Lots of Dining Questions

[DisneyPiPhi]

Hi, Everyone! This is our first DLR trip and I am trying to put together a dining budget. I have some questions!

Trip background:

• Me, DH, and DD4
  
• We have done WDW the last two years. Prior to that, we lived in Florida and DH and I went to WDW all the time. We were annual passholders for six years.
• I love everything Disney. DD4 is a big princess fan, but mainly loves to meet any and all characters.
• We are trying to make this a "save" trip, since our last WDW trips were "splurge" trips. That said, this is our last Disney trip for a couple years and probably our only DLR trip, so we want to see and do everything we can.
• I am trying not to over-plan this trip as I did with our most recent WDW trip, but we do need a clear dining budget so I need to meal plan, so to speak.

Okay, here are the questions:

1. My "save" dining budget has us doing only one character meal. Between Ariel's Grotto and the Minnie & Friends Breakfast at Plaza Inn, which one would you do? Conversely, my "splurge" dining budget has us doing both. Is that a good idea? Should we do a different character meal?
   
   
2. If we buy groceries and do a "make-and-take" breakfast in our hotel room every morning (yogurt, muffins, etc.), will I feel like we are missing out? Or will I be glad to save the money and enjoy the extra park time that we aren't standing in line for breakfast somewhere?
   
   
3. If we want to watch whatever evening parade is at DL, is a dining package a must-do in order to avoid sitting on a curb for two hours reserving a seat?
   
   
4. Also, World of Color: if we want to see this, do we need to do a dining package in order to avoid a super long line?

 

[SMD]

There is currently no night time parade at DLR, so no dining plan. You can get an FP for WOC without a dining plan. As far as Ariel vs. Minnie, you can meet princesses at PFF and there's an Anna/Else M&G in DCA (they're not at Ariel). There are several characters in the rotation at Minnie that you likely won't find in the parks, like Max and Fairy Godmother and some rarer ones like Captain Hook. If you want to do breakfast on a non-park day, Surf's Up in PPH is a good option.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Minnie has the most characters. If your daughter is in to princesses do Ariel though.

Just get a FP for woc.

 

[Nevada Jen]

I would actually be tempted to make your splurge the WOC dessert party instead of a character meal. You daughter will get a cool light up cup and you will get seats and not have to deal with the masses. Although, she is a really good age for character breakfasts. There are a lot more characters out and about at DLR than WDW, so I think you will get plenty of characters without the meal. Definitely do not splurge on two breakfasts. Your idea of make and take in the hotel room is really just as good as anything in the park or the resorts for breakfast. It is a good way to save money and you hit the nail on the head that it is a really good time to hit things at the park with shorter lines. I think it is really too soon to tell what the parade situation will be in the spring of 2017.

 

[Sagginit]

When is your trip? I was just there the 3rd week of Sept and it was considered a low crowd time. I found that characters are much more common and accessible than in WDW. I got a picture with Gaston as he was just wandering around Fantasyland without a handler, well, just being Gaston (he wouldn't give autographs, apparently he thinks reading is silly).

I second the WOC suggestion. Even at a low crowd time it was packed and same last year. The crowds are much more difficult to manage than other night time events and if I wasn't preggers with food allergies it would have been a splurge for us. With dining you just get a central area but still need to wait in line and then wait in the mosh pit type area. Dessert party gets you a prime seating/view with snacks and as others said fun light up cups. I think for that reason the meal package is a waste.

As for breakfast I think you will be fine skipping breakfast at restaurants. If you stay onsite that extra hour is really helpful as the parks are smaller and can fill in fast. If not, again, those morning hours shouldn't be wasted. Unlike WDW the parks fill with locals every day after 6pm so we found it was hard to even walk in Fantasyland as there were so many strollers parked everywhere and lines swelled to an hour for simple rides. I found the QS options were much better than in WDW. I love Flo's, I could drink milkshakes and listen to motown while Cars zoom by all day

 

[Debzdo]

I agree on the above comments on food. If you would like a simple sit down place make reservations at the Carnation Café or the French Market for a bowl of soup or something lite. We also like to split the chicken dinner at the Plaza Inn. Its a good size portion. We like to have a snack between meals so sharing or having something lite works well.

 

[Rabb it]

1. My "save" dining budget has us doing only one character meal. Between Ariel's Grotto and the Minnie & Friends Breakfast at Plaza Inn, which one would you do? Conversely, my "splurge" dining budget has us doing both. Is that a good idea? Should we do a different character meal?

Ariel's has major princess potential, last time I ate there Ariel, Mulan, Belle, Cinderella and Snow White all showed up during dinner, if your daughter loves princesses this might be the best bet! Breakfast at the plaza inn is fun and has characters like Minnie, Chip & Dale, Hook, Max, Pooh, Eeyore.

2. If we buy groceries and do a "make-and-take" breakfast in our hotel room every morning (yogurt, muffins, etc.), will I feel like we are missing out? Or will I be glad to save the money and enjoy the extra park time that we aren't standing in line for breakfast somewhere?

You make a very good point about wasting time eating breakfast in the park, morning time is the shortest wait times you will see, this is prime ride time! I love to capitalize by going on as many rides as possible early.

3. If we want to watch whatever evening parade is at DL, is a dining package a must-do in order to avoid sitting on a curb for two hours reserving a seat?

Sadly, no nighttime parades going on right now and the fireworks are very short (5 minutes) due to the Halloween Scream fireworks show/Halloween Parade during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween parties on Mon/Wed/Fri throughout Sept and October.

4. Also, World of Color: if we want to see this, do we need to do a dining package in order to avoid a super long line?

Ariel's offers a WoC dining package that gives you the best seats available and you don't have to wait all day All the more reason to go to Ariel's for dinner! Otherwise you need to get a WoC Fastpass and show up about an hour early to get the best seats once they let people in..

***Not sure when you are going to the parks but keep in mind like I wrote earlier in the post Mickey's Halloween Party is going on throughout the next two months and Disneyland will be closing early on Mon, Wed, Fridays due to this..

 

[azdisneylover]

The posters above me gave you great replies. For character meal, I would do Minnie, but not first thing in the morning, but after a few hours of being in the parks, say 9:30 - 10:00, especially if staying on site. That extra hour first thing is awesome. Most children (and many adults) are too excited to eat and get into the parks and onto rides than to sit and eat a meal first thing in the morning or early afternoon. Having a quick bite in your room and having something for your child to snack on in a line would be a good option. Granola bars, goldfish crackers, etc. By late morning on the first day, hunger will hit everyone hard, so having a ressie would benefit your whole group. You will be able to sit, relax and enjoy your meal while talking about all the fun things you've done and go over the plans for the rest of the day.

Check out the food thread for pics of food and look over the menus too. portion sizes on many items are a good size to share. (leaves room to try a treat). Counter service food is good in both parks. I would suggest Whitewater Snacks in the GCH is a nice place to get a bite to eat, relax and if sitting outside, people watch the crowds in DCA.

Toon Town when it first opens in the morning is a nice place to take your daughter to see Mickey and others, without a character meal.

DTD has many good restaurants too. Kids love the Rainforest Café which is right by the monorail entrance/exit, for example.

DCA has Flo's in Carsland that has a decent breakfast and a nice view too!

Have fun planning!

 

[hsmamato2]

Ariel's offers a WoC dining package that gives you the best seats available and you don't have to wait all day All the more reason to go to Ariel's for dinner! Otherwise you need to get a WoC Fastpass and show up about an hour early to get the best seats once they let people in..

so.... can you book a dinner at Ariels,and sit and watch WOC while eating dinner?

 

[planningjollyholiday]

so.... can you book a dinner at Ariels,and sit and watch WOC while eating dinner?

No the dinner is first and then you get a ticket to the preferred standing area when the show starts later. Just a note that the characters are not at Ariels at dinner. To me the dinner packages for WOC are a waste unless you were already planning on enjoying those restaurants anyways. You will still need to line up early to get a good spot in your section. However I would splurge on the desert seating package since you get an actual seat and don't have to fight for a spot.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Thanks, everyone! I should have said that we are going in February. I hope they have an evening parade and fireworks by that point, but if they don't, we will certainly survive. We are not that into parades.

I appreciate all the dining advice; that is a lot to think about for sure! Playing around on some discount sites today (like LMTClub.com) and switching airports helped me find cheaper hotel, park tickets, and flights to save about $600 on this trip. DH and I agree this means we might splurge more on dining, so I am thinking about Minnie & Friends for the rare characters, Ariel's Grotto to appease the princess, and maybe the WOC dessert party. Dessert parties are rarely worth it for DH, who is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and legumes, (he just doesn't trust any baked goods) but it would probably be worth it for myself and DD.

 

[lilmissfoodie]

If Paint the Night isn't running in FEB, then I'd skip any other night time parade. If it is running, and the extra time vs cost is not a factor, then by all means do it (that parade is worth it). However, if they're back to running 2 parades and your kids can stay up late, then what we did was to watch the fireworks (granted there may not even be fireworks) from the Southern end of Main St, then go to the corner where the parade comes out and sit on the curb (about an hr) w/ front row seats and the parade is within a couple feet of you as they make the turn coming out of the gate. If you're going to splurge on food, I'd suggest Carthay Circle (those are, IMO, the best seats w/o getting wet) instead of character dining (where the food is just okay - but that's the "price" you pay for having characters and often that's more important to people).

 

[DLfan4]

the Ariel Grotto lunch was one of my favorite parts of our trip to DLR in 2012.

 

[marivigi]

Maybe by February they will have the Main Street Electrical Parade up and running!

 

[Kindermouse]

Thanks, everyone! I should have said that we are going in February. I hope they have an evening parade and fireworks by that point, but if they don't, we will certainly survive. We are not that into parades.

I appreciate all the dining advice; that is a lot to think about for sure! Playing around on some discount sites today (like LMTClub.com) and switching airports helped me find cheaper hotel, park tickets, and flights to save about $600 on this trip. DH and I agree this means we might splurge more on dining, so I am thinking about Minnie & Friends for the rare characters, Ariel's Grotto to appease the princess, and maybe the WOC dessert party. Dessert parties are rarely worth it for DH, who is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and legumes, (he just doesn't trust any baked goods) but it would probably be worth it for myself and DD.

At the dessert party they will give him fruit and cheese if he doesnt do baked goods-that was what they said it would be for my niece who id gluten free and allergic to nuts and legumes. I ended up doing a carthay lunch for WOC and I was very happy with it.

for the dessert party I hear that people are still showing up an hour or more ahead of time to ensure that they didn't get a high top table that was behind another high top table so that the kids could see. If I still have to get there and queue up early I'm gonna save money and get a whole meal everyone can enjoy out of it. I arrived at the carthay line at 7;30 (1 hour before WOC) and I got the last spot on the railing. I did stand for the show rather than sit but I still felt like my money was better spent. we didn't need glowing cups since the kids already had glow cubes from our lunch at BB.

 

[Kindermouse]

so.... can you book a dinner at Ariels,and sit and watch WOC while eating dinner?

everal years ago I got to do this-we didn't have a reservation but they did accommodate us and we got the last table of the day. We were a party of 2 so we were seated right next to a large window and shortly after being seated the first of 2 shows for the night started. We couldn't hear it much and we were at a bit of an angle but we could definitely see the show-which was huge for us because my son was about 8 and small and I am only 5'1 so every time we had tried to see it before we had only seen the backs of taller people's heads. The dinner was delicious and then we got FP's for the second show. I had a broken ankle that trip and I was in an ecv so when we got to the WOC viewing area we got to go all the way to a front spot for thehandicapped and we could see it perfectly from there and mos definitely feel the fire and hear the music. It was awesome and the best time we ever had watching WOC. We tried to replicate that only to find out that they didn't seem to offer dining anymore during the first show at Ariels and over the next few dinners we had the food quality went down. That was why we did a WOC lunch at Carthay last week and we were very happy with out meal, how early we had to line up for WOC and our vantage point but it was expensive since its signature dining but still cheaper than a dessert party

 

[pennym]

Honestly you have to line up for WOC no matter what package you get. I suggest getting fp first thing, line up by the given time then head for the bridge once the lines start moving. You get a great view from there and often its the last place that fills up-we always get a front row seat. Yep youll have to sit for 45 mins to an hour...so play the funwheel game, have kids heads up ready to play or any other entertainment to keep you occupied.

Definitely go for Minnie at Plaza Inn there are so many characters there. But like others said go a little bit later. You can always mix up the breakfasts in your room with those eaten out, we usually do a mixture. Of course now more and more hotels have free breakfasts. We stayed at the new Homewood Suites which has a good breakfast and dinner and drinks 4 times a week.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Honestly you have to line up for WOC no matter what package you get. I suggest getting fp first thing, line up by the given time then head for the bridge once the lines start moving. You get a great view from there and often its the last place that fills up-we always get a front row seat. Yep youll have to sit for 45 mins to an hour...so play the funwheel game, have kids heads up ready to play or any other entertainment to keep you occupied.

Definitely go for Minnie at Plaza Inn there are so many characters there. But like others said go a little bit later. You can always mix up the breakfasts in your room with those eaten out, we usually do a mixture. Of course now more and more hotels have free breakfasts. We stayed at the new Homewood Suites which has a good breakfast and dinner and drinks 4 times a week.

We'll be at HomeWood suites in a couple weeks. So excited!