catne
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Messages
- 8,420
If you're not a breakfast eater, why not eat your birthday dinner at the castle? It's a good meal (and you have a few choices on entree/dessert, etc, you'll be eating in the castle ...and seeing the princesses, too. Better value because it's also 2 credits though if you pay cash the dinner is more $$. We have been at the castle twice for birthday dinners and they did a nice job decorating the table with castle-confetti and giving a special cupcake (on top of the dessert you order...double dessert, yum. Ask them to box your cupcake for a later treat.)
There ARE desserts at Le Cellier for both meals (every Disney restaurant has desserts) so go ahead and keep you lunch there if you want to.
And by the way, we have used both the regular dining plan and the deluxe dining plan about 10 times in the last 3 years...we have saved 20-30% over the cash value of our meals. I'm one who keeps receipts and keeps track of the cash price from the menu, and totes it all up at the end of the vacation to see what it cost us/saved us. So far, it has saved us some really nice $$$ every single time. And yes, we WOULD order desserts. We don't eat 'em at home (except like on major holidays or birthdays...but even when we go out to eat at home we don't order desserts.) On Vacation, that's one of our splurges to make it "vacation special"...we love getting desserts at lunch and dinner, to us it's part of the Disney magic. We also tend to order the expensive entrees (LOVE steak. We don't order chicken or pasta when we go out, lol.) We're not forcing ourselves to order the most expensive things, that's just the way we like to order (my grandma used to say "champagne taste on a beer budget"...that's us, lol...on the dining plan we have no qualms about ordering the expensive stuff since it's covered either way.)
I would skip 'Ohana and go to Kona Cafe at the Polynesian (very good steaks there!) We had mediocre service and cold blah food at 'Ohana. Yes, they give you a lot of food, but most not worth eating. And if you don't have little kids with you, the entertainment can be downright annoying. I'd also skip Akershus if you are going to the castle. The food in Norway is not all that good...Akershus is a pale imitation of a castle environment...and you'll see the princesses in the Castle at MK. There are many good restaurants in Epcot...or walk over to the Epcot resort/Boardwalk area to try one of the Epcot hotel restaurants...Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club is a much better buffet for dinner than Akershus is. Or Captain's Grille at Yacht Club for steaks. Or Kouzzina at Boardwalk if you like Greek food.
There ARE desserts at Le Cellier for both meals (every Disney restaurant has desserts) so go ahead and keep you lunch there if you want to.
And by the way, we have used both the regular dining plan and the deluxe dining plan about 10 times in the last 3 years...we have saved 20-30% over the cash value of our meals. I'm one who keeps receipts and keeps track of the cash price from the menu, and totes it all up at the end of the vacation to see what it cost us/saved us. So far, it has saved us some really nice $$$ every single time. And yes, we WOULD order desserts. We don't eat 'em at home (except like on major holidays or birthdays...but even when we go out to eat at home we don't order desserts.) On Vacation, that's one of our splurges to make it "vacation special"...we love getting desserts at lunch and dinner, to us it's part of the Disney magic. We also tend to order the expensive entrees (LOVE steak. We don't order chicken or pasta when we go out, lol.) We're not forcing ourselves to order the most expensive things, that's just the way we like to order (my grandma used to say "champagne taste on a beer budget"...that's us, lol...on the dining plan we have no qualms about ordering the expensive stuff since it's covered either way.)
I would skip 'Ohana and go to Kona Cafe at the Polynesian (very good steaks there!) We had mediocre service and cold blah food at 'Ohana. Yes, they give you a lot of food, but most not worth eating. And if you don't have little kids with you, the entertainment can be downright annoying. I'd also skip Akershus if you are going to the castle. The food in Norway is not all that good...Akershus is a pale imitation of a castle environment...and you'll see the princesses in the Castle at MK. There are many good restaurants in Epcot...or walk over to the Epcot resort/Boardwalk area to try one of the Epcot hotel restaurants...Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club is a much better buffet for dinner than Akershus is. Or Captain's Grille at Yacht Club for steaks. Or Kouzzina at Boardwalk if you like Greek food.
What is a vacation with out constant, highly fattening and fairly expensive desserts!?
What a paradox! Thanks for the advice, though. 
Are there certain places where your tip is included if it's a two credit meal? 
I want my dessert! 
So, is that menu just not accurate, or would I really not be able to get a dessert at Le Cellier? Could I order a side since there is no option for dessert and use that as my dessert "credit"?
(Looked for a -facepalm- or -headdesk- sort of smilie but couldn't find one, so those will have to do). Anyway, I ended up with quite a lot of "fixed price" meals... And when I did what ya'll suggested, and added what we thought we would be eating, we ended up with $303.78 to spend with snack credits and counter service credits! That seems like... a lot to me. Will that be hard to meet, with a total of 16 counter service credits, and 16 snack credits... Which doesn't sound that bad, but when you divide $303.78 by 32, you end up with needing to spend about $9.49 per snack/meal!
So we do better with no dining plan. That way we can eat where we want and what we want and not have to worry about using up all the credits and getting our money's worth.
