How we did the DDP - March 2016 **complete**

[Ycryan]

What a fantastic start, really enjoying your food trip report. x

[PrincessSarbie]

Fab report so far...amazing news about the upgrade

[PrincessSarbie]

Fab report so far...amazing news about the upgrade

[MariaLynda]

Great upgrade!

cannot wait to try dole whip with rum!

[batleyboy26]

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

[Twentyyears]

Love this report, love Le Celier so glad you like it!

[hornetgirl]

Day 5
Breakfast in the hotel – becoming a bit of a routine by now. Fear not, this will change tomorrow.

Lunch – Lottawatta Lodge, Blizzard Beach.
Sorry, no photos of this one as I use my phone as a camera and I don’t take it into water parks. Sean had chicken nuggets with fries, S’mores bites and a frozen hot cocoa, all of which he enjoyed. His drink was really just a chocolate milkshake. I had a sweet potato vegetable burger with fries, cheesecake and a rather lurid looking frozen blue raspberry lemonade. Although I’m not vegetarian, several close family members are, so I eat quite a lot of vegetarian food and generally find it tasty. This burger was so the opposite of that. It was like biting into a patty of tasteless mush. I left most of it and pinched some of Sean’s chicken instead. The food wasn’t very good last time we ate here either so I don’t think we’d bother with it again. We only went to Blizzard Beach because Typhoon Lagoon was closed for refurbishment. More of that later.

Cost – 2 QS credits/about $38

Dinner – Teppan Edo, Epcot
This was a meal we’d been looking forward to for a long time. We originally had an ADR to eat here with friends in 2014 but a last minute change of plan meant it got cancelled. Many years ago we ate at Kobe, so had an idea of what to expect, although obviously without the Disney magic.

There were three parties at our table. We were at one end, with four young ladies from Oklahoma on a spring break trip along the long side of the table and three older ladies at the far end. Not everyone was eating on the dining plan but not one ordered appetisers, so we were all eating together, which was nice. First up we all had a little bowl of salad.

Then our chef, Kenta, arrived. He was a real laugh and as soon as he discovered we were from the UK, teased us mercilessly in an impeccable English accent.
The vegetables and noodles were prepared first, complete with an onion volcano and lots of theatricality.

Rice was also brought to the table. Whilst we began eating these, the mains were cooked.

I had chicken and beef, Sean had shrimp and beef. He also got into full Japanese mode and had a Sapporo beer .
We were the only people at our table to have dessert and both opted for green tea swirl ice cream, which was not too big and quite refreshing, just right after such a big entrée.

Our meal finished just as Illuminations was about to begin. Remembering a tip I had read on the Dibb, we went out onto the restaurant’s balcony to watch and had an excellent view.

We booked this restaurant as much for the entertainment as anything, but the food was surprisingly tasty too. We also liked the social aspect of sharing a table. Although the ladies at the other end were too far away to talk to properly, the spring breakers from Oklahoma were polite, charming and delightful to chat to. They weren’t part of a big rowdy group and had just made the trip to WDW for three days by themselves. One was visiting for the first time and was completely blown away by it all. They were also very interested in hearing more about the UK. All in all an excellent meal and somewhere we would recommend as having appeal for all age groups.

Cost - 2 TS credits/about $86 plus $12 for beer

[Kat11]

I am really looking forward to going to teppen edo. We go to Benihana on a fairly regular basis and always love this style of cooking!

Kat

[hornetgirl]

Breakfast – at last a change to the routine. We didn’t eat at the Beach Club today because we had an 8am reservation at Be Our Guest.
Obligatory shot of an (almost) empty park on arrival:

We had eaten at Be Our Guest before, not long after it opened, in the days when there was no FP or ADR for it and you had to queue for a table. We had lunch there after queueing for about 30 minutes and it was a very good meal, so we were keen to see what breakfast was like.
We were greeted with a friendly “Bonjour” and the CMs performed a little welcoming ceremony before the doors were opened. We hadn’t pre-ordered as that just feels like a step too far, there’s enough planning to do as it is. I didn’t much fancy any of the adult options, so asked whether I could have a child’s meal instead, which was no problem. I had yogurt filled crepes with cloudberry foam. The crepes had a bit of an odd rubbery texture but the foam was lovely.

Sean had the Open Faced Bacon and Egg Sandwich. His first comment was “It could do with being a bit warmer.”

We also had a plate of five pastries and refillable drinks.

We chose to sit in the west wing, which was dark and atmospheric. Although the theming was excellent, there was an endless stream of people coming in to take photos, which got in the servers' way a bit.
If you are paying out of pocket, I would say that breakfast at Be Our Guest is extremely poor value for money and the food was at best only average. HOWEVER, when we came out we were able to walk straight onto the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for our first ride of the day. We got off the ride at 9:03am and thought we’d have another go – until we saw that it already had a 30 minute wait time, which changed to 45 minutes as we watched!
We wouldn’t bother with breakfast here again but will probably return at some stage for dinner, just so that we have experienced all offerings.

Cost – 2 QS credits/about $44 (would be $10 more if I had eaten an adult meal)

Later in the morning we stopped at Gaston’s Tavern to try LeFou’s Brew. Fearing it might be sickly sweet we just got one to share. It was actually really nice. Impossible to describe the taste exactly, it had a caramel sweetness with a sharp, fruity edge. We’d have it again.

Cost – 1 snack credit/$4.49

Lunch – Pecos Bill, Magic Kingdom
One of two quick service restaurants we love to eat at in the Magic Kingdom (the other one is Columbia Harbour House) We shared Beef Nachos, Churros and a strawberry lemonade slushy. With plenty of additions from the toppings bar this was a generous lunch for the two of us. As lovers of Mexican food we also liked the changes to the menu that have been made since we were last there.

Cost – 1 QS credit/about $21.

A further snack credit was burned later in the afternoon on a large soda from Casey’s Corner. It took an eternity to get served.

Dinner – Grand Floridian Café
This was one of the first restaurants to make it onto the wish list for this trip. The CM who showed us to the table heard our accents, asked where we were from and told us he was from Brick Lane.
First up for me was a Glowtini, with which I toasted the lovely Dibbcast team. Looking forward to my next one at the GDO

For my entrée I had the Grilled Pork Chop, which was served with roasted root vegetables (carrots and parsnips) and was lovely. I enjoyed having something which was not beef or chicken for a change.

For dessert I had the no sugar added Berry Pyramid. This was the nicest dessert I had during the holiday. It was really fruity and refreshing, a world away from the sweet and sickly offerings that seem to predominate. It also came with a little mango sorbet hidden Mickey. I didn’t eat him, I couldn’t.

Sean had Shrimp and Grits, which was his favourite entrée of the trip. If he thought he could have got away with it, he would have licked his plate clean lol. Remembering his surroundings, he wiped it spotless with his bread instead.

For his dessert he had Strawberry Cheesecake.

We absolutely loved the Grand Floridian Café. It’s such a pretty restaurant, it had an atmosphere of slightly old fashioned calm and gentility and the food was great too. Very much our kind of place – we’ll be back.
Cost 2 TS credits plus $12 for Glowtini/ about $78

[Kat11]

Hmmmm that shrimp and grits look gorgeous! It's not on my list but looking at that maybe we should consider it? Decisions decisions!

Kat