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Old 24 Feb 15, 10:44 PM  
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jonsgirl80
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Our fantastic fun filled Florida food fest! *COMPLETE*

So, I have finally manged to upload all of my photos and decided maybe I should write the food trip report I keep promising I would do.

After our first "once in a lifetime" trip in 2013 we immediately decided we had to go back. We stayed in a villa last time but this time thought we might like to stay onsite and experience the disney bubble. Free DP and a $200 gift card was all it took to persuade us and we booked it - life's too short and all that!

We decided to stretch our trip to 16 nights to give us a full 14 days in orlando and allow for those two "none" days you get when arriving and leaving. So we had 15 nights at SSR and tagged a night at hard rock on to the end.

After going in May last time we decided to go in October /November to experience the Halloween and Christmas festivities and also catch the last few days of the Epcot food and wine festival.

Hubby and I absolutely love our food so spent months poring over menus and trip reports to come up with our ADR list. We thought 15 credits would be loads but had a real difficulty deciding what to leave out. We have large appetites and are not really into fancy food so no signature restaurants here. The boy loves the characters so we put in a couple of character meals and a few places we fancied trying. There were also a couple of offsite places we wanted to go back to from last year. The last minute addition of the wished dessert party and we were good to go.

I managed to get everything I wanted online at 180+10 days (having spent an hour on hold yesterday trying to book this years ADRS - I was obviously very lucky - please sort it out disney!

I kept most of my receipts too so will put them up here so people can see the costs. Hope you will enjoy reading about these as much as we enjoyed eating them!

So, to the introductions.



This is us - hello

Me: Corinne, a charity worker, just love food of any kind (except green stuff) quite adventurous food wise, love trying new things and could eat my own body weight in dole whips. I lost three stone before this trip so was looking forward to actually being able to eat.

DH: Jon, factory worker, loves meat, especially BBQ but has a sweet tooth too. Used to be very fussy with his food but I've slowly knocked that out of him - he's much better now and will try new things.

The boy: Jacob, turned 7 just before this trip. A grazer. Quite fussy and would live on chicken tenders if I let him but will sometimes surprise us.

So, let's make a start.

Here's the boys excited to be off:



We were flying from manchester on the 11am virgin flight and had time to kill so we decided to start as we mean to go on - breakfast! There was plenty of space in frankie and benny's so we settled down with our last English newspapers for a leisurely fry up.



We both had the big breakfast (not that big!) with a side of toast and a latte. It was ok, nothing special but filled a hole. The boy decided he wasn't hungry so just had a lemonade. I can't find the receipt for this but I think it came to around £25

virgin atlantic plane food

The choices were: lasagne, chicken with mustard mash and beef curry.

DH had the lasagne



Said it was ok.

I had the chicken with mustard mash



I'm one of those strange people that loves aeroplane food. This came with peppers and onions and I thought it was very nice.

All the meals came with salad with a tomato dressing (DH and the boy didn't like it!) a bread roll and a gu passion fruit mousse which was lush.

I didn't order the boy a child's meal because I knew he wouldn't eat it but I thought he might eat the chicken so I got him that - no such luck. I had worried this might be a problem so we had trawled the airport shops looking for a plain ham sandwich for him - unfortunately they all had mayo. This meant he ate very little through the flight although he did have some Pringles and sweet - I'm such a bad mummy

A bit later they came round with a mini fab lolly (no picture - I'm sure everyone knows what they look like)

I made the most of not driving at the other end and enjoyed a few cheeky JD and cokes - they were free - it would have been rude not to!

Just before landing they came round with afternoon tea



cheese and onion finger sandwiches (DH and the boy hated these so I just had to eat three lots - it would be a shame to waste them and they were tiny anyway so it doesn't count) a small packet of plain crisps, a chocolate caramel square and a small packet of mints.

This was very nice and much better than the manky sandwich and tiny toffee cupcake we had last year.

We landed at 3pm, got straight through immigration and onto the magical express - it was very straightforward and we checked in to SSR just after 5pm - impressive.

We went straight to the quick service and picked up our refillable mugs which were free with the DDP. Purple for me, red for the boy and green for DH.



Decided to make the most of our proximity to DTD and take the boat over. We liked the look of Wolfgang pucks so decided to use our first CS credit there.

Having looked at the menus we both knew what we wanted: bacon wrapped meat loaf.



This was served with mash potato, crispy fried onions and red wine gravy. This was so amazing - one of the best things I have ever tasted. I would give it 10/10!

For dessert I had the maple creme brûlée



This was ok but had a lot of maple syrup in it and was a bit sickly.
DH had cheesecake (sorry he got to it before I could take a picture - I really must train him better)



He said it was nothing special - it was also very cold like it had been in the chiller for too long.

The boy had chicken tenders - I didn't argue as he hadn't eaten all day and though he would be guaranteed to eat these - wrong



He ate the chicken tenders but wouldn't touch the fries as the had "green bits" on.



He had a chocolate chip cookie which went back to the resort and stayed in the fridge for several days until I binned it.

Drinks were two cokes - they have a self serve machine so you can fill your own and there's plenty of choice. DS had a chocolate milk

The bill came to $66 or 3CS credits. It's counter service but you order at the till and the servers bring your meals to the table - they also refill drinks for you so I left a $5 tip on the table.

Here is the receipt


Edited at 09:33 PM.
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Old 24 Feb 15, 11:11 PM  
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Looking forward to reading more x
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Old 24 Feb 15, 11:27 PM  
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Belle x
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Belle x's Reviews
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Love a food report! Looking forward to the rest!
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Old 24 Feb 15, 11:31 PM  
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Yay a Food trippie! ♥️👍🍩🍪🍰🍧🍦🍕🍺🍸🍤🍝
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Old 24 Feb 15, 11:35 PM  
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I love food trip pies! Can't wait to read more! X
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Old 24 Feb 15, 11:39 PM  
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Beyond excited for a new food report to drool over 🍔🍗🍕🍤
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Pretrip report Here
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Food Report ~ Here
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Old 26 Feb 15, 01:33 AM  
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jonsgirl80
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Day 2 - sorry this may be a long one as it was such a full on day!

So, as expected, the time difference caused us to wake up bright and early on our first day - 3.30am to be exact!

Much excitement from the boy today as we were going to crystal palace - tigger is his favourite character and he was looking forward to meeting him and introducing him to his friend "little Tig" I'd managed to book an 8.05am ADR and was looking forward to getting pictures of an empty Main Street. Happy mummy and happy boy - fabulous!

At 5.45am we were impatient and decided to explore - it was still dark and there was no- one around at all except in the pool there were two kids playing in the water fountains and the parents were laid out on loungers - presumably brits dealing with the time difference like us! The CMs washing the poolside must have thought we were crazy all being round the pool in the dark!

It felt a bit strange wandering around in the dark in a deserted resort so we went to wait for the bus which was due at 7am.

7am came and went, the combination of the boy's excitement, tiredness and worry about missing our ADR meant that tempers were fraying slightly by now. At 7.20, a bus arrived but it was a cast member bus - the driver was really apologetic he couldn't take us to MK as he had to wait for the CMs but he got straight on his radio and asked for a bus for us. He waited with us, talking and generally distracting the boy which I was very greatful for. Our bus arrived soon after so our new friend said goodbye and told the boy that he had to be good for his mommy now because Mickey was watching. He was such a nice man - that's why I love disney - for the most part they try really hard to be helpful

We were the only people on the bus and made good time to Magic kingdom. The CM checked our reservations and after a few moments wait we were in!

Main Street was deserted - look at that - is it not a beautiful sight?!





We spent a few minutes taking photos and then went to the podium and checked in - there were a few families in front of us and we were given a pager.



The boy didn't quite know what to make of it - thought it was a phone to talk to the restaurant



After a few minutes we were called in and seated by our server Heather. Drinks were included with breakfast so we both had coffee and orange juice and the boy had apple juice - then it was time to hit the buffet.

Me and DH had basically the same - this is my first plate



Clockwise from top left: sausage (obviously), potato casserole, tater tot, scrambled egg, breakfast pizza, biscuit and gravy, breakfast potatoes and corned beef hash in the middle.

Everything was lovely but the potato casserole was particularly nice. I'd never tried biscuits and gravy before and wasn't sure I liked the look of them at all but they were yummy - the biscuit was like a light and fluffy savoury scone and the gravy was like a savoury white sauce with chunks of sausage - I had them several more times during the holiday and am a big fan.

One thing I was not a fan of was this...



Grits - bleurgh! I promised myself I'd try everything but these were fowl in every way - taste, texture everything - yuk!

Out of all the selection on the buffet the boy decided he just wanted these.



He also had some strawberries and sausages with ketchup (on the same plate!) he's getting the hang of these American sweet/savoury combinations already.

Characters came round one by one, pooh, tigger, eeyore then piglet and they all spent a good while with us and made a huge fuss of the boy's birthday badge. The boy had drawn a little picture for each of the characters and we had some excellent interaction with them. I took loads of pictures but here's just one of the boy with big Tig and little Tig.



Now it time for the second trip to the buffet for a sweet plate.



Again clockwise from top: raisin cinnamon bagel, pooh's ears French toast, pan au chocolate, bread pudding, strawberry compote and the compulsory mickey waffle. I'd heard a lot about the breakfast lasagne and couldn't wait to try it but there was none on the buffet - I asked the CM and she went to the kitchen and brought out a new tray. I was so pathetically excited that I got to be the first one to dig into the untouched tray of lasagne and got a bit carried away filling a bowl but I'm so glad I did - fruit, cake, custard and cream - what's not to like? This was amazing and I went back for seconds.

There was a whole array of other stuff on the buffet, fresh fruit, cereals, pastries and yoghurts but we were stuffed so much so that when the server brought this...



We were unable to eat it and had to ask for a box to take it away in. We had both the boy's birthdays and our wedding anniversary around the time of the holiday and we had them noted on the ADRS but weren't really expecting anything so this was a nice touch, they'd also decorated the table and we also got a card signed by the characters - the first of many as it turned out.

Suitably stuffed we got our receipt and left just after 9am.



The bill came to $68.13 but we used 3 TS credits, and left a $13 tip which was just under 20% as the server was very attentive.

Continued below

Edited at 02:35 AM.
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Old 26 Feb 15, 01:51 AM  
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By 10.30 it was so hot and we needed refreshment so we popped in to cosmic rays, an orange fanta and two cherry slushes with lemon and lime foam came to $12.75.



This was ok, but not much flavour in the foam which was disappointing.

Despite having such a huge breakfast our tummies were rumbling again by about 2pm - looks like we were getting used to the American portion sizes already! Having enjoyed it last year, Casey's corner was on our list for lunch.



Two barbeque slaw dogs with fries for us and corn dog nuggets for the boy - there wasn't really much for him on the menu but he had a few of these and enjoyed them, they came with fries but he didn't touch them. The hotdogs were amazing - smothered with pulled pork, tangy BBQ sauce and coleslaw - they were absolutely huge and we struggled to finish them, no chance of picking them up either, knife and fork definitely needed. Dessert options here were poor - chocolate brownie, crackerjack or cotton candy. We had the brownies which went in the fridge back at the resort and never got eaten. The boy had a bag of cotton candy which he was very impressed with.



Two coke zeros and a lemonade and the bill came to $47.50 or 3 CS credits - this is where we were really glad of having the dining plan - it would break my heart to pay that much for lunch every day!

Being disappointed by the dessert options at Casey's corner we were desperately in need of something sweet to finish off our meals. Plaza ice cream parlour was across the street so was a convenient place to stop.

I had studied the menu beforehand and already knew exactly what I wanted - an ice cream cookie sandwich, two soft chewy choc-chip cookies filled with ice cream - I had mint choc chip. This was absolutely huge and there must have been four scoops of ice cream on there at least - more than enough for two people and cost $5.29 plus tax but I used a snack credit which I though was a really good deal.

DH had a double scoop cone with cookies and cream and birthday cake flavour and the boy had a kids cone with strawberry ice cream - no photos unfortunately as they were melting really fast but all of the flavours were really good. The boy's cone in particular was huge and piled high with ice cream - as soon as we got outside, of course, the inevitable happened - the ice cream ended up on the pavement and he had an empty cone - it was just way too top heavy and would have been better with a less ice cream - bit of a waste really. I offered to go get him another but he didn't want one. The total cost would have been $13.60 but we used 3 snack credits.

We were flagging by this point so left the park and went to pick up our hire car from the disney car care centre - fully equipt with our new wheels our first stop was walmart for a few essentials, bottled water, toiletries and a few snacks - 54 items and $220 later and we were on our way - oops!

Here's the receipt but I can't remember half of what we bought.



After putting the shopping away we were again hungry so set off in search of dinner - we didn't want to be tied to an ADR tonight as we didn't know how tired we'd be so longhorns was the restaurant of choice. We'd been last year and loved it so were looking forward to it again - we went to the one on Vineland avenue.

We'd registered with longhorns online before leaving and received a voucher for a free appetiser up to the value of $9.99. DH fancied trying the lobster and shrimp dip so we ordered that.



It came with tortilla chips and was packed full of shrimps and really cheesy - it tasted a lot better than it looks here.



I ordered the 6oz flo's filet, I toyed with the idea of ordering the lobster tail to go with it as I love my lobster but it was $30 and as I wasn't that hungry i didn't think I would do it justice. For my side I had a baked potato loaded with bacon, cheese and sour cream - this was really nice but I thought the steak was just ok, I ordered medium and it was a bit over cooked for my tastes.




DH had the 8oz renegade sirloin with mash potatoes - he asked the server about the special sauces that are cooked table side but the server said they were not that good and not to waste his money - well at least he was honest I thought it looked quite unappealing but DH enjoyed his meal.

Main course came with a choice of salad - house or Caesar, we chose Caesar and it was ok. A bit skimpy on the cheese and dressing.

The boy had chicken tenders and fries (of course) and polished off the lot - said it was nice.The kids meal came with a drink included - he had apple juice, DH had a miller light and I had coke.


We were way to full for pudding so settled up the bill, $51.50, I left $10.50 tip (18%) and we waddled back to the car.

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Old 26 Feb 15, 04:30 AM  
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Looking forward to reading the rest of this! Love a good food report!
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Old 26 Feb 15, 11:12 AM  
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Looking forward to reading the rest of your report. It's a big help when meal receipts/costs are given. Thanks for posting.😃
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