Best place for thanksgiving dinner?

[clarkinstlouis]

i missed the 180 day mark so scrambling. Thoughts or experiences?

 

[rosiebean]

How large is your party and what places have availability? Do you want something special? Something traditional? Great food or atmosphere? Is price a factor in that a signature restaurant would be out of budget?

Without knowing that, there's only so much advice that can be given.

That being said, I've found that when park restaurants are full, resorts are a very good and overlooked alternative.

Case in point, last year, we (my extended family) were staying at POR and decided to go to Boatwrights for an early (5:30ish) dinner before heading to MNSSHP. We made the reservation at the last minute. We weren't particularly tempted to try Boatwrights before simply because the lot of us have been to or lived in Louisiana long enough to wonder if food there was going to be up to par. But, because we were staying onsite and because we wanted an easy option for dinner, reservations were made. The meal was incredible, with even traditional cajun dishes like étouffée getting very good marks from our group. And the restaurant was pretty empty.

I've read great reviews from other mod sit down restaurants, but have only been to Boatwrights.

Signature and buffet restaurants at deluxe resorts are great as well. A few years ago, during a Poly stay, we only ate CS at Poly but hit sit down restaurants at every other hotel around the lake . Citricos was great, and Artist Point was very special (got lots of pixie dust there). Both tend to not sell out (during my personal holidays...I don't know how they'll be on Thanksgiving). Last year, we went to Cape May on our last night and everyone left stuffed and happy.

And if those types of restaurants were sold out and I were going with my family...I'd pick a resort I hadn't been to and visit their food court. Over the past several years, my family has gone to a 'new' resort for breakfast at the food court in order to scope out the resort for a future stay. Have visited Grand Floridian, CSR, and WL that way. So, you could pick a resort with a food court and have lunch or dinner...and tour the resort...walk around, check out the pool, gift shop, etc.

Finally, something at Disney Springs should be open. Raglan Road is great if you can get reservations. We spent Christmas Day there years ago, when it was DTD, and had a great time shopping and eating counter service.

Just be flexible and remember that it's Disney. As my son said the other day, "it doesn't matter where you stay at Disney, you know it will be great."



Good luck!

 

[Jjs7one]

Akershus has room for 6 at 3 on thanksgiving 2016

 

[LovesTimone]

If you are looking for a traditional meal Liberty Tree Tavern would be my go to... But this will be very hard to get as most people will try for it. If you don't get it right away you can keep trying, calling and so forth... But do get a ADR somewhere that you will be happy with if it doesn't work out.

Any/All of the buffets should offer some traditional offerings, so you can't go wrong with any of these.

As a family that does not stick to traditional meals for holidays... We just pick something that's our fav and go for it.

 

[Luv2PixieDust]

I looked at the restaurants that were left for Thanksgiving and most are already booked. You may want to consider selecting any option that remains so you have something lined up as a last resort. Perhaps you can check back periodically to see if someone cancels their reservation the closer we get to the holiday. With the $10/person surcharge for not showing up, you may see something open up last minute.

We are also going during the holiday and I just grabbed what I could knowing that most restaurants will serve some type of Thanksgiving traditional food as an option. If you are renting a car, there is a Cracker Barrel about 8 1/2 miles away from the Magic Kingdom area. Last year they had a traditional Turkey meal that you could pick up that feeds 6 people for about $65. If you have a Villa or a unit with a table and chairs this could be an option for you. Some hotels have nice picnic areas as well.

I am planning to call our hotel the week before our trip and ask them if there is a traditional meal available for room service. Since we arrive on Thanksgiving I'm not going to be in the mood to take the bus somewhere and fight crowds for dinner. My hope is that we can relax at 'home' and eat there.

Best of luck to you!

 

[clarkinstlouis]

Thanks for the replies. There are just three of us and we like traditional. I just snagged a liberty tree tavern at 11:45, would rather have a dinner so I will keep trying. Any feedback on the Norwegian Ankerhouse?

 

[Elandon]

We are in the sme boat as you, clarkinstlouis. We took wave of American flavors at 2:40 (we would prefer closer to lunch) but it looked like there were some options for dinner too. Keep checking!