First Trip to Disney! Eat at the parks or hotels? Help!

[Jetta8300]

This is my first trip to Disney, and I need help booking some reservations. My husband and I are going alone, (no kids) and we are confused as to where to eat. We are going for 4 days and are going to to visit 1 park each day.

Should we make dinner reservations each night at the park we are visiting? There seems to be so many places I would like to eat in Epcot at the world showcases and the hotels. But would we have time to do that? There really doesn't seem to be any "grown up" places to eat especially in Hollywood Studios. Any suggestions?

 

[lidec]

We ate at the parks but we have 2 kids. It saves traveling to different areas. If we want to eat outside the parks we save that rest. for a day that we do animal Kingdom because there isnt a TS rest. that we like there being on the DDP.

 

[madalex]

The food at the resort restaurants (especially the signature restaurants, most of which are in the resorts) is generally significantly better than the food at the park restaurants. If having a more relaxing meal with better food is important to you, going to the resort restaurants is the way to go. If spending every available minute in the parks is important to you, eating at the park restaurants makes more sense.

 

[familyS]

If you prefer to tour parks open to close, then either choose a restaurant in the park or at a nearby hotel.

If you plan on touring, leaving for a break, and coming back later, then you have more flexibility.

We would eat in the park at AK, MK and EP, but would leave DHS to go to the BC/BW/TC area (unless we had park hoppers- then we would go to EP for dinner on our DHS day).

Hope this helps, have fun planning

 

[lolakat]

As above posters point out, most of the better resturants are in resorts. However, if this is you first visit to WDW and you are only staying 4 days then you will likely want to make the most of your time in the parks. I would personally try to hit some of the unique resturants in the parks or pick resturant that are very close to each park if you want a nice sit down meal. For example, while at MK you can easily take the monirail to the contempoarty to go to California grill or to the Grand Floridian for any of the signature resturants there. While at DHS I would suggest you look at the 50s prime time or the SciFI. Even though the qualitly of food there is just so so (IMHO) they are a fun and unique Disney experience. If you want a more upscale experience you can take the boat to BWV and go to Flying Fish. AK is the hardes to eat well at (IMO) but it is also possible to tour the park in a little over half a day and it usually closes by 6 or 7pm. You could use that day to go to a resturant at a resort that you haven't been to yet.

Even at the signature resturants most people don't get very dressed up to eat so it is possible to go right from the park to dinner at a nicer place if that is what you choose to do.

Good luck and enjoy your first trip to WDW.

 

[mlittig]

Jetta8300, to the DIS boards It sounds like you do not have park hoppers so while you can't go to different parks, you can go to that one park as many times during the day as you want This would mean that you either eat at that park or at a resort and then go back to the same park you were at earlier. So you could not visit Animal Kingdom and then go to Epcot for dinner without a park hopper I would suggest you visit allears.net and look through their menus to see what would appeal to you and your husband Here is some pixie dust for a marvelous, magical first trip

 

[JenSop]

That's kind of tricky. I voted leave for dinner. DH and I don't have kids, but even when I WAS a kid going with my grandparents, we always took a break in the middle of the day and went back after dinner. (Although back then, we stayed off-site and ate dinner off-site.)

My point is that we ALWAYS break in the middle of the day to relax at the resort and get ready for dinner. Since we don't have kids, we can do dinner at a leisurely pace and try out all kinds of great restaurants.

We don't really like ANY food at DHS, so we try not to eat there. Plus, we don't really like any of the table service at MK, so we only do counter service there. Alot of the best restaurants are in Epcot's World Showcase and at the various resorts - especially at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Villas.

It kind of depends on how you want to approach the parks on this first trip of yours. You won't get to see everything - not by a long shot. So do you want to hit the parks hard and go super commando style, or do you want to see the highlights in each one and save time for some nice meals.

Good luck!

 

[Uncleromulus]

Should add that the Brown Derby is very "grown up".
As is Mama Melrose--though it isn't very good.

 

[Jetta8300]

wow thanks for all the advice! By the way we do have the park hopper tickets. This is why we were wondering if we should go to Epcot for dinner on the days we are visiting another park. But all of these answers are very helpful. Especially helpful that we can take the monorail to certain hotels while we are at the MK. Thanks a lot! It is true that we want to make the most of our first trip and want to spend as much time in the parks as possible, and we will probably look at a resort the day we are at DHS and maybe MK. thanks again!!!

 

[kent285]

Just curious, where are you staying? That might help in your decision as to whether or not to eat in a resort. I love the resort restaurants, but, being that this is your first trip, you should do fine with the park restaurants, too.

 

[Jetta8300]

We are staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter.

 

[B-Ride]

There are so many factors involved in this decision. Your personal preferences are the key so I can only offer some thoughts.

1. Depending on the time of year TS restaurants require a lot of planning to get advance reservations. This can be intimidating to first timers but the disBoards are a great resource. Wish I had them when planning my first trip.
2. TS restaurants also take more time. When we were first timers we prefered to focus on getting as much time in the parks as possible.
3. Other than Epcot the TS restaurants in the other parks are not as good as the resort restaurants. Hopper tickets are great but you don't want to be going to Epcot every night for dinner.
4. The restaurants at the monorail resorts offer some great choices.
5. If you really want to eat in the parks we have tried and enjoy Crystal Palace and Mama Melrose (although many others don't like it).
6. IMHO, a car really makes the process easier. Getting to resorts, other than your own, can be a pain when planning meals.

 

[touy_story_man]

I would always choose the resort over the parks except perhaps Epcot, we find the food much better and a more relaxed atomsphere. It helps if you have a car makes getting to the resorts much easier, but if you have no kids sit back and relax the monorail/boat/or bus ride !!!!