11 days of DDP with pictures-Day 10, Narcoossee's Dinner added

[Dizneydaz]

thanks for your reviews - I've been enjoying them!

I have a question. I couldn't tell from your pic, but were the scallops you had at Raglan Road breaded/fried? We were thinking about getting them on our trip later this month, but I didn't know if they were breaded or not (wasn't expecting them to be, but the pic makes it look like they may be).

They're not breaded, but I think they were fried (or sauteed?). They were, however, very tasty. and not greasy at all.

 

[carolinagirl]

I did ask if smoothies were part of the plan (I didn’t want one, was just curious) and was told they aren’t.

I guess it just depends on the waiter/waitress. We were there last week and were allowed to order smoothies (but as our beverage, not in addition to) but were told that no refills were allowed.

 

[pixie08]

wow thanks for these reviews I am really enjoying your writing and I love the way you have the results at the end! great job and please keep them up

 

[carolinagirl]

I guess it just depends on the waiter/waitress. We were there last week and were allowed to order smoothies (but as our beverage, not in addition to) but were told that no refills were allowed.

Forgot to add.....I am enjoying the report. I love the pics!

 

[Dizneydaz]

Day 4 (Tues., Sept. 12)

(I apologize for the non-Disney info here- if you’re only interested in Disney reviews-skip to Dinner at Park Fare. Thank you)

Breakfast-in room, same old thing.

Okay, this is one of the days we did something my mom wanted to do. She doesn’t want to do Disney everyday so part of our agreement is that we check out the “Real Florida”. My DD and I enjoy it too and it’s nice to have a relaxed day, now and again.

So, today we headed to the Atlantic coast to check out Merrit Island. (north of Cape Canaveral)

First we stopped off at the POP food court (10:00) to fill our mugs and grabbed 2 fruit cups (1 all grapes, 1 mixed fruit) for snack on the road. Cost, just under $7.

DDP Remaining Tally
25 TS 26 QS 27 SC

Then we made a quick stop at Sam’s Club to pick up some pix I sent digitally from home. My DD had her favorite, plain pretzel and we got 2 sodas for the road. I love Sam’s Club cups!

Another stop-My DD discovered the Chicken and Dumplings at Cracker Barrel a few trips ago and she loves them. They are similar to what we call Chicken and Dumplings, which is really Chicken Soup with homemade noodles. Cracker Barrel serves theirs in thick gravy, we make ours in chicken broth. My DD and I make these, at home, a lot. She them! I had the hamburger steak with 2 sides of dumplings. Dumplings good, hamburger so-so.

Then we went to Merrit Island Nature center-got bit by bugs, looked at some manatees-got bit by bugs , went to Playalinda beach, played in the sand, and headed back to WDW. (At this point we were done with nature-lots of bug bites! ) Sometimes I prefer my nature, Disneyfied

Dinner
1900 Park Fare, Grand Floridian
ADR 8:00 p.m.

This is our favorite buffet at WDW . We had a lovely meal and one of our servers was the same one we had in January (Michael). He’s been there a long time, and he’s very chatty!



For the first time, FGM was in the lobby when we got there. (We haven’t seen her on our 2 other trips there). She was great and spent a few minutes talking to my DD7.



Cinderella and Prince Charming visited us at the together (this was also a first for us) and were very charming and sweet! I even had them sign pictures I took on our trip in January (these were the pix I picked up @ Sam’s earlier). I also had brought a birthday card for my DD (turning 7 on the 19th) and had them sign it, secretly. They were wonderful!

Honestly though, my DD really enjoys the mice, Suzy and Perla, best. Unlike the main characters, they came around several times during the meal. She loves dancing with them . We had a great time and the food was good as usual. No smoothies allowed on plan. We finished up about 9:00

All the characters were in the lobby at the end to take more pictures!

DDP Remaining Tally
22TS 26 QS 27 SC

DDP cost $91 3TS used
value per credit $30. Adult only $36.50/credit. Kid only $14/credit

Service: Good
Food quality: Excellent
Food quantity: Excellent
Characters-Excellent!
Décor: Very nice
Noise level: not too loud, really quiet towards the end
Would return: Yes

Coming next-Day 5 Tuskers and Le Cellier

 

[Cass]

Loving your dining report!

 

[Dizneydaz]

Day 5 (Wed., Sept. 13)
(sorry for the lack of pictures on this day )

Breakfast-in room.

Lunch
Animal Kingdom
Tuskers and Restaurantosaurus
My mom and I wanted Tuskers for lunch but my DD want McD’s. Being the wonderful, do anything for my DD mom I am , I said I would get her lunch at Restaurantosaurus and they could wait for me at Tuskers. So that’s what I did.

I quick walked to Restaurantosaurus and got her the Chicken McNuggets Meal (10 piece) with large rootbeer and mini choc. chip cookies. Cost about $10.

Then I quick walked back to Tuskers (boy do I wish I had a lid for the soda!) and got my DM and myself 1/2 Rotisserie Chicken served with garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables and Tusker House Chicken Salad tossed with balsamic vinaigrette dressing with 2 large Diet Cokes. We got 1 cheesecake and 1 carrot cake for dessert. The food was good. My DD, who is normally a small eater, ate all 10 McNuggets! The rotisserie chicken, potatoes, and green beans, were as good as usual. The chicken salad was excellent! We’ve never had it before. However, once again, we had way too much food. We could have easily shared the chicken salad and been satisfied. We took the desserts to go and ate them later in the room. They were okay.

DDP cost about $28 Tuskers
value per credit $14

DDP Remaining Tally
22TS 23 QS 27 SC


Service: Good
Food quality: Excellent
Food quantity: Excellent
Décor @ Tuskers: Nice and cool
Noise level: loud (inc a couple of crying kids)
Would return: Yes

Snack
POP Food Court
5:30



My DD got an Itzakadoozie and my DM and I were going to each get a sundae. After the CM made the first one, I decided we could share. It was a good decision. We got hot fudge. It was delicious and plenty big enough to share. Besides, we had ADR for dinner in 2 hours!

DDP Remaining Tally
22TS 23 QS 25 SC

Dinner
LeCellier
Epcot, Canada
7:30 ADR

Sorry I didn’t take any pictures this meal. I think I forgot. This is our second time eating at LC, and our first dinner. The meal was just okay. Nothing was wrong, but it wasn’t great either. I think they are trying to get too many diners, in and out, too quickly. I enjoyed our lunch there more on our previous trip in Sept. 05. Our ADR was for 7:30 p.m. and we were seated within 5 min. of that time (even though there were a lot of people waiting). We were presented with the bill at 8:30 and were outside by 8:45. (Just in time for Illuminations!) Everything felt a little rushed and the restaurant wasn’t very clean. There were french fries on the floor, by my chair. This was really the only disappointing meal we had. Food was good, service was spotty, felt rushed.

For appies my DM ordered the Shrimp Cocktail - wasabi slaw and horseradish chili sauce (which wasn’t presented in the Chinese take-out container we had last Sept.). I had the Steakhouse Caesar - baby romaine, sour dough croutons, creamy Caesar dressing -which was good.

The breadsticks served at the beginning were good as usual. MY DD loves bread! My DM had ordered a glass of wine and when it didn’t come by the time we were finished with our appies, we told our server to go ahead and cancel it. He commented that he thought she wanted it with dinner (Huh?) We think he just forgot-he seemed very busy.

For entrees my DM ordered the seasonal pasta, with shrimp, which she was going to share with my DD. Unfortunately, it was too spicy for my DD to eat, and almost too spicy for my DM. I ordered the 7 oz. Filet Mignon ( glazed with maple barbecue sauce and accompanied by cream cheese mashed potatoes,) with maple sauce on the side (thanks disboarders for that tip! ). The filet was delicious, and about 3” thick-it was huge!. It was rare, as ordered. I couldn’t finish the whole thing. The potatoes were very good! We didn’t ask about added any side dishes, and our server Mo, didn’t mention it either. The Northern Lights wasn't inc. on DDP (I didn’t think it was-just asked anyway)

For desserts my DM ordered the Canadian Club Cake (Chocolate cake brushed with whiskey, layered with chocolate mousse, finished with honey thyme anglaise and walnut chocolate oil) and I had the Crème Brulee Duet-Maple and vanilla. The Crème Brulees were good, but I liked the Maple Crème Brulee that I had last year better. This one was a little skimpy, it was about ¼” thick. My DM liked her cake, I didn’t taste it.

We won’t plan on returning to Le Cellier soon, with, our without DDP.

DDP cost $105 2 TS
value per credit $53

DDP Remaining Tally
20TS 23 QS 25 SC

Service: So So
Food quality: Good
Food quantity: Good
Décor: Floor was dirty
Noise level: loud
Would return: No, not for awhile at least


Snack
Epcot-The Land
Sunshine Season

Since this was Epcot’s EMH p.m., my DD enjoyed a croissant after riding Soarin’ at about 11:15 p.m.. I think it was the only place still open. 1 snack credit ($3)


DDP Remaining Tally
23TS 23 QS 24 SC

Coming up next-Day 6 Our wonderful meal at California Grill!

 

[dawgfan]

Thanks for the review!

 

[princesstigerlilly]

Excellent details! Thanks :

 

[3NJDisneyDivas]

Thanks for the reviews and pictures.
Can't wait to read more.

Lisa

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Thank you so much for the review. How did you get so lucky to get all the characters in one pic at 1900 Park fare dinner? I would love to have a picture like that! Did you go at opening or closing? The reason I'm asking is because the restaurant doesn't look very busy.

 

[budbeerlady]

Wonderful reviews, thanks. I am so disappointed to hear from other reviewers and yourself that Le Cellier is going downhill, it was our favorite last year and we are trying it again this Dec. I guess I had better start preparing Dh for it to be a lesser meal than last years favorite. Thanks!!!!

 

[Dizneydaz]

Thank you so much for the review. How did you get so lucky to get all the characters in one pic at 1900 Park fare dinner? I would love to have a picture like that! Did you go at opening or closing? The reason I'm asking is because the restaurant doesn't look very busy.

It was fairly late-the place was emptying out. It's the first time we've had them all in the lobby.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Is it realy true that Raglan Road isn't on the 2007 plan? Is that official??

BTW great review looking fwd to more!

That's what we've heard-Only Captain Jacks at DTD will be on the plan.

Sorry for the delay-I guess I should check my thread more often. And I promise, more reviews coming soon. Almost ready to post California Grill-just need to add pictures.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Day 6 (Thurs. Sept. 14)

This was one of our off-park days.

POFQ-
Food Court
8:50 a.m.
We started off our day by stopping off at POFQ for some delicious beignets. We had 2 orders of 6 (total 12) for 2 SC. They were delicious as always. Much better to eat them hot in the food court instead of taking them back to your room (we’ve done this on previous trips and they get soft really fast). This was one of only 3 breakfasts we did not eat in our room.



DD enjoying a beignet!

DDP Remaining Tally
20TS 23 QS 22 SC

We played in the pool and went shopping during the day.

California Grill
7:30 ADR
Contemporary

This was our second time eating at CG. Due to a small problem I had with our park tickets, I was talking to the concierge at POP (yes the values have Concierges!) and while we weren’t able to resolve the ticket problem ‘til the next day, he did call CG for me and request that they do something a little extra special for my DD birthday (which was actually in 5 days).The reason I had him do this was we had dinner at CG last year, on my mom’s actual birthday, and even though I told them it was a special day (when I made the ressies and when we checked in) nothing was done to mark the occasion. I was very disappointed! I told the concierge about it and wondered if they could at least sprinkle our table with some Mickey confetti (like I saw them do the last time for others). Well, I don’t know if it was the phone call or not, but we had an excellent meal with a few special touches, including the Mickey confetti!

First off, I had booked our ressies based on that night’s sunset. Sunset was 7:32 that night. (Here’s a link for sunset and sunrise times http://ppscf.com/sunrisesunset/sunrisesunset2007.html.) (Corrected link 3-8-07) It worked out great-we got upstairs just as the sun was setting and the lights below were coming on. CG has a lovely view! And this time the windows were clear. When we were there last Sept. the windows were completely covered with condensation-we couldn’t see a thing! We only waited about 5 minutes and then were escorted to our table-Yeah, it was by the window (and I didn’t even ask for it!). Our server came by and introduced himself. His name was Billy, and said he is the CG sommelier. He was an awesome server. He made menu recommendations and being a sommelier, helped my DM make her wine choice. No help for me-I don’t really like wine-Just my usual please, Diet Coke (or ice tea)

He started out by asking us what kind of water we wanted, tap, or Evian. Then he caught himself and said since we were on DDP, Evian was included. I’ve never had Evian before-it was very nice, fresh, non-sparkling water. We let him know that we would be paying for DD OOP since she wouldn’t be having appies or any special dessert. He didn’t have a problem with this and I think he gets told this a lot (We did this at all 3 Signature Restaurants we ate at this trip). I had ice tea and my mom ordered a glass of Honig Cabernet (Billy's rec.)

Then he recommended, for appetizer, Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli with Sun-dried Tomatoes, Pesto, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Basil, which he explained was very good, and as large as a plate. My mom took his recommendation and I had the Yoshie's Deluxe Sushi Platter - Maki and Nigiri. On our last visit I had the large roll, which was very good, but I wanted to try something different. The ravioli was very good (as large as a small plate) and my sushi was excellent. I managed to eat most of it. My mom helped some too.

For our entrees, Billy recommended the Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta, Cremini Mushrooms, Zinfandel Glaze and Sage, which he explained has been on the menu since they opened. Again, my DM took his recommendation. I ordered the Oak-fired Beef Filet with Boniato Mashed Potatoes, Blue Lake beans, and Teriyaki Barbecue Sauce. DD ordered the kid’s cheese pizza (she had it last time and really liked it). We all enjoyed our entrees, my steak was huge!

My Steak-----------------Mom's Pork Tenderloin-she started eating before I snapped it! ----- Kid's Pizza

Billy let us know that if we wanted to order Raspberries, Chocolate, and Raspberries - Valrhona chocolate cake with molten center, raspberry ice cream and raspberry sauce for dessert, to let him know when he brought our entrees since it takes about 20 min. to prepare. I decided to have the RCR and my DM had Honey Crunch Cake - vanilla sponge cake, whipped sweet cream, nectarines, and peach tea gelee.

One thing I should mention, during our entire meal there was an ongoing birthday celebration going on with 4 women from Miami who were all celebrating their Sept. Birthdays at the table next to us. During our meal, about 6 other women came into surprise the birthday (girls) women and they were having a wonderful time. The whole restaurant applauded when they were surprised! During our meal, my DD kept leaving our table to talk to the ladies next to us. One of them even shared her birthday, the 19th. My DD loves to have an audience to talk to! She told them all about EE, since it’s now her fav. ride. It was hard to get my DD back to our table since we weren’t nearly as interesting as they were.

The fireworks went off between our entrée and desserts. The only disappointing thing was that they no longer dim the lights in the room and with the noise level that night it was hard to hear the music. I tried taking some pictures through the window but mostly what I got was the room reflected. Next time we dine there I’ll go out on the observation deck.

When we ordered our desserts, Billy let me know that my DD’s dessert was taken care of. He brought her out her own special Birthday Cake and the whole restaurant sang Happy Birthday to her. She loved it!

Birthday cake


My DM's dessert-it was good!



My dessert, RCR,(Raspberries, Chocolate, and Raspberries) was also excellent.

The bill, when it came was $173 for the 2 of us, not including the wine and extra tip. I was planning on paying for DD OOP but Billy said it was taken care of for her birthday-this was a very nice surprise.

My DD's favorite part was that the woman sitting at that table next to ours who shared her birthday gave her “air kisses” on the cheek. She thought this was wonderful. She talked for several days about how a stranger kissed her and she wanted to “air kiss” anyone she spoke to for the next few days. It’s funny what kids will fixate on, isn’t it.

All in all we had a wonderful meal at CG, and will return in the future-on or off DDP. I would be happy with just the Sushi and Dessert. Yummo!

DDP cost $173 4 TS credits used.
Value per credit $43 (I don't think that inc. the Evian)


DDP Remaining Tally
16TS 23 QS 22 SC
We are now more than ½ through our trip and realized we needed to use more credits.

Service: Great
Food quality: Excellent
Food quantity: Excellent
Décor: Great view, a little noisy at times. Wish they would dim the lights.
Would return: Yes

Next up Blizzard Beach and Liberty Tree Tavern MNSSHP

 

[Calgary DISHeads]

Great reviews! They've made me feel guilty I haven't done mine yet soon, I promise

 

[Dizneydaz]

Great reviews! They've made me feel guilty I haven't done mine yet soon, I promise

Don't feel too bad, we got back on Sept. 19th and I'm still not finished yet. Of course, if I didn't go on and on and have to post the pix maybe I would have gotten it done sooner-but what's the fun in that?

 

[jakenjess]

Thanks for the wonderful CG review! I'm so looking forward to going back there in February.

 

[DISNEYDUET]

Just wonderful! Thank you for your reviews. I can't wait until our next trip in May! I couldn't get CG for our Sept trip so I am going to book it for our May trip and my birthday!

 

[susieq76]

FYI- Raglan Road is on DDP for next year. Just spoke w/ a CM