1st Timer Who Needs Advice for ADR's

[JMcDoogle]

Hi all! My family and I are heading to WDW in April of 2013. We are beyond excited and the time is drawing near for me to start making ADR's.
My boys are 6

 

[JMcDoogle]

Hi all! My family and I are heading to WDW in April of 2013. We are beyond excited and the time is drawing near for me to start making ADR's.
My boys are 6

and 4. We are doing three park days and I want to do three character meals.
What I had originally planned was:
Tusker House for breakfast
Hollywood and Vine for lunch
Chef Mickey's for dinner

Would it be better to do all breakfast ADR's, so we are able to get in the parks earlier? I need some expert advice
Thanks!

 

[tikababe1]

We did Tuscur for lunch for a break in the day at Animal Kingdom. It was nice to sit down after walking around.

 

[lync]

We don't do many breakfast ADR's for 3 reasons:
1. It is hard for us to get to an ADR at 8am and if you go much later than that, you miss valuable time in the parks in the morning.

2. We usually eat breakfast in the room at the resort. If we eat breakfast at the parks, that means we have to pay for 2 CS.

3. Our TS meals are when we rest for a little while. Much needed towards the end of the trip!!

 

[carstinsmom]

Tusker house breakfast is one of our favorites so we always do breakfast and since the park normally closes at 5:00 unless you go to another park it is a shorter day than most. Normally we prefer dinners because it is a nice break and we are usually ready for one in the evening. Two other suggestions for boys would be Rainforest cafe and T-Rex at DTD, while not character meals they are really neat places to eat. Don't know if you plan on staying until the park closes but if they like the Pooh characters Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom is another good one since you only have 1 day at MK, that way you don't have to worry about losing time and leaving the park for dinner.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

I just don't like buffet lunches and dinners at WDW usually. I also am not a fan of H&V. I think Ohana's would be a good substitute.

 

[kellietony]

We went this past May for a first time family visit with a 9 year old boy and a 6 year old boy. We did Chef Mickey's for a later breakfast, and they liked that since it had all the biggest characters - Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. My youngest really didn't want to see the Disney Jr characters at H&V, plus the food is only so-so, so we didn't do that one.

As we were walking through the park, they saw Crystal Palace lit up one night and asked to go there, so we are going there this November for dinner. One poster suggested Ohana, and that only has Lilo & Stitch as characters for breakfast - your 6 year olds might like them. For dinner, it is a Hawaiian type of entertainment, but both boys thoroughly enjoyed the conga line and playing limbo and the flower leis, and liked the foods as well. I've also been told that 1900 Park Fare dinner, which has Cinderella,the Prince, the Stepmother and the Stepsisters, is very enjoyable, even for boys and parents. Apparently, they really play up their characters and are a riot. The food is pretty good. So we have that scheduled as well.

Keep in mind that the 6 year olds tire out. What we found worked best for us, was to let them sleep in, eat a light breakfast in our room, and hit the parks a bit later, so that we could close them down, when many people have left. We were always in the parks around 10-10:30. And it worked like a charm. We did take a breather in the afternoons a couple times for the late night hour parks by heading back to the hotel for a swim and some rest. We lasted until midnight and later with no crying like others had around us.

And if you are interested in a breakfast that isn't one of Disney's, the Hilton across from Downtown Disney has a Sunday morning character breakfast with Minnie, Pluto and another character (Briar Fox was there for our visit). The food is good and the price is very low. Its a good way to get more characters without laying out a fortune.