Ellen & Pods alone at last at F&W-with a twist of Vero!9/25-10/1/09 Update12/14 p.15

Our last night in WDW, and we had an 8:30 ADR at Citricos. This would be our first time dining here, and I was excited to check it out! We arrived at GF and decided to Valet park (because of course we were running late), but it was a little different than the previous evening when the parking was free for V&A's. DUH. Stupid me, I forgot about free TIW parking. Oh well, that's a lesson learned, I guess! We checked in and sat at the bar while we waited for our table.

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Well, hell-ooooo BIG FELLA!
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We were called to our table in no time at all. It is lovely in there, but we were unfortunately not near any window for fireworks....what a SHOCK! :rotfl: :rotfl::rotfl:Bread and butter were brought to the table very quickly-

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I do like this trend of putting the coarse salt atop the sweet butter- it is so nice when you crunch down on the salt crystal and it floods your mouth with salty flavor. :goodvibes The bread was ok, but not nearly as good as V&A's as my DH pointed out. Umm, ok, Honey, if you'd like to eat there exclusively from now on, just say the word....:rotfl2: I was a little torn with what to order for apps, since there are so many opinions about what is best here, it seems everyone has their favorite- between the shrimp, the gateau of crab, and the arancini. Hmmm... well, our server informed us that the shrimp is no longer served with the pasta....so THAT helped!! We ordered the crab & arancini- (and, FWIW, I found that pasta the shrimp used to come with at home, and made it with Shrimp & lemon, tomatoes & feta-it was fabulous!)

Arancini Crispy Risotto-Italian Sausage, Quattro Formaggi & White truffle aioli-

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A close up-

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They were good, crispy and tasty. Pods had the Gateau of crab-Jumbo lump crab, orange fennel cream, and Tomato fennel slaw-

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Yummmmmm...we thought that was delightful. The clear winner between the two, for us. A few pics while we waited for our main course-

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Love sitting near an open air kitchen so I can watch the action- it is almost as good as seeing fireworks!

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The lovely wine of the evening-

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So I had short ribs. But, at the advice of the server, I believe I kind of combined two dishes- I had braised short ribs, served with polenta, but with the sweet vidalia onions, peppadew and banana peppers and veal glace. Or, then again, maybe I did have the filet, but substituted polenta for the potatoes. But I think it was the first thing. Because it looks like short ribs to me, and I don't usually order filet.

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Sorry for the confusion- this is what happens when I go to Disney twice in a month and don't take notes, i guess!! I DO remember I enjoyed it, though- and that it was very rich and filling. Pods had the braised veal shank , carrot potato puree, roasted vegetables and toasted citrus gremolata (because how could we go to Citrico's and NOT eat it??????)-

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Ohhhh...that was delicious and luscious!! :cloud9: So glad we had it, and would most definitely order it again! :worship:

Cont'd next post-

 
We had to pass on dessert...which was sooooooooooo hard for me, because of all the food porn I've seen of their desserts, but really, we were stuffed. We decided to just sit and enjoy our wine. Our server took our pic-

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And then I of course, took his-

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It was a wonderful way to spend our final evening- a beautiful restaurant with great service and almost sexy food. We will most definitely be going back on our next trip. :goodvibes

So, we left Citricos, and Pods had to...powder his nose. I waited outside of V&A's for him. And gazed longingly through the glass doors (well, my nose wasn't pressed up onto the glass, but maybe it would have been if we had had an after dinner drink!:rotfl:). And guess who was staring at me from the other side? Well, the other side not for long, because in a FLASH my girlfriend DIANE was out that door and giving me the HUGEST HUGS!!! Can you believe it? She said "Oh, Mrs. Geissel, I'm so happy to see you!! I'm so sorry I missed saying good-bye to you last night! How was everything? How was your evening tonight?" She REMEMBERED MY NAME!!!!! WOW. :worship: :worship: If that isn't impressive, I don't know WHAT is- it's not like I'm there every day- it was our first visit! How wonderful is Diane??? And the fact that she literally came CHARGING out of V&A's doors to hug me several times....when she could have just stayed in her restaurant and waved...well, that all goes back to what I said the other day- she is just the ROCKSTAR of CM's, I adore her, if I could have stuffed her in my pocket and brought her home with me I would have. She is AWESOME and she helps set V&A's apart from all the 5 star restaurants there are everywhere else. Yay Diane!

When I took this, she said, "how should I pose?? Oh..I know! Very Victorian!" :goodvibes
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Talk about ending the vacation on a high note!!! :goodvibes

Downstairs, I had a few more pics to take of the bazillion dollar floor-

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Then it was back to OKW for some packing up...in the morning, we would be attempting to golf again, this time at Osprey Ridge. I wonder how it will go ..... :rolleyes1

 
I'm not sure which one Pods is going to pick up - the GGS or the bottle! :laughing: That is a great looking bottle. Whenever I see one in the liquor store I immediately want to buy Grey Goose.



:rotfl2: I'm sorry, but this is too funny. Denny had the history channel on last night and they were showing phallic pictures that the Egyptians wrote on papyrus. I am noticing the similarities. ;) Apparently, this was a common Egyptian past time. hmmmm....wonder why they don't have THOSE pictures in Spaceship Earth? :rotfl:

More great updates Ellen. You are really getting to sample a good assortment of the F & W cuisine. I love your pictures!!!!! Yum Yum!

Hey ME! Can you explain what those pics actually ARE on SE's walls to me?? I feel like I am the only one who doesn't "see" it. :confused3

Glad you like the food porn. EVery vacation is the same- I start out feeling a little shy about it, by the end of the trip I'm taking multiple pics at different angles of butter! :rotfl: I do love looking at it though, when I'm trying to figure out where to eat on vacation (or what to eat on DCL!)....

Great Update Ellen !!! So nice you met someone who totally understands autism!!!Ken's Bloody Mary's sound good I might try a "virgin " one !!!

I bet that would be delicious! I'm going to serve them to my book club next month- Bloody Marys and some hors d' ouvres followed by "New Moon" at the movies that we've all read. :thumbsup2

Hey Ellen your Star pupil just posted 3 yes 3 pix in a row !!!:banana::banana::banana::cloud9::worship::cool1::thumbsup2

I am so proud of you and so enjoying your multi-pic-posts!! :yay: :woohoo: :thumbsup2

OOOOOhhhhh, I am so hoping y'all loved Citricos as much as we did!

Well, we sure did!! What did you have?
 
Wow, the Citrico's dinner looks fabulous! And that is sooo impressive about Diane! Makes you feel really special! :goodvibes
 


We had the gateau of crab and the veal shank. Best meal of the trip!!!!:thumbsup2

All I can say is WOW, super impressed with Diane!!!!!!
 
Ellen you and Pods are such adventourous eaters !!! You will then be proud toknow I plan to try the Tangerine Cafe in Feb !! Never had Morroccan food before !! Now German,Italian, chinese oh yea and Mexican too!!
 
Hey ME! Can you explain what those pics actually ARE on SE's walls to me?? I feel like I am the only one who doesn't "see" it. :confused3

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Ellen -

This picture was taken in spaceship earth across from the cavemen. You don't see a thing when you take the pic - just a blank wall. But when you use your flash (which is breaking the rules - tisk tisk), this is what you get.

I love your latest updates. And it looks like you had another great meal at Citricos, which is another place I really want to try. Your food por pics are really the best. I think that's your specialty. :laughing:How cool that Diane came running out of V&A's to say hello to you.

I can't believe you trip is coming to a close. But, then again, you have another trip to write about!!!!!!
 


Wow, the Citrico's dinner looks fabulous! And that is sooo impressive about Diane! Makes you feel really special! :goodvibes

Yes, it certainly did make me feel special!! :goodvibes

We had the gateau of crab and the veal shank. Best meal of the trip!!!!:thumbsup2

All I can say is WOW, super impressed with Diane!!!!!!

Of course you did! We all HAVE to eat the crab & shank- why do they even HAVE a menu, anyway??? :rotfl: They should just clarify- "DIS or non-DIS?" They can just haul out the crab-n-shank to DISsers- for the rest just tell 'em how it is..."This is Citricos, and tonight you'll be having crab-n-shank...!" :rotfl2:

And Diane!!! :worship: :worship: :worship: :worship: Yes, I am UBER-super impressed with HER! :worship:

Ellen you and Pods are such adventourous eaters !!! You will then be proud toknow I plan to try the Tangerine Cafe in Feb !! Never had Morroccan food before !! Now German,Italian, chinese oh yea and Mexican too!!

Rosie- Tangerine Cafe is yummy! I hope you enjoy it!! :goodvibes

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Ellen -

This picture was taken in spaceship earth across from the cavemen. You don't see a thing when you take the pic - just a blank wall. But when you use your flash (which is breaking the rules - tisk tisk), this is what you get.

I love your latest updates. And it looks like you had another great meal at Citricos, which is another place I really want to try. Your food por pics are really the best. I think that's your specialty. :laughing:How cool that Diane came running out of V&A's to say hello to you.

I can't believe you trip is coming to a close. But, then again, you have another trip to write about!!!!!!

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for explaining that to me!! I just thought I didn't get it- and when I looked for it in SE and didn't see anything, i thought I just missed it!:rotfl: I feel so much better now!! :lmao:

That's funny you like my food porn- I always like everyone else's more- maybe it's like cooking- it always tastes better when someone else cooks it/ it always looks better when some other camera takes a picture of it! :thumbsup2
 
Oy!! Alan made me try Narcoosee's and now you are going to make me try Citrico's. That veal looks amazing! I can't afford to keep reading trip reports. :rotfl:
 
Yum! Another place we have to try. How cool that you saw Diane again - and that she remembered your name! :cool1:
 
Oy!! Alan made me try Narcoosee's and now you are going to make me try Citrico's. That veal looks amazing! I can't afford to keep reading trip reports. :rotfl:

:rotfl2::rotfl2: That's how I feel- I read about stuff on here, next thing I know, my wallet's empty! :rotfl:

Yum! Another place we have to try. How cool that you saw Diane again - and that she remembered your name! :cool1:

It was a great meal- I was sad we didn't have room for dessert, though, because I know they really do it up there. Well, there's always next year- we're booked for the last week in September again, when I booked it I thought it would be the first week of F&W because that is what was published by Disney. But I think they changed it to start later, so my plan is to do DDxP- then I can order desserts just for one bite and food porn purposes!! :rotfl:
 
We packed up in the morning, got our boarding passes from the check-in, filled our mug, and said good-bye til next time to OKW. We had a 10:10 tee time at Osprey Ridge. When we had golfed with Larry & Mary earlier in the week, they had told us that OR has the most wildlife of any course at WDW- and it was so true!
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Of course, we were wondering who we'd be paired up with this time- and the people ahead of us were all men, so I was thinking..."Uh-oh- pro golfers, they're not going to like golfin' with uber-beginner me!!" I was so, so off on that assessment! As it turned out, OR has really great CMs working it, just like LBV did. And this gentleman was so nice....he put the single guy up with that threesome, and Pods & I went off....ALONE. :banana:

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Almost immediately, we came upon a hole with some wildlife- deer, and they seemed to enjoy golf so much they wanted to get right in on the action.

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Ok...I'll just stand here while you take your shot...just try not to hit me!
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We saw tons of birds that day- this one is in a lake....the greenest lake I've ever seen. It was like a carpet!

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I'm easily distracted by anything pretty-

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Thank-GOD in heaven, this golf game was going much, MUCH better for Pods than any of the last ones were. What a relief, I wouldn't have to fly home with 85 year old Cranky-Pods, we were leaving him behind! Here's some of the 4 Seasons construction we saw-

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We turned a corner and nearly ran over a big black snake that slithered into the bushes away from our cart. Mental note: never, never, EVER go looking for my ball in the brush!! :scared1: I had been drawing Minnie heads on all my balls with the pink sharpie the CM gave me- you know, for luck. Well, I kind of lost count, but let's just say that all the snakes in all the bushes on OR are welcome to enjoy my hidden minnies as long as they'd like. Next we were at a huge water feature, tons of birds and even a pair of turtles-

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Aren't they all so cool? You may be thinking it was rude of me to take so much time away from the game by taking all these pics. I was more than just a little bit snap-happy! However, what was happening was that foursome in front of us, the guys that I was intimidated to play with? Well, they were the slowest, most beginnerest golfers ever- so we had a ton of time at every hole. (Eventually we passed them and just skipped a hole). It all was good, though, as Pods played 2 balls on alot of the holes since we had so much extra time on there. And he was really enjoying the course- YIPPEE!!!!

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What a gorgeous golf course. Osprey Ridge is very different from LBV, in that you see no civilization out there- no homes, hotels, nothing but trees, flowers, lakes and nature- it gives a glimpse into what WDW must have been like when Walt bought the land. The only thing you can hear other than bird calls is the far-off sound of the train whistle from MK. I am so happy we played this course- in fact, we enjoyed it so much, Pods took Tim & Tyler on it when we came back in November. But that's a story for another TR....

Finally finished, we showered and were hungry so headed to the SandTrap for lunch. We were the only ones in there. Totally, totally deserted!!

Gee, do you have a table for two?
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The server was really sweet, and she seemed actually surprised to see us! I ordered a burger, Pods got a rueben-

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It hit the spot. And then...it was time to go to the airport....

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I am so glad Pods & I took this vacation- so much so, that he agreed without hesitation when I asked if I should book it for 2010! So we'll be staying AKV Concierge, September 24th to 29th.....no trip to Vero first this time, I'm saving that for a relaxing overnight after our Disney Cruise with the kids in November. The only downside of our next trip is that F&W dates may have been changed, which I have to say, really? Disney published dates and now is changing them?? That really bites, I can't believe they aren't better than that. But it's ok- we'll just enjoy everything else the world has to offer...I think we may try the DDxP next time. Always something new to do at WDW, right?

Thanks for reading along....hope you'll stop by when I start writing about our last trip to WDW with our kids this past November!!

Ellen

 
love the nature pics. I think you are right. That must have been what Walt saw when he bought the land so long ago. The 4Seasons will be on the course? Bummer. Hope that doesn't spoil the nature vibe.

As a side note, my my mr. grouchy pants actually enjoyed his trip to NYC. He saw the rockettes ,central park and a beautiful cathedral. . Didn't think it was too bad. He even mentioned going back for a weekend. Hmmm now that would be fun. Loved the sushi place too.
 
love the nature pics. I think you are right. That must have been what Walt saw when he bought the land so long ago. The 4Seasons will be on the course? Bummer. Hope that doesn't spoil the nature vibe.

As a side note, my my mr. grouchy pants actually enjoyed his trip to NYC. He saw the rockettes ,central park and a beautiful cathedral. . Didn't think it was too bad. He even mentioned going back for a weekend. Hmmm now that would be fun. Loved the sushi place too.

I think the 4 seasons is being built kind of next to the course- it's why I really wanted us to play there...it may one day not be a part of the WDW courses (it's rumoured).

So glad he had fun!! He must have gone to St. Patrick's Cathedral... it's where they show mass from on Christmas eve (at least around here). It is awe inspiring. Which sushi place did he go to? And if you come in for a weekend...you'd better let me know!!! :goodvibes
 
I would have been so scared of hitting one of those animals or birds. So cool they just hang out there though. Guess they are pretty used to people.

Disney changing dates?! Who would have thunk it. :rotfl:
 
Loved your animal golf partners! It's great you were able to book another trip for next fall - sounds like the start of a great tradition!:thumbsup2
 
Ellen -

What a great ending to your TR. I am so sad its over. But I can't wait for you to start your November TR.

Your pictures from the golf course are beautiful. Can I just go there and NOT golf???? :laughing: It's like a nature perserve.

You must be so psyched to have next year planned already. I think September is a great time for a couple's trip.

What's this about F&W changing dates for next year?
 
I would have been so scared of hitting one of those animals or birds. So cool they just hang out there though. Guess they are pretty used to people.

Disney changing dates?! Who would have thunk it. :rotfl:

All the animals were very tame, I guess they feel like they have nothing to worry about.:thumbsup2

Loved your animal golf partners! It's great you were able to book another trip for next fall - sounds like the start of a great tradition!:thumbsup2

Well, that works for me! :thumbsup2 :goodvibes

Ellen -

What a great ending to your TR. I am so sad its over. But I can't wait for you to start your November TR.

Your pictures from the golf course are beautiful. Can I just go there and NOT golf???? :laughing: It's like a nature perserve.

You must be so psyched to have next year planned already. I think September is a great time for a couple's trip.

What's this about F&W changing dates for next year?

That golf course IS like a nature preserve. Right after I finished writing this yesterday, I saw that the course will be closed sometime in 2010. :sad1: So sorry I won't be able to golf on it again with Pods....unless they mean the end of 2010.

And the 2010 F&W dates were printed on all this year's stuff as being 9/24 to the first week in November- now the website says it's going to start Oct 1 and go to the second week in Nov. Well, it will probably be a lot cheaper for us NOT to be there during F&W, and we'll be there for a couple of nights in November before the cruise, so I suppose we could cram it in then if we really wanted to, but it stinks as far as DVC is concerned- when you book out 11 months ahead of time and then a month or so later they change the dates.:mad: I would think they could look at a calendar and have a better clue than THAT! :sad2:
 

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