Dining Review - March 2024

[Noreen411]

Introduction and a bit about our trip:

Noreen - Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking firm in New York City. I will be the author of the report.

Scott - my husband; Independent Contractor

I’m going to post a few pictures of Scott and I from the trip so you see what we look like

The traditional entering Magic Kingdom pictures with cute magic shots (we love the magic shots)



I like these pictures where it looks like it’s taken from above; the photographer had us hold hands so a cute version of this shot

Something a little different…walking with the animals


The photographer was so excited when he took this picture because the monorail was coming by at the perfect time




This cracked us up…the photographer said look up like you are bored of Disney; like that would ever happen to us, we love Disney



I also started working on a review/travelogue of our trip that I have to finish and then get posted.

We drove from Northern New Jersey to Florida. We took an extra day to drive down as we wanted to look around South Carolina a bit for a potential place to move to down the road. We also spent one of our days in Florida looking at an area on the West Coast of Florida for a potential place to move down the road.

We spent the time at Disney at a sister resort to our timeshare (Vistana Resort) and stayed at Vistana Villages. Both are great properties; we enjoy the large 24 hour fitness center at Vistana Villages so have been choosing this resort when available lately.

We were away from Wednesday 2/28/24 until Saturday 3/16/24.

We have Disney World Annual Passes. We have Incredipass as out of state pass holders.

I logged into Disney’s app or website 60 days before our trip each morning right before 6am when they opened and would book dinner ADRs. I kept checking and changing things as we went along. We continued making changes even when we were already at Disney, including some nights choosing to cancel our dinner reservations and wing it.

We had a few offsite meals which I will review as well.

Where you see well written descriptions of the dishes, I copied it from the menu.

During our trip we normally had a basic breakfast in the timeshare and some lunches were things like a protein bar and some baby carrots; so I won’t review those meals. We had more days this trip where we would skip breakfast and have lunch out than we’ve done in the past.

Our normal routine most days was to go to the gym in the morning, come back to the villa to shower and get dressed, then have breakfast before leaving for the park. Since we have annual passes, sometimes we would hop to another park during the day or after dinner.

 

[HolRae]

Sounds like a great trip. Excited to read all about it.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 2/28/24
We left the house at 4:30am heading to Greenville, South Carolina. It was raining very hard for much of the ride.

We got to Greenville, SC around 6:30pm and checked into the Residence Inn Greenville Spartanburg. We booked this a few hours before we arrived while driving (so convenient) for 2 nights. We freshened up then headed out to dinner. We chose to stay relatively close to the hotel for dinner and went to a restaurant called California Dreaming. We sat at the bar for dinner as we like to do that.




Scott had Bombay Straight with olives and I had a Blue Hawaiian: Bacardi rum, pineapple, sweet & sour, blue curaçao.


For an appetizer we ordered Seafood Nachos: Spicy shrimp, salmon, red onions, house-made chips, cheese sauce and lobster cream sauce with dill. I didn’t like the nachos but Scott thought they were OK.


Our dinner came with a salad that had a warm bacon vinaigrette. The salad was fantastic.


For dinner we shared the steak and shrimp with fries: Two 3 oz filet medallions with crispy fried shrimp. We often will share food or it’s just too much to eat. This was OK.


For dessert we had the croissant bread pudding. This was just OK, not the best bread pudding we’ve had. I don’t think the croissants held up to being soaked and cooked as well as other types of bread in bread pudding normally does.


The salad was the standout item of the meal.

When we got back to the hotel, they had cookies in the lobby. These were very tasty.

 

[Noreen411]

Sounds like a great trip. Excited to read all about it.

It was great. Thank you for joining

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 2/29/24 (Leap Year)
We had the included breakfast buffet at the hotel. I loved the little waffle maker where you pour the batter in, flip it, and when it beeps you have a waffle. They had a nice selection to choose from and a comfortable area to sit and enjoy your breakfast.





I have some weird food quirks that will come up throughout the report, but in general I don’t like anything with bones or that looks like it did when it was alive, I don’t like my food touching each other on a plate, and I like to dip in things like sauces, syrup, catchup as I don’t like my food soggy. For dipping ideally there is a separate cup/ramekin to hold whatever needs to be dipped into

My plate:


Scott’s plate:


After breakfast, we met with a realtor who showed us around some different nearby areas and some houses.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 2/29/24 Continued
After spending part of the day with the realtor, we drove around on our own, then headed into the city of Greenville, SC to look around, see some sights, etc.

We stopped at a cute candy store, River Street Sweets, and bought several items. These treats ended up coming back to New Jersey with us at the end of the trip and we enjoyed them.


Back at the hotel that night we unwrapped and re-wrapped each item to be able to post fresh pictures of the candy.



These were chocolate covered Oreos

These were chocolate covered pecan cluster (I think). This was the weakest of the different items we got. Nothing wrong with it, but if we ranked this landed at the bottom of the other items.

Pralines. Surprisingly good.

Chocolate bark. We weren’t crazy about the green one - it was Key Lime flavored and a bit too lime-y


While we were in the city of Greenville, we planned to go to a Sassafras restaurant for dinner. We had the address and kept walking up and down the main road trying to find it. We eventually gave up and drove back towards the hotel and returned to California Dreaming for dinner. It was more crowded tonight than last night.

Scott had a Martini. I had the Key Lime drink: Malibu rum, Crème de Cocoa, vanilla, triple sec, agave.


We shared the California Dreaming Salad: Mixed greens, ham and turkey, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, egg, tomatoes, almonds, topped with warm ham and bacon house dressing. The salad was fantastic.


We also shared a burger with fries. This was pretty good.


For dessert we had a brownie that had a melted Hershey bar on top. I wasn’t crazy about the dessert, it was just OK. Scott liked it more than I did. My favorite part was the piece of not melted Hershey bar that I had from it.


We enjoyed our meal at California Dreaming tonight more than last night. We sat at the bar again and had the same bartender.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 3/1/24
We enjoyed the hotel breakfast again today.

My plate - notice the syrup in a separate little bowl to dip my waffle in.


Scott’s plate:


We left around 8:30am to drive to Florida. There was torrential rain during this leg of the drive too. There was a lot of traffic.

We didn’t get to Vistana Villages until after 8pm. We checked in, unloaded the car, went to Publix to get some groceries, put any perishables away, and left the luggage and everything else to care for later.

We headed out to dinner and went to Saltgrass Steakhouse around 9:45pm. We’ve been here before on prior trips and always enjoy it.


We sat at the bar and the same bartender from the fall was here and she remembered us.

I forgot my phone at the villa so used Scott’s phone to take pictures at dinner tonight.

I had a raspberry mojito and Scott had a Martini


The bread and salad remind me of Outback Steakhouse. That’s not a complaint as we like Outback, just a comparison.



We shared the Salmon Oscar: Lump crab meat, lemon butter, red pepper flakes, green onions, capers, fried asparagus. This was very good. We had it with a side of smoked macaroni and cheese. Scott loves macaroni and cheese and will usually order it if he sees it on the menu. We also added the side of grilled shrimp. A little spicy for me but I’m wimpy when it comes to spice. Scott thought they were good.



For dessert we had the carrot cake which was delicious. Probably one of the best carrot cakes we’ve had.


This is my favorite time on vacation…you have arrived at your destination and still have the whole trip in front of you to look forward to. It’s a great feeling. This trip was a little different since we started with the extra day in South Carolina and arrived at Disney so late. On prior trips we would be fully unpacked/settled into the villa before going out to dinner, but this trip we just cleaned the villa, put away the perishable groceries, pulled out a few things that we’ll need tonight/tomorrow from the suitcases and left the rest to unpack/organize probably tomorrow.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/2/24
We started the day at Magic Kingdom.

We skipped breakfast this morning, partly because we haven’t organized/finished unpacking but mainly because Scott was excited about having a hot dog.

We went to Casey’s for lunch.


Scott had the foot long hot dog with fries, I had the corn dog nuggets with fries. We enjoyed our lunch sitting at a nice little table in front of Casey’s. We mobile ordered and I couldn’t figure out how to just order the nuggets without the fries; we could have shared one order of fries. The convenience of mobile ordering won out over waiting on line to order and have less fries (assuming it’s possible if you order at the counter).


That afternoon on the way out of the park we stopped at the Confectionary for Scott to get his chocolate dipped Mickey Mouse shaped chocolate chip cookie. He loved this cookie. I have to agree, it’s really good.


We went back to the villa in the afternoon to finish getting unpacked/organize the villa. This wasn’t a bad way to do this; it was much less rushed and stressful than normal

Later that evening we drove to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Narcoose’s. We went early to have pre-dinner cocktails at the bar.


We checked in at the restaurant early and let them know we were going to the bar. We didn’t want to be seated early, just wanted to let them know we were there and let them know that when we checked in.

We sat at the bar and recognized the bartender from prior trips here. We ordered our drinks, Makers Bourbon with a large ice cube for Scott and a White Sangria for me.


As soon as we received our drinks, we received a text that our table was ready. The bartender said Sit, Relax, he’ll let them know we are enjoying our cocktails and would rather be seated at our reservation time (not early).

Not even 10 minutes later the host comes to the bar to seat us. It was still well before our reservation time, but we didn’t want to hold them up so settled the bar bill and went with the host to our table.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/2/24 Continued
We were seated at our table. I always take a picture of Scott holding the menu and he was sitting there holding it waiting and I didn’t realize. I think I was still a little flustered at the rush to be seated at our table. Of course, he’s laughing at me as he’s sitting there holding the menu just waiting for me to realize.


The bread is great here.


For an appetizer we ordered the Ocean-Inspired Charcuterie Board: Ahi tuna pastrami, charred octopus, lobster sausage. This was just OK, we expected it to be better. I liked the Octopus the best of the 3 items and Scott liked the Lobster sausage the best. We wanted to try something different and are glad we tried it but would not order this appetizer again.

Below is the charcuterie board; I also took individual pictures of each item so you can see it better


Octopus:


Ahi tuna pastrami:


Lobster sausage:


For our entree we ordered the Blackened Redfish: Chorizo-Sunchoke hash, southern sweet corn, hominy, red pepper rouille. Wow, this was fantastic. Other than the red pepper rouille (the sauce on top that we scraped off) we practically licked the plate clean.


We also ordered the Butter Poached Lobster tail enhancement. Scott loved this; he thought it was great and said when we get home (back in New Jersey) he’s going to try to make a butter poached lobster tail. He’s made lobster tails before but never butter poached.


For dessert we had the Almond-crusted Cheesecake: Lambert cherry sauce, chantilly. This is a beautiful and great tasting dessert. We both really enjoyed it.


We enjoyed our meal at Narcoossee’s and will definitely be back.

We went back to the Magic Kingdom after dinner.

 

[auntfrannie]

Nice to see you're back and doing reviews!

 

[erinch]

Love your reviews!
We leave April 7, in 4 days and will be 2 weeks at the Vistana after a few days each at Hard Rock and AKL

 

[Counting Stars]

So glad to see you're back- always really enjoy your reviews!

 

[Noreen411]

Nice to see you're back and doing reviews!

Thank you

 

[Noreen411]

Love your reviews!
We leave April 7, in 4 days and will be 2 weeks at the Vistana after a few days each at Hard Rock and AKL

Hi. That sounds like a great trip; have a wonderful time.

We’ve been chatting about going to either Universal or Sea World one of these days.

We definitely appreciate the space of a timeshare villa over a hotel room especially for a longer trip.

Do you find it easy to do split stays with the hotels?

 

[Noreen411]

So glad to see you're back- always really enjoy your reviews!

Thank you

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/3/24
We started the day at Epcot. We skipped breakfast again planning to eat either breakfast or an early lunch at Epcot. We didn’t have a reservation for breakfast or lunch but planned to wing it and see what we were in the mood for.

We went to Shika Sai in Japan to see if we could do a walk up (no reservation) for lunch. The woman at the stand who took our name said that’s no problem and we can be seated in maybe 10 minutes. Thinking back I probably should have just used the app and joined the walk up wait list. Either way, we got a text and were seated within the 10 minutes she said.



Scott took a picture of me with the menu here too (I always take one of him)


I had the Sake Sangria: Fruit-infused sake cocktail. Scott had a Coke. The Sake Sangria was pretty good, it was light and refreshing. It was not a strong drink which is good for me since I’m a bit of a wimpy drinker. Scott had the same issue ordering his drink that he had our last visit to Shika Sai; he tried to order his normal Bombay Sapphire with olives but the waitress didn’t understand what he wanted so he just ordered a Coke.


We shared our food

Dragon Roll: Barbecued freshwater eel, avocado, cucumber, and shrimp tempura. This was really good and super fresh tasting. We knew we would like this since we had it last trip too.


Unagi Don: Grilled freshwater eel served over tamagoyaki on a bed of steamed rice, drizzled with a savory sauce. We really enjoyed this; we knew we would as it was a standout when we ordered it last trip.


Golden Philadelphia roll: Tempura-fried Philadelphia roll topped with salmon roe, eel sauce and spicy mayo. This was a new one for us to try. Scott likes Philadelphia rolls when we have sushi at home so thought he would like this one. He didn’t like the spicy mayo; he said it overwhelmed the taste of the whole roll even after removing the mayo from the top. I am not a huge Philly roll fan normally and agreed with Scott’s assessment. We wouldn’t order this roll again.


While the Golden Philadelphia roll was a disappointment, everything else was great. We will come back to Shika Sai again.

One thing I thought of later…I remember when we went to Shika Sai during our Sept/Oct 2023 trip, they mentioned the concept of things changing with the seasons. I didn’t specifically look for anything different but the menu looked the same now as it did in the fall?

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/3/24 Continued
Later that evening we drove to the Boardwalk for our dinner reservation at Trattoria Al Forno. We went early to walk around a bit and go to Abracadabar for pre-dinner cocktails.

I had the Hoodunit’s Punch: Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Orange juice, Pineapple juice, Coconut. This was my favorite cocktail of the trip. Scott had Bombay Sapphire straight with olives.


We were seated on time at Trattoria Al Forno


We were quickly brought bread.


We shared our food as we often do

We ordered Polpette (meatballs). These were good. We probably should have just ordered 1 rather than 2. They were filling.


We ordered a Bianca pizza (off menu item); it’s a white pizza that we had on our last trip. We were seated next to a couple that had it and it looked fantastic. They raved about it so we had it our second visit to Trattoria Al Forno on our last trip and really liked it too. We were excited to have it again. It was just as good as we remembered.


The Bianca pizza was very good but looked different than when we had it during our September/October 2023 trip. Still just as tasty, but it looked a little different. I think instead of the blobs (for lack of a more technical term) of ricotta that they used in the fall, it was spread more evenly this trip. I found the picture from our fall 2023 and posted it below for reference. I think i preferred it the way they did it this time with the ricotta more spread out than blobs.


Trattoria al Forno continues to be a solid dinner that we both enjoy.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/3/24 Continued
We skipped dessert at Trattoria al Forno and headed to Disney Springs where we walked around a bit, but our plan was to pick up cookies from the Summer House cookie bar and donuts from Everglazed. We brought our goodies back to the villa to consume throughout the trip.

We ended up not even eating any of our snacks that night when we got back to the villa.

At Summer House cookie bar, it was very convenient to get in the short, quick moving line to order our snacks. Everything looked good. We ordered a lemon cookie and a blondie. Both were wrapped up to bring back to the villa.

At Everglazed we got 4 donuts (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Strawberry Glazed, Fruity Pebbles, and Cookies & Cream) which were also packaged nicely; I like how they are individually boxed so they don’t rub on each other as they would if they were in one big box.

I’m going to show each of the treats here, even though we ate them later in the trip. I remembered to take pictures of the donuts when they were cut in half to show the insides so am including that here as well (just to keep it all together) even though the pictures span most of the trip.

Summer House Lemon Cookie: This was OK. We nibbled on a few pieces of it over the trip; most of it ended up coming home to New Jersey with us. It was just OK, not my favorite cookie.


Summer House Blondie: This was a great blondie; it was tasty, not dry, we both enjoyed it. I managed to have a small piece of it before Scott finished it.


Everglazed Cinnamon Toast Crunch Donut. This was a tasty donut.



Everglazed Strawberry Glazed Donut. This ended up being my favorite of the 4 donuts we ordered. I liked it since it was a little more plain than the others. Plain meaning it didn’t have as much cream/toppings on it. The donut itself is super fresh and tasty so it doesn’t need all the stuff on it.




Everglazed Fruity Pebbles Donut. This was good and interesting to have a cereal we both remembered eating as kids on a donut; it was very nostalgic.



Everglazed Cookies & Cream Donut. This one was probably Scott’s favorite of the 4 donuts we ordered.

 

[KimM82]

Following along! Looking forward to some Everglazed donuts next month!

 

[erinch]

Hi. That sounds like a great trip; have a wonderful time.

We’ve been chatting about going to either Universal or Sea World one of these days.

We definitely appreciate the space of a timeshare villa over a hotel room especially for a longer trip.

Do you find it easy to do split stays with the hotels?

Since we have the car, what we do is pack a smaller suitcase with just what we will need for the couple of days at a hotel. Then the rest of the contents of our house (lol) is ready to be toted into the Vistana. I am a Princess. I bring my own coffee maker, which grinds coffee, and beans, and LOTs of other stuff!

I love a couple of days at Universal, and am excited to sit on an AKL balcony. The price point at the Vistana is such that we can get an entire week there for the cost of 2 discounted nights at a deluxe hotel. So it works out great. My husband doesn't like split stays, BTW, although he is perfectly happy when we check in. It is just the complexity in packing that annoys him.