7 nights of Disney dining with Yacht Club Concierge level (UPDATED 2/24)

[GoBirds]

So after three family trips to Disney World, here it is ... my first-ever dining report! DW has been a Disney World fanatic most of her life. I had been there once as a child, but hadn't been back in decades. In 2009, when our two boys were ages 4 and 1 1/2, she scheduled a trip for us with her parents. While I was happy to get away with the family, heading to a kids' theme park for a week with full-grown adults dressed up like mice was not at the top of my list. But as in most things in life, she won.

So we went, split the trip up between regular and deluxe dining, ate at a bunch of really good and unique restaurants, had her parents watch the kids while we ate at Victoria & Albert's yay, and I (and the kids) were hooked.

The next year (2010), we returned (without the in-laws), and I took over scheduling the restaurants. I found that scheduling the restaurants to use up all of our dining credits and planning the rest of the trip around where we were eating was like putting together a fun puzzle, and it became almost as fun as the trip itself.

In 2011, with the addition of a third child, we scheduled a trip for the week after Thanksgiving (lighter crowds, but more crowded than I expected). This was more of a last-minute trip we scheduled since we had just had a new baby this year, and we were a little leery of traveling with a 6-month old (Spoiler Ending: It went really well; the baby was an angel for the entire trip). Needless to say, given the short notice we had, getting ADRs and putting together the dining puzzle was a challenge (but a fun challenge) and we eventually got most (if not all) of the restaurants we wanted.

So, since the dining is such a big part of the trip for me, DW asked me to finally do a dining report. So here it is ... 7 days of Disney dining. We stayed at the Yacht Club for the first time and stayed Club level. So in addition to all the restaurants, there'll be some great pictures of the "free" Club level food at the hotel. I put "free" in quotes because every time DW or I says "Let's go get some of the free food at the Lounge before we head out," the other spouse is quick to point out "Oh, we @#$%&! paid for it!!!"

So here are the participants:
ME: Dad. I love to eat. I like everything from hot dog stands to five-star dining. While I'll try most any food, I have a particular affinity for steak and sushi. And when I'm not driving (which I'm not at Disney World), a couple glasses of Cabernet or Shiraz accompanies my meal.
DW: Wife. Growing up in Minnesota, her idea of fine seafood was Red Lobster. As much as she's gotten me into Disney World, I've gotten her into being a foodie. She's very willing to try most things as well, though she swears off raw fish. Interestingly, while the idea of sushi repulses her, she orders her steaks black-and-blue (charred on the outside and cold and mooing on the inside). Go figure, raw fish bad, raw cow good. She'll start with a glass of white wine and move on to red with her entree.
DS7: Oldest son. He is the classic kid-eater. Pizza, Chicken nuggets, hot dogs, fries and milk are his thing. Though he is a big fan of a good steak.
DS4: Our more adventurous eater. While he also enjoys the classic kid staples, he has been known to partake in sushi, tomato mozzarella salad, kalamata olives and escargot in garlic butter.
DS0 (6 months old): He likes baby formula.

One quick note about dining with 3 small children: Virtually all Disney World restaurants (even the Signature ones) are very equipped to accommodate children. The children are given kids' coloring menus and crayons, and if the baby was asleep when we arrived at the restaurant, every restaurant allowed us to bring the baby in with the stroller, and they would just move one of the chairs at our table and let us sit the baby in the stroller. This was VERY accommodating and appreciated. That's one of the main reasons I enjoy dining at Disney World so much. My wife and I enjoy eating out, but obviously, we just can't take three small children to the nicer restaurants near our home. But Disney World is a family destination, and all of the restaurants go out of their way to accommodate families. You can eat at a nice restaurant with the whole family and not feel out of place at all. In fact, no matter where we go and when we go, there are always plenty of other tables with small children, and we've never felt out of place.

And now, without further ado, here's the schedule:

Day #1 -- Arrival Day
Dinner -- Cape May Clambake (Post #10)

Day #2 -- Magic Kingdom
Breakfast -- Ohana character breakfast (Post #14)
Dinner -- Ohana (Post #23)

Day #3 -- Animal Kingdom
Breakfast -- Tusker House character breakfast (Post #32)
Lunch -- Pizzafari (Post #47)
Early Evening -- Yacht Club "free" Concierge food (Post #47)
Dinner -- Jiko (Post #47)

Day #4 -- Free day at Yacht Club/Boardwalk and Mickey's Very Merry Xmas Party
Lunch -- Boardwalk Pizza Window (Post #55)
Dinner -- Narcoossee's (Post #62)

Day #5 -- Hollywood Studios and Epcot
Lunch -- Backlot Express (Post #73)
Afternoon -- "Snacks" around the World Showcase (Post #73)
Dinner -- Biergarten (Post #87)

Day #6 -- Magic Kingdom
Breakfast -- Chef Mickey's character breakfast (Post #97)
Early Evening -- Yacht Club Concierge food (Post #103)
Dinner -- Flying Fish Cafe (Post #104)
Late Evening -- Yacht Club Concierge desserts (Post #104)

Day #7 -- Epcot
Lunch -- Tutto Italia (Post #112)
Early Evening -- Yacht Club Concierge food (Post #121)
Dinner -- California Grill (Post #121)

I'll post the first review shortly. In the meantime, I'll be trying to figure out how to make each of the above listed restaurants a link to the appropriate thread in this post. Bon Appetit!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Nice list! I can't wait to read your report.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Great line up! Looking forward to your reviews!

 

[TigerKat]

Signing on!

 

[H20DogsNDisney]

 

[loganpaulsmom]

Can't Wait to read more..

 

[Tinker12]

Looking forward to your review!

 

[GoBirds]

editing

 

[rznhal]

Great reviews! Beautiful family! Glad you had a good trip!!!

 

[GoBirds]

Here we go!!! So, we arrived at the Yacht Club and checked in to the Club Level. In the course of checking in and unpacking, we enjoyed some light refreshments at the Club Level Lounge. This was very nice! I'll have plenty of more to say about Disney Club Level food and services in general throughout the course of this dining report, but let me just say here that I think it's well worth the additional cost. Not only do you have all of the other benefits of Club Level (which I won't get into in detail here since this is a dining report), but you have this nice relaxing lounge on the same floor as your room, open from early morning until about 10 at night, and it's always a nice place to just stop by for a light breakfast, or a mid-afternoon snack after a long day at the parks, or some really delicious appetizers or desserts in the evening. You can pick up a few bottles of water or milk or soda anytime of the day, and of course there's free and unlimited alcohol for you as well (not that DW or I care about that ).

So anyway, here's a little sample of the midday snacks we munched on while unpacking:

The chips were a very tasty, lightly salted kettle chip accompanied by a spicy dip similar to that which would accompany a Bloomin' Onion. (And that's not an insult ... everything in DisneyWorld tastes better ) And there was a variety of cookies and other snacks for the kids.

So after unpacking and settling in, we headed downstairs for our opening night dinner at ... Cape May Cafe Clambake!!!

For those who haven't been there, a dinner at Cape May is an all-you-can-eat buffet featuring snow crab legs, steamed clams, mussels, BBQ ribs, corn-on-the-cob, pastas, and much more. There is also a variety of very interesting, unique and tasty salads, from a marinated olive salad, to a cucumber salad, to tomato mozzarella, to standards such as caesar and tossed. Finally, there is ample kid-friendly food (pizza, chicken nuggets, fries, etc.) I'm a huge fan of crab legs and steamed clams, so this is like heaven for me. It's good quality, it's all-you-can-eat, and it's in Disney World! Cape May Cafe has become a must-do dinner for us on every trip.

Here's the steamed clams. They have buckets for you at the buffet to just fill up woth all the clams you want. I think I had 3 buckets full!!!

Here's a shot of the snow crab legs (delicious) along with a variety of the side salads. Starting at the bottom of the plate and moving to the top, we have the marinated olive salad (great, but you MUST like olives, which I do), the cucumber salad, the tomato mozzarella salad, and a bulgar wheat salad (a middle eastern flavor). All very good. A piece of corn-on-the-cob is in the center of the plate. And yes, the butter stains to the right of the plate are my doing; I'm a pig when eating delicious seafood, and I'll go through six bibs in a sitting!

Sorry, one more plate of crab legs, steamed clams and fried shrimp!!! Couldn't resist!!

The next picture is DS7's plate. A little messy (back off, he's 7!!!) but a good representation of kid-friendly food. Clockwise from top is BBQ ribs, baked chicken, tomato-basil pasta, mashed potatoes and mac-and-cheese. Both DS7 and DS4 enjoyed this very much:

In addition to good food for everyone, Cape May's tables have paper table cloths and they bring out tiny metal buckets (cool theme) of crayons so the smaller kids can keep entertained by drawing all over the table while we eat. Here's some of DS4's artwork:

Cape May also has a nice array of desserts; again, it's part of the buffet and all-you-can-eat:

And, keeping with the "Jersey Shore" theme, they bring Salt Water Taffy to your table at the end of your meal:

So after a great seafood meal, we went to go see the gingerbread merry-go-round in the lobby of the Beach Club:

... and then it was off for a night of fireworks. Cape May is great seafood buffet and it's a definite must-do for us. At the end of this report I'll do my end-of-trip rewards and Cape May should definitely win its share!

Next up: Ohana character breakfast!

 

[Tink2Day]

Nice review so far, so enthusiastic! Love it

What is that on DS7 plate between the mashed potatoes and mac? Looks like some kind of baked fish?

Love seafood, looks like a place to try!

 

[OThopeful35]

The food looks soo good! I totally agree with you on Cape May Clam Bake! We went for the first time last year and the food was so delicious DS, who is a picky eater, loved it! We will definitely make an ADR for the Clam Bake on our visit later on this year.

 

[DancinDaisyDuck]

Thanks for the great review of Cape May! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[GoBirds]

So, for our first full day at the World, we woke up and headed over to the Polynesian for a character breakfast at Ohana!!! The Poly is DW's favorite Disney resort. We stayed at the Yacht Club for the first time this trip, but we had stayed at the Poly and Animal Kingdom Lodge each during our last two trips. Ohana is a great family atmosphere. The main dining room has a spectacular view of Seven Seas Lagoon and Cinderella's Castle.

The Ohana breakfast is all-you-can-eat, but unlike a buffet, they bring the food to your table. So, we were seated and the first thing they brought to the table was this:

It's a tasty, moist raisin bread with a sweet glaze on top and drizzled with frosting. They also bring a plate of fresh fruit for the table:

This includes red seedless grapes, honeydew melon, canteloupe, watermelon and pineapple. For drinks, they bring unlimited pots of coffee, milk for the kids, and my personal favorite -- FRUNCH!!!

Frunch is available at all Disney breakfasts that we've been to. I asked our server how it was made, and he said, "Think POG." P for Pineapple, O for Orange, G for Guava. He told me it's simply a mixture of Minute Maid Pineapple, Orange and Guava juices. I totally need to make this up at home!

Then they bring out the main food ...

Here we have scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and biscuits. The bacon, sausage, potatoes and biscuits are pretty standard fare, but the scrambled eggs were DELICIOUS!!! Very tasty, very flavorful, and much better than I can make at home, and I make a mean scrambled egg! Here's a picture of the food on our plate, with the obvious standard .... MICKEY WAFFLES!

Obviously, in addition to the food, the big draw of an Ohana breakfast is the characters. Here's Lilo playing peek-a-boo with DS7:

There's also Mickey, Pluto and Stitch who come around to the tables and greet and take individual pictures with everyone. The best part for the kids is that, about every 30 minutes, the characters invite the kids for a Polynesian conga line where the kids get those noisy rattlers and get in a line and march around the restaurant with the characters:

Ohana is one of the best character breakfasts at Disney. Good food, great characters who make a point to give extra-special attention to each table, and a great atmosphere with nice views of the lagoon and the castle. Highly recommended!

After breakfast, we hopped the monorail for a day at Magic Kingdom, and then returned to the Poly for dinner at Ohana.

Next up: Ohana dinner!

 

[GoBirds]

Nice review so far, so enthusiastic! Love it

What is that on DS7 plate between the mashed potatoes and mac? Looks like some kind of baked fish?

Love seafood, looks like a place to try!

Yes, sorry I left that out. It's a white fish baked with onions, red peppers and a bread crumb topping. This was just ok. Certainly edible, but basically just a baked white fish ... nothing all that tasty or special.

Glad you like the reviews!

 

[distherapy]

Your reviews are so great! Thanks so much for sharing them.

 

[DancinDaisyDuck]

Really looking forward to your review of 'Ohana dinner. I've never been for dinner before and it is on my "absolutely must do if I only eat one meal next trip it will be here" list.

 

[Pinkgirl]

I'm in we are staying at Yacht in August and sooooo looking forward to it - not CL though

Good start

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Don't think we'll ever afford CL but it looks great. Booked for the Y&B this next trip so very interested in your reviews. We love Ohanas. The Clam bake looks great but I always thought inappropriate for one fish eater and three carnivores. Looks like I may be wrong?

 

[GoBirds]

Really looking forward to your review of 'Ohana dinner. I've never been for dinner before and it is on my "absolutely must do if I only eat one meal next trip it will be here" list.

I agree. Ohana may not be the very best food at Disney, but it is still very good and it's one of those places so integral for us that it almost doesn't seem like a full Disney trip if we don't eat there.