!st night - where to eat?

[ash&abby'smom]

My ps time is coming up soon, and I'm trying to decide where we should eat our first night. I know I want to definately do CRT, CM and CP while on our trip. The day we arrive, I thought we would go to downtown disney and get some shopping out of the way. We are definately staying out of the parks. I want to make it an early evening so that the kids and get enough rest after driving in, so that we can get up early head to MK and come back to the resort for a few hours for a long nap because we are doing MVMCP on that evening. Any suggestions where we should eat? Maybe something to really kick things off for dd's who will be 4 and 18 mos. What do you usually do? Thanks for any suggestions and helpful tips.

 

[AspiringCindy]

Ohanas at the Poly!!! We started our vacation 2 weeks ago with that! Awesome!!!

 

[2Disneybuggs]

We are starting our vacation at Ohans's too!

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

We always go to DTD straight from the airport. We shop, eat lunch and let the kids play.

That evening after checking into our resort we eat at Chef Mickey's. I like being so close to MK because we get to see the fireworks and it gets the kids excited for the next day at the park.

 

[cnids00]

Our flight will hopefully arrive at MCO on time (2:33PM), our Limo will hopefully be there and the check-in at CBR will hopefully be a "painless" one as our PS for Chef Mickey's is at 7:10PM. I read so much about on these boards the many families do this the first night to "get into the magic & leave everything at home..at home". So on that note, we are trying this for the first time. Now the only disaster would be our flight being late/cancelled/delayed..that wouldn't be a good start of our second vacation!

Now I'm keeping the faith and keeping my fingers crossed, oh on another note, just getting inside MK and seeing the castle does the magic for me lol

Almost doing the single digit dance!!!

 

[janskin]

I just made our first PS at Chef Mickey's!!


Jan

 

[carol/houston]

We were at WL in May 2003, and we started the 1st night
dinner at WCC at the Lodge. My girls (then 2 &4) loved it. We are going to make a PS for WCC on our 1st night there this year too. We will also be there Dec. 4-8. My DSs 1st trip to WDW and my DM's 1st time back in 20 years. I know my DDs (now 4 & 6), DSs (2 & 2) and Mom will love it. So much fun. Have a great trip.

 

[bethzfl]

We're starting at Ohanas.. a week from today! Good luck with whatever you choose

 

[gigi1313]

we've got a similar dilemma...

historically, we've kicked off our trip at epcot (garden grill) for dinner... but this year, dh (made the mistake, imo) asked dd where she would like to go the first night, and of course the answer was MAGIC KINGDOM! so... now... where to dine? LTT or CP? i'm sure we'll enjoy either... can you see the parade from either restaurant?

 

[DonnaDuck]

We are also eating dinner at Chef Mickeys on our first night. This will be on a non-park day. I thought meeting the characters would be great for the kids to get them all excited about going to the parks the next day.

This is my first time eating at Chef Mickeys...I am really excited!

 

[fultons96]

We love starting off our vacation with a clam bake at Cape May Cafe.

 

[Crazy Kanga]

I am really torn myself between Chef Mickey's and Ohana. We changed our ps to Ohana, but there is something magical about spending the first night with the Mouse to kick things off. What to do?

 

[MrsJ Henry]

I also vote for Chef Mickey's. That's where we had planned to have our first dinner but since we are now staying at AKL we decided on Boma's.
I think Chef Mickey's would really kick things off for your children since Mickey, Goofy , Chip and Dale are there!!!
What a fun start

 

[AspiringCindy]

Originally posted by gigi1313
we've got a similar dilemma...

historically, we've kicked off our trip at epcot (garden grill) for dinner... but this year, dh (made the mistake, imo) asked dd where she would like to go the first night, and of course the answer was MAGIC KINGDOM! so... now... where to dine? LTT or CP? i'm sure we'll enjoy either... can you see the parade from either restaurant?

You can't see the parade, but you can see Wishes from CRT through the stained glass windows! Two years ago we started off our trip with dinner at the castle! Came complete with fireworks, a nearby proposal and a visit from Fairy Godmother!

 

[northern michigan]

We've eaten dinner there twice and seen characters like Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Perla and Suzy, Captain Hook, Smee, Peter Pan, Prince Charming and the Beast and Belle! The buffets were great...one for adults and one for children. We were able to take our time and never felt rushed. The ride over on the monorail is a great start to your trip!

 

[Shelby0007]

Last year we made a big mistake and did HDDR on our 1st night. After a long day of traveling it was way too loud and crowded to enjoy.

This year we're doing Ohana at Poly. Meeting friends of our there. (Hi Michelle I can't wait!) Anyway...the nice atmosphere is relaxed but upbeat, great food and your 4 yr. old will love the kids games - not too overwhelming.

I'm glad to see so many others suggested Ohana for 1st night. Makes me feel confident that we made the right choice!

Shelby0007

 

[Dreamin' Disney]

Our flight doesn't arrive until 5:45 pm, so I doubt we'd even check into our hotel until 7 pm if everything goes smoothly.

Since we won't just want to sit in our hotel room all night, but don't want to go into the parks that night, I am trying to figure out where we should go for a later dinner to get some Disney magic ASAP.

1900 Park Fare sounds good but perhaps we won't want to travel to another resort since we may not get there until 8 pm. Maybe we'll save this for our last night.

Has anyone got any others suggestions for a great non-park restaurant on the first night?

I might forego big dinner plans on our first night and try for a character breakfast or lunch on our first full day.