Dining Pros, Please Help 2 Adults w/ Dining Plan Out!

[Austriankrystl]

Hello,

My Schatz and I are doing a week of WDW for the first time the week before Christmas (13th-20th) on the Dining Plan for our Happily Ever After. We are arriving from Germany for Thanksgiving but doing some touring first.

I am stuck! I have heard such differing views of restaurant choices and am totally lost as to how to "fill out"/edit our ADRs. My Schatz is German and 1st time in the USA--we are skipping the Biergarten for logical reasons.

So far I have thought of planning 1 TS for each park day planned. Then after asking around, I thought going with 2 CS for MK may be a better idea.

I know that the signatures are not "practical uses" of points. We are not "Character meal" people--the food is more important. Mix of fun atmosphere and "romantic" atmosphere....

So: what would you recommend? If you could get your "dream week" of Dining plan at Christmas, how would you do it?

Thinking of arrival dinner at Wildernis Lodge with boat ride across lake back to MK at night?

HS: 50's Prime Time for the "kitsch atmosphere" and recommendation.

MK: lunch FP BoG
perhaps Columbia Harbour, what would you recommend (not seafood fans, but heard good things)

AK: Boma dinner at 7:30pm
Flame Tree for lunch

Epcot: Chef de France
?????

plus 3 other days to fill up with food.... (parks, too, but that is another thread) we are doing tours of the deluxes, too...

Help!!!!

 

[rugbygirl]

I am not a dining 'pro', but I add my two cents.

Whether you have table service meals at the parks or outside the parks depends on how you would like to schedule your day.

In the hot weather, a table service lunch makes sense to get out of the heat of the day and take a break. While the weather can be nice in December, it's not usually oppressively hot. I prefer to have my table service meals at night. I like to go back to the room, clean up, have a nice meal and then (maybe) go back to the parks for fireworks or just a walk around. So, my preference is always table service meals outside the parks (or in Epcot).

BoG for lunch at MK is a good plan...if you can get a FP+. They are not easy to get. I really want one for our next trip, but I am not willing to sacrifice hours in line for standby if we don't get one. I don't think that it is worth it.

Colombia Harbour is ok for lunch in MK. I find it to have some of the less greasy options in MK, so we usually eat there one day.

I think that Boma is a good choice for dinner, but I'd skip Flame Tree. People rave about it and the portions are massive, but I have never enjoyed anything I have eaten there. Again...really greasy (you may gather that I'm not really a fast-food person, so I struggle with the CS restaurants at Disney).

Chef de France is easy, but nothing super special. If you're looking for something different I would do Restaurant Marrakesh. Hacidena San Angel is good and Teppan Edo gets well reviewed.

If I were planning a week without kids, I would enjoy the parks during the day and then have late dinners at some of the nicer restaurants like Flying Fish, Artist Point, etc.

That's my two cents, but others will be able to provide more feedback. Because of how busy Disney can be at that time of the year, you may find that some of your decisions will be based on what is available now. You may want to see what's available on a particular day at a time where you would like to eat and then go from there.

 

[ajwolfe]

We typically do 1 TS a day (usually at night) and 1 QS for lunch. We aren't big breakfast folks, so we just have a small snack in the room usually. If we opted for an ADR for breakfast then we would do QS for the rest of the day. The more TS you do in the day, the less time you are going to have in the parks. I always figure out my park days first and then fill in with the ADRs. So if we are in MK, I will schedule an ADR in MK or close by. We take a look at the menus and go from there as far as what to select. Without the kids I would look into doing more signatures but we are still at a stage where they enjoy the character meals.

 

[Austriankrystl]

Hi Rugbygirl-- I guess for clarification: Disney Pro is anyone with more experience than I have. You definitely qualify!

ajwolfe--thanks for chiming in here.

You both nailed us really quite well. We also prefer "night dining". As we don't have park hoppers (just for dining seemed not worth it to me), eating nightly at epcot won't work.

After looking at menus, I just realized that so many places are similar and we want an "array" of experiences.

I wish signature was really in the budget, but we are at the point in not wanting to pay more out of pocket in addition to what we already are spending.

We will definitely rethink our Epcot day(s)--we currently have the CP Package at chefs de france...

lots to think about, lots to consider....

 

[rugbygirl]

If you don't have parkhopper passes, then restaurants in Downtown Disney are a good choice. There are quite a few different choices there. Most are on the dining plan, but not all. I haven't been to many of the restaurants in a few years, so I'm not the best to make suggestions, but there are lots to choose from. It's a fun atmosphere at night.

 

[bluetenshi55]

We've normally done one TS a day because at some point you just need to sit down for a while.

Back in the day, most TS had a lunch menu that was cheaper than dinner, so you could save a bit if paying OOP. A lot of them are switching over to the same menu throughout the day.

BoG: Beautiful, but the lunch was meh for us. The steak sandwich was really dry and we had some nasty CMs there because at the time they weren't giving roses to people who did a fastpass+.

MK: For an MK day I'd recommend Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner or the Kona Cafe at Poly. Love Kona's pork chop.

I agree with the Downtown Disney recommendation. I love Raglan Road and they have the food trucks there now too!

Don't forget about resort dining. Some of the resorts have awesome places, just a bit harder to get it.

Flame Tree: Both DH and I like Flame Tree. We normally split a meal.

Boma: Great choice if you're looking for different.

Chefs de France: I'm torn on this one. I loved the Lobster bisque, but didn't like my meal (Beef Bourguignon). DH's duck was great though!

Epcot: I'd recommend Tokyo dining if you want to try Japanese food. Lots of seafood though. Garden grill if you're looking for a character meal with more "american" food".

 

[lemondog]

If it's food you are after could you swing a couple of signature restaurants. Citricos and Narcoosee's in GF are both good. Have heard great stuff about Jiko too.

 

[lemondog]

Nevermind just read your post above re: no signatures. We love the food at Ohana dinner!