Garden View Lounge – Afternoon Tea

So my fiance has a thing for tea. Just a minor love affair with the beverage, which you can read about at her blog. So a fancy afternoon tea in the Garden View lounge at the Grand Floridian was required. This was not part of the dining plan, so we paid out-of-pocket for this, but it was worth it. We each had:

• Buckingham Palace – Our traditional tea sandwiches, scones and jam tarts complemented by fresh strawberries and cream, or a selection of freshly baked pastries, along with your choice of tea.

Now the tea was good, not that I’m the best at evaluating teas, but I think I had about 3 cups of it. It was served in some fine china tea set complete with tea cozy.

Garden View Afternoon Tea

The traditional tea sandwiches ranged from ok to nausea inducing. The cucumber one was ok, but what caused me to almost throw up was the stinky cheese one. I don’t know why I took such a big bite. There was also a chicken curry one that I knew not to even touch due to my intense dislike of curry. The scones and jam tarts were better, especially the scones with the butter and jam on them. Best of all were the strawberries with cream. Fresh strawberries smothered with dollops and dollops of cream. It almost made up for the horrible sandwiches.

That night we headed to Epcot again (of course) for dinner in the mexican pavilion at

San Angel Inn

This was one of my favorite meals. The San Angel Inn is inside the pyramid at the Mexican pavilion, next to the water for the boat ride and a fake volcano. This is where we were sort of tricked into ordering an appetizer of guacamole, our waiter had a mexican accent and I had a little bit of trouble understanding everything he said. He asked if we like guacamole and I said yes and so we ended up with a side order of guacamole that we had to pay for. It tasted really good so I’m almost glad we were tricked into ordering it.

View from our table at the San Angel Inn

For my entrée I choose:

• Sirloin con Chile Relleno – Grilled beef sirloin with chile ancho sauce, served with a beans and cheese stuffed pepper, poblano rice, and fried plantains

I love mexican food like this, I love the flavorful steak, the rice, and the beans. I could probably eat a meal like that everyday. I devoured my food. For dessert, I don’t remember. It didn’t compare to the main course whatever it was. San Angel Inn is definitely on my return list for the next time we head back to WDW.

The next night was one we had been looking forward to for a long time, our meal at

Narcoossee’s

This was the first reservation I made. For one reason, LOBSTER. I wanted lobster and this was the place for lobster on the dining plan. The catch is it required two dining plan credits, but since didn’t use any credits the day we went to Universal it all evened out. Narcoossees’s situated at the edge of the Grand Floridian at the dock where you can catch a boat over to the Magic Kingdom. We came here for the lobster, so it shouldn’t be such a surprise that we both had:

• Steamed Whole Maine Lobster – Baked Sherry cheddar Orecchiette pasta and asparagus.

And I took a picture of it:

Steamed Whole Maine Lobster at Narcoossee's

Our waiter was a little odd, he had extremely shaky hands and at one point had spilled wine or something all over his pants and had to leave to go change. So we had a bit of a wait before we got any bread or even a chance to order. The lobster was delicious and the I really liked the beach house ambiance of the restaurant. For dessert I had the Creme Brulee Duo – Key lime and Coconut custard finished with caramelized sugar. The key lime one was very good, the coconut was so-so. Tal had the Gelato Sampler – chocolate, raspberry, pistachio and cappuccino. Which unlike the “gelato” from Mama Melrose was actually real gelato. Her favorite was the pistachio. We also had coffee (for me) and tea (for Tal), which they bring to the table in individual french presses. We both really enjoyed those.

Narcoossee's (at night from the dock)

After dinner we took the boat over to the Magic Kingdom for the evening. The next day was our last full day at WDW, we started with an early dinner at:

Boatwright’s

This was unfortunately the worst meal we had at Walt Disney World. The worst. Boatwright’s is the restaurant at the Port Orlean’s Riverside, the sister resort of the French Quarter where we were staying. When we made this reservation we had looked online and it seemed like a good place, we were excited to have some southern-style food since there aren’t many southern restaurants in Canada. We were let down.

The meal started with some corn bread. This was the high point of the entire meal. The corn bread was actually pretty good, deceptively good compared to the rest of the meal. We both had the Andouille-crusted Catfish – with cayenne butter sauce and chive aioli, and it was not good. It tasted extremely fishy, not in a good way. And I usually like catfish, but not this one. For dessert I had Pecan Pie, and it was dry and tasteless. Pecan pie is one of my favorite desserts and this was the worst pecan pie I’ve ever had. We will never be going back to Boatwright’s.

Thankfully our day didn’t end at Boatwright’s, we had reservations for something special later that night at the Magic Kingdom for the:

Tomorrowland Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party

This was without question the hardest reservation to get. At the Tomorrowland Terrace in the Magic Kingdom is a dessert buffet with a private viewing area for Wishes! the fireworks show. They have three tables set up with desserts and one table with various beverages. We got a reserved table complete with our name on it. There was a nice variety of desserts including fruit, cheesecake, tiramisu, cookies, cakes, mango shooters, and cannolis. What you are really paying for is reserved space for watching the fireworks. By going to the dessert party we got to sit and enjoy desserts before leisurely walking over to the railing to view the fireworks. Had we tried to seeing them outside of the dessert party we would had to start waiting at least a couple of hours for even a decent fireworks viewing spot. Totally worth it.

View from Tommorwland Terrace Dessert Party

We had so much fun at WDW (and Universal), we stayed ten nights and some ways it just wasn’t enough (although we were pretty tired at the end). We probably won’t be able to go back until at least a couple of years, but we will definitely be going back to Walt Disney World!

The next was our Disney’s Hollywood Studios day and we had lunch at:

Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano

We had the Fantasmic! Dining package which gave us reserved seating for a showing of Fantasmic! that evening. The cool thing about the Fantasmic! package was that it included an appetizer even though we were on the regular dining plan which normally does not include an appetizer. So Tal and I decided to start with Crispy Calamari for Two, this was the only time we intentionally ordered an appetizer, it was a huge serving of calamari and very tasty. For the main course I think I had:
Chicken Pipette Wood-grilled Chicken – over Pipette Pasta tossed with Artichokes, Peas, Roasted Peppers, and Sweet Onions in a Basil Four-Cheese Cream Sauce
I can’t remember for sure, even looking over online menus, but this sounds like what I remember eating. It was pasta in a cheese sauce with chicken, and was so-so. There was nothing at Mama Melrose’s that sounded really exciting to me, I only picked it so we could get the reserved Fantasmic! seating.

Pictures of "Celebrities" at Mama Melrose's that don't appear to have changed since 1989

For dessert I had Mama’s Tiramisu, and Tal had Gelato. Although the gelato was really just ice cream. Mama’s is not going to be on my must return to list unless it was for the Fantasmic! tickets, because it is totally worth it for those. Fantasmic! is an amazing show and a must-see at WDW.

The next we actual left Disney property, GASP! We headed to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure so we could check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Tal went a little Harry Potter crazy and picked up a ton of cool Ravenclaw merchandise while we were there. It was crazy busy at the WWoHP, but thankfully by some fluke of luck the tickets we had let us enter an hour earlier than the scheduled opening. So we got to enjoy the WWoHP before it go too crazy, including some tasting beverages:

Butter Beer

Butterbeer or Butter beer? Either way it tastes like a mixture of cream soda and butterscotch. We had the frozen butter beer because apparently it tastes better, and possibly because it’s hellishly hot in Florida. It was very refreshing, although maybe a little too sweet. Tal loved it so much she has even looked up recipes on how to make it at home.

 We didn’t eat at any sit-down restaurants at Universal, although there seemed to be a couple of interesting one, we just didn’t have the time. We were trying to get the highlights of two parks in one day. Maybe next time we will spend a couple of days at Universal and maybe eat at the Three Broomsticks. We were ready to head back to our hotel relatively early, so we called for our shuttle pick up and burdened with many souvenirs headed to the Universal City Walk and find something to eat. First we headed to the NASCAR Cafe, but I didn’t like the look of the menu. So we instead went to

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

I’m a big fan of the movie Forrest Gump (I saw it at least 4 times in theaters), so it’s surprising I had never been to a Bubba Gump restaurant before this. The restaurant is decorated with a ton of Forrest Gump stuff, including this:

"I musta drank me 15 Dr. Peppers"

Since we were at the shrimp company we pretty much had to order shrimp. So I had some grilled shrimp tacos and Tal had a Shrimp po’boy. To wash down our shrimp we needed something thirst quenching, and possibly coming in a souvenir glass. So we had some Louisiana lemonade in souvenir glasses.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. souvenir glass

And with that we concluded our Universal adventure and waited for the shuttle back to the Port Orleans. The next day we headed back to Epcot (there are a lot of cool restaurants in Epcot) for dinner at:

Rose & Crown Pub Dining Room

This was one of the better meals we had. I really like the England pavilion at Epcot overall, and was excited to eat at the pub. To start I ordered a Harp Lager in a souvenir glass. I had expectations of a glass like the ones we got at Bubba Gump the day before, so I was a little let-down when I received my beer in an over-sized plastic mug. It’s neat and all with a Union Jack and everything and I probably would have been thrilled had I not just gotten an awesome souvenir glass earlier. Oh well. For my entrée I selected:

• Surf and Turf – Grilled Steak and Fried Fish with Yorkshire Pudding, Irish Potato Gratin, seasonal Vegetables, and Shallot Gravy

Tal had the Fish & Chips if I recall correctly. The steak was good, the fish was really good, and the Yorkshire pudding was awesome. We both ordered the No Sugar Added Fruit Trifle for dessert. I wish I had gotten something else. After the heavy meal I wanted something lighter, but the Trifle was not a good idea. I think the no sugar part is what did it for me, I feel sorry for diabetics and anyone else that has no choice but to get the no sugar desserts.

That’s it for part two, it looks like this is going to be a three-part posting. For the final part of What I ate at Walt Disney World there will be TEA, LOBSTER, and DESSERTS! Stay Tuned!

In 2010 when Tal and I went to Walt Disney World we chose the Quick Service Dining plan. It gave each of us 2 snacks and 2 counter-service meals per day. With that plan we didn’t need to make any reservations, because we didn’t want to be tied to a schedule on our first visit. This time we knew there were a number of restaurants that we had seen last time and said we would like to eat at. So for this trip we had signed up for the Disney Dining Plan, giving us one table-service meal, one counter-service meal, and one snack per person per night booked. Anyway enough background, let’s talk about food!

Raglan Road Irish Pub

We went to Raglan for dinner the first full day we were in WDW. I had the Mighty Mixed Grill – lamb chop, Guinness banger, sirloin steak, black pudding, chicken drumstick and bacon. The variety is what drew me to this menu item, I love buffets not because I stuff myself (I really don’t) but to get the variety of food choices. Going in I was prepared to not eat the lamb chop, I’ve never had lamb that I liked. Until that night at Raglan Road. The lamb was  by far the best part of the meal! Next time I go Raglan Road I will be get the full order of lamb. FYI, I ate it all except one bite of the steak (including the black pudding). As for desert, Tal had Ger’s Bread & Butter Pudding (which is amazing), but my desert was not as memorable as the main course because I don’t remember what I had (even after looking at the menu).

Dining Room of Raglan Road

The next day (Sunday if it matters), we headed on over to the Grand Floridian for breakfast at

1900 Park Fare

Featuring characters from Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, & Winnie the Pooh. While there we were visited by Winnie the Pooh, Alice, and the Mad Hatter. Winnie the Pooh may have kissed my girl. I wanted to eat at 1900 Park Fare because I like buffets (variety) and I like breakfast. There are other breakfast buffets in WDW, including ones that would have been easier to get to from our hotel, but I wanted to go to 1900 for lobster eggs benedict. Unfortunately I was let down. They did have lobster eggs benedict, but they were dry and not very tasty. Compared to the breakfast buffets I’m used to when I visit Las Vegas, 1900 Park Fare is a bit of a disappointment. Still, we did meet some interesting characters.

Tiger's back at 1900 Park Fare

We ate so much for breakfast I don’t think we really had much else before we went to Epcot for dinner at:

Les Chefs de France

We didn’t take any pictures at Les Chefs, so if your skimming this just to look at the pictures you can move on to the next restaurant. Les Chefs de France is not surprisingly located in the World Showcase at Epcot. It looks a lot like restaurants found in Paris, complete with french waiters and waitress. We both had the Prix Fixe 3 Courses Menu for which I choose:

• Bisque de Homard – Lobster bisque, which you would expect a cup of soup for an appetizer, but not in America, you get a giant bowl of soup.
• Demi poulet fermier roti, pommes rissolees et tomate grillee – Half a roasted chicken, rissole potatoes, and grilled tomato. Another giant serving, I didn’t really need half a chicken after the giant bowl of bisque. It was decent enough chicken, but nothing to write home about. Realistically nothing to blog about either…
• Creme brulee – Standard creme brulee, but whoever caramelizes the tops needs some more practice.

We weren’t too impressed of Les Chefs, the atmosphere was neat but the food was so-so. It won’t be on our list of places to return to.

We returned to Epcot the next night, this time heading to Future World for dinner at:

Coral Reef Restaurant

This is one place I was really excited to visit. This is a restaurant inside the Seas pavilion, basically sitting inside the largest aquarium in the USA. It’s pretty cool seeing random fish and the occasional turtle swim by while you eat some fish.

View from our table at the Coral Reef Restaurant

We both had the Pan-seared Seasonal Catch, but I don’t remember what kind of fish it was. That’s not that I can’t remember now a month later, I couldn’t remember about ten minutes after we ordered. It was very tasty that mystery fish, very rich and yet light tasting. Although I don’t remember what it was called, I do have a picture!

Fish at the Coral Reef

We both agreed that it was one of the best meals we had the whole trip. For desert I had a key lime mousse that doesn’t appear to be listed on any menus I can find online. I do have a picture of it though:

Key Lime Mousse at the Coral Reef

It was surrounded by mango and little chocolate balls. I was pretty full after the fish, but I managed to finish it off. One bad thing about it for me is it made my tongue sting. I sometimes bite my tongue during the night, and this was a pretty acidic key lime mousse, and my tongue stung. But it was totally worth it.

That’s it for part one of this hopefully multiple part blog post. Coming in part two will be shrimp! beer! tea! and more! Stay tuned!

Hostess Strawberry Cup Cakes

Now that I look at the photo I’m doubting my ability to spell cupcakes. I’ve always thought it was “cupcakes”, but that box clearly shows “cup cakes”. No matter how you spell it the taste of these sucks. Hostess products never taste that great to begin with, I think it’s more the nostalgia factor that causes me to purchase them more than anything else. I had high hopes that strawberry cupcakes would taste ok, but they don’t. They smell very strongly of fake strawberry, almost like some horrible perfume. And I failed to taste even the smallest similarity to the strawberry flavor that Hostess used and a real strawberry.

Much more exciting is the fact that in 10 days Tal and I will be in Walt Disney World in Florida! We went there last year shortly after I had lung surgery and had a lot of fun. This time we will stay for longer and I won’t be still recovering and we will have even more fun. We’re even heading to Universal for one day to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Here are some photos from last year’s trip:

I’ll share some pictures from this years trip when we get back!

And I got a pretty sweet souvenir:

A Swiss Family Treehouse attraction poster with original leaf from the attraction all in a bamboo frame. The Swiss Family Robinson is one of my favorite movies, so of course the tree house would be one of my favorite Disneyland attractions, had they not replaced it with the lamer Tarzan Treehouse in 1999. Thankfully when they replaced it they kept some of the leaves so I can have a cool souvenir like this, and they left the Swiss Family Treehouse in Florida alone so I had a chance to see it back in May.

We flew out of Bellingham to Orlando (connecting in Seattle), and the Disney fun started once we found the Disney Magical Express. We got a little lost in the airport but eventually found the check in and got on the bus and on our way to the Pop Century Resort.

We had 7 nights there, and it didn’t seem like nearly enough. I wish we could have stayed for at least two weeks.

Some of the highlights of our trip included:

• Eating at the Sci-Fi Dine In. A really cool restaurant at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios where you eat in fake cars inside a fake drive-in, and they play movie trailers and cartoons from the 50s and 60s on the movie screen. We had Magical Star cocktails that had cool multi-color glowing ice cubes in them.
• MISSION: Space at Epcot. It is an amazing ride, you are in a giant centrifuge with control stick and a ton of buttons and switches right in front of you. Riding it is as close to actually going into space as I will ever get. The ride is so intense that two people have died on it.
• Royal Andapur Tea Company. Everyday was a really hot in Disney World, but most parks have a ton of shops and places with air conditioning, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is an exception. The first day that we spent there felt extrememly hot and we had a very relaxing break with some ice cold drinks from the Royal Andapur Tea Company. Tal had a frozen chai and I had a frozen strawberry drink, both of which were extremely refreshing.
• Wearing our Heart shirts while watching the fireworks in Epcot. For valentine’s day I bought Tal and I the 8-bit dynamic heart shirts at ThinkGeek. They are basically t-shirts with glowing hearts fully light up when in proximity with another of the shirt. We wore them one evening when we went to watch the Illuminations fireworks show at Epcot, and we must have been asked about the shirts at least a dozen times. They got us a lot of attention. I was more than happy to refer them to Thinkgeek to get their own. ThinkGeek has some of the best customer service of any company I’ve dealt with.
• Crazy thunder storms. While we were there we experienced some strange thunder storms, none of them lasted especially long or anything, but it was weird weather. Tal had packed her jacket-in-a-packet and it sure came in handy. One night just after we came back to our room it really started to just dump rain. Even though it would just pour rain for a while, it was so hot there that any evidence that it had rained would disappear within an hour.

One of the funny things that we came to realise is that we like Disneyland a whole lot more. It’s not that Disney World is bad or anything, it was awesome, but Disneyland is better. Especially food-wise, I definitely prefer to eat at places in Disneyland like the Carnation Cafe and Blue Bayou compared to the places we ate at in Disney World. Next Disney trip for us is definitely back to Disneyland.

But up next is a little road trip down to Seaside, OR.

Since I have the time, lately I have been baking my own bread. With my Costco American Express rebate I bought a bread machine:

Sunbeam Bread Machine

I got the bread machine around the middle of February and have already went through I large bag of flour making bread such as this:

Bread!

It tastes so good, much better than store bought bread! I also have made Apple Walnut Bread with apple juice and apple sauce in the recipe, it was also amazing tasting.

This was my lunch today:

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake from Trade Joes. Only $1.99! It’s hard to tell in the photo but it’s pretty big, big enough that you wouldn’t believe that it’s only $1.99. It tastes so good!

Let’s see what else. I also got a new bonsai tree a couple of months ago. I had one before but it died while I was staying at my Dad’s house after the car wreck. So Chantal and I found a new one at Safeway.

Bonsai!

Hopefully this one will live a while…

And what I’m looking forward to the most… Disney World!
Chantal and I will be spending 7 nights in sunny Orlando Florida at Disney’s POP Century Resort. We have been to Disneyland 3 times in the past 18 months and have had so much fun there, Disney World is like 10 times larger so we should have about 100 times more fun. We are even going to eat at Cinderella’s Royal Table inside the castle at the Magic Kingdom. I can’t wait!

I also used one of the fancy computerized art ordering kiosk deals at the Disney Gallery to order a print of the map of Disneyland in 1959, it should be arriving in the next week or so. I plan to get it framed and then hang it beautifully from my wall for all (at least Tal and I) to admire.

Chantal and I went to Disneyland October 10th to the 14th. I found an unbelievably cheap flight and hotel combo through expedia.ca and the holiday weekend was the perfect time to go. We did have to fly out of Seattle again to get the super-cheap price, but it was worth a two hour drive.

So Saturday morning we get up bright and early to make it to Seattle for our flight, a slight detour at the border later we make it to the airport. Now comes that catch to our super-cheap trip, our first flight is not to Anaheim and the home of Disneyland, it is to Salt Lake City and the home of the Tabernacle Choir. So we had a couple of hours to kill in Utah before we could continue on our way to the mecca that is Disneyland.

We finally get to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, CA. We say hello to the statue of the Duke, collect our bag (yes singular, if you have to pay to check your bags we are only checking one) catch the SuperShuttle and get to our hotel.

The Quality Inn & Suites on S. Manchester is sort of across the street and around the corner from Disneyland, about a 7 to 10 minute walk from the door of our room to the entrance of Disneyland proper. The room is small, but clean and relatively close to DL. Oh, and did I mention the only thing that mattered? Cheap.

Anxiously clutching our annual passports we make our way to Disneyland!

Hungry after a day of traveling the first thing on our minds is food. We decide to get some sandwichs from the River Belle Terrace. Tal had a tasty looking Roast Beef, and I had a tasty tasting Turkey. We rode some rides and when we got tired were about to head back to the hotel when someone offered us some FastPasses to Space Mountain. Now FastPasses are passes that let you skip a big chunk of the line on rides that offer them. Space Mountain is by far the most popular ride at DL right now. While we were there the lines regularly exceeded an hour in wait time. To increase the popularity even more this year is the first time they added a special Halloween modification. For the month of October it is called Space Mountain’s Ghost Galaxy, and there is a scary space ghost that chases you through the ride. To tell you how packed Space Mountain is, we only got to ride it about 4 times during our whole trip.

Sunday we went to Downtown Disney prior to our 6:30 reservation for Goofy’s Kitchen. I drove the miniature Jungle Cruise boats out by the Lost Bar at the Disneyland Hotel. Tal got a little tipsy on a Long Island Iced Tea at the Lost Bar, and then we went to eat. Goofy’s Kitchen is a buffet style restaurant where you pay before you eat. As we were about to pay this strange woman asked if we had paid yet, when I told her we hadn’t she gave us a voucher for a free meal saying “Grandma was a no-show”. So we got a voucher worth $40 free, essentially Goofy’s Kitchen was 2-for-1 for us that night. We ate a Goofy’s Kitchen in June and saw a bunch of characters, this time we didn’t see that many. We saw Jasmine, Goofy, Aladdin, and Chip or Dale (I can’t remember which). Only Jasmine and Goofy really visited our table for photo opportunities.

Monday morning we eat at the Carnation Cafe, my favorite restaurant in the parks. We both had Croissant Eggs Benedicts. In fact we like the Carnation Cafe so much we ate there again on Wednesday morning before we left. Monday night we sat on the cold hard pavement for almost two hours in order to see the special Halloween fireworks show, Halloween Screams! It was pretty cool, with lots of Nightmare Before Christmas stuff in it.

Tuesday night we ate at the Cafe Orleans. I had the gloriously deep-fried Monte Cristo sandwich, and for desert we shared some Mickey Mouse shaped beignets:

Mickey shaped beignets!

Mickey Mouse Pancake!

And speaking of Mouse shaped food, for breakfast on tuesday morning we split a Mickey Mouse pancake.

Sometime during all the madness that is Disneyland we managed to watch Fantasmic! Which is an awesome show put on in the Rivers of America and feature of a climax of a giant dragon setting the river on fire. A must see at DL.

Tuesday night it started to rain so hard that at some point it knocked the power out at our hotel. We woke up to a lot of water outside. After checking out and leaving our bags at the front desk we made our final journey back to the park. We had made plans to eat at the Carnation Cafe again, and rain be damned we were going to eat there. I being unadventurous had the croissant eggs benedict again, while Tal had:

Mickey Mouse Waffle

More Mickey shaped food! That’s a plan for future trip, eat nothing but mouse shaped food while at Disneyland. Considering the large number of options available, the plan is entirely possible.

We also got some cool souvenirs:

2009 Mug

Mickey and Minnie Bowls

2009 Magic Towels

I guess I should mention that all the 2009 merchandise went to 40% off while we were there… 

Overall, it was a lot of fun. I still want to go back again, we shall see.

Oh, and I almost forgot the cats we saw in Disneyland: