Should I make some changes?

[kt_mom]

We're going Dec7-14. Right now I have booked:

Sun 12/7 late lunch at WCC and then MVMCP
Mon 12/8 50'sPT 12:05
Jiko 7:10
Tues 12/9 CRT 1:30
CA Grill 7:10
Wed 12/10 Tusker House 8:05
HDDR 7:15

THur 12/11 LeCellier 7:45

Fri 12/12 Chef Mickey 9:30
Brown Derby 4:30 (Fantasmic pkg)
Sat 12/13 Ohana 5:00

My concern is that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday our evenings will be done once those dinners are done. We won't be able to do any park time. CA Grill is our favorite and I hate to give it up. But I really want to try Jiko's this trip. We've also never tried LeCellier and that's my way to get DH back into the park that evening as well. He isn't big on going back into the parks in the evenings. But we're going at Christmas time and I want to see the parks at night. We've never done Brown Derby before either and I'm only doing it because neither of the other's sounds good, and I really want to do fantasmic and it's another way to get DH into the park that evening.

Will going to Jiko's and seeing AK Lodge and stuff be worth it? I'm hoping with the time of our dinner at CA Grill that we may be able to see the fireworks at MK. DD enjoys the nice dinners. More than most 5 year olds which is good b/c I think it's DH favorite part.

It's hard to make everyone happy. This is our first trip at this time of year and I want to make it special for everyone. But if it was up to me we would be in the parks every evening. It's hard though when they are closing so early every night.

 

[princesswendy720]

I think your plans look great! All of the deluxe resorts have Christmas decorations up...I'm going the week after you and I've scheduled meals at the deluxe resorts just so I have an excuse to go and see the decorations.

If you want to go back to the parks in the evenings where you have dinner, maybe try to see if any of them are having evening EMH. If your husband doesn't want to come, you could always send him back to the hotel and go with your DD.

 

[kt_mom]

I guess that's true. The night that we do CA Grill we could take a trip around to the Poly and GF to see their decorations. I guess we can spend some time at AK lodge viewing the decorations and the animals as well.

I'm just scared that I'm not taking advantage of the evenings very well and the CHristmas decorations. It's just confusing when the parks are closing early so much.

I'm guessing in December since it won't be so hot that if we ended up staying longer in the parks that we'd be okay to go straight to dinner. We had to shower and change each day before dinner when we went in June.

 

[BeckWhy]

Everyone has different opinions about all the restaurants so I'll give you mine.

I love WCC! It's probably my fave restaurant in all of WDW. My ex raves and raves and raves about it. Its the one thing he always talks about when we talk about food or WDW (and they don't have to be in the same convo).

HDDR was not so good. It started out good, but went downhill. First of all you don't get food right away and you are there for 2 hours. Now it's supposed to be all you can eat. Anyways, they start the show and bring out the food a bit after... when I was there you got ribs, chicken, beans, etc. The first bunch of food was really good! But I wanted seconds of ribs (I LOVE RIBS), it took forever to get a waitress to actually put in the order and it took forever for us to get them (like right before they brouht out dessert). And they were undercooked! I got so sick afterwards because of it. And during the show they go around and do a birthday thing... well we had told them (the people at the desk) and the actor it was my birthday and he completely ignored me. Also if you are going to go there, make sure you take a cab or drive yourself... transportation there sucks! (Well I guess you are going back to MK for MVMCP, so maybe it doesn't matter.) But when we were there, we asked how to get back to our hotel and a CM told us to take the ferry back to MK and catch our bus there, so we did (even though we knew MK was closed). Waited in the rain while it was 40 degrees outside... then finally some people who were staying at Fort Wilderness came and told us the boat won't be coming but wasn't sure how we should get back to our hotel. So we asked another cast member and they said wait at the bus station and go to DTD. So we waited for 45 minutes... not DTD bus (we saw some pass, but never stop). Finally we stopped an Epcot bus (it was like 9:30 now) and told him what was going on and asked it he'd take us to Epcot to catch our resort buses there, so he radioed in and said they would hold our resort buses til we got there. Finally get got there and POP (which is where we were staying) bus was just leaving... We had to run in front of our bus to stop it from leaving.. it was the last bus to leave Epcot for Pop for the thing.

 

[kt_mom]

Everyone has different opinions about all the restaurants so I'll give you mine.

I love WCC! It's probably my fave restaurant in all of WDW. My ex raves and raves and raves about it. Its the one thing he always talks about when we talk about food or WDW (and they don't have to be in the same convo).

HDDR was not so good. It started out good, but went downhill. First of all you don't get food right away and you are there for 2 hours. Now it's supposed to be all you can eat. Anyways, they start the show and bring out the food a bit after... when I was there you got ribs, chicken, beans, etc. The first bunch of food was really good! But I wanted seconds of ribs (I LOVE RIBS), it took forever to get a waitress to actually put in the order and it took forever for us to get them (like right before they brouht out dessert). And they were undercooked! I got so sick afterwards because of it. And during the show they go around and do a birthday thing... well we had told them (the people at the desk) and the actor it was my birthday and he completely ignored me. Also if you are going to go there, make sure you take a cab or drive yourself... transportation there sucks! (Well I guess you are going back to MK for MVMCP, so maybe it doesn't matter.) But when we were there, we asked how to get back to our hotel and a CM told us to take the ferry back to MK and catch our bus there, so we did (even though we knew MK was closed). Waited in the rain while it was 40 degrees outside... then finally some people who were staying at Fort Wilderness came and told us the boat won't be coming but wasn't sure how we should get back to our hotel. So we asked another cast member and they said wait at the bus station and go to DTD. So we waited for 45 minutes... not DTD bus (we saw some pass, but never stop). Finally we stopped an Epcot bus (it was like 9:30 now) and told him what was going on and asked it he'd take us to Epcot to catch our resort buses there, so he radioed in and said they would hold our resort buses til we got there. Finally get got there and POP (which is where we were staying) bus was just leaving... We had to run in front of our bus to stop it from leaving.. it was the last bus to leave Epcot for Pop for the thing.

I'm sorry you had such a terrible experience at HDDR. I had debated about doing it again this trip. (DH would do both dinner shows if it was up to him.) But it's one of my favorites and DD had a blast last year. She loved the singing and dancing and jokes. So I decided to go ahead and do it. But not both this time. I didn't think the food was good at the Luau and the show is corny now.

Last time when we came out they had a bus waiting that they directed everyone to and it took us back to our resorts. This time I figured if they don't have that we can catch a bus or boat back to MK afterwards. Does the boat go from WL to Ft. Wilderness?