Posts Tagged ‘Planet Hollywood’
The plan for the day was to relax at Stormalong Bay for the morning, have a late lunch at Planet Hollywood and then head over to the Magic Kingdom for evening EMH and stay till park closing at 1am (not as cool as the 3am closing times last year…..) and if there was time run over to MK before 5pm to get to the barber shop for Jason’s annual Disney haircut.
Jon & Jason ran down to the Marketplace to get breakfast; they had been looking forward to the yogurt parfaits. Well, FYI the marketplace at BC is no longer serving breakfast. That’s right, all CS breakfast is now available (only available) at Beaches & Cream. I mention this mainly because I found it to be inconvenient for DVC guests, not a huge deal but….. The boys were very happy with their yogurt parfaits; lot’s of large blueberries, strawberries, raspberries & granola. They brought an omelet w/ biscuit and bacon meal for me. It was allright, nothing to right home about but it was fine.
Megan and Jon went to play tennis (tennis courts are located on the Yacht Club side of the resort). Eventually Jason & I went down to Stormalong Bay. On our way, we passed Jon & Megan; they were headed back to the room and said they’d meet us at the pool after going to the fitness center. They wanted to workout, I wanted to float around and have little drinks with umbrellas; we all got what we wanted 
It was so nice by the pool, that we didn’t want to leave. We decided to put off our ADR at Planet Hollywood and try to get in later. Then we spent more time at the pool. Jason went on the slide more times than I can count, participated in some of the poolside activities and checked out every part of the pool. Jon & I spent our time reading, drinking and floating on noodles in the lazy river. Meg floated, read and went back to the villa for a nap.
Around 3 we went back to the villa to get ready for our evening activites. This of course is Florida in July so we were waiting for the rain to start and hoping to make it to PH before the storms hit. It looked like we were going to make it, but then we got on a bus with the slowest driver ever! It was fine at the Marketplace DTD bus stop but by the time we got to the Westside DTD stop, the skies opened up and the monsoon began. On several previous trips to PH we’ve gotten drenched trying to make it from the bus stop and then we freeze in the restaurant. Not happening this time! We stood under the cover at the bus stop, until we finally got a break in the storm. When we finally made it to PH we were seated immediately on level 3 (even without an ADR). Meg had snacked at the pool and wasn’t really hungry yet, so we decided to share 3 entrees between us. Jon & Jason both had the LA Lasagna and I got the Crab Cake. The LA Lasagna was delicious as always, and the crab cakes were pretty good. Between the 4 of us we almost finish all of it, of course we were saving room for dessert. Planet Hollywood has some of our very favorite desserts (all serve 2 people). Jon and Jason had their usual, the Banana Split Creme Brulee. It’s exactly what the name says, a creme brulee topped with a banana split. They ate every last bite! Megan & I prefer the Ghiradeli Brownie Sundae. Huge rich brownie, topped with chocolate & vanilla icecream, hot fudge & caramel (YUM!) tons of whipped cream, milk & white chocolate shavings and of course a cherry. YUMMY!
We took a little stroll around DTD to walk off some of dinner. Stopped at Magic Masters (magic shop) watched them perform for a bit. If you get the chance, stop in; these guys are really good and it’s great entertainment for free. Ok, free until you decide you need to buy a magic trick– I strongly recommend buying the tricks while you’re there or at least early enough before Christmas that you don’t have to pay overnight shipping costs.
Eventually we made it to Magic. We grabbed a time sheet on our way in and saw that the Enchanted Tiki Room only had 1 more show for the night, so when we got to the hub we turned left. It’s silly & corny but fun! Then we went to see the new Hall of Presidents. Wow! It was great, very well done except for President Obama. The mannerisms were right, but not the look. I really think they’ll have to re-do him, it just doesn’t look like him. We finish Hall of Presidents about 15 minutes before the parade was to start. I wanted to watch Spectro Magic but the kids didn’t, so they took off to ride Haunted Mansion. Now that the parade is starting in the front of the park, we still had time to spare so Jon & I went over to HM. We were wearing our anniversary pins and were in the last doom buggy. The CM loading the buggys wished us a Happy Anniversary and then hopped on our buggy and tried to scare us. It was pretty funny. After HM, Spectro was just entering Liberty Square. The kids were off doing their thing, so Jon & I were able to stop and watch the parade. Then we went and rode Splash Mountain with practically no wait and got a FP for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Then we headed over to Adventureland. We started to watch Wishes from the Swiss Family Tree House, but the view was partly blocked. Instead we went down and rode the Flying Carpet ride and had an incredible view of the fireworks. By now we needed a snack, so we grabbed Dole whip floats (and coke floats) at Aloha Isle. Jungle Cruise was already closed for the night so we went to ride Pirates and BTMR. Great time on BTMR and a great CM Stephen who was pumping up the guests, cheering and clapping; just a lot fun! We worked our way back thru Stroller Land (ok Fantasy Land) the line for Pooh Bear was still over 30 minutes, so we kept on walking. Rode Buzz Lightyear and at the end of the night we stopped at Casey’s for hot dogs. I don’t know if it was just because it was almost 1am, but these were really good!
Caught a bus right when we walked out and were back to the Beach Club at 1:15am. It was a long day, but a lot of fun. We missed a few things (Jungle Cruise & Mickey’s Philharmagic) and Jason still needed his haircut so we changed our plans to come back in the morning. Now it was time for sleep!
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- LA Lasagna at Planet Hollywood
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- Crab cake dinner at Planet Hollywood
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- SpectroMagic
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- SpectroMagic
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- SpectroMagic
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- Castle changing color
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- Wishes from Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride
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- Wishes from Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride
Yummy Yummy Yummy – Planet Hollywood
Posted on: May 29, 2009
Then a stop in the Christmas Shop so I could get a 2008 ornament. I get a new ornament every time we come in December. We walked slowly thru the Marketplace and a very sad/empty/depressing PI. The only thing of interest was the drink stands (there are several). Grey Goose Slushy was available and the other drink that caught my eye was the SoCo Hurricane. I love Hurricanes & I love Southern Comfort, so I’m thinking I’ll have to go back and try one.
We walked up to Planet Hollywood without an Advanced Dining Reservation and were told to walk right in. Had the required picture taken and then we were seated within minutes. Our waitress for the evening was Amber, she was nice but not the brightest bulb if ya know what I mean. I know Planet Hollywood gets a bad rap, but we’ve eaten here several times now without a bad experience. Experience is what told us to skip the appetizers so we would have room for dinner & dessert.
DH had his favorite, the LA Lasagna. From allears: A California twist to a classic lasagna! Fresh pasta tubes filled with ricotta cheese and bolognese meat sauce fried to a golden brown and covered with garlic cream sauce and tomato basil sauce.
I can’t imagine anyone in LA eating this; sounds like more of a Southern food. We like our food rich & fried
DH did share a little with me and it was really good! Crisp/crunchy outside and really rich inside. I like heavy rich foods, but I don’t think I could eat a whole order of it. DH really enjoyed it.
After asking Amber’s opinion on a few choices, I went with the Crab Cakes, served with mashed potatoes & fresh vegetables.
The crab cakes were smaller than I expected, but they were full of crab meat with very little filler and the outside had a nice breading that was very crunchy.
Not half eaten, cut open to show all the crab meat.
DS is an 11 year old boy who really likes his pizza. He orders it at Planet Hollywood everytime and loves it.
Very cheesey and quite large. He was a happy boy!
DD wasn’t very hungry so she ordered the potato skin appy.
Not much to say about these, they were potato skins. They were good skins but nothing amazing.
DS & DH shared the Banana Split Creme Brulee
It’s creme brulee on the bottom covered with a banana split! They ate every last bite, so I’m pretty sure it was good!
DD & I shared the Double Chocolate Brownie Sundae
Huge Ghiradelli chocolate brownie with chocolate icecream & vanilla icecream, chocolate sauce and more whipped cream than you can imagine topped with shaved chocolate & a cherry …. I love chocolate, I mean LOVE chocolate! So this is perfect for me!!! DD & I finished this and enjoyed every single bite!
Total for the meal after DDE/TiW discount was $88.52
It wasn’t a gourmet meal, but it really hit the spot and everyone was full & happy afterwards.
It was a bit chilly out after dinner, so we headed to the bus stop instead of stopping for a drink. I’ll try to get back over there for that SoCo Hurricane later this week.
DD started started feeling blah again before bed and unfortunately I woke up with the upset tummy and DH woke up with the chills/fever/muscle aches. I’m feeling better now, DH is getting there slowly and DD is hibernating in her room so who knows. This is where I say Thank goodness for DVC! I am so glad that we’re in a 2BR villa with lots of room to spread out (and 2 bathrooms )
Plan for today is to eventually head out to AK for the afternoon & evening EMH. I’m sure we’ll have Flame Tree BBQ at some point today and who knows what else.
DH, DS & I headed up to Artist Palette for breakfast before the cab picked us up to take us to the golf course. Here’s DS at breakfast–looking like your typical golfer. He was actually a little nervous about showing up at the golf course with a blue mohawk, thinking they might not let him play. Let me just say that the staff at Magnolia was incredible and they told him he was the coolest, baddest guy out on the course that day!
Usually we drive to the golf courses, but for this trip we decided to drop our clubs at Lake Buena Vista’s club house this time and let them transfer the clubs and take the free taxi to the courses. Taxi came in no time flat and when we got to Magnolia our clubs were waiting for us, already on the carts. Just gotta mention how much we love our Disney Vacation Club Golf Membership! We got it last June (where it paid for itself the first day), used it again in December and now on this trip. I can’t play for my home course for $39 after 10am, so to play a resort course as beautiful as Magnolia for that price is just amazing! It was a very warm round of golf; Ok, it was darn right hot, but it was a beautiful day. Just wish I could say the same about my golf game. DS actually played very well and managed to hit perfectly into the famous Mickey bunker on #6
A beautiful sandshot out of Mickey’s ear
I was surprised that we didn’t see as much wildlife as we usually do. As sunny & hot as it was, we didn’t see a single gator. Lot’s of wild turkeys roaming around though. All in all it was a great day out playing golf . We headed back to the villa to shower & change before our dinner Advanced Dining Reservation at Planet Hollywood.
Advanced Dining Reservation is at 4:45, we can catch a bus, take the boat or walk. Looking at the sky, we decide the bus is the safest plan. By the time the bus got to Congress Park it was getting dark, when we got to the Market Place bus stop it was starting to rain. I kept hoping that it wasn’t raining at West Side yet, but no luck with that! We get off the bus and seek shelter in the bus stop. It’s not raining, it’s a full out monsoon! We look at the sky to see if it’s going to stop soon, uh huh, this is one big storm. Allright, everyone ready set run. That didn’t work. To say that we were drenched, would be an understatement. We waited outside under the PH roof, hoping to dry off a little before going inside the freezer known as Planet Hollywood. The wind was blowing so much that we were still getting wet, so we braved the A/C and went in. We were seated immediately (right on time for our ADR). We had a pretty good dinner. DH loves the LA Lasagna, DD decided to try salmon (even though she hasn’t liked salmon any other time she’s had it), so I played safe and got the fettucinne alfredo (that I knew she’d like) DS got the kids pizza. Meals were pretty good, only issue was the rice with the salmon was waaaay over cooked, dry & crunchy. Other than that, I enjoyed DD’s salmon very much and she enjoyed “my” fettucine. The boy’s both got the banana split creme brulee, and DD & I shared the brownie sundae. Those are good desserts! By the time we finished dinner, the rain had finally stopped. We all needed to go back to the room and change before heading to Epcot for Extra Magic Hours. We almost decided to skip the park, but figured after the storm we just had that everyone would’ve left. Wrong again.
Crowds were pretty heavy when we got to Epcot. We rode Figment, then went to watch Illuminations. We watched from between the boat dock & Mexico. As soon as it was over we booked it over to Test Track. WOW the wait was ridiculous and no Fast Passes. We hopped in the single rider line real quick while that wait was still at 20min. After that we saw Honey I shrunk the Audience and then wandered around World Showcase for awhile. We stopped in Norway and I finally got to get schoolbread! We were still to full to eat so we got 3 schoolbreads and a couple other things to take back to the room. The crowds had not thinned out, and it wasn’t even relaxing to stroll around, so we headed out. No sense getting frustrated with the waits when everyone is tired and DD was wearing out.
Didn’t get much done, but I did get to see Illuminations (my favorite) and we got school bread!
Plans (here we go again) for tomorrow are Boma breakfast, Brown Derby Dinner and Studios EMH. Wish us luck!
Ok so that plan doesn’t seem to be working. We’re up, packed and manage to call Bell Services just before 11am (check out time). Breakfast is not going to happen. New plan, lunch with Table Service and Counter Service at Earl of Sandwich to take on the road with us. That could work . While DH loads/packs the truck, I take our tree to Bell Services to leave for the next family on the tree exchange. Hope they enjoy it as much as we did!
We head to Downtown Disney and it looks pretty busy. Lot 1 is closed already. We decided to park by Pleasure Island. We can have lunch at Planet Hollywood, walk to the Market Place and back to the car. Sounds like a plan! We walk into Planet Hollywood and are seated immediately. Allright, last big meal of the trip. We order the potato skins, Texas Tostados & the Spinach dip for our appetizers. We shared amongst the 4 of us. All were very good and easily big enough to have eaten as entrees. Our waitress told us there was only 1 item on the menu that wasn’t included on the DDP (I don’t remember what it was, but the price made it obvious-I think it was something for 2 people) Since DD had tried so many other foods during the week, she was ready for the Roasted Half Chicken w/mashed potatoes. DH had the LA Lasagna that he tried & loved in June. I figured what the heck, I had the 14 oz Ribeye. Mmmmm! It was perfectly cooked and delicious, but I couldn’t finish it. Not after the appetizers, and there was still dessert to order. DS had enjoyed our appetizers, and the kids pizza and didn’t have much room for dessert. Until he heard that there was a creme brulee on the menu. DH was pretty full, so he & DS shared the Banana Split Creme Brulee (they loved it, and ate every last bite!) DD & I both ordered the Double Chocolate Brownie sundae. Wow, so rich, so delicious! Ok, good thing we planned to walk to Market Place and shop. There’s no way I can get in the truck for a 8 hour drive right now!
Time to shop. DS still hasn’t figured out what to buy with the money my Dad gave him. He doesn’t want a new hat, he’s not into charater shirts, ok what? Maybe a coffee mug for cocoa? Nope, the only ones he likes are the super huge ones that he can barely pick up, so we keep looking. And looking! DS isn’t very good at making decisions (especially when it comes to spending his money) so we talk. Dad had wanted to buy him some pins, because he watched DS pin trade all week, but since Dad didn’t know anything about pins he thought money would be better. DH & I tell DS that we can probably order a bulk set of pins online, for a lot less money per pin and then he’d have lot’s of “traders”. That’s what we’ll do. Good, now I just grab a Baby Pooh Bear for my niece’s 1st Christmas present.
Now to kill off the food credits. We look at Earl of Sandwich, but we’re so full nothing is looking good or looking like it will travel well. We’ve heard some people say you can get a couple of snacks (like we really need more of those ) for 1 Counter Service, but Goofy’s Candy Co. says no. Each kid gets to pick out 1 snack, special for them. After a lot of thought (and time) they each decide on cotton candy. We ordered 4 create your own snacks (2 Mickey Rice Krispie treats & 2 fudge covered cookies) that’s 6 snacks, 7 more to go. We grab 3 boxes of cookies, 3 packages of lollipops and a chunk of fudge. That was a lot of work! We might have used more snack credits at the beginning of the trip, but I was afraid we’d run out of them. Boy was I wrong about that! What do we do with the Counter Servuce credits? I really don’t want to let them go to waste, so we decide to get out of the craziness of DTD and go to Artist Palette at Saratoga Springs Resort. It’s right around the corner from DTD, very convenient and they have great food. We end up getting 2 Turkey & Brie sandwiche combos, which come with chips, drink & dessert (really need more desserts ) 2 fruit plates, with all of the above & they let us make a “meal” out of a bagel, piece of fruit (got an orange), drink and of course, dessert. DH was very happy when he found out he could get his special Saratoga water as the drink, so we got 5 bottles of Saratoga water. We got 2 brownies & 3 cookies from the bakery section as the desserts.
Food gets loaded into the cooler, everyone gets buckled up and we leave Disney for our drive home (at 4pm yikes! we’ve spent 5 hours eating and shopping -mostly for food)
Next up, odds & ends and final thoughts
