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Old 14 Aug 17, 08:49 AM  
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Goldia
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The 'Did you save enough room for dessert?' food report

Index

For those who are actually here for the food and want to avoid the repartee (waffle ) I have completed an index.

Pre Travel Day dinner at Mercure Hotel LHR
Travel Day breakfast at LHR dinner in NYC
Brooklyn pizza, dinner at Katz Deli, cocktails in the hotel lounge
Grand Central Terminus lunch, Junior's dinner
Bagels, pretzels and hotdogs at Central Park, dinner at Rosie O'Grady's
Breakfast at Ellen's Stardust Diner in NYC, dinner at Perkins in Orlando
Lunch at Seaworld, dinner at Longhorn's
Discovery Cove breakfast and lunch, drinks and pizza in the hotel lounge
Lunch from Bumblebee Taco Truck at US, The Big Pink, dinner at Bubba Gumps
Lunch at Cowfish, dinner at Cici's
Florean Fortescues for lunch, Margaritaville for dinner
Volcano Bay flatbread and drinks, Kobe Steakhouse for dinner
Lunch at Fire Eaters IOA, dinner at Chili's
Aquatica BBQ and beer for lunch, back to Longhorn's for dinner
IHOP breakfast, dinner at Hard Rock Cafe
Lunch at Denny's
Final thoughts, highs, lows and statistics

For those who are wanting the long version, have a spare half an hour and have made a cup of tea please read on...

Intros

There are 4 of us on this trip. Me (Abby), DH (David) and our children DS Max (12) and DD Kate (10). We have been fortunate to travel to many other places in Europe (Malta, Athens, Rhodes, Majorca, Gran Canaria, Bruges, Prague, Turkey) but we discovered WDW in July 2014 and we (read I ) caught the bug. There's no turning back is there? I’d never even heard of the Dibb before our first trip and it was only in the planning stages for our return last year that I discovered this wonderful website. Oh, I have learned a lot from all you fantastic people and I wanted to try and give something back. I love reading trippies and there are lots that are brilliant. If you want perfect photos of food then you’re looking in the wrong place I’m afraid as all the photos were taken on my phone and several are very blurry (that’s when I didn’t forget to take the photo).

On our pre travel journey to the airport hotel I floated the idea of doing a trippie with my DH. It went something like this…
Me ‘You know the Dibb?’
Him ‘Err that forum you’re always on?’(yep got it in one)
Me ‘Well, I’d really like to do a food report’
Him ‘What does that mean?’
Me ‘I have to take photos of all the food we eat on the holiday and then post them on the website, it’s really useful reading other reports about restaurants and where to go and stuff’
Him ‘Who on earth will want to see the food we’re going to eat?’
Me ‘You’d be surprised the food reports are really popular’
Him ‘You know you will look utterly ridiculous taking photos in restaurants and it will be embarrassing’
Me ….pause….
Him ‘Ok then if you want to’
So, hooray, he’d agreed.

Each and every photo that I took was accompanied with his mutterings about how weird or silly or mental I looked, or urging me to hurry as he was hungry and the food was getting cold. Eventually I won the kids over and they were desperate to take my phone and take the photos of their food, or maybe they just didn’t like how slow I was at taking the photo!

Credits and Thanks

I need to also give some special thank yous firstly to the two dibbers who goaded me into writing this Gopherlass and Collybird. Ok, they may have just mentioned it in passing and I couldn’t resist…

And secondly to all those dibbers who came before me with the most awesome reports. If, dear reader, you were looking for informative and funny reports and stumbled upon this trippie by accident then this is your opportunity to duck out now gracefully, go on go and find the reports of much better dibbers:
Gopherlass (of course she is top of the list, she already knows she has the best reports in town)
Wileycoyote – amazing Triple Eats Report was inspirational in the planning stages of our holiday. Definitely dangerous reading for me and I’m already subscribed to the upcoming 5 states report which will not do my bank balance any favours
Dixonsontour – all of theirs are brilliant, used for inspiration for our trippie was the $100 a day, although we did not spend less than $100 a day, ever!
MissFortune – oh I do love it when there are cocktails in a trippie
Moosha – not a food trippie but amazingly helpful NYC trippie which I read several times and made copious notes from. Thank you indeed.
If any of those dibbers mentioned above spot any similarity in the itineraries, restaurants and food within this trippie please remember ...imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…

Where did we eat?

Now that my Oscars speech has finally finished, and if anyone is still with me and not off in a better trippie, I imagine you are wondering where we ate and what you lovely people can look forward to in this report?

NYC
Street Vendors – hotdogs and bagels, Front Street Pizza in Dumbo, Katz Delicatessan, Amorino, Starbucks, Grand Central Station Food Court, Juniors, Rosie O’Grady, Ellen’s Stardust Diner, plus drinks at the hotel lounge

Orlando
Perkins, IHOP, Longhorns, Bubba Gumps, Bumblebee Man Taco Truck, Cowfish, Cicis, Margaritaville, Kobe Steakhouse, Chilis, Hard Rock Café, Dennys, plus several snacks around the parks and of course drinks at the hotel lounge

Potential names of the report

There were several near misses.

I could have named this report any of the following

The 'hurry up take the photo quickly you’re really embarrassing' food report
or
The 'no I don’t want the bill as we’re halfway through our entrees' food report
or
The 'is there a chocolate dessert that he hasn’t tried?' food report
or
The 'our eyes bigger than our bellies' food report

In the end I went for The 'did you save room for a dessert?' food report as we heard it so many times that we should have started a sweep stake betting on how long it would take for our server to ask us this question after our main course plates had been cleared. The quick answer is we didn’t have to wait very long at all really, certainly not enough time for our stomachs to have made room, but of course that didn’t stop us ordering a pudding, oh no we do definitely have over ordering issues.

If you hadn’t already guessed this report will contain many ramblings and personal indulgences, I will jump off at a tangent several times, get sidetracked talking about irrelevant things and you will think these are the mutterings of a mad woman at least at some point, so, with that in mind feel free to skip out the wordy nonsense and go straight to the photos if you want.

Commencing the actual food part of the food trippie shortly, which is pre travel day and dinner at the Mercure Hotel near Heathrow.

I really should figure out how to upload photos onto the Dibb. It can’t be that hard, can it?
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Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.

Edited at 04:03 PM. Reason: Index Inserted
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Old 14 Aug 17, 08:54 AM  
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Excited6910
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Ooooo I have a feeling this is going to be good! Can't wait!
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Old 14 Aug 17, 09:26 AM  
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Goldia
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Saturday 22nd July 2017 – Pre Travel Day Dinner at the Mercure Hotel near Heathrow

I had a slight headache when I woke up at 5.30am, largely due to the consumption of a couple of Manhattans the night before. There were always going to be cocktails in this trippie, we had to get in the mood for NYC, sorry about the lack of photo.

We didn’t really have much to do and we were killing time waiting really. We packed our hand luggage bags. Dave made some rather tasty breakfast burritos for lunch and made 4 spares which he put in the freezer for our return home. I think this will have to become a holiday tradition.

We arrived at the Mercure Hotel at Heathrow at 4.30pm. We were checked in all fine and went up to our room, number 149, only to find that the key card wouldn't work. The door definitely wasn’t opening. :angry: So we went back down to the check in desk and the receptionist realised she’d written the wrong number on the card, it was supposed to be room 148 and not 149. Oh well, no harm done. She was very apologetic and gave us 2 cards for a free drink in the bar for our inconvenience. We decided it was well worth the inconvenience and headed back up to our real room. As we passed
room 149 we gave a silent apology to the occupants and hoped they hadn't thought someone was trying to break in earlier.

We had some limited supplies with us. Some cans of Gin & Tonic and what was left over from a bottle of red wine - it would have gone off if we left it at home. It wasn’t long before 2 cans had disappeared.

Hurrah I have a photo of G&T



Shrek the third was on the TV and we sort of watched the end of it. I dragged one of the armchairs into the bathroom. Now, this is not me being mental (ok it is slightly ), but I struggle to sleep before a Floriday and I didn't fancy sitting on the cold bathroom floor reading in the middle of the night...hence the chair in the bathroom...unfortunately it did get quite a bit of use.

We decided to go the bar and use our vouchers as pre dinner drinks. I had white wine, Dave had red and bought another with dinner. The kids both had tiny bottles of coke. I said they had to make them last as they weren’t getting additional cokes as I wanted them to be able to sleep later and not be wide awake from the caffeine. In no way is the G&T in the room responsible for the blurry drinks photo!



I will say it upfront, I would NOT eat here again. We are lazy people, we should have wandered down the road and found a nice pub. Please if you stay at the Mercure don’t eat in the restaurant, the food was only ok and for what it was I think it was quite expensive (it was like Whetherspoons but double the price ). We also had to wait a loooonnnnng time for the food, over 45 minutes between them taking the order and bringing the food to the table. I'm sure this was their tactic to make us order another drink, but we had supplies in the room and besides I already knew I wouldn't sleep and I couldn't have been more excited about Floriday being just around the corner.

Both the boys went for fish and chips with mushy peas, £12.95. I ate Max’s peas as he doesn’t like them and they were tasty. He managed to eat all the fish in spite of Dave saying he would help out if needed. It was just ok, not brilliant.



I had chicken tikka skewers with rice, naan bread and onion salad, £14.95. This was tasty, but very spicy, I like spice but even my lips were starting to tingle.



Kate had lasagne with garlic bread, £14.50. It was not a very large portion of lasagne and even though she is not the biggest eater she did manage to finish it. She is rather partial to a lasagne though and she said it was rather tasty.



Looking around the restaurant there were a few single diners and, bizarrely, a couple sat in their thermals and winter coats. It wasn’t that cold.

I have tried to take photos of all the bills when they arrived as I know I find these really helpful when I read food reports...



£67 for four dinners and one glass of wine, no pudding today, although DS was NOT impressed and yes he did have a little strop We consoled him with thoughts of all the ice cream and cakes to come.

We went back to the room and Dave drank a last glass (plastic cup) of red wine while I drank another can of G&T (out of a plastic cup, definitely not out of the can, I'm not common you know ).

I was about halfway through the cup of G&T when I got an alert on my phone from American Airlines saying there may be delays with our flight due to inclement weather and the flight coming over from USA leaving late and not arriving in LHR on time . Didn’t they know I have a hard enough time sleeping without this added worry? We set the alarm for 5.15am, like we’d need it, I knew now that a sleepless night was inevitable and that chair in the bathroom would get a lot of use.

Coming soon, travel day! Breakfast in the airport, may contain a cocktail - who am I kidding? of course it does, a complete lack of plane food photos and our first meal in NYC.
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 14 Aug 17, 09:28 AM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by Excited6910 View Post
Ooooo I have a feeling this is going to be good! Can't wait!
Fingers crossed I won't disappoint you. I'm just excited to have had one reply! I can't tell you how grateful I am!
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Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 14 Aug 17, 09:33 AM  
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looking forward to see the rest of this!
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Old 14 Aug 17, 09:36 AM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by galaxyflorida View Post
looking forward to see the rest of this!
Glad to have you on board galaxyflorida.

I have to pop off and sort out some washing and DD has just put in a call for bagels...doesn't she know where the toaster is? So, I will hopefully be back later today with the next update.
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Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 14 Aug 17, 09:50 AM  
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"I dragged one of the armchairs into the bathroom. Now, this is not me being mental (ok it is slightly ), but I struggle to sleep "

This made me cry laughing!... Sorry.

I'm in! :-)
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Old 14 Aug 17, 10:01 AM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by DisneyNikki View Post
"I dragged one of the armchairs into the bathroom. Now, this is not me being mental (ok it is slightly ), but I struggle to sleep "

This made me cry laughing!... Sorry.

I'm in! :-)
It was not the best of nights in terms of sleep. I did, however, do a rather large amount of reading, intermittent pacing (which is is very difficult to do in a small hotel bathroom) and manic checking of the AA app to see if there were any updates on the aforementioned potential delays.

What do you mean? Some people just put photos of food in a food report? Now that is weird
__________________
Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 14 Aug 17, 10:29 AM  
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Old 14 Aug 17, 10:33 AM  
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
It was not the best of nights in terms of sleep. I did, however, do a rather large amount of reading, intermittent pacing (which is is very difficult to do in a small hotel bathroom) and manic checking of the AA app to see if there were any updates on the aforementioned potential delays.

What do you mean? Some people just put photos of food in a food report? Now that is weird
I would have just turned the bedroom lamp on. If I started swinging from the light fitting it would not wake up my lot. Have to check they are all breathing at times
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