Help me decide? Need to narrow choices. Ty!

[yaddakal]

So in just a few days we will be able to book restaurants but I think we're trying to do restaurants we've never done before and it seems like a lot of them are over by MK. We will be flying in the Saturday after Thanksgiving and counting that as a park day , then doing parks Sunday through Wednesday . The restaurants we are interested in that we have never done before are: hoop Dee Doo , Liberty tree , beaches and cream even if it's just for ice cream , France, Garden Grill, whispering Canyon, Raglan Rd., San Angel
Inn , and the only definite plans we have so far , is to probably do the Christmas party on that Tuesday night . So hmm. We have parked hoppers and her kids are 10 and 12 .. Ty!
It will be our first time going with Christmas decorations so any additional advice is welcome too!

 

[yaddakal]

So in just a few days we will be able to book restaurants but I think we're trying to do restaurants we've never done before and it seems like a lot of them are over by MK. We will be flying in the Saturday after Thanksgiving and counting that as a park day , then doing parks Sunday through Wednesday . The restaurants we are interested in that we have never done before are: hoop Dee Doo , Liberty tree , beaches and cream even if it's just for ice cream , France, Garden Grill, whispering Canyon, Raglan Rd., San Angel
Inn , and the only definite plans we have so far , is to probably do the Christmas party on that Tuesday night . So hmm. We have parked hoppers and her kids are 10 and 12 .. Ty!
It will be our first time going with Christmas decorations so any additional advice is welcome too!

Originally I had thought to do animal kingdom the first day with the nighttime thing but I didn't even have anything over there that I wanted to eat that I know of ?

 

[brertoad]

List is good, but if going to LTT, I can suggest trying lunch rather than dinner - more selection.

 

[honeybunches]

Raglan Rd is fun, but rather inconvenient if you're not already going to Disney Springs (unless your hotel is near there.) My kids would rather stay in the parks and eat there. Of the choices you gave, we've been to:
Garden Grill -- food is okay, my kids liked the rotating restaurant.
Whispering Canyon - we've been several times, for bfast only. We like to take the boat to MK after bfast. Worth it to see the Christmas decor, too!
Liberty Tree -- we like it for lunch, but very heavy meal. Need a nap afterwards.
France - we've only been to the Patisserie, which was delicious.

ETA -- if you decide to eat at AK, we really liked Yak & Yeti. My husband also enjoyed Tusker House, although it wasn't my favorite.

Be sure to visit a few of the hotels. The decor is amazing. There is a little candy shop inside the gingerbread house at the GF, which my kids loved!

 

[tinkerbella16]

So in just a few days we will be able to book restaurants but I think we're trying to do restaurants we've never done before and it seems like a lot of them are over by MK. We will be flying in the Saturday after Thanksgiving and counting that as a park day , then doing parks Sunday through Wednesday . The restaurants we are interested in that we have never done before are: hoop Dee Doo , Liberty tree , beaches and cream even if it's just for ice cream , France, Garden Grill, whispering Canyon, Raglan Rd., San Angel
Inn , and the only definite plans we have so far , is to probably do the Christmas party on that Tuesday night . So hmm. We have parked hoppers and her kids are 10 and 12 .. Ty!
It will be our first time going with Christmas decorations so any additional advice is welcome too!

Great choices!

We do Garden Grill for dinner on our arrival day each trip. The food is delicious, the character interactions are the best we've experienced and they come around to the table 2-3 times.

Raglan Road is my favorite TS in Disney Springs. The menu, food and atmosphere are awesome! I've been going there since it first opened, and never had a bad meal/experience.

Hoop Dee Doo - this is a must do every trip for us. We love it there! We always do the 6:15 show, perfect dinner time for us. The food is great and the show is a lot of fun.

Beaches & Cream is somewhere we've always wanted to go, but never got a chance. We have an ADR in September there, for dinner/dessert, so we are very excited to go there.

Never been to San Angel Inn or the restaurant in France. We've been to LTT and Whispering Canyon, but not in recent years, so I don't have much to say about those.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

My only advice is to plan your restaurants along with your park days. Even with hoppers, going to a restaurant that isn't in the park or in the vicinity of the park you are in is a time kill. I also wouldn't dismiss AK on your first day because you aren't seeing food you like in AK. Not sure what your family likes, but Rainforest Cafe is pretty standard fare. Tusker House is also great and they have a ton of QS options. You have 4 restaurants in EP or the EP area - are you spending that much time in EP? Personally, I would pick your park days and fill in your restaurants from there. The food in WDW isn't that great IMHO to travel too terribly far to eat it.

 

[jimmytammy]

hoop Dee DooThis one is lots of fun, comfort food but tasty , Liberty treeI prefer lunch rather than dinner, I like dinner here, but too much food , beaches and cream even if it's just for ice creamHonestly, I prefer just getting ice cream here too , France,If you are talking Chefs De France, its been awhile, but it was good. An alternative to this we like is Rose n Crown Garden Grill,We like the food here whispering Canyon,We sued to go all the time, havent been in a few yrs as we thought it had declined some, but recent reviews seem to have it back to its old glory. Lots of fun here! Raglan Rd., RR is our place of choice at DSSan Angel Inn San Angel has been a must do every trip for us for 30 plus trips(along with 50s PTC)It isnt your typical Tex Mex, but delves deeper into more authentic dishes

All in all, you have some great choices IMO

 

[yaddakal]

Thank you, you guys are really helping me . We have been to Disney before so we don't need to do every single thing we are trying to do things we haven't done before and take in the Christmas magic . Our kids are bigger so they can last longer but we aren't sure where we will be except for one night at the Christmas party . And we have never seen illuminations ..!
I don't care to see fantasmic again but the fireworks might be cool .

 

[cassie58]

For Christmas decorations, you can hop the monorail to the GF to see the giant gingerbread house, really cool to see and taste! There is also a chocolate carousel at Beach Club if you over to that area for one of your ADRs. The castle projection show before Wishes, which you may have seen before, adds a Christmas part at the end that makes it even more spectacular! Of course Main St. is all decked out with wreaths and garland, and the trees and shop windows. You can also hop on the "jingle Cruise" which is what the Jungle Cruise becomes, with holiday decor and corny Christmas jokes!

Whispering Canyon is a good choice especially with kids for the antics - make sure to ask for ketchup! Also WL is beautiful at the holidays, so that is a bonus. If you wanted to see the nighttime things at AK, you could eat at the park, Tusker House is great, or you could hop over to Boma at AKL - also beautiful at Christmas, you could check out some animals up close right off the lobby, and it's a quick bus ride from AK. I agree that LTT would be better for lunch - you could do a late lunch before the Christmas party if you have a park ticket for that day. You could do Garden Grill for brft(we want to try it on our next trip, hopefully PPO to jump on Soarin after!) and do another Epcot one for dinner - I am not sure if you are dining plan/FD, but we sometimes do one or two OOP when we are on FD, when we want a brft and a dinner at a park. I don't know if you are familiar with the candlelight processional at Epcot, but it is a beautiful holiday event, and they have a dining package for that(it is 2 credits or you can pay OOP). You can pick from most of the Epcot restaurants, so if you were going to eat at one anyway, you could add this. The packages are not available yet, probably July or August, so you could reserve the place you want now, and then cancel if you book a package later. You can look it up if interested to find out more about it before they come out. Have a great time - it is our favorite time to go!

 

[yaddakal]

Ty so so much!!!

 

[yaddakal]

So it's easy again. Would you travel back to wilderness lodge area to do just restaurants ?

 

[rosiebean]

My family will be there around the same time, end of Nov/early Dec, and are looking to do some of the same restaurants as you are! Beaches and Cream and Garden Grill are ones I've always wanted to try, so we'll be at those at some point during our trip most likely.

Of the ones you've listed, we've been to Raglan Road, San Angel Inn, and Chefs de France in France (and the quick service pastry place for breakfast one time).

We loved Raglan Road! We went last October (and when I say we in any of this, I mean my siblings and some nieces, nephews, in-laws as we do family reunion trips every year). Our RR res was for our first night...instead of using our tickets for a few hours our arrival day, we went to Disney Springs to browse the shops and have dinner. Because we were at POR, getting there was really easy and fun via the boats. Dinner was amazing, and the beer (if you are a beer drinker) was just as good. The entertainment and service was stellar too. If you're planning time during your trip to hang out in Disney Springs, you can't go wrong at RR in my experience.

We also went to San Angel Inn last year during our Epcot day. We had a 1:30 ARR, and after hanging out in Epcot from about opening till our latish lunch, the atmosphere in San Angel Inn was most appreciated and welcomed! It was so relaxing to browse in the market area while we waited for our table, and the view of the 'volcano' and the river was great as well. It was just a very nice respite from the heat outside. The food was really good. San Angel Inn has gotten mixed reviews, but seems to have gotten better in recent years. (Anecdotally, my brother went years ago and did not like it...he agreed to go last year because the majority of our party wanted to go, and he said it was miles better than before.) We LOVED the food and our margaritas, and after, we took a boat ride on the 'river' that flows behind the restaurant (it's a smallish ride through Mexico, similar to the concept that Maelstrom was, just shorter and more laid back). We would all go back there again.

In France, a few years ago, we did Chef de France. Most in our party loved it, but I was slightly underwhelmed. I'd go again though over other places in Epcot that I found to be on the low end of 'ok'. The pastry place was very good. We didn't get lunch items there, but our breakfast was great.