First time trip....how do my adr's look??

[ttcl516]

So we are going to Disney for our first ever family vacation Feb. 28 - Mar. 7. It is me, DH and DS 10. We are all not too overly picky....so how does sound...

Day 1 Arrive POR around noon time
- no dining reservations. We figure we will be too excited so we will just grab something

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom
- 8:45 Res. at Tusker House (should I have done the first seating?)

Day 3 - Epcot
- 6:20 Res. at Via Napoli

Day 4 - Hollywood Studios
- 5:30 Res. at 50's Prime Time

Day 5 - No parks scheduled yet...
- 4:00 Res at T-Rex Downtown Disney

Day 6 - No parks scheduled yet...
- 6:35 Res. at O'hana's

Day 7 - No parks scheduled yet...(plan is to go back and relax at POR for our last night
- 5:20 Res. at Boatwrights

Day 8 - Leave WDW around 3

So I have one more table service I need to make a Res. for. Not sure if I should make a breakfast res on our last day. Or maybe do another dining res. on our AK day as they close early. Any suggestions would be great...

 

[StaceyR]

It is so exciting planning your first Disney Trip! Your dining reservations sound great. If you plan on doing a dinner the day you are in Animal Kingdom, maybe try to move your Tusker House to the earlier time you mentioned and then do dinner. Do you have a parkhopper pass? Animal Kingdom most likely will not take you one full day to complete, you could possibly hop over to Magic Kingdom or Epcot for dinner. I honestly haven't had a bad restaurant experience in the thirty+ times I have been there over the years. It is nice that you have some downtime scheduled as well. One place that we haven't eaten that I hear we should try is Crystal Palace. We haven't because my kids are older and not into the Pooh Characters. Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary is good too and a nice way to get photos with Mickey. Happy planning...ask away if you have more questions! Stacey

 

[Roxychica7]

Congrats on planning your first Disney family trip! Overall, your plans look great so far! I would maybe rethink the T-Rex ress. It's not "Disney" and I have heard mediocre reviews. We personally haven't eaten there ourselves. Tusker House, Via Napoli, 50's and Ohana's are all excellent! They are a nice spread for your family!

 

[meredith1]

Your ADR's look good! We stay on the monorail and like to go to Crystal Palace on our last morning for breakfast. We always leave mid afternoon and get the ressie prior to park opening so that, we can catch a few rides at MK before we have to go!

ETA-we are going to try T Rex this go around on our arrival day. I've heard nothing but, positives about it except that it is very loud and may scare some kiddos. We're going to try it!

 

[StaceyR]

T-Rex- we have eaten there twice now. You cannot beat the atmosphere and animatronics of the dinosaurs--especially if you have a son! It is amazing. The food is good, along the lines of Rainforest Cafe menu, but haven't had a bad meal. Our only minutia complaint would be the last time we were there, the service was very slow. We try to look at it as a chance to relax instead of an obstacle holding us back!!

 

[butsy113]

Day 1 Arrive POR around noon time
- no dining reservations. We figure we will be too excited so we will just grab something

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom
- 8:45 Res. at Tusker House (should I have done the first seating?)

Day 3 - Epcot
- 6:20 Res. at Via Napoli

Day 4 - Hollywood Studios
- 5:30 Res. at 50's Prime Time

Day 5 - No parks scheduled yet...
- 4:00 Res at T-Rex Downtown Disney

Day 6 - No parks scheduled yet...
- 6:35 Res. at O'hana's

Day 7 - No parks scheduled yet...(plan is to go back and relax at POR for our last night
- 5:20 Res. at Boatwrights

Day 8 - Leave WDW around 3

These are all just personal preferences!

1. I would make the ressie at Tusker House as early as possible.

2. At DTD my kids like Cap n Jacks. I found this odd because it is nothing fancy, but we had a table at the windows and could look out at the water. They liked the menu items (grilled chicken was moist and delicious off of kids menu) and the restaurant was quiet and relaxed. It wasn't very busy and allowed them to relax. They are actually disappointed we aren't going there next year. I will say most people don't like/think of this place, but we love it!

OR

You could boat over to SSR and eat at the Turf Club. I haven't been but it's planned for nest trip.

3. I would do a breakfast before you leave for your TS. Consider Cape May or 1900 Park Fare. With either one you can head to the closest park (Ep or MK) for last minute rides.

4. If you can swing it OOP, we usually do a dinner show after our AK day. My kids and DH love HDDR.

 

[ttcl516]

Thank you so much for the replies. I was thinking of changing my Tusker res to the earliest....so we can zoom over to the safari. As for T-rex, my son saw it online and he picked that one, so that one has to stay.

I was thinking either House of Blues on our Animal Kingdom night, or Crystal Palace breakfast on our last day??

 

[buzzrelly]

I'm just curious if you're planning on going to the MK at all. Maybe on day 6? If you are and plan on only being there for 1 day, perhaps you could make a reservation for one of the MK restaurants. We really like the Plaza, especially if you are not on the DDP. It is very reasonably priced. But there are others options as well. I'm just thinking that you'd probably want a dinner reservation at MK if you are only going to be there for 1 day, because there is a lot to see and do there.

 

[ttcl516]

Yes....we will be going to MK. We plan on going their our arrival day. I think I need to see the castle to make it all real. Then I figured we would do all the other parks for a day. Then I have 2 1/2 days to do whatever we think we want to go back and see or do because we didn't have time.

 

[jdtopgun71]

Your ADRs look great. Only thing I would change would be on Day 8 where you have "Leave WDW". I would omit that part and just stay! haha!

But seriously we've only been to two on your list, 50' Prime Time and Boatwrights and they were both great. The interaction with the waitresses/waiters is fun but the food was great as well.

The one thing that sticks out about Boatwrights was the cornbread. I am sure we could have made a meal out of it. It was unfortunately the only thing I really remember about it.

One of the things we've always told ourselves is that we'd like to try all of the resorts and restaurants eventually, so I would never try to dissuade anyone from trying a restaurant. The only thing I will say is you may want to consider swapping a place like Boatwrights for say a Chef Mickeys. I only say this because your 10yo would probably enjoy the atmosphere at Chef Mickeys better. Boatwrights is basically just a plain ole restaurant to a 10yo. But he may be too deep in the cornbread to mind!

 

[ttcl516]

yeah I was hesitant at first about Boatwrights. But I want to make sure we take time to smell the pixie dust. I talked my husband into a Mod. resort. So I figure what is the sense in staying their if we don't take some time to appreciate it. Also I am trying to make us relax a little bit. If not it will be a mad dash 24/7 So I figure our last night we will go back and have dinner, pack everything up and maybe catch YeeHaw Bob.

So I guess maybe my next question would be....If you had to choose one place that you could not go without eating at where would it be?

 

[mousiemom]

just a few of my tips:
since you are staying @ POR, it is a must to see bob jackson, the piano entertainer that plays @ the river roost @ the POR!!! i make special trips to see him. he usually plays every wed, thurs, fri, and sat. you can check his schedule.
-you might want to use your extra ts and use it towards a 2 ts restaurant. our favorite ressies are not in the parks but our @ the monorail resorts(the wave, kona cafe, narcoossees, citricos, chef mickey) and we love the boardwalk area where you can have a 2ts @ Yachtsmen steakhouse. we are not huge breakfast eaters cause we have to be at the parks when they open, so we use our credits for nice dinners. there are a lot of good ones too @ epcot in world showcase.
good luck and happy eating, disney world has the best food!!!!!

 

[mousiemom]

i LOOVVEE ohana @ the poly!! i love the food and i love the atmosphere! we also love doing sci-fi @ HS, my dd loves their milkshakes.

 

[amym2]

I'd probably try to do a late breakfast on your departure day (so you'll have enough time to pack and check out before). There's no way I could talk my DS into eating at Crystal Palace (not sure what my kids have against Pooh but they've never wanted to eat there) but he really enjoys Chef Mickey's and Cape May Cafe (Minnie and friends, at Beach Club).