Giving Thanksgiving a Whirl (and a Hurl) in WDW *COMPLETE! 5/20*

[tabrizia]

Oh no!

I am sad to hear that the lamb shank was meh, based on the picture alone I was about to add it to my list of places to go and things to eat.

Ugh on no FP+ being added to your bands. I would be beyond annoyed at that point.

And I am really hoping they cleaned the shower, though I am not hopefully based on the title for the next part...

 

[ChrissyBeth29]

I can't wait to hear how it goes down with Stacey! If it were me, I would have had a free vacation by now. That' so unacceptable! Good for you that you spoke up!

 

[ariane37]

Oh no!

I am sad to hear that the lamb shank was meh, based on the picture alone I was about to add it to my list of places to go and things to eat.

Ugh on no FP+ being added to your bands. I would be beyond annoyed at that point.

And I am really hoping they cleaned the shower, though I am not hopefully based on the title for the next part...

The lamb shank looks so good, right? it wasn't BAD, just not as good as it looked and Steve was disappointed in it. I haven't looked online but I read here that they recently changed their menu. Still might be worth a go!
All I'm saying is thank GOD our January trip didn't have an issue like this one did

I can't wait to hear how it goes down with Stacey! If it were me, I would have had a free vacation by now. That' so unacceptable! Good for you that you spoke up!

We should have! We actually did get a free 3-night deluxe resort stay back in 2011 due to a mold issue in our room that wasn't taken care of, but Disney was a little different back then IMO even though it was only a few years ago. I couldn't keep quiet about that hair. I wanted to puke every time I looked at it
And thank you for reading!!

 

[kastoney]

Im all caught up now and have no words for all the room drama you all have experienced. Completely inexcusable. I'm not sure what has happened over the years, but cast members certainly don't seem to care as much as they once did. But that aside they should at least ensure what they ask to have happen actually does. Can't wait to see how this one plays out!!!!!

Now onto happier times, so glad your meal at garden grill was good even if it was sans Mickey and Pluto. We're planning on doing it in April for the first time. The dinner menu never interested me, but I'm always up for breakfast (and more important a bloody mary). Think we have a 1000 ADR. Hope we get to see all the characters or my little one will be none too happy.

Glad you all enjoyed ESPN and The Plaza. Both offer good and efficient meals and much better than counter service offerings.

Sorry Trattoria was a bust. Figure we'll try it at some point, but maybe not anytime soon. Plus it would be too hard for me to give up my beloved Via Napoli.

And love all your Osbourne Light pictures. So sad I'll never get to see them.

 

[ariane37]

Im all caught up now and have no words for all the room drama you all have experienced. Completely inexcusable. I'm not sure what has happened over the years, but cast members certainly don't seem to care as much as they once did. But that aside they should at least ensure what they ask to have happen actually does. Can't wait to see how this one plays out!!!!!

Ugh I know, after all our visits it really was surprising and disappointing. Definitely agree on how CM's have changed, unfortunately. As I told ChrissyBeth29 above, we were given a free 3-night deluxe stay back in 2011 because of a slight mold issue in our shower at BWV, nothing like this, and that was the result of an email Steve sent after were turned home. Between all our visits to the desk AND calls/emails when we got home this time, nothing. SO happy our January resort stays redeemed our faith in Disney

Now onto happier times, so glad your meal at garden grill was good even if it was sans Mickey and Pluto. We're planning on doing it in April for the first time. The dinner menu never interested me, but I'm always up for breakfast (and more important a bloody mary). Think we have a 1000 ADR. Hope we get to see all the characters or my little one will be none too happy.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! If you start seeing the characters that haven't visited your table yet just walk by you - grab your waitress and tell her asap

And love all your Osbourne Light pictures. So sad I'll never get to see them.

It looks like we may be going back this Nov. and it hit me the other day - no lights

 

[ariane37]

When we left off, we had returned from saying good-bye to the Osborne Lights and were headed back upstairs to our new room at the end of the earth on the 4th floor. As soon as we walked in I headed for the bathroom to check the shower and Steve listened to a message that had been left on the phone. Then 2 things happened simultaneously: I shouted a very bad expletive (this is my bad habit I freely own up to: my boys have heard almost every curse word out there from Mommy but hey, I'm extremely active in the PTA to make up for it) and Steve yelled out that the message was from the manager of Housekeeping saying she'd personally escorted her employee to our room and watched her clean our bathroom and she hoped everything was now up to our expectations.

Now friends, we did take pictures of the hairiness which we'd shown both Neil and Stacey along the way. Steve has since deleted them off his phone but even if he hadn't, I wouldn't subject you guys to that although part of me wishes I did have them to show you! I don't know what the hell bathroom they'd cleaned but it wasn't ours. Steve thinks they still had us in the Titanic room in the computer and they'd cleaned that one, but 1. then why would they leave the phone message at our new room # and 2. every single time I'd gone to Neil/Stacey I'd reiterated our current room #.

SO

I went BACK down to the front desk. Luckily I'd noticed Stacey still there when we walked in. I won't lie, it was 11:00 and I did not use my inside voice. I brought up the lack of anytime FP's after telling her about the still dirty shower and the phone message; her response to the FP thing was "sorry, I must have gotten busy after I told you that and forgotten to add them". I was silent for a minute, in shock that that was all she said. I admit I expected a more sappy apology and yes, FP's for tomorrow or SOMETHING to make up for it. I'd told her about Brandyn allowing us through Toy Story but that we were uncomfortable trying it anywhere else.

As far as the bathroom she said nobody was left from housekeeping but she'd send someone up first thing at 6am when they came in. OMG I wanted to kill her! So we went back and forth with me insisting someone clean it NOW and her saying nobody could. I told her SHE should clean it which of course she didn't agree to; I asked to speak with her manager who of course wasn't there. After about 10 minutes we came to an agreement: she would get someone from maintenance to clean it so I should go wait for them. No way baby, not that again. I said I'd hang with her until Steve texted me they were there cleaning because my boys were waiting to shower, so they better be there in a matter of minutes or she'd need security to drag me away from her. I got nervous for a minute that security WOULD come drag me away but I guess my serious toughness wore her down after all these hours and she agreed and called maintenance with her back turned to me so I couldn't hear. Steve texted about 7 minutes later that someone from housekeeping was there. Imagine that! And we were done.

I gave Stacey the stink eye every time I saw her behind the desk the rest of our trip, because I'm mature like that. Steve asked for the GM a couple days and was told he wasn't there, and he also wasn't there when Steve was told he would be. He did send a couple emails when we got home but never heard anything back. I mentioned this in a couple responses but, back in 2010 we had a very slight mold issue in our shower at BWV which wasn't taken care of during our stay. Steve wrote a email when we got home and we ended up being given a free 3-night deluxe stay to be used within 12 months so we used it in 2011. Given how Disney "is" now I had no false hope that we 'd be given something like that this time, but I sure felt we deserved it! I hate to write this but the whole situation really put a damper on the trip up to this point (look how that pun works for both rooms!) I felt like just throwing in the towel (did it again!) and I know Steve did. I was seriously crossing my fingers that we all had a good day tomorrow. Which we did So on to some more fun!

UP NEXT: HS, DISNEY SPRINGS AND RICKY GETS HIS FILL OF MUSSELS (with pictures, I promise)

 

[ariane37]

Now that our room was clean we had 4 more days to enjoy our vacation. We woke up bright and early for our first scheduled rope drop of the trip. Normally almost every day was RD, but I'd promised Sleepy and Drowsy that we'd try it their was this time and get to the parks later in the day - NOT something I recommend on a Thanksgiving week trip. But sometimes you give in to your kids and this was one of those times. So far the parks hadn't been that bad crowd-wise, but it was difficult to get on our favorites outside of using FP's for them and their was absolutely NO 4th, 5th, etc. FP availability left for anything decent once you used your 3. I was ready to remind them how valuable RD was!

HS was our goal and they opened at 8; we were on the walking path by 7:27. We approached the gate at 7:40 and noticed they were already letting people in, so we hightailed it over and got to TSMM with a 5 minute wait. We then went to the most awesome ToT which had a fake 10 minute posted wait time; Ricky and I went first and then FINALLY convinced Chris to try it for the first time!

A mother's proudest moment:


It had taken Ricky until age 11 to do ToT because the queue freaked him out. Chris was the opposite; the queue he could totally handle, but he's not good with drops although he loves Splash. So we got through the library and video just fine (he's watched many Twilight Zone episodes with me) and he was fairly cool in the boiler room. However, once we sat down in the elevator......well, let's just say the Photopass picture and video are the 2 most hysterical things I've ever seen. Steve and I laughed so hard when we saw the picture and later when we watched the video we almost peed our pants, and if that makes us bad and uncaring parents, then that's us! His face was priceless. Sadly our punishment for laughing at our youngest for being terrified and hating the ride was that I forgot that the Photopass stuff vanishes after 45 days or whatever, and Chris's first and probably only ride on TOT is now erased forever.

After that Steve took Chris on Toy Story again which had a posted 20 minute wait while Ricky and I took one more ride in a haunted elevator, a walk-on 3x in a row. We still had time before our first FP at 9:30 so we had some breakfast at Starring Rolls - choc. chip muffin for Chris, bagels for Steve and Ricky and the always delicious Disney apple Danish for me.

It was then time for our first FP



FYI, Aerosmith is one of my favorite bands Anyway, this is another ride Chris hasn't braved yet and I didn't feel today was the time to suggest trying. Steve took the first ride with Ricky while Chris and I waited on the wall. As an "I'm sorry for scaring the beejezus out of you" make-up, I let Chris get a tattoo from the little cart we were sitting next to



They had tons of character tattoos but both boys are big into basketball so that won out. I rode with Ricky after Steve did and then we used our 2nd FP for ToT - Steve and I and then Ricky and I - not surprisingly no Chris - also not surprisingly the wait had climbed to 40 minutes since it was now close to 11. Steve took Chris on GMR while Ricky and I rode as the wait time was only 15 but he said they were on in 10. As we walked towards the exit I recapped for the boys what we'd done in under 3 hours by getting there at RD: 6 rides on headliners with no wait (calling GMR a headliner here since it's a Tier 1 and had waits upwards of 50-60 during our trip in the afternoons and into the night).

We decided to take a Friendship boat back to the BW since it was kind of warm out and we wanted to change into cooler clothes before heading to Disney Springs for our lunch ADR. But when the boat stopped at the Dolphin we talked the boys into looking at their holiday decorations with us quickly since we had a little time to kill

cute model of the Swan/Dolphin in the lobby

cute tree off the lobby

But that tree doesn't hold a candle to this one on the 2nd floor!


The picture doesn't even do it justice, it was really gorgeous. And it had this cool train going around it




Another picture of some lobby décor:


And finally this, a display made completely of sugar:

We'd never been in the Dolphin before and were pretty impressed even without the Christmas decorations. Eventually we made our way back to our room to change and headed to the bus stop to catch a bus to Disney Springs for our first ever meal at Fultons Crab House. I'd read mixed reviews about this place but for years whenever we'd walk past Steve would mention wanting to try it, so I decided what the heck. Plus they had mussels as an app so I knew Ricky would be happy!

Our ADR was for 1:00. We got to the bus stop at 12:05 and the sign said the next bus was coming at 12:18. Nope, we hadn't adhered to the 90 minutes to get to an ADR rule but we usually didn't and did fine Why is Disney Springs almost always the exception? Bus came 12:21 and went directly to DS rather than stopping at the other Epcot resorts which worked out for us, and we checked in at Fulton's at 12:50.



Good picture of the Amphicar you can rent from the Boathouse


So we got there 10 minutes before our ADR time but they told us they were a bit behind and we'd have a little wait.
Whatever would children do these days without their electronics? Life would most definitely be hard.



We were seated at 1:15 and we were starving! This post is a tad picture heavy so I'll continue Fulton's in my next post.

 

[tabrizia]

Seriously the room thing is annoying me. The fact that no one replied to your emails once you got home and the fact that the GM was never around while you were there, would really annoy. Actually it does really annoy me. Grrrr, on your behalf.

On the plus side it sounds like you had a good morning at HS. We never got any of our minions on ToT or RR. I still haven't done either actually. I was willing to do them but none of the minions wanted to do ToT and minion 1 decided against RR. Maybe next time.

 

[ariane37]

Seriously the room thing is annoying me. The fact that no one replied to your emails once you got home and the fact that the GM was never around while you were there, would really annoy. Actually it does really annoy me. Grrrr, on your behalf.

Thanks for your support It put a huge damper on the trip and made me worry about mine and Steve's Jan. trip right up until we checked in. Luckily we had a great time last month with NO resort issues......and now that we're officially booked for this Nov. (yay!) I'm hopeful we'll experience NO resort issues I really believe it was all a result of the CM's and such a fluke, it couldn't possibly happen again. Right lol??

On the plus side it sounds like you had a good morning at HS. We never got any of our minions on ToT or RR. I still haven't done either actually. I was willing to do them but none of the minions wanted to do ToT and minion 1 decided against RR. Maybe next time.

Well come down in Nov. and I'll ride both with you as often as you like I actually rode ToT by myself the first 2 or 3x I went on, because the kids were too young to wait by themselves. It made me extra nervous the first time but now I'll ride alone, with family, strangers, I don't care!

 

[tabrizia]

Well come down in Nov. and I'll ride both with you as often as you like I actually rode ToT by myself the first 2 or 3x I went on, because the kids were too young to wait by themselves. It made me extra nervous the first time but now I'll ride alone, with family, strangers, I don't care!

I would but between London and Disneyland my fall/winter is full.

 

[ALEXandFAB]

I know what I said to her may have sounded harsh and looking back now it seems like not as huge a deal as it was then.

NOPE. NOPE. NOPE. NOT harsh and VERY big deal. A good shaking is what Stacey needs I am seriously experiencing second-hand rage on your behalf. The level of unprofessional blasé attitude and sheer incompetence that both Soft-in-the-Head Stacey and Ninny Neil displayed is astounding. You handled this whole situation exactly as I would expect anyone to handle it.

I'm glad that in the end the shower was cleaned and you were able to resume enjoyment of your vacation!

 

[ariane37]

We left off at Fultons, about ready to order. Ricky got soda and Steve got a beer while Chris and I went for something a little more exotic:

I got the Sangria


This was VERY good, nice and fruity. Better than Trattoria's but still not quite as good as Marrakesh's. Chris went with this cool blue drink


which was called a Blue Lagoon: pinapple juice, orange juice, sprite and blue citrus. He felt like a grown-up with a colored drink like me
We went with a couple appetizers. Chris wanted to try the crab cakes and Ricky of course got the mussels (and beer!)


The crab cakes were REALLY crabby-tasting, which I assume is good if you love crab! Chris wasn't a fan, again I don't eat fish, but Steve enjoyed them. Steve also got a bowl of the New England clam chowder which both he and Chris said was very good; it was full of chunky pieces of clam and very thick and creamy.


Ricky loved the mussels, as usual. These were his 3rd order of the trip and they rated 2nd; behind Marrakesh but ahead of Trattoria.
Before our entrees came I got another Sangria and Chris got another big boy drink, this time a pink one, the Surf's Up! The description just says "Hang Ten with Tropical Flavors" so I assume it's a bunch of fruit flavors mixed together.

For lunch Steve ordered the Fish Tacos, Ricky ordered the Fulton's Chopped Salad, and I got the Hook and Sinker which is a half a sandwich and either soup or a salad. You had a choice of a couple different sandwiches/soups and either a house salad or Caesar.I chose the Chicken Ciabatta and Caesar Salad.



Steve liked his tacos very much, although they had a bit of a kick. This was due to the pico de gallo and queso fresco. Poor guy had to order another beer to keep cool Ah, such is life.......



Ricky enjoyed his salad and ate the whole thing, nothing out of the ordinary for a 13 year old boy. It had chicken, bacon, egg, avocado, cheddar cheese, tomato, all that good stuff.

I also enjoyed my sandwich and salad. It was filling enough but not overly-so. I didn't want to be stuffed when we left because I had something else in Disney Springs in mind for dessert!



Chris ordered of the kids menu and went with the 5oz. filet. He is a steak man and loves his filet. Steve and I are happy when there's one on the kids menu since often filet on the adult menu is over $35. His came with corn but he'd eaten the corn that came with the crab cakes so he opted for fries instead



I'd like to draw your attention to the size of this filet. Yes, I know it was 5oz. And I know that's a good size for most kids (I guess). And, I know Chris eats more than a typical 10 year old. But we laughed so hard when this came out, because that piece of meat was tiny!!!!! My sweet sarcastic son looked at it, looked at Steve and said, "um, what am I supposed to do with this??" He ate it in 3 bites - not huge bites either, just regular mouth fulls - and then said, "ok I'm done, what am I supposed to eat now??" In Fultons defense (besides us being fully aware it WAS a kids meal) it was cooked to medium perfection and Chris said it was the best filet he'd had in Disney to date, even beating BOG which had been his unquestionable favorite up to that point. I still laugh though whenever I see that picture.

And because he didn't have a "full" meal, he ordered the kids build your own sundae


It's a little hard to see in this picture but its the same as all other restaurants: vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and .....m & m's I think. He played with this awhile, we paid and left to walk around Disney Springs awhile and do some shopping.
I know I went heavy on the Fultons food pics, but we seriously enjoyed our meal here. Fultons gets its fair amount of negative reviews and not too many positive ones, so I wanted to give it a big thumbs up. Now that it's closing for a long refurb there's rumors it's going to open back up as something else so who knows if it'll even be there by the fall, but if it is we'd definitely go back!

We hit my favorite DS store first, the Christmas store, and picked up a couple ornaments for us and one for my stepson's fiancé whose birthday was the day after Thanksgiving. I also picked up a "Baby's 1st Mickey" plush for my niece's little boy who was born in March. The personalized ornaments wouldn't be done for about 45 minutes so we went into Basin and Tren-D, my 2nd favorite store! No trip to Disney Springs is complete without a stop in the World of Disney, and Steve likes to check out the Marketplace. By then I was ready for my dessert:



Something I'd seen and fallen in love with in a dining report here on the Dis: the Ghirardelli Sea Salt Caramel Sundae. Vanilla ice cream, caramel, hot fudge, sea salt, whipped cream, and then the best part, MORE caramel and sea salt. MMmmmm! Heaven! Better than I'd dreamed it would be!
Steve chose not to partake in any ice cream and Chris had already had his, but Ricky got a chocolate mint Quake Shake and sucked the whole thing down.
After that we picked up our ornaments and jumped on a bus back to the BW to chill a bit before our 7:50 ADR at Narcoossee's, another place new to us.

The kids headed right to the room for some alone time with their phones/Ipods, so Steve and I did a little more shopping at the General Store on the BW. I'd had my eye on the boxed Christmas cards they were selling and finally decided to pick them up, along with a couple more charms for my awesome Princess charm bracelet my mom had gotten me from the Girl Scout store at work (she works for the Girl Scouts if you didn't catch that).
Finally it was time to leave; well, actually later than I wanted to leave. I had wanted to be at the bus stop to MK by 6, since we then had to monorail to the GF and I also wanted to look in the shops there and spend a few minutes in front of the gingerbread house. But since nobody ever listens to mom we weren't at the bus stop until 6:30 and not on a bus until 6:45. However, I still made everyone stop in the BW lobby to take a picture



This was the extent of my boys dressing up on vacation. Ricky usually doesn't give me a hard time but Christopher is horrible. It was HELL getting him in that striped shirt, you have no idea! It would be far easier for me to put my 25 lb. cat in little high heels and parade him up and down the street on a leash willingly so the above is what I got!

I'm going to stop here for now. My computer is a few years old and VERY slow. Today is my birthday and my boys got me a new laptop so I'm going to have Steve transfer all my pictures over and then hopefully it won't take me as long to write my updates!


UP NEXT: DINNER AND FIREWORKS AT NARCOOSSEE'S

 

[tabrizia]

Fulton's looks good, and crabby is good for crab cakes!

Looking forward to the Narcoossee's review, we loved our meal there, it was awesome.

 

[ariane37]

Looking forward to the Narcoossee's review, we loved our meal there, it was awesome.

We loved it, too! Was planning on updating both my TR's today but the kids had early dismissal due to the weather so the amount of stuff I'll get done just went down by about 60% lol

 

[kastoney]

shouted a very bad expletive (this is my bad habit I freely own up to: my boys have heard almost every curse word out there from Mommy but hey, I'm extremely active in the PTA to make up for it)

Ah, a girl after my own heart

got nervous for a minute that security WOULD come drag me away but I guess my serious toughness wore her down after all these hours and she agreed and called maintenance with her back turned to me so I couldn't hear. Steve texted about 7 minutes later that someone from housekeeping was there. Imagine that! And we were done.

This is just utterly ridiculous. I think I would have pulled a National Lampoons Vacation John Candy moment and just "escorted" Stacy to my room to fix it. Completely irresponsible business practices.

He did send a couple emails when we got home but never heard anything back.

I can't believe they never responded. I send them emails about stupid meaningless things and they call me 20,000 times to discuss it. I thick the non response is really code for we infinitely screwed (aka insert one of those infamous curse words here) this one up.

However, once we sat down in the elevator......well, let's just say the Photopass picture and video are the 2 most hysterical things I've ever seen. Steve and I laughed so hard when we saw the picture and later when we watched the video we almost peed our pants, and if that makes us bad and uncaring parents, then that's us! His face was priceless. Sadly our punishment for laughing at our youngest for being terrified and hating the ride was that I forgot that the Photopass stuff vanishes after 45 days or whatever, and Chris's first and probably only ride on TOT is now erased forever.

OMG, how did you not get this from photo pass. I would pay good money to see that.

The picture doesn't even do it justice, it was really gorgeous. And it had this cool train going around it

Wow. I need that in my house next year ; )

I got the Sangria


This was VERY good, nice and fruity. Better than Trattoria's but still not quite as good as Marrakesh's. Chris went with this cool blue drink

If only you'd had one of these from Stacy ; )

The crab cakes were REALLY crabby-tasting, which I assume is good if you love crab! Chris wasn't a fan, again I don't eat fish, but Steve enjoyed them.

Those look like some pretty flat crab cakes. I know you don't like them but if you all ever find yourselves in the DC area just let me know. Your boys need to try a real Chesapeake bay crab cake.

Before our entrees came I got another Sangria and Chris got another big boy drink, this time a pink one, the Surf's Up! The description just says "Hang Ten with Tropical Flavors" so I assume it's a bunch of fruit flavors mixed together.

Yep, nothing says big boy better than a pink drink

I'd like to draw your attention to the size of this filet. Yes, I know it was 5oz. And I know that's a good size for most kids (I guess). And, I know Chris eats more than a typical 10 year old. But we laughed so hard when this came out, because that piece of meat was tiny!!!!!

There is no way that is 5 oz. Maybe they got confused and meant .5?????

Something I'd seen and fallen in love with in a dining report here on the Dis: the Ghirardelli Sea Salt Caramel Sundae. Vanilla ice cream, caramel, hot fudge, sea salt, whipped cream, and then the best part, MORE caramel and sea salt. MMmmmm! Heaven! Better than I'd dreamed it would be!

Buying a plane ticket and flying to Orlando tomorrow so I can finally try this bad boy ; )

This was the extent of my boys dressing up on vacation. Ricky usually doesn't give me a hard time but Christopher is horrible. It was HELL getting him in that striped shirt, you have no idea! It would be far easier for me to put my 25 lb. cat in little high heels and parade him up and down the street on a leash willingly so the above is what I got!

You can't get yours dressed up and I can't get mine dressed down (she attempted to wear her Christmas dress grocery shopping the other day). There has to be a happy medium for us both in there somewhere ; )

Today is my birthday and my boys got me a new laptop so I'm going to have Steve transfer all my pictures over and then hopefully it won't take me as long to write my updates!

Happy birthday Ariane!!!!!! You are just a day before my Casey! Sounds like the boys treated you very well.

 

[ariane37]

I can't believe they never responded. I send them emails about stupid meaningless things and they call me 20,000 times to discuss it. I thick the non response is really code for we infinitely screwed (aka insert one of those infamous curse words here) this one up.

I agree. I've gotten calls back over minute issues, and as I mentioned before in this report we got a free 3-night deluxe stay over a smaller problem a few years ago through an email Steve sent. I don't think they knew what to say to us in response this time. Even if they wanted to try "making it up" to us, it would be a hefty monetary value they most likely wouldn't be willing to offer!

OMG, how did you not get this from photo pass. I would pay good money to see that.

Just another example of Bad Parenting 101, in which we constantly receive A+ Friends of ours are going down the same time as us in Nov. and their son who is Chris's age rides ToT. Chris will most likely attempt it again since his friend rides, and I can only hope he's equally as terrified and the picture ends up showing his fear in a totally hysterically way once more

There is no way that is 5 oz. Maybe they got confused and meant .5?????

It honestly looked like a small piece of dog poop that had been on the street a couple days, but it was cooked well and he ate it so a good day!

Happy birthday Ariane!!!!!! You are just a day before my Casey! Sounds like the boys treated you very well.

Thank you very much My favorite author Stephen King said that February is the "worst" month of the year and he feels sorry for anyone with a birthday in it. I'm sure you disagree with that statement as much as I do! My new computer is MUCH faster, I had a cool Rapunzel cake, quite a few glasses of sangria and I finally got a tiara. Which I told Ricky I was going to wear the next day when I picked him up at school for his orthodontist appt. That didn't go over so well........

 

[ariane37]

Sorry I haven't gotten to Narcoossee's yet, but let me tell you this new computer is tons faster than my old one and it's so much nicer doing my TR's on it! Oh and I have to mention, besides getting the laptop for my birthday, the boys finally got me something else I've been wanting for a long time:



TIARA!! Sorry for my in-your-face face. I even made it my avatar, which is the 1st time I've had an avatar since being on the Boards! Every time I go by the Aribbas Bros. cart in MK I contemplate buying myself one but I never do. I did buy my mom one for her 65th birthday a couple years ago though and I've borrowed it once or twice This one isn't quite as fancy but it'll do!

Back to our dinner. By the time we got on the bus we only had 65 minutes until our ADR and we had to transfer to the monorial at MK. We did end up getting to the Grand Floridian with some time to spare but we weren't sure where exactly Narcoossee's was so wanted to find it before looking in any shops. Since the monorail let's you off on the 2nd floor we searched up there-nope. But since we were up there I took a nice shot of the GF Christmas tree


The lobby was packed. Granted there's 4 restaurants in there plus Mizner's lounge, and the band was playing, and the gingerbread house, but other than HS the day before it was like the only time we felt crowded in! Then we headed downstairs to continue looking for the restaurant, but had to stop to see the gingerbread house of course!



We'd seen this back in 2012 but it's something you can look at over and over again. The coolest part are all the little details in the windows, on the porches, etc.



We looked all around and were really confused! I even got on my phone to make sure Narcoossee's was AT the GF, even though given my vast and never wrong Disney knowledge I KNEW there was absolutely no way I'd made a mistake. And if I had, I was just going to make a run for it and find a new family because if I admitted it to MY family, I'd never hear the end of it.

Since time was ticking Steve just did the non-manly thing and asked for directions, at which point we found out the restaurant was outside on the water. Oohh!! Well that makes sense, since you can watch Wishes from their deck. If I'd thought about all I'd read on Narcoossee's I would have come to realize that. Sometimes it's a wonder I graduated college.

So here we are finally



The walk over was nice since we'd never walked around the grounds. We walked by one of the quiet pools and a couple of the guest buildings, and were still about 5 minutes early when we arrived. There were 2 benches right outside the door but it was a bit cool so we chose to wait inside. It was crowded, they were running a bit behind schedule and said we'd be seated shortly.

Steve went to get us drinks from the bar while the boys and I waited up front. I got a Malibu Baybreeze and Steve got his go-to Grey Goose vodka on the rocks with 3 olives. Chris and I spent some time checking out this display in the lobby, made entirely out of white chocolate



It's amazing what these artists/bakers can do with food! Chocolate, gingerbread, sugar, it's all beautiful!

It took a little time but soon we were shown to our table. Our waiter, whose name I of course cannot remember, was very attentive and was quick with refilling drinks and removing plates we were finished with. The boys ordered sodas and we soon had bread and this awesome butter with pink sea salt



For appetizers I ordered the Artisanal Cheeses and Ricky got his 4th order of mussels, Prince Edward Island Mussels in a tomato-white wine-saffron broth with chorizo and shaved fennel. Steve got the Romaine Salad. Ricky enjoyed these mussels big time and we asked him to now order the mussels he'd has so far from best to worst. Here's what he said:
4. Trattoria al Forno
3. Fultons
2. Narcoossee's
1. Marrakesh (nothing was knocking these down!)
Here are Narcoossee's mussels



My cheese platter



Overall I really liked this. I swore I took a picture of the little card they give that tells you the names and descriptions of each cheese, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere. I know the one all the way to the right is a Blue Cheese and the one in the middle was a type of cheddar. The first cheese on the left was the only one I wasn't a fan of. It was very very soft and a bit liquidy to the point of being runny. Not a consistency I look for in my cheese! I also liked all the accompaniments they gave you to go along with them.
Steve's salad was good but I didn't think you guys needed a picture - it was Romaine, marinated half-dried tomatoes, pecorino romano, garlic croutons, and Caesar dressing. Good size, too.

Steve and I got seconds on our drinks and soon our entrees came. Ricky doesn't eat red meat and nothing on the menu really interested him except the lobster mac n cheese, so he ordered that for his meal. He'd never tried lobster before but this was a huge hit with him. Steve tried it and wished he'd ordered that for his appetizer!



Lots of lobster chunks, and the breading had a good amount of herb taste but not too strong (this was all according to Steve. Ricky's description was, "it's really good").

I got the filet with red wine reduction which came with mashed potatoes and green beans. This was delicious, cooked melt in your mouth perfect. The potatoes were creamy and had a light buttery taste. I'm not a veggie girl but the beans were seasoned well and I enjoyed a few



Chris chose his entrée from the kids menu, going with the grilled flat-iron steak. This was served with roasted potatoes and seasonal veggies which were the same beans I got. He wanted to try my mashed potatoes, too!



He declared this better than the Oreo sized filet he'd had earlier that day at Fulton's but wasn't quite sure if it was better than the steak at BOG, which to this point was still his all-time favorite WDW piece of meat. I guess to a 10 year old "signature" doesn't mean much!

I was close to beyond full after my dinner but there was no way I wasn't ordering dessert. One of the main reasons we'd come was so I could try the oft-talked about Almond-Crusted Cheesecake. I'm not a huge fan of almond but this gets such rave reviews I had to give it a try, since I do love dessert. Steve was also full and thought he'd share mine (I do NOT share dessert), and Chris wanted to try the Make Your Own S'more (no picture, bad Ariane). Ricky had actually gotten 2 bowls of the lobster mac so he was skipping dessert, also. While waiting for dessert I realized it was 9:55, so Chris and I headed outside to watch Wishes. Ricky and Steve were party poopers and stayed at our table. They had a fairly decent view from there but I wanted to watch over the water.





I really stink at taking pictures of fireworks! The view is very nice and it's pretty with the water sparkling below. Steve and I went to California Grill in January and, while I prefer the food at Narcoossee's, the view of Wishes from CG can't be beat.

Narcoossee's deck selfie!



My dessert had arrived by the time we went back inside and Steve was smart enough not to touch it



People I kid you not, this may possibly have been the best thing I've ever tasted! I loved the cherry sauce, and the almond coating reminded me of the Good Humor Toasted Almond ice cream bars my mommy used to buy I think I let Steve have 2 bites. The cheesecake itself was smooth and creamy and that thin loop of white chocolate was equally delicious. I think the only reason this hasn't replaced School Bread as my favorite WDW dessert is because you can't just get the cheesecake anytime and as often as you'd like.

So! We were all happily full and very tired as it was about 10:45 now, and apparently our waiter was also tired because he slacked in bringing us our check. By the time we paid and got back to MK via the monorail it was 11:20. Luckily the bus to BW was there waiting and we were on our way. Our plan for the next day was to do PM EMH at MK, therefore again skipping RD, sleeping till whenever and doing a 1:00 lunch at Whispering Canyon Café. However, during dinner both boys expressed a desire to hit HS again AT RD to ride TSMM, RnRC and ToT as many times as possible before crowds hit. I was fine with this because 1. that included my favorite ride and 2. it proved my point to them that, especially during busy times, you get more done at RD They didn't want to change our FP's for any of our remaining days, and I explained to them that our only choices to do this were tomorrow, or Thanksgiving which would mean getting up real early after being out late for the PM EMH (12-2am). So we all decided to cancel WCC lunch, hit HS for their 8:00 opening, then come back to the resort to rest/swim/whatever until we went to MK around 3:30-4. This kind of meant we needed to get some sleep as soon as we got back to our room, since it was not far from midnight.

If you're familiar with the Boardwalk resort, coming from the parks the busses have to make a left hand turn into the street the resort is on and the another left into the resort itself. I know the name of the road the resort is on as well as the name of the main road that goes in front of the resort that the HESS station is on, but can't remember now and am too lazy to look them up. Anyway, our bus was waiting to make that left hand turn with HESS in front of us on the left; there's a green turn arrow. Well, the light turned green and we didn't move. Light red. Light green again and we don't move. Eventually we all realized the green arrow was BROKEN and the driver wasn't turning because of that.........everyone starts grumbling, someone up front shouts back that the driver radioed in that the arrow is broken and he can't turn. Granted the cars coming the other direction were nonstop and coming fast, so he'd have to hit the gas and move it to make the turn super fast. Occasionally it looked like he could make it, but I don't think he wanted to take the chance. I also have a feeling if he worked for a different company he would have attempted it but not working for Disney. I appreciated him being safe; most likely the majority of people on the bus did, but we sat there for TWENTY-TWO MINUTES waiting for the town or highway dept. to fix the arrow . Cars that were in the turning lane behind us were honking and going around us, other guests on the bus were not patient and were saying things about the driver amongst themselves. Steve was not happy but limited showing his aggravation to giving me the evil eye.......my poor kids were so tired, we finally got to the resort at about 12:15. Remember we'd done RD that morning so we were up very early. After taking the long trek to our room, getting changed and getting into bed, both kids had decided they definitely did not want to get up for rope drop at HS. They'd been all gung-ho getting on the bus back to the resort, but somehow being stuck at that light sucked all the energy and excitement right out of them. I'd cancelled our WCC reservation during dinner so now we were completely open until our first FP at MK around 4. We were also too tired right then to decide what to do, so we agreed to figure it out in the morning and call it a night.

UP NEXT: WHAT TO DO?

 

[kastoney]

Love the tiara. Totally want to see that in pics on your next trip.

Had to laugh as we had trouble finding Narcoossee's too. Had no idea it was so removed from the rest of the resort. And I had no idea they had a bar in there. Gonna have to hit it up on our next monorail crawl.

Your food looks divine. I'm a sucker for a good cheese plate and this one would have made me very happy. Oh and the lobster mac and cheese. Best Mac n Cheese I've ever had hands down. I think I would have eaten 3 bowls of it ; ).

So happy you loved the cheesecake. It truly is a masterful piece of dessert.

Cant believe all the turning trouble you had. That late at night I would have been furious. I know it couldn't have been helped but you would think he could at least get back into traffic and turn around elsewhere. And the poor boys. What troopers though.

 

[tabrizia]

The cheesecake is amazing as is the lobster mac and cheese.

Boo about the broken light, but hopefully you come up with a great plan for the morning when it comes.

 

[ariane37]

Love the tiara. Totally want to see that in pics on your next trip.

Had to laugh as we had trouble finding Narcoossee's too. Had no idea it was so removed from the rest of the resort. And I had no idea they had a bar in there. Gonna have to hit it up on our next monorail crawl.

Your food looks divine. I'm a sucker for a good cheese plate and this one would have made me very happy. Oh and the lobster mac and cheese. Best Mac n Cheese I've ever had hands down. I think I would have eaten 3 bowls of it ; ).

So happy you loved the cheesecake. It truly is a masterful piece of dessert.

Cant believe all the turning trouble you had. That late at night I would have been furious. I know it couldn't have been helped but you would think he could at least get back into traffic and turn around elsewhere. And the poor boys. What troopers though.

Oh yes, there's a bar When I'm not doing anything else, or not doing something I'm supposed to be doing, I'm thinking about where we'll eat in November. Good chance we'll go back to Narcoossee's. The cheesecake is calling my name!

Our bus driver was very good at ignoring everyone complaining on the bus, so not surprised he didn't turn around anywhere. Hey, he didn't have anywhere to go except back to MK, anyway! At least Stacey wasn't driving the bus. We'd still be there.....................

The cheesecake is amazing as is the lobster mac and cheese.

Boo about the broken light, but hopefully you come up with a great plan for the morning when it comes.

Of all the signatures we've been to so far, Narcoossee's is sitting at the top of the list. And we did end up with a good plan for the morning; update coming soon!