Totally Last Minute Spring Fling! No DDP, Tons Of Pics! COMPLETE!

[scanne]

Thanks for the YS review. Have you ever dined at Artist Point? I have AP booked on my upcoming trip but have also wanted to try YS. We are on the DxDP for 5 nights, but I would have to give up Chefs de France for YS and one other QS (which I'd sub with snack credits).

Thoughts?
Thank you! LOVING your reviews!

 

[vettegirl]

What a great reveiw of the YM. So glad to hear you had great service. Kudos to your hubby for finishing that big steak. My husband only ate 1/3 of his and skipped dessert.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Thanks for this Wonderful report!

I am a little confused about WPE. Years ago we bought a pizza from WPE, but it didn't have all that seating inside and the menu wasn't extensive. Did they change it or is it where Wolfgang Puck Cafe used to be?

I also at at Wolfgang Puck Upstairs and it had Wolfgang Puck Cafe below it. Is Wolfgang Puck Cafe now Wolfgang Puck Express?

I'm so confused...lol!!!

Side Note: We ate at Wolfgang Puck Upstairs with my hubby's co-worker and his wife (hubby was on business trip).

His wife said, "Wow, Wolfman Jack really knows how to cook!" She was SERIOUS!

There are actaully two different WPEs. I think that the one you are remembering is the WPE in the Westside where the Cafe and the upstairs Dining Room are located. There is a WPE downstairs attached to the Cafe. We always eat at the WPE located in Marketplace right next to the Christmas Shop. The WPE at Marketplace has a larger menu than the WPE at Westside. There are so many Wolfgang Pucks in one area that it's easy to get confused!

Love it! I want to know what they would serve at a Wolfman Jack restaurant!

Thanks for the YS review. Have you ever dined at Artist Point? I have AP booked on my upcoming trip but have also wanted to try YS. We are on the DxDP for 5 nights, but I would have to give up Chefs de France for YS and one other QS (which I'd sub with snack credits).

Thoughts?
Thank you! LOVING your reviews!

Thank you so much! I have been to Artist Point as well. I really loved it there! Hubby still talks about his dessert to this day. I actually got the vegetarian choice they had there at the time and it was super tasty and the mushroom soup was amazing. It's a close call as to which one I liked more, but I would probably say YS. I didn't really care for Chefs de France when I ate there a few years ago, but I ordered poorly and want to give it another chance. It would depend on what other place you would have to give up along with Chefs de France, but it might be worth it in order to have YS and AP.

What a great reveiw of the YM. So glad to hear you had great service. Kudos to your hubby for finishing that big steak. My husband only ate 1/3 of his and skipped dessert.

I'm so glad we had a wonderful server at Yachtsman. It's a shame you didn't get Samir too. You should request him next time so that you don't get the same rude waitress again.

I don't know how that man does it. He eats us out of house and home. There was nothing left of that steak except for a few fatty pieces. It looked like wild dogs got a hold of that thing!

 

[emmysmommy]

Your NY Strip looks good but those potatoes look even better. I thought I read some mediocre reviews on the potatoes but since they look so good and you gave them a thumbs up I want to give them a try.

I must confess that I didn't get the wafer thin mint reference so looked it up. It has been yearssssss since I've seen that movie. I forgot how hilarious that scene was and what is even funnier is that I thought I remembered it better since I have said, "I can't take one more bite or I'll burst" and I think of that scene.

Back to your review.... I'm looking forward to more!

 

[auntfrannie]

So many great reviews of YS lately! It's on my list for my October trip. My mother will love it! Especially the garlic rolls!

 

[OKWAnneMarie]

There are actaully two different WPEs. I think that the one you are remembering is the WPE in the Westside where the Cafe and the upstairs Dining Room are located. There is a WPE downstairs attached to the Cafe. We always eat at the WPE located in Marketplace right next to the Christmas Shop. The WPE at Marketplace has a larger menu than the WPE at Westside. There are so many Wolfgang Pucks in one area that it's easy to get confused!

Love it! I want to know what they would serve at a Wolfman Jack restaurant!

So the WPE you had breakfast in is in the Marketplace? I think I've got it! Thanks! Is it table service or do you order at a counter?

Yes, "Mrs. Wolfman Jack" was a riot on that trip. She insisted that I go with her to breakfast at Cape May Cafe, while our hubby's went to work. I HATE that breakfast, but I went to be friendly and polite. When the characters came by she yelled at them and said, "I don't want to see you, don't YOU remember I was just here a a few months ago with my grandchildren. I've had enough of you!" She REALLY thought they would remember her! Then, when Minnie Mouse came by she jumped up and screamed at me, "TAKE MY PICTURE WITH MINNIE!!!!" I seriously thought I was being punked!
What a trip!

 

[vettegirl]

I will request him next time, sounds like a great guy

 

[solana131]

Yum. Thats all I have to say about that review. Just...YUM! That looked sooo good!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Your NY Strip looks good but those potatoes look even better. I thought I read some mediocre reviews on the potatoes but since they look so good and you gave them a thumbs up I want to give them a try.

I must confess that I didn't get the wafer thin mint reference so looked it up. It has been yearssssss since I've seen that movie. I forgot how hilarious that scene was and what is even funnier is that I thought I remembered it better since I have said, "I can't take one more bite or I'll burst" and I think of that scene.

Back to your review.... I'm looking forward to more!

I highly recommend the potatoes! They were so delicious!

I'm glad you looked up the wafer thin mint reference and remembered it! My family references that scene every time we eat too much at a meal. So... most meals.

So many great reviews of YS lately! It's on my list for my October trip. My mother will love it! Especially the garlic rolls!

I hope you do get to try YS in October! It was really fantastic!

So the WPE you had breakfast in is in the Marketplace? I think I've got it! Thanks! Is it table service or do you order at a counter?

Yes, "Mrs. Wolfman Jack" was a riot on that trip. She insisted that I go with her to breakfast at Cape May Cafe, while our hubby's went to work. I HATE that breakfast, but I went to be friendly and polite. When the characters came by she yelled at them and said, "I don't want to see you, don't YOU remember I was just here a a few months ago with my grandchildren. I've had enough of you!" She REALLY thought they would remember her! Then, when Minnie Mouse came by she jumped up and screamed at me, "TAKE MY PICTURE WITH MINNIE!!!!" I seriously thought I was being punked!
What a trip!

Yes, you've got it! The WPE we had breakfast at is at Marketplace. On DDP it counts as a CS credit. When you walk into the restaurant you order and pay up at the register and then they give you a table number. There are a bunch of tables inside and even a few outside and you sit with your number and a server brings you silverware and brings out your food when it is ready and they clear your plates for you when you are done. If you order soda or iced tea you can fill your drink yourself or sometimes the servers will offer to fill it for you. It's great because you don't have to leave a full tip like you would at a regular restaurant. We usually just leave a couple dollars for them when we are done. It's perfect for hubby and I because we are pretty low maintenance at restaurants and I certainly don't mind refilling my own drink etc.

Geez, that sounds like a crazy trip! That woman sounds like a character herself!

I will request him next time, sounds like a great guy

Yum. Thats all I have to say about that review. Just...YUM! That looked sooo good!

It was good! I had to wipe the drool off my keyboard as I was typing that review!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Hi everyone! Small break in between reviews just to tell you about our "no dining plan" cost breakdown. It's hard to really figure out everything down to the last penny because we would have ordered completly different sometimes on DDP, but here it is the best I could figure it. I was going to put this in at the end, but I sat down and did the math today and thought I would type it all up while it was still fresh in my mind. If you don't give a darn about what I spent on vacation, feel free to skip this post.

If we had paid for the DDP this trip it would have cost $721.56 PLUS TIPS for the two of us.

I added it all up today and we spent roughly $900 on food and tips and drinks with dinner this trip. I did not include drinks we bought outside of a restaurant in the $900 total.

The way our meals worked out we actually would have used all the credits on DDP. The only difference is that we would have used too many TS credits, so we would have paid for both of our Kona breakfasts OOP.

We also would have paid OOP for 4 mixed drinks, 1 glass of wine, 1 pitcher of beer, our 2 waffle sandwiches, 4 appetizers, 2 breakfast sandwiches and our Ghirardelli sundaes if we had ordered the same way we did without the DDP. If you subtract all that out of the $900 we spent it is almost exactly the $721 it would have cost us for DDP, but then we still would have had to pay for tips! That means we definitely wouldn't have utilized DDP to our advantage.

We hardly had desserts with our meals this trip. I had 3 and hubby had 2. We usually got sweets at a later time that could have been counted as snacks on DDP, so on DDP we would have eaten a ton of desserts we wouldn't have even been hungry for and our tips would have been more because our bill would have been higher each time.

Like I said, it's hard to tell dollar for dollar how it compares because we would have snacked differently and had more desserts with dinner, but I think for us this was a better way to go. If you eat dessert with every meal and use all the snacks DDP would be the way to go, but otherwise I think DDP doesn't always work for everyone. I don't think it would have saved us any money this trip and it would have limited or changed our choices on quite a few occassions.

DDP would have possibly been more food, but not necessarily food we wanted. The free dining promotions would be a fantastic deal for us and we have utilized those in the past, but now I know for sure that I will not be getting DDP anymore without that deal. TiW would be the most ideal solution for us and I hope to get APs and TiW for our next trips unless we happen to do during free dining.

I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence about DDP. I recommend coming up with your own scenarios based on how your family dines and figuring out the cost difference between the two. I created different days and what I thought we might order on DDP vs no DDP and for me the fact that I always order water at restaurants factored into it. Not paying for a drink 16 times on a trip adds up big time and cuts down on the percentage I save on DDP. Hubby not being much of a dessert eater also factored into our choice too.

Our choice of restaurants was also a factor. Using a TS credit for a steak at Kona is more cost effective than using one on a burger at R&C. When we are on the DDP hubby always tries to order the most expensive entree on the menu to feel like he is getting more bang for his buck. The problem with that is, sometimes he doesn't get the thing on the menu that he actually wanted. He will order the steak entree when the cheaper chicken entree was what he really wanted to try. This is also the kind of thing that usually equals bigger checks and therefore bigger tips for us at every TS meal.

Also, I feel like I saved myself a lot of unnecessary calories on this trip. Our last DxDP trip I ate until I felt sick at every meal. It was just too much food for me. This time I usually felt comfortably full. I actually lost 4 pounds this trip! I had my pedometer on every day and I averaged 20,000 steps per day which for me is about 11 miles! I still ate a ton of food this trip, don't get me wrong, but I ate less on this trip than I usually do on our WDW vacations. That small cut in calorie intake coupled with all that walking actually equalled vacation weight loss for me. Bonus!

I hope this was helpful and even though it's not a review of a restaurant it's my review of how DDP works for us. It's going to be a different choice for everyone because everyone has a different situation, but be sure to weigh your options when deciding if DDP is right for you.

Okay, now back to the food porn!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

After our dinner at Yachtsman we walked back to Boardwalk in the rain. A few short minutes later we reached our destination. Boardwalk Bakery!

When hubby and I stayed at Boardwalk on our honeymoon we used up a TON of snack credits in this place. It became a favorite spot that trip and unfortunatly we haven't had the opportunty to return here very often on other trips since then. However, today we had saved room just for this. I took a bunch of pictures of all the tasty treats in the display case. For your enjoyment!

Wow! Too many choices!

For those of you who have never been in Boardwalk Bakery let me tell you, it is very small and cramped inside. There are a few refridgerated cases on the right, the bakery display case straight ahead and the cash register on your left. It's usually crowded in here. This is also the spot to go if you are staying at Boardwalk and you want to fill your refillable mug. I can tell you from experience that it is not very convenient. Fortunatly for us, it was not busy in here at all at this particular moment, so we were able to take our time and decide what we wanted. We made our choice, paid the CM and took our treats back to the car with us and drove back to SSR.

Once we were back at the room we dug into our treats! Hubby decided on the Cheesecake Brownie.

This was his favorite on our honeymoon and he was not disappointed with it this time either. Still his favorite! The brownie bottom was super chocolatey and the cheesecake was rich and creamy. They go together perfectly!

I was torn between a few items and in the end I chose the Oreo Bonbon Cupcake.

Here is the Oreo cream inside of the cupcake.

This was good. The icing on the cupcake was a whipped icing and I prefer a thick buttercream with yellow cake. The Oreo cream in the middle didn't have a huge Oreo flavor. It just tasted like more icing. I'm not a fan of sweets that are simply 'sweet.' I prefer a big flavor in my dessert and this cupcake didn't really have that. It wasn't bad by any means, just a little bland for me. Darn it, I should have gotten the Cheesecake Brownie too. Oh well, next trip!

Also, I took a picture of the container they put my cupcake in.

This held my cupcake in place perfectly! My cupcake was still intact and it didn't shift around in the container and kept icing from coming off onto the inside of the container. Very clever! Just thought this might be useful info for anyone getting a cupcake to take back to their hotel. This traveled very well!

Still, a satisfying end to another magical Disney day! Now, we're going to have a mini-Mel Gibson marathon because we rented Ransom and Signs at Community Hall.

Up next... Breakfast at Epcot!

 

[Krissalee]

Yum! I love the food at Yachtsman's! When we stay at BWV we always make a point to eat there.

I have been into the Boardwalk Bakery a time or two, but always for breakfast treats. I have never been in there for dessert - I can never get past the Ice cream at Seashore Sweets!

 

[emmysmommy]

Wow! How did you decide at the Bakery?? Everything looks amazing! Since we are staying at BW next trip this is definitely on my list. You have really awesome photos of all the goodies.

Thanks for breaking down your DDP vs oop - it totally made sense. I have done both a dining plan and TiW and I simply can't do a dining plan any more since we keep changing plans, splitting meals, and ordering apps instead of an entree.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

The cheesecake brownie looks good, but now I'm dying to try that strawberry cupcake. Thankfully we don't stay at the Boardwalk very often, or I'd be spending way too much time at the Bakery (or Seashore Sweets).

 

[we3travellers]

Thank you so much for posting your costs! I for one, find that sort of thing very interesting. I think you came out way ahead with OOP and have made me feel better about not purchasing DDP for our upcoming Aug. trip. I have never been fortunate enough to go during FD, but I just got a pin for Dec. and may talk DH into going and combining a 4 night stay with a 3 nt Dream cruise. I'm sure you posted it somewhere, but how many ADR's did you make?

 

[BlovesC]

Yachtsman Steakhouse and Boardwalk Bakery look AMAZING. I love love love your photos. I'm also kicking myself because when we stayed at BC last month, we didn't try either of them! I had planned on going to the bakery, but we couldn't pull ourselves out of SAB long enough to make the walk there. And I so wish we'd tried YS instead of Cape May, which I really disliked. I booked another quicky BC stay for DH's birthday with the intention of taking him to YS...only to find out it's closed for refurbishment while we're there! What luck!

I WILL make to the Boardwalk Bakery through, I must! Thank you for the heads up on the Oreo cupcake, that was what I was eyeing and I'm exactly the same, if my cupcake has a filling I DON'T want it to just be more icing, I want the pop of a different flavor!

 

[jz83]

Your reviews and pictures are some of the best on this board. Thank you very much for sharing your adventures!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Yum! I love the food at Yachtsman's! When we stay at BWV we always make a point to eat there.

I have been into the Boardwalk Bakery a time or two, but always for breakfast treats. I have never been in there for dessert - I can never get past the Ice cream at Seashore Sweets!

I stayed at Boardwalk for 2 weeks in 2009 and I never went into Seashore Sweets even once. I didn't even know they had ice cream! I have to check that out. Thanks for the tip!

Wow! How did you decide at the Bakery?? Everything looks amazing! Since we are staying at BW next trip this is definitely on my list. You have really awesome photos of all the goodies.

Thanks for breaking down your DDP vs oop - it totally made sense. I have done both a dining plan and TiW and I simply can't do a dining plan any more since we keep changing plans, splitting meals, and ordering apps instead of an entree.

It was a tough decision! Too much variety throws me for a loop!

I'm the same way with the meals. I actually thought we would split more meals this trip and that I would do a lot more apps instead of entrees, but it didn't work out that way. I think it will on other trips though. I really want the TiW card for next time. That fits our dining style perfectly. I love that it does the automatic gratuity too. That's a huge plus for me. I always tip at least 18% anyway, so at least if it does it for me automatically I don't have to sit there doing math after every meal!

The cheesecake brownie looks good, but now I'm dying to try that strawberry cupcake. Thankfully we don't stay at the Boardwalk very often, or I'd be spending way too much time at the Bakery (or Seashore Sweets).

That strawberry cupcake looked amazing. It was definitely the best looking cupcake in the case! Staying at Boardwalk is a dangerous thing for me. Between the Bakery and the short walk to all the goodies in WS I had too much access to fattening treats!

Thank you so much for posting your costs! I for one, find that sort of thing very interesting. I think you came out way ahead with OOP and have made me feel better about not purchasing DDP for our upcoming Aug. trip. I have never been fortunate enough to go during FD, but I just got a pin for Dec. and may talk DH into going and combining a 4 night stay with a 3 nt Dream cruise. I'm sure you posted it somewhere, but how many ADR's did you make?

I did free dining last December and it worked out great! It was such a fun time of year to go too! Sitting down to do this cost breakdown really made me feel good about my decision to pass on DDP this trip. It certainly doesn't work for everyone. We made 5 ADRs before we left, but we only kept two of them. We ended up changing every single one to a different day other than our Kona breakfast and LTT lunch. All the ones we canceled were because we walked up and got into the restaurant on a different day or time of day. We got into 7 TS restaurants with no reservation. With the exception of a character breakfast or a few signatures I don't think I'll even make ADRs anymore. It was nice to be spontaneous with our dining this trip!

Yachtsman Steakhouse and Boardwalk Bakery look AMAZING. I love love love your photos. I'm also kicking myself because when we stayed at BC last month, we didn't try either of them! I had planned on going to the bakery, but we couldn't pull ourselves out of SAB long enough to make the walk there. And I so wish we'd tried YS instead of Cape May, which I really disliked. I booked another quicky BC stay for DH's birthday with the intention of taking him to YS...only to find out it's closed for refurbishment while we're there! What luck!

I WILL make to the Boardwalk Bakery through, I must! Thank you for the heads up on the Oreo cupcake, that was what I was eyeing and I'm exactly the same, if my cupcake has a filling I DON'T want it to just be more icing, I want the pop of a different flavor!

Thanks!

I can't blame you for not wanting to leave SAB! It looks super fun! That's a shame that YS will be closed while you are there. A quick trip to BC sounds like a lot of fun though!

You should definitely make the trip over to Boardwalk Bakery! It's fantastic there! Glad to know I'm not alone with the cupcake thing. I feel like everyone else I know loves generic sweets and I always feel like a weirdo for not liking some of the stuff they do. I like to have a few different flavors going on with my desserts. If I'm going to eat stuff that isn't good for me I want to make those calories count!

Your reviews and pictures are some of the best on this board. Thank you very much for sharing your adventures!

Thank you so much! Happy to know you are enjoying my DR! Thanks for joining in!

 

[nicole0992]

I am loving your reviews. That cheesecake brownie is #1 on my list to have when we head to the Boardwalk Bakery next month. I find the cupcakes at Disney always look better than they taste to me.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Our last full day at WDW! Sigh. We have to get up and get on the move and make the most of our day at Epcot. Oh, by the way, I don't think I mentioned it on here already, but this trip we decided not to get Park Hopper tickets. This worked out great and saved us some money. We rarely go back into a park at night and I planned out our days so that we would be at a park on a day I thought we might go back to at night. That wouldn't always work for us, but it certainly did this time.

We got to Epcot right after it opened and hit up Spaceship Earth before we took off in search of breakfast. Here we are seeing our future.

Yup, I married that guy.

After our first ride of the day we headed over to The Land and grabbed FP for Soarin' and decided on Sunshine Seasons for breakfast.

Hubby suggested splitting a Breakfast Panini and a treat from the bakery case. I was down with that idea, but now we have to agree on what goodie to split. This was not easy. I wanted to try a Pineapple Coconut Cupcake, but hubby was not interested. I suggested a cheese danish, but was shot down again. He wanted a slice of plain cheesecake or chocolate cake. He was not budging off of those two items, so I decided to play the role of compromising wife today and agreed to the cheesecake. We also grabbed an apple juice to split.

We grabbed a seat and dug into our bizarre breakfast. Here is our Breakfast Panini with breakfast potatoes.

Hubby had this last time and I am so glad I got to try it this time. It was excellent! This is eggs, bacon, roast pork, and cheese on Ciabatta. Yum, yum, yum. The roast pork really put this over the top from good to amazing. The bacon was crisp, which is a must for me since I HATE soggy bacon and the flavor of the Ciabatta worked perfectly. The potatoes were tasty too. They were cooked down a lot more than some of the breakfast potatoes I have eaten at WDW CS locations in the past, which is how I like them. I love the peppers in the potatoes too. I changed my mind, I don't want to split it. Get your own!

Next up, is the cheesecake.

This was good, but it just wasn't very breakfasty to me. I'm all for sweets at breakfast, but this was just odd to me for some reason. However, it did taste really good. Very creamy with a nice graham cracker crumb crust and it was a big thick slice that they gave us. Overall, a satisfying start to the day. Now we're off to our favorite... Captain Eo! Don't judge me, I'm and 80s baby and I love it.

Up next... An Epcot first for both of us!