Need help with dining plan

[goinginsept]

We are going the last week in September, taking advantage of free dining. My question is how do you decide where to make your priority seating reservations for each day? Obviously, you need to decide which park you will be in each day and I am having a hard time figuring it all out. How hard is it to change your dining reservations once you are there if you change your plans in terms of where you will be each day? Also would appreciate good restaurant and character meal suggestions - we are a family of four, kids will be 8 and 6 at time of trip. Help!

 

[Skylarr29]

hours should be out in about another week for sept. Also you can go to www.allearsnet.com and look under dining and preview menues. This can help you decide. Also it shouldnt be that difficult in sept to change times if you needed to. You can call the same day first thing in the morning and change it. I would just wait til july 1st for the sept hours and then call and make all your ps's.

 

[inloveindisney]

I highly suggest Chef Mickey's for breakfast if your kids like to see a lot of characters. I have, however, heard some parents don't like to do it because the kids get distracted and don't eat much, but in my opinion, it would be worth the 10 or so dollars so I didn't have to wait in all those character lines. The food there is excellent too. We saw so many characters there too!
I would also suggest Liberty Tree tavern at MK. for a fairly decent price, you get a very filling meal. They also have a character dinner there after 4:00. We went for lunch, however, so I am not sure how the characters are at dinner.
We loved Pizzafari at the Animal kingdom. You can get a very filling, very good counter service there. The kids will like it too because it is pizza. You can get a good caesar salad and some sandwiches there too. Some complain about the little pizzas at disney, but the ones in the resorts aren't as good as the ones in the park. Everyone in my group loved the park pizzas, but we didn't like the ones in the resorts.
Definitely book hoop de doo. The kids that were there seemed to have a blast. I would recommend booking the earlier show with kids, though because the kids that were at the later show with us were asleep as soon as they hit the busses. It ends rather late. The price for hoop de doo will allow you to get a pretty good deal, but it does use two sit downs. It might be better by the end of the week. I think most people find that they eat less as the week goes on. IT is a definite not miss if you have never seen it before! Sometimes kids are asked to help with the show too.
Sci fi drive in at MGM would be a neat place I think. You sit in cars, the room is nice and cool and dark. The ceiling is starry to make you feel like you are in a drive in and there is a movie. I think this would be a great mid day lunch spot because it is very relaxing and quiet.
If your kids have any desire to see princesses, cindy's castle is the way to go. We saw tons of them and the fairy godmother too! The food is all you can eat and I was pretty impressed with the menu.
Our all time favorite counterservice was Sassagoula's at PORiverside. Their potatoes are FABULOUS! There chicken is very good too and you get a LOT of food.
hope this helps.

 

[inloveindisney]

Oh, another thing, I went the second week in June and we didn't have any problems changing our reservations. You just have to be flexible with times. I even called late one afternoon and got an evening appointment at the Concourse (very very good by the way). In september-you shouldn't have a problem!