Arrival night dining

Cape May for us and a walk around the boardwalk after is planned. No park this day, will hang at the pool and explore our resort (CSR) after arrival early AM.
 
Chef Mickey's was our tradition. So much fun just to see the monorail overhead and the main characters and do the napkin dance. It really gets us in the mood for the celebration. One trip we booked last-minute and couldn't get CM so we did 1900 Park Fare instead and i was a hoot. This time staying at our home resort and doing 'Ohana.
 
Chef Mickey's has been our tradition. My son is 16 and still asks for CM's dinner.
 

I'm starting a new tradition this year of doing Mickey's Backyard BBQ on arrival day. We love Hoop Dee Do and like to end our trip with that, so now we are going to throw the BBQ in as well. My daughter is only one, so I think she'll love it. I've never tried it but I think it will be great. I know a lot of people don't care for it, but honestly I think expectations ruin it for most. I know it's just hamburgers and hot dogs, but the entertainment sounds fun!
 
First trip for us this fall. We were going to do Chef Mickey, had it reserved, then decided to take it easy at the resort...

Then I got to thinking that with the new Frozen ride AND Soarin' to do, that maybe we should hit some of Epcot on arrival day. So FOR NOW, I'm planning on dinner at Coral Reef, hit the Land, Seas, and Imagination.
 
This year we ate at Sanaa it was nice because we were staying at the Animal Kingdom so we didn't have to go crazy getting to a restaurant... and it was very good to boot...glad we did that
 
Honestly, I think it depends on what kind of trip you have planned. On shorter trips, we often do an arrival night dinner to get the Disney trip celebration started off right. On our recent spring break trip, we were staying seven nights, which is a long trip for us, and we had a LOT of other dining experiences planned (HDDR, character meals, Fantasmic! package, etc.). So we started the trip by eating at the Pop food court and exploring the resort. This was a good relaxing start for us.
 
we usually eat at our resorts CS because we have gotten up early for a 3.5 hour flight. We get to Resort around 2:30pm. Either hang out at our Resort or head to DS.
 
We have an early flight so have an early dinner planned at Park Fare and then planning to catch Wishes either at MK or at a resort beach.
 
We have always done Garden Grill on our arrival night. It's a great way to get the crucial meeting with Mickey done in a relatively calm environment and the salad is incredible (and I don't like salad much so that is saying something)! We then hit Spaceship Earth and Test Track and everyone is happy.

However, now that our girls are older (and more patient!), we are opening up our trips with Cali Grill and watching the MSEP and Wishes!
 
We normally rotate Yachtsman Steakhouse and California Grill for our 1st night dinner and last night dinner. Our Sept. 2016 trip is going to be the first time we deviate from our plan due to my 9 y/o niece and 4 y/o nephew being with us. We are doing CRT. Our Nov. 2016 (wine & dine half trip) we have California Grill slated for arrival dinner and our Jan. 2017 (wife's dopey challenge trip) we have Yachtsman scheduled for arrival night.

We tend to keep the arrival day somewhat low key and minimize our time at the parks. We always get early flights into MCO (around 7:30-8:30 am is our typical landing time) so we hangout at the resort for most of the day since we are normally up and at the airport by 3:30 am. Depending on what time we schedule dinner for (yachtsman around 6:30-7 pm and cali grill around 7:45-8:15 pm) we'll get to see either Wishes from CG or have enough time to hit up Illuminates at Epcot.
 
Depends on when we arrive. Last trip we got to Disney Sunday morning, checked in to Port Orleans and did the pool for a while then went to DTD for the afternoon and had dinner at Raglan Road. That worked out really well for us. We were able to get DTD out of the way (fun place to visit but end of the day it is just a shopping mall) and really enjoyed Raglan Road. Previous trip we arrived in the afternoon and just went to the resort and had dinner at one of the resort restaurants.
 
We'll get into Orlando at about 12:30 pm.

We'll check into the resort, then head to the MK; we have 3 FPs, starting at 4-5.

Dinner at Chef Mickey's-- it's tradition. (One of the FPs is for after dinner.)
 
We usually arrive at our resort (ASMu) around 1 PM. Get into our room and immediately change into swin suits. I'm coming from Michigan and we always trravel in February. Afeter several hours soaking up the beautiful sunshine we head off to the Magic Kingdom and have walk around bit. We always go straight to Its a Small World for our first ride. At 6:30 we go to the Crystal Palace for dinner and when we are done we walk out and enjoy the fireworks. A perfect first day.
 
First trip for us this fall. We were going to do Chef Mickey, had it reserved, then decided to take it easy at the resort...

Then I got to thinking that with the new Frozen ride AND Soarin' to do, that maybe we should hit some of Epcot on arrival day. So FOR NOW, I'm planning on dinner at Coral Reef, hit the Land, Seas, and Imagination.

We LOVE the Coral Reef, and go every trip!
 
We got the 6:05am fight from Philly so we made a 3:30pm ADR for Ohana. Then off to DHS for a few rides and Fantasmic. Trying not to stay out too late 1st night. Going to be a long week.
 

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