Where do you eat your first night at WDW?

We always eat at Chef Mickey's.

:thumbsup2 This is always where we got for our first night too. And we always buy the picture. It's fun seeing how the kids have grown looking at old Chef Mickey pictures. :goodvibes
 
We eat at Cape May Cafe the first night of our trips. We fell in love with the Beach Club during our trip in 2007 and from that point on only stay there.

We always have to do dinner at our resort each trip. Is a great way to settle in to your resort and start your trip off the right way!

J
 
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions! We probably won't get to The World before 2 or 3pm with flight and layovers. I was thinking about the Garden Grill at Epcot for the Character Dining experience. I can't wait to see the look on my daugher's face when she sees Mickey Mouse for the first time!
 
POP food court!:thumbsup2
We usually get to MCO around 6pm...so we hang around resort.
Sometimes we go to Earl of Sandwich too!
 

It really all depends on where we are going to be that night. For upcoming May trip, we are going to be going to Epcot on our arrival night since we are staying at BCV, so we have a ADR for Teppan Edo. However, there are times that we don't go to a park on our arrival day, and when that happens, we usually go to a resort around the monorail loop or just stay at our own resort.
 
we are eating at the coral reef, because i think that even with all the excitement the fist tank will keep my daughter quiet for the entire meal! lol...i see that it has lots of really bad reviews but it was my hubby's fav. as a child and i have never been to any park but MK so i am excited...and we are on the dinning plan so if it is a zonk...live and learn


We ate there and just loved it! And we are two adults who love well prepared food.
 
It's not a tradition but I'm really excited about our first nite. It's my BF's first trip since HS (he's 36) and his 10 year old's son very first trip ever. We won't be hitting the parks on our arrival day but I figured there is no better way to get them into the Disney spirit than dinner at Hoop-dee-doo Revue.

It is using 2 TS for the DDP however, but worth it, IMO.
 
we always get a 6-8 am flight so we get there early..... do magic kingdom the first day and eat a liberty tree
 
I'm trying to plan our WDW trip with my daughter (age 4), my mom, and husband. My husband and I went to WDW about 5 years ago, but this will be my daughter's and mom's first trip! They are both so excited!! :banana:

So I am wondering, where would you eat the first night you are in WDW? (We will be on the DDP.)

Arrival day usually means dinner at whatever resort we're staying at (Usually the Animal Kingdom Lodge/Villas...so usually Boma's). First day, we usually check in and try to hang around the resort...might do some early theme park visiting, but it largely depends on how the travel went and when we arrive. But, no matter what, we're ALWAYS back to the resort by dinner time. The kids (and my wife and I) are usually wiped out.
 
We usually have a later dinner at Tony's in MK on our arrival day. That gives us a chance to catch the MSEP/Specrto and get into the Disney spirit before the first full day.
 
We tend to get the WDW early to mid afternoon. We try to dine someplace that get's us in the Disney spirit. Crystal palace, 1900 park fare or Chef Mickey's also Liberty Tree Tavern before the characters left.
 
California Grill. Great view, good food. Perfect starting spot for a WDW trip!!
 
We go to Kona. We like to get arrive at the resort at around 1pm (we drive), get checked in, then go and explore (take the boats, monorail, explore other resorts, etc). Works for us ...
 
I always look at the park/Wishes/Fantasmic hours for the week and plan where we'll be each day. After that, I figure out where we'll eat each meal(we always have hoppers). For our first 4 trips, I scheduled a Fantasmic Package, eating once at Mama Melrose and each other time at The Hollywood Brown Derby. For our HM, Fantasmic wasn't playing the first night, so we changed it up a bit and headed to breakfast at Chef Mickeys and then to EPCOT. This time, we are going to Animal Kingdom, then to Boma at AKL and then DTD for some shopping to get some sleep for our early rise to 2:00 am closing the next day.

I think you have to do what works for you and your family though.
 
We ate our first dinner at the Crystal Palace on our first trip and have it booked for our first dinner on our upcoming trip as well. This was unintentional, but perhaps we are starting a tradition! Our kids are 12, 10, and 3 (and were on our last visit as well). All three loved the Crystal Palace and it was a fun way to get into the Disney spirit. Because it isn't a princess meal, it appealed to our 12 yr. old son as well as the girls. The food isn't worth $36 per person, but it was much better than we expected.

Last year we went with my parents. This year we are meeting up with a family from our hometown traveling at the same time for our first night dinner - 4 adults, 6 kids ages 12, 10, 8, 7, 7, and 3.
 
We have ADR for Chef Mickeys on our arrival day of June 2. This will be my 2 nephews first trip to WDW. Thought we would start our trip off with a character meal!!!:thumbsup2
 
We drive a loooong way so arrival time is never set. I do not like to make any ADR's for the first day because of this. If I do make one I keep it close to or in the resort and not one where they charge you for a no show.
 
We started something a few years ago that we think is fun as long as you are go with the flow people. We drive, leave very early and get to WDW late afternoon early evening. When we check in we ask at the desk where they can get us in for dinner that would be good. We have ended up trying some places we would not have gone to and really enjoy it! We are not tied to an ADR time frame and if we are too tired we can do resort dinning or pizza or room service.
 
We always drive from Ohio so on the first day we usually don't do any parks but just relax and we usually eat at Ohana for dinner and watch wishes on the beach, it gets us in the disney spirit for our trip!
 


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