Suggestions for 1st timer on Dining Package

[Caramia01]

Where are the the best places to eat for the table services at the four parks? Especially at Animal Kingdom? Concourse and Sci - Fi look pretty good. We eat mostly American/Italian. And we'd like to do a Character Dining. If we want a variety, on the days when we're at the parks, is there anywhere it's real easy to get to that we shouldn't miss? ex. Concourse at the Contemporary on our Magic Kingdom day.

 

[speakupjc]

My suggestions are:

MGM - 50's Primetime Cafe or the Brown Derby. Note the Brown Derby is more upscale and costs 2 credits while the 50's Primetime Cafe is 1 credit and more fun.

Animal Kingdom - there is not a sit down restaurant in the park but Tusker House for counter service is suppose to be good.

Epcot - Alfredos (I have heard mixed reviews but it is the Italian that you love) or La Cellier, Canada - the best restaurant in Epcot.

MK - Cinderella's Castle for Dinner. Try to get an adr 1 hour before wishes for a really cool experience.

1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridan is the character breakfast that everyone highly recommends or you could do the character dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern in the MK.

I would also suggest the Yachtsman in the Yacht Club. If you love steak this is the best place to get it. If you are on Disney Dining this takes 2 credits.

 

[henrylovespooh]

For AK:

If you can swing it, take the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge while you are at Animal Kingdom park and go to dinner at Boma. It's a very quick bus ride - just a few minutes. It's a nice thing to do at the end of the day at the park. You can relax by the fire or walk outside to check out the animal viewing areas. Then go for dinner at Boma - they have a great buffet. A good mix of African inspired dishes and regular stuff like prime rib, roasted potatoes and veggies. The desserts are out of this world. They have a good salad bar and a kids buffet with mac and cheese, spaghetti, chicken and fries.

MK: CRT for dinner (no characters). We loved it. The prime rib is very good as is the caesar salad. For characters, we liked both the Crystal Palace and Liberty Tree Tavern alot. I would suggest CP for lunch and LTT for dinner.

MGM: We just haven't found a place we love there yet. We liked Sci-FI for lunch. DH hates Prime Time because the schtick of the servers annoys him. Hollywood and Vine buffet for dinner was okay - nothing to write home about. I would suggest maybe trying a Boardwalk area place for a TS.

If you would consider going to a resort restaurant, I highly recommend Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. It's a great deal on the plan - our bill for two adults and one 3 year old was about $119 and we paid $80 for the whole day on the plan that day. The food was outstanding, including amazing desserts. Just a quick monorail ride from MK.

 

[IwannaseeMickey]

We really enjoyed LTT at MK, dinner w/ characters. I would definitely do it again.

 

[3princesses4us]

If you wanted to kill 2 birds with one stone, you could do the only character meal at AK which is breakfast with Donald at Restaurantosaurus. I've never actually done it though so I can't say what it's like. I second the notion to take the bus over to the AK Lodge and eat at Boma. At MGM there is an Italian place called Mama Melrose which is part of the Fantasmic! package so that could be a win-win for you. On MK day, you could hit the newest characters at a meal and that's the breakfast at 'Ohana in the Polynesian. They just starting having Lilo & Stitch host the breakfast there about a week ago and if you have a boy, it'll be a nice change of pace from all the princess offerings... Also Whispering Canyon gets a lot of good reviews and it's just a boat ride away from the MK at the Wilderness Lodge... lots of food and fun without the characters.



September '05 POR for our 10th anniversary
fall '06 taking our babies to the WL!

 

[MICKEEP]

Favorites in no particular order

EPCOT: Marakesh & Chefs

MGM: Everyone has to go to Sci-Fi at least once for the atmosphere the food is just standard fare

MK: Gotta eat in the castle at least once. Also when at MK you can take a quick ride on the monorail to one of the monorail resorts and eat at one of the restaurants there.

AK: No TS but you can take bus over to AKL and eat at Boma

Resorts: Boma, 'Ohana

 

[tsoccer5]

Best Table Service we had was Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge

You can take the boat or monorail from MK to 1900 Park Fare at The Grand Floridean or Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary... you can even walk to and from the Contemporary.

I have a 2 and a 4 yr old so we did two extra character meals, we did breakfast with Mary Poppins (Tigger and Pooh and Alice are there too)
We did Crystal Palace for lunch once and dinner once, Love it! But twice was enough. For MGM we actually kind of like Mama Melroses because it is less crowded, but we go at opening at noon.

Have fun!