Seven days DxDDP - sorry no pics but lots of restaurants!

[lemondog]

Hey everyone. Sorry I have no pics - my 3 teenage daughters were mortified, however I did manage to sneak in a couple. Just got back from one week DxDDP (June 24-July 1). Restaurants covered include:

BREAKFAST:
-Sassagoula Floatworks
-The Wave
-1900 Park Fare
-Chef Mickey's
-Kona Cafe

LUNCH:
-Rose & Crown Pub
-Tusker House
-Pinocchio Village Haus
-Sci-Fi Dine In
-Garden Grill

DINNER:
-'Ohana
-Narcoosee's
-Biergarten
-Cinderella's Royal Table
-Hoop de Doo Revue
-Crystal Palace
-Mama Melrose

Reviews to follow!

 

[Mich123]

I'm in--completely understand mortified teenagers!

 

[lemondog]

ROSE & CROWN LUNCH:

We arrived around 10:00 am and our rooms were not ready yet so we headed over to Epcot to explore the countries. Lunch was at Rose & Crown Pub. Reservation was for 1:05 but we were starving around 12:15 and luckily they were able to seat us! With 6 of us on the DxDDP and 6 appetizers, we decided to get one of each and share. My kids LOVED the House Made Pasty w/ chicken and leek. The Smoked Salmon and Scotch Egg were a hit too, as was the Potato & Leek soup. All were inhaled. Coronation Salad was fine, we didn't really love the dressing (a bit too sour for me), and the Blue Cheese was completely wasted on the cheese platter as none of us like it. However the kids loved the other cheeses.

For entrees we enjoyed the Grilled New York Strip, Fried Fish, Grilled Scottish Salmon, Pub Burger and the little princess had the Grilled Chicken, rice and green beans from the kids menu. We were all fairly impressed with how flavorful the steak was. It was cooked to perfection as well. Served with loaded Yorkshire pudding which was basically glorified cheesy mashed potatoes in a pastry. Mine also came with a piece of fried fish which was delicious, especially with some malt vinegar on it! Hubby said his burger was fine, nothing special. The salmon was quite tasty. Little one's grilled chicken was quite dry though, as was the rice. She basically ate hubby's fries for lunch, lol.

For dessert I had the Sticky Toffee Pudding which was good, but nowhere near as good as 'Ohana bread pudding. Oldest DD enjoyed the Jaffa Tarts which I did not try as I really do not care for orange and chocolate together. DH had the Bannoffee Tart which he liked. The twins and the little princess had English Trifle which we all loved - anything made with strawberries and whipped cream is a hit in my book! Trifle was probably our favorite of all the desserts.

All in all a tasty meal we enjoyed, good service and we loved the dark wood/English pub atmosphere. Will probably eat here again.

 

[lemondog]

'OHANA DINNER:

We have been to WDW numerous times since we started vacationing here 8 years ago, and we ALWAYS have a customary first night dinner at 'Ohana. Reservations seem to be harder to get here as I booked at exactly 180 days out first thing in the AM and the earliest ADR I could get was 8:30. But no worries...'Ohana is worth the wait!

We arrived and checked in around 8:00 as we were all exhausted and hungry. They seated us by 8:10. Yay! Sometimes we have to wait a long time for a table here but not tonight! Of course the food immediately started coming in copious amounts - Pineapple Bread, salad, sticky wings, dumplings, noodles, veggies and of course...the meats. I gotta say, we have eaten here at least 10x and it seems to get better each time! The meats were superb this evening...extremely flavorful and juicy, and cooked just right! We eat our steak medium rare and this was perfectly cooked medium rare. They even brought the little princess a bowl of Mac and cheese, but she did like the chicken too. She loves shrimp but this was a little too spicy for her. The noodles were another hit. I find them a tad dry but the kids loved them. And of course no meal at 'Ohana would be complete without the famous Bananas Foster Bread Pudding. HEAVEN!!!! They also brought us some chocolate brownies and vanilla ice cream but who needs that when you have heaven in a bowl in front of you???

Believe it or not...we actually found a dessert on property we like BETTER than 'Ohana bread pudding. GASP!!!!! Is it even possible???? Yes it is! More on that to come!

All in all, another fabulous meal at 'Ohana. Just the perfect atmosphere at our favorite resort to kick off a Disney "dreamcation." Definitely will eat here again.

 

[lemondog]

SASSAGOULA FLOATWORKS BREAKFAST:

This was our first time staying at POFQ and since we had TS lunch and 2 TS dinner I made everyone get a breakfast for snack credit. The star here are the beignets and you can get TWO orders (3 beignets each) for only 1 snack credit. What a deal! To be honest, they were nowhere near as good as Cafe du Monde, but they were tasty and hit the spot since I love a nice sweet breakfast! One twin and I had the beignets, the little princess had a chocolate chip muffin, other twin a chocolate croissant and I honestly can't even remember what DH and oldest DD had, lol! There are quite a few bakery breakfast items available here so if you like that kind of thing, it's a good use for a snack credit and a quick and easy breakfast.

 

[lemondog]

TUSKER HOUSE LUNCH:

We usually start our day at AK with a first seating at TH breakfast (8:00 or 8:05) so as to be in the park pre-opening, however with the recent opening of Pandora and an earlier park opening (8 vs 9 am) we opted for lunch instead so we could hit Pandora first thing.

Our ADR was for 11:30, we showed up early as is our MO, around 11, and were seated immediately. Same characters, same awesome Jungle Juice (aka Pog, aka Lilikoi Juice) - our favorite non-alcoholic beverage in all of WDW. Luckily for my picky husband, they still had quite a few breakfast items out. In fact the entire family ate breakfast while I, being the more adventurous eater, opted for lunch. It was ok. Nothing amazing. The carved ham with sweet and spicy mustard was the best part. The watermelon feta salad looked amazing but was spicy as heck!!! Two bites was all I could handle.

Character interaction here was better than average, but I was underwhelmed by the lunch food. I think we will continue this meal but do a late breakfast - 10:30ish so we can still hit Pandora first thing which is a necessity if you want to ride both new rides with minimal wait (do boat ride first thing as stand by, get FP for FOP for later in the morning).

 

[lemondog]

NARCOOSEE'S DINNER:
DH and I always try and do a date night and this time we took advantage of having DxDDP to try a new one for us, Narcoosee's.

The meal started with crusty bread which was a little too crusty, as it flaked all over the table. Oh well, the inside of was warm and pillowy although not my favorite bread.

For appetizer I had the Watermelon Caprese salad which was an interesting twist on my favorite salad.

This was refreshing and delicious. I still prefer a classic Caprese but this was a nice change of pace. DH had the wedge salad which was pretty much what it sounds like, lol!

For entree DH had the Grass Fed filet mignon with mashed potatoes. He said it was good and cooked properly, but not the best steak he ever had. My lobster-obsessed self naturally went with the steamed Maine lobster!

Served with melted butter, fallen corn soufflé and asparagus. This was AWESOME! If you love lobster and have 2 meal credits or $72 to spare, go for it. You won't regret it. All of it was delicious.

We also added a special side dish, the Signature Mashed Potatoes, which contain all the goodness of a loaded baked potato - butter, cheese, bacon...the works! These were fabulous.

For dessert I had the Almond Crusted Cheesecake which was amazing, and DH had the Narcoosee's candy bar, which is basically dark chocolate on top of dark chocolate followed by chocolate ice cream. Delicious but extremely rich. Two bites would have been enough for me.

Happily Ever After was starting 5 minutes after our meal ended so we stepped out onto the deck to watch. They play the music at the perfect volume (unlike Poly beach where you can barely hear it) and the show was magnificent. Perfect ending to the perfect date night!

ETA: How could I fail to mention our amazing server Maura!! Probably one of the best servers we have ever had. She was so kind she even gave us 4 Mickey straws to take home to the kids.

 

[lemondog]

GARDEN GRILL LUNCH:

This was a new restaurant for us, and one of the twins really wanted to eat here so we decided to give it a try. We do love character meals!

We checked in around noon for our 12:20 ADR and were seated immediately. This restaurant is inside The Land at Epcot, and slowly rotates. In fact, we made exactly one full rotation during our meal and ended where we began, which took about an hour.

The meal started with a large garden salad with ranch dressing. The salad was good i loved the hard boiled egg topping, but the ranch itself was a little spicy for me. They also served bread with honey butter which was really good! Along with the salad came a small bowl of potato salad which was fine...nothing special. This was mayo-based, not mustard based like I am used to being from the south.

Next came a huge skillet full of food - turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce, pot roast, mashed potatoes, sausage with peppers and onions. It was all very good, comfort food at its finest. I think there was mac and cheese and green beans too...sad that I can't remember! We all enjoyed the meal. And it's all you care to eat so you can have as much as you want!

At the end came the true star of this show - the Berry shortcake dessert!!! This BLEW us away. We loved it so much we ate 2 full dishes worth and declared it the best dessert we ever had on property. Wow! Twin #1 cleaned her plate...several times. You can see the dessert in the foreground.

We truly enjoyed this meal and will most likely return again...if only for the dessert if nothing else!

 

[lemondog]

BIERGARTEN DINNER:

This is a usual stop for us because we have always lovedthe combination of atmosphere, music, beer and food.

I happen to love Biergarten. The food is different enough while still being comforting and delicious. Their Mac and cheese is AMAZING! Nothing like that neon orange crap they serve most places (which is nothing like Stouffers IMO I like Stouffers but really dislike the standard Disney mac and cheese). Anyway - this is a baked white Mac and cheese which is so good. I also love the sausages, schnitzel, potato dumplings, pretzel bread, warm potato salad. Heck...it's all good! Their berry compote with vanilla sauce is one of the best desserts on property, as are their homemade chocolate chip cookies.

I wish i could say the rest of the family liked Biergarten as much as I do, but alas they do not. They didn't really like any of the food (how that's possible I don't know) and 3 of the 4 kids are too old to enjoy the music and dancing anymore. They all requested I remove Biergarten from the rotation on future visits. So next time I guess it will have to be a solo trip for me if I want to eat there.

 

[DrunkJam]

Really enjoying your reviews thank you.
My DD is very taken with the look of that Garden Grill Dessert!

 

[lemondog]

THE WAVE BREAKFAST:

We have always loved doing a super early breakfast on the monorail before MK day, and we have eaten at The Wave only once before, so we decided to try it again.

Our ADR was for 7:30 and we arrived around 7:20 and were seated immediately. The place was practically empty so we had the buffet all to ourselves. This is one of the most affordable buffets on property and although the selection isn't huge everything is DELICIOUS! I should note you can also order off a regular menu but why would you when you have such an array of deliciousness at your disposal at the buffet!

The superstars here are the sweet potato pancakes with maple nut butter, the cheesy potatoes and cheese grits, and the delicious Greek yogurt parfaits. The other nice thing about this buffet is that you can order a custom omelet or eggs cooked to order from your server and it's all included. We all loved the food, quiet atmosphere and exemplary service here - our server even sent us off with several cold bottles of water to take with us. We will definitely be eating breakfast here again!

 

[jesswindsor]

Great Reviews!! Thank You for sharing!!!

 

[lemondog]

PINOCCHIO VILLAGE HAUS LUNCH:
I really enjoy doing a big breakfast, skipping lunch (or doing a snack), then a nice dinner. However, my kids tend to graze and need 3 meals per day, so we wandered into Pinocchio Village Haus around 11am even though we had eaten a big buffet breakfast that morning. My kids love this place because they can overlook Small World from inside. There were 2 characters hanging out inside too and interacting with customers - a random lord and lady. They were pretty entertaining.

All I wanted was a Diet Coke (yep, I'm an addict). The little princess got a Mac and cheese kids meal, one twin got pepperoni pizza and the oldest got chicken nuggets. Other twin just wanted some fries. The good here is standard fast food fare, nothing special. But it filled up the kids, was practically empty, and had strong air conditioning, all pluses in my book! Plus the view into Small World is pretty unique if you can snag a table right those windows.

 

[lemondog]

CINDERELLA'S ROYAL TABLE DINNER:
I was really wary of this one. Have read bad reviews, the menu is pretty limited, and it's hard to get an ADR. However with 4 daughters, including 2 who are obsessed with princesses, I decided we really needed to try it at least once. What better time than when on the DxDDP.

Our ADR was at 8:30. This was the earliest time I could snag despite booking at 5am
180 days out and checking the website constantly for cancellations. As it turned out this was the PERFECT time to dine - more in that in a minute.

Note that there is a very regimented process to checking in here - you will stand in a certain spot and they will not begin checking in your time slot until 5 minutes beforehand. So we got checked in at 8:25, had our photo op with Cinderella in the lobby, and then waited another 10 minutes to be seated upstairs.

We finally made it to our table and let me tell you, you truly feel like you are inside a castle. The atmosphere and decor is so unique. They do serve wine and champagne here if you are so inclined. The little princess had been begging for a light up Tinkerbell drink ever since she saw one on display at Garden Grill so I promised we would get her one tonight. Except lo and behold, CRT doesn't offer it!!!! Well the bottom lip began to tremble, the eyes welled with tears and Christopher our AMAZING server was on it!! He had his manager calling all over the Magic Kingdom until they found one at another restaurant. It wasn't Tink, it was Ariel. But it was still so very appreciated and the perfect example of how Disney goes above and beyond for their guests. She was thrilled as were we! Here she is with her light up Ariel (and the Tink she got the next day) which ended up being her favorite souvenirs.

The menu is not very big here. The 3 teenagers got the Charcuterie plate which they enjoyed, DH got the dinner salad and I got the soup of the day, Beef Tortilla. All very tasty. The little princess got a bowl of grapes and cheese cubes - perfect for her.

For entrees the 3 oldest all went with the Pork Tenderloin, DH and I chose the Beef Tenderloin, and the little one had the obligatory nasty Mac and cheese.

We LOVED the food here! The pork was perfectly cooked (not too dry or overdone), all 3 girls raved over it. DH and I are steak snobs, I will admit. We have eaten at steakhouses all over the World and are quite picky about our steaks. This one was absolutely superb! Cooked to perfection, perfectly seasoned. We truly could not believe we found such a great steak in the middle of Cinderella's castle, of all places! Dessert was delicious, some of us got the cheesecake thingy and some of us got the chocolate thingy, lol. During our meal we got to meet Jasmine, Ariel, Snow White and Aurora. We even got to see a marriage proposal which was AMAZING!!!

The true highlight of this meal, however, was the Happily Ever After fireworks. They began at 9pm and since our ADR was at 8:30 we had prime seats! If you have never seen the fireworks from inside the castle, it is truly a unique and amazing experience! They dim the lights and play the music, and it's just truly magical. The look on the little princess's face made this meal ENTIRELY worth 2 credits!

Do it at least once - you won't regret it! We loved it so much we hope to do it again next time.

 

[suse66]

Awesome reviews so far! We love Rose and Crown as well, always a solid choice for our family. Isn't Garden Grill great? I really enjoyed breakfast there last summer and it is fun to overlook the Land. I have twins as well as an older child (mine are 21 months apart) but they are boys and there is no cute little princess! Life is certainly never dull as parents of twins! CRT looks like it was a really fun experience and I love the look of awe on your youngest DD's face. We did Narcoosee's for our date night on our last family trip and really enjoyed it as well. That house made candy bar is to die for! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Great reviews! The look on your youngest daughter's face watching the fireworks is priceless

 

[lemondog]

1900 PARK FARE BREAKFAST:
We always do a "break" day midway thru our trip to relax, recharge, and let me get some laundry done (fun, fun).

Since it was our break day, I made breakfast ADR at 9:30 so we could sleep in a bit. We are a rope drop family so up at 6-6:15 most days. I chose this breakfast because one of the twins is obsessed with Alice, and I remember the character interaction being so great from when we dined here years ago.

We arrived and were seated promptly at 9:30. At most character meals this trip the characters were heading over before we could even get our drink order in, however somehow we arrived just as they finished their rotation at our table so we waited a while to see them. Good thing we had no plans today - and it gave us plenty of time to get our food.

The breakfast buffet here is one of the better ones, IMO. The omelet station is nice, and you can't find that amazing Strawberry Soup anywhere else! The selections here trend toward the traditional And there is really something here for everyone.

The stars here, though, are the characters. I promise you will find NO OTHER character on site quite like Mad Hatter. He is forever picking on Alice and irritatingMary Poppins. They all have such a great report together. You will also find Pooh here, and a photo op with Tigger after your meal in a vestibule. I believe I laughed the entire meal thanks to Mad Hatter's antics, and he thoroughly enjoyed photobombing oldest DD's selfie.

We loved this breakfast - both the food and characters. Definitely doing this one again!

 

[DrunkJam]

1900 PARK FARE BREAKFAST:
We always do a "break" day midway thru our trip to relax, recharge, and let me get some laundry done (fun, fun).

Since it was our break day, I made breakfast ADR at 9:30 so we could sleep in a bit. We are a rope drop family so up at 6-6:15 most days. I chose this breakfast because one of the twins is obsessed with Alice, and I remember the character interaction being so great from when we dined here years ago.

We arrived and were seated promptly at 9:30. At most character meals this trip the characters were heading over before we could even get our drink order in, however somehow we arrived just as they finished their rotation at our table so we waited a while to see them. Good thing we had no plans today - and it gave us plenty of time to get our food.

The breakfast buffet here is one of the better ones, IMO. The omelet station is nice, and you can't find that amazing Strawberry Soup anywhere else! The selections here trend toward the traditional And there is really something here for everyone.

The stars here, though, are the characters. I promise you will find NO OTHER character on site quite like Mad Hatter. He is forever picking on Alice and irritatingMary Poppins. They all have such a great report together. You will also find Pooh here, and a photo op with Tigger after your meal in a vestibule. I believe I laughed the entire meal thanks to Mad Hatter's antics, and he thoroughly enjoyed photobombing oldest DD's selfie.

We loved this breakfast - both the food and characters. Definitely doing this one again!

We are booked for this at the request of DS 11! I am super looking forward to it! Looks like fun!

 

[lemondog]

HOOP DEE DOO DINNER:
We have never done this before, as DH is NOT a fan of shows like this. However the kids were dying to go, and since we were on DxDDP we decided we could spare the 2 credits. We booked the 6:30 showing. Keep in mind, it can be a trek to get there. You could take the boat over from MK and be there, otherwise you must get to FW via car or bus, THEN wait for internal FW transport to get you to Pioneer Hall.

Doors open at 6:15 pm. When using the dining plan, you will be seated at a Category 2 table. We were towards the back of the main floor near the center - the last row before you went under the balcony. We could see the stage just fine and the characters do roam around so we had no trouble keeping up with the show. My one complaint here was the service. Our server didn't even show up to take drink orders for his tables until the rest of the tables around us had already had their drinks AND drank all of them! He was constantly late on stuff ALL night - bringing food, dashboards, etc. Not sure what the problem was.

The food was pretty good. Being from the south we know good southern food and this was just ok. The ribs were nice but very "wet" with sauce - I prefer a dry rub. The fried chicken was pretty good. The sides were just ho-hum - mashed potatoes and corn. They did bring a bowl of Mac and cheese at the request of the little princess so know that is available as well if you want it. The cornbread was soft and sweet - what I refer to as "northern cornbread," LOL. It was tasty, though. The nice thing about HDDR is that alcohol is included! I enjoyed some white sangria while DH had Yuengling on tap. Dessert was Strawberry Shortcake. It was ok, but nowhere near as good as the shortcake at Garden Grill. The cake part was totally different.

The show was completely corny and we LOVED EVERY MINUTE! Even DH said they did a great job! We all laughed nonstop. This was very enjoyable. I don't think we would do this every trip, but it is a fun experience and everyone should check it out at least once.

 

[Parker Clan]

Great reviews! We've eaten at many of the places you reviewed and loved them as well and I made note to try some of the others one we haven't tried that you reviewed!