A Very Magical Disney Proposal.. My first TR!

[Vernie822]

TUESDAY 9/16 - YACHTSMAN STEAKHOUSE

I'll start off by saying this is the meal we were most looking forward to (food wise) for the entire trip, and it did not disappoint!

We had eaten at Restaurantosaurus and Yak and Yeti earlier that day. This was meant to be our nice, upscale meal of the week.

We checked in around 6:15 for our 6:35 ADR. We had gone back to the room to rest before coming to dinner, so we were a little bit early. We sat for less than 5 minutes before being seated.

We had a wonderful server named Yun from Korea. She was so friendly, and was willing to explain anything to us that we asked. She also made sure that we knew we could substitute anywhere we liked.

She brought us our drinks. We each had a Diet Coke and I also had a water. I run frequently, so I'm constantly drinking a ton of water. Diet Coke or Pepsi is like water to Justin.

We started off with some bread. The bread basket consisted of sourdough rolls and onion rolls with salted butter and roasted garlic.

I apologize in advance for my photos. They're taken on my iPhone and the quality is not the best!

The bread basket also came with salted butter and roasted garlic.

The bread was delicious! The clear winner between the two of us was the sourdough. Neither one of us is too fond of onion. I think next time we go, we'll ask for just sourdough. The sourdough rolls were crusty on the outside, and soft on the inside. The onion rolls were kind of soft all over, and pulled right apart. Don't get me wrong - they were great - we just don't really like onion flavor that much.

The salted butter was excellent. I believe she said it was from Vermont. It paired amazingly with the sourdough rolls.

The roasted garlic was good. I tried it with the onion roll. Again, I'm not a huge fan of the garlic flavor either. It was a little overpowering for me, but I think others would really enjoy it.

These were a nice start to our meal.

For our entrees, Justin ordered the 18 oz Kansas City strip. I ordered the 12 oz New York strip. I knew I wouldn't like the peppercorn brandy, so I asked if I could substitute for the blue cheese butter, and Yun said that was a great choice. My entree came with a white cheddar twice baked potato. Justin's came with truffle fries. She explained that truffle oil had mushrooms (or a mushroom oil?) in it, so he asked if he could instead switch to the white cheddar twice baked potato.

Justin's entree:

18 ounce Kansas City Strip - truffle fries, black garlic aioli, chimichurri $55.00
Substituted white cheddar twice baked potato instead of truffle fries

My entree:

12-oz Prime New York Strip Steak - White Cheddar Twice-baked Potato, Peppercorn-Brandy Sauce - $48.00
Substituted Point Reyes Blue Cheese Butter (from 16 oz Ribeye) instead of Peppercorn Brandy Sauce

I'm sure that they pair the sauces with the different cuts of meat for a reason. Neither one of us are steak experts. We love it, but we don't know much about it! So we asked Yun about the different cuts. I chose the Strip because she said the Ribeye was a marbled cut. I usually order filet, but I wanted to try something new. Justin didn't need as much guidance, but she explained the black garlic aoli and chimichurri sauce to him.

Justin's meal - I was nervous about the sauce that came with his steak. He would pour A1 all over it if we were at home, and he's usually not adventurous about things, but he loved it! He ate all of it. There was some fat with it, I think. He also really liked his potato. He likes his steak well done.

My meal - This was AMAAAAAZING! I love blue cheese (and who doesn't love butter), so it made for a great addition. I am glad I chose this instead of the peppercorn brandy sauce. The cut of steak was wonderful. I like my steak medium well, and it was cooked perfectly. It was so juicy and tender, and the butter made it even more moist. Justin loved mine, too. He finished about 1/3 of it for me. He said he liked mine even better than his! I really liked the white cheddar twice baked potato. I think Justin liked it more, but I still found it to be really good.



We also ordered a side of the truffle mac and cheese to share. Since we didn't have a salad or anything, and this was our special night out, it seemed like a good idea to share this. Yun agreed.

Excuse my finger in the photo (I am really not good at taking pictures, lol):

Truffle Mac & Cheese - Orecchiette Pasta and Reypenaer Cheese $12.00

We didn't dislike it, but it was not our favorite item of the meal. First, we were so full from everything else that we didn't really pay much attention to it. Second, the onion straws on top kind of overpowered the rest of the dish. I didn't really taste much cheese - I tasted onion throughout the dish. Some may like this, I did not prefer the strong onion taste. We boxed up about half of this to take home, but we never did finish it.


Now, dessert time! Towards the beginning, we kind of decided that we would try different things at each restaurant, so that we can get a sampling of everything.

Justin chose the chocolate peanut cake.

Chocolate-Peanut Cake - Pretzels, Salted Caramel Gelato, and Liquid Ganache $11.00

I chose the vanilla creme brûlée:

Creme Brulee - Vanilla Custard, Fresh Berries, and Chocolate $10.00

Once they arrived, we took a few bites and then swapped to try the other. I ended up loving his, and he ended up loving mine!

I originally wanted the chocolate peanut cake, but that was what he said he wanted, so we agreed to try the creme brûlée too.

The creme brûlée was great. It had the nice hard top layer, with creamy custard. The berries and chocolate added a nice touch.

The chocolate peanut cake was so, so good. The cake was chocolatey with a nice crunch from the pretzels. The middle layer I think had kind of a caramel taste if I remember correctly. The salted caramel gelato was delicious. I polished this one off.

Overall, we LOVED this restaurant! We know we can't come back here every time because it is expensive. You'll see later in the report that Justin found another restaurant to have a great steak as well. I love steak too, but like I said we're no experts so Longhorn will do for us, too.

I was back and forth between this restaurant and Le Cellier. I am really glad I chose this one!





WILL WE RETURN: Of course! Probably not any time soon since it is pricy and we only will return every year or two, but we would like to come here again eventually. I probably would order the same thing again because I loved it. I would probably not order the mac and cheese next time. The restaurant was lovely. Yun was a fantastic server, and the food was just delicious!

TOTAL: About $155, I think.

We used 4 TS credits, 2 each, and paid $12 OOP for the mac and cheese.


After our meal, we were so stuffed but it was SO GOOD!! We walked around the Boardwalk for a bit.



I wanted to get something from the bakery, but nothing I saw really spoke to me. And it was busy, so we just kept walking. Next time, though, because those goodies looked so yummy! We were so, so full!

 

[Vernie822]

WEDNESDAY 9/17 - HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Today was our Hollywood Studios day. We were up around 7:30 and ready to go. It was raining, but that wasn't going to stop us. This incredibly soggy morning in WDW, Justin again trekked to El Centro (Cafe Rix, specifically) on his hunt for a giant M&M cookie. Again, he came back empty handed (but with a mug full of Diet Coke for each of us).

We decided to just look for something to eat in DHS. We decided to drive this morning. After a little detour (I have no idea where the GPS took us, but it was not to Hollywood Studios, haha), we had arrived. I put on my poncho because I didn't want to risk getting soaked, but Justin decided to wait it out. Once we were inside the park, the rain really picked up.

We quickly found shelter in Pixar Place, in line for a meet and greet with Buzz and Woody! Justin was so excited to meet these two.



This was a great character interaction. They're two of his favorites so he was really happy to get to meet them. The line was only about 15 minutes, so we didn't mind the wait, as it got us out of the rain. As you can see in our picture, we were a little wet!

After our meet and greet, we hunted around for a snack for what seemed like an eternity. I had intentions on getting something at Starring Rolls. We finally got there, and nothing was really calling my name. I was still kind of full from the night before and I didn't want anything too filling. We planned on an early lunch to split since we were eating at Via Napoli at 3:10. Justin was still stuck on a giant cookie. We finally found a big cookie at Sweet Spells. Seriously, nothing else would do! And this wasn't even the giant M&M cookie he was longing for. Sweet Spells had some pretty cute stuff. From what I remember, the typical cupcakes, fudge, caramel apples that you see everywhere.

We ended up choosing a giant chocolate dipped, Mickey shaped chocolate chip cookie.



Unfortunately, the windows on the case were so foggy (I'm assuming since its kept cold, and it was raining outside), that we couldn't see too much. We also didn't see the price, or the DDP snack logo. We just assumed it was there since it was on most items - wrong! When the girl cashed us out, I just scanned my magic band without even thinking. She asked if I was on the dining plan, and I said yes. Maybe she didn't know it wasn't a snack credit? $5.19 charged to the room. Oops! Oh well. Something to keep in mind when you do buy snacks, just make sure they know you are using a snack credit and do not want to charge it to the room. Unless you do! This was good! It was fresh. We ate a few bites and kept the rest for later. And by later I mean.. we finished it on Saturday. 3 days later. Haha. We stored it in the fridge and just ate it little by little.

 

[KatMark]

I'm glad you enjoyed your dinner at Yachtsman. We ate there for the first time for Mark's surprise 60th birthday trip and have been back twice since. It's been getting some "off" reviews lately, but glad your meal was a success.

I'm sorry Justin has been having such a hard time finding his cookie that he so desperately wants. For future reference, The Writers' Shop near Sci Fi has a lot of baked goods too.

 

[luckylady]

Ahhh the great hunt for cookie, sounds like was a good one. Love Yachtsman. Ten years ago we went for our 25th anniversary. Hope to some day get back. Do they still roll the crumbs off the table as they see some?

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining! Congratulations on the engagement ... well, I am trying not to spoiler the end result, but I assume you said "yes"

edit: Finished reading and you did say "yes" ... so officially, Congratulations!

I work for a reinsurance company and work with a lot of actuaries - actually, my direct manager is an actuary. I very much am not though ... after getting through university the thought of that many more tests is not appealing

Sorry about the aggravation with the flights - though glad you made it fine in the end. The mix up seems a little odd though I

Gotta love 'Ohana and you got a great view! I could definitely make a meal out of the bread, the potstickers, and the dessert. Oh, and if you like that bread you have to try the bread at Kona - as much as I like 'Ohana's, Kona's is waaaaayyyy better.

BTW - no need to work off calories after eating at Disney. All Disney food is made from dreams and pixie dust (or at least that is what I tell myself)

Sorry you didn't stay for Wishes ... we try to hit that up our first day even if it is watching it from the TTC or Poly Beach or something

J's breakfast sandwhich looks pretty good and a pretty good value. Your "parfait" actually looks pretty good - but not necessarily what I would expect either.

How could you be hungry already after that huge breakfast! Your pizza's look really good but how can that cost $12 and the little tiny key lime pie cost $9?

I like your costume shirts. I saw online similar shirts but for the host/maid from the Haunted Mansion that I thought would be fun

That would be funny if randomly Peter Pan did go upside down though ... that would be a fun idea for an amusement park - like, super crazy versions of all the MK rides

wow, a half hour total to meet the 7 dwarfs is really low - that is great!

ok, I am tearing up a bit reading about that Grandmother who waited her whole life to meet Mickey Mouse and then your story about your grandparents. Very sweet! And while Mickey does meet outside of the party I think that is a special outfit he only wears during the party so that is cool you went!

As someone who has proposed (though not at Disney) I can totally understand why Justin is nervous ... even if you know she will say yes you want it to work our right and just be something you both will aways remember (and not have some random kid come and photobomb you ). Congratulations again - now you really did get your worth out of Memory maker

Glad you got to see Hallowishes - it is a great show!

Nothing says "we just got engaged!" like McDonalds Obviously hard to think clearly with all the excitement but best might have been to go to another resort and stop by their counter service location ... oh well, next time you get engaged

It's definitely weird (and fun) to start to say "Fiance" ... he did a very nice job with the ring

That's a good amount of Mickey waffles for the money!

Glad the DVC presentation was pretty good for you. I've heard a few stories of high pressure sales people but far, far fewer for DVC than other time share options. And bonus with that $50 gift card

Oh no! Sorry about the swimsuit fiasco ... at least you got a new swimsuit out of it (Hope you liked it). I think Tampa Bay does a much better job of fielding a baseball team than catering to the fans. That's cool that you are so into baseball. We are too (well, if you call what the NY Mets play baseball). One of these days I really want to go out to Pittsburgh to watch a Mets road game at the amazing stadium there!

The line for the safari can get nuts at times ... and it is a weird set up where you bring your stroller for part of the line and then they valet park it for you, but not everyone knows that and often turns into a bit of a mess. Usually once you get into the line proper it isn't too bad.

Glad you found a fun PP photographer, and that you enjoyed Festival of the Lion King - it is a great show. Not surprised Justin got hot there - I swear AK is like 10 degrees warmer than the other parks

"There was a crust on the bottom, runny cheesecake in the middle, and an orange flavored sour gelatin on top" ... man, you should write Disney marketing material It definitely doesn't sound great. I find that for a lot of the counter service dessert the concept sounds a lot better than the final execution

I love your face in the picture with Minnie grabbing your ring finger

I've heard very good things about the Yak & Yeti CS... have to check that out one of these trips.

well, I can tell you liked Yachtsman a lot when one of the first lines of the review includes the phrase "next time we go ..." Love getting roasted garlic with bread

Your steak looks really good - I think the most often item I see praised at the Yachtsman is the NY Strip - and looks great with the blue cheese on it!

Ok, and with that I think I will end this, the longest reply in the history of the DISboards

 

[Cando86]

I'm loving your report! Congratulations on the engagement - how exciting!!!

Looking forward to reading more - I'll be down with my DBF in January and this report is making me even more excited!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Joining in!

Congratulations on your engagement - what a wonderful proposal!

I never knew there was such a shortage of M&M cookies throughout Disney World. I never look for them (as I love M&M's and I love cookies, but I don't like them together). I hope you had better luck in finding one later!

 

[mdsouth]

I loved reading about your proposal and everything that lead up to the moment Justin proposed. When you shared that Justin seemed nervous and anxious most of the day, it took me back to my own engagement 28 years ago! Wow! That really seems a lifetime ago, especially when I see it in print, but your story just took me right back. My, DH was very anxious that day too and I knew something was up. I guess both Justin and him were just nervous about the actual reality of proposing marriage, I know my DH knew he didn't have to worry about the answer!!

Enjoy your engagement and all the little small moments in your life together!

 

[Guatemommy]

Nice trip report - congrats on the engagement! Subbing!

 

[Vernie822]

Hey friends!

Thank you for all of the kind words and for caring enough to read about my trip!! We had such a blast, and I'm glad you are all along for the trip report ride

I have been SOOO busy these last few weeks. I am sitting for an actuarial exam on Friday. It's a 4 hour written exam, #4 of 8 I have to pass in order to become a credentialed actuary. I have put in probably 300-400 hours of study time.. Gonna keep pushing through the week, then I'll be back to update more about our trip!! I will have an 8 week break with no studying and lots of DIS-ing!!

 

[KatMark]

Good luck on your exam.

 

[mdsouth]

Hey friends! Thank you for all of the kind words and for caring enough to read about my trip!! We had such a blast, and I'm glad you are all along for the trip report ride I have been SOOO busy these last few weeks. I am sitting for an actuarial exam on Friday. It's a 4 hour written exam, #4 of 8 I have to pass in order to become a credentialed actuary. I have put in probably 300-400 hours of study time.. Gonna keep pushing through the week, then I'll be back to update more about our trip!! I will have an 8 week break with no studying and lots of DIS-ing!!

Wow! I knew actuary shad to take 8 tests but I didn't know each were as lengthy as you stated!

You must be mentally exhausted! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

[Vernie822]

WEDNESDAY 9/17 - HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Hey everyone! I'm back! Sorry about the hiatus - I am finally finished studying until probably January and I'm really excited for some time off.

After our giant cookie purchase in Sweet Spells, we headed toward One Man's Dream. I really love this attraction - I could have wandered around here for quite awhile. It was about 10 o'clock, and the rain had stopped, so we went back outside.

We did not head towards RnR and ToT. I get pretty bad motion sickness, and Justin wasn't feeling up for either of these this morning. Kinda wished we would have went on them anyways, but we just weren't feeling it.

I was bound and determined to find something for my little cousins, and I was dying to check out Wandering Oaken's! I just love Frozen, but I didn't want to splurge too much on the little girls. They're actually my cousin's kids, so they aren't first cousins, but my second cousins. Madison is 8 and Giuliana is 2 - so I got them each a little Olaf, since they love him.

One item I ADORED but just could not bring myself to spend the $30 - was the Elsa doll that flips from her regular dress to her blue dress.. it was adorable! It was a stuffed animal so I knew Gules (I was looking for something for her birthday) would be able to play with it. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $30 on Elsa since I had seen a really cute Minnie backpack that I knew she would love.

We wandered some more around Wandering Oaken's, and got our picture taken in front of the Frozen backdrop.. We went inside the skating rink area, which was REALLY cool! If I hadn't wanted to see the Royal Welcome at 11, I would have spent more time here.







On to the Royal Welcome.. so cute! The little girls everywhere (uhhh myself included) were singing and were so excited to see Anna and Elsa.

We had TSMM fast passes at 10:55, so we headed there next. It was pretty quick to get on, though the wait was about 60 minutes for standby. We LOVED this ride!! It was SO FUN! I cannot wait to go back and do it again.

We also stopped to visit.. Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen! Justin loves 'Cars' so he was excited to meet them. We really enjoyed meeting characters on our trip.



I really wanted to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid, so we did that too. I loved it, the Little Mermaid is one of my favorites. It was really cute.

Justin and I were both somewhat unimpressed with the park, unfortunately. When I was younger, it was all about shows and what to see next. This go around, it just didn't seem like there was much that appealed to us. It could have been that it was also rainy and dreary that morning, and Justin wasn't feeling 100%.

I kind of wish we would have spent more time there. I was thinking we'd eat at Pizza Planet, but we were having Pizza at Via Napoli at 3:10, so we decided to head back to CSR for some lunch and to change out of our wet clothes.

We were soggy, for one thing, and we had a Via Napoli ADR at 3:10, so we hit the road after Voyage of the Little Mermaid!

One more picture in front of the hat. RIP.

 

[mdsouth]

Hey everyone! I'm back! Sorry about the hiatus - I am finally finished studying until probably January and I'm really excited for some time off.

Justin and I were both somewhat unimpressed with the park, unfortunately. When I was younger, it was all about shows and what to see next. This go around, it just didn't seem like there was much that appealed to us.

I have to agree with you, Hollywood Studios is not up to par with the other parks. In fact, on my own trip in Feb. 2014, we didn't even go there. Like you, I get motion sickness easily. My DD is just now starting to really get into roller coasters, so we might have to go back to DHS in the future so she can ride Rock N Roll rollercoaster with her father and brother. They are the ones in my family that love the rollercoasters!

 

[Vernie822]

I'm headed back in March with my mom, her sister, and my cousin. My mom LOVES DHS and was so shocked we didn't spend much time there - so we've built a day in for DHS, but I'm thinking of kind of planning to be out of there by late afternoon and go to DTD for dinner.. I just can't imagine 4 adults (my mom and aunt don't ride much) spending all day there. Just seems like there is so little to do! I'm anxious to see what they do with the park, but for now it's lacking.

My fiance and I will be back next fall for only 4/5 days.. so I think we might just hop there in the morning and leave or skip it completely! He won't ride TOT but I would like to, and I'd like to do RNR.. Even with motion sickness I still feel like I need to try it!

 

[Vernie822]

WEDNESDAY 9/17 - PEPPER MARKET LUNCH

So I haven't been the greatest at keeping up with this - I have been busy studying and planning for our March trip! I will update this with pics ASAP!

Pizza Planet was appealing, but we were going to have pizza at Via Napoli. Nothing else sounded worth trekking across the park for, so we headed back to our resort.

We decided to split a QS lunch entree at Pepper Market.

Our options were: a grill area, a pasta area, pizza, a Mexican area, and one more that I cannot think of off the top of my head!

The Mexican area sounded good to us. We love Mexican food.

We had a few options - quesadilla, taco, fajita, etc. We decided to split the tacos. We had the option of chicken, beef, and I think pork. They were served on soft shells. The taco meal came with 3 tacos – Justin chose 2 beef and I chose 1 chicken. It was shredded chicken that had been marinating in some juices, so it looked delicious. The beef was shredded too. The woman serving added some mild sauce and cilantro for us. The taco meal also came with a side of rice and beans.

We chose a water to drink, and Justin let me pick the dessert. He was so excited when I came back with.. a GIANT M&M COOKIE! Yes, the cookie we had been searching for forever. It was able to be included as our dessert item (which was awesome, considering most of the QS dessert options did not appeal to us).

Note how big it is - It takes up an entire to-go container.. Its home for the next 3 days.


We really liked the meal here. The tortillas were more of a corn tortilla, which were good, but thin. The juice from the meat along with the mild sauce made them slightly soggy, but that wasn’t really an issue. Usually, we think of tacos to include cheese and sour cream. Here, they did not, they seemed more like traditional tacos with flavorful, juicy meat, that didn’t really need much toppings!

The side of rice and beans was great, too. The rice was fresh and had a great flavor. It wasn’t really a Spanish style rice (which I usually think of as spicy red rice with tomatoes), it was more of a steamed rice. The black beans were the star of the meal, to me. I could not get over how good they were. They were flavorful and moist without being dry or runny. I feel like sometimes, at Mexican places, the beans are either really mushy, or dry and crusty. This was neither. They also had queso fresco on top, which made them even better.

This was a nice meal to tide us over until dinner. We were eating in 3 hours, so I am glad we split something. We needed food in our bellies, but we didn't want to overdo it!




WILL WE RETURN: For a restaurant food court, the food was good. Nothing to write home about, but definitely exceeded our expectations. It was a meal we enjoyed, but we would not go out of our way to come back to CSR if we could eat at a decent restaurant in the parks.

TOTAL: The taco meal was $11.99. With a bottled water and a giant cookie, our total came to $19.

We used 1 QS credit here.

 

[Vernie822]

WEDNESDAY 9/17 - EPCOT

After lunch and a quick rest in the room, it was time to head to.. EPCOT!!! I was SOOO excited for Epcot this evening. We had planned to have dinner at Via Napoli, with drinks around the world. We'd also be meeting up with my best friend from elementary school, Taylor. She was here for her 2nd round of the college program, she loves it and I am so happy for her! This time around she was a Fairy Godmother in Training at BBB in Downtown Disney.

We were back to our room around 1, and only rested until about 1:30. We changed clothes (well, I did) and were ready to go! We took the bus since we had planned on having some drinks.

Our ADR was for 3:10 and we were definitely early. I needed to upgrade to an annual pass for my March trip, so I stopped at Guest Services. There, we spoke with Vanessa, from Puerto Rico, who was earning her ears. Vanessa was SO GREAT! She was seriously so friendly. She had a guy helping her, I can't remember his name, and he was great too. So this took a little longer than we had liked, mainly because the computer was being fussy, but they were awesome and such a huge help. Since our 3 scheduled FP+ were for DHS earlier in the day, we stopped at a kiosk on our way in to snag a FP+ for Soarin'. We waited for a few minutes and figured that out, we'd return after our dinner.

If I recall, we had our 3 FP for Friday (our big F&W day). I think Soarin' was one of them. When we got to Epcot, we stopped to get a 4th FP. I love Soarin' and I thought Justin would too, so I wanted to see if we could get one for Wednesday as well, and we got one for after our dinner that evening.

We got to our ADR in Italy a few minutes early and we were seated right away. We had a great server. I cannot remember her name, unfortunately. She was in training, but she did a great job and was very sweet. She even taught us to pronounce our entrees in Italian.

I had my idea of what I wanted, from looking at the menus before our trip! I was between the Prosciutto e Melone and the Carciofi pizza. I am not a huge fan of melon, so I honestly wasn't sure if I would like it or not. But I am head over heels for artichokes, so our server assured me I could not go wrong with the individual carciofi pizza. Our server told me that I was making the right choice! Justin went with his favorite, a pepperoni pizza. We were thinking of getting one pizza and one entrée, but I really wanted to try the carciofi and he doesn't like artichokes, so I knew he would be happier with his own pizza and I would be as well.

We thought about ordering an appetizer, but after seeing the size of the pizzas, we didn't think we would need one. I did want to try the arroncini, though! Next time.

We each had a Diet Coke to drink. After placing our orders, I was hoping for some bread, but alas, I realized that the tables on either side of us did not have bread either. I wonder if they serve it only at dinner, or if I am imagining that we should get bread and we don't!?

I forgot to mention we were seated to the right of the restaurant. The big table in the middle was slightly to the left of us. We were seated at a table for 2 with one side as a booth and the other as a chair, so we had a couple pretty close to my left, and a family with a 5 year old daughter pretty close to our right. Our pizzas came out with only a tiny bit of a wait. Although we had just split a taco meal 3 hours later, we were hungry and ready to eat!

The carciofi pizza was so, so, so good. I was more than pleased with my choice. In fact, I want that pizza, NOW! It was cheesy, the perfect amount of oily, with a great artichoke taste.. YUM!!

My choice - Carciofi - White pizza, artichoke, fontina, mozzarella, truffle oil - $21 for an individual size

Justin's choice - Pepperoni Signature Pie - pepperoni, tomato, mozzarella - $21 for an individual size.

I only managed to finish about 2/3 of mine, and Justin finished all of his. He loved it! Usually we like a pizza with a thicker crust, but this traditional Italian pizza was so good. He did eat some of mine, but picked off the artichokes.

For dessert, I decided on the zeppole. We try to order 2 different things so that we can get a sampling of both. Justin ordered the Coppa dii Brutti Ma Buon. It translates to "ugly but good". He wasn't sure what to get, because the zeppole were appealing to him, too. Here is our delicious dessert! I should mention, they also brought out this tasty little cookie for us to celebrate our engagement, which was so thoughtful and delicious too.

Zeppole di Caterina - Ricotta cheese fritters, served with whipped cream and chocolate sauce $10.00

Coppa dii Brutti Ma Buon! - Amarena cherry and vanilla gelato sundae $14.00.

As expected, the zeppole were amazing. I love anything doughy, and with the chocolate and whipped cream.. ahhh. Justin enjoyed at least half of my dessert because he wasn't a huge fan of his. He doesn't love cherry, but it was the next best thing other than the zeppole on the dessert menu. I thought his dessert was good, but it did have a very strong cherry flavor. There were a few cookies stuck in there as well which were good! Overall, we really enjoyed our meal here!

My ONLY complaint, and this is not a reflection of the food.. is how close some of the tables are together. To my left (Justin's right), was a small table for 2. I shared the booth with both tables on either side of us. There was a couple to my left, they were fine and kept their personal space. To our right was a family with a daughter who was maybe 5 or 6. To start, the mother was seated next to me, her daughter on the other side of her, and her husband next to his wife, across from Justin. This was fine - I have no problem being seated close to people when they respect the space of those around them. Well, they finished eating long before we did. Service there is kind of slower, I think that's just the Italian way, or so I've heard, that you're supposed to really enjoy the meal. While they enjoyed dessert, their daughter was finished. She was hanging all over her mom, and moved to the tiny space between her mother and I. She was climbing all over the booth, kicking, yelling really loudly, etc. She fell on me a few times. Her mother never told her to please behave, to sit down, or to be quiet. Her father was enjoying his cappuccino, and they were waiting for their bill, so I get that they shouldn't have to just get up and leave. But, their daughter was 5, and yelling loudly and climbing all over. Maybe this makes me an 'old hag'.. I LOVE kids, don't get me wrong, but when they're 2 or 3 and yelling, climbing, running, I get it. Not when they're 5! I hope I didn't offend anyone with this - I'm not a parent, so I understand that it is hard to get your child to behave at all times, especially after a long day in Epcot and an hour at dinner. So, I get that, but she could at least apologize or ask her daughter to please stop.


WILL WE RETURN: Absolutely!! We love Italian food and this was great. I don’t know that we’ll make this an every trip occurrence because there are so many others we want to try, but it was really good. TOTAL: Our pizzas were each $21, our desserts were $10 and $14, and our Diet Cokes were each $3 = $72. We used 2 TS credits here.

 

[KatMark]

Sorry I missed an update (been dealing with some serious medical issues in my family).

Fun updates (love the picture with Buzz and Woody). I'm with you, I am underwhelmed with the Studios...just not enough to keep me occupied.

I've yet to eat at Via Napoli. One of these days I hope.

 

[Vernie822]

WEDNESDAY 9/17 - EPCOT: Test Track Woes

After our awesome meal in Via Napoli, we left the World Showcase to ride a few things.

We headed past France, where we passed Belle in her blue dress, meeting with some guests. Justin blurts out “Is that Auntie Anne the pretzel lady?” I almost fell over laughing. I could not breathe. WHAT!? How do you not know that’s BELLE!? HAHA!

Some Photopass Pics..

First up, we headed for the Seas with Nemo. The wait read “10 minutes”. We laughed, because we walked right on to the ride. There were a few people in front of us but they were walking through the queue right along with us. The ride loads continuously I think, but we were cracking up because it definitely took us close to 10 minutes just to walk through the queue!

After we got off, we agreed that it was cute, albeit a bit cheesy, but still cute. Justin said “I can’t believe we ‘waited’ 10 minutes for that.. the longest line we’ve waited in so far was for your Chinese food!” SO TRUE though. Yak and Yeti (on Tuesday) was our longest wait of the trip at 40-ish minutes. Man, I wanted that sweet and sour chicken.

Next was Living with the Land (who would’ve thought.. no wait) which we liked. It probably isn’t something we’ll do all the time but we liked to see all of the plants and fish.

We checked out Mouse Gears after that.. they have a lot of nice stuff. That was one of the better gift shops, in my opinion.

If you recall, we had 3 VIP fastpasses from our DVC meeting a few days prior. We had used 1 on Expedition Everest the day before, so now was time to use our 2nd on… TEST TRACK!!

Next up: A Test Track FP experience. You just wait…



So, we get on Test Track around 5:20. We scan our bands to get in, no problem there. We approach the room for holding before the design studio, where you scan your bands to get in with your FP a second time. As we approach, there’s a CM fielding the two lines – one FP and one standby. She pretty much yells “UM, WAIT A SECOND FAST PASS” while she was dealing with standby. So we were like.. oh, ok, oops!

We’re standing in line for what feels like 10-15 minutes, in the little holding room before the design studio. We barely moved a foot, and heard an announcement that the design studio was currently experiencing technical difficulties. Everyone continued to wait, probably about 20 more minutes. Finally, they announced it again. This time, they added “Please turn around and exit the way you came.” They said this about 4 times, so everyone began to turn around to make our way out, the way we came. CM (Same as before) yells “Where are you all going!?” and we are all like…. Uhhh… leaving the way we came!? Everyone in the FP+ line is asking “How do I get my FP back?” CM yells “IF YOU WANT YOUR FASTPASS YOU’RE GONNA NEED TO GET BACK IN LINE.. DO NOT EXIT THIS WAY, GET BACK IN LINE!!” Everyone now is so confused – you’re telling us we cannot exit, but that’s what we’re being told to do!? So we stand in line for a few minutes because we didn’t want to lose our FP. There were still so many people in front of us, it was just kind of a disaster.. no one wanted to stand in line for a FP, but the CM would not let people leave! I was getting kind of claustrophobic. It was wall to wall people and no one knew what to do. The line was not moving forward much. I was not really willing to wait, because I was getting uncomfortable – I don’t mind crowds but I don’t like feeling trapped in a small room. So we turned around and exited, a few people had the same idea.

We then went to a FP+ kiosk to see if we could figure it out. Of course, everyone else had the same idea. So we got in line, along with everyone else, and waited for a few minutes. There was only 1 person there helping people – when we had got our Soarin’ FPs earlier there were 5 at the same kiosk! We got to a computer and tried to check, it was telling us that we had 1 VIP FP+ left (which would’ve been the case had we used our Test Track one). I wanted to ask a CM what to do, but other people kept flagging her down. Once those people would leave, other guests would jump on a computer and she’d help them. Not that she was ignoring me – she was so overwhelmed, I don’t blame her if she was flustered. I scanned again a few minutes later and it told me we had 2 VIP FP+ experiences left. Phew. So we left the FP+kiosk.

What a cluster, right!? Holy cow. All to get on Test Track, and we didn’t even get to ride!

After that, it was time to accomplish my mission.. and that mission was to get a MARGARITA!

 

[KatMark]

The queue at Nemo is without the LONGEST queue to get on an attraction. They seriously need to cut that thing down. It's just not needed now that the ride has beena round for a few years.

I am not a fan of Test Track at all, but what you went through with the FP and the cranky CM would have me flying off my rocker. Seriously, you are being told one thing by one person and another thing by another. I would have felt claustrophobic too.