Here's my complete review from June:
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=398495
We're back from a 3 night visit to the Boardwalk Inn Concierge. We thought it was excellent!
My wife and I planned a short weekend getaway and decided to check out Disney (without the kids) for this trip. We wanted to try some of the other Concierge services after our stay with the Polynesian. The Boardwalk Inn proved to be an excellent choice for adults and the concierge service on top of it made for a wonderful experience.
We had been in contact with the concierge only two weeks prior to our arrival as I made the reservations on short notice. Amy and Stephanie at the planning desk went out of their way to ensure all my advanced planning was taken care of according to my requests. They were/are a delight to deal with and very personable over the phone.
We checked in on Friday and promptly had our luggage carted off and car valet parked. At the front desk, the CM, Shad, was able to handle all of our needs for tickets and other arrangements we didn't handle via the concierge planning desk. We were assigned our room immediately and our luggage arrived moments later.
The rooms have a "cheerful" feeling to their design, which follows a 1900's theme as does the rest of the boardwalk. The carpets, wallpaper and art work all help to create the feeling of a 1900's resort environment. Our room had a balcony over the boardwalk where we could view all of the activity, yet we did not have a problem with noise from the other guests enjoying the activities at night. The activity died down at around 11:00PM as the "attractions" were closed by then, so if you are bothered by noise, it's done around then.
The concierge lounge was beautiful, and provided a balcony from where you could view the Epcot fireworks each night. We enjoyed the continental breakfast offerings every morning. During the day they offered light snacks and in the evening, hors doeurves such as "Chicken Wellington", "Bacon Wrapped Meatballs" or "Lobster Turnovers". Later there was a variety of sweets with cordials. Altogether, excellent quality, but with exception of the early morning offerings, the food is not something to base a meal on! Suffice to say, however, that it will "finish you off", though.
If you are planning on feeding a family of 5 on just the concierge offerings for a week, do everyone a favor an go somewhere else. There isnt enough food to do it and theres nothing more pathetic than someone carting off every single morsel when theres people waiting. We all know what youre doing.
Oh, and regarding a touchy subject, we found that all the parents and children in the concierge section were well behaved and properly supervised by their parents. I found the people visiting in the lounge be openly friendly and/or quietly unintrusive. Basically we had a bunch of class acts there over the weekend, parents and children included.
We enjoyed the company of lounge hosts/hostesses a great deal. They were always smiling, laughing and eager to help. We had a wonderful time catching up with Margaret and Mercedes when they were around, and everyone else was simply wonderful as well.
While we were at the park, we came to depend on the planning desk for last minute changes. Stephanie and Amy were our "heroines" and wrangled us through a number of last minute dining arrangement changes, scoring unlikely but perfect PS's at just about everywhere we wanted when we needed it. Cheers to you, Stephanie and Amy!
One of those dining arrangements was at Bistro De Paris (don't hate us! I heard it's the best Epcot restaurant.) Well, the advice I got from the "Disboards" bore itself out to be true. This was simply the best dining experience I have ever had at Epcot!
The manager, Margaritte, was absolutely and sincerely sweet and charming as you could hope for! Our waiter, Julian, was the best waiter we have ever had in Orlando, not just Disney, Orlando. This guy was so polished and smooth, half the dining experience was enjoying his proficiency and skill. Look, if you've ever seen me, you know I dine out often, and this guy is one of the best I've seen out there. Enough said. (Margaritte, if you read this, I want you to know what a struggle I had to prevent the spell-checker from changing your name to "Margarita". You had to be good for me to put up that kind of fight - LOL!)
So while I will never, ever go to the country of France again, suffice to say I recommend the rest of you go to Epcot and enjoy it there! Ask for Julian and say "Hello" to Margaritte while you're there.
Now on to the parks:
We hit the MK for E-night late Friday evening. POC, HM and COP (Open!) were walk-ons. Other rides had varying lengths of wait. Typically 30-45 for the high demand rides. We also did MGM and Epcot over the weekend. The lines were longer than we cared for, but we usually go during the "off" season when even Fantasy Land rides can be a walk-on. We weren't really there for the rides this time, though. I brought my wife there so she could...*gasp*...(don't hate me!) ...SHOP! So that's what we did. I looked for Disney hats to use for Golf and she shopped for everything else. I settled on matching "GRUMPY" hats for myself and my boss. Meanwhile my wife decided on some small gifts and opted for us to stop by a bunch of major outlets on the way back home on Route 192 (but that's for another post...)
As for the meals, here's where we went:
Boardwalk - Big River Grille - We ordered the Mahi Sandwich and Hamburger. Both were pretty good and the beer was great!
Japan - Teppanyaki Dining Rooms - Lots of fun, but it was mostly the other company and several servings of Sake I'm thinking about. My wife and I both had "Bonsai" Steak and Lobster along with the Sake and beer. The cook actually lost hold of a utensil he was spinning and it landed in front of (not on!) my wife, but we moved over to the side after that. The cooking experience was still fun, but we were a bit cautious (uh...yeah...) after that.
Fulton's Crab house - We had appetizers and Lobster Bisque here. All good, all delicious, great service! This was our second time back here, particularly for the Bisque which is excellent.
Bistro De Paris - Again, the service was outstanding! My wife had the lobster and I had the Lamb. Wonderful presentation, excellent overall experience. We decided to split the Grand Marnier Soufflé for desert Perfect! We returned to the concierge lounge later and raided the deserts there. We had 3 chocolate strawberries, 2 cookies and some tarts. If calories were sin wed be burning, friends
So anyway, we had some great meals, lots of fun and wonderful service on part of the concierge. This trip proved to us that even during peak months we could have a good time at Disney. We're not done yet either, as we'll be heading back in the fall to try out the Beach Club and then the Polynesian again later this year. Gotta love being local.
Thanks to all the posters who contributed their experience and helped to make ours perfect!
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and are really picky eaters.
