My ADR's with a few questions in between

[apequet]

Hi everyone! I've been having a ton of fun with planning this vacation. My husband tells me I have "Disney of the Brain". LOL! Anyways...I have my ADR's set up and would like your opinion on them, since the man can't appreciate the excitment of getting these, Ha! We are not on the dining plan right now, but I'm having Wendy from MJ add it. I figure if we are going to go to WDW we may as well eat where we want and I hate worring about "how much is that going to cost me" during our trip. The only thing I'm worried about is gratuity...with these meals...do you think my gratuity is going to be insanly high?

*T-Rex dinner- not on dinning plan, I know :(...but a must do for my "animals" :)
1. Crystal Palace-breakfest or dinner? which is better?
2. Le Cellier- early dinner -4:55
3. Sci-Fi- dinner (kids love this place)
4. & 5. California Grill- made this for 7:45- I'm alittle nervous about this one...I'm worried it's going to be too fancy for us, but I want the experience of watching the fireworks from above. My kids are great at restaurants, so I know they will be good. Is there alot of families here? I think the MVMCP fireworks are @ 9:30, right? How does this work if we are done eating by the time the fire work show starts? Should I ask for a window seat or is that being too pushy?
6. O'Hana-breakfest
7. Cape May Cafe- breakfest -not too sure how we are going to GET to our 10:20 ADR from POR-maybe taxi?
8. ?? not sure if I have 8 TS or just 7- we will be there Dec 3-10th

We've done all these meals on our last trip and wanted something different....CRT(breakfest) after BBB-awesome memories for my lil princess, Akersh princess dinner (spelling?), Tuskar House (breakfest), Chef Mickey (breakfest), Sci Fi, Rain Forest Cafe, & Coral Reef (my son got a diver holding a happy birthday sign! So cool!) ....... I hope I did good.

[SBETigg]

I haven't been to Crystal Palace in years and I've never been to Cape May Cafe. You can take the bus from any park or Downtown Disney to the Beach Club without having to enter a park.

Le Cellier and Sci-Fi are good choices for a family, and 'Ohana breakfast is one of my favorites.

California Grill is my favorite in WDW. You might want to look over the menus for an idea of the food they serve and if it will suit your tastes. There are usually plenty of families there, and the dress code is on the casual side of business casual-- some people dress up more, others less.

Your timing might be a bit off for the fireworks, though. Your dinner could go faster, but if you let your server know your intentions they will help with pacing. Even if you finish your meal before fireworks, you will be welcome to use the observation deck to view. You might or might not get a table with a fireworks view, even if you ask and are willing to wait. The demand is high. Honestly, I prefer viewing the fireworks from the deck anyway.

[MuchLovedMama]

You should have 7 TS's. It's per night not per day. Just wanted to throw that out there for you.

[chefmickey3]

Great ADRs! Honestly, I would calculate the cost of each meal - I know it is hard to estimate - and compare to the cost of the dining plan. With doing several breakfasts, it probably is better to budget that money and pay OOP.

I love Crystal Palace breakfast - but dinner is very good too. You will LOVE the O'hana breakfast - great character interaction - it was one of the most magical meals we have had in Disney!

Have fun planning your trip!!!!

[hokies4life]

I would calculate the cost of each meal - I know it is hard to estimate

This is what we did to estimate how much we would be spending in tips. When we went with free dining we looked up the menus we could find online and gauged what we might order from those (even though they could change) and based our budget for tips off of that and then adjusted accordingly once we got there and actually ordered. I think for our 6 meals we averaged about $60 in tips for the week...maybe a little more.

[beksy]

I agree with PP that I always estimate the cost of meals and use this to estimate for tips and then adjust at the actual meal. As to your choices:

We prefer CP for breakfast. I love Pooh and friends though so I couldn't go wrong! The only other one we ate at was Cali Grill. We enjoyed the experience (saw the fireworks before desert) but prefer Narcosses's. The environment is fine for families; we saw many families when we dined there and we weren't really dressed up and fit in fine. We would go back but prefer the menu at Narcossee's when we are going to splurge. I think you made great choices!

[whitney37354]

From your list, we did Crystal Palace dinner & Ohana breakfast. Ohana was my favorite breakfast of the six days we were there. Crystal Palace dinner was okay, nothing outstanding, but having our Australian server sing happy birthday to DD was priceless!:party:

[Scar]

1. Crystal Palace-breakfest or dinner? which is better?

7. Cape May Cafe- breakfest -not too sure how we are going to GET to our 10:20 ADR from POR-maybe taxi?If you're on the DDP, dinner is the better value.

You can also take a bus to DHS and walk or boat to Cape May (the restaurant, not the town. ;))

[moe513]

we love crystal palace and usually do it for both breakfast and dinner.
the best part of a disney vacation for our family is all the ts meals. we have a big white board in the living room and we keep changing things
we use taxis alot to get to our adrs. sometimes the buses can take too long especially if you are going resort to resort.