Hi all,
Just returned from WDW this afternoon and was on the Dining Plan. We stayed at Port Orleans - Riverside and had a blast (and saved a ton of money). I will start this post off taking about $ and reviews and then end off with some dining tips & tricks.
I will start off by saying that a friend of mine and I went and our room had a credit of 12 snacks, 12 counter services, and 12 dinners. Basically our counter service meals everywhere we went would have ran us about $12 USD each no matter where we ate and regardless if we used a counter service as a breakfast or a lunch. For dinner, this is where we definately saved the most money. Here is a breakdown of restaurants and how much we would have paid each is USD:
Cinderella's Castle - $37
Boatwrights - $25 (I skipped dessert)
Le Cellier - $50
Ohana's - $27
Alfredo's - $37
Cinderella's Castle: Sorry to say it but the food really wasn't great. I met up with my mom & dad, my brother and his girlfriend for dinner and my parents said the steak was okay but the rest of us thought the food was mediocre. The service definately was not very good. The atmosphere was nice and it was a pleasure to see Cinderella. Do not order the seafood stew, the scallops were not cooked.
Boatwrights: Ribs are yummy. It was convenient because it was at the hotel. The portions are HUGE!
Le Cellier: Go to you consierge and make reservations if you can't get them by phone. I did right when we checked in and found an opening and switched our reservations. The best filet mignon I have ever had in my life! The cheddar cheese soup is simply amazing and the service was teriffic. We tried to get there twice, but there were no openings.
Ohana's: Always a spot I hit when I'm at WDW. We sat at table 310 (I believe) right at the window and saw the fireworks show "Wishes" right there. The food was great and having the lazy suzan in the middle of the table is great! If you time your meal so that you are there about an hour or so before the fireworks, you will have time to eat and enjoy the fireworks. Is a great place for the family and is interactive for the kids.
Alfredo's: Italy is a good restaurant to take the family to (as well as Ohana's and Le Cellier) because the restaurant is fun and the kids seem to like pasta. The food was really good (apparently the fettucini alfredo is amazing). I had the lasagne which was good (the portion was too big). Our waiter was nice (lots of good looking male employees there..... lol)
The Dining plan was great. It was too much food though. What my friend and I did was often share a counter service meal for breakfast, sometimes share a counter service for lunch (depending on how hungry we were) and eat our own dinner. If you use a counter service meal as your breakfast, you still get a "dessert" with that meal. Therefore for breakfast you could get a omlette with potatoes as well as a super big danish or cinnamon bun or a bowl of fruit for dessert and a bottle of Orange Juice. Sometimes we ate breakfast late ie. (9:30-10:30am) so then we didn't each lunch until sometimes (2:30pm-3:30pm) and weren't that hungry for dinner (7:00pm). The snacks were wonderful because it was easy to find an icecream stand or small snack area and pick up a drink or icecream or something. We did save money but like I said, it was too much food for us overall. Especially when you are eating a dessert with counter service and a dessert with dinner. Also at dinner it was often too much to have an appitizer, dinner, and dessert. Due to some of the dinner decisions or non-decisions we had an extra dinner left-over so we used it to eat breakfast at Boatwrights on the morning we flew out. We had an appitizer (strawberries & cream), entree (eggs benedict), dessert (smoothie), plus a drink (Orange Juice). I decided to pass on the smoothie because I was too stuffed after the eggs.
A few tips:
1. If you are eating lunch and you want icecream as dessert, you can ask the employee at the cash till if you can come back to get your dessert. They will let you do that (they let us at Port Orleans). BTW, the cookie icecream sandwiches are considered a dessert and are the size of your face!
2. Dining reservations are nice to have between 7:00pm - 8:00pm depending on the time of the fireworks and which fireworks show you want to see. Ohana's is a great place to see wishes! They even pump the sound in from the fireworks show into the restaurant!
3. Share counter service for breakfast with someone. It is plenty for two people.
4. If you can't get your dining reservations by phone try your consierge when you check into the hotel.
5. Eat at Canada (Le Cellier)
Hope this helps some!
Just returned from WDW this afternoon and was on the Dining Plan. We stayed at Port Orleans - Riverside and had a blast (and saved a ton of money). I will start this post off taking about $ and reviews and then end off with some dining tips & tricks.
I will start off by saying that a friend of mine and I went and our room had a credit of 12 snacks, 12 counter services, and 12 dinners. Basically our counter service meals everywhere we went would have ran us about $12 USD each no matter where we ate and regardless if we used a counter service as a breakfast or a lunch. For dinner, this is where we definately saved the most money. Here is a breakdown of restaurants and how much we would have paid each is USD:
Cinderella's Castle - $37
Boatwrights - $25 (I skipped dessert)
Le Cellier - $50
Ohana's - $27
Alfredo's - $37
Cinderella's Castle: Sorry to say it but the food really wasn't great. I met up with my mom & dad, my brother and his girlfriend for dinner and my parents said the steak was okay but the rest of us thought the food was mediocre. The service definately was not very good. The atmosphere was nice and it was a pleasure to see Cinderella. Do not order the seafood stew, the scallops were not cooked.
Boatwrights: Ribs are yummy. It was convenient because it was at the hotel. The portions are HUGE!
Le Cellier: Go to you consierge and make reservations if you can't get them by phone. I did right when we checked in and found an opening and switched our reservations. The best filet mignon I have ever had in my life! The cheddar cheese soup is simply amazing and the service was teriffic. We tried to get there twice, but there were no openings.
Ohana's: Always a spot I hit when I'm at WDW. We sat at table 310 (I believe) right at the window and saw the fireworks show "Wishes" right there. The food was great and having the lazy suzan in the middle of the table is great! If you time your meal so that you are there about an hour or so before the fireworks, you will have time to eat and enjoy the fireworks. Is a great place for the family and is interactive for the kids.
Alfredo's: Italy is a good restaurant to take the family to (as well as Ohana's and Le Cellier) because the restaurant is fun and the kids seem to like pasta. The food was really good (apparently the fettucini alfredo is amazing). I had the lasagne which was good (the portion was too big). Our waiter was nice (lots of good looking male employees there..... lol)
The Dining plan was great. It was too much food though. What my friend and I did was often share a counter service meal for breakfast, sometimes share a counter service for lunch (depending on how hungry we were) and eat our own dinner. If you use a counter service meal as your breakfast, you still get a "dessert" with that meal. Therefore for breakfast you could get a omlette with potatoes as well as a super big danish or cinnamon bun or a bowl of fruit for dessert and a bottle of Orange Juice. Sometimes we ate breakfast late ie. (9:30-10:30am) so then we didn't each lunch until sometimes (2:30pm-3:30pm) and weren't that hungry for dinner (7:00pm). The snacks were wonderful because it was easy to find an icecream stand or small snack area and pick up a drink or icecream or something. We did save money but like I said, it was too much food for us overall. Especially when you are eating a dessert with counter service and a dessert with dinner. Also at dinner it was often too much to have an appitizer, dinner, and dessert. Due to some of the dinner decisions or non-decisions we had an extra dinner left-over so we used it to eat breakfast at Boatwrights on the morning we flew out. We had an appitizer (strawberries & cream), entree (eggs benedict), dessert (smoothie), plus a drink (Orange Juice). I decided to pass on the smoothie because I was too stuffed after the eggs.
A few tips:
1. If you are eating lunch and you want icecream as dessert, you can ask the employee at the cash till if you can come back to get your dessert. They will let you do that (they let us at Port Orleans). BTW, the cookie icecream sandwiches are considered a dessert and are the size of your face!
2. Dining reservations are nice to have between 7:00pm - 8:00pm depending on the time of the fireworks and which fireworks show you want to see. Ohana's is a great place to see wishes! They even pump the sound in from the fireworks show into the restaurant!
3. Share counter service for breakfast with someone. It is plenty for two people.
4. If you can't get your dining reservations by phone try your consierge when you check into the hotel.
5. Eat at Canada (Le Cellier)
Hope this helps some!
