1st Ever Disney Vacation - Dining?

Travel time can definitely be an issue when you hop from park to park. It's not just the drive time, but the time you have to wait on the bus to arrive as well as what others have said about things like getting through security, etc.

Tusker House is a great choice. It was our favorite character meal (we did 6 on our trip.) Get your ressie for as close to 8am the day you do AK and you should be finished with your meal by rope drop. If you are, you can be one of the first people on the safari ride since it's entrance is right outside of the restaurant. Or you can grab Fast Passes at 9am for everyone.

If you are looking for a TS option for HS we really enjoyed 50's Prime Time Cafe. If you like fried chicken you will love it there. Best I've had in a long time. The atmosphere was fun too.

For your CP package at Epcot - we love Le Cellier. Best NY strip steak we have ever had. My husband would eat it for every meal if he could. Our kids thought the food was good there too. They loved the different types of bread!

Don't forget the restaurant in your resort. Whispering Canyon Cafe has pretty good food and a fun atmosphere.

As far as which ones to pay OOP, be sure to check out the menus on various sites, think ahead to what you all might have, and pay for the least expensive meals OOP. The menus should have fairly current pricing. The food at places like Le Cellier are quite pricey, while 50's Prime Time's are much cheaper.

We went during the same time as you are going on our trips in 2009 & 2007. It is the absolute most beautiful time of year to go. My advice for making your ressies - (although it was much harder at 90 days out like we had last year) Le Cellier (or other CP choice), CRT and Tusker House first - or anything else that you want an definite time for. They have made the new online reservation system so much better than it used to be!

Have an awesome trip!!
 
One thing I noticed about your schedule is that you haven't really taken advantage of a great benefit of being a resort guest - extra magic hours! Not that you'll always stay till closing, but it's nice to have that option.
For example, your first day there MK is open until 11 pm, the next day, 12/7 MK is your choice, yet it closes @ 7 pm that night (due to MVMCP.) I'd flip flop those days.
12/6 check in WL, hop on the boat to MK, have dinner @ Cinderella's castle (2 TS) EMH MK open till 11 pm.
12/7 Epcot & candlelight processional (2 ts)

Like wise, you have HS for 12/8 and AK for 12/9, yet AK's EMH night is 12/8 and they stay open until 8pm that night. So I'd flip flop those days too:
12/8 AK. I might even do a cs dinner @ flame tree barbicue to save on TS credits.
12/9 HS. Since HS closes @ 7 pm you'd have time to do Hoop dee doo late show that night (2 ts)

You have 12/10 as MK/DTD, yet MK closes early (7 pm) due to MVMCP. MK is open until 10 pm on 12/11, so again I'd flip flop parks from your plan.
12/10 - DTD in the am, having a late counter service lunch (I like Wolfgang puck express - 1 cs.) Then go over to Epcot which has extra magic hours on 12/10 and is open until 12:30. Maybe do a cs dinner @ the cs place @ Mexico if it's open - they have nice illumination viewing from their patio. Or cs @ any of the country's with it - or use a ts or pay op for ts.
12/11 - MK open till 10 pm you can do crystal palace that night.

12/12 HS is EMH and open until 11 pm. The Osborne lights are beautiful and a wonderful last night memory.

Course, my family runs on west coast time and we like to sleep in and enjoy our resort in the am, if you are early risers, then you may care more about morning EMHs which are:
12/7 epcot
12/9 MK
12/11 HS
12/13 AK
 
Thanks so much for all the great feedback. You guys are awesome! I will have to reevaluate some of our plans with this information. Thanks again, it is all truly appreciated! :thumbsup2
 
I agree with Shawn - I'd take advantage of Whispering Canyon Cafe being right in your resort. Esp for the ages of your kids, it should be a really good time.

I also agree with sndral about switching your days to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours. I like morning EMH better myself, it is way less crowded & you can get so much in before rope drop. But either way, being your first time, you are going to want to get in as much Park time as possible.

I also agree with everyone about travel times - be sure to schedule your meals close to the Parks you'll be at at the time. WDW is HUGE, it's really hard to convey how big it is. It's bigger than Manhattan. So even driving yourself from one side of the resort to another is going to take some time.

That hugeness factor also applies to how much time you'll want in the Parks - there's so much to do your first time - you just can't fit it all.

Along with WDW being huge, the food portions are huge, so if you are planning to do 2 TS in one day, I would seperate them - a TS Breakfast & Dinner.

No matter what you do, chances are, you'll have a great time. When we first started going in 1993, we were so clueless - no internet boards, just the Official Guide.... even so, we loved it enough to have kept going back all these years. So don't sweat it too much - Have a great time.
 

Dec 6th
- Travel (Drive)
- Check in and head to Epcot
- Akershus Storybook Princess Dinner (1TS)

I didn't see how far you are traveling on this day. It takes us about 9.5 hours and we always begin our trip with a TS dinner, too. You might want to allow a couple of extra hours of drive time and schedule that TS dinner accordingly just in case traffic is bad, etc.

Dec 7th MK
- Donald’s Safari Breakfast –Tusker House (1TS)
- Cinderella’s Royal table (2TS)
- Counter Service Meal (Cosmic Ray’s / Columbia Harbor House / Pecos Bill’s)

I agree with the other posters...you will spend a large amount of time traveling between the AK and MK. Crystal Palace is a good character breakfast location inside the MK and you won't have to travel between parks. For CS, we like Pecos Bill's because of the toppings bar.And I'd pay OOP for the breakfasts, they're generally less expensive. As others have already said, keep in mind that the portions in most WDW restaurants are huge. It would be difficult (and time consuming) for our family to eat more than one TS meal in one day, and we go on vacation to eat, eat, eat! :)

Dec 8th HS
- Breakfast in Room
- Counter Service Meal (Back Lot express / Studio Catering / Starring Roll)
- ????????

I'm sure that you've read that CS in DHS leaves a lot to be desired. However, I have heard many good things about Starring Rolls, and we actually like Pizza Planet. I couldn't believe it, either! ;) If you are planning to spend the day at DHS and would like a TS meal, my family loves Mama Melrose's. Again, I couldn't believe it either! The food was surprisingly good. And I agree with other posters--you might want to take advantage of Whispering Canyon in your resort. I've never eaten there, but we are a shy group of folks. It certainly looked fun when we stayed at WL a couple of years ago.

Dec 9th AK
- Breakfast in Room
- Counter Service Meal (Flame Tree BBQ / Yak & Yeti)
- Hoop De Do Review (2TS)

We love :love: Flame Tree, and, coming from NC where BBQ is practically a religion, we are hard to please. I've never been to HDDR but I've always wanted to try it!

Dec 10th MK / DTD
- Counter Service Meal ?????
- Rain Forest Café (DTD) (1TS)

Earl of Sandwich in DTD is probably in my top 3 favorite CS restaurants. Rain Forest Cafe is...loud. I'm sure someone has already mentioned this, but I don't think that it is on the DDP.

Dec 11th MK
- Breakfast in Room
- Counter Service Meal ?????
- Crystal Palace (1TS)

Oh, here's Crystal Palace! If you decided to have breakfast here instead, another TS option in MK would be...well, I can't think of one to recommend! :confused: Instead, I'd hop the monorail and go to The Wave at the Contemporary. :yay:

Dec 12th EPCOT
- Breakfast in Room
- Counter Service Meal??????
- Candle Light Processional Package (San Angel / Le Cellier) (2TS)

Best EPCOT CS (IMHO) is Tangierine Cafe. Sunshine Seasons is also good. Le Cellier is one of my top TS picks, and I curious to see what the new Mexican place will be like, because I love Mexican food.

Dec 13th
- Check Out the Brunch or lunch ?????
- Travel (Drive)

Our family loves to end the trip with a character breakfast.

Looking at your plan, you've done a great job for a 1st timer! :thumbsup2 Even though we go just about every year, I use Tour Guide Mike's advice to zip around the parks and avoid lines. One more thing--I am an avid wine drinker, and I like to bring my own bottles and cheese to enjoy on the balcony after a busy park day instead of the wine option on the dining plan. JMO, but I would limit the number of 2 TS restaurants or switch to the deluxe plan. You might end up saving money that way!
 
Dec 7th MK
- Donald’s Safari Breakfast –Tusker House (1TS)
- Cinderella’s Royal table (2TS)
- Counter Service Meal (Cosmic Ray’s / Columbia Harbor House / Pecos Bill’s)

I think you might find that a TS breakfast AND lunch might be too much food and you may be very full. It was hard to tell if you were considering CRT for lunch or dinner. At any rate, it depends on whether your family can handle eating a big breakfast and then another sit down meal. Also that is a lot of time you will spend sitting and eating rather than being in the park. OR you maybe can eat two TS meals and skip lunch and have a more substantial snack.

I think your general plan on having breakfast in the room is a good one, saves a lot of time and allows you to get to the parks early.

We also enjoyed the 1900 Park Fare dinner with Cinderella and her stepsisters/mother at the Grand Floridian.

For counter service we really liked Cosmic Ray and CHH (shrimp plate is very good and a good value on DDP) at the MK.

Have fun!
 
Check on allears.net for prices. We found that it was cheaper to pay OOP for a set buffet meal (like Crystal Palace) than some of the restaurants where you order a la carte. Mostly b/c we were tempted at the al la carte places to get extra items like appetizer/dessert and on the buffet everything is included.

Also sometimes a 2 credit meal is not the best value using DDP so I would look at the prices and determine if the two credits is really worth using DDP or if OOP might save you a bit (rather than paying OOP for two other 1TS meals).

You do need to make sure you use all your credits though....in theory I should have paid OOP for a meal earlier in the trip and use our dining plan credit for our LAST meal (we had one extra meal that we paid for) BUT I was afraid if someone didn't feel well or if we decided to cancel that ADR that we could be stuck. So the gamble is up to you really.
 
I definetly agree with the other posters about watching your travel time. Last year was our first trip and we wasted alot of time going to and from our dining reservations. We are going back this Dec and I'm being much more careful about making sure we are eating near where we are spending our day.
Two of our favorites and the only ones my family requested as must do's are:
Whispering Canyon Cafe- the skillet was WONDERFUL and Coral Reef (we actually thought the steaks we had here were much better then the ones from LeCellier and DS was kept amused by the divers and fish in the giant aquarium.
 
I agree with the poster who suggested that you drop the Rainforest Cafe. I'd switch it out for an Epcot or resort TS restaurant. It's loud, commercial and in our opinion not as nice as most of the Disney restaurants.
 
Oooh yes, travel time is definitely underestimated. We usually take our own car, and while it is definitely faster using a car to get from place to place, you still have to deal with getting lost (seriously, it's way easier than you'd think. We still get turned around and have been multiple times), parking (especially in the morning there'll be a car queue), if you don't get close enough you have to wait for a tram, and then you still have to get everything together, get through the security check, then get through the ticket gate. And lemme tell you, I always seem to be THAT person whose fingers won't scan right, holding up myself and the line. And that's with just the two of us adults. You have kids to organize. At the bare minimum I would assume 30 minutes to get from hotel to gate entry or gate to gate with your own car. Frankly, I'm an "allow an hour" to get from A to B, even with a car. Assume way more for WDW transportation.

Add to that trying to get to AK for the Tusker breakfast, then getting to MK which would require you to either park at TTC and take transportation or park at your resort, walk all the way through your resort to the boat, or wait for the bus, and you'd spend most of your morning just getting to and from.

Sorry, don't mean to stress you out :rotfl:. But I am a big believe in forewarned is forearmed :thumbsup2

For better travel time suggestion, I highly recommend the Unofficial Guide or Our Laughing Place travel calculator: http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/asp/twiz.aspx

Back to dining choices, I can see why you want to do the Tusker breakfast as it gets such high reviews (actually, quality wise it seems to beat out CRT). But I would drop it. If you definitely want to keep a breakfast that day, I'd push out the CRT until later so you won't be crazy stuffed. And I'd choose one of these much easier to reach options for breakfast:

Character:
Crystal Palace (enter the park before opening, always a plus!)
Ohana's
1900 Park Fare
Chef Mickeys

Non-Character:
Whispering Tree (but still something of a show, and in same resort!)
Trails End (nice walk to FW, buffet)
Kona (YU-U-UM!)

Also The Wave or Grand Floridian Cafe.

Personally, I do think you have too many character meals, especially given the ages of your children. But again, that's my personal opinion and I know some people, even adults, just love and adore the characters so much they want to spend all their time with them. I just think that because those meals are kind of chaotic, and the food is marginal compared to other dining options, that while one or two are worth doing, more than that wouldn't be the best value of credits/dollars.

Best of luck to you! The first trip is so exciting (and overwhelming ;) )!
 





Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE








DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top Bottom