17 nights of allergy-friendly DDP - Sept/Oct 2015 **DONE! **

[stan_the_man]

Sept 27

A rather soggy Cosmic Rays (dinner)

Tonight was MNSSHP. Traditionally we get there about 6pm to have a QS meal and then spend the rest of the night at the party. Unfortunately for us, rain was predicted, and as we were driving up World Drive at 6pm, the rain hit pretty hard.

Luckily we had ponchos with us, but they didn't really stop our feet getting soaked (and we discovered fabric shoes aren't great in Floridian thunderstorms...!). We headed down Main St through the shops and then to Tomorrowland and took shelter under the TTA and waited it out. It eventually cleared at 7pm so we went to eat then (it was manic beforehand in Cosmic Rays as everyone else was taking shelter in there).

We both had the bacon cheeseburger with fries (and fixin's!), and for desserts we got mango gelato and chocolate gelato. Both these desserts weren't safe for DW so I got to sample both!

You can tell we were happy that the rain had stopped and we could enjoy the rest of MNSSHP!



Burgers were burgers, they are pretty uniform across the board. I love mango ice cream so the that was lush (the chocolate wasn't too bad either). Being typical Disney desserts they were massive so I only had a few spoonfuls from each before leaving them.

Next, Mama Melrose Fantasmic Package for lunch...

[Grapesoda]

I'm really enjoying this Kona cafe lunch looks really nice, I may have to jiggle my plans to make a visit!

[stan_the_man]

Sept 28

Mama Melrose Lunch - Fantasmic! Package (and snacks)

This must be a popular package nowadays (or they don't release a lot of ADRs for it), as we were only able to secure a 3:20pm time to eat here. This is an annoying time, as it is stuck in between a regular lunch and dinner time slot, so we opted to snack beforehand.

We got up late and got to HS around 12:30pm, so before heading into the Beauty and the Beast show, we got a snack from down Hollywood Boulevard. I was trying to find a cheese stuffed pretzel, but couldn't for the life of me remember where they were (it later transpired they are from a stand near the GMR), so settled for a Mickey head pretzel which came with a pot of hot plastic cheese sauce. DW had a large bag of brown rice tortilla crisps which were lime flavoured. They weren't advertised as a snack credit as they were a family size bag as opposed to the usual grab bag size Disney stock, but I asked the server and she put it through as one


(I bit his ear off before remembering to take a pic!)


Stock photo as I didn't take a picture of these

Pretzel was plain and quite salty, so although the pot of cheese wasn't great, it livened it up a bit! The crisps were yummier though, hard to believe they were made from brown rice, random

As our ADR time rolled around we headed to Mama Melrose. It always seems busy here, and we were told there was a 15 min wait past all ADR times because they were so busy. The hostess also told us the buzzer worked outside if we wanted to wait outside, but the lure of air-con won over as always! We weren't actually that late in being seated, as we were sat down by 3:25pm.

Bread service here was one of my favourites. There were 4 soft mini-baguettes, and rather than butter you get olive oil and herbs to dip them in (the oil is poured tableside over the plate of herbs). This makes a change from the last time we were there when we got harder petit pain style rolls. Mama Melrose also make their bread in house, as opposed to a lot of other places which we learnt come from a centralised bakery.



As we got the F! Package, we got all 3 courses included for 1 TS credit (great use of a credit here).

For starters I went for Oak Fired Mussels in a spicy Tomato Butter with Grilled Onions and Herb Croutons. DW had Mixed Green Salad with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, artichoke hearts, Feta cheese, and red wine-oregano vinaigrette.





Despite saying croutons on the menu, I only got one big one, but it was very tasty! I don't have seafood much so can't comment on if the mussels were done well or not, but they came out the shells ok and were tasty (I did have one that hadn't opened which I found strange they served it up). The best bit was the spicy tomato butter sauce. The waitress even brought me more bread to mop it up! DW says her salad was very tasty for a salad, I didn't sample any as I don't particularly like any of the ingredients on it!

For entrees, I had Charred Strip Steak with five-cheese baked macaroni and pancetta, aged balsamic-shallot butter, and Chianti Wine Reduction (another trend of mac and cheese with steaks). DW went for Spaghetti with meatballs and marinara, garnished with Pecorino Romano Cheese and Parsley.





For me, this was my favourite mac and cheese of the trip. I am a big fan of anything that says "four cheese" on it, and the pancetta in the mix kicked it up a notch. The steak itself was nice, not much fat on the side and cooked how I asked for it. The shallot butter added a nice sweeter taste to it.

I sampled a bit of DWs meal and it was good. The meatballs were nice and juicy and the marinara was full of flavour.

Onto desserts... now normally as part of the Fantasmic Package a dessert sampler plate is given to every diner (which is what I got), however this isn't done for nut allergy sufferers, so my DW got her own menu to choose from, and went for Ghirardelli Chocolate and Cherry tart - creamy chocolate infused with Morello cherries and cherry coulis topped with whipped cream.





My dessert sampler was Cannoli cake, tiramisu and amerettini cake. The tiramisu was my favourite, followed by the amerettini cake then the cannoli cake. They all had a nice flavour to them, but I can't really make this as a recommendation as it is the standard dessert option so you get no choice at the F! package DW was making all sorts of noises eating hers she said she was very happy at having an interesting nut-free dessert.

Next, Pepper Market for lunch and dinner...

[stan_the_man]

Sept 29

Pepper Market for lunch and dinner

Bit of a miserable day for us. DW had developed a bit of a cold/cough so wasn't feeling great, plus it was already raining when we got up at 7am and wasn't showing any sign of letting up according to the weather reports. We were meant to go to US today but decided to cancel and have a hotel day instead.

The rain eventually let up about lunchtime so we wandered over to the Pepper Market to grab some lunch. Last time we stayed here I developed a bit of an addiction to their philly steak sandwiches, so ordered one for the first time this trip. DW went for a turkey burger as per last time. I only took a pic of my sandwich though...



Shown here with optional crispy onions on top which was a nice added touch!

I think for desserts I got a cookie and churros again so I could eat the churros there and save the cookie for the room


After lunch we went for a swim and relaxed a bit more. The rain came back for a bit, but then went again. We decided to head out to Epcot for the evening as DW was feeling a bit better, and we also had a FP for Wilson Phillips at Eat to the Beat so wanted to see them (as a side note this FP is great if you like the band playing, as we got front row seats and it was amazing, Carni Wilson even commented on my tattoos whilst she was singing lol)

When we got back to CSR I headed to the Pepper Market to grab a late dinner to have in the room. I got a single pepperoni pizza to take away along with another cookie and a bottle of water (I took my refill cup to get a drink). The pizza here is really funny, they have the bases pre-made (they are quite large, being advertised as a 9" pizza but that is the short side, they are about 13" long I'd say), they put the toppings on, then put it on a conveyor belt that takes it slowly through an oven, popping out the other side all cooked!

I didn't take a picture so this is one I found online, but it is what I had:



Not bad for a QS pizza, it is more like a flatbread style pizza rather than the usual round QS pizzas. DW only managed a couple of slices as she wasn't feeling great, so I nommed the rest in front of the TV


Tomorrow, Pepper Market (lunch) and Be Our Guest (dinner)...

[stan_the_man]

Sept 30

Pepper Market (lunch) and Be Our Guest (dinner)

I have combined these two as lunch isn't much to talk about!

We had been at Wild Florida all morning and got back to CSR about 2pm, so decided to go get a pizza to share (again!). We took it outside to eat it by Lake Dorado, although 2 things spoilt it for us... firstly, DW was still suffering with her sore throat so it hurt when she was swallowing, and then there were a ton of conventioneers there that poured out of El Centro and sat all around us smoking (this was a trend we noticed with this certain group, as well as smoking joints, honking a horn, and taking over the quiet pools at midnight one night ), random,. Luckily it was only a couple of times we noticed bad behaviour from them, hopefully Disney sorted them out

For a photo of what the pizza looked like, see above


For dinner we were eating at Be Our Guest... we were very excited about this, and I think it was the first ADR I booked at 180+10 out just to secure it! DW was pestering me to eat in the Ballroom, despite me saying you can't guarantee a room!

Thankfully after a bunch of painkillers DW was feeling better, so we headed out to MK about 4:30pm. Check in was relatively painless but there were a ton of people waiting outside on the bridge to the castle which didn't fill us with hope of being seated quickly. Thankfully I think a few must have been walk ups, because we were called in only 15 mins past our ADR time and before a lot of the waiting guests.

It is really cute how they call you in here, they come out holding a Lumiere candle and shout your name along with "the master is ready to see you now!" (incidentally we did have a buzzer but it never went off!)

When you reach the main doors, the CM does something to make it open automatically, even more magic! Then as you go in they show you the stained glass window and take you past 'The Master's' Study before showing you your room.

We were seated in the Rose Gallery, and although DW was slightly upset by this, in hindsight we were glad as it was a lot quieter, and you are encouraged to explore the restaurant afterwards anyway so we got to see everywhere!

The Rose Gallery is on the right hand side as you go in, and features a nearly 7ft high music box featuring Belle and the Beast on top, and there are numerous paintings and tapestries around the room. I have read they only open this for lunch so I'm not sure why we were in there, but maybe to deal with capacity issues?

Our server was possibly the nicest server we had in all of Disney, he was making it so immersive (i.e. by saying "this dish is the masters favourite" and things like that). He brought out our bread service soon after ordering drinks:



Just what you'd expect from a French restaurant, petit pains and butter! They were quite tasty though.

Onto entrees. I had the Thyme-scented Pork Rack Chop - with au gratin macaroni, seasonal vegetables and red wine jus. DW had Grilled Strip Steak with garlic-herb butter and pommes frites





I confess, I wasn't looking forward to the food here as French is my least favourite cuisine, but this pork chop was amazing! I kid you not it was at least an inch thick and you can see it fills the width of the plate! Although it looks pink it was cooked perfectly (Americans do seem to cook pork pink). The au gratin macaroni was a clever twist on regular au gratin, and the veg were seasoned beautifully. The only thing that threw me was the jus which was thinner than I expected, but still tasty.

I had a little munch on DWs chips (or pommes frites as they call it on the menu) - OMG hands down the best chips we had on holiday. They were so fluffy inside yet perfectly crispy on the outside. They reminded me of the popular three-cooked chips you sometimes see on menus over here. The veg was the same as what I had, and she said her steak, despite it being a strip, was almost fillet-like in texture. Possibly even better than the one she had from Yachtsman (coming up at the end of this report).

After stuffing ourselves on this, we were glad that they didn't serve massive desserts here! Again, a nice touch being that they have all the desserts on a trolley that they bring to your table and serve up tableside.

We both had The Grey Stuff (of course!) and, well it was delicious! Although our server brought us forks for it, he suggested just picking it up which was a much better choice! This was essentially a chocolate brownie with the grey stuff on top, which is sort of like mashed up oreos and cream.

They accomodated DWs nut allergy by making a special one in the kitchen that didn't have the silver balls on top (as those are made in a potential cross-contamination facility).





After finishing we explored the rest of the restaurant. I particularly enjoyed the 'snow' falling in the windows of the ballroom, and how dark and sinister it was in the West Wing!


Next up, lunch at the Monsters Cafe at Universal Studios...

[DisneyDreamer81]

I loved the chips at Be Our Guest! Definitely the best of our holiday!

[aay_esha]

I am so excited to eat at BOG next year ! We're on the QSDP so going to try and book breakfast and lunch and then possibly pay OOP for dinner if we can get an ADR !

[stan_the_man]

Oct 1

Monsters Cafe at Universal Studios (lunch)

For lunch today we grabbed a QS meal at the Monsters Cafe. I had this earmarked after reading about it online. Although it is only a QS location, it is quite well themed (there are different rooms themed to classic movies, like Draculas Mansion, Mummys Tomb etc). We chose to eat in the 50s section as we love 50s monster B-movies.



No closes up of the food, just a far away shot showing mutant spiders towering over our food...

We just had a double cheeseburger each, and I got a giant cookie for dessert (seriously, it was about as big as my head)



This was quite a nice burger for theme park food, and it is a fun place to eat too! We had a little look round afterwards at some of the memorabilia, our fav was the swamp creature from Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Next, Sci-Fi Dine-In for dinner...

[stan_the_man]

Oct 1

Sci-Fi Dine-In (dinner)

After trying this for the first time last trip, we had to go again! It is so much fun, even if the food is basically poshed up QS (then again, maybe it is authentics 50s-style TS?!)

We had a lovely server from the Isle of Wight as well who couldn't be more helpful with things.

For entrees, I had the Build-Your-Own Angus Chuck Burger. This is a flame-broiled beef patty on a brioche bun, and you can choose from a variety of toppings. I chose Swiss cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, onion rings and barbecue sauce. DW had House-smoked St. Louis-style Pork Ribs burshed with Barbecue Sauce served with Baked Beans and Coleslaw





This was a really tasty burger and although my onion rings came on top, I took them off and put them in the burger to make it extra tasty

I didn't sample DWs ribs but she said they were really nice, and she doesn't usually eat non-Heinz beans or even coleslaw, but ate it all here... that says something! The only thing I would say about this is they seem to make it hard to eat on small plates with the ribs stacked upright, if you aren't happy using your hands it might be quite hard (our server did supply us with a lot of hand wipes and serviettes though!).

For desserts, I had the Out-of-This-World Turtle Cheesecake, with Heath Bar, Pecans, Chocolate Chips, Caramel Sauce, and topped with Whipped Cream. DW had Warm Glazed Doughnut stacked with Cinnamon Apples and topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce





This cheesecake is one of my favourite ever! The base tastes like it is filled with rice crispies (wierd but nice!), the filling is proper cream-cheesy, and all over the top there is heath bar (like Daim bar), pecans, choc chips and caramel sauce. It is stupidly rich which is why it is good you only get a small serving!

DW was happy with hers as she rarely gets to eat doughnuts due to cross-contamination issues. I had a bite, and as I love cinnamon and vanilla it was a winner.

Since we had a 7:10pm ADR, and the park closed at 7:30pm (with F! being on at 8:00pm) we got out of Sci-Fi at 8:20pm to a deserted park



Always a treat, and even better, we made it to the bus stop at just before 8:25pm, so got to catch the end of the F! fireworks over the trees just as a bus arrived, and weren't caught up in the mass of people leaving F! either.

Next day, Islands of Adventure's Circus McGurkus for lunch...

[Tor32]

Originally Posted by stan_the_man

Oct 1

Sci-Fi Dine-In (dinner)

After trying this for the first time last trip, we had to go again! It is so much fun, even if the food is basically poshed up QS (then again, maybe it is authentics 50s-style TS?!)

We had a lovely server from the Isle of Wight as well who couldn't be more helpful with things.

For entrees, I had the Build-Your-Own Angus Chuck Burger. This is a flame-broiled beef patty on a brioche bun, and you can choose from a variety of toppings. I chose Swiss cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, onion rings and barbecue sauce. DW had House-smoked St. Louis-style Pork Ribs burshed with Barbecue Sauce served with Baked Beans and Coleslaw





This was a really tasty burger and although my onion rings came on top, I took them off and put them in the burger to make it extra tasty

I didn't sample DWs ribs but she said they were really nice, and she doesn't usually eat non-Heinz beans or even coleslaw, but ate it all here... that says something! The only thing I would say about this is they seem to make it hard to eat on small plates with the ribs stacked upright, if you aren't happy using your hands it might be quite hard (our server did supply us with a lot of hand wipes and serviettes though!).

For desserts, I had the Out-of-This-World Turtle Cheesecake, with Heath Bar, Pecans, Chocolate Chips, Caramel Sauce, and topped with Whipped Cream. DW had Warm Glazed Doughnut stacked with Cinnamon Apples and topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce





This cheesecake is one of my favourite ever! The base tastes like it is filled with rice crispies (wierd but nice!), the filling is proper cream-cheesy, and all over the top there is heath bar (like Daim bar), pecans, choc chips and caramel sauce. It is stupidly rich which is why it is good you only get a small serving!

DW was happy with hers as she rarely gets to eat doughnuts due to cross-contamination issues. I had a bite, and as I love cinnamon and vanilla it was a winner.

Since we had a 7:10pm ADR, and the park closed at 7:30pm (with F! being on at 8:00pm) we got out of Sci-Fi at 8:20pm to a deserted park



Always a treat, and even better, we made it to the bus stop at just before 8:25pm, so got to catch the end of the F! fireworks over the trees just as a bus arrived, and weren't caught up in the mass of people leaving F! either.

Next day, Islands of Adventure's Circus McGurkus for lunch...

See more...

Brilliant my niece wanted to go here but we weren't sure. I'm SOLD with those ribs!