There is always something special about dining at the Walt Disney World Resort when Disney Characters are involved.  Young or old, your inner child comes out when Minnie Mouse or Goofy comes to your table to greet you.  They may even spot you dining on a Mickey Waffle.  Today we travel to the Beach Club Resort to review the Character Breakfast at Cape May!

Disney Characters Bring Fun To Any Breakfast!

The Character Breakfast at Cape May involves Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Duck Duck dressed in their Beach attire that is fitting for a meal at the Beach Club Resort.  Their colorful outfits and playful attitudes cannot help but get your day off to a great start!


You want to make sure to bring a camera with you to breakfast, because these characters love to pose for pictures.


They visit each table one at a time, making sure that they visit with everyone during their meal. They will sign autographs and pose for pictures with everyone in your party.  They were not rushed.  This is certainly the best way to get pictures and autographs with characters for your family.

Cape May Breakfast - The Food!

Like most Disney World Character meals, the Cape May Character Breakfast is served buffet style.  This makes it easy to please everyone in your party and also provide plenty of food for the hungriest of appetites.  Disney World buffets are better than your average buffet and Cape May is no different.



You can find a wide range of choices from the standard breakfast fare to items that you may not expert to see.  There are four sides to the large buffet area.  The first side includes: Fresh Fruit, Yogurt, Steel-cut Oatmeal, House-made Granola, and smoked salmon.



The 2nd side includes typical breakfast items like scrambled eggs, link sausage, bacon, and assorted pastries.



The 3rd side features a carving station that included ham and additional fresh baked items like breads and muffins.


The last side features Mickey Waffles and French toast sticks.

Cape May Character Breakfast Review - Summary

Disney World Character Meals are about the interaction with the Disney Characters and this meal certainly provides that!  Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck each come to visit your table and interact with you.  They will sign autographs, interact, and pose for pictures in a relaxed setting taht did not feel rushed like you may feel in the theme parks.

The attire of the characters was appropriate to the theme of the restaurant and they were fun to interact with.

The breakfast buffet was certainly above average.  They had breakfast staples that traditionalists will love and other specials like the smoked salmon, house-made granola, and carving station that makes this a great breakfast experience.

If you are looking for a Disney World Character meal then this is a great choice!  We would definitely recommend it without reservation!

The Disney Dining Plans continue to be amongst the most popular options that guests add on to their Walt Disney World Resort vacation packages.  In order to help both the experienced and the novice Disney World guests get the most value for their money, Only WDWorld has created the Ultimate Disney Dining Plan Value Rankings!

Ranking The Disney World Restaurants By Dining Plan Value

There are many different ways to rank and categorize the multitude of restaurants on the Walt Disney World Resort property.  There are over 70 Table Service (sit down and be waited on) Restaurants alone.  We set out to rank all of the Table Service restaurants that accept the Disney Dining Plan in terms of best Value for the customer.

Whether you pay for the Disney Dining Plan or receive it for FREE as part of a promotional package, it is still in your best interest to get the most value for your money.  Each Disney Dining Plan (DDP) Table Service credit for an adult (ages 10+) has a monetary value of approximately $37.66 for 2014.

In order to fairly rank the restaurants, we looked at the entire menu of offerings for each restaurant and picked a median range priced entree and dessert for comparison purposes.  In most cases you can make the restaurant an even better deal by always selecting the most expensive item on the menu, but in practice entire families rarely do this for every person for every meal during their vacation.

Understanding the Restaurant Ratings

The ranking is on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best value.  If you choose a restaurant with a rating of 7 - 10 then you are getting a great deal.  These are the restaurants that you want to target for your Disney World Vacations.  This means that by using the DDP you are getting more value than you paid for!  You should target these restaurants as much as possible during your vacation.

The next category is breaking even, this would be scores of 5 - 6.  This is fine.  You are getting your money's worth, but no more.  Choose these restaurants, if your family would really enjoy eating there, but try to limit them to one or two during your vacation.

The last category is low value (aka losing money) for ranks of 1 - 4.  Here you are paying more to eat at these restaurants than you would if you did not use the Disney Dining Plan.  In some cases you may pay over $15 more per person.  Do not choose these restaurants if you are using the DDP or pay for these out of pocket (OOP) and use your DDP credits during other meals.

Unless stated specifically, the rankings were based upon the Dinner Menu pricing.  The Dinner menu is typically the most expensive and the best use of the DDP credits.  Choosing to use the DDP at Breakfast or Lunch is usually a losing proposition in terms of Value.

Ultimate Disney Dining Plan Rankings

Here is our 2014 Disney Dining Plan Table Service Value Ranking for 69 restaurants that accept the DDP.

While Dining has become as much a part of a vacation at the Walt Disney World Resort as many of the theme park attractions that they are known for, many of the Disney Resort Hotel restaurants don't get the attention that they deserve.  Today, Only WDWorld will be reviewing one of the these under appreciated restaurants: The Captain's Grille at Disney's Yacht Club Resort.

Captain's Grille

Far from the over the top themed restaurants that you can find at Disney World, the Captain's Grille, located within Disney's Yacht Club Resort, provides a much more sedated, nautical atmosphere, that fits the theme and mood of the resort.

The appeal of this restaurant is the menu and the quality of the food.  The prices are also much more reasonable than it's more well-known Disney Signature Restaurant neighbor The Yachtsman Steakhouse.  The atmosphere is semi-casual and it can actually get rather noisy depending upon how many families are dining that evening.

The location of the restaurant is attraction in that it is walking (or Friendship Boat ride) distance from both Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios, making it a great choice if you are spending the day at either of these Disney Theme parks.

The Menu

The Captain's Grille cuisine includes a variety of dishes that embrace the New England coast that the Resort is based upon.  The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but we will only be re
viewing the dinner that we ate recently.

Fresh Bread and Salted Butter

Appetizers

For starters you can enjoy a number of choices:

• Beer-Braised Mussels and Clams $10.99
• Buttermilk Fried Rock Shrimp $14.99
• New England Clam Chowder $7.49
• House Made Potato Cheese Gnocchi $7.99
• Lump Crab Cake $14.49

Farmers' Market Salad at Captain's Grille

Cabernet-braised Short Ribs at Captain's Grille

Lump Crab Cakes at Captain's Grille

Desserts

Review Summary

Disney World offers a multitude of dining experiences from the snack cart to their Signature Dining Restaurants.  Today's Disney World Dining Review takes us to one of those Signature Dining Restaurants at the Grand Floridian Resort: Narcoossee's.


Situated right on the waterfront of the Seven Seas Lagoon, Narcoossee's is an octagon shaped restaurant with a Victorian style on the outside to fit in with the rest of the Grand Floridian Resort.

Narcoossee's - The Ambiance
Inside the restaurant you sense a casual elegance that gives you a coastal feel that befits the seafood featured menu that they offer.  At night the lighting level is low, which makes it an ideal place to share a romantic dinner or celebrate a special event.  Although you will see families here, many of the tables were occupied by couples enjoying a special dinner.

The restaurant is set up so that everyone gets a great view of the water.  From this vantage point on the Seven Seas Lagoon, the Magic Kingdom looks amazing, and watching the boats go from place to place is enjoyable.  During late night dinners, you also have a prime seat for the Electrical Water Pageant and an incredible view of the Magic Kingdom Fireworks.

During our visit we caught one of the last showings of the Summer Nightastic! Fireworks and enjoyed the show almost as much from Narcoossee's as we did when saw it standing next to the Cinderella Castle a night earlier.


Narcoossee's - The Service
From the moment we entered Narcoossee's the service was wonderful.  After checking in and receiving our pager, we sat in the waiting area with full view of the open kitchen.  While we were waiting one of the managers noticed that we had our camera with us and offered to take a picture of my wife and I out on their deck area overlooking the Seven Seas Lagoon.  He even took a couple pictures to make sure that we got one that we liked.  He was very friendly and engaging, which got our dining experience off to a great start.

We happened to be celebrating my wife's birthday and had included it in our reservations.  I never had to  mention another word about it, and they took great care of us and made her birthday very special.

Our waitress was extremely friendly and did everything that you would want.  She had our table ready for us with tiny Mickey Head sparkles dusted all over to mark our celebration.  The menu my wife received was customized for her and made a nice sovenier of the evening.

The best way to describe the wonderful service was to tell about the manager that stopped by our table at the end of our meal to ask how it was.  When we told him that this was our first time at Narcoossee's he immediately and sincerely thanked us for entrusting such an important celebration to his restaurant. 

For a Signature Restaurant, at the Grand Floridian no less, there was no sense of the staff being pretentious.  It made for an amazing dining experience.

Narcoossee's - The Menu
The menu at Narcoossee's changes frequently, but remains with a heavy emphasis on seafood dishes.  For the non-seafood eaters, there is always a Filet Mignon on the menu, as well as, a chicken dish and a vegetarian dish.

You can see a recent Narcoossee's Menu from Disney World, this will give you an example, but those particular dishes may not be available on the day you visit.

The entrees range in price from $22.00 for the Summer Vegetables - Vegetarian Dish to $59.00 for the Surf & Turf - with Filet Mignon and Lobster Tail.  Most of the entrees are in the $33 - $39 range. 

The seafood dishes that were available the night that we visited were:

• Turbot with Rock Shrimp $34.00
• Crispy Whole Snapper $35.00
• Mixed Grill - with Lamb  T-Bone, Spiny Lobster, & Chicken Sausage $39.00
• Togarashi Spiced Ahi Tuna $36.00
• Grilled Shrimp $33.00
• Crab Crusted Flounder $35.00

Narcoossee's does participate in the Disney Dining Plan, but as a Signature Restaurant it requires 2 Table Service Credits per person. They also participate in the Tables in Wonderland discount program that entitles you to 20% off all food & drink during the meal.
Narcossee's - The Food
My wife decided to have the Crab-crusted Flounder (pictured below.)  It came with crushed potatoes, hricots verts, and Meyer Lemon sauce.  She loved the dish and thought that the Meyer Lemon sauce was amazing.