ADR Advice Please

[DrMomof3]

We're going to Disney 8/22-8/28 so our 180 window is rapidly approaching. We're staying at BCV and have 3 young children - ages 6, 4, and 2. The middle child is a girlie-girl and the other 2 are macho boys. Our kids are definitely early risers and tend to go to sleep by 8:30pm at the latest. We usually do mornings in the park, grab a counter-serve lunch, and then return to the hotel for an afternoon in the pool and some quiet time before having an early-ish dinner. Then back to the hotel for bed!

Here's my current thoughts on ADRs. I'd love advice, critique, etc.!

Sunday: Travel day. We don't know what times our flights will be. JetBlue's prices are very high right now and we're waiting to see which flight will be a decent deal. We may land as early as 9:30am or as late as 6pm. I'm going to hold off on an ADR. We'll either eat at Big River Grille (doesn't take reservations) or have a counter serve meal.

Monday: Dinner at Teppan Edo

Tuesday: Still deciding. Either Norway Princess dinner or maybe Fantasmics dinner? Fantasmics is late for my kids but might be fun. We don't usually stay at the parks for late evening events so it would be a treat for them.

Wednesday: Hoping to get Albatross Cruise for kids in am. Sleep in a bit as Cruise starts at 9:30am. Dinner at Le Celier.

Thursday: Breakfast at Cape May Cafe. Grown-up only dinner at Bluezoo.

Friday: Dinner at Garden Grill

Saturday: Likely evening flight.

We probably have one more TS meal, especially if we don't eat at Big River Grille (or choose to not use dining plan to eat there). Thoughts? Maybe move the Princess dinner to a lunch or breakfast and do Fantasmics?

We've been to Disney 3 times since January, 2008 and have eaten many wonderful meals. I'm trying to pick so new places this time!

Amanda

 

[goofy4mykids]

I have a girlie girl and a son who would not even ENTER his sisters PINK bed room lol!! and the whole family had a BLAST at 1900 Park fare Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner! Regulars include Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella - my son couldnt stop laughing cause the sisters were fighting and Lady Tremaine just gave you the evil eye... meanwhile my DD was able to dance with Prince Charming. It was a wonderful eve. Now this year DH is taking DS fishing while I use the extra credits for a special BF at Cinderella's Royal Table

 

[DrMomof3]

I have a girlie girl and a son who would not even ENTER his sisters PINK bed room lol!! and the whole family had a BLAST at 1900 Park fare Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner! Regulars include Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella - my son couldnt stop laughing cause the sisters were fighting and Lady Tremaine just gave you the evil eye... meanwhile my DD was able to dance with Prince Charming. It was a wonderful eve. Now this year DH is taking DS fishing while I use the extra credits for a special BF at Cinderella's Royal Table

We've done 1900 Park Fare and Norway before and my daughter chose the Norway dinner because there are FIVE princesses instead of just Cinderalla. I really enjoyed 1900 and I'm a little disappointed that she didn't want to go back. Prince Charming was great, especially with my tantrum throwing then-5 year old son. My sexist pig 6 year old will just have to tolerate it! I did let him pick his own restaurant for one night (Garden Grill) so hopefully he'll survive! Maybe I'll let him bring his DS to dinner that night...

Amanda

 

[drmommy]

We've been to WDW several times, and on our last trip, we finally made it to see Fantasmic...what a great show! If you get the F! Dinner Package (no extra cost)...the dinner is scheduled quite early. In fact, for our upcoming trip we have dinner reservations at 3:55. At the restaurant you're given a VIP pass to enter the arena at a different location. That's worth it in itself...we had to stand in that monster of a line on our last trip. I'm sure there will still be somewhat of a line, but nothing compared to the other. But the show is well worth the wait. The restaurants that participate in the package are Mama Melrose, Hollywood Brown Derby, and Hollywood & Vine. I'm not sure if Sci Fi or 50's Prime Time are part of the package. We've eaten at MM and HBD, both of which we were happy with and would return to.

Your kids will LOVE Fantasmic! What a treat!

 

[DrMomof3]

Drmommy - Your kids weren't scared at Fantasmic! were they? I'm a little worried that we'll do all this planning and then one of my kids will get scared and not want to watch the show!

Amanda

 

[drmommy]

My boys were fine...my oldest was 5 at the time and really enjoyed it and my youngest was almost a year old. The baby was also fine with characters so that might help to gauge whether they'll be ok. The action is also not very 'in your face' so even the parts with villains really weren't too bad.

Hope you and your family have a magical time! What kind of doctor are you?

 

[DrMomof3]

My boys were fine...my oldest was 5 at the time and really enjoyed it and my youngest was almost a year old. The baby was also fine with characters so that might help to gauge whether they'll be ok. The action is also not very 'in your face' so even the parts with villains really weren't too bad.

Hope you and your family have a magical time! What kind of doctor are you?

I'm a pediatric urologist. Kind of random, huh? How about you???

Amanda

 

[drmommy]

That's HIGHLY specialized ...and impressive! I don't think there's ANY here in South Texas. There's only some adult urologists that see peds. I'm family practice... been out of residency about a year and half.

Glad to meet you! And have a great time at Disney! We love it and have been going regularly since our first visit in July 2008. The mouse has us hyponotized!

Martha

 

[DrMomof3]

I looked at a job in San Antonio but our parents are in NY. It's nice for the kids to have grandparents!
I did 6 years of residency and 2 of fellowship. It was TOO long! I'm in my 3rd year of practice. I work full-time for a teaching hospital which is great!
Nice to meet another mommy doctor! And thanks for reaching out!!!
Our 1st trip was January, 2008. I was about 20 weeks pregnant with our 3rd. I love Disney. We returned in May, 2009 and again in December, 2009. I can't wait to go back!!!
One of the peds anesthesiologists is a DVC member so she's my expert! An anesthesia resident was laughing at me on Friday because I was planning our ADRs in between cases!!! He was like, "Didn't you *just* get back from Disney???"

Amanda

 

[stephmarty]

For what it's worth, we didn't like the Norwegian dinner fare at Akershus very much at all. Our next trip, we had breakfast instead and enjoyed it so much more. I would agree that the dinner at 1900 Park Fare was much more to our liking. The one menu item I can't get out of my mind from the Akershus dinner was cold scrambled eggs!? Oh, well, when in Norway...

 

[DrMomof3]

I'm pretty sure we're going to try for the Fantasmic! dinner package on Tuesday. Now I need to figure out when to eat with the princesses (we're still going to do Norway). I don't have any dinner slots left so it has to be breakfast or lunch.
Monday I want to use the early EMH at DHS and Tuesday I want to use them at MK. We could do a Wednesday lunch following the Albatross cruise. With Le Celier for dinner that night, it'll make for a lot of food in one day! Thursday we're doing breakfasts at Cape May. I guess we could have breakfast on Friday...

Amanda

 

[mkleinbe]

For what it's worth, we didn't like the Norwegian dinner fare at Akershus very much at all.

We didn't like dinner at Akershus either. We won't be going back.

 

[mickeysaver]

FYI - You can make reservations in advance at Big River Grille. We called about 2 weeks before we arrived and they put us down on the books with no problem and we were promptly seated.

http://www.bigrivergrille.com/index.php?pg=location&sub=loc&location_id=23