Marci Darling

I have a confession:  I used to feel like I HAD to eat at least one table service (or sit down) meal a day while at Disney World.  I don’t know why but I honestly felt like the quick service (or fast food) meals just weren’t that good.  I knew that there were a lot more options in Walt Disney World than burgers and fries, but I still never put it in to practice.  Not to mention I’m a bit of a foodie so I definitely enjoyed sitting down at a table and having more a more “fine dining” experience.  Fast forward to my trip 3 weeks ago with my sister-in-law:   We were on the quick service dining plan meaning we each got 2 quick service meals a day and one snack (plus our refillable mug at our resort).  Would I survive this trip without a single table service meal?!  Could I do it??  Turns out I could do it AND enjoy it!  Here’s what I ate during my 3-1/2 day trip:

Friday lunch:  Roast Beef and Blue cheese sandwich at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Grill.  This sandwich was HUGE!  I ate it all but only cause I was starving since I flew in that morning and hadn’t eaten much all day.  It also came with chips which were good (they tasted homemade and they were those kettle style chips!) but I couldn’t eat many of them since the sandwich was so big.  It also came with a large soda fountain drink.  All in all, a pretty tasty lunch!

roast beef and blue. yum!

Friday dinner:  Burger (plain! I’ll explain later) with fries from the Art of Animation food court.  We met with some friends (hey Laura and Vince from www.mouseventures.net ) to eat dinner and explore the new resort.  I decided to eat something not too crazy since I was running my 5k the next morning so I opted for a burger and fries.  I ordered from one person and said I’d have the “build your own burger” and told them what I wanted on it.  Then there was another person later asking some people want they wanted on theirs.  I guess somewhere along the way things got mixed up cause I ended up with a plain burger with only cheese on it.  Oh well, I ate it anyway even though I would have liked some tomato and lettuce and pickles!  BTW, the fries were really great!  They were seasoned with something and I ate quite a few of those which is saying a lot because I’m not a big french fry person.  If the burger would have been done the way it was supposed to this meal would have been pretty good.

my burger is on the top right of the picture.. the sandwich (chicken sandwich I believe) on the bottom left was my sister-in-law’s sandwich and her mickey cupcake.

Saturday lunch:  BBQ sandwich at Pecos Bill Tall Tales in the Magic Kingdom.  I had tried this sandwich once before and loved it so much I had to get it again.  I raved about it to my sister-in-law who also got one and she agreed with me, it was tasty!  The bbq pork sandwich is a little sweet and they have just the right amount of sauce on the meat.. not so sloppy that you’re getting it all over the place but good enough that it’s flavorful.  It’s served on a regular bun and I got it with apple slices.  It also came with a dessert.  I ordered the carrot cake, which I usually love, but I have to admit the carrot cake here fell flat.  The frosting was too sweet and  you felt like you could almost crunch the sugar granules in it.  I skipped the dessert.  On a scale of 1 to 10 I’d give this meal a 7, and that’s mostly because I didn’t enjoy the dessert.

sorry there is a bite in the sandwich here.. I guess I couldn’t wait to eat it.  BTW, this is a pic from my February 2012 trip to WDW since I forgot to take one on my most recent trip.

Saturday dinner:  We ventured to Downtown Disney to eat at Earl of Sandwich this evening.  I had a club sandwich which was EXCELLENT and also huge.  It had been a while since I ate at the Earl (yeah, I call him Earl, we’re tight like that) and I forgotten how good these sandwiches were.  Honestly, while we were waiting in line I was thinking “hmm, it’s just a sandwich, it’s not going to be THAT good”.  Well, it was.  Like slap your mamma good.  That’s why there is always a long line here, but trust me, get in it.  Just wait in line for that sandwich.  The anticipation only makes it that much better.  Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of this sandwich. boo.

Sunday lunch:  France Pavilion in World Showcase.  I had heard the ham and cheese croissant sandwich here was excellent, and frankly, I love anything that has to do with a croissant.  We ventured into the Patisserie, which was surprisingly not very crowded, and ordered our sandwich which also came with a drink and dessert.  I ordered a cream puff and my sister-in-law got the Napoleon.  Let me warn you:  If you get food from this bakery and sit outside at a little table while eating be prepared for some stares.  Everyone who was leaving the France movie was looking at our food as they walked by… and with good reason, it was outstanding.

croissants on the left of the picture… cream puff on the right.. and a napoleon at the top middle of the pic.

cream puffs! I love how light these are and they aren’t too sweet.

Sunday dinner:  Casey’s on Main street, hotdogs.  We were at the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and realized we hadn’t eaten dinner so we hoofed it over to Casey’s simply because it was the closet place to us and the day before I had smelled the sauerkraut in there and thought it smelled divine.  I’ve never eaten a hot dog with sauerkraut mind you but on this night I got to take a bit of my sister-in-law’s dog with kraut and boy was it yummy!  I think I’m going to start eating my hot dogs that way.  With the dining plan we were allowed one hot dog, one order of fries, a drink, and a dessert.  I ate my dog (with mustard and relish – how I usually like it), had a couple of fries, and for dessert they had some unique offerings:  cracker jacks or cotton candy.  I got the cotton candy but ended up giving it away to a family next to me since I didn’t really want dessert anyway.  Yes, you can get a hot dog anywhere but there’s nothing like a hot dog on main street!  I also didn’t get a picture of this, bummer.

Monday lunch:  Our final meal of the trip!  We were back in Epcot so we went to the Norway bakery Kringla and had the best meal ever!  I had a ham and apple sandwich  with Jarlsberg and Muenster cheese which again was enormous and I was allowed a dessert, which I of course had to get my favorite, school bread!  It’s almost like a roll (not very sweet) filled with custard (yum!) then topped with custard and some coconut flakes on top!  I seriously have to get a school bread on every trip to Walt Disney World.  The sandwich was really tasty and made right when I ordered it.  I actually ate half of it then boxed up the other half to go and ate it on my flight back to New York!  It was nice having a little taste of Disney of my flight back.  Honestly, I hate to say it, but I think I prefer the Norway bakery to the French bakery… but just by this much (I’m holding up my fingers right now… and trust me, it’s  a TINY little distance!).

Ham and Apple Sandwich with Jarlsberg and Muenster cheese – $6.99 for this HUGE sandwich!

school bread – my favorite snack of all time at Walt Disney World!

So all in all I realized that you can not only have decent food on the quick service dining plan at Disney World, but you can have really delicious food at that… and think of all the time you are saving by eating shorter meals!  That gives you more time to ride rides, go shopping, go swimming, or go back to your room for a nap!  I might even consider doing the quick service dining plan in the future with my family, especially since I have a young child now and who knows how picky of an eater he will be when we go back.

So now I’ll ask you.. what’s your favorite quick service restaurant at Walt Disney World?  Is there someplace I missed that I must see?