Another Insecure "Rate my ADRs" thread...

[Skye23]

Might as well tell it like it is! This whole planning my dream trip 180 days in advance thing is killing me. Hubby and I can barely decide where to eat dinner tonight, let alone this weekend or 6 months in advance. And of course he being a guy has told me to "figure it out and I'll go where you tell me to". Sure he will, but heaven help me if I get it wrong and he hates the food...

Having said that, we've both agreed to do a couple of meals that would not be our first choice in order to make the other one happy as long as there is at least one thing on the menu we like. I'm a relatively adventurous eater, I can't think of anything Disney would be serving that I'd be afraid to eat - Bizarre Foods its not. Hubby does not like shellfish, prefers his fish to be fried unless its something like baked cod or haddock, hates salmon, hates tofu, and doesn't eat uncured pork - but will eat bacon, sausage and ham. I of course love salmon, love shellfish, like tofu and love all pork products. There's a few veggies one or both of us don't like but veggies can be substituted, swapped between our plates or pushed politely to one side in order to make more room for dessert We both love all ethnic cuisines just about and have previously enjoyed Boma, Marrakesh and Chefs de France.

This is supposed to be our dream vacation, a belated 15th/early 16th wedding anniversary trip, a celebration of having some really hard times behind us (with hopefully my Mother having recovered from her heart surgery and cancer diagnosis this year by then) AND we'll be there on Valentines Day. No preassure you know...

We upgraded from FD to Deluxe and will be staying 6 nights so that should be 18 credits per person. I have already rearranged these things more times then I can count - and will no doubt fidget with them some more by February if the crowd guides change but at this moment our current ADR's are..

Sunday 2/12 -Plane lands a bit before 1pm, I assume the airline won't feed us. We'll be taking the ME to our resort CSR and I figure we'll duck into the Pepper Market and get a late lunch. Also plan to catch a shuttle to pick up the rental car we'll use for part of the week.

Then head over to MK
Fireworks at 8pm - ADR for Crystal Palace at 8:30pm. There are EMH that night till midnight, plan to make the most of them. (2 Meal Credits each)

We are not morning people and not even Walt Disney can make us morning people so except for 1 ADR at Kona Cafe (mostly for the coffee) our plan is to use leftover meal credits and split breakfasts at the Pepper Market or take out from CSR, and or use snack credits to buy things like pastries and espressos and perhaps yogurt/granola parfaits or fruit cups etc. That or pay OOP for them as required.

Monday 2/13 - Epcot
12:25pm Lunch at Le Cellier
7:00pm Dinner at Via Napoli - watch Illuminations afterwards at gondola area
(2 MC)

Tuesday 2/14 - Valentine's Day - Magic Kingdom - Enforced Romance
12:45pm Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern
7:30pm Dinner - California Grill - and the obvious watch the fireworks
I'd prefer an earlier seating but I took what I could get, figure we'd go up to the bar and have a drink and either be seated post-fireworks or seated just barely before the fireworks. (3 MC)

Wednesday 2/15 - Hollywood Studios
12:15pm Lunch - Mama Melrose
8:15pm Dinner - Boma
(2 MC)

Thursday 2/16 - Epcot
8:00am - Breakfast - Kona Cafe (Press Pot Coffee, and oh yeah food)
1:10pm - Lunch - Chefs de France - hope to see Remy
7:55pm - Dinner - Artist Point
(4 MC)

Friday 2/17 - Animal Kingdom
11:30pm - Lunch - Yak & Yeti TS
Leave park around 4pm and return car - head to Epcot for EMH
7:15pm - Dinner - San Angel Inn - watch Illuminations afterwards
(2 MC)

Saturday 2/18 - Magic Kingdom
11:30am - Lunch - Liberty Tree Tavern
Return to resort mid-afternoon to catch ME
Use last of MC or Snack Credits to pick up some food to take to the airport
Plane leaves at 7:30pm
(1MC, possibly more)

That comes to 16 MC used by the end of the trip, leaving us with 2 MC each that we can use to split breakfast platters, grab late night snacks with or use to grab a sandwich to take to the airport with.

I know Liberty Tree Tavern shows up twice, we ate dinner there once and liked it - lunch looks good. The other options were a 2nd round at Crystal Palace (thought one char meal was enough for hubby) and I was not able to get an ADR for The Plaza. I had an ADR for Rose and Crown but succumbed and swapped lunches and dinners around so I could get the Le Cellier. We liked Marrakesh last time but I liked their mint tea and coffee the most and I can CS that so it didn't make the cut. I also had an ADR for Yachtsman and traded it for Artist Point because hubby loves Buffalo and Black Raspberry Ice cream so it won out. I wanted to fit Raglan Rd in but I'm not sure we'll make it down to Downtown Disney unless we go late one night.

 

[OhThePain]

The only 2 changes I would make are dumping MM for either 50's or Sci-Fi or HBD since you have the extra credits if you can. They are much better meals and 50's and Sci-Fi are pretty unique experiences. The food at MM is very underwhelming and not all that good, IMO.

I would also change one of your LTT lunches. With all the dining options there are at WDW, there is no need to repeat a lunch. Since you can't get an ADR for The Plaza and you already have CP, I have a few suggestions for you outside of the park. I know you said that 1 character meal is enough for your DH, but we really like the breakfast at 1900 PF. What we like to do is grab one of the last breakfast ADR's at around 11:20 or so. This gives us time to tour MK before, grab a FP or 2, then head over to our ADR for a big yummy brunch (I like breakfast foods but hate eating breakfast so I am a big fan of brunch and "brinner"). We also like character meals with face characters since the interaction is a lot more fun (Alice and the Mad Hatter are a lot of fun and last time Mary Poppins had us laughing pretty hard). I would also suggest either The Wave at the CR, Grand Floridian Cafe at GF or Kona Cafe at the Poly for good lunches on your second MK day. This gives you a chance to not only avoid repeating meals, but also gives you a nice break from the park without having to travel far at all.

 

[lovin'fl]

The only 2 changes I would make are dumping MM for either 50's or Sci-Fi or HBD since you have the extra credits if you can. They are much better meals and 50's and Sci-Fi are pretty unique experiences. The food at MM is very underwhelming and not all that good, IMO.

I would also change one of your LTT lunches. With all the dining options there are at WDW, there is no need to repeat a lunch.

I agree with both suggestions. I would trade out MM for 50's or Sci-Fi, not Brown Derby(we weren't impressed with BD). I would trade out 1 of the LTTs for something else...maybe a resort restaurant you can stop at on your way to MK...maybe Grand Floridian Cafe (my BIL and Nephew ate lunch there and LOVED it). I'd personally also switch back to the Yachtsman because we didn't like Artist Point that much (though my inlaws love it, so you may be ok with that one).

 

[Skye23]

I thought about 50's and Sci Fi. Problem is hubby is absolutely, positively not intereted in 50's. He's not into the nagging, and if one of my medical conditions flares up I might not physically be able to eat my vegetables (or almost anything else). Sci Fi got nixed because of the table situation - we're both Pooh sized and I don't want to have to fight with the booths. We ate at Mama Melrose on our last trip and enjoyed it, I know reviews are mixed right now. I told hubby if any meal sucks, just don't eat it and we'll grab something afterwards from a counter service or snack our way around.

As for LTT - I had problems getting any reservation for 2/14 (Valentine's day and all), although if I can get one for The Plaza its a possibility for 2/18. We'd prefer not to leave the park to eat on our depart day because it would take too much time. Since 2/14 is our only full day in MK (1 full, 2 halfs) I'm not sure how far I want to travel mid-day. I might be willing to do it on 2/14 if I could get a ressie somewhere that was on the monorail (Kona perhaps like you suggest). On the plus side we both saw at least 2 things at LTT that we were interested in eating which was good. I half considered doing Columbia House as a CS for lunch that day (or 2/18) but I thought it wasn't that romantic for Valentine's day and I was afraid it would be so busy on 2/18 being the Saturday before Presidents day we might have trouble getting food.

What I really need is more days... originally we booked a sunday arrival because thats when free dining started. Then they changed it to starting that Saturday but we already had our airplane tickets by then or I'd have changed and added a day.

Good thoughts though, I'll definately consider Kona for lunch and see what hubby would like on that menu.

 

[akeogh]

I love all your choices! I had a thought: are you planning to do Fantasmic show at Hollywood Studios? You could do a package where you eat dinner before the show. This December I'm eating at Mama Melrose at 1:50pm (which I will treat as lunch) and then get priority seating for Fantasmic show at 6:30. Otherwise the regular waiting line for the show is sooooo long....(this only takes 1 MC by the way)

 

[Skye23]

Hubby nixed Fantasmic. I asked him about it, because we did it last time. And his reply was something along the lines of - that show where the wind blew all the smoke in our faces and we couldn't see anything and my eyes stung for hours? And I was like yeah, that one (lol). If we had kids going with us we'd go. But instead we're going to wander over to AKL and look around and then eat at Boma. Last time he was a sport and went to all sorts of things he wasn't interested in because our friend's two kids wanted to do them. Although I took one for the team and took their daughter to the Little Mermaid show so that they could so something else. This will be his first trip at Disney where he gets to call the shots (or well, some of them). We each get a few "I know you're not interested but I am's" but we're trying to use them sparingly. I've already used some of mine up on the Winnie the Pooh ride, Crystal Palace and the California Grill. I decided not to press my luck with Fantasmic.

 

[travellovingirl]

Our family, some fish eaters, some not, love Coral Reef. It has a wonderful steak! I see you have Mexico as an option, but I would switch it out for Coral Reef. Even our teens LOVE it!!

 

[OhThePain]

But instead we're going to wander over to AKL and look around and then eat at Boma.

With the extra meal credits and no kids, did you consider doing Jiko instead of Boma? While Boma is ok, in our opinion, Jiko is 3rd or 4th on my list of Signatures (behind Citricos, Flying Fish and sometimes AP). It's deffinately one of the more romantic restaurants on property and could be something to consider for a belated anniversary trip, especially since you don't have any restaurants on the romantic side besides AP.

If you don't want to use the extra TS credit, did you look at Sanaa at Kidani at all? It's a much better meal than Boma and you would still be able to head to Jambo after your meal in Kidani.

 

[Skye23]

Definately things to consider. At the moment Boma is on there because he liked Boma last time. It lets him explore without having to commit too much to any one dish. Jiko is a possibility but Sanna I'm not sure about. I've only recently gotten him into the more Indian style food and I'm having trouble selling him on the menu descriptions. I'm not that concerned that there are 2 credits (each) unaccounted for at the moment because I figure there will be at least one or two mornings where we decide to split 1 breakfast platter and augment it with fruit/pastry. And knowing us, probably at least one "I'm hungry" late-ish at night and we'll grab something from the Pepper Market. Plus we may try to grab sandwiches to take to the airport the last day.

I'd try to sneak Yachtsman back in but I'm at a loss to figure out when. We will have a rental car but I do not want to play "lets drive all over Disney World" if possible so we're trying to keep meals and parks reasonably close. It would pretty much need to be an Epcot day. So unless I dropped either Le Cellier or Chefs de France, moved Via Napoli (he wants to try it) up to lunch and then put Yachstsman in there for dinner I'm not sure how I'd do it. I've considered it too. I assume between now and February somebody is going to change their menu and make eating at that restaurant less appetizing and there will have to be some final tweaking. We've done Chefs once and liked it, but we've never had a chance at the other 3. Argh....