How do you pick your dining locations??

[faberj]

We will be doing the dining plan next year and was wondering how do you select your TS meals?? There are soo many places to select from. We are going in December so I am not sure if that makes a differance or not. We have been to the world a few times before and we have a few places that we like. My question is do we return to our favorites or do we try all new places. We will be there for 8 nights 9 days.

Below is where we have been before and then below that are places that I would like to try based off of what people have said here on the DIS and by reviewing menus and the food pictures posted.

Places we have tried and liked:

Ohana's (DH's favorite)
Teppanyaki
Le Cellier
Rose and Crown
50's Prime Time Cafe


Places I would like to try:

Chef's De France
Kona Cafe
Coral Reef
Mama Melrose (Fantasmic Package)
Maya Grill
LTT for Lunch

Please let me know your thoughts!!

 

[Luv4Disney]

We do a mix. We'll return to the ones we have to do because they're our faves and they'll we'll pick some new places based on the menu.

 

[mcco5543]

Totally agree with the above poster

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

We always go to a few places that we know and like and then choose one or 2 maybe more depending on the length of the trip. We are planning 7 meals for in May and have come up with: Tonys, Concourse, LTT, Coral Reef, Le Cellier, Alfredos, and Sci Fi.

We have not been to Tonys or Concourse so we are looking forward to them. My mom wanted to try the Princess breakfast in Norway but I told her I'm 22 and to wait until I get married and have kids to go there but I suggested we go to WCC for breakfast b/c we love the skillets so I think we will end up doing that instead.

Its also nice to go on www.allears.net to look at menus before booking!!

 

[lyzziesmom]

I look at the park hours and parade/show times, and decide which park I'd like to be in on each day. Based on that schedule, I then determine which TS restaurants are in that park or convenient to travel to from that park. Then I check the menus for those restaurants on AllEars to determine which places are most appealing to me. By then, I've usually narrowed it down to three or less places, which makes it much easier to decide! I don't like to "waste" a lot of my vacation time traveling from one place to another, so I always try to make sure my ADRs are in or near where I will already be. So far this has worked well for me. If I want to eat at a resort or in DTD, I will plan those ADRs for a non-park day, or for a day when we will be leaving the parks early (or arriving late, if it's a breakfast).

I also like to do a mix of favorites where I've been before, and new places I'd like to try. Have fun planning!

 

[liquid]

We do a mix. We'll return to the ones we have to do because they're our faves and they'll we'll pick some new places based on the menu.

I also totally agree!

 

[Mulan82]

i check out the menus of places that i liked to try on allears. i also use what park i'll be in that day. also, i check out the dining reviews on the dining review page. most of the time there are pictures to go along with the review. those normally sell me!

but mostly, i go where my DBF will eat. he's too picky! mom grew him up on mashed taters, corn and breaded chicken cutlet. i'll show him the menu and say, do you like the menu here? and i'll get a yes or a no. or i'll say, can you find something that you'll eat here? i want to try this place? and if he says no.. then on to another place

 

[Disneyof3]

I usually pick the park then the restaurant. But in next's year case when booking ADR's at 180 days and if the park hours aren't out I will book the ADR's and make my parks work with them.

We also from the beginning have repeated alot of our CS because the kids loved the food and that is a bonus with kids I like to at least try 1 new place every year.

 

[islandmum]

I looked at where we were going to be that day first of all - in terms of parks or offsite - then looked at what we're doing the day before so do we want to do a character breakfast or a dinner as our TS (I dont do any lunch TS's as the kids always want a big breakfast, small lunch and big supper so CS will do easily for lunches).

then we've looked at what we cant get here, we have fine dining french, Italian and Asian but no American styled so we've gone for what will be a unique experience.

Also with 2 toddlers we havent booked anything late or too posh - needs to be as kid friendly as possible for us

 

[momsoftwins]

honestly i picked my ts meals due to the kids menu. when you have 2
3 yr olds it makes all the difference ahead of time knowing that the place has something they will eat. other wise i would be spending my whole day looking for resturants that they would eat at

 

[scrapperjill]

We pick our plans for our time there (meaning where we'll be on which day) then pick resturants depeding on where were planning to be. We've only been to WDW once before...So I know I don't want to spend alot of time at this point traveling from one location to another. Anyways after having an idea of where we'll be I'll look at the diffrent possable places to eat in that park/area and go from there. This last time we picked a couple place that we LOVED during our first trip and rebooked those first. After that I looked at the menus listed as well as reviews on the board This next time Kona is one of our picks for dinner...because I hear it's SUPER DUPER YUMMY I've actually made it for our first ADR the first night.

 

[Leota]

We plan a few repeat favorites & a few new ones that interest us. We are running out of new ones tho.

I am a little different. I plan my dining & then work the Parks around my dining. I may plan my dining a bit around EMH evening hours, but more for transportation issues than anything else. We tend to eat at the resorts & need an open Park nearby for switching busses. If that doesn't fit our plans, we just cab it.

 

[scrapperjill]

We plan a few repeat favorites & a few new ones that interest us. We are running out of new ones tho.

I am a little different. I plan my dining & then work the Parks around my dining. I may plan my dining a bit around EMH evening hours, but more for transportation issues than anything else. We tend to eat at the resorts & need an open Park nearby for switching busses. If that doesn't fit our plans, we just cab it.

That's something I've never thought about. This is only our second time to the world and I've booked some ADR farily late (after park hours). Am I going to run into a problem getting back to my resort (POP). For example I booked Spoodles after 9pm (they only take large group reservations at some places the last 30-45min of the resturant being open...or the first 30min...so I didn't have a choice as to how late it is). Anyways we'll be going to MGM for the day then to Spoodles for dinner I just figured we'd take the bus back to POP...but is that not a posssiblity? Would we need to maybe take the bus to DTD then to POP? I remember doing that last year after eating at WL but I don't remember if there was a reason why...or if it was just because we wanted to go to DTD. I'm thinking maybe that was the only way because not all of our group went to DTD...some hopped onto the POP buss and went back to the resort.