Mommy and Me dining ideas needed

[jeepgirl30]

Another strong suggestion for ADRs.

I took DD now 9 for a Mommy and me trip when she was 7. We did Ohana, CRT breakfast, Chef Mickeys dinner and Crystal Palace. She loved CRT. I did the tinkerbell gifts each morning for her and had a cinderella dress and matching purse for that morning, she loved it!

She told me she wants to do all the same again for our April trip. I think we will skip CRT since we will have the "boys", DH and DS7. We had the most amazing surprise getting to CRT. The hostess acted overly surprised, called someone over who knelt down for DD and said "oh our special guest has arrived" and whisked her to the front of the line. He caught Cinderellas attention and said "Cinderella the special princess is here". Cinderella got up, walked over to DD and asked her if she would please join her as she had been waiting for her arrival. DD was absolutely stunned as was I! I had made her an autograph/scrapbook and Cinderella asked if she could look through it and raved about it to DD. Actually, all the princess made comments about the book.

We also did CP which she wants to do again but I was not excited about CP. We had a horrible wait, the food was so so and the character interaction was bad. We caught the characters at a shift change, the new ones started the rotation at the begining instead of picking up where the others left off which was at the end, one table in front of us!

Ohana was okay. The view was nice but it was very loud and she was exhausted.

This time I'm debating doing Cali grill for our arrival. The view is amazing and the kids will feel very grown up and special.

We are doing Princess Storybook lunch at Epcot instead of CRT but Chef Mickeys is a MUST do! We added Coral Reef as well.

Enjoy your special time with your DD!

 

[mermster]

Man, you guys were busy while I was slaving away at work
I can't thank you all enough for all the great ideas
I LOVE all the ideas and will probably try to fit in as many as I can!! (Might have to extend our trip to fit them all in!) I especially love the "grown up" dinner idea, for something a little different. I think my daughter would get a kick out of that. Definitely have to fit in a princess meal, probably will do Norway just since we were at CRT more recently than Norway. I didn't know about the hennas or the colored hair braiding, both of which my daughter would be all over! Might have to pick a pearl too. I saw somewhere online at one point in time a Cinderella's coach necklace you could put a pearl into - can't remember where I saw that. Does that sound familiar to anyone?
Thanks again everyone and feel free to add any other activities/ideas you have that you think would be special/different!

emmabemmainc: I feel the same way you do about the name. When I chose it, I thought I was being a little different; now it seems every other girl is named Emma! (My Emma's birthday is the 5th.)

 

[emmabemmainc]

I think the fancy dinner is a great idea too--we did Cali Grill, Narcoossee's and Jiko during our last trip (the same mommy and me trip). Her favorite was definitely Narcoossee's--after dinner, we went out on the deck and watched the fireworks. It was beautiful! She was really excited.

I remember watching the Friends episode where Rachel has the baby and as soon as that name was said, I wanted to scream. LOL! I just knew that millions of little Emmas were going start appearing--and sure enough....

 

[lovesdumbo]

That's EXACTLY what I was going to suggest. All our trips are Mommy and Me because it's just us in our little family unit. My DD will be 8 on our next trip and I am considering Cali Grill. Thought about taking her to BBB at MK in the morning. She won't want the dress, shoes, etc, but she does love getting hair and make up done. Then I thought I would dress her nicely, but comfortably and take her to CG. Still not sure if it would be better to wait for her to turn 9, but the OPs daughter is, IMO, a great age to really enjoy the novelty of a "grown up" dinner.

I took my DD with me on my birthday trip in May 2008 when she was 5. We went to California Grill for my birthday dinner. When we were planning her 7th birthday trip I asked her where she wanted to go for her birthday dinner. She knew her older sister went to Crystal Palace and her older brother went to Chef Mickey's for their 7th birthdays but she chose California Grill. And my youngest is the worlds pickiest eater ever!!! BUT...that doesn't mean she can't appreciate the atmosphere of a nice restaurant. We had a really wonderful meal on her birthday 1/21/10 (wish I was there now!!!).

I took my DS (a very good eater ) who was 8 at the time last May for my birthday and he really LOVED Narcoosees.

I always book the signature dinners for right when they open then we don't have to wait long to be seated and can eat before anyone gets tired and cranky. My children really enjoy the experience.



I can also say that my children have enjoyed Chef de France for lunch. The little Remy is too cute and it is nice to have a sit down lunch/rest at Epcot.


My DH just doesn't share my love of Disney. We tend to take an annual family trip and then I take my kids one at a time. The family trips with shared memories are really wonderful but the one on one are very magical!!!

 

[lovesdumbo]

I remember watching the Friends episode where Rachel has the baby and as soon as that name was said, I wanted to scream. LOL! I just knew that millions of little Emmas were going start appearing--and sure enough....

We had picked out the names James Galbraith (my DH's middle name) for a boy and Eleanor Rose for a girl when I was pregnant with my 3rd in 2002. When we found out she was a girl DH said "can we keep the Galbraith?". I said not with Eleanor so we switch to Emma. Then before she was born the Friends thing happened. I told DH we should change names but he said he wasn't going to let a TV show change his mind. Needless to say my Emma knows a TON of Emmas! I can't imagine her by any other name though.

 

[mermster]

I remember watching the Friends episode where Rachel has the baby and as soon as that name was said, I wanted to scream. LOL! I just knew that millions of little Emmas were going start appearing--and sure enough....

HA! I had exactly the same reaction!!

 

[Chelley00]

DD and I did a Mommy and Me trip in Nov. My dining review link is below, but we ate at:

CRT breakfast (oh the castle)
Akershus
1900 Park Fare
Chef Mickeys
Garden Grill
Coral Reef (one of our favs)
Le Cellier
50's Prime Time Grill
Sci Fi
Crystal Palace

our fancy restaurant choice was Fulton's Crab House at DTD because my daughter loves seafood. That was our most favorite (and most expensive) meal of the trip, but one she still talks about


My DD is not a girly girl, so we skipped BBB and did the Pirate League instead. She LOVED it. We had talked about pedicures at Grand Floridian, but she didn't want to give up her park/ride time!

 

[emmabemmainc]

We had picked out the names James Galbraith (my DH's middle name) for a boy and Eleanor Rose for a girl when I was pregnant with my 3rd in 2002. When we found out she was a girl DH said "can we keep the Galbraith?". I said not with Eleanor so we switch to Emma. Then before she was born the Friends thing happened. I told DH we should change names but he said he wasn't going to let a TV show change his mind. Needless to say my Emma knows a TON of Emmas! I can't imagine her by any other name though.

I can totally see where he was coming from--especially b/c you guys had picked it out before hand! And it is a beautiful name.

When I read Galbraith, I instantly thought of the books Cheaper by the Dozen and Bells on their Toes--I loved those books--and the original movies!