Grand Floridian Cafe or 1900 Park Fare for Dinner

[kad153]

Need some advice on which of these two we should do this fall. Its 2 adults and our two sons, who are 6 and 3. Right now we have the following ADRs / planned meals:
Day 1 - Fly in that morning - Epcot - Tangierine Cafe Lunch, Teppen Edo Dinner
Day 2 - MK - CS lunch, Be Our Guest Dinner
Day 3 - HS - CS Lunch, Sci-Fi Dinner
Day 4 - AK - Tusker House Breakfast, CS Lunch, ? for Dinner
Day 5 - MK - CS Lunch, 'Ohana Dinner
Day 6 - Epcot - Food and Wine snack credit lunch, Akershus dinner
Day 7 - MK - CS Lunch, Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner (leading to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party)
Day 8 - DownTown Disney Lunch (Earl of Sandwich), fly out late afternoon

The question is day 4 dinner - GFC or 1900 park fare? We have done GFC before and always like it, but wanted to try something new this time around. However, wondering if that is too many buffets. Also, we have never done Akershus before (my sons have not seemed that interested in the princesses), so wondering if 1900 park fare on top of that would be too much. Any thoughts?

 

[LisaDKG]

I assume you are on the dining plan but maybe not? Will you be staying at or close to GF? I see that you said that you liked it but when we went to GFC in 2012, it was the worst meal of our trip. I do happen to think that 1900 PF is one of the better character meals - mostly because the characters are hilarious, but it's been a while and I'm not sure on the quality status of the food at the buffet. I would only trek out to GF though if it was convenient to your evening plans, no matter which you choose.
When we are at AK for the day, we like to finish off the evening at Animal Kingdom Lodge for either Boma or Jiko (2 TS yes, but we love it there even if paying OOP).
As for Akershus for dinner - I think there are waaay better options at Epcot if no one needs to see princesses. What about Biergarten or Via Napoli?
HTH!

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

We had a less-than-wonderful dinner at 1900 Park Fare last October. With a reservation, we were seated 50 minutes late. That meant that our daughter, who was 6 at the time, had to hang out in the lobby of the GF after a long day at the park. She was tired and hungry and not excited by the hotel lobby. There was a crowd of people waiting in the lobby because 1900 Park Fare had WAY overbooked.

When we were finally seated, service was spotty. Lots of children were running unsupervised around the buffet area, sticking their hands into the various food offerings.

We were hungry, but because the characters were so rushed, we were afraid to get up for more food because we thought we might miss the characters. Characters came out individually throughout the meal. At all of our other character meals, we had a chance to get our food and sit down and eat a bit before the characters began their rounds. Not here.

There were too many people in the restaurant and it was hard to maneuver.

If your boys aren't particularly interested in the princesses, I would do GF Cafe. We have eaten there twice and had better experiences than at 1900 Park Fare.

I will say, however, that if you are using the dining plan, the better value is at 1900 Park Fare, from a pure financial standpoint. We have always done GFC when we were paying out of pocket.