First night dinner options

[Spencerfamily]

Hi all

What would be/are your favourite places to hit for dinner on your first night after the long flight over?

On top of that- what would you do in our situation? DH, me and DD4-Flying in to arrive early afternoon (usually out of MCO by about 4pm) and are staying at the Hyatt in the airport for one night before 4 nights on the Disney Dream. Are staying at POFQ after cruise for 6 nights so obviouslly will be eating in the World but dining plan and park tickets won't kick in till we arrive there. So why am I itching to get a reservation for somewhere for first night, perhaps even for a character meal, and pay OOP?! I know we'll be tired but I want to feel like holiday has begun and we aren't just stuck in the airport! I know it's crazy!

Anyone have experience of places to eat around MCO to recover from the aeroplane food? Anyone else would drive further (we have a hire car) and if so, where would you recommend at Disney or elsewhere?

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

 

[scoobydooby]

If you're prepared to drive onto WDW property, with a 4 year old daughter I recommend the buffet at the 1900 Park Fayre at the Grand Floridian. Very fun Cinderella, Prince Charming and the Ugly Sisters with their wicked step mother. Highly entertaining and for a buffet pretty good food.

 

[darthtatty]

we used to book a meal for our first night but they were all pretty exhausting. After the last one we said no more, going to plan on eating at our hotel.

cant help for off site restaurants, id probably go to one of their chains.

Disney dining wise, you could eat at downtown Disney or any of the Disney resorts.
For character meals, there aren't so many at night.
Not sure if all these are character meals at night.
Cape May café- Beach Club.
Chef Mickeys-Contemporary
1900 park fare-GF

That's all I can think of at the moment........


If it was Disney you wanted to eat at. Personally we'd go to Downtown and eat at T-Rex

 

[MrRomance]

I can't speak for you because only you know what your DD can manage, but I know that our kids are barely able to stay awake long enough to get into the hotel room the night we get in.

If you're staying at MCO, even if you get in on time and you don't get hit with a big delay through immigration (some people have reported 90 minutes - 2 hours to get through it) you've then got to check in at the hotel, drive the 30 minutes (depending on traffic early evening rush hour etc.) eat a meal and drive back? I would say that's going to be a little too much for a 4 year old.

My suggestion would be to find a good restaurant around MCO.

 

[pascalstongue]

I agree with PP above. My DD was 4 (and DS 2) on our trip in May and they were too exhausted for a big meal. We went to Wolfgang puck express at DTD and I don't think they had the energy to eat anything. Also if you book a character meal it will have a credit card guarantee so worse case scenario and your flight is delayed by a few hours, you will lose out financially. I would just head to a nearby chain restaurant for a quick meal and then bed.

 

[Minniesgal]

We always go to the Perkins at the crossroads

 

[LeaversOnTour]

I agree with the previous posters about the first night.

Your thinking 4 pm but in reality its 9pm. And this is if you get out of the airport when you expect. By the time you have checked in etc and got somewhere its more like 1am for littlun. Even if you managed to keep going until then not sure they would.

I say this out of experience. I once booked Cinderellas Royal Table for our first night - BIG mistake!

Our then 2 year old was barely awake for the photo, had hardly any food and was so exhausted it was painful to watch. Money well spent when there was 5 of us Our special dinner was not so special

These days we just head for the nearest place that sells anything remotely edible, make sure we stay up until 9/10 US time and then crash and burn until our first "official" day.

Plus as one poster said if you get delayed you will lose out before you have even started your trip.

 

[wilma-bride]

I understand what you're saying about having a nice meal to 'recover from the plane food'. I hardly eat anything on the plane so, consequently, I'm always desperate for something decent to eat when we arrive. However, we never make ADRs for the first night. Too much can go wrong - flight delays, immigration delays etc. We have been delayed more times than we haven't.

Plus, as others have said, in reality we are always too tired to do much more than grab a bite to eat from either the food court or, very occasionally, Downtown Disney.

If you're staying at the airport and you have a rental car, there are options which are closer and would not require you to make a reservation, meaning it wouldn't matter if you suffered any delays. Cheesecake Factory at Mall @ Millennia, for example. I am fairly sure there are some other places a lot nearer than driving all the way to Disney and paying for an expensive meal that you will probably be too tired to enjoy.

 

[wayneg]

In april we arrived at Miami airport, planned on having a nice meal then staying at the airport hotel.
In the end we ate at the nearest, quickest place possible (BK) and straight to bed, good early start next morning.
In all our trips (30+) I don't recall ever being able to eat anything more than a fast food meal, usually its a ready made sarnie from Walgreens or just a bag of crisps.
Personally if staying in the airport hotel I wouldn't even arrange car rental on arrival day, I would relax have a bite to eat then bed.

 

[wilma-bride]

Personally if staying in the airport hotel I wouldn't even arrange car rental on arrival day, I would relax have a bite to eat then bed.

Neither would I - and, to be honest, I probably wouldn't even rent a car until after the cruise since it would probably cost just as much in rental and parking as it would to use Disney transport

I just assumed that the OP had a flydrive/package, in which the car was included.

 

[Elise79]

DD is now 5 and I know having a character meal on arrival would be totally wasted on her - there's just no telling at what point she will crash.

We usually grab a QS meal too.

There is a food court at MCO which has a lot of options and if we were staying at the Hyatt that's where we would head. I certainly wouldn't rent a car and I don't think I would want to do the drive to WDW and back after the flight.

 

[orangetiggs]

We ordered take away last year from papa johns as we were all too tired, no way would i do an adr on arrival day we would be asleep

 

[flortlebap]

We are staying at AKL, landing at 15:00 so booked the hotel buffet for 20:00.

We are also planning on sleeping on the plane - last year it was impossible as we had our 4 kids with us, but you do feel better at night if you can get a couple of hours.

Couple of points - when we flew VA, we were very well fed and not that hungry, lol. The kids were though so we ordered pizza to the room.

Secondly - I'd actually recommend tryin to stay up late the first night. We made the mistake of going to bed at 20:30 with the kids - which meant I was wide awake at 2am the next morning! Gave up on sleep at around 4am and went for a walk, but I was pretty tired the first couple of days as a result of the backwards jet lag!!

I am one of those weird people who is incapable of sleeping past around 7am at home though!!

 

[ButterbearUK]

We are usually buzzing when we hit the World. So excited! Our first night tradition is counter service at a resort - usually Pop as the value food courts are so lively and have more food options, then the bus to Epcot to watch Illuminations at 9pm. If we go to bed early we wake up at 4am, so we find it's better to stay up late if we can. However, I can imagine it would be difficult with kids, and if you don't have length of stay tickets you might not want to use a whole day up just to see the fireworks...

 

[Laurafoster]

Before kids we would always do Epcot on our first night, but theres no way DD would be up to that.

Generally by the time we have cleared immigration, got our suitcases and checked in at the hotel despite being full of excitement she us very obviously tired. We generally unpack a little, have something to eat in the hotel and get her to bed for 8pm. Shes usually exhausted and sleeps through til 7/8am.

We tend to sit out on the balcony, have a few drinks maybe and go to bed a bit later.

Personally id rather she was well rested and ready to enjoy her first day at MK

 

[Spencerfamily]

Thank you all for your advice and replies. I think you have convinced me to reign myself in (why is it that fellow-disers succeed where my poor hubby fails?!).
I think you are right- eating at or closer to the airport is the way forward. A pp was correct-the hire car was included in the booking with Virgin but we have been trying to decide whether to cancel it for the part before the cruise and use disney transportation. Just may be easier than trying to deal with picking up/ dropping off etc etc! Think we will still keep it for after the cruise though as like to have the option of going off-site to the mall etc.

I will save 'first night' excitement for our first meal at Disney when we get off the cruise which will be boxing day- hopefully will be able to get a good adr