First night--wwyd?

[fitzperry]

We are arriving the Saturday after Thanksgiving, late in the afternoon, and staying at Poly. We do not plan to do any parks that day. I currently have a dinner reservation at California Grill, but dh thinks we should go to Downtown Disney that evening, so I was thinking of trying Raglan Road instead. We've eaten at CG before and enjoyed it but have spent very little time at DTD. It will be me, dh and our 2 dd's (12 and 8). Thinking the kids would enjoy the Irish music and dancing at Raglan Road--is there entertainment every night? But also thinking it might be nice just to have dinner then head back to Poly and watch fireworks from the beach.

Any thoughts?

 

[tzeitel]

We are going to Raglan Road our first night We will get there after 6pm and will not go to the parks either so I figured at least we can walk around DTD and check out the shops etc.

But your plan of watching the fireworks from the beach sounds like a great way to start your vacation

 

[fitzperry]

We are going to Raglan Road our first night We will get there after 6pm and will not go to the parks either so I figured at least we can walk around DTD and check out the shops etc.

But your plan of watching the fireworks from the beach sounds like a great way to start your vacation

You see my dilemma It's our first time staying at Poly, so I'm thinking it would be fun to spend more of the evening there. So confused and really should be spending my time on more pressing matters, but this is more fun.

 

[Pakey]

I try to never do any restaurant that is prepaid or a credit card hold (like Ca Grill) on our first night because we have been delayed before (mechanical problems on plane). I don't like risking losing money on a meal I can't get to.

We usually stay close to our hotel on our first evening; after a day of travel it's nice not to travel for dinner. But I would not do Ca Grill because of the credit card hold. I'd pick something else; Wave, OHana, Kona Cafe, GF Cafe, etc.

Ragland Road is good food; we usually go for the Pub part of it. I don't know what time you plan on eating dinner there but by 8pm, it's pretty much a bar atmosphere at RR, especially on a weekend night.

 

[starrysky]

I would say it depends on how long you travel to get there. For example we arrive from the UK after an 8 hour flight so we normally get food at the resort on the first night as we just need to eat and pretty much thats about all we are able for.

So if you think you will be ok then head for DTD and enjoy your first night there and save the fireworks on the beach for your last night if possible. What a great way to end your vacation.

 

[tzeitel]

You see my dilemma It's our first time staying at Poly, so I'm thinking it would be fun to spend more of the evening there. So confused and really should be spending my time on more pressing matters, but this is more fun.

LOL I know what you mean - both the dilemma and that it is more fun to figure out vacation plans than anything else I may have to do today

I thought about it and if I was staying at the Poly (my fave resort and hope to stay there one day) I would go to the beach and watch the fireworks that first night. I would probably book Kona or O'hana just so we don't have to rush too much getting back to the hotel for the fireworks

 

[POOHsie]

We go to DTD on our first night. And frankly, we are tired and don't really want a sit-down experience. We usually go to Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express. Fits with our tired, crumpled clothes, travel day frame of mind.

 

[Colleen27]

I don't personally like doing DTD on our first night because after a day of traveling the last thing my kids (or husband) want to do is shop. We usually just plan a nice dinner at one of the monorail resorts for the convenience, and if we feel up to sticking around to watch Wishes we do. If not we just make it an early night to be fresh for the parks the next day.

I'm with Pakey, though - I don't like booking pre-paid or credit card hold reservations for our arrival night, just in case we're delayed and can't make it. Right now I've got Cali Grill for our arrival day because it was the only day I could get a reasonable seating time and even with our flight scheduled to land in Orlando at 10am I'm not especially comfortable with it. I'm hoping something will open up on one of the other nights that works better for us so I can switch that night to Kona or Citricos and not have to worry if a travel delay means we cancel at the last minute.

 

[fitzperry]

The credit card reservation hadn't occurred to me, and that is a good point. I don't think I want to risk it.

This is actually part of what bugs me about reservations being all but mandatory. On other vacations, we usually play it by ear the first day--sometimes we're all rarin' to go when we arrive somewhere; other times, we'd rather take it easy, and I wish we could just wait and see. . . . I think I'll try to get a reservation at Kona, or we could just have sushi at Kona Island. Then if we feel like going out and doing something else, we can.