First time with children!

[DisneyLover83]

I am taking my nieces and sister to Disney World in May, my Dh and I have been several times in last few years but never with kids. My DSis has never been so the planning has been left to me. Are these restaurants good for two girls ages 5 and 2:

Chef Mickey
Crystal Palace
Coral Reef
Sci Fi
Cinderella's Royal Table
Wolfgang Puck Cafe (we wanted 1 adult like meal, I know the girls will not be excited with this one!)

We are not doing a dining plan, so I am open to any kind of suggestions!

 

[ccgirl]

Sounds good. If you are looking for Epcot, I would actually suggest Biergarten over Coral Reef. There are only so many tables near the tanks. My DD couldn't see so I had to listen to her complain the whole time. Service was also extremely slow, so slow that my DS2 had to leave. Biergarten is a buffet and the kids can dance when the band plans. My children absolutely loved it. Chef Mickey's is good. Crystal Palace is one of my favorites. I tend to do more buffets as my DS2 is very impatient in restaurants. Plus, I love seeing the characters at meals so we don't have to wait in line for autographs.

Enjoy!

 

[Belleandtinker]

I agree - Biergarten over Coral Reef. My son went Biergarten went he was 2 and 3 - loved it. It's a good show without paying show prices.

We have skipped the Sci Fi Diner. You'll have to get others opinion on that one. The menu didn't really work for the adults - sandwiches.

You will love going with kids! It's a different experience.

Have fun!

 

[DisneyLover83]

Thanks for the input, with Biergarten will there be enough choices for 2 picky kids? I think they would like the show aspect, just worried about food choices. Is there chicken fingers, mac and cheese, and other child friendly options?

 

[PictureJumpr]

Yes, to kids' stuff at Biergarten - I was there a couple of years ago with a then-5 and then-18-month old, and they really liked it, music and food (spaetzle was a big hit).

If it was me, I would look into alternates for Chef Mickey and Sci Fi as well - Chef Mickey's is a madhouse, and might be stressful for you, never mind the kids Sci Fi is just not that good or interesting, to me. Maybe Cape May for breakfast/brunch that morning (with Minnie, Donald, and Goofy) and then head over to Studios? The Beach Club is easy to get to/from when you're at/going to DHS or Epcot. 50s Prime Time is also very kid-friendly - it gets high scores from the kids when we go there. Especially if your sister gets made to stand in the corner for not eating her peas, or some such thing.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

This is my son favorite places to eat (his first Disney trip he just turned 2 and we are going to his 5th Disney vacation)
He LOVES Hollywood and vine b/c they have sing/dance ever 15 minutes and have a musical parade ever 30 minutes. Characters came to our table 3x.
He loves Crystal Palace (we go here lunch at ever trip), great food and he loves the characters...they have a short parade
He Loves Tusker House breakfast, he loves Donald and they have a musical parade
He liked Chef Mickey (we went Dinner time and food not so good so we are going again for breakfast)
Cape May (great interaction with characters they came around 2x and Minnie 3X).
CRT he loved eating breakfast in the castle

Hope this helps...this choice is from a 5 yrs old.

 

[Hootch]

not mentioned above, (and one other mentioned above - Biergarten is better than Coral Reef and has a lot of food that kids like) the two year may or my not be frightened of some characters. The characters at CM and CP can look strange and enormous to a two year old. I know some people find videos of kids interacting with the characters as a way of getting them comfortable with the size. Of, course a lot of kids have no trouble at all. Both of ours had their first trip at three and had no problems, but I have sat next to tables at Disney where kids have had issues.

 

[n2mm]

Just wanted to ask if the kids have ever gone to character dining before. While my first grandchild loved them, his sisters will not go anywhere near them. My grand daughters are 5 and 3 and neither are interested in eating with any of the "big head" characters. We have managed the 1900 meal, but the little one screamed the entire time. Neither would eat, so we decided that we will do characters seperately. It seems that us big kids want to have the kids enjoy this experience, but we have found the kids could care less about dining and would be happy eating fast food. We still like to eat out, but choose places we want to go now and try to get through it so quickly before the meltdowns begin. Good luck.

BTW -- I would switch the SCi Fi for the 50s Prime Time. The food there is friendly. I find the food at Sci Fi lacking and it's too dark and very little room to eat.

 

[MickeyNicki]

How exciting!! My experience when I took my little nieces was character breakfasts were a huge hit with the girls, especially the Norway Princess Breakfast and Crystal Palace....TS character meals not so much because the food was awful and none of us really ate anything

 

[H20DogsNDisney]

First of all have great trip and happy planning. We took our niece last year and we took her 3 of your choice crystal palace, chef Mickey, and CRT. My niece really like Beach club's Cape May Cafe we took her to the dinner one she liked it the best. They have the characters for breakfast

 

[ccgirl]

I can't believe I forgot Akershus. We went for breakfast and my DD absolutely loved it. She was 5 when we went. This year we are celebrating her 8th bday and asked her where she would like to go and she picked Akershus. The breakfast food was yummy and she saw so many Princesses. You get a picture of your children included in the price too.

As others have said, yes to Biergarten food. If you look at my trip report in my signature you can see some pics from it. Really a great time. My DH loved that he could get an ice cold beer there. Come to think of it, so did I. It was nice and relaxing but fun.

Tusker House at Animal Kingdom is great too as other posters have pointed out. As I said, we tend to to mostly character buffets. Garden Grill at Epcot is good as well but expensive if you are paying OOP.

Have fun!

Oh...if you want to look at menus and see reviews go to allears.net.

 

[asudol]

Check my TR in my sig - I just took our two kids

Chef Mickeys is a NO NO... Just search for it.. definitely the worst meal in the park.

If the kids like to dance, like the main characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy..) and you can spare 2 credits for a dinner show, seriously check out Mickey's Backyard BBQ... That was the best experience we had at a meal for the whole trip.

The kids loved Crystal Palace and the food was not bad. Not spectacular, but not bad like Chef Mickey's.

The kids didn't really like Coral Reef, although DD like the fishies.

Also, we didn't do Tusker House, but if it had Donald -- that might be a good option if the kids like Donald.. He's elusive and there's not many opportunities to see him in the parks

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

I agree with the others - Biergarten over Coral Reef. We enjoyed both last year, but Biergarten was our FAVORITE meal of the trip (due to overall atmosphere) and it was an absolute must repeat. Coral Reef, while nice, wasn't quite as awesome. The tank as cool - we were luckily in the row of booths closest to the tank - but you can also be pretty far from the tanks. And you also see that same tank at The Seas.

I'd also think about Akershus instead of the Castle. At 5 and 2, they may not know about the Castle and might not care one way or the other. We went with a 5 year old and a 3 year old last year. My 5 year old DID want to go into the castle, so we are doing CRT. But if they wouldn't notice, Akershus's breakfast is delicious.

We haven't tried it yet, but we're doing Tusker House instead of Chef Mickey's. It's not too expensive and I've read that the food and character interaction are better.

Oh yeah - for non-character meals, we also enjoyed Sanaa at AKV after our day at Animal Kingdom. We're going back in March.

 

[DisneyLover83]

Thanks everyone, I have a lot to look into!