Italy is the place to get a negroni, huge portions and the plate of free snacks (aperitivi?) you should get with it in a nice bar is a winner. Our favourite pre-dinner drink by a mile Narcoossee's do a good one though but that said it's hard to get wrong.


Beaches and Cream the sundaes are very well put together and inexpensive by Disney standards. No surprise it's hard to get an ADR!


Yacht Club is nice and the rooms beautiful although personally I can't stand all the nauticalia around the place. it looks like my DF did the interior design which is not a good thing. Beach Club hotel decor miles better but they are both lovely and we're very lucky to stay here

Yes, second time visit and both have been perfect Thanks for reading and glad you're enjoying

It's a great view, would suit a smoker especially! Reckon I can keep to within 24 hours by meal at Disney but you're right there's a lot of distractions

Go for it, personally I think the green should be ok unless you are claustrophobic (it's very tight when they close the doors) and bearing in mind all the usual Disney do not ride if caveats! The ready made sundaes are the size of a baby's head

Chefs de France review here soon!

Italy as in actual Italy or Italy in Epcot?

lol sorry real Italy. EPCOT-wise you may be able to get one in the bar underneath Tutto Gusto or possibly the restaurants. We'll research this for you next week

I figured that was what you meant...but was being pedantic!

I hadn't planned visiting Beaches and Cream but those ice creams look amazing. I love ice cream 😀

Looking forward to your Chef de France visit. I have (after 2 changes) picked it for my birthday meal in October.

and i was being dim clearly Do you make negronis at home? They're incredibly easy to do

Beaches is good and stick with Chefs IMHO, glowing review incoming

Dinner - Chefs de France (EPCOT France)

This was a first time for us having heard/read good things. First up, the theming is perfect for the original World Showcase concept (pre Frozen etc.). It really does look like a French brasserie just with American service style service. In the attached chart our expectation was clearly set for a Posh Soiree although technically it met the criteria of a French Picnic


Another great server. We started by ordering drinks and appetisers. DD on Apple juice then a glass of champagne for DW and for me a rushed, panicky choice of a French martini.

EPCOT t-shirt Challenge 2/22

French Martini

The champagne was predictably excellent. Deluxe I guess comes into its own when you can get a quality drink like this included and only having one included in the deal reduces the temptation to have more or get a bottle. Mine was a poor choice, a nice enough cocktail with pineapple juice and a pleasingly sour citrus foam on top but I should have gone with my first thought of the best glass of red I could see on the list.

We also got a paper bag of some very nice rustic style French bread with salty butter. This disappeared.


I mentioned that we ordered starters at the same time as the drinks. Strategy here is I think fairly well known, basically it’s to beat the Disney table turnaround hustle by not ordering your main until the starter arrives. It worked a treat tonight in preventing us being Bonefished with the main course while still eating the starter If the server insists you order the main just say you haven’t decided yet and they should take the starter order

As her starter DW ordered the cheese plate (Plateau de fromages de France (Cheese Board) - Imported cheese board with raisin and walnut bread)..

EPCOT t-shirt Challenge 3/22

I’m not sure the waiter explained the cheeses but this came with Port Salut, a blue cheese, a soft goats cheese, brie and a hard cheese that may have been gruyeres. Also served with grapes and walnuts. Very good, she ate about half and the rest was boxed up for the room (there will be a lot of this going on). We didn’t try the raisin bread because DW won’t eat raisins and I had a job of work on with the French Onion Soup.


This is one of my favourite soups, done well can be divine. This was good, the broth was done right and my only complaint is that there was so much bread and cheese on the top that the soup was hard to dredge out. I only like to eat a little of the top stuff and there must have been a pound of bread and cheese which is way too much for the starter of a 3 course meal. Picked the soup out and left most of the rest but a good start anyway.

DD surprised us by ordering Tartare de saumon legerement fume, sauce moutarde - Tartare of raw salmon lightly smoked with cucumber Dill, honey mustard sauce and a homemade brioche bun. The waiter likewise wore a worried look when he put it down in front of her, think he was convinced it was going back for a portion of nuggets

They grow up so fast!

She did very well here, enjoying it and eating almost the whole dish. At the moment we’re re-assessing our understanding of what DD will eat on a daily basis!

As the starters came we ordered the mains. I selected Boeuf Bourguignon, linguine - Beef braised in Cabernet with baby onions and carrots, served with linguine pasta.

This was a lot nicer than it looks. I really should buy a camera

It may not be photogenic, at least not at my skill level but this was wonderful. Beef nice and tender, the richest of red wine sauces that I could have used a pint of (in fact if you have this dish try to get an extra jug of the sauce on the side). Onions and carrots were nice too, I ate all of the bits of the dish and a little of the linguine which was mainly there I think to counterbalance the richness of the casserole. Really good dish!

DW ordered the fillet (Filet de boeuf grillé (Grilled Tenderloin of Beef) - with green peppercorn sauce, original potato gratin of Savoy and green beans). This came very rare which she enjoyed and a lot of it again went back to the room in a doggy bag. She subbed the gratin for mash and also had the green beans. Again no complaints here.


Our food adventurer DD chose Canard aux cerises (Duck Breast with Cherries) - Duck breast and leg confit with cherries, sweet potato puree and patty pan squash.


She lapped this up too, preferring the breast slices to the leg confit (which was ‘too much like chicken leg’). After this DD and I had room for dessert and we ordered Cygne au chocolat - Swan cream puff filled with chocolate mousse, chocolate sauce, and chocolate ice cream (DD) and Tarte aux Pommes - Apple Tart with Almond Cream, Caramel Sauce, and Vanilla Ice Cream (me). Both were enjoyed, mine was particularly good. I’m sure there was some calvados in there too, had to stop myself ¾ of the way through as starting to feel uncomfortable and DD struggled to walk home too. Our helpful server was also happy to let DW have an espresso as her DxDDP dessert which didn’t do his tip any harm.




Great meal this one, we’d recommend CDF to anyone and with DD’s newly expanded choices, are considering sneaking Monsieur Paul onto the restaurant list if we can. That’s it for Day 3, tomorrow’s plan is lunch at Be Our Guest/Spice Road Table and dinner at the Boathouse

That looks really good. I love a good french onion soup so would have that, followed by the braised beef and the cheese for afters .

Kudos to your DD for trying the salmon, mine would have run a mile from that and I would have probably given it the nearest cat.

I've read a few good things about Chef de France recently. Those puddings look divine.

Great meal.

If DD liked the duck there the one at Hollywood Brown Derby comes highly recommended by my 10 year old culinary expert 😂