our dining selections...any suggestions/changes?

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

We decided to go ahead and do the dining plan for our trip and so I added on to our table service ADR's. Here is what we've decided on. I'd love any feedback or change/suggestions you may have to help this be a great vacation. We just had to change it again because of my husband's upcoming deployment so he won't be coming this trip with us This is the second change so we've just decided that I should take the children anyway, so I really want them to be able to have a great time and although I know it won't be the same without their Dad and that table dining will not make or break the vacation, I want it to be as special as possible. DS is 10 and my DD is 12 so they are older, but are very much into Disney and love the character dining which is why we have several of those. Here goes....
The Garden Grill (dinner)
Le Cellier (dinner)
Mama Melrose (dinner/Fantasmic package)
Sci-Fi (dinner)
Donald's Breakfastsoraus(sp) (Breakfast)
Liberty Tree Tavern (dinner)
Crystal Palace (dinner)

Thanks so much! I have had tons of questions and this board has been so very helpful to me

 

[New2WDW]

Deployment? Where is he off to?

Le Cellier - we had last October and it was awesome, the best meal and steak I have had in a long time!
Liberty Tree - My family loves this place and Dinner we had about a year ago and loved it. They just keep bringing the food! We were not able to get a reservation this past October.
Crystal Palace - We had this a couple of years ago and loved the Pooh characters as this was are first character meal, but we did not like the food. I know many people love this place but we just did not like the selection. It was late in the evening and super crowded and maybe they were just running outta stuff....I don't know.

Anyway, I have not tried the others. Have a wonderful time!

New2

 

[JimboJones123]

Wouldn't change a thing. Sounds like you got all the greats. Best of luck to the hubby.

 

[mrtoad]

We love Liberty Tree Tavern and do it on every trip but personally perfer the lunch as the menu is wider but not a character meal.

If you have not eaten at Akershus in Norway at Epcot it is a fantastic meal complete with princesses. We prefer lunch or dinner over breakfast as the breakfast is steep for breakfast and you get more bang for you buck on the other meals especially lunch. It is the best value and the food is excellent.

It is way better food wise than the Castle.

We decided to go ahead and do the dining plan for our trip and so I added on to our table service ADR's. Here is what we've decided on. I'd love any feedback or change/suggestions you may have to help this be a great vacation. We just had to change it again because of my husband's upcoming deployment so he won't be coming this trip with us This is the second change so we've just decided that I should take the children anyway, so I really want them to be able to have a great time and although I know it won't be the same without their Dad and that table dining will not make or break the vacation, I want it to be as special as possible. DS is 10 and my DD is 12 so they are older, but are very much into Disney and love the character dining which is why we have several of those. Here goes....
The Garden Grill (dinner)
Le Cellier (dinner)
Mama Melrose (dinner/Fantasmic package)
Sci-Fi (dinner)
Donald's Breakfastsoraus(sp) (Breakfast)
Liberty Tree Tavern (dinner)
Crystal Palace (dinner)

Thanks so much! I have had tons of questions and this board has been so very helpful to me

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

Deployment? Where is he off to?

Le Cellier - we had last October and it was awesome, the best meal and steak I have had in a long time!
Liberty Tree - My family loves this place and Dinner we had about a year ago and loved it. They just keep bringing the food! We were not able to get a reservation this past October.
Crystal Palace - We had this a couple of years ago and loved the Pooh characters as this was are first character meal, but we did not like the food. I know many people love this place but we just did not like the selection. It was late in the evening and super crowded and maybe they were just running outta stuff....I don't know.

Anyway, I have not tried the others. Have a wonderful time!

New2

Thanks so much! We really enjoyed the Liberty Tree last year so it was definitely a yes to it this year too! My sister lives in Ft. Myer's so she and her children are going to drive up and join us on this day, so it should be a lot of fun.
I've heard so much about Le Cellier so I'm really looking forward to trying it out. I'll keep my fingers crossed for Crystal Palace. We are going for breakfast, so hopefully it'll be good

My husband is going to Iraq. This will be his third trip over, although first time in Iraq, for the whole time without going in and out. He was in Uzbekistan/Afghanistan for 8 months and then Kuwait for a year.

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

Wouldn't change a thing. Sounds like you got all the greats. Best of luck to the hubby.

Thank you so much!

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

We love Liberty Tree Tavern and do it on every trip but personally perfer the lunch as the menu is wider but not a character meal.

If you have not eaten at Akershus in Norway at Epcot it is a fantastic meal complete with princesses. We prefer lunch or dinner over breakfast as the breakfast is steep for breakfast and you get more bang for you buck on the other meals especially lunch. It is the best value and the food is excellent.

It is way better food wise than the Castle.

We've never tried Akershus. I thought about it but wasn't sure if my son would eat anything there. I need to see if I can find a menu with the listings of what they serve.

 

[coltow]

The Garden Grill (dinner)
Le Cellier (dinner)
Mama Melrose (dinner/Fantasmic package)
Sci-Fi (dinner)
Donald's Breakfastsoraus(sp) (Breakfast)
Liberty Tree Tavern (dinner)
Crystal Palace (dinner)

Garden Grill we haven't done this one in a few years but I remember it being very nice, the restaurant was not all all busy so the characters came very often and interacted with guests as well as each other
Le Cellier is probably our favorite restaurant on property, love the pretzel bread, soup and steaks
Mama Melrose Fantasmic Package is ok, food is nothing special, but it beat waiting 2 hours to see the show.
Sci-Fi we prefer lunch, we think the lunch menu is much better than the dinner menu
Donald's we just did this for the first time. We were VERY happy with the food, it was fantastic, however there was very little character interaction compared to any other character meal we've ever done. Most character meals you see the characters a few times, here is was 1ce and 1ce only.
Liberty Tree is another of our favorites
Crystal Palace we liked the dinner here better than Chef Mickey's, we thought the food was way better

 

[mrtoad]

We've never tried Akershus. I thought about it but wasn't sure if my son would eat anything there. I need to see if I can find a menu with the listings of what they serve.

You can see the menu here: http://allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm#epc

I also believe they will give standard stuff like pasta with butter if asked.

It really is outstanding food there, some of the best on the property IMO. Love it!

 

[slappy magoo]

The only 2 choices I'd have reservations about (reservations/concerns, not reservations/ADRs) would be Mama Melrose's & Sci-Fi.

Mama Melrose's food is OK, and they certainly give you a lot of it (do NOT eat a big lunch beforehand), but I don't think it's great. Plus, I feel that the Brown Derby is one of the best restaurants anywhere on-property (though since all of the restaurants now have more-limited menus, that may no longer be true). But I know you've already paid in advance since it's a Fantasmic dinner package, so I wouldn't worry about this choice at all. It's certainly better than the chaos and noisy din at Hollywood & Vine, and everything certainly is edible. But if it weren't for the dinner package, I probably wouldn't suggest it any other way.

As for Sci-Fi, in my experience, the only things they make well are burgers and desserts. And if they're trying to approximate the drive-in experience, why would you want shrimp and penne? You want a burger or a hot dog and a vanilla Coke, or a regular Coke and heart-attack-inducing sundae! And the price you pay for the quality of food you get is almsot insulting. It's a fun place to eat, but that fun ain't free. If you could, I'd suggest finding out the latest they serve lunch, and see if you can get a lunch reservation as close to that time as possible. Treat it like an early dinner. It'll be much cheaper, and you'll probably be happier with their options, especially if you have little ones who'd rather have burgers or dogs.

Slightly off-topic, and my rabidly progressive politics aside, I wish your husband the best. May he have a dozen angels watching over him, and I hope he returns home safe and soon.

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

hmm...maybe I'll have to add akershus instead of Garden Grill. We were up in the air about which to do besides Le Cellier. When I was talking to Disney Dining, they said that if we liked Liberty Tree Tavern, which we really do, that we would like Garden Grill, but it is vacation so maybe we should be a bit more fun and try something totally new like Akershus ;-)


Sci-Fi, we had heard mixed reviews about it, but decided to give it a try since we are on the dining plan. I do want a burger there though so maybe I should try to just get a late lunch reservation and switch instead of our dinner

Thank you so much for the best wishes for my husband. They are so greatly appreciated. It's a tough time for us and good wishes are nice.

 

[New2WDW]

Will lift up your Husband in prayer! Thank you for yours and his sacrifice for our freedom!

We also tried the Akersus (sp?) for the Princess characters and they were terrific! Spent a lot of time with my girls, but we did not like the food. It was very bland for our southern tastes.

It is great to get all these opinions because everyones taste is different so check out the menus real good!
Have fun!

New2

 

[kasey1988]

Dining during fireworks

(Edit)

 

[Tiggerfanatic]

While it was great having the reserved seating for the show, we were not impressed with the menu selection for the Fantasmic package @ Mama Melrose's. I wouldn't mind going back and ordering off the regular menu, but the special package menu is very limited.
And two thumbs up for Akershus. The BBQ pork and cole slaw were the best I have ever tasted.