Still a bit more to come

Burger King/ Nathan's MCO

The girls were hungry so I got them a Burger King to share once we'd cleared security. This was a weird self serve Burger and took ages. The girls shared a cheeseburger, nuggets and fries.







Did a job.

I had a $5 bill left or a fin as I like to call so split a hot dog with Kelly from Nathan's. Lovely. Wished I'd got another but wasn't using a my pre card on a hot dog!

British Airways Airplane food.

What a shame the food finishes with this!

A terrible chicken curry for dinner



An equally awful cream cheese bagel for breakfast.





Plane food. It is what it is!

Final thoughts, Fatty Awards and future plans.

So that's the end of latest report. We ate some amazing food and luckily not too much bad food! A few thoughts.

We actually changed things up quite a bit from the initial plan. Its really hard to plan these exactly but we were fairly flexible. Didn't get to do my Man V Food pilgrimage due to time constraints but maybe one day!

Offsite.

This was our first time eating offsite and I loved it. The huge choice of restaurants was a little overwhelming at times. I frankly could have eaten at a million different places. It was great not being tied to an ADR and eating when we chose to eat. We had free dining at Disney but if I was paying for food at Disney then it would be so expensive compared to eating offsite. We didn't have a bad meal offsite. Service wasn't always great(Outback) but that could be said of anywhere. We ate at some great places, Longhorn, Teak and Keke's to name a few. We actually didn't eat at as many offsite places I was expecting though. I think in future we will definitely be eating more offsite. The only trouble is choosing which places to eat as there are so many. I'm also pleased to know that we can eat really well and comfortably offsite without spending a fortune.

Universal

A bit of mixed bag. The dining plan isn't really worth it I don't think. I like paying for things in advance so it's good to know it's covered but I don't like the cards they give you. It was difficult to keep track of! The kids meal choices are terrible. Unlike Disney they do differentiate between kids and adult meals. If you have a kids plan then they have to eat kids meals. We did enjoy some of the quick service options like Mel's and Croissant Moon Bakery though. Citywalk is pretty good but your paying more for meals that you can get better elsewhere offsite. We did enjoy Toothsome and Hard Rock but they are very expensive. Citywalk places all seem a bit samey after awhile.

Disney

We had some good food this trip at Disney but nothing that was standout unlike other trips. The free dining plan is amazing but portions and quality seem lower than on previous trips. Don't get me wrong I think the deal is fantastic but I wouldn't pay for the ddp.

We've done the full DDP 3 times and I think that's enough for us now. I really think we are all character mealed out! ADR times aren't an issue for us but it can be restrictive although I think I planned it pretty well this time. I managed to change a lot while there as well so no need to panic if you can't get an adr that you want.

I can honestly say that I think there are only a couple of table service meals I'd go back to whereas there are quite a few quick service ones I would go back to.

We did pretty well with the snacks. We only had 4 left. We did have 4 q/s meals left though. I underestimated one day! I think in the future qsdp will be the way we go for us. There is a fantastic choice, Disney Springs especially.

On side note I highly advise getting a Landry Card. We've had one a while now and used it 3 times this trip. Straight in all 3 times with no wait.

Fatty Awards(judged by me and Kelly or the kids)

Worst Meal.

Thankfully not a lot of bad meals.

5. Orbit Cafe at Kennedy. Pretty ordinary
4. Banana Beach at Aquatica. school canteen like.
3. Bubba Gumps. More the service than the food
2. 50's Prime Time Cafe. A big let down after a great meal in 2015.
1. Flame Tree BBQ. Nasty dry BBQ. Worst by a mile.

Best Breakfast

5. Hash Houseagogo. Would be higher but for annoying photographer
4. Perkins. Really enjoyed this.
3. Donald's Safari Breakfast. Always great.
2. Village Inn. A real surprise, tasty and brilliant value.
1. Keke's. Amazing breakfast, good service and a nice location.

Best Character Meal.

5. The Crystal Palace. Nice place with good food.
4. Hollywood and Vine Minnie's Seasonal Dine. Don't get the hate
3. The Garden Grille. Good food and location.
2. Trattoria Al Forno Bon Voyage Breakfast. A pleasant surprise.
1. Donald's Safari Breakfast. Nothing beats this for me. Love it.

Best Quick service meal(anywhere)

5. Electric Umbrella Epcot. Nice burgers
4 Croissant Moon Bakery. Different from the usual burgers
3. Panda Express. Really nice change from normal q/s food
2. D-Luxe Burger. A quality q/s burger.
1. Wolfgang Puck Express. I still think it's hard to beat this for quality.

Best Offsite Meal.

5. Outback. Scrapes in for amazing Prime Rib. Terrible service though
4. Millers Alehouse. Fantastic value.
3. 4 Rivers. Quality BBQ( Kelly won't agree but it's my report!)
2. Teak Neighborhood Grill. Fantastic burgers, friendly place and good value.
1. Longhorn. Fantastic.

Best Universal Meal(not loads to choose from)

5. Mel's Diner. Nice to have Milkshakes included
4. Croissant Moon Bakery
3. Hard Rock Cafe. Not cheap but it was tasty.
2. Panda Express.
1. Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. Expensive but a good meal.

Best Disney(non character)

5. Ohana. The food.
4. Rainforest Cafe AK. Preferred this one to Disney Springs
3. Liberty Tree Tavern. A first for us but we all really enjoyed this.
2. Mama Melrose. A surprise and a last minute booking.
1. Yak and Yeti. Very popular with us. Good setting and lovely food.

Honourable Mention.

Dine With Shamu. I booked this late but we really enjoyed this. Good value as well.

Fatty Award for best snack of the holiday

My Peanut Butter Cup Perfections. Chocolate ice cream with peanut butter, Reeses Peanut Butter Cup and Fudge from Coldstone Creamery.




Fatty Award for best meal of the Holiday.

Longhorn Steakhouse by a mile. Fantastic meal, great service and a real standout. Kelly's salad was her favourite meal and my steak was mine.




Future Plans

So we are pretty likely to going again in 2 years time which I'm really pleased about. We love going and can't kid ourselves otherwise. Evie will probably have a guide dog soon afterwards so that may limit future trips so we will do one more What the trip food wise will involve I've no idea yet. I'd say pretty sure it will be lots more offsite places, less Citywalk meals( nothing wrong with them but easy just to hop in the car and drive elsewhere). I'd be very surprised if we did the full DDP again. Lily will be classed as an adult so the cost to upgrade will be too much and like I mentioned earlier I think we've done all we want to Disney table service meal wise. My thoughts may change before April when we'd book but I think it will much more likely be a QSDP holiday.

I think split stay worked really well for us and I'm pretty sure we will go Universal Cabana Bay and a Disney Value/Moderate. This depends on funds as like many of you as well it's financially hard work!

Thanks to all that have read and commented.

I shall return with Food Report IV!

Thank you very much I have really enjoyed your report, and have looked forward to reading an new instalment every day over the last few weeks, a few great restaurants i would have never thought about trying or known about had i not read, best you book again so we can all have another great read :-)

Oh no you've finished how sad 😢

I've really enjoyed reading your food trippie so thank you for sharing. Your top 5s at the end were really helpful too.

Glad to see you've got plans for one more attempt at a holiday of a lifetime. Isn't that what we all say? Just one more...

Brilliant report, I'm sad it's finished!
Have to agree with your number ones of Wolfgang Puck Express and Yak & Yeti (where the Landry card is very handy!) they are both great.

Thank you for taking the time to write this report
I had blocked the memory of the BA breakfast flying back it was horrible
(just send the picture to my DH to tease him )

Have so very much enjoyed reading your report, thank you for taking the tine to write up this report

Fantastic report and a fantastic title! Agree with Yak & Yeti and Village Inn and some of your other favourites, and also that offsite/onsite is the perfect balance: now the kids are older we prefer the space of a villa so don't see us booking free DDP again, but some onsite places are worth paying out of pocket for anyways. thanks for taking the time.