You Have Died of Dysentery: Artist Point
After the worst Lyft of the trip (weird driver, got lost, was a bit hostile -- but all other rides were great), we arrived at the Wilderness Lodge!
I had moved our Artist Point reservation back from something like 7:30pm to 6:45, because I wanted to make sure we had enough time to get over to California Grill's observation deck for Happily Ever After. I was worried the restaurant would be busy or the meal would be super slow. Neither happened, of course, and we had plenty of time.
We were both really looking forward to this dinner as we live in, and love, the Pacific Northwest. Originally we had other dinner plans, but when I booked the Cali Grill brunch in the week leading up to this trip, I saw a ~romantic opening~ to finally experience Artist Point and then see fireworks after dinner with our brunch receipt. Also, it seemed appropriate to eat here for our last dinner, like a farewell to Disney World but also a welcome back to Oregon at the same time
It was quiet and empty that night, right in the middle of dinner service. While it was nice and ~romantic~ for us, it broke my heart a little to think this might be the reality behind the rumors of Artist Point turning into character dining for all 3 meals.
A thunderstorm began shortly after we were seated, which amused us since the rain really completes the PNW theme of the restaurant. Amazing how Mickey times the weather so well!
I started off with the Seattle City Apple Martini (Skyy Vodka, DeKuyper Pucker Sour Apple, Monin Granny Smith Apple, Sweet-and-Sour). T was back to his teetotaler ways after going bonkers with 4 mimosas at brunch, so he drank water (yet still stole sips of my drink).
It was a good appletini, but not memorable.
The bread service and butter overpowered our mere mortal senses. We received two rounds and plowed through both, once again transforming into Chihiro's parents from Spirited Away. Simple, but delicious multigrain bread and salted butter.
This completely interrupts the storyline, but here's a picture of what was offered for the "Taste of the Pacific" prix fixe selections when we were there. It irks me that the choices aren't listed on the menu online:
($75 for food, $25 for wine, and you select one from each course.)
For appetizers, I knew I was going to get the famous
smoked mushroom bisque well before our server recommended it. T ordered the bisque as well, which was unusual because he normally needs at least 5 minutes of lobbying before he'll even consider an appetizer. Also, we tend to order different things so we can sample and share the maximum amount of dishes on a menu -- but this worked out for the best because after that first spoonful of bisque, I knew I'd never share it with him.
(smoked mushroom bisque: nettle pistou, sunflower seed, salsify | $13)
This was smooth, creamy and meaty, yet totally vegetarian. Our server (Donald) described this as tasting almost like bacon and nothing like mushroom, and I remember thinking that was an accurate description. I find its flavor difficult to describe even now, because it doesn't
really taste like bacon, but the smokiness is delightful. The soup's delicious, the salsify is delicious, and it's very hearty.
For unknown reasons, I made T wait so I could take a picture of his identical bisque...
If Artist Point ever offers an unlimited bread + smoked mushroom bisque combo, I'll be first in line. (I think it would make a popular lunch option, particularly in the fall/winter, if they *have* to open up Artist Point for all meals.) This was wonderful, and very much deserves its status as one of Artist Point's signature items.
We were already full from the bisques and 2 loaves of bread, but magically made room for our entrees when they came out:
(
petit aged buffalo strip loin: braised buffalo short rib, farro "risotto", fava beans, watercress, vadouvan | $49)
Apologies for the poor photo. This dish was incredible!!!! The buffalo loin was so good, and I LOVED that buffalo short rib. It was so tender and flavorful, like the king of pot roasts. I loved the sauce and au jus, too. The "risotto" was wheatberry, not farro -- also delicious. If we go back before Artist Point's potential "reimagining," I hope this is still on the menu.
I was set on ordering the
farm egg pappardelle, which came out like this:
(farm egg pappardelle: duck ragout, English peas, dandelion greens, aged cow's milk cheese | $34)
If you're thinking
what the duck? then you are in excellent company. I was expecting a light sprinkling of cheese, not a mountain's worth! You can also see the chunk of cheese they'd grated from in the front of the bowl, a thoughtful addition just in case I needed more.
Let's take a look at this monstrosity all mixed together...
Oh no, now it looks worse!
I love duck and hardly get a chance to eat it, so that explains why I had my stomach set on this entree after seeing it on the menu. Admittedly, I was expecting the duck ragout to look a little more like this...
(Canard Confit Aux Gnocchi à la Parisienne: Braised Duck Confit with Parisian Gnocchi, $5.75, from Fleur de Lys (France) booth at Flower & Garden this past May. This was awesome.)
...because who expects a duck ragout in a near-alfredo sauce?!
I thought it'd be a brown gravy deal, clearly I was off the mark. BUT, it was still delicious, just ugly delicious. The pappardelle were huge, tasted handmade, and cooked well. The cheese was sharp but rich. The duck was delicious and plentiful if not highly unattractive in pinkish-grey shades. I loved the bitter dandelion greens, which expertly cut through the cheesy richness -- I could've gone for a double portion of greens, for sure -- and the peas were just peas. I was very happy with this dish overall; the only thing missing was ground pepper (and then it'd be cacio e pepe with duck and greens, which is basically what it was anyway). Just be aware it's one heavy, bulging portion of food!
I also ordered
crispy brussels sprouts for us to share:
(crispy brussels sprouts, fermented bean vinaigrette | $9)
These were roasted and crisped nicely, delicious overall, and the "vinaigrette" was caramelized in spots so there were some chewy-crispy bits. But they were a bit heavy handed on the "vinaigrette," which was very salty (as expected for what I'm guessing is their take on a
black bean sauce). Still, this was good and I'd eat it again.
We couldn't finish our entrees or the sprouts, so we boxed up leftovers to go. We had no room for dessert, sadly. We saved $25.90 with Tables in Wonderland.
Our first time at Artist Point was delightful, from the setting to the service and food. I really hope Artist Point isn't turned into all-day character dining, and that it remains a signature with exquisite buffalo and the best known bisque on all of WDW property.
~~~~~
We walked around the Lodge a bit in search of a penny press machine, but didn't happen across one. We'd already explored the resort back in January and we continued that by heading upstairs to admire the details and explore the homey nooks-and-crannies. It was a serious struggle to walk up a few flights of stairs after all of dinner! There were lots of small fireplaces and oversized seating areas; Wilderness Lodge really excels at its theme.
Look at all of these coins just waiting to be pressed!
super cute fireplace screen!
This desk setup reminded me of our alma mater's library and writing my thesis. *shudders*
We settled on the fourth floor in these awesome chairs, next to yet another adorable fireplace screen. We lounged for a while, digesting and watching the sunset (by "watch" I mean we had our backs to the window and only turned around a few times, but hey).
Also during this time I canceled our Animal Kingdom fastpasses for the next day, which we agreed on over dinner. An accidental tradition of ours has been to visit AK as the last park before flying home, but we planned to eat in World Showcase for lunch and didn't feel like bussing back and forth. Plus, it's just so nice to get up and walk from the Swan to the International Gateway, so we canceled in favor of Epcot. Plus
plus we hadn't yet gone on Mission Space this trip and that is one of T's favorite rides. Even though we were making fastpasses about 13 hours in advance, I was able to get the times we wanted for Mission Space, Soarin', and Living with the Land, and we probably made some people happy by releasing FOP fastpasses!
After a little more exploration we went down to the boat dock, where a boat headed for the Contemporary was about to depart. Score! We hopped on and had a nice, pleasant boat ride, chatting with some folks behind us who had spent the day resort-hopping. What was supposed to be a 3 minute ride turned into something like 10 minutes because we were waiting for the Pirates Fireworks boats to leave the dock.
After reaching dry land we stopped for some photos...
...and then we were back at the top of the Contemporary, a mere 9 hours after we were last there! How time flies.
We went out onto the further deck, which had been recommended to us by a host that morning, and from there we saw Illuminations and I think part of Fantasmic or SW:AGS while we waited for Magic Kingdom's fireworks to start. We also saw bits of the Electrical Water Pageant running around the lagoon, and chatted with some folks nearby. Then we watched Happily Ever After, first time for T:
I thought it was fun! This may have been the highest point from which I've ever seen a fireworks show. Definitely "better" to see the fireworks from Fantasyland but it was cool to see them from this angle. T was less amused since he had stood in front of one of the speakers the entire time and it was much too loud. For the record, I asked him if he wanted to move before the show started, thinking that might be a problem! He declined. I stood behind him the whole time and he effectively body-blocked me from the speakers, so it didn't bother me.
We hung around taking pictures and enjoying the evening breeze for a while since the elevator to leave CA Grill was experiencing a traffic jam anyway.
A nice gal in a Na'vi costume very kindly took some photos of us together
but T upstaged me in all of them!
After hanging out on both observation decks and enjoying the view of the Magic Kingdom area one last time, we got in a Lyft headed back to the Swan. The driver was bumpin' old school Mariah Carey, which is in no way relevant to this report (neither were the last several photos/paragraphs) but it was great and should be noted!
Not wanting the night or trip to end, we decided to go to Kimonos for the first time to use up some of those drink vouchers I mentioned waaay back in the first post, since we had utterly failed to use any of them!
It was surprisingly busy in there -- not overcrowded, but almost every table was full and buzzing with activity. It's much less formal than the "signature" dress code (I saw a woman in Daisy Dukes and a tank top) stated for this place, so definitely don't worry about that. We mostly saw conventioneers in business casual. We found seats at the bar and ordered some nightcaps:
T's was a lychee orange martini (good, decently strong, and not on their online menu so I don't remember what was in this) and mine was "The Kimonos Dragon" (Bacardi dragonberry rum, passion tea syrup, champagne -- not really strong but whatever). They were both $13; the bartender said vouchers were good for anything up to $15.
I wish we'd eaten here on another night -- I've meant to for a while but we still haven't eaten there, and the sushi looked delicious.
Karaoke was well underway when we showed up so, naturally, T abandoned his drink after about 2 minutes and submitted his karaoke request...
What follows was, regrettably, not recorded on video! I will say I was surprised he wanted to sing at all because he CANNOT carry a tune to save his life. We'll sing songs or hum, and I'm constantly reminding him "that is not the melody..." or some variation. Love T, but he is not proficient at anything musically related. He also knew exactly what he wanted to sing before even looking at the song book -- he just told me to flip to S and boom, Spice Girls, his song was there.
Suffice to say, he provided excellent entertainment for the whole restaurant. The bartender and I shared lots of laughs ("does he even know this song?" "he LOVES this song!"), the karaoke attendant got up during an instrumental part and admonished him with "T! I thought you said you knew this song!", and a lady conventioneer took pity on him and helped sing the second half.
She was excellent!
Shortly after, we headed up to the room, packed, and went to bed. It was a wonderful, long, fun-filled day from beginning to end.
Up next, our last day...