Are you really sure we want to do this again? DXDP- 7/5 Chef M's, CRT , and WCC

[flipflopmom]

Subbing!

Welcome back! Love your reviews so far! Whats a Itzakadoozie?!

Thanks! It's a giant swirled popsicle. Here is a pic of DD eating her second one later in the week.

 

[flipflopmom]

Okay, so there are some kind of African spirits roaming AKL. We've been to Boma twice, and both times one of my girls hindered my enjoyment of the African cuisine. Last year, DD1 was a bit sick, I think from the heat and riding EE 3 times as her first roller coaster, so she laid in my lap and sipped ginger ale. This time, DD2 had not napped, and was a little ankle biter.

I didn't get many pictures, but I can give some reviews. our ADR was for 4:50, and we were seated very promptly.

I had looked forward to the soup, creamy carrot and ginger. Well, it was NOT on the menu that night. I was sooo bummed.

If you have been scared to try Boma, don't be. There are some extra spices, but not overpowering, and there is lots to try.

The bread that is similar to cornbread is really moist, and just delicious. DH and I both enjoyed the prime rib, and the dipping sauce is just yummy. They also had a pork carving station. The fu-fu, sweet and white potatoes mixed, was really, really good. The different varieties of hummus are delish, with pita and some other flat breads to dip. DH loved the salads, Kool Slai which he described as similar to cole slaw, and the pasta salad were big hits for him.

I made my meal off of the hummus, prime rib, great fruits, and dessert. The girls had chicken tenders and mac and cheese, lots of fruit, and some desserts.

The desserts are great, as the portions are bite sized. The zebra domes, and some kind of espresso/cappucino tart are the best. DH liked the peanut butter flavored bite, and the girls liked the cookies.

Here is DD1's plate - the cornbread ish muffins, plain penne pasta, some roasted chicken, a few chicken nuggets and the ever present watermelon.

Here is what was left of my plate by the time I got around to getting the camera out again. I forgot about the falafel and yogurt sauce - worth the trip over for! Also pictured is salmon with pine nuts on the top. This was probably my favorite dish of the meal.

Fruit plate:

And desserts:

The zebra domes have a kind of chocolate mousse in them, very yummy. The ones that have a dark circle on top are the coffee ones, which I actually like better than the zebra domes.

It was a great meal, but I hope the spirits are flowing in my favor. This is on a definite must return to list, really worth the trip over. I didn't end up with the receipt that broke down the actual cost, but Allison was our server, and she was okay. Not spectacular, but we didn't go too thirsty. It looks like we finished around 6pm, so a few minutes more than an hour here.

After the meal, we walked out to the animal viewing area, had a great talk with a CM from Swahili, and an incredible view of some animals! A very nice evening!

 

[kimgof]

Love your reviews We also love Ohana and Kona....the juice at breakfast is delicious.

 

[flipflopmom]

Love your reviews We also love Ohana and Kona....the juice at breakfast is delicious.

Thanks. Yeah, the Poly has the best 1 credit TS, definitely!!! I wish they would build a DVC there, we would sooo add on! Thankfully, it's only 2 monorail stops away from BLT!

 

[dolfinjuls]

Kona breakfast looks so good! I'm trying to convince my DH to try it...maybe next year.
And isn't the Dole Whip float amazing!? I can not wait to get one, or more, in August! I'll go try to find your tr!

 

[maiziezoe]

I love food reviews!!!

Great job so far! Your girls are adorable!

 

[flipflopmom]

We had at 10:30 breakfast here last year, and just loved it. The characters were really engaged and engaging, however, the experience this time was not the same.

Our ADR was for 10:20. We checked in at 10:10. It was already HOT. I mean beat down on you, sweltering, hot! It took them 25 minutes to seat us.

Once we got inside, we had another disappearing waiter, Vinnie. To his credit, they seemed to really be pushing the staff, and he had a lot of tables. It took another 5 minutes to get drinks. Not a huge deal, except for the fact that the girls were on edge due to the heat.

DD1 had apple juice and water, DD2 got a fruit juice mix. It was cranberry and a couple of other things, and very, very good. DD1 tasted it, and wished she had gotten it.

I didn't get a lot of food pictures, b/c they were putting out lunch, and trying to get the breakfast people out in a hurry. Also, the characters only came by quickly, and we actually had to track Pooh down as he was going to skip us. Vinnie did a good job of making sure he did come by. Tigger snuck up behind DD2, and tried to take her drink. After that, she was not into this character meal AT ALL!

Food wise- the stuffed French toast was NOT as good as last year. It was rather greasy. At the made to order station, which was DH's favorite, there was a HUGE line, probably due to the fact that they were putting up breakfast foods, not replacing what was there. So no egg white omelets for us.

I did have a chocolate crossant, and some peach bread pudding. It was very, very dry, and not worth the calories.

The fruit was really, really refreshing, and we mostly made our meal off of that, and the girls had their bacon, of course.

These are my favorite pics from this meal.

All in all, NOT a good experience. It was very disappointing, as it was high on our to-do list. We won't be back for a while. The girls weren't as into the characters, the food wasn't good,... just not a good time. It was probably just the day/time, b/c last year we had a wonderful time here, in fact we cancelled a Boma breakfast to make it here for 2 breakfasts.

 

[flipflopmom]

This meal was one to surprise DD1. She has been very into France lately, wanting to learn French words, and buy things with the Eiffel Tower on them.

I was apprehensive about this meal, even though it gets good reviews. I knew that even though DD was obsessed with France, the food was not something she would eat.

We were seated very promptly after checking in. We had a great conversation in the waiting area with the check in CM, he was very nice and friendly. I had read that the wait staff could be....less than warm. I was very pleased with our waitress, Aurore. She introduced herself to the girls as having the same name as Sleeping Beauty, and was great to them.

On to the food!

For appetizers:
DD2 got a cheese puff pastry. I thought she would this, as she is a grilled cheese kinda girl. Actually, she wanted no part of it!

DD1 got the cheese plate. Again, not what she expected, and didn't eat it. But DH and I tried some, and they were very tasty! She is a bread freak, and had at least one of the loaves of French bread w/butter by herself. It was yummy, too.

I had been waiting for the French onion soup. I loved the gruyere cheese on top, but only had a few sips of the soup. DD2 saw me eating soup, and took it over. That was fine, since I had been munching on bread and cheese.

DH got the lobster bisque, which he proclaimed very good!

Entrees:

DD1 got the chicken - half of a natural roasted chicken. She was a trooper and tried it, but did not like it at all. She went back to her bread.

DD2 got chicken and pasta. She ate about half of it, and then let DD1 have the rest, and went back to my soup.

I got the beef tenderloin. It was very good. Be forewarned, I like my meat medium rare, and it definitely was. So much so, in fact, that I wouldn't let DD2 have any, and Dh wouldn't taste it. It was very tender and flavorful! I didn't eat the potatoes, I tasted them and they were okay, but I tried to go with the green beans instead.

DH had seafood skewers, shrimp, scallops, and mahi mahi. He said it was okay. He didn't care for the coulis that came with it. He ended up eating some of DD's chicken.

So after all the meal swapping, which we during the meal, it was time for desserts.

DD1 got the chocolate cake, which was her second favorite part of the meal after the bread. DD2 ate some of it, too. They both proclaimed it yummy!

I asked the waitress what she recommended, and went with that. It was an apple filled crepe, with caramel sauce. It was very good! Kind of like my southern apple pie with ice cream, but a smaller version. The crepe was not as soft as I would have liked, kind of chewy.

I made DH get the profiteroles. They looked soooo good, and I was a little disappointed that I hadn't ordered them myself. However, once I tasted them, I realized that they looked better than they tasted. The pastry was very chewy, and tough. It wasn't at all soft, which was what I was wanted.

DD2 had the strawberry sorbet, and it was soooo verry good. I honestly think it was the best thing at the meal!

I can't say that I feel an urge to come back here anytime soon. It was a nice experience, but DD decided that French food is NOT part of the fun of France! The food was good, just not great. There are too many places in Epcot we want to experience to come back again for a long while.

 

[crazyfordisney2000]

Great reviews! Kona looked yummy, we have reservations there in September and I am looking forward to them. Sorry about your meal at CP ,that's unfortunate!

 

[Linda67]

Just caught up

Love your reviews and photos

The Kona breakfast looks yummy

 

[flipflopmom]

Great reviews! Kona looked yummy, we have reservations there in September and I am looking forward to them. Sorry about your meal at CP ,that's unfortunate!

Just caught up

Love your reviews and photos

The Kona breakfast looks yummy

Glad you are sticking around. Kona is definitely an unsung hero for breakfast! We haven't tried it for dinner yet! You hear on here all the time about the Tonga Toast. Well, I don't really like bananas, and it looked really.... unhealthy. I'll just put it that way. Not that anything I put into my mouth this week was!!!

 

[flipflopmom]

We had another late "brunch" breakfast this morning, and after the previous morning's I was worried, but not too much. I had promised DH a morning to sleep in, and the girls really needed it,too, so we arrived at Ohana just in time for our 10:20 ADR.

Wait time was... Ohana style. Now, we obviously love Ohana. But getting seated quickly is just not in their vocabulary! It looks like we got our check at 11:45, so all in all not too bad. But this is definitely not a place to eat if you are in a hurry afterwards! I always allow 2 hours here from ADR time. We were only 1.5 this time! Our waitress was Thalia, and she was very nice. The girls love the juice, same is as served at Tusker House and Kona breakfast, so she had her work cut out for her keeping that on the table. They do bring a carafe of it.

Breakfast at Ohana is family style, basic breakfast foods. In the big "wok" bowl, you get eggs, bacon, sausage links, and biscuits, and can get more of any one time or an entire second bowl if you choose. They have Mickey waffles, which they bring around and give out as desired. Additionally, there is a good fruit plate, which we did get seconds of because I ate all the first one by myself!

The draw here is that you get good character interaction without worrying about being at a buffet, or timing your trips to the buffet around character visits. The food is basic, decent, but nothing exotic or particularly amazing!

The girls grabbed the bacon and biscuits out of the bowl before I got a picture, so that is what should be in the empty spot:

Fruit plate:

Another great table with a castle view:

Picture of DD2's plate. We learned to put some of everything she liked on the plate at character meals, b/c she would only grab a small bite while watching the characters. I think she ended up eating one sausage link and a bite of biscuit, so the plate looks like maybe she was almost finished.

The interaction, particularly with Stitch, is what has us coming back. Now, last year, we had a photopass picture done in which stitch is on the sidewalk eating an ice cream cone between my girls. Of course, DD2 only remembers sitting there and NOT having ice cream. She had started saying she wanted to yell at Stitch for eating her ice cream, so we knew this was going to be a fun morning! DH said I'd better take the picture so Stitch had an idea of what she was talking about, so I did.

First Lilo came. She was okay, didn't spend a lot of time, but I think she looks kinda creepy, so that's okay.

Then Pluto came by, and DD2 decided to scratch his ears:

Stitch finally made his way to the table. DH had a Virginia Tech visor on, and Stitch went nuts. Guess what? Stitch is a Hokie!!! He made the VT sign, which is indescribable unless you are a Hokie, which made us all laugh and do it with him! Then DD got up and SAID "STITCH, YOU ATE MY ICE CREAM". He rubbed his belly, looked at the picture, and hugged her. It was really cute. He was soooo much fun!

Here he is displaying the photo:

And making up to DD:

They had a little parade around the restaurant, and the girls got maracas and joined in:

Then came MICKEY! He was nice, took time for pictures and hugs. Thanks to the family at the next table for taking this one of us:

I know there are lots of character pictures here, but that's what this meal is about, not the food. Really. You won't leave hungry, but you won't leave thinking it's the best you've ever eaten or something you can't wait to get back to eat. But the "Ohana juice" as my girls call it, and the characters, make this a meal we will be back for!

 

[flipflopmom]

So this was our signature meal of the week. We rarely get to "nice" restaurants, as the closest is about 2 hours away, and when we do, the girls are with grandparents. However, we feel it is important for them to experience a nicer meal, so we do make sure we get one in at Disney. We had prepped them on appropriate table manners, and the meal was not only for enjoyment, but an exercise in etiquette.

For that reason, we treated it as an enjoyable, nice meal out instead of a touristy meal, and I did not take any pictures other than of the girls with their desserts. PLEASE READ about the experience, though, because it was out of this world!


To get there, we walked to MK and took a bus to the Yacht club. The restaurant is around back by the pool, so there are a few corridors to get there. We were in the first seating, and taken to a table by the pool, with Thomas as our waiter.

First impressions: I know a lot of people are trying to decide which 2TS dinner to go to, so I will do some comparision of this one and Narcoosee's, which we visited last year along the way.

Hands down, I prefer the decor and scenery at Narcoosee's, and overlooks the lagoon and MK. It's light and airy. The Yacht club has lots of light oak, and where we were seated overlooked the pool as I mentioned. Now, the girls and DH liked people watching. I sat with my back to the window, as people in various states of undress ARE NOT MY IDEA OF FINE DINING!!!!!!

That being said, in EVERY other way, Yachtsman is the clear, no hard choice, hands down winner. We this meal!

When Thomas first came by, with his napkin draped over his arm, I thought - Uh OH. He's going to be too stuffy, and this is not going to go well. There was a table behind us with everyone in suits, but other than that, we were the most dressed up there. The girls had on cotton dresses, I had on a skirt and blouse, and Dh was in a polo shirt and khaki shorts. I saw several men without collared shirts on.....

Anyway, Thomas turned out to be a gem, with a dry sense of humor, but very attentive and nice to the girls.

For apps: I was adventurous and took his recommendation of escargot. I have only had them once before, but I must say, the Yachtsman does a great job with them. They do have a lot of garlic, which was nice. The consistency was similar to button mushrooms, believe it or not. I really enjoyed them! It was served with a puff pastry on the side, which was just fluff, in my opinion. I did have a bite, and it was good, but too much other good stuff to come!

DD1 got a salad, which she really enjoyed.

DD2's app was chicken noodle soup, and she liked it, also.

DH got the lobster bisque, again on Thomas' reccomendation. Now he really enjoyed the lobster bisque at Chefs, but he said this one knocked it out of the water, and was one of the best foods he had eated EVER. I took one taste, and found it disgusting. But don't take my word for it, I hate the stuff!

The do bring bread service, with sourdough rolls and onion pull apart bread. They were both good, but the onion bread, which I thought I would love, was not our favorite. The sourdough was crusty on the outside, but moist on the inside. PERFECT!

On to the entrees:

I had the NY strip. Thomas said this was their signature steak, so I gave it a try. It was served with a rich, black peppercorn brandy sauce on top. I enjoyed the flavor, but if you are not a fan of pepper, ask for it on the side. There was also a white cheddar potato gratin, and I took a few bites of it. It was good, but I just couldn't handle more! All in all, a very, very tasty plate! I had the recommended glass of wine, which was an Australian red. Very good!

DH: of course he got the porterhouse, 28oz. HUGE cut of beef! And he finished it all! It came with fries, that were the best we had all week. I ate one, and they were delicious. He said the steak was very, very tender and flavorful.

We did a switch for the girls. DD2 LOVES steak, and DD1 hates it. So, she order the strip also. Yes, a huge amount of beef for a 3 year old, but she only had a bit. We did get the sauce on the side for her, which she loved to dip her steak in. We had Thomas box the rest, but it eventually got tossed. No room in the tummy!

DD1 got the grilled chicken kids meal, which came with cooked carrots and mashed potatoes. She ate the chicken, but hates cooked carrots. When she went to the restroom, Thomas came back by and said "When she comes back, be sure to tell her kids can't leave until they eat all their carrots." For some unknown reason, she believed him. She actually ate about half of one, and I really thought she was going to vomit. She proceeded to quickly pass the other 4 along to the rest of the family, and he came by and said "What did you do with the carrots, young lady?" She said "I tried, I promise. If you bring me some uncooked, I'll eat them all. I just can't do it." He laughed, and rubbed her back. So the stuffiness I was afraid of really wasn't there at all!

Another side note: there was a young Asian couple beside us. They didn't know enough English to decipher the menu well, and the girl ended up with the porterhouse. When it came out, her jaw dropped, and I thought she was going to pass out just looking at it! They did have someone on staff with what seemed to be a limited amount of knowledge of their language, and he helped them with their dessert choices and understanding the dining plan they were on and the bill, which I thought was nice.


After these HUGE steaks, dessert. You gotta be kidding me? I asked for Thomas' input again, and he recommended a sundae. It was a trio of sorbets, with cherries. Very good, but I could only eat a few tastes. The girls got Mickey dessert puzzles, and DH had creme' brulee', which I tasted and was very, very good.

Thomas was impeccable. The timing of delivery of the courses, keep drinks filled, perfect. He had a little crumb brush, and cleaned the table before bringing dessert! He was also very personable.

Finally, the table I mentioned in suits? The chef kept bringing out their food along with the waiter, and we noticed a little VIP attention going on. Curiousity got the best of us, and DH asked who they were. Thomas laughed, and said the manager's wife. He went on to share that lots of celebs eat there, including Mariah Carey frequently, and that we were sitting at Regis' table, and DD2 was in his seat! He said the Yacht club has a high security area, good enough for the President, and the Yachtsman is a favorite of them all.

All in all, it was a wonderful meal. We will definitely be back, and we will ask for Thomas. It lasted 2 hours, and our girls behaved perfectly throughout!

 

[vettegirl]

Great review of the YM. Our service and food was excellent as well!

 

[jakenjess]

We have got to try Yachtsman! Thanks for the great review!

 

[flipflopmom]

Great review of the YM. Our service and food was excellent as well!

We have got to try Yachtsman! Thanks for the great review!

Truly an outstanding meal!!!! One of the top of our adult lives!

 

[butiflfeet]

I've kind of been on the fence about Yachtsman because we've been to a few good steakhouses and wondered if it had anything special to offer but after your review its a definite ADR for us on our next trip!

 

[flipflopmom]

I've kind of been on the fence about Yachtsman because we've been to a few good steakhouses and wondered if it had anything special to offer but after your review its a definite ADR for us on our next trip!

You will NOT be disappointed. We liked the early seating, and went to DHS for EMH afterwards, but the whole Boardwalk area is right there, too for afterwards. Ask for Thomas - he's a class act!

 

[princesskayla]

Great dining reports. We are going in Sept for my 30th birthday and my BD meal is at Yatchsman. I am so glad to hear that is that wonderful. I a looking forward to take the most. After dinner we will walk to the marina and get on an illuminations cruise!! I hope it will be a wonderful birthday!

 

[flipflopmom]

Great dining reports. We are going in Sept for my 30th birthday and my BD meal is at Yatchsman. I am so glad to hear that is that wonderful. I a looking forward to take the most. After dinner we will walk to the marina and get on an illuminations cruise!! I hope it will be a wonderful birthday!

Sounds absolutely amazing! You will love it!!!!!!