Our first trip...tell me where to eat and what?

[Eli's 1st trip]

We are planning our 1st trip to Disney...with my inlaws and our son he will be 2 years old then. We are not huge foodies...so we are not getting the dining plan unless we get lucky enough to get it free during the time we plan to go. We will probably make reservations 3 of the 7 nights we are there....

What are the places we cant miss? Where can I get the menus of these places...

thanks

PS: I tried to go through some of the food reports but its really overwhelming b/c i have no clue about all things disney...thanks in advance

 

[SunnieRN]

At www.allears.net you can look at the menus under dining. As for choices, it depends upon what you like? Seafood? Buffets etc. There are SO many choices! You will have a better idea after looking at the menus.
Also are you planning on taking your 2 year old to character meals?

 

[Eli's 1st trip]

yes we do plan on taking my little guy to a charachter b-fast or too. I know I want to do the playhouse disney one whichever that is....and maybe the traditional characters...

thanks again

 

[KatMark]

We love Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom for our character breakfast meal (Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet). We also like Cape May Cafe for breakfast with Minnie, Goofy and Donald. Chef Mickey's is good, but it is our least favorite (way too crowded and noisy and the hardest one to get). We also love for meals in general LeCellier and Biergarten at Epcot, Yak & Yeti at Animal Kingdom, Mama Melrose at the Studios and the Plaza Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom.

 

[Poohbug]

Crystal Palace is nice for breakfast, good food-Pooh characters are there.

Playhouse Disney is good also, I have seen bad reviews for the food but I thought it was fine. If your little one likes the Playhouse characters, take him there-they had two Little Einsteins, JoJo and her lion.

They also have Donald's breakfast at Animal Kingdom which is pretty good-characters are Donald, Goofy, pluto.

People rave about the Chef Mickey breakfast at the Contemporary but I have never been a fan. The food is just O.K., it is very loud. But if you want to see Mickey, it is the place to do it.

Without a dining plan, I would be visiting the quick service places. One of my favorites is the Sunshine Seasons(Epcot/land). I also love the bakery on Main St. Check out the quick service places in World Showcase-many have sandwiches for a very reasonable price.

All the menus are on ALLEARS-check them out, it's a great site.

 

[Eli's 1st trip]

I was just checking out Allear.net and getting a hold on all the dining options...The playhouse disney characters arent the ones my son knows so I think we will be the character b-fast at Crystal Palace with Pooh and the gang...and then probably the lunch/dinner with the Mickey and Minnie and the rest of the gang...cant remember where that is at the moment..

I just ordered my 2009 guide to disney and one specifically for kids...YAY...I am so obsessed!!

 

[KatMark]

I was just checking out Allear.net and getting a hold on all the dining options...The playhouse disney characters arent the ones my son knows so I think we will be the character b-fast at Crystal Palace with Pooh and the gang...and then probably the lunch/dinner with the Mickey and Minnie and the rest of the gang...cant remember where that is at the moment..

I just ordered my 2009 guide to disney and one specifically for kids...YAY...I am so obsessed!!

The one with Mickey, Minnie, etc. is at the Contemporary Resort.

 

[itchin2go]

Sorry if this has been answered, but where are you staying? Especially with a 2 year old, I would be prepared to eat at your resort for a meal or two. Your little one may do better than mine, but as a contingency plan, it's always good to be prepared to eat close to home.

For little ones, I think Crystal Palace with Pooh is a great choice. Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary has the traditional characters, but is a very hard reservation to get. Alternatives (mentioned above) are Donald's breakfast at Animal Kingdom and Cape May at the Beach Club with Minnie and friends. Keep in mind, you could also do dinner or lunch at Crystal Palace if that fits your schedule better. I hear rave reviews about CP lunch and dinner.

With a 2 year old, I might do table service for lunch instead of dinner, and then just have dinner at the resort. You could get CS at the resort and take it to your room.

We have a 7 year old (she was 5 on our first visit) and our schedule is usually like this: Start at a park at rope drop and stay several hours. Leave sometime around 1:00 or 2:00. Go back to resort and lounge around. Get ready for dinner. Go to dinner. Shop, have a drink, maybe see one attraction or nighttime show. SLEEP HARD. Repeat.

Good luck! These boards are great for planning purposes.

 

[BlueBay]

We are planning our 1st trip to Disney...with my inlaws and our son he will be 2 years old then. We are not huge foodies...so we are not getting the dining plan unless we get lucky enough to get it free during the time we plan to go. We will probably make reservations 3 of the 7 nights we are there....

What are the places we cant miss? Where can I get the menus of these places...

thanks

PS: I tried to go through some of the food reports but its really overwhelming b/c i have no clue about all things disney...thanks in advance

Le Celier - steak and maple creme brulet

 

[eagillinois]

Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. We always hit this the first or second day of our trip. My dds are now teens and still ask to go here! Also by seing all of the classic characters early in our trip, the kids dont ask to stand in line to see them at the park.

 

[gailanncreates]

For our first trip, DD was 5, DS was 4. We ended up sharing quite a few meals with them, and our food bill for 8 days was less than the price of the DP. My kids are very light/picky eaters, and I couldn't justify the price of a character meal. We did no character meals and no ADRs. Kids saw more than enough characters in the parks; they never missed it. We did one last year when we met up with friends. It was fine, and we enjoyed it, but wouldn't schedule one again. We enjoy our flexibility too much. Our biggest problem is where to eat in AK, as everything seems too exotic for us.

 

[cheshire1013]

We love the character b-fast at Ohana's, mickey, pluto, stitch and lilo. Also Ohanas is great for dinner, YUMM.
We also enjoyed donalds breakfastasaurus, but I think it moved to the tusker house, Im guessing its the same, mickey, pluto, goofy and donald.
We like the prime time cafe and japan in epcot!
Have fun!

 

[PrincessDisney96]

Some character meals me and my children like is...
Crystal Palace for breakfast or lunch- good food for the most part, great character interaction, and there's a parade that goes around the restaraunt where kids can participate. my daughter, and son love this.
Chef Mickey's- We like to go here for dinner, but I here breakfast is good too. We go here every trip. It has become a tradition for us. This is my kids favorite! The characters are great, the food is good, and there's a lot of fun]

Oh and maybe your son might like Coral reef in epcot? There is a huge fish tanks in there so you can watch the fish and sea creatures while you eat.

 

[Eli's 1st trip]

oh yes I have already checked out the Coral Reef menu...my son LOVES fish so we will definitely be eating there....

Thanks to all of you for your ideas...this is great!!

 

[tam626]

We took our 3 yr. old in October & loved the character breakfast buffet at Cape May Cafe. Donald, Minnie & Goofy came around & spent time with us & we took pictures. The food was awesome.

 

[ryanmcin]

For character meals:
Crystal Palace Breakfast is great. Didn't care for their lunch though.
Chef Mickey's is fun, but loud and crowded and expensive.
The Donald breakfast was a lot of fun and it had the biggest selection of foods.
The Royal Table was fun, the food was decent, but it is really expensive for what you get and we felt rushed.

The Sci-Fi Drive in at DHS is fun, but very dark.
We have always enjoyed lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern.

There are a lot of great counter service and snack places in the World Showcase at Epcot and the Sunshine Seasons (in the Land) has a great selection. Just skip the counter service at Mexico, it was awful.
There are some Pizza and Flatbread places at Hollywood Studios which are decent.
The only counter service we have done at Animal Kingdom was Pizzafari, but it was pretty good.
Casey's is our favorite counter service at Magic Kingdom and a funnel cake (or waffle) makes a great snack.

You should definetly check out allears.net
Here is the link to the reviews:
http://land.allears.net/reviewpost/showcat.php?cat=32

You can find the menus and prices there and the reviews are generally pretty helpful.

 

[Eli's 1st trip]

thanks ryanmcin

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Tusker House at AK is really good! Our all time favorite is Le Cellier at World Showcase. The mushroom fillet is delish!

 

[Eli's 1st trip]

that for the rec...i am checking out all of the menus to see what we will like but i like to have an idea of what others enjoy.

PS: I am so jealous that you are going to WDW 3 times this year...how do some many of you here make that work? Its taken my hubby 4 years to even agree to go LOL

 

[LoveTheEars]

We have 2 favorite restaurants (we will go to every time we visit WDW)

Breakfast at Chef Mickeys Yes, it is loud but it is really fun and you really should not miss it.

This past year, our Chef Mickey's reservation was for 7:40AM. This day, the Magic Kingdom opened at 9AM. We had plenty of time.

Whispering Canyon Cafe Again, another loud & fun restaurant. We go here for Dinner only.