DDP and more - September 2016 ***COMPLETE***

[Shopperholic]

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Wow so many great meals

We have an adr for the brunch looks fabulous. Can I ask how you eat the fish at Tiffins, I assume cut it open and eat inside and leave the skin. It looks amazing but I wouldn't know how to tackle it.

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We dined at Tiffins a couple of weeks ago and whilst none of us had the fish, observed the waitress instructing other diners how to cut it open.

We all loved the theming of Tiffins too. If the menu doesn't appeal there is a lovely bar with both inside and outside seating. We think there will be fantastic views once Avatar Land is finished, but will have to return to check that out.

Great food report.

[AlexE]

Originally Posted by hornetgirl

I wasn't too sure either. It stayed upright while I ate it, so I just did one side first then turned the plate round for the other side. I ate the skin too, it was delicious, very crispy and salted. No idea whether that was what I was meant to do, but it was lovely.

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Did it have many bones? I love fish but always worry about bones so am not so adventurous as I want to be 😱

[hornetgirl]

Originally Posted by AlexE

Did it have many bones? I love fish but always worry about bones so am not so adventurous as I want to be 😱

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There was one big bone which stayed intact but only a couple of little ones. I guess it depends what the fish is that day though, as they didn't specify it on the menu.

[hornetgirl]

Day 5

This morning we hopped on the bus to have breakfast at Disney Springs before heading off to Typhoon Lagoon. Wolfgang Puck Express was our choice. After hearing many good things about it on the Dibb, I opted for the cornflakes French toast with an orange juice. I hadn’t allowed for how big this would be – or how crispy. Bits of cornflake flew everywhere when I first cut into it!

Very yummy but I couldn’t quite manage it all so Sean had to help out with the third piece. His choice was a classic breakfast plus coffee.

Cost 2QS / $30.78

We’ve eaten dinner a few times here before but never breakfast until now. It didn’t disappoint.

The next few hours were spent at Typhoon Lagoon. My phone was safely locked away, so no photos of our lunch I’m afraid. It came from Typhoon Tilly’s. Sean had a shrimp basket with fries and I had a barbequed pork sandwich with chips. We also had a fruit cup and a blueberry frozen lemonade each.

Cost 2QS / $36.04

By now we had no TS credits left – they don’t go far when you only have the DDP for six days and choose to eat at two signatures. However, there was still one new place left that we wanted to try. Although also classed as a signature, a quick look at the menu soon revealed plenty of less expensive options too, so tonight’s ADR was for the Boathouse, to be paid for with cash. We asked for a table outside, which gave us a great view of the amphicars coming in and out of the water.
Drinks first. Sean had a couple of Michelob Ultras and I had a strawberry gin fizz.

Some complimentary bread then arrived.

I chose a yacht club club sandwich, which was almost enough to feed both of us on its own.

Sean had the triple-double cheddar burger.

No desserts as we had another plan for later.

Cost $61.50 oop

We loved the Boathouse and will definitely be back. The food was excellent and the service very attentive and friendly. For us, paying cash at this one was the right choice. Unless you plan to eat one of the more expensive items on the menu, we didn’t feel it would have been a very sensible use of 2TS credits per person.

The rest of the evening was spent wandering round Disney Springs and discussing which bit was the actual “spring,” finally deciding this was it.

Before catching the bus back to POR, we had dessert at Ghiradelli. I made a point of asking whether we could use dining plan credits and was informed that anything up to $6.75 counted as a snack. We duly ordered a two scoop ice cream to share – one scoop of chocolate and one of black cherry for $6.55. When I checked the receipt, it didn’t use a snack credit at all and was charged to our credit card instead. All I can think is that the after tax price was $6.98 so it didn’t qualify perhaps? Either way it was delicious.

Cost $6.55

[dixonsontour]

Thanks for the fish answer and good to hear the servers also advise. Glad you liked the french toast. Yes the ice cream would have been just over about $7 with tax, worth it though

[DisneyDreamer81]

Ooh thankyou so much for posting about brunch at Cali Grill! Had wondered what it was like - it's definitely on the list for our next trip if they're still doing it

[hornetgirl]

Day 6

And so we reached the day we had to check out of Port Orleans Riverside Our dining credits stood at 4 snack and 2QS remaining. Neither of us fancied a cooked breakfast, so we used the snack credits to get a Danish, a yogurt and an orange juice for me and a bagel for Sean, plus one last coffee in his mug.

Cost 4 snacks / $16.16

The two remaining QS credits were spent on four bottles of water and two of orange juice which could go with us to the beach for the next part of our stay.

So, all credits used we were ready to head off. This was the third time we had used the full DDP and for us it works much better than the QSDP. We like to try different restaurants which we probably would not pay out of pocket for and have had some lovely meals as a result. When we previously had the QSDP we found that although there was plenty of food, paper plates and plastic cutlery in most establishments did get a bit tedious after a while. Uncertainty of exchange rates aside, booking via the US website worked well for us and meant that although we stayed at a moderate resort, we had the full DDP.

After breakfast we picked up our hire car and after the ceremonial removal of our magic bands we set off on the “and more” part of our trip. Before heading to Bradenton Beach we paid a quick visit to International Drive, firstly to make use of some tickets for the Orlando Eye which a lovely Dibber kindly passed on to us and secondly to scratch our itch for some bargain Yankee Candles. Sweet Tomatoes therefore seemed a good choice for lunch, especially as it was a couple of years since we had last eaten there. Alas it wasn’t to be – we pulled up in the surprisingly empty car park, only for a staff member to come and tell us that the restaurant was closed as they had no hot water! We thought about grabbing something from Wholefoods, but opted instead to try Panera Bread. Bad choice. We weren’t too sure about the ordering system and combos available but thought we had it cracked. I ordered a tomato and mozzarella flatbread and a smoothie, while Sean asked for a steak and cheddar panini, a side of mac & cheese and a coffee. This is what we got:

No idea what that chunk of baguette is all about. The girl who took our order did seem very dippy and the whole process felt quite painful, so we really couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it and just ate what we were given. It wasn’t enough to fill a tooth though.

Cost $17.82 – at least we were only charged for what we actually got.

For the rest of this report, information on costs will be at best sketchy. This is because once we got to Bradenton Beach, we met up with our good friends Jaye and John and for the most part John paid using his credit card and we gave him our share in cash, so I don’t have any receipts to refer back to.

We didn’t have a formal meal that evening, choosing instead to sit on the terrace at Kokonut Hut, where we shared some fried green tomatoes

chicken wings

and some fried pickles, which didn’t seem to get their photo taken. Jaye is a southern gal and we had these on her recommendation. They were extremely good. She and I shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio and the menfolk had a few beers while we watched the sun go down.

[hornetgirl]

Day 7

We had asked last night for somewhere good to eat breakfast and our server recommended Cortez Café, so we decided to give it a try. Only one photo as we both had virtually the same thing – bacon, eggs and toast. My toast was raisin and Sean’s was sourdough. The cost was in the region of $7 each. I drank orange juice and Sean drank coffee – we’re creatures of habit.

This was a great place to have breakfast. It was away from the beach and much more the sort of place where locals eat. There were lots of choices on the menu as well as a specials board, the service was great and the food was delicious. Highly recommended.

For lunch we went no further than the Island Time Bar and Grill, which was attached to the side of our hotel. We had a selection of picky bits to share – nachos and chips with dips, onion rings and shrimp salad, washed down with Bud Lite Lime.

In the evening Sean said he fancied barbecue food, so we went to a place we had seen earlier when we were riding on the AMI trolley – Mr Bones BBQ. We were so hungry I almost forgot the photo and only remembered part way through. Ribs, rice and potato salad all round, a half rack for me which I think was $13.99 and a full rack for Sean at $18.99. Drinks were help yourself to bottles from a big bath of ice. I had more Bud Lite Lime and Sean had Fat Tire Bicycle. No room for dessert.

This was a funny little restaurant. It was a bit tired and old fashioned looking inside but the food was excellent and great value.

[hornetgirl]

Day 8

Breakfast saw us return to Cortez Café as we had enjoyed it so much yesterday. This time I had a yogurt, fruit and granola concoction, which came with a banana nut muffin, which I think was $8.99. Orange juice to drink. Jaye was delighted to see me order this as she finds it hilarious that I eat "dessert" for breakfast and my choice yesterday had disappointed her!

Sean had the same as yesterday, but mixed it up a bit by having his eggs sunny side up instead of scrambled.

John had hired a Mustang and wanted to drive us all over the Sunshine Skyway in it. It seemed only right therefore to have lunch at the Skyway Diner. The staff were incredibly welcoming and friendly and the food was excellent value. I had a tuna salad sandwich and chips, with an iced tea to drink. This was so good I could have eaten it twice over.

Sean had a cheeseburger and a coke. Not sure what's going on with that lettuce leaf. I think both our meals were in the region of $5.99.

This evening was a very important one for Jaye and John. They are huge Denver Broncos fans and tonight was the opening game of the NFL season, effectively a replay of this year's SuperBowl, which the Broncos had won. Having checked out all the sports bars in the area, they decided the best place to watch it would be in their cottage, so they could view it "properly." We therefore got pizza from Oma's Pizza which was just up the road, a box of wine and some beers. The pizza was $20 and was massive. We barely made a dent in it between four of us! It was a thick Sicilian base with what Jaye calls garbage on top - basically a bit of everything. Delicious.

The match was very close and exciting, with Denver edging it by a single point right at the last so we went to bed happy.

[Loopylooloo]

Loving the photos from Bradenton - we are staying there next year so will give the Cortez cafe a try!