What restaurant do you start your trip with?

[Castillo Mom]

We're breaking tradition this year and going to Boma our first night. We have DVC now and our home resort is Kidani Village. My sister will be joining us and she has little ones who will be tired from the long flight cross country so it's easier for us to just go to Boma which I'm happy with too because we love it there. Boma may end up being our new tradition.

 

[mma800]

We are hoping to relax by the pool and then I have a res for Hoop Dee Doo at 7:15. I hope we will have a great night sleep and hit rope drop in the am!

 

[4orm]

We hit Cali Grill our first night and our last.

 

[Mamu]

I usually do not make plans for our first day there. Breaking all rules this trip, we will be arriving in Orlando around noon. We are not doing a park our first day but I did make an ADR at T-Rex DTD for 4:00.

This was a request from GD, we ate here in September with the rest of the family on a day she went to TL with another of my GD's and 2 of my DD. So she missed out on T-Rex.

 

[pepe of ohio]

for our family it is always Hoop Dee Doo the first night.

We've done that too on quite a few trips.....

We've found after 44 trips to WDW, that most if not all TS restaurants and meals are just not to our liking...both in quality and price (we hate the dining plan) so all our meals are quite simple. That said, first food we have on arrival day are sandwiches we make with fixings picked up in route at the grocery store...we start of the trip with a pool picnic and enjoy the resort....evening meal, has become a tradition, we boat over to FW and do pizzas and pitchers of beer at Crocketts Tavern.

We've done most of the "special" places thru the years, Chef Mickeys, O'huana, Le Cellier etc....and they have gone down hill in quality and up in price that we don't even consider them in our dining anymore....seems like the simplier places, counter service meals appeal more to us....we're more of the sandwich type then the full 3 course diners....anyway, Disney has never been about the food for us....we can easily share a counter service hamburger and be quite satisfied....and hanging at the pool is more enjoyable than chasing around other resorts looking for the same food we have at our resort....

 

[maltdisney]

Always Ohana on the first night! Nothing like a couple of zombies, some awesome food and watching Wishes to ease you into Disney mode!

 

[Duplexdis]

We always start with Ohana. Never had anything but great experiences there, so it always gets the trip started on the right path!

 

[christine*]

We eat (the two times we've gone so far) at Crystal Palace the first thing we get there. We fly from Arizona and flights to Orlanda last 6-8 hours. I'm not a big fan of airport food and can only eat so many bags of peanuts so I'm usually starving by the time we get to Orlando. And then after dinner we also go take our first picture infront of the castle for the trip before doing anything else.

 

[CathieArms]

Do you do all out early, or do you ease into the BIG / Expensive meal?

Personally speaking, it's not so much the restaurant in particular; rather, it's that it be a character meal. I really enjoy starting the trip off with a character meal, regardless of how "all out" we go on that first day.

Last time we did Garden Grill for dinner on our first night. This time we'll do Akershus. My prerequisite is that I preferred to eat in the park we'd be visiting on our first day, and that just happens to be Epcot. So Akershus it is.

 

[Ramsfan28]

I just got back from the World a few hours ago.

I was fortunate enough to start and end my trip with dinner at the California Grill. It once again proved to be a fantastic experience.

 

[cecilia]

we only go to the food court counter service stuff .i do want to try kona for the tonga toast so this year thats my big spending

 

[TravelingJen24]

We usually start our trip with something easy and close to the hotel. We are from California and usually don't get to the hotel until about 5pm. By the time we get unpacked it is late. This last time we were at Kidani so we ate room service. Our kids love room service and to them it really signifies being on vacation. However, the time before that we were at VWL and ate at the roaring cafe. That was also great. No parks for us on the first day.

 

[bdcp]

Ohana always. Sometimes after spending part of the day in a park, this year we'll be at AK most of the day. After dinner at Ohana and a Lapu Lapu we go out to the poly beach and watch wishes and the water parade.

 

[marielynn724]

As a few other people mentioned, after our flight we generally can't handle a theme park yet on our arrival day, but we've made the tradition of going to DTD for dinner at Capn Jacks.

 

[Hawg Pharm]

Ohana always. Sometimes after spending part of the day in a park, this year we'll be at AK most of the day. After dinner at Ohana and a Lapu Lapu we go out to the poly beach and watch wishes and the water parade.

Same here. Nothing says, "you're on vacation now" like a trip to Ohana and a Lapu Lapu.

 

[BriarRosie]

I just realized that I don't usually have any idea where I eat on arrival day! I cannot remember where I ate in December, but I do remember what I did in October.

My friends had a lunch ADR at Via Napoli, and I decided that I would try to get there "Amazing Race" style right off of Disney's Magical Express! (My original plan was going to be something in Epcot anyway...Food and Wine Festival.)

I went ahead with this plan because I was staying at Beach Club Villas, and I could drop off my bags and head to Via Napoli. I ended up arriving 15 minutes after their ADR, but I managed to sit with them! (Party of 3 at a 4-top table.)

That was a lot of fun. If I arrived later than that, I would have sent them a text message to enjoy the meal while I noshed around World Showcase.

 

[hogwartsdropout]

Last year it was California Grill first. We might do the same next year, it was a good way to begin.

 

[mikmin]

Our home resort is BWV and we always start our trip eating at Beaches and Cream, nothing like a burger and a No Way Jose to share.


AKL 4-1 to 4-8
BWV 11-29 to 12-10

 

[Totoro]

We like to start with a character meal in Epcot. We have done Garden Grill and Akershus. It gets us all excited to be there.

 

[ariel5884]

We are getting in around 6 so no sense in heading to the parks. By the time we check in and get to the room it will at least be 7. So we are heading to downtown disney to go to Raglan Road. It's my parents first trip so I thought they might like to see Downtown. The food there is so awesome. The next night Shula's, to show them who has the best steak on property.