Silver Wedding DDP Binge!

[Sweetie Babes]

Day 4 : Animal Kingdom

We had a later start today and, because we've only used 2 CS credits so far went to the Mara for breakfast. I had the bounty breakfast and OH had the bacon, cheese and egg croissant. I substituted the sausage for extra bacon - I hate American sausages!

Half eaten before I got a chance to get myself sorted and get my camera out!

Lunch was at Flamehouse Grill. I was a bit disappointed with this. We had the chicken, pulled pork and ribs platter. There was very little meat on my ribs - thankfully I got a breast of chicken (OH got the leg). The pulled pork was okay, but cold. The beans were nice but spicy and I ate the coleslaw but it had a funny taste to us. Dessert was chocolate mousse for OH and lime mousse with a coconut cream topping. Both delicious. The drink was mandarin lemonade! Really nice, but so sweet as to be almost undrinkable after more than a few sips. They have paper straws at AK and they're not nice to drink through, and it was difficult drinking out of the cup which was really thin and so much ice floating on the surface I had trouble slurping the drink past the ice.

Dinner was at Tusker House. Well! What can I say? It has to be by far the WORST dinner we've had - and certainly the most expensive! The only two things I was able to eat were the green beans and the basmati rice with a bit of pita bread. I tried several things but didn't like any of it. There were very few desserts and I could only eat a couple of those, as well. No photos were taken.

Part of the problem is that I was up at 4am this morning, and I had reached the point where I couldn't bear to even be there by that time. It raised several times during the afternoon but remained hot so I then cooked inside the rain cape - which I had to put on to cover me and the ECV controls. We got our priority tickets to the Jungle Book show but, having been told that it would be cancelled if it started raining again as it was not safe for the dancers on the barges on the water. As it was trying to spit when we came out of the restaurant that did it for us. We also read reviews of the night time safari, which said that while the one at dusk is really good, by 10pm you really can't see a thing so it's pointless. We decided not to bother with either, and returned to the resort.

[Rescuer]

Shame about Tusker house, we only have breakfast there but it's always good. Shame about jungle book as well, I know it gets slated but we liked it. We never bothered with the night safaris either.
I think tiredness really impacts on your enjoyment of meals as you say, we really didn't enjoy Boma breakfast this trip but we were shattered and it seems to get positive reviews.
Hope today is better food wise for you.

[Dogwalker]

Enjoying your reviews.
Shame about your dinner at Tusker House. We've only ever done breakfast there
Hope your next meal is more enjoyable for you

[Sweetie Babes]

Yes, I'm sure most of it was sleep deprivation - I haven't slept since we got here on Wednesday night! Last night I went to bed straight after posting the above (around 10pm) and apart from a couple of loo breaks during the night slept through to 7am. So, I got a good 8 hours last night - which is the best I've had for a while.

We're going off site today: the Florida Mall this morning, lunching there in their food hall (and will either have one of the Chinese meal deals or Five Guys) and will be segueing neatly onto Premium Outlets followed by dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (I have several different coupons, including one 'birthday' exclusive: that's anniversary of having signed up to their website, not my actual birthday).

So, breakfast has been rye bread and peanut butter (Jif Extra Crunchy: I bought a 1.5lb jar at Walmart our first night). I really don't know what's wrong with the microwave: the two mugs of water had over 3 minutes and still didn't get to boiling point! Everyone knows water should boil in 60 seconds ...

[Sweetie Babes]

Teaser : tomorrow we've got a late breakfast at Crystal Palace (my very favourite) and a late dinner at Be Our Guest. Promises to be good ...

[dixonsontour]

Lots of nice meals enjoying your updates

[Sweetie Babes]

Day 5 : Shopping!

We had lunch at the Florida Mall today. They've completely rebuilt the food hall now - and Carlo's Bakery is right outside it! No, we didn't go in!

We were going to eat at one of the Chinese or Japanese places round the edge of the food hall, but then we remembered about Five Guys and went and got burgers from there. We both had the small bacon cheeseburger and shared a large fries as it was cheaper than buying two little ones. I'm sure they've put their prices up a bit: it came to just over $20 for two burgers, one large fries and 2 medium drinks. But my goodness it was worth it! The burger was succulent and delicious, and the fries were amazing. The portion would have served 3 people easily. When I got the large tub out of the bag the bag was full of fries - and the pile on the tissue you can see (laid like that so I could add vinegar) was the 'overflow' from the pot!



We had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, and with my special coupon it came to a little over $18 for the two of us, which is amazing.

This was delicious and the most food I've been able eat in one hit since we got here! The silver foil contains a baked potato. I open it up, slice the potato open, insert the grated cheese, then re-wrap it and let the cheese melt while I eat my chunky chicken soup. I finished off with their current dessert: Everything Chocolate. I ate most of this, plus half the jelly I took in the other bowl and half the ice cream. OH helped me with the ice cream. To drink I had their strawberry lemonade, which was delicious but too sweet so I could barely finish it.

[mojo.121]

All looks good so far and that chicken in 50's Mmm shame about the server. Looking forward to crystal palace and bog
Thanks for sharing
M.

[Sweetie Babes]

Day 6 : Back to MK

Headed back to MK today and got a couple of quick rides in before returning to Crystal Palace for our late breakfast. This was deliberately booked late so I could get a glimpse of the lunch menu in case we want to have lunch there next time.

Started off with the omelette to order (cheese and bacon) and more egg and bacon, had to try the breakfast lasagne - which is located on the children's counter - and the Pooh puffed donut things. All totally delicious. My only complaint about CP is that you never get to eat all your breakfast before at least half of it gets cold. Why don't the Americans like their food piping hot?

We met all the characters several times as the restaurant had emptied out considerably after 10.45am when they officially stop booking breakfasts (although there is till food available) and around 11.30am when they put the lunch stuff out. We were actively encouraged to go and try the lunch menu, incidentally. There was no need to go sneaking over to try and nick a bit.

I was very impressed with what was on offer. While we were digesting breakfast and chatting to both our lovely waiter and the people on the table next to us who were there celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, I mentioned to the waiter that I'd like a banana if they still had any out as I woke with painful cramp in the early hours and needed the magnesium. He took me over but they'd already started putting the breakfast stuff away. He called a chef over and asked for 'a couple of bananas'. The chef brought over 3 and said 'you may as well have 3 as they're only little'.

The lunch menu. As you can see, I decided to have a tiny sampler of some of the stuff. When I returned to the buffet after an initial recce, they'd added whole chicken breasts and beef ribs! I definitely didn't have room to take anything like that, but tried the salmon (divine), steak from the carvery (ditto), a couple of peel & eat shrimps (yum), and a couple of sweet potato Tater Tots (didn't eat as the texture was weird) and a bit of mac & cheese to try (again, didn't eat as it set into a hard lump).

My conclusion? We will DEFINITELY book lunch there next trip (next September).



It was another scorcher so we decided around 3pm to grab some ice cream from The Plaza and then sat and watched the parade from a table outside. We both opted for "The Plaza" sundae served in a waffle bowl: you can order up to $6.75 worth on a snack credit. OH had mint choc chip and something else (can't remember and didn't get a chance to take a photo before he ate half of it). I had mint choc chip and the raspberry sorbet. Delicious, although the pips in the raspberry were a bit irritating. Again, I started on mine before remembering to take a photo. I opted not to have a mini mountain of whipped cream on mine, incidentally, but did have the hot fudge topping and cherry.



Dinner was at Be Our Guest. We were in the Rose Gallery. OH and I both had the steak, but I had to send mine back as it was really rare - and tasted of peppers as they serve it on a bed of green beans, onions and peppers. She brought me a replacement and even had them give me a portion of plain beans - which I didn't think to ask for, so that was a lovely touch. A manager came to see me and ask how everything was and agreed that he doesn't like rare steak either. We also decided that the seasoning salt they put on the chips ruins them! The texture of the chips is amazing: light and fluffy inside and beautifully crisp on the outside. But it's all liberally dusted with this weird flavouring which ruined it completely.

They brought me a complete new portion of chips with the fresh steak, even though our waitress left me the original pot so I had something to 'snack on' while she got me a fresh plate.

The new steak was cooked to perfection - and because it was served freshly cooked it was piping hot. She also brought ketchup and A1 Steak Sauce. A1 is odd: tastes a bit like runny HP, but not as nice! The truffle butter they serve with the steak we weren't sure about.

Everyone gets to bring Lumiere, but they take it away quite quickly (once you've had a chance to get a couple of photos done).



The bread rolls


The original plate


My 'special' replacement (steak was cut to check how cooked it was)


The dessert trolley


OH had the chocolate cupcake and I had the strawberry.


And finally, we got a special dish of the Grey Stuff for our anniversary. It was much tastier on top of the cupcake ...


Conclusion: we'll definitely eat there again - but next time I'll make my order more specific up front.

[Sweetie Babes]

Day 7 : Back to Epcot

Another breakfast at Boma and then onto the bus to Epcot. We both had the same breakfast as previously so I didn't bother taking further photos.

We had lunch at Sunshine Seasons: we always look forward to this. We both had the chargrilled chicken with yellow rice and black beans - the chicken was fresh out of the oven and so, so tasty. They've changed their strawberry shortcake so I didn't have that this time. OH opted for the chocolate mousse and I was taken by the orange cupcake.

The orange cupcake is superb: not too sweet and sickly, the way a lot of the heavy buttercream-topped cakes are, and there was a hidden bit of some sort of thick orange gel hidden inside.

As the rain set in mid afternoon we left the park fairly early. We had to pop out to Walmart to get the final bits of shopping (zipped down the Sherberth Road and went to the one on the 27 which was actually the nearest if you're based at AKL) and then I dashed back up to the room to do OLCI and book our seats (too late, all the good seats had gone), and then met OH in the Mara for our final dinner.

We both had the pepperoni flatbread followed by the frozen strawberry lemonade. Quite honestly, it wasn't very nice at all. I expected it to taste like a Dominos or Pizza Hut - or even one of their 'standard' personal pepperoni pizzas, but it didn't. In fact, I didn't even want to finish mine. The frozen lemonade was really nice, though, and we took it up to our room to finish it.

No photos as I left everything in the room when I came down to meet OH for dinner.