I am so thankful for all the information I received from these boards before I left for the world. I hope I can provide a little info for someone else.
We stayed at the Poly 9/20-9/27 on the DDP(free) and had a wonderful time. Our all girl trip consisted of Me, DD-25yrs, DD 23yrs, DD-4yrs. (yes you read that right
) and my granddaughter 20 months. Here's the dirt:
9/21 - Lunch at Tusker House. We didn't have an ADR here, but we were able to walk up 10 minutes before they opened. They put us on the list and we were seated at 11:35am - 5 minutes after opening. We were so lucky to get in here, because the food is delicious! I would absolutely recommend it! The chicken was especially good.
Dinner at Hoop Dee Doo Review - Cat 2. We didn't enjoy this that much. The chicken was okay in my opinion, everything else was average at best. The show was allright. Just not really our thing. Not worth 2 TS credits to us. For those interested, we were in Cat 2 on the main floor in the back. However it was a high - pub style - table and everyone in our party could see just fine.
9/22 - Breakfast at Chef Mickeys. We all loved the character interaction at this meal. It was great. The food was fine. Nothing especially good, but it was fine breakfast food. We would do this again.
9/23 - Dinner at Crystal Palace. We did this right before MNSSHP. The salmon was very good. All in all it was a pretty good buffet that everyone enjoyed. The characters were good too.
9/24- Lunch at Akershus. The princesses were Belle as the greeter, Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella and Aurora. I had read mixed reviews about this restaurant, but I really enjoyed the food. I had the salmon sandwich with seafood chowder and thought it was quite good. The fact that you get the photo package with the meal makes it a great value.
9/25 - Dinner at Le Cellier. Outstanding. The service here was great and the food was even better. Easily the best meal of the trip. My two daughter's had the prime rib that was done perfectly. I had the filet and it was EXCELLENT. We all had the cheedar cheese soup and had to stop ourselves from licking the bowl. LOVED IT!
9/26 - Dinner at SciFi. We had an ADR at Ohana, but ended up at Disney Studios for longer than expected. We called and cancelled Ohana and we were just going to get some counter service. However we walked by SciFi and asked if they had anything available and they did. We only waited 10 minutes. I had the grilled chicken sandwich and it was actually pretty good. One of my daughters had the ribs and thought they were good. However the service here was horrible. We were always waiting for drinks, ketchup and eventually the bill. Probably wouldn't go back here again.
9/27 - Breakfast at Kona - We had the Tonga Toast and really liked it. None of us could eat a whole portion. The pressed pot coffee was wonderful and especially nice after a week of Nescafe. However, the service was really lacking here also. I think our server was having a bad day as everybody does. He was a little slow that morning.
Notes about our counter service experiences:
Captain Cooks - Bad flow as others have mentioned. But I thought the food was pretty good including the grown-up grilled cheese, pork sandwich and the dole whip. All the pastries were good too.
Earl of Sandwich - GREAT! The best counter service meal we had. The original roast beef sandwich and the jerk chicken sandwich were great.
Well I think that covers it. We sure had a great time! And a lot of it was due to the information shared here. Thanks to all!!
We stayed at the Poly 9/20-9/27 on the DDP(free) and had a wonderful time. Our all girl trip consisted of Me, DD-25yrs, DD 23yrs, DD-4yrs. (yes you read that right
) and my granddaughter 20 months. Here's the dirt:9/21 - Lunch at Tusker House. We didn't have an ADR here, but we were able to walk up 10 minutes before they opened. They put us on the list and we were seated at 11:35am - 5 minutes after opening. We were so lucky to get in here, because the food is delicious! I would absolutely recommend it! The chicken was especially good.
Dinner at Hoop Dee Doo Review - Cat 2. We didn't enjoy this that much. The chicken was okay in my opinion, everything else was average at best. The show was allright. Just not really our thing. Not worth 2 TS credits to us. For those interested, we were in Cat 2 on the main floor in the back. However it was a high - pub style - table and everyone in our party could see just fine.
9/22 - Breakfast at Chef Mickeys. We all loved the character interaction at this meal. It was great. The food was fine. Nothing especially good, but it was fine breakfast food. We would do this again.
9/23 - Dinner at Crystal Palace. We did this right before MNSSHP. The salmon was very good. All in all it was a pretty good buffet that everyone enjoyed. The characters were good too.
9/24- Lunch at Akershus. The princesses were Belle as the greeter, Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella and Aurora. I had read mixed reviews about this restaurant, but I really enjoyed the food. I had the salmon sandwich with seafood chowder and thought it was quite good. The fact that you get the photo package with the meal makes it a great value.
9/25 - Dinner at Le Cellier. Outstanding. The service here was great and the food was even better. Easily the best meal of the trip. My two daughter's had the prime rib that was done perfectly. I had the filet and it was EXCELLENT. We all had the cheedar cheese soup and had to stop ourselves from licking the bowl. LOVED IT!
9/26 - Dinner at SciFi. We had an ADR at Ohana, but ended up at Disney Studios for longer than expected. We called and cancelled Ohana and we were just going to get some counter service. However we walked by SciFi and asked if they had anything available and they did. We only waited 10 minutes. I had the grilled chicken sandwich and it was actually pretty good. One of my daughters had the ribs and thought they were good. However the service here was horrible. We were always waiting for drinks, ketchup and eventually the bill. Probably wouldn't go back here again.
9/27 - Breakfast at Kona - We had the Tonga Toast and really liked it. None of us could eat a whole portion. The pressed pot coffee was wonderful and especially nice after a week of Nescafe. However, the service was really lacking here also. I think our server was having a bad day as everybody does. He was a little slow that morning.
Notes about our counter service experiences:
Captain Cooks - Bad flow as others have mentioned. But I thought the food was pretty good including the grown-up grilled cheese, pork sandwich and the dole whip. All the pastries were good too.
Earl of Sandwich - GREAT! The best counter service meal we had. The original roast beef sandwich and the jerk chicken sandwich were great.
Well I think that covers it. We sure had a great time! And a lot of it was due to the information shared here. Thanks to all!!
Rough decision, how do I decide? We looovve beef, both sound fabulous! What did you think was the absolute best and how were the sides that it came with? Maybe that would make a difference in deciding! Okay, now I'm hungry! We suddenly got the FD that is being offered now in Nov, so I'm scrambling a bit more to make more adr's, though I was trying for Le Cellier before that. I'm looking pretty good, but for L.C. 
I will definitely keep trying for adr's, hopefully I will get lucky! I think actually my chances will be much better in those few days before or day of, with people cancelling more while they are there, rather than ahead of time, unless they are totally changing their trip plans. Are the roasted yukon potatoes like peeled baked potatoes sort of, and are they yummy? I have heard lots of good comments about the 'moose'! Thanks much for the bday wishes! At first I couldn't figure out how you knew about the bdays! Actually, it is my 50th 
and DD's 18th! She's had it already now, but this is our celebration trip and we are really excited! Silly me, I kept wondering how you could possibly know, then suddenly I saw the bday part in my trip ticker, lol! 
, and grandma you are to have had such a great opportunity for that trip. You all must have had a wonderful time! 
