OH MY GOD, EVEN MORE SNACK CREDITS TO USE - 2017 food report with DDP - *NOW COMPLETE*

[Scotscraig]

Breakfast in the room and then on to HS today. After a quick race around some rides we had a mid morning snack from the Trolley Car

and introduced the in laws to this baby…..

Tip, The Napoleon has to be eaten in a special way. Take the icing layer off first and lay to the side. Eat next layer of pastry and cream with small bits of icing and slurps of coffee and then the bottom layer with the remainder of icing. If you tackle this in any other way - warning – it gets very messy indeed and no supply of wet ones can help you….I think it used to even bigger, unbelievably. I actually remember one year eating it with a knife and fork! It should actually have it's own Haynes guide...

We ate this in on the tables at Starring Rolls for a bit of nostalgia. DS had decided he would have a hot dog and there was a stop off at the Backlot Express for that.

Further rides were ridden before another refreshment stop and some ice cream from Hollywood Scoops when it opened at 1130.

I had the brownie sundae just to keep by blood sugars up which was very pleasant and the others tore into various sundaes and ice cream cookie sandwiches all of which were lovely.

After an afternoon stroll out of the park along to the Boardwalk, where we spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering around the Boardwalk Inn (where we filled up on some juice from the fountain drinks in the Boardwalk Bakery) and then the Swan & Dolphin. The Dolphin in particular looked amazing and is well worth a visit.

It was then back into HS for an ADR at 5pm at the Sci Fi Dine In.

I had gone back to the car for the jerseys as in previous years this restaurant has the coldest A/C known to man. This year was no different….

The food however and service was top notch as always and the best burger around for me. After some milk shakes

(I love the Oreo shake) the mains arrived.

BBQ burger for me

Rueben for DW

All American burgers for FIL and DS

and Ribs and fries for MIL.

All excellent…

Puddings are always hit or miss here in my opinion and you are usually pretty stuffed by this point in any case.

I went for the apple donut and ice cream as there was nothing else I fancied and it was OK but pretty sickly if I was being honest.

DW had the candy bar which she had one mouthful of and said ‘nope, too rich and sickly’.

DS had the brownie which he enjoyed.

In laws copied our choices.

As always, one of our favourites, great fun with the movies and the cars and overall theming and pretty good food.

One for all you Grease fans out there...(according to DW)

On a separate note, whilst nipping into The Mara for some water before heading back to the room we bumped into Aimee and her sister Lauren who most Dibbers will know well via Aimee's brilliant trip reports. We spent a lovely 15 minutes or so chatting away about Disney and the food... we felt like we already knew them via their trip reports!

[Scotscraig]

Birthday boy today and as is the tradition it is MK and Crystal Palace for breakfast which posed a wee problem today as it was extra magic hours in MK. We delayed breakfast until 8.55 and did some rides first (3 goes on Big Thunder!) and then checked in to CP.

No Tigger on duty today which was a disappointment and so after some character interaction time to attack the buffet which as always is good. Some yoghurt to start and then some hot items. I can never resist the breakfast lasagne or puff French toast….An omelette for me and mickey head pancake made by the omelette station guy who has been on duty every time we have eaten there! Then the usual pile of pastries and for some members of our party – ice cream!

Pleasantly full, we enjoyed our morning in MK. We had a rest in our usual hidey hole in the cul-de-sac on Main Street with some coffees and a Mickey head cookie to share.

At this point we all wondered where the smell of cigarette smoke was coming from when we saw the rather tattooed girl on the bench opposite puffing away. A few cast members came out of the exit door nearby and on each occasion she would hide it away and then light up a new one. Starting to get on our wick by this time we 'dobbed' her into a photographer who gave her a round of the guns and ‘advised’ her where the smoking areas were – ie no where near here….Some people are just total chancers!

We bussed back to AKL and washed and brushed up before bussing to Disney Springs. We had a drink in the Hole in the wall by Raglan Road. Every time we have a had a drink here the barman always makes a drama about payment using magic bands and tried every trick in the book to avoid it including ‘it will take longer, I will have to serve this customer first etc…’ I stuck to my guns and how I laughed when ‘the next customer’ also insisted on paying using his band…….There is a god!

After a drink we made our way round to Raglan Rd which tonight was absolutely heaving….

We asked for a table near the entertainment and were told this would maybe take 20 mins or so and so we waited it out. 20 mins became 40 mins and pretty starving by this point we asked again at check in and were told it would be a further wait. Getting a table for 5 appeared to the issue.

We therefore just asked to be seated anywhere and were sat in a dark back bar within 10 mins. It was fine but seeing each other wasn’t the easiest!

The bread and Guiness reduction arrived which was pleasant

and then the mains. I couldn’t make my mind up and opted to share with FIL ordering bangers n’ booze and the Sod the stew to share between us. The bangers won it for me….

DW had the stew which she loves with chips and DS and MIL the fish and chips.

Then onto the main event – Ger’s bread and butter pudding, the greatest pudding in the world *which this year, I managed to finish!

FIL managed half of his Ger’s and the others enjoyed theirs.

Dunbrody Kiss for DS

pavlova for DW

and MIL the fluffy lemon clouds

As always the food was top notch here…

[Scotscraig]

Last full day and we headed to Epcot today.

An early lunch at Les Halles with cheese and ham baguettes all round (which were as usual pretty good).

We had earlier nipped in to Sunshine Seasons for some of their cakes to use up the snack/QS credits and we ate some now - The delicious Mocha Roulade for DW and I

strawberry shortcake for the in laws

and an éclair (from Les Halles) for the boy.

We bought further cakes which which took back to AKL with us for breakfast tomorrow – carrot cake muffins (a bit sickly if I’m honest) and a cheese danish for FIL.

After a rest in the afternoon back at AKL we headed out again and bussed to MK for our last evening.

Tonight’s ADR at The Liberty Tree was a much discussed late edition.

I was for it but DW thought it looked like another stodge fest however to fit in with out itinery, it made it this year, and I was glad it did as it was fantastic and got high praise from everyone.

We were nice and hungry by 6.30 and we were called to our seats by a cast member with the squeakiest voice you have ever heard and seated in the George Washington room which was a nice cosy alcove.

Our server (who was excellent throughout) quickly served up lovely bread and butter and then salad

before bringing out the main sharing entrée. This was lovely and piping hot – turkey, pork and the superb pot roast which just fell apart with mash, gravy and green beans. Oh and mac & cheese – (as a vegetable dish!).

We had some more turkey and pot roast (2nd serving even better than the 1st!) and then the sharing ooey, gooey toffee cake and ice cream which was just the perfect amount and it was oh, so good. Very sweet, very buttery and lovely….

A great last night meal. It left us wondering why we had never eaten here before…..

[jemima2]

Brilliant read! So many ideas and three of our adrs in quick succession, liberty tree raglan and sci fi 😀

[Scotscraig]

Going home day sadly but still time to do a morning in what to our surprise this year had been our favourite park at Hollywood Studios (even if TOT broke down). We had our cakes from Sunshine Seasons for breakfast before checking out and leaving our bags with guest services.

We had a few snack credits (29 by our calculations) left and so plotted how to use them….

Into Sweet spells and 5 Mickey heads to start to take home (and they made it home intact!).

Then onto Disney Springs for lunch at Wolfgang Pucks.

As always very good.

Meat loaf for me

meat loaf sandwiches for FIL and DW

pizza for DS

and chicken tenders for MIL.

DW mentioned to the server that the meat loaf sandwich used to be served with fries rather than 'chips'. Ther server said 'no problem' and instantly brought out another plate of fries! Well played...

It was then onto Ghirardellis for a single scooper each

before buring the remainder of our snack credits on 30 bars (yes 30!) of their chocolate next door to take home given they were buy 3 get 1 free!

DS denied us another free one as he wanted some chip ‘n’ dale pretzels. Bahh…

Aware that the plane food home would most likely be dire we headed to Publix at Vineland on the way to the airport for some sandwiches (Cuban for me which is immense) and a sack bag of Lays. These were scoffed whilst waiting on the flight to call but kept us going all night.

As we thought the airline food was pretty rank…I still ate it though!

Well, that’s it for another year. We had a magic time and some things worked, some didn’t. We are now booked for next year for another stab at the DDP however next year may be it for a year or two. We enjoyed the DDP and the options it brings (and alcohol next year!) but as always happens, we will probably do things a bit different next year.

We are a wee bit scunnered with the quick service stuff in the parks and have decided next year to use as many resort options as we can – this year the Contempo Café was superb for instance. Whispering Canyon, The Plaza, Tusker House and The Garden Grill are all off the list at this time. Not because they were awful, just for some new options.

We are thinking about bringing back Beaches and Cream, The Wave for breakfast and DW and I are planning our own night at the Cali Grill…

Sure it will all change by then though!

By the way the AKL was beautiful and we really enjoyed it. We did find the Mara a bit disappointing after a while and the food options a bit samey and limited and we much preferred the Roaring Fork when we stayed at WL.

I think a villa will suit us better next time though and SSR looks great!

Anyway, thanks for reading…..

[Goldia]

Goodness, I loved your explanation of how to eat the napoleon! Very informative.

Some really tasty treats lots of ice cream sandwiches, which are making me really PECKISH! Thanks for sharing.

[OB1LukeLucas]

Wow what a food report, I am absolutely starving now! Thanks for sharing, you definitely had some lovely food. I've never seen a Napoleon before on any other report, I absolutely love a good fresh cream vanilla slice so I'll have to give that cake a go...I'd eat it exactly as you described wouldn't do it any other way normally! Have you managed to finish all those gorgeous bars of chocolate yet?

[Scotscraig]

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

Wow what a food report, I am absolutely starving now! Thanks for sharing, you definitely had some lovely food. I've never seen a Napoleon before on any other report, I absolutely love a good fresh cream vanilla slice so I'll have to give that cake a go...I'd eat it exactly as you described wouldn't do it any other way normally! Have you managed to finish all those gorgeous bars of chocolate yet?

See more...

Still working our way through them!

[katiealana]

Great report. Definitely going to try yak and yeti and Liberty tree next year. Food looks amazing.

[MrsChunkyBager]

This report was brilliant (even if it has left me quite hungry). Thank you for sharing