How do you balance?

[postage stamp]

How do you balance the "tried and true must eat here it's a tradition" restaurants with new places that you want to try?

There are so many wonderful places to eat at The World, so how do you decide from year to year, or visit to visit, if you will go to the same places or try new things?

 

[phyllis1966]

We have 3 must dinners, which leaves us four nights to try new places if we want. We're down to 2 must breakfasts (we ditched Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's after last year due to dissapointing choices/changes), so we have plenty of days to try new breakfast places now. It's a good mix, and every trip we try at least 3 new places.

 

[sray563]

I do the same thing. I figure out my must eats... Sci-Fi Diner, Cosmic Rays, and Chef Mickeys. After that, I take the reviews of people here on the DIS. On my upcoming trip we're trying the new Italian restaurant, Le Cellier, and Boma for the first time. I hope they are as good as people say they are!

 

[postage stamp]

We just had so many AWESOME meals last time we were there! And I know wherever we go we'll have good food and a great time. I think i'm just having trouble separating my awesome memories and those good feelings they bring from the task at hand, lol!

 

[lblume91]

We have two that are must-do every trip (O'hana & 50s Prime Time), a few that are every other trip or so (Hoop Dee Doo, Cape May Cafe & Whispering Canyon) and then at least 3 new places each trip. For our upcoming trip, our new ones will be Turf Club Grill, Tutto Italia & La Hacienda de San Angel. We have been known to ditch a few regulars after a couple of not so great experiences (Chef Mickey's & Crystal Palace).

 

[Rohais]

We'll have 18 TS credits for our next trip, so we'll have roughly 12 favourites and then the rest will be new ones for us We don't eat breakfast either, so they're all either lunch or dinner reservations

 

[Belleandtinker]

We also have our must-do list - Chef Mickeys and a AKL dinner. We also try to rotate show - luau then HDDR next time.

My DH and I negotiate the rest. He'll get Rose & Crown and I'll get Ohana's. He like more buffets and I like more menu service.

We also try to only do one table service/show a day. This helps with the budget and the calories.

Have fun planning (or negotiating like us).

 

[supersuperwendy]

I made an announcement this year...NO CHARACTER MEALS! Those have been the must do's for the past few years due to the kids being younger. Next trip I want to try NEW places!! I've been dying to try The Wave, Le Cellier, Les Chefs De France, etc! The kids are bummed, but OH WELL!

 

[postage stamp]

I made an announcement this year...NO CHARACTER MEALS! Those have been the must do's for the past few years due to the kids being younger. Next trip I want to try NEW places!! I've been dying to try The Wave, Le Cellier, Les Chefs De France, etc! The kids are bummed, but OH WELL!

I can't WAIT to get to that point. (But I'd keep Tusker house for me, lol)

 

[postage stamp]

We also have our must-do list - Chef Mickeys and a AKL dinner. We also try to rotate show - luau then HDDR next time.

My DH and I negotiate the rest. He'll get Rose & Crown and I'll get Ohana's. He like more buffets and I like more menu service.

We also try to only do one table service/show a day. This helps with the budget and the calories.

Have fun planning (or negotiating like us).

See My husband SO doesn't care, lol. As long as they have beef and or pork and or beer or any combo thereof he's a happy man.

It's really just my own neurosis!

 

[CanadianPaco]

We've done free dining twice so we've done the California Grill twice. This Christmas we're paying out of pocket so no CG!
Every trip I make sure we're trying somewhere new. Last trip it was 1900 Park Fair and Cape May. This trip it'll be the Liberty Tree and Via Napoli. I guess the best way is to plan another trip...

 

[#1hoosierfan]

Great Question!

We had a few places that we REALLY liked when we went in June.... Sci-Fi and San Angel Inn, Liberty Tree Tavern..... but our only REPEAT for our March trip will be Crystal Palace breakfast for an 8:05 ADR. As soon as walked in and saw an almost empty Main Street I knew this would be our new tradition. The food was good and the character interaction was great!

Everything else will be "new to us." Hoping to find some new favorites!

 

[PoohsFan1]

We too have our must do list which include Akershus breakfast, Cape May Breakfast, Cali Grill, and Le Cellier lunch. After that we sit down as a family and decide where we would like to return or try for the first time. I already know for our May trip we want to try out San Angel Inn, Boma Breakfast (tried dinner this past September and loved it so much we wanted to try the breakfast), Narcoossee's, and Spirit of Aloha show. The one thing we love to do is find one or two new restaurants each time we go to Disney

 

[Sweet Melissa]

We find that we're slowly adding more "must" restaurants to our list as time goes on, but we try to circulate between them. We've eaten at the Coral Reef once on each of our first four trips, so we're skipping it this time. Our dinner at Jiko in a few weeks will be our fourth one there, so we might take a break from it for the following trip as well.

Our upcoming trip is a shorter one and we're planning less, so we've only scheduled four dinners (Jiko, California Grill, Flying Fish and bluezoo) and two breakfasts (Kouzzina and the Grand Floridian Café). Exactly half of those meals will be new to us and the other half are old favorites. On longer trips where we make more reservations, however, we try to experience more new places than old.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

My dh always says, cant we try someplace new??

In May our new places were:
Le Cellier (finally got an adr lunch
Kona - finally had breakfast there so that was new
Narcoosees for our anniv. (terrible experience, wont go back most likely)

For December our new places will be:
Shulas - I owe my dh this for treating me like the cancer princess
Flying Fish

The usuals - Kona for dinner
Liberty Tree - lunch
Cape May Cafe - dinner

Its so much easier that the ds are in college. Less people to please for sure.