Tallying Up

Five days left. We are entering the 'Tallying Up' stage of the holiday. That includes how many dollars we have left to spend, what we still have to buy and for whom.

This time because we are enjoying the Disney Dining Plan we have to start keeping an eye on our dining credits. We get one snack, one counter service meal and one table service meal each day, but what happens is that you usually use up more snacks on drinks and things like popcorn or cookies as you walk around the parks.

Some table service restaurants use up two credits, like Jiko last night...more on that later, and if we decide to eat out of Disney, as we will when we have a one night stay at a Universal hotel, that means we will have spare meal credits. We found this a problem last time, but not as big a problem as getting rid of the extra pounds put on because of how much we had eaten.

As for shopping. It looks like I will be leaving without buying a handbag for the first time in years. Don't get me wrong, it's not that there aren't any I like, but I do have lots at home and I would just be buying for buying sake. Did I really just type that???

There is one place I would like to visit in Old Kissimmee - a little antiques shop that looked very interesting. It's in the old part, not the touristy bit, and so I thought we could have a look and see if there is anything we could take back home to add to our collection. We are still looking for something silver to buy for our anniversary.

Still harping on about that, we had another surprise after our meal at Jiko in the Animal Kingdom Lodge last night. The two of us had a meal alone, Alexander wouldn't have eaten anything, it was a two credit meal and he just wanted pizza in the room, which we got using a counter service credit. The restaurant is very highly recommended and one of the best in Disney. I would agree. There was nothing I didn't enjoy.

We were given a brief tour of the menu, the african names and what dishes meant etc, and after hesitating over what wine I preferred, ended up sampling three to decide which I wanted. I am not a connoisseur whatsoever, but there was no Pinot Grigio or Blue Nun on the list so I was a bit lost.

We were given a basket of bread with Tandoori Butter. Delicious! I ate far more bread than I should have and if I could have bought a pack of that butter I would to take home.

We were also given a tiny taster dish of some kind of seed risotto, only a few mouthfuls but that too was great, so many tastes and textures.

Entree's were Smoked Yellow Grouper on a bed of some kind of mealie, pulses and seeds. I wish I'd taken a picture of the menu so I could remember!


Mine was Filet Minion with red wine jus, green beans and Spoon Bread, which I can only describe as a kind of mashed cauliflower, with other things and subtle spices.

The flavours were fantastic. It was the kind of menu that you wanted to go back and try something else the next day. These were our puddings


Chocolate and Amarula Creme Brule with doughnuts and a cinnamon cream dip (Mine). Hubby had Roasted Stone fruit (cherries peaches and apricots) on a sponge base with Olive Oil Ice Cream. There was also that small anniversary surprise of a chocolate brownie kind of thing.
We both agreed that this had been the best meal of the trip, and glad that we could savour it without the complaints of a whiny ten year old who just wanted pizza.

Footnote - Sincere apologies to those of you on diets!