We had MK booked today but decided to have a day off instead. Mum still wasn't great so Marie, Dad and I had some pool time while doing a washing. Breakfast was a muffin in the room.

By the time we'd done it was nearly lunchtime. By this point in the trip Mum was starting to describe the food court offerings as "vile". A bit of an overreaction but we had eaten there a lot out of convenience rather than choice. Instead we headed over to DS to see how busy it was. I wanted to have a D-Luxe burger and it turned out to be pretty quiet there considering it was a weekend lunch time.

Dad got the kids burger which I don't have a picture of and Mum got the kids chicken sandwich.



I got the BBQ burger.



And Marie the cheeseburger.



We also got a large fries to share because we didn't think about the kids meals coming with fries.



The burger was amazing! Just how I remembered it . The kids meals were just the right size for Mum & Dad. I won't dwell on the fries as they were disgusting and I don't want to detract from what was actually a good dining experience because the burger was worth putting up with the fries!

The next section of the report is going to be controversial. We were passing Gideon's bakery when Marie went over to ask the CM how the virtual queue worked. We knew we wanted to try it but didn't want to wait for hours. As it happened there had been a cancellation for the virtual queue and she let us in straight away.







Marie and I got the original chocolate chip and a bag of the bites.


One of the bites.

Mum & Dad got a slice of key lime cake each (no idea why they didn't just share).



This where it gets controversial. I thought this was just ok. Really it was a lump of cookie dough with chocolate chips on it. The cookie bites were fine. I mean I ate them, they weren't awful but I just don't get the hype at all with these.
I didn't get to taste the cakes but Mum used that word again - "vile". She said there was too much buttercream and the cake part wasn't great.

We didn't eat any of the Gideon's stuff until later and instead went to Swirls on the Water to try again for a Dole Whip. We were successful this time.
Dad got a vanilla soft serve with no drink.



I got vanilla dole whip with pineapple juice.



Mum and Marie got pineapple/pineapple.


These were great and we were lucky enough to find a table to enjoy them.

We had a browse of the dining reservations for later but there wasn't anything suitable so we headed offsite and went to Olive Garden in Lake Buena Vista. We checked the website for a wait time and it said "no wait". It was correct.
Dad and Marie got a cocktail of some description.



Olive Garden always gives you soup or salad with any main course. Mum wanted two appetisers though so ordered minestrone soup as an appetiser. Dad also got minestrone and Marie and I the salad. Plus the lovely Olive Garden breadsticks.




For mains I ordered the seafood Alfredo.

Marie ravioli.

Dad lasagne.

Mum the fried lasagne from the appetiser menu.


This was lovely but as always with Olive Garden it was too much. Fine if you have the means to reheat but I always feel like it looks like I ate nothing!
No dessert as we had our Gideon's cookies later.

Thanks for taking the time to share, it's all looking fabulous so far. I love that pomegranate lemonade and those beignet :O

Shame some of the places have been a miss, we've only eaten at Turf Club once but really enjoyed it.

Today was Marie's birthday and we were heading DHS in the morning and Epcot for dinner at Space 220. We didn't rush and had our usual breakfast in the room.
By the time we were hungry it was pretty much lunchtime and I wasn't repeating the mistake of our first day. We chose ABC Commissary again as we wanted to eat inside. TS options were sparse and we didn't want a big meal anyway.
Here they ask you to mobile order and wait outside until it's ready. I think that's a good idea as you then don't have people (like us) taking up tables with no food.
Marie got buffalo chicken grilled cheese.

This looked really good and I got a bit of food envy.

Mum got the chicken club.


Dad got the grilled chicken southwest salad.


I got pork carnitas tacos.

I enjoyed this much better than Backlot Express. In fact the whole experience was better.

We headed to Epcot a bit in advance of our reservation and rode a couple of rides.
We checked in early so had a bit of a wait.




We were then taken in the space elevator up to the restaurant .


We were seated at the back of the restaurant at a high table which wasn't ideal but it did give us a great view. The restaurant is tiered so no one should really have a bad view.
My pictures weren't great but here is a couple.



Because we were in the restaurant we had the fixed price menu. Our server was lovely but he spent a lot of time filling our water glasses and not taking our order .

Spacey cutlery .
Marie got one of the cocktails. I don't have a picture but it was the one with cotton candy that melts when you pour in the drink. Woo hoo. The rest of us had fountain drinks.

To start I had the calamari with spicy marinara (not really spicy) and roasted pepper citrus aioli.

This was lovely and the dips were nice, not spicy at all.

Marie chose the cauliflower which is tempura fried and comes with a hot sauce.

She says this was lovely but the sauce was really hot. I'll have to take her word for it as she didn't let me try it.
Dad got a "Space Greens" salad which I don't seem to have a photo of and Mum got the Big Bang Burrata. She didn't read the menu right and thought it was a burrito so was surprised when this arrived.

She enjoyed it anyway.
We were all boring and ordered the Filet Mignon.

This was one of the best steaks I've ever had, never mind just this trip. It was cooked perfectly all the way through and still lovely and tender.
For dessert Dad was boring and went for the gelato which again I don't have a photo of. He was across the table from me so it wasn't easy.
Mum ordered the Coconut Panna Cotta.

Marie had the Carrot Cake.

I had the Short Cake which was matcha air cake, mascarpone mousse and strawberries.

This was amazing! Even the weird insulation sponge bit .

Everyone enjoyed their meal here although Marie felt she had played it safe with carrot cake and wouldn't get it again. It was very expensive at $450 in total but it was absolutely the best meal of the holiday. The setting is so completely different and it's great to see it but I was so pleased that the food was also amazing.

We had planned a later start at AK today so we could have dinner at Yak & Yeti. we had breakfast at the food court which I didn't photograph. It was all bagels and toast so not very exciting.
We did some shopping then arrived back at the resort about lunch time. You guessed it, we ate at the food court.
Marie and I decided to get a slice of pizza. And then I saw it and realised we could share it.


Turns out a "slice" is basically a quarter of a large one.
We also got fries.

Mum and Dad just got a cinnamon bun each.


This kept us going until we got to Yak & Yeti. We were seated quickly but this time we had an ADR rather than using the Landry card.
We got the Wok Fried Green Beans again to share, just one between the four of us. Mum also wanted wonton soup. For some reason I don't have pictures. I think the beans were gone before I got my phone out .

I chose the Bhaktapur Duck.

This was lovely but with it being on the bone it was difficult to eat.
Dad had the BBQ ribs.

Very messy!
Mum had the sweet and sour chicken.

Marie decided to have the Korean Fried Chicken from the appetiser menu plus a side of chicken fried rice.


This was really nice but the dipping sauce was a bit too spicy for me.

As usual the Yak & Yeti didn't disappoint and we had a lovely meal. No desserts as we were all too full.

You'll all be pleased to hear that we were checking out of POFQ today and moving to the Swan to no more food court .
We had breakfast in the room and got packed up before organising Bell Services to move our luggage. By the time we got to MK we were hungry so we went to Sleepy Hollow. You can mobile order here but it's a bit disorganised collecting it. People were queuing who hadn't had the "it's ready" message. Eventually a CM from another window called over to say she could help anyone who's order was ready and we managed to get ours.
Mum and Dad wanted the waffle but without the Nutella.

I chose the funnel cake with strawberries and cream.

Marie got the plain funnel cake thinking it also came with cream but it didn't.

This was great but Marie and I should've shared.

We did a couple of rides but MK was just so busy we weren't enjoying it so we headed to the Swan to see if our room was ready. It wasn't so we headed along the Boardwalk to find somewhere for lunch. We came to Big River Grille and Brewing Works and I suggested there. We got a table no problem and Mum wanted to sit outside on the Boardwalk.
She ordered the quesadillas.

Dad and I got burgers.

Marie got the chicken burger.


This was all really good although I'd have preferred fries. Its as nice sitting out on the Boardwalk eating too.

We had originally booked Nine Dragons for dinner but with Yak & Yeti the night before we decided to cancel. We thought we'd take our chances in World Showcase. Remind me never to do that again .
In another attempt to replicate a nice dining experience from a previous trip we went to Les Halles for some lobster bisque and a baguette. Mum and Dad agreed that would be fine. As with the other day the queue was huge but we waited in it. And waited. And waited some more. 40 minutes in total for a bowl of soup. I was so fed up I didn't even take any photos.

We continued round WS waiting for it to get dark so we could see Spaceship Earth lit up. I wanted to get something from one of the booths so we stopped at the one near Canada for some beef tenderloin tips.



These were nice but it's annoying around that area that there's nowhere to eat something that needs a knife and fork!

That was pretty much our dinner and in hindsight I wish I'd booked something. Anything!

Really enjoying your report

Can I ask what was your rookie mistake you mentioned at the beginning of this report regarding Rise Of The Resistance?

We didn’t realise there are more drops within the first half hour so if you don’t get a time that suits just wait 10
minutes.

Happy to see a great review for Space 220. I'm hoping to book this for the day of hubby's 50th when we go in April (we are celebrating both our 50th's but I'm going to be having an unofficial one during the trip as mine's in January lol). It's early in the trip tho so I'm probably going to have to hit lucky !

Ours was obviously later in the trip so we booked for Day 10 and kept moving it a day until we got the day we wanted. It may be that you end up having to eat there on another day than you planned or you may get lucky. We definitely thought it was worth it. When you compare it to a 3 course meal at any signature it's probably close, the difference is you're kind of stuck with the fixed price in the restaurant. We might try the lounge next time just for a different experience.

This was our last full day and we wanted to make the most of being so close to the two parks. We planned DHS today but there was a mix up with Mum and Dad about what time we were leaving and we ended up later than we had planned. Marie and I had our usual breakfast in the room however the Starbuck coffee the Swan use was revolting. Marie had it after we had left the bag in for another run and said it was ok.

Our next food was in the park and I found myself grumpy with DHS again. Mum wanted something breakfasty but it was now about half 10 so many places weren't open. Woody's Lunchbox is the only place I'm aware of that does a proper QS breakfast and Mum wouldn't have eaten any of that. We checked MDE and just couldn't find anywhere. We were in Galaxy's Edge and the only option we could think of was back to Sunset Boulevard for a churro. On the way there we came across a coffee cart that had a sign up advertising churros. Mum likes a churro so we joined the queue and saw they also had muffins and a cinnamon bun. We ordered a muffin, cinnamon bun and couple of churros only to be told there were no churros left. At this point I just couldn't be bothered with it any more and told them to forget the whole order and stormed off.
I don't know what it is about DHS in comparison to the other parks but we have this issue every trip so it's not just covid related. I struggle quite a bit with the dining options available, especially at that mid-morning point when you want a pastry or something.
Anyway, we were done in the park by that point so we left. We had wanted to try the Skyliner so decided to get on it and maybe get off at CBR or one of the other resorts. We changed our minds and decided just to ride it to Epcot and see where we could eat along the Crescent Lake area.
That turned out to be Beaches & Cream. Marie joined the walk up list when we were in the area and we basically got seated straight away. If you don't have an ADR they seat you at the counter but it was fine.
They had my beloved pomegranate lemonade and this time it was like the old Minute Maid.



I chose the French Dip sandwich.


This was really tasty.
Mum and Dad got the grilled cheese with tomato soup.

Marie ordered the kids hot dog with a side of tater tots with chilli.

We all really enjoyed this and I think next time I'll make sure we book an ADR. It's good to know walk-ups are possible though. We were able to use the remains of the dining credit here and they had a hand held scanner. It wasn't quite enough but we used it as part payment and used cash for the rest.

Now I know this is going to sound ridiculous given that we were in an ice cream place but we were full up and decided it would be nice to walk round the boardwalk and get an ice cream at the place that replaced Ample Hills. We arrived only to find it didn't open until 3pm on a Thursday. No worries I said, there's somewhere at the Dolphin. So we headed to The Fountain at the Dolphin only to be told they didn't start serving ice cream until 4pm . So you can imagine my grumpiness at this point. The ice cream place I get - staffing isn't at pre-covid levels, but The Fountain was open and serving people .

I suggested that since we were so close why didn't we go back into DHS and see if we could get something there. Dad was thinking of the "milkshake" we'd had the other day .
The park was pretty busy but we ended up at the dinosaur, Berties? We all just got a soft serve and I've no photos. We sat on a bench across from Prime Time Cafe while Mum babysat a little boy whose Grandmother had went off to get a beer (or so it appeared) and said to the boy "this lady will watch you" . Mum just did it. At one point he crossed over to Prime Time Cafe and we could still see him. Just as we started to think we should alert a CM the grandmother appeared back with a beer in her hand. No idea what was going on as they were going in to the restaurant. You do have to wonder about some people though.

Anyway, dinner was at The Yachtsman. We wanted somewhere close by because we knew we'd be busy packing. We had kept the gift cards we had for this. Marie & I had $200 and Mum & Dad $100.



We had the usual onion rolls to start with some roasted garlic. These were as nice as I remembered.


We all ordered the lobster bisque.

This was lovely and creamy although maybe a bit too rich.

We all ordered filet steak and the server asked if it could be butterflied. In hindsight I wish I'd said no. Both the chef at The Turf Club and the one at Space 220 had managed to cook a perfectly well done steak without butterflying it so I should expect the same at The Yachtsman. In fact I've had it that way there before.

It was nice but I feel should have been on a par with Space 220 and it wasn't.
Marie, Dad and I ordered mashed potato as our accompaniment and Mum the potato leek gratin.



Marie also wanted the truffle mac and cheese.

She felt this was too rich this time round and didn't eat much.

I don't know if it was the day we'd had, the going home tomorrow or what but while this was a nice meal it was a bit underwhelming. As we were finishing our meal they started to set up for a large party and were moving tables about. It started to feel a bit crowded and we've never felt that before at The Yachtsman.
We didn't have dessert and just walked back along to the Swan to get our packing finished.