After our Dinoland photoshoot, we decided we wanted to sit down for a bit, so we headed over to check out Nomad Lounge, which we loved!
While we were sitting down, eating and resting, we checked the app and decided to check out a show we’d never watched before – The Finding Nemo show. We took our time at Nomad Lounge, and made our way over and made it into the show. We arrived about fifteen minutes before the show started, so obviously our seats weren’t the greatest – but we were inside and that’s all we cared about!
The show was really cute! Festival of the Lion King is still my favourite show at Animal Kingdom, but I can’t believe it took us until our third trip to actually go see Nemo – we’ll definitely go see this again (although that didn’t happen on trip #4 or trip #5….)
After the show let out, we still had quite a bit of time before the first showing of Rivers of Light (which we had managed to grab as a fourth fastpass after using up our initial three) – so we decided to put on even more steps and walk all the way back over to the other side of the park so we could hit up Starbucks. As I mentioned earlier, it was a really cold day, and apparently everyone wanted something hot to drink – it was a really long line. But, since we had nothing but time, we got into line and waited over 20 minutes before ordering a coffee for Luke, and a hot chocolate for me. We collected our drinks, and found a table in a quiet spot in Africa to just sit down and enjoy the warmth of our beverages. I love that Starbucks has special cups just for the Disney Parks <3
After warming up a bit, we once again headed back across the park to get into the amphitheater for Rivers of Light. It was our first time seeing the show, it didn’t even exist on our previous trip.
The show was…ok. It wasn’t terrible, but it was a bit boring – I was also tired from the crowds and being cold all day so my opinion isn’t always the best to go by. The show was visually beautiful though!
Since it was now dark outside, we decided we had to go see Pandora at night! It was just so cool! I love what they’ve done with that area so much.
At this point, it was time for us to leave the park. But of course we didn’t head to our hotel – instead we jumped on the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus and got off at Kidani House. We had a late dinner reservation at Saana <3.
We called an Uber after our meal, and headed to our third and final hotel of the trip, our home for the next 11 nights – Old Key West! We were tired, it was late and I did not take any pictures before we crashed for the night, but we were actually in the exact same building we’d been in the year before – Building 35 in the Turtle Pond section of the resort.
During our trip to WDW in January 2017, we ate at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ on our arrival night, and we both declared it as one of the best meals we’d ever ate. After Luke proposed and we started discussing the very real possibility of holding our wedding at Walt Disney World (and we had agreed that a Wishes Wedding – which includes a reception catered by Disney – was too far out of our budget), we decided we needed a reception venue. I almost immediately suggested Homecomin’, I remembered reading about another couple who had great things to say about hosting private functions there – and it didn’t take much convincing to get Luke on board!
The first thing we did to get the ball rolling was to go onto their website, http://www.homecominkitchen.com. At the bottom it mentioned Group Events, with an email to contact them for groups of 25 or more. At the time, we had no idea how many people we would have, but we used that anyways. We were also still a few months out from being able to lock in our date with Disney, but we wanted to see pricing so we could begin setting a budget.
I received an email back from Homecomin’ the next day – communication was excellent throughout the entire planning process for this! They sent us two options for menus – a $55/person one and $70/person one (this has since changed, and I’ve heard the cost is now dependent on the time of day you are holding your event). This is what the $55/person menu looked like:
The only difference between this one and the $70/person menu we were sent was the addition of one appetizer (three appetizers instead of two – which seemed like a lot of money for such a small difference).
We knew there would be more than enough food without the addition of another appetizer, so the $55 menu it was! I let my contact at Homecomin’ know our choices for dates for our wedding (first choice January 10th, second choice January 9th), and told her I would let her know as soon as I was able to confirm the date with Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings. Luckily, both of those dates were available at Homecomin’ – not a huge surprise since they were a Tuesday and Wednesday.
Once everything was confirmed, and we had our dates set, we set our menu and paid a 50% deposit. At the time, we still didn’t have final numbers, so we based it on 20 people total.
As our wedding day got closer and we had a better number, I contacted Homecomin’ again and updated our guest list to 21 adults, 1 child and 1 infant. We also added on one moonshine cocktail (or drink of choice) for everyone. Looking back now, I wish I had left off the drink for everyone, and just picked up the tab at the end of our reception- we had to pay $12/drink up front, but some people ordered $7 beer, some people didn’t drink at all, etc. Those who had more than one drink were brought a bill to pay the difference, and I really didn’t like that. The cost to add an open bar was insane, but I should have just had it all added to the bill Luke and I paid at the end of the night. They weren’t very clear on offering a bill on consumption bill – but that’s honestly my biggest complaint about the entire experience dealing with them.
Our guest list included 3 vegans and 1 vegan/gluten free – not the greatest food restriction when eating at Homecomin’. However, I contacted them and they sent me options. The day of the wedding I didn’t sit with any of the vegans so I didn’t see their food, but they told me it was delicious and they were all full. I believe they had a large salad specially made for them, and topped with a chopped up vegan patty – sorry I have no photos of it. They were also brought french fries I think? And possibly a few other things?
On the day of the wedding, we arrived a little bit early. They weren’t finished setting up, but they let me go out to the porch area since I had the centerpieces (I just never had time to drop them off in the days leading up to the wedding). Everyone was staring at me as I made my way through the restaurant in my wedding dress haha.
I handed over my little box that had the centerpieces, and they set them out for me. I kept it simple, and we used the bridesmaids paper bouquets to fill out the centerpieces. The rest of the sparkly things I had purchased from the Christmas section at Michael’s Craft Store, and the vases were plain ones that I wrapped a single strand of rhinestone ribbon around (you can kind of see the shimmer from the rhinestones towards the bottom). They fit our colourful, Up-theme perfectly, and they didn’t cost an arm and a leg. I can guarantee I’m the only one who even remembers what the centerpieces looked like that day – so save your money brides!
They also had an extra table for us to set up our guest book and Polaroid camera, and we set our Mickey balloons from our ceremony beside that. And yes – we had even bought Disney-themed Polaroid film!
We had the entire back part of the patio, with three tables to accommodate our guests. We also had two dedicated servers – they had no other tables in the restaurant and they were only there to assist the 20 of us – it was unbelievable service!
We all made our way to the tables, and shortly afterwards the food began to arrive! It was served family style, with a serving dish placed on each table.
First up was the Jasper Board – Assortment of pimento cheese, buttermilk crackers, smoked sausage, shaved ham, bread & butter pickles and candied pecans (and here’s a picture from my professional photographer of it – )
And here’s the picture I snapped of it quickly with my phone after it was already half-eaten –
This was slightly different than the description, as that stuff in the center was a fish dip, and I don’t remember any smoked sausage on there. I also didn’t eat much from here, I knew how many other delicious things were heading our way and I had to save room in my belly! I did try a small piece of ham and a candied pecan – and both were very tasty! I did find out afterwards that they would keep refilling this board as requested – the table that Luke’s family was sitting at went through three servings of pimento cheese haha – so it was clearly a big hit!
Our second choice for an appetizer was the Church Lady Deviled Eggs – Homecomin’ Kitchen style whole deviled eggs
These are always a hard pass for me, I don’t really like eggs at all. But Luke loves these, so this was a choice for him. Most people seemed to enjoy them though, and I don’t think there were any left by the end of the meal.
Next was the salad: Harvest Salad – mixed greens tossed with fire-roasted red peppers and corn, shredded white cheddar cheese, heirloom cherry tomatoes and house-made balsamic dressing. Topped with avocado and hushpuppy croutons.
I seem to remember this having more of a ranch-style dressing (like a house-made ice-box dressing) instead of balsamic – which would be much more up my alley. I ate a bit of this – I skipped the red peppers and tomatoes, but everything else was nice and fresh – and I always appreciate vegetables while at Disney since I never seem to eat enough of them!
On to the entrees! Three of the five offered involved seafood – which I don’t eat. So that made my decision easy – chicken (which was non-negotiable, it was always going to be part of our menu), and pork.
Art’s Fabulous Fried Chicken – buttermilk brined for 24 hours then perfectly fried and garnished with fresh herbs
Right after the main entrees were brought out, the chef in charge of our meal came out to introduce himself and to personally ask if everything tasted fine – again, the service we received here was spectacular! I mentioned that I wouldn’t mind a few more pieces of white meat chicken, and he went into the kitchen and came back with a full platter of it! Obviously, we couldn’t eat it all so they packed it up for me to take with me at the end of the night 🙂
Chopped Barbecue Pork – dressed with HFK sweet and spicy barbecue sauce
This doesn’t come close to the fried chicken, but it’s very tasty pork! It’s tender and the sauce is clearly house-made. I’m pretty sure the platter that was placed on our table was polished off by the time everyone finished eating. The pickles and coleslaw were nice little touches too!
We also selected three side dishes. The first one was a no-brainer: Cheddar Drop Biscuits
I LOVE these things – they are so amazing here. Every single time we come to this restaurant, I must have these biscuits! I don’t know what it is about them, but they are the best ones I’ve ever had.
Our other two picks were: Creamy Mashed Potatoes and Southern Style Green Beans
Pretty straight forward, but I do love my mashed potatoes! We chose the green beans because we felt we needed a vegetable – and collard greens are gross.
Since we only had two underage guests – one was my gluten free/vegan cousin and the other was our five month old niece, we decided to go for the Shine Cake – an adult only buttercake soaked with moonshine syrup. We figured they would just bring out a slice for each person – and they did. But, the head chef working that day didn’t realize we were a wedding reception until we arrived (he just knew he had to prepare for a private function) – so he took it upon himself to bake an entire Shine cake just for Luke and I so we had something to cut! We were not expecting this, and it was such a nice gesture! Plus, look at how gorgeous this thing is!
After having a small slice each, they brought out a box and packed up the rest of the cake for us to take with us – and yes it made it all the way back to Canada! We froze it, and ate it over a year later and it still tasted awesome!
Obviously, this wasn’t going to work for the gluten free and vegans in our group, so I had called ahead and ordered a cake from Erin Mckenna’s Bakery in Disney Springs. It was the smallest size they offered – 6″ I think? But it was so thick and huge! I prepaid the $55 (I think?), and my cousin picked it up and brought it with her to Homecomin’ – the servers there took it and cut it and plated it nicely, which I thought was a really nice touch. I didn’t even get a picture of it, and I can’t remember what kind I even ordered for them… but just know I didn’t forgot about them!
After everyone was completely stuffed, we took a bit of time for speeches from my Maid of Honour, my best friend Ashley, and Luke’s Best Woman, his sister Jill (with an adorable little poem by his youngest sister, Callie)
By this point, we had long overstayed our welcome, and we still had one more wedding day event to get to! So we settled up the remaining balance we owed, we told the servers to keep the centerpieces (minus the bouquets – they were actually so excited and one of the ladies immediately shoved one of the glittery fake flower-looking things into her hair), we grabbed our boxed up food leftovers and off we went!
It was seriously an amazing experience – one that took me an entire novel to write about haha. The level of service we received was top notch, and we felt that it was worth every penny we paid. Plus, it was a slightly unique wedding reception menu with incredible food – and no one left hungry!
I don’t have the exact total cost for this, but it was built into our wedding budget (not our food budget for the trip) and we felt the price was comparable to a wedding reception menu anywhere at about $100/person (and that’s after adding a drink, tax, service charge, gratuity, etc). We also left a huge tip, since we were so impressed and our dedicated servers were fantastic! If you ever find yourself needing to book a Disney Springs restaurant for a private function, I can’t recommend this enough!
After our Tree of Life photoshoot, we decided we could use something warm – so we headed over to Flame Tree BBQ. We made a new friend while we were sitting there – even though we refused to share our fries with him. Birds freak me out a bit, so this was terrifying to me haha –
After warming up with our coffee and hot chocolate, we made our way over to Africa for our third Fastpass of the day – Kilimanjaro Safaris! Enjoy my obligatory multitude of safari pictures – it’s basically a must-do in any trip report, right?
After our bumpy ride through Africa, we decided to check out the Gorilla Falls walking trail.
Luke is a big fan of the naked mole rats haha – mainly because of the clip from Brooklyn Nine-Nine posted below –
I really enjoy the walking trails at Animal Kingdom. It’s a great, leisurely way to see more animals up close. The park was also crazy busy – it was one of the busiest times of the year at Disney so it wasn’t a huge surprise to us – but the walking trail was a great way to get away from shoulder to shoulder people for a bit while checking out some more animals.
Earlier in the day, we had saw a Timon meet-and-greet but the line was really long. We had checked the times and knew he was currently on a break, but would be coming out soon so we headed over and got into the very short line. We didn’t have much of a wait at all before it was our turn. I love the joy on Luke’s face when he realized we were next (and also the point he realized the Photopass photographer was facing us – but he didn’t bother telling me to pose….)
We had nowhere in particular to be; we had already used our three Fastpasses for the day, and we had grabbed a fourth one for Rivers of Light for that night. So we began just wandering around the busy park, and stopping at any Photopass photographer we saw that didn’t have too long of a line.
I think Luke was trying to tickle me – and I was believe I was punching him. True love, am I right?
I’m including this one because it makes me laugh – I think the photopass photographer might need a bit more training since we were clearly standing still here hahaha
We eventually found ourselves in Dinoland, and found a Photopass photographer with more props!
We didn’t want to waste precious Christmas party time with a sit-down meal, so we took advantage of the fact that you can enter the park at 4pm with a Party ticket (even though the party itself doesn’t start until 7pm), and made a reservation for Skipper Canteen at 5pm. It gave us time to get a quick ride on the Jungle Cruise, fill our bellies and have the full five hours to enjoy MVMCP.
This was our first time at Skipper Canteen, and I was actually a little worried. I’m not always the most adventurous eater, but I was sure I’d be able to find something I’d like. We actually booked this fairly last minute – about a week before we left for our trip.
Our names were called, and we were led to our table. The host showing us to our table was fantastic, and so in character. They pointed out a few of their favourite parts of the restuarant – like that one over there, and that one right there haha. He then circled around our table three times before telling us it was our table – Luke and I love the terrible sense of humour from the Jungle Cruise, so we followed him, walking circles around the same table before sitting down. Why go to Disney if you’re not going to participate in the fun, am I right?!
We were in the middle of the main room, which is a fun, lively room. We could see the hosts and hostesses leading in the other guests, and the clueless looks on some people’s faces were great hahaha – they clearly had no idea the theme of the place.
We didn’t wait long before our server, Tyler, arrived. He was also full of terrible puns while he went over the menu with us. It’s not a huge menu, and it’s very straight forward – beverages, appetizers and entrees.
First up of course – the drinks! Even though this is one of the few locations in Magic Kingdom that offer alcohol, I just wasn’t feeling it and decided on one of the specialty non-alcoholic options. Behold, the Schweitzer Slush – frozen apple juice and passion fruit topped with bursting green apple boba balls, first concocted by the noted explorer and humanitarian, Dr. Albert Slush, $6.50. As seen in the picture, I was also crazy and ordered a glass of water – I was getting pretty wild tonight!
This was really good! It was very sweet, so you have to like sugar – luckily I’m all about my sweet drinks! My biggest complaint – those damn paper straws that turn soggy way too quickly. I might have used a spoon to scoop out a bunch of the boba balls, then drank the actual drink right from the glass….
Luke was feeling like a beer, and decided on a Blue Moon – $7.75
This was a beer he’s had before, it tastes like beer and he likes it. Not really a lot to say about it haha.
We decided to try one of the appetizers, and went for Orinoco Ida’s Cachapas – and you thought our jokes were corny! House made corn pancakes, mojo-braised pork, black bean salad and avocado cream – $11.
I wasn’t sure I’d like these at all – but there weren’t very many black beans on it so I was easily able to scrape those off along with the onions and tomatoes. The house-made corn pancakes were excellent, and the avocado cream was a nice, light accompaniment with each bite. The pork looks kind of dry and boring in the picture, but it was very good as well! I’ve been trying to push myself to at least try lots of different food lately, and I’m really glad I tried this – I liked it so much I insisted on ordering it again the next time we went to Skipper Canteen.
For my main entree, I did decide to keep it safe, and ordered the Hardy Har Char Siu Pork – char siu-marinated pork served with seasonal vegetables and jasmine rice – $24
Now that I’m looking at my pictures, I definitely did not get any seasonal vegetables, which is odd. I always feel like I could use more vegetables on every Disney trip, so that’s not something I would have asked them to leave off my plate. At the moment, I was hungry and very excited about Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, so I didn’t even notice to bring it up with our server.
As for the taste – this was fine. The pork was good, but honestly a bit too much sauce for my taste. The rice was also good – but it was just standard jasmine rice. The price is honestly quite outrageous for a dish like this (and I’m not usually one to complain about Disney pricing). But $24 for a scoop of rice and a few tiny little pork chops? Thank goodness we had a Tables in Wonderland card to ease the cost of that a little bit…
Luke made the better meal choice here, and went for the A Lot at Steak Salad – We’re betting it all on this one! Grilled steak, romaine lettuce, spring mix, pickled jalapenos, red onions, queso fresco and pumpkin seeds tossed in a chimichurri vinaigrette – $19
He ordered his steak medium or medium-well, and whichever one he chose he was happy with. I did steal some of the more well-done pieces and agreed that it was a delicious salad (minus the yucky jalapenos and onions haha).
Luke took a picture of me with my food – and my plate looks so sad an empty despite not having eaten a bite of it at this point….
We passed on dessert – nothing was really calling our name, and we knew we’d have a few cookies at MVMCP.
Our total bill came to $70.44 after applying our TIW card. We had already come out ahead on our Tables card on our wedding trip, so every little bit we saved on this trip was just a bonus!
Overall, we really enjoyed Skipper Canteen, and we did end up returning on our next Disney trip (May 2019). It is a place that we will absolutely return again on another future trip!
This place was on Luke’s list, so we found room to fit in a trip to their breakfast buffet (while also having a bit of a sleep-in day). We called an Uber to take us from Old Key West over to Fort Wilderness – and upon entering Fort Wilderness the Uber driver managed to get incredibly lost. After driving around the campground for about ten minutes, we found ourselves back at the main entrance – so we just hopped out and caught an internal bus to take us back to the Pioneer Hall area where the restaurant is located. It would have been much faster if we had just hopped out and done that as soon as we arrived – live and learn I guess.
We made it there for our 9:45am reservation and checked in. We only had to wait a few minutes before we were called and led to our table. Breakfast is a buffet, so after giving our waitress our drink orders (coffee for Luke, a Coke for me because #vacation), we headed up for our first tour of the buffet.
I wasn’t very hungry, so my plate looked a little boring – a warm pecan cinnamon roll that was covered in a buttery-syrupy-type sauce, tater tots, breakfast hash(hash browns and beef I think), biscuit and sausage gravy, grapes, strawberries and watermelon, a single random piece of deli meat I guess? and a mini corn muffin.
I was also clearly really lazy this morning, and didn’t take a single picture of the buffet or even the restaurant itself…
My food was fine. It was mainly standard breakfast fare on the buffet – which is definitely not my thing. I don’t really like eggs, or bacon, and I’d be happy with something small like a cookie to hold me over until lunch. But, Luke loves breakfast, and since I loved him enough to marry him, I suffer through breakfast just for him.
Luke’s first plate – deli meat, sausage, cheesy eggs, pulled pork, tater tots, bacon, smoked salmon and a hard boiled egg.
Luke also hit up the “Create-your-own yogurt parfait”, and got a bowl of plain yogurt and topped it with chocolate chips, craisins, coconut and walnuts.
Luke was very impressed by the size of the selection on the buffet here, and he really liked his food.
I did go back up for a second plate – more tater tots and breakfast potatoes, a biscuit with gravy and another amazing corn muffin (if you’ve ever been to Hoop dee doo, this is the same cornbread!), and I also grabbed some more fruit. Very boring, but as you can see I like bread products and potatoes haha.
Luke also went up to have a second plate, but I didn’t actually take a picture of it – I was really failing at blogging on this day….
This place is actually one of the best values on property – at this point, it was only $22 per person for breakfast. I’m sure we will make the trip back over there again at some point on a future trip – maybe to try out their supper buffet…
Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150 Break Even Point Before this meal: $97.58 Savings this Meal: $8.80 Total Until Breaking Even: $88.78
Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip) Estimated Cost of this meal: $42.60 Actual Cost: $37.49 Over/Under: Under by $5.11 Remaining: $2011.46
A restaurant that had been on my radar for awhile was Liberty Tree Tavern, and we finally found space to fit it into our schedule. It was very busy when we checked in, so we went outside and watched the Muppet show around the corner. Eventually, our names were called – but it was over half an hour past our reservation time. This seems to be a somewhat common occurrence at this restaurant – I don’t know if they overbook it, or don’t book the tables for a long enough period of time – but it’s a little thing I find very annoying. If I show up 15 minutes late to a reservation, Disney can cancel it and charge me a no-show fee, but it’s ok for them to keep me waiting 30-60 minutes past my reservation time?
Anyways, enough complaining. I hadn’t really ate up to that point in the day, so I think I was just a bit hangry haha. We were led to our table – a four-top in the first room on the right hand side. I know they’ve named each room after different presidents, but I can’t remember now what the name of our room was – not that it makes your experience any different.
Since we had a four-top for just the two of us, Frederick the AT-AT even got his own chair. Hey – if I was going to lug this thing around all day, I was going to make it worthwhile with pictures of him!
Once seated, the meal moved quickly. Our server came to take our drink orders – a Coke for me (included in the cost of the meal), and a Press Pot Coffee for Luke, $8.
Our basket of rolls appeared quickly, and they were delicious (all white bread is delicious to me). They were slightly warm, and the butter was really nice and soft and easy to spread.
Our salad arrived next: Declaration Salad – tossed mixed greens with house-made dressing. I never feel like I eat enough vegetables at Disney, so it’s always nice when it’s included with my meal! Luke and I polished this off no problem – he got to eat all those yucky onions sitting on top haha.
Before too long, our server arrived with the Patriot’s Platter – roast turkey breast, pot roast, oven roasted pork, mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, herb stuffing and house-made mac and cheese. They also bring you a gravy boat to pour over your food, and a side of cranberry sauce.
I’m not sure why they bother saying “seasonal vegetables” – it’s Disney, so they always just serve green beans…
This was all so good! I still don’t understand the love affair with Mac and cheese – I always try a bite of it when it’s offered, but I rarely go back for a second bite. I guess it’s just not my thing. The meat was great though, as were the mashed potatoes and stuffing. The green beans were pretty standard Disney beans, but we still ate them. We were clearly hungry, and actually managed to put an impressive dent into the platters of food!
As much as we stuffed ourselves – we did remember to leave room for dessert – the famous Oooey Gooey Toffee Cake – vanilla cake with gooey toffee filling, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream.
While we were eating, I was texting my Dad and sending him pictures of our meal. He was actually at the airport on a layover, heading towards Orlando that night!
This was so good, definitely worth all the hype! We returned here for another meal on a trip after this, and the presentation of the dessert had changed, and they only gave a tiny little piece of the Oooey Gooey Toffee Cake (along with two other options) – but they were more than happy to bring us a more sizeable piece when asked. This dessert is almost worth the entire meal to me, it’s one of my favourite sweet things I’ve ate at Disney!
Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150 Break Even Point Before this meal: $77.92 Savings this Meal: $15.60 Total Until Breaking Even: $62.32
Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip) Estimated Cost of this meal: $74.55 Actual Cost: $66.46 Over/Under: Under by $8.09 Remaining: $1494.74
Crew’s Cup Lounge, located directly beside Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club had been on our list of places we wanted to try, and we decided to finally make it happen.
We arrived just after 4:40pm (it opens at 4:30) and we had no trouble finding a table. The server immediately brought us over menus and a bowl of… snacks? I don’t actually know what to call these, but they were delicious! They were basically fancier bar nuts – I ate them, loved them, but couldn’t actually name what anything was beside peanuts – corn nuts maybe? Other…nuts? (we’ve been back to Crew’s Cup since this, and this was never an option again sadly)
I wasn’t feeling like alcohol, so I ordered a Watermelon Lemonade – Odwalla lemonade and watermelon topped with lemon-lime foam, $4.79
This is available at most table service locations on property, and it’s really good! I love sweet drinks, and this fits that description. I’ve had it multiple times since then, and it’s been good every time.
Luke ordered the Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea – Bacardi Superior Rum, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Hendrick’s Gin, Corazón Blanco Tequila, Cointreau, and Sweet-and-Sour with a splash of Coca-Cola $11.50
Neither one of us remember anything about it, so it clearly wasn’t very special, but Luke did finish it…
Luke immediately knew what he wanted, the item he had come for – the Crew Burger – cheddar cheese, bacon, regatta sauce, shoe string onions on house-made toasted bun served with french fries, $18
The lettuce and tomato came served on the side, so you could add them to the burger yourself (which Luke did). Here’s a picture of it all loaded up –
(Also, Luke apparently got a glass of water at some point).
Luke LOVED this burger, and declared it the best burger he’d ever eaten on Disney property (as of that point, he’s had a few since then that have edged above it).
I couldn’t decide what I wanted to eat, and I felt like being a little piggy – so I ordered two things off the menu. Item #1 was the Yachtsman Signature Bread – sourdough, pull-apart onion rolls, roasted garlic and salted butter, $7
These are the same rolls they serve next door at Yachtsman Steakhouse for free, but we didn’t have any plans to eat there on this trip and I really wanted to try them after hearing great things. I don’t like onions, but I’m ok with onion-flavouring, toasted onions, etc (it’s the texture of a raw/cooked onion that throws me off). These pull-apart rolls were amazing! Especially if you smeared it with a bit of that roasted garlic, which was as soft and spreadable as the salted butter beside it. I love sourdough, and this stuff was good – it just paled in comparison to the onion rolls.
My attention was also drawn to the Baked Cheese Dip – manchego and parmesan, house chorizo, peppers, artichoke hearts, pretzel bread, $13, so I ordered that as my second item.
This was rich! Really great flavours, but I couldn’t even half of it – it’s a lot of cheese, and I do try to watch my dairy intake. The pretzel bread was great, it was served warm and was the perfect density to rip pieces off for dipping into the cheese. I did pack this up to go, and ate it for bed lunch one night in our hotel room!
This lounge does not offer Annual Passholder discounts, but they do accept Tables in Wonderland.
Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150 Break Even Point Before this meal: $88.78 Savings this Meal: $10.86 Total Until Breaking Even: $77.92
Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip) Estimated Cost of this meal: $73.49 Actual Cost: $46.26 Over/Under: Under by $27.23 Remaining: $1965.20
We arrived early at the Contemporary for Highway in the Sky, so we decided to check out the hotel for a bit. We knew we’d have plenty to eat during Highway, but we were feeling a bit hungry and decided to check out Contempo Cafe. This quick service location is located on the fourth floor of the Contemporary Resort, adjacent to Chef Mickey’s. As you sit and eat, you can watch the monorail come through the building which is quite entertaining. This quick service can get a little loud, since Chef Mickey’s is a lively character buffet, but the noise isn’t a huge deal to us.
We decided to just share something, and ordered the Meat Flatbread – Italian sausage, pepperoni and Nueske’s bacon topped with mozzarella, $11.49 (on the current menu, it no longer lists this as a flatbread, I believe they might now be using regular pizza crust).
This was good! The crust was nice and crispy, there was lots of cheese and it really hit the spot! I’ve obviously had better pizzas, but for a quick serve location – I’d order this again. Now I’m craving pizza…
For drinks, I had a bottle of Coke, $2.99, and Luke had a Schofferhoffer Grapefruit beer, $9. This is the same beer they sell in the German Pavilion at Epcot, and it’s very light – even I’m ok with the taste of it, and I hate beer!
We also decided we each needed dessert, everything looked so good in the display case!
Luke, to no surprise, went for the Peanut Butter Pie, $4.79.
He loved this! He’s talked about it more than once since this trip, but for some reason we didn’t make it back here on our next two trips after this one so he could have another one… This thing was huge, and filled with a peanut butter mousse-custard stuff. I’ve seen this described before as peanut butter cookie dough, and that’s actually a great description of it! It’s inside a crispy tart, drizzled with chocolate and topped with chocolate bits and crunchy balls. This is probably Luke’s favourite Disney quick service dessert.
The item that caught my eye was the Smores Brownie, $4.29
This was another huge dessert, with a chocolate brown base (shaped like Mickey, how cute!), topped with chocolate icing (almost fudge-like in its consistency), marshmallows, graham crumbs and drizzled with more chocolate. This was a chocolate lover’s paradise! I really enjoyed this!
Our total was $34.68 after tax – no discounts were accepted here unfortunately.
Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip) Estimated Cost of this meal: $26.61 (Capt’ Cooks breakfast) + $41.81 (Pecos Bills lunch) = $68.42 Actual Cost: $34.68 Over/Under: Under by $33.74 Remaining: $1910.33
We had read that there was a special Minnie’s Garden Party event in the Odyssey building just for the weekend (May 2-6, 2019), featuring a specialty dessert, free celebrations pins, a meet and greet with Minnie and a flower wall for selfies. The building typically sells Flower & Garden festival merchandise along with a few food offerings for the festival.
We decided to check it out, and received the free celebration pins as we entered. It was really quiet when we were in there, and there wasn’t a single person in the food line so bought one of the special desserts being offered for four days only (none of the regular food offerings in here interested us). Look at how gorgeous this is (and how cute the free pins were)!
Just because it’s the prettiest dessert ever, here’s another picture of it:
This was sold as Minnie’s Garden Party Dessert – $7 according to the sign, with no description provided. The bottom layer was a carrot cake base topped with cheesecake and the dome on top was filled with whipped cream. The flowers, dome, bow and ears were all made with white chocolate, and the ears were topped with sugar crystals. This isn’t the best picture, but here’s what it looked like inside:
The dome housing the whipped cream was quite hard and difficult to break through, so we just tipped it over and scooped the whipped cream out. Neither one of us really care for white chocolate, so we didn’t eat many of the decorations past a little nibble (the sunflower, ears, etc.). But the flavours of cheesecake and carrot cake worked so well together! I wish this was served as a dessert all the time somewhere on property, I’d be all over that – and I don’t need all the frilly details that make this so pretty! Just give me a straight piece of carrot cake topped with classic cheesecake and I’d be very happy!
I’m definitely glad we tried this, it was exactly the sweetness we were craving by this point of the day. It wasn’t huge, but it was a good sharing size since we didn’t want to ruin our supper.
I knew I would be purchasing a refillable popcorn bucket for the trip, and we’d always been intrigued by the variety of flavours available at Epcot so when we felt peckish around 11am we headed over. This particular popcorn cart is located close to Journey into Imagination with Figment, and had the option of three different kinds – Sour Cream & Chive, Buffalo Bleu Cheese and Cheddar.
I wasn’t overly excited about any of the current specialty popcorn buckets, and decided I’d be fine with one of the regular refillable ones (and I wasn’t fussy about the colour – whatever one they gave me was perfectly fine). The refillable buckets cost $10, but they allow you to get refills for only $2 – a regular popcorn costs $5, so if you plan on purchasing popcorn at least three times on your trip you will save money!
We had walked over with the intention of getting the Buffalo Bleu Cheese popcorn, but we changed our minds at the last minute and opted for the Sour Cream & Chive instead. And it was so good! I would definitely pick up this flavour again! We split this, and didn’t even finish it all. The best part about these refillable buckets is the lid – we were able to snap the lid on, and finish it later in the day!
