Restaurant planning ...

[alleghator]

I can't make 90-day reservations until December (March 06 trip), but I'm a big-time Type-A personality trip planner.

We're arriving Saturday mid-day and departing Saturday early evening. We're planning one sit-down reservation each day, with other meals back at the timeshare (and snacking in the parks, of course).

Plans include:

Arrival Day (Saturday): Chef Mickey's for dinner our arrival night (gotta see Mickey ASAP)
Sunday: RainForest Cafe for lunch at AK
Monday: 50s Primetime for dinner at MGM
Tuesday: CRT for breakfast (*fingers crossed*) at MK (alternately I'll try CRT for lunch or Crystal Palace for breakfast the same day)
Wednesday: Staying out of the parks, 1900 Park Fare for breakfast, Earl of Sandwich for dinner
Thursday: Akershus for dinner in Epcot
Friday: going to try CRT again if we didn't get it on Tuesday, or Crystal Palace (if not on Tuesday) for breakfast ... if all else fails, Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner
Saturday: Ohana for breakfast

It's a lot of character meals. Too many? Anyone see a kid get blase' about eating with characters? Will I be getting enough variety of characters? Recommendation for kid-friendly meal alternatives to anything I have here? (kids on the trip will be 7, 4-3/4 and 7-1/2 at trip time, their first WDW trip ... two girls who love princesses and Mickey/Minnie, boy who loves Winnie the Pooh, Mickey)

All help and input GREATLY appreciated!
--Heidi

 

[vascubaguy]

Woah... I couldn't imagine doing 5 character meals. There are sooo many good places to eat at WDW and from my experience the character meals are mediocre. For those you are going for the character interaction, not so much the meal.

That said, just be aware of the menu at Akershaus. If you have picky eaters in the group you might want to change those plans. I've done the breakfast there and it wasn't bad. Just a typical breakfast of eggs, sausage, potatoes...

Oh, just one other thing to consider... would your kids notice (or care) if the characters looked different at each meal?

 

[alleghator]

I didn't intend to wind up with so many character meals ... so I would really appreciate some alternatives.

I put a character dinner on our arrival night so the kids (and adults! ) can see Mickey right away. I want an early, early breakfast at least one of our days at MK to get in the park early (and both sit-down breakfast there are character meals ... am I missing anything???). And, the kids really want to meet Mary Poppins (hence the 1900 Park Fare breakfast to guarantee time with Mary). And, we don't want to enter the parks on our arrival and departure days, so the breakfast on our last day will be at a resort.

Other than those considerations, I'm still quite up in the air. With the exeption of the reservation breakfasts (Park Fare, whatever we can get at MK), we're planning the big meal of the day around 4:30pm, with breakfast and lunch at our timeshare. I know some of the counter service restaurants have some really substantial food, but I'm kind o flooking for one sit-down meal per day (at this point).

More thoughts, please????

--Heidi

 

[disneymom225]

Hello fellow South Jerseyite! What about Whispering Canyon at the WIlderness Lodge? Not character but fun. Plus-WL is amazing to look around. It's easy to take a boat from MK. We also like Le Cellier in Epcot but not sure about the kids--DH and I didn't have our daughter last time and this time she's only 18 months so still pretty portable. Good luck! I am also Type A so I understand about the planning!

 

[vascubaguy]

I don't have kids, but I think they would probably enjoy Whispering Canyon and Sci-Fi at MGM.

My 5y/o nephew was with us during our last trip and he enjoyed all of the meals we went to. We did our dinners at CRT, Ohanas, Boma, 50's PT, Le Cellier, Hollywood Brown Derby, and Wolfgang Pucks. Actually he didn't care too much for Wolfgang's because we had to wait a little while, but he liked the food once we got in there.