Rock the Boat, Don't Tip the Boat Over! Fantasy 10/20-10/27 Completed Post #277!!

[mrkyyyle]

Yes Remy is amazing, it was my second time doing the dinner there as I had went there on the Dream a year and a half or so ago with my family; but it was the first time for my wife and she loved it!

We also did the brunch with the champagne pairings, it seems that most of the pictures we have from the trip are from various food & drinks haha

Then we also did Palo brunch & Palo dinner (once we heard we weren't going to CC we decided to take the money from the cabana towards more food and drink of course )

We are trying to decide when and which itinerary to use our 25% off for! We were thinking about getting our families to come with us in a few years but who knows if we can get everyone together!

[oybolshoi]

Originally Posted by wendym

I am now laughing out loud humming that tune!!! Just what I need after parents evening at school!

Glad I could help but it's really heather's fault.

Originally Posted by mrkyyyle

Yes Remy is amazing, it was my second time doing the dinner there as I had went there on the Dream a year and a half or so ago with my family; but it was the first time for my wife and she loved it!

We also did the brunch with the champagne pairings, it seems that most of the pictures we have from the trip are from various food & drinks haha

Then we also did Palo brunch & Palo dinner (once we heard we weren't going to CC we decided to take the money from the cabana towards more food and drink of course )

We are trying to decide when and which itinerary to use our 25% off for! We were thinking about getting our families to come with us in a few years but who knows if we can get everyone together!

We first had dinner at Remy on the Dream last October ... it was such an amazing experience that we had to do it again on the Fantasy. We also did the brunch and dinner at Palo .... and we have a lot of food and drink pics too. Great minds!

We are waiting to see how the 2014 itineraries look ... hoping to use that 25% discount for a Southern 7-night itinerary if DCL decides to offer something a little different. Tried to talk my husband into using it towards a Med Cruise next August but we are already booked for Panama Canal and he really wants to keep that one.

so many choices ...

[oybolshoi]

This post will be devoted entirely to our dinner at Remy the evening we departed St. Maarten (Pirate Night for anyone keeping track). I must apologize at the outset, however; we don't have a copy of the menu and the DCL website menu isn't an exact match for the items we ordered. I've got good pictures but poor descriptions, so please bear with me. If you have any questions about anything feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.

Jay and I were fortunate enough to dine at Remy last year on the Dream and it was an incredible evening with amazing food and service. While this dinner on the Fantasy provided equally amazing service and food, there were some subtle but noticeable differences that led me to declare our Dream Remy experience the gold standard of the two. I will delve into those differences at the end of this post, but wanted to set the table early.

Dinner at Remy costs $75 per person, and wine pairings are an additional $99 per person. Neither Jay nor I profess to be all that knowledgeable about wine - we know what we like and that's about it - but $200 for wine pairings is ridiculous. In our opinion guests are much better served by ordering a good bottle of wine with dinner; for example, last year on the Dream we ordered a fabulous bottle of Montrachet that only cost $130 and we were much happier with that than we would have been with the pairings.

This year we selected a bottle of champagne to enjoy with dinner; the previous day while finishing lunch the sommelier Florian helped us find a really nice bottle of bubbles: Bollinger La Grane Annee, 2000. This stuff was exceptional - so very drinkable and it paired amazingly well with everything we tried, which is the mark of a really fine champagne ... or so we've been told.

The price of dinner includes one complimentary champagne cocktail per guest - they call it the Colette, it includes Taittinger Champagne, Pear Vodka and alcoholic bits of fruit, and your server prepares it tableside. We were lucky enough to have Yannick as our server again and he was such fun and took lovely care of us. He even tried to help me with my atrocious Midwest French and I can now tell my dearest friends that I no longer pronounce foie gras as faaaaaaah graaaaaah but as fwahhhh grrrahhh. I hope they're proud of me.

Yannick prepares to make us a Colette


Champagne Cocktail? Don't mind if I do!


Dinner started with a wee gift from the chef: a breaded cube of tomato soup. I don't know how the soup ends up inside this flash-fried cube, but the taste is amazing. And I adore any pre-dinner treat that is delivered with the following warning from the wait staff: Please chew with your mouth closed or you will besquirt your dining partner.

Tomato soup embedded in a bread cube


We both received the same amuse bouche: Ratatouille with Olive Oil Ice Cream. I give this full marks for creativity but I'm not sure even now if I actually liked it. The ice cream was the best part of this offering - incredibly creamy with a hint of olive oil - but I didn't really think it added anything to the ratatouille.

Interesting


My first course was a scallop on some kind of vegetable puree. The scallop was lightly seared and so tender that I barely needed a fork to cut through it.

Scallop


And I'm pretty sure that Jay's first course was buffalo. And I think he liked it quite a bit.

Buffalo


My second course ... it looks like sailboat shrimp in slime. Whatever it's official name, it was tasty and I ate it all.

Shrimp ... I think


Jay's second course was obviously some kind of fish. The burning question that needs to be answered is this: was it turbot or loup de mer? Let's just call it excellent and move on.

Fish ... definitely fish


This next course was a reprise of something we were served at the champagne lunch on Monday: Sea Bass with Gnocchi Chili. It was delicious then and it was delicious Tuesday night; consistency thou art a jewel.

Sea Bass and Exquisite Gnocchi ... again


This next dish is something of a mystery ... I think it may be quail or pigeon. Your guess, as they say, is as good as mine!

I cry Fowl!


OK ... these next two are a complete mystery.

This is just confusing ... and a little menacing


Most likely more seafood


Whew! Now we return to something I can identify easily, me being from the Midwest. This is meat! Australian Wagyu, to be specific. While this was good, I prefer the way it's served at Victoria & Albert's where it's thinly sliced and so rare you can still smell its breath.

Beef ... it's what's for dinner


It was served with this garlic puree that had a fabulous quail egg nestled in the center - so so yummy! I love quail eggs, and if that doesn't brand me a food snob I don't know what will!

Garlic Puree and Quail Egg


What did Jay have? Pork tenderloin ... I think that's what this is. He loved it, and even tried eating the wee corn like corn on the cob. It was really quite funny.

Pork ... the other meat that's for dinner


Glazed Carrots


One of the best things about Remy, in my opinion, is the cheese cart. I love cheese. I actually would choose cheese over dessert any day of the week. Throw in some port with that cheese and I will be the happiest person you've never met. You may choose as few or as many cheeses from the cart as your heart desires - Jay and I asked that they make us a cheese plate to share so that we could try them all.

Cheese me!


Cheese plate!


Jay's dessert was the best of the night ... for one thing his came in two parts and for another, it just tasted a lot better. It included a dark chocolate mousse with a golf ball and really cool looking infused dessert caviar. And it came with a chocolate shooter in elderflower liqueur! Guess who had to ask to have one of her own to try? It was one of the best things I've never chewed in my whole life!

Chocolate Mousse and stuff


Dessert Shooter in Elderflower Liqueur ... six dozen to go, please!


My dessert was lame and boring in comparison ... and I don't really like hazelnut all that much either. The profiteroles were dried out and no amount of cream was going to make up for that.

Hazelnut Profiteroles ... meh


Once again, we were presented with sweets and such to finish off the evening; we asked for these to be packaged up so we could enjoy them later during the cruise.

Homemade Marshmallows and wee cakes


Candies ... yum!


Jay and I were the last two people to leave the restaurant that night ... along with Wendy and her mum who also were dining there. I begin to understand why we were so well suited to be dining partners this week!

Remy ... emptied out


All in all, a very nice evening but when comparing our dinner on the Dream to this one on the Fantasy we gave the nod to the Dream for a couple of reasons. First, we both liked the menu choices from the Dream a little more than those on the Fantasy. Secondly, and this will definitely seem stupid to some of you but it matters to me, the cheese selection on the Dream was more extensive than on the Fantasy. Most people don't care but I adore cheese and want as much artisan milk by-product that I can get my greedy hands on.

In addition, there were some extra special touches from dinner last year on the Dream that didn't manifest this year on the Fantasy. We didn't expect those things, but because they happened last year and colored our experience, it only stands to reason that evening stands out a bit more than this one.

Finally, the lack of a souvenir menu, which was provided last year at Remy on the Dream as well as this year at lunch, was a sad omission. But to be fair, neither one of us even thought about it until we were home trying to remember what the heck we'd eaten in the first place!

Remy remains a great deal for the price - you'd be hard pressed to find an experience like this one on land for less than $150 per person. The food is well prepared and beautifully plated and the service is exceptional. If it's in your travel budget and you enjoy fine dining I strongly urge you to give it a try - I don't think you will be disappointed!

[zweihund]

Wonderful update, as always.

I LOVED the Collette. Lionel's not a champagne guy so I got to drink his too. We did opt for a single wine pairing, to share, and that was a nice way to sample a lot of new things....needless to say, between the extra cocktail and half a pairing, I left Remy pretty darn happy.

I'm pretty sure I enjoyed dinner. I do remember thinking it hilarious that everything came with foam. Like, EVERYTHING. lol

[schoen]

Great pictures of the food!

I enjoyed Remy too, but we were there on Friday night. I will certainly need to go back and enjoy it without all the crashing glassware and staff clinging to walls/tables/poles to stand up.

I think that even if we had enjoyed a "normal" Remy experience we would probably prefer Victoria and Alberts to Remy. There was no real reason, and there are obvious advantages to Remy (price, cheese cart, fussy dessert with millions of extras). For whatever reason we just liked Victoria and Alberts better. Who knows why?! In fact, I enjoyed my evening at Palo more than Remy, but I think I can base that solely on the weather, which doesn't really make it a fair comparison.

Do you live in an area with good food options? My husband and I are stuck in Mid-Michigan-which is not exactly foodie paradise. We enjoy being able to get to these fancy-schmancy dinners when we vacation with Disney!

[wendym]

Brenda, thank you for your wonderful descriptions! I'll reply properly later but I can identify two of your meals - turbot and quail as we had them! The other two I'm not sure.

[Robert P]

The entire meal looked wonderful, but I'm experiencing some serious cheese plate envy !!

[mrkyyyle]

I think we have a copy of the Remy menu at home that I can take a picture of and send to you if you want

I do agree with you about the cheese plate though! I was expecting a bigger selection from when I went there on the Dream and was a little sad when they didn't have quite as many choices!

[wendym]

Like Brenda and Jay we had an amazing meal at Remy. Probably lasted over 3 hours but it doesn't feel like that. I couldn't believe the couple opposite us who wanted out in 90 mins to see the fireworks! We too did Remy on the Dream last year and loved it. But I think we enjoyed it more this time. May be because we weren't as nervous - we were nervous it would be stuffy last year.
Yannick was an amazing server and made great recommendations - I'm not good with seafood but he got me to try things! He also recommended a lovely glass of red wine. We too noticed less cheeses - wish we had ordered more last year! And no souvenir menu - wonder if we had asked we would have got one? However we much prefer Remy to Victoria and Alberts - we are lucky enough to have gone there twice and loved it but the atmosphere at Remy is so much nicer. As my mum says we had fun - even just sharing the dining room with Brenda and Jay! And once we were the only ones left Yannick and Florian had fun with us too. Memories that will last forever and this report helps so much!

[Jennifer48]

I made it! Thanks for the heads up B!

Lets start:
La Piazza - DH & I had the same blah service there as you did and we were on the maiden voyage of the Fantasy! One would have hoped that they had kicked it up a notch but apparently not. Thats ok though because we spent the week before & after dinner at Ooh La La. Loved the ladies working there and we even got to hang out with John Lasseter for a wee moment. I wish I had known you were going on the Fantasy, I would have had you look up our signature in the book in Ooh La La!

PLEASE tell me you are going to write a TR for your Grimace cruise!!

I'm sorry to hear about your St. Martin/St. Maartin excursion. We did a similar one through DCL back in 2007 but it looks like its not an option anymore. It was a lovely open air bus tour of the island and our driver was fantastic. I'm sorry yours was bad!

DH & I are not fancy people nor are we adventurous eaters. We are reluctant to eat at Remy but it just sounds so wonderful! Do you think they'd have us removed from the restaurant if we told them this?!

[Scouter]

Originally Posted by cntkg1

We were also told a story about that same mansion you posted. But, we were told that Bill Clinton was hiding there waiting for the Monica Lewinsky scandal to cool off. We were also told it was owned by Sandra Bullock. Since I was sitting close to the "captain" I said "really"?. He just laughed and said, "Oh, if you are on this boat tomorrow, I'll have an entirely different story for you". LOL


Now, as for The Guavaberry Emporium...wasn't that place awesome? We stopped in with Tony and Stacy in 09' and the lady that worked there was a hoot! She had Tony 3 sheets to the wind in about 20 minutes flat with all the samples. He also walked out with a nice stash.

[oybolshoi]

Originally Posted by zweihund

Wonderful update, as always.

I LOVED the Collette. Lionel's not a champagne guy so I got to drink his too. We did opt for a single wine pairing, to share, and that was a nice way to sample a lot of new things....needless to say, between the extra cocktail and half a pairing, I left Remy pretty darn happy.

I'm pretty sure I enjoyed dinner. I do remember thinking it hilarious that everything came with foam. Like, EVERYTHING. lol

Thanks! I'm jealous ... two Collettes ... yum! And yes ... they do like their foam at Remy, don't they?!

Originally Posted by schoen

Great pictures of the food!

I enjoyed Remy too, but we were there on Friday night. I will certainly need to go back and enjoy it without all the crashing glassware and staff clinging to walls/tables/poles to stand up.

I think that even if we had enjoyed a "normal" Remy experience we would probably prefer Victoria and Alberts to Remy. There was no real reason, and there are obvious advantages to Remy (price, cheese cart, fussy dessert with millions of extras). For whatever reason we just liked Victoria and Alberts better. Who knows why?! In fact, I enjoyed my evening at Palo more than Remy, but I think I can base that solely on the weather, which doesn't really make it a fair comparison.

Do you live in an area with good food options? My husband and I are stuck in Mid-Michigan-which is not exactly foodie paradise. We enjoy being able to get to these fancy-schmancy dinners when we vacation with Disney!

Definitely give Remy another try when you have a chance - nothing wrong if you decide you like a different venue better, though - we all like different things! My issue with V&A lately has been that their menu just doesn't change very much ... we first dined there in 2006 (were back in 2007 and again in 2009) and the menu offerings were not all that different between our visits. For an establishment of that caliber I expect a little more effort with the menu and we haven't had a lot of interest in going back any time soon.

As for "at home" we live in the St. Louis metro area - options for meals like Remy or V&A are pretty slim. We have a few places -Stone Soup Cottage comes to mind - that offer similar tasting menu and fine dining opportunities but most of our dining experiences come about on vacations.

Originally Posted by wendym

Brenda, thank you for your wonderful descriptions! I'll reply properly later but I can identify two of your meals - turbot and quail as we had them! The other two I'm not sure.

I guessed right! Thanks for the kind words Wendy ... you're a sweetheart!

Originally Posted by Robert P

The entire meal looked wonderful, but I'm experiencing some serious cheese plate envy !!

It was a great meal and the cheese was heavenly. I just wish there had been as much cheese on the Fantasy as there was on the Dream!

Originally Posted by mrkyyyle

I think we have a copy of the Remy menu at home that I can take a picture of and send to you if you want

I do agree with you about the cheese plate though! I was expecting a bigger selection from when I went there on the Dream and was a little sad when they didn't have quite as many choices!

You're very kind to offer to send a copy of the menu - I'd love it but don't want you to go to any trouble.

Ahhh, the cheese. I'm curious now if they have scaled back the cheese offerings on the Dream as well. When I asked about it, the cheese cart guy told us that there just weren't that many people who were interested in a lot of the cheeses and they decided to scale back.

Originally Posted by wendym

Like Brenda and Jay we had an amazing meal at Remy. Probably lasted over 3 hours but it doesn't feel like that. I couldn't believe the couple opposite us who wanted out in 90 mins to see the fireworks! We too did Remy on the Dream last year and loved it. But I think we enjoyed it more this time. May be because we weren't as nervous - we were nervous it would be stuffy last year.

Yannick was an amazing server and made great recommendations - I'm not good with seafood but he got me to try things! He also recommended a lovely glass of red wine. We too noticed less cheeses - wish we had ordered more last year! And no souvenir menu - wonder if we had asked we would have got one? However we much prefer Remy to Victoria and Alberts - we are lucky enough to have gone there twice and loved it but the atmosphere at Remy is so much nicer. As my mum says we had fun - even just sharing the dining room with Brenda and Jay! And once we were the only ones left Yannick and Florian had fun with us too. Memories that will last forever and this report helps so much!

Our Remy dinner on the Dream was just a perfect night ... our whole team seemed so excited to have gluttonous hogs dining there and they kept bringing us new things to try and were so eager to talk about places they'd worked previously in London and Paris that it just really resonated for us.

This night was great too, in it's own way but let's face it Wendy ... Yannick just wasn't Jerry. All teasing aside, I thought Yannick and Florian were terrific and we had a lot of fun with them. We gave them a special mention on our comment card along with Novak.

I think the lack of a souvenir menu was an oversight because they were trying to get us the heck out of the restaurant that night! WAHAHA!! Last year we both had a personalized menu and then the whole serving and kitchen team signed it for us.

So glad that you and your mum had a great evening too ... next time the four of us should just have dinner together and really bring the house down!!

Originally Posted by Jennifer48

I made it! Thanks for the heads up B!

Lets start:
La Piazza - DH & I had the same blah service there as you did and we were on the maiden voyage of the Fantasy! One would have hoped that they had kicked it up a notch but apparently not. Thats ok though because we spent the week before & after dinner at Ooh La La. Loved the ladies working there and we even got to hang out with John Lasseter for a wee moment. I wish I had known you were going on the Fantasy, I would have had you look up our signature in the book in Ooh La La!

PLEASE tell me you are going to write a TR for your Grimace cruise!!

I'm sorry to hear about your St. Martin/St. Maartin excursion. We did a similar one through DCL back in 2007 but it looks like its not an option anymore. It was a lovely open air bus tour of the island and our driver was fantastic. I'm sorry yours was bad!

DH & I are not fancy people nor are we adventurous eaters. We are reluctant to eat at Remy but it just sounds so wonderful! Do you think they'd have us removed from the restaurant if we told them this?!

Welcome to the madness!! We did look through the book at Ooh La La but only went back to mid-summer. Wish I'd known because I would have looked for you!

I wonder if the problem at La Piazza is the staff? Everyone there seemed kind of surly, except for one guy the first night who was dancing around a bit with Jay and me. It's kind of a bad location ... outside of two other bars ... lots of people moving through so it's hard to create much of an atmosphere.

I think if you booked Remy and then were upfront with your serving team about your "not so adventurous tastes" that they could help you choose items that would amaze and delight you. The question is whether or not you want to spend $75 per person to do that. There is no right or wrong answer - it's just what works for you guys. Palo is just as enjoyable in its way, so maybe that's where you start and then move up from there when you're ready to make the leap!

Originally Posted by Scouter

Rose ... you're not supposed to laugh at Nancy's comments ... you're supposed to laugh at mine. WAAHAHAHAAAA!!!

[WDW Fan]

YAY - I finally made it to your TR Life has been hectic since Hurricane Sandy hit our state but now that I have some free time again, I'm going to enjoy hearing all about your cruise adventures!!! Loved seeing your first day cheese and fruit platter along with the champagne that your travel agent sent for you! I know how much you enjoy your cheeses along with some good bubbly Your brunch at Palo sounded wonderful and it was so nice that you had such great table mates on the cruise! Pete and I would love to join you in the future on a cruise Your excursion sounded a little disappointing but it was nice that you got to go to the HRC and buy your souvenior shirts and pins. Pete collects the HRC pins also and when we went to Hawaii, we had to visit the HR on Oahu to buy a pin! Your dinner at Remy sounded fabulous, although I do remember your TR from The Dream and that dinner sounded more special for some reason. Sorry to hear that you got the effects of Sandy towards the end of the cruise but it doesn't sound like it bothered you and Jay too much. Can't wait for more! BTW, I was so happy to finally meet you and Jay in WDW

[oybolshoi]

Originally Posted by WDW Fan

YAY - I finally made it to your TR Life has been hectic since Hurricane Sandy hit our state but now that I have some free time again, I'm going to enjoy hearing all about your cruise adventures!!! Loved seeing your first day cheese and fruit platter along with the champagne that your travel agent sent for you! I know how much you enjoy your cheeses along with some good bubbly Your brunch at Palo sounded wonderful and it was so nice that you had such great table mates on the cruise! Pete and I would love to join you in the future on a cruise Your excursion sounded a little disappointing but it was nice that you got to go to the HRC and buy your souvenior shirts and pins. Pete collects the HRC pins also and when we went to Hawaii, we had to visit the HR on Oahu to buy a pin! Your dinner at Remy sounded fabulous, although I do remember your TR from The Dream and that dinner sounded more special for some reason. Sorry to hear that you got the effects of Sandy towards the end of the cruise but it doesn't sound like it bothered you and Jay too much. Can't wait for more! BTW, I was so happy to finally meet you and Jay in WDW

Hi Linda - thanks for joining us here even though you have so much other stuff to take up your time. I'm glad that you and your family are all OK, even though there was some damage to homes.

I think we could have a great time on a cruise together! We didn't have nearly enough time to sit down and chat with each other last month. But we're obviously on the same wavelength ... HRC ... cheese and bubbles ... cruising in general! Happiest of Thanksgiving holidays to you and yours - meeting you and Pete was a real highlight for us!

[WDW Fan]

Originally Posted by oybolshoi

Hi Linda - thanks for joining us here even though you have so much other stuff to take up your time. I'm glad that you and your family are all OK, even though there was some damage to homes.

I think we could have a great time on a cruise together! We didn't have nearly enough time to sit down and chat with each other last month. But we're obviously on the same wavelength ... HRC ... cheese and bubbles ... cruising in general! Happiest of Thanksgiving holidays to you and yours - meeting you and Pete was a real highlight for us!

We'll. have to plan for a 2014 cruise!