Leave In 2 Days!! Help Me Choose!!!

[gobraves39560]

We are a family of 4. Two kids ages 4 and 5. Going to Downtown Disney hotel for 2 nights and Disney resort for 4 nights. We are on the dining plan. My reservations are Crystal Palace on June 17th at 2:10, Whispering Canyon at 5:40 on June 18th. Now I have to choose from 1:50 Garden Grill or 6:55 Cape May on June 19th. And... on June 20th b/t Play n' dine Hollywood and Vine at 9:10 or 3:40 Mama Melrose. I think that I have just confused myself... Lol. PLease give me your advise!

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I would pick Garden Grill (character meal) over Cape May. I would pick Mama Melrose over Play-N-Dine. Nothing against Cape May (we're going in Sept) but I think your kids would like the characters at GG. We did the Play-N-Dine last year and I was un-impressed. It just wasn't that good, thought the character interaction was so-so, just didn't like the atmosphere of H&V. My husband and I ate at MM in January and I thought it was pretty good; we're going back with the kids in Sept.

Wherever you go, you'll have fun, though!

 

[KatMark]

I agree with pp. We do not like H&V at all and since you already have a character meal (and two if you pick Garden Grill), I think you can skip H&V.

 

[crzy4mk]

We are a family of 4. Two kids ages 4 and 5. Going to Downtown Disney hotel for 2 nights and Disney resort for 4 nights. We are on the dining plan. My reservations are Crystal Palace on June 17th at 2:10, Whispering Canyon at 5:40 on June 18th. Now I have to choose from 1:50 Garden Grill or 6:55 Cape May on June 19th. And... on June 20th b/t Play n' dine Hollywood and Vine at 9:10 or 3:40 Mama Melrose. I think that I have just confused myself... Lol. PLease give me your advise!

Wait . . . so you made ADRs that you aren't planning on using? I'm assuming you have these ressies because you used such specific times.

There has been lots of discussion on the boards lately about people calling at their 180 day mark and getting nothing they wanted. If people are calling and "double booking" so to speak, that is a big contributor to the problem. It is really selfish for someone to call with the attitude, "Well, I'll just make all these ADRs so I know I'll have them, and just decided which one's I want later." What happens quite often is that people who do that never call to cancel the other ADRs. And even if you called at this point, it's 2 days before your trip. The only person that's going to help is the lucky soul who walks up at the restaurant and gets the opening. It helps no one who is trying to call in advance to get it.

I'm sorry if I misread your post, if this is not what you did. But if I understood it correctly, then it's just a perfect example of a major problem with this system (and our world in general). Everyone looking out for themselves, not thinking about anybody else. Sad.

Rant over.

 

[septbaby]

We are a family of 4. Two kids ages 4 and 5. Going to Downtown Disney hotel for 2 nights and Disney resort for 4 nights. We are on the dining plan. My reservations are Crystal Palace on June 17th at 2:10, Whispering Canyon at 5:40 on June 18th. Now I have to choose from 1:50 Garden Grill or 6:55 Cape May on June 19th. And... on June 20th b/t Play n' dine Hollywood and Vine at 9:10 or 3:40 Mama Melrose. I think that I have just confused myself... Lol. PLease give me your advise!

If you want the Fantasmic pkg stay with Mama Melrose. Honestly, I would probably do both those meals at DHS if you plan to see Fantasmic and just double up on CS meals on the 19th. Your kids are of the age to love the H&V character meal. Not waiting for seats for Fantasmic (I assume that's why 3:40) should be less stress for you. Epcot has some very good and non junk food CS options. Even if you just ate at Sunshie Seasons twice that day you could eat well. The World Showcase probably has enough places you'd want to eat that finding two good meals there in a day would be easy.

By the way is your Crystal Palace ADR actually for 12:10 and not 2:10? Eating a great buffet at 2pm and then WCC at 5:40pm would be hard to do, most of us wouldn't have much room for WCC and the TS would be a wasted meal. It its really 2:20 I'd skip WCC, choose Cape May for the seafood buffet and still go with 2TS ADRs a DHS on the 20th. If its a noon lunch and think your plans are fine.

 

[septbaby]

Wait . . . so you made ADRs that you aren't planning on using? I'm assuming you have these ressies because you used such specific times.

There has been lots of discussion on the boards lately about people calling at their 180 day mark and getting nothing they wanted. If people are calling and "double booking" so to speak, that is a big contributor to the problem. It is really selfish for someone to call with the attitude, "Well, I'll just make all these ADRs so I know I'll have them, and just decided which one's I want later." What happens quite often is that people who do that never call to cancel the other ADRs. And even if you called at this point, it's 2 days before your trip. The only person that's going to help is the lucky soul who walks up at the restaurant and gets the opening. It helps no one who is trying to call in advance to get it.

I'm sorry if I misread your post, if this is not what you did. But if I understood it correctly, then it's just a perfect example of a major problem with this system (and our world in general). Everyone looking out for themselves, not thinking about anybody else. Sad.

Rant over.

Point taken, but the OP has made discrete ADRs, no double booking and could use all of them if they decided to pay OOP or perhaps she originally booked Deluxe and now has Basic. Given the fact that she posted 2 days before looking for help its been difficult for them to decide. Rant noted and appreciated, but perhaps we can give OP a pass this time.

 

[IggyLans]

If you want the Fantasmic pkg stay with Mama Melrose. Honestly, I would probably do both those meals at DHS if you plan to see Fantasmic and just double up on CS meals on the 19th. Your kids are of the age to love the H&V character meal. Not waiting for seats for Fantasmic (I assume that's why 3:40) should be less stress for you. Epcot has some very good and non junk food CS options. Even if you just ate at Sunshie Seasons twice that day you could eat well. The World Showcase probably has enough places you'd want to eat that finding two good meals there in a day would be easy.

By the way is your Crystal Palace ADR actually for 12:10 and not 2:10? Eating a great buffet at 2pm and then WCC at 5:40pm would be hard to do, most of us wouldn't have much room for WCC and the TS would be a wasted meal. It its really 2:20 I'd skip WCC, choose Cape May for the seafood buffet and still go with 2TS ADRs a DHS on the 20th. If its a noon lunch and think your plans are fine.

Those ADR's are for different days.

 

[ParkPrincess]

I would choose Garden Grill over Cape May anyday. You and your kids will LOVE Garden Grill. The characters are wonderful, and the spinning of the restaurant is unique. The food is not bad either.

I would pick Hollywood & Vine character dining over Mama Melrose based on your kids' ages. They will love meeting the Little Einstein characters. Anytime you can do character dining with the little ones, go for it.

 

[gobraves39560]

Thanks so much. Some people just want to take the worst of someone and rip them to shreds. I feel like some people get on here to rant about anything and everything. I am the most honest person out there, and considerate. Give me a break. Thank you for all of your advise. Kinda tired of being on here now. Ready for my trip and to do away with this.

 

[septbaby]

Thanks so much. Some people just want to take the worst of someone and rip them to shreds. I feel like some people get on here to rant about anything and everything. I am the most honest person out there, and considerate. Give me a break. Thank you for all of your advise. Kinda tired of being on here now. Ready for my trip and to do away with this.

I think it was a rant and some advice for the future. We can see you have few posts, so its assumed you are newer to planning. The rant certainly didn't happen just because of you, but from what PP has seen time and time again. I think it was advice, not a slam. Both of you go back to that happy face. We are talking about eating at Disney, does it get any better?

 

[gobraves39560]

I actually had Garden Grill and Play n dine and called 10 minutes b/f my post today and they had Cape May and Mama Melrose. I took them knowing that I would be calling back within the hour to cancel the ones that I did not need. I was suprised that they had anything. We decided to go on this trip a month ago, so I already had last minute ressies. Sorry... I was not sure of the rules, but figured it was better to get some opinions before I canceled. Does that clear it up? Definitly am new at this. First ever vacation for our family. Recently out of college and on our feet.

 

[crzy4mk]

As I said in my earlier post, I apologize if I was misunderstanding the situation. Obviously I was, since you stated that you just called to get the "extra" ADRs and haven't been sitting on them for months. The intent was not to "rip you to shreds".

Just so you know, there are many instances where I have heard of people doing just what I was talking about and it really irritates me. You did it the right way (as long as you go back and release the ones you won't use). All of us were new to this at one point, and the way you will learn the best way to do things is to hang around these boards.

I hope your first trip to the happiest place on earth is as magical as every one of my trips have been. Have fun!

 

[gobraves39560]

Thank you. We are sooo excited. Just don't like anyone to think that I am disrespectful. I totally agree... I would be mad too. Just wanted to make it clear that I did not do that. 1 AND A HALF MORE NIGHTS TILL OUR DRIVE TO DISNEY WORLD. I CAN'T SLEEP!!!

 

[danielle.st]

I'd choose Garden Grill and Mama Melrose (but only if MM is booked with the Fantasmic Package).
Have fun!

 

[septbaby]

OK, now that we have that all cleared up I hope you can make some decisions on your meals. I still suggest the following:

June 17th Keep CP as planned
June 18th Keep WCC as planned
June 19th Eat CS if you keep 2 TS meals for the 20th
June 20th Keep both ADRs if you want the Fantasmic pkg