2016 is coming to a close and now it’s time to look forward to what the new year has in store for us. To help make sure we make all our Disney dreams come true, we’ve come up with some Disney resolutions we hope to keep in 2017! Listen in and see if you want to make some Disney resolutions of your own!
Happy listening!
This new restaurant located at Disney Springs in The Landing area is a clear winner. It is open, spacious, bright, and really has the feeling of comfort. It felt so homey and cozy, but also fresh and new. The décor is beautiful and it is so cool to look into the open kitchen. The chairs were very comfortable and felt plush while looking casual at the same time. You could easily dress up for a night out on the town with drinks or wear your shorts and sneakers while taking a break from the parks.
We had a party of 4 for lunch and we all thought the Church Lady Deviled Eggs sounded good. It is 6 full sized eggs so it is easy to share with a larger group. You may be thinking, really deviled eggs? But I assure you these were so, so delicious! The flavoring was just right and the eggs tasted so fresh! These were a winner all around at our table!
My choice for entrée was the Fried Chicken Sandwich. This is a buttermilk-brined for 24 hours and double battered chicken topped with hot sauce, aioli, lettuce, and bread and butter pickles. This was really good! I think the toasted bun just brought it all together so well. It was fresh and filling without weighing you down for a busy day. For a small upcharge I changed the homemade chips for the Iron Skillet Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Cane Sugar, and I must say it was a great choice! These sweet potatoes were just awesome! They are swimming in butter and sugar so don’t think they are a healthy option but get them anyway you will enjoy them!
JAMIE: One of my favorite meals of the entire trip. A+++! I had the same chicken sandwich as Jillian and it was something really special. The long process that goes into making this chicken really does show in every bite. I had the french fries with it and everything came out piping hot and perfectly prepared. I’ll definitely be returning, ASAP.
TARA: LOVED IT! I really enjoyed this lunch and I was excited to try it. I had heard mostly great reviews but was a tad concerned. I had read a few from Southerners that they may fall short on a few items being truly Southern cooking. I definitely did not find this to be the truth – but in fairness I avoided the item that seems to get the bad reviews (green beans). Instead, I had the Chicken Salad and it came with a house dressing that was a mix of ranch and vinaigrette. The dressing was wonderful and very tangy. The salad was fresh and a favorite salad that I get often so I was curious how it stacked up and it came out on top. And just to add to the glowing review of the deviled eggs – they are a must now every time I visit. I am not a huge deviled egg fan but these were definitely special!
CHRIS:For lunch I had the HFK Barbecue Bun sandwich. This was their chopped pork with sweet and spicy barbecue sauce, topped with southern slaw and served on a brioche bun. The pork was perfect, seasoned and cooked just right and served with their sweet and spicy barbecue sauce (which in hind site I wish I asked for an additional side of barbecue it was that good!). In lieu of chips I ordered an additional side of their southern slaw, which lived up to its southern name! Portions were a perfect size for lunch!
The service was great, our waitress was quick to refill our glasses before they were empty, but never hovering around. She was helpful and able to answer all our questions about the menu as well as suggest food choices for us.
This is definitely a great family restaurant or for a night out. The kids menu is small but you could always go with a couple of the sides for kids also. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough and you HAVE to get the deviled eggs!
Ever since I heard of it’s opening in late 2015 I have been dying to get to Disney Springs’ The Ganachery. This is more than just a chocolate shop, it’s a decadent chocolate experience. The Ganachery is a small shop, but packed full of awesome. As soon as you enter you are able to see the chocolatiers creating magic in the kitchen through a giant show window, working on each of the 16 flavors offered here.
Experienced employees wait behind the counter to help you narrow down your choices in chocolate. I decided to go with a box of 6 of the ganache collection, for a cost of $15. There are also boxes of nine for $21, boxes of twelve for $27, boxes of sixteen for $36 or individual pieces of ganache for $3 each. When I was there a few of the chocolate choices were: Chipotle Pepper, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Cinnamon Apple, Egyptian Sea Salt, Caramel, Passion Fruit, Raspberry, Gianduja (hazlenut), Milk Chocolate, Coconut, Vanilla, Peanut Butter and 65% Dark.
Each bite of chocolate was more amazing than the last, but I think my favorite was the Egyptian sea salt! I can’t wait to go back to the Ganachery and try more flavors.
Have you been to The Ganachery? What did you try and what did you think? We’d love to hear!
Our listeners must have been really good this year because we’ve got an amazing gift for you! This week, we talked to RJ and Suzanne Ogren, a wonderful couple who used to work as Cast Members at Walt Disney World! RJ was an artist that worked on such classic attractions as Peter Pan’s Flight and The Haunted Mansion, while Suzanne was friends with many characters but mostly Sleepy the Dwarf! They have some incredible stories to tell about their time working at Magic Kingdom and you don’t want to miss it!
After you’ve heard their stories here, there are lots of places for you to find these amazing people and learn more about their lives at Disney – I highly recommend their book, “Together In The Dream”, available at Amazon.com.
You can find more of RJ’s artwork at his website, RJOgren.com
Check out his awesome Facebook site:
RJ Ogren and Disney –
https://www.facebook.com/groups/654133961404374/
The Haunted Mansion and Beyond with RJ Ogren –
https://www.facebook.com/groups/681479622001556/
Twitter – Randy Jack Ogren @DisneyRJogren
Happy listening!
Rogue One is the name of the new Star Wars movie and if you did not know that you may want to stop reading this review. Now, if you remember (or if you don’t click HERE for my last Star Wars movie review), I am not the biggest Star Wars fan in the world or even amongst us Dole Whippie ladies; but, I will put my husband up against anyone to claim he is the biggest fan. With that said, I was up and seeing the movie at 9:30am in the morning. This is not a great movie time because no one is awake, no one wants popcorn, and no one (or really I) want to be there. But, I was there, and I was exhausted from the night before being my birthday “party”. Yes, we went to Star Wars on my birthday weekend. It is not enough to be blessed with a birthday a week before Christmas…nope, Star Wars decided to thwart all plans for my birthday and open that weekend. So, here is what I thought:
It was a great story and had a good cast, decent plot, great music and the end was spine tingling (even for me). I am not going to spoil it but pretty darn cool Disney. If you are not a Star Wars groupie it is hard to follow who everyone is and who they become and what planets are good and bad. But, you can still enjoy the film. The middle gets long (for a non-fan) and you really do not have to watch it to get what happens and can take a 20 minute snooze. I may have. No comment.
The Star Wars music in the film was awesome – you knew it was Star Wars and they teased you a few times that you were going to get the full on version but nope and that was okay because I loved what they did with the new music.
The end was awesome in every way, but there was one part of the end I had issues with…I would tell you but I would get in trouble with the spoiler people.
OH WELL _ STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT A SPOILER:
I did not love that Jyn and Cassian died at the end. This is a Disney movie – they needed to live happily ever after. I mean come on – was the force not strong enough with them?
I loved the little cameos of CP3P0 and R2D2 and man I love me some Princess Leia buns. That was so cool.
Go see this movie. I may watch Episode 4 not to see what happens next…until next time: I am one with the force and the force is strong with me.
On our November Dole Whipped trip, we had one of our dinners at Sanaa. Three quarters of us hadn’t tried it before so we wanted to give it a shot. Sanaa is an Indian and African style restaurant located at Animal Kingdom Lodge in the Kidani Village section. It’s a beautiful restaurant and has some nice views of the Sunset Savanna.
Bread Service – First things first, if you don’t get the bread service, you are really missing out! Unless you have some kind of dietary restriction that doesn’t allow you to eat bread, you NEED this appetizer course. There are two versions of this, each comes with five different times of naan and you can either get your choice of three dipping sauces or the full nine sauce variety. We chose the full nine. Your five naan flavors are: Traditional Naan, Garlic-Ginger Naan, Spiced Naan, Onion Kucha, and Paneer Paratha. The nine dipping sauces are: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, Mango Chutney, Tomato-Date Jam, Tamarind Chutney, Coriander Chutney, Garlic Pickle, Red Chile Sambal, or Spicy Jalapeño-Lime Pickle. At $15 for the nine sauce service, it really is a great deal. We all loved it!
Shannon: For my entree, I got the Potjie Inspired platter with Cilantro-coconut milk seasoned vegetables, and Braised Beef. Each platter comes with Basmati rice. This was excellent! The beef was so tender and flavorful. The vegetables in the coconut milk were delicious. I had never really tried Indian food before so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect and I have to say, Sanaa will be a must do for me on future Disney vacations.
Jamie: Sanaa is amazing!! The bread service was one of the best things I’ve eaten at Disney ever, really. And such a great value too! I tried every single one of the sauces. Like Shannon said, you can choose a smaller platter for the bread service with fewer sauces but I’d really consider going all out for this one. I don’t think there was a single sauce I didn’t enjoy. For dinner I had the butter chicken, the same cilantro coconut veggies as Shannon and rice. The butter chicken was truly phenomenal. I know it’s not very adventurous in terms of Indian food but it was really just so yummy.
Jillian: I ordered the Traditional Sosatie. This was a lamb skewer with apricots, cashew and goat cheese. I really really loved this. This meat was tender and the flavors were a great compliment to each other. I did not leave here hungry either! The bread service was also amazing! You will not want to miss out on ordering that with your meal. I’m so glad we decided to go here because usually I’m all about trying new places, however this is just too good to not go to!
Tara: Sanaa is one of my overall favorite places to eat at Disney. It used to be my hidden gem but definitely it is getting more well known. I love everything there from the location, to service to food. The bread service is my favorite thing and I could definitely make a meal out of just that. Though why when I want the braised beef and paneer tikka just as much! Paneer tikka is like a tomato soup with cheese and is so comforting and warm. The braised beef is so good if I could only eat one thing the rest of my life it might be Sanaa’s braised beef (I say might only because I haven’t tried everything on their menu yet). I give them an A+++.
For our November Dole Whippies girl trip kickoff we started with dinner at one of the newer Disney Springs restaurants. We’d heard a little of the buzz of Morimoto (including from Tara, who’d been lucky enough to try it this past summer!) but were excited to try it ourselves. Morimoto is Japanese master chef Masaharu Morimoto’s first pan-Asian (Japanese, Chinese and Korean) cuisine restaurant featuring open kitchens and 20 foot chandeliers in the 2 story dining room. From the menu you can choose from sushi, dim sum, different meats, noodles/rice, and vegetables. For dinner we each got something of our own, and a few things to share. Here’s our take on the food from Morimoto!
Jamie: I ordered the Kanikama Rangoon- krab meat and cream cheese spring roll, apricot sweet chili sauce. These were like crab rangoon but in a spring roll. They were really good, but the sauce was even better! I could have eaten that sauce on everything. I also shared the Pad Thai (sweet tamarind sauce, stir-fried flat rice noodles, egg, bean sprout, scallion, fried tofu, pickled turnip) with Shannon and it was pretty good. The tofu in it was much better than I expected it to be! Overall I thought the meal was great, and a very good way to kick off our trip!
Jillian: I started with the chicken dumplings, something I will usually order at Chinese restaurants and there were great! Better than your average, but not out of this world. I also had the spicy tuna sushi roll. This was really good! My only wish it that I had ordered two! These are easy to share or have as an appetizer! I really enjoyed this meal! It is a great addition to Disney Springs.
Shannon: I ordered the vegetable Pad Thai. It was delicious! Not the best Pad Thai, I’ve had, but very very good. I am not a fan of tofu in general, but as Jamie said, the tofu in this dish was very enjoyable.
I had wanted an order of egg rolls for an appetizer, but sadly, they were all out for the day. Our server said they make the egg rolls fresh in house and they only make a certain amount per day.
Overall, I thought this restaurant was pretty good. Maybe a bit on the expensive side and not necessarily somewhere I would take my passel of kids, but a good date night place.
Tara: Morimoto is a good option for Disney Springs. This was my second visit there in the past few months and both times found it good. I will say this trip the food was yummy and I enjoyed the food more this visit but the service could have been better. I think this was a one server issue though and not a restaurant issue. I was disappointed they were out of all egg rolls (I mean this is an Asian restaurant in the US – I would think egg rolls would be a staple!) I did have yummy sesame balls though and lived them. I give it overall a solid B.
Touring a Disney park can make you very hungry so we’re talking about all the quick service options you can find at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Listen in and see if we mention any of your favorites and maybe some you haven’t tried yet!
Happy listening!
One of the must try restaurants for me this trip was Columbia Harbor House! I am a huge fan of seafood and this is the go to place in the Magic Kingdom for that. This quick service location is in Liberty Square, just look for the cast member ringing a bell.
I mentioned seafood but that is not the only thing on the menu, there are salads, chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, and soups.
For lunch I was torn between two options, luckily Jamie felt the same way and we agreed to split the two. The first one was the Lobster Roll with potato chips this was a hearty serving with lots of lobster and not a lot of filler. The roll it came on was so soft and delicious as well. I give this one thumbs up! The other choice was the Anchors Aweigh Sandwich with chips. This was a tuna sandwich with lettuce and tomato on a toasted multigrain bread. This was even better than the lobster roll. I really really loved this. The tuna was very plentiful and the bread made the sandwich even better. I give this one 2 thumbs up and I would get it again! 
Jamie: I was so happy Jillian wanted to split our options for lunch, too! I couldn’t decide and really wanted both, but obviously didn’t want to eat both. I’d previously had the lobster roll so I knew it was good, but I really enjoyed the tuna sandwich, maybe even more so than the lobster. Plus the house chips are really delicious! Both of these options are miles above the “typical” counter service restaurants most people think of. While I enjoy a good burger and fries at Disney, having options like these at Columbia Harbor House really make even quick dining at Disney really enjoyable.
Tara: I had the chicken pot pie with steamed broccoli and since I thought that was super healthy I splurged and had the blackberry cobbler for dessert. The chicken pot pie and broccoli were really good and filling. I could not even finish the pot pie because I needed to save room for the cobbler which was a huge hit. The cobbler was topped with a vanilla cream that was perfect and made it worth the broccoli side at lunch. I definitely recommend visiting Columbia Harbor House!
Shannon: I had the chicken and fish plate. The fish was very good and cooked perfectly. The outside is crispy and light and the fish inside was very tender. The chicken nuggets are the same chicken nuggets you find in other areas of the parks and they are very good for what they are. The fries are basically the same as what you’d find anywhere else in the parks and that’s fine with me because I love them. I was not very crazy about the cole slaw that was included, but it wasn’t bad. I’m just picky about my slaw. Overall, I really enjoyed this meal.
This is a popular place so go early or a little later in order to avoid a long wait time or lack of seating. The food is very fresh and filling and you can find something for even the pickiest eaters. Put Columbia Harbor House on your short list of quick service locations to try!
As we mentioned in earlier shows, our very own Jillian ran a runDisney race a few weeks ago. We’re back this week to give you the lowdown on how a runDisney event works and how you can participate in one yourself!
Happy listening!
Dole Whipped 