We were at WDW from June 11-16. I've been super busy since we got back but wanted to chime in with reviews for the restaurants we visited. We were a group of 9; 5 adults 4 children. When I booked our ADR's I was told that the group of 9 may not be seated together, but they would try their hardest. We never had to separate though.
As far as the DDP changes to the children's menu, my kids got *really* bored of carrot sticks, apple sauce and french fries. We don't feed them the same foods day after day at home and we found that by the time we got back they would almost cry at the mention of apple sauce. And I'm not sure what Disney does to their apple sauce, but Motts unsweetened apple sauce it's not... *gag* And none of the pizza restaurants had pizza as a choice for the DDP kids meal...at Pizzafari it's chicken quesadila or PB&J. DH declared that sac religious. My oldest is quite adventurous as far as eating goes and he was quite disappointed in the choices offered, and mentioned that he liked it better last time.
I also think Disney needs a Junior menu of some sorts. My 10 year old nephew is an adult by DDP standards, and eats adult sized meals, but had a hard time picking things off of the adult menu at sit down meals and would have been just happy with the kids' selections in bigger quantities...and no my adventurous eater and he could not share...because they're buttheads.
Anyhow, for sit downs we ate at Chef Mickey, CRT, 50's Prime Time and the Coral Reef. DH and I also had a meal together at Le Cellier.
The first night at WDW we dined with Chef Mickey. It's something we did the last time we went and it worked out awesomely, so we did it again. The monorail from MK was broken, so that kind of sucked as we walked through the stinky dirt (dirt doesn't stink in Texas) to the Contemporary to get to dinner. The service started slowly, but our waitress soon caught up and got our drinks to us (we were SUPER thirsty from the hike over.) The food was typical buffet fair, plentiful and good, but nothing outstanding. Somehow I ended up with my favorite piece from the ham so I was happy.
The next morning we had reservations for 7 (10 year old did NOT want to eat with Cinderella) at Cinderella's Royal Table at 10:30 AM. It was an AWESOME time to do it because we were able to do Extra Magic hours in the AM at the park and then go in for breakfast as the crowds grew larger. CRT had the longest wait after our ADR time of any restaurant we ate at, and it was made a bit longer by the fact that it's outside and not air conditioned. The nice thing is that breakfast starts pretty much as you are seated. The bread and fruit were delicious, my kids loved all the fancy bread choices. The plated food was also good. Let's face it, we weren't really there for the food and would have eaten dog chow if that's what they'd fed us.
My DH asked for and received quite quickly another plate of hot food, and they also replenished our bread basket a couple times by request.
In retrospect, we would do CRT again (totally worth the hassle for the looks on the kids' faces) but we would not use 2 DDP credits to pay for it, and just pony up the cash outright. DH is just in love with the whole "in the castle" thing. And they have dirty old men taken care of...he wanted his picture with Jasmine but she wouldn't stand next to him til he crossed his arms like Genie. I about died laughing because you could totally tell that's what they are trained to do!
Our group had the most fun at 50's Prime Time Diner. I ended up getting put in the corner for misbehaving at the table which had everyone in our group in stitches, especially my children! Our waitress and the waiter in our area played their parts extremely well and we had lots of fun. I *love* the food at Prime Time, but DH swears they make their green beans nasty so you won't eat them and they can do airplane with you. Several of us had the pot roast, my mom had the meat loaf and DH and my nephew had the fried chicken. The fried chicken was very good, but not as good as my pot roast and my roast didn't come with nasty green beans either.
I had made an ADR at Coral Reef before I found this site, and thought long and hard about changing it, but in the end decided to keep it and just not order sea food. I called ahead and asked for a diver sign, so when we showed up we had a bit of a wait, but were seated right in front of the aquarium. Between our appetizers and main course the diver did our sign. I felt like SUCH an IDIOT because he was making camera motions at me and so I did a fake camera back at him...then I realized what he was doing and felt like a dolt. My mom *loved* it and afterwards he came out of the tank and talked to us and the kids thought that was the neatest part of all because he answered a lot of their questions about the fish (like why doesn't the shark eat you). The food there was surprisingly good. I was so ready for bad, that I'd kinda convinced myself it was going to be bad, but it wasn't. It was actually pretty good. I had the lobster soup and prime rib. DH had the Caesar salad and prime rib. My nephew ordered the pork chop and really liked it and even traded his shrimp cocktail appetizer for my son's carrots and ranch. Mom had the crab claws and prime rib. (See, we listened..no seafood!) The prime rib was cooked just right and the lobster soup was divine. DH kept trying to steal from me. The other 3 kids were so glad to finally see a pizza that I think my oldest forgot he was in a seafood restaurant and wasn't eating fish.
(it says we love you grammy gee, my mom took all of us on vacation)
On our last night at WDW, we gave the kids to my mom and DH and I went out for dinner at Le Cellier in Epcot. We got there just as it was starting to rain and some regular cut in front of us at the hostess station and it really ticked me off because no one seemed to notice! Ugh. We got in after a small wait and were seated and horrified the host when we told him we were going home the next day and hadn't seen any fire works. We promised him we'd stay for Illuminations that night, and that made him happy. DH had the rare seared tuna appetizer and I had the cheese soup. We figured if his appetizer was weird or bad he could share, and we both wanted to try something new. His tuna was really tasty, and we amazed his mother with tales of him eating something like that when we got home. I loved my cheese soup, so much so that we've made it at home since we've been back. For our entrees we both chose the mushroom fillet though we were wishing it came with something besides risotto as a side dish. I also added a side of grilled asparagus, which weren't part of the DDP, but I wanted anyways. The asparagus was well worth the "splurge" (they were pretty cheap) because th ey were yummy! And the fillet and risotto were out of this world, by the time we were done we were wishing it came with more risotto. We were very impressed. For dessert I chose the Canadian Chocolate on Chocolate whiskey cake. I was afraid it'd be too chocolatey (Yes I think there is such a thing) but it wasn't, it was perfect. DH had the sorbet duo and one of them was good and he didn't care for the other one. We shared a glass of ice wine because we'd seen something about it on the Food Network and wanted to try some. It was super sweet and good. All in all it was a very good meal with very attentive service and a nice time away from the kids! We walked out and made good on our pledge to see Illuminations and enjoyed it immensely.
Now we're trying to figure out when we can afford to go again...DH is hooked!
Amy in Texas
As far as the DDP changes to the children's menu, my kids got *really* bored of carrot sticks, apple sauce and french fries. We don't feed them the same foods day after day at home and we found that by the time we got back they would almost cry at the mention of apple sauce. And I'm not sure what Disney does to their apple sauce, but Motts unsweetened apple sauce it's not... *gag* And none of the pizza restaurants had pizza as a choice for the DDP kids meal...at Pizzafari it's chicken quesadila or PB&J. DH declared that sac religious. My oldest is quite adventurous as far as eating goes and he was quite disappointed in the choices offered, and mentioned that he liked it better last time.
I also think Disney needs a Junior menu of some sorts. My 10 year old nephew is an adult by DDP standards, and eats adult sized meals, but had a hard time picking things off of the adult menu at sit down meals and would have been just happy with the kids' selections in bigger quantities...and no my adventurous eater and he could not share...because they're buttheads.
Anyhow, for sit downs we ate at Chef Mickey, CRT, 50's Prime Time and the Coral Reef. DH and I also had a meal together at Le Cellier.
The first night at WDW we dined with Chef Mickey. It's something we did the last time we went and it worked out awesomely, so we did it again. The monorail from MK was broken, so that kind of sucked as we walked through the stinky dirt (dirt doesn't stink in Texas) to the Contemporary to get to dinner. The service started slowly, but our waitress soon caught up and got our drinks to us (we were SUPER thirsty from the hike over.) The food was typical buffet fair, plentiful and good, but nothing outstanding. Somehow I ended up with my favorite piece from the ham so I was happy.
The next morning we had reservations for 7 (10 year old did NOT want to eat with Cinderella) at Cinderella's Royal Table at 10:30 AM. It was an AWESOME time to do it because we were able to do Extra Magic hours in the AM at the park and then go in for breakfast as the crowds grew larger. CRT had the longest wait after our ADR time of any restaurant we ate at, and it was made a bit longer by the fact that it's outside and not air conditioned. The nice thing is that breakfast starts pretty much as you are seated. The bread and fruit were delicious, my kids loved all the fancy bread choices. The plated food was also good. Let's face it, we weren't really there for the food and would have eaten dog chow if that's what they'd fed us.
My DH asked for and received quite quickly another plate of hot food, and they also replenished our bread basket a couple times by request. In retrospect, we would do CRT again (totally worth the hassle for the looks on the kids' faces) but we would not use 2 DDP credits to pay for it, and just pony up the cash outright. DH is just in love with the whole "in the castle" thing.
And they have dirty old men taken care of...he wanted his picture with Jasmine but she wouldn't stand next to him til he crossed his arms like Genie. I about died laughing because you could totally tell that's what they are trained to do!
Our group had the most fun at 50's Prime Time Diner. I ended up getting put in the corner for misbehaving at the table which had everyone in our group in stitches, especially my children! Our waitress and the waiter in our area played their parts extremely well and we had lots of fun. I *love* the food at Prime Time, but DH swears they make their green beans nasty so you won't eat them and they can do airplane with you. Several of us had the pot roast, my mom had the meat loaf and DH and my nephew had the fried chicken. The fried chicken was very good, but not as good as my pot roast and my roast didn't come with nasty green beans either.
I had made an ADR at Coral Reef before I found this site, and thought long and hard about changing it, but in the end decided to keep it and just not order sea food. I called ahead and asked for a diver sign, so when we showed up we had a bit of a wait, but were seated right in front of the aquarium. Between our appetizers and main course the diver did our sign. I felt like SUCH an IDIOT because he was making camera motions at me and so I did a fake camera back at him...then I realized what he was doing and felt like a dolt. My mom *loved* it and afterwards he came out of the tank and talked to us and the kids thought that was the neatest part of all because he answered a lot of their questions about the fish (like why doesn't the shark eat you). The food there was surprisingly good. I was so ready for bad, that I'd kinda convinced myself it was going to be bad, but it wasn't. It was actually pretty good. I had the lobster soup and prime rib. DH had the Caesar salad and prime rib. My nephew ordered the pork chop and really liked it and even traded his shrimp cocktail appetizer for my son's carrots and ranch. Mom had the crab claws and prime rib. (See, we listened..no seafood!) The prime rib was cooked just right and the lobster soup was divine. DH kept trying to steal from me.
The other 3 kids were so glad to finally see a pizza that I think my oldest forgot he was in a seafood restaurant and wasn't eating fish.
(it says we love you grammy gee, my mom took all of us on vacation)
On our last night at WDW, we gave the kids to my mom and DH and I went out for dinner at Le Cellier in Epcot. We got there just as it was starting to rain and some regular cut in front of us at the hostess station and it really ticked me off because no one seemed to notice! Ugh. We got in after a small wait and were seated and horrified the host when we told him we were going home the next day and hadn't seen any fire works. We promised him we'd stay for Illuminations that night, and that made him happy. DH had the rare seared tuna appetizer and I had the cheese soup. We figured if his appetizer was weird or bad he could share, and we both wanted to try something new. His tuna was really tasty, and we amazed his mother with tales of him eating something like that when we got home.
I loved my cheese soup, so much so that we've made it at home since we've been back. For our entrees we both chose the mushroom fillet though we were wishing it came with something besides risotto as a side dish. I also added a side of grilled asparagus, which weren't part of the DDP, but I wanted anyways. The asparagus was well worth the "splurge" (they were pretty cheap) because th ey were yummy! And the fillet and risotto were out of this world, by the time we were done we were wishing it came with more risotto. We were very impressed. For dessert I chose the Canadian Chocolate on Chocolate whiskey cake. I was afraid it'd be too chocolatey (Yes I think there is such a thing) but it wasn't, it was perfect. DH had the sorbet duo and one of them was good and he didn't care for the other one. We shared a glass of ice wine because we'd seen something about it on the Food Network and wanted to try some. It was super sweet and good. All in all it was a very good meal with very attentive service and a nice time away from the kids! We walked out and made good on our pledge to see Illuminations and enjoyed it immensely. Now we're trying to figure out when we can afford to go again...DH is hooked!
Amy in Texas
Too funny! Your little girl is adorable in that picture with Mickey. Precious.
a few days early.
