Doing It Deluxe, Indulgence for 14 Nights... With Pics!! **Update: CALIFORNIA GRILL**

[TigerKat]

Can't wait for Narcoossee's......

 

[dishm12/08]

1900 PARK FARE, Breakfast, 09-18-08

Let me start by saying that we are everything but morning people!! Then allow me to add that we also are not Breakfast people. LOL In saying that, while at Disney we had to be morning people but we didn't do breakfast very many days at all.

I am happy to report that this was a good morning for us and as you will continue to see... A great Breakfast(thanks to some Disney Magic)!

Our reservation time was for 8:25am. We got a late start that morning... our Mickey and Friends wake call came... I answered..... I hung up.... we all went back to sleep!! LOL!!

We woke up again at around 7:30 instead of our intended 6:30 and hurried around to catch a bus for the Magic Kingdom. The bus was right there with room on it when we arrived... yay! We then got on the monorail and made the trip around to the Grand Floridian. This was our first time there so we walked in still half awake and had to ask where 1900 Park Fare was.

We finally arrived at the restaurant 30 minutes late .... and still half asleep!

We were almost the only ones checking in at that moment and there was no problems with our late arrival.

Well, remember I said we were still half asleep..... NOT FOR LONG!!

The Mad Hatter comes running out one door screaming at the top of his lungs, stops for a split second, looks at us, and continues his screaming back in through the doors again!

Now we are awake... we could use this guy for a wake up call every morning LOL!

Almost immediately we were escorted into the restaurant and to our seats.

Our server brought our drinks right to us and explained how the character experience would work, then directed us to the buffet.

As soon as we had our food the character experience began.

A list of those who greeted us:
*Alice
*The Mad Hatter
*Snow White (who was there on this day instead of the regular Mary Poppins)
*Tigger
*Winnie the Pooh

Oh yes... did I happen to mention that Alice and the Mad Hatter were running through the restaurant have an actual food fight! This was very fun to watch and the Mad Hatter made this character experience wonderful!

Unlike the reviews I have done so far, this is the first buffet. There are no separate courses, so I will just post some pics of our different plates.

Character pics will be in a separate post.


Omelets made to order- very good and prepared much quicker than I expected

Oatmeal with some Brown Sugar

Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce I enjoyed this .. not too many raisins

Strawberry Soup this is serverd cold, and very sweet.

Salmon & Breakfast Pizza

Mickey Waffle, Scrambled Eggs, Breakfast Potatoes, Lobster Benedict, French Toast, and Sausage

Sausage, French Toast, Gummi Bears, Bread Pudding, Fresh Stawberries

Mickey Waffle, Pancakes, Breakfast Pizza, Breakfast Potatoes, Bacon ( and a bit of syrup)

Beverages

Orange Juice for all and I had coffee too.


Food & Beverage $56.97
Tax $ 3.71
Total $ 60.68



Service
Absolutely great! Our server, "Cheryl", was on top of our drinks, the cups never hit bottom! The plates were always promptly removed. Attention was given to make sure everything was going Ok, and if we needed anything.... but not too much to be annoying. We never felt the feeling of being rushed!

Atmosphere
Bright and happy! Comfortable and not too crowded, at least in the booth/table that we were seated. The character interaction here was absolutely wonderful, they all came and were very interactive, and were in no rush to move on to the next table. All making sure that we had the pictures we wanted and autographs signed. For the amount of children in the restaurant, the sound level didn't seem to be overwhelming.

Food
A very nice selection of your typical buffet foods and some more unique choices too. Ice cream for breakfast! The omelets made to order, and the Lobster Benedict. The Strawberry Soup!

Overall
We did 3 different character breakfast... this one, Chef Mickey, and Akershus. We give this one the Gold, due to the relaxed feeling we had and the wonderful character experience. I would suggest this location for everyone. I would especially suggest this one for the adults more than I would the rest of the character experiences.

I'm super excited about this breakfast. I made this ADR about two weeks ago and this was one of the few options avaliable. I can't wait for it. I hope they do the food fight while we're there too.

 

[dishm12/08]

Jiko, Dinner, 09-17-08

This was a fun day at Animal Kingdom! All 3 of us big kids traded lots of pins and had pictures taken with all the Characters at Camp Mickey!

We had a 7:55 dinner reservation at Jiko and there was evening extra magic hours that we wanted to take advantage of. So instead of having to leave the park early and spend a long time on the bus back and forth to our resort, we packed a bag with evening clothes and things to freshen up with and rented a locker for the day. We made our way to the front of the park around 7pm freshened up and changed and made the short bus ride to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Upon arrival we still a few minutes, so we took a walk around and looked at the animals. We checked in at 7:55 to the restaurant. They gave us a pager and we took a seat in the bar area. We had requested a seat at "The Cooking Place" but were informed that is was very full that evening and it would probably be about an hour, so we decided to take the first available. At about 8:15 it was our turn to sit!

I am happy to say that for our whole trip... this was our longest wait!!! Only 20 minutes, this was quite a blessing after some of the horror stories I have heard!!

What are the chances with all the people and all the different places that you will end up seated right next to the same couple that you sat next to at lunch on the same day!! Well anyway, we had some great conversation and before we all left our server took a picture of us all.

One of the things that left an impression on me here is sort of a negative one, though overall I really loved this place. Boma is right next to this restaurant, and the noise level coming from there is extremely high. I would just think with the status that Jiko is trying to be part of, that they would place doors at the entrance to help block the noise to help control the ambience. If you're are seated near the entrance you can still catch some of the noise level, but further in isn't a problem.

I loved the lighting level here which is on the very low side and the seats were so very comfortable! I was also very impressed by the way the wine was all on display!


The Bread!
The Spread for this was absolutely yummy!

Appetizers

DD
Kenyan Coffee Barbequed Chicken - Flatbread with grilled onions, apple julienne, and four cheeses. - $10.00
A very large appetizer full of flavor! We all tried this and liked it, very good for flatbread, which you will notice we didn't order very often.

DW
Jiko Cheese Selection - Cypress Grove's Humboldt Fog and Mt. McKinley Chevre, Midnight Moon, Laura Chenel's Cabecou, and French Abbaye de Belloc with spiced fruit jam and crostini. - $14.00
This was the first cheese plate that we ordered on the trip. We ordered them at three different locations total, but this was our favorite one! Mary and I are huge cheese fans and this plate offered big enough portions that she was kind enough to share with us, which I loved... but JoJo not being the Mouse that we are could have done without just as well. I think that on top of the cheese being very good, what made this one our favorite is the sides that came with the cheese.....mmmmmmmm!! Very Very Good and Very Well Presented!!!

ME
Ostrich - this dish is not all the online menus and also on the receipt it is listed as "Special Appetizer 2".
I enjoyed every single bite of this, and to think I was nervous about ordering it! This appetizer rates on my list in the top 3 for the entire trip! I will say that it had a strong, but good flavor and I finished off every last bit including the sauce!

Entrees

DD
Pan-roasted Jumbo Scallops - Served with golden brown mealie "Pap", and spicy tomato-onion "Chaka-Laka." - $29.00
This dish was delicious, the scallops were seasoned and cooked to perfection!

DW
Oak-Grilled Filet Mignon - Served with Macaroni & cheese and red wine sauce. - $34.00
I did not order this, I was nervous about the Macaroni & Cheese part of this dish and the way it would blend.... I was very impressed with it when I got to try Mary's and have to say I will order it next time(if it is still there of course). The wine sauce made this dish for me! This would be in the top 3 for steak/meat courses!

ME
Tamarind-Braised Beef Short Ribs - Served with Idaho and sweet potato gratin and onion-garlic sauce. - $37.00
This was very good, a very large portion. There was some fat, but after all they are Ribs, so there will be some of that. There were some portions of this that were so tender a knife was not needed, but then there was a portion that did need it. I have to say that I really enjoyed the sweet potato too!

Desserts

DD & DW
Pistachio Creme Brulee - With a Chocolate Layered Bottom. - $8.00
This was probably the biggest mistake we made the whole trip when we ordered these. Not only did one of us not care for this but none of us really liked it and both dishes were more than half left! Now I'm not sure... maybe we just aren't Creme Brulee kinda folks, but the burnt taste was just way too overwhelming on these.

ME
Inspired by "The Year of a Million Dreams"Warm Peach Crumble, with spiced caramel sauce, white peach sorbet, and ginger ice cream. (thanks DisneyFav4Ever for the help with this menu information!)
I had looked at the online menus and it list this as being a white chocolate mouse pyramid with banana and other things..... This is not what they are serving anymore! I already knew this wasn't what I was getting from looking at the menu so no problem. What I actually got... Very good and Yummy Peach Muffin type thing with sorbet on it.

Beverages
DD Milk
DW Coke
ME Marsala Black Press Pot Hot Tea
There is a very nice tea selection here and I had only water to drink with my meal, and got this to finish off the meal with dessert! The press pot that was brought for this was also much larger than the typical single serving size!

Food & Beverage $176.38
Tax $ 11.47
Total $187.85



Service
The service here was excellent at the beginning and toward the end it just fizzled to an average service, but still no problem whatsoever! Our server was very nice and gave special attention to JoJo, being the princess that she is! Our drinks were attended too, and our food was handled in a very timely manner!

Atmosphere
I really like the atmosphere here, and I think we would have enjoyed that part much much more if we would have been sitting further back into the restaurant, away from the door, or at the cooking place. It is definitely a more elegant setting with a higher class of service than you will get at most locations. Again I love how the wine was displayed! We felt the most comfortable here of all the restaurants. I would also suggest to dress up a bit for this one, although not entirely required, you will probably feel out of place in your jeans.

Food
With the exception of the Creme Brulee... this place has got it going on! The dishes were all great with wonderful presentation, great portions, and delicious! The wine list here was also very nice, although we did not have any, next time we will make sure to indulge!

Overall
In my top 3 choices for signature locations. We will definitely be back here for a dinner on our future trips! I would suggest this restaurant to anyone and everyone, the menu had enough on it to satisfy the more adventurous and enough selections for those who are pretty basic. This place could be a very romantic meal if you wanted, on our visit it was more of an adult crowd and gave enough peace to sit and relax. I also did not feel at all crowded here like it is at many places.

First I must say that I appreciate how you are organizing your review. I love having the links that takes you directly to that particular restaurant. I can't wait to show DFI this review. The scallops picture looks soooooooo yummy. Along with everything else of course.

 

[dishm12/08]

Ok... This is a Long One.


YACHTSMAN STEAKHOUSE, Dinner, 09-18-08

This was our day to visit Typhoon Lagoon.
We started our morning out by wearing clothes to breakfast that we would feel comfortable for dinner in. We packed our swim suits and things in a duffel bag and rented a locker at the water park.
This again saved us lots of time from waiting for, and riding on the bus, back and forth to the resort.

Our dinner reservation was for 7:30pm. We left Typhoon Lagoon around 4pm so that we could beat the end of day rush at the lockers, showers, and bus stops.... it worked out great. We headed over to the Yacht Club early so we could look around the resort and take a stroll around boardwalk. This was fun... we were able to catch the pin board time in the Yacht Club Store and there is a fishing game that you can play with pin trading at the Beach Club store. We also traded pins with the bell service desk, and one of the CM's there was very nice and gave us a magical moment...... he asked us what pins we were looking for, and we told him of one pin that we couldn't seem to locate. The next day when we got back to our room, there the pin was sitting on our table with a little note saying it was from him!
If we ever go deluxe, this will be our choice of location!

Arriving early to the area was also great because we had the chance to go into the restaurant before it was actually open. We got some pictures of the empty restaurant and the cooking area. At this time they were preparing the mushrooms for the evening which caught my attention, I've never seen that many mushrooms cooking at once before.... and what a great preview to my upcoming meal.....Yummmmy!

Without any further wait ... as promised... the Motherload of all Mushroom Pics!

After our walk around the Boardwalk area, we returned to check in at 7:15pm. We were given a pager and had about a 15 minute wait before we were seated. Our hostess greeted us and took us to our seat, she was very friendly and personable.

The restaurant is set up so that the first thing you see as you walk in is podium on your right and the meat room to your left, then you walk through an entry hall area with the open kitchen on your left and just before entering the dining rooms, on the right the desserts were displayed so we could drool over them!


The Bread
Served with sea salt on the butter and a side of very soft garlic. This is very good when mashed into the butter and spread on the bread!

Appetizer

DD
Hudson Valley Foie Gras - Served with citrus brioche, roasted Heirloom apples and vanilla gastrique. - $16.00
We have never had this before and none of us are fans of Liver. I told JoJo that I was very proud of her, because of were willingness to go outside of the box and experience new things! I have to say that I am glad she did! We all tried this and liked it very much. There was a slight liver taste to it, but nothing overwhelming.. this was melt in your mouth yummy!
(Sorry, these pics are blurry)

DW
Chilled Seafood Salad - Made with lobster, shrimp, and jumbo crab with lemon creme fraiche and avocado cream. - $16.00
This is the perfect dish for Mary, she is a seafood lover, so all of her favorite seafood in one dish, yay! I had reminded her before ordering that she is not a big fan of avocado, but after getting it she said the avocado cream was actually mild enough that she could enjoy it! It didn't take her long to finish this tasty dish off.

ME
Seared Maine Diver Scallops - Served with a mushroom risotto . - $14.00
Scallops are my favorite seafood and I am a huge fan of mushrooms, so this dish was full of flavors that had my attention, a perfect start to the meal. The online menus all show this as being served with a salad instead of the risotto.

Entrees

DW & ME shared this entree for 2
Chateaubriand for Two - 18-ounce tenderloin served with Bearnaise, Mashed Potatoes, and Sauteed Mushrooms $85.00
This was very good, although you order one entree to share, it is brought out on two separate plates, the mushrooms had a cherry flavored wine sauce and were brought out in a separate bowl to share. The meat was very tender and cooked just how we had requested, it is served in 3 slices on each plate, so each person gets a total of 9 ounces of tenderloin.

DD
Porterhouse - 24-oz center cut Porterhouse served with fingerling potatoes and roasted garlic butter. - $44.00
Can you say HUGE!!! This steak was almost as big as JoJo... LOL! It was tender, juicy, and very flavorful. She ordered it medium and it was perfectly done. I cannot believe she ate that whole thing, plus her app and dessert, with nothing left! The potatoes were also good.

Desserts

DD & DW
Not on the online menus.
"Inspired by The Year Of A Million Dreams" - Yachtsman Steakhouse interesting version of Strawberry Shortcake.
I am not saying do not order this, it was good, but it was different. The cake portion of this dish is actually a cornbread. Both of the ladies liked it and finished it, I tried it and liked it, but was thrown off by the cornbread. Both of them said that it was good, but they would get something different the next time.

ME
Not on the Online Menus.
A Trio of Chocolate Heaven .... this is my name for it.
I loved every bite of this excellent combination of flavors and wanted more! From right to left... 1. A Lava type chocolate cake with a white chocolate lava filling, 2. Chocolate banana mousse with banana topping, 3. A creamy chocolate dome filled with a thick and creamy grapefruit flavored cream. The third one was an interesting surprise, but a very enjoyable contrast of flavor to the others, very sweet with just enough tart. Again, I had only water to drink with my meal and enjoyed my hot tea with dessert.

Beverages
DD Eros Press Pot Hot Tea
DW Coke
ME Osmanthus Press Pot Hot Tea

Beverage $ 12.00 one drink never got charged for which I just noticed
Food $ 202.00
Tax $ 13.91
Total $ 227.91



Service
This was absolutely the most EXCELLENT service we have received anywhere! We felt like V.I.P.'s from the first moment! Our hostess took us to our seats and on the way she took a moment to show and explain the desserts to us. Our servers name was "Oscar" and he was very elegant about things and very friendly, as well as full of knowledge about all the food!


Atmosphere
I really enjoyed the decor here, we were seated right next to the fireplace in the back left corner room. The CM uniforms were very nice and added that special touch to the surroundings. Everyone was super friendly, we even talked to the cooks for a moment. The open kitchen was fun to see and what I liked about this one was that, its location kept it from making the restaurant feel overly busy. This was another place that I would suggest dressing for the occasion, nothing grand, but jeans or t-shirts would have made me feel uncomfortable. Oh yeah.... the meat cutting room was pretty cool too!


Food
Excellent! We had no complaints here at all, everything was consumed without a second thought! Definitely the place for steak. The mushrooms... mmmmmmm, of course this is only if you like them! Everything was cooked the we had ordered it, served at the right temperatures, and great presentation. My philosophy is that I would rather have outstanding service and just so-so food, than outstanding food and bad service....but here we were able to have our cake and eat it too!

Overall
This restaurant receives our highest rating in all departments! When it was time to leave, we stopped to talk to the manager to let her know that our experience was awesome from start to finish! I would suggest this location for anyone and everyone, the menu was very easy to get along with for all taste. While the price is high, there were other places that were higher and they did not compare with the overall experience we had here. While you could have a romantic dinner here, this would not be our first choice.

Why are you doing this too me? We're on the deluxe plan too and we have ADRs at the same places. I'm patiently awaiting, Narcoossee's, Flying Fish, California Grill, CRT, The Wave, and Kona . Don't make me beg

 

[Schmoodle]

Yum, your reports are making me hungry. We had an ADR for LTT recently but had to give it up. Now I'm even more sorry we couldn't make it.
You were right to leave the tartar sauce. In Maryland, we don't eat tartar sauce on our crabcakes. Hope they were crabby and not too much filler!

 

[myladyisatramp]

Waiting for Narcoossee report we will be dining there our last night in disney. We are also doing 1900 park faire, Lecellier & yachtsman glad you liked them.

 

[World Bouncer]

Narcoossees, Dinner, 09-21-08

Our reservation here was for 7:25pm. Well we just were not on the ball and we ended up showing up at 8:15. We were very worried we would not get a seat. We brought our evening clothes with us as we had done on other days and thought since we were so close to Narcoossees at the Magic Kingdom that we could wait till the last minute, well this might have been OK normally, but the monorails were having issues so we had to wait in a line for the boat. The restaurant was full and there were people waiting, and we even requested a window seat... our wait was still only about 15 minutes.

We were taken to our seats and our drinks were brought out to us... and then the restaurant went dark and the music began, our timing for Wishes was perfect! Our table was off to the side toward the back of the restaurant but still by the window and the view was good. You can go out on the patio along the water and watch but we chose to remain seated, it was nice. Not long after Wishes was finished, the water pageant began. This was the first time for some of us seeing the electrical parade.

The Bread
Very good, we ate it all and then was offered more which we declined, because we didn't want to fill up and spoil the yumminess of our Lobster Dinners!!

Appetizer

DD & DW
Buttermilk Friend Shrimp - Green apple-celery root slaw, and creamy horseradish sauce $15
These were very tasty, both ladies enjoyed them and devoured them before I could blink. This is not something I would suggest as a sharing dish, there is just enough here for a one person appetizer. 3 very large shrimp without too much batter on them, so you can still enjoy the shrimp.

ME
Artisan Cheeses - Enjoy Humboldt Fog, Maytag Blue, and Pleasant Ridge Reserve served with Walnut Toast. - $12.00
I enjoyed the cheese plate, but this goes without saying... the cheese plate would have to be really terrible for me to dislike it. My favorite cheese plate still remains at Jiko!

Entrees

DW, DD, & ME
Steamed Whole Maine Lobster - potato gratin and steamed baby broccoli $59
I am not sure what to say here but .... BRING ME MORE!!!
The lobster was wonderful and most definitely better than that of the twin tails we had at Cap n' Jacks(though that was good too). It is brought out with everything already cracked so this makes eating it a bit quicker and whole lot less messy, LOL! Now for the potato gratin......mmmmmmmmmmmm, like I said... bring me more! When you look at the pictures it doesn't look like you get very many if any at all potatoes, but trust me they are under there. It did not hurt my feelings any that one of the ladies could not finish their taters, I could eat these every meal! The broccoli was just fine but was lost with how good the rest of the meal was.

Desserts

DD & DW
Gelato Sampler $7
This was an interesting combination of flavors! There was passion fruit, strawberry, chocolate, and one other that nobody can seem to remember, except that it had the flavor of black licorice. These were all enjoyed except for the flavor we cannot remember.

ME
Inspired by The Year of a Million Dreams - Almond-crusted Cheesecake with Lambert Cherry Sauce $8
The one word that comes to mind is... Divine! The cheesecake was good on its own with nice crisp almonds completely covering it, then add in the cherries and sauce, then the cream, and the crispy chocolate covered item that decorated the plate....yum, yum, yum!! I had skipped the cheesecake a couple other times that the ladies got it, but this time they were jealous of my dessert!!

Beverages
DD & ME - Virgin Pina' Colada - $3.99

DW - Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri - $4.29

Beverage $ 12.27
Food $ 251.00
Tax $ 16.47
Total $ 269.74



Service
Exceptional!!! Our server was, "Amer", he was very pleasant and attended to our every need, making suggestions and giving wonderful descriptions of the menu items. He was happy to bring us our different drinks and was willing to come up with new mixture ideas if we wanted! At one point during the meal we noticed the Mickey Crazy Straws and he brought all 3 of us big kids one too! He was very polite and not in any rush, brought us our drinks and then let us enjoy the Wishes show before bothering us with anything else.(not that he was a bother at all) His calmness and knowledge just set the perfect mood for the surrounding and the meal! The rest of the CM's were without question .... all great! I was very impressed that nothing was said about our tardiness, we were still made to feel very welcome!


Atmosphere
Sort of on the quiet side, sort of on the fancy side, A romantic ambience. Perfect lighting. A beautiful setting right on the water. For those wondering if you would feel comfortable with your kids there? There were several children in the restaurant and lucky for us they were all wonderfully behaved on this evening. I wouldn't personally take my young children there, because I think that there are so many other places they would enjoy, and I believe the ambience here would be lost on them. Definitely a place to get a bit dressed up if you feel inclined. Not your end of the day come as you are theme park restaurant.

Food
Everything we had was excellent and very well presented. The wine list was fairly extensive. Portion size was very good.

Overall
A great place to eat, can't wait to go back! This is a great location for a romantic dinner, or a celebration dinner! The price is on the high side, but we thought it was worth it, and of course we did all order one of the most expensive items, lol. In our opinion this restaurant ranks in the top 3 for all Disney.

For all of you who are eating here ... think of us, and we hope that your meal is as magical as ours was!!

If you are thinking about eating here... we would say do it!

 

[Castillo Mom]

Narcoossee's is a must do for us next trip. The lobster is excellent and the cheesecake, delish! Probably the best cheesecake I've ever had.

 

[TigerKat]

Thanks for posting this! I am so excited to try Narcoossee's in a couple of weeks, that lobster looks so good!!!!

 

[Todd&Copper]

Great reviews and photos!

Narcoossees, Dinner, 09-21-08



Desserts

DD & DW
Gelato Sampler $7
This was an interesting combination of flavors! There was passion fruit, strawberry, chocolate, and one other that nobody can seem to remember, except that it had the flavor of black licorice. These were all enjoyed except for the flavor we cannot remember.

Based on the licorice flavor and the leaf across the top of the bowl, I would guess that was a Tarragon gelato? Sounds really interesting.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Maybe it was fennel (anise) gelato?

Looks like Narcoossee's is going to be on my next trip food list!

 

[lucas]

The lobster looks yummy! Still waiting to see how you liked Brown Derby.

 

[Eastern]

Your reviews have been so helpful in planning our April trip. The pictures and writing were so enjoyable to read through.

I'm glad you and your family had such a nice vacation; thank you for taking the time to post all of this information!

 

[myladyisatramp]

OMG,cant wait, looks so yummy..... lobster it is.

 

[Bashful in TN]

I just found your wonderful reviews. Loving the pictures and the details. I can't wait to read more.

 

[BriarRosie]

I'm finally caught up with your posts!

I see a huge difference with the shrimp batter at Narcoosee's vs. Yak and Yeti. I definitely find the Narcoosee's batter more appealing, IMHO. Looked really good. Don't get me started on that lobster!

Excuse me while I get a mop for the drool.

 

[chickie]

I was so excited to see your review of Narcoosee's! I just made an ADR for this restaurant for our trip in mid-March. We will be travelling with my dd's friend and her family, and this will be our adults night out dinner while the kids go to the kids' club. My dh and I have eaten here several times before, and the last time was not quite up to our usual experiences. Glad to see that it is back to its regular greatness, and I can't wait to eat here!

Thank you so much for the terrific reviews, and pics!!!!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Love the Narcoossee's review. I'll be eating there for the first time this December.

 

[belle8306]

Wow! How cool that you got there in time to see Wishes and the water pagent. The food looked wonderful.

 

[hill6]

Looks so yummy. I have already told DD that one time we have to go by ourselves and do DDX and stay at a Deluxe Resort (GF or Poly) as we want a Magic Kingdom view.