View Menus at the Resorts?

[kmacht]

Hi,

We are planning our 5th trip to Disney for the first week of February this year and I have some dining questions. This is the first time we have stayed onsite with no rental car. A little background. We are staying at POR for the week, have a almost 3 year old, and did not sign up for the dining plan. We have so far not made any reservations for dinner. We aren't too picky and didn't want to be forced into going to a specific resturaunt each night at a specific time. With a 3 year old it is much easier to play it by ear during the day to figure out what type of dinner and what time will work best. So my question is, how do you figure out where to eat once onsite. Is there somewhere at the restort you can go to look at menus for various resturaunts? I don't have a laptop to bring and trying to print all the menus out before we go will just end up in a giant pile of paperwork to try and keep organized through the trip. How do you choose a restruaunt and make sure it A has something you like to eat, B is in the price range you are looking for and C also has something your kid will eat. Any helpfull suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,

Keith

 

[ancestry]

Many of the table service restaurants have their menus available on the WDW website. They are also available http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm. I would recommended reviewing the options and pricing in advance so that you have at least a rough idea of where you might like to eat and where you wouldn't like to eat.

Most people on the DIS boards probably won't have suggestions on how to decide where to eat once on-site. The vast majority of people here on the boards make their dining reservations 180 days prior to their vacation.

I would caution you that on most occasions you will not be able to walk up to a table service restaurant and get seated. During busy times I can almost guarantee that you wouldn't be able to walk up to a table service restaurant. During the slower times you may be able to do it but you won't be able to do it with the more popular restaurants or at high dining times (such as 11 AM - 1:30 for lunch or 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM for dinner). You may find availability for dinner but it might be at an off hour such as 9:00 PM.

Personally, I would suggest that you may want to rethink the process and consider making at least a few dining reservations in advance (if you can even find anything at this point). Of course if you are okay with counter service restaurants then there is no need to worry about it.

Good luck and enjoy your trip!

 

[Bev J]

There is a link for menus at the top of this resturant page. I would brouse them ahead of time so you have a good idea of places you might want to try. Knowing ahead of time will save you the 'surprise' of finding nothing that suits your tastes or budget.
I would strongly suggest you make at least a couple of ADR's if you want to have any sit down meals or you will find yourself very frustrated waiting around or perhaps finding no place to eat- not fun with a tired 3 yr old. When your at your resort or in the parks you can call dining from just about any phone and try to get a ADR, or you can at least see what's available if the plans you made are not working out. While your touring the parks you will notice that the resturants have their menus posted in front of the resturant so you can easily check them out.

Sunshine Seasons in the Land pavillion at EPCOT has a huge variety of choices for reasonable prices (for disney). Most resturants serve large portions so you could easily share with your child.

Most resorts have counter service meals with alot of variety and some have really good resturants too.

Have fun planning!
Bev

 

[cglaura]

After you've checked out some menus from the pp, you can get an idea. If you don't want to make reservations now, I would at least suggest stopping by the front desk of POR when you know what day / what park you will be in (even the day of). They can usually find a place...it may not be the #1 uber popular restaurants, but you never know, might get lucky

For TS meals, fun for kids you might want to try:

MK: Liberty Tree Tavern (usually not character interaction, but at your vaca time it will be)

DHS: I wouldn't spend the extra $$ on any TS here. Pizza Planet might be fun if your child is familiar with Toy Story.

EPCOT: I"ve never been, but alot of folks write about Princess Dining at Akershus

AK: Rainforest Cafe or Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House

Don't discount TS outside the parks if you will be taking a break. Many of the resorts have nice places.

And for kid food, just about every place has your standard kid fare, except maybe the higher price signature restaraunts (not sure what they have though...).

Here is another link. Between the this and the one above you can get alot of good info.

http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

 

[tobikaye]

As stated in the above posts, I would suggest going through the menus and getting an idea of what restaurants you would like to eat at as I do not think that there are any menu listing specifically once you are at the parks/resorts.

Maybe go through and make a short list, by park/resort, of the restaurants that have food you would like. If you include the type of food and the estimated prices, then you would have just a quick reference with you instead of lots of paper as you could probable put it on once page if you are just using basic information.

 

[kmacht]

Ok, so I should probably at least look at ADR's for places inside the parks. What about places for downtown disney or the resorts? Do I really need ADR's for those types of places? What about the resteraunts at the countries in Epcot (Biergarten?) We are going during a slower time of the year and free dining plan isn't available so that was why I was assuming that a walkup might be easier to get.

Keith

 

[tobikaye]

If you are really set on a specific restaurant, then I would suggest getting an ADR. You stated you are going the first week of February. I would suggest going to the official Disney website and going to the Dining section and seeing if their look to be reservations for the restaurants you think you will want to eat at around the times you want to eat. If there are, then you may be okay, I would keep checking back as you get closer if you chose not to make reservations.

Right now, I am in the dilemma of trying to decide for May. My family does not want a set schedule so I will only be making the reservations for HDDR and which ever character meal we decide on for now. If anything, once we get there and know where we are going to be, I will either call the Dining # or go to guest services and see what restaurants are available around certain times that day. Some times you get lucky and others you don't.

I have not been there in February, so I am not sure what the norm is for reservations.

 

[disneyfan55]

We will be there that week as well. While most of our reservations have been made in the past couple weeks, some like Coral Reef for example wasn't available when we wanted to go. I would check out menus and make a few reservations where you like the food and are where you plan to be (or the general area) on those days. You can cancel if you can't or do not want to go. Just what I would do. I would especially book any character meals.

 

[Missytara]

Ok, so I should probably at least look at ADR's for places inside the parks. What about places for downtown disney or the resorts? Do I really need ADR's for those types of places? What about the resteraunts at the countries in Epcot (Biergarten?) We are going during a slower time of the year and free dining plan isn't available so that was why I was assuming that a walkup might be easier to get.

Keith

For DTD, you may be able to walk up to some of the less popular places, but the more popular places, you need an ADR.

Remember, locals go to DTD, because parking is free and you don't have to pay to get in. There are also some non-Disney hotels right near there, with bus service. Especially on the weekends, they will be busy. I go the Sunday after Thanksgiving, which is a slow week, and I have seen up to a 2 hour wait at Rainforest Cafe; T-Rex; or Fulton House on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday night.

 

[Micca]

Ok, so I should probably at least look at ADR's for places inside the parks. What about places for downtown disney or the resorts? Do I really need ADR's for those types of places? What about the resteraunts at the countries in Epcot (Biergarten?) We are going during a slower time of the year and free dining plan isn't available so that was why I was assuming that a walkup might be easier to get.

Keith

Hi Keith-- How have you handled it in your previous trips? My advice to most is to make ADRs because you can always cancel them if you make other plans(note a few restaurants have a fee for cancelling less than 48 hours in advance). Touring WDW and being hot, tired, and hungry with no place to eat is a bummer(especially with kids) Chances are that no matter when you go, you'll meet at least two of that criteria. There are lot of Dis-ers here with no shortage of opinions where to dine.

 

[kmacht]

Hi Keith-- How have you handled it in your previous trips?

In the past we have always had a car and stayed offsite. We would usually do breakfast at the condo, pack a lunch from stuff we bought at the grocery store, and then hit somewhere on 192 for dinner. We have done a few dinners at downtown disney but the crowds have always been small enough that it was less than a 1/2 hour wait (we also didn't have a 2-3 year old).

I went online last night and made some ADR's. Like was said before, we can always call and cancel them. We left Sunday and Monday open. Tuesday we have a late lunch reservation for Biergarten. Wednesday we have a dinner reservation for House of Blues, thursday we have a dinner reservation for 50's Prime Time cafe, and Friday we have a late lunch reservation for T-Rex. The only one we aren't sure of is T-Rex. It might be too loud/scary for our daughter. We figured that we'll spend some time in DTD during the week and bring her into the T-Rex gift shop to see how she reacts.

Any suggestions on good quickservice meals for lunch? We have only eaten at Pinnochios in MK and Buzz in HS for lunch before.

Keith

 

[disneyfan55]

In the past we have always had a car and stayed offsite. We would usually do breakfast at the condo, pack a lunch from stuff we bought at the grocery store, and then hit somewhere on 192 for dinner. We have done a few dinners at downtown disney but the crowds have always been small enough that it was less than a 1/2 hour wait (we also didn't have a 2-3 year old).

I went online last night and made some ADR's. Like was said before, we can always call and cancel them. We left Sunday and Monday open. Tuesday we have a late lunch reservation for Biergarten. Wednesday we have a dinner reservation for House of Blues, thursday we have a dinner reservation for 50's Prime Time cafe, and Friday we have a late lunch reservation for T-Rex. The only one we aren't sure of is T-Rex. It might be too loud/scary for our daughter. We figured that we'll spend some time in DTD during the week and bring her into the T-Rex gift shop to see how she reacts.

Any suggestions on good quickservice meals for lunch? We have only eaten at Pinnochios in MK and Buzz in HS for lunch before.

Keith

There's a thread on favorite CS that's pretty active. I would check out the menus on Allears.net. to look for what you all like. For variety Cosmis Rays in MK has quite a few items including a fixin's bar along with 1/2 chicken and ribs with veg. Columbia Harbor house in MK has pretty good fish/chicken offerings plus a tuna sandwich that is very good (I am a person that never really buys tuna out either-just wanted something not fried and tried it-very good) Sunshine Seasons in EPCOT has a pretty large food court with many varieties as well. The countries offer CS in most of them, too. The AK and DHS really aren't that great but if eating there check the menus out beforehand so you don't waste time while at WDW!

 

[Micca]

I'll second some of the suggestions from disneyfan. Columbia Harbour House at MK is good, and the Sunshine Seasons food court at Epcot is a good choice for a family who don't all want to eat the same thing. In World Showcase I also like the the fish & chips from the CS attached to the Rose & Crown. We aren't big fans of anything at DHS but we've grabbed some burgers from the CS down the street from RnRC.