We arrived back at the room, and packed up our things for a bit before heading out to our last dinner of the trip...Boatwrights!
I was very interested to see the other Port Orleans resort after staying at POFQ for the past few days, and thought it was nice that they were only a short walk away from each other. It was a very direct route (even WE didnt get lost!), and we strolled along the river for a few minutes before arriving at POR.
From our first impressions, while POR did seem a LOT larger than POFQ, we immediately preferred the theme there. The atmosphere was really nice, and it had a lot of fun touches that made it feel a lot more Disney than POFQ to us.
Plus: horses!
We walked around what Im guessing is the central area of the resort for a few more minutes before checking in to dinner.
For as little as it is talked about on the Dis, Boatwrights was pretty busy that evening, and we waited for a couple of minutes before being seated.
Eventually we were seated in what seemed to be the "main" dining room, where there was a giant boat along the ceiling, and various tools on the walls, giving the feeling of dining in a workshop, which was kind of cool and unique.
The floor:
The menu (and cute napkins).
Our server came by, and gave us what he called "the world's BEST cornbread," which was an intriguing build-up.
Our impression: while very good, we're not convinced we'd go as far as to say it's the world's BEST
. But still, very good.
I'm sure you've noticed by now that DF and I aren't big drinkers, but on our last night of our trips, we usually get a drink with dinner. DF chose the Long Island Iced Tea.
DF: This was a dangerous drink - you couldn't taste that there was liquor in it, but it was not light on the liquor at all.
And I went with the white Sangria.
This was really good, nice and orange-y and sweet.
DF ordered the jambalaya for his dinner, and upon hearing that he liked spicy food, the server delivered these as well:
Our entrees then arrived!
Jambalaya:
DF: This was good, the rice was overcooked so it was a bit tacky, but that could be the "proper" way jambalaya is supposed to be served. (Any jambalaya experts out there?) It came with 2 jumbo shrimp and 2 andouille sausages, and was a healthy portion of food. It wasn't very spicy, but I added the jalapenos and hot sauce that was brought over to it as well.
And I got the beef medallions, which came with mac and cheese, vegetables, and a crayfish beignet.
So remember how I was the one in the last chapter who wasn't hungry and was thinking of skipping this dinner?
Yeah, I ate the ENTIRE thing.
The beef was excellent, it had a great flavor and was perfectly cooked. I'm not sure what cheeses were in the mac and cheese, but it was super good and creamy. The asparagus was really good as well, nicely cooked. I'd never had a crayfish beignet before, it was a little dry, but good too.
We decided to pass on dessert at Boatrights, remembering that we still hadn't tried the legendary beignets at POFQ, and well, carpe diem!
Overall, we had a great time at Boatrights. We really didn't know what to expect going in, but the atmosphere was really nice, the staff was great, and the food was really good. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone, especially if you're staying at POFQ or POR.
We strolled back over to POFQ (this time I did almost get us lost, not sure of whether or not to go back over the bridge&luckily DF had a better sense of direction than I did there), and went over to Sassagoula Floatworks&because it was now finally time for us to try the one, the only, the beignets!
The beignets are cooked to order, and I decided to get us 3 of them to share. The nice CM working the beignet fryer slipped in a 4th beignet with our order, and topped the fried dough with an unimaginable amount of powdered sugar. DF saved us a table while I used one of our snack credits for the beignets, accidentally spilling sugar everywhere over the counter.
Dont worry, it happens ALL the time, the cashier laughed as I attempted to make the least amount of mess possible.
Seriously, YOU try carrying these without making a mess!
I brought the beignets back to the table, and we dug in, expecting sugary fried dough bliss&
While they were certainly sugary fried dough, it was just way too much for it to be bliss (at least, for us). They were ok, but not what we expected. They were unexpectedly crunchy, and really just seemed to be a too-big vessel for loads of powdered sugar. They were difficult to eat without coating a 5-foot-radius in powdered sugar. We only ate a beignet each before throwing the rest away.
We headed back to the room, and packed up the rest of our things. We still had an almost-full day at the parks ahead of us the next day, but knew that wed be leaving the room early (COMPLETELY out of character for us&) for our breakfast the next day.
(I started to mention it earlier, so I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about our impressions of POFQ. Unfortunately, we were not as smitten with the resort as I know a bunch of you all are. The resort itself was nice, I thought that the theme was good, and we enjoyed walking along the quaint streets of the resort. We did think that the theme at POR seemed a bit more elaborate though, from our brief visits to the resort, the buildings were a lot more themed, and the central area was a lot prettier (in my opinion).
While we thought that the resort overall (save for those giant creepy masks at Sassagoula) was nice enough, the room fell more into the ranking of satisfactory for our short stay. On our first night there, the air conditioning kept clicking on and off and on and off and on and off very loudly every 3 minutes or so until we finally gave up and turned it off. We ended up using the room fan instead at night, which was fine, since it wasn't really hot outside anyways, but in July I could see that being an issue.
It was obvious that the room had seen a lot of visitors in its time (which is, of course, to be expected, this is Disney World after all!), as there were a few scuff marks on the walls and whatnot.
We did, however, have another reminder of recent guests - these glasses were like this when we arrived at the room upon check-in. We didnt touch them for several days. Mousekeeping didnt either. (They were replaced with clean glasses mid-way through the week.)
I dont want to give the impression that I was walking through the room marking off a clipboard of faults. There was nothing that we needed to complain about, and again, I know many of you have had wonderful experiences at POFQ. We both agreed that it was "ok for this trip, but never again.")
both for the food and the environment... (& you weren't kidding when you mentioned being early for your ADRs... but the AKL is a nice place to kill time...)
Also that Belgian waffle... well I think that might just be enough twisting of our rubber arms.
