How do you decide what resturants to eat at?

[MAD4EEYORE]

I'm in the planning stages for my December trip with free dining. I am having a hard time deciding which resturants to pick. I have a few new ones I want to try and some old ones I love. So how do you pick which places to eat?

 

[lemondog]

I'm in the planning stages for my December trip with free dining. I am having a hard time deciding which resturants to pick. I have a few new ones I want to try and some old ones I love. So how do you pick which places to eat?

I am one of those anal trip planners...I even subscribe to Ridemax to map out each day for optimal touring (we usually go during very busy high season so this allows us to minimize our waits and still have a great time).

First I make our list of "must eat locations." Then I plan our meals around what our plans are for the day. So if Day 1 we are in MK, our meals are either in MK or within easy travel distance (say, a monorail resort). Any open spaces are filled in with TS locations that are on our wish list and correspond with our park plans for the day.

The only thing I don't really plan is QS meals...we eat at whichever QS location is closest/most convenient at the time. However since we have always done DxDDP we don't do alot of QS.

 

[PoohsFan1]

We have our must do restaurants so that is easy to plan, but then I make a consensus (at home) of the different restaurants that we haven't done before or of places that we would like to go back to. I figure out which types of new places to go to by doing lots of research on the DIS by looking at pictures, reading reviews, and looking at the menus. If there is something that is appealing to me and my family, then it will go into the suggestion pile. I like to make my ADRs for the days that we are going to be at that park or near that park (don't like to spend too much time using transportation), or if the restaurant is at, or within walking distance to our resort, I tend to make them there for after our afternoon break (if we are having dinner there). Have fun planning

 

[HadesTX]

I looked at all the menus to get an idea & read dining reports. I made my ADR's at 180 days & all was well with the world. Until...

I made the mistake of looking at the food pics thread. That made me change my ADR's way too many times. I finally quit looking.

Only two of my original ADR's are still valid. The others have all been changes too many times to count. I've had a lot of luck getting what I want.

 

[Cin]

I tried to pick a wide variety of restaurants and some that offered atmosphere and scenery and some that offered special dishes. I only have 1 repeat on my list from my last trip as I really wanted to have new experiences. It was hard though as I wanted initially to revisit all the ones I enjoyed last time, but I forced myself to branch out. I read a lot of reviews and saw a lot of pics and changed my ADR's too many times to count, in fact I made my last change today. Yeah, I say that. lol. I still have 4 months to go and will try to leave my ADR's alone.

 

[bcrook]

Try a signature restaurant (Love Jiko), visit a resort (try Olivias), plan a meal convenient for day in the park (50's Prime Time), find your favorite dessert on a menu (Grand Floridian Cafe) and go to that restaurant, pick a good breakfast (Kona, Grand Floridian Cafe, Boma), visit DTD and try one of those restaurants (Raglan Road is good, but I want to go to Bongos next). I also like to visit Nine Dragons and Marrakesh because I like that they are less hectic. Most of all enjoy!

 

[MAD4EEYORE]

Thanks everyone! I guess I have to many I haven't been to and to many favorites. My family is NO help! They say wherever you choose is fine with us My DD only had one request and that was to see the Princess' so I chose CRT as we have never been there. Then my Fave is 1900 PF dinner and I like Akershus. I just need a trip planner to make all my arrangements. I wish it was like on a cruise you just show up and eat what ya like on the menu.

Please keep up all the great advise and suggestions. I am interested how everyone narrows it down. I wish I could stay for a few months and eat my way around the world.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

We have our little routines. We know we'll take the earliest flight out and be at our resort by noon. We know that we'll go to the Magic Kingdom on our first day. We know we'll visit Epcot mid-week to avoid the weekend crowds at the Food & Wine festival. We're not commando types, so we are fine with leaving the parks to have dinner in resort restaurants. In fact, we prefer to do this at every park other than, occasionally, Epcot.

So when park hours are released, we factor those things in as we map out our itinerary. Then we decide which restaurants we want to patronize based on their proximity to whichever park(s) we'll be visiting that day. We balance pretty evenly between trying new things (or giving second chances) and revisiting old favorites. We also purposely keep some meals open for additional flexibility.

We narrow down our choices more than most do, though. We're a childless couple, so we prefer the less hectic atmosphere of signature restaurants and lounges. We don't do character meals or buffets at all. The dinner shows also do not pique our interest.

 

[everythingALICE]

I have some favorites, but I also like to try new restaurants. I'll normally book at least two or three ADRs for places I've been and loved, and then try out some new places. I also like to do at least one or two character meals...I mean, I can have good food at home - I can't eat with Mickey Mouse back in Boston!!

Like others have said, I also plan my ADRs according to which park I'll be at that day, around certain shows/parades I want to see, etc.

 

[szubieta]

Our was narrowed down when there were only a few places to do the dinner pkg for the Candlelight Processional. We choose Biergarten. Thought it might be kinda fun the menu sounded good. We all (9of us) fell in LOVE with them. The food, entertainment and service was WONDERful!! Can't wait to go back in Dec...It was the first ressies I make at 180 days. We also ate at Bomas for our last morning mostly because we were staying at the AKL. It was good and different, but will not go back this trip. Their Frunch (fruit punch) is awesome. It's their signature drink (non-alcoholic). HTH!

 

[rao363]

I definitely do some repeat restaurants(50's, & Tusker for example) but I do try new ones. We pick by first looking at the menu at each. We also try to go to atleast one Signature restaurant, just because it is a good quality meal that I normally wouldn't want to dish out the money for back home. Also, try to plan your restaurants for what park you will be at during the evening(and vice verse if you are doing a lunch, then decide what park you will be at during the day)

 

[peachiepie]

We've got over a year until our trip so have plenty of time to plan...and it's something to keep my occupied in the meantime!
Haven't made any decisions yet, but my plan it to go make lists of all the resturants, get rid of any we really don't fancy, mark down our "must do's" and see how we are going from there. Don't think I'll try booking ADR's for every night, as would like some flexibility, however there are places we already know we really want to do.

 

[Cat0727]

I first plan out what days we'll be going to what parks and then I select our restaurants. It's easier for us to decide that way.

 

[Cafeen]

I start with a big list of the places I'm interested in. This includes repeats and new "must do"s. I place them in a quick priority order ("Must Do","Really Want to do", "Neutral" (as an example)) and then start piecing the puzzle together.

At this point I start to get a general idea of where I'll be on what day, and then start plugging the choices in. Must dos get placed first, followed down the list. For those open holes, I'll look up something that will fit and see what comes up.

Then I'll tweak as time goes on.

 

[Pugmalion1]

We try to choose as many new places as we can on each trip, based on their proximity to the park(s) we'll be touring that day. As of our upcoming trip, we will have been doing it long enough now that we've decided to work in a couple of places we've been meaning to give another shot. Of course, we do like to work in a couple of old favorites, too.

I guess the short answer is, it depends on the which park we are in and if it's new.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We never do dining plans and rather eat what we want when we're hungry....not interested in any of the TS melas in Disney...just not worth it and in the past, left hungry....

So, we know what we like and thumb thru the menu's either on this site or allears.net and see what appeals to us in the general park areas....we don't visit other resort (maybe one POFQ for meatball sandwiches) and go from there.....we'll know what meals we like and when we decide what park we're gonig to for the day, we'll call the night before and see what's available (this past trip, 4 days ago, we had no trouble getting in where we wanted by doing this).....also to say, almost all counter service meals are huge and easily shared (wife and I share alot).....Breakfast is breakfast to us and the QS in WL serves us perfect (eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast and pancakes) one meal easily split.....lunch we don't do much but it's usually at the pool, with fixings we bought at the grocery store in route....dinner could be just about anything and anywhere....love a pizza at Crocketts Tavern in FW, but any place is okay and never is a TS....just what we usually eat at home...rather play in the pool or park and a hamburger will satisify us!

 

[lurkernj]

I plan out what park I'm going to each day (dont do hoppers anymore), then plan a restaurant in or around that park. We have a couple of favs, but I try to make at least half our choices new ones.

 

[jewels4488]

I make ADR's based on menus. My kids are disney adults, so we pick from those selections. We found some menus to be limited for them. One year my oldest, 11 at the time, said he didn't want to have steak for a long time. Had too much there. I found most of the food real good. I also read reviews on the best table services of all the parks. There are so many opinions, so you many spend lots of time reading. I found these two things very helpful in making the ADR decisions.

FYI Flamming tree, AK, quick service is great. Crystal Palace in the early morning before park opens will give you great family pictures with little to know crowd. Whispering Canyon, wilderness lodge, great fun, great food. California grill, make ADR right before wishes fireworks time period. Hope this helps!

 

[MAD4EEYORE]

Thanks everyone! This has been real helpful. We are doing a quick 4 night/5day trip to see the Christmas stuff. I know what parks I am going to on 2 days but not sure on the other 2 days.

I'm thinking of getting the DxDDP. My DD was hungry on the DDP and I paid OOP for a QS meal each night. She is a snacker but still wants 3 square meals a day. Where she puts it I don't know. I'm not sure about 3 TS meals a day. We get eqarly starts and try to be at theparks at rope drop and stay until closing with a break in between.


I am loving all the advise so far, keep it coming.