A Trip of Firsts...... ADRs PART TWO 6/12/2009!!

[ariel1025]

Hello Everyone :goodvibes We are almost a week away from making our ADRs, so I thought I would jump onboard and start a dining review. I hope it isn't too early :confused3 I have talked about food quite a bit in my regular trip pre-TR, but I wanted to start a food one over here for a couple of reasons ... the first being I NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!! :laughing: Every time we make a "plan" about our ADRs we second guess ourselves, so I thought I would ask the "experts" over here. Second, I figured it would be fun to document the food adventure starting from the beginning which would be now (or more accurately a week from now ;)).

So, first things first...I titled this "A Trip of Firsts" because:

1. This trip is (a belated) First Anniversary Celebration :cloud9:
2. This will be our First time on the Dining Plan :woohoo:
3. This will be our First time going with ADRs planned for each day
:confused::) <--- We have mixed feelings about this
4. We both "solemnly swore" :laughing: to each other we would try a new food that we have never tried before

Makes sense now right ;)

Ok, more important things...THE FOOD!!!!

We spent our honeymoon at WDW last May and we loved it, but we went pretty much unprepared thinking that we only need a reservations for CRT and the Fantasmic package...oops:eek: On that trip we dined at the following places:

1. Shula's Steakhouse
2. CRT for Breakfast
3. Pecos Bills
4. Spirit of Aloha
5. Plaza Restaurant
6. Rose & Crown (on several occassions :thumbsup2)
7. Nine Dragons (their last day open before renovation)
8. Cookes of Dublin
9. Hollywood & Vine (Fantasmic Package)
10. Wilderness Lodge pizza delivery

For the most part we enjoyed everything...(EXCEPT Hollywood & Vine...I still get nightmares thinking about that experience :scared1:) but, we are super excited to expand our culinary horizons :goodvibes

Let's see what else?? Oh yeah, some introductions might be nice :lmao:

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/shanz1025/DSC_0293.jpg My name is Shannon and I am a 27 year old accounting student. Growing up I didn't eat anything except for pasta and chicken ... and then I started dating a steak lover :laughing: I have since expanded my taste buds, but can still be quite the picky eater. I enjoy chicken anyway you can make it ... grilled, fried, as a nugget, in a salad ... it doesn't matter, I like chicken. Don't worry though, I won't order chicken at every meal :rotfl: I also enjoy pasta, especially spaghetti and meatballs and I like some types of steak, as in the non fatty versions that are cooked well done :laughing: I also love me a good greasy hamburger and LOVE LOVE LOVE creme brulee. Remember how I promised not to order chicken at every meal? Well, I cannot make the same promise for Creme Brulee :rotfl2: I also like chocolate and lime flavored things. My dislikes include seafood (except your ordinary grease loaded fish and chips) prime rib and raspberries.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/shanz1025/DSC_0294.jpg That's my Husband, Candido. We all call him Candi (pronounced like Candy) because he is the fourth generation and it's confusing to have four people respond to you if you say "Candido." :thumbsup2 Candi is a 27 year old Corporate level Manger at a private company here, MVD Express. His likes include steak, steak, and steak, that's not much of an exaggeration, but more specifically, he loves prime rib, tacos, pizza and crab legs. He isn't much of a dessert eater and usually goes with ice cream or cheesecake. He also loves anything pistachio flavored. His dislikes include chicken and spaghetti :lmao: I'm not making that up ... don't even ask how we managed to survive through dinners when we first started living together :confused3 :lmao:

Ok, I'll go ahead and stop here for today.

Coming up next ... 9 days of dining and we've only narrowed it down to 41 restaurants aka the plea for help!!!

[Tickanee]

Hey Shannon! Happy belated anniversary! I am pretty new at all this too, but I will be happy to give you my opinion if I have experienced/tried any of the places you are thinking of trying. :)

[MickeyNicki]

Count me in!

[KatMark]

I'm in.

[larklynn]

sounds like fun!

[natalielongstaff]

Great start Shannon :thumbsup2

[PrincessPeanut]

I'm in and looking forward to more! :thumbsup2

[ariel1025]

Hey Shannon! Happy belated anniversary! I am pretty new at all this too, but I will be happy to give you my opinion if I have experienced/tried any of the places you are thinking of trying. :)

Thank you :goodvibes Any advice will be greatly appreciated, as you can see we have barely touched the surface of the available restaurants at Disney, which I find to be an awesome excuse for multiple trips :rotfl:

Count me in!

Yay :woohoo: I see you are quite the expert when it comes to Disney food so I am quite very to get your feedback!!

I'm in.

:welcome: and thanks for joining!!

sounds like fun!

:cheer2: Wahoo, the more the merrier!!!


Great start Shannon :thumbsup2

Thanks!! I can't wait to see all the feedback I will get!!

I'm in and looking forward to more! :thumbsup2

Thank you ... more is coming up in just a few minutes ;)

[ariel1025]

Ok, so I must admit we are not huge breakfast eaters. Don't get me wrong we LOVE breakfast food, just not so much the get up early to eat it part of breakfast :laughing: Now, seeing as how we will be in WDW I won't have any problems waking up early, but do I really want to waste precious park time eating breakfast :confused3 Hmmm ... not so much ;)

That being said ....

We are still planning on doing a few breakfast mornings and have located quite a few places that sound yummy to us.

This is where we need your help .... All feedback, opinions, stories are welcome and appreciated :goodvibes

We have "narrowed" it down to the following options:

1. Whispering Canyon Cafe - we are staying at WL the first half of our trip so it's convenient, and it sounds like simple, yummy breakfast food
2. Kona Cafe - I love bananas and I love cinnamon so Tonga Toast sounds like a match made in heaven for me :cloud9:
3. 1900 Park Fare - I admit it, I'm a sucker for character breakfast and Strawberry soup sounds interesting
4. Chef Mickeys - my first trip to WDW with my parents (1998) I ate here - don't really remember it but, kinda want to go back for "memories sake"
5. Cape May Cafe - no real reason - good excuse to check out the Beach Club :laughing:
6. Boma - staying at AKL the second half of our trip and I've heard so much about it that I don't know if I can go and NOT try it :confused3
7. Tusker House - Donald Duck :rotfl:
8. Crystal Palace - LOVE LOVE LOVE Tigger and Candi LOVE LOVE LOVES Buffet :rotfl2:
9. Akershus - I'm a girly girl and I love the Princesses :rolleyes1

I should also note that we are going to try to get a reservation for Cinderella's Royal Table for our first morning. I know there is a lot of "debate" over if CRT is worth it, but this was how we spent our first morning on our honeymoon and we are hoping to do the same for our Anniversary Trip :lovestruc

Ok, so that's it for now.

Again, please give me all feedback - good or bad - can't wait to hear it :thumbsup2

And, because I think pictures make a post more fun ......

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/shanz1025/Disneyland%202009%20-%20Day%20One/DSC_0114.jpg
From our trip we just took to California - oh, and I swear Candi isn't grouchy all the time - he just doesn't like to show his teeth when he smiles :rotfl:

[ariel1025]

Well, Saturday is when I can officially make my ADRs. I am super excited ... am I weird or is this normal? :confused3

I have to say, I kind of wish that the online system for reservations wasn't just a rumor. It would make it so much easier for me since I will be at work. I don't think customers would appreciate it if I had the phone glued to my ear while helping them :rotfl: At least if I had was doing them online, the reservations could be in the background when I was helping a customer. Oh well, guess I'll just have to bribe the Hubby ;)

That's all I have for now. Hope everyone had a good Monday :goodvibes

[MinnieNurse]

These are some of our favorites for breakfast:
WCC
Cape May
O'Hana

I have never done 1900 but want to try it just to see Mary Poppins. Loving your pre dining report, I will have to pop over to your PTR.

[ariel1025]

These are some of our favorites for breakfast:
WCC
Cape May
O'Hana

I have never done 1900 but want to try it just to see Mary Poppins. Loving your pre dining report, I will have to pop over to your PTR.

Thanks for all your advice :goodvibes There are just so many places that sound good and not enough days in our trip to try them all :laughing: Decisions Decisions!!

[ariel1025]

Today was the big day ... ADR DAY :woohoo: I learned this morning that this is actually the first of two ADR days for us. I never put two and two together, and realized that having two hotel reservations meant two different ADR days :sad2: I'm not sure how I'm going to pull off the next one since it's Wednesday and I have to work AND go to school ... man oh man! I am going to pooped. Anyway, on with the fun stuff ....

I was up at 4:45 am (our time) :scared1: with my outline of ADRs all ready to go. I have to stop here and give Candi mucho recognition because he voluntarily sat up with me :lovestruc Now I had been really stressing out about this process because we are going during free dining and I had read numerous horror stories about the process. Let me just say it wasn't nearly as bad as I had prepared myself for. I was on hold for about 25 minutes before I got through, but it wasn't so bad, I just sat there listening to the Disney Love Song Collection they had playing ... which I might want to buy now :rolleyes1 Hmmmm....I'm guessing that's their plan and I'm a great big sucker for falling for it :laughing:

Ooops, back to the ADR process.

At around 5:25 am (my time) a pleasant CM came through and started the process for me. Now I am calling her pleasant because she didn't have the friendliest persona but she proved to be extremely helpful, maybe she is like me and just isn't a morning person :confused3 Ok, so I decided I was just going to go through the days in order of our trip and hope for the best, instead of jumping around trying to get the "hard" reservations first. I mean, it was still dark out, meaning I was still supposed to be sleeping and I didn't want to confuse myself :lmao:

Here is how things ended up:

September 4 - Arrival Day:

Dinner:
Requested - Fulton's Crab House - 8:00 pm
Received - Fulton's Crab House - 8:00 pm

September 5 - Magic Kingdom Day:

Breakfast:
Requested - Cinderella's Royal Table - First available seating
Received - Cinderella's Royal Table - 8:10 am (BEFORE park opening :yay::yay::yay::yay:

Dinner:
Requested - Le Cellier - Anytime after 7:00 pm
Received - Narcoossees - 7:35 pm

September 6 - Epcot Day:

Breakfast:
Requested - Kona Cafe - 9:00 am
Received - Kona Cafe - 9:00 am

Lunch:
Requested - Coral Reef - 2:00 pm
Received - Coral Reef - 2:00 pm

Dinner:
Requested - Le Cellier - Anytime after 7:00 pm
Received - Teppan Edo - 7:30 pm

September 7 - Golf Lesson/Blizzard Beach:

Dinner:
Requested - Artist Point - 8:00 pm
Received - Artist Point - 8:00 pm

September 8 - Hollywood Studios Day:

Lunch:
Requested - Sci Fi - 1:00 pm
Received - Sci-Fi - 1:15 pm

Dinner:
Requested - Le Cellier - Anytime after 7:00 pm
Received - Le Cellier - 7:50 pm


Overall, I am VERY happy with the outcome. The only "road blocks" hit were having to switch around to get Le Cellier, which I was completely prepared to do. And then, I goofed up and forgot to call DVC to add on the dining plan so I had to pay for CRT, but they said when I contact DVC and get the dining plan added I can call back and get credited for CRT, so really no big deal. The only other thing that caused conflict with that is I also wanted to do Spirit of Aloha on our Magic Kingdom day (if we didn't get Le Cellier, which we didn't) but I didn't want to have to pay for that one up front. I did pay for CRT because I figured a before park opening seating was too good to pass up :thumbsup2

Hope everyone is having a great weekend - this was definitely an awesome start to mine!!!

[KatMark]

Today was the big day ... ADR DAY :woohoo: I learned this morning that this is actually the first of two ADR days for us. I never put two and two together, and realized that having two hotel reservations meant two different ADR days :sad2: I'm not sure how I'm going to pull off the next one since it's Wednesday and I have to work AND go to school ... man oh man! I am going to pooped. Anyway, on with the fun stuff ....

I was up at 4:45 am (our time) :scared1: with my outline of ADRs all ready to go. I have to stop here and give Candi mucho recognition because he voluntarily sat up with me :lovestruc Now I had been really stressing out about this process because we are going during free dining and I had read numerous horror stories about the process. Let me just say it wasn't nearly as bad as I had prepared myself for. I was on hold for about 25 minutes before I got through, but it wasn't so bad, I just sat there listening to the Disney Love Song Collection they had playing ... which I might want to buy now :rolleyes1 Hmmmm....I'm guessing that's their plan and I'm a great big sucker for falling for it :laughing:

Ooops, back to the ADR process.

At around 5:25 am (my time) a pleasant CM came through and started the process for me. Now I am calling her pleasant because she didn't have the friendliest persona but she proved to be extremely helpful, maybe she is like me and just isn't a morning person :confused3 Ok, so I decided I was just going to go through the days in order of our trip and hope for the best, instead of jumping around trying to get the "hard" reservations first. I mean, it was still dark out, meaning I was still supposed to be sleeping and I didn't want to confuse myself :lmao:

Here is how things ended up:

September 4 - Arrival Day:

Dinner:
Requested - Fulton's Crab House - 8:00 pm
Received - Fulton's Crab House - 8:00 pm

September 5 - Magic Kingdom Day:

Breakfast:
Requested - Cinderella's Royal Table - First available seating
Received - Cinderella's Royal Table - 8:10 am (BEFORE park opening :yay::yay::yay::yay:

Dinner:
Requested - Le Cellier - Anytime after 7:00 pm
Received - Narcoossees - 7:35 pm

September 6 - Epcot Day:

Breakfast:
Requested - Kona Cafe - 9:00 am
Received - Kona Cafe - 9:00 am

Lunch:
Requested - Coral Reef - 2:00 pm
Received - Coral Reef - 2:00 pm

Dinner:
Requested - Le Cellier - Anytime after 7:00 pm
Received - Teppan Edo - 7:30 pm

September 7 - Golf Lesson/Blizzard Beach:

Dinner:
Requested - Artist Point - 8:00 pm
Received - Artist Point - 8:00 pm

September 8 - Hollywood Studios Day:

Lunch:
Requested - Sci Fi - 1:00 pm
Received - Sci-Fi - 1:15 pm

Dinner:
Requested - Le Cellier - Anytime after 7:00 pm
Received - Le Cellier - 7:50 pm


Overall, I am VERY happy with the outcome. The only "road blocks" hit were having to switch around to get Le Cellier, which I was completely prepared to do. And then, I goofed up and forgot to call DVC to add on the dining plan so I had to pay for CRT, but they said when I contact DVC and get the dining plan added I can call back and get credited for CRT, so really no big deal. The only other thing that caused conflict with that is I also wanted to do Spirit of Aloha on our Magic Kingdom day (if we didn't get Le Cellier, which we didn't) but I didn't want to have to pay for that one up front. I did pay for CRT because I figured a before park opening seating was too good to pass up :thumbsup2

Hope everyone is having a great weekend - this was definitely an awesome start to mine!!!

Congratulations. You did awesome on your ADR's. You have two of our all-time favorites -- Fultons and LeCellier!

Have a great weekend.

[TigerKat]

Signing on .......:goodvibes

[MinnieNurse]

Wow, you got some great ADR's. :thumbsup2 Looks like you will have a great trip.

[onejellyshelly]

I am so glad you got CRT that early. I am going to try to get CRT on our first morning in the park. This trip is a surprise trip for DD4 and I want her to think that Cindy invited her to breakfast at her house. I know a little silly but she will only be in the princess stage so long. Maybe your pixie dust will follow me:) We are going in late Sept.

[ariel1025]

Congratulations. You did awesome on your ADR's. You have two of our all-time favorites -- Fultons and LeCellier!

Have a great weekend.

Thanks, we were super stoked when all was said and done. Now we are just crossing our fingers for set two on Wednesday :goodvibes

So glad to hear that Fultons and LeCellier are in your faves ... we've never eaten at either but we are both looking forward to Le Cellier and the Hubby loves him some crab legs so Fultons was an obvious choice for us :thumbsup2
Hope you are having a great weekend!!

Signing on .......:goodvibes

:welcome:

[ariel1025]

Wow, you got some great ADR's. :thumbsup2 Looks like you will have a great trip.

Thanks!! We were surprised in a very good way at how lucky we were with everything :goodvibes

I am so glad you got CRT that early. I am going to try to get CRT on our first morning in the park. This trip is a surprise trip for DD4 and I want her to think that Cindy invited her to breakfast at her house. I know a little silly but she will only be in the princess stage so long. Maybe your pixie dust will follow me:) We are going in late Sept.

Thank you :goodvibes And I don't think your idea for your daughter is silly at all, it's totally something I would do ... if I had a daughter of course :laughing: I'm sure she will be absolutely thrilled!!

:tinker:pixiedust: Here's some pixie dust for your ADR day!!

[SPOERLX3]

Why again are you having to book 2 seperate times? Is it because you are staying at 2 different hotels? :confused3
We are going August 15 for one night-room only and one hotel (flights were 50% less flying on Saturday vs Sunday, so that almost paid for our room and we have a full day on Sunday at the parks!:cool1:) and then we have a second ressie from August 16-22 for FD. So we have 2 different ressies. I called on the 90 day date for the August 15th date and was able to make all my reservations for the full 7 days. Just wondering.

You did get some great reservations! Congratulations

[ariel1025]

Why again are you having to book 2 seperate times? Is it because you are staying at 2 different hotels? :confused3
We are going August 15 for one night-room only and one hotel (flights were 50% less flying on Saturday vs Sunday, so that almost paid for our room and we have a full day on Sunday at the parks!:cool1:) and then we have a second ressie from August 16-22 for FD. So we have 2 different ressies. I called on the 90 day date for the August 15th date and was able to make all my reservations for the full 7 days. Just wondering.

You did get some great reservations! Congratulations

They said it's because on the 8th we are checking out of one hotel and into another, therefore it's considered two separate reservations. I have heard other people say that they were able to "connect" the two reservations and make all their ADRs based off of the first check-in date, but both people I talked to said it couldn't be done :confused3 Oh well!

Thanks for reading along :goodvibes

[MinnieNurse]

I am so glad you got CRT that early. I am going to try to get CRT on our first morning in the park. This trip is a surprise trip for DD4 and I want her to think that Cindy invited her to breakfast at her house. I know a little silly but she will only be in the princess stage so long. Maybe your pixie dust will follow me:) We are going in late Sept.

Sorry, dont mean to hijack your thread. But I saw on the Disigns board that some people do special invitations from Cinderella or whoever for stuff like CRT, BBB, and the princess meal in Epcot. If I had a little girl I would absolutely do something like that. Its not silly at all nothing wrong with making our babies feel special.:thumbsup2

[Dizneydaz]

Sounds great so far.:goodvibes My ADR window opens up on June 14th and it's about time I sat down with DD9 (10 on trip and therefore an adult!:yay:) and my DM to figure out where we want to eat, where we don't want to, where do they both want their birthday dinners at, and anything new they want to try. :happybday:

This will be our 5th time on DDP (4th time for free!) :goodvibesand what we have always done is eat our breakfast in the room. We come from Calif. and the time difference makes it hard enough to get up without getting up extra early. :wizard:Though I really like the idea of getting to the parks before they open. So far we've had to settle for being there after they close.

The one exception for TS breakfast is our last day. We don't do the parks and we usually leave about 5 p.m. So we have a nice, leisurely, late breakfast after checking out. The past 2 years it's been 'Ohana (very good) and before that it was PF (also very good for breakfast). I'm not sure where we'll be eating this year. Maybe we'll break with tradition and have breakfast at Kona since it's one of our fav dinner places and we have yet to do breakfast there.

After breakfast we usually go to Gasparilla Grill and Games at GF and grab some food for the road using our last CS. Lunch and dinner for the plane ride. And since we always have SC left to use we usually stop off at DTD and visit Goofy's Kitchen to use them up. This year I swear we will not wait 'til the last day to use our snacks. Promise! ;)

[accountingbabe08]

Your ADR's look great!!! We arrive on the same date. My family and I are so excited about this trip. I look forward to reading more.popcorn::

[ariel1025]

Sorry, dont mean to hijack your thread. But I saw on the Disigns board that some people do special invitations from Cinderella or whoever for stuff like CRT, BBB, and the princess meal in Epcot. If I had a little girl I would absolutely do something like that. Its not silly at all nothing wrong with making our babies feel special.:thumbsup2

Hijack away ... I don't mind :goodvibes

Sounds great so far.:goodvibes My ADR window opens up on June 14th and it's about time I sat down with DD9 (10 on trip and therefore an adult!:yay:) and my DM to figure out where we want to eat, where we don't want to, where do they both want their birthday dinners at, and anything new they want to try. :happybday:

This will be our 5th time on DDP (4th time for free!) :goodvibesand what we have always done is eat our breakfast in the room. We come from Calif. and the time difference makes it hard enough to get up without getting up extra early. :wizard:Though I really like the idea of getting to the parks before they open. So far we've had to settle for being there after they close.

The one exception for TS breakfast is our last day. We don't do the parks and we usually leave about 5 p.m. So we have a nice, leisurely, late breakfast after checking out. The past 2 years it's been 'Ohana (very good) and before that it was PF (also very good for breakfast). I'm not sure where we'll be eating this year. Maybe we'll break with tradition and have breakfast at Kona since it's one of our fav dinner places and we have yet to do breakfast there.

After breakfast we usually go to Gasparilla Grill and Games at GF and grab some food for the road using our last CS. Lunch and dinner for the plane ride. And since we always have SC left to use we usually stop off at DTD and visit Goofy's Kitchen to use them up. This year I swear we will not wait 'til the last day to use our snacks. Promise! ;)

Wow, you are quite the DDP vetern ;) This will be our first time to do the DDP and we are super excited about it! We debated doing breakfast in the room, but in the end we decided we wanted to do (later) dinners which would take away from the park time, so breakfast at restaurants was the final decision ... we'll see how well that works out when we get there :laughing:

Love your idea for the last day / late breakfast :thumbsup2

Your ADR's look great!!! We arrive on the same date. My family and I are so excited about this trip. I look forward to reading more.popcorn::

How long will you guys be staying?

[ariel1025]

Well, I was finally able to make reservations for the second half of our trip today :thumbsup2 I actually could have made them on Wednesday, but I've been at a work conference the past couple of days .... Phew! Thank goodness that's over with :laughing:

There was absolutely no reason to worry, because we still got everything we wanted, just had to adjust the times a little bit. Of course, we don't have anything hard to get this round ... I made sure to snag those up last week for the first half of our trip ;)

Here's what we got today:

September 9:

Breakfast:
Requested: Akershus Storybook Breakfast - first available seating
Received: Akershus Storybook Breakfast - 8:00 am (before EPCOT opens :woohoo:)

Dinner:
Requested: Rose & Crown - 8:00 pm
Received: Rose & Crown - 7:25 pm

September 10:

Breakfast:
Requested: Boma - 8:00 am
Received: Boma - 8:15 am

Late Lunch / Early Dinner:
Requested: Yak & Yeti - 4:45 pm
Received: Yak & Yeti - 4:15 pm

September 11:

Dinner:
Requested: Whispering Canyon Cafe - 5:00 pm
Received: Whispering Canyon Cafe - 5:00 pm

September 12:

Dinner:
Requested: Spirit of Aloha - 2nd Showing
Received: Spirit of Aloha - 1st Showing (5:15 pm)

So, once again I am pleased with everything overall. I do wish we could have gotten a later seating at Rose & Crown, because I was hoping to get lucky enough to get an outside table during fireworks, but I'm assuming everyone else does to and that's why there weren't any later seatings :rotfl:

I also still need to decide what to do for the dreaded departure day :sad2: We don't have our returned flights booked yet so I'm not sure if I am going to do an early breakfast, a late breakfast or an early lunch :confused3

Any ideas or suggestions for a last day meal????

Hope everyone is having a great start to their weekend :goodvibes

[Disneylover87]

im in!! were going about the same time were going the 3rd to the 13th. We only have one of the ressies yak and yeti on the 10th ours is at 3pm! im sure well see you there!!!:thumbsup2

[ariel1025]

im in!! were going about the same time were going the 3rd to the 13th. We only have one of the ressies yak and yeti on the 10th ours is at 3pm! im sure well see you there!!!:thumbsup2

Welcome :goodvibes I'm so jealous you get one more day than us ;) I actually just changed our Yak and Yeti reservation to a later time to allow us all day in the park. Bummer - hopefully our paths will still cross :thumbsup2

[luckytobeme88]

The "just because I Love You Trip" sounds super Romantic. Can't wait to read more!:lovestruc