ADR HELP~I'm a NEWBIE at the places to eat so, I would appreciate the help :)

[FairyDust2008]

I'm only at the beginning stages of my ADR's right now. I reserved Chef Mickey's for dinner for our arrival night. Did I make a mistake?? It will be me, my hubby (which we are both kids at heart ) and our 2 kids who will be 12 and 10. I'm concerned now about it being a buffet? I'm kind of a germaphobe, LOL to a certain extent where buffets are concerned. I am more concerned about the parents who allow their kids to go for a free for all and stick their fingers in stuff, etc so I'm not so sure I made the right reservation and am looking to change to something that is still CHARACTER oriented because it is our arrival night for our 1st family trip to WDW, so I want it to be a *WOW* factor and "special" Is there another place that would be better suited? The one that has the Pooh characters would be too young for my kids but everyone LOVES the Mickey characters, you know? Help me out-THANKS!

 

[fairytale]

I was in your position on our last visit.

We did Chef Mickey on our first night and will do the same again.

We are UK residents and therefore needed an early night due to Jet Lag but we booked for a 6.30 evening meal and it was a brilliant ending to our first day.

My other recommendations are:

Coral Reef
Japanese Restaurant in World Showcase (they've recently changed the name), the food was fairly average but the children will love to see the chef preparing their meals in front of them on the Hot plate !!!
Crystal Palace
Whispering Canyon
Beaches & Cream (our favorite)
Donalds Breakfastasaurus
1900 Park Fare

 

[3for Me]

Unfortunately, unless I am mistaken, all the resort character meals are buffets. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong) If you want a character meal that is NOT a buffet, you'll need to go into the parks. (Not sure if you wanted to do that on your first night.)

LTT has the "main" characters. GG at Epcot has Chip and Dale and I think Mickey (haven't done this one in a while) - there's always dinner in the Castle.

The other poster had some wonderful suggestions that given your kids ages, I think they would really like.

Also, if you want WOW factor sans characters - go for CG during the fireworks. Even if you don't get a window seat, the observation deck is fabulous!

 

[tlriv5]

We are going to do Chef Mickey's this trip, because we know several people that recommended it to us. We went to Liberty Tree Tavern our first night on our last trip. My girls were 11, 8 and 8 last trip. They really liked the character interaction there. However, we did not care for the food. (it wasn't bad, it just wasn't worth anywhere near what the receipt said ~ thank goodness we had free dining) The meal there is brought out family style as is the breakfast at Ohana's, which is at the Poly. The other character meal we did was at Crystal Palace, but it was a buffet too. My girls liked it.

 

[Honeymooner04]

I wouldn't worry too much about the buffets at Disney. We are not buffet people at all but we make an exception for Disney. We've had usually good experiences in regards to the cleanliness and temperature of the food. It's been our experience anyway that the Disney buffets are no where near like Golden Corrals or anything like that. I think Çhef Mickey's is a great choice for the first night. I wouldn't eliminate the Crystal Palace though from your list because of the characters. I think anyone of any age would enjoy that restaurant.

Have a great first trip!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

We are not huge buffett people either but all the character meals are buffet style. Disney does a great job at keeping it clean and well staffed so some of the gross things dont occur or if they do they remove the food. We had to cancel Chef Mickeys last trip but my cousins raved about it.

Some other great choices are:

LeCellar in Epcot
Coral Reef in Epcot
Chefs De France in Epcot (our new favorite the steak filet was to die for)
Ohana at the Poly
Kona at the Poly
Boma at AKL
Crystal Palace in MK with Tigger and Pooh (this is more geared to the little kids IMO but our cousins kids 5, 7, and 9 all loved them too!!)
Spoodles at the Boardwalk

If not on the dining plan we love Portabello Yacht Club at DTD and Rainforest Cafe at DTD or AK.

I would recommend looking at the menu on allears.net then you can decide if your kids will like the food. Isnt all the planning fun!!!