Clueless!! Adr And Meals W/ Dining Plan??

[sunshyne1023]

Hi everyone,

This is our first trip to Disney (my mom 73, me 33, daughter 8, daughter 2) and I want to try to do this right..lol

We just ordered our package for 6 days/5 nights at the All Star Movies (Aug 18-23) and I have NO IDEA of good resturants/values to eat? I would like to do at least 1 Character dining.

We like Buffets, steaks, chicken etc. Any suggestions for the dinners on the dining plan would be greatly appreciated.

Also, we will be using Disney transportation to get around down there. how would that work if we were to eat a dinner at say a different resort?

Thanks sooooo much in advance for anyone's input. This has got me stressed since i've been reading about people making ADR's months in advance. I don't want to be left out..lol

 

[Tinkerbellz]

sunshyne welcome to the DIS!

I would suggest calling 407-wdw-dine and get the ball rolling. There may still be ressies available. I would suggest the storybook princess meals (B,L,D) with your little princesses. My DD17 and I did this (dinner) on our girls only trip in October and we absolutely loved it. We were on the Dining plan. I LOVE THE DINING PLAN!

It was absolutely wonderful not to worry about $$$ for food. Other suggestions for food would be as follows:

Sci-Fi (MGM)
Pizza Planet (MGM)
Crystal Palace (MK) Pooh Characters...

Enjoy yourselves!

I forgot to add that the princess storybook meals are in Norway at EPCOT!

 

[angel's momma]

Also, we will be using Disney transportation to get around down there. how would that work if we were to eat a dinner at say a different resort?

If you are going from a park to a resort to eat, you just get on the bus (or monorail, or boat, depending on where you're going) for that resort.

If you are going from your resort to another resort, the buses do not do that - you have to take a bus to a park or DTD, then get on the bus for the resort you are going to.

For example - I'm at POP and want to go to AKL to eat at Boma. I'd take the bus from POP to AK (just to the bus stop, not entering AK). Then I'd get on the AKL bus.



Our favorite meals were at Chef Mickey's, Liberty Tree Tavern, and Coral Reef.

 

[sunshyne1023]

Thank you both for your input and all other suggestions are still welcome!!

 

[twinsmamma]

My suggestions for your family would be the following.
If your daughter like the pooh characters then I would book crystal palace- Magic kingdom. food is good and interraction is great. I suggest booking brekfast before the park opens for the day so you can walk up main street with no other people there, or very few. great pic opps of castle with no one else in picture this will never happen when park is open.
1900 park fare at grand floridian has a great breakfast as well not sure about dinner but heard that it is wonderful as well. dinner has cindy and charming godmother and mice.
Absolutely loved Le cellier in epcot on last trip
chef mickeys is a must do for us at contemporary hotel has mickey, minnie, donald, chip and dale, goofy and food is pretty good.
also loved alfredos in epcot but this one got mixed reviews here on this board.
concourse steak hose contemporary hotel is also very good.
all you can do is check out the disney site and see whcih rest. are offered on the plan under dining finder on home page and then check out menus on this site to see if you would like the food this is what I did for my trip in dec05. I would also suggest that you decided which parks you are going to do which days first then choose meals around this. check park hours and extra magic times on disneys site.
hope all goes well for planning and welcome to the boards you will have a great time a t disney.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Bumping this for you, for more opinions. I'm not a dining plan user myself, so my choices probably would not have the "value" that you asked about.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We have the dining plan too...here are the places I made ADR's for. We are two adults, 15 and 9 year old daughters who are adventurous eaters. No chicken finger and fry children here!

Crystal Palace (Pooh lovers!!)
Le Cellier (steak lovers!!)
Sci-Fi (just for fun!!)
Donalds Breakfasaurus (characters and fun!)
Teppanyaki (my girls love this type of place!)
Cape May (seafood lovers!)
Hollywood and Vine Fantasmic Package (our last night in the parks)

I decided our park schedule first, then booked the ADR's to match up with where we'd be. Not to stress you out, but it's important that you book ASAP.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

We like:
Crystal Palace
Liberty Tree Tavern
LeCellier
50's Prime Time Cafe

 

[penguin69]

Hi, have to agree with Tinkerbellz. We just returned from Disney World and I did all my pre-vacation planning at home. Then we just showed up and was able to really enjoy ourselves.

Mom (78) DH and I went (not kids- smile). I checked out what parks opened early and which ones stayed open late. Wrote those down, then went to the restaurants, checked out all the food and decided where we wanted to eat lunch and dinner. I then called the Dining # and booked our reservations. NOTE: You can always call them while at the park and tell them you changed your mind or you're running alittle late etc, but if you don't make reservations before you go, you may have to wait 1-2 hrs before eating (esp for some of the really good- popular ones).

Our favorite places to eat were: Crystal Palace for dinner -LOVED it and they had a TON of food, esp the dessert section. The most food I've eaten during our whole stay at the parks. Not to mention the Characters - never took so many pictures with characters before in our lives. My mom was in seventh heaven too.

We also loved LeCellier (EPCOT), Sci-Fi (MGM -for fun), Liberty Tree Tavern (Magic Kingdom). They also had great food and alot of characters, took pictures with them too. We also stopped at the Contempory Hotel "Concourse Steak House" for breakfast before heading to EPCOT one morning. We had a great (cheap) breakfast - for under $10.00.

The only restaurant (in the 4 parks that we visited) that we didn't like, was at Hollywood and Vine (MGM). We found the food selection VERY LIMITED and ended up picking some items from the kids section because there just wasn't a big selection to choose from from the adults (and it wasn't that good anyway). And it would have cost us $90.00 for three - Thanks GOD for the Dining Plan - we didn't have to pay that.

We only choose this restaurant because of the Fantasmic show, which turned out to be cancelled due to Mechnical problems.

But just check out what parks you want to go to and in what order, then call and make reservations and get ready to really pig out - That dining plan is SUPER and you can't go wrong with it.

We even ended up with extra our last day and was able to get breakfast for each of us (Quick Service - AKL) and one lunch before we left the Hotel.

HAVE FUN AND ENJOY YOURSELF. Wish I was back there again.

 

[penguin69]

bump the please

 

[JadenLayne]

I'll also suggest going to Deb's sight and reading the menus!

www.allearsnet.com

Click on Dining then Menus and it lists every place at Disney!!
My suggestions would be,
1900 Park Faire
Concourse Steakhouse
O'Hana
Crystal Palace
Liberty Tree Tavern
Le Cellier
Chef Mickeys
Sci-Fi or 50's Prime Time at MGM.

 

[kath1210]

Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's and 1900 Park Fare are all great - good food and good character interaction.

We also love Whispering Canyon Cafe (the AYCE skillet is great - ribs, chicken, corn bread, beans, etc. - and games for the kids); Ohana (awesome food, games for the kids - breakfast and dinner are both great!); and Sci-Fi (the sci-fi trailers can be a little scary, but the drive-in movie theater atmosphere is great).

Getting to other resorts can be tricky because you have to change buses at the TTC or Downtown Disney. Leave plenty of time to get to your appointments.