Our FIRST trip to Disney!! We had the dining plan. I went with my husband & kids 5,7,10, and 12 from 5/10-5/17
First, I would definately recommend the dining plan. I changes the vacation into an all-paid, all-inclusive vacation. I could never have paid $180 for a character dining meal (after tips, tax). We would have never experienced some of the fun restaurants.
Second, we got to skip a lot of lines to wait for character autographs. We got to meet them at meal times instead.
TABLE SERVICE:
Norway Princess Dinner-Epcot
Restaurant Marrakesh-Epcot
Garden Grill-Epcot
Sci-Fi-MGM
Crystal Palace-Magic Kingdom
Tony's-Magic Kingdom
Chef Mickey-Contemporary Resort
Norway Princess Dinner
I should have brought my 5 year old daughter a princess dress to wear during dinner. Many people brought their daughter a dress in a bag and changed in a nearby bathroom. I bought her a princess crown for 30 dollars in a store across from the restuarant while we were waiting. They did have a dress but it was scratchy and costs $60 dollars
The princesses were amazing. My daughter LOVED it. The food was not $30 a plate food. My 10 and 12year old boys refused to try anything off of the adult menu and had $30 hamburgers instead. I had the Kjottkaker. It looked and tasted like a hamburger patty with gravy and some mashed potatoes on the side. Not bad. Portion size was not really large. My husband had the lamb and liked it. Again, just not bunches of food. The cold bar was not impressive. Some salad, cool cheeses, cold meat that looked like deli sandwich meat. My kids actually ate a bunch of it. I would not have missed this meal despite the food (if you are on the dining plan) because it was one of my daughters favorite places. They do take your picture with one princess before you are seated. Take your own pictures and don't let them sell you the $30 set of pictures later at your table(unless you want them, of course)
Restaurant Marrakesh
My husband lived in Africa for a long time so he had to try this. He LOVED it. He loves couscous and lamb. I ate some of my shishkabab. Nobody else really liked anything but the kids had the hamburgers so they were fine. My daughter loved dancing with the belly dancer. The dancer was not out that long, maybe three songs and we were for maybe 1 1/2 hours. The restaurant is a little hidden and kind of hard to find.
Garden Grill
The restaurant is in the same building as Soarin' and Living with the Land and Sunshine Seasons.
I don't know if you can request tables, but I would try. There is a kitchen in the middle of the circle. (You cannot really see it.) Then there are two rows of tables in a circle. In the inner circle, it is hard to see that the restuarant is actually moving. We sat there but did still enjoy the restaurant. The food was actually pretty good. The steak was not done enough for me the second time so you might request well done meat if you don't like it red. The mashed potatoes were awesome. The dessert, yummy! but it wasn't bread puddding. It was like a croissant was cream and strawberries. The kids loved their make-your own sundae. We had a 12:30 lunch but came at 11 and asked if they could seat us and they said no problem. The characters came around all the time! Make sure you sit your kids to the outside so the characters can interact with them.
Sci-Fi
Not just the best in the world, but we enjoyed it. The kids kept waiting for the movie to start and didn't like that there were just clips. It was pretty dark and my husband, who isn't tiny, had a hard time sitting in the car. The food was good but I think we ate too much for lunch that day. The milkshakes can be ordered for a drink for adults but only as desert for the kids. We had the onion rings and artichoke dip. Not bad. We also had the steak and ribs. Everybody liked it. Everyone was stuffed before desert but we tried to stuff it down!
Crystal Palace
Our favorite place! The food was tasty. It was loud and tables were squashed together and there were lots of kids so skip it if those things bother you. Yummy food and great desert. Kids and adults loved it. We almost ate there twice on our trip.
Tony's
Our waiter was bad so our opinion of this restaurant may be off because of him. Our 10 and 12 year old boys got Pizza Bianca (6 cheese pizza). Skip it unless you like big chuncks of weird cheeses all over your pizza. The boys tried to scrape it off but wouldn't eat much. I liked my spagetti. The bread sticks for appetizers were good. My husband got tony's pizza and liked it OK. We had the ice cream bomb and cheesecake for desert. Everyone liked it. There is outside dining and a really pretty room that was open to the outside but I didn't want to eat there because it was hot. If the day was nice, it would be great to sit and watch people as they come into or leave disney. There are also usually several characters outside in this area to get autographs from.
Chef Mickey
Wonderful atmosphere, loved the characters-they were funny and cute, and LOVED the desert bar. The food was just OK. It was like they were trying to be fancy so it had weird things that nobody really liked. They did have salad, fruit, and bread which I ate a bunch of. It was fun to take the monorail over and the kids enjoyed the meal.
Next, snacks and counter service.
First, I would definately recommend the dining plan. I changes the vacation into an all-paid, all-inclusive vacation. I could never have paid $180 for a character dining meal (after tips, tax). We would have never experienced some of the fun restaurants.
Second, we got to skip a lot of lines to wait for character autographs. We got to meet them at meal times instead.
TABLE SERVICE:
Norway Princess Dinner-Epcot
Restaurant Marrakesh-Epcot
Garden Grill-Epcot
Sci-Fi-MGM
Crystal Palace-Magic Kingdom
Tony's-Magic Kingdom
Chef Mickey-Contemporary Resort
Norway Princess Dinner
I should have brought my 5 year old daughter a princess dress to wear during dinner. Many people brought their daughter a dress in a bag and changed in a nearby bathroom. I bought her a princess crown for 30 dollars in a store across from the restuarant while we were waiting. They did have a dress but it was scratchy and costs $60 dollars
The princesses were amazing. My daughter LOVED it. The food was not $30 a plate food. My 10 and 12year old boys refused to try anything off of the adult menu and had $30 hamburgers instead. I had the Kjottkaker. It looked and tasted like a hamburger patty with gravy and some mashed potatoes on the side. Not bad. Portion size was not really large. My husband had the lamb and liked it. Again, just not bunches of food. The cold bar was not impressive. Some salad, cool cheeses, cold meat that looked like deli sandwich meat. My kids actually ate a bunch of it. I would not have missed this meal despite the food (if you are on the dining plan) because it was one of my daughters favorite places. They do take your picture with one princess before you are seated. Take your own pictures and don't let them sell you the $30 set of pictures later at your table(unless you want them, of course)
Restaurant Marrakesh
My husband lived in Africa for a long time so he had to try this. He LOVED it. He loves couscous and lamb. I ate some of my shishkabab. Nobody else really liked anything but the kids had the hamburgers so they were fine. My daughter loved dancing with the belly dancer. The dancer was not out that long, maybe three songs and we were for maybe 1 1/2 hours. The restaurant is a little hidden and kind of hard to find.
Garden Grill
The restaurant is in the same building as Soarin' and Living with the Land and Sunshine Seasons.
I don't know if you can request tables, but I would try. There is a kitchen in the middle of the circle. (You cannot really see it.) Then there are two rows of tables in a circle. In the inner circle, it is hard to see that the restuarant is actually moving. We sat there but did still enjoy the restaurant. The food was actually pretty good. The steak was not done enough for me the second time so you might request well done meat if you don't like it red. The mashed potatoes were awesome. The dessert, yummy! but it wasn't bread puddding. It was like a croissant was cream and strawberries. The kids loved their make-your own sundae. We had a 12:30 lunch but came at 11 and asked if they could seat us and they said no problem. The characters came around all the time! Make sure you sit your kids to the outside so the characters can interact with them.
Sci-Fi
Not just the best in the world, but we enjoyed it. The kids kept waiting for the movie to start and didn't like that there were just clips. It was pretty dark and my husband, who isn't tiny, had a hard time sitting in the car. The food was good but I think we ate too much for lunch that day. The milkshakes can be ordered for a drink for adults but only as desert for the kids. We had the onion rings and artichoke dip. Not bad. We also had the steak and ribs. Everybody liked it. Everyone was stuffed before desert but we tried to stuff it down!
Crystal Palace
Our favorite place! The food was tasty. It was loud and tables were squashed together and there were lots of kids so skip it if those things bother you. Yummy food and great desert. Kids and adults loved it. We almost ate there twice on our trip.
Tony's
Our waiter was bad so our opinion of this restaurant may be off because of him. Our 10 and 12 year old boys got Pizza Bianca (6 cheese pizza). Skip it unless you like big chuncks of weird cheeses all over your pizza. The boys tried to scrape it off but wouldn't eat much. I liked my spagetti. The bread sticks for appetizers were good. My husband got tony's pizza and liked it OK. We had the ice cream bomb and cheesecake for desert. Everyone liked it. There is outside dining and a really pretty room that was open to the outside but I didn't want to eat there because it was hot. If the day was nice, it would be great to sit and watch people as they come into or leave disney. There are also usually several characters outside in this area to get autographs from.
Chef Mickey
Wonderful atmosphere, loved the characters-they were funny and cute, and LOVED the desert bar. The food was just OK. It was like they were trying to be fancy so it had weird things that nobody really liked. They did have salad, fruit, and bread which I ate a bunch of. It was fun to take the monorail over and the kids enjoyed the meal.
Next, snacks and counter service.
