Opinions wanted on my choices for ADR's

[tjbaggott]

We are a family of 6 travelling to Florida late October for a Disney Land and Sea vacation.
Our children are 18, 16, 12 and 6. We have purchased the Disney Dining Plan and plan on eating breakfast in our hotel room, lunch at quick serve places in the parks and will have a nice meal for dinner each of the 3 evenings we are there.
We've kind of decided on the following restaurants for dinners, and I would like others opinions on these places as we've NEVER eaten at them before.

Le Cellier (DH wants this, I would have chosen Biergarten, but I must let him choose at least one place that he would like. Are there menu items my 6 year old would like, and as my 12 year old won't eat steak, what other menu choices are there for him?)
Liberty Tree Tavern
Can anyone reccomend a place in HS? I don't see anything that stands above the rest. The Sci Fi dine in theatre?, Hollywood and Vine? Would like some opinions on those
CHEF Mickey's Don't think I need opinions on this place as this one is a Definate visit, but we plan on doing Breakfast here instead of dinner.
Our ADR window opens on the 31st. Also, there does not seem to be a toll free number to call for ADR's, so would my travel agent make those for me do you think? I've emailed her asking her that, but haven't heard back yet.
Thanks for any tips ect based on your own previous experiences.

 

[spicemom]

Hey!
We ate at Sci-Fi last year for an 11am ressie. I booked it because I thought the theme was really cool. Turned out we liked it! We got to sit in our car, kids had the front seat we had the middle, another couple came in later and had the back seat. The food was fine there, I did make a point to try the milkshake and while it was good, it wasn't the best I've had (shhh!)
The only other place we've eaten at on your list is Chef Mickey's for dinner. We all loved it! Food was good. This is the 1st ressie I'm trying for when our adr date opens up on the 28th.

The only toll free adr number is to be used by TA's. I'm not sure if you're allowed to book your own adr's if using a TA. Maybe someone will chime in. Good luck getting your adr's!

 

[hockey mom]

I agree with your DH on LeCellier over Biergarten. My brother in law is German so we booked this for him and while he loved it my family was not too happy with the food.

I really like 50's Prime time. Been to Sci -fi a few times and while the atmosphere is great I am not a huge fan of the food.

Chef Mickey's is a must for our family.

 

[Northstar]

Those sound great for your varied age group!

LeCellier has a kid's menu with things like mac and cheese and plain grilled chicken breast.

If I were you, I wouldn't ask my TA to book these, because what if (s)he can't get exactly what you want and has to make a decision... for example, say LeCellier is open but not in your desired time window... which is better, LeCellier at 4:30 or 9:30, or would you rather shift to a different place? If your TA does book for you, make sure you give him/her alternate choices.

You can get a cheap long distance phone card at the grocery store and use that if you don't have a good long distance plan.

Land and Sea vacation... oh, I am so jealous.

 

[bookbabe626]

You can also book your own ADRs online via the WDW website.
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/restaurants/

Your TA should be able to give you your Disney-generated reservation number if you don't have it already.

The online ADR bookings system is pretty easy, just like shopping on eBay or Amazon, and then you have control of your choices without having to pay long distance rates.

 

[aristocat65]

le Cellier is good. If you want to take a look at their menu they usually have an updated one on allearsnet.com
I haven't tried Liberty Tree Tavern yet, so can't comment.
The best restaurant in HS is the Brown Derby, but it is 2 dining credits not one. We also really enjoy Mama Melrose in HS. 50's Prime Time is fun the first time, but the food is not very good.
Try the online ADR's as others have said. It's really easy and kind of fun to have the control of checking many options yourself rather than having to ask someone on the phone to do it.
Have a great trip!

 

[Sue M]

Love LeCellier, but this is hard to get. Have an alternate in mind when booking.
We've eatten at H&V, wouldn't recommend it. 50's Prime Time was better, or you could take the boat to Epcot and eat somewhere in World Showcase.
Haven't been to Chef Mickey's
Some of our other fave places are Kona Cafe in the Poly, and Boma in AKL.

Have fun!

 

[Tinkershelly]

Le Cellier (DH wants this, I would have chosen Biergarten, but I must let him choose at least one place that he would like. Are there menu items my 6 year old would like, and as my 12 year old won't eat steak, what other menu choices are there for him?)
Liberty Tree Tavern
Can anyone reccomend a place in HS? I don't see anything that stands above the rest. The Sci Fi dine in theatre?, Hollywood and Vine? Would like some opinions on those
CHEF Mickey's Don't think I need opinions on this place as this one is a Definate visit, but we plan on doing Breakfast here instead of dinner.
Our ADR window opens on the 31st.

Definately be on the computer at 6am Eastern time when your 90 day window opens. Have your confirmation number from your reservation with you to log on so the system can find you and will allow you to book more than the one day at a time. Create an account with Disney before the 31st. Go to the reservation pages and practice a bit before the 31st as well so you feel comfortable with it before you actually need it. Keep an open schedule for LeCellier as it will be the most difficult one to book, with Chef Mickey's a close second.

I prefer the food at 50s Prime Time in DHS but Mama Melrose would be second.

Not a fan of Liberty Tree Tavern, for dinner anyway. If you want to stay in the MK perhaps think about Crystal Palace, or even 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian, 'Ohana at the Poly or the Wave at the Contemp.

Love both LeCellier and Biergarten, we are reserved for both places in September.

Check out the dining pages here on the Dis for really good info. We're travelling with newbies this time. I'm sending them dining links from here a couple of times a week to keep them up on where we're going to be eating.

Good luck, but even if this doesn't make everyone in your party happy you always have the food on the ship to look forward to. I can't imagine anyone leaving the ship with an empty stomache!!!!

 

[twokids0204]

We are a family of 6 travelling to Florida late October for a Disney Land and Sea vacation.

Wow, that's quite a trek from Florida.. Why not get something a little closer like somewhere in Anaheim or Los Angeles.... or wait.. better idea, while in Florida, who not just go to Disney World.

 

[aristocat65]

Wow, that's quite a trek from Florida.. Why not get something a little closer like somewhere in Anaheim or Los Angeles.... or wait.. better idea, while in Florida, who not just go to Disney World.

I know that you are joking of course, but OP didn't write Disneyland after all. There's really no other way to write it than Disney Land and Sea as they are sold as Land and Sea vacations. The words do meld together when you first see them though

 

[brighteyes]

For a restaurant in HS I prefer 50's primetime cafe over Sci-Fi, however the atmosphere at Sci-fi is cool for a first time visit. I much prefer the homemade potroast at 50s.

Le Cellier is good, I had the filet there and my DS just ordered the kids pizza. I liked Le Cellier and would go back.

Chef Mickey's we have done for dinner, but I hear the breakfast is good too. Good buffet as kids can choose what they want.

For menu selections visit here http://allears.net/din/dining.htm and that will help you decide what is available on the menu.

Hope this helps.

 

[Nicki828]

We LOVED Le Cellier. We ate there in November - me, DH, DD (9) and DS (6) and everyone loved their meals. This was our favourite meal of the trip. We ate at the Sci Fi Diner and the food was good. All of us enjoyed our meals. Chef Mickey was our least favourite food-wise, but the experience was great for the kids. Great character interaction. Our favourite themed buffet was 1900 Park Fare. This one had the best food and the character interaction was amazing. Crystal Palace was also quite good. We enjoyed Boma - but probably not the greatest for kids unless you have adventerous eaters.

 

[Louiepipbgeeco]

Great choices!!
I love the SCI FI as a suggestion for HS.
It is a lot of fun and cute theming.
Chef Mickeys is my favourite.
Land and Sea--YIPEE!! HOPE YOU HAVE A BLAST!!!

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

You said you are staying 3 evenings but I count 4 TS ADRs. You will only be entitled to 3 credits each. Are you planning to pay for one meal OOP?

We love Biergarten but are planning on Le Cellier this year for a change. I likely won't order steak but there is plenty on the menu that appeals to me - chicken, prime rib, pork chop, gnocchi, salmon, scallops, etc. Maybe your 12 y.o. would like one of these options too? And the kids' menu is, well, very kid-friendly. It's got pizza, macaroni, chicken, pasta, hot dog, etc.

We are also planning LTT but only because other TS restaurants in MK have bad reviews or are character meals. We don't want to go out of the park this year with baby in tow. Hopefully, our meal will be ok here.

DHS is hard for food, I find. I would recommend strongly agaist Sci-Fi; it was our worst meal ever at a restaurant on or off WDW.

Happy planning!

 

[tjbaggott]

Well, I did end up making the ADR's myself that morning. I emailed our TA afterwards saying the control freak in my jumped out and I made our ADR's, she didn't get back to me till the afternoon and said she had planned on working on my ADR's later that EVENING!!! SO I"m GLAD I got on it first thing that morning. We got everything we wanted except for Le Cellier. The only time slot we could get was 2:45, for a late Lunch? The dinner menu doesn't start till 4pm, so as a back up till we decide for certain we have Biergarten and Chef des France booked for supper hour. I will keep trying to catch a cancellation for Le Cellier.
Since we will be paying for one of the table services ourselves, I'm thinking Chef Mickey's for breakfast would be the likely one to cover OOP? Don't really understand why we only have 3 days on our dining plan when we have 4 day park hopper tickets, but thats how Disney works it (based on how many NIGHTS).
When we were in WDW for the first time 3 years ago, we never KNEW about ADR (that first trip was a WISH trip through Children's Wish Foundation, and I've been planning on calling them to say I'd love to be there DISNEY EXPERT as I've learned SO many things I WISH I had known back then, but didn't. THings that future families would benefit from knowing!) So needless to say, we've never eaten in a table service restaurant at WDW before. So very excited about the choices this year! THanks for all the tips and thoughts on these restaurants, they have been very helpful!

 

[c&m]

Your ADRs sound good, except for Chef Mickey's. I have read some really bad reviews of the place regarding cleanliness and food quality. Some people don't mind it because they're there for the character interaction and not really for the food. I would pick Kona Cafe or Ohana instead -- though Ohana is really hard to get.

Sci-Fi at HS sounds like a good place to go for your kids' ages. We booked Sci-Fi too for our upcoming trip and are looking forward to it.

Have fun planning!

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

OP, you mentioned that you have two restaurants booked at Epcot for the same meal as a backup in case you don't get Le Cellier. Why two? That means that you are holding up an ADR for someone else since there's no way you will eat at both.

 

[c&m]

OP, you mentioned that you have two restaurants booked at Epcot for the same meal as a backup in case you don't get Le Cellier. Why two? That means that you are holding up an ADR for someone else since there's no way you will eat at both.

I think a lot of people hold on to a couple for a short while and then cancel while they map out their schedules and get feedback from family/DISers. I don't really think that is all bad, especially with online booking available now, it's easy to book and cancel.

 

[eeyoremum]

Well, I did end up making the ADR's myself that morning. I emailed our TA afterwards saying the control freak in my jumped out and I made our ADR's, she didn't get back to me till the afternoon and said she had planned on working on my ADR's later that EVENING!!! SO I"m GLAD I got on it first thing that morning. We got everything we wanted except for Le Cellier. The only time slot we could get was 2:45, for a late Lunch? The dinner menu doesn't start till 4pm, so as a back up till we decide for certain we have Biergarten and Chef des France booked for supper hour. I will keep trying to catch a cancellation for Le Cellier.
Since we will be paying for one of the table services ourselves, I'm thinking Chef Mickey's for breakfast would be the likely one to cover OOP? Don't really understand why we only have 3 days on our dining plan when we have 4 day park hopper tickets, but thats how Disney works it (based on how many NIGHTS).
When we were in WDW for the first time 3 years ago, we never KNEW about ADR (that first trip was a WISH trip through Children's Wish Foundation, and I've been planning on calling them to say I'd love to be there DISNEY EXPERT as I've learned SO many things I WISH I had known back then, but didn't. THings that future families would benefit from knowing!) So needless to say, we've never eaten in a table service restaurant at WDW before. So very excited about the choices this year! THanks for all the tips and thoughts on these restaurants, they have been very helpful!

I would encourage you to take the 2:45 at Le Cellier. It is well worth it. Have a late breakfast with your snack credit and have a table service later in the evening for dinner. The portions are great and it is really filling. Also, it is so hard to get into (took me 4 years and I had an afternoon ADR). I have been to France a few times and find the food has gone down hill. I have never eaten in Germany as the choices are not something my family would eat.

Did you go with SciFi or 50s Prime in DHS? Prime in my opinion is the better choice especially if you "play along"

 

[Nicki828]

We really enjoyed Le Cellier - food and service were great.
We did dinner at Chef Mickey - character interaction was great - but food wise this was our least favourite. The Crystal Palace and 1900 Park Fare had much better food. But I don't think you go to Chef Mickey for the food.
We had a hard time with food at HS. We couldn't book anything in advance and figured we'd just try our luck when we got there. Luckily we were able to get into the Sci Fi Diner. The kids really enjoyed the experience and we all enjoyed our meals.

We are a family of 6 travelling to Florida late October for a Disney Land and Sea vacation.
Our children are 18, 16, 12 and 6. We have purchased the Disney Dining Plan and plan on eating breakfast in our hotel room, lunch at quick serve places in the parks and will have a nice meal for dinner each of the 3 evenings we are there.
We've kind of decided on the following restaurants for dinners, and I would like others opinions on these places as we've NEVER eaten at them before.

Le Cellier (DH wants this, I would have chosen Biergarten, but I must let him choose at least one place that he would like. Are there menu items my 6 year old would like, and as my 12 year old won't eat steak, what other menu choices are there for him?)
Liberty Tree Tavern
Can anyone reccomend a place in HS? I don't see anything that stands above the rest. The Sci Fi dine in theatre?, Hollywood and Vine? Would like some opinions on those
CHEF Mickey's Don't think I need opinions on this place as this one is a Definate visit, but we plan on doing Breakfast here instead of dinner.
Our ADR window opens on the 31st. Also, there does not seem to be a toll free number to call for ADR's, so would my travel agent make those for me do you think? I've emailed her asking her that, but haven't heard back yet.
Thanks for any tips ect based on your own previous experiences.