Dining Venues, Reviews and Cost Comparison:
As frequent readers of the Restaurant and Dining forum already know, I’m militantly anti-DDP when it comes to my family, simply because it would be so much more expensive than paying out of pocket. I’ve often championed the distripplanner.com tool as a gauge for whether the DDP is a money-saver for any particular family, and in our case, after running the numbers, its estimates for our trip ended up being within $80 of our final total, over 7 days of dining for four people! Not too shabby.
*Note: I did not take photos of our food. I have included some representative photos from online below, only where I felt they accurately represented exactly what we were served and/or the setting where we ate.
FWIW, here’s a taste (if you will) of where we ate and how we liked it:
In-Room Breakfasts (Amazon Prime Now delivery)
We tried out Amazon Prime Now for all of our in-room breakfast foods (3 bags of bagels, 3 cream cheeses, a bunch of bananas, a 3-lb. bag of apples, a box of coffee filter packs, flavored creamer, a gallon of milk, an economy-size box of cereal, a case of bottled water, and a bag of tortillas – more on those later) and it was pretty seamless. I placed the order while on the DME bus, it was delivered that afternoon to Bell Services (who kept our refrigerated items cold for us), and we picked it up that evening when we came back to the resort.
Other than the fact that the Bell Services attendant accidentally gave us 2 bags of food that belonged to other people (we realized it midway to the room and DH returned them), it was a really convenient way to have everything we needed without having to pay inflated resort prices. We spent a total of $45 ($35 for the order - the minimum for free delivery, $5 tip to the Amazon Prime driver and $5 tip to Bell Services), and it was well worth it, adding up to little more than we’d have paid at our local supermarket for the same items.
(*Note: We did not include any alcohol in our Amazon Prime Now order. FWIW, had we done so, we would have had to meet the delivery driver to present our I.D. and Bell Services couldn't have accepted the order in our stead. If you want to order alcohol and still have Bell Services take delivery, you'll have to do it through Instacart or another grocery provider that can verify your age online.)
Day 1 – Lunch at Sanaa (Table Service, AKL, Kidani Village)
After unpacking and freshening up in our room at Jambo House, we strolled over to Kidani Village for an eagerly-awaited lunch at Sanaa, and proceeded down the stairs from the gorgeous lobby to the restaurant.
After that, things got a little weird. There was a family who’d apparently shelled out big bucks for a VIP tour, accompanied by a plaid-bedecked CM with a giant binder full of their personalized itinerary, and a bloomin’
camera crew comprised of an antsy cameraman-with-giant-movie-camera, a big portable stage light, and a towering-dude-with-boom-mic documenting their every move. They were blocking the entire front desk and entryway to the restaurant, with the plaid CM literally boxing out anyone who tried to approach. The two Sanaa CMs who otherwise would have been manning the check-in desk had been pressed into service to offer a drum lesson to the family’s son, who was an adorable lad of about 8. He was very polite and soft-spoken, but unfortunately was stricken with a profound lack of musical ability. We could only hover at the foot of the stairs (with other would-be lunch-goers awkwardly backing up on the stairs behind us) and watch helplessly as our reservation time came and went, and the two CMs tried patiently for what seemed like an eternity to teach the rhythm-challenged child to tap out the simplest of beats on a drum, over and over, around
six thousand times. He never got it. (I’m pretty sure that having to listen to this drum-based version of water torture would have violated the Geneva Convention, had we not technically been free to leave.)
Because it was all being recorded, we felt like we couldn’t or shouldn’t try to speak to anyone to ask how we were supposed to check in for our ADR, so we engaged in a ridiculous series of pantomimes to shush our kids, who were understandably curious and frustrated as to why this family was being permitted to hold everything up, and why they couldn’t play the drums, too. In fact, they’d picked up the drum rhythm and hand positioning the very first time around, and were happy to start demonstrating their newfound knowledge on the walls, floor and steps! (One of the many things I never thought I’d have to whisper-hiss to my children at Disney: “You stop drumming on those stairs right now! You’re going to make the rich kid feel bad!”)
After the live performance of “Stomp (but in Hell)!” ended and the VIPs and their entourage departed, we had a really lovely lunch at Sanaa with a view of some friendly giraffes and birds. This quiet respite was just what we needed after a 4am wake-up and a long flight. The bread service was tons of fun for my condiment-loving family, with each person waxing rhapsodic about their favorites. For entrees, I had the Tandoori Shrimp, which was generously-portioned and wonderfully refreshing, topped with a cold salad of greens and tomatoes tossed in a sweet and flavorful dressing. DH had the sausage sandwich and the children enjoyed the fish of the day, and berry smoothies. It was a lunch well worth waiting for, even if we had to endure a little auditory Purgatory to get in.
View attachment 452070
(Sanaa bread service, which included 5 pieces of naan, all different, and 9 condiments. Photo from Yelp.)
Day 1 – Dinner at Yak & Yeti (Animal Kingdom)
Our arrival day was President’s Day, but we still took a chance on going ADR-less for dinner, and relying on our Landry’s Select Club card (with includes priority seating, with no need for a reservation) to get us into Yak & Yeti whenever we felt like eating. As on previous occasions, it worked like a charm, and we were seated within 5 minutes.
(As a side observation, school vacation week or no, we’ve
never had such prompt restaurant seatings as we enjoyed on this trip. We never waited more than a few minutes past our ADR time anywhere, even when we made special table requests. It was a refreshing change from past experiences. Maybe because there was no big dining plan discount offer during our dates?)
DH and I shared a platter of Bibimbap and the Ahi Tuna Nachos (always the star of the show), washed down with Yak Attack frozen cocktails, and the kids had virgin Daquiris, a cheeseburger for DD, and the Plum BBQ Duck for DS, who was feeling adventurous. While it was a new thing for him, his verdict was that he absolutely
loves duck! And Plum BBQ sauce!
Ahi Tuna Nachos from Yak & Yeti (photo from Yelp).
Day 2 – Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ (CS, Animal Kingdom)
We returned to the Animal Kingdom for the first half of the day, with lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. The kids found a perfect table in a pavilion by the water’s edge, looking across to Mt. Everest. (Sadly, every other table by the water’s edge was occupied by single people or couples who simply stared at their phones, laptops and tablets the entire time. I wanted to call out to them, a la Mrs. Incredible, “This [gorgeous view], this is what’s happening
now! And you are
missing this!!!”) I had the chicken ‘n rib combo – it was just okay: the chicken was perfect, but the ribs were dry and chewy. I thought the baked beans (were those chilies in there?) were particularly good, and of course, the setting could not have been lovelier.
(Photo by WDW Fan Zone.)
Day 2 – Dinner at San Angel Inn (Table Service, Epcot)
We’d never eaten in the Mexico pavilion before, but DH was particularly charmed by the location and wanted to try it out. We asked for a table by the water and indicated our willingness to wait, but no sooner did the CM take down my phone number for a “table ready” text, than the text arrived, and we were led to a table along the water with a dead-center view of the Mayan pyramid!
DH and I had Blood Orange Margaritas as we nibbled on the complimentary chips and salsa. DH couldn’t stop raving about how much he loved that rich, vinegar-y salsa – to the point where he was Googling copycat recipes by the end of the meal. He had the chicken mole, which tasted delicious although the chicken was dry, and I had the shrimp-stuffed chili relleno, which I thoroughly enjoyed, although given the price point, I was surprised it didn’t come with any sort of side item. The kids had pork tacos, which they liked. Our table location was so perfect, with the boats floating by in the perpetual twilight, that we probably would have enjoyed eating shoe leather in that setting, so the fact that the food was decent was just a delightful bonus.
Photo from WDWMagic.com (ahem, this very site).
Day 3 – Lunch at Via Napoli (Table Service, Epcot)
This was the best of times, and the worst of times. The worst was sitting down with the intention of ordering salad and delicious pizza (our favorite is the San Genarro, a mouth-wateringly good white pizza with mozzarella, sausage, peppers, onions and tomatoes), for little more than the cost of a CS meal, and hearing the kids (11 and 13, meaning they were ordering from the adult menu) both say, “I really don’t feel like pizza, but I’m REALLY hungry. Can I please get the [$25] spaghetti and meatballs?” I said okay – by the time they asked, I was halfway through a red wine flight and feeling pretty chill – but I was horrified when our meals arrived and the kids received only tiny oval salad-sized plates containing about 1 cup of pasta and 3 meatballs each. We expect high prices at Disney, but the portion sizes are generally very good, so this just
felt wrong.
The kids gobbled it up in about 2 minutes (supplementing their meager portions with some of our pizza, which they suddenly wanted very much) and their dishes had been cleared by the time our waiter brought our check, which charged us the full $25 for each spaghetti plate. Although I felt absurd doing it, I got out my phone and Googled the spaghetti dish they’d ordered. Sure enough, the photos of that dish on Via Napoli’s Yelp review page showed pasta portions about 3-4 times the size of what had come to our table, buried in meatballs and served in big, round, full-sized entrée dishes.
I asked our waiter about it, explaining that the kids had received spaghetti on salad plates with 3 meatballs each (I should add that other CMs delivered the food and cleared the dishes, so our waiter never got to see what we were served), and he immediately recoiled, exclaiming in horror in his beautiful Italian accent, “What!??! Just THREE meatballs!!! THREE!??! NO!!! That is NOT RIGHT!” He grabbed the check, holding it in front of him with the tips of two fingers as though thoroughly disgusted by it, and ran off. (Cultural lesson for the day: in Italy, serving an insufficient number of meatballs is outrageous and shameful.) He consulted with the kitchen, confirmed that there’d been a mistake and that they’d sent out kids’ spaghetti portions instead of adult ones, and corrected the check to reflect kids’ meal pricing. Our bill went down by almost $30 (the best of times!) and all was well.
(What the kids ordered, vs. what they were served -- photos from Yelp.)
As an aside, if there’s anything I’ve learned about Disney dining (because I’ve made this mistake before, more than once), it’s that if there’s anything wrong, you should speak up politely and promptly. Don’t let some controllable factor (a bad table location, an inedible piece of meat, a mistake in your order) ruin your meal without giving your server a chance to fix it. I came so close to not saying anything about the kids’ portion sizes, and if I hadn’t – and had just Googled later and realized there’d been a mistake and that we’d paid triple-price for kid-sized entrees – I’d still be stewing about it and would probably never want to go back to Via Napoli. Instead, I can simply applaud our waiter’s swift remedy (FWIW, we still tipped him as though we’d paid for 4 adult meals, since it wasn’t his fault that the kitchen sent out 2 kids’ portions) and look forward to going back there sometime.
(Photo from Disney World website.)
Day 3 – Dinner at Pecos Bill (CS, Magic Kingdom)
Even though Pecos Bill now charges $2 for guacamole that it used to offer for “free” as part of the toppings bar (which is probably all my fault, as I used to eat my weight in it whenever we went there – sorry, everybody!), it’s still our favorite CS anywhere on Disney property. The portions are big and the toppings bar allows great flexibility in crafting your Tex-Mex masterpiece. (Again, we are all about the condiments!)
While the kids love the tacos and loaded nachos, DH and I typically split a Fajita Platter, and although we’re not light eaters, we’re never able to finish it between the two of us. (Confession: Last time we split the fajita platter 2+ years ago, I asked for extra tortillas and was charged over $7 for 3 of them -- today, it's probably gone up by a dollar or two, like everything else on the menu. So this time around, I brought 3 of my own tortillas, rolled up in a sandwich bag inside my waist pack, looking like the world’s dorkiest cheapskate, at a cost of about 30 cents. Please don’t judge!) Although we’d initially planned to get some churros for dessert, we were so stuffed that nobody had room, so we waddled happily on out into the sunset.
Day 4 – Lunch at Blizzard Beach (CS)
I had some tasty (if messy) cold shrimp lettuce wraps and DS got a turkey leg the size of his head from the Warming Hut, while the rest of the family had some pretty un-memorable hot dogs and fries. Nothing to see here, although we otherwise had a really, really fun morning doing the water slides and sloooooooow lazy river.
Day 4 – Dinner at Tiffins (Table Service, Animal Kingdom)
Our final evening at the Animal Kingdom had a bit of an inclusivity theme. It began with a Fastpass ride on Flight of Passage during which a teenaged girl next to us was constantly shrieking snatches of song lyrics and repetitive phrases including, “CHICKEN AND BISCUITS!!!” at the top of her lungs throughout the entire queue, preshow and ride itself (all of which was really a good exercise for my children in practicing compassion and tolerance – the girl’s agitation at her involuntary outbursts, and her family’s embarrassment, were painfully palpable, and I was endlessly grateful that my kids stayed quiet, didn’t stare, and saved their questions for later).
After that, DH and I parted ways with the kids for an hour and had a romantic dinner at Tiffins, seated in a Gallery Room (the one with the power line art) next to a family whose disabled adult son had a tic that caused him to – abruptly, and at random intervals -- shoot out his arm sideways in a punching motion, with his fist passing within inches of my face. Thanks to the glass of wine I’d had at Nomad Lounge while we waited to be seated, I felt remarkably unfazed by this, and we had a relaxing and toothsome meal despite the flying fists. We started with the cheese plate (very good) and charred octopus appetizer (FANTASTIC and probably the best thing I ate the whole week). DH had butter chicken and I had shrimp-and-grits for entrees, both of which were also delicious and surprisingly filling. Sadly, there was no room for dessert!
(Photo from DisneyFoodBlog)
Day 5 – Lunch at Jungle Navigation Skipper Canteen (Table Service, Magic Kingdom)
This was my chosen birthday meal (by coincidence, I turned 44 on this trip – school break birthdays do have their advantages!), and unfortunately, we had the only surly server we saw all week (George, per the receipt). He made a couple of half-hearted skipper jokes at the outset and we were happy to play along, but then he just seemed to give up, and was brusque and borderline rude for the rest of the meal. At one point, he noticed my birthday button and said, "Oh, Happy birthday,
Princess!" in a tone that sounded unabashedly mocking for no apparent reason.
My daughter (age 11) had asked when we checked in for copies of both the adult and children’s menus, with an eye toward seeing if she could order a kid item in an adult portion (she was in a mac-n-cheese mood). However, before we could even attempt to place our entree orders, George looked directly at her and sneered, “By the way, I can tell just by
looking that you’re not a child, so you should know
right now that if you
try to order something off of that other menu, I’m going to charge you more.” While he was absolutely right that that’s what one does when an “adult” orders a child item, his approach was ham-fisted and inappropriate. He all but accused us of trying to cheat the system and lie about our daughter's age, without giving us a chance to demonstrate that that wasn't our intention at all. Second, his comment that he could “tell just by looking” that our 11-year-old daughter was over age 9 was accompanied by a look that swept her up and down, seemingly judging her age by the fact that she is visibly “developed.” Not cool, George. Not cool.
On the food front, our meals (Shu Mai dumpling appetizer, steak salad, two seafood stews, the adult-portion mac & cheese with broccoli, a couple of Schweizer slushes, tea, coffee and desserts, including the Kungaloosh chocolate one and the coconut cake) were much enjoyed. I did find my seafood stew to be incredibly bland, but I can’t fault the restaurant as its preparation was totally consistent with the menu description, and it's not Skipper Canteen's fault that I like everything to be spicy. And speaking of spicy, we decided to just ignore George’s nasty attitude, in hopes that maybe he was just having a bad day.
Seafood Stew (photo from Tripadvisor).
Day 5 – Dinner at The Mara (CS, Animal Kindgom Lodge, Jambo House)
Our original intent had been to spend the whole day at the Magic Kingdom, but this particular day (2/21) saw unseasonably cold weather and high winds, against which our jeans and hoodies and even our cold-acclimated Upstate NY constitutions weren’t doing much. We’d already done every “indoor” attraction and DH was starting to come down with what would later be diagnosed as bronchitis, so after lunch we decided to return to the hotel to unwind and warm up. We visited the Mara and ordered a falafel platter (it was just okay - the falafel was way overcooked), a couple of burgers (tasted like burgers) and a tamarind pork sandwich (unexpectedly awesome, with huge quantities of melt-in-your-mouth pork in a delectable sweet-and-spicy sauce), which we packaged up to bring back to the room. The Mara had a whole table of take-out boxes and little sauce cups arranged for this purpose near the seating/condiment area, which was super-convenient!
The only downside of the Mara? You have to go outdoors to get there, as the only entrance faces the pool, so we had to do a dash through the inclement weather both ways. No biggie, but it seemed like an odd design choice, given that it’s the only CS at either of the AKL resorts: access from the front and inside of Jambo House (rather than just from the pool area at the rear) would have made infinitely more sense, especially for anyone coming over from Kidani.
Day 6 – Lunch at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater (Table Service, Hollywood Studios)
We had some of the fastest, best service ever at Sci-Fi this time around, so much so that we only saw the movie clip loop once through! The kids loved their milkshakes and chicken tenders, DH had a burger piled high with delectable toppings, and I had a really good, hugely-portioned Buffalo chicken salad (with bleu cheese substituted for the ranch it otherwise comes with -- we're purists when it comes to Buffalo chicken). The setting is just so cool and fun and immersive, it’s hard not to like Sci-Fi, even if the lighting is so low (per theme) that you can’t always see what you’re eating.
Day 6 – Dinner at T-REX (Table Service, Disney Springs)
We had nothing planned for this evening, no decent Fastpasses were available anywhere and nobody was interested in doing anything in particular. So with an adventurous, devil-may-care sense of exhilaration, we set out for Disney Springs. (I later learned that DH had an ulterior motive: he was on the hunt for a Tiki Room Christmas ornament. He did not know if such a thing even existed, but by golly, he earnestly wanted one. Thankfully, it does exist, and we found it!)
By the time we arrived we realized we had a little bit of a problem: most of the CS places had outdoor seating, and the evening was getting uncomfortably chilly. It was a Saturday night, so naturally no TS places (looking on the MDE app or on OpenTable) had any dinner reservations left before 8:30pm or later, and we were getting hungry!
So, it was our Landry’s Select Club card to the rescue! We headed to T-REX and despite the 2-hour wait that the party ahead of us was quoted and a queue that extended from the gift shop to the other end of the walkway outside, thanks to priority seating we were led to a table in less than 10 minutes. I had the Firecracker Shrimp as my meal (they are addictive, and served on a bed of shredded lettuce so I can pretend I’m having a salad and being good, LOL!), my son had Fish ‘n Chips, DH had loaded nachos, and I can’t remember what DD had, only that she liked it.
Our server was fantastic, and as usual when we go in with a Landry’s card, the manager came to our table to personally thank us for coming and ask how our meal was. What really impresses me about this little ritual is that they run our Landry’s card first thing to check and see if we have any rewards benefits to apply to the meal, and by doing so, they can see that we don’t dine at their restaurants frequently and aren’t big spenders. Nonetheless, they still treat us like valued VIP customers every time, and act grateful to have us. It’s just superb customer service.
Day 6 Bonus – Drinks at Victoria Falls Lounge (Lounge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Jambo)
As bedtime neared, DH and I went down to Victoria Falls Lounge for a couple of cocktails and some Goat Cheese Dip with Bread and Crackers. We arrived just before the kitchen closed at 9:30pm, after which the small plates are no longer available, and it was fortunate that we made it in time, as that goat cheese dip was just to die for! While the lounge is pretty noisy thanks to the waterfall, lobby noise, Boma noise, and some drum-playing that was going on below (probably the CMs from Day 1 still trying to teach that poor kid how to bang a drum), it wasn’t crowded, and the service was relaxing and unhurried. We had a lovely time re-capping our trip and making plans for our departure the next morning.
Goat cheese dip from Victoria Falls Lounge (photo from Pinterest).
Day 7 – Lunch at ABC Commissary (CS, Hollywood Studios)
This was our last day in the parks and our final meal at Disney. After completing our final Fastpass at HS, we had planned to have lunch at Docking Bay 7. We walked in and stared at the menu for about 5 minutes, as it slowly dawned on us that although we loved the theming, there just wasn’t a single thing on that menu that sounded good to any of us at that moment. So instead, we headed to ABC Commissary – never impressive, but never terrible, either, and the menu has enough variety that everybody could find something that appealed to them. We had very passable sandwiches and salads: in fact, my Mediterranean chicken salad was surprisingly good, with far more generous amounts of Feta cheese, olives and hummus – you know, the “good stuff” – than I expected. Thanks to the fact that my birthday button was still pinned to my bag (I’d last worn it a couple of days before, on my birthday proper), a kindly CM not only wished me “Happy Birthday,” but gave me a free cupcake! It was the first and only “freebie” I received, and like all free treats, it tasted like manna from heaven.
Dining Postmortem and DDP Analysis:
We ate where we wanted, when we wanted, and enjoyed whatever snacks and beverages we felt like.
We had:
(1) 7 Table Service meals for 4, including entrees and fountain drinks along with some appetizers, desserts, alcohol and specialty beverages (e.g., milkshakes, slushes);
(2) 1 Signature TS for 2, with entrees and appetizers;
(3) 5 CS meals for 4, with entrees and beverages;
(4) 1 CS meal for 2, with entrees and specialty beverages;
(5) 2 Lounge visits with drinks and/or apps for 2, and
(6) 15 snacks.
Our total Disney food expenditure for these items, over a 6 night/7 day stay (and including tips), was
$1,504.
Given that using the DDP for the same food would have cost us
$2,245 ($1,872 DDP cost + $225 in non-covered TS meals + $80 in Lounge charges + $68 in non-DDP-covered appetizers), and would have resulted in our “wasting” 2 CS credits and 9 snack credits as well as 4 refillable mugs we wouldn't have used,
we saved over $721, or a whopping 33%, by paying out-of-pocket instead of using the DDP. (In fact, we saved even more than that, as my DDP total doesn't include TS tips -- I just got tired of doing the math!) We also didn't have to worry about the DDP "rules," and at least half of the time at TS restaurants, one or more of us would order a non-DDP-covered item as their meal. (*Note: In the interest of full disclosure, we also saved a modest amount off of our restaurant bills by using our Disney VISA card for 10% off at Sanaa, Tiffins and Skipper Canteen, and by applying a $25 Landry’s birthday reward at Yak & Yeti.)
Obviously, YMMV, but in my family’s case, paying for the DDP would have been an enormous waste of money, and the four of us were able to eat like kings – kings with an affinity for cream cheese-stuffed pretzels, seafood and booze! -- for an average of $215/day.
