desperately need help again - a newbie!

[mcvixen]

Thanks to everyone who has so generously offered their advice to me before. I need more help please!

We are trying to get a dinner booked for our "Magic Kingdom" day. I've booked for the Crystal Palace buffet, but I'm worried, because we're doing 1900 Park Fare dinner the day before.

Are the two buffets very similar? I'm not a big fan of buffets and would much prefer a nice, quiet place to eat for dinner after a busy day in the park.

It sounds like Kona Cafe would be good, are there any other possible places you would recommend that are not buffets?

Thanks again. This board is GREAT.

 

[Hootch]

Crystal Palace, but if you're looking for something quiet that's not your place. CRT in the MK will be fairly quiet. Kona, as you have mentioned, will be fairly quiet as will Grand Floridian Cafe. A place that will be very quiet and relaxing is Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge. It's a signature restaurant so it will be two credits on the DDP or a bit more than most out of pocket. It's a simple ferry ride from the MK.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

The CP and 1900 buffets are definitely different.

 

[spender]

How about Tony's at MK or Ohana's at Poly?
We enjoyed these more than Crystal Palace. We did enjoy 1900, and thought it was one of the best buffet at Disney.

 

[skw444]

If you're looking for a low key dinner, Crystal Palace is not that. With all the characters, it's very active. We loved our meal at Kona Cafe and thought it was one of the best of our trip. Since there are no characters there, it's much more low key than Crystal Palace.

 

[MHSweb79]

I second Tony's Town Square. It's right on Main St. so you wouldn't have to leave the park. Although this place gets mixed reviews, our very picky family rated this our #2 Disney meal of all time (second only to LeCellier). Try to get the outside dining room- I don't know what it's called but it's much nicer out there. It's the room with the glass walls. We happened to be there when a parade went by so that was fun.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I can sympathize with you. My family doesn't like buffets or loud restaurants. We like to talk over dinner, & many people don't seem to care that we don't want to hear their conversation too. We only do buffets at breakfast & that's only when we take someone who's never been. I agree Artist Point or Citricos would be great choices for a quieter meal, but those are both signature restaurants. I don't know if that matters to you or not. For non-signature restaurants, it sounds like the Wave at the Contemporary Resort would fit your criteria. Grand Floridian Cafe is supposed to be a bit quieter than many of the WDW restaurants. All of the buffet & family style restaurants will be loud.

 

[mcvixen]

Thanks so much for the helpful advice!

We adults decided that some quieter TS meals would be a much-needed break for everyone. So we decided on the following restaurants for our 6 nights in WDW:

Mon: 1900 Park Fare (must-do Cinderella dinner buffet)
Tue: Grand Floridian Cafe**
Wed: Boma's (buffet, but everyone seems to rave about it!)
Thus: Ohana's (still not sure about this one, but the ADR's seem to be booking up really fast, I guess we can cancel if we want to switch)
Fri: Akershus (must-do Princess lunch buffet)
Sat: The Wave **

Honestly, I'd love to do Narcossee's or one of the other signature locations, but we don't think they would be appropriate for our 5 year old girl. She's quiet and well-behaved, but we *know* her limit for a meal will be about 1 hr 30 minutes.

I'm still really on the fence about Ohana's but we might try to balance it out by eating lunch that day in a quieter place... we'll probably be spending the afternoon (a Thursday) at Downtown Disney. We're hoping everyone else will be at MK! We're also definitely going to check out Tony's, based on recommendations here.

Thank you again everyone, it's such a good feeling to have the ADR's set up and know that we've got nice places to try out!

 

[itchin2go]

People love Ohana. I have never been, but it's a major hot-ticket as far as ADRs go.

FYI: Akershus is not a buffet, so don't stress about that one. There's a cold buffet which is sort of like an appetizer, but you order off the menu.

We went to GF Cafe last year. It was WAY better than we had expected. We only went because our daughter was doing the Wonderland Tea at GF, and that was the only place for us to eat lunch. It feels very typical-hotel-restaurant-y -- and not in a good way. The ambience is pretty
I had a soup which was pretty blah, but my husband had the Grand sandwich, I think it's called, and he said it's the best sandwich he's had in his life. That said, it's not a place I'd go out of my way for. The mini-desserts sounded like a good idea, but they were kind of counter-service-pre-fab-ish. I know you're looking for low-key, but Whispering Canyon cafe is more of a destination-dining type of place. It's a hot-ticket ADR as well. It would be a short boat or bus ride from MK. People also seem to love Kona Cafe, but that may be too much Poly for you. Just some thoughts!

Regardless, the ADRs sound good!

 

[B-Ride]

If you're looking for a low key dinner, Crystal Palace is not that. With all the characters, it's very active. We loved our meal at Kona Cafe and thought it was one of the best of our trip. Since there are no characters there, it's much more low key than Crystal Palace.

We love eating at Kona but it is not exactly quiet. The restaurant is open to the lobby of the Polynesian which has both entertainment and a large crowd of people milling around.

We like Crystal Palace as well but I think the food at Kona is much better.

Both times we have eaten at Kona we have been seated close to the lobby where there was definitely lots of action. You could try and ask to be seated futher inside the restaurant.