The Tiki Feast – 18 days of ddp June/July 2013 (more at last)

[emwratten]

Thank you, love reading food reports looks good so far...

[MissFortune]

ooohh I LOVE a new food report.

Great so far & can't wait for more!

[MichelleB]

Great start! Might give Captain Cook's and Contempo Café a try next time.

[Rescuer]

Let’s get started on the table service meals then. Breakfasts first! We had breakfast at Tusker House, Grand Floridian Cafe, Ohana and Crystal Palace.
Here is the order I would place them although they were all good just some better than others.
1. Grand Floridian Cafe
2. Ohana
3. Tusker House
4. Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends.
We had a reservation at 8.20am, this was not one of my original choices so I was more than happy to get that time. Biggest plus for me was getting into Magic Kingdom early for a stroll around. When else would you get the chance for a photo like this?



There were plenty of photopass guys out and about as well so we got loads of fab photos. We checked in and waited about 10 minutes to be seated, the place was pretty quiet and Tigger was over to see us pretty quickly.



Thought Crystal Palace was a really nice setting but it was pretty big.



There was a decent choice of food, but I forgot to take pictures of it really. What we had was tasty, the puffed French toast was nice but very sweet, you couldn’t eat a lot of that. Ds had a fried egg cooked to go with his plate of stuff.



We were soon joined by a huge South American tour group, there was loads of them, they were fine but it meant the speed of seeing characters slowed down. We had hoped to have been in and out within an hour but no...and when Pooh was 1 table away (our last character to meet) he went off to do the parade. An hour and a half later we made our way out Crystal Palace.
Would I return – yes... it wasn’t my favourite breakfast but food and service were good and being in the park early was fantastic. Character interaction was fine but slow. I would try for a 8am adr next time though.

[Rescuer]

We had an adr here on the second full day of our holiday at 8am. We were up at the crack of dawn but running late as usual, mainly due to DS aversion to getting suncream on.... Decided to get a taxi from the Poly rather than rushing, it was just the 3 of us as Mil was taking it easy after being really unwell the day before. There was a small queue of people with the same reservation and we all wandered up through the empty park stopping to take pictures on the way.



We got checked in and waited about 5 minutes to be called forward for our picture with Donald, the smell coming out of Tusker House was really making my tummy rumble. Once inside and seated we were brought ‘jungle juice’ which was fab. Our server said we had about 15 minutes till the characters came out so to go and get our food.



I was really impressed with the food, really liked the spicy corned beef hash. Ds loved the sausage patties. I was so stuffed with savoury stuff that I had a small bowl of fruit and didn’t even look at the sweet stuff.




This place is run like a military operation, so efficient, we were fed, given our Donald photo (normally $35 dollars but free with photopass+), done with the characters, paid the bill and out by 8.50am. The character interaction was brief but fine.


Would I go back – yes definitely, loved the food and the early start gave us a good advantage with the rides we wanted to do at Animal Kingdom.

[Bobsledwheels]

Fab report, loving the reviews and pics so far x

[mossyflossy]

Fantastic start Rescuer, I agree that the adults grilled cheese and dole whip at captain cooks is something to search out, and I also like the cardboard box thing they serve it in, small pleasures!

Interested to see you place tusker above crystal palace, was that because of the tour group or the food?

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by mossyflossy

Fantastic start Rescuer, I agree that the adults grilled cheese and dole whip at captain cooks is something to search out, and I also like the cardboard box thing they serve it in, small pleasures!

Interested to see you place tusker above crystal palace, was that because of the tour group or the food?

See more...

To be honest I don't think there was really that much between the 3 character breakfasts we did. It wasn't the tour group . I think the food at Tusker House was slightly better than Crystal Palace and I liked the way we were in and out before the park officially opened, that was never likely at Crystal Palace with an 8.20adr but I felt we were a long time waiting for the last character. I noticed some other families commenting on that as well.

Would return to either though but with a 8am adr.

I like the boxes at Captain Cooks as well, just makes life that wee bit easier.

[Rescuer]

This was my number 1 choice for a breakfast adr, partly because we were staying at the Polynesian and partly because Ds loves Stitch!
I had made some invitations for ds before we left and this one was slipped under our door the night before. When it comes to Disney ds loves the magic, he was personally invited by Mickey to visit Florida, invited to stay at the Polynesian by Lilo and Stich, invited to stay the night at Universal by the minions, invited to prates league and the pirate cruise and Tinkerbell even leaves gifts on your pillow if you are really (I have way too much time on my hands... )


I was a bit concerned after reading about a negative experience at Ohana on here. Again like Tusker House your photo is taken but no character and you are given the actual photo for free if you have photopass+. Our server was very friendly and we were given the jungle juice and a selection of sweet bread.


Next was a fruit plate, I have no idea what the pink sauce was that it came with but it was lovely.



Then the hot skillet, everything was really nice, the potatoes were salty but that seemed to be par for the course. We ate most of it and our server brought more without us having to ask.


The character interaction was good, a lot more chilled out than the other 2 breakfasts but that may have been us with the fact it was a later reservation and we had no plans to be anywhere that day till night time.


Would I return – yes, although it would depend where I was staying as going from resort to resort for dining was a wee bit of a faff. I enjoyed the family style way of serving especially with characters as you didn’t have to nip back and forward to a buffet.

[Shifu]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

This place is run like a military operation, so efficient, we were fed, given our Donald photo (normally $35 dollars but free with photopass+), done with the characters, paid the bill and out by 9.50am.

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Do you mean 8:50am?

We enjoyed Tusker as it was well organised and also like you loved the Bobotie (the spicy corned beef hash). They make a fab version at AKL in Boma.

Really pleased to hear that Capt Cook's is not bad... we will be trying it out in a few months and its great to get a bit of a heads up re whats there. Can you tell me please, do they served cooked breakfast (ie sausages etc) from 6:30am or do they just offer cold breakfast that early?

Also...re your taxi to Animal Kingdom, did it take long? Cost reasonable?