First time making ADR's

aoffhaus

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 29, 2011
Messages
79
I will be taking a trip in Feb with my DH, DS and my parents. This will be my son's (2) and parents first time ever going to Disney. My husband and I have been before and we went for our honeymoon seven years ago. I am super excited to go back. We will be staying at Port Orleans Riverside for seven days.

So I am going to be making ADR's for us and want to know your top picks for the following locations:

Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Animal Kingdom
Any of the Resorts
Downtown Disney

We will be using the DDP.....with one CS, TS and snack. Any suggestions on CS and Snacks would be great too!! Thanks so much!!!
:)
 
Some places we loved:

Akershus in Epcot (Norway) - this is a princess meal and a buffet. Great interaction w/ characters, unique food (cold buffet and then entree and dessert served at table). I am not sure how your son will react to a princess meal, however in my experience, the characters always make a special effort to include boys in everything that is going on. I guess his experience will depend on whether he cares at all about Disney Princesses!

La Cantina de San Angel (Mexico, Epcot). This is a counter service and it is, in a word, AMAZING! :cool1: We at lunch here one day. It was quickly served (as typical w/ CS places) and the food was so delicious. We ate right on their patio by the water. If you eat dinner here and time it just right, you can wind up sitting on that patio and watch Illuminations while you dine (this place is packed for Illuminations, so it's not a guarantee!). You have to go here, if not for a full meal, at least to grab an order of churros w/ milk caramel!
Hacienda_opening_03.jpg


Chef Mickey's @ the Contemporary. Another fun character experience w/ a large buffet. We loved the characters here - They do a fun celebration song and dance (look up chef mickey's napkin waving, on youtube, to see a video..it's really fun!). I have a 3 year old daughter, so we really enjoyed the character dining options. I found that it was a great way to get that character interaction, without having to spend a lot of park time waiting in line for autographs!

Contempo Cafe @ the Comteporary. While this was actually not one of my favorite spots, it's worth a mention just because it is so convenient to Magic Kingdom. We really needed a break from everything one evening, so we headed over and had flat breads for dinner. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed in my flat bread, however dh & dd both enjoyed their food..and as I said, it was great to just get out of the park for a little bit!

The foodcourt at Pop Century - crowded and kind of noisy at times, but any minor annoyances just fade away when you are devouring a Mickey waffle! I swear, some days I find myself just day dreaming about Mickey waffles - they are that good! I am pretty sure that you can find these at almost any restaurant serving breakfast, however we stayed at Pop, so naturally we ate breakfast there most often. I'm not sure what the food offerings are at POR, but if they include a place w/ Mickey waffles, then that is the place to be for breakfast! I bet your son will love them!

Columbia Harbour House in MK - another CS place. It was actually the first place we ate at on our vacation, and it did not disappoint. I had read many reviews of the lighthouse sandwich, so I was excited to try it. YUM!
3543108473_f795298c1e.jpg
If you go in and it seems crowded, look up - there is seating upstairs and it is a nice quiet, cool place to enjoy a meal.

Boma at AKL. YUMYUMYUM. We ate here after a day at AK. The food was really good, and very different than typical buffet food. The dessert offerings are just ridiculously good here! Worth a meal here for the desserts alone! We also enjoyed checking out the resort, as we were a tad early for our reservation time. Actually, we enjoyed it so much, that we are now heavily leaning toward renting points and staying AKV next year! The theming of the restaurant is beautiful as well.

Cape May Cafe @ Beach Club. We had breakfast here (our only table service breakfast), and it was impressive! I am not a huge breakfast person, because I just feel so weighed down and gross after eating a big breakfast, however I did enjoy the food here. All you can eat Mickey waffles? I'm in! The characters were fun here. We ended up meeting Minnie 3x on our 9 day trip, and it never got old. I just love how their outfits are themed along w/ whatever venue they are in. Disney certainly goes the extra mile! Along w/ the waffles, they also had a full yogurt bar w/ toppings, fresh fruit, a bagel bar, and several other hot breakfast options. Our server was quick to replenish our coffee and orange juice!

Wolfgang Puck Express @ DTD - we didn't have any places that we were dying to try in Hollywood Studios, so we decided to head off to DTD for dinner. I will say that getting there was practically a nightmare. We took a boat and a bus that seemed to stop a million times (probably really stopped 3-4x, lol). I think that there must be an easier way to have gotten to DTD, but anyway it is what it is. So we went to WPE and were famished. It's a counter service, however the meal is served at your table and on real plates vs paper. Kind of a nice little counter service upgrade! I got a pizza which was delicious. DD had pizza as well and DH had some type of pasta w/ chicken, if I remember correctly. DH & I both enjoyed the creme brulee for dessert and dd had frozen yogurt. They gave us SO MUCH FOOD. We really could have split my pizza as a full meal for 2 adults, however it was amazing so I ate most of it myself! :rotfl2: They have a nice patio area, where we sat to eat. Aside from our horrible travels to get there, this was one of my favorite meals - and all for a few counter service credits!

Rainforest Cafe @ DTD - they do not accept the meal plan, so we payed OOP for this one. To be honest, I dont' remember what I ate! The big draw here is the theming - every so often (I can't remember the time interval, but often enough to see it a few times while eating a meal) the animals 'come alive,' and start moving around and making their animal sounds. Our server was friendly and joked with us, everyone else dining near us seemed to be enjoying themselves too. I would eat here again if DD really wanted to, however it's not on my list of places that I must see again! All in all, the food is comparable to most chain family restaurants that we can eat in at home, however the theming makes it worth a meal there!

We ate at so many other places as well, but that is a sampling of some of my observations. Hope that helped you out a bit!
 
Magic Kingdom:
Columbia Harbour House is a good CS restaurant
Depending on how old your sons are and if you want character meals, Crystal Palace is a decent to good buffet with Winnie the Pooh characters.
Best snack credit IMO is the Dole Whip

Hollywood Studios- We did not find a lot of food here that was great. Mama Melrose was not bad. Starring Rolls for snack or CS is a good choice.

Animal Kingdom: Tusker House breakfast Buffet is really good. Flame Tree BBQ (CS) is not bad, and the restaurants at the AKL are all really good.

Epcot: snacks: Almost anything at Boulangerie in France, Kringla Bakery as well
Teppan Edo is a good choice. As is Tokyo Dining. Akershus if your boys are into princesses!

Have fun!
 
I'm trying to keep DDP in mind for these, since I typically use DxDDP, my favorites may not work too well (due to math stuff).

Magic Kingdom
For lunch, I really enjoyed Liberty Tree Tavern and The Plaza. Neither may be very good use for DDP (especially The Plaza), but they were both quite good.

Crystal Palace if your kids like Pooh and the gang. Went here in 2009 for dinner and it was good, going 2011 for breakfast.

We did Cosmic Ray's for a CS lunch here in 2009 and it was alright. Don't have a favorite CS though here.

Epcot
Lots here...

For TS, I really enjoy LeCellier. It's not all it's hyped up to be, but that's only because the hype is a bit too much ;). It's a good solid steak place (no, it's not going to be the "best steak ever", but it's still a solid choice). On DDP, I wouldn't do dinner here though due to the 2 credit requirement now (I will be doing it on DxDDP though).

Via Napoli was also quite good last year.

Also, both the San Angels (San Angel Inn, and Hacienda de San Angel) are quite good. Ok, all the San Angels as Cantina de San Angel is my favorite lunch spot there. I think I have a "thing" for Mexican food (especially when you consider that I'll be heading out to lunch at the Mexican place next to my house after I finish this...)

I also hear great things about both Sunshine Seasons (The Land) and Tangerine Cafe (Morocco) for CS, though I haven't done them myself.

Animal Kingdom
I've only eaten at two places here....
Tusker House (breakfast) is a good solid character meal with some different dishes. Will be hitting up Tusker House lunch this year.

Restaurantasaurus is a typical CS place, nothing special but I do like their taco salad (I just have to remember to order it without olives). If BBQ is your thing (it isn't mine) then I hear Flame Tree Barbeque is very good.


Any of the Resorts
This is where it can get dangerous ;).
Most of my resort favorites are Signatures, but Boma at AKL is a great dinner (a bit loud, but the selection is very good) and I hear great things about Sanaa at AKV-Kidani (will be going there this year).

For signatures, Citrico's (GF), Artist Point (WL), Jiko (AKL) were all great meals last year (Yachtman was also good). Adding Flying Fish and CG to my list this year. None of these are particularly good values on the DDP though.

Downtown Disney
None - But that's because I don't do DtD at all :p
 













Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE













DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top