Six Days of Free Dining- My goodness it's a lot of food!! Added BOG, 'Ohana, HEA Dessert Party

stace1214

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 21, 2008
We just returned from a six night stay at WDW. We had some awesome meals and some so-so ones. No pics though- sorry! We had no problem using our quick service and table service credits, but really struggled to use our snack credits. We just were not hungry with all the bigs. Lots of credits ended up going to snacks to bring home. Our party consists of me, my awesome hubby and two kids ages 7 and 5. I'm not going to mention all the kids meals, they are picky and pretty much stuck to burger, hotdogs and nuggets all week.
Day 1:
Breakfast at Garden Grill- So yummy! Our favorite was the Mickey waffles and chocolate hazelnut sauce. I thought the menu has biscuits and sausage gravy on it, but we didn't get any. We were too stuffed to care though. Character interaction wasn't super. It was very rushed. Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale all came by but they didn't want to interact much. It was a fast sign the autograph book and a very quick pic. I was disappointed by that.
Lunch: Sunshine Seasons- We were not starved, but wanted something small to tide us over till dinner. We shared the mongolian beef and fried rice. It was very good, a little spicy and enough for my husband I to share. Kids shared a plain buttered pasta and turkey meatballs. They liked it, so it must have been good!
Dinner: 1900 Park Fare- This was so much fun and everything was delicious! The characters all spent so much time talking to the kids. I especially liked the strawberry soup. My husband raved about the spinach and quinoa salad. Kids loved how the children's area was kid sized. They both liked the pizza. Desserts were all so good too. I would definitely go back on our next trip.

Day 2:
We had a quick breakfast in the room and made our way to Animal Kingdom.
Lunch: Flame Tree BBQ- this is a must do every trip for us. I had the sampler platter and my husband had a salad. The meats were all delish, but I wasn't a big fan of the sides. The beans were really awful, very hard and had a horrible taste. My husband like his salad- it was simple, lettuce and chicken with a vinaigrette.
Dinner: Boma- This is one of my favorites. There's something for everyone, even my picky kiddos. The salads are my favorite on the buffet and those zebra domes- YUM! My husband liked the carving station best. My kids ate their weight in meatballs and dinner rolls.

Day 3:
Breakfast: Hollywood and Vine- not going to lie, I was not looking forward to this one after all the negative reviews but to be honest it wasn't bad at all. It's breakfast and you can't really screw up french toast sticks! I really liked the hashbrown casserole and pastries. My husband thought the eggs were much better than what he had at Garden Grill. The characters were great, but after being seated right at 8, we had to wait until 9 until the last one came around. We had hoped to be out a little faster, but it was Sofia we were waiting for that is who my daughter really wanted to meet.
Lunch: We had a quick lunch at Backlot Express. We shared a couple meals- chicken nuggets and Darth Vader waffles- both very good, and the Royal Guard burger, also really tasty. This was a great spot for lunch- nice and cool and a drink fountain so we could re-fill water bottles.
Dinner: Sci-Fi Dine in- not good at all. We went for the atmosphere, I knew the kids would think it was so cool and they did, but honestly it was so bad. I had a reuben and cucumber salad. Salad was good, reuben was tasteless. My husband had another salad, he asked for the salad without cheese and without the creamy dressing and it was covered in both. Although the food was awful, our waiter was so much fun! He was hilarious and we really had a good time.
 
enjoying your report! we are also on free dining and will be there in 13 days!
 
@stace1214 we had some of the same experiences. We went to Hollywood and Vine thinking it would be horrible and it wasn't at all. We always used to love Sci Fi and the food definitely has changed. We don't like it anymore. We used to go to Flame Tree all the time until this past trip where we tried the new place Santu'li Canteen and it was fantastic - so no Flame Tree this trip. We also loved 1900 PF - it was so much fun and also Boma - this is our favorite restaurant - especially for breakfast.

Sounds like you had a great trip.
 


Okay- back at it!
Thursday: After a quick breakfast in the room we headed to Epcot for morning EMH. After a quick ride on Test Track, Soarin' and Mission Space we headed toward World Showcase for Frozen Ever After. It was hot, humid and so sunny so the leisurely walk around World Showcase to sample Food and Wine yummies changed to a quick walk around while briefly looking at each country before getting back to our resort to swim. My husband and kids ate at Liberty Inn ( super adventurous, right?!) and really liked it. Josh had the red, white and blue chicken salad that he said was the best salad he'd had the whole week and kids had kid food- burger for one, nuggets for the other. My favorite quick service is always the bakery in France. I crave the ham and cheese croissant with bechamel. Yum! My mouth waters just thinking about it. I didn't care that it was 98 million degrees, I had to have that sandwich. After that we took a very fast walk through the rest of world showcase with plans to return the next night.

Dinner: Be Our Guest! We hadn't eaten here before and were very excited to try it. It was MUCH louder than I had expected. Definitely a place that it's okay to bring loud children, mine certainly didn't stick out! I had the steak and although it was good, it wasn't any better than what we make at home. I was a bit dissapointed. My husband had the braised beef and raved about it. I had a small bite and it really was delicious. I wish I had ordered that instead. My son had the children's steak and really liked it and my daughter had mac and cheese and liked it as well. For dessert I had the grey stuff and it was just "meh" for me. Josh had a strawberry cupcake was so tasty- not overly sweet but really nice. The kids both picked chocolate cupcakes and only ate a few bites, they were a little dry. I'm glad we were able to get this reservation, I'm not sure I'd go back again. Most likely a one and done for me.

Friday
Breakfast: In the room
Lunch: Pecos Bill's in MK. This was another first for us- WOW! It was a great!! I had the fajita platter and shared it with one of the kids. It was definitely big enough to share. Everything on it was very fresh and tasty. Josh had another salad (he's been dieting and really stuck with it all week) that he said was pretty good, but not as good as the one at Liberty Inn.
Dinner: 'Ohana! My favorite! This is a must do every trip for us, but this time was a little different. We were seated very quickly and were greeted by a very friendly server who took drink orders immediately and as soon as she walk away the salad was brought out. It was a very rushed dinner. We had only had a few bites of salad when the platter of noodles, wings and pot stickers was dropped off and then just a few minutes later she came around with the meats. Although the food was excellent I can't believe how rushed we were. They are trying to turn tables so quickly. Our server was so nice, but really moved us along. It was not the relaxing meal it usually is. My kids were looking forward to coconut races, but they didn't happen while we were there.

Saturday
Breakfast: PPO at Be Our Guest. We were let in around 7:45 and got some perfect pictures in front of a mostly empty main street and castle- so cool!! We had pre-ordered so it was very quick. Our reservation wasn't until 8:25 but we were among the first called in right at 8am. We sat in the West Wing (it scared my 5 year old a bit) and our breakfast was brought out pretty quickly. Josh had the scrambled egg whites, turkey sausage and roasted tomato which he said was really great. I had the assorted meats and cheeses platter. I'm not a fan of breakfast foods, this was perfect for me. The meats were all wonderful, I didn't try the cheese. It was a soft cheese, maybe brie? and I'm not a fan of soft cheeses. The kids shared one Feast a la Gaston. It was quite large and more than enough for the two to share. They liked the pastries as well. I loved that we could take coffee with us!! We were out by 8:30 and already there was a line formed for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We jumped in line, were about 10 people from the front and were able to ride twice with no wait before the park opened. We could have gone a third time, but wanted to head to Big Thunder Mountain before it got busy
Lunch: We were staying at Caribbean Beach and headed back to spend the afternoon at the pool. We ate lunch there and yuck!! Never again! Cold burgers, brown salads, really not good.
Dinner: We wanted something rather small, we were going to the Happily Ever After Fireworks Dessert Party that night. I took the kids to Cosmic Rays where we shared the chicken platter. It was plenty for the three of us- chicken, green beans and mashed potatoes. My husband went to Columbia Harbor House and had the grilled salmon. He loved it, one of his favorites of the week.

Dessert Party: We saw that people were lined up around 7:15 and it didn't begin until 7:45 but since it was pouring and I had had enough of being in the rain, we headed over early and they started letting people in around 7:30. My kids were in their glory seeing all the desserts! We tried a bit of everything. I liked the s'mores dessert, and the strawberry tart and of course the chocolate covered strawberries. The kids really liked the ice cream sundae's and the kids platter that had a marshmallow, brownie, rice krispie treat and chocolate sauce. It was fun and the spot to watch HEA was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Overall thoughts: I don't think we would use the dining plan again. It was so much food. We had so many snack credits left over and ended up up just buying lots to bring home. The one credit table service weren't as good this time as in the past. I think in the future we will eat less table service and instead maybe eat at two credit restaurants. It was a truly amazing trip and I just can't wait to start planning our next one!!
 
Can you tell me about Ohana? We have never been and am curious if it would be fun for a three year old? Are there characters and entertainment?
 

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