[collybird]

DAY 11

We had a lie in today and breakfast was snacks in the room, we were supposed to be eating at Akershus, but as were intending to stay for Illuminations we decided to switch to Ale & Compass so that we could valet park at the Yacht Club meaning we didn’t have to trek to the front of the park from World Showcase at the end of the night, and we also wouldn’t have to bother with the tram. I was disappointed to be missing out on lunch with the Princesses, but Ale & Compass had been on my radar so was excited to be eating there.

Ale & Compass

Ale & Compass is the Yacht Club’s casual table-service restaurant, which opened late last year in the space previously occupied by Captain’s Grille.

Unfortunately, I don’t feel the décor has changed for the better. The restaurant is much more elegant than before but it doesn’t feel very Disney, this is probably exactly the look they were going for with conventioneers in mind, but it’s no fun for us Disney fans!

We shared some Parker House Rolls and Spreads - Bacon Jam, Pub Cheese, Citrus Butter to start.

I have been looking forward to trying these since the restaurant opened. They come nicely presented, and the rolls themselves are delicious, similar to the rolls I loved at The Boathouse last year, the glaze and the salt sprinkled on the top are to die for, and I wish the entire things were coated in this. As for the spreads, the citrus butter was too sweet for me, it reminded me of the lemon curd from the Afternoon Tea, and it made me feel like I was eating a cake rather than a roll. I didn’t like the bacon jam at all, again, the flavour was overpowering. The pub cheese was my favourite of the three, this was like cream cheese, rather than the dip I anticipated it would be. In all honesty, I’d have preferred some normal butter! Our server was quite absent, and if he hadn’t been I’d have asked him for some ‘normal’ butter.

Nik had Lobster and Corn Chowder - with Herbs and House-made Oyster Cracker.

I thought this was delicious, but he didn’t like it, he doesn’t really like corn and there was a lot of it, so he gave it a thumbs down. He was worried that the oyster crackers meant there was oysters in the soup haha.

The menu had lots of appealing entrees, I went for the Fish & Chips - Atlantic-Cod in Signature Beer Batter with Lemon-Caper Tartar Sauce.

The server said this is one of their most popular dishes (the other being the Maine Lobster Roll). The fish was really nice, soft and flaky with the promised crispy batter. The chips were heavily seasoned with salt and vinegar, and I didn’t enjoy them.

Nik had Bacon and Vermont Cheddar Burger -with Caramelised Onion and a Parker House Bun with Applewood-smoked Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, and Herb Mayo served with choice of French Fries or House-made Vinegar Chips

Not a great photo, he took this himself haha. This was a delicious burger with a really nice smoky flavour. I was so glad he tried this as I wanted to taste it.

Last year, Captain Grille’s had the star desserts of the trip, but this year nothing applied and we decided we would get something in France instead.

CREDITS USED 86
TOTAL IN $$ 2,547.64

***

Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie

We arrived at the France pavilion just as a showing of Impressions de France was about to begin, so we watched this before getting our dessert. By the time the film had finished it was pouring with rain and all of the tables in the bakery were full, mostly with people who weren’t even eating, which was annoying! So, we had to eat on top of a bin, not for the last time today.

Vanilla White Chocolate Éclair

This was delicious!

Chocolate Cream Éclair

This one wasn’t so good, there was nothing special about the chocolate cream inside, and a more traditional whipped cream would be preferable.

Napoleon

Don't judge me, we had snack credits to burn, so I was allowed a second dessert This is quite a popular dessert amongst the US Disney visitors and I wanted to see how it compared to the Cream Slices we get over here, and it held up well! I’d definitely order it again.

***

Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Now, it was time to splurge the snack credits, I think we started the day with 33! Everything we ate today cost a snack credit, I think this is actually amazing value. We picked up a Festival Passport (these are everywhere in the park, so you don’t have to worry about where to pick one up from), I wanted to try something from every booth, but bearing in mind we had eaten lunch, and had dinner plans Nik was a little more reserved.

I tried the Croissants aux Escargots - Escargot Croissant with Garlic and Parsley

This is one of the best items at the Festival, it is super garlicy, and super buttery.

We also had Crème Brulee a la Confiture de Framboises - Crème Brulee with House-made Raspberry Jam

This was gorgeous, another of my favourites of the trip. The custard and jam together tasted like the little trifles you get in the chilled section of the supermarket and I love those.

I tried the Crispy Pork Belly - Served with Black Beans, Tomato, and Onions

I had enjoyed this in the past but this year it was very grisly and not nice at all. It has been well and truly confirmed that I do not like pork, and I will not be ordering it next year.

We tried the Kefta Pocket - Seasoned Ground Beef in a Pita Pocket

This tasted just like a doner kebab, we loved it.

New England Lobster Roll - Warm Lobster with Fresh Herb Mayonnaise and a Grilled Roll

This is very, very good. The lobster is buttery and just melts in the mouth, there’s the perfect amount of dressing and the roll is delicious and dipped in butter.

We also had New Brunswick Slider - Slow-braised Beef Brisket ‘Pot Roast Style’ with Horseradish Cream, Crispy Fried Onions on a Potato Roll with Pickled Vegetables on the side

This had a real kick from the horseradish and was too spicy for me, Nik enjoyed it, and the brisket was really nice, just melted in the mouth, I also particularly liked the roll, it was very soft.

As always, Nik spent a silly amount of money on silly snacks in Japan, (they don’t except DP) all of which he will decide he doesn’t like, then next year we’ll do the same thing again We took most things back to the room but he did try these whilst we were in World Showcase.

They weren’t as hot as they promised!

I had wanted to try the mochi ice cream for a while, as Leyfy (Kim) is big fan.

Usually, these little packs are also available in strawberry but they didn’t have any today so I had to make do with vanilla, they did have strawberry (and a few other flavours) in multipacks but as it was my first time trying I played it safe. At first, I wasn’t sure about these, they have mochi dough on the outside and ice cream in the middle, but thinking back I enjoyed them, and I’ll definitely try the other flavours next time. If these were available for a snack credit I think they’d be very, very popular.

Then I used a snack credit on an American Dream, just as I do every year, even though I don’t even like it!

Spanish-style Paella - Served with Chorizo and Roasted Chicken

As rice dishes go this was quite nice, there was a big chunk of chorizo, which was really tasty, but I’d have preferred it if it had been chopped up and mixed in with the rest of the dish.

We picked up a bag of caramel popcorn from Karamell Kuche, isn’t it amazing that a large bag is only a snack credit?! We watched them making the fresh popcorn and it is mouth-watering.

I had my favourite Caramel & Chocolate Dipped Strawberry and Nik also had a Caramel Cluster Milk Chocolate Pecan

As always, the strawberry was delicious, Nik thought the cluster was too sweet, but I liked it. I noticed after ordering that the caramel apples or caramel peanut apples are available as snack credits, I really wish I had tried one but I was trying to keep the sweet stuff to a minimum to leave room for the savory items at the booths.

Korma Chicken -with Cucumber Tomato Salad, Almonds, Cashews, and Warm Naan Bread

This was more like a Chicken Tikka Masala than the Korma we are used to, it was a little too spicy for me. The chicken was tender, there was plenty of sauce, and the naan was really, really good.

Chicken Dumplings -Served with a Chinese Slaw

Nik loves these, I don’t like them, I always expect them to be crispier than they are.

Shrimp Quesadilla - Corn Tortilla with Shrimp, Queso Cheese and topped with Spicy Guajillo Sauce

I took a bite before I remembered to take a picture, sorry! This was nice, it just tasted like nacho cheese sauce.

Taste of Greece - Chicken Souvlaki, Feta Cheese Dip with warm Pita, and Lamb Sausage with a Dill Tomato Ragu

This was my favourite item from the festival, all three components were delicious and it was the only thing we finished. I especially liked the chicken, which I expected to be dry, but was really juicy.

Croissant Doughnut - with Chocolate Hazelnut Cream

This was my first time trying a cronut, and after the first bite I was wondering what all the fuss was about, angels didn't sing, but then I kept wanting to keep on eating, so I must have enjoyed it! The hazelnut cream and the raspberries were the best part of this item, and I wish there’d been more of them.


***

Nik was very well behaved this trip and there was no major fall out this year, but this evening tried my patience the most. We were supposed to be going to dinner at Le Cellier at 7 pm, and then watching Illuminations (we even had a FP+ for it). In the morning we were going to Early Morning Magic in Toy Story Land, this had been quite a late addition to our itinerary as it was only announced they would be offering it a few weeks prior to our trip, I had discussed at length with Nik about how early we would have to be up, and how late we would be going to bed the night before, and he said it would be fine as it was only one day. But, after I had reminded him of the plans he said he either wanted to stay for Illuminations, or do Early Morning Magic, he would be too tired to do both.

Who would give up unlimited rides on Toy Story Mania and Slinky Dog Dash!? He said we could just get a FP for SDD for the next day instead To keep the peace, I agreed we could leave Epcot early, so we never got to say goodbye to Illuminations. I had really been looking forward to Le Cellier and I did not want to miss it, so without really thinking too much I moved our reservation to the following lunchtime.

We still needed to eat dinner but it had to be quick. Nik was keen on Liberty Inn but we were in Future World and I couldn’t be bothered walking all the way there (in hindsight, we should have). I suggested Hurricane Hannas at the Beach Club, which we passed on the way to the Yacht Club to pick up the car, but Nik didn’t seem keen. He asked if we could go back to Art of Animation, I suggested Spyglass Grill but he wasn’t keen on that either, eventually we settled on Pop which is right next to CRB. I kept thinking of all the great QS options at Disney Springs we could be eating at, but I knew the clock was ticking - if we'd have gone to Disney Springs then ended up eating at the same time we'd have been seated at Le Cellier I'd have been really mad.

Everything Pop

You can view the menu here

After the ordering fiasco at Landscape of Flavors I chose something from the same order station as Nik, he had a hot dog and I had the nuggets, I’m not even going to bother posting the descriptions! Both meals came with two sides, they had waffle fries, coleslaw and potato salad.

The hot dog was fine, and the waffle fries were really good, if they’d had the garlic ranch sauce here to dip them in we’d have been onto a winner, but my nuggets were old, which you can probably tell from the picture.

This came to $30.85. I was disappointed in a lot of the changes to our ADR plans this year, but this one got to me the most, it just felt so wasteful (even more than 2 credits on a quesadilla haha). I should have just checked which ADRs were available at the time we had decided to leave Epcot and eaten there and then.

CREDITS USED 88
TOTAL IN $$ 2,578.48