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

[Mom2PixiePrincess]

I really think some of these restaurants must be a hit or miss. We'd heard great reviews about Yachtsman, so on our last trip we went. And we didn't like it at all. We got the large bay scallops for an appy. I don't have pictues, but they were two of the biggest scallops I've ever seen. Unfortunatly they weren't cooked all the way through. DH got the filet mignon, he couldn't even eat it. He asked for medium, what he got was a charred piece of leather. In his opinion it tasted like they gave him a piece of the actual cooking oak! I had the strip, it was just okay. The Turf Club at Saratoga Springs has WAY better steaks! We've eaten there on every trip (@5x's a year), sometimes twice and have NEVER been disappointed with our steaks!

Has anyone been to Shula's? We've heard that Yachtsman and Shula's are the two places for steaks. We were in a toss up this last time and unfortunalty chose Yachtsman. I'm curious about reviews on Shula's. Should we give it a try or stick with a time tested favorite: The Turf Club?!?!?!

 

[wezee]

Shula's is awesome. The steaks are wonderful and the portions are hugh. Everything is ordered ala-carte, but the server suggested we share a side due to the extreme portions. The molten lava cake is to die for.....and could easily be shared by 2 or more people. The restaurant is a bit dark (candle-lit), the waiter actually had a flashlight in his pocket when he served our steaks. He asked us to check our steaks for doneness and shown the flashlight so we could see...he he. They also have a great wine list.
PS....at Shula's we had 3 servers, and the one server came to our table several times with a "comb" to wipe away any crumbs. I felt soooo pampered.

 

[Melissa_E]

We got the large bay scallops for an appy. I don't have pictues, but they were two of the biggest scallops I've ever seen. Unfortunatly they weren't cooked all the way through.

If you stick around, on our second trip to the Yachtsman you'll see something very similar in my report. When Reed offered me a taste that was the first thing I noticed, it was seared nicely, but not cooked fully. Reed thought that was the way it was supposed to be, but I don't think so! He also ordered the filet and it was just fine he says, "better than most, excellent, 4 stars."

 

[Melissa_E]

Our Hollywood day got started on the wrong foot. I didn’t look at our dining reservation sheet to remind myself what time our breakfast was scheduled. So we were running for the bus at 7:45 when we had an 8:05 reservation at Hollywood and Vine. Oops! We were a few minutes late, especially after receiving bad directions from a CM. It turned out to be OK because Reed grabbed two fast passes for Tower of Terror and one fast pass for Rockin’ Roller coaster. The beauty part of having a ticket for a person who won’t ride certain rides is that you can get a fast pass to avoid the lines using her ticket!

This was Katie’s special breakfast. The characters from the Little Einsteins and JoJo’s circus would be there. When June came to our table, Katie wouldn’t let go! She was amazed to finally meet her. Lucky for her, it was dancing time when June was about to leave, so she invited Katie to dance with her. The look on Katie’s face during this meal made all of the noise completely bearable.

The look on her face is just PRICELESS!

The meal itself was a typical Disney buffet, lots of protein options, hash browns, breads, etc... There wasn't anything particularly special except the breakfast fajitas, I didn't try one but Reed did and liked it. The restaurant is noisy with timed songs and dances. It is similar to the Tusker House and Chef Mickey's in this way.

It was decent food in a fun atmosphere for children.

Cost of the meal: $62
Tip: $10 I think, I can’t find this receipt.

Toy Story Pizza Planet:
We got hungry so we shared 2 CS credits at the Toy Story Pizza Place. It was decent pizza, nothing great. I had the veggie pizza. The crust was decent, there was a little bit of sauce that was a tad spicy, a bit of cheese and some vegetables thrown at the very center, not spread around. DH and Katie shared the pepperoni pizza, it was similar to the veggie pizza in that the pepperoni was concentrated at the center of the pizza and not spread around. We also had the "salad," a mix of greens and not much else and you pick up the dressing at a napkin bar.

The restaurant seating area was very noisy especially with the arcade right there. There was limited seating downstairs, with some upstairs and outside.

Cost of meal: $25ish with tax.

 

[Melissa_E]

We originally had plans for 1900 Park Fare for dinner and canceled them this morning. We were tired of running out of a park to go to a resort that wasn’t our own for dinner. So we decided to wing it and ate at the Sci-Fi Drive In. I had wanted to eat here but when you stay 7 nights, there are only so many meals that you can plan for. I ran down the options to Reed and he said that the drive in sounded good. We didn't have reservations but were seated very quickly.

The ambiance is terrific here. You really feel as if you are in a drive in theater. There is a skyline with twinkling stars, a fence with trees. Even license plates on the cars!!! I was impressed with the theme! Unfortunately, the restaurant really missed the mark on its offerings. Spinach and artichoke dip? Steak? I really think this place needs to offer similar foods as the Plaza in the Magic Kingdom, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches. Maybe they don’t offer those types of food because people will balk at “spending” a TS credit for what they can get at a CS location elsewhere? I don’t know, but Reed and I both had the reuban and they were fantastic.

There was a TON of corned beef, a good amount of sauerkraut and the bread was good. I got a chocolate shake that was more like a Wendy’s Frosty than a shake. I also got the mango salad, it was good and refreshing, if you want a light side this is the way to go.

Katie had the kid’s hamburger that was good. The chocolate shake was included on the dining plan, but they would not allow me to get the souvenir cup with the glow light. We did snag one though because they messed up on Katie’s order and I suggested instead of fixing it he give us a Tinkerbell glow thingy. She was very happy at that. Although, she’s on a Captain Hook kick and probably would have liked that too.

Cost of Meal: $70.29
Tip: $10

 

[Melissa_E]

This morning we began with a breakfast at Norway, the Princess Breakfast at Akershus. We were seated not long after our ADR time and as we entered, I took Katie’s picture with Beauty. I hear that this will change in April or so that there will be an included picture like CRT, but it was nice to be able to take our own and not deal with the $30 extra cost.

We were able to munch on the buffet while our eggs and bacon were brought to us. The buffet included melons, pineapple, strawberries, lox, cream cheese, breads, Danish, and cheese. The fruit was perfectly ripe and the eggs that came out were fine. I loved the lox and chive cream cheese on a croissant. I liked the set up of this restaurant, it was half buffet half plated family style, we were offered more eggs, sausage, bacon, and hash browns if we wanted them. We didn’t because what we received and the fruit on the buffet were enough. The juice and coffee were great!

Of all the breakfast buffets this was my favorite one. It had the most to offer in fresh fruit, it had half family half buffet, and the atmosphere was terrific. Although this is a character breakfast it isn't as loud as others like the Tusker House or Chef Mickey's. I would absolutely go here again and go here OVER other character breakfasts.

We were practically done with breakfast when the princesses came around. This was fine with us because they came in rapid succession. We saw: Aurora, Arielle, and Mulan. They were all wonderful and interacted quite a bit with Katie, especially Mulan!

Cost of meal: $62.81
Tip: $10

 

[Melissa_E]

We had an early (4p.m.) dinner at Le Cellier. Since I’ve heard the rave reviews of this place, I had to check it out. The ambiance is absolutely terrific. You do feel like you are in a wine cellar of a castle, it is well-marked in Canada (I heard it wasn’t before, but there is a huge Le Cellier sign at the beginning of the path to it). We were seated practically at our ADR time. Our appetizers were an easy choice, I knew I had to get the cheese soup.

During this trip I would recommend things that I heard about on the boards to Reed but never told him any of the must do’s. He actually tended to pick the must do’s on his own and he ordered the duck confit. Katie had the carrot sticks and celery.

Our appetizers were brought out promptly and to our dismay we found out a little too promptly. The cheese soup was good, there was more of a white wine flavor than I expected and not as much cheese flavor. But it did taste great with the pretzel bread. My favorite was the multigrain bread though. Reed’s duck looked fantastic, his first few bites were fantastic, then he reached the frozen center. EWWWWW I don’t know if they just didn’t let it thaw before cooking or if it was pre-cooked and then re-heated or what, but the center of that duck was rock hard! We signaled our waitress and told her of the problem, she quickly remedied it by offering a new plate of the duck or another appetizer. Reed not wanting to chance it twice chose the Caesar salad with fried cheese. This was a GREAT salad! The Caesar dressing was to die for and the addition of the fried cheese just topped it off wonderfully.

I ordered the 8oz filet minion which was excellent. It was beautifully cooked and just melted in your mouth. The potatoes were extremely creamy and complimented the meat well. Even though I’m not a fan of the barbeque sauce on a terrific piece of meat, it didn’t overwhelm the flavor of the filet, I only really noticed it when I had the potatoes.

Reed had the 14oz New York Strip. His steak was good, I don’t think it was as good as mine a few nights earlier at the Yachtsman though. I didn’t get to taste his potatoes. Katie got the spaghetti with sauce which she ate almost all of.

For dessert, Reed ordered the crème brule. Comparing it to the brule that I had at the Yachtsman, I think Le Cellier does a much better job! Their crème under the brule was much creamier than the Yachtsman’s. It was a perfect combination of creamy and hard burned sugar. An excellent dessert. I ordered the Chocolate “Moose.” What a CUTE dessert! It comes out shaped like a moose with a tongue, eyes, nose, and antlers. Katie got a huge kick out of this dessert and we both loved the flavor. We got Katie’s fruit cup to go.

Cost of meal: $123.94
Tip: $18.50

If I was doing the basic dining plan and didn't want to go to a 2TS steakhouse, I would be perfectly satisfied with Le Cellier. The fillet was absolutely terrific, I couldn't have asked for a better cut of meat. The cheese soup was great, but the simple caesar salad won hands down for appetizer. If you do want to spend 2TS you won't be disappointed with Yachtsman, they have the seafood salad which will bring me back there again. First, it contained the rest of my lobster (well not really, but I thought of it that way), that salad contains a good bit of lobster meat and has a fabulous dressing. I'm trying to recreate it at home and haven't hit it yet.

 

[my3disneygirls]

What!? Reed doesn't like duck Popsicles?

 

[Melissa_E]

What!? Reed doesn't like duck Popsicles?

He was so disappointed because as he said, "it was very good until it was frozen."

 

[Melissa_E]

Sunrise from the Contemporary:

This is our last full day in the parks and we decided to start off with Chef Mickeys, our breakfast was at 7:20 which meant that we needed to be on the first bus around 7a.m. ugh…. We got to the bus stop at 6:45 thinking that there might be an early bus, the bus did start up at 6:55 and took us straight to the Contemporary. We didn’t wait long to check in, they brought us to the plate for a family picture (aka the $30 picture shot) and we were seated almost immediately.

At the Tusker House, Chef Mickey’s and I’m sure a few more restaurants they bring you to a place to take your picture. This picture does NOT work with Photopass, they want to sell this separately for around $30. I refused to buy them on principle.

Anyway, the breakfast was good! There were a lot of options, fruit, lox, cream cheeses (strawberry, regular, etc…) eggs, donuts, breads, etc… The character interaction was great, we had a chance to eat and then the characters came out in rapid fire, much like the Norway Princess breakfast. It was really terrific.

Cost of Meal: $62.81
Tip: $9

 

[Melissa_E]

We were hungry and decided to go to France for lunch. We got cake! We figured, we’re on vacation. I really wanted to get a sandwich but for some reason, even though they are under $4 they don’t work as a snack credit. I was bummed, but not enough to not order cake. I had the strawberry tort. The crust was amazing! It was like a sugar cookie crust. There could have been more cream but it was topped with huge and perfectly ripe strawberries. Excellent. Katie had the chocolate cake which was extremely moist and just overall wonderful. Reed had the Napoleon. This was terrific as well; the layers had a very nice philo between them. Since we were in France I had to get a crepe. They cheat and use premade crepe and chocolate in a bottle. It certainly wasn’t as good as the one that I had on the streets of Paris, but it was still good. I also got to practice my French and found that I was quite rusty!

Cakes, soda, and crepe: $15ish

 

[Melissa_E]

Germany was next on the list and we were hungry for real food. We split two CS lunches. We got two brats with sauerkraut, a slice of chocolate cake, a pretzel and a coke with a water. The brats and sauerkraut were everything I wanted them to be and so was the Black Forest Cake. It was just plain terrific.

Cost of 2 CS meals: $24.98

Then we made our way to the international showcase boat dock for our dinner at the Yachtsman. We had a pleasant ride and relaxed for a bit more before our seating at 5:30. We had a great spot at the window again. This time I chose the seafood salad and it was absolutely fantastic. Everything that I wanted it to be, the dressing was amazing. I actually took some of the bread and made sure to get every drop of it off the plate; if I could have I would have licked the plate clean. Reed had the diver scallops. We were shocked to see that we only received TWO! Yes, TWO!

They are seared but I found them to be a bit raw in the middle. I don’t know if that is what they meant to have happen. The fried topping was good, but this wasn’t their best appetizer available.

Reed got the New York Strip which was good. We got the steak again for Katie and she was actually hungry enough to eat some of it today. I had the seabass, I really enjoyed that! It came with a spinach and crab meat ravioli. The ravioli was good, but it was the bass and the crustacean sauce that made the dish. The bass was seared on one side to a crisp and cooked all the way through but not over cooked at all. Delicious!

For dessert, Katie got the puzzle again, she really enjoyed painting it and this time she ate the chocolate and we brought the cupcake with us back to EPCOT so she could eat it while we waited for Innovations. I had the warm chocolate cake with the mint chocolate chip ice cream. I thought the cake was fantastic but the ice cream was an odd choice. The cake has a warm chocolate center that oozes out when you cut it open. It was warm, decadent and a great chocolate cake. I would have preferred vanilla bean ice cream with it though. Reed had the Grand Marnier Strawberries with a shortcake. He thought they were great.

Cost of Meal: $145.46
Tip: $25.00

 

[Melissa_E]

Our last day was a relaxing one. I actually slept until 6:30. We gradually woke up, packed up the room. We didn’t get to breakfast until 8:15 or so, HO BOY is there ever a difference between a 7a.m. breakfast vs. 8:15. The cafeteria was packed! We just got simple foods, pancakes for Katie, French toast for me, Reed had the breakfast platter.

Cost of Meal: $22ish

We used up our snack credits at Goofy’s Candy shop. All 20 of them! I was disappointed that the fudge wasn’t included even though it was only $4 a piece. But we got brownies, cookies, and other goodies. They are all chilling in the refrigerator.

Cost of snack credits: $66

We spent our last credits at Earl of Sandwich. This was EASILY the best counter service meal that I had the whole trip. The bread is just fantastic, similar to Panini bread without all of the seasoning. Then they top it with really fresh meats. I had the Full Montegu, it was excellent. Reed had the original sandwich which I liked but I enjoyed mine much better. Katie had the PB&J which was good too! We got drinks and chips instead of a dessert. I will definitely hit this place a couple of times next time we go to Disney. Just fantastic!

Cost of lunch: $26.26

 

[Melissa_E]

Best Breakfast:
This one is hard to say, either Norway (the fresh fruit was that good) or Kona. The tonga toast was great if just a touch too sweet. I will definitely do both next time

Best CS location:
Earl of Sandwich- their sandwiches were just fantastic!

Best lunch:
Tough! Either Plaza or Earl of Sandwich! The Plaza's Reuban was great and paired with the milkshake it is terrific, but those sandwiches at EoS were awesome.

Best 1 TS dinner:
Le Cellier- for a 1TS meal this one had it all, great cuts of beef, terrific appetizers, good desserts, ambiance.

Best 2TS location:
This is tough as well! The calamari was FANTASTIC at Narcoosee's but the seafood salad at the Yachtsman was unbeatable. I so want the recipe for the dressing.

Best buffet:
Crystal Palace, I would have liked it more if the noise level was lower, but the asiago mushroom pasta was terrific. They had great desserts too.

Worst CS location:
Pizza Planet at DHS. The pizza was just not good and the restaurant was very noisy.

Worst Sandwich:
The cheesesteak was sub-par at the Plaza which surprised me.

Worst Coffee:
Definitely the Pop century. BLECH!

Oddities:
Watch out for done-ness of your duck at Le Cellier and the scallops at Yachtsman.

DxDP what to watch out for!
I have a feeling at a couple of CS locations we didn't get what we were entitled to and didn't keep track that we got an appetizer, entree and dessert. Granted, we didn't NEED them, but still, watch out if you are hungry!

 

[wide awake]

Great reviews. I am having a horrible time deciding between deluxe and regular DDP...and your reviews didn't help !!!

 

[stagemomx3]

Great reviews and pictures. Also Katie is a cutie!

 

[angelmav]

Just finished reading, Loved your reviews and pic's!

 

[dairyqueenmom]

Loved your report, we are doing an adult trip in September and we are going to do the DxDP. Your reviews were helpful.

 

[Melissa_E]

Great reviews. I am having a horrible time deciding between deluxe and regular DDP...and your reviews didn't help !!!

It is a hard decision, we really liked the idea of a good breakfast and a good dinner. By having an early TS breakfast we were able to start our day running. I think if you are going to eat at a good number of TS locations the DxDP is the way to go. Our breakdown was this we had 63 total meals:

3 signature dinners x 3 people x 2TS= 18 credits used
8 regular TS meals x 3 people x 1TS= 24 credits used
20 CS meals, these were mainly split between us using 1 or 2 credits at a time
1 left over

With that in mind, we received $330+ in value over what we paid.

 

[creativeamanda]

Your reviews were great! I hope I'm not so disappointed by Narcoossee's on my anniversary!