Need help in deciding

[blondie219]

When we go on our next trip to Disney I really want to do the Fantasmic Dinner Option. I read that the choices of restaurants for this are Brown Derby, Hollywood & Vine and Mama Melroses.

There will be three adults, my mom will be joining us for our next vacation. My husband isn't the biggest fans of buffets, but can be persuaded grudgingly. We will have our two little miracles with us also, by then my daughter will be 9 and our son will be 2 1/2, so the thought of a buffet to me makes me think it might be the family friendly option, but I haven't heard the best of reviews on H&V.

Any suggestions for a family friendly dining choice of the three, that would work well for a toddler who may be short on patience with waiting?

 

[lkangell8201]

We did H & V for breakfast and Mama Melrose for our Fantasimic dinner. Honestly we didn't like either. The service and food at H & V were bad, but just the food was bad at Mama's. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with Mama's... I believe Brown and Derby is 2 TS credits.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

Personally.. out of the three I think Brown Derby has the best food. Since I do not do the DP, I do not think in terms of credits. We have never had a bad meal there, always good, with even better service.

 

[tigergrad]

We purchased - not on the dining plan- the Fantasmic Dinner Package last Aug (08). We had been to WDW several times but had never viewed Fantasmic. We felt sure that with the crowds we would need to utilize the package in order to get a seat. Here's what happened - Brown Derby was over our budget, my husband does not like Italian, so we passed on Mama Melrose's. H&V was the only thing left. We thought - it's a buffet- can't be that bad. Boy were we wrong. We waited over an hour in the hot sun for our table - then the place was very crowded and the food was terrible. We tolerated the experience, feeling that things would be ok once we were able to see Fantasmic. We were given a paper ticket and told where to meet 30 minutes before the show. We wandered over to the area just to make sure where it was. It was two hours before the show and there was already about 50 people waiting to get in. So we did what we thought should be done- we waited too. When we finally got into the stadium, we found that the reserved seats were far off to the right. So- we paid ~40 pp (4 people)- waited over 3hrs - and had terrible seats. So for us- it was not worth the money. The show was great - but I could have walked into the stadium with the same wait time for free. Sorry to be so negative - I love WDW and have been numerous times - this was the biggest fiasco ever.

 

[IggyLans]

We like Mama Melrose's. Did not care for H&V at all, and never been to BD.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I would go with Mamma Melrose. They have really good food.