8 days of Dlx Dining means 20 ADRs and lots of food *New 4/21 Tutto Italia

[janloz]

Hi everyone,

We just returned from 8 days of Deluxe Dining which enabled us to try so many new restaurants some good, some excellent and some not so good. We had 7 adults and 1 child in 4 different rooms which created some issues for the CMs getting our bills in a timely manner at the end of the meals.

Our family of 4 (DH, DS11, DD7 and myself) and my mom enjoyed the plan and would definitely get it again but just plan things a little differently. We would have only booked breakfasts and signature dinners or CRT for breakfast and 1TS dinner then used snack credits for mid-day snacking. We had ADRs almost every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it was just TOO much food with app, entree and dessert plus some days only had 2 1/2 hours between meals. We had 23 snack credits left on our last day which we used at POP for great snacks to take home.

My MIL/FIL did not care for the deluxe plan. It was way too much food for them and they would not get it again. Too each their own.

Here is the list of the ADRs I had arranged:

11/29 (arrival day): Le Cellier 6:20pm

11/30: Crystal Palace 8:20am
Tony's Town Tavern 1:10pm
50's Prime Time 7:05pmpm

12/1: Akerhaus 8:30am
Coral Reef 11:40am (Got Diver)
Teppan Edo 5:30 CP dinner

12/2: Boma 8:20am
Flame Tree (CS)
Narcoossees 6:50pm just DH and Me Post 113
1900's 6:05pm (my mom & DD)
Chef Mickeys' 6:20pm (DS, MIL, FIL) Post 114

12/3: Cape May Breakfast 7:50am (DS 11th bday)
Sci Fi 12:10pm
Whispering Canyons 5:30pm then Wishes Celebration cruise (Booked)

12/4: Breakfast at Pop
BBB @ 10am
Wolfgang PuckGrand Cafe 1pm (5 of us)
Brown Derby 12pm (3 of us)
Kona cafe 5:20pm before MVMCP)

12/5: Ohana Breakfast 7:50am
Tutto Italia 11:50am
California Grill 5:30pm

12/6: Breakfast at POP (departure day)

We changed some of them for CS but most these will be reviewed. Unfortunately, DH would NOT take pictures of our meals so there aren't too many food porn shots but I will see what I can add for restuarant shots.

 

[Mocharilla]

I'm here!

And first

 

[mindyd]

Looking Forward to your Reviews

 

[goodmorningirl]

We will be doing 8 Days on the Deluxe in Jan. It is going to be tons of food but we will prob use snack credits in Goofy's Candy Factory. Can't wait to hear your reviews.

 

[TigerKat]

I'm in......

 

[TinkAsh2001]

Cant wait to hear about them. Several of them I am thinking about for our trip! I booked Chef Mickeys today!

 

[janloz]

I'm here!

And first

Yeah!

Looking Forward to your Reviews

We will be doing 8 Days on the Deluxe in Jan. It is going to be tons of food but we will prob use snack credits in Goofy's Candy Factory. Can't wait to hear your reviews.

We used 15 of our credits at Goofy's and they were GREAT! I didn't realize it took so long for the custom ones. We did 9 (3 each) and it took almost 45 minutes. I am actually making the choc. covered pretzel rods for my brownies troop tonight. If you can get Calf. Grill, I would highly recommend it.

I'm in......

Cant wait to hear about them. Several of them I am thinking about for our trip! I booked Chef Mickeys today!

Chef Mickey's is one of our favorites.

 

[janloz]

I wanted to give you a rating system to compare restaurants so here is what I came up with:

Great, book now.
Good, would go again.
Ok, would go back.
Fair, wouldn't book again.

Skip it.

I will rate on:

Food
Service
Atmosphere
Value

I also have the total cost for the meals which we would have paid if not on Deluxe dining which I will include.

 

[bonnielynn]

 

[janloz]

Le Cellier Saturday, Nov. 29th

We arrived at 6pm for our 6:20pm ADR and I was told that they were running 20 minutes late which is not what the kids wanted to hear after traveling all day. I explained to the hostess that my MIL is diabetic and needed to eat as close to the ADR time as possible (especially since she hadn't eaten well during the travel day). She did check with the manager but was not able to get us in earlier but did offer to get her some orange juice and pretzel bread to level out her blood sugar. Thank you very much for going out of your way.

I really wanted to request Patrick as a waiter since I had read so many good things about him and his service but didn't want to delay our meal any further. In hindsight, I should have. He was in the section next to ours and the difference between him and our CM Adam was very evident. Not that Adam was not good, but Patrick just seemed more friendly and enjoy what he was doing.

The restuarant was smaller then I thought it would be so now I know why the ADRs are so hard to get. It was decorated beautifully with Christmas decorations. (sorry, no pics) and we received the tables against the wall in the far left corner which was a quiter area.

Now the important stuff, the food. Since we are on the deluxe, we were entitled to app., entree and dessert with each meal.

DH: Caesar Salad, Mushroom Filet, Chocolate Moose
DS: Side of Mac & cheese, Mushroom Filet (no mushrooms & plain potatoes), Chocolate Moose, milk
Me: Caesar Salad, Mushroom Filet (no mushrooms, cheese potatoes), Maple Creme Brulee
DD: Carrot sticks, Pasta with just butter, Make your own sundae She also got the Tick Light up with her Milk

Tired DD and tink light =

The only food picture DH took. Sorry.

The basket of breads were wonderful as I had read. We quickly devoured them and asked for more. There were sour dough, pretzel and multigrain. Most of the group preferred the sourdough but I liked the pretzel.

I debated about getting the cheddar soup which my mom got and loved. but wanted to get dessert so I went with the salad which was very good, not too much dressing. DS didn't like any of the choices so he asked to get the side of macaroni & cheese for app. which he got but we were charged $3.49 and DD wanted just carrot sticks which was ok. All of the filets were cooked perfectly as ordered and were so tender that you could cut them with a butter knife. I really enjoyed the cream cheese potatoes but DH did not like the risotto. DS is just starting to enjoy steak and thought his filet was "great!" Pasta with butter is not hard to get right and since DD ate it all, it must have been good. We ordered 3 chocolate moose to share with the table, which was a good thing since DS ate almost all of his by himself. The maple creme brulee was wonderful, very smooth with just a hint of maple. Several in the group ordered coffee which is the typical Disney coffee but nice way to finish meal.

The total cost for the dinner for the 4 of us was $215.36 which include OOP cost of $4.99 for Light up tink, $3.49 for mac & cheese and $29.69 for tip.

Rating:

Food:
Service:
Atmosphere:
Value: 1/2

Up next....Will we make it to our Crystal Palace ADR before park opening?

 

[goodmorningirl]

Great first review We actually have eaten at Cali Grill before and are going back this time

 

[janloz]

Great first review We actually have eaten at Cali Grill before and are going back this time

We had Billy as our Waiter and he was amazing. He treated everyone from DD7 to FIL like they were the most important person in the room. He is studying for his advanced semolier (sp) and was very knowledgeble about the whole wine list. He has worked at CG since they opened. I would definitely request him again.

 

[janloz]

Crystal Palace 11/30:
We had an 8:20am ADR at Crystal Palace which I got at 180 days out so we could enter MK prior to park opening. I told the group we had to meet by 7:45am so we could get the bus and still have time for pics on Main St. Well, we finally arrived at the MK gates at 8:15am After reading so many TR, I figured they would hold our ADR for extra 15-20 minutes so we could get some pics. Here is one or two:

Town Hall

Empty Main St.

THe most beautiful place in the world.

Then we finally made it to:

at 8:40am. I was given the buzzer and then about 5 minutes later:

This is what greets you inside the door:

Some of my favorites!!

Too many pics so continued...

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

Thanks so much for your review. I love reading about food! And you certainly did have a lot of food!

Great review of Le Cellier. We'll get there one of these days.

I'm especially looking forward to hearing about Teppan Edo, 50s Prime Time Cafe, and Tutto Italia since they are on our potential list for future trips.

I'm curious about Coral Reef too with all the mixed reviews it gets. I am thinking about making an ADR there for our upcoming trip and just getting dessert. I want to enjoy the atmosphere without wasting the money on mediocre food.

We loved Boma, Flame Tree and California Grill. We hope you did too. We need to give Kona Cafe and Wolfgang Puck Cafe another shot, I think, before we rule them out. The Sci-Fi Dine-In, we thought, was horrible. Hope you had a better experience there.

On our upcoming trip we have 1900 Park Fare booked for brunch. So I'm interested to hear about your experience. Also, I really want to know how the POP Food Court is. We're staying there and hope it's as good as the one at All-Star Sports, which we were surprisingly impressed by.

Anyway . . . . looking forward to the rest.

 

[janloz]

We were seated at the table in the section on the left near the bathrooms and buffet.

Don't they look happy to be in Disney?? It shows where we were seated too.

Finally a pic of the food area.

The hot part of the buffet is on the outside walls and the cold section in the middle of the area. At the beginning is the kids sections which had wonderful puffed french toast which tasted like apple fritters (like you get at the fairs) plus eggs, mickey waffles and hot cereal. Then on to the adult section, they had bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, fritatas (YUM!), pancakes, french toast, and I think they would make any type of eggs you like in the section where the 2 hot buffet areas met. In the cold section, they had 4-5 types of Kelloggs cereals, fresh and cut fruits, yogurts, pastries, bagels, bread etc. As you can imagine, something for everyone. The waiter brought us the coffee, orange juice, teas, milk, etc. Everyone liked all of the foods except the kids really didn't like the second helping of eggs. They said it tasted funny and when I tried them, they did. I think they were sitting too long in the back or something.

Then it was time for the character parade and photo ops with our friends.

We didn't wait for Tigger since they had seen him the night before in UK and it would be another 10 minutes until he got to our table. Plus everyone wanted to start riding some rides.

I had asked for the checks prior to the character visits knowing that it would take a while so now we were ready to start.

On last picture on the way out:

Ratings:

Food:
Service:
Atmosphere:
Value:

Total cost was $85.41 for 3 adult/1child and was 4TS credits. OOP was $13.03 for tip.

This was our first time to CP and would definitely try it again especially for perk of early arrival in the park and the food was good too.

UP next......Will we enjoy Tony's Town Tavern or will the bad reports be right?

 

[janloz]

Thanks so much for your review. I love reading about food! And you certainly did have a lot of food!

Great review of Le Cellier. We'll get there one of these days.

I'm especially looking forward to hearing about Teppan Edo, 50s Prime Time Cafe, and Tutto Italia since they are on our potential list for future trips.

I'm curious about Coral Reef too with all the mixed reviews it gets. I am thinking about making an ADR there for our upcoming trip and just getting dessert. I want to enjoy the atmosphere without wasting the money on mediocre food.

We loved Boma, Flame Tree and California Grill. We hope you did too. We need to give Kona Cafe and Wolfgang Puck Cafe another shot, I think, before we rule them out. The Sci-Fi Dine-In, we thought, was horrible. Hope you had a better experience there.

On our upcoming trip we have 1900 Park Fare booked for brunch. So I'm interested to hear about your experience. Also, I really want to know how the POP Food Court is. We're staying there and hope it's as good as the one at All-Star Sports, which we were surprisingly impressed by.

Anyway . . . . looking forward to the rest.

Thanks for the comments. 50's PT will hopefully be up this weekend. Coral Reef is coming up soon too. I would recommend Teppan Edo & Tutto Italia, they were both great. Coral Reef was good but would recommend lunch like we did and just get salad so you can enjoy atmosphere without prices.

Boma, Calf. Grill were outstanding and our favorites. spoiler: We actually didn't make it to Flame Tree (favorite from last trip), Sci Fi due to conflict with scheduled time for Lights, Camera, Action show, Kona Cafe (Big mistake to skip and try to eat in MK during MVMCP) or WGPC due to DH being sick. I will review the CS we eat at instead (most of which fall into the not so good reviews).

The POP food court was very good last time and this time we ate there for both breakfast (3 times) and lunch once. More on that later.

Lastly, I run a fridge and coffeepot swap at POP (link in sign) if you want one during your stay there check the list to see if your dates are available.

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

Lastly, I run a fridge and coffeepot swap at POP (link in sign) if you want one during your stay there check the list to see if your dates are available.

Thanks for letting me know but I can't see us having a need for either.

 

[KatMark]

Love your pictures and review of LeCellier and Crystal Palace--two of our favorites. I LOVE that puffed french toast at Crystal Palace and it is the first thing I hit when we get there!

 

[mcrabeck]

I am in!

 

[angelmav]

Glad I found this, enjoying everything so far!