Last November, my parents and I had our first dining experience at Yachtsman Steakhouse, located at Disney’s Yacht Club. When Mom and I made plans to head back to Disney recently, the Yachtsman was one of the two dining reservations we made sure to secure (the other being Boma for breakfast). We had an early reservation made for 5:20. We checked in right around 5:00, and they were able to take us straight to our table. In the main dining room, I just love the detail in the high ceilings. Our view of Storm Along Bay wasn’t bad either!

Yachtsman Steakhouse Ceiling

Right after our drink orders were taken, our server brought out the basket of bread. I try to make it a rule not to fill up on bread at meals (it is my weakness), but this is the exception! There are two kinds of freshly baked bread here: sourdough rolls and onion rolls. Served with the bread is roasted garlic and butter topped with Australian sea salt. I think I skipped the sourdough in favor of the onion roll last year, but this year I tried both and they were delicious! The sourdough was more firm and crusty, and the onion rolls soft and pull apart perfectly. I followed our server’s advice to spread the garlic just as you would butter, and could have made that whole basket of rolls my meal! It was great!

Yachtsman Bread Basket

Next up was the appetizer course, otherwise known to us as the whole reason we go to the Yachtsman. For the second year in a row, I ordered the Lobster Bisque. I order this soup pretty much anywhere that I see it on a menu, and Yachtsman has my absolute favorite. It is creamy, rich, and has nice sized chunks or lobster in it. This was so good that both Mom and I had a moment of consideration for licking the bowl. I always want to try a different appetizer here, but I know I’d regret not having this. Maybe next time I’ll go just for apps and desserts?

Lobster Bisque

Even though the bisque is always the star of the meal for me (which isn’t to say anything bad about the steaks, that’s just how much I love the bisque), we still had entrees to devour! This was the one meal of this trip that we ordered our own entrees, and I went with the 16 oz Boneless Ribeye. This is normally served with Brioche and Bone Marrow, but I substituted fries this time. I ordered the steak cooked medium, and it was perfectly cooked and seasoned. It was described as well-marbled, but it was a bit fattier than I expected. It was pretty delicious though!

Yachtsman Ribeye

We made one mistake at this meal- we skipped dessert! I absolutely loved my dessert here last year, but since we had a couple hours planned in Epcot, we decided to skip dessert in favor of picking up snacks around the World Showcase. Yachtsman was once again a favorite for us, and we’ll be returning on our next trip!

If you’ve visited Yachtsman, what was your experience like?

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Disney World three times since 2011. After not traveling to Disney since I was a kid, on New Years Eve in 2010, we started talking about where to go for our family vacation the next year. Surprisingly, my mom said she had always wanted to visit Disney as an adult. After much discussion and research, we booked a trip and ended up with Free Dining, which we upgraded to the Deluxe Dining Plan.

We used 2 dining plan credits to attend the Spirit of Aloha Luau in 2011 (and my hair was brown).

Well, that trip only served to spark my Disney obsession and somehow I convinced my parents we needed to return in 2012.

Both trips were in November, over my birthday, and during Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival.

Pork Slider from the Hawaii booth at F&W (snack credit)

We had a great time on both trips, and when I had the opportunity to attend a conference in my field being held in Disney at the Yacht Club Resort, I signed right up and convinced my mom to tag along. After having the dining plan for the first two trips, we weren’t quite sure how we’d like not having it. In addition to not having the dining plan, we decided to just make a couple ADRs (advanced dining reservations), and just wing the rest. This trip was totally different than our previous ones! Since it was so different, I thought I’d write a little bit about our thoughts.

First- we loved the deluxe dining plan on our past two trips. As three adults, it was nice to have breaks in our day and to be able to leisurely enjoy meals. We had no problem using our 3 credits a day by booking either a table-service breakfast or early lunch each day and a Signature dinner every night. We also loved ordering whatever we wanted without looking at prices. Both years, we had free dining, so we only paid the upgrade price to upgrade from regular to Deluxe dining. This meant that each of us ate for less than $40 a day (not including gratuity)- which can’t be beat! We also traveled during the Food and Wine Festival, and had no problems using our snack credits to snack around World Showcase. Was it a lot food, and in some cases too much?

Oak Grilled Filet from California Grill (2012)

Absolutely! But to us, it was totally worth it to try new things and for the convenience factor, especially since we were eating Deluxe for less than $40 per day. (For reference, in the years we went, the Deluxe Plan included 3 meals and 2 snacks per person, per night of stay. Each meal could be used as table or counter service, and included an appetizer, entree, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage per person. Also included was a resort refillable mug.)

Since this trip involved booking the room at the conference rate and me attending the conference all day each day, we couldn’t add the dining plan. Instead, I purchased the Tables in Wonderland card, which is one of my Annual Pass benefits. The card costs $100, but can be used at most table-service restaurants to receive 20% your bill (including alcohol). I knew that it wouldn’t actually save money for us on this trip, but I have a trip booked with a signature dinner every night of the stay in October, so I knew between the two it would save money.

Here’s a line-up of where we ended up eating over the course of our 5 night trip:

• Beach Club Marketplace
• Be Our Guest (dinner- used TIW discount)
• Tomorrowland Terrace Wishes Dessert Party
• Boma (breakfast- used TIW discount)
• Beaches & Cream (lunch- used TIW discount)
• Boardwalk Bakery (dinner)
• Coral Reef (dinner- used TIW discount)
• Yachtsman Steakhouse (dinner- used TIW discount)
• Rose & Crown (dinner- used TIW discount)

As I mentioned earlier, we only had a couple of set in stone ADR’s for this trip. These were the Wishes Dessert Party, Boma breakfast, and dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse. The week before we left, I saw an opening for Be Our Guest, so we also booked dinner there. Another difference between this trip and our Deluxe Dining trips was that instead of us each getting our own appetizer, entree, and dessert we knew that we’d order what looked good and most likely split some things. We actually ended up splitting entrees at every meal, and didn’t order dessert or appetizers at every meal. Of course, by splitting entrees and not always ordering appetizers or dessert, we were able to eat much more cheaply than our previous trips. I must admit though, that at times, we ordered the way we did (or chose not to order) was because we were watching our budget. 

Grilled Strip Steak from Be Our Guest