Did I do good on picking?

[Disneyhayes]

We're traveling 9/11-9/15 on the DxDP and I have picked out the following meals. Anyone have any opinions I am open to changing. I also know I have a lot of food listed but we like to eat I also divided restaurants by park days although I don't know which days will be at which parks since the calender isn't out yet for Sept

Day 1 - Dinner at Narcoossee's

Magic Kingdom Day
CRT - Breakfast
Crystal Palace - Lunch
Dinner - Chef Mickey's

HS Day
Hollywood & Vine - Breakfast
Pizza Planet - Lunch OOP
Brown Derby Fantasmic Package - Dinner (is this worth 2 TS? might do one of the other places and do Calif Grill instead of Chef Mickeys)

AK day - half day
Tusker House - Breakfast
IDK for lunch - hubby won't like Yak & Yeti - might just use snacks
Dinner - Cape May Cafe

May stay an extra night so will have 3 more TS and don't know if doing epcot or not yet since my kids are so little. My husband isn't putting in much opinion so I need ya'lls help!

 

[madczar]

I tend not to like Chef Mickey's, either OOP or on the Dining Plan. Unless you absolutely must have a character dining with Mickey and gang, I'd skip that and do Ohana or 1900 Park Fare, if you wanna stay close to the MK area. The Crystal palace is a great fun breakfast. I've never been there for lunch or dinner, so I can't comment on that. I'd switch CRT for lunch/dinner and do Crystal Palace for breakfast instead. Just my preference.

The Brown Derby is good, but not necessarily 2TS credits good. But with the fantasmic package, you'll have good seating, which is important.

With DxDP, I tend to like doing 1 TS (breakfast or early lunch), and then a Signature Dinner. On your AK day, I agree with you. Just snack for lunch in AK (they have good snacks, like egg rolls and jalapeno pretzels), and then go do a Signature AK dinner at Jiko's. Every guy likes steak, and they have a good one!

Just some suggestions.

 

[catne]

My 2 cents...trying to do too many character meals, IMO. These are very time consuming and your little ones might not like characters...then where will you be? You do have some over-lap on characters with this schedule, so I'd suggest dropping some of these in favor of some counter service options and some non-character meals too.

Would definitely not try to do 3 table service meals in one day..and especially not 3 character meals in one day (your MK day) By the time you check-in, and wait around to be seated, and then the actual meal time you'll be spending 5 or 6 hours that day in & around restaurants. I'd do Crystal Palace breakfast, skip CRT until kids are a little older...the food is not worth the 2 TS credits - you're paying extra for the castle experience here..and at your kids' age the character experience/castle dining experience would be wasted on toddlers, IMO. Do a counter service lunch (Cosmic Rays is fun and fast-food.) Then do a nice dinner at one of the monorail restaurants (The Wave, Kona CAfe, Grand Floridian Cafe...or even Citrico's for a 2 TS experience. We enjoyed our meal there in 1/2011.) Chef Mickey's is just barely OK, food-wise, but if you're trying to get photos with Mickey & friends that will be the place to go. If you're sure you want a picture with Cinderella, go to 1900 Park Fare for dinner...Cinderella and Prince Charming both visit tables there. It's a decent buffet and the stepsisters make it very entertaining for adults. I see you have Tusker House breakfast, too...Mickey & friends characters will be there. Would not do both Tusker House & Chef Mickey's...keep Tusker and dump Chef Mickey's.

We did Hollywood Brown Derby Fantasmic package in January (last month) and we thought it was very, very good...yes, worth 2 TS credits. Even though we went during an otherwise very empty-park time, Fantasmic was packed. Every seat was taken by about 20 minutes before show-time.

 

[Disneyhayes]

I was thinking about dropping Chef Mickey's already since I have seen bad or just ok reviews just about everywhere I look. My kids watch snow white a lot (I even whistle on my way to work sometimes without thinking ) so I was trying to find a way to get in a princess meal since we aren't going to Epcot. I guess for an extra $17 tho we can get a 4th's day ticket and go to the Akerhaus at Epcot and do breakfast there with the princesses. Right?

 

[Wendy31]

I would definitely keep CRT for your 2 little princesses!

And with your daughters being as young as they are, I would keep Crystal Palace too!

Maybe switch around your MK day to this -

Breakfast - Crystal Palace
Lunch - counter/snack
Dinner - CRT

And move Chef Mickey's to a breakfast - it's better for breakfast than it is for dinner. Since you're also doing Tusker House for breakfast (which has Mickey, Donald, & Daisy) on your AK day, you might could leave out Chef Mickey's. However, we like Chef Mickey's because the 5 main characters are there. My DD still likes to see Minnie Mouse too. And, since Liberty Tree Tavern is no longer a character meal, Chef Mickey's & Cape May (breakfast) are the only meals where you can find her.

I think Narcoose's on your 1st night is good.

Your Disney Studios day looks good too.

For your AK day, we like Flame Tree (counter service) for lunch. We also like Boma for dinner at the AKL.

If you add a day for EPCOT, maybe --

Breakfast - Akershus
Lunch - counter (maybe Sunshine Seasons?)
Dinner - maybe Coral Reef (Future World) - your DDs will probably enjoy the aquarium or Garden Grill (Future World, w/ Mickey, Pluto, Chip, & Dale) or a World Showcase restaurant

Maybe you could add Chef Mickey's as breakfast on the day you leave.

When our kids were smaller, we always did a lot of character meals - it was easier meeting/seeing them at meals instead of waiting in lines to see them. When our youngest is a little older, we'll probably be adding more character meals once again! At any rate, I always try to schedule a princess meal (CRT), a Mickey meal (Chef Mickey's), & Crystal Palace (for my DH actually... LOL!). The first year we went, DD was five, & we did 2 princess meals - Akershus & CRT. One year, we did Garden Grill, Crystal Palace, the AK character breakfast, CRT, & Chef Mickey's - maybe alot of character meals to some, but we enjoyed them & spread them out w/ breakfasts, lunches, & dinners.

 

[baler31]

Your post seems to indicate you are on the Deluxe plan ? If so I would schedule more signature restaurants and less buffets. Frankly, the food at Chef Mickey's if just awful and for lunch or dinner we don't find the others to be much improved. For buffets we stick to breakfast. I would suggest Tusker House and Crystal Palace to get into the parks early. If you need Mickey I would suggest Cape May for breakfast.

Brown Derby will be a nice meal for the Fantasmic package. I would try to pick up some other signature like Flying Fish, Citricos, or California Grill. JMO.

 

[Princess_Jo]

Your Magic Kingdom day has me overwhelmed just thinking about all that food! I personally think that is too much time spent in restaurants and way too much food. If we have a sit down breakfast (especially a buffet), we usually do something quick for lunch and then another sit down dinner.

I love CP so I'd recommend moving that to breakfast and keeping CM for dinner. Or, if you are open to skipping CM I'd suggest eating at Ohana which, in my opinion, has much better food and is overall a better experience.

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

We're traveling 9/11-9/15 on the DxDP and I have picked out the following meals. Anyone have any opinions I am open to changing. I also know I have a lot of food listed but we like to eat I also divided restaurants by park days although I don't know which days will be at which parks since the calender isn't out yet for Sept

Day 1 - Dinner at Narcoossee'sThis seems good, although might be a bit "nice" for a 2 year old AND a 1 year old. Personally I'd pick 1900 Park Fare for dinner to give the kids a chance to get used to characters. the benefit is, at 1900 Park Fare dinner, the characters are "face" characters. Kids are less likely to be afraid of face characters compared to mask ones.

Magic Kingdom Day
CRT - Breakfast
I'd cancel - it's not the best bang for your buck for breakfast and the kids won't "get" the castle at that age. I'd pick Crystal Palace for breakfast, but don't be surprised if the kids are a bit shy around the chracters
Crystal Palace - Lunch I'd do CS lunch. The way you have things scheduled now with THREE character meals in one day, you won't have any park time. Of all the parks, this is the best one for your kids - they can ride most things at that age.
Dinner - Chef Mickey's I'd think about doing something lower energy. After a full day in the parks, I'd be worried about the kids getting overstimulated. Instead of Chef Mickey's, I'd think about doing a 2 TS meal to get the most of your DxDP and think about getting a sitter to stay with the little ones or a 1 TS meal either at your resort or at a monorail resort. CRT may be a good dinner choice too, though your kids may not "get" it.

HS Day
Hollywood & Vine - Breakfast
Pizza Planet - Lunch OOP
Brown Derby Fantasmic Package - Dinner (is this worth 2 TS? might do one of the other places and do Calif Grill instead of Chef Mickeys) I haven't heard great things about the DHS restaurants. Hollywood and Vine might be ok IF your kids will be ok with the characters.

AK day - half day
Tusker House - Breakfast I'd keep this one, assuming they are ok with characters.
IDK for lunch - hubby won't like Yak & Yeti - might just use snacks
Dinner - Cape May Cafe Sounds yummy BUT you've got a lot of buffets - buffets are not the easiest with little ones. I'd think about doing a non buffet, non character meal.

May stay an extra night so will have 3 more TS and don't know if doing epcot or not yet since my kids are so little. If you do Epcot, I'd pick Coral Reef. Your kids would LOVE to see the fishies in the giant tanks. My husband isn't putting in much opinion so I need ya'lls help!

Comments in Red. I would reconsider Deluxe though given your kids ages. They are kind of little for THAT much restaurant time and they may not like characters. They may be fine too, but it's so hard to tell ahead of time.

 

[mommytravels]

Just my two cents. My kids are older now (8 and 15) and both boys. However, they still love the character meals (but don't tell my 15 year old's friends - it would totally tarnish his rep lol). They even love the princess meals, so we do lots of character meals. Our favorite character meal is 1900 Park Fare dinner. Food is just okay, but the characters are great. We also really like Crystal Palace at lunch and dinner much better than breakfast. I'd definitely reconsider at least one of those character meals on MK day because thats the park your little ones will enjoy the most. We love Columbia Harbour House for lunch. Its a counter service, but the food is great.

 

[Disneyhayes]

Thanks for all your input!!! My kids don't mind characters at all. We have a few restaurants around here that have people in costumes and they do fine around them. We have decided to skip CRT and do CP for breakfast then something quick for lunch. The kids do really good at restaurants as well...usually as long as they're in a booth but they'll be 2.5 and 3.5 when we go so they should be even better! We're going to do Epcot 1/2 day now so that we can do Princess breakfast there and a few things.

I'm debating on O'hana. I still can't decide how my family will feel about the food. I am sure we'll figure out something tho. Citricos and Calif Grill are still on the list. I'll probably lay down the finals once the calender comes out. Also thinking about squeezing in MNSSHP

 

[laurainsem]

Looks great, you'll love the DXDP! We did it on our last trip and had a blast. Instead of Brown Derby, have you thought about a dinner show? I know it would be a trip out, but we love HDDR and found it very much worth the 2TS.