New at this - ADR's, 1st trip, Fam of 4

[lpberg]

hello all! Been reading all kinds of posts about ADR's, favorite places to eat, places good/not so good for kids...etc., etc. Trying to narrow things down a bit so wanted to get feedback on whether or not I'm on the right track!

Family of 4 (Me, DH, DD8, DS4)
1st trip for the 4 of us - i've been, DH has been, DD was too young to remember!
8 full days (not counting travel time!) in the World - 1 of which will be off-site, 1 will be a relax-by-the-pool day!
Not 100% SOLD on the DDP yet - waiting to see if comes out for free (going in Sept).

here are my thoughts:
Day 1 - Beaches & Cream (something easy as I think we're going to wear out early!)
Day 2 - Le Cellier
Day 3 - Cape May Cafe - may move this to Day 8 & put Chef Mickey's (breakfast) in here
Day 4 - Grand Floridian Cafe
Day 5 - Rainforest Cafe
Day 6 - Whispering Canyon Cafe
Day 7 - Kona - breakfast
Day 8 - ????

Just realized - that's a LOT of Cafe's!!!! Family isn't too adventureous when it comes to eating - meat and potatoes is the way to go for most of us, and without a lot of sauces or spice!

Hopefully most of these are decent! My plan is to make the ADR's and then play things by ear - meaning: if we decide to do CS instead of dine somewhere, so be it. Let me know if I'm on the right track!

TIA -
Lynne

 

[GatorLady]

Hi, The only thing that really jumped out at me was that all your choices except Le Cellier are away from the parks. I don't know if you are planning afternoon breaks, but even if you are not (we can't make it with young kids if we don't), all that travel time will mean quite a bit less time at the parks (and much more of a hassle IMO) since you are thinking of doing so many that way. Is there a particular reason why you wanted to do that? Just asking so that we can help you better.

 

[lpberg]

Good point! Didn't even realize that I had done that - so, completely unintentional! Honestly? I was thinking of the whole "do the park in the morning, head back to the room for a rest" thing....... that way, we can, for example, eat at Grand Floridian Cafe and then hop the monorail to MK for the evening. I figured we'd be doing fairly early (4:30/5:30) dining, compared to most.

 

[ChelleinNC]

Are most of your meals going to be for lunch or dinner? Do you plan to leave the parks for dinner then go back to your room or stay till park closing? What kind of tickets do you have? Where will you be staying? I'm guessing BC since you have Beaches & Cream and Cape May Cafe on your plan. Just so you know, B&C is a TS, but does not take ADR's, the wait can be long sometimes but the food is pretty good and the ice cream is worth almost any wait

Knowing these things will make it easier to help.

FWIW, for non-adventurous eaters I think the buffets work really well. It's easier to try new things and no one gets "stuck" with something they don't like. I've eaten at all the places on your plan-- except for GF Cafe (but I've gone to 1900 Park Fare--very good buffet) they're good & safe restaurants and I think you'll find it easy to feed your family

 

[lpberg]

We're actually staying at the WL. We *do* plan on heading back to the room for a break in the afternoon. Our "typical" vacation usually has us eating a small snack type of lunch and then resting around 1:00. I figured we could be cleaned up and ready to go again around 4:00 at the latest. We prefer to do TS for dinner time, but are leaving our options open - mostly because of the kids (i.e., "i'm hungry NOW" syndrome!)

Ticketswise- we have 7 day park hoppers. In the past, we find we don't spend a lot of time in the Studios, and that we end up eating CS instead of TS. So, again, back to the room, hang out, go for dinner elsewhere.

Thanks so much for your comments!!

 

[tlriv5]

We're you planning to do any character meals? My dd's really enjoyed those our last trip. We enjoyed Ohana breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. We also enjoy using our Ts meals for dinner, but the one day we do a breakfast we usually try to enjoy a CS at Epcot or we also like Cosmic Rays at MK.

​

 

[GatorLady]

Have you stayed at the Lodge before? We just love it!!! Just make sure to pad your travel time to get back to the park and then get to the restaurant.

As far as TS restaurants I would suggest: (actually they are some of my ADR's for June, no wonder I like them so much: Garden Grill (character dinner with Chip and Dale your son might like), Princess Storybook meal in Norway if your daughter likes the princesses (check the menu at allears.net to see if you would like the food, they do a breakfast though that's American). Liberty Tree Tavern at MK for dinner is a character meal that you might find fun too.

Our grown-up meals for our upcoming trip are Le Cellier and Chef's de France.
Hope some of this is of help to you!

 

[MAGGIED]

I also might recommend a couple of character meals... in particular breakfast at CP is nice... also 1900 Park Fare for Dinner.... you might want to remember that you should allocate about 1 1/2 hours for transportation between resorts... because so many of your meals are at resorts and not in the parks you might be taking up alot of your time traveling for meals..... I see that you kids are younger... some suggestions...

Magic Kingdom.... CP for breakfast or LTT for dinner... its ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese.... all good kids things.. we also like CRT for breakfast.... my DD(18) tried the Plaza Rest. when we were there last month... she thought they had nice sandwiches....

Hollywood..... we really only like Mama Melrose here and we get the Fantasmic Package.... Sci-Fi is okay... though they do have great milkshakes

Epcot.... we go crazy here.... love LeCellier, love Chefs de France, find Morrocco okay and Mexico okay.... like Mexico for counter service though!! Not big fans of China or England.... (although the take out fish and chips isn't bad)

Animal Kingdom.... we used to love Tusker house but haven't been there since it was changed... but we enjoy Flame tree and my DS (15) likes Rainforest...

good luck with your choices... there are so many great places I am sure you will have a great time and great food!!!!

 

[frdeb1999]

HDDR is a lot of fun and the food while just normal is very good. I think you'd really have a wonderful time there. Rainforest Cafe is way over rated. I wouldn't waste anytime going there other then maybe to stop in and look around. If your looking for a wonderful breakfast w/characters....they have Lilo, Stich and Mickey. And you get a great view of the MK.

 

[lpberg]

Hoop De Doo Revue - I had to laugh.... I was "scarred" as a child by going to that place - won't get into the details, but let's just say that I've *never* been back ! (although I'm sure the kids would enjoy it!!)

I think I might add/change to Chef Mickey's - DS *really* wants to see the main "original" characters (mickey, donald, goofy, etc.) DD has sorta outgrown the princesses....she's looking forward to Test Track, Soarin', and anything else FAST at Epcot. And if we do that, then we can CS our mid-day meal (make that, late day meal!) and not need a TS dinner.

I'll have to check into 1900 Park Fare..... I didn't find out about Grand Floridian Cafe until the other day anyway so open to looking into other restaurants there, too.

We have not stayed at WL before and are all looking forward to it! It's all my DS talks about.. .you'd think we were leaving tomorrow!!