** Somewhere during the day we each used a snack credit for a bottle of water for Candi and a bottle of Sprite for me. Each of these were one snack credit and would have been $2.50 each without the dining plan.
Tonight was a dinner I had been waiting for since we started planning this trip; we were going to be eating at Narcoossees and I was pumped!! Nevermind the fact that I couldn’t even pronounce the name of the restaurant
all I cared about was that we got a reservation during the fireworks!!
We got there extremely early – this would be an ongoing habit for the first half of the trip – and decided to walk around and check things out.
I absolutely adore how the restaurant is its very own private building!!
We went down to the dock and checked out the Magic Kingdom from afar – I couldn’t wait to see the fireworks from here!
While we were sitting around a very nice gentleman offered to take our picture
It’s one of my favorites of the whole trip.
But, you aren’t reading this to see pictures of us …. on to the food
On our way to check-in Candi stopped to check out the menu … umm yeah babe – this is what I was asking you to do when we planned this trip – it’s too late to throw in your opinion now
kidding … sorta
We checked in with the hostess and were told it would be a few minutes so we went outside to catch part of the Electrical Parade while we waited. Soon enough our buzzer went off and we headed to our table.
Once again I was secretly hoping for a window seat … and we got it! I would soon realize that this would not do me any good for the fireworks
Our waitress came by after a few minutes and seemed very rushed and not all that interested in being a waitress … uh-oh, please don’t let this be sign of things to come
She took our drink order and rushed off before we had a chance to tell her that we were ready to order appetizers, oh well, no real biggy. It seemed to be about 5-10 minutes before she arrived with our drinks and then try to take off again without asking if we were ready to order. Candi quickly caught her and told her we were ready and she sighed rather loudly before asking what we wanted.
Candi started with the crab cakes - $13.00
He had never had crab cakes before so he has nothing to compare them to but he absolutely loved them! As promised I tried a bite and I must admit that I thought they were rather tasty as well. I’m starting to think I like crab just not crab legs?!? I didn’t particularly care for the cole slaw type stuff on the bottom but loved the sauce on the top. Candi on the other hand thought it tasted fabulous all together. They appear somewhat small but he thought they were quite filling as far as appetizers go. You know, not too full for dinner but not so small you feel it wasn’t enough?
As my starter I had the green goddess salad - $11.00
I was a little worried as many of the items in the salad were slightly outside my comfort zone. My overall thoughts – loved the avocado dressing and the cucumbers were crisp and delicious. As for the rest of the salad – eeehhh – didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. I can tell you after eating this salad that I do not like hearts of palm – but I give myself credit for trying it! Candi tried the salad as well and gave it two big thumbs down. Now, keep in mind that he is not a salad man anyway, but he said the dressing was “funky” and the rest was just “bland.”
Now, I hate to be a complainer but I have to tell you I was starting to get quite irked at our waitress – I am not going to give her name because she may have just been having an off night. But, this was a bad night that slowly got worse. The entire time we were eating our appetizers we never saw her, not even when our glasses were empty – not even when our appetizers were finished. Finally, Candi saw her at another table and politely waved her over. She just sort of came over and was like “yeah” to which we said we would like some refills and to check on our entrée order. Without a word she took our glasses and left. This time she was back within a minute with our refills and our entrees.
As his main course, Candi had the surf and turf – a complete no brainer choice for him - $58.00
Oh my goodness, it looked and smelled delicious! His first comment was about how glad he was that we weren't worrying about prices because otherwise he wouldn't have ordered it. He said his filet mignon was fabulous – thought not quite as good as the one I had at Fultons. He said it wasn’t “melt in our mouth delicious” but it was still a two thumbs up steak. Now, he has had lobster tail on previous occasions but he thought this one was way better than any he had had before. I know many people say it is just the frozen kind, but he enjoyed it all the same. And considering au gratin potatoes are his favorite side dish ever – he was in complete heaven! I didn’t try his steak because that’s what I ordered as my main, but I did try the lobster and I nearly stole it from him. Who would have thought a seafood hater would start to become a lover on this trip. Lobster is now in my top favorite foods list!!
For my main course I had the filet mignon - $41.00
My overall thoughts – loved the beans, they are my absolute favorites! The steak was very good, but the choron sauce became too much after a while. It wasn’t that it tasted bad, it’s just that it became overbearing about halfway through the meal. I loved the au gratin potatoes – they tasted different than the ones Candi had on his plate – better actually!
Towards the end of our main courses the fireworks show began. In all honesty it is one of the main reasons I booked a reservation here – to see Wishes from a different angle. We realized that everyone goes onto the balcony area to watch the show so it didn’t really matter that we had a window seat. No big deal, we just got up and went outside to join them.
This is my favorite fireworks show EVER – I love the Wishes song and I cannot lie – I started to cry a little.
Now back to the food –
When we came back in we saw our waitress at another table smiling and laughing and thought maybe she was in a better mood – WRONG!
It took her 20 minutes before she came around to our table to get our dessert order. In that time we saw her go to 4 or 5 other tables offering to take pictures for them and even offered a couple there for their anniversary some free champagne. Now, I don’t EXPECT a waitress to do any of those things but I DO expect to be treated the same as any other paying guest. By this point I was so irritated I started to cry out of frustration
. She had basically ignored us all night, had an attitude every time we made a request and then I watch her treat every other table like actual guests.
Finally, she came to our table to get our dessert order.
Candi ordered the key lime crème brulee - $7.00
He ate a few bites and declared it too “limey.” I on the other hand thought it was spectacular, in my opinion nothing could every be too “limey” or too “lemony” for that matter
In the end we traded desserts.
For my dessert I order the almond-crusted cheesecake. I was so super excited about this and then our waitress came back to the table and literally threw the dessert menu in front of me and said “ you have to choose something else, we’re out of cheesecake.” So I ordered the strawberry shortcake - $7.00
My initial reaction – “it’s so pretty.” Geez, I can be such a girl sometimes
. After taking the first bite I almost forgot it wasn’t what I had wanted – yes, it was THAT good. The strawberries were perfectly ripe and sweet and the whipped part was perfect. However, Candi clearly wasn’t enjoying his crème brulee so I offered a trade. This was definitely his type of dessert and he all but licked his plate clean
. Nope, I didn’t even get another single bite – well, he did give me the chocolate pieces, but he hates chocolate so it doesn’t count
Needless to say, he LOVED the strawberry shortcake.
For the first time all night our waitress came by before we had finished eating and left the bill. When she returned with our ticket to sign she made sure to point out the different options for leaving a tip and then disappeared for the rest of the night.
Our overall thoughts on Narcoossees:
Obviously we were very irritated with the service we received and this caused quite a downer on the night. I realize that we could have asked for a Manager and said something about it, but I didn’t want my attitude to come out on the wrong person and, at the time, felt it would just put me in a worse mood. Looking back I do wish we would have said something, only because I hate the thought of knowing she could have ruined someone else’s night as well. Anwhooooo….. Candi enjoyed every part of his meal – except his crème brulee which was easily fixed by trading. I didn’t love my salad and the main course became too much with the sauce after a while, but both desserts were delicious. Watching the fireworks from here was truly magical and almost made up for the lack of service – at any rate it kept us in better moods. Will we be back? Yes, I always believe in second chances and am sure we would have better service next time. However, I’m not sure we will put it on our must do list for our very next trip. I believe in forgive and forget – I just don’t know that I can forget that quickly
Starting Credits:
Snack: 30 total (15 each)
Meal: 42 total (21 each)
Credits Used vs Cost:
1 water and 1 sprite - 2 snack credits total - $5.00
1 tea, 1 diet coke, crab cakes, salad, steak & lobster, filet mignon, crème brulee and strawberry shortcake – 4 meal credits (2 for each adult) - $160.79 with tax not including tip (we still tipped just not as highly as we normally would for such a nice restaurant)
Wishes View – Priceless