Help me pick!!

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

I need help picking where to eat for our upcoming trip this September. This will be our 1st time staying on site (all star music) and 1st time with dining plan(upgraded to regular plan). We will have 5 nights worth of credits and 5 day park hoppers, however on the 5th day we are splitting up and ds and I will be going to universal studios while dd and dh will stay at Disney. DS will be 14 and DD will be 7 for this trip. Last time we went we ate at Trex, 50s prime time, Sci fi, planet Hollywood outside the park, via napoli, and a few counter service meals I forget. We dont want to repeat any of the TS meals from last time cause we want to try new stuff. We plan to eat breakfast before heading out each day or just skip it, we arent big early morning eaters. This is what I have so far, but I cant decide! lol. Any tips/recommendations/reviews??

Day 1- Check in late, maybe do mini golf and eat dinner at Chef Mickeys. I know food isn't the best from reviews but I figured itd be a fun way to start. Also considering 1900 Park Fare instead? If we don't do that we will probably grab something cheap off site somewhere instead or use a QS credit at Wolfgang Puck Express.

Day 2-Animal Kingdom, definitely want to use QS credits here at Flame Tree and/or Yak & Yeti because I missed out on them last time! Will probably park hop over to MK in the evening, have a reservation for BOG but its during the MSEP/wishes time and I don't want to miss those so that isn't optimal, will probably cancel. I think its the only MSEP during our trip too.

Day 3-Epcot, have a dinner reservation for Garden Grill currently. Was considering Akershus or Coral Reef instead? Will probably do a quick service for lunch.

Day 4-Hollywood Studios-have reservation for fantasmic dinner package at Hollywood & Vine right now, open to suggestions.

Day 5-CRT breakfast at 0810, this is kind of a bucket list thing I hate that it uses 2 credits but I don't think I could ever bring myself to pay $200+ for breakfast OOP. Also like that we will get in park early. Anyone have any experience with this? How does it work getting in early? How is the food? Then I have BOG lunch reservations at 205pm or Dinner at 845 or 955pm. Im leaning towards lunch because itll be QS instead of TS credit and the dinner times open were so late. Anyone that's done both lunch and dinner and can compare the 2? Meeting beast would be cool but its not a must do.

Day 6-DS and I will go to Universal to see Harry Potter stuff (yayyyyy!) and DD/DH will probably go to MK and use any remaining credits we may have or get cheap stuff OOP.

 

[crabbygal902]

Day 1: If you are planning to already be at the Fantasia Golf area, I'd pick something for dinner nearby at the Boardwalk just to make things simple. Cape May Buffet is a good value on the DDP. We really enjoy it! You could putter around the Boardwalk that evening, take in some of the entertainment, visit the resorts, rent a surrey bike, watch the fireworks at Epcot and at DHS (if the schedule cooperates). That would be a lovely evening.

Day 2: My favorite place at MK for dinner is probably LTT, but CP is a good choice too (and a great way to spend your DDP credits)

Day 3: Just a personal preference, but we really enjoyed our Akershus dinner and it is great bang for the buck on the DDP.

Day 4: We loved our Mama Melrose dinner that came with the Fantasmic package, and we weren't expecting that. H & V wasn't bad, either.

Day 5: I have no experience with CRT and have only been to BoG lunch, so I am no help here.

Day 6: CHH...mmmmmm Pecos Bills...mmmmmm

Happy Planning!

 

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

Hmmm I didn't even think about how far mini golf is from restaurants. How far is it to chef mickey or downtown disney? We didn't go golfing last time. I like your idea too though! And I was debating on CP also, that's on my list of places to try. The only reason I wasn't sure about akershus is my kids are kind of picky eaters and since we are doing CRT I didn't want poor ds to be on princess dining overload lol. How is the food there for nonadventurous eaters?

 

[dachsie]

Since you are doing CRT, I probably wouldn't do Akershus also. Tusker House is a great character meal. Instead of H&V you might consider taking the boat to the Boardwalk and trying Trattatoria de Forno.

 

[crabbygal902]

Hmmm I didn't even think about how far mini golf is from restaurants. How far is it to chef mickey or downtown disney? We didn't go golfing last time. I like your idea too though! And I was debating on CP also, that's on my list of places to try. The only reason I wasn't sure about akershus is my kids are kind of picky eaters and since we are doing CRT I didn't want poor ds to be on princess dining overload lol. How is the food there for nonadventurous eaters?

My husband likes simple food and he loved Akershus. They have grilled pork with mac and cheese, steak with mashed potatoes, and other regular foods. There are some interesting things on the cold buffet: cheeses, smoked fish, salads. This would be a good way to try some new things without ordering something strange.
However...princess overload happened to us! My DS15 and DS9 were just fine for the first princess meeting...and the second...not so much by the third or fourth. We have some fantastic pictures of this! We joke about this all the time.

To get from Fantasia Golf to Chef Mickey's: Walk from Fantasia Golf to the Swan Bus stop, bus to MK, then walk over to the Contemporary. This will take about 45 minutes. Don't forget to add time waiting on the bus to arrive.

From Fantasia Golf to the Beach Club and Cape May is a 5-10 walk. So much easier!

There is another course, Winter Summerland, near Blizzard Beach. It would be easier from BB than Fantasia Golf to get to Chef Mickey's, but not as easy as a walk across the street. You could pick up a direct bus from Blizzard Beach to the Contemporary, which will take about 15 minutes.

 

[DJFan88]

If your kids can find something on the Mama Melrose menu, I'd strongly suggest that instead for your fantasmic dinner.

I agree the Cape May Buffet is a good thing, and great location.

Garden grill is very good if you keep that. We may be in the minority, but we just didn't care for the akershus selections. You can check out the menus.

 

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

We were doing h&v to get the fantasmic package. Kind of iffy on if we will need it tho, last time we went it was June and we got good seats without even lining up super early. Maybe just got lucky I'm not sure lol

Since you are doing CRT, I probably wouldn't do Akershus also. Tusker House is a great character meal. Instead of H&V you might consider taking the boat to the Boardwalk and trying Trattatoria de Forno.

 

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

I'll have to check out the menus! Thanks so much for all the info! I'm also kind of concerned about travel time from all Star music to MK for the CRT breakfast, our time is 0805, should we be ok if we leave our room by 7? None of us are morning people lol so that one will be interesting. Last time we went my ds was definitely over the princesses and characters lol some of our photo pass pics came out really funny, you could tell he was not impressed!

My husband likes simple food and he loved Akershus. They have grilled pork with mac and cheese, steak with mashed potatoes, and other regular foods. There are some interesting things on the cold buffet: cheeses, smoked fish, salads. This would be a good way to try some new things without ordering something strange.
However...princess overload happened to us! My DS15 and DS9 were just fine for the first princess meeting...and the second...not so much by the third or fourth. We have some fantastic pictures of this! We joke about this all the time.

To get from Fantasia Golf to Chef Mickey's: Walk from Fantasia Golf to the Swan Bus stop, bus to MK, then walk over to the Contemporary. This will take about 45 minutes. Don't forget to add time waiting on the bus to arrive.

From Fantasia Golf to the Beach Club and Cape May is a 5-10 walk. So much easier!

There is another course, Winter Summerland, near Blizzard Beach. It would be easier from BB than Fantasia Golf to get to Chef Mickey's, but not as easy as a walk across the street. You could pick up a direct bus from Blizzard Beach to the Contemporary, which will take about 15 minutes.

 

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

We all like Italian so I'm sure we would like their food. I might switch to that. Just did h&v for the characters but I'm not sure we would like the food as much.

If your kids can find something on the Mama Melrose menu, I'd strongly suggest that instead for your fantasmic dinner.

I agree the Cape May Buffet is a good thing, and great location.

Garden grill is very good if you keep that. We may be in the minority, but we just didn't care for the akershus selections. You can check out the menus.

 

[mickeymom22]

Don't give up the Garden Grill ressie! We like to try new restaurants each time we go. Our Garden Grill meal is our all-time favorite! We loved the food, character interaction, and service!

Sounds like you have a great trip planned!

 

[WDWNY]

We personally did not like Garden Grill and Coral Reef (which was shocking because both get amazing reviews) and always tell our friends to pick somewhere else. However, we do love Akershus and have gone back multiple times.

 

[DynamicDisney]

Day 1- Check in late, maybe do mini golf and eat dinner at Chef Mickeys. I know food isn't the best from reviews but I figured itd be a fun way to start. Also considering 1900 Park Fare instead? If we don't do that we will probably grab something cheap off site somewhere instead or use a QS credit at Wolfgang Puck Express. I like starting off our trips at CM's - it's tradition for us! It is such a fun restaurant and a great way to get in the Disney spirit! 1900 Park Fare was also a great dinner - food was good, and the character interactions were hysterical!!
Day 2-Animal Kingdom, definitely want to use QS credits here at Flame Tree and/or Yak & Yeti because I missed out on them last time! Will probably park hop over to MK in the evening, have a reservation for BOG but its during the MSEP/wishes time and I don't want to miss those so that isn't optimal, will probably cancel. I think its the only MSEP during our trip too. Yak & Yeti is tasty food. I like getting there early, love the honey chicken!

Day 3-Epcot, have a dinner reservation for Garden Grill currently. Was considering Akershus or Coral Reef instead? Will probably do a quick service for lunch. We just ate at GG with our March trip for the first time. The food was phenomenal, and the characters came around a few times, great interactions!! We ate at Coral Reef last year - the food was decent, and the restaurant was fun. It is a decent option if you are looking to go with a non-character option.

Day 4-Hollywood Studios-have reservation for fantasmic dinner package at Hollywood & Vine right now, open to suggestions. Have eaten at H&V a few years ago, before dinner had characters. The F! package was a great value to us for the DDP.

Day 5-CRT breakfast at 0810, this is kind of a bucket list thing I hate that it uses 2 credits but I don't think I could ever bring myself to pay $200+ for breakfast OOP. Also like that we will get in park early. Anyone have any experience with this? How does it work getting in early? How is the food? Then I have BOG lunch reservations at 205pm or Dinner at 845 or 955pm. Im leaning towards lunch because itll be QS instead of TS credit and the dinner times open were so late. Anyone that's done both lunch and dinner and can compare the 2? Meeting beast would be cool but its not a must do. We LOVE getting into the park before it opens! So magical, and the pics are just amazing without a huge crowd behind you! When you arrive, you to to the left thru security, a cast member is there checking guests in, and then you are let into the park somewhere around 0745. The food was good. We actually had more TS than our credits, so I opted to pay out of pocket for this. We are a family of 6 - it was pricey, do not get me wrong, but I thought that it was worth it - getting into the park early, wonderful magic walking down Main St USA, nearly empty - then, pics without anyone in our background. Plus, we got to eat, meet more princesses, and we were in the castle!! I have done both lunch and dinner at BOG. I really enjoy dinner there. I think the food is just a touch better at dinner (love the shrimp and scallop pastry!). I also love meeting Beast! We have some spectacular pictures of our DD7, in her Belle dress, dancing with the Beast last year!

Day 6-DS and I will go to Universal to see Harry Potter stuff (yayyyyy!) and DD/DH will probably go to MK and use any remaining credits we may have or get cheap stuff OOP. Columbia Harbor House is a favorite QS at MK!

 

[DynamicDisney]

sorry, tried to pick a different color for my response, but I guess it is still pretty difficult to differentiate!

 

[crabbygal902]

I'll have to check out the menus! Thanks so much for all the info! I'm also kind of concerned about travel time from all Star music to MK for the CRT breakfast, our time is 0805, should we be ok if we leave our room by 7? None of us are morning people lol so that one will be interesting. Last time we went my ds was definitely over the princesses and characters lol some of our photo pass pics came out really funny, you could tell he was not impressed!

I have never done a park early breakfast, but I know it takes about 25-30 min to get from ASM to MK by bus. If you factor in wait time at the bus stop, going through security, and walking to CRT, you are looking at an hour. I would plan to be at the bus stop no later than 7, maybe a little earlier to give some wiggle room...but I'm always early for everything at Disney. (not in real life!!)

 

[vicb]

Day 1: If you are planning to already be at the Fantasia Golf area, I'd pick something for dinner nearby at the Boardwalk just to make things simple. Cape May Buffet is a good value on the DDP. We really enjoy it! You could putter around the Boardwalk that evening, take in some of the entertainment, visit the resorts, rent a surrey bike, watch the fireworks at Epcot and at DHS (if the schedule cooperates). That would be a lovely evening.
Happy Planning!

^ I agree with this ^
I have to say Chef Mickey was a dud for my family and we have not gone back. It was bad food, chaotic and the character interaction was rushed. Least fav all time of character meals!
There are lots of fun places to eat on the BW and you can see some of the Epcot fireworks from the walkway to the International Gateway. You could eat at ESPN, Beaches and Cream, Big River Grill or from any of the more upscale restaurants in that area. If your DD wants a hair wrap the BW is a good place to get one that won't take away from your park time. Surrey bikes are fun for a family, we have done them several times.

A second but similar option would be mini golf at Winterland/Summerland then dinner at AK. At AK you could tour the lodge and check out the animals too.

A third option could be the dinner at the Poly, electric water parade, MK fireworks from the beach, monorail ride etc....

Epcot- I would eat in a country rather than Garden Grill or do GG for lunch not dinner. The countries are so fun at night and so many good choices to eat at. Pick a couple of countries and really explore them, do dinner in one and dessert in another before Illuminations.

 

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

Thanks for the ideas and advice! I've heard getting in park early is pretty magical I'm looking forward to that!

Day 1- Check in late, maybe do mini golf and eat dinner at Chef Mickeys. I know food isn't the best from reviews but I figured itd be a fun way to start. Also considering 1900 Park Fare instead? If we don't do that we will probably grab something cheap off site somewhere instead or use a QS credit at Wolfgang Puck Express. I like starting off our trips at CM's - it's tradition for us! It is such a fun restaurant and a great way to get in the Disney spirit! 1900 Park Fare was also a great dinner - food was good, and the character interactions were hysterical!!
Day 2-Animal Kingdom, definitely want to use QS credits here at Flame Tree and/or Yak & Yeti because I missed out on them last time! Will probably park hop over to MK in the evening, have a reservation for BOG but its during the MSEP/wishes time and I don't want to miss those so that isn't optimal, will probably cancel. I think its the only MSEP during our trip too. Yak & Yeti is tasty food. I like getting there early, love the honey chicken!

Day 3-Epcot, have a dinner reservation for Garden Grill currently. Was considering Akershus or Coral Reef instead? Will probably do a quick service for lunch. We just ate at GG with our March trip for the first time. The food was phenomenal, and the characters came around a few times, great interactions!! We ate at Coral Reef last year - the food was decent, and the restaurant was fun. It is a decent option if you are looking to go with a non-character option.

Day 4-Hollywood Studios-have reservation for fantasmic dinner package at Hollywood & Vine right now, open to suggestions. Have eaten at H&V a few years ago, before dinner had characters. The F! package was a great value to us for the DDP.

Day 5-CRT breakfast at 0810, this is kind of a bucket list thing I hate that it uses 2 credits but I don't think I could ever bring myself to pay $200+ for breakfast OOP. Also like that we will get in park early. Anyone have any experience with this? How does it work getting in early? How is the food? Then I have BOG lunch reservations at 205pm or Dinner at 845 or 955pm. Im leaning towards lunch because itll be QS instead of TS credit and the dinner times open were so late. Anyone that's done both lunch and dinner and can compare the 2? Meeting beast would be cool but its not a must do. We LOVE getting into the park before it opens! So magical, and the pics are just amazing without a huge crowd behind you! When you arrive, you to to the left thru security, a cast member is there checking guests in, and then you are let into the park somewhere around 0745. The food was good. We actually had more TS than our credits, so I opted to pay out of pocket for this. We are a family of 6 - it was pricey, do not get me wrong, but I thought that it was worth it - getting into the park early, wonderful magic walking down Main St USA, nearly empty - then, pics without anyone in our background. Plus, we got to eat, meet more princesses, and we were in the castle!! I have done both lunch and dinner at BOG. I really enjoy dinner there. I think the food is just a touch better at dinner (love the shrimp and scallop pastry!). I also love meeting Beast! We have some spectacular pictures of our DD7, in her Belle dress, dancing with the Beast last year!

Day 6-DS and I will go to Universal to see Harry Potter stuff (yayyyyy!) and DD/DH will probably go to MK and use any remaining credits we may have or get cheap stuff OOP. Columbia Harbor House is a favorite QS at MK!

 

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

Yea that will be tough, I saw a shirt on pinterest that said "I'm not a morning person, except when I'm at disney" or something along those lines lol I might need it for this day!

I have never done a park early breakfast, but I know it takes about 25-30 min to get from ASM to MK by bus. If you factor in wait time at the bus stop, going through security, and walking to CRT, you are looking at an hour. I would plan to be at the bus stop no later than 7, maybe a little earlier to give some wiggle room...but I'm always early for everything at Disney. (not in real life!!)

 

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

I have heard alot of similar reviews for CM that's what I am concerned about. I feel like I should fit as many character meals in as possible though cause by next time we go my kids will probably have outgrown wanting to do all the character things! So I'm still torn. I'm super indecisive anyways lol. I do like the idea about the poly and MK fireworks. Last time we were at epcot we ate at via napoli and I'm probably the odd one out but I really did not like the pizza or the service. And I love pizza. Maybe we just got a bad one. I would love to try teppen edo or biergarten but I don't think my kids would enjoy it as much. Those are on my list for future visits for sure! My husband does plan to drink around the world again though haha I think that was his fave part last time!

^ I agree with this ^
I have to say Chef Mickey was a dud for my family and we have not gone back. It was bad food, chaotic and the character interaction was rushed. Least fav all time of character meals!
There are lots of fun places to eat on the BW and you can see some of the Epcot fireworks from the walkway to the International Gateway. You could eat at ESPN, Beaches and Cream, Big River Grill or from any of the more upscale restaurants in that area. If your DD wants a hair wrap the BW is a good place to get one that won't take away from your park time. Surrey bikes are fun for a family, we have done them several times.

A second but similar option would be mini golf at Winterland/Summerland then dinner at AK. At AK you could tour the lodge and check out the animals too.

A third option could be the dinner at the Poly, electric water parade, MK fireworks from the beach, monorail ride etc....

Epcot- I would eat in a country rather than Garden Grill or do GG for lunch not dinner. The countries are so fun at night and so many good choices to eat at. Pick a couple of countries and really explore them, do dinner in one and dessert in another before Illuminations.

 

[vicb]

I would love to try teppen edo or biergarten but I don't think my kids would enjoy it as much. Those are on my list for future visits for sure! My husband does plan to drink around the world again though haha I think that was his fave part last time!

We did a dinner at Biergarten when our kids were about your kids ages and they thought it was great. You just want to make sure you time your reservation with the show schedule. You can do that on the wdwent website. We also did Teppan Edo twice and our kids enjoyed that alot... combined with the Japanese pavillion shopping which is fun for kids (pick a pearl, pokemon, anime, hello kitty etc...) and the drum show.

So many fun choices!

 

[DJFan88]

I have heard alot of similar reviews for CM that's what I am concerned about. I feel like I should fit as many character meals in as possible though cause by next time we go my kids will probably have outgrown wanting to do all the character things!

Lol, we went to 1900 park fare breakfast when my oldest was 15 and he was not into characters. But I made us all go. We loved it. The characters were awesome, mad hatter is funny and Alice has a bit of an edge to her, youknow. She saw his way, and MADE him take photos with her. So fun.