You Used a Snack Credit on a COKE? - WDW, Universal, Sanibel - **COMPLETE**

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Scotty

I'm with you on the parenting/bad behaviour thing. My son said last year (he is 19 now) that he couldn't believe the behaviour of some kids and he was glad that we had taught him how to behave. Made me smile inside.
I'm loving your report. Thanks for writing.

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It's good to know that I only have eight years to go until my DS appreciates my efforts!

Because if I had a shiny pound coin for every time I've said "You'll thank me one day..." - I would have a LOT of shiny pound coins...

Thanks for reading, and especially for the lovely compliments. I really appreciate them.

[tiggersbestmate]

Thanks for posting, I'm really enjoying your report. Hopefully I'll get around to reading your trip report too 😊

[Guest]

Originally Posted by tiggersbestmate

Thanks for posting, I'm really enjoying your report. Hopefully I'll get around to reading your trip report too 😊

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Thanks very much for taking the time to comment! Glad you're enjoying it.

Day 13's dining should be up soon.

[Guest]

Day 13


GOOD food today! Woo-hoo!


We'd been at the Christmas Party until midnight, so by the time we were ready to go this morning it was nearly 10:00 AM. We decided to skip breakfast and make our way over to Disney Springs for an early lunch at the Earl of Sandwich.


11:00 AM Lunch, Earl of Sandwich (Disney Springs)


It was a real treat not to have to wait in a massive queue at EoS - we were soon tucking into our lunches. Now normally we share all our QS meals, but we were so “behind” with our credits that today we each ordered our own (we were also pretty hungry, having not eaten since our “prevening” dinner yesterday).

Knowing that I didn’t have to share, I picked a sandwich that Poot doesn’t like:

The Full Montagu - roasted beef, turkey, cheddar, Swiss, lettuce, roma tomato and mustard sauce $7.45


This was delicious, though I definitely prefer the Original 1762. I was determined, however, to try DIFFERENT sandwiches, and not just have the same thing over and over. Yay, me!


Poot’s favourite Earl of Sandwich sandwich is the Italian - salami, capicola, ham, mortadella, mozzarella, roma tomato, Italian seasoning, and Italian dressing $6.99

This is a tasty sandwich, but wow! that’s a lot of processed meat…

On the dining plan LAST YEAR , you could get either a side OR a dessert at the EoS, plus your drink. I don’t know how the dining plan changes for 2017 have shaken out here, I’d love to know if anyone has been to the Earl since the switch. Poot got a bottle of water and the vilest side there is, salt and vinegar crisps (gag!), while I picked a fountain soda and a pot...of brownie bites.

The bites are very more-ish, and pretty moist (for purchased brownies). We couldn’t finish them all, so I put the rest in my handbag for later. The lid seemed pretty secure, but it turned out that...it wasn’t. Later in the day the bottom of my bag looked like this:

Sigh, that bag still smells of chocolate.


After our afternoon swim, we decided to see what dinner reservations were available for tonight. Ooh, Citricos! That’s supposed to be good!


Dinner, Citricos (Grand Floridian)


We put on our Sunday-go-to-meeting-clothes (I even put on some mascara! ) and headed over to the Grand Floridian. There was a Photopass photographer stationed near where the “GF” motif is set into the floor. I was pretty excited to get our picture here. But I had to cut Poot’s hands out of the picture (and there went the GF motif!) because in every photo he’s making “Egyptian hands”.

I had to laugh, this photographer was a woman - and she was so petite that she was even shooting up at Poot. No wonder we both have double chins!

Not only did I gain a chin in this photo, the backlighting also turned me ginger! I don’t think it suits me...lol.


We didn’t have a long wait for our table at Citricos - the restaurant was busy, though not complet, by any means. A woman and a child...and...yep, we were taken to the worst table in the restaurant (though I didn’t know it yet). There are tables with good views here -

- some overlook the GF courtyard and some let you peek into the kitchen. But ours was next to the cutlery station - and the servers made no effort to be quiet as they fished around in the bins…


Our waitress tonight was another long-time Disney employee and she was professional and civil (truthfully, she reminded me of servers in France). She took our drink orders (I had sparkling water, Poot had...tap) and soon a runner brought some bread and butter.

The bread was fresh and savoury; it was served with unsalted butter sprinkled with salt crystals. We limited ourselves to one slice each, but I could have gobbled all of it up. A good start!


While we ate our bread I began to notice the VERY irritating and practically non-stop clatter clatter clatter clatter clatter from the cutlery station. I told Poot that it was really bothering me and…


Mother, don’t complain…


Oh, all right (grumble, grumble).


But I knew it would make me nuts.

Our waitress came back to check on us and I just couldn’t help myself. I had to say something about the clatter. But just as I started to, our mains came.


Sod’s law!


I had chosen the steak (never!):

Oak-grilled Beef Filet potato purée, baby carrots, cipollini jam, Bordelaise $49.00


This was succulent. It was the best steak I had in Florida, and the best filet I’ve had in a long time. The accompaniments complemented the meat perfectly - if I had been alone in the room, I’d have licked the plate. That sauce...mmm...


Poot went for chicken tonight:

Not that kind!

Bell & Evans Chicken fregula pasta, mushrooms, spinach, sun-dried tomato pesto, chicken jus $37


If you are wondering what “fregula” is, I didn’t know either - here’s what Wikipedia had to say:


Fregula (also fregola) is a type of pasta from Sardinia. It is similar to North African berkoukes and Israeli couscous.


The fregula was a really good partner for the chicken. In fact, this whole dish was DELISH. Poot picked it because he has a weird pesto obsession, but he hoovered up every bite.


The chicken I had at Cinderella’s the other night was very good indeed, but this was better. Yum.


While we were eating our mains, we had a visit from the restaurant manager - our waitress had obviously caught enough of what I had started to say to alert him to my minor dissatisfaction (I swear it was like they were staging bleeding Stomp! six feet from my head).

The restaurant manager looked seventeen (!) and he was desperately earnest, bless him. Would I like a glass of champagne? He'll move us to another table right now, blah blah blah.

But by now, we had our mains and I really didn’t want the hassle of changing tables. The manager was a personable young man and not long in his position - we ended up having an interesting conversation about who gets what table and why...let’s just say it wasn’t anything I didn’t already know…


Still, he was a sweet chap, recently married to a French lass (and struggling to improve his French - aren’t we all?).


Looking back I should have let him move us! Next time I’ll just wait for a table by the window, lol.


The waitress came back to take our dessert orders. There is a cheese plate on the starter menu, but I asked if Poot could have it as his dessert instead. The answer was yes:

Citricos Cheese Board Experience - four artisanal cheese pairings with seasonal compote, Medjool dates, Savannah bee honeycomb, and almond praline $18


I couldn’t resist THE Florida dessert:

Florida Key Lime Pie - baked in a graham cracker tart shell served with fresh strawberries and a quenelle of sweet mandarin sorbet $10.00


I pushed the pie to one side and we shared the cheese as a little cheese course. This was very nice indeed.

We’ve both had Fourme d'Ambert many times, but les fromages d’Auvergne ( ) are some of my absolute favourite cheeses. I also really like trying the artisanal cheeses from America - it’s fun to taste things we can’t get here (or in France). I was a bit disappointed that one of the cheeses was a Cabot cheddar - you can get that ANYWHERE in America - but the other two were new to us.


Poot’s favourite was definitely the Humbolt Fog - he loves a bit of goat. I thought it was good, but not spectacular. Neither of us were particularly keen on the Red Hawk (probably because neither of us really like triple cream Bries), but I know if R.C. had been there he would have liked it very much. Despite its ubiquity, the Cabot cheddar was good, and of course the French cheese was as tasty as always.


The little accoutrements were well-chosen. More of them would have been welcome...but it was still a more generous offering than the two (2) blackberries that came with the charcuterie at Be Our Guest! Poot was VERY keen on the honeycomb - it was the first time he had ever had honey from the comb.


We left a bit of the Red Hawk on the plateau (it just wasn’t for us) and moved on to PIE.


This was GORGEOUS. So many of the Disney desserts smack you in the face with SWEET, but this little pie was mostly tart, just a little bit sweet and so, so good. I don’t really think the sorbet was a particularly good garnish/partner for key lime pie - but as a sorbet on its own it was very nice - more citrus flavour, though...


We paid the bill (around $120) using 4 table service credits and I left a 20% tip. Our waitress hadn’t given us the crappy table, and she tried to fix things when she knew I was a little bit unhappy. She was more businesslike than friendly, but that was OK with me.


Worth it on the dining plan? Well, for us - yes.


By this point I had determined that the 2 credit TS restaurants suited my expectations of a sit-down meal better than the 1 credit ones. I decided to cancel our Turf Club rezzie and try and swap it for a reservation at a Signature. So before we left, I asked our waitress and the restaurant manager what restaurant (other than Victoria and Albert’s and Citricos, obviously) they thought was the best on property - and they both said Artist Point - so I filed that away for future reference and we made for the monorail.


Oh, and one more thing about the manager - he had actually started with Disney seven or eight years earlier - as a custodian. I liked him even more for that, I hope he goes far.


Oh, and one more thing about Citricos - I loved the chairs, they were so comfortable!


I hate the metal chairs that seem to be in every new/renovated restaurant (they’re like something out of a Danish “love dungeon” ) - but these were proper wood, very sturdy and soft under the old caboose.


If you are interested in our non-food activities for Day 13 (no love dungeons, Danish or otherwise) - the main report for Day 13 is Here.


Hoop-Dee-Doo tomorrow!

[GALE88]

Just read through your whole report so far. I'm really enjoying it, thanks for sharing.
I'll be interested to read about your experiences at Hoop Dee Doo as that's on my list for this summer.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by GALE88

Just read through your whole report so far. I'm really enjoying it, thanks for sharing.
I'll be interested to read about your experiences at Hoop Dee Doo as that's on my list for this summer.

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We've been to HDD twice, once in 2012 and once last year. We had a great time in 2012, the food was tasty and hot (though of course it's not fancy). DS loved the show and DH loved the unlimited beer.

Unfortunately this last experience wasn't as good. My DS really enjoyed the show (and I did because HE did, IYKWIM), but the quality of the food didn't seem as nice. It was also cold. In fact, in my Highs and Lows (in the trip report index if you want more info) I listed HDD as our worst (Disney) meal of the trip. Sorry!

I *think* Dibber 2littleboys had a similar experience, though obviously lots of Dibbers love it and go every holiday.

I might be willing to give it another chance (I really do like their cornbread), especially if DS asked to go again. The surroundings are so special out at Fort Wilderness!

Thanks for reading and especially for commenting!

[2littleboys]

Another great couple of updates!

I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on Hoop De Doo, I hated it on our last trip and I always feel that I am in the minority on The Dibb as it always seems to get such good reviews!

[Moleymole]

I've been giggling like a mad woman at this report. The parts relating to Poot and cheese "mother... " have really tickled me. I did pull the trigger and book a stay at at the Contemporary this year so I'll be hunting down some of that caramel corn and those peanut butter pie things.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by 2littleboys

Another great couple of updates!

I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on Hoop De Doo, I hated it on our last trip and I always feel that I am in the minority on The Dibb as it always seems to get such good reviews!

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LOL, 2littleboys - if you look at my post right before yours - I said that you weren't impressed with HDD!

No doubt about it, it was the worst food we ate this holiday. And I was really disappointed, because we really enjoyed the food back in 2012.

Thanks for your feedback - I really like knowing what to expect, and if reviews for a place are mixed I go in with a much different attitude (and am less likely to be disappointed).

Originally Posted by Moleymole

I've been giggling like a mad woman at this report. The parts relating to Poot and cheese "mother... " have really tickled me. I did pull the trigger and book a stay at at the Contemporary this year so I'll be hunting down some of that caramel corn and those peanut butter pie things.

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Aw, thanks - what lovely compliments!

In our house we have definitely arrived at the tipping point - we embarrass Poot WAY MORE OFTEN now than he embarrasses us. And I love it!

I am properly jealous of your Contemporary stay. I stayed there with my family thirty or so years ago - it was just wonderful...but every time I think about trying to "re-create" that holiday, I look at the numbers and see that by staying at Wilderness Lodge (or wherever) instead - we could also have a week at Portofino - and I cave. Feeble, me.

[2littleboys]

Originally Posted by GopherLass

LOL, 2littleboys - if you look at my post right before yours - I said that you weren't impressed with HDD!

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lol I never noticed that post

Yeah I was so disappointed as well, 2 TS credits wasted and it had been our last night too so I was totally gutted that it was such a mediocre experience