pizzas arrive with chicken on them, my mom's salmon is completely raw in the center, and DH's steak is rare (he asked for well done). We really don't like to complain, but I do need to send the pizzas back because the kids are starving and can't eat them with the chicken. We get those 25 minutes later. By this time DS2 is crying he's so hungry. They eat the pizzas and like them.
Meanwhile, my mom can't even eat her salmon (just tried a few bites). When the server comes to clear, he asks about it, and she explains that it was too raw to eat. He tries to convince her that that's how salmon is supposed to be prepared. No. Just no. He asks if she wants another, but it will just take too long for the kids to wait, so she declines. My veggie pastry was very good, by the way. Usually the token veggie dish in a seafood or steak place is pretty bad, and I was expecting that, but I was pleasantly surprised.
We wait another 20 minutes for dessert. I would have left before, but we had promised the kids the make-your-own sundaes. They only get one dessert a day, and had been "saving up" for it. I had the chocolate wave, which was ok, but nothing too exciting, and DH had the creme brulee, I think. My mom was currently running outside with DS2. In the end the server comped my mom's salmon (we did not ask him to), so that was nice. But he continued to be short and rude throughout the meal. By the time we got out of there, we were scared to death of the DDP! We thought every TS would be like this...maybe this is the norm?! My mom was sick the whole night from the salmon, too. I'm not saying it was food poisoning, but it definitely upset her stomach. Luckily, this was our ONLY bad meal the entire trip!
Up next, Sci Fi and Boma!