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7 Apr 18, 06:58 PM
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VIP Dibber
 
Join Date: Jul 12
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Day 14: Your dishes at Tokyo Dining are so prettily presented. The desserts look delicious, not sure about the green tea flavour though.
Oh poor you, being freezing in the Sci-Fi Diner. I hate a cold restaurant. This is more my kind of food, and the burgers look really nice. That's a real shame you missed Fantasmic! due to the slow service but at least you got dessert out of it! I would have to have the Candy Bar dessert, I do love a chocolate pudding  Aw, your kittens are so cute. We used to have 2 kittens who looked exactly like yours, they were brothers. Splash was the one with the white under his chin (it looked like a splash of paint!), and Harry was our black one. (the girls were just getting into Harry Potter when we got them).
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 All of my trip reports are in this INDEX My most recent reports are below: *Complete* A Tale of Two Cities - Washington D.C. & Boston - March 2023 We Love Food! An Offsite Dining Report - May 2022 |
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8 Apr 18, 11:31 AM
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 11
Location: Dundee
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can’t wait for the next one |
8 Apr 18, 12:08 PM
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 11
Location: Dundee
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A special reply just for you Lynda, thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
Snow White always looks like that, whenever we meet her I have to try really, really hard not to stare at her make-up haha. Boma was fabulous, definitely highly recommend it. Don’t worry, you help yourself to the soups, I just took a small amount in case I didn’t like it.
I really thought it was going to be horrible the first time we tried it, we bought a cherry one too just in case, it turned out we didn’t like the cherry one! Whispering Canyon Café is very… rowdy. The servers will tease you about everything and anything, they play games, including hobby horse races around the restaurant. For example, if you ask for ketchup, the server will shout to the entire restaurant that you want some, then you’ll be brought bottle upon bottle by all the other guests. It’s very loud, but fun. The servers can really gauge whether or not you want to be involved though, which is good for introverts like me.
Spice Road Table is more accessible than you might think, Nik’s sliders, although too spicy for me, were just lamb burgers, and my skewers were literally chicken and steak on a stick.
I love Splash, what a cute name. I love Harry too, so much that I’m saving that for a real baby. Thank you again, I appreciate how much time it must have taken you to read all of this in one go! |
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I have a lot of catching up to do!
That was a lot of food for breakfast at Trattoria al Forno, it all looks good though... I do love Italian food so this appeals greatly to me.
The skillet looks really nice, I like the sound of the tater tots. Bit of a shame the sausages and bacon weren't up to much. 
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8 Apr 18, 12:19 PM
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 11
Location: Dundee
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DAY 15
Thursday 5th October 2017 Our last full day, and an ADR somewhere I had been dreaming about for months… CHEF ART SMITH’S HOMECOMIN’ We were late for this ADR due to my ability to always pick the wrong parking garage for our destination every single time. It was also a miserable morning and we were sporting our ponchos, I felt slightly embarrassed checking in.  We went straight to the entrees, I had seen pictures of the appetizers and they were just too big for lunch, and more to the point, I couldn’t wait any longer! We split a side of Momma’s Mac and Cheese, this really was like Momma’s Mac and Cheese, as good as my mum’s.  Nik had the Fried Chicken Sandwich – Buttermilk-brined for 24 hours and double-battered, dressed with hot sauce, aioli, iceberg lettuce, tomato and bread and butter pickles served with house-made barbecue chips drizzled with icebox dressing. He loved this at the time, but now is claiming it wasn’t as good as a Zinger Tower from KFC, I despair. The chips were really good too, best than the Disney QS ones that taste stale!  He also ordered a side of fries, and regretted it because of the insane amount of food we had.  For me, there could only be one winner, Art’s Famous Fried Chicken – Buttermilk-brined for 24 hours then perfectly fried and served with creamy mashed potatoes, a cheddar drop biscuit and love. Again, this lived up to the hype. The chicken was juicy, and complemented well by the salty gravy. The potatoes were so creamy I could have eaten a meal of them alone. The cheddar drop biscuit was even better than Red Lobster’s version, and crazy good dipped in the gravy.  I hadn’t been brave enough to try the chicken and doughnuts together, but I had to try the Doughnuts regardless, so ordered them for my dessert. These were good, but had nothing on the churros from Paradiso 37.  Nik had the Shine Cake, oh my goodness this was very heavy on the alcohol, you could actually smell it. He liked it but it was much too strong for me. Lunch came to £93.19, relatively good value considering we had 2 shareable side orders. I think the popularity of the restaurants, and the quality of the food may see it upgraded to a Signature restaurant sometime in the future, so I am glad we got to eat whilst it is relatively affordable. A great meal! You can view the menu here. *** DIAMOND HORSESHOE Our final night tradition is to attend one of Mickey’s Parties, tonight it was Not-So-Scary. We like to book an ADR around 6pm, which means we are already in the park when the Party kicks off, but more importantly, we are tucked safely away from the madness of the day guests exiting. Tonight we were dining at a new-to-us restaurant in the Diamond Horseshoe. When we first began visiting WDW, the Diamond Horseshoe functioned only as a seasonal quick service location, having always visited off-peak we had never seen inside, so it held a certain mystique for me, so when it began offering a table-service dinner I knew we had to be there. Dinner is served family style (brought to your table), and has a similar menu to the Pilgrim’s Feast served next door at Liberty Tree Tavern, referred to as the ‘Saloon Feast’. I had seen several scathing reviews of the restaurant, and some less than appetising pictures, but I went in with an open mind (and a spare set of credits for a quick-service supper later, if necessary ). We started with corn bread (yuck!) and Frontier Salad – Tossed Greens, Tomatoes, Onions, Roasted Corn and Cornbread Croutons served with House-made Chipotle-Ranch Dressing. I liked this, particularly that we could control our own amounts of dressing, I like dressing with some salad on the side.   Nik was excited to see Baked Macaroni and Cheese on the menu, but disappointed when it arrived, it was very dry. I didn’t like it, it was like homemade macaroni that had been reheated multiple times and dried out.  This evening’s Seasonal Vegetables were corn, this was good, surely no-one can get corn wrong!?  And the platter, Barbecued Pulled Pork, Smoked Sausage, Carved Turkey Breast, Braised Beef, Cowboy Beans. That's a portion for two! Shall I let the picture do the talking!? The only vaguely edible thing was the sausage. I really wished we had some potatoes to bulk out the meal a little. On paper, this meal sounds similar to Whispering Canyon Cafe's skillet but please know, it was nothing like it, WCC's is delicious! Dessert is supposed to be a Campfire Brownie, we decided to quit whilst we were ahead (nice corn!) and declined it. We now refer to this restaurant as ‘Diamond Horsepoo’. The meal cost $74.55. We laugh about how bad it was, others may have a different experience. And I did enjoy getting to see inside the restaurant, I don’t know why I didn’t take pictures, but it is basically Pioneer Hall with the lights turned on and a lick of white paint! I would love to see the stage here host a dinner show sometime in the future, definitely an under utilised space in Disney. *** Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café An old favourite saved us from our hunger!  Bacon Cheeseburger – Flame-broiled 1/3lb Angus Burger topped with Bacon and American Cheese on a Brioche Bun served with French Fries, bulked out from a visit to the toppings bar. Quick service burgers never let me down and this hit the spot!  For Nik, Quarter-pound All-Beef Hot Dog Of course, we both paid visits to the topping bar. This cost us $31.27 and was worth every penny (credit ).TOTAL SPEND SO FAR $3,304.50 |
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8 Apr 18, 12:23 PM
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 11
Location: Dundee
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DAY 16
Friday 6th October 2017 Home time! We said a sad goodbye to Coronado Springs and headed to Disney Springs for some lunch, we had a grand total of 4 credits remaining, and I was determined to use them. PADDLEFISH Paddlefish, the re-imagined Fulton’s Crab House, is a Signature restaurant, using 2 Table-Service credits per person. It has received lukewarm reviews in comparison to The Boathouse, but with credits to use up I didn’t see what we had to lose by visiting. We had such an early ADR at Paddlefish that we were the first people in the restaurant. We explained to our server that we were on the Dining Plan, she scanned our bands and told us what we were entitled to. I explained that we were heading to the airport straight after lunch and didn’t have too much time to spare, we would just be having entrees today. She was the first server to be pushy, and try to urge us into getting better value out of our credits, also known as trying to increase her tip  Nik wanted a light lunch, as he was nervous about travelling. He wanted [b]Half Chicken Caesar Wrap[/b] – Choose either a cup of soup or any side salad paired with half a Chicken Caesar Wrap. He wanted a cup of New England Clam Chowder – Bacon, Potatoes, Cream. Our server pounced on this, telling us it would be better for him to have a bowl of soup as an app, then a full-sized wrap as his entrée. I explained, for a second time, that we didn’t have time for multiple courses, and Nik added that he wasn’t hungry. This was Nik’s first time trying Chowder, he was nervous, as I had had it in New York once, and thought it was much too fishy, and didn’t think he’d like it, but this was gorgeous, very rich and creamy. The wrap was just ‘nice’.  I had Fish and Chips – Beer-battered Flounder, sweet potato fries, tartar sauce. So, who’d have thought it, sitting in a restaurant no-one seems to like, on our miserable last morning, with a server who was testing my patience, I had my favourite dish of the trip! The flounder was beautiful, it melted in the mouth, and the batter was perfectly crispy, not soggy, like Rose and Crowns had been. The sweet potato fries hot and crispy. Perfection! A fishy triumph! Lunch came to a bargain $40. Obviously, this was a horrific use of 4 table service credits, but it was our last day! I loved this restaurant, I thought it was better than the much-loved Boathouse and I will definitely return in the future. Lots of great options for lunch if you are paying OOP too. You can see the menu here. TOTAL SPEND SO FAR $3,344.52
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Edited at 12:31 PM. |
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8 Apr 18, 12:29 PM
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 11
Location: Dundee
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THE NUMBERS
WE DID IT, ZERO CREDITS REMAINING!  96 dining credits worth of food consumed, not to mention the 64 snack credits we also polished off. We mainly used our Snacks for drinks, hence why there’s so few pictures. Using Snack Credits for drinks is viewed as poor value, and it’s true there’s better things to spend your credits on (Food & Wine and breakfast, to name but two), but with so many Table Service meals scheduled we really didn’t need any extra food. The Deluxe Dining Plan for our trip, paid out of pocket, would have cost $3,314.24. Our total meal spend, not including snacks was $3,344.52, so in that respect we certainly got our money worth! The Table Service Dining plan, which we originally booked, would have offered us 16 Table Service Credits and 16 Quick Service Credits. It would have taken care of $1615.30 worth of our food (our 16 most expensive meals) and we would still have had 12 quick service credits to play with. This isn’t an exact science, as many of those meals included an appetiser which we would have had to pay out of pocket for on the Disney Dining Plan. That means our upgrade to DxDP covered an extra $1729.22 of food, vindicating our decision to pay the $1,310.64 to upgrade. Would I recommend DxDP Yes! It was too much food, but we all know that. I loved that every day, we had some respite from the madness of the parks in a pleasant air-conditioned environment. We love Quick Service, in all honesty Nik probably prefers it, but on the few occasions we ate in a counter service restaurant on this trip, it was an altogether more stressful experience than our sit-down meals. I loved the flexibility of having an appetizer if I wanted one, and it was fabulous having the opportunity to eat in so many different restaurants. We saw a dinner show, ate inside Cinderella Castle, enjoyed six Signature meals, and, ate several Table Service breakfasts, the DxDP allowed us to do all these things. Did we stick to the plan? Despite spending months labouring over my planning spreadsheet, we did not stick to the plan, which wasn’t a surprise to me, because in five on-site trips, we never had! I loved having the ability to tweak our plans on MDE. We scheduled 39 ADRs, and made it to 36, albeit, sometimes in a different restaurant to originally planned. We cancelled ADRs at The Plaza, California Grill, Tony’s Town Square, Maya Grill, Liberty Tree Tavern, Yak and Yeti, Skippers Canteen, La Hacienda de San Angel, Akershus, Le Cellier, Beaches and Cream, Hollywood Brown Derby and Be Our Guest. Several of these were places we were simply paying return visits to, some were new, and we will make it there on a future trip. Who won the battle of the DxDP? Given that we more than broke even, I’ll argue that we were the winners What’s next? We are returning on the 21st of September for 14 nights, this time with my mum. Mum accompanied us on our 2016 trip (her first Disney visit) she preferred eating off-site  Hopefully I'll be able to change her mind this year.Whilst we are there we will be meeting up with my gran, and my mum’s aunt. They won’t have park tickets, and my gran has never been to Disney so I am keen to impress them. I’ve chosen Afternoon Tea at the Garden View Tearoom at the Grand Floridian, so they can appreciate how beautiful the resort is. Then a dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse, so I can show off Crescent Lake Area. I think these two choices will showcase Disney well. I have all our ADRs in place, so now all that's left to do is wait. And probably tinker with the plan multiple times. Would we do DxDP again? Well... Our next report will be called 'Oops! We Did It Again', so I'll leave you to your own conclusions THE END So that's it, thank you so much for taking the time to read my musings. I have been bowled over by the response I have received, and, I am so grateful that so many of you have not only read, but have taken the time to leave a comment. I came so close to deleting the report without posting, and I am so glad I didn't. You can thank Abby (Goldia) for that. I'll be back later in the year with another report, hopefully one that won't take me six months to write.  Until then, thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you once again.  |
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8 Apr 18, 12:32 PM
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Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 18
Location: Milton Keynes
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I'm cracking up at 'Diamond Horsepoo' 😂😂 How mad would you be if you paid for that meal!
So sad thats your last day! Homecomin looks so tasty, really want to go there. When I read your description saying it was miserable weather I checked the date and realised that was the first day of our honeymoon in Orlando! You can imagine how happy we were to wake up to grey skies and rain! Got totally soaked attempting to do Seaworld. |
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8 Apr 18, 12:36 PM
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Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 18
Location: Milton Keynes
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Just read your last summary post as well! Woohoo you won! And think how much extra you could have gained if you never had QS and always ordered the full starter main and dessert. Can't believe you're doing it again but can't wait to read about it!
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8 Apr 18, 12:37 PM
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 11
Location: Dundee
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If you're thinking about Homecomin' make sure you get an ADR ASAP, it was the only one of mine I couldn't find availability for to move around. How funny we were there at the same time, I would have been mad if our first morning was like that. We had hoped it would clear up by the time we headed to Magic Kingdom but not to be. Thank you for reading! 
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8 Apr 18, 12:38 PM
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 11
Location: Dundee
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Thank you for reading along and all your comments 
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