Dining Review - November 2025/December 2025/January 2026

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 12/24/25 Continued
At Epcot we stopped in Connections Cafe since Scott wanted a vanilla latte from Starbucks. While we were there, I saw they had the Baumkuchen cakes so we got a vanilla one packed up for later.


Back at the resort later that night we had our dessert…
We shared the Vanilla Baumkuchen which was very good and not too sweet.



We also shared our donuts from Everglazed which were very good.
The Poinsettia donut



The Tree Cake donut

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Another kindred moment - love a French martini. At Yachtsman, by any chance is your favorite server David? So many great ones there but David is the one we happen to see regularly. As I said in a previous post, hoping the upcoming refurb is a good one and doesn't monkey with the things we love ... namely onion rolls!!

 

[Noreen411]

Second instance of having (almost) the same order as you. The Serenity is probably my very favorite drink on all of property. SO delicious. I generally get the simply fish as well. I've always really enjoyed bluezoo and something to keep in mind is that they offer a happy hour from 4-6pm daily with specials. Crab nachos are fantastic. The tuna tartare with nitro sriracha is another fave.

Too funny. I’d say Serenity is my 2nd favorite cocktail this trip, trailing slightly behind my favorite Hoodunit’s Punch from Abracadabar.
We really liked BlueZoo, good to know about the happy hour. We had the Tuna Tartare at BlueZoo the next time we went and we thought it was great, the best tuna tartare of the trip.

 

[Noreen411]

Another kindred moment - love a French martini. At Yachtsman, by any chance is your favorite server David? So many great ones there but David is the one we happen to see regularly. As I said in a previous post, hoping the upcoming refurb is a good one and doesn't monkey with the things we love ... namely onion rolls!!

Hi. The waiter we had at Yachtsman’s was Miguel this trip, he was great. Honestly, I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad server at Yachtsman’s. I really hope they don’t mess that up and take away our beloved onion rolls.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 12/25/25
Scott made us breakfast; this is on the platter before we split it onto our individual plates.


If we thought it was weird being at Disney on Christmas Eve, it was even weirder being in Disney on Christmas Day rather than doing our normal family things.

We spent the day in Magic Kingdom.

We had dinner reservations at Tony’s and were seated at an outside table right along the railing. We normally don’t like eating outside but it was actually very nice; inside the restaurant was very loud so that was a nice surprise that it was calmer outside.


We both drank soda.

We started with the Fried Mozzarella: with spicy creamy tomato sauce. This was pretty good, a decent mozzarella stick but not anything special.


I ordered the Spaghetti and Meatballs: house made beef and pork meatballs served over spaghetti with Tony’s Marina sauce. I didn’t like this dish; the consistency of the meatballs was weird, they were very mushy. Scott thought it was OK, it reminded him of MRE’s (some sort of packaged food) from when he was in the Marine’s.


Scott ordered the Chicken Parmigiana: lightly breaded chicken breast baked in Tony’s marinara sauce with mozzarella, served with spaghetti. We ended up switching dishes. The chicken parm was better than I expected it to be and much better than the meatballs.


We skipped dessert since nothing was jumping out at us. I’m glad we tried Tony’s. It was convenient since we were in Magic Kingdom.

Later we picked up some snacks from the Confectionary on Main Street that we brought back to the villa with us and ate for dessert that night.

We got the Christmas sugar cookie which was very good.


We also got the vanilla cupcake which while a simple vanilla cupcake, is very good.



Just tossing in a few pictures from Christmas Day in Magic Kingdom…
Under the Tree so you can see our matching Christmas shirts


At Starlight Parade


It was very festive being in Magic Kingdom for Christmas, but it was odd not to be home

 

[patclairesmom]

Enjoying all of your food reviews. Love how you go back to your favorites. How fun to be at MK on Christmas!

 

[Noreen411]

Enjoying all of your food reviews. Love how you go back to your favorites. How fun to be at MK on Christmas!

Thank you. It’s funny that our favorites will change from trip to trip, but we do tend to go back to favorite places multiple times a trip.

Magic Kingdom on Christmas was definitely an experience, it was fun, it was festive, it was crowded; but it seemed odd to us to be at Disney rather than home on Christmas.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 12/26/25
We had an interesting breakfast today. We still had some leftover Prime Rib from Yachtsman’s Steakhouse so Scott made little prime rib sandwiches.


He wasn’t sure that would be enough so also made a pancake and sausages.


We each had a bit of both.

We went to Disney Springs and had lunch at the Boathouse later that afternoon. We both drank soda.


We started with 6 Wild Sea of Cortez shrimp: London dry gin cocktail sauce. Our favorite Shrimp cocktail.


I had the Classic Cheeseburger: with fresh cut fries, boathouse custom grind, lettuce, tomato, onion. This was a great burger, the best one we’ve had on property. Although the Saltgrass burger gets a slight edge, even though it’s offsite. The fries at Boathouse are the best Disney fries. I gave Scott half the burger. I don’t know why we haven’t had a burger at the Boathouse before, but it’s definitely something we’ll have again.


Scott ordered the Filet Mignon Sliders: 3 sliders, maitre d’butter. We know these are great. I had one of the sliders.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 12/26/25 Continued
We stopped at Everglazed to get some donuts

Blueberry Maple which was packed up to eat another time


Brooklyn Blackout which was packed up to eat another time


Christmas Wreath which we shared while at Everglazed. This was very good, nice and soft and fresh, just what you want from a donut. The little sugar candy pieces were very hard so we picked those off, they were more decoration even though they were edible.



Later that evening we were getting a little hungry, but didn’t feel like a whole big meal. We didn’t really feel like going out either. We ordered Flippers Pizza, a cheese pie half meatball and went to pick it up and bring it back to the resort. We could have had it delivered but figured we’d take a little ride and get it. Sometimes it’s nice to just eat something simple like pizza sitting on the couch watching a movie.



We wanted a little something sweet after the pizza and remembered we had the chocolate from Bourbon Steak so ate that. These were really good. I still haven’t found a way to order them online.

 

[Trish24]

Nore

Friday 12/26/25
We had an interesting breakfast today. We still had some leftover Prime Rib from Yachtsman’s Steakhouse so Scott made little prime rib sandwiches.
View attachment 1044646

He wasn’t sure that would be enough so also made a pancake and sausages.
View attachment 1044645

We each had a bit of both.

We went to Disney Springs and had lunch at the Boathouse later that afternoon. We both drank soda.
View attachment 1044647

We started with 6 Wild Sea of Cortez shrimp: London dry gin cocktail sauce. Our favorite Shrimp cocktail.
View attachment 1044648

I had the Classic Cheeseburger: with fresh cut fries, boathouse custom grind, lettuce, tomato, onion. This was a great burger, the best one we’ve had on property. Although the Saltgrass burger gets a slight edge, even though it’s offsite. The fries at Boathouse are the best Disney fries. I gave Scott half the burger. I don’t know why we haven’t had a burger at the Boathouse before, but it’s definitely something we’ll have again.
View attachment 1044649

Scott ordered the Filet Mignon Sliders: 3 sliders, maitre d’butter. We know these are great. I had one of the sliders.
View attachment 1044650
View attachment 1044651

great review. I have just booked a reservation at Boathouse after reading this for our trip in 3 weeks. Your reviews have been so helpful - thank you!

 

[Noreen411]

Nore

great review. I have just booked a reservation at Boathouse after reading this for our trip in 3 weeks. Your reviews have been so helpful - thank you!

I hope you enjoy; there are so many great choices at the Boathouse and at the various restaurants. I would love to hear what the final lineup for your trip ends up being and how you enjoy it. Have a great time.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 12/27/25
We spent most of the day on the East Coast of Florida looking at the area my sister just moved to (she moved in January 2026) as well as stopping at one of the beaches near the area she moved to.

That evening we drove to the Dolphin and valet parked for our dinner reservation at BlueZoo. When we checked in we asked if we could be seated with the same waiter as last visit (Sammy B). They were able to seat us with him.


We were seated in this kind of round little booth, but we were both wondering where we’re supposed to sit in this little booth. Right next to each other? When we were a bit further away sort of facing each other we kept kicking each other. We ended up sitting right next to each other. We are easily amused so pondering the proper seating configuration for our little booth kept us entertained for a bit.


Scott had a Martini and I had Serenity: Effen cucumber vodka, st germain elderflower liqueur, strawberry, rosemary, fresh lime, pineapple, basil leaf. This is a great drink, light and refreshing.


The bread with saffron butter is very good.


We ordered the tuna tartare: sesame soy dressed grade aa ahi tuna, avocado, wasabi crema, nori ash, crispy wonton, nitro sriracha. This was delicious, our favorite tuna tartare of the trip. We will often get a tuna tartare appetizer when we see it on the menu. The nitro sriracha was a bit weird as the waiter (or whoever brings it over) will pour something in a bowl and it freezes then the little broken/frozen sriracha is dumped on the plate. We pretty much ignored the sriracha pieces.


We also had the Maine Lobster “poke bowl”: butter poached lobster, tempura claw, sesame oshizushi rice, shaved asparagus, watermelon radish, mustard greens, ginger ponzu. We knew this would be delicious since we had it our last visit to BlueZoo and loved it. There is alot of lobster in this dish. Two pictures below to show the different angles.



For an entree we shared an off menu dish, Surf & Turf. This was delicious, you can’t go wrong with a properly cooked surf and turf.


We skipped dessert at BlueZoo as we were stuffed.

Walking around the Boardwalk, we ended up getting a vanilla cupcake and one of Scott’s favorite Mickey shaped chocolate chip cookies that we ate at a little table on the Boardwalk.

Scott already pulled off and started eating one of the dipped ears before I took the picture.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 12/28/25
Scott woke up not feeling well, he was feverish, congested, and had a sore throat. He rested most of the day.

When I came back from the gym, Scott made us little breakfast sandwiches using the onion rolls we still had left from Yachtsman’s Steakhouse. These rolls are so good even a few days later.


We also had some fruit


For lunch Scott wanted Subway sandwiches. I’m not a big fan of Subway in general, but since he didn’t feel good, whatever he wanted was fine so we picked up Subway sandwiches that we ate back in the villa.


Scott had a full size Ham Turkey Stacker. He enjoyed his sandwich.


I had a small grilled chicken avocado sandwich. This was just OK.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 12/28/25 Continued
That evening for dinner Scott said he was craving Friendly’s. We don’t have a Friendly’s near us at home, but Scott used to go to Friendly’s when he was a kid and loved it. There was a Friendly’s not too far away from the resort so we ordered food that we picked up and ate back in the villa.

We had a Fried Clam basket appetizer. Scott thought this was great; I thought it was just OK.


We both ordered a Turkey Club Sandwich with French fries. We should have just ordered one to share since we each only ate half of it. Just one picture but both looked the same; it’s a large portion.


We ordered a side of stuffing which tasted like Stove Top stuffing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; Stove Top stuffing is pretty tasty.



We also asked for cranberry sauce and got a chuckle out of the little cup of cranberry sauce.


For dessert we shared the Everglazed donuts

The Blueberry Maple donut was very good. The Maple flavor was very subtle



The Brooklyn Blackout was good, but very rich. I’m glad the cake part was vanilla cake or it would have been too much

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 12/29/25
Scott was feeling better today so we started the day at Magic Kingdom.

Wanting to continue to see some of the holiday decorations at different resorts, we went to the Wilderness Lodge. While there, Scott got a vanilla latte from Roaring Fork at the Wilderness Lodge. It was a bit odd that you ordered it at the cashier, but then we picked it up at a little shelf closer to where people eat. I guess that makes sense for food, but I was surprised they did that with coffee too. Scott said it was a pretty good latte.


That evening we drove to the Contemporary for our dinner reservation at Steakhouse 71.


Scott had a coke and I had an Old Fashioned


We started with the Lump Crab Cakes: Old Bay Remoulade, Corn hash. This was very good, a nice crab flavor and not too much filler.


We both ordered the Stack Burger: Signature beef blend, pork belly, American cheese, lemon aioli, red onion, house-made pickles, brioche bun. The burger is actually on the lounge menu (not the restaurant menu) and the waitress said the burger is the only item from the lounge menu they can serve in the restaurant. The burger was very good. The funny thing is people at nearby tables saw us with burgers and asked where that was since they didn’t see it on the menu; once we told them, some of them ordered the burger too. Just one picture but they both looked the same.


Scott also ordered a side of broccolini, this must have been the seasonal vegetable.


Scott was starting to feel worse so we ordered dessert to go.

As we were walking back to the car, we saw the 8:30 Magic Kingdom fireworks from the Contemporary parking lot so stopped to watch it.



Dessert was the Steakhouse 71 Signature Chocolate cake: 15 layers of Jack Daniel’s infused decadent chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, raspberries. The cake was good, it wasn’t overly sweet.



We’re glad we gave Steakhouse 71 another try. We tried it around when it first opened but were disappointed. This visit was much better than last time. We won’t necessarily rush back, but it was good and we’ll probably come back on another trip.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Glad you were able to return to bluezoo. It's one of my favorites but I haven't been in quite some time. Need to get back there for a Serenity and the nitro tuna app. That little booth looks cute but does sound impractical for sitting. Good to know Steakhouse 71 allows you to order the burger in the dining room during dinner service. I think it is on the menu at lunch. It's definitely one of my favorite burgers on property along with Boathouse, Ale & Compass, Yak and Yeti, and Geyser Point ... haven't tried Wailulu yet but it's on my list. I hear the Sanaa burger is really good too, but I like so many other things on the menu I've never tried it. Glad Scott wasn't feeling under the weather for too long. How nice to have your sister near to WDW!

 

[Noreen411]

Glad you were able to return to bluezoo. It's one of my favorites but I haven't been in quite some time. Need to get back there for a Serenity and the nitro tuna app. That little booth looks cute but does sound impractical for sitting. Good to know Steakhouse 71 allows you to order the burger in the dining room during dinner service. I think it is on the menu at lunch. It's definitely one of my favorite burgers on property along with Boathouse, Ale & Compass, Yak and Yeti, and Geyser Point ... haven't tried Wailulu yet but it's on my list. I hear the Sanaa burger is really good too, but I like so many other things on the menu I've never tried it. Glad Scott wasn't feeling under the weather for too long. How nice to have your sister near to WDW!

We have had a lot of really good meals at Disney.
So far my sister is loving living in Florida
While Scott felt better on Monday, that didn’t last and he was worse on Tuesday

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 12/30/25
Scott was feeling even worse today so we made an appointment for him at Urgent Care, they had an appointment available at noon.

We had breakfast, just one picture but they both looked the same.


After the appointment at Urgent Care, and picking up the various prescriptions, Scott wanted a Subway sandwich for lunch. We stopped to pick them up on the way back to the resort.


Scott had the same sandwich he had last time, a full size Ham and Turkey Stacker.


I tried something different, the small Festive Turkey sandwich. There was a picture of cranberry sauce on the side in a little cup so I asked for that, but the lady making the sandwiches squirted some nasty cranberry sauce liquid on my sandwich. When we got back to the villa, I ended up taking the lettuce, onions, and any veggies off and washing them in the sink to get rid of the cranberry liquid and wiping the sandwich with napkins to get rid of as much as I could. It was just edible after that.


Scott slept most of the afternoon. When he woke up that evening he wanted dinner, but we didn’t want to go far. We decided to get dinner from the Breeze Bar & Grill right at Vistana Villages. I was going to walk over to pick dinner up but Scott wanted to take a walk with me.

We stopped first at the Marketplace and picked up a Christmas looking sugar cookie. They were giving out samples this morning and it was tasty so we got a whole one tonight. I’m guessing since it looked very Christmassy they probably weren’t going to make more of them. We also picked up some soda bottles while there.

The Breeze Bar and Grill is in the next section of the resort, maybe a 5 minute walk from our room. People were hanging out at the bar, eating at both the indoor and outdoor tables, there was a musician/singer performing. It seemed like a nice place to hang out. We never really spend much time enjoying the amenities of the resort other than using the gym and sometimes the pool, but maybe one of these days we will.

We ordered our food to go so Scott could get back to resting and hopefully will be much better for tomorrow.

I got the Philly Cheesesteak: Philly beef, grilled onions, peppers, mushrooms, Swiss cheese, and garlic aioli on a toasted hoagie. This was surprisingly good, better than I expected it to be.


Scott had the Burnt Ends Macaroni and Cheese: Cavatappi pasta, white aged cheddar sauce, charred brisket tips. He liked his dish as well.


Neither of us finished our food, but we definitely enjoyed it.

Our Christmas Sugar cookie was a nice little sweet treat to share after dinner

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 12/31/25
Scott was feeling much better when he woke up today. Earlier in the week, when he first started not feeling well and we saw how cold it was going to be, we rearranged our plans for tonight (New Year’s Eve). We still wanted to ring in the New Year at Epcot, but rather than spending the afternoon/evening/night there we planned to go to Epcot later.

We started the day at Disney Springs.

We had lunch at Homecoming and sat at the bar. We both drank soda.


We had two items that we shared.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp: Tossed in our house made hot honey and served over lightly dressed greens with a remoulade dipping sauce. We both enjoyed the shrimp, this was a very good dish, but a bit messy.


Thigh high chicken biscuits: Three biscuits topped with Chef Art’s famous fried chicken thighs and B&B pickles. Drizzled with hot honey. These were just OK, we’ve had them before when they’ve been great, but this time they were just OK.

We used to love Homecoming; it’s still decent but not as good as it used to be. Maybe it was just an off day.

We went to Summerhouse bakery and got a vanilla latte for Scott. We also got a Wild Thai Banana cookie which was frozen to come home with us. We ate this on January 25, 2026 (back home in NJ) and it was very good with a nice banana flavor and a chewy consistency




We went to Everglazed.

We got an Apple Streusel donut that was packed up to eat later



We got a Tree donut that was packed up for later



We got a simply glazed donut that we were planning to share while at Everglazed.



Scott forgot the sharing part and after I took the picture of it after he bit it to show the inside which he said was great, nice and soft and fresh, he ate the rest of it before I had a bite. We laughed about his forgetting his sharing skills with the donut LOL

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 12/31/25 Continued
That evening we drove to the Dolphin and valet parked for our dinner reservation at BlueZoo. As requested when we made changes to our plans earlier in the week, we were seated with the same waiter, Sammy B


Scott had soda since he’s taking antibiotics. I had Serenity: Effen cucumber vodka, st germain elderflower liqueur, strawberry, rosemary, fresh lime, pineapple, basil leaf. This drink is great, very light and refreshing.


The bread with fennel seed butter is very good but we didn’t want to fill up on it.



We started with the Tuna Tartare: sesame soy dressed grade A Ahi tuna, avocado wasabi crema, nori ash, crispy wonton, nitro sriracha. This is great, our favorite tuna tartare


We shared the Surf & Turf (off menu item). The filet was great, the lobster was a little overcooked and not as good as last time we had this. We know it’s busy for NYE; it is what it is and was still good. The potatoes served with the surf and turf were very good too, but a bit salty.


For dessert we had the special New Year’s dessert: Chocolate coffee mousse dome, blackberry cassis and jasmine cream, coffee mousse, dark chocolate cream, chocolate hazelnut crunch, vanilla tart shell, gold leaf, chocolate curl, blackberry, cassis, and jasmine whipped ganache. This was pretty good but not something we would order again.

A picture of the inside of the cake


We enjoyed our New Year’s Eve dinner at BlueZoo.

We didn’t get to Epcot until about 10:30pm which worked out well since we were able to ring in the New Year at Epcot as we wanted to