Dinner first night?

[hoffse]

Hi everyone -

We are going to WDW the first week in October for 3 nights. Just three of us - mom, dad, and 5.5 YO son who absolutely loves Mickey and friends. He has never been to WDW before. We are staying at the Polynesian. There is a Halloween party on both our landing day (Thurs) and the day after (Fri). Our flight lands at 10:30 AM so I figure we will be at the resort around lunch on our landing day.

We are definitely going to do MK on that Friday because I’ve read crowds are better on party days and that’s probably the best park for my son. On our landing day, however, we are torn. I’m considering doing MK for the afternoon and having dinner at Chef Mickeys once we get kicked out at 6 (we will not be going to the party). Alternatively, we could do AK for the afternoon and do dinner at Tusker House.

My son kind of likes zoos but he’s not obsessed or anything. I think the boneyard would probably be his favorite part of AK. I think he will love MK, and it’s definitely a more convenient park for our landing day… but I keep reading that the food at Chef Mickeys is really bad.

If we don’t go to AK on our landing day we won’t go at all. But the extra half day at MK might be better for us given his age and it’s size.

Either way we want to start our trip with dinner with Mickey and Friends. It will be a highlight for my son.

WWYD?

Thanks!

 

[Skippyboo]

The Boneyard is closed currently. Don’t know when it’s supposed to open. What about going to Epcot and do Garden Grill ? You can take the monorail. It would have Farmer Mickey, Chip and Dale and Pluto.

 

[maltdizzy]

The Boneyard is closed currently. Don’t know when it’s supposed to open.

Scheduled to reopen by mid-June according to the WDW website.

For the OP, it seems a waste to only get an afternoon in the MK, especially if going the following day.

 

[Rory607]

We used to do a park day on arrival, but decided to not anymore due to risk of flight delays. We’ve gotten burned with having to change plans and wasting park tickets. It’s worked better for us to just wait until our first full day to go into the parks. If it were me, I would probably plan on heading over to Disney Springs and grabbing lunch, walk around, etc. You could also pack swimsuits in your carry-ons and plan to eat at the hotel and then swim until your room is ready. Admittedly, AK is our least favorite park, so I wouldn’t be going out of my way to fit it in.

As far as Chef Mickeys, I haven’t personally been there for several years. I remember it be ok as far as food. Will it be the best meal you’ve ever eaten? No. But it’s a fun way to start your trip and so close and convenient to Poly.

 

[dreamin'boutdis]

Chef Mickey's is our first night tradition. My kids love hanging out with Mickey and the gang to get them really into "Disney mode". Sure the food isn't great - but we've always found it to be decent, and nobody leaves hungry.

 

[jsergent]

I agree on Chef Mickey's and keep your expectations in check for the food. Been awhile since we were there, but the food wasn't terrible. It isn't signature dining for sure, but it also isn't marketed to be that level of food quality. Chef Mickey's was a great way to start off our arrival day when the kids were smaller.

Someone else mentioned Garden Grill. That was a fun dinner on our last trip (2019). Just depends if you want to visit Epcot on your arrival day.

 

[hoffse]

Thanks everybody. We are doing a full day in MK, HS, and Epcot before flying home so we may opt to do one other character meal in those parks. I will look at Garden Grill, though I don’t think it has Goofy… Mickey is #1 for my son and Goofy is a close #2. If there is another place to meet Goofy in Epcot though then this is a good option for our Epcot day.

I have pretty low expectations for the food at Chef Mickey’s, but it sounds like it’s tolerable and a fun experience for my son. So I’m leaning toward just doing MK for that half day (maybe stack a few rides) and ending with dinner at Chef Mickey’s. I know he would love it, and it sounds like my husband and I should be able to tolerate it!

Of course flight delays are always possible, but we have an early morning 90-min direct flight with a pretty good history of leaving on time…. So I think there are good odds we will get to the resort before our room is ready. We will need to do something to fill that first afternoon. If we do have a serious delay then we will just have to roll with it.

Thank you!

 

[PalmettoPath]

Another vote for Chef Mickey's.

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

I love Garden Grill but they don’t have Goofy. Goofy meets between the Future World gate and spaceship Earth until 4ish.

 

[Skippyboo]

Thanks everybody. We are doing a full day in MK, HS, and Epcot before flying home so we may opt to do one other character meal in those parks. I will look at Garden Grill, though I don’t think it has Goofy… Mickey is #1 for my son and Goofy is a close #2. If there is another place to meet Goofy in Epcot though then this is a good option for our Epcot day.

I have pretty low expectations for the food at Chef Mickey’s, but it sounds like it’s tolerable and a fun experience for my son. So I’m leaning toward just doing MK for that half day (maybe stack a few rides) and ending with dinner at Chef Mickey’s. I know he would love it, and it sounds like my husband and I should be able to tolerate it!

Of course flight delays are always possible, but we have an early morning 90-min direct flight with a pretty good history of leaving on time…. So I think there are good odds we will get to the resort before our room is ready. We will need to do something to fill that first afternoon. If we do have a serious delay then we will just have to roll with it.

Thank you!

I am getting confused- you are arriving on Thursday and leaving Sunday (first post). Thursday & Friday are Halloween party nights w MK closing early. You are doing MK, HS and Epcot.

If you go to MK on Thursday, are you still going back on Friday? When were you planning on HS and Epcot?

 

[Skip Coffee for Rope Drop]

I don't want to be a party pooper but you may want to consider an alternate plan. My wife and I have been flying with our kids to Disney since they were babies and are now full grown.
Be cautious of flight delays, cancellations and with air pressure and break of routines, 5 year olds can get pretty tired and cranky on flight day. Being it is still hot in October, you may just want to consider going to MK until 6 or so and check into your room (it may not be ready until 3 or 4). At dinner time, just get some quick service at the Poly and let him have fun at their splash pad zone which is heaven for a 5 year old. You don't want your kid getting knocked out on the first day causing a ripple effect on the entire vacation. Get a good night sleep and go crazy on Friday/Sat and Sunday,,,,don't burn him out on day 1.

 

[erinch]

As another idea, since your park time is so short, if you arrive on time and all are perky, you might consider Hollywood Studios. There’s a character meal there at Hollywood &Vine, with Mickey, Goofy, Pluto and Minnie. They will be in their Halloween outfits.

The problem with MK on a party night is that party guests can enter the park at 4. So those last 2 hours get pretty crowded between entering partygoers, and everyone else trying to get their park day in. You could stack LLs and get a number of attractions in and HS is much better when the sun isn’t blazing down.

 

[Marthasor]

I would stick with your first plan - go to MK and have dinner at Chef Mickeys. Especially with little ones, we like to stick “close to home” on arrival day, which not going to far afield after traveling. MK and Chef Mickeys will make traveling from the Poly super easy.

 

[jtopp]

Your plan really sounds pretty good. You arrive, get some park time, dinner with Mickey, and an early end for a hectic travel day. Enjoy!!!

 

[Lilsia]

I am going to be honest with you. Your child's 2 favorite things will be watching the ducks and swimming. LOL Go to whatever park that you want to. Your child has no frame of reference for "liking" or "not liking". It will all be new and colorful to him. I think that you are overthinking this. You don't really know what your child will be into until you are actually there. Kids surprise us everyday.

 

[mab2012]

Personally, I would reconsider doing MK first at all, if this is your son's first Disney trip. My daughter was 6 the first time we went to Orlando. We planned Monday at Legoland, Wednesday at MK, and Friday at AK. Trouble was that Legoland and MK are both very ride-heavy and very much designed to appeal to younger kids. My daughter liked animals well enough, but after Legoland and MK... let's just say that animals and the more subdued vibe at AK didn't really measure up to what she had come to expect.

Obviously depends on the kid - my daughter wasn't and still isn't exactly easygoing. And you might do better with HS and EPCOT after MK than AK (but EPCOT isn't usually the park most likely to appeal to younger kids either.)

Anyway, just something to think about. I get the crowd argument for doing MK first, but if I had a do-over, I would keep the "best" for last with a child that age.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

Personally, our family finds travel day to be exhausting and we learned to keep things very low key on that day.

Our first trip the girls were 4 and 6 (I think, lol) and we made the mistake of scheduling MK and a TS meal at CP to see the characters. Ugh.....it was a disaster. MK was too much stimulation, CP was running late, and DD4 had a few not-so-fun magical meltdowns. We learned our lesson.

I would suggest making travel day a pool/splashpad day at the Poly. Children ADORE water and everything wet. Eat something from Capt Cooks for lunch. Change into swimsuits after lunch. Enjoy the pool. Your room should be ready by mid-afternoon. You can settle into your room, rest a bit, and then maybe go to Chef Mickey's for dinner. After your son's bathtime and jammies, you can throw on some shoes and head out to the beach for fireworks, then back to the room for bedtime.

If you really want to visit a park on arrival day since your time is short, I agree with a pp that Epcot will be the least interesting/least stimulating park and best park for a half day for him. If you decide on a park arrival day, I would not make TS ressies.

I think AK will be much more interesting for your little guy. FWIW, we almost always see Mickey and Minnie while at AK in their adorable safari outfits.

 

[Lilsia]

Personally, our family finds travel day to be exhausting and we learned to keep things very low key on that day.

Our first trip the girls were 4 and 6 (I think, lol) and we made the mistake of scheduling MK and a TS meal at CP to see the characters. Ugh.....it was a disaster. MK was too much stimulation, CP was running late, and DD4 had a few not-so-fun magical meltdowns. We learned our lesson.

I would suggest making travel day a pool/splashpad day at the Poly. Children ADORE water and everything wet. Eat something from Capt Cooks for lunch. Change into swimsuits after lunch. Enjoy the pool. Your room should be ready by mid-afternoon. You can settle into your room, rest a bit, and then maybe go to Chef Mickey's for dinner. After your son's bathtime and jammies, you can throw on some shoes and head out to the beach for fireworks, then back to the room for bedtime.

If you really want to visit a park on arrival day since your time is short, I agree with a pp that Epcot will be the least interesting/least stimulating park and best park for a half day for him. If you decide on a park arrival day, I would not make TS ressies.

I think AK will be much more interesting for your little guy. FWIW, we almost always see Mickey and Minnie while at AK in their adorable safari outfits.

Same with us, travel day is usually us going to DS and getting some food there and an early night.

 

[hoffse]

I’m having trouble quoting, sorry…

Yes, our original plan was:

Thurs (party day) - Land at 10ish, on the fence from there, but we do have 4 day tickets
Fri (party day) - MK
Sat - HS (mostly just Toy Story land) and swim
Sun - Epcot until 3 PM or so - do rides in the morning and world showcase in the afternoon until we need to leave (flight home is at 8 PM).
Mon - He actually has a day off from school today so we will keep it a quiet day to recover.

It’s Columbus Day weekend, so I’m trying to play the crowds at MK as much as possible. He’s also suuuper tall - he can ride literally everything - but he’s never been on a rollercoaster or other fast ride before, so I kind of wanted to build up to Slinky and Test Track to see how he does with tamer rides first. I think he will hang, but you never know.

I do hear everyone on keeping it early our first day. He’s a really good traveler and this is a very short (under 90 min) direct flight from a small airport with few crowds, but travel days are still a little stressful. It might be better to just do breakfast at Chef Mickey’s on our HS day and then bus or Uber to HS from there (are we allowed to do that??). On our landing day we can keep it close at either MK or Epcot for a few hours and just do quick service at the poly when we get hungry for dinner.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I would consider fitting AK in at some point during your trip. The Safari was a huge hit with my daughter at that age. If Tusker House still has characters, that buffet is pretty much on par with any of the character buffets. I might do it on your departure day and hit Epcot on arrival day since it's a quick monorail ride away. Soarin was another favorite when our daughter was young.