DisneyWorld Dining suggestions?

[nickapoohiluvu]

So, I'm an old pro at DisneyLand but we've moved to Ohio and are visiting DisneyWorld for the first time next August. We are staying at Port Orleans Riverside and have the Free Dining Plan. And now I get to figure out where to eat. But, I need help because I'm overwhelmed with choices! We'll have seven days worth of meal credits - 7 ts, 7 qs and 7 snacks. Will probably buy the mugs when we get there too. Anyhow, we definitely want to do Cinderella's Royal Table for my soon to be five year old Annabelle, so that will take up 2 ts each. Have to say Nick enjoys flirting with the pretty princesses too. My son will be nine on the trip and loves all things Star Wars and the character's are ok but not a big highlight, although my little princess cannot get enough of them, so I'm thinking at least one other Character Meal. Oh, our favorites at DisneyLand (in case anyone has been to both) are Red Rocket's Pizza Port and Storyteller's Cafe. Was not impressed with the food at Goofy's Kitchen, but the Character Interaction was fabulous. Peter Pan earned a Cast Member Compliment when he spent about 30 minutes with my son playing with him and drawing him out of his shell (Nick has a Sensory Processing Disorder and Central Auditory Processing Disorder which make busy environments very stressful although its getting better with home and occupational therapy). And here are the hitches in the giddyup. Hubs is deathly allergic to seafood. Nick is also a super picky eater. Oh, and Hubs and I are taking advantage of the babysitting thing at the resorts and will have dinner out together one night. If you've made it this far, do you have any suggestions??? Pretty please???? We have 8 days worth of park tickets without the hopping option.

 

[DisneyAmyC]

This website is great for looking over menus. I have been obsessed with checking out the menus as I am a pretty picky eater.

http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

The good thing about this site is that all the restaurants are also listed by theme park/resort. You will really need to plan your days well since you don't have park hoppers. For example, if you are planning on a character breakfast in the morning you will have to only go to that park on that day. I was worried about the planning for this, so I decided to upgrade to the park hopper.


There are so many mixed reviews about every restaurant at Disney. I'm also having trouble deciding! I was there in '09 and thought all the food was great. It just depends on what you like. Buffets are good for picky eaters (almost all of them have mac n cheese for kids!). Also, since one of you has a severe seafood allergy I would notify the chef of this to ensure there is no cross contamination with the food.


If I were you I would go through the menus on allears and write a list of a few places in each park/resort that appeals to you and your family. Then, search on the boards for reviews about these places. This has really helped me narrow down my choices.

Good luck! It's hard to choose with so many options, but it's great that WDW can cater to almost anyone!

 

[SCCLilo]

As an Angelino, I spent years heading to Disneyland. Now that we are on the east coast, we go to WDW almost yearly and have eaten at most of the restaurants now. Here are my suggestions. We have a 2 and 4 year old so a little younger than yours.

Princess Character dining: Don't do CRT, do Akerhaus at Epcot or Park Fair for dinner

Other Character dining: Chef Mickey's at Contemp or Cape May Cafe at Beach Club

Fun Restaurants: Primetime or Sci-Fi at Hollywood, Rose and Crown at Epcot, Tusker House at Animal or Liberty Tree at MK

Best Restaurant Experience: California Grill at Contemporary (or Vic & Albert's, but that is really expensive now). Jiko at AK is a close second.

Unfortunately WDW has nothing close to Blue Bayou and no Club 33.

 

[Evan&Kimberly]

I would not waste 2TS credits on CRT, if you were on the deluxe plan then yes!

Here are my suggestions for Character Meals

1.PSB(Akershurs breakfast great substitute for CRT free Pic and all)

2. Crystal Palace (Breakfast,Lunch or Dinner will be something for everyone)

3.1900 Park Fare Dinner decent food great characters( Cinderella&Stepsisters)

4. Chef Mickey's (Breakfast)

PS. I would also consider paying OOP for Character Breakfastor meals they are cheaper than most TS

Counter Service Must!

1.Wolfpuck Express
2.Earl Of Sandwhich
3.Cooks Of Dublin
4.Columbia House
5.Cosmic Rays
6.Sunshine Seasons
7.Tangierene Cafe
8.Flame Tree
9.Yak&Yeti

Must do 1 TS Credits

1. LeCelliar(well that depends if you go B4 it changes to a 2TS)
2. Coral Reef
3. Ohana
4. Kona
5. Wolfpuck Cafe

 

[alaskanmommy]

So we've done CRT twice and won't do it again. We only did it the second time because we were traveling with friends. That being said, I think you should do it. It's worth going once. It's pretty cool eating at the castle. The food is decent and the character interaction is fun.

Other Table Service places we like to go:

Le Cellier
Chefs de France
Crystal Palace
Ohana Character Breakfast (this is our fave: Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, Pluto, etc.)
Coral Reef is fun because of the aquarium. (seafood restaurant but they have other offerings)
Teppan Edo (japanese cook on your table, FUN!)

For a nice couple meal only:

I guess it depends on what you like and how many TS credits you want to use.

One credit:

Chefs de France or Le Cellier

Two credits:

California Grill
Narcossee's
Yachtsman's Steakhouse
Jiko (African influenced)


Hope this helps. Have a fantastic trip!!!

 

[TxRabbit]

My advice:

You don't want to turn your dining experience into a destination experience. As much as possible, you want to have your dining be based on what your touring plans are, not having your dining plans create your touring plans.

On our first trip to WDW, I found that it was much easier for me to figure out where my family would be around lunch time than dinner time. I had planned which park on which day and from that could figure out what sounded like the best TS for my family.

I planned CRT on a AM EMH MK day. I knew that we would just find a snack for breakfast and that after touring around so much in the morning, we would be ready for a nice sit down lunch in air conditioning.

I wouldn't let people talk you out of CRT. Your DS is still a child on the plan, if you choose to pay OOP for CRT (based on how you want to use your credits), then you will have the cheapest possible CRT experience with both kids being considered children. I believe that everyone should dine in the Castle at least once, and I would highly recommend going for that reason alone. We happened to enjoy our food there (we ate salmon) and it was a great meal. So I am a positive experience, but you will find a wide variety of opinions here. You have to make decisions on your own, and do things for your own reasons; then you will be more inclined to have a positive experience anyway.

People may say that TS lunch isn't the best bang for the buck, but the fact is that dining is just one part of your overall vacation. If that would be easier to plan, then that may be the best overall experience for your family.

ALSO, since you're staying at POR, you are a boatride away from DTD where one of the BEST CS EVER IS. Wolfgang Puck Express is outstanding and I could honestly eat dinner there every night, which is a HUGE bang for your CS buck. With the bonus of having flexibility.

A typical day could look like this: Get to a park earlier than later. Tour. Take a nice TS lunch. Maybe do the FP you got before your lunch. Maybe now you are tired of the heat and the crowds; you head back to your resort for some pool time and some family time. You might head to DTD for dinner; you might go back to the park for the evening shows (fireworks) after dinner. From DTD, you could take a bus to a resort near to the park you want to go to transfer. WPE is close to the bus area. OR you might pick a park CS. Either way, you may appreciate having more flexibility in your evening plans, especially on your first trip to WDW.

 

[theworkdogs]

Ohana's breakfast
Ohana's dinner
Boma

Sunshine Seasons
Morocco
Cosmic Rays

 

[sndral]

Like you, I grew up going to DL, be prepared, WDW is HUGE. W/ a young dau. I would do CRT, which is 2 TS. Something about being able to eat in the Castle - especially when DL's Snow White's castle is so much smaller and you can't eat there. Plan CRT for a MK day, since you won't have hoppers.
Take a look @ extra magic hours and get an idea of what park you'll be @ each day, and then decide what restaurant in that park or in a resort near that park you'd like to try.
Unlike DL, there are LOTS of resorts and many have wonderful dinning options. I like Boma @ the AKL & Ohana @ the Polynesian - both are 1 TS. I think Boma is a good choice on AK day - since it's such a short bus ride from AK to AKL, and the resort and grounds are lovely. Ohana is a good MK day choice since you can ride the monorail from the front of MK to the Poly easily.
Epcot is the mecca of restaurant choices. Epcot is huge, only one restaurant is in the front - Coral Seas, which is a good choice, worth trying once. The rest are in the back - the world showcase - Le Cellier (Canada) is good, but will be 2 TS when you go, it might be a good 1 TS lunch choice. There's 1 ts choices @ Italy, France , Moroco, Japan(2 sit down choices,) China, England, Germany, Norway (Akershus - princess dinning 1ts.) I'd choose 2 Epcot restaurants planning on 2 Epcot days.
For DHS day(s) I'd eat in the park - Mama Melrose, Sci fi are both 1 ts.
POR is a boat ride away from DTD and I second a pp suggestion of Wolfgang Puck express cs as a dinner - it's a great option.
Have fun planning and know when you are 190/180 days out so you can grab the ADRs you want - they go fast for some places during FD.

 

[nickapoohiluvu]

Just wanted to thank everybody for their suggestions and if you've posted on any of the other threads I've "borrowed" info from. Haven't fully decided on a touring plan yet but here is our general outline (actual days to change depending on Extra Magic Hours):

Friday - Arrive and enjoy the Magic Kingdom. QS Dinner of some sort
Saturday - Epcot, will probably have the kids at the sitter this evening. Hubs thinks Biergarten sounds good for dinner. How someone who hates bratwurst will handle other German cuisine will handle it is a mystery to me. May convince him to eat elsewhere.
Sunday - Magic Kingdom, CRT for Dinner
Monday - Hollywood Studios - Toy Story's Pizza Planet has been requested by my kids, probably for early dinner. Maybe Cape May for Breakfast?
Tuesday - Magic Kingdom, may visit Cape Canaveral that day
Wednesday - Animal Kingdom
Thursday - Magic Kingdom
Friday - Last Day, Magic Kingdom and Crystal Palace just for Mommy, the Pooh Bear Lover!

 

[dixonsontour]

I was a first timer last year.

I spent alot of time on allears looking at menus and had a list of those places which sounded good to us.

We didn't have hoppers so I planned my park days then fitted our restaurants into them ie dine in park or close to it.

It worked so well we are doing it again this October. yes it is alot of research but it was gtereat fun and we hit the ground running like pro's - my DH was very impressed.

I tried to do a mix of character meals, meals with entertainment eg Whispering canyon and Ohana and nicer meals like le cellier.

We loved Akershus breakfast - a must do with a little girl imo.

Most breakfasts are not a good use of TS - we are paying for a few on top of the ddp this trip and using the Ts credits for dinner.

Have a great trip.

 

[2kids2luv]

As pp stated, be sure to check out menus on allears. IMHO you have a wonderful start to your planning. I think you made a good choice in keeping with CRT. There is just something magical about eating at the castle. It's an experience your daughter will never forget. My DD was 4 when we ate at CRT and now at age 6 doesn't want to eat with the princesses anymore. She still talks about CRT however.

Your kids will really like Pizza Planet. The food is fine but still a fun place for the kids. Sci-Fi would be another fun TS meal. On your MK days, I would suggest Chef Mickey's and Ohana. For your AK day, I'd eat at Boma and explore AKL when done.

Happy Planning!