pooch
Still feeling special!!
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
First, my apologies for taking so long to post my Dining Reviews. My only excuse is that its very depressing to visit here when my trip is over already with no return in sight!!! Sorry!!!!! But back to the subject at hand:
We visited WDW 8/25 thru 9/3 staying at the fabulous Wilderness Lodge.
Cast:
Me (too old & another B-day today!!)
DH not a fan, goes because I'm the vacation planner - refuses to go ever again
DD (21) loves her Mom and did her best to match my enthusiasm
DS (15, now 16!) spent the trip text messaging GF!!
Day 1 Dinner Only
Arrived at the Lodge about 4:30 after a good ME experience, settled in and headed for the boat launch to CR for our 6PM ressies at CONCOURSE STEAKHOUSE.
Our original trip plan was for room only ressies for the first 2 days, picking up DDP on day 3. But, when the Free DDP plan came out, we changed it to include the whole trip. Since we were getting in right around dinner time, I thought the boat ride to CR would be a great way to start the vacation and I was hoping to talk everyone into hopping the monorail to Epcot for EMH after dinner!
The boat to CR took about 15 minutes to arrive & we arrived very close to our ressie time. I've never been a fan of CR but have to say that, arriving by boat, its pretty impressive. We checked in and were given a beeper. I like these. It seems so much easier than listening for your name to be called, especially a difficult to pronounce name like ours!! We had eaten at Chef Mickey's last visit and the kids shared great memories of the meal. Everyone was in a good mood and I was hopeful since I was really the only one who wanted to come back to WDW. We hadn't eaten since breakfast at the airport so everyone was hungry and looking forward to our first DDP meal. We were seated about 15 min later. Our server was ALI. He immediately asked if we were on DDP and then quickly and efficiently explained how it worked and took our drink orders.
We interrupt this review to digress: We NEVER once experienced a problem with the waitstaff because we were on DDP. Everywhere we went, the waiters were great (ok, we had a couple of only ok people). We were never rushed, ignored, pressured to order anything or treated like 2nd class citizens. Back to the review..
I had spent a lot of time explaining the DDP to the family prior to our arrival and had prepared them for huge portions!! For appetizers, DS & DD ordered Onion Rings, I had Shellfish Bisque and DH, the Broiled Scallops. We all tried the Onion Rings and they were very good. My Bisque was good but not great (that would come later in the week!). But the talk of the meal was DH's Scallops, both of them!! There were 2 medium-sized scallops on the plate along with a mound of what DH calls "grass clippings" (he is an affirmed iceburg lettuce eater no matter how hard I try to introduce him to other types of greens!) Now understand that the dish was delicious!! He LOVED it but would have loved a few more!!! This would become a pattern and the family joke of the week. DH would invariably order the smallest appetizer on the menu! The rest of us would get these ENORMOUS portions and he would get 2.
For dinner we ordered:
DS - Ribs - this was a huge serving, one rack piled on top of another with garlic mashed potatoes and cole slaw. The meat was falling off the bone and Nick loved it!! He was only able to finish one rack along with almost all of the potatoes. He wasn't interested in the cole slaw so DD ate most of it.
Me - Prime rib, end cut - a good piece of meat and a normal-sized portion. I was able to finish my entree for probably the only time all week.
DH & DD both ordered Filet Mignon, medium well. They learned to subsequently order their steaks medium as the filets were slightly overcooked for their tastes. This did not, however, stop them from devouring their dinners. And both agreed that the steaks were very good.
ALI brought refills of our drinks with dinner without prompting and checked on us several times during the meal.
We were all quite full at this point and ALI happily packed desserts to go, a chocolate cake, key lime tart and 2 carrot cakes. I have to say the carrot cake was my FAVORITE dessert of the vacation!!! I ate mine and then traded with my son for his later on!! Sadly, taking dessert back to the room won out over the monorail ride. From this night on, out little fridge would house fabulous dessert after dessert for midnight snacks!!
Total for the meal w/tax & tip; $187.56 - left an add'l tip for ALI as we would for all except 2 meals.
DH was flabbergasted. It took probably 3 days to convince him we didn't have to pay for anything!! He's still telling everyone he knows about how much we ate for FREE!!!
Tomorrow: Downtown Disney - Wolfgang Puck Express and House of Blues
We visited WDW 8/25 thru 9/3 staying at the fabulous Wilderness Lodge.
Cast:
Me (too old & another B-day today!!)
DH not a fan, goes because I'm the vacation planner - refuses to go ever again
DD (21) loves her Mom and did her best to match my enthusiasm
DS (15, now 16!) spent the trip text messaging GF!!
Day 1 Dinner Only
Arrived at the Lodge about 4:30 after a good ME experience, settled in and headed for the boat launch to CR for our 6PM ressies at CONCOURSE STEAKHOUSE.
Our original trip plan was for room only ressies for the first 2 days, picking up DDP on day 3. But, when the Free DDP plan came out, we changed it to include the whole trip. Since we were getting in right around dinner time, I thought the boat ride to CR would be a great way to start the vacation and I was hoping to talk everyone into hopping the monorail to Epcot for EMH after dinner!
The boat to CR took about 15 minutes to arrive & we arrived very close to our ressie time. I've never been a fan of CR but have to say that, arriving by boat, its pretty impressive. We checked in and were given a beeper. I like these. It seems so much easier than listening for your name to be called, especially a difficult to pronounce name like ours!! We had eaten at Chef Mickey's last visit and the kids shared great memories of the meal. Everyone was in a good mood and I was hopeful since I was really the only one who wanted to come back to WDW. We hadn't eaten since breakfast at the airport so everyone was hungry and looking forward to our first DDP meal. We were seated about 15 min later. Our server was ALI. He immediately asked if we were on DDP and then quickly and efficiently explained how it worked and took our drink orders.
We interrupt this review to digress: We NEVER once experienced a problem with the waitstaff because we were on DDP. Everywhere we went, the waiters were great (ok, we had a couple of only ok people). We were never rushed, ignored, pressured to order anything or treated like 2nd class citizens. Back to the review..
I had spent a lot of time explaining the DDP to the family prior to our arrival and had prepared them for huge portions!! For appetizers, DS & DD ordered Onion Rings, I had Shellfish Bisque and DH, the Broiled Scallops. We all tried the Onion Rings and they were very good. My Bisque was good but not great (that would come later in the week!). But the talk of the meal was DH's Scallops, both of them!! There were 2 medium-sized scallops on the plate along with a mound of what DH calls "grass clippings" (he is an affirmed iceburg lettuce eater no matter how hard I try to introduce him to other types of greens!) Now understand that the dish was delicious!! He LOVED it but would have loved a few more!!! This would become a pattern and the family joke of the week. DH would invariably order the smallest appetizer on the menu! The rest of us would get these ENORMOUS portions and he would get 2.
For dinner we ordered:
DS - Ribs - this was a huge serving, one rack piled on top of another with garlic mashed potatoes and cole slaw. The meat was falling off the bone and Nick loved it!! He was only able to finish one rack along with almost all of the potatoes. He wasn't interested in the cole slaw so DD ate most of it.
Me - Prime rib, end cut - a good piece of meat and a normal-sized portion. I was able to finish my entree for probably the only time all week.
DH & DD both ordered Filet Mignon, medium well. They learned to subsequently order their steaks medium as the filets were slightly overcooked for their tastes. This did not, however, stop them from devouring their dinners. And both agreed that the steaks were very good.
ALI brought refills of our drinks with dinner without prompting and checked on us several times during the meal.
We were all quite full at this point and ALI happily packed desserts to go, a chocolate cake, key lime tart and 2 carrot cakes. I have to say the carrot cake was my FAVORITE dessert of the vacation!!! I ate mine and then traded with my son for his later on!! Sadly, taking dessert back to the room won out over the monorail ride. From this night on, out little fridge would house fabulous dessert after dessert for midnight snacks!!
Total for the meal w/tax & tip; $187.56 - left an add'l tip for ALI as we would for all except 2 meals.
DH was flabbergasted. It took probably 3 days to convince him we didn't have to pay for anything!! He's still telling everyone he knows about how much we ate for FREE!!!
Tomorrow: Downtown Disney - Wolfgang Puck Express and House of Blues
