Something About Nothing.........#7

[macraven]

thanks marcie.

did you get all your adr's done ?

i read on another thread you were asking about a restaurant in the motherland.
hope you got the one you wanted.


yea, it hit 88 here today.

i turned the furnace off on sunday night.......

 

[marciemi]

Oh yeah, I made ADR's. You know, now the online system is working for Disney? So now you can go on 24/7 and make ADR's. And more ADR's. And adjust everything you've made. And make ADR's for your friends. And cancel ADR's. And continue to do this 24/7. No, I'm not obsessed! Yes, online reservations, are NOT good for those of us who are OCD planners!

Actually I booked 'Ohana with another family I met here on the DIS (also from Staten Island like Mary) and booked Le Cellier with another TGM'er, so now not only do I get to eat at fun places, but I also get to meet new and fun people! I'm spending all my time these days emailing all the folks I plan to meet on my trip in August. Although the family we're eating at LC with actually lives only a couple miles away and their kids are in the same schools as mine so we've met several times already!

 

[macraven]

wow, that sounds great you have the food thing lined up with other homies.

i joined in on a couple of threads for the motherland and meeting up with others also.
some i have crossed paths with on other visits there.


i'm aware of the online adr thing but going to stick with the live cm to make mine.
if i can't get the ones i want when the lines open in july, i am afraid i will not be able to get them as easily.

i thought the online adr opened when the phone lines opened.
i could be wrong on that.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

No, the one across from Downtown Disney is a different property with a similar name. This one is on I-Drive, closer to Sea World. My friend Joie is driving down, so that solves the car issue. Sheraton has free parking, plus we could possibly do the I-Ride trolley, or whatever its called, to save on parking fees. I've already heard stories on Trip Advisor of the time share people calling at 7:45 am, which is fine since I will most likely already be up. The main reason is, with the same money I was planning on saving, my spending money after paying for the hotel has gon from right at $1000 to $1500.

Okey dokey ...

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

i'm aware of the online adr thing but going to stick with the live cm to make mine.
if i can't get the ones i want when the lines open in july, i am afraid i will not be able to get them as easily.

That's why I'm glad we have a car - we can go off-site to eat rather than worry about not being able to get into the Disney restaurants.

I might try to get California Grill for our anniversary dinner this year (we've done Boma on past trips) ... I've also been toying with BlueZoo ... I just hate having to make up my mind 3 months ahead of time what I'll want to eat on a certain day.

 

[macraven]

i hate it too bonny but i have the ddp and need to set up places for dinners.

this is the last time i do the ddp.
i don't think it is really worth it anymore for me.

the sorry situation of that system is, it is very difficult to get an adr when the free dining is open to those doing a package.


gone are the days where you could make a ressie the day of needing it.
gone are the days of walk ups for a table for ts.

i'm so glad i don't have to deal with dining ressies when i am at the darkside.

 

[macraven]

now i'm hungry.


i need to scrounge around my dump here and look for something good to eat.


not sure what i want but if it has chocolate on it, i call dibbs on it....



if i can't find chocolate, i might make a blt.

 

[macraven]

i have read and looked at pics of the food at BlueZoo.

it looks yummy!!

 

[RAPstar]

man, youse take all the fun out of trapping.........




even if you had meals at mythos everyday you were there, you would not go broke.
it's not that expensive there.

man....it's really good food from the stuff i ordered from there.

Yea, I was impressed at how affordable Mythos was! And the Pastabilites they had when I was there!!! Sooooo good. Since I'm off site, and my friend has a car, I may try to eat at Boma one night, just cause. And I'm definitely gonna try the CityWalk Emeril's and maybe do Tchoup Chop again.

I need to stop talking about food....I'm gettin' hungry!

 

[Tinker-tude]

damn.........i was gonna wait until you fell asleep and play connect the dots on youse......


my mom is a freckled redhead.
when we were kids we would wait until she laid down for a nap and connect her freckles with an ink pen.


mom never liked that game at all.........
and we kids never liked her anger over it..............

I laughed so hard when I read your post that DH asked what was so funny. I read it to him and he got a good laugh, too.

And I'm definitely gonna try the CityWalk Emeril's and maybe do Tchoup Chop again.

I need to stop talking about food....I'm gettin' hungry!

I've heard mixed reviews about CityWalk Emeril's. People who've done both seem to prefer Tchoup Chop. Just don't do Tchoup Chop on a busy night. After we got food poisoning there, I did a search to see if that had happened to anyone else, and how often. Several other people had had a really bad experience, but one of the frequent diners said that there is a pattern to it. On a relaxed weekday, Tchoup Chop is wonderful. If it's a busy weekend or there's a convention there, everything goes to HE&%. I know you've been there before, so you know how good it can be. Just don't let them kill you on a weekend.

 

[marciemi]

i thought the online adr opened when the phone lines opened.
i could be wrong on that.

Online opens at 6am Eastern, phone lines at 7am. If you have any you realy want, you can always try at 6 (well, 5 for us!) and see if you get it before you call. They can pull it up for you to make you feel better you have it, but personally, being able to email myself the confirmation and print it out makes me feel better about having it than a random CM telling me so. Try out the system - to me it's very user friendly and easy to understand. And quick (unlike the DIS these days! I gave up last night after my last post took almost 15 minutes to go through. And it can't just be my computer because I can make 10 posts on TGM in the same time.)

Yea, I was impressed at how affordable Mythos was! And the Pastabilites they had when I was there!!! Sooooo good.

That's the one place we're really going to miss on this trip. Not getting a car or anything and I'm glad to be doing the free dining at WDW, but we really enjoyed Mythos, and especially with a AAA discount, think we had good steaks for the 5 of us (some kids' meals) for the cost of what Le Cellier will be for 2 of us!

Oh, and a mom brag ahead (warning ). Eric (my 8th grader) took the ACT a couple of weeks ago just for fun. Well, they have the scores online today and he got a 34!! 36 is the max, but the 34 is 99th percentile for HS juniors and seniors. So I guess in the 3 years he has until he takes it for real he can concentrate a bit on the reading portion (only low score). Woo hoo!

 

[Metro West]

Morning and happy Wednesday...Wipeout is on tonight!

I'm curious about something...help me out here. When you guys come to Disney and make ADR's, how many do you make? I mean...do you just do a few meals or everything? I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the whole concept of planning every meal and having to be somewhere at a specific time on a specific date. I understand the concept of wanting to eat in a nice restaurant but not for every meal! That kind of planning seems to limit what you can do since you have reservations for meals. I just don't get...can someone give me their opinion?

 

[marciemi]

My opinion is that without free dining, we made a max of two ADR's a trip - usually one character meal and one other we wanted to try (Teppan Edo, Coral Reef). That seemed to be the case whether we were there for 4 days or 10. Although on our 2 day trip in 2005, we only squeezed in Sci Fi for a quick lunch.

However, this time with the free dining, we're planning it the other way. Of course I figured out my parks first, but we're planning one ADR a day and planning to enjoy seeing places and eating food that we'd otherwise never have time for. I realize we'll see less this trip, but we're going more off season, plus all my ADR's are dinner or lunch, so we will still have your prime touring time in the morning. So really, my days are either tour heavily in the morning, then a big lunch, and then the rest of the day to relax - either back at the resort, Downtown Disney, or at the parks doing things like World Showcase or the "lesser" attractions and shows. Or, again a heavy touring morning with a quick CS meal, then back to the resort to relax before a big dinner (more useful with the ADR's at other resorts instead of parks).

That said, I can't imagine doing this with young kids. Going with just DS16 like I am this time, or with DH (like hopefully in the future), the meals can be an experience in themselves. With young kids, I think it would be very hard to do Le Cellier and nicer places, but character meals would get old after the second or third one! Plus your touring time is so much shorter anyways. DS and I can be at ropedrop and by taking some breaks and having a TS lunch, can probably go until closing (8-9 when we're going). Would never happen with preschoolers, and I'd hate to waste some of the prime touring time when they were awake and in a good mood at a restaurant!

 

[Darcy03231]

Morning and happy Wednesday...Wipeout is on tonight!

I'm curious about something...help me out here. When you guys come to Disney and make ADR's, how many do you make? I mean...do you just do a few meals or everything? I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the whole concept of planning every meal and having to be somewhere at a specific time on a specific date. I understand the concept of wanting to eat in a nice restaurant but not for every meal! That kind of planning seems to limit what you can do since you have reservations for meals. I just don't get...can someone give me their opinion?

If we're not on the dining plan I only make one or two, usually Coral Reef and Le Cellier. Other than that we eat at counter service places.

If we're on the dining plan, I make a reservation for all of our table service meals. If you don't make reservations, depending on the time of year you go and how popular the restaurant is, you most likely won't get in. When I went in October 2008 we had reservations at Coral Reef. Right before we left I wanted to change the schedule around a bit and called to see if we could move our reservation. There was nothing available at any time during the entire week we were there. I even tried again once we got there in case there was a cancellation. We ended up keeping what we had and working around it. It really is a pain, but if you have kids and want to do character meals or eat at popular restaurants, you need to make reservations.

 

[macraven]

morning homies....


metro, the dining plan at disney used to be great when it had to be purchased. first it was $38.99+ 13.5% tax at allstars resorts.
then it dropped $2 but still a decent deal if you used all the credits.

last year they dropped the appetizer and kept the price the same.



it was very easy to make the adr's for the day and time you wanted.

it was also very easy to do a walk up to about any restaurant.


now with free dining the past few years for those that buy the package,
it is no longer easy.

i need to book adr's for 9 meals of table service.
if i kiss them off and don't use them, i have lost a ton of money.

the counter service credits i will have won't be an issue to use.
you walk up to a counter, order food, stand there until the cm gives it to you on a tray, then find a place to sit down and eat.


the snack credits, well, i get a few ice cream sundaes then fill up the rest with water. i take that to the darkside hotel with me when i move over there.

if i can't get the TS adrs, i'll be out about $350.

that is why i have to scramble and make the adr's to make the ddp desirable to use.


the motherland used to list the park hours a good 5 months out.
now they are only releasing the hours and special events about almost 3 months out.

the adr's can be made 90 days out if you stay on site.
if you stay offsite, it is 100 days out from your arrival that you can make them.

i'll be making my adrs without the park information.
if a park stays open late on a certain night, i always chose a restaurant for that evening in that park.

i'll be working blindly now as no info has been released.

last year i cancelled one adr while i was at the motherland and had a heck of a time trying to replace it.
the cm on the phone spent 33 minutes with me trying to find somewhere in epcot that i could get in.
big headache time......


next year, no package for me at the motherland.
just going to use the AAA for the mere 10% discount for the room.
that's the only discount i can use.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Afternoon all ... Happy Hump Day!

Morning and happy Wednesday...Wipeout is on tonight!

I'm curious about something...help me out here. When you guys come to Disney and make ADR's, how many do you make? I mean...do you just do a few meals or everything? I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the whole concept of planning every meal and having to be somewhere at a specific time on a specific date. I understand the concept of wanting to eat in a nice restaurant but not for every meal! That kind of planning seems to limit what you can do since you have reservations for meals. I just don't get...can someone give me their opinion?

We only make one or two ADRs. With the free dining thing, a lot of the table service restaurants don't have any availability for walk-ups, so to ensure we get a table for the ones we really want (eg, for our anniversary dinner) we make ADRs for those. Otherwise if we can't get into a table service restaurant by just walking up without an ADR, we'll just eat at the counter service restaurants or go off-site to eat.

For someone like Mac who doesn't have a car and who buys the dining plan, you have to make ADRs for each day of your trip to ensure you don't lose the money you paid (you can't buy the dining plan just for certain days like the meal plan at US - it's for your entire length of stay at Disney).

And you're right ... it's hard to decide where you want to eat 3 months in advance, everyday for your entire trip ... heck, I don't even know what I want for supper tonight!!!

 

[macraven]

Metro, when someone has the ddp, it allows you one table service, one counter service and one snack per night you are booked.

the TS covers either a buffet and non alcoholic beverage
or if ordering off a menu, one beverage/non alcoholic, one entree and one dessert.

last year it also included an appetizer which no longer is on the ddp.

you can use the food credits any way you desire.
last year i used counter service credits only for the first 3 days, then used TS twice a day on a few days.

if a person wants more than one entree and dessert on the ddp, they have to pay out of pocket for the items.

last year disney servers would bring you the receipt to sign for your meal and it would then take off a credit for the meal.
at the bottom of the receipt you sign, it would list to check

18% gratuity
or
20% gratuity to be added to the bill.

the tax is included on the ddp.
the gratuity is not included on the ddp.

years prior, gratuity was included in the ddp.

 

[Tinker-tude]

Afternoon, everyone!

Feeding the dogs, and then trying to decide what to make for dinner.

You don't need an ADR to eat here, but the menu is limited.

 

[Metro West]

So I guess if you have the DDP, you pretty much have to make ADR's..right?

That still seems kinda funny to me. I would hate to be tied down knowing I had to be somewhere at a certain time during vacation but I guess you have to do what you have to do.

 

[macraven]

Afternoon, everyone!

Feeding the dogs, and then trying to decide what to make for dinner.

You don't need an ADR to eat here, but the menu is limited.

will we have white linens on the table?
and what flavor of kool aide will be served today?