More to do (and eat) so we went a third time! Dec. 6-14 (complete)

[mickey916]

I’m glad you tried the bread service at Sanaa, we love it!
Beignets for breakfast, bread service for lunch my kind of day!
I was hoping to get a “preview” ride on the beloved steam train in December but no such luck! I’m so excited to ride the train again in April!
Flight delays, ugh but on the way home not near as bad as on the way to Disney!

It was definitely a carb-heavy day! We were hoping for a preview train ride too but at least we got to see it. We were so glad my Dad texted us about the flights because we would have just gone to the airport and sat there for hours. Instead, we got to eat more carbs.

 

[motherof5]

Background: This trip was just DH (55) and myself (55). Recently retired, this was our first retirement vacation. Since we already went twice in 2022 (on a work trip in April and with our adult sons in May), our focus this trip was mainly holiday experiences and food.

Our goals were:
1) Complete the cookie stroll
2) Sample the Festival of the Holidays
3) See the Candlelight processional
4) See the holiday decorations at every resort
5) Enjoy Disney Springs
6) Eat our favorite foods
7) Try a few new foods/restaurants

Spoiler alert: We achieved all our goals...some were worth it, some were not.

12/6/22 Arrival Day: We landed at MCO in the early afternoon, picked up a rental car, and headed straight to Port Orlean's French Quarter.

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We checked out the Christmas tree in the lobby

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and then headed to Scat Cat Café, for the real purpose of this visit...a beignet sundae with chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce.

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This was very good! The beignets were warm, light and fluffy. The ice cream was a good quality chocolate ice cream. Truth be told though, we prefer just the plain beignets as this was a little tricky to eat.

We also tried the holiday peppermint beignet.
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This was pretty good. Definitely had a strong peppermint flavor. I just noticed now that the sprinkles were mini-candy canes, very cute. Guess I didn't have my glasses on when we ate it!

We then decided to burn some calories and walked down to Port Orleans Riverside resort to check out the decorations there.
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So far we're off to a great start and the day just gets better from here.

Those desserts look amazing!

 

[mickey916]

12/14/22 Squeezing Every Extra Moment Out of Our Last Day
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Excited that we didn't have to head to the airport quite yet, we went to Disney Springs. We went over to Gideon's to put our name in for the virtual queue...and there wasn't one! We waited only about 5 minutes and got right in.

We decided to try the Cake Von Krampus and also pick up some cookies to take home to the boys.



My DH loved this cake! (Probably due to the very thick chocolate frosting). I liked the frosting and the mint flavor but I prefer straight up chocolate cake over red velvet. This was my least favorite of all the slices we tried and one of my DH's favorites.

I also picked up a Von Krampus Cold Brew.

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This was very good with a strong chocolate mint flavor. I prefer the Peanut Butter Cold Brew though.

We ended up freezing the three cookies we purchased and just ate them last weekend with the boys so they don't look that great. Also I stored them together so they all had a little extra mint flavor from the Von Krampus. Still really good however! We enjoyed all of them!

Banana Bread Cookie


Triple Chocolate Chip


Cookie Von Krampus (looks bad but was VERY tasty)


We also went by the Ganachery and bought two Olaf hot cocoa bombs for the boys for Christmas.

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Here's poor Olaf last weekend in his milk hot tub:

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Very delicious!!!!

After our shopping spree we decided to pick up a quick bite for dinner before heading to the airport. We ordered a pepperoni slice and the four cheese deep dish from Pizza Ponte.

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These were both surprisingly good! Not Via Napoli good, but still very good for a quick slice. Both had nice crusts with the right about of sauce and cheese. A great stop if you're craving pizza.

After our dinner (and cake dessert from Gideon's), we said goodbye to Disney Springs and headed to the airport after an incredible day ending a fabulous third trip to Disney in 2022!



I'm going to do a summary post of our goals and then a few posts with ranking various things from our three 2022 trips...just to keep it alive a little longer! Thank you to all who've been following along!

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[ThreeBoyMama]

Score on the bonus Gideons goodies! And pizza! Glad you were able to make the most of your delayed flight.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love the peanut butter cold brew at Gideon’s
We plan on making a trip to Gideon’s for cookies and cold brew in April!

 

[Skywatcher1206]

I loved your trip report! We were there for a very quick NYE trip but did not go to any parks (except for Blizzard Beach). We are going for this Christmas, hitting all parks except for AK and I can’t wait!

We ate dinner at Beaches & Cream on our last trip and the service was as bad as LTT was for you. It was horrible. Maybe if we ever go back, we will just get ice cream like you did.

Thanks again for putting together such a detailed trip report and your pictures were gorgeous!

 

[mickey916]

I love the peanut butter cold brew at Gideon’s
We plan on making a trip to Gideon’s for cookies and cold brew in April!

We're taking a Florida road trip April 11-May 12 and will be in Orlando in early May. Gideon's and beignets are the only "must dos" as far as my husband is concerned...

 

[mickey916]

I loved your trip report! We were there for a very quick NYE trip but did not go to any parks (except for Blizzard Beach). We are going for this Christmas, hitting all parks except for AK and I can’t wait!

We ate dinner at Beaches & Cream on our last trip and the service was as bad as LTT was for you. It was horrible. Maybe if we ever go back, we will just get ice cream like you did.

Thanks again for putting together such a detailed trip report and your pictures were gorgeous!

We had mediocre service at Beaches & Cream in April and May when we went for dinner. Not as bad as LTT but not great either. From now on it's ice cream only for us.

Very glad you enjoyed my report and photos. I bought an iPhone 12 before our April trip for the sole purpose of taking good photos in Disney and having enough memory for Genie+. I'm actually amazed at how much better the photos are than my previous iPhone.

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

12/7/22 Christmas Shopping Around the World​

We then decided to do some Christmas shopping. Since our sons weren't able to join us on this trip, we decided to bring some of the trip home to them by buying a packaged snack in each country. We wrapped them all up in a big box and gave them to them at Christmas. We didn't buy anything in America, since that wouldn't be anything unique. Also we couldn't find anything in Morocco or Mexico that was prepackaged.
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Over Christmas break, we sampled each thing and rated it individually on a scale of 1 to 5.

From Japan: (which doesn't allow an AP discount, btw)
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I know you can get this at a grocery store but it looked best to us. We felt these were fine, nothing great. Rating: 3.5.

From France:
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These were delicious and if you let them melt in your mouth, they fizzed like pop rocks. kinda cool. I was thinking don't eat these with coke or you'll die like Mikey from Life cereal (80s reference for the Gen Xers out there). Our rating: 4.5 (three of us gave them a 5 but my DS24 brought the score down with a 3).

From United Kingdom:
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The Aero looked a lot like the Choco'Lite candy bar we remembered from our youth, so we had to get that but the Lion looked more unique. Aero: This was a mixed bag for us. Rating: 3.25
Lion: Kind of a mix between a KitKat and a Twix. Rating: 3.5.

From Canada:
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Definitely could taste a hint of coffee, another KitKat type candy bar. Rating: 3.5.

From China:
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I really didn't like the texture of these! I gave them a 1. Yuck! My DH26 though gave them a 3, DH & DS24 gave them a 2. Overall rating: 2.

From Italy:
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These were really good! Rating: 4

From Norway:
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These were awesome! Way, way better than anything on the cookie stroll. My DH said he now will need to get these every time we go, (but he only gave them a 4 while the rest of us gave them 5s). Rating: 4.75...the winner!

We also got Werther's popcorn from Germany but honestly we still haven't tried it...our boys haven't been home since Christmas so next time they're home we'll rank it.
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This was a really fun way to explore the countries and our boys enjoyed experiencing a little bit of Epcot over Christmas break.

Just stumbled upon your TR and loving it. OMG Choco'lite, finally someone remembers them! All my friends and family cannot remember that candy bar...that was my Favorite. I will have to try the Ballerina Candy when we go in August.

 

[mickey916]

Just stumbled upon your TR and loving it. OMG Choco'lite, finally someone remembers them! All my friends and family cannot remember that candy bar...that was my Favorite. I will have to try the Ballerina Candy when we go in August.

I'm glad you enjoyed my report! It tooks us forever (and a Google search) to remember the name Choco'lite. We loved it too so many years ago.

 

[mickey916]

Goal Analysis​

As I mentioned in my introductory post, we had several goals for this trip. So, how did we do?

1) Complete the cookie stroll - While we successfully completed the stroll, the cookies were a big disappointment. Most of them were mediocre at best.

2) Sample the Festival of the Holidays - We did sample some of the booths but didn't find the food offerings to be anything special. The Donut Box was good and the bread bowl from Bavaria kitchen was also good. Everything else seemed mass produced and not fresh or warm. After the first few misses, we ended up scaling back our original plans for items from the food booths.

3) See the Candlelight processional - This did not disappoint! We loved the music and Daymond John did a great job reading the story of Christmas. So glad we got to experience this!

4) See the holiday decorations at every resort - This was so fun! We were able to visit and take pictures at every resort, a total of 25 different locations. I loved how each resort's decorations were uniquely themed to match the resort. Just so interesting and beautiful. It really put us in the Christmas spirit.

5) Enjoy Disney Springs - We were able to enjoy Disney Springs many times and even got some bonus time in on our last day. We loved doing the Christmas tree stroll and watching the band concert.

6) Eat our favorite foods - We were very successful in experiencing some of our favorite foods and restaurants and most of them did not disappoint: Beignets, Gideon's cake, 'Ohana, Garden Grill, Steakhouse 71, Via Napoli, Gaston's cinnamon roll, schoolbread, pretzel bread pudding, No Way Jose sundae, and Primo Piatto breakfast. Our only disappointing repeat experiences were Liberty Tree Tavern and Chef Art Smith's.

7) Try a few new foods/restaurants - So many new favorites: Casey's Corner, Sanaa bread service, Boatwrights, the Fountain shakes and food, Ale & Compass breakfast, Pizza Ponte, and Columbia Restaurant. In fact, two of these have made the list for us to go again when we are in Orlando in early May as part of our Florida road trip - Boatwrights and Ale & Compass. We're also going to the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa. Hoping the second times around as just as good!

Overall we were very successful in meeting all our goals!

 

[mickey916]

Dessert/Sweet Snack Rankings
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Over the course of our three trips in 2022, we ended up spending 30 days in Disney. This gave us a great opportunity to try all kinds of restaurants, sweets, savory snacks, and even tours. I'd like to end this adventure with a few lists of what we tried and how we ranked them. First up, the biggest list, sweet snacks and desserts from worst to first.

66	Citrus Swirl - Sunshine Tree Terrace
65	Pineapple lumpia - Pongu Pongu
64	Rice Cream - Kringla
63	Cookie Stroll cookies - Festival of the Holidays
62	Dessert Trio - Be Our Guest
61	Blue Milk - Milk stand
60	Mickey Cinnamon Roll - Tamu Tamu
59	Banana Fudge Lunchbox Tart - Woody's Lunchbox
58	Raspberry Lunchbox Tart - Woody's Lunchbox
57	Pineapple/Coconut Dole Whip - Aloha Isle
56	Coconut Dole Whip - Aloha Isle
55	Tropical Serenade Float - Aloha Isle
54	Coffee Toffee Chocolate chip cookie - Gideons
53	Caramel butter bar - Karamell Kuche
52	Gingerbread Salted Caramel Cookie sandwich - Karamell Kuche
51	50th Anniversary Ice Cream Sandwich - Dino Bites
50	Kitchen Sink sundae - Beaches & Cream
49	Magic Bar - Roaring Fork
48	Chocolate Cheesecake - Space 220 lounge
47	Strawberry Shortcake - Space 220 lounge
46	Maple Popcorn - Canada
45	Churros - La Cantina de San Angel
44	Apple Crumble - les Halles
43	Pain au Chocolat - Les Halles
42	Chocolate beignet - Les Halles
41	Chocolate twist - Tamu Tamu
40	Cheshire Cat Tail - Cheshire Café
39	Kakigori shaved ice - Kabuki Café
38	Wookie Cookie - Backlot Express
37	Original Chocolate Chip Cookie - Gideon's
36	Triple Chocolate Chip Cookie - Gideon's
35	Gingerbread Sundae - All Star Music
34	50th Anniversary Peanut Butter Banana Pie - Contempo Café
33	Peanut Butter Crunch Cookie - Gideon's
32	50th Anniversary Bundt Cake - Sunshine Seasons
31	Peanut Butter cookie pie - Main St. Confectionery
30	50th Anniversary Chocolate Fiesta Pyramid - San Angel Inn
29	Cookies & Cream Cookie - Gideon's
28	Von Krampus Cookie - Gideon's
27	Mickey Premium bar
26	Chocolate kringla - Kringla
25	Eplekake - Kringla
24	Shangri-la berry freeze - Warung Outpost
23	Pineapple Coconut Slushy - Goods to Go & the Market
22	Coffee Cake Cookie - Gideon's
21	School Bread - Kringla
20	Berry Shortcake - Garden Grill
19	Coco Loco Shake - The Fountain
18	PB&J Shake - The Fountain
17	Bullseye Cupcake - Artist’s Palette
16	Deer Holiday Cupcake - Everything Pop!
15	Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl cookie - Gideon's
14	Jack Jack’s Num Num Cookie - The Market
13	Toasted Coconut Caramel cookie - Gideon's
12	Banana Bread Cookie - Gideon's
11	Beignet sundae - Scat Cat Café
10	Von Krampus Cake - Gideon's
9	Cookies & Cream Cake - Gideon's
8	Pretzel Bread Pudding - Sommerfest
7	Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake - Liberty Tree Tavern
6	Bread Pudding - ‘Ohana
5	Bread Pudding - Banana Cabana
4	Beignets - Scat Cat Café
3	No Way Jose Sundae - Beaches & Cream
2	Chocolate Everything Cake - Gideon's
1	Peanut Butter Cup Cake - Gideon's

Almost everything on the list was very good. But here's how it broke down: items 66 - 62 were things we did not like at all. Items 61-47 were things that were disappointing or not our tastes and we probably won't try again. Items 46-30 we will probably get again some time. Items 29 and up are the things that we would get over and over again. There's probably some controversial rankings on here (especially citrus swirl and dole whip) but this is how it all broke down for us...any thoughts?

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[mickey916]

Savory Snacks Ranking
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As anyone who has read this far can attest, we are much more inclined to grab something sweet when snacking. I will rank the quick service and table service restaurants soon but there were a couple instances where we just grabbed a quick savory snack that didn't really count as a meal so I'm putting those items into this ranking. Here's our list from worst to first:

7	Street Corn - Harambe Fruit Market - sadly ours wasn't grilled properly or it may have been higher
6	Mediterranean flatbread - Tangeriene Cafe
5	Roule aux fromage - Les Halles
4	Pastrami springroll - Egg roll cart
3	Cheeseburger springroll - Egg roll cart
2	Macaroni & Cheese side - Regal Eagle
1	Bread Service - Sanaa

Up next...quick service rankings...

 

[mickey916]

Quick Service Lunch Ranking
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We actually were pleasantly surprised by most of our quick service meals. I would say only the bottom two we probably wouldn't do again. Chicken Guy! left a sour taste in our mouths after being yelled at and it's tough for us to get fish outside of New England so Yorkshire County is a one and done. #15 - 12 were simply okay but we'd probably go again in a pinch. 11 and up were all excellent and will definitely go again.

17	Chicken Guy!
16	Yorkshire County Fish & Chips
15	Flame Tree Barbecue
14	Everything Pop Food Court
13	Sleepy Hollow
12	Peco’s Bill
11	Backlot Express
10	Pizza Ponte
9	Gasparilla Island Grill
8	Banana Cabana
7	Artist’s Palette
6	Polite Pig
5	La Cantina de San Angel
4	Ronto Roasters
3	Casey’s Corner
2	Earl of Sandwich
1	Satuli Canteen

 

[mickey916]

Quick Service Breakfast Ranking​

Again we've been very pleased with the quick service offerings. On this list, #10-7 probably won't do again, #6-5 were pretty good, #4-1 are MUST DOs! I listed our go-tos for the top choices. Yum!

10. Contemporary Grounds- pastries were blah
9. Everglazed - yummy but too sweet
8. Tamu Tamu Refreshments - dry pastries
7. Les Halles - good, not great
6. Joffrey’s Donuts - big pink donut
5. Donut Box - Festival of the Holidays - croissant donut, eggnog donut
4. Kringla Bakeri - Schoolbread, eplekake & kringla
3. Primo Piatto-Cinnamon crumble french toast!
2. Gaston’s Tavern - Cinnamon Roll!
1. Scat Cat Café - beignets!

 

[Paulaparm]

Love your rankings

 

[mickey916]

Love your rankings

Thank you! A couple more lists to go...

 

[mickey916]

Table Service Breakfast Ranking
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This was a tough list to sort out, even though it's not very long. All of these breakfasts were really good. The only one that was just mediocre was actually Steakhouse71. But, it was also our very last meal after a week of eating so our appetites may have just been lacking. Honestly can't go wrong with any on this list in our opinion.

5. Steakhouse 71
4. Cinderella’s Royal Table
3. Kona Café
2. Ale & Compass
1. Boma

 

[DVCjj]

Amazingly detailed trip report. Loved it very much.
Gained knowledge I didn't have and after 50 years thought I knew a lot. Nope.

Thanks!

 

[mickey916]

Amazingly detailed trip report. Loved it very much.
Gained knowledge I didn't have and after 50 years thought I knew a lot. Nope.

Thanks!

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!