DDP and more - September 2016 ***COMPLETE***

[hornetgirl]

Brief introduction

I enjoyed writing my last food report far more than I expected, so I thought I’d have a go at doing another one.

The cast is as before, me – Lucy and my husband – Sean. This time we only have six days on the DDP, staying at Port Orleans Riverside, followed by three days at Bradenton Beach. The trip came about after I found a great deal on flights in the BA sale on New Years Day. When I mentioned them to Sean, he told me to just book them – so I did! At this point we had no idea what our accommodation might be but I was hopeful of getting free dining on the US site when it came out in April. We had stayed at Riverside before so I hoped that French Quarter would be available this time but unfortunately it was not included in the dining offer, so after a nightmare day during which I tried I don’t know how many times to book, it finally went through that night at about 10:30pm and Riverside it was. The Bradenton Beach part was booked through Expedia about six weeks before we travelled and we just picked somewhere which looked nice and wasn’t too expensive – which turned out to be Bridgewalk.

previous food report

[hornetgirl]

Pre travel day

Our bargain flights were £806 ex EU from Dublin, travelling Club World with BA. I know these flights aren’t for everyone but they work well for us. So, a short hop across to Dublin in the late afternoon. Sean’s parents flew across with us, to stay a week with his mum’s sister. We were picked up at Dublin airport by his cousin and went back to his aunt’s for the evening, where we ate home made chicken curry followed by Victoria sponge cake. I didn’t take photos of the food as that would just be weird!

[Kat11]

Following

Kat

[hornetgirl]

Travel day

Up early for the short flight back to Gatwick. A chance remark by the couple sitting in front of us revealed that they were Dibbers too, taking the same route as us. Once through security we headed to the No 1 Lounge, as there is currently no BA lounge while the whole terminal swapping thing is going on at Gatwick. It wasn’t as busy as I had feared and we soon settled down for some breakfast. I had a pain au chocolate, Greek yogurt with various bits on top and a glass of orange juice

Sean had what looks like a croissant with a lump of cheese and a cup of coffee. I then went off to make myself look a bit respectable after our early start and he meanwhile apparently had beans on toast. He forgot to take a photo but said the beans came in a little bowl with a couple of triangles of toast on the side. Odd.

Once onboard, we were immediately offered a glass of champagne.

For dinner we were first presented with a tray containing a side salad and a mozzarella, tomato and basil salad. This is now the default starter on CW flights, with no choice any more, but it was very nice. Warm bread rolls were brought round in a basket. I picked one that looked like the pretzel bread at Le Cellier. It was good, but not as good.

The main course choices were herb topped fillet of British beef with Bordelaise sauce, roasted massaman chicken with khichdi rice, red pepper and goat’s cheese tortellini with arrabbiata sauce or roasted new potato and grain mustard salad with herb marinated seared salmon. We both opted for the beef and had taken advantage of the preordering system to ensure we got what we wanted. With it we had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Heathen I know, but I can’t drink red wine.

For dessert we both had Devonshire lemon curd and almond slice with orange compote. The other options available were either cheese and biscuits or fresh fruit. It was followed by a cup of tea and a little Hotel Chocolat chocolate.

An hour or so before landing, afternoon tea was served. This was a selection of finger sandwiches (egg, pastrami and chicken I think), scones served warm from a basket with clotted cream and jam and some bite sized cakes.

All in all the food on this flight was very good and we ate pretty much all of it. We may have sneaked a fun sized bar or two of chocolate from the Club Kitchen as well

We landed about an hour late at the aircraft had been late getting into Gatwick from Jamaica, but thanks to our lovely CW seats we were off the plane, through immigration and customs and onto the Magical Express in no time.

After dropping our bags and inspecting our room, we caught the bus to Disney Springs. Having been very well fed on the plane we weren’t too hungry, but had all those lovely shiny dining plan credits to burn, so used our first one at Earl of Sandwich, where we shared an Original 1762 sandwich, a side of coleslaw and a soda.

Cost 1 QS credit / $12.57 plus tax

[hornetgirl]

Day 1

Although we had ADRs for all our TS credits, we hadn’t really given a great deal of thought about how we were going to use the rest. This was our second trip this year so was not quite as lavish as our earlier one. As we booked through the US site, we didn’t have to buy ultimate tickets in order to qualify for the dining plan. The minimum we had to buy was two days of park tickets with either the park hopper or the water park option added on, so we went for the latter and this was enough to give us the full DDP for our six day stay.

Anyways, we had breakfast at the Riverside Mill food court, stumbling down bleary eyed at about 6:45am. We collected our refillable (handle-free ) mugs and used two snack credits to get a Danish for me and a bagel for Sean.

Cost 2 snacks / $6.58 plus tax

The pot of Marmite on the table was part of my “I am determined not to get bitten by mosquitos this time” campaign. The idea was to have a dollop every day to try to ward off the little blighters. I also sprayed myself liberally with the bug spray provided by Disney and am happy to say that I was not bitten once. Usually I am a mozzie magnet.

One of our two park days was spent at Epcot. It was EMH so we headed straight to Soarin’ and rode three times in a row before grabbing some refreshment in the form of a shared venti Caramel Frappuccino from the Fountain View Starbucks.

Cost 1 snack / $5.79

For lunch we left Epcot via the International Gateway to have lunch at the Beach Club Marketplace. A bit of judicious swapping meant that for one QS credit we were able to get a roast beef sandwich which came with a bag of chips, a bowl of clam chowder and a yogurt parfait. As we were at a resort, we were able to use our refillable mugs for drinks.

Cost 1 QS / $19.47

Back at Epcot we had dinner at the Rose and Crown. I had eaten here before but Sean hadn’t. Our ADR was for 7:35pm and we asked to wait for an outside table, hoping to get a good view of Illuminations. This rather than the food was our rationale for choosing to eat here, although our meal was actually very good. I had the shepherd’s pie.

Sean had that well known British dish, New York strip steak.

Both were very tasty, although I had expected the seasonal vegetables and English peas which came with the shepherd’s pie to be with it, not in it. My homemade shepherd’s pie is better There don’t appear to be any photos of the desserts but I had a chiffon cake and Sean had a banoffee tart. I also had a glass of Pinot Grigio and Sean had a Guinness, which he didn’t feel travelled very well and a Harp lager for the sheer novelty value.

We had front row seats for Illuminations and were also under cover, which was great as it rained quite heavily (Hurricane Hermine on the way). It was a very pleasant meal and our server, Katie from Belfast, was absolutely delightful.

Cost 2TS plus $27 for drinks / $90

[hornetgirl]

Originally Posted by Kat11

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Hello Not long until you go now

[Tor32]

Great start! X

[hornetgirl]

Originally Posted by Tor32

Great start! X

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Another one who's going soon! Hope you have a wonderful time.

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