Do planning your meals stress you out? Help me decide

[mamamac]

I swear trying to figure out where we are going to eat for sit down meals is the most stressful thing about planning a Disney vacation!! I will be on the dining plan and we will have 5 TS to fulfill.

I love Crystal Palace, especially an early breakfast so we have Main Street to ourselves...but we have never made it on time, we have done it two years in a row, and I hate getting up 1453 times to the buffet for my kids. Ok maybe not that many times, but you know what I mean. BUT I love starting off our first full day with that meal!

I want to do a Fantasmic Dinner - BUT my dh and I decided that the park is too loud for my oldest daughter and she kind of freaks out. I'm willing to give it a second chance, plus I also want to eat at the 50's diner. I think they would get a kick out of it. And we've never done either of those and I am dying to see Fantasmic! But even if we went just for the dinner in the evening, I still want to do the Diner and that's not on the dining plan.

Then there is Akershus - LOVED it! Want to go again, especially so the girls can see the princesses. We did CRT last time, but I want to skip it this year. I have plans to make our ressie around 9:30am so I can grab a FP to Soarin on the way there. But I am also interested in the Garden Grill. The girls love Chip and Dale and we've never eaten there.

O'Hana - LOVE IT! Must do! Had so much fun! Would rather go here than back to CRT.

Chef Mickey's - Wasn't bad at all, but my dh LOVED it! Plus if we are going to stay at the Contemporary, it's going to be hard to walk by there with the girls.

Then there is 1900 Park Fare. I have never done it. I don't know anyone that has. I would like to go because I like new things.

Now here's the kicker - we will be there for 5 nights, but our tickets (if the Military discount is true) will only be for 4 days. I'm not sure if I can upgrade that to 5 or not. We hang out at MK a lot! Epcot we can do in a 1/2 day. AK is out of the question, just don't care for it. And DHS, well, like I said for some reason my dd kind of freaks out. Dh doesn't even want to go to that park this time, but I'm willing to give it another try even if it is just for Fantasmic. Do people go just for the Fantasmic dining thing?

I feel like I'm pulling my hair out because I can't make up my freaking mind!!! Plus it doesn't help that the schedule isn't even out for May '11 yet.

SO what are your top 5 table service that is "kid friendly"?

 

[MickeyNicki]

The one thing that I learned the last time I brought my nieces to WDW was character breakfasts were a huge hit, TS dinners were not so if I was taking the girls again I would do

1. CP breakfast
2. Ohana breakfast
3. Princess Norway breakfast
4. Tusker House breakfast
5. Chef Mickey breakfast

 

[chrismass]

It sounds like you're not a big fan of buffets, IMO the top 5 non-buffet , kid-friendly restaurants are:
1. Norway Princess breakfast
2. Ohana
3. Garden Grill
4. Whispering Canyon
5. Sci-Fi Drive In

 

[tinkbyday]

Planning the meals is my FAVORITE part! Not stressful to me at all!

We have done both the breakfast and dinner at Park Fare and both were okay. I would probably say that I enjoyed the breakfast more than the dinner, but both are buffets.

Personally, we found that the dining plan is a better value using it for TS dinners rather than breakfast. When we used it, we paid OOP for the sit down breakfast (only did 1 or 2) and used the credits for dinner.

We're not big breakfast people though - we don't like getting up real early, so we usually grab a bagel or something simple and head out. We would use CS for an early lunch and then have dinner around 6ish.

 

[PoohsFan1]

Our top 5 kid friendly restaurants are:
1) 50's Prime Time Cafe
2) Akershus Breakfast
3) Coral Reef
4) Cape May Cafe Breakfast
5) Whispering Canyon Cafe at WL

I agree that it is very stressful to try and figure out what meals we are going to be eating, especially 6 months out. Luckily my DH loves planning out our meals on what days, that is the only part of the planning that he really gets his hands into, and of course our girls and I put our 2 cents in . When we are there in May, we will be on the DxDP for 9 nights ...thank goodness I have my DH to figure that one out

 

[kaybird]

I too, find the meal planning one of the most fun parts of the trip! If you want stressful, don't make any ADR's then try to eat someplace when you get turned away.

We have a simple formula. I look at the basic EMH schedule, figure out what park we are likely to be in, then pick something we enjoy that will be easy to navigate to. Easy Peasy.

 

[mamamac]

I too, find the meal planning one of the most fun parts of the trip! If you want stressful, don't make any ADR's then try to eat someplace when you get turned away.

Uh. No thank you.

I just wish we had more time. If I was there for 9 days then it wouldn't be a big deal because I could do them all But being limited to 5 days kind of sucks, especially if we will only have a 4 day ticket. I'm not sure how well that's gonna work out, but that is a whole other problem.

I know Akershus and Chef Mickey's for sure.

75% sure I want to do a Fantasmic Dinner and just do that for DHS and nothing else.

O'Hana - Oh how I loved it!

I'm thinking 1900 Park Fare may wait...

 

[tinkbyday]

Uh. No thank you.

I just wish we had more time. If I was there for 9 days then it wouldn't be a big deal because I could do them all But being limited to 5 days kind of sucks, especially if we will only have a 4 day ticket. I'm not sure how well that's gonna work out, but that is a whole other problem.

I know Akershus and Chef Mickey's for sure.

75% sure I want to do a Fantasmic Dinner and just do that for DHS and nothing else.

O'Hana - Oh how I loved it!

I'm thinking 1900 Park Fare may wait...

Why not add another day to the tickets? I think it's only a few dollars for each after the 4th day.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Why not make an extra ADR and pay cash for it? We always do that when we use the regular DDP. You could do Crystal Palace breakfast and 1900 Park Fare or 'Ohana dinner on the day you're at MK.

 

[MSLRAC]

But even if we went just for the dinner in the evening, I still want to do the Diner and that's not on the dining plan.

50's Prime Time Cafe is on the dining plan.

As for our 5 kid friendly TS choices:
1. Cape May Cafe breakfast
2. 1900 Park Fare dinner
3. Ohana dinner
4. Tusker House breakfast
5. Coral Reef

 

[mlg32]

I agree its really hard to narrow down choices. We are taking my 2 1/2 yr old for his first trip so I really had to think about where I can have a semi peaceful dinner. But since Dh & I really enjoy our meals I tried to compromise.

On arrival day we are going to unpack(staying at Beach Club), and then eat at Cape May for dinner and head to the parks afterwards.

Next night because we have just arrived, and not tortured the kids with a sit down yet, we are doing a nice dinner at Flying Fish.

Following day we are doing lunch at Mexico--the atmosphere is awesome and there is a boat ride to take. We loved our lunch here last trip, the kids just loved being in the pavillion.

Evening we are doing 1900 Park Fare before MVMCP

Next day we are doing Tusker House and then Boma for dinner. All of my kids have loved the food at Boma at all ages plus AKL is a cool resort to visit.

Weds-Princess Breakfast, then we are splitting up and older girls are going with DH to Cali Grill and I am taking the younger ones to Crystal Palace. I love CG but it is just to stressful for me to sit there with my little guy.

Thursday is lunch at Sci Fi-- my kids LOVE this restaurant. The burgers and fries are good. They have glow drinks and shakes or sundaes perfect for kids and the atmosphere just can't be beat. I think we are just doing CS this evening.

Friday we have lunch at Chefs de France(this might just be the older girls and me, hubby may eat by the pool with the little ones) and dinner at Kouzzina, and easy walk from our resort(so no travel stress)

Sat --breakfast at Ohana then counter service for dinner, so we don't have to waste time eating on our last day.

Not sure you wanted all this info but I have learned alot from the boards about how to break up the days to make eating more fun with little ones.

And another restaurant I would consider trying is Biergarten in Epcot because the kids can dance to the band.

HTH

 

[KYMickey]

This is one of many reasons that those of us who loved eating at WDW before the introduction of DDP no longer love eating there. It used to be you didn't have to decide six months in advance where you wanted to eat. You could actually decide that day where you were going to eat! It was much simpler and actually more efficient because people didn't make multiple reservations so they could decide later, they actually showed up. Of course the food quality was also better but that's another subject.

 

[mello]

I love planning, but it is hard narrowing down the dining choices, and it's really hard trying to decide where exactly to eat 6 months from now. And to make it worse, they don't release park hours and such until after we have to make our dining reservations - now that part stresses me out. I'd rather the ADR window be like 60 days; that would be plenty far in advance.

So anyway, on toyour choices:

We love 50's PT and it is on the dining plan, but it isn't one of the Fantasmic package choices, which is a bummer, 'cuz I'd choose it every time if it was. So far we've just eaten there earlier and then stood in the regular line for Fantasmic, but last time it was so crowded I'm not sure I want to do that again. SO, I'm lamenting the same question: to do 50's PT or not? (Sorry I wasn't more help on this one!)

I think since you're staying at Contemporary, you should do Chef Mickey's for sure. And Ohana would be so easy to get to and you love it, so better include it too. Did you do breakfast or dinner there before? Maybe do the other one this time for something different? Then I'd probably narrow it down to either CP or 1900PF since they're both buffets with characters, and you've already got Chef Mickey's. Maybe choose based on which set of characters the kids would like better?

Best Wishes in your planning!