DxDP 2/5-2/12- Complete with Superlatives!

[Melissa_E]

I'm doing a place holder, more information is going to come. I have a TON of reviews. Everything from Le Cellier to the Yachtsman Steakhouse to Narcoosees and even counter service including Columbia Harbor. We had a great time and I'll have reviews, pictures, and prices very soon.

Lunch at Pop Century
Crystal Palace dinner
Tusker House Breakfast
Narcoosee's
Breakfast at Pop Century
Plaza Lunch
Columbia Harbor House Dinner
Kona Cafe
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Hollywood and Vine Play and Dine; Toy Story Pizza Planet
Sci-Fi Dine In
Princess Breakfast Akershus
Le Cellier
Chef Mickey's
French Pastries
Germany CS and Yachtsman Steakhouse round 2
Pop Breakfast, Earl of Sandwich
Superlatives

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Can't wait to read, especially about the signature restaurants.

 

[TigerKat]

Count me in.....

 

[blondinkaya]

Count me in as well! I think I'm done with planning our meals for our first trip, but I always appreciate reading others' reviews; I think it will be neat to compare experiences ...

 

[mindyd]

Im in

 

[suzimar57]

coffee's getting cold here, waiting....

 

[Melissa_E]

When I say how much we "paid" this is just to keep an analysis of what we received vs. paid for the DxDP.

Pop Century Food Court:
Ordered a CS lunch that was Nachos with everything and a fruit cup as a dessert. We also picked up our mugs and got water bottles. The three of us shared the lunch because we had dinner coming up at 3p.m.

The nachos were covered with fake cheese and any of the fixings you wanted on them. They were decent. The fruit cup was great, melons were fresh, no complaint whatsoever.

Price of CS: $12.31
Price of 3 refillable mugs: $39.91

Crystal Palace:

We had an early dinner at the Crystal Palace, we decided to check in early around 3:10 or so. This turned out to be a terrific idea because people came over after the parade and there was a long wait at our original ADR time!

The Crystal Palace was very noisy! Not only with the age of the people dining there but just the clatter of the knives and forks against the tables. The tables were very close together and the character interaction was pretty good. We saw the four advertised characters, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. The food was overall pretty good. We all LOVED the garlic mashed potatoes, they were SO good. Katie ate her weight in shrimp cocktail. I thought the roast beef was good. There was ziti with mushrooms and asiago cream sauce that was fantastic! I got some on a lark and really enjoyed it. Reed got the tomato soup and didn’t finish it, it was very salty! DH and I got iced tea, Katie got a chocolate milk.

For dessert Reed tried the apple cobbler, Boston cream pie, banana bread pudding, and cheesecake. The apple cobbler was good and the best of all of them. When he came over I smelled nutmeg. I decided on the apple cobbler as well and topped mine with vanilla ice cream. YUM! I also picked up a few cookies for Katie which she really liked.

3 TS used cost: $86.65, we left a $10 tip, a little more than 10% which I thought was reasonable for a buffet.

Total for day 1: $137.87

 

[Melissa_E]

Pop Cafeteria:

Katie was starving when we woke up so we went to the Pop Cafeteria for some snacks. I got her fruit loops with milk (snack credit) and a fruit cup (expect to hear about these a lot). I also filled up our mugs with sludge, I mean coffee and juice for Katie.

Total: $6

Tusker House
Our plans for our second day centered on our dining reservations (as you will see for subsequent days). First, we had breakfast at the new Tusker House with Donald and friends. Since we had a 9:05a.m. reservation, we were able to enter the Animal Kingdom early. What I thought was great was that there was a photopass person taking pictures on the bridge leading to the tree of life. After getting our pictures taken, including the Simba shot, I went to take pictures of the tree near the fence-line. Without me saying a word, a bunch of Disney staff that were talking along the fence line moved out of my way so that I could get a better shot. I’ve been extremely impressed with how nice people are, especially the staff.

We got to our reservation early and waited until 9:15 for our table. I sent Reed to Kiliminjaro Safari’s for fast passes so that we could ride that quickly after breakfast.

On the way into the dining area, you are asked to pose for a picture near an outside wall. This picture does not work with photopass and while you are eating you will be asked if you want to purchase this picture for $30. It does come with a picture of Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Mickey.

Breakfast was good, the food was good, and the character interaction was so-so. One whole side of the restaurant received a lot more attention than us. We actually left before seeing all the characters, much to the dismay of our waitress! She said, “well, usually people stay to see all the characters.” We were full and ready to leave. The noise of the restaurant was alright, but definitely on the loud side.

There were a lot of egg options, scrambled, quiche (ham and veggies, leek, etc….), breakfast breads, Mickey waffles, sausage, fruit, and there was a carving station featuring beef and turkey I believe. I had the beef which was good. Reed had some beef with their sauce and he was really impressed with the sauce. Protein was definitely the center of the meal. We had their jamba juice and coffee which was much better than the stuff at the Pop Century food court.

Cost of Breakfast: $59.16
Tip: $7

 

[TruBlu]

Great so far!

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent

 

[Melissa_E]

Can't wait to read, especially about the signature restaurants.

I'll get to Narcoosee's today!

Count me in.....

Count me in as well! I think I'm done with planning our meals for our first trip, but I always appreciate reading others' reviews; I think it will be neat to compare experiences ...

Im in

coffee's getting cold here, waiting....

I'm getting to it!

Great so far!

Excellent

Thanks for stopping by!!!!

 

[Melissa_E]

Narcoosee’s because they had whole Maine lobster. I LOVE lobster, absolutely love it. Since we were doing the deluxe dining plan, spending two dining credits was just fine with me! I knew what I was going to have before we walked in. Because it was my birthday, we were seated right at the window with a good view of the dock and the Magic Kingdom. There was a wedding party there as well with the bride and groom in their full wedding gear.

For our appetizer we shared the calamari. Oh the breading on this was exceptional, clearly some of the best calamari I’ve had. We all love seafood and Katie helped us eat this. I ordered the cheese plate. It was good, I just wish you didn’t get hockey pucks disguised as bread with it. If you order this, definitely try it with the toppings given, they were excellent. Reed wasn’t keen on the goat’s milk cheese but really enjoyed the brie. Katie ordered the fruit cup which she enjoyed, there were a number of raspberries and blackberries. All were fresh and ripe.

Reed got the surf and turf. He allowed me to try the filet and I thought it was overseasoned with pepper, and I love pepper. The lobster tail was a very good size, you won’t be disappointed with it. Katie got the mac and cheese (which she didn’t touch) and I got the lobster. This is where the trouble begins. I get this lobster, or I should say HALF a lobster and say to the waiter, “ummm, where’s the rest of my lobster?” I expected a whole Maine lobster like the menu said. I got claws and tailmeat. Are you f’in kidding me??? Also, for $58 dollars I expected a lobster at least 2 pounds or more. If this one was 1.5 pounds I’d be surprised. I was GREATLY disappointed. Had I been paying out of pocket, I would have sent it back and demanded the whole lobster. If you are a lobster lover like me, be warned!
Dessert was great, Katie got the brownie sundae, Reed and I both ordered the almond crusted cheesecake. Drool, it was excellent!
Before:

After:

Cost: $189 Tip: $33

 

[phabric]

Enjoyed reading your reviews.

 

[Melissa_E]

Pop Century Breakfast:
We were out of the room by 7, ate breakfast at the Pop Century café. Katie had pancakes, Reed and I had the western omelet. Everything was very good! I really enjoyed the omelets.
Cost of breakfast: $26

Plaza:

We had reservations at the Plaza for lunch. I had been looking forward to this meal because of the excellent sandwiches that I’ve heard and read about. We all ordered chocolate milkshakes that were awesome! Very well done. The shakes were half finished by the time our sandwiches came. I got the Reuben, Reed got the cheesesteak and Katie got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the shape of a Mickey head. The reuben was excellent! The bread a touch dry, but still very good. The cheesecake was so-so. I didn’t taste Katie’s lunch, but she wolfed it down.

When the waitress came with the check she said that she couldn’t put Katie’s milkshake as a children’s drink on the dining plan. This none of us realized and I was pretty surprised that they limit children’s choices of drinks like that. This was resolved by having two of the milkshakes be the drinks for Reed and myself and then one of the milkshakes as a dessert under our plan. That put it right for the system.

Cost of Meal: $52.22
Tip: $7.55

Columbia Harbor House:
We hit the Colombia Harbor House. This is a counter service location and it was pretty good. Katie had the mac and cheese, I had the tuna sandwich with clam chowder and Reed had the fish and chips. I really enjoyed both the clam chowder and tuna sandwich. The tuna sandwich was excellent, the perfect amount of seasoning, celery, and mayonnaise. It was on a nice piece of bread, for a simple sandwich it was terrific. Katie didn’t touch the mac and cheese but she did eat some of my clam chowder and Reed’s fish.

Cost of meal: $33.68

Reed noticed the detail in the single cast nails used for the plank floor. He said that they were made similarly to those hundreds of years ago, making you feel like you were in a really old building.

 

[BabyPiglet]

Great reviews!

 

[Melissa_E]

When I made our park plans, I made dining reservations in each of the four parks and then had three days with no specific park plans. That way, we could visit a park on a whim and not be tied down to a large overall touring plan. Since we hit Animal Kingdom on day 2 and missed a few things, this was a great opportunity to see it again when it wasn’t so hot and there was a bit of rain. And since we had 5:30 reservations at the Yachtsman Steakhouse, it would be an early day to leave the park and get ready for dinner.
Before heading off to the Kona Café we grabbed a couple of fruit cups at the cafeteria.
Cost: $6.

We started the day at Kona Café. I chose this breakfast because it just sounded so good and from all the rave reviews. Besides, who doesn’t want to have at least one meal at the Poly?

We got the French Press pot (no problems on the dining plan!), I had the Tonga Toast, Reed had the eggs benedict and Katie had the pancakes. I can’t describe how good the Tonga Toast was! It was phenomenal! Two huge slices of French bread with a banana in between. Then it is covered in sugar. I could have lived without the sugar coating, but it made it very good. Katie demolished her pancakes and Reed said that it has been YEARS since he had an eggs benedict that good. The French press was good, but I think we didn’t let it brew long enough. All in all a very good meal.

Cost of meal: $42.25
Tip: $6.50

What is interesting is that this meal cost much less than many of the buffets and the food was absolutely fantastic. Next time, I'll make a couple of reservations here instead of hitting so many buffets, especially for the Tonga Toast!

 

[Melissa_E]

Walking to the YBC I was first hit with the amount of theming that was present. I was absolutely floored with it. The hotel was classy and definitely something you would see on Cape Cod. Really just perfect. At the entrance to the steakhouse there is a platter with the different cuts of meat available, just like a really good steak house. You can watch the butcher cut up steaks and mold them. Then you walk by the dessert tray and you just want to start dinner with the end! LOL

Reed ordered the seafood salad that had lobster and shrimp with a citrus avocado dressing. I ordered the fois gras and Katie had the chicken noodle soup. The seafood salad is devine! If you are looking for a light way to start your dinner this is the perfect appetizer! I had one bite of it and now I can’t wait to order it for myself. The fois gras was incredible, but it was the opposite of the seafood salad. Rich and creamy, worth every decadent bite, but not a light way to start the meal. Katie ‘s chicken soup was very good as well. I was impressed with the amount of chicken in it, it really could have made a meal for a child.

Ribeye:

New York Strip:

We decided to split a bottle of wine, our only one of the trip. Of course it was priced 3x the amount that it should have actually cost, but it was very good. Reed then had the ribeye with horseradish mashed potatoes. His eyes started watering with the first bite of the potatoes but they were absolutely fantastic! He just didn’t expect that much horseradish. His steak was extremely tender and perfectly cooked. I had the New York strip that was recommended by our waiter Mark. It was very good and a large steak, 14 ounces. I had potatoes au gratin which were good. Katie got the kid’s steak with mashed potatoes. Hers was cooked just right and the mashed potatoes were creamy and delicious.

After stuffing ourselves, we did order dessert, I had the crème brule, that was excellent, especially with the berries on top. Reed had the sundae which was a grouping of differed flavored gelatos. Katie had the puzzle dessert. White chocolate was made into puzzle pieces, there are three slots for colored frosting and you can paint the puzzle once you put it together. A very cute dessert.

Cost of the meal: $161.22
Tip: $30
Wine: $36.11 for the wine and tip

We were so impressed with this dinner that in the middle of it I asked Reed if he would like to eat here again on our last night. We originally had a reservation at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Since I had heard conflicting reviews of it, I thought we would enjoy this more. Yachtsman steakhouse had plenty of openings and we made a 5:30 reservation for Monday.

 

[TigerKat]

Yachtsman looks great! We did the same thing with Flying Fish on our last trip, we enjoyed it so much we went twice!

 

[momofdbsdc]

Great reviews and pictures! thank you for taking the time to share!!!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Yachtsman Steakhouse sounds wonderful, I can't wait to eat there.