DukeStreetKing
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2004
- Messages
- 2,644
** This post was originally created on the Community Board ****
GF (Blondie1bn) and I have decided we want to eat at every WDW sit-down restaurant, so I picked the Concourse Steakhouse to begin this little venture. There was no particular reason for this; we just had to start somewhere. Now, weve eaten at a few of the restaurants but this will be our starting point.
We left Palm Harbor at 3:15, waiting out a thunderstorm before we got on the road. A normal 1-1/2 to 2-hour drive took closer to 3 with all the traffic on I-4. Ugh! We finally arrived at the Contemporary and I began to have doubts as to whether wed be eating before sunrise due to the volume of cars arriving at the same time. I neednt have worried. We got on an elevator, which always seems to take forever to arrive, and walked up to the host on duty. We chatted with the host and found that he loves to travel our way, Tampa, occasionally for dinner. What a small world, no pun intended. Since we didnt make a PS reservation, we were told it would be 20 25 minutes. After maybe 15 minutes, we were shown to our half-moon booth and Xia was our server. She was very nice and very knowledgeable in her position.
GF ordered the Penne Pasta and a Caesar Salad and I ordered the 6-oz. filet mignon and a bowl of onion soup with melted gruyere, provolone and parmesan cheeses. We both had a glass of Clos Du Bois Reserve merlot 00 and a glass of water. The onion soup was terrific. The bowl was full of cheese; thick enough to have to cut with a knife and very sweet onions. The salad was equally good. Our entrees arrived as we were finishing up the soup and salad. My filet, ordered medium-rare, was perfectly cooked. The inside was the color of raw salmon and it melted in my mouth! A side of roasted garlic smashed potatoes accompanied the steak. GFs pasta was very tasty, as well, with artichoke hearts, asparagus spears, tomatoes and olives mixed together in a basil pesto sauce. The merlot was a great pairing with both these dishes. No dessert tonight, maybe a little bit later. With a 10% DVC discount, the bill was $66.00. Not too bad for a very nice meal and great company.
After dinner, we hopped on the monorail for a ride to the TTC. This is another reason to start at the Contemporary, free Disney rides!! We switched tracks and rode the monorail over to Epcot just so we could catch a little bit more Disney magic. It was a nice fix for this Disney junkie. We exited the monorail back at the TTC and sat up front in a 3rd monorail for the ride to the Grand Floridian. GF had never been there, so I thought wed visit there for awhile. We got to ride up front with a father and his little girl until we arrived at the Polynesian. The monorail driver was going on break and the new driver asked us to move to another car so 4 more people could sit up front. OK, no big deal, we were getting off at the next stop anyway.
The Grand Floridian was beautiful, as usual. Its my uncles favorite resort and he and his family use their DVC points to stay there. I know it doesnt make the most economic sense, but if he likes it there, whos to argue. The grand staircase was blocked off for some carpet repair. Im not sure if they are just finishing a new carpet install or just starting an old carpet removal. In any case, you have to take the elevator or use the stairs by Citricos and Victoria and Alberts to travel between floors. A wonderful piano player was tickling the ivories while we walked around admiring the hotel. As we stopped at the Grand Floridian Café, the host was trying to tempt us in. We chatted with him and his wife, who was the hostess and found that they, too, like to travel to Tampa for dinner. We spoke with them for a while and then headed out to look at Cinderellas castle. There were some fireworks going off in the distance, but I wasnt sure if they were coming from MGM or Epcot. It was about 9:00 PM, so I guess I can check online and see which show was going off. As we walked around the resort, the Electrical Water Pageant surprised us! What great timing. GF had never seen it before so it was very nice surprise for her.
After the Water Pageant finished, we took the path heading towards the Polynesian. The Wedding Pavilion was closed for remodeling but we did look in the windows of Franks, the wedding coordinating building. It was very pretty inside with the different wedding cakes on display. We stopped at Captain Cooks in the Poly for a soda and then sat in the lobby of the Poly for a little bit. The resort seemed very crowded and there were a lot of children. I guess its becoming the resort of choice for families.
A quick monorail ride back to the Contemporary and out to the parking lot just in time for Wishes to begin. While we couldnt quite hear the music, we had a great view of the fireworks. The explosions echoing off the Contemporary were very cool. Each loud bang would produce a few chirps from the alarm systems on the cars in the parking lot. Somewhere in the Magic Kingdom parking lot a car alarm was blaring full bore. After the grand finale, the cars surrounding us broke out with their own applause as the explosive booms finally set off their alarms. LOL! It was a very amusing end to a great night.
A quick, 1-1/2 hour ride brought us home at midnight, just in time to get to bed for work in the morning. Groan.
All in all, this was a great way to start off our gastronomic adventures. Ill keep you posted on our progress.
GF (Blondie1bn) and I have decided we want to eat at every WDW sit-down restaurant, so I picked the Concourse Steakhouse to begin this little venture. There was no particular reason for this; we just had to start somewhere. Now, weve eaten at a few of the restaurants but this will be our starting point.
We left Palm Harbor at 3:15, waiting out a thunderstorm before we got on the road. A normal 1-1/2 to 2-hour drive took closer to 3 with all the traffic on I-4. Ugh! We finally arrived at the Contemporary and I began to have doubts as to whether wed be eating before sunrise due to the volume of cars arriving at the same time. I neednt have worried. We got on an elevator, which always seems to take forever to arrive, and walked up to the host on duty. We chatted with the host and found that he loves to travel our way, Tampa, occasionally for dinner. What a small world, no pun intended. Since we didnt make a PS reservation, we were told it would be 20 25 minutes. After maybe 15 minutes, we were shown to our half-moon booth and Xia was our server. She was very nice and very knowledgeable in her position.
GF ordered the Penne Pasta and a Caesar Salad and I ordered the 6-oz. filet mignon and a bowl of onion soup with melted gruyere, provolone and parmesan cheeses. We both had a glass of Clos Du Bois Reserve merlot 00 and a glass of water. The onion soup was terrific. The bowl was full of cheese; thick enough to have to cut with a knife and very sweet onions. The salad was equally good. Our entrees arrived as we were finishing up the soup and salad. My filet, ordered medium-rare, was perfectly cooked. The inside was the color of raw salmon and it melted in my mouth! A side of roasted garlic smashed potatoes accompanied the steak. GFs pasta was very tasty, as well, with artichoke hearts, asparagus spears, tomatoes and olives mixed together in a basil pesto sauce. The merlot was a great pairing with both these dishes. No dessert tonight, maybe a little bit later. With a 10% DVC discount, the bill was $66.00. Not too bad for a very nice meal and great company.
After dinner, we hopped on the monorail for a ride to the TTC. This is another reason to start at the Contemporary, free Disney rides!! We switched tracks and rode the monorail over to Epcot just so we could catch a little bit more Disney magic. It was a nice fix for this Disney junkie. We exited the monorail back at the TTC and sat up front in a 3rd monorail for the ride to the Grand Floridian. GF had never been there, so I thought wed visit there for awhile. We got to ride up front with a father and his little girl until we arrived at the Polynesian. The monorail driver was going on break and the new driver asked us to move to another car so 4 more people could sit up front. OK, no big deal, we were getting off at the next stop anyway.
The Grand Floridian was beautiful, as usual. Its my uncles favorite resort and he and his family use their DVC points to stay there. I know it doesnt make the most economic sense, but if he likes it there, whos to argue. The grand staircase was blocked off for some carpet repair. Im not sure if they are just finishing a new carpet install or just starting an old carpet removal. In any case, you have to take the elevator or use the stairs by Citricos and Victoria and Alberts to travel between floors. A wonderful piano player was tickling the ivories while we walked around admiring the hotel. As we stopped at the Grand Floridian Café, the host was trying to tempt us in. We chatted with him and his wife, who was the hostess and found that they, too, like to travel to Tampa for dinner. We spoke with them for a while and then headed out to look at Cinderellas castle. There were some fireworks going off in the distance, but I wasnt sure if they were coming from MGM or Epcot. It was about 9:00 PM, so I guess I can check online and see which show was going off. As we walked around the resort, the Electrical Water Pageant surprised us! What great timing. GF had never seen it before so it was very nice surprise for her.
After the Water Pageant finished, we took the path heading towards the Polynesian. The Wedding Pavilion was closed for remodeling but we did look in the windows of Franks, the wedding coordinating building. It was very pretty inside with the different wedding cakes on display. We stopped at Captain Cooks in the Poly for a soda and then sat in the lobby of the Poly for a little bit. The resort seemed very crowded and there were a lot of children. I guess its becoming the resort of choice for families.
A quick monorail ride back to the Contemporary and out to the parking lot just in time for Wishes to begin. While we couldnt quite hear the music, we had a great view of the fireworks. The explosions echoing off the Contemporary were very cool. Each loud bang would produce a few chirps from the alarm systems on the cars in the parking lot. Somewhere in the Magic Kingdom parking lot a car alarm was blaring full bore. After the grand finale, the cars surrounding us broke out with their own applause as the explosive booms finally set off their alarms. LOL! It was a very amusing end to a great night.
A quick, 1-1/2 hour ride brought us home at midnight, just in time to get to bed for work in the morning. Groan.
All in all, this was a great way to start off our gastronomic adventures. Ill keep you posted on our progress.
