DxDP Takes Revenge [a Fall 2018 Report] - COMPLETE

[Eccle]

Sanaa looks good, it's one I would like to try, mainly having read so many things about the bread service!

What a shame that HBD was so disappointing, and the server so lacking. Not what you expect from a signature restaurant

[caitlinsmummy]

Bit a mixed last day. We quite enjoyed Sanaa we felt it was different to the other TS restaurants we ate at. I got the paneer too and didn't like it at all.

Such a shame about Hollywood Brown Derby especially as a Signature!

Those nachos look lovely, I love Nachos but we'd already sat down when I realised they sold food inside at Fantasmic I loved the nacho cheese over there too.

Can't believe it's nearly the end of your report xx

[Skittl1321]

Sanaa bread service looks so yummy.

Really enjoyed your report!

[wilma-bride]

I loved our meal at Sanaa, that bread service alone is well worth it. I do understand what you mean about heavy food in the heat of Florida though. we had a pool afternoon after our lunch, but I certainly wouldn't have felt like traipsing round the parks. That's the main reason we tend not to eat much during the day at Disney though.

I'm so sorry that HBD was disappointing for you, particularly as it was your last meal in the parks. Would have been nice to finish on a high. I really hope that you have had your head turned by the potential of offsite dining, and give that a try on your next trip.

[Goldia]

Can I say that I can't wait for Disney to be over those little balls that have juice inside that they stick in drinks and on the top of cakes! I'm quite partial to a macaroon, but I'll happily lose them if we can also lose those stupid balls!

I can't believe we're at the last day! How sad that it's going home time for you. I'm glad your mum found the perfect breakfast, a bacon roll, what's not to love!

I'm also glad that we may as well stick to our Indian takeaways at home and leave Sanaa as you know I have a fear of driving abroad that isn't going away anytime soon.

I am bit sad that your HBD meal wasn't really up to scratch, apart from the lovely bread rolls at the start. It doesn't sound like your server was very attentive at all.

Well done on getting on some rides that you haven't done in a long time. Do you think you'll be back on Splash and Space next time or has it just confirmed your hatred of them all? I know I have to pluck up courage each time for Everest but I do manage it and actually ended up enjoying it a bit more this year. Tower of Terror is like repeatedly driving over a level crossing a bit too fast really as you lose belly, I find it best if I close my eyes when they open the window at the top as I hate the view, I much prefer rides where I can't see what's going on! Space and RnR are fine by me!

[collybird]

Originally Posted by Eccle

Sanaa looks good, it's one I would like to try, mainly having read so many things about the bread service!

What a shame that HBD was so disappointing, and the server so lacking. Not what you expect from a signature restaurant

See more...

Everyone in the restaurant seemed to have a bread service, it was the star item!

Thank you for reading!

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

Bit a mixed last day. We quite enjoyed Sanaa we felt it was different to the other TS restaurants we ate at. I got the paneer too and didn't like it at all.

Such a shame about Hollywood Brown Derby especially as a Signature!

Those nachos look lovely, I love Nachos but we'd already sat down when I realised they sold food inside at Fantasmic I loved the nacho cheese over there too.

Can't believe it's nearly the end of your report xx

See more...

We sat down before I went to get the food too and it was a stressful experience! We were in the roped off Dining Package seating so I had to be asked to let out, then flash my tickets again to get back in whilst my hands were full. I was so hot, and so stressed, but they were worth it!

Thank you for reading!

Originally Posted by Skittl1321

Sanaa bread service looks so yummy.

Really enjoyed your report!

See more...

It is delicious,we got the server to take it away before our mains came but we really should have kept it to dip in the butter chicken sauce.

Thank you for reading!

Originally Posted by wilma-bride

I loved our meal at Sanaa, that bread service alone is well worth it. I do understand what you mean about heavy food in the heat of Florida though. we had a pool afternoon after our lunch, but I certainly wouldn't have felt like traipsing round the parks. That's the main reason we tend not to eat much during the day at Disney though.

I'm so sorry that HBD was disappointing for you, particularly as it was your last meal in the parks. Would have been nice to finish on a high. I really hope that you have had your head turned by the potential of offsite dining, and give that a try on your next trip.

See more...

We were actually supposed to be going to a park straight from lunch but we ended up going shopping instead, I think it probably had something to do with too much food!

HBD just capped off what had been a stressful dining plan experience and it definitely influenced my future plans

Thank you for reading!

Originally Posted by Goldia

Can I say that I can't wait for Disney to be over those little balls that have juice inside that they stick in drinks and on the top of cakes! I'm quite partial to a macaroon, but I'll happily lose them if we can also lose those stupid balls!

I can't believe we're at the last day! How sad that it's going home time for you. I'm glad your mum found the perfect breakfast, a bacon roll, what's not to love!

I'm also glad that we may as well stick to our Indian takeaways at home and leave Sanaa as you know I have a fear of driving abroad that isn't going away anytime soon.

I am bit sad that your HBD meal wasn't really up to scratch, apart from the lovely bread rolls at the start. It doesn't sound like your server was very attentive at all.

Well done on getting on some rides that you haven't done in a long time. Do you think you'll be back on Splash and Space next time or has it just confirmed your hatred of them all? I know I have to pluck up courage each time for Everest but I do manage it and actually ended up enjoying it a bit more this year. Tower of Terror is like repeatedly driving over a level crossing a bit too fast really as you lose belly, I find it best if I close my eyes when they open the window at the top as I hate the view, I much prefer rides where I can't see what's going on! Space and RnR are fine by me!

See more...

100% agree about those little balls, I don't mind them in the drinks so much, but they were just bizarre in the dishes at Satuli Canteen.

HBD was a poor excuse for a Signature dining experience, I was annoyed as we love the other Hollywood Studios restaurants and it seemed a waste.

I think I'm over my fear of Splash and Space now, and I'd like to think Everest too - but I was SO nervous at the loading dock for that. Normally, I keep my eyes closed on scary rides but I kept them wide open on RnRC as I'd watched ride videos and I knew when I saw certain road signs it would nearly be over I still can't believe I did it, and my ride picture didn't come through which I'm gutted about.

Thank you for reading!

[collybird]

And so, our DxDP journey came to an end with a bit of a whimper, but the dining report isn’t over yet.

DAY 14

We had booked a final lunch at Raglan Road for our departure day and I had planned to go to Earl of Sandwich afterwards to get us some sandwiches for the flight, but, (there’s always a ‘but’ this year!) Granny was flying back home with us and Trish had to return her to our care

She asked our plans and offered to meet us at Disney Springs, but as she had been kind enough to drive to Disney twice already to see us I didn’t think that was fair. She suggested we meet at a Cracker Barrel a few minutes from the airport and we thought this was a great plan, as Cracker Barrel was somewhere else we wanted to try.

Cracker Barrel

You can view their menu here, we arrived just before midday and they were serving both breakfast and lunch. Our minds were blown with all of the options.

I had Chicken BLT - Your choice of our grilled or fried chicken tenderloins topped with Tick-Sliced Bacon, Colby cheese, mayo, lettuce and tomato on seared Sourdough bread

I went for the fried chicken, does anyone choose grilled?! Hmm, this wasn’t great. It was really dry, I had to ask for extra mayo, and the chicken itself was really pants compared to the amazing Disney nuggets, even the Chicken Guy strips were better than these. It was also massive and I had no idea where to even start with eating it.

You could have any side with it and I chose mash which was really nice, but it was touching my sandwich and honestly, I thought I might be sick haha. I couldn’t eat the piece of bread that had the mash on it, in fact I could barely even look at it.

Granny had the Monday-Friday Pick 2 Country Combos - Choose any of the following for 5.99: New Three Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Country House Salad with Grilled Chicken, Cup of Soup, Baked Potato or Sweet Potato

She had the soup, which was potato, I didn’t get a picture of it, it had massive chunks of potatoes in it, and I mean massive, it made me sick of look at it (sorry!), but she ate it all so I am sure it tasted nicer than it looked. And the Grilled Cheese, again she finished this, and said it was nice.

Nik had the Prime Rib French Dip Sandwich Platter - We hope you enjoy Prime Rib that’s roasted slow and served with fresh grilled onions, beef au jus, Swiss Cheese, and Peppercorn Horseradish Sauce on a toasted hoagie bun. It comes with Homestyle Fries or a Cup of Soup, and a sampling of Cole Slaw

Oh, this was good, really, really good. They initially forgot the jus, but the server noticed herself and brought it over. I could eat this right now, it was big enough to share. He had fries with it, but I don’t think he thought much of them.

Mum liked the sound of a few different things so I suggested the Cracker Barrel Sampler -
A hearty sampling of our Chicken n’Dumplins, Meatloaf and sugar cured or country ham. Comes with three country sides and mae-from-scratch Buttermilk Biscuits or Corn Muffins

She was flummoxed by having to choose sides and had fries, green beans, and who knows what else!? The number of things touching each other on this plate is terrifying for me. I don’t think she particularly enjoyed this, comfort food really isn’t her thing.

Trish had the Reuben Sandwich Platter -Tender thin-sliced corn beef piled high, with sauerkraut and lots of melting Swiss cheese served on grilled Rye bread with Thousand Island dressing

Nik and I both tried this, it was really nice and the rye bread held up well and maintained its crispiness.

Granny treated us to lunch so I don’t have a total cost but it was less than $60 for all five of us which is quite eye-opening compared to Disney prices. Every Cracker Barrel restaurant has a kitsch little gift shop and I really enjoyed browsing here, if our luggage wasn’t jam packed I’d have probably picked up a few things. We’ll definitely give CB a try again in future, most likely for breakfast, we enjoyed the theming of the restaurant, it was very reminiscent of Trail’s End.

***

Due to lack of space in the car Trish took Granny and Mum to the airport leaving Nik and I alone again, we were checked in and through security in record time, I’d never seen it so quiet at MCO! We had the Thomas Cook Priority Package which also allowed us to use the TSA Pre-Check lanes at Security which also helped a bit. We decided to grab something to eat to kill some time.
Outback Steakhouse

For the first time ever, we were actually excited to be going home, we missed our cats, Teddy and Bear enormously and we couldn’t wait to see them. We were in the mood to celebrate!

This was our first ever time at Outback, so I was excited! Unfortunately, I can’t share the menu with you as I didn’t take any photos and the website is blocked in the UK haha.

I had the Sirloin which came with your choice of side, and choice of salad.

I chose the House Salad with Ranch Dressing, this was really nice, especially those croutons!

I chose a baked potato as my side, this would have been perfect if I had remembered to ask for no bacon! I don’t normally eat the skin of the potatoes but the salt sprinkled on this one made it delicious! The steak was great, I am quite good at cooking steak (my dad taught me well!), and this reminded me of my own haha.

Nik wasn’t hungry (unsurprisingly, it was only two hours since our last meal) and ordered some wings.

He said these were the best wings he had ever eaten!

I didn’t note down what this meal cost, but we’ll definitely be back at Outback in the future as I have to try a Bloomin’ Onion!

[sha9]

Excellent report! I’m a big fan of Sanaa but Marie not so much so we’ve only been once. Shame about HBD. Marie didn’t think it was that great but I’d have been willing to give it another go. We do like Hollywood & Vine for Fantasmic but not now it’s a character meal (they interrupt my food!).

Are you doing DxDDP next year?

[collybird]

CONCLUSION

The fluffy babies love their presents from Disney. We originally bought Eeyore and Pooh (gotta have that matching set), but Pooh isn't fluffy like Eeyore and they refused to sleep on him, so I had to get Simba on eBay so they didn't have to share

We used 109 out of 126 Deluxe Dining Plan credits. Mum was away for five nights, and I calculated that she missed 16 credits worth of meals, so I don’t think we fared too badly numerically.

Financially is a different story. There is no denying that we got very, very poor value from our credits. The Deluxe Dining Plan for 3 adults for 14 nights would cost a total of $4882.08 so if we had paid cash for it we’d have been over $1500 out of pocket.

Do I regret upgrading? No, we still ate where we wanted to, when we wanted to, with the freedom to order what we wanted, and that was why I upgraded. I wasn’t to know our plans would be de-railed so spectacularly. We ate a lot more Quick Service than I had planned, so the Regular Dining Plan would had probably been a perfect fit for us this year, but I wasn’t to know that.

In hindsight, cancelling so many of our lunches was a bad idea, Mum struggled with the heat and felt tired, and I think a nice break midday in the AC would have helped a lot with that. I probably should have stuck to my guns a bit more.

There are some restaurants I am really sad about missing out on – Yak & Yeti, Via Napoli, Chefs de France, Liberty Tree Tavern and Le Cellier, but I’m sure we’ll return to those places in the future.

WHAT’S NEXT

2019 was to be a dream trip with a 12-night stay at the Beach Club with Disney Dining Plan and no car. But, we enjoyed eating off-site this year so much that we knew we wanted to do it more in the future…

I think the Beach Club is beautiful, and I have spent many hours since we booked dreaming about strolling to Epcot, but it costs £2,400 more than a value resort. We could probably have another trip for that amount of money. Before we even left Disney, I knew I’d be ringing WDTC when we were home to cancel. Ideally, I wanted French Quarter, the only moderate we’re yet to stay at, but the only resorts with availability were All Stars Sports, All Stars Music, Coronado Springs and Caribbean Beach. We wanted somewhere we haven’t stayed before it had to be All Stars, and we chose Music from the two. We will be hiring a car. And we upgraded the free breakfast to the QUICK-SERVICE DINING PLAN! This is a first for us and I am both looking forward to, and dreading the freedom of it.

Accommodation wise I have zero regrets about cancelling the Beach Club, I daydreamed about staying there, but I can actually picture us at All-Stars, and I know we’ll be really happy there with THREE different food courts at our disposal. We’re looking forward to lots of QS breakfasts as I really enjoyed those this year.

I’ll probably book a few ADRs, then a few more, then a few more, then end up upgrading to the Regular Dining Plan after all, but we’ll see. For now it’s a mix of QS and off-site. We are 100% doing Skipper Canteen, I think the Festival of Fantasy Dining Package is a must-do for us, I want to do Le Cellier, and.. See, I’m getting carried away already!

Right now, I’m really excited by our current plans, I wouldn’t go as far as to say I fell out of love with Disney Dining this year, but I think we’ve reached a place where we’ve eaten most of the places we wanted to, and are ready to try something new.

I’m keen to see what the free nights offer is in the New Year as we may change our plans completely again. I really want POFQ!

Please give me all of your off-site recommendations!

Thank you so much for reading along, especially those who had taken the time to comment, I've loved reading your thoughts, it's so kind of you to have taken the time to share.

[collybird]

Originally Posted by sha9

Excellent report! I’m a big fan of Sanaa but Marie not so much so we’ve only been once. Shame about HBD. Marie didn’t think it was that great but I’d have been willing to give it another go. We do like Hollywood & Vine for Fantasmic but not now it’s a character meal (they interrupt my food!).

Are you doing DxDDP next year?

See more...

I really wish they'd introduce a system at character meals similar to the coasters at WCC where you can show you don't want to meet the characters and are happy just to watch!

Thank you so much for reading along and all yours comments. We've cross-posted my future plans, definitely no DxDP next year, and probably never again