Downtown Disney Construction, BOATHOUSE Outdoor Bar Review, AMC Fork and Screen – 6/27/15

It’s been about a month since we last took a look at Downtown Disney walls in depth.

Construction continues on the transformation of Hoi Polloi to Universal World Soccer.

Basic Caramel and Candy Apples are now available as snack credits on the Disney Dining Plan as previously reported.

Some of the more expensive $5.49 “Mickey Crispy Treats”  are also available as snack credits there in the middle row.

The more intricate $9.99 apples do not quality.

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This is at Candy Cauldron on the West Side.

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Construction is relatively light in guest-accessible areas on the West Side, though there is a lot going on behind the walls that line Planet Hollywood and the bridge up through what was once Pleasure Island. Fast forward a year and these should be picturesque canals meandering through The Landing.

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This panorama from the top floor of the parking garage might give you a better idea about the size of construction back there.

A non-panorama from the second floor.

Speaking of the parking garage, it’s mostly complete on the West Side with the top floor partially-open to guests.

Combined, the two parking garages will have something like 6,000 parking spots. And there are three electric car charging stations.

Behind the garage, it looks like they’re paving another parking lot.

Back on the ground with the walls that line Planet Hollywood, which is supposed to be transformed into a planetarium-looking-thing.

I’m a big proponent of the AMC Dine-In Theater at Downtown Disney, particularly on opening weekend of popular films. You get to select your seats in advance and there are only two or four seats before an aisle break, so you can sit on the end of the center row and still basically be in the middle. And there’s a wall behind each row so the kid behind you can’t kick the back of your seat the whole movie. The food is basically quick service quality, but prices are moderate. My BBQ chicken flatbread was $12. Lisa’s club sandwich was similarly priced. Quality is serviceable, but probably nothing spectacular. Most people order food and drinks upon arriving and there is a button you can press that calls your server to your seat for any other needs. Tickets for Fork and Screen do run about $3.20 more than tickets to the regular theater, but I think it’s worth it for the extra comfort.

My advice is always to go to Downtown Disney as early in the day as possible and ideally as early in the week as possible. Things are pretty chill here on a Saturday afternoon, but evenings are usually surprisingly busy.

The old Adventurers Club is coming down.

To the left of it.

Further up, work continues on expanding Paradiso 37.

Vivoli Il Gelato (Vivoli Gelateria?) opened a couple of weeks ago to what seem like positive reviews, though it can be difficult to gauge how good something actually is is when everything is obnoxiously UH.MAZE.ING.

The Hangar Bar, loosely themed to Indiana Jones, is expected to open later this year in between Paradiso and The BOATHOUSE®: Great Food, Waterfront Dining, Dream Boats™.

Work is active as construction crews make progress throughout the day. Reggie is the name of the boat hanging off the side, which goes back to Jock Lindsey’s pet boa constrictor.

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I reviewed The BOATHOUSE dinner experience last month in this post, but was interested to return for lunch. BOATHOUSE enjoys a lot of variety in seating indoors and out with the Dockside Bar located at the end of a dock behind the restaurant.

Seating is open both around the bar and at the 2-person hightop tables that circle it.

We grabbed a hightop with a nice view of the water and amphicar launch next door. While it was hot, there was a nice breeze coming off the water and the casual vibe of the space lent itself nicely to a leisurely lunch.

The restaurant offers a variety of menus – this is officially the outdoor menu, though you can request the full restaurant menu that includes the more expensive steak and seafood options. Conversely, you can request this menu inside as well:

Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, the Beach Bucket entrees actually went down in price since the restaurant’s launch. The Cod went down from $21 to $15. Other items aren’t  necessarily expensive, though you can certainly pay a lot of money if you want to.

The Blueberry Lemonade is a new addition since our last visit. They also have a full bar.

Bread was delivered to each table, which is always a nice touch. A lot of restaurants don’t do bread at lunch or don’t provide it at the bars unless you specifically request it. BOATHOUSE’s rolls are nice and fluffy with easily spreadable butter, but nothing about them is particularly memorable.

They’re still doing the water carafe thing with little glasses, but at least there was some ice in it this time around.

Lisa ordered a $13 Moscow Mule, which was delivered in this adorable copper mug. I would have liked to have brought a couple home with me, but they aren’t available for sale and would probably cost $50 each if they were.

A few of the other drinks are available in a souvenir glass that you can take home for an extra six bucks. They look very similar to Pat O’Briens souvenir hurricane glasses, though these seemed to be constructed a little better. The thin base on the bottom is very prone to breaking on the Pat O’s glasses. I’m not sure how well these would weather a wash or two, but I didn’t really want to carry a glass around with me for the rest of the day and opted to enjoy my $15 Blueberry Lemonade and let them keep the glass. Both drinks were made well and they’re big enough that it will take a while to enjoy them, which is probably good. You could definitely taste the Stoli up front, but the homemade lemonade did a nice job of masking any lingering unpleasantness on the back end. That’s what I like in a drink.

We started with the BOATHOUSE Lobster Cocktail – Half Chilled 1 1/4 lb. Lobster with Cocktail and Lady Rose Sauces.

BOATHOUSE proudly showcases its raw seafood in a case in front of the restaurant. And for good reason, as it’s reliably fresh, flavorful, and presented nicely here on an ice-filled plate with lemons and two small forks for poking the meat out. Very good, though it’s a little awkward trying to scrape some of the meat out with (half of) the poor lobster staring back at you.

I don’t know if I’m praying here or rubbing my hands together in anticipation of digging in or what.

Lisa ordered the $15 “Yacht Club” Club – Roasted Turkey Breast, Cucumber, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Chipotle Honey Mayo, and Swiss Cheese on Multigrain Bread. It’s a sizable portion with three…thirds I guess with the thinly sliced turkey piled high along with freshly cut tomato and cucumber and thick, crispy slices of bacon that you can’t really see. The bread was nicely toasted and the sauce had a bit of a sweet, spicy kick to it. She would have preferred lettuce to the cucumber, which we probably could have substituted.

It’s artsy because it’s tilted.

I ordered the $23 Steak Sandwich – Sirloin Steak, Arugula, Beefsteak Tomato, and BOATHOUSE Steak Sauce on Toasted Ciabata Bread. They asked how I wanted the steak cooked, which is always a good sign that you’re not going to get some defrosted steak strips out of a bag from the freezer. The steak was the best part of the sandwich – you can see the pink center on a couple of the slices that are spilling out onto the plate. And there was a lot of it, which made the sandwich a reasonable value considering the high quality of Gibson beef. Unfortunately, the bread was too dry. On one hand, there was too much of it, but on the other hand, it was still soggy from the sauce, which made things slippery, particularly when you add the tomato. I ended up just eating the steak out of the second half.

The fries look a lot better than they taste, I think. Ours at least weren’t particularly fresh and they had absorbed too much of the oil, leaving them sort of limp and flavorless. But you do get an awful lot with each of the entrees.

Overall, I love the bar’s location on the water and the friendliness of the staff and other patrons made for one of the most pleasant lunches I’ve enjoyed at Downtown Disney. You are sort of in your own little world out there and you could just as easily be at a beachside restaurant far removed from the hustle, bustle, and construction walls that plague much of the area these days. While I wasn’t smitten with my entree, I still look forward to returning in front of just about any other nearby restaurant.

Over the walls between T-Rex and Raglan Road.

There aren’t a lot of walls up in the Marketplace section as most of the vertical construction is behind T-Rex and the other buildings. It doesn’t look as massive as it is here in this picture, I don’t think.

I popped into Tren-D to see if there was any merchandise I hadn’t photographed and was surprised by how little Disney-branded merchandise remained. It’s gotten to the point where 75% or more is third party.

This is a new design of kitchenware.

Bowl set.

A similar-looking throw.

One of these days…

There are a ton of changes at World of Disney as work continues on expanding it.

All of the cash registers have moved to a central location and the merchandise in each of the rooms has shifted around. Just in time for me to have figured out the previous configuration.

There wasn’t much of interest.

Though these are pretty presh.

That’s about what’s going on at Downtown Disney.