Feedback desired for my ADRs.

[Gary Stocker]

Family of 4...7 and 4 year olds and the wife...who is celebrating her bday the week of our trip. Gearing to the DDP due to character meals for the wee ones..and the tendency to imbibe on my vacation...that free drink does make a difference.

Resort is the polynesian...my sister in law rented us some points for DVC. I figure i will be eating captain cooks almost every day for quick service..love those meatballs.

Trying to schedule some rest midday each day in an effort to prevent late night meltdowns. We shall see.

Arrival Sat feb 29 around 2p.
I figure getting started with HS would be wise due to rise of the resistance and mickey and minnie later in the week...so despite negative reviews (see pete and his review of Hollywood and slime) I booked hollywood and vine fantasmic around 525. Between dinner and fantasmic will try for late FPs.

Sun. All day MK with some rest or pool in the middle. Crystal palace 815 breakfast.

Mon. HS in the AM. AK in the PM...Tusker House River of Light at 430 for an early dinner. FPs between.

Tue. Magic AM and then to Epcot for EMH. Biergarten reserved at 6p but if space 220 has ADRs will replace with that. Went to akershus last year..1 and done.

Wed. Animal AM. Prob satuuli for lunch. Reserved hoop de doo for dinner at 615 EMH at the MK time permitting.

Thu. No parks day. Disney springs...love chef art Smith's so might try their quick service to go for lunch.. or boardwalk...my wife requested ohana for her birthday dinner so 755..will request a window seat since it is her bday and might get a cake delivered...so pricy though...like everything else.

Fri. Epcot day. Flower and garden. Garden grill 830. Yorkshire fish for a QS lunch.

Sat.. last day Ohana for breakfast. Lillo and stitch. HS in the morning...MK for the last night and the fireworks to say goodbye. Might throw in a dessert party for this. Might have to sell some organs at this point. Lol.

Sun morning late flight..around 6p..so after packing up and dropping off at bell services off to farewell breakfast at trattoria al forno. Then the tragical express after bouncing around the boardwalk or DS.

A couple things...we went to California Grill last trip and the kids fell asleep before the fireworks so no deluxe restaurants this time. My wife and I loved it but not worth the credits IMO when you have young kids.

Also originally scheduled artist point for the snow white meal but I don't think the kids would like the food that much. They are picky so the pre fixe might result in them going hungry .this includes BOG for the same reason.

Sorry for the long post. Any feedback? Am I burning the candle at both ends with my times? Is kona cafe worth a try for one of the meals? Perhaps dont get the DDP? So many questions and so much stress involved here. FAST PASSES on new years eve..lol. might start drinking early.

Thanks!

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

I just got home from a trip with kids similar in age to yours, 8 and 3. We were on the free dining plan, and we love character meals, but you really have a lot. You do sacrifice food quality for quantity and the characters. We ended up dropping one of ours and replacing it with Chefs de France and I was so grateful to have a nice and relaxed meal for once without having to be reaching for my camera every five seconds.

If I were you, I would replace Tusker House with Tiffins for RoL and maybe drop Crystal Palace for BoG if it’s a prepark opening ADR you’re after. And keep Storybook, the food was really quite good and the drinks were EXCELLENT and strong! My super picky eaters loved it.

 

[Gary Stocker]

I just got home from a trip with kids similar in age to yours, 8 and 3. We were on the free dining plan, and we love character meals, but you really have a lot. You do sacrifice food quality for quantity and the characters. We ended up dropping one of ours and replacing it with Chefs de France and I was so grateful to have a nice and relaxed meal for once without having to be reaching for my camera every five seconds.

If I were you, I would replace Tusker House with Tiffins for RoL and maybe drop Crystal Palace for BoG if it’s a prepark opening ADR you’re after. And keep Storybook, the food was really quite good and the drinks were EXCELLENT and strong! My super picky eaters loved it.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. The storybook dining ship has sailed regrettably. Will consider tiffins.. loved the lounge when I took my solo trip. Just thinking about my wee ones limited palates. Would love to try sanaa as well but until they get past mac and cheese, nuggets, etc I am a little wary. Tusker is the only repeat meal from last trip as I thought it was a great mix of food and character interactions... is crystal palace bad though? My kids do love the pooh...lol

 

[Ksquared]

I definitely think you have some good reservations. HS is our least favorite place to eat, but I'd switch out H&V for Mama Melrose. If you are going to HS for your last park day, you may want to do the character breakfast at H&V that morning. We've not done Garden Grill for dinner but do love breakfast there. We also love Homecoming so any chance for that I'd say go for it. We love Flame Tree BBQ at AK for quick service lunch. I keep saying I want to book Hoop Dee Do so that sounds like a fun night. We tried Tratoria Al Forno for the first time this past trip and really enjoyed the meal there and the characters were different then you normally see so that's a great farewell breakfast.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I will second the pp’s suggestion to drop one character meal. We have overloaded on them before - they can become exhausting with young kids.

If you don’t want to do signature at AK, Y&Y also has good food and things my kids with limited palates will eat.

But looking at what you have, I’d keep Tusker and drop H&V if you’re going to reduce character meals. We do CP every year even though I really don’t care for the food because my kids love the Pooh characters.

 

[Nancyg56]

Family of 4...7 and 4 year olds and the wife...who is celebrating her bday the week of our trip. Gearing to the DDP due to character meals for the wee ones..and the tendency to imbibe on my vacation...that free drink does make a difference.

Resort is the polynesian...my sister in law rented us some points for DVC. I figure i will be eating captain cooks almost every day for quick service..love those meatballs.

Trying to schedule some rest midday each day in an effort to prevent late night meltdowns. We shall see.

Arrival Sat feb 29 around 2p.
I figure getting started with HS would be wise due to rise of the resistance and mickey and minnie later in the week...so despite negative reviews (see pete and his review of Hollywood and slime) I booked hollywood and vine fantasmic around 525. Between dinner and fantasmic will try for late FPs.

Sun. All day MK with some rest or pool in the middle. Crystal palace 815 breakfast.

Mon. HS in the AM. AK in the PM...Tusker House River of Light at 430 for an early dinner. FPs between.

Tue. Magic AM and then to Epcot for EMH. Biergarten reserved at 6p but if space 220 has ADRs will replace with that. Went to akershus last year..1 and done.

Wed. Animal AM. Prob satuuli for lunch. Reserved hoop de doo for dinner at 615 EMH at the MK time permitting.

Thu. No parks day. Disney springs...love chef art Smith's so might try their quick service to go for lunch.. or boardwalk...my wife requested ohana for her birthday dinner so 755..will request a window seat since it is her bday and might get a cake delivered...so pricy though...like everything else.

Fri. Epcot day. Flower and garden. Garden grill 830. Yorkshire fish for a QS lunch.

Sat.. last day Ohana for breakfast. Lillo and stitch. HS in the morning...MK for the last night and the fireworks to say goodbye. Might throw in a dessert party for this. Might have to sell some organs at this point. Lol.

Sun morning late flight..around 6p..so after packing up and dropping off at bell services off to farewell breakfast at trattoria al forno. Then the tragical express after bouncing around the boardwalk or DS.

A couple things...we went to California Grill last trip and the kids fell asleep before the fireworks so no deluxe restaurants this time. My wife and I loved it but not worth the credits IMO when you have young kids.

Also originally scheduled artist point for the snow white meal but I don't think the kids would like the food that much. They are picky so the pre fixe might result in them going hungry .this includes BOG for the same reason.

Sorry for the long post. Any feedback? Am I burning the candle at both ends with my times? Is kona cafe worth a try for one of the meals? Perhaps dont get the DDP? So many questions and so much stress involved here. FAST PASSES on new years eve..lol. might start drinking early.

Thanks!

We really enjoyed H&V this month. The character interaction was awesome, and the food was good as well. I think it is a great way to begin a Disney trip with youngsters. Mine were 13! LOL!

I agree CP is a nice start tot a MK day. I don't think you will have any PPO advantage, but the character interaction is very nice.

On your DAK day, I would drop TH and plan on Flame Tree. You have a lot of character meals and I find that duplicating characters s not always a good thing, I am not sure if you can get a ROL package, but I have been told you do not need one for ROL.

In regards to Storybook Dining, we liked it. They do have substitutions for some items, and it is a fun meal.

I think you have a really busy trip planned, and while character meals do solve teh problem of meeting characters, they can be very stu=insulating for everyone. We really liked some conventional TS meals when my DGD was young. They offered a more relaxing meal for all of us, and allowed for us to do more after dinner.

 

[Gary Stocker]

Really appreciate the feedback. We did tusker last time and enjoyed it. However you're all probably right with the amount of character meals. I think things might be adjusted based on fast pass availability as well on tuesday...

 

[Gary Stocker]

Ok. Cancelled tusker and replaced with lunch at 50s prime time in HS at noon. Looks like fun and probably will have no issue getting a fast pass for rivers of light later that night in AK.

 

[Gary Stocker]

So..as is the norm I am moving around ADRs like chess pieces. Updated:
Crystal palace 815a sunday
Biergarten 515p Tuesday..will replace with space 220 if I can.
Hoop de doo 615p Wednesday
No parks day Thursday bon voyage at trattoria 1015a
Ohana dinner 750
Garden grill 830a Friday
Storybook dining 655p
Hollywood and vine 820a last full day Saturday..and hoping to get onto ROTR.
Beaches and cream 415p final early supper and ice cream before last night at MK.
Ohana 750am travel day. Bye bye lilo and stitch.