~Snowbird Chat~

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Shelly - if for some reason my birthday works out better than Logan's for us (if we can go at all) then we'll be there around the same time as you. (My b-day is Nov 5th)

YAY ~ For a possible November trip! I am getting very excited about my trip. Just hoping all these great deals don't draw in huge crowds.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Sarah, so sorry you are going through all this with your knee. My DH is looking at possible knee surgery. He had an injury at work. He is still working. He has good days and bad. He is on his 6th week of PT. He doesn't expect it to get any better. He is going to try to hold off until the beginning of the year if the doctor thinks he needs the surgery.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Anyone been to Pizzafari at AK?

How about ABC Commissary at DHS?

I'm just going over my November schedule. . . I have all my ADR's nailed down but I am looking at my CS places.

Here are the TS ADR's I am shooting for on my 90 day mark~

Sci-Fi Dine-In
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Big River Grille
Boatwrights
Kona Cafe
Le Cellier
Turf Club
Crystal Palace


Anyone been to Boatwrights? We normally don't dine at the moderate TS restaurants, but I thought we'd have a relaxing evening at the resort and not have to run anywhere for dinner. But Boatwrights is one of those places that you just don't hear much about. . .

 

[snykymom]

YAY! If we make it in December our dates will be somewhere around there. Logan's B-Day is the 14th. I'm thinking the 12th-17th, but I suppose it depends on the time we can both get off work (assuming I have a job by then)
I guess I should probably wait until we find out info from the military before I get too hopeful.

Mine's the 14th, too! I just booked a trip from the 13th-17th with the AP rate that was too good to pass up; I'm hoping I really will be able to do it after my September trip! I'd love to celebrate my birthday, even solo, at Disney. (And if you're there, maybe we can meet & celebrate jointly!)

Anyone been to Pizzafari at AK?

How about ABC Commissary at DHS?

I've heard decent things about Pizzafari; I prefer Flame Tree, though, because I like the pulled pork sandwich.

I've been to the Commisary three times. NEVER AGAIN. The first time was not good, and it's gotten worse on each return visit. Hardest, driest hamburger ever! Backlot Express in DHS is much better.

Good luck getting your ADRs!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I've heard decent things about Pizzafari; I prefer Flame Tree, though, because I like the pulled pork sandwich.

I've been to the Commisary three times. NEVER AGAIN. The first time was not good, and it's gotten worse on each return visit. Hardest, driest hamburger ever! Backlot Express in DHS is much better.

Good luck getting your ADRs!

Thanks!

You are the 3rd or 4th person to tell me that ABC Commissary is terrible. Maybe I'll stay away from that one!

I have heard a couple of good reports about Pizzafari. I think we'll give it a try. It looks like they have more than just pizza too! I know most people prefer Flame Tree but the menu just doesn't appeal to me or the kids. DH will eat just about anything so he doesn't care where we go!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Shelly~ don't know about those resteraunts...we do love Le Cellier though!!
For our CS meals, the kids love Caseys Corner and Cosmic Rays...we have to do those for sure every time!! For TS, we shoot for
Garden Grill
Nine Dragons (some like it, some hate it! even in our little group!)
Rose & Crown
Le Cellier
Cinderellas RT

Gracie and Kipper really like the CP, but only for the characters!! Ha!! I just find that i can hardly eat in there with all that activity...and the kids sure don't eat! Then an hour later they are all starving again!! I will probably skip it and just take them to Epcot UK for Pooh and Gang!
Oh, they like the Toy Story Pizza Planet for CD at the Studios. We went to the rest. in Mexico twice and it was awful both times! I don't know why, but it was! What day is your 90 day mark? Is your hubby gonna be alright with all that walking at Disney or will he have to wear a knee brace?

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Shelly~ don't know about those resteraunts...we do love Le Cellier though!!
For our CS meals, the kids love Caseys Corner and Cosmic Rays...we have to do those for sure every time!! For TS, we shoot for
Garden Grill
Nine Dragons (some like it, some hate it! even in our little group!)
Rose & Crown
Le Cellier
Cinderellas RT

Gracie and Kipper really like the CP, but only for the characters!! Ha!! I just find that i can hardly eat in there with all that activity...and the kids sure don't eat! Then an hour later they are all starving again!! I will probably skip it and just take them to Epcot UK for Pooh and Gang!
Oh, they like the Toy Story Pizza Planet for CD at the Studios. We went to the rest. in Mexico twice and it was awful both times! I don't know why, but it was! What day is your 90 day mark? Is your hubby gonna be alright with all that walking at Disney or will he have to wear a knee brace?

Casey's and Cosmic Rays are on my schedule too! Also, Wolfgang Puck Express for CS in DTD, very good! And the food court at POR at least a few times. Pizzafari at AK. . . . Not sure what at DHS. . . We've done Toy Story Pizza twice and I've had enough!

We all love CP. Not really for the characters anymore. The kids are kind of getting too old for them. But we always get excellent service there and the food is great!

My 90 day mark is on Aug 9th. Hopefully DH's knee issues won't flare up at Disney. I guess we'll just have to see how he is doing between now and then.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Wow! All this talk about ADRs is pretty exciting!!!! I wish they would have left it the old way though....but, I do need some park hours to make sure what days we will be where!! I am just hoping my tentative day hours are pretty close to correct!!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Wow! All this talk about ADRs is pretty exciting!!!! I wish they would have left it the old way though....but, I do need some park hours to make sure what days we will be where!! I am just hoping my tentative day hours are pretty close to correct!!!

I preferred the 180 days too! I am itching for the November park hours to come out next week. Then I can see if my plans even make sense!

 

[sarbah77]

Anyone been to Pizzafari at AK?

How about ABC Commissary at DHS?

I'm just going over my November schedule. . . I have all my ADR's nailed down but I am looking at my CS places.

Here are the TS ADR's I am shooting for on my 90 day mark~

Sci-Fi Dine-In
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Big River Grille
Boatwrights
Kona Cafe
Le Cellier
Turf Club
Crystal Palace


Anyone been to Boatwrights? We normally don't dine at the moderate TS restaurants, but I thought we'd have a relaxing evening at the resort and not have to run anywhere for dinner. But Boatwrights is one of those places that you just don't hear much about. . .

Man, I HATED Big River Grille. Terrible terrible service. My friend's salad was served warm (wasn't... supposed to be) and my food was served tepid (was a pasta, supposed to be hot).

But we ate at Boatwright's last January, the night of the marathon. The whole family was exhausted. Service was great and food was even better. Our waitress knew her stuff, was on top of her game, and made great recommendations. We all pretty much got steak.


I did just make ADR's for the new Kouzzina by Cat Cora, which is replacing Spoodles and opening (oh, dear) the day we arrive. We'd been waffling about dinner on September 19th... I made reservations for 50's Prime Time at 7:15, only to learn the park closes at 7 (neat trick!). I then switched to Boatwright's, but my friend was oddly unenthusiastic. Kouzzina by Cat Cora was listed on the front page of All Ears as opening for our arrival and ADRs opened last Friday... so I called this morning and got us a late Saturday night dinner.

And all I can say is "SEE YA SUCKERS!" to the hostesses at Spoodles. Meaner group of ladies I've never met. And mostly, I hope they're not at Kouzzina!



Hopefully your DH can get a knee brace, for stability, for the Disney trip. PT ought to be able to recommend them. Or perhaps even a cane. It helps a person get around, leaves a hand free, and just otherwise makes walking a little easier. I always feel so badly for people who end up injured. My troubles are all genetic/inherited, lucky me!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Man, I HATED Big River Grille. Terrible terrible service. My friend's salad was served warm (wasn't... supposed to be) and my food was served tepid (was a pasta, supposed to be hot).

But we ate at Boatwright's last January, the night of the marathon. The whole family was exhausted. Service was great and food was even better. Our waitress knew her stuff, was on top of her game, and made great recommendations. We all pretty much got steak.


I did just make ADR's for the new Kouzzina by Cat Cora, which is replacing Spoodles and opening (oh, dear) the day we arrive. We'd been waffling about dinner on September 19th... I made reservations for 50's Prime Time at 7:15, only to learn the park closes at 7 (neat trick!). I then switched to Boatwright's, but my friend was oddly unenthusiastic. Kouzzina by Cat Cora was listed on the front page of All Ears as opening for our arrival and ADRs opened last Friday... so I called this morning and got us a late Saturday night dinner.

And all I can say is "SEE YA SUCKERS!" to the hostesses at Spoodles. Meaner group of ladies I've never met. And mostly, I hope they're not at Kouzzina!



Hopefully your DH can get a knee brace, for stability, for the Disney trip. PT ought to be able to recommend them. Or perhaps even a cane. It helps a person get around, leaves a hand free, and just otherwise makes walking a little easier. I always feel so badly for people who end up injured. My troubles are all genetic/inherited, lucky me!

We ate at Big River Grille in January and LOVED it!! The service was excellent, we loved the atmosphere and the food. They were very accommodating to DS7's food issues too. We can't wait to go back!

Of our 8 ADR's 4 of them are repeats: BRG, CP, Sci-Fi, and LeCellier. And 4 of them will be new to us: WCC, Kona, Turf Club, and Boatwrights. Glad to hear you had a good experience at Boatwrights.

I will have to ask DH if his physical therapist recommended a brace or anything.

 

[sarbah77]

We ate at Big River Grille in January and LOVED it!! The service was excellent, we loved the atmosphere and the food. They were very accommodating to DS7's food issues too. We can't wait to go back!

Of our 8 ADR's 4 of them are repeats: BRG, CP, Sci-Fi, and LeCellier. And 4 of them will be new to us: WCC, Kona, Turf Club, and Boatwrights. Glad to hear you had a good experience at Boatwrights.

I will have to ask DH if his physical therapist recommended a brace or anything.

I'm 95% sure we just had a total idiot for a waiter.

The food wasn't super BUT...

our waiter brought us our drinks, took our order... brought out my friend's soup.

From there, he went to a staff meeting. He never delivered our meals - the bartender had to. No one ever got us refills.

When we decided to complain to the manager, we found out he'd taken our waiter ON A WALK DOWN THE BOARDWALK. Neither of them were in the restaurant. What the HECK?

so, yeah. It's 95% likely to be a one time bad deal but you know how THOSE go!

Boatwright's was still excellent and I'm very sad they no longer have breakfast. They had some fabulous foods. :-/ (I was a tad underwhelmed by the CS breakfast options at the resort... one day, we went to Polynesian's CS to get the Tonga Toast. YUM)

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I'm 95% sure we just had a total idiot for a waiter.

The food wasn't super BUT...

our waiter brought us our drinks, took our order... brought out my friend's soup.

From there, he went to a staff meeting. He never delivered our meals - the bartender had to. No one ever got us refills.

When we decided to complain to the manager, we found out he'd taken our waiter ON A WALK DOWN THE BOARDWALK. Neither of them were in the restaurant. What the HECK?

so, yeah. It's 95% likely to be a one time bad deal but you know how THOSE go!

Boatwright's was still excellent and I'm very sad they no longer have breakfast. They had some fabulous foods. :-/ (I was a tad underwhelmed by the CS breakfast options at the resort... one day, we went to Polynesian's CS to get the Tonga Toast. YUM)

That's awful! We had a similar bad experience at Cape May for breakfast and it really turned us away from the place. But I am pretty sure it was just a fluke and we should probably give it another try someday because everyone else seems to love it.

I heard they stopped serving breakfast at Boatwrights. We usually eat a light breakfast in the room, so I doubt we will go to the food court for breakfast. I have heard that they have excellent lunch/dinner options at the food court though!

 

[sarbah77]

That's awful! We had a similar bad experience at Cape May for breakfast and it really turned us away from the place. But I am pretty sure it was just a fluke and we should probably give it another try someday.

I heard they stopped serving breakfast at Boatwrights. We usually eat a light breakfast in the room, so I doubt we will go to the food court for breakfast. I have heard that they have excellent lunch/dinner options at the food court though!

Ohh yeah dinner was tasty. My DH loved the make your own pasta. I got the fried chicken strips/fish. YUM.

Breakfast - probably I was just picky, but next time I'll just go for the more standard oatmeal or yogurt, rather than a "hot" breakfast.

 

[EPCOT is a verb]

Anyone been to Pizzafari at AK?

How about ABC Commissary at DHS?

I'm just going over my November schedule. . . I have all my ADR's nailed down but I am looking at my CS places.

Here are the TS ADR's I am shooting for on my 90 day mark~

Sci-Fi Dine-In
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Big River Grille
Boatwrights
Kona Cafe
Le Cellier
Turf Club
Crystal Palace


Anyone been to Boatwrights? We normally don't dine at the moderate TS restaurants, but I thought we'd have a relaxing evening at the resort and not have to run anywhere for dinner. But Boatwrights is one of those places that you just don't hear much about. . .

I don't really like any of the CS places at DHS. Sometimes we just stop for a snack and then have a meal somewhere else.

On your list of TS places, we ALWAYS go to Kona and Le Cellier. Love them both.

 

[EPCOT is a verb]

Has anyone tried the picnic in a park thing at AK? Sounds interesting and we may try it...

 

[danceintherain]

Mine's the 14th, too! I just booked a trip from the 13th-17th with the AP rate that was too good to pass up; I'm hoping I really will be able to do it after my September trip! I'd love to celebrate my birthday, even solo, at Disney. (And if you're there, maybe we can meet & celebrate jointly!)

It'd be fun to meet up. As of now, in my pre-pre-planning I'm thinking about doing EPCOT on the 14th, but that's totally based on nothing (my touringplans subscription expired at the beginning of the month), so I'm sure my plans will probably change. On whichever day we do Epcot I think we'll probably try the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. It didn't start until after our trip in January, and I had only vaguely heard about it when we were there a couple weeks ago. I just read up on it the other day, and it looks really fun.

Thanks!

You are the 3rd or 4th person to tell me that ABC Commissary is terrible. Maybe I'll stay away from that one!

I think ABC Commissary is about par with the rest of the DHS restaurants. I thought the Chocolate mousse was pretty good. I got one on our last trip and split it with my Mom & sister. I only ordered fries as my "meal" though, because I wasn't very hungry, and nothing else really appealed to me. (I'm a picky eater...) Since we were paying OOP for the meals I tended to order less than I would have if we were on the Dining Plan. If we had been on the DP I would have been more likely to try something different.
We were going to go to Studio Catering Co. but it was closed, and ABC Commissary was the next closest thing.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Shelly, we did Cape May breakfast all 3 times we stayed at the BC. We really liked it...less hyped up characters than Chef Mickeys. Which I am sure we will have to do now since we are at the CR. I am not a big breakfast girl, and Gracie isn't really either. I always have crackers or granola bars in the room for Breakfast then we do early lunches. But, usually one morning close to the end of the trip we do a Character Breakfast...last time was O'Hana..it was good!!! The Lilo there is sooooo good!!!!

 

[jenjolt]

Holy Cow I was wondering why my Snowbird thread wasn't posting...and then I realized I bet a new thread got started LOL!!! Sorry I'm so late to the party guys!!!!

Shelly good luck with your ADRs...another fellow DISer and friend is going the exact same time you are!! She has the exact same ADR window opens date!! So Good Luck...I hope you get everything you want!!

I'm also going to be eating at WCC and Kona for the first time this trip....I hope they will be really yummy!!!! I'm really looking forward to them!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Anyone been to Pizzafari at AK?

How about ABC Commissary at DHS?

I'm just going over my November schedule. . . I have all my ADR's nailed down but I am looking at my CS places.

Here are the TS ADR's I am shooting for on my 90 day mark~

Sci-Fi Dine-In
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Big River Grille
Boatwrights
Kona Cafe
Le Cellier
Turf Club
Crystal Palace


Anyone been to Boatwrights? We normally don't dine at the moderate TS restaurants, but I thought we'd have a relaxing evening at the resort and not have to run anywhere for dinner. But Boatwrights is one of those places that you just don't hear much about. . .

We went to Pizzafari in January and it was decent. Madison and I got pizza, but my DH got one of the sandwiches. He liked it and the pizza was ok.