Waiting patiently (NOT) for our Grand Gathering trip in 4 days!

[janloz]

I am so excited for you! Deluxe dining!!!! WE are going to see about doing it too, but I am just unsure. It sounds like your hubby and mine feel the same way about food, lol.

Excited to hear what you the "educated planner" will choose.

Dana

We had the regular dining plan in 2006 and really liked it so when they released the deluxe plan for this year, we decided to go for it. We will be there 8 days so we thought that we would still have plenty of time for the parks and TS ADRs. Since we are traveling with Mom, MIL and FIL, we thought they would appreciate taking a break for lunch with TS too. Right now, we have 21 ADRs booked, 6 breakfasts, 5 lunches, 9 dinners and Tea at GF. Plus 2 QS breakfasts & 3 lunches. Only 2TS ADRs are Brown Derby and California Grill. For just our family of 4, we have also have 56 snack credits. I know it is a lot of money especially since Shark is adult rate but I like the ability to have all meals paid for prior to leaving and flexiblity of where we can eat.

Ok, now on with my choices......

 

[janloz]

As soon as we started thinking about this trip, I knew where I wanted to eat for breakfast and dinner, lunch was the wild card.

Crystal Palace: I wanted to book an ADR here prior to park opening hours so we could get the wonderful "empty" Main St and Castle photos. This is the first time for us at CP but have read A lot of great reviews about their breakfast and are very excited to start our first full day at Disney there, plus to get to see Pooh and friends is great. Pooh is one of my favorites.

California Grill: What can I say about it that hasn't already been said? One great thing about going to WDW in December is that Wishes fireworks are early especially on MVMCP nights. So I got ADR for 5:30pm on our last night when Wishes are scheduled for 6pm. Dave and Shark are big fans of Sushi so I am sure they will try that. I have also seen some great flatbreads and incredible desserts so we are all really looking forward to this ADR. On side note, Dave and family ate at the CG when he went to WDW as a child and they are looking forward to returning again with grandkids.

Town's Town Tavern: We have not eaten here before and I was debating between here and Plaza Restaurant for lunch in MK on first full day. I actually asked for Plaza first but they could not accomodate a party of 7 at one table so we took TTT because they could. The more I look at the menu and reviews, I am happy with the ADR. We hope to get most of the MK done in the morning prior to this ADR so we can do a little bit of shopping on Main St after lunch then go back to POP.

Since others didn't pick all of their choices, here are the others I picked to complete ADRs.

1900's Park Fare: This ADR is a surprise for Bear. While Dave and I have our "date Night", my mom will take Bear here for dinner alone. She LOVES the princesses and was disappointed that we were not eating dinner here but Shark was not having any part of princess dinner. I told her they would be going to Chef Mickey's with mom while we had our dinner. Remember, the kids don't know MIL/FIL are coming.

Chef Mickey's: This will be the dinner for Shark with Granny-Granny and Poppy on Date Night. This is the only night we are splitting up for dinner. We ate here last time and kids really liked it so they both picked it when I told them they would be going with Granny Joyce for dinner.

For both the ADRs above, they will go together on bus to MK then take monorail to hotels for dinner and meet up afterwards at GF.

Kona Cafe: On the night we are attending the MVMCP, I decided to try Kona Cafe for dinner then we can hop on monorail and get to MK. Most of the reviews I read on KC were very good and the menu sounded great so we will be trying it.

Grandview Lounge Tea: During a trip to New Orleans, mom and I had High Tea at Windsor Court Hotel and loved it. When I read about the GVL Tea, I knew the Ladies had to try it. So on Friday afternoon, the girls will be having tea at GF while the boys are trying the jet boats in the marina. the girls will join them on the boats afterwards. This must becoming a more popular event since I was not able to get it on Sunday or Monday which were my first choices.

Ohana character breakfast: On last ADR at Disney will be at Ohana. The kids have always love Lilo and Stitch and this seems like a fun way to end the trip before taking the ME to the airport. This is a new place for us too.


Up next, other fun things planned.....

 

[janloz]

So this morning I called starting at 6:58am to get my ADR for Candlelight Processional on Dec. 1st. At 7am exactly, BINGO I got through to CM. I read on the boards later that they were swamped this morning and others were on hold for 50mins +. Anyway, I asked for Teppan Edo on 12/1 for 8:15pm show since we plan to watch CP and then Illuminations. She said, "Would you like 5:15, 5:30 or 5:45pm?" 5:45pm please. YEAH!! Our celebrity reader is now TBA and not Patty Labelle. I hope we get someone good.


So then later in the day, I am reading restaurant reviews and see one bad review after another for Cape May Cafe especially from diners in the New England which we are. We spend at least one week on Cape Cod, Mass each year and have eaten many times at the champion chowder restaurant so if CMC isn't going to live up to these, what else could I find?

I should have the dining phone number memorized by now. Back on the phone with a wonderful CM and tried to get Tutto Italia for Saturday night. Only thing left was 7:30pm which was not great since that is our arrival day and we would be up early for the flight. So I asked her if she could check what was available in Epcot so there was Biergarten, Morocco, Tokyo dining, nothing that my picky eaters would like. She then says, believe it or not, we have Le Cellier for 6:20pm for 7 people at one table. SOLD!!! I'm sure it was because the CP packages became available today and other cancelled their "back up" ADR when they got their CP choice. Then I remember that our date night dinner is at LC too. Should I cancel and try something else? If so, for what ADR?......

 

[Couturier]

So this morning I called starting at 6:58am to get my ADR for Candlelight Processional on Dec. 1st. At 7am exactly, BINGO I got through to CM. I read on the boards later that they were swamped this morning and others were on hold for 50mins +. Anyway, I asked for Teppan Edo on 12/1 for 8:15pm show since we plan to watch CP and then Illuminations. She said, "Would you like 5:15, 5:30 or 5:45pm?" 5:45pm please. YEAH!! Our celebrity reader is now TBA and not Patty Labelle. I hope we get someone good.


So then later in the day, I am reading restaurant reviews and see one bad review after another for Cape May Cafe especially from diners in the New England which we are. We spend at least one week on Cape Cod, Mass each year and have eaten many times at the champion chowder restaurant so if CMC isn't going to live up to these, what else could I find?

I should have the dining phone number memorized by now. Back on the phone with a wonderful CM and tried to get Tutto Italia for Saturday night. Only thing left was 7:30pm which was not great since that is our arrival day and we would be up early for the flight. So I asked her if she could check what was available in Epcot so there was Biergarten, Morocco, Tokyo dining, nothing that my picky eaters would like. She then says, believe it or not, we have Le Cellier for 6:20pm for 7 people at one table. SOLD!!! I'm sure it was because the CP packages became available today and other cancelled their "back up" ADR when they got their CP choice. Then I remember that our date night dinner is at LC too. Should I cancel and try something else? If so, for what ADR?......

You got a perfect ADR at leCellier! WOW! I have heard that is sooo hard to get!

If I were you, I would keep both of them. Then if for some reason you absolutly will NOT want to go back for date night, call the ressie line while you are there and see what else is avaliable on date night? Since it is just you and hubby you can be more flexible too. I have heard of people getting last minute cancels while they are there.

We want to try LeCellier too, I am sooo excited to hear your reviews, lol. We are eatting at alot of the same places.

Also, do you know... do they not have tables for 7 at the plaza? We have 6 in our party and we were hoping to eat there, and that is only 1 less, lol.

Waiting for more updates!
Dana

 

[janloz]

You got a perfect ADR at leCellier! WOW! I have heard that is sooo hard to get!

If I were you, I would keep both of them. Then if for some reason you absolutly will NOT want to go back for date night, call the ressie line while you are there and see what else is avaliable on date night? Since it is just you and hubby you can be more flexible too. I have heard of people getting last minute cancels while they are there.

We want to try LeCellier too, I am sooo excited to hear your reviews, lol. We are eatting at alot of the same places.

Also, do you know... do they not have tables for 7 at the plaza? We have 6 in our party and we were hoping to eat there, and that is only 1 less, lol.

Waiting for more updates!
Dana

I will give you the full update on our ADRs in the next post, a few changes in the past week.

I tried to make an ADR for Plaza for 7 people and I was told that they only have tables for groups 2 & 4 so they would have to give us 2 tables of 4 and hopefully they could seat us together. Not what I wanted on the first full day of our trip so we changed once again....

 

[janloz]

So when we left off, we had 2 ADRs for Le Cellier one with the whole family and one for date night. So back on the phone with Dining again and I try to see what is available for Date night so we can try something different. First I tried for Tutto Italia but then thought about Narcoosees in GF. I had seen many great reviews on Dis so lets see if available and it was. 6:50pm which is perfect so we could ride with the rest of the family to MK from POP and then get on Monorail to Cont. and drop of DS with MIL/FIL for Chef Mickeys and then onto GF. We will walk DD and Dmom to 1900 Park Fare for their ADR and then explore the hotel for a while until our ADR. They will meet up afterwards to return to POP for early bed. We will probably stay at GF to watch Wishes or go to Poly to watch them. So date night is set.

My other dilemma has been lunch in MK on Monday. I started with ADR at Tony's but after reading many bad reviews I decided to try for The Plaza but they only have tables of 2 and 4 which would means we would possibly have to split up. Not really a big deal but DH said he would prefer not to. So back to drawing boards. LTT?? I check the lunch menu and it looks like there is something for everyone, now will there be an open ADR? Back on the phone with CM (wow, my phone bill is going to be all 407---- numbers this month ) and ask him for lunch time on 11/30 and he says no sorry, they are booked due to MVMCP. I say, "For lunch??? Oh sorry, I was checking for dinner. Yup, we have 11:30 or 1:25. I take the 1:25pm since we are going for 50sPT that night at 7pm so late lunch works well. We can use a few snack credits in the park to hold kids over until lunch.

Hopefully these are the final changes for the ADRs...but you never know.

 

[Figment's Friend]

Ok, haven't read everything yet (I'm only on the first page!) but I just had to comment about your cool idea allowing everybody in the family to pick where they wanted to eat It's nice to hear somebody getting everyone involved! I'm going to catch up on everybody's restaurant picks and why tomorrow

Btw, your kids are adorable in their Disney costumes!

 

[janloz]

Ok, haven't read everything yet (I'm only on the first page!) but I just had to comment about your cool idea allowing everybody in the family to pick where they wanted to eat It's nice to hear somebody getting everyone involved! I'm going to catch up on everybody's restaurant picks and why tomorrow

Btw, your kids are adorable in their Disney costumes!

Thanks for joining. And thanks on both counts. I really wanted to get the kids involved in the planning this year and letting them pick their dining seemed an easy way to do it. Since we are doing Dlx Dining, we had so many choices to make and I didn't want to hear later.."Well, I really wanted to try this place, how come you picked this one??" We are trying 12 new restaurants this time which really seems to have everyone excited about the trip. We are using the dining as a way to get in the parks early, break in the day and then special time at night. We have the luxory of being in the park for 8 days so we will have a lot of time to visit the attractions, see the Christmas events and decoration and really enjoy ourselves. But the main thing I would stress is planning. I had to work the 21 ADRs around park visits and bday celebration plus MVMCP, Osborne Lights, CP and Wishes.

My kids are very into the holidays especially Halloween and Christmas (wonder who they got that from ) and we start planning their Halloween costumes in the summer. DD will be Cinderella this year and then wear the costume for Akerhaus breakfast (double duty). She still loves the princesses and wants to be one each year, so far Sleeping Beauty & Tink and last year High School Musical Cheerleader. I was able to get a great deal on Disneyshopping.com after Halloween for the deluxe Cindy dress which was $85 for less then $20 after discount code and then waited until Christmas and wrapped it up in Princess paper with a note from the Princesses that she should wear it when she visited them and had breakfast together. Pixie dust delivered on Christmas morning.


More PTR to come shortly......

 

[Figment's Friend]

about what Bear said about the Mickey waffles at Boma! That's too cute!

The diver and personalized menu's at Coral Reef sounds great, I plan on doing this for my DBF in 2010, from what I've seen it looks really special.

You will love the decorations at AKL, especially their Christmas tree is beautiful

It's cool Shark is such an adventurous eater! We're eating here for the first time this year on our first night. Definitely THE place for a celebration.

I like the surprise of the whole family joining in

We love Flame Tree BBQ as well. The ducks can be a riot though, one was chewing on my DM's shirt as we were eating our lunch last year!

I'm jealous you're dining at Kona Cafe Food looks SO good there.

Everybody made great choices. And I had to add I like the GF tea thing and afterward the jets, sounds fun! Now that I'm officially caught up.....

 

[Couturier]

More PTR to come shortly......

More? What else are you going to do??? You have not updated in a while and I have been busy with summer break so I thought I would pop over. I love reading about what you and everyone else is going to be doing, so I can live through you for now, lol. I have FOREVER til my trip! Have you thought about getting the whole fam together for one of those photo shoots? I dont think you had mentioned it.

Dana

 

[Figment's Friend]

Yeah, I'm waiting here, too! I've got you in my subscribed threads and am always expecting there to be an update from you!

 

[mybabesuz]

I'm here too...

 

[janloz]

More? What else are you going to do??? You have not updated in a while and I have been busy with summer break so I thought I would pop over. I love reading about what you and everyone else is going to be doing, so I can live through you for now, lol. I have FOREVER til my trip! Have you thought about getting the whole fam together for one of those photo shoots? I dont think you had mentioned it.

Dana

Yes, we are planning to do the one at Poly since Dh and family stayed there when he was small and it has special meaning to them.

Yeah, I'm waiting here, too! I've got you in my subscribed threads and am always expecting there to be an update from you!

I'm here too...

Sorry for the delays, been a busy summer. I promise to give you some more updates on planning tomorrow. I have made a few more changes to ADRs which i will tell you about. (Not surprised, are you??)

 

[luckytobeme88]

I am with you all the way. We will be at the Pop almost the same time as you. We also have the Deluxe Dining Plan too. Having to have just return from a Grand Gathering trip the end of this July, I think you are a superb planner. I looked at all your ADR's. Unfortunately, we won't be eating at any restaurants during the week.
Here's where we will be eating so far:
11/27: late flight arrival...Dinner @ House of Blue..OOP
11/28: lunch @ Yak & Yeti (no ADR; plan to walk)
dinner @ Chef de France (6:30pm)
11/29: lunch @ 50's Primetime (11:45am)
dinner @Kona Cafe (7:00pm)
11/30: lunch @ Toyko Dining (best 1 TS lunch from last trip; freshest sashimi)
dinner @ Cali-Grill (5:55pm??, why not just call it a 6:00pm ressie?
it's my DH's Birthday, and I might splurge on a bottle of bubbly)
12/01: lunch "open"
dinner @ Coral Reef (7:30pm)
12/02: lunch "open"
dinner @ Cali-Grill (6:10pm, it's that good for a return trip again. We
ate there twice too in July. )
12/03: lunch @ WGP
late flight home

Hope to bump into your group at the resorts food court or pool area.

 

[janloz]

I am with you all the way. We will be at the Pop almost the same time as you. We also have the Deluxe Dining Plan too. Having to have just return from a Grand Gathering trip the end of this July, I think you are a superb planner. I looked at all your ADR's. Unfortunately, we won't be eating at any restaurants during the week.
Here's where we will be eating so far:
11/27: late flight arrival...Dinner @ House of Blue..OOP
11/28: lunch @ Yak & Yeti (no ADR; plan to walk)
dinner @ Chef de France (6:30pm)
11/29: lunch @ 50's Primetime (11:45am)
dinner @Kona Cafe (7:00pm)
11/30: lunch @ Toyko Dining (best 1 TS lunch from last trip; freshest sashimi)
dinner @ Cali-Grill (5:55pm??, why not just call it a 6:00pm ressie?
it's my DH's Birthday, and I might splurge on a bottle of bubbly)
12/01: lunch "open"
dinner @ Coral Reef (7:30pm)
12/02: lunch "open"
dinner @ Cali-Grill (6:10pm, it's that good for a return trip again. We
ate there twice too in July. )
12/03: lunch @ WGP
late flight home

Hope to bump into your group at the resorts food court or pool area.

Looks like we are eating at many of the same places just different times. I started a thread for a Dis meet at POP during the week I am there with no response, maybe I will bump it up again. It would be cool to meet up in the afternoon for some "adult" beverages.

 

[janloz]

Ok, a little bit of info to keep the people happy.....

One of the very nice ladies on the Dis creative board created the following for me:

She is making a Sarah and Janet with the Tiara, too. I will add them when I get them.

We are going to use the following to help spring the surprise guests.

 

[janloz]

I haven't decided what i will do with the disney name signs yet but will probably print a set for our POP window and a large one of pirate bday for the window too. I was considering making t-shirts but we have so many already, I don't know yet.

Anyway, on with the ADRs changes....which is becoming a bad habit. I read the dining reviews and then wonder if I should change them.

Ok, Shark was looking at the "master" schedule the other day and noticed that he is eating at CM on Tuesday night for dinner and then again on Wed. for his bday and decided he didn't want to go 2 meals in a row. So into my office he comes, " I really don't want to eat at Cm's 2 meals in a row, what else can we do special on my bday for breakfast?" We look on allears and decide on Cape May breakfast, same characters and basically same food but different hotel which is closer to HS (own destination for the day). Back on the phone with DD, and only thing we can get is 8am (earlier into the park) but at 2 tables. "They will try to seat you together but no guarantees." Since the open at 7:30am, I am guessing our chances are pretty good, so we take it. This is also where Aunt Susie will appear in the story. We are trying to work out the details but should go something like this: I will contact the manager and see if they can hide Aunt Susie until the right time. When we sit down, we will give Shark the gift AS sent for him to open his bday morning since she couldn't come and in the box will be the note above about Aunts and then have him look behind him, she will be standing there. Hopefully, we can have a little and it will be a great surprise.

The other change I made was to the day of the Ohana Breakfast, since we have to get the ME at 11:30am on Saturday, we didn't want to have to rush through breakfast to get back to the hotel so now we are going Friday at 10am after MVMCP.


Here is the complete list of ADRs:

11/29: Le Cellier 6:20pm

11/30: Crystal Palace 8:20am
LTT 1:25pm
50's PT 7:05pm (EMH)

12/1: Akerhaus 8:30am
coral Reef 11:40am (diver)
Teppan Edo 5:45pm CP package

12/2: Boma 8:20am
Flame Tree
1900's Park Fare (Bear & my mom) 6:05pm
Chef Mickeys (Shark, MIL, FIL) 6:20pm
Narcoossees (DH & I ) 6:50pm

12/3: Cape may Cafe 8am Shark's BDAY
Sci FI 12:10pm
WCC 5:30pm
Wishes Celebration Cruise

12/4: BBB DTD 10am
Brown Derby 12pm (MIL<FIL, SIL)
Wolfgang Puck Cafe 12:30pm others
Kona Cafe 5;25pm
MVMCP

12/5: Ohana Breakfast 9:55am
Grandview Tea 2pm
California Grill 5:30pm

Wow, that's alot of food!!! Hopefully, no more changes since it is getting hard to get good times for tables of 7 or 8.

That's it for tonight, I was up at 4:30am to go to the office to now it is off to bed.....

 

[luckytobeme88]

We had dinner at Narcoosee's during our July trip too. The food was extremely good. Most of us have the whole steamed Maine lobsters. They were huge. The surf and turf, on the other hand, was OK because the lobster tail was not as good as the Maine lobster (I know, it's totally unfair to compare these 2 dishes) I had the seared jumbo scallops (awesome!)
Word of advise from us, call ahead and request "Aman's" table if possible. He's supposed to be the nicest waiter there. We had the misfortune of having a terrible waitress "Diane". Avoid at all costs.

 

[janloz]

We had dinner at Narcoosee's during our July trip too. The food was extremely good. Most of us have the whole steamed Maine lobsters. They were huge. The surf and turf, on the other hand, was OK because the lobster tail was not as good as the Maine lobster (I know, it's totally unfair to compare these 2 dishes) I had the seared jumbo scallops (awesome!)
Word of advise from us, call ahead and request "Aman's" table if possible. He's supposed to be the nicest waiter there. We had the misfortune of having a terrible waitress "Diane". Avoid at all costs.

Thanks for the heads up, I will request him. That is our only "date Night" so I really don't want a bad CM. I saw on another thread that you said Narcoosee's was a dissappointment. Should I try to book somewhere else?

I have a Cm recommendation for you, at 50s PT, request "Uncle Tim" if he is working. He was the best. He put my SIL in the corner for elbows on the table.

 

[janloz]

Waiting for the Dec. Disney visa discount to come out this week. Hopefully something good to save us some money.