Merry Stitchmas! An onsite and offsite Dining Report, December 2016

[Wismgari]

Thanks for all the comments - sorry about the delay in the next post, it has been a really busy week, but there will definitely be updates over the weeend

Originally Posted by slow.jo

Really enjoying reading! Looking forward to more

Jo xx

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Thank you for reading and commenting

Originally Posted by sweetchunks

Enjoying reading your report. Going to have to try Buffalo Wild Wings in July, it looks yummy!

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The cheese curds were amazing! The bf was in heaven with the amount of choice of sauce for the wings too!

Originally Posted by Gill247

Loving your report - food and Christmas decorations!

Looking forward to more!

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Thank you - food, Christmas decorations and Disney are three of my favourite things

Originally Posted by amy1511

Great trippie so far. looking forward to more, and have added buffalo wild wings to our list :-)

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Good choice, we really liked it, and a nice chilled out atmosphere too Lots of sports on the TVs if that is your thing too

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer81

Loving this so far - all the Christmas trees look amazing! And Buffalo Wild Wings is top of my list for our next trip

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Thank you! I am glad so many people are liking buffalo wild wings... we had a return trip later in the holiday!

Originally Posted by sheluk

Loving your report - food and Christmas what could be better

What dates did you go?

That drink you had in the sunshine watching he singers looks amazing! And I seriously need to look into cheese curds

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Thank you for your nice comments We were there from 3rd - 17th December, so managed to leave just before it got really busy for Christmas. That was actually a chocolate and peppermint ice cream, it was amazing though And yes, cheese curds are the best things ever... I really miss them (and strawberry lemonade) right now!

[Wismgari]

December 8th: Perkins, shopping, cheesecake factory and Celebration

This morning we went to Perkins for breakfast – neither of us had ever been here before. I don’t have the breakdown of costs today as the itemised receipt was taken off us when we paid – but I do have the total at the end. I had a combo which doesn’t seem to be on the online menu, but was their special pancakes at the time (lemon meringue) and it came with eggs and bacon or sausage. I chose bacon and asked if I could swap the eggs for something else as I don’t like them and got breakfast potatoes instead. This was a delicious breakfast, I loved everything about it!

He had a build your own breakfast, where you get two eggs and then get to choose something from each of the categories to go with it. He chose hash brown, bacon and pancakes. He then paid extra to add on sausages as well! He said it was fine, but he preferred Ihop. I think this is probably because he was jealous of y flavoured pancakes!

I also had an apple juice to drink and he had coffee. We had a 20% off voucher so this little feast cost us $20.84 (and we left a tip on the table in cash).

After this we went shopping! We have never had a car in Florida so this was a new experience for us both. We visited the Vineland outlets, Premium outlet Mall and Mall at Millenia. Neither of us are huge shoppers so we didn’t go into many shops in each. I wanted to visit the Disney outlet and Bath and Body Works and he got himself a hoody from Gap. We also made a few food purchases. I went into It’sugar to get some jelly beans – I discovered these in Baltimore earlier in the year and became slightly addicted to 7up and Orange Crush flavoured jelly beans. I bought some more of these, with a few other flavours thrown in and they cost me $3.59. We also decided to have a quick look in the Lindt store in the hope we could get a free sample. Well, we got one, it was white chocolate peppermint flavour and we were hooked! So we ended up buying a bag of these and a bag of peppermint cookie flavoured truffles as well – they had a 35% discount on in store so the two bags cost $22.15 including tax – expensive, but they taste amazing!

Our trip to the Mall at Millenia was entirely due to the Cheesecake factory being there! However, it turned out it was also really nicely decorated for Christmas and had a giant tree!

I love cheesecake factory and visited three times in 6 nights in Baltimore last year. The bf, however, has never visited! I did warn him about portion sizes but he didn’t listen… So first up I had a strawberry lemonade (of course!) – this is amazing and still my favourite every strawberry lemonade ($4.95). He had an Arnold parmer lemonade, but then wished he had just copied me!($3.95).

I ordered off the lunch menu (it was about 3pm) and ordered the chicken romano (parmesan breaded chicken with spaghetti in tomato sauce) – but I swapped the tomato sauce for alfredo ($12.95). This was delicious, but still too much for me to finish!

He ordered the burrito grande ($14.95) and it was HUGE! He somehow managed to eat it all though and said it was really good.

Total cost was $46.26 including tax and tip. We both really enjoyed our meal here.

After a little wander round the mall we popped back in to get some cheesecake to take back to the hotel. I ordered the peppermint bark cheesecake, as I was so excited I could try this as they only do it around Christmas. It was amazing! Although, I think I may still prefer the oreo one. He chose the key line cheesecake and also said it was really good. Total cost was $16.94 – expensive, but good!

After popping back to the hotel for a bit and making the most of our refillable mugs again, we went to Celebration for the evening to enjoy the snow! We had never been before and both really liked it. It was so pretty for Christmas:

Whilst waiting for it to snow he went to starbucks and got some sort of coffee – he lost the receipt and I don’t even know what sort of coffee it was! It cost about $3.50 though.

The snow was amazing! There are many pictures of me grinning away at this point.

After the snow we had a little wander around, had a look in the shops and sat by the lake for a bit. Then we had a wander round looking at all the houses decorated for Christmas - some of them were pretty impressive!

After this we drove back to Pop. No dinner this evening as we were still full from cheesecake factory – I would guess I ate a bit of cheesecake before bed though!

Total costs for today:

Shopping for food treats: $25.74
Meals (I included the cheesecake in this): $84.04 (including tax and tips)

[Wismgari]

December 9th: Ohana, touring the MK resorts, AK and Millers

So when we got back to our room last night I took a look on MDE as I had really wanted an Ohana breakfast reservation and had not been able to get a decent time in advance of our trip (we only booked our trip 2.5 months in advance)… Anyway there was an opening for two at 10.15 the following morning – perfect!

As the obsessive Stitch fan I am I got myself all ready for a trip to see my favourite alien and we drove to the TTC, before walking across to the Poly (we were going to tour the resorts on the monorail after breakfast so this parking arrangement seemed easiest).

My excitement at seeing Stitch may have resulted in me forgetting to take some food pictures… but I did manage some of the hot food and left over fruit…

The food was some sort of pineapple and coconut bread (last time we had two sorts and I remember liking the other one… but sadly not this time), a fruit platter and then Mickey waffles, Stitch waffles, bacon, sausage, eggs, potato and bscuits. We were also served our amazing juice and the bf had coffee too. I also got to meet my idol (as well as Lilo, Mickey and Pluto).

Now, the service was not great today… twice I had to ask for more juice, once I was so thrsty I drank my tiny cup whilst she was still at the table so I asked for more and she left the container of juice behind, but seemed a little snide about it. Also, we wanted more food and waited 10/15minutes but couldn’t even see her to ask. Eventually we asked someone else and they went to find out waitress for us. It is a shame as it is my favourite breakfast location (for obvious reasons!), but it wouldn’t put me off returning and the food was good… not cheap though… this cost $78.16 (including tax and tip… we left just under 18% as the servce hadn’t been great).

After this we had a lovely tour of the resorts to look at the Christmas decoratons… Frst up, the Poly:

Then the Grand Floridian, the gingerbread house was amazing!

Then a boat across to the Wilderness Lodge

And finally a boat back to the Contemporary

I think the Grand Floridian was the most impressive, but the Wilderness Lodge is my favourite, I would love to stay there one day! We also took our refillable mugs with us and filled them up at various resorts.

After this we headed to Animal Kingdom to do the sunset safari and see the tree of life shows. The weather was better than our list visit so I took some sunny Christmas photos:

Sunset safari was really good – we ended up stuck by the lions as there was a rhino on the road ahead! The lions were jumping around and playing, it was amazing! Although also slightly scary as they were really close! Tree of life show was so pretty as well, although we didn’t get to see them all due to being stuck on safari! He got a snickerdoodle hot chocolate from Starbucks whilst we were watching (after trying and enjoying mine the other day) – this cost $4.79.

After this we headed to Millers Ale House, due to so many recommendations from the Dibb! It was busy and we had a bit of a wait for a table, but it wasn’t too bad. We had a voucher for a free flat bread, but neither of us fancied it so we didn’t end up using it. I had to try the zinger mountain melt after reading about it do much here on the dibb! I ordered it with the garlc parmesan sauce on the zingers instead of the normal one, and without the spring onions on top. This cost $11.59 and was good. He had the jambalaya (as recommended by our server) and he really enjoyed it - $12.99. We both just had water to drink. Total cost was $31, including tax and tip. We did like Millers and would return, but not up there with our favourites I don’t think. Amazing selection though!

After this we headed back to Pop, filled up our mugs and collapsed into bed!

Total food costs: $113.95 (expensive day due to Ohana!)

[DisneyDreamer81]

Ooh those lemon meringue pancakes look so good! I love anything lemony! Really enjoying your report!

[Guest]

Great report so far going to add Buffalo wild wings and Blaze to my list now

[Wismgari]

December 10th Epcot, Olive Garden and MK

I am slightly lacking on food pictures again today, sorry… Some more Christmas pictures though!

Today started out at Everything Pop food court once again. I just had pop tarts and filled my mug up. He decided he wanted something bigger and had the breakfast flatbread… this thing was huge! It had sausage gravy, egg, bacon and cheese on it. This cost $10.64 (including tax). He would also have drunk lots of coffee!

We then headed off to Epcot and I got a picture of my favourite alien ready for Christmas

We then wandered off to world showcase to see more of the special holiday shows going on (as well as ride Frozen ever after again).

Voices of Liberty singing Christmas songs:

Performers celebrating Chinese New Year:

The Italian Christmas witch:

At some point he stopped off for an iced cappuccino ($5.75) and I stopped for a chocolate cookie with caramel in the middle from the shop in Germany ($4.79). Sorry – I forgot to take a picture of this. It was disappointing though… not that much caramel in the middle and quite dry. I was sad as the shop looked amazing, I would definitely try something else next time.

About mid afternoon we headed out of the park and back to Olive Garden. We went to a different location this time in the hope of better breadsticks! Now for reasons unknown to me I only took a picture of one part of tonight’s meal! First up, I had a raspberry lemonade ($2.99) and he had a peach iced tea ($2.99). We then shared some fried mozzarella sticks (should have been $6.49 but we got them for free for joining the mailing list – different email address to the first time!). Then we got the breadsticks and they were pretty good, although till not as good as they had been in New York! He then got salad, but I didn’t want any. I then got exactly the same dish as last time- the create your own pasta bowl with whole wheat linguine, garlic alfredo sauce and chicken ($13.28) and he got the garlic rosermary chicken – finally something I have a photo of! ($14.79).

I really enjoyed mine once again and he loved his chicken. Total cost of the meal was $43 (including tax and tip).

We then popped into Target and bought another box of the cookies and cream poptarts to take home with us as they were my favourite, a box of red velvet pop tarts for my friend, some peanut butter oreos for my work and two bags of white chocolate mint m&ms – yum! This lot came to $13.40.

We then headed back to the room to relax a bit before Magic Kingdom for the evening. This was the first time we had seen the castle all lit up for Christmas and I was so excited! It was gorgeous!

We didn’t eat anything else all day as we were still full from our huge Olive Garden meal!

Total food spends:

Shopping: $13.40
Meals: $64.18

[Wismgari]

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer81

Ooh those lemon meringue pancakes look so good! I love anything lemony! Really enjoying your report!

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They were really lemony - really nice! A bit weird with the breakfast potatoes though!

Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by curlywurly

Great report so far going to add Buffalo wild wings and Blaze to my list now

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Two great choices - in fact, (spoiler alert...) we return to both of them in our trip!

[Wismgari]

11th December: Mini Golf, Christmas trees, City Walk, Bubba Gumps and giant milkshakes!

Hi everyone – sorry for the delay in getting this one to you… my computer died so have had to get a new one and transfer all my pictures across.

So today once again started with pop tarts and refillable mugs in the food court – this was a great way to save money on this trip!

After breakfast we headed to Fantasia Gardens mini golf, which was a first for us and lots of fun!

After this we wandered over to the Swan and the Dolphin to look at the Christmas decorations. This display made out of chocolate was amazing:

And this tree and train going around the bottom was pretty cool too:

We then popped into Animal Kingdom lodge to see their tree:

And then finally headed for our first real food of the day – we were off to Bubba Gumps and a look around City Walk. Bubba Gumps is my boyfriend’s favourite so after grumbling about the expensive parking I agreed to go! We had a Landrys Card with $50 credit to use and our receipt doesn’t have the full prices on so I will just give a final price at the end. To drink I had a strawberry mango chiller in a souvenir glass and he had a big and frosty in a souvenir glass. I am a sucker for a souvenir glass!

For our mains he had a shrimpers heaven (he loves it so much he has been three times now and never tried anything else!). I had the fried chicken, but I asked for fries instead of the mashed potato. He loved his meal as always and my fried chicken was absolutely amazing! I have previously ordered the ribs but I think the chicken is my new favourite!

The balance due on top of our $50 credit was $10.50 and we then tipped another $10.

We then went for a wander around City Walk and were disappointed by the lack of Christmas decorations!

We then walked out to Hard Rock hotel to look at their decorations and liked the music theme on their tree:

Next up were milkshakes from Toothsome Chocolate Emporium – now I knew these would be very overpriced but I just had to try them! I had a chocolate x5, and he had an espresso buzz – we knew these were big enough to share but we would never have agreed on a flavour!

Now, I was sadly underwhelmed… but it may just have been my flavour choice. The cream on top of mine wasn’t very nice and there was so much of it. He really enjoyed his though, but said it was far too sickly and again far too much cream! I did like the container it came in though and now it is at home in my kitchen holding my collection of mickey straws! These cost $12.50 each - $26.63 including tax.

We took a wander to Royal Pacific to look at their tree too:

And then headed back to Pop to collapse in bed feeling very full and a little sick after those milkshakes!

Total costs:
On the day: $47.03 (including tax and tips)
In advance: $25 on Landrys card

[Goldia]

I'm still loving all the shots of the Christmas trees. It's a dream of mine to one day go to wdw at Christmas.

[MissFortune]

I love a good food picture or two but all those trees! Wow

Thanks for sharing!