We’d like to welcome guest author Sarah Gurung today!! She’s sharing her dining experiences at World Premiere Food Court during a Walt Disney World family vacation. Savories and sweets, read on!
Hello, Disney food lovers! My family of three (with one on the way) returned from a magical trip to the World, and it is my pleasure to bring you a review of All-Star Movies’ food court, thematically called the World Premiere Food Court.
Our party of three included my husband (decidedly not picky), my five-year-old (decidedly five-years-old), and myself (decidedly hungry all the time); and we managed to eat at the resort more times than I anticipated. Typically, we ate dinner here after a long day at the parks, famished and exhausted.
We were on a modified quick service dining plan, which allotted us one meal per person per night. Being moderately frugal, we decided to stretch this plan as far as we could by sharing meals. We often substituted a drink and/or a dessert in order to supplement with additional sides, and this was never a problem for the cast members at check-out. They all seemed well-versed in the Plan and good-naturedly accommodated these substitutions.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of the World Premiere Food Court is standard as far as value resort food courts are concerned. Loads of bright lighting, colorful graphics and signs, and cheerful Disney music set the scene from morning to night. To the left upon entering the food court are the four distinct ordering counters and grab-and-go area.
Each area provides screens with text and images describing the dishes available. The options rotate on the screen so that they can cover the variety of items available at each station.
Registers provide a gateway to the large seating area, beverage island, and utensil stand. There’s also a walk-up counter for the pool-side bar, as well as microwaves and toasters. The beverage island held all of the usual suspects, including cold and hot beverages, plus add-ins like cream, lemon, and sugar.
Seating is multifarious, with booths, tables and chairs, and combinations of the two. At one point, while my sister and her children visited from their home nearby, we commandeered a table that had five chairs and a long booth surrounding two table tops. But smaller, slightly more intimate seating is available (if ‘intimate’ means dining with hundreds of your closest friends).
Eats
Each station in the food court offers a different style of cuisine. Majestic features Italian fare, with various pasta options, sandwiches, and pizza. There’s a separate window to order whole pizzas here as well. Lyric has a variety of dishes, including a make-your-own-salad option, roast turkey and chicken, and rotating options like mahi mahi and pork. Roxy is your stop for chicken nuggets, burgers (beef and veggie), grilled chicken sandwiches, and impressive foot-long hotdogs. There’s also a tiny toppings bar at Roxy that has lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and onions. The grab-and-go station is called Grand Market. Find beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), muffins, cookies, and cold sandwiches and sides. You’ll also find a cooler designated for kids’ meal sides, which makes it easy for kids to find their designated drinks and eats. Rialto is the last station, and it’s the place to go for sweets: ice cream, cheesecake, cupcakes, and milkshakes (adult and not).
We were able to try a lot of different meals in our six-night stay. So let’s take a look at some food, shall we?
First up, I tried the roast turkey dinner. It came with two sides and a roll, plus a healthy portion of sliced roasted turkey. Check out that pile of meat on the left side of the plate. Hefty!
The turkey, admittedly, was a bit dry, but it benefited tremendously from the tasty, salty gravy. The sides were fine. The corn had a subtle butteriness, evidenced more by the shine of the corn rather than the flavor. The beans, which you can sort of make out behind that giant pile of meat, were surprisingly garlicky. My husband and I enjoyed them (and ordered them twice more during our stay).
The next evening, between jaunts to the Magic Kingdom, we found ourselves in the food court again. I ordered the roasted chicken meal.
My husband and I shared this meal, subbing for some cold vegetable sides from the grab-and-go. You can see those garlicky green beans more clearly here. Instead of the nondescript corn, we opted for mashed potatoes. These were average but, like the turkey the night before, benefited from a good dose of gravy. The chicken was moist but bland. You can see it has some nice color, but we weren’t impressed by the flavor.
We continued our poultry extravaganza with a chicken parmesan sandwich one night. The picture below basically sums up this one: clunky and messy.
The sandwich featured two large pieces of fried white meat chicken, a slathering of tomato sauce, and a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. The chicken could have benefited from more seasoning, but the tomato sauce was great. I could make out actual vegetables in there — onion and tomato. The roll was a bit too hard to bite through comfortably, especially with those massive pieces of chicken stuffed inside it.
The sides were terrific, though. Housemade salt and vinegar chips were delicious, with a great vinegary bite to them. And there were lots of them on the plate.
This meal also came with a side salad with balsamic dressing. This crunchy salad was a nice foil to the hot chicken sandwich.
Probably our favorite thing that we ate all week was the turkey and muenster cheese sandwich on a multigrain croissant. In fact, we ordered this twice during the week. This sandwich was stuffed with lots of sliced deli turkey, creamy cheese, and a cranberry mayonnaise of some kind. There was also a healthy amount of fresh greens on top.
The sandwich was the perfect combination of flavors and textures, and it didn’t hurt that it came with more housemade chips.
A couple of the sides we chose from the grab-and-go throughout the week included veggies with ranch dip, vegetables with hummus, and small garden salads with dressing. All were crunchy and fresh.
For youngsters, you’ll find plenty of kid-friendly choices. My daughter sampled a few of the usual suspects.
You can’t go wrong with chicken nuggets, right?
Same for mac-and-cheese.
One that I thought was delicious but that was not as big of a hit with my five-year-old was the pasta with tomato sauce.
I’ve already raved about the tomato sauce, but my daughter claimed it had too much spice for her. This comment actually underscores my earlier sentiment that the sauce is a step above your ordinary sauce. Rather than being an anemic, standard sauce, this one did pack a little extra flavor and texture. Perhaps it’s too much for a sensitive palate, but for this mama, it was awesome.
Lest you think we spent an entire week eating savory dishes with no desserts in sight, fear not. On our first, euphoric night we indulged in a chocolate chip cookie. This is just perfection: soft, buttery, sweet, and big. We savored this over a couple of days.
And one night, we even got this baby and her twin with a triple scoop of vanilla in between. No picture, sadly, because it was consumed before I could grab one. Suffice to say, the ice cream sandwich is always a good choice.
Next, I bring you cheesecake:
This beauty was creamy, sweet, and devoured in moments. I prefer a denser cheesecake, but this hit all the expected flavor notes.
Finally, one night we picked up this handsome cupcake. The frosting was cookies and cream. It was sweet and some went (gasp!) uneaten. The cake was moist and chocolatey. But the star of this cupcake is the decorative Mickey made out of Oreos and a white chocolate face. It was adorable and delicious.
Overall
I’m not going to lie: I love Disney resort food courts. Where else can you select from such a variety of foods and not have to cook for several days in a row? And we were pleasantly surprised by many of the dishes we sampled during our visit. While the World Premiere Food Court may not feature some of the flashier eats you can find at other value resorts (I’m looking at you, tie dye cheesecake), what it does have is options galore with some real surprise hits.
What’s your favorite meal options at the All-Star resorts? Let us know in the comments below.
Michelle says
Great review – this sounds surprisingly good for a food court!
Katie says
When we stayed here we always found the portions to be just right for splitting. I appreciate the comments at the beginning of the review about how substitutions worked while being on the dining plan.
Mirandamidas says
Thanks for writing the review! We have stayed at AS Movies before and I agree with you, the food court is not gourmet but it’s perfectly decent and has some nice offerings. The steak with “loaded” mash and those yummy green beans was a real hit with us. I will have to try the Turkey croissant on our next visit.
Sandra G says
Good review! We normally stay at Music and enjoy visiting all three All Star food courts. I have to say that I was surprised to read that the turkey was dry, because the how moist it is gets commented on every time by my husband and son, who eat it at least twice each trip. The turkey and muenster sandwich was a hit for us; I eat very little meat but enjoyed trying this, which was very tasty and surprisingly filling, and those chips were excellent too. It made up for my husband’s disappointment that they don’t have the hot Italian sandwich anymore. I also like the quesadilla minus the chicken and try to have it at least once per trip. The flexibility to sub sides and drinks means it is easier to share or feed someone like my son, who has a big appetite.
KJ says
Thankyou. We will be heading there soon and looking at where we are going to eat!