A few dining questions

[Pirate1+Princess4]

I have a few random questions as I start to think about dining. I don't have any ideas yet of where we will eat, as I'm just beginning this phase of research. It's our first trip.

We are a family of 7. 2 adults and 5 children, ages 7 - 9. We have free dining and will be there Dec 12 - 20. We are staying at POP.

1. Are there any table service restaurants where it will be difficult to get a ressie for a party of 7? Should we consider splitting into 2 groups if we want to attempt to eat at a reasonable time for dinner?

2. I have 4 DDs, age 7. We'll definitely have to make plans for a character meal that includes princesses. We do have a few favorites, and "Cindy" is one, but they don't have to know that there IS a way to guarantee you'll see her. We also have a 9 year old DS. Any recommendations for princess meal that would be of interest to him too? Prefer not to spend 2 TS credits.

3. Will the girls feel like outsiders (or notice) if they aren't dressed in princess costumes at a princess meal? Will I be forever hearing "but Mah-um...you should have brought da dress up stuff!"? It's all so threadbare and has had a ton of use since they were 3 years old. I'll look at halloween clearance, but really prefer not to sink a ton of money into new dress-up. What would DS dress as- pirate? He's quite charming, but I don't think I'll get him to dress up as a prince.

4. How do I find a list of TS that are on DDP? Are there some at Downtown Disney? What about Rainforest Cafe, either at AK or DD (am I correct that there are 2?) Rainforest Cafe is MUST for my crew and if we can use a TS credit, that would help the budget.

Thanks for helping me get started on the planning. There won't be a lot of extras like BBB or the pirate makeover thingy. We won't be doing MVMCP. I'm hoping to hit some Disney Store clearance too.

 

[buzyanne]

Hi, congradulations on planning your trip. You will find that you can get very involved in the planning. Disney now does require preplanning for most dinning ressies. Normally you will find that you will want to book your reservations on the 90th day prior to your arrival.

You should have not need to break up your party unless you have some who want to eat else where.

To get the most Princesses for the dinner I would suggest

Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
Princess Storybook Character Dining
Norway - World Showcase - Epcot at all meals. 1 tbs

I understand that they have several of them there. More than at CRT where Cinderella and any visting princesses are only at the breakfast. at is a 2 tbs

From what I have read it is nice for boys as well. Many love to see the pretty girls. And the food is good.

The girls should not feel out of place if they are not dressed not every girl is dressed. Yes alot do, but a lot do not. A disney shirt and shorts might work as those dresses can be quite hot.

Also there is the Crystal Place. There is Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and friends. The last time we were there they also had the ogre and plenty of others.

Both are buffets. You can find the menus on allears.net as seperate website that lists wonderful information about Disney.

There is another buffet that may be more his speed but the girls will love as well at Animal Kingdom they have Donald's Safari Breakfast. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and pluto are the normal guests. I am not sure all are there everyday we are going there in Sept for our 1st visit.

I almost forgot. On Disney's website under dinning there is a link to the dinning plan info. Under there it will have a list of the resturants that take part and if they are a quick service , a table service, or 2 table service,

Just some Ideas

 

[clanmcculloch]

I have a few random questions as I start to think about dining. I don't have any ideas yet of where we will eat, as I'm just beginning this phase of research. It's our first trip.

We are a family of 7. 2 adults and 5 children, ages 7 - 9. We have free dining and will be there Dec 12 - 20. We are staying at POP.

1. Are there any table service restaurants where it will be difficult to get a ressie for a party of 7? Should we consider splitting into 2 groups if we want to attempt to eat at a reasonable time for dinner?

With the ages of your children, I would urge you to stay at one table. They will not guarantee that your tables will be near each other. The hard to get restaurants in general will likely be harder to get. I would urge you to be online first thing in the morning at your 90 day mark. Have backup options ready just in case you don't get your first choices. I believe the reservation system will make recommendations for you as well.

2. I have 4 DDs, age 7. We'll definitely have to make plans for a character meal that includes princesses. We do have a few favorites, and "Cindy" is one, but they don't have to know that there IS a way to guarantee you'll see her. We also have a 9 year old DS. Any recommendations for princess meal that would be of interest to him too? Prefer not to spend 2 TS credits.

For 1 TS credit, you can see Cinderella at 1900 park fare at lunch or dinner or at Akershus in Norway at Epcot. The step sisters will flirt with your son and the step mother with try to fix him up with daughters at 1900 Park Fare (they really do try to entertain boys as well). At Akershus, the princesses will all flirt a bit with him as well. You may have to wait a while at 1900 PF but you will see her. There's no guarantee she'll be one of the princesses that day at Akershus.

3. Will the girls feel like outsiders (or notice) if they aren't dressed in princess costumes at a princess meal? Will I be forever hearing "but Mah-um...you should have brought da dress up stuff!"? It's all so threadbare and has had a ton of use since they were 3 years old. I'll look at halloween clearance, but really prefer not to sink a ton of money into new dress-up. What would DS dress as- pirate? He's quite charming, but I don't think I'll get him to dress up as a prince.

My kids never wore princess dresses at princess meals. They never commented at all about it either. I hadn't packed anything like that and I told them clearly that I wasn't going to and that I didn't want to hear about it at any time. Setting expectations helps.

4. How do I find a list of TS that are on DDP? Are there some at Downtown Disney? What about Rainforest Cafe, either at AK or DD (am I correct that there are 2?) Rainforest Cafe is MUST for my crew and if we can use a TS credit, that would help the budget.

Rainforest Cafe is not on the DDP. Here's the DDP flyer. It includes a list of restaurants.

Thanks for helping me get started on the planning. There won't be a lot of extras like BBB or the pirate makeover thingy. We won't be doing MVMCP. I'm hoping to hit some Disney Store clearance too.

Have a great trip!!!

 

[janloz]

We went with party of 7 or 8 for a week on Deluxe dining in Dec. We did not have a problem getting table together at most places and we had 21 TS ADRs. The Plaza in MK and Sci Fi in HS were the only ones we wanted that would not guarantee it us together.

I agree with OP that Akerhaus is a great choice, we took DD there for breakfast at 8:30am ADR which was great since we were allowed in empty Epcot and we were done with breakfast before the crowds arrived. Please remember cinderella is NOT one of the regulars here but has been known to make appearances. She does attend the dinner at 1900 Park Faire in GF for dinner along with Prince charming, STep Mother and sisters. My mom took DD there for dinner and really enjoyed it. She worn a Princess sweater set for dinner and not princess dress and was fine.

Good luck and have fun planning.

 

[Darcy03231]

My niece loves Cinderella so we did 1900 Park Fare for dinner. She had a wonderful time (and its only one TS credit).

We did the princess breakfast as Askerhaus too. We had Belle as our greeter and saw Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Snow White, Jasmine and Mulan.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

I think all the kids will enjoy Tusker House Breakfast buffet (the characters are dressed in safari outfits and they have a musical parade)...yummy selection of food, great juice and coffee.
Crystal Palace (we usually do lunch) has a great selection of food and I think all the kids will enjoy.
We went to a couple of character meal including CRT and we found kids not all dressed up (meaning princess outfits)...I have a son so he is dressed to be comfortable at parks. He did dressed up for the Halloween party and the Princess and Pirate party at night otherwise your kids will not be out of place b/c they are not dressed in princess outfits.
Another Character meal we like is Cape May (characters dressed in beach wear).
Hope this helps

 

[jen2207]

I have a few random questions as I start to think about dining. I don't have any ideas yet of where we will eat, as I'm just beginning this phase of research. It's our first trip.

We are a family of 7. 2 adults and 5 children, ages 7 - 9. We have free dining and will be there Dec 12 - 20. We are staying at POP.

1. Are there any table service restaurants where it will be difficult to get a ressie for a party of 7? Should we consider splitting into 2 groups if we want to attempt to eat at a reasonable time for dinner?

We went with 7 people last year and at a few places they put us at a table for 4, and another table for 3. They couldn't garantee that they would be "right next too each other" but I don't recall them every being far apart. In fact the only place I can recall where we had to go to two tables was 50s PTC. And at Sci-fi we had two cars next to each other.

2. I have 4 DDs, age 7. We'll definitely have to make plans for a character meal that includes princesses. We do have a few favorites, and "Cindy" is one, but they don't have to know that there IS a way to guarantee you'll see her. We also have a 9 year old DS. Any recommendations for princess meal that would be of interest to him too? Prefer not to spend 2 TS credits.


We did take our two dds (3 and 6) and my ds9 to CRT last year, he actually enjoyed it! The girls got wands, he got a sword. This year we are doing Akershus - he can live with it!!

3. Will the girls feel like outsiders (or notice) if they aren't dressed in princess costumes at a princess meal? Will I be forever hearing "but Mah-um...you should have brought da dress up stuff!"? It's all so threadbare and has had a ton of use since they were 3 years old. I'll look at halloween clearance, but really prefer not to sink a ton of money into new dress-up. What would DS dress as- pirate? He's quite charming, but I don't think I'll get him to dress up as a prince.

I didn't dress up my girls. My youngest would love it....... for about 10 minutes, then she'd want to change and my dd6 would NOT be into it, at all. She'd rather be a pirate! I got them a variety of Disney t-shirts, sometimes we matched, sometimes we didn't. I actually kind of prefer the pictures where we didn't match because then you actually pay attention to what we are doing, other than having your eye distracted by noticing that we all had the same shirt on.


4. How do I find a list of TS that are on DDP? Are there some at Downtown Disney? What about Rainforest Cafe, either at AK or DD (am I correct that there are 2?) Rainforest Cafe is MUST for my crew and if we can use a TS credit, that would help the budget.

Sorry Rainforest Cafe is NOT on the dining plan. But for your crew - they might really like the Ohana breakfast at the Poly. It has Lilo and Stitch and Mickey. Here is a link for a listing on allears about participating restaurants in the Dining plan. (You have to scroll down a bit) http://allears.net/pl/packages09a.htm

Thanks for helping me get started on the planning. There won't be a lot of extras like BBB or the pirate makeover thingy. We won't be doing MVMCP. I'm hoping to hit some Disney Store clearance too.

Hope this helps - have a great trip! (And good luck in a few years with 5 teenagers!!

 

[mitsybella]

I have a few random questions as I start to think about dining. I don't have any ideas yet of where we will eat, as I'm just beginning this phase of research. It's our first trip.

We are a family of 7. 2 adults and 5 children, ages 7 - 9. We have free dining and will be there Dec 12 - 20. We are staying at POP.

1. Are there any table service restaurants where it will be difficult to get a ressie for a party of 7? Should we consider splitting into 2 groups if we want to attempt to eat at a reasonable time for dinner?

2. I have 4 DDs, age 7. We'll definitely have to make plans for a character meal that includes princesses. We do have a few favorites, and "Cindy" is one, but they don't have to know that there IS a way to guarantee you'll see her. We also have a 9 year old DS. Any recommendations for princess meal that would be of interest to him too? Prefer not to spend 2 TS credits.

3. Will the girls feel like outsiders (or notice) if they aren't dressed in princess costumes at a princess meal? Will I be forever hearing "but Mah-um...you should have brought da dress up stuff!"? It's all so threadbare and has had a ton of use since they were 3 years old. I'll look at halloween clearance, but really prefer not to sink a ton of money into new dress-up. What would DS dress as- pirate? He's quite charming, but I don't think I'll get him to dress up as a prince.

4. How do I find a list of TS that are on DDP? Are there some at Downtown Disney? What about Rainforest Cafe, either at AK or DD (am I correct that there are 2?) Rainforest Cafe is MUST for my crew and if we can use a TS credit, that would help the budget.

Thanks for helping me get started on the planning. There won't be a lot of extras like BBB or the pirate makeover thingy. We won't be doing MVMCP. I'm hoping to hit some Disney Store clearance too.

If you are going to the rainforest cafe you will be paying for the meal so this would leave you with the extra TS credit you would need for CRT, they have the princesses there at breakfast and Lunch but not dinner, but for the TS credit Princess story book is a great buy, the princesses are there B, L, +D and you get pictures included all for 1 TS credit, at CRT they do give the girls wands and the boys swords but not sure a 9yr old will be to impressed with the sword. As far as the costumes, you can try a local disney store right after halloween and get some good buys, or before halloween check out ebay they had tons of items last year.

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

Thanks to all for the great advice. I now have an idea of what we'll try to do. I think whatever I choose, they'll be thrilled, as they have NO IDEA what to really expect. There will be so many surprises for them just BEING at WDW. They also wouldn't know if they missed out on something either. So whatever we do, it will still be special and something they'll always remember.

I'm thinking we'll do either do Akershus or Park Fair (or both) for guaranteed princess. Also Tusker House and Chef Mickeys. Then fill in from there. Maybe we'll plan lunch at Rain Forest Cafe, either at DDT or AK. But then, they would enjoy T.Rex too- perhaps we'll vote when the time comes.

Other big decision is whether we want to spend time & 2TS on dinner show. We are leaning more toward Hoop-De-Doo if we choose to do this. Again, they wouldn't know if we DON'T do this, but I'm sure they would enjoy it.

Is there a strategy for seeing Hoop-de-Doo? Choose a great time that allows for great viewing of fireworks or a parade or something? We won't be doing this at 9:30 PM.

DH has already said he won't pay for the Wishes dessert party.

 

[Sandy321]

CONGRATULATIONS Indeed!!

Another vote for Princess Breakfast in Norway - their first seating is at 8:20am - and its a wonderful breakfast, relaxing too!! Buffet for cold items, fruit, rolls, donuts - and they bring you juices, and eggs, bacon etc all you can eat!!

We also love 1900 Park Fare Buffet at the Grand FLoridian - I schedule this on our MK day, then we take the resort boat over to the GF, after Dinner, take the monorail (its upstairs from the Buffet) back to MK for WISHES!! ( Wishes is earlier in the winter, so that may not work as well as it does in summer/early fall tho!) But the characters, step family really have fun with larger groups!! And the food is fantastic - prime rib, salads, pizza and nuggets for the kids - STRAWBERRY SOUP!! and ice cream!!

CRT - its the castle!! but you can read several reviews here that say at 2TS its really not worth it, at breakfast they tend to be more in a "rush" and the pictures are hard to snap - its not a relaxing meal for us, but ITS THE CASTLE!! so you pay more for that - I really like lunch at CRT much better than breakfast, we get to MK at rope drop, do all our "must do's" and are done by lunch - eat at THE CASLTE - then back to our resort for some pool time! or rest time -

Rainforest and TRex, - they dont get great reviews TRex is at Downtown Disney and that can be a hassle to get to (as in it takes time - and if I was planning a first trip, I would debate the hours for park time, and if I wanted to take a day away to go shopping - DTD does have the lego store, the christmas shop, Trex, and of course Goofy's Candy - which you could spend some of your snack credits - but we often skip DTD just because I dont want to get into the "shopping" with DD its just too tempting!! Plus most items you find in the parks stores anyway!!

Hoop-de Doo - again, maybe go to the Dining Review section and do a search - for us, we rather skip the shows - and tour the parks - or relax at our rsort - but there are many many people that love the HoopdeDoo Review it is fun

You seem to have a great attitude in planning - you cant do it all - but what you will do - will be magical!!!

 

[serene56]

I have a few random questions as I start to think about dining. I don't have any ideas yet of where we will eat, as I'm just beginning this phase of research. It's our first trip.

We are a family of 7. 2 adults and 5 children, ages 7 - 9. We have free dining and will be there Dec 12 - 20. We are staying at POP.

1. Are there any table service restaurants where it will be difficult to get a ressie for a party of 7? Should we consider splitting into 2 groups if we want to attempt to eat at a reasonable time for dinner?


I would like to see answers tothat because that is what we have going


2. I have 4 DDs, age 7. We'll definitely have to make plans for a character meal that includes princesses. We do have a few favorites, and "Cindy" is one, but they don't have to know that there IS a way to guarantee you'll see her. We also have a 9 year old DS. Any recommendations for princess meal that would be of interest to him too? Prefer not to spend 2 TS credits.


1900 Park fare with Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremain and the Evil Step sisters who are looking for husbands will not let your son go un noticed-


3. Will the girls feel like outsiders (or notice) if they aren't dressed in princess costumes at a princess meal? Will I be forever hearing "but Mah-um...you should have brought da dress up stuff!"? It's all so threadbare and has had a ton of use since they were 3 years old. I'll look at halloween clearance, but really prefer not to sink a ton of money into new dress-up. What would DS dress as- pirate? He's quite charming, but I don't think I'll get him to dress up as a prince.
If you go AFTER halloween-- check the disney store for cheap custumes. but the answer is no- not all little girls get dressed. The characters do pay attention to both the same-- dont let anyone tell you that the girls in custumes get better treatment



Thanks for helping me get started on the planning. There won't be a lot of extras like BBB or the pirate makeover thingy. We won't be doing MVMCP. I'm hoping to hit some Disney Store clearance too.

if the girls are getting all goey over the princesses-- the son should get a pirate makeover.

over on the budget board there is a thread on how to make those tutus and you can make your own custumes for the girls

 

[dd50]

We are going to be a party of 7 and the only place that said it would be a problem is Sci-Fi because the cars only fit 6 but we maybe able to do it as two kids are 4 and 6, but I won't worry because I have 2 teens and a pre-teen.

 

[clutter]

When my dd was small, she usually wore princess T shirts. (Everywhere, not just disney.) Well, let me tell you, the princesses loved that just as much, and she was way more comfortable the rest of the day. We did the dress once. Ugh.

Have a great trip! You all will love it.

 

[catne]

1900 Park Fare dinner for a meal your girls & boy will enjoy...Cinderella & Prince Charming visit every table & will pose for pictures with the kids. the Stepsisters are hilarious (your son will get a big kick out of them) Picky 19 yr old with us liked the offerings on the kids buffet (particularly the mac & cheese & the mashed potatotes.)

Inexpensive suggestion...get tiaras for each girl & a pirate "do-rag" for your son. Allow a little make-up for the occasion -- little bit of blusher, little bit of colorful eye shadow & your girls will think it's an ultra special meal. Won't be hot, no hassle to put them on.

 

[jrc-elpaso]

4 princesses the same age - Wow. I like the idea of princess tees - I bet they'd look adorable.

 

[Tam1067]

I would not volunteer to split up. I don't even think that will make getting reservations that much easier. Just call at the 90 day mark and get what you can. In most cases, you should be okay.

If you really want Cindy for 1 TS credit, then do 1900 Park Faire. You'll get her, the stepsisters, the stepmother, and the prince. My boys had fun there, and we preferred it to Akershus. At Akershus, she sometimes but not usually is there.

My kids all like Chef Mickey's (though it's not my favorite).

There is no need to dress up. If you want to bring dresses and do that, go ahead, but your girls will not feel out of place if they're wearing their regular clothes.