Just back yesterday...Any questions???

[tommygirl79]

Trip report will follow sometime this week...any questions for now?

In short we did all the parks, Chef Mickey's, CRT breakfast, Whispering Canyon, Beaches and Cream, Hoop Dee Doo Revue, and Le Cellier for meals as well as numerous counter services.....

 

[siestakeys04]

How was chef mickeys, whispering canyon, and beaches and cream La Cellier. These are some of our meal options and mine dh dd10 and ds6 first trip. So are all of these good for them???

 

[tommygirl79]

Chef Mickeys - we went for dinner our first night and thought this was our best first night activity so far. The meal is just SOOO Disney that it truly gets you in the spirit for the rest of your vacation. We ended up with a table that overlooked the castle so that was quite welcoming. The characters all made at least 3 stops in our area and were very attentive to our kids (4 and 2). The food was pretty good - not gourmet by any means but we were having so much fun that it was perfect for us. My girls loved the kids buffet offering and the desserts were good as well. This is a very exciting and loud meal (in a good way) and we loved it.

Whispering Canyon - We LOVED this place. Our waitress (Red Rooster) was very good. The girls love the excitement here as well and my DH and I LOVED the food. We would go back here in a heartbeat!

Beaches and Cream - This place definitely lived up to its reputation for great burgers, shakes and onion rings. It's pricey if you aren't on the dining plan but worth the stop. Don't forget dessert!!!! Boardwalk and Yacht and Beach Club area it's in was a very relaxing way to spend our open day.

Le Cellier - We thought this restaurant was very good. I'm a bit on the picky side and actually didn't like the cheddar cheese and bacon soup. It tasted way too much like beer for me (I'm not a drinker though). On the other hand, the filet mignon with parmesan mashed potatoes was AWESOME and DHs NY strip was awesome as well. The girls had the cheeseburger meal and it was good. It came with fries and canteloupe. The desserts were equally good and this restaurant proved to be a nice relaxing break from EPCOT after touring the world.

 

[eastcarolinagirl]

just curious- did you buy a meal plan- did you like it?

 

[tommygirl79]

Yes, we did have the dining plan and it was our first experience with it. We LOVED it! Usually we would only do one table service meal (usual a character restaurant). As you can see, we did MUCH more this time and it was so nice to have this down time and the fun that came with it. Cost wise, it probably was about the same as we would normally spend on food, but there was so much more food this way and much better food and fun that we will DEFINITELY do the dining plan again when we go. 4 of our meals would have been over $100.00 for the family which we would have NEVER have spent. It's very nice knowing that it's all paid for and you don't have to try and balance out your fund through the week or take as much cash along with you. I would say give it a try...

 

[luv2nascar]

We have not tried Chef Mickey's for dinner or Le Cellier yet but both are on are list for next trip. Glad to here both were good. The list of restaurants to try grows and grows. Not enough days for all the meals.

 

[hannahsmomma]

How was Hoop de doo....we have a 6 yo dd and a 16 month old ds. I have heard mixed reviews for younger children. How was the food and noise level?

 

[tommygirl79]

Hoop Dee Doo Revue was probably our favorite evening at WDW this trip. It was easy to check in and get to our table and the food starts coming out right away - as does the show. The performers were excellent. Very very funny and talented. We had the table right next to the piano and banjo players just in front of the stage. The food is very very good. My only complaint (not really a complaint, more of a preference) would be that they would have some kind of potato for a side but there is sooo much food that it wasn't really missed. The ribs and chicken were awesome and very plentiful!!! The corn was your usual corn. My DH said that the baked beans were good - not too spicy. He also said he could tell they were exactly (or at least tasted like it) like the ones at Flame Tree BBQ in AK. The strawberry shortcake dessert was HUGE and very very good as well. About the noice level, yes it is loud but in a very fun way. Both of my girls spend the whole time laughing out loud and DH and I had smiles plastered on our faces the whole time. It was one of the nights that we just smiled all the way back to our resort and were sooo glad we used the dining credits on this show.

 

[Magic Man]

We love Chef Mickey's!!!!
The problem with us is there are too many great places to eat at WDW and we have to miss some each trip. Had the dining plan last trip and saved tons of money, but it seemed sometimes that all we did was wait for our next PS. I think I gained 10 pounds even with all the walking we did. It afforded us to have desserts that we usually don't splurge on.
Next trip our DS will be 10 and would have to use the adult dining plan. He doesn't eat enough to justify the cost, so we will probably not use it.
We are going back in December and made our wish list for restaurants last night. It is hard to eliminate some of the restaurants because all have been fun (well, we didn't really like Ohana that much).

 

[DaisyGirlAllTheWay]

how were the crowds??

 

[antmaril]

I'm not the OP, but we were there last week and we walked on to everything. It was great. The only thing we needed a FastPass for was Soarin' in the afternoon. We walked on to Soarin' in the morning, but when we went back later, we needed a FastPass.

The weather was spectacular and we had big fun!

 

[madge]

I'm not the OP, but we were there last week and we walked on to everything. It was great. The only thing we needed a FastPass for was Soarin' in the afternoon. We walked on to Soarin' in the morning, but when we went back later, we needed a FastPass.

The weather was spectacular and we had big fun!

I was there over the holiday weekend-- the wait for Soarin' last night at 5:30 was 140 minutes. Fastpasses were gone for the day in the early afternoon.

We went to evening EMH at the Magic Kingdom and had minimal waits.

One thing that puzzled me. In all my trips to WDW, I see very few people actually purchasing park passes at the ticket windows at the parks. Yesterday morning (Sunday) around 11am, there were all kinds of people buying passes. I was intrigued.

 

[luvdisneytoo]

Is the food similar at these two places? We will be at Disney 2/24-3/4 and we have ADRs atOHana's, Rain forest, Chef Mickeys, Donalds's, and the Hoop De Doo so far.Is that enough? I thought that we would just grab something the other times. I don't want to book ADR at Whispering Canyon if we will be eating the same stuff at Hoop De Doo. Is there anyplace that anyone would recommend? It will be my DH, DS 11 (Picky eater) , DD 6, and me. Thanks! Woo Hoo, Reese Withersoon just won best actress for Walk the Line!

 

[jinglesmountjoy]

This is just gettin' me sooooo stoked for our trip. We're meeting relatives with their 4 yr old son from the West Coast of Canada. We have a 4yr DD and 15mth DS and not a single one of us have ever been to any Disney Resort before, so we're doing a 2 wk stint Feb 3 to 17.

We are keeping costs reasonably low by renting a villa and getting groceries at Costco, etc. But we also realize that we have to go out for at least 2 meals. What would your suggestion be for my little girl who just loves pretending to be a princess...she has a whole bunch of costumes. She also turns 4 just 3 days before we leave to go there so we decided we would have her birthday down there.

If you had to pic only 2 restaurants to go to, which would they be?