Please rate my ADR's

[mazydaisy]

Hi all - We're taking our 1st family trip to Disney 11/28-12/3/10 (2 kids, ages 7 and 9) and we're staying at the Polynesian. I've listed our ADR's below and are still making final adjustments on some of them...please let me know what you think and if you have any advice! Thanks!

11/28 (arrival day)
--Crystal Palace (late lunch)
--California Grille (8pm dinner)
*plan to watch fireworks from California Grill!

11/29 ANIMAL KINGDOM DAY (hubby's birthday)
--Kona Cafe or Rainforest Cafe? (breakfast)
--Flame Tree BBQ (lunch)
--Rainforest Cafe or Garden Grill? (We have reservations for Whispering Canyon Cafe at 8:45pm, our 1st choice, but I think that's going to be too late for our kids so I'm reconsidering that one.Looking for good choice to celebrate hubby's birthday.)

11/30 EPCOT DAY
--Kona Cafe (breakfast)
--San Angel Inn (lunch)
--Coral Reef (dinner)

12/1 DHS DAY
--Kona Cafe (breakfast)
--Sci-Fi Drive-In (lunch)

12/2 MAGIC KINGDOM DAY
--Grand Floridian Cafe (breakfast)
--Liberty Tavern (lunch)
--The Wave or Grand Floridian? (dinner)
** We have tickets to MCMCP for this night!!

12/3 (departure day)
--Kona Cafe (breakfast)
OR
--50's Prime Time (lunch)

[AllDisney]

WOW. That is some list. We eat breakfast, split a burger or something for lunch & then do a nice TS every evening.

Our reservations include dinner only, unless we do a character breakfast.

List looks good, but again WOW

[renecat]

Looks like you like the Kona. We also like it but you might try 1900 Parkfare for breakfast with the kids. It's at the GF and has a good buffet plus great characters. Rainforest is a great place for the kids and the food is good. I have never eaten at the wave but have seen some good and bad revues on it. The rest of your choices look great. Hope you have a great trip.

[Ms. Mode]

Well, if you have a big breakfast, make it a later lunch you could keep the WC dinner for 8:30pm because you'll be in the parks and you just don't get that hungry when you keep busy.

We love the Sci-Fi for lunch.

Flame Tree BBQ is wonderful too!

[mazydaisy]

Cool, looks like we've made some good choices. We have a few reservations at Kona because we're staying at the Poly - that being said, we can't for the life of us get reservations for Ohana (and we're staying there)! No luck with 1900 Park Fare either, although I was able to secure Crystal Palace at 2:20pm on our arrival day for a late lunch. Thanks for all your tips!!! Keep em' coming!

[cer]

I would like to recommend Garden Grill. I prefer it over Rainforest. Much more laid back dining and character experience...

[cer]

You do have a lot of table service in your plan. That will take up quite a bit of park time, but you may prefer it that way.

Also please note: Captain Cooks in the Poly (counter service) I believe also serves the Stuffed French Toast that is famous at Kona, and for less $$.

We have always found the counter service breakfast at our resort (in our case POP) to be a good way to start the day. Grab a quick bite and you're off, for not a huge expense. In fact we have also been known to share counter service breakfasts....

Are you on a dining plan?

[mazydaisy]

We're on the deluxe dining plan; you make a good point about breakfast and taking up park time with that. Captain Cook's looks like a good alternative to a sit down at Kona's and think we'll do that for some of our days instead, especially on our EPCOT and Magic Kingdom days (which are Morning Extra Magic Hours days so we plan to hit the parks early). Thanks!

[cer]

Oh ok. There are some on this board that use the deluxe dining plan to take advantage of the Signature Dining restaurants - Like you did with California Grill.

Just be aware that there is a lot of eating and time with the table service restaurants. Not that it is altogether a bad thing - but you may realize it is not your touring style to be having 3 sit down meals per day.

You also may want to add a little variety to your breakfasts as well. When we go we never eat at the same restaurant twice - except for counter service... Tusker House in Animal Kingdom I have heard has a pretty good breakfast buffet, Cape May is supposed to be good for breakfast, Crystal Palace (nice to have main street to yourself if you have an early ADR) - Chef Mickey at the Contemporary and even Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge is supposed to be good for b-fast.

These are just a few ideas that you may want to consider, if you don't want to be locked into breakfast at your home resort...