Food Report August 2016 - 15 nights of DDP a couple of offsites. UPDATED 14th Sept

[Gunna]

Apologies in advance as today was a day of not many food photos - down to two things really. I didn't have my phone/camera handy when we ate at Blizzard Beach and I forgot at Tusker House, maybe also as I didn't really enjoy it so much but there are some of the puddings at least.

Breakfast was in the room, bagels, Captain Crunch, coffee, juice and these -

Frosted cherry Pop tarts - very sweet but very delicious.

We were off to Blizzard Beach today so after doing some slides and the lazy river headed off for an early lunch at the Lottawatta Lodge. We found as there were eight of us when ordering our CS, even though on one account, we just split into two groups of four and this worked well and made it easier for us and I'm sure the CM's too.
Sam went on his own this time though for the grilled chicken sandwich, Mum had the shrimp roll and Kik and me were sharing the pepperoni flatbread. Paula, Bernie and the girls also shared 3 CS across them all. Desserts we nearly all stuck with the Smores Bites which were pretty good

We used 6 CS meals across the eight of us which was just over $100 (£76.92)

After rain and thunder cut short our swimming we headed off to Animal Kingdom and did some of the undercover shows before checking in for our evening meal at Tusker House. The server here was lovely, a lady called Summer, and she looked after us well. She explained the set up, how the characters moved around the room and constantly took empty plates, refilled drinks and checked all was okay.

The food for me was okay. I though the choice was much better at other buffet restaurants and the dessert selection was a bit basic without much variety. I do feel Boma has more selection and variety and although what we ate was good I felt it was one place I wouldn't return to for dinner. It reminded me of a canteen in some respects and although the character interaction and service where good it didn't make up for the setting or food selection.

From my food I only took a photo of the desserts I choose and I did help myself to a bowl of crème anglaise, or to me custard, to make a chocolate cake and custard dessert.

Bernie received another cupcake and birthday card from the characters. Mum was also happy that she meant Donald again, she can never see this duck enough. The CM with Donald also took a group picture of us all too, which was good of them.

I don't know if I just wasn't in the right mind-set as we had been rained out at Blizzard Beach twice and then mum found she had lost her purse as we left which we finally found after a stressful 30 minutes and going back to BB's changing rooms and lost property, only then for Maeve to find her Fitbit had been lost so they then headed back to look for that so it had been a bit hectic and fraught at times so think that had something to do with it. We had booked this as the Jungle Book Alive with Magic Package so received our vouchers and this was explained to us how it worked (very similar if not the same as the Fantasmic one)

We used 8 TS credits. Cost to us would of been $417.48 (£312.14) again the tip of $60.48 we billed to the room.

We all quite enjoyed the show and I think as I wasn't expected much was pleasantly surprised. On the way out Sam was hungry and had spotted a snack he wanted to try

It was a buffalo chicken waffle slider $5.49 (£4.22) He waited patiently for them to make, took one bit and decided he didn't like it. I tried a bit and it was okay but it tasted like it had some type of blue cheese dressing on, which he doesn't do. As most other people didn't want to try it either it ended up in the bin. We used a snack credit for this so I suppose hadn't essentially paid for it. As it was late we headed off to the room and our beds. There are plenty more food photos tomorrow than today so promise will be better

[MissFortune]

Really enjoying this

The buffalo waffle slider is on my "to try" list but yes it does have a blue cheese ranch dressing so i'm hoping they wouldn't mind leaving this off

Looking forward to more

[Gunna]

We had breakfast in the room today so more Pop Tarts, bagels and cereal with a bit of fruit too. As today was Bernies 'official' birthday it was cards and presents before we set off with him wearing his birthday badge.

After some rides at Hollywood Studios we headed off to Backlot Express for lunch - Sam and me quite liked the look of this for all the Star Wars themed food and we both chose the same main course

It was a toss up between this and the Dark Side Chicken and waffles but we both went for the Royal Guard Burger - a beef burger with BBQ brisket and pepper jack cheese, with fries of course. Kirsty didn't like the look of this so choose the Caprese Sandwich which my mum had too. The burger was really nice and the brisket was juicy and tasty. Although the bun was coloured in some way it didn't have any different taste to it at all. I also swapped my drink for a frozen slushy which was cherry flavoured, nice and refreshing.

For desserts we all went for cupcakes and choose between the Darth Vader Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake of the BB8 Lemon Cupcake.

These were very rich, especially the Darth Vader one and no-one managed to finished them. I love chocolate and peanut butter but after a while was finding it just too sweet so left it (I did eat the chocolate Darth Vader though!)

We used 8 CS meals here total cost would of been $181.79 (£139.84)

We spent the rest of the day around Hollywood Studios and decided to use some snacks credits to get some cold drinks from Starbucks. We found these a great use of a snack credit as we tended to find we weren't hungry enough to eat much else on top of the CS & TS meals. We even swapped a few CS into 3 snacks at Starbucks no problem.

I went for the Strawberries and Crème Venti Frappuccino. The CM told us it was one snack credit whether we went small, medium or large so said for us to go large. The others all got various iced teas which they enjoyed. The Frappuccino was lovely, very cooling and refreshing.

We used 7 snack credits here total - $43.79 (£33.68)

We left HS about 4 and headed back for showers and a freshen up before we headed to Disney Springs for our first signature meal at The Boathouse. Bernie had picked this for his birthday and it was one we were all looking forward to try. We were seated quickly, quite near the main door, but it wasn't too noisy. Our main server was good and explained the DDP and what we received with it being a 2TS meal. As most of us where looking for steak or seafood felt this was okay to use two but might not be if you're looking more burgers or sandwiches. He did have someone else helping take the orders who was very sour faced but he only came one other time and the main server was good. They brought some warm breadrolls which were served with butter and they were lovely.

I went for the Filet Mignon Oscar Style and this was topped with jumbo lump crab and béarnaise sauce. It was served with asparagus and also some potatoes which it wasn't advertised with. I went for the 12oz and we joked between us that they must be able to spot a DDP table a mile away as it will all be lobsters and steak that gets ordered. True to form that's what we did. The steak was cooked medium rare and was perfect, I really enjoyed it. Sam also went for the 12oz filet but without the crabmeat topping. He loved his too.

5 other went for the baked stuffed lobster - a Maine lobster stuffed with lump crab meat served with asparagus. Big thumbs up all round. My mum had never had lobster before and really enjoyed it. It was cooked perfectly and they attacked the claws with the relevant tools to get every last bit of lobster. Maeve went for a pasta dish as she's not into seafood or steak and said hers was great too.

We ordered a couple of sides to share and paid OOP for these. These where the truffle fries and were delicious with the dipping sauce. We also ordered plain fries and the two plates were more than enough across the 8 of us. The only other thing we paid OOP for was a glass of wine for mum ($9). The mains where delicious and we all really enjoyed the food.

For dessert four of us decided to go for one of the sharing desserts and four went for separate ones for themselves. We got three of the cheesecakes (sorry no picture) this was a huge portion and one key lime pie, all where given a thumbs up and then this -

S'mores Baked Alaska - which serves four. A cracker crust, rocky road ice cream, toasted marshmallow and chocolate. it was absolutely huge and to be honest we all got a plate of it. The server gave us all some and there was still some left. If you like S'mores and chocolate ice cream go for it. It was very rich but we really enjoyed it - here is the remains, although our plates weren't totally empty.

We all enjoyed our meal here. I would go again but know it has seen some mixed reviews. I would see what you want to order if you're on the DDP though to see if it really is worth using 2TS per person for, if you're like us a steak and lobster type group than yes. This was one place that didn't mention any of the celebrations at all which we had noted. We said it was a shame as it was Bernie's 'official' birthday but in fairness he did get plenty more opportunities to celebrate it at other times.

We use 16TS credits for this meal - cost covered by the DDP was $530.38 (£407.99) we billed to the room $121.60 (£93.54) this included the sides and alcohol and the 18% tip of $89.64 (£68.95) so we though a good use of our TS credits and a nice way to celebrate Bernies birthday.

After this we had a wander around Disney Springs and did a bit of shopping, we also found a photopass photographer who took some nice photos of us all too which has been a good memento of the holiday and Bernie's birthday. We then finished off watching the Star Wars fireworks back at HS before heading for home.

[Gunna]

Originally Posted by MissFortune

Really enjoying this

The buffalo waffle slider is on my "to try" list but yes it does have a blue cheese ranch dressing so i'm hoping they wouldn't mind leaving this off

Looking forward to more

See more...

I'm sure they would do - they where making them fresh so shouldn't be a problem to leave it off - I would of done the same if I'd of known.

[dixonsontour]

Boathouse looks great, look at that dessert wow

[DisneyDreamer81]

That dessert at the Boathouse looks UNREAL! Wow!

Loving your report so far!

[Gunna]

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Boathouse looks great, look at that dessert wow

See more...

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer81

That dessert at the Boathouse looks UNREAL! Wow!

Loving your report so far!

See more...

It was huge, we didn't really make much of a dint in it between us all and the four other desserts we had - note to self to get some to takeaway next time!

[Gunna]

We had an early start today as we were off to Busch Gardens so breakfast was our in-room affair of cereal, pop tarts and bagels washed down with lots of coffee and juice.

We had packed up snacks and water and knew this would see us through most of the day. It was another very hot day and we stopped off around lunchtime to get some drinks and Sam was feeling hungry so we picked him up something to eat.

He went for chicken tenders and fries and these were okay but not a patch on Disney's chicken tenders as theirs do tend to be strips of chicken breast and these weren't but he ate them and it filled a corner. We also picked us some fruit and had these with cold drinks.

We stopped for another break in the Pantopia section as it was very humid today and along with some cold drinks from their Starbucks section (sorry no photos) I picked up one of these.

It was a warm pretzel dusted with cinnamon sugar and alongside these you could pick up a dipping sauce to go with it. One took my eye as it sounded quite good so I went for the beer mustard sauce. When I took this back to everyone it was met with some strange looks but I must admit the sauce when really well with the sweet pretzel and although it had a hint of heat from the mustard it also had a sweetness to it which was perfect with the pretzel. This was just over $5 with tax and we all shared this, it was quite large and filling. We didn't pick up any other food or snacks today and headed off to our evening meal which we had booked at Boma.

The traffic was really slow on the I4 near Tampa and we were cutting it fine to make our reservation. I dropped Kik off at the main door and she went off to check in whilst we then parked the cars and headed back. We were just after our 7:45 check in time but by the time we had all arrived at the restaurant we had just been called to be seated. We had a great location right in the centre of the restaurant and really close to the dessert section so I was happy with that. Our server was excellent and took the drink orders, explained the buffet and gave us time to head off for our first selections. We have all eaten here before with the exception of my mum so I made my first stop the soup choices.

I went for the seafood gumbo and this was delicious. Filled with lots of baby scallops, fish and prawns and this was the perfect start to my meal. Others also picked this and my sister tried the Sausage Stew and said this was excellent too.

For my first visit to the main buffet I headed to the meat section. It was quite busy but moved quickly and I knew I had to try the Spice-crusted beef sirloin. I also had some of the whole roast salmon which was topped with a pistachio topping with the Bobotie. A few of the salads rounded off my first plate. All of the food was delicious and every bit as good as I remembered. As we hadn't eaten lots during the day I still had room for a second plate.

More of that amazing beef plus I made my own salad with some blue cheese on the top too. To get over the disappointment of the Busch Gardens chicken tenders I picked some of these off the buffet but topped them with the tamarind sauce that they served with the roast chicken and this was another winner. All of the food here was very good and we were all impressed with the choice and quality. After a breather and rest it was then time to hit the dessert section.

I chose the Guava Panna Cotta, Kenyan Coffee Tart, Cheesecake, Zebra Dome and the sponge was a spiced soft sponge cake (bit like a ginger parkin) and to get some more fruit a strawberry. Fantastic dessert and unashamedly I headed back for a couple more of my favourites - which means one more of each! As we were rounding off our meal our server then brought some celebration cakes and drinks. There was something for everyone.

A birthday cupcake for Bernie - this was a good size and between us we did all manage a mouthful.

Anniversary cakes for Kik and me and also my sister and Bernie. The kids liked these as they looked like little Mickeys. Again these were like brownies and to be polite I ate the ears from one.

Topped off with four glasses of sparkling wine. I was really impressed with the extras here for the celebrations, one of the better ones we had over the whole trip. As my sister and me were driving and Kik doesn't really drink I only had a mouthful of the wine and then we left it to my Mum to tidy these off, which she did mixed with some of Bomas amazing juice.

Another excellent meal at Boma and one I would definitely book again. We used 8 TS credits for the meal, the cost to us if paying OOP would of been $340.80 (£262.00) and we charged the tip of $57.60 (£44.30) to the room.

To finish the night we headed off to the watering hole at the back of the hotel to see some animals and sat round the fire before heading off home to bed.

[Gunna]

We had a bit of a lazier day planned today and as we had plenty of credits stacking up decided we would head out for breakfast to one of mine and Kiks favourite QS stops from last time, Wolfgang Pucks at Disney Springs. It was a nice, easy and quiet drive and we had no issue getting a great spot in the Lime Garage and there was no problem finding a seat at Wolfgangs as it was still relatively quiet. We spilt into two groups of four, placed our orders and then found a seat whilst we waited for our food to arrive.

Both Kik and my mum went for an omelette. One the roasted mushroom with spinach then other omelette was the cheddar and bacon. Both of these got the thumbs up and the crispy roast potatoes served with these were delicious too.

Sam went for the breakfast pizza, without egg. He has had this before and would eat pizza for every meal so it was a no brainer what he was going to choose. He only ate half of this so got the rest in a 'to-go' box and it did for breakfast another day. You can't beat cold pizza for breakfast.

I opted for the Sunrise sandwich - Eggs, bacon, tomato, mozzarella and garlic aioli in a lovely bread bun. This, again, was excellent and very filling. A perfect breakfast/brunch type meal and kept me well filled up until our meal later that evening. The service was excellent again and our server would happily top up drinks and bring anything we needed. It is an excellent use of a CS credit and feels almost like a TS in some respects.

We all enjoyed our breakfast and across the 8 of us used 8 CS credits total cost would of been $131.96 (101.50) We left our tip in cash on the table for the server.

After this we headed off to the outlets to do some shopping and even managed a few bargains given the exchange rate. We had promised Sam a trip to Disneyquest after this but before we went inside we stopped at Starbucks for some cold drinks.

I picked up a Trenta Mango iced tea and this was very refreshing and cooling. We all had drinks and across the four of us used 4 snack credits at a total of $25.40 (£19.53) After our pit stop we headed into Disneyquest before we met up with my sister and her side who had continued shopping around Disney Springs whilst we were in Disneyquest outside of Raglan Road.

We had a good meal here last time when we were on the DDP and it was one which my mum liked the look of. She likes Ireland and has a thing for the music, for some reason she really like Daniel O'Donnell but we try not to be too embarrassed by that, and she liked the idea of the entertainment which was also happening across course of the meal. We waited about 10 minutes after our ADR and were sat in a small annex just off the main room but you could see the podium and still be involved in all the entertainment which was going on.

Our server was very good again and took orders, brought drinks and left us to tuck into the Irish bread with the reduction before our main courses arrived.

Kik and mum went for Lambo - which was the braised lamb shank with mash and veg. They both thought this was amazing and the lamb was very tender. I am not a lover of lamb but tried a piece and it was nice. Sam picked the risotto with chicken and he did enjoy this but it was very green, with it including peas, he liked it but said he would rather of had mine.

Schnitzel Savvy - this was breaded and seared ham schnitzel, topped with smoked bacon beans and a fried egg. It was also served with some chunky chips. This was great comfort food and just like having gammon and egg. I really enjoyed this, it was tasty and very filling. Kik took a shine to the plates here, she though these where really nice. Next it was time for desserts.

I had the Apple and Peach crumble which was served with both cream and ice cream. This was lovely I would of just liked a bit more crumble though.

Mum and Kik the steamed Orange Pudding, no complaints here, again both really enjoyed this and gave it a thumbs up.

Sam finished with the raspberry pavlova. I think he preferred this more than his main and the bit I tried was lovely, quite light but a nice taste of sharp raspberries.

Another great meal and one we all enjoyed. Mum really enjoyed the band and seeing the Irish dancers too and we had a nice relaxing meal. It was a bit quieter being off to a side and we didn't miss any of the action but it also meant we could still hold a conversation and not have to shout. The food was excellent, like good home cooked comfort food and one we would all happily go back too.

We used 8TS credits here - cost to us would of been $350.67 (£269.74) and we charged the automatic tip of $50.67 (£38.97) to the room. Looking at that I have realised that it isn't 18% so don't know what they have worked it out on but with us being more than 6 on the DDP the tip was always automatically worked out and applied for us. I know we could have queried it and paid less if the service wasn't good but we always had great service so just charged them to the room so don't know why the one here was lower?

After this we did a little bit more shopping before heading back to our beds.

[Grapesoda]

Loving your report, I look forward to the rest!