Why is the rum always gone? We might be responsible! UPDATE 7/13: My photos are back and other stuff

ThreeBoyMama

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 5, 2014
Hi everyone! I spent SO much time reading everyone’s wonderful and helpful dining reviews in preparation for and anticipation of our trip in October that I really wanted to do one of my own when we got back, so here goes!

I’ll start with our cast of characters. My name is Amber, I'm 41, born and raised in California but we now live in Madison, Wisconsin. My DH, Devon, is 42 and our three boys are Nathan, Dylan, and Sean. Nathan turned 14 while we were in Orlando, and Dylan turned 12. Sean is 7.5. He really got into taking food pictures and by the end of our trip was insisting on doing them himself :P

Here is shot of me and the boys at Hollywood Studios on our first full day of this trip.








And then a cute pic of my DH with a Jawa at the Launch Bay. We rarely manage to get the five of us into one picture together.


We were at Walt Disney World from October 16th through the 24th, then headed to Universal for three more days. I do have photos of some of the food from Universal and may include them at the end if anyone is interested, but my photos are pretty much focused on what we ate (and drank, as the title of this report may suggest!) while we were at WDW.

This was our third trip to WDW and I had been planning it for almost two years, since we first visited in October of 2014. We went big this time! Five nights at the Beach Club with a water view room, two nights with a savanna view at Animal Kingdom Villas-Kidani Village, and then a quick one-nighter at the Poly Villas on the night of our MNSSHP. The weather was absolutely perfect for our entire trip and we had an awesome time and ate a ton of great food!

The following is the lineup for where we ate on this trip—a couple of places were repeat favorites, and we also tried some new restaurants and of course ate our way around World Showcase during Food & Wine.

Trattoria al Forno
Rose & Crown Pub and Dining Room
Beaches & Cream Soda Shop
Sci Fi Dine-In Theater
Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria
La Hacienda de San Angel
Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen
Raglan Road Irish Pub
Cape May Café
Sanaa
Boma-Flavors of Africa
California Grill
Kona Café
Wolfgang Puck Express


We also grabbed breakfast at Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie, Boardwalk Bakery, and the Mara, and snacks all over the place (including a refillable popcorn bucket which we used on multiple days). The booths we hit up at Food & Wine included the following:

Africa
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Greenhouse Guru
Hawaii
Ireland
Islands of the Caribbean
Mexico
Morocco
Patagonia
South Korea


So with all of that, let’s get to the food!!!
 
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October 16, 2016

We arrived on the afternoon of Sunday, October 16th at around 3:00 p.m. and our room at the Beach Club was ready when we got there. After two days of driving (yes, we are crazy and we drive from Wisconsin), we were SO happy to finally be at Walt Disney World!

Our room was perfect—second floor, with a full balcony as I had requested. We had a gorgeous view overlooking the sand volleyball court and the pathway along the beach, with the lake and the Boardwalk in the background. (Just as a side note, we loved being on the second floor since we could just walk up the one-flight staircase from the Beach Club lobby and go straight to our room, rather than having to deal with the elevators.)

Anyway, I unpacked and showered while the boys hit the pool. Let me digress for a moment with the hope of providing information that may prove useful to someone. So our room was supposed to have a daybed in addition to the two queens. In our excitement of finally getting there, checking out the room/view, getting ready for the pool, and NOT being in the car anymore (did I mention that part already? Yes? OK then) I hadn’t really scoped out the daybed sitch but assumed the couch along the wall folded out. After I kicked all the guys out…er, suggested politely that they go to the pool so I could have 5 blissful minutes to myself…and showered, I started trying to figure out the bed situation and was totally convinced that they had put us in the wrong room because there was seriously no way that couch turned into a bed. So I call down to the desk and get a lovely CM who looks up the reservation and assures me that, yes, that couch turns into a bed. Somehow. I’m like, well, I’ve been yanking on it for 5 minutes and I’ve got nothin’. I believe I also whined about how our room was perfect and I really didn’t want to have to move since we’d just lugged our 800 pounds of stuff up there and I had also already used the shower. That room and I had bonded. Ever the cheerful optimist, the CM was like don’t worry, I’ll send someone up right away, to which I practically yelled “that’s OK, I’m only wearing a towel, we’ll figure it out!” I'm sure she was like OK, you lunatic.

To make an already long story short, my DH figured out how to fold out the bed within about 30 seconds of them getting back from the pool, so the moral of this story is that I am an idiot and that if you have a daybed room at the Beach Club don’t despair if you can’t figure out how to convert the damn thing because it is, in fact, an actual bed. You may also want to confirm that there is an adequate number of beds in the room for your particular party before jumping in the shower. I realize this has absolutely nothing to do with food but I felt the need to share.

Anyway, all was well with the bed situation so we finished getting ready and then made the five-minute walk over to Epcot. It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon/evening. The new Soarin’ was our first stop, then we made our way back to World Showcase for some food! Our first stop was Hawaii where we got the Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise and the Kona Brewing Company's Big Wave Golden Ale :



Yum! We really enjoyed this. The boys didn’t love the spicy mayo but DH and I did. (Does anyone else think our mayo looks like a hidden Mickey?!) We also stopped at Patagonia for something for my oldest son. He got the Beef Empanada:



As you can see, he started eating this before I got a (lousy) shot of it. He said he really liked this, even though he was suspicious that there were ground up vegetables hidden in the meat filling. I should probably mention that my kids refuse to eat vegetables. :rolleyes1

After that it was getting close to our ADR time at Trattoria al Forno so we made our way out of the park and over to the Boardwalk. We checked in on time for our 8:25 ADR and waited about 15-20 minutes before we were seated…at seriously the worst table in the restaurant. It was a four-top with a chair stuck on one end which I could have lived with, but it was literally right next to the servers’ station so if you were on one side of the table you were looking right at the computer screens, and if you were on the other side you had the servers right behind you. We literally sat there for about 60 seconds and in that time my husband’s chair was bumped into twice by the servers going by.

Now… I am not usually a complainer but I will speak up if I feel that the situation warrants it. This was our arrival day dinner, we had already waited past our ADR time, and I just was not OK with having a cramped table in a high traffic area where we were constantly going to be jostled and feel in the way. So I requested another table and we were sent back out to the lobby to wait. And wait. And wait. Now I should say that the restaurant was very busy (there was a big convention staying at the Beach Club) and that I realize not all tables will accommodate a party of five. That having been said, we waited for at least another 40-45 minutes and had to ask the CM at the front desk twice when he expected to seat us. My kids were seriously han-GRY at this point. Not the greatest start to our dining adventures. :sad2:

FINALLY, we were called for our table at about 9:40 p.m. Thankfully, we were given what we probably should have gotten all along, which was a semi-circular booth on the far wall of the restaurant which incidentally had a nice view of the dining room and the open kitchen. This table fit us all comfortably and we decided to just shake off the last hour and enjoy ourselves.

Please keep in mind that this was our first meal I was trying to photograph and that my family was on the verge of mutiny—I did the best I could with the photos.

I had the Caprese Salad with House-made Mozzarella:



And the Grilled Treviso with Ciabatta Croutons and Creamy Garlic Dressing:



I really enjoyed both of these. The tomatoes and mozzarella were fresh and flavorful, and the salad was delicious. Our server (who was very good, by the way) did caution me about the bitterness of the salad. I like bitter greens so I was good with it, but I could see how others definitely wouldn’t care for this (my DH had one bite and said it was good, but that he couldn’t eat a whole plate of it). Anyway, the dressing was good and creamy, and the croutons were nice and garlicky and crunchy. I was happy with my meal. I am absolutely 100% sure that there was wine involved, but cannot for the life of me remember what we had.

Dylan and Sean both got the kids' pizzas—cheese for Sean, pepperoni for Dylan (spoiler alert: this will be a recurring theme):



Sean apparently inhaled his so quickly that I didn’t get a photo. We also were given bread to start and I guess I missed that too. Everyone was too busy shoving it into their faces.

My DH had the Pasta alla Carbonara-Fresh Pasta, Local Organic Eggs, Pecorino Romano, and House-cured Pancetta:



His only complaint was that there wasn’t more of it.

Nathan decided to branch out a little bit (for him anyway) and got the Chicken Breast alla Parmigiana:



He asked for the marinara on the side since he wasn’t sure whether he’d like it. Turns out that he did, and he ate pretty much all of this.

So our first meal didn’t get off to a great start, but we were able to regroup and ended up having a nice dinner that everyone enjoyed. I was, however, told by pretty much everyone that I was not to complain about any tables ever again in the future. Let’s just say that I do not always follow instructions.

We didn’t order dessert as we aren’t really dessert people. We are, however, alcohol people, so we made the lovely walk back to the Beach Club and enjoyed a glass of wine on our balcony.

Seating woes aside, we would return to Trattoria al Forno the next time we stay at one of the Epcot area hotels as it was a convenient and ultimately tasty option, though I don’t know that we’d go out of our way to eat here again.
 
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Following along. I have two boys and I'm familiar with picky eaters. I would have spoke up too about that table, but not sure I could hold out that long for a new table.
 


Following! You have a great restaurant line-up with a few like Trattoria al Forno that I haven't been to. And yes, that's a nasty way to start your family dining adventure. Seems like WDW is shoving more tables into truly unacceptable spots because they want to maximize seats. Sad. Re your Beach Club fold-out mishap . . . that could seriously happen to anyone. Long day of travel & then that. No worries! You have an incredible sense of humour & a great writing style so thinking this will be an excellent & entertaining foodie report. Thank you for posting :thumbsup2
 
Following along. I have two boys and I'm familiar with picky eaters. I would have spoke up too about that table, but not sure I could hold out that long for a new table.

Honestly, if I'd known it would take that long for them to seat us somewhere else I probably wouldn't have said anything. I just assumed they'd give us the next available that would seat 5 but that obviously was not the case!
 
Following! You have a great restaurant line-up with a few like Trattoria al Forno that I haven't been to. And yes, that's a nasty way to start your family dining adventure. Seems like WDW is shoving more tables into truly unacceptable spots because they want to maximize seats. Sad. Re your Beach Club fold-out mishap . . . that could seriously happen to anyone. Long day of travel & then that. No worries! You have an incredible sense of humour & a great writing style so thinking this will be an excellent & entertaining foodie report. Thank you for posting :thumbsup2

Thank you so much! :blush: And thanks for making me feel better about my failed attempt at the fold out!
 


Hi Amber! With drinking, dining, and rum I'm totally here!!!! Looks like you are off to a great start food wise. Can't wait to see more
 
October 17, 2016


The next day was our first full park day and we headed to Epcot! Have I mentioned how awesome it was staying at the Beach Club and being a five-minute walk from Epcot? Loved it. The first part of our trip while we were at the Beach Club is very Epcot heavy. Anyway, we headed to Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie in France to grab breakfast. I had assumed there would be a lot of people with this same idea, but it was pleasantly uncrowded and we got our food and a nice table inside in no time.



If that doesn’t look like a vacation breakfast, I don’t know what does. Nathan and Dylan went for the pain au chocolat, DH had the brioche chocolat, Sean had the biscuit chocolat (are you sensing a theme here?), and I had the parfait aux fruits which, let’s be honest, was just an excuse to eat whipped cream for breakfast. Everything was yummy and we were all happy with our choices.

We then headed over to Future World and rode Living With the Land and Spaceship Earth. We had a FP for the character meet and greet but the FP line was ridiculous so we headed back toward World Showcase, with a pit stop at Club Cool.

We headed toward some of the booths we wanted to try. Nathan and I hit South Korea and got the Korean-style BBQ Beef with Steamed Rice and Cucumber Kimchi:



He “let” me have the cucumbers off the top, which were fresh and tasty, and we both enjoyed the beef. I only got a bite or two of this, actually, since he liked it so much.

DH and the other boys went to China and got the Chicken Pot Stickers:



And the Beijing Roasted Duck in Steamed Bun with Hoisin Sauce:




Sean absolutely loved these pot stickers and ate most of them. Dylan wanted to try the duck—he thought it was OK, but wasn’t interested in the rest of the dish. I had a little taste and thought it had a good richness that was nicely complimented by the sweet/savory hoisin sauce. My DH ate most of this.

We headed back over to Future World to use our Test Track FP, then went back to the hotel for a pool break with a stop on the way at Kabuki Café in Japan for kakigori. The boys got strawberry and cherry, and Devon and I split a tangerine one. We all loved these and they hit the spot since it was 86 degrees that day and we were hot from all that walking!



After we cooled off in Stormalong Bay...



...we walked back over to Epcot for our 4:00 p.m. ADR at Rose & Crown. This was our first time here and we were looking forward to it! We checked in and were given a pager which went off within less than five minutes. I want to make sure to mention that the staff and service here were excellent—the CM’s who checked us in and sat us were lovely, and our server, Peter, was very good (and super cute, but this was lost on the rest of our party).


So this is where I think our karma for not being jerks about our table the night before came back around. We were seated at what has to be the best spot ever, a big round table on the corner of the lower patio level right on the water. We weren’t crowded at all and had a perfect view of World Showcase Lagoon and the surrounding pavilions:



It also didn’t hurt that it was a gorgeous day. The boys all got lemonades and DH and I ordered drinks—he started with a Bumblebee (half Boddingtons, half Guinness) and I got a Snake Bite (half cider and half Harp). Why there are no close up shots of the drinks is one of life’s great mysteries, but you can see them in this shot of the table, along with the cute Halloween cups:



DH ordered the Scotch Egg to start with:



He enjoyed this. I wasn’t interested in the egg but I ate most of the greens it came with, with the mustard sauce which was nice and tangy. One of the boys had a bite of the egg and liked it, but I don’t remember who it was. They are hard to keep straight sometimes. Another Snake Bite, please!

For our entrees Nathan, Sean and I all got fish and chips (kids’ portion for Sean). They pretty much all looked exactly the same so I'll just post a pic of Nathan's because it looked the nicest:



Dylan had the kids’ steak and chips:



And Devon got the bangers and mash:



We all liked our food. My piece of fish was huge and actually was almost too thick—Sean had two big pieces of fish in the kids’ portion and I snagged some of his when he wasn’t looking since I preferred the thinner/crunchier fish. Dylan’s steak was surprisingly good, and a well-cooked medium. Devon really liked his meal but wished it was bigger. We all loved the chips, especially with the malt vinegar, and actually got another order to share. Devon and I also ordered a second round of drinks (another Snake Bite for me, and a Boddingtons for him). Cute Peter was more than happy to bring us whatever we needed; we left him a good tip.

This was a lovely meal with excellent service and an unbeatable setting. We all left happy, and will definitely go back in the future.

From there we grabbed the Friendship Launch from International Gateway over to Hollywood Studios to see the Star Wars fireworks, which were awesome. I had a Yuengling Draft from Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner while we watched the fireworks, which I also did not photograph. It looked like a beer.

We didn’t have dinner plans that night since our ADR at Rose & Crown was so late in the day, but instead had plans to go to Beaches & Cream for dessert. I tried for months without success to find us an ADR for five here—the best I was able to do was to get one for 2 people at 9:00 p.m. and one for 3 people at 9:20 p.m. When we checked in I told the CM that we’d be happy to wait if it meant we could be seated together and she nicely told me that was no problem.

We had actually walked back to the Beach Club from HS after the fireworks so we were happy to just sit at a couple of the small tables outside the restaurant and relax for a bit. We waited about 20 minutes and then were seated at a booth.

I don’t remember our server’s name but she was very nice and friendly. Sean ordered a vanilla milkshake:



Dylan just wanted a scoop of ice cream—it looks like cookies n’ cream, though I don’t actually see that flavor on the menu:



Devon had a scoop of mint chip which I don’t seem to have a photo of (probably because it was boring…at least Dylan got a cone), and Nathan and I split the No Way Jose, A Peanut Butter and Hot Fudge delight featuring Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Morsels, Whipped Cream, and a Cherry:



This was pretty much the whole reason I wanted this ADR, thanks to many of your reviews, and it did not disappoint. This was huge, and we got the 2-scoop version! My hat is off to anyone who takes down the full-size. A couple of tables ordered the Kitchen Sink while we were there. Those things are crazy.

This was a great end to an awesome first full day. We headed up to our room and to bed since we had a lot planned for the following day.
 
I've always wanted to go to Rose & Crown but as we are British the rest of the party think it's a waste of a meal. We do have Yorkshire chippy fish and chips sometimes though and they are just like at home. Glad you like the malt vinegar on your fish and chips, it's a must-have at home with your chippy tea.
 
I seriously don't think I made it level w/ the rim of the ice cream dish when I got the regular sized No Way Jose. John did manage to polish off a bunch of mine ;) We did get the "to go" wicked cute Kitchen Sink one night though. Forgot to tell you that.

Love the reviews so far!
 
I seriously don't think I made it level w/ the rim of the ice cream dish when I got the regular sized No Way Jose. John did manage to polish off a bunch of mine ;) We did get the "to go" wicked cute Kitchen Sink one night though. Forgot to tell you that.

Love the reviews so far!

Nice of John to take one for the team--those things are huge! Is the to go one the one in the cute Mickey Pants bowl? I need one of those!
 
It was very nice of him! ;) LOL

Yup! Its adorable! Ally is using it in her Mickey themed bathroom now to hold her ever expanding collection of Bath & Body Works soaps.
 
I've always wanted to go to Rose & Crown but as we are British the rest of the party think it's a waste of a meal. We do have Yorkshire chippy fish and chips sometimes though and they are just like at home. Glad you like the malt vinegar on your fish and chips, it's a must-have at home with your chippy tea.

I wonder how Rose & Crown would measure up for you? I have no idea how authentic it actually is. I can see how your group would want to skip it to try more of what you're not already able to get at home, but maybe you can convince them to go and "research" for purposes of comparison! :)
 
I've always wanted to go to Rose & Crown but as we are British the rest of the party think it's a waste of a meal. We do have Yorkshire chippy fish and chips sometimes though and they are just like at home. Glad you like the malt vinegar on your fish and chips, it's a must-have at home with your chippy tea.

When we ate there I got something called "Bubbles and Squeak" I think, it was mashed potatoes with cabbage and bacon, if I remember right. It was during our 2014 trip. It was soooooooooo good. Is that common? Because I seriously want to make it all the time. LOL
 

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