Day 3 aka Disney day
Again I’d had other plans for breakfast but the lure of free food was too much for my husband (until later in the day anyway) so we were at breakfast in the hotel just before 8. Some slight variations in menu from the day before - they were offering French toast rather than pancakes, oatmeal rather than grits, bacon rather than sausages and pineapple rather than melon. You hand in your breakfast voucher and get all of your crockery and cutlery in return, then you help yourself. I had yogurt, granola and fruit again, then bacon (love US bacon, so crispy), eggs and a hash brown.
After that we returned to the room and repacked the bags to fit in all our Black Friday purchases, before checking out and heading for the Wilderness Lodge!
I’d done online check in and our room was ready as we arrived at 11.30, which I was surprised about given how busy I assume it would have been over thanksgiving. I had done a room request with Touring Plans and while we didn’t get the exact room, I could tell from the room number that it was in the right location - a fifth floor view of the Contemporary and, more importantly a castle and a (space) mountain greeted us!
We headed down to Roaring Fork to pick up our refillable mugs. They only had regular mugs out but after seeing someone else do it, I asked at the counter if they had holiday ones and was given the green one. This isn’t the burgundy holiday gingerbread house mug I’ve seen lots of others with, and I think the colours of the picture look a little off, but it has Pluto so I’m happy!
We then took the boat over to MK for a few hours. We had FP for Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain first - so in between we popped into Peco Bill’s to use the dining plan for the first time.
It all went smoothly - although the cashier did express surprise I only wanted one meal! We split a beef nachos, not that you can necessarily tell that’s what it is after I visited the toppings bar...
I think nachos find it very hard to disappoint and we definitely enjoyed these. We had a bottle of water as our drink - we are trying to cut down on fizzy drinks so we’ll choose water at least some of the time, and will probably even use snack credits on it! 😮
We then used our third FP on Peter Pan’s Flight, used the regular line for Buzz Lightyear and then decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Getting the boat back was a bit of an ordeal, because MK was closing for MVMCP and everyone was leaving around the same time, but we made it!
We showered and changed for dinner at Narcoossee’s and left about 90 minutes before our reservation to make sure we had enough time (after the earlier boat fiasco). This trip was much smoother - we got the boat to MK then decided to take the resort monorail, mostly so we could quote the Simpsons at each other (that’s more a Shelbyville idea). We looked around GF for a while, saw the gingerbread house, got our picture by the Christmas tree, and witnessed a proposal (she said yes thankfully). Then it was time for food.
I had been explaining the intricacies of the dining plan to DH for some time but he doesn’t appear to have been listening that well. Our server told us we could we could swap dessert for the salad or soup, but as she walked away DH declared he wanted both soup and dessert, so I agreed we could pay for apps out of pocket (even though I knew it would be too much food - he had to learn!). I also agreed to a side of Brussels OOP because we both love those...at least I talked him out of the bottle of wine! What happened to the man who only wanted free food?
Drinks first - I had a Grand martini, which is Grey Goose Vodka, Chambord, and a Splash of Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial. I enjoyed this, which was not unexpected given I like all the components! DH had a glass of Pinot Gris.
Bread service - sourdough and salted butter are right up my street so it was a struggle not to eat all of this!
We could see the castle from our table, which was cool.
The appetisers arrived and I have to say that we did not regret ordering these as they were both delicious - in fact DH declared the Maine lobster bisque to be his favourite part of the meal. I enjoyed the Crispy Rhode Island Calamari with Peppadew-Banana Pepper-Olive Relish and Tomato Coulis. (I’m copying the descriptions from the menu obviously LOL.)
For entree, I had Pan-Seared Georges Bank Day Boat Scallops
with House-Made Parisian Gnocchi, Shiitake Mushrooms, Virginia Ham, English Peas, Preserved Meyer Lemon Emulsion Cream. The scallops were perfectly cooked, the gnocchi light and I loved both the mushrooms and truffle shavings, but the cream sauce was too rich for me to be able to finish the portion - I knew going in that would probably be the case as I generally prefer lighter sauces but my love of the other ingredients swayed me to pick it. It was still delicious, just too much!
DH had Pan-Seared Halibut with
Toy Box Tomatoes, Marble Potatoes and Basil Aioli. Fish is his favourite thing and unfortunately he felt the halibut was overcooked, making the texture unpleasant. He still ate most of it and also thought the side of roasted Brussel sprouts was a good choice.
Onto desserts. DH loves sorbet so was eyeing up the mango sorbet - I warned him that the no sugar added desserts aren’t always up to much but he ignored me (again) and ordered it anyway. He soon regretted it - the sorbet was three tiny islands in the middle of the sea of fruit, and it was very very frozen.
I, meanwhile, am a creme brûlée fiend so I knew I had to have the Coconut and Chocolate Creme Brulee - Layered Coconut and Chocolate with Whipped Chantilly Cream and Toasted Coconut.
It was divine and I wish I could eat it again right now.
Since DH had disregarded all of my instructions about ordering extras, I’d also decided to throw caution to the wind and have a dessert cocktail. I ordered the Key Lime Martini - Absolut Elyx Vodka, Midori Melon Liqueur, Vanilla Cream & Graham Cracker Rim.
What turned up was:
I thought the chocolate stick was weird and when I took my first sip I knew why - it was because it was an espresso martini.
I do like those too and in my younger years would probably have meekly accepted the wrong drink, but now that I’m older I find it much easier to assert myself (in all the times I’ve done it, no one has died!) so we called over the waitress and politely (I’m still British after all) explained. Soon enough the wrong drink was replaced with the right one.
It was the right pale neon green colour but didn’t really taste much like a key lime pie.
Just before 10pm we paid the check - the bill before credits were applied was $212 but in the end the meal cost us 4TS credits and $48 for the extras. We tipped $40 in cash. I know you’re only supposed to get one alcoholic drink on the plan but I can see we didn’t get charged for my second cocktail; whether that was due to the mix up or not, I don’t know.
We topped off the night by watching the MVMCP fireworks from the restaurant’s veranda.
I enjoyed my meal and would definitely recommend Narcoossee’s. DH was less impressed but I think the moral for him is - listen to your wife! 🤣