So Many ADR's, So Little Time...COMPLETE 7/24!

Yay, Luke! Not that I don't like your normal posts, but yes, it is a treat! He's very funny.

It's ok, I know he's a much better writer than I am :) It is his profession after all haha!

Ooh...fun facts to know and tell.

One of my favourites. My #1 is probably to enter Animal Kingdom through Rainforest Cafe!


Haha...I don't like hot dogs, but I totally see your point here.

Now that I've finally tried a hot dog from Casey's, I can 100% agree with Luke's statement.

Booooooooooo, I hate that. I also miss my Good Morning song.

Yeah, I wish they were still holding people outside by the train station.

Yuck! I've heard that before, but luckily ours was warm when we went last year. We're doing lunch this year, because what we learned last year is there is no PPO breakfast and get to the ride before the park opens with a toddler. At least not with my toddler.

I enjoy BOG lunch the most of all three meals there! I can also see how a toddler might make it difficult to eat quickly and get out to the rides!

OMG, I'm always happy to hear someone else say that. It's a fine ride. I'll (somewhat reluctantly) use a FP on it, but mostly because I am NOT waiting an hour for THAT.

We still haven't been on Peter Pan's Flight at Disneyland because we refuse to wait in that line! I get that it's old, and it is kind of cool - but nope to waiting for an hour!


There's always a bright side haha!

:rotfl2::rotfl:It's funny because it's true.

Hahaha, that line made me laugh so hard when he wrote it!

I've been looking for ADRs for Be Our Guest for my August trip (I know it's not likely Ill get them now). But I'm hesitant to even bother. I have not seen too many good reviews, especially not for breakfast.

Of all three meals there, I prefer lunch! By August the new prix-fixe supper will be in place, and I'm not sure how I feel about that menu....

I have one breakfast reservation,I'd love to get in again, but there seems to be no availability. Worth it to keep trying in the hope we get a cancellation?

Breakfast at BOG is only worth it if you can book a PPO! The food is really mediocre at best.

This is actually one of the best assessments of Be Our Guest breakfasts I've ever seen - terribly accurate

Haha, it really is! I also love the way my husband writes, he's so funny.
 
I feel better after reading this, but my girls are bummed. No adrs left the entire week we'll be there. If anyone is cancelling breakfast Aug 20-27th, please PM me to coordinate. I have eaten lunch there and, honestly, not any better than this review, but super cool atmosphere to say the least.

Lunch has probably been my favourite meal there (I've done breakfast twice, lunch twice and supper once). It's a cool restaurant to see, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to eat there again soon.

Following! Great writing!

Thanks for joining in!
 
Ok, we're getting close to the end of this! Thanks again for sticking with me!

January 11, 2017 - Whispering Canyon

On our last full day at disney, we had decided to make a lunch reservation for Whispering Canyon Cafe, located at the Wilderness Lodge. The menu appealed to the picky eater in me, and it gave us an excuse to check out another one of Disney’s resorts!

Our reservation was at 1:15, so we decided to leave Magic Kingdom around noon – it was starting to get pretty busy in there. We walked out and caught the boat to Wilderness Lodge – I love the boats at Disney, they are such a nice, relaxing way to travel around!

We obviously arrived early for our reservation, which gave us a bit of time to look around the resort – so pretty, even with all the construction going on! We still checked in fairly early, and we were seated by about 12:45 (we had built in a decent buffer of time in case we had a long wait for a boat or something – which we didn’t).

We had read about this restaurant, and knew the schtick that went with eating here. Our waitress was an older lady, and the first time she came over to our table she grabbed the shopping bag I had from a new shirt I had bought on Main Street as we were exiting Magic Kingdom, and started rummaging through the bag. She pulled out my shirt and held it up to the table behind us and shouted at two young boys “IS THIS A PIKACHU?!” Apparently the boys were playing Pokemon Go, and the waitress was trying to help them out haha.​

After returning my shirt to the bag, she pulled out one of the extra chairs at our table and flopped down to take our drink order (which were boring – Coke and a glass of water for Luke, root beer and a glass of water for me – $3.49 for each pop). The drinks were served in mason jars.

The restaurant wasn’t that busy, but our table was in a weird spot (kind of in the middle of a bunch of other tables?), which made it difficult for our waitress to reach our table. She also had a fairly large group that she was attending to which seemed to take quite a bit of her time, so after she took our orders there wasn’t much interaction with us.

We both ordered the same thing – the Seasonal All-You-Care-To-Enjoy Skillet, $23. Since we both ordered it, this was served family style on a large platter, and contained corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, baked beans, pork ribs, pulled pork, chicken and sausage.

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I don’t like baked beans, so those were all for Luke. The chicken was good. I’m not a huge ribs person, but I did eat some of these ones and liked them. The pulled pork was a little dry, but I just kept eating it in the same mouthful as the mashed potatoes (which were awesome, so nice and creamy). I’m not a huge sausage person, so that was also just for Luke, and the corn on the cob was just standard, but good.

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Since this was all-you-care-to-enjoy, you could ask at any point for more of anything. I asked for more chicken, and Luke requested more ribs at one point. By the time we finished eating we were both stuffed, and definitely did not have room for dessert!

The total for our bill came to $56.43 after tax.

This meal was obviously before the recent changes they've made of "toning down" the gimicks - which is too bad. We didn't have the greatest interactions after the first few minutes, but we watched in amusement as the ketchup gag was pulled off a few times while we ate. We like the theming of places like this, since they're so unique and something only Disney could pull off. Hopefully this place is still fun to go to!​
 
I love the boats at Disney, they are such a nice, relaxing way to travel around!

I think we've only done a boat ride once, and that was to and from Disney Springs from POFQ last year. We haven't really had any reason to use the boats before, but I do agree it is a relaxing way to get around.

Our waitress was an older lady, and the first time she came over to our table she grabbed the shopping bag I had from a new shirt I had bought on Main Street as we were exiting Magic Kingdom, and started rummaging through the bag.

Hmm...not sure how I'd feel about that. I hadn't heard about that happening before.

She pulled out my shirt and held it up to the table behind us and shouted at two young boys “IS THIS A PIKACHU?!” Apparently the boys were playing Pokemon Go, and the waitress was trying to help them out haha.​

Okay, now that's funny.

This meal was obviously before the recent changes they've made of "toning down" the gimicks - which is too bad. We didn't have the greatest interactions after the first few minutes, but we watched in amusement as the ketchup gag was pulled off a few times while we ate

I am sad that they've toned them down, too, and I've never been there. It's always been on my "someday" list, but other restaurants always get put in front of it. I don't care as much about going without the gimmicks, so hopefully it's still fun.
 


I always *want* to like Whispering Canyon but the menu doesn't appeal to me very much and I don't think I would enjoy the "antics" very much. It sounds funny but some of the stuff I've heard goes on there would make me so anxious I don't think I'd be able to enjoy my meal!!! :scared: I'm not the target audience though (obviously) so I hate that people have lost a special part of their vacations. Though I recently heard on a podcast that the silliness was still going on, but the servers have just been asked to stop yelling. That makes total sense to me as there are rooms above that restaurant, which is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I'm still curious though and would be open to trying WCC it if it ever worked out for our schedule.
 
Alright, time to finish this thing up! This is the final review from this trip!

The Artist's Palette - Saratoga Springs
Breakfast - January 12, 2017

The Artist’s Palette is a cute little quick serve restaurant located at Saratoga Springs Resort. On our last day of our trip, we had to catch the Tragical Express around 11am. We checked out, and had tons of time to kill so we headed to The Artist’s Palette to grab some breakfast.​

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I try not to eat very much on travel days due to my Crohn’s, I’d rather not be faced with an emergency while the seatbelt sign is on while flying – so I just keep my stomach mainly empty. It’s probably not the best thing, but it works for me, and it’s only for a day.

I did decide I’d grab some food and just eat it later on the plane if I was hungry, so I picked up one of their pre-packaged Chicken Caesar Wraps, $7.99. This was very straight forward and basic (AKA: perfect for me!), and just contained chicken, lettuce and croutons on a spinach wrap. I really liked that the dressing was something you added yourself, so it didn’t get soggy by the time I got around to eating it.​

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Luke loves his breakfast food, so he ordered the Country Omelet – $9.29. I actually can’t find this on the menu any longer, but I believe it had onions, sausage and peppers in it? It was also served with breakfast potatoes (which I helped him eat haha).

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This meal was nothing special, but it was good, and enough food to hold Luke over. I did end up eating my wrap on the plane and I enjoyed it.​
 


This is the final review from this trip!

Oh man!

On our last day of our trip, we had to catch the Tragical Express around 11am.

Boooooooooooo! That's always the worst, having to leave.

I really liked that the dressing was something you added yourself, so it didn’t get soggy by the time I got around to eating it.

That is good! Nothing worse than soggy food.

Luke loves his breakfast food

Me too! I don't eat big breakfasts too much, but I do love the food.

This meal was nothing special, but it was good, and enough food to hold Luke over. I did end up eating my wrap on the plane and I enjoyed it.

I've only stayed at Saratoga Springs once (for our honeymoon) and didn't eat there. Sounds like it's acceptable, but nothing to necessarily plan on if we get back there someday.

I guess I need to go read your wedding dining report now!
 
Luke and I have that in common. :lovestruc

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And I'm not a big fan of breakfast at all - probably because eggs make me feel sick, and that's like 94% of breakfast foods...


Thanks so much for following along the entire time!

Boooooooooooo! That's always the worst, having to leave.

Agreed! I find it helps to always have the next trip already in planning stages haha...

That is good! Nothing worse than soggy food.

Gross, I hate when things get soggy.

I've only stayed at Saratoga Springs once (for our honeymoon) and didn't eat there. Sounds like it's acceptable, but nothing to necessarily plan on if we get back there someday.

Yeah, it's a quick serve I wouldn't go out of my way to eat at, but there was nothing wrong with it either. We're staying at Saratoga for four nights on our trip in December, so I'm sure we'll end up at The Artist's Palette at least once...

I guess I need to go read your wedding dining report now!

I haven't got too far into that one, I've been trying to finish up this one first!
 
Final Thoughts

This was only our second trip to WDW, and our first trip without the dining plan. I definitely preferred paying out of pocket over using the plan, I enjoy table service meals much more than quick serve and I'd have a difficult time going back to using the dining plan. We tried a lot of new-to-us places on this trip mixed in with a few repeats from our previous trip.

Luke and I both agreed that our favourite meal of the trip was at Homecomin' Kitchen - the drinks were great, the food was great - we loved it.

The worst meal (food wise) was at Be Our Guest - but we treated that meal as paying for extra Fastpasses since we were able to ride the Mine Train and Peter Pan's Flight by 9:15am.

I continue to be impressed by the variety and quality of the food available at Disney, and hope to try many more restaurants in the future!

If anyone is interested, I do have my next dining report from our January 2018 trip started here: Che Fartsmith's Is The (Starts with B) Trash! No, Best!
 
I enjoyed hearing all your reviews! Some of them are going to be helpful for us on future trips for sure. And I'm with you—I definitely prefer paying out of pocket compared to using the dining plan.
 
Thanks for the reviews. Like others I also agree on the dining plan, I prefer paying out of pocket (unless it’s free like my August trip!). I’ve done both and I prefer having the freedom of paying out of pocket, plus I don’t find my family saves anything using the dining plan.

Luke and I both agreed that our favourite meal of the trip was at Homecomin' Kitchen - the drinks were great, the food was great - we loved it.
Really good to hear this. I’ve read so many good reviews of Homecomin. I had to make an ADR for it. I’m looking forward to it in a couple weeks!
 
I enjoyed hearing all your reviews! Some of them are going to be helpful for us on future trips for sure. And I'm with you—I definitely prefer paying out of pocket compared to using the dining plan.

Thanks for reading! As soon as I get back to a normal work shift, I’m going to get caught up on your wedding report! (It’s currently a Saturday, and I’ve been at work since 6am, just taking a few minutes on my lunch break to read the Dis...:faint:)

Thanks for sharing all the yummy details!!! It was fun reading about all of your delicious meals.

Thanks for following Melinda! Your dining reports are some of my favourites!
 
Thanks for the reviews. Like others I also agree on the dining plan, I prefer paying out of pocket (unless it’s free like my August trip!). I’ve done both and I prefer having the freedom of paying out of pocket, plus I don’t find my family saves anything using the dining plan.


Really good to hear this. I’ve read so many good reviews of Homecomin. I had to make an ADR for it. I’m looking forward to it in a couple weeks!

Have a great trip this month! Hopefully you do a trip report or a dining report (or both!) - I’d love to follow along!

Thanks for reading my entire report!

Homecomin’ is so good! You need to try the Chocolate Pecan Pie, so delicious! We held our wedding reception on the patio at Homecomin’, and my only regret was nothing having a slice of that pie on my wedding day (of course, I’d already had it twice by that point of the trip...:rolleyes1)
 
Thanks for reading! As soon as I get back to a normal work shift, I’m going to get caught up on your wedding report! (It’s currently a Saturday, and I’ve been at work since 6am, just taking a few minutes on my lunch break to read the Dis...:faint:)

Uggh, that sounds wretched. I don't envy you! I have NOT been at work since 6am, and I'm still having a hard time keeping caught up on the Dis. Good luck!
 
Hopefully you do a trip report or a dining report (or both!) - I’d love to follow along!
My intention is to do a trip report with a sprinkling of dining. I've never done one, so I'm not sure I'll be able to keep the commitment, but I may try.
Would be great to have at least one reader!

You need to try the Chocolate Pecan Pie, so delicious!
Ohhh...sounds good. I like pecan pie, but never had chocolate!
 

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