Comments on: Disney Closes Adventurers Club

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:18:18 +0000

Dave, thanks for the tips! We were aiming for cooler weather as well, since we’re not water park people. The Canadian restaurant is Le Cellier, I think. We’re planning to go to Melrose’s as part of the Fantasmic show package. We’re also planning on Artist Point (Pacific Northwest food), a couple of good seafood places, and the Rose & Crown Pub (because we love England). Oh, I’m getting excited about it again, and it’s still five months away!

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:30:18 +0000

Also – favorite restaurants: The “Canadian” steakhouse restaurant at Epcot (can’t remember the name); “The Land” all-you-can-eat at Epcot, and Mama Melrose’s at the Hollywood-themed park (whatever the name was…). We also really like the barbecued ribs at one of the walk-ups at the Animal Kingdom park.

We were disappointed in the Moroccan restaurant at Epcot. The Mexican joint – well, I’m a snob about Mexican (11 years living in SATX will do that to you). We ate in the restaurant at the top of the “Contemporary” resort one night and were disappointed in both the food and the service. Our waiter was very slow and truly seemed to be doing his best to ignore us. He reminded me of the Maiter’d in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Adding insult to injury, it actually cost us TWO sit-down meal vouchers (which we knew going in…). I think that was designed to discourage “people like us” from eating there.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:02:17 +0000

I’ve only been to Disney once, not quite three years ago, and it was with my then-girlfriend/now-wife. She and her family drown in the Disney Kool-Aid on a regular basis and spend weeks planning everything.

I’ll share with you what really impressed me: The food – particularly the “Disney Dining Plan.” IIRC, it’s $30 per day per person provided you are also purchasing park tickets and lodging for the same number of days. For that $30, you get one table service meal, one counter-service meal, and one snack (I really like the Mickey-shaped eskimo pies!). Combined with a couple boxes of granola bars in our hotel room for breakfast, this was all we needed – in fact it was more than we could comfortably consume in some cases. Most meals, I ate half of my wife’s dinner in addition to my own and had to be rolled out of the joint. By the third day, our breakfasts consisted of doggie bags from the day before. The quality could not be beat, which is what really surprised me the most, given my “typical theme park” expectations. Our sit-down meals would have come to $60-70 a head had we been paying as we went. Great deal, highlight of the trip.

We stayed in one of the “All-Star resorts” which basically resemble a complex of Motel 6′s with nice landscaping and theme decor. Cheapest you can get on Disney property but still nice enough – our goal was not to sit around the hotel anyway. If you drink coffee, buy one of the big plastic travel mugs for about $9 (?) – which you can refill as often as you wish for the duration of your stay.

Also, we went in January. Lines were short and weather was very pleasant. Neither of us particularly enjoy hot weather – we wore jeans and t-shirts everyday, usually jackets in the morning and after dark. Very nice.