CLOSED: The best place to eat when you arrive at Disney World is _______.

[AmandaCagle]

We will be traveling with 3 small boys and 6 adults and arriving in the late afternoon. What's the best place to eat dinner to start our visit? I would like our first meal at Disney to be really wonderful, especially for the boys.

 

[tink2]

Well, our plan is to eat dinner at Chef Mickey's arrival night. We don't want to use a park pass, so we are sticking to somewhere outside the parks. I've read good and bad reviews of dinner, but we ate breakfast here before and it was wonderful and a lot of fun! I think eating with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald (or whoever the other characters are) will be a great way to kick off the vacation for our kids!!!

 

[Mickeefan]

It depends if you're going into a park that evening or not. If not, I'd suggest Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. It's a great way to start a vacation. It's a buffet and can be loud, but Mickey is there. Other suggestions would be: 'Ohana, Rainforest Cafe (either DTD or AK), Whispering Canyon Cafe @ Wilderness Lodge or Beaches & Cream (does not take ADR's).

 

[Barbers2005]

I second WCC. That is just such a great, rowdy atmosphere and dd5 loves it.

 

[Tam1067]

We've made Crystal Palace our opening tradition. If you are not going to a park your first day, I'd go to Chef Mickey's.

Both places will get you into the Disney mood. Your kids will like the characters. If the kids are tired, a buffet is good because you're not waiting for your food to be brought to you, and the visits from characters are enough to keep everyone entertained.

Food at both is comparably decent buffet fare.

 

[Maybelle]

We like to go into MK on our first night. Last time we ate at CRT for dinner on our first night. This time it will be LTT.

 

[Gradar1]

Boma. It's nice to eat there because if you don't want to pay to use a park ticket for only part of a day, and you still get the Disney experience, walking around AKL and seeing the animals around there.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Where are you staying and will you go to a park the first night??

Most people start the night with Chef Mickey....we did this one time too and the characters were awesome but the food was lousy.

MK..maybe Crystal Palace? Or go to Poly for Ohana? I hear that is a lot of fun for kids...or Whispering Canyon at WL...that place is a blast!

 

[lady_hlh]

We go to MK on our first day so we always go to the Crystal Palace. The food is great, the characters are lots of fun and you don't need to leave the park until closing.

 

[simonkodousek]

The Crystal Palace is our overall favorite restaurant in WDW. We always go to it on our first or second night, and we'll be trying the breakfast in July as well.

 

[cheshirekitty]

O'hana! It's our traditional first night meal. Watch the fireworks from the Poly too!

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Dinner at Chef Mickeys is our 1st night tradition. We've never had a problem with the food plus the characters and napkin twirling really get you in the Disney mood.

 

[ransom]

Well, when *we* arrive at WDW, the best place to eat is what ever's closest! We hardly get any sleep the night before (late night packing + very early flight + extreme excitement = almost no sleep), so we know we'll be running on fumes shortly. So the strategy is to grab some grub, hit MK, and get a few rides in before exhaustion takes over.

Last time, after returning from MK, we almost fell asleep in our dinner plates!

 

[spooky1]

We either hit a resort restaurant/cafe or head Downtown and pick a place we can get into quickly.

 

[Simbee3]

Our traditional first night meal is Chef Mickey's. My boys love it. They take their pictures, have their fun with the characters, and it always feels like we are welcomed home once we have reached Chef Mickey's. Let's just hope this year my little princess will not be afraid of them, like she was last year.

 

[snowdrift7]

Because we usually stay at OKW, we eat at Olivia's the first night. It's nice to have a quiet dinner (before things get hectic) and it makes us feel like we've come "home" to Disney

cynthia

 

[tluvstink]

I like Chef Mickeys or 'Ohana But honestly I don't see where you can go wrong. You will be at Disney

Have fun!

Terri

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I'd definitely say Chef Mickey's. It's sooo much fun, althought the food is nothing to write home about.

 

[AmandaCagle]

We'll be staying at Old Key West on points but our flight (the one that I hope SWA is still flying next January) arrives at 4:10 pm so we're probably not going to try to get into a park that night. But all the suggestions sound great. Are there always characters at Chef Mickey's? That sounds like a good choice for us.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We also stay at OKW, and our first meal is always something from Goods to Go (usually their tuna sandwich, which I love). We fly and with the uncertainty of air travel-times, what(if anything)will I have eaten, we prefer not to make an ADR for a sit-down meal. So we usually just grab something at Goods to Go, go to Gurgling Suitcase for "dessert" (they make some great mud-slides), and walk over to the bridge to see Illuminations from afar. It's sort of our first night tradition to just "be there".