ADR'S on the Dining Plan - Help me decide :O)

[LeaversOnTour]

Ok, So I have been to WDW a few times before and the last 2 years we have been able to make use of the Free Dining plan, staying at OKW.

We are returning in January, and our 180 day window is about to open, so I am looking for a little inspiration regarding reservations.

In 2011 we went and thought the food was great, this year not so much, we visited a lot of the same places are were a little disappointed with some of the food. A couple of places a lot disappointed and as such we have scrapped some of our usuals.

Definates:
CRT – We will have 3 princesses by the time the holiday rolls around so this is a must. – Toying with Adding the “Her Royal Highness” package on for our eldest who turns 4 just after we get back.

Raglan Road – It’s the “real chips thing”

Rose and Crown – We always have a late dinner here and watch illuminations from our table while having dessert

Garden Grill – We thought the food was mediocre, but loved the character interaction.

Crystal Palace – You cant beat a bit of Pooh Bear

Askershus – Again not so much for the food, and we were bitterly disappointed this year, but the girls loved it!

Planet Hollywood – We love this place

House of Blues – This is a tradition which started before the girls were born.

Hollywood and Vine – The Playhouse Disney – Our Girls are only 3 and 1 and love Agent Oso.

Be Our Guest – We will try this, although the French theme may not be to our tastes, but hell if its open I’m there!! With bells on!! I would never forgive myself.

Toying with the following:

T-Rex
Rainforest Cafe
Le Cellier
Liberty Tree Tavern

We definitely don’t want to go back to;

Chefs de France – We really didn’t like it this time. The service was less than desirable and the food was really NOT good.

Wolfgang Puck – We actually had to send our daughters food back, as it tasted like someone had poured an entire pot of salt on it – She was only 2, it was like a heart attack on a plate! And it was plain chicken breast!

We really want to try out some new places, and like to introduce the girls to new foods, and actually we aren’t that fussy. But we do like to enjoy a meal. We appreciate that Disney give the dining for free, so maybe its slightly ungrateful in some respects, but I also think that this is one of the reasons the food is not so good anymore :O( Or maybe we just had bad luck!

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We don’t really travel to other resorts as we don’t hire a car and the bus service can be a pain with a buggy.

 

[chmurf]

Toying with the following:

T-Rex
Rainforest Cafe
Le Cellier
Liberty Tree Tavern

T-Rex would be on my definite list, be it only for the theme and settings
Rainforest too, but the DAK one, not the DTD one

I would suggest :

Sanaa (might be less easy to get to, since it's at AKL but it's definitely worth it)
Kona Café at Poly (easy to get to from MK/Epcot with monorail as you don't have a car)
Teppan Edo at Epcot
Coral Reef for the aquarium
Sci-fi dine in, also for the settings and theme

In october we're giving a try to restaurant marrakesh at Epcot

 

[darthtatty]

T-Rex is a def from me to, loved it
Isnt Rainforest cafe a similar style restaurant? same food etc?
perhaps choose 1 or the other.
you know Le cellier is a 2 credit restaurant? Unless youre going for lunch.

LTT has a set menu for dinner, check you all like it otherwise its not worth it.
To me it sounds like a US version of a roast dinner.

youve got a great selection of character meals

I agree with the suggestions above
Sci-fi
Teppan edo
Coral Reef
Kona cafe

 

[LeaversOnTour]

We normally do Rainforest for breakfast in Animal Kingdom anyway, but we dont use the dining plan, as the girls have normally eaten by then anyway. Plus we like to use the credit for a dinner or lunch as this saves us the most money.

As we havent done Le Cellier before, i thought maybe doing a lunch reservation, as i dont want to spend 2 credit each and then not like it.

We havent done T-rex before and the food does sound good, similar to rainforests menu i guess.

We did Liberty Tree Tavern last time, and although we enjoyed it, it wasnt the best meal I have had there - Defniately not the worst tho.

I quite like the sound of the Japanese place, Teppan Edo as we quite like Asian/Oriental type food anyway.

I am not a big a fish person - Although hubbie likes it. We normally do the shark place in Seaworld, which i guess is quite similar -Shrimp is about adventurous as i get Although i would eat them until they came out of my ears!!

I quite fancied Chef Mickeys, but is this a Buffet? Sometimes they are a bit Samey and we already have a couple on the list. Whats the Character interaction like? Does Minnie Mouse come to this? Or Tuskers House? We are yet to find Minnine at a Character Meal.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

I think you have a good choice so far. We always like to try different restaurants each trip,but do also have a few favourites one of which is Si Fi Dine In. Take a look at Whispering Canyon at Wilderness lodge,its great for small children with lots going on and great food. I've never been before but i aways hear lots of good things about Grand Floridian Cafe, its on our list for next time
If you have a look on www.allears.net it gives lots of reviews and you can view recent menus too.

 

[chmurf]

I quite fancied Chef Mickeys, but is this a Buffet?

yes, but chef mickey's gotta be the worse food we ever had in Disneyworld.
The only thing that saves it from total disaster is the character interaction

Whats the Character interaction like?

see comment above
but I sure would trade chef mickey's for O'hana's in a heartbeat (actually I have, lol)

Does Minnie Mouse come to this?

she's listed as occasionally appearing (as always in Disney, nothing is guaranteed)

Or Tuskers House?

tusker house is nice
donald at the entrance (pay photo)
legionnaire Goofy, daisy & Mickey (explorer attire)

We are yet to find Minnine at a Character Meal.

so far the only place I know of with Minnie is Cape May Café at Beach Club (also listed as occasionnal appearances)


here's allEars' list of character and appearance places : http://allears.net/din/cbchar.htm

 

[flortlebap]

T Rex has slightly better theming than RFC, but we found the food and service to be mediocre and the portion sizes smaller. Although, we didn't mind as we had gone for the theming

I'd also warn you off Coral Reef. We had terrible food and service there (they couldn't even cook a steak and it was loaded with salt). It's the first time I've ever had to ask a manager to remove a gratuity (OH overheard our waitress *****ing about us sending our steak back, turned out she'd screwed up anyway and wrote the wrong cooking level on the slip)... That said, seeing the divers was fun!

Chef Mickeys does a good breakfast and Le Cellier is lovely, but do lunch rather than dinner !

 

[stephensmum]

I find Le Cellier too salty (09), had a starter as main in 2010. Breakfast at Tusker House is good, as is lunch ours came with Nemo tickets, but believe it's charcaters now.

 

[LeaversOnTour]

I have real issues with the whole salt thing - I just dont get it!!!

It overpowers almost everything you eat, and makes it taste like muck, yet so much of the food is loaded with it in Disney. I can honestly say i have never once had to add salt to my food over in the US.

You get used to it after a while, but the kids just arent used to it, and i really dont like the overload. I think in some lower end places, not nec disney they do it to get you to buy more drinks. This irritates me more!

I think the worst thing i have had is steak and ale pie in "The Cricketers" on I - drive. Seriously the worst thing i have ever eaten. But that being said, when we have been there before the food has been pretty good. Maybe the chef forgot he had already added a bucket load, and did it twice!!

I think i will add T-rex to the list. Not liking the sound of Coral reef.

 

[LeaversOnTour]

I'd also warn you off Coral Reef. We had terrible food and service there (they couldn't even cook a steak and it was loaded with salt). It's the first time I've ever had to ask a manager to remove a gratuity (OH overheard our waitress *****ing about us sending our steak back, turned out she'd screwed up anyway and wrote the wrong cooking level on the slip)... That said, seeing the divers was fun!

QUOTE]

I had the same problem in Chefs de France. Had to get the tip removed, service was beyond poor and the food was rubbish! Because we had an infant with us - who was not sat at the table but in a buggy Also the 5 remaining people were sat at a table for 4! We were charged 18% automatically - Another of my BIG issues. I have no objection to paying gratuity, when its justified - in these cases i believe you automatically get second rate service because they know the tip will be there no matter what!

 

[flortlebap]

I'd also warn you off Coral Reef. We had terrible food and service there (they couldn't even cook a steak and it was loaded with salt). It's the first time I've ever had to ask a manager to remove a gratuity (OH overheard our waitress *****ing about us sending our steak back, turned out she'd screwed up anyway and wrote the wrong cooking level on the slip)... That said, seeing the divers was fun!

QUOTE]

I had the same problem in Chefs de France. Had to get the tip removed, service was beyond poor and the food was rubbish! Because we had an infant with us - who was not sat at the table but in a buggy Also the 5 remaining people were sat at a table for 4! We were charged 18% automatically - Another of my BIG issues. I have no objection to paying gratuity, when its justified - in these cases i believe you automatically get second rate service because they know the tip will be there no matter what!

I'd never thought about it like that! You could be right.

The manager wasn't impressed about us asking to remove the gratuity either - you'd think I had two heads, the look she gave me.

 

[scotlass]

you have made great choices.

I would suggest Ohanas best friends breakfast.
The characters are Mickey , Pluto , Lilo and Stitch....Stitch is soooo funny !!!

 

[disneyholic family]

stay away from le cellier - it has been getting overwhelmingly bad reviews lately...

on the other hand, we had very good meals at coral reef both time we ate there last august..

as for whispering canyon cafe - we had a very enjoyable meal there last year, good food, good service, good fun!!

 

[tinks_1989]

We are also going January and our ADR window is approaching us! We have played it safe and have decided on all 11 character meals DD will be happy and me and DH really aren't fussy, we have been 3 times just the two of us and ate every where we wanted to try!

I'm now stuck on our last two reservations! :/ I think be our guest will be one of them but I really don't feel inspired by any where else I was considering planet Hollywood or t Rex before we have to leave be for our flight just don't feel that excited by either of them! At the moment I am going to leave it and see how we feel once we are there!

I hope you manage to sort out all your ADR's!

Regarding where Minnie mouse is according to www.kennytgepirate.com

She's at chef mickey and cape may cafe

 

[LeaversOnTour]

We actually travel to the US on 7th January, but we are not arriving at Disney until 21st as we are staying offsite for 2 weeks before 2 weeks at OKW.

I agree, We just dont feel that inspired by some of the other options.

We may just keep the credits and go back to CRT, as the girls LOVE it. And the food actually is quite nice. My 3 year old, still talks about being in the castle when the fireworks started - She has made it a request for our next trip, so we have to eat late so she can hear the fireworks from inside the castle.

Disney has so many options sometimes its hard to decide. Perhaps i will book what we defimately want and then ponder over the rest until we decide.

The Character meals are always a winner in my book, but i just dont get the whole american breakfast thing. Perhaps we'll do Tuskers at lunchtime as we didnt do this last time (we have done breakfast here before and was a disappointed, although mainly because Donald had decided he wasnt signing autographs that day, and we had made our daughter wait until the end of the trip to get it because she was going to meet him at the breakfast!) Hubbie had to practically bribe him - Lets face it, it could of said anything, but she wanted to SEE him write it. She was nearly 2 at the time, and not as silly as she looked

 

[tinks_1989]

We actually travel to the US on 7th January, but we are not arriving at Disney until 21st as we are staying offsite for 2 weeks before 2 weeks at OKW.

I agree, We just dont feel that inspired by some of the other options.

We may just keep the credits and go back to CRT, as the girls LOVE it. And the food actually is quite nice. My 3 year old, still talks about being in the castle when the fireworks started - She has made it a request for our next trip, so we have to eat late so she can hear the fireworks from inside the castle.

Disney has so many options sometimes its hard to decide. Perhaps i will book what we defimately want and then ponder over the rest until we decide.

The Character meals are always a winner in my book, but i just dont get the whole american breakfast thing. Perhaps we'll do Tuskers at lunchtime as we didnt do this last time (we have done breakfast here before and was a disappointed, although mainly because Donald had decided he wasnt signing autographs that day, and we had made our daughter wait until the end of the trip to get it because she was going to meet him at the breakfast!) Hubbie had to practically bribe him - Lets face it, it could of said anything, but she wanted to SEE him write it. She was nearly 2 at the time, and not as silly as she looked

DD will be almost 2 when we go! we will be there for a while at the same time we arrive on the 31st for 2 weeks!

I'm considering tusker house for lunch as read a few good reviews! Just works out a bit cheaper having lunch or dinner at a TS because we can have breakfast in the hotel! But some of the lunch menus such as akershus lunch menu is a bit different not sure DD would eat anything from
It!

I would love to do CRT twice! I love it there! I've read the 1900 park supercalifragilistic breakfast has ice cream lol only at WDW lol!

 

[Elise79]

Having just come back (bearing in mind we pay OOP as we are DVC members so no free dining) we really enjoy CRT breakfast, Ohana Breakfast, Teppan Edo and Artists Point.

AT CRT we did the HRH Package for DDs 4th Birthday which was on the monday before we flew except I subbed the cake for a slipper dessert. She loved it and I really wouldn't have wanted to carry a cake out of MK and for $60 I wasn't going to leave it behind!!

'Ohana breakfast is served family style and was good. Plenty of food and refilled anything we asked for. Characters were good too.

We have eaten at Teppan Edo for a few years and apart from once when I think the chef was new - it has always been outstanding. Children love watching too.

Artists Point is a signature - and was a quiet meal (we had left DD at the kids club) so may not be what you are looking for.

 

[tinks_1989]

Having just come back (bearing in mind we pay OOP as we are DVC members so no free dining) we really enjoy CRT breakfast, Ohana Breakfast, Teppan Edo and Artists Point.

AT CRT we did the HRH Package for DDs 4th Birthday which was on the monday before we flew except I subbed the cake for a slipper dessert. She loved it and I really wouldn't have wanted to carry a cake out of MK and for $60 I wasn't going to leave it behind!!

'Ohana breakfast is served family style and was good. Plenty of food and refilled anything we asked for. Characters were good too.

We have eaten at Teppan Edo for a few years and apart from once when I think the chef was new - it has always been outstanding. Children love watching too.

Artists Point is a signature - and was a quiet meal (we had left DD at the kids club) so may not be what you are looking for.

Do you have pictures of the HRH package you did for DD we are looking at doing this for DD even though it will be four weeks before here birthday!

I would love to see how it was and hear what you thought! How easy was it to sub to the slipper desert?

 

[Elise79]

Do you have pictures of the HRH package you did for DD we are looking at doing this for DD even though it will be four weeks before here birthday!

I would love to see how it was and hear what you thought! How easy was it to sub to the slipper desert?

Subbing the slipper was easy.

The tiara I think would be too big/heavy for a nearly 2 year old. Chloe was just 4 and I had to use other clips to get it to stay in her hair as it is actually metal (I assumed it would be plastic!). The presentation of the tiara I think would be lost on a 2 year old as well - Chloe just about understood it and she knows her princesses!

I will upload some photos later

I would do the slipper again ($12.50 plus tax) but not the package.

 

[LeaversOnTour]

I have enquired about this HRH package and the dessert slipper looks pretty good.

My DD's Birthday is not until 16th March, She will be 4. But we "celebrated" her birthday in Disney this year in February so next year will the same. Any excuse for a bit of extra Disney Magic.

Plus i think its pretty reasonable, which for Disney is pretty amazing in itself. I def wouldnt pay $60.00 for a cake, as fear this would be wasted, and i wouldnt want to carry it around either. 3 Kids is enough to cope with, without worrying about dropping Ariel on her head!

I love the glass slipper that they do, but at 4 i think the significance would be lost on her. Chocolate she definately understands!