We Dined Around the World 9/28 - 10/4

[LoraJ]

Hello All!

We arrived at WDW today and are having a great time already. We are staying at the Yacht Club, and as I am starting this review, I am sitting here looking out the window out at the lake and over at Boardwalk, taking in the sights and sounds while I drink a sangria from the Crew Cup Lounge.

There are our dining plans for the week. We'll see i we stick to them:

Day 1:
Dinner - California Grill

Day 2:
Lunch - Food & Wine Fest Booths
Dinner - Jiko

Day 3:
Breakfast - Captain's Grille
Lunch - Paradiso 37
Dinner - Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Day 4:
Lunch - Pecos Bill
Dinner - Fulton's Crab House

Day 5:
Lunch - Flame Tree BBQ
Dinner - Yachtsman Steakhouse

Day 6:
Lunch - Food Wine Booths


We are not on the dining plan. It just does not work out for us. This is our first time being here during free dining, was a little bit nervous about it. I got all the ADR's I wanted, so that was not an issue.

 

[LoraJ]

Day 1:

Our flight out of Newark arrived early and we headed to Alamo to pick up our rental car. I got a compact car, which I thought I did last year as well, but this year we had little choice in cars. We picked some sort of Kia thing because there was a Sirius sticker on the window. I hate this car. And the Sirius doesn't even work. Guess they only had it for a free trial or something. Lesson learned, pay for something nicer next time. I guess I am just used to our nice brand new Prius with the comfy seats and cool gadgets and things like power windows and doors that lock from a FOB.

We were greeted at the Yacht Club and escorted to the online check-in desk where we were promptly given our packet. No only was I given our request, but we were given a water view room as well as a king room. So pleased!!


After getting my nails done at the salon and taking a little snooze it was time to head towards the Contemporary for our 7:55pm ADR at California Grill. We arrived at around 7:45pm and told that many people were taking their sweet time at the tables and holding things up. We were told we would be seated around 20 - 25mins after our ADR time. I guess the people holding up the tables thought wishes was on. But tonight was a MNSSHP night and the fireworks would be at 9:30pm.

We sat in one of the lounges and ordered drinks. Before they even arrived our buzzer went off and we were seated just after 8pm. Not bad at all. Our server was Steven and he was wonderful. Very friendly and attentive.

I started the evening off with their version of the Sangria. It was so good. Best Sangria I have ever had:

For appetizers, I had the Florida Beefsteak Tomato Soup which was delicious!!:

DH had the shrimp salad which he really liked. He said the shrimp was spicy:

For entree's I had the crispy chicken. I really enjoyed this. The heirloom tomato side was really good too.

DH had the scallops which he said were good. he was underwhelmed with the portion of gnocchi that came with it. Thought it would be larger.

For dessert I had the sweet celebrations apple cobbler that DH took a bite of.

It was good, not the best I've had.

Overall, the meal was fantastic and we'll definitely return here.

 

[VegasMike21]

Good stuff so far, I see you got Bubba Gump's listed, one of my all time favorite restaurants hands down. Been to the Bubba Gumps in Hawaii and Anaheim. Love that place! Some of the best shrimp dishes around!

 

[LoraJ]

Good stuff so far, I see you got Bubba Gump's listed, one of my all time favorite restaurants hands down. Been to the Bubba Gumps in Hawaii and Anaheim. Love that place! Some of the best shrimp dishes around!

It's become our Halloween Horror Night tradition.
We've been to the Bubba Gumps here, in New Orleans, NYC and Miami.

 

[BriarRosie]

Great review so far! I like California Grill. Last time I was there, I shared flatbread, sushi, and had soup and an appetizer for myself instead of an entree. Iit was so much nicer than being restricted to entree and dessert on the dining plan.

That's why I'm not a fan of the dining plan, either.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Hey Lora!

So glad you are having a great time! I'll be here waiting for your next update!

 

[luvpooh]

you're hitting up some of our favorite places, can't wait to read the rest!

I ran into the same problem in May with renting a compact car, we have had them in the past and they were fine, this time it had no power anything and was like a tiny tin can! I guess the rental car companies are downgrading?

Have a great trip!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Great start! I love Cali Grill!

Hope you have a fun time and we will be there Oct 1-5...planning on spending all day at Epcot so we might bump into each other

 

[LoraJ]

you're hitting up some of our favorite places, can't wait to read the rest!

I ran into the same problem in May with renting a compact car, we have had them in the past and they were fine, this time it had no power anything and was like a tiny tin can! I guess the rental car companies are downgrading?

Have a great trip!

looking closer at the Alamo website, they charge the same for economy and compact and it seems as there were only economy cars to choose from when we arrived, at least if we wanted a trunk.

Lesson learned. I'll pay for the next level up next time.

 

[LoraJ]

Day 2:

We wanted to get an early start to head over to DHS and grab a fast pass for TSM and get everything done with the park and head over to Epcot for lunch. Silly me forgot to take care of our ticket issue yesterday afternoon. We had non-expiration tickets on our KTTW cards from last year. i put them in a safe spot at some point, but of course it was so safe, I couldn't even find them. I did find my checkout sheet that had our reservation and folio ID's on them. We went to the ticket concierge this morning and it took her 30 minutes to get it all sorted out. While standing there, someone else wanted to have their Epcot ADR canceled and they made an ADR at DHS. They were unsure about their decision, and the CM suggested they keep both until they decided to do. You know you have been on the DIS too long when you hear something like that and your mouth drops to the floo and hope that both of those ADRs don't get canceled on her.

When we got to DHS, I whined for a second when I saw that the return time for TSM was 1:30pm. I was hoping we'd be hitting the F&W booths by that time. We decided I'd just find something at DHS to tie me over. We went from CS place to CS place and couldn't really find anything I wanted. I settled on a frankfurter in pretzel bread from, um, I forgot the name, it's the boat thing. It was okay. too much mustard in it. I forgot to take a picture.

We got to Epcot around 2:30pm and started heading for the booths once we picked up a ticket from Kim Possible. We were to start at the Italy section for that. We headed around clockwise from the International Gate. DH wanted the lobster & scallop pie from Ireland, but he didn't want to stand in line. He didn't find anything he wanted until we found Chile.


He got the Rock Shrimp:

I got the Arepa:

He said his was okay. I think he liked the rock shrimp better last year. I really liked the Arepa.


Next, we stopped in Argentina where I got an Empanada. I really liked this as well. The salsa was great.

Then we both got the Seared Beef Tenderloin from Cape Town. I was a bit disappointed with it. I love sweet potatoes, but the puree was sort of meh to me. I can't remember what DH thought about it.

After that DH got the crab cake from Hops & Barley. He said it was okay.

Then we helped Kim Possible save the world, which was really cute and then back to the resort to rest.At the resort, I picked up a strawberry guava drink of goodness that I enjoyed on the balcony.

 

[LoraJ]

Day 2: Cont.

Before leaving to Jiko, I walked over to Boardwalk Bakery to buy some goodies for midnight snacks. I got DH a cheesecake and I got a fruit tart. Reviews to come because they are still sitting in the fridge. We are stuffed from Jiko.

This was the first time we have been to AKL. It reminded us a lot of WL. It's beautiful. DH mentioned possibly staying there next time.

So we check in at Jiko at our ADR time (was running late because I forgot something back in our room and had to run back) and they gave us a pager and we sat in the lounge. Our table was ready in about 10 minutes. When I made the reservation, I was asked if we would be celebrating anything. Our anniversary just past so I put it down. I also had it in our resort reservation. We were given a button to wear. DH hates attention, so he asked me to please take it off after a while yesterday due to all of the attention we got. I forgot I had put it in our ADR tonight so when we were given a card from the Jiko staff, he groaned. I promised him this was the last one. LOL!

Ron was our server. He was very friendly and helpful with everything that was on the menu.
The bread was very good. I am not sure what the butter was, but it seemed to have some sort of curry in it:

For an appetizer, I got the BBQ Chicken flatbread. It was sooooooo good. I shared some with DH. They had brought him the wrong appetizer, so I thought I would be nice and share.

DH had the mussels which he enjoyed:

For our entrees, DH had the spicy tuna, which was really spice, but very good:

I had the filet mignon. I LOVED it.

We decided to skip dessert because we were so full. But Ron surprised us with an Anniversary dessert. The pistachio creme brule'. It was small, so we found room for it. Very very good.

We really enjoyed this meal and would definitely return to Jiko sometime.

 

[cbg1027]

I've had Steven as my server at Cali Grill twice. He's great.

Your pictures are really good and your reviews are making me hungry! Can't wait for more!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Awesome reviews! I love the filet at Jiko! Cannot wait to have it again in December!

 

[Disney_Mama]

Great reviews and pictures.... Can't wait for the rest.

 

[TigerKat]

Great reviews! I'm excited to hear good things about CG & JIKO as we plan to return to both in a few weeks!

 

[kabuki]

Woo Hoo! Great reviews so far .. can't wait for more!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

I'm so glad to read your review...enjoying it and can't wait for more. Thanks for sharing

 

[jakenjess]

Wonderful reviews! I really have to get to Jiko sometime soon. It looks fantastic. Looking forward to more!

 

[natalielongstaff]

Fab reviews

 

[3"Mouse"keteers]

Great reviews so far! Can't wait to hear more!