Where is your 'First Night Dinner' and why?

Depends on where you're staying, what time you'll be arriving, and if you'll be going to a park that day. We usually don't do a park on arrival day and either eat at our resort or head to Disney Springs for dinner, depending on what time we arrive. At DS, Raglan Road would be a good option for the girls. They would probably enjoy the music and dancing.
 
When I was married to my ex husband , we did Chefs de France always first night and last night was always Cape May cafe. Since I am now remarried and going on my first trip with my spouse, we are either doing Biergarten or Garden Grill for dinner
 
Our next trip in March we will check in late afternoon at the Yacht Club and have an ADR at the Yachtsman Steakhouse for a leisurely start to our trip. We have APs so May stroll over to Epcot if we feel up to it.
 
I'm going July 5-13 and we booked Artist Point for dinner the first day.

We are debating park vs park the first day (we have an 8 day park hopper and staying 8 nights), but my DH is so excited about the new menu there and it feels a bit more off the beaten path for us with park scheduling. If we hit up a park that day, it will be MK likely. But we also are thinking about checking out Jellyrolls and the Boardwalk in General that night as well - we missed doing so the last time we were at Disney in 2017 (but it is just us, no kids).
 


Like @Nancyg56 we like to go to Chef Mickey’s for our first dinner.

Yes, this restaurant gets a bad rap but we love it.

We don’t hit a park on arrival day and nothing screams Disney quite like eating dinner with the Fab 5.
 
Usually our resort QS, because it's often late and we're too tired to go anywhere else.
 
We used a travel agent for our first trip and she booked all of our dining. Our first dinner was 1900 Park Fare and we loved it so much it became outnumbered tradition to go there our first night! It’s a great way to start a trip.
 


For the last 20 years our first night tradition is Rose & Crown for Illuminations. On our ver first trip in 1991 we did the Garden Grill (pre characters). When we stayed at Poly we did Aloha dinner show. Now we will have to change with the announcement of the prix fixe Illuminations at R&C. R&C and Brown Derby are the only places we ALWAYS eat EVERY trip
 
For us it's Hoop Dee Doo for a number of reasons. It's fun, and one of our favorite ways to celebrate being in the bubble. Doesn't require a park ticket, so we can save those for commando days. My kids like running around Ft Wilderness and playing on the playground or walking the paths before dinner. And I like that it's AYCTE including beer and wine, so I can unwind from the trip down without mentally tallying up our check LOL
 
I am doing Yachtsman my first night. I arrive in Orlando at 10:30 a.m., so I am going to go to HS for a few hours and then boat or walk to Yachtsman.
 
We don't really have a tradition because I am a proponent for eating wherever is most convenient to where you're touring or staying. If we are staying deluxe, we try to book that first night at one of our resort's restaurants so that we can relax and enjoy what our resort has to offer.

Here's some of our favorites so far:

Sanaa - try to book an earlier dinner so it is still light outside to view the animals on the savannah
1900 Park Fare - my absolute favorite buffet on property!
Chef Mickey's - Parmesan potatoes and classic characters. We love it. It is a great intro to a magical vacation.

We'd like to try:
Hoop de Doo Revue - because it is not convenient to much anything unless you are staying at Ft Wilderness, HDDR would be a good first night's entertainment and meal as long as you are arriving early enough as not to rush.
 
We are coming down for 6 nights in late July. This will be our first time on DDP. We have brought our girls once before, in 2014 but stayed offsite. We only ate at Ohana for breakfast and at Starlite Cafe in the MK.

So my question is, where do you like to go for dinner for the first night there to welcome yourself back to the Happiest Place on Earth?

Our girls are 13 and will be 11 when we go.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!
We drive into Orlando so for us it's a toss up on what time we'll arrive so we like to keep our first night meal simple and not do reservations.

We usually do Disney Springs so we can also shop and walk around = stretch our legs from driving. We like chicken guy a lot which is new, fast casual at DS. Polite Pig is also good, little cramped if you sit inside though. If you like burgers, D-Luxe is good too. If you want to do a nicer meal, we like Ohana and Kona cafe at Poly so we can get our MK views in or you could do the lounge at the Contemporary which has nice views and doesn't take reservations.
 
We are doing Chef Mickey's!! The kids are little.. 1,5 and 7 so they just find it to be a lot of fun at this age.
 
Another vote for Disney Springs! Boathouse for us in 18 days, second time in a row. Last time I was staying at POR so I took the boat over. Sat outside at Boathouse and had a really nice meal and then enjoyed walking around the Springs.
 
For my family it is Boma at AKL. The food, dining experience, and atmosphere are so unique. The resort is beautiful and the animals are fascinating to see and watch either before or after dinner. Plus a visit to the gift shop. There is absolutely no place here at home that can compare. Everything combined just gets our vacation off to an exciting beginning.

I spent my honeymoon at AKL and absolutely LOVED it! We arrived and had dinner at Sanaa...The bread was KILLER!! The overall vibe of the resort was amazing. The dim lighting throughout gives it this really cool, dark/cozy feel, I loved the raging fire pit in the lobby next to the lounge, the really cool African tribal beats that you hear pumped all over the hotel, BOMA was amazing, Jiko was amazing, and the animals! It was such a treat waking up in the morning, opening the balcony door and hearing the music and seeing the animals grazing with the orange glow of the sun coming up. Was SO nice!

Back on topic...the most recent trip I did last month we kicked it off with dinner at Cali Grill for fireworks. That was really cool!
 
We are doing chef mickeys for our first night meal. Mainly bc it on the monorail and my son is dying to go on the monorail (our last trip was March 2014 and that’s one thing he remembers) and also bc it has the fab 5 and my youngest is obesssed with Mickey and goofy. Seems like the perfect start to our vacation
 
We are relaxing first day poolside waiting for grucery delivery will head To Disney springs and have dinner at Trex bc my little guy is a Dino freak and the rest of the crew 13/17/5 prob won’t want to leave a park to go to a Dino restaurant ha ha





We are coming down for 6 nights in late July. This will be our first time on DDP. We have brought our girls once before, in 2014 but stayed offsite. We only ate at Ohana for breakfast and at Starlite Cafe in the MK.

So my question is, where do you like to go for dinner for the first night there to welcome yourself back to the Happiest Place on Earth?

Our girls are 13 and will be 11 when we go.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!
 
We just got back and our first meal was the Biergarten. Mostly because we had a big party and that’s where we could get in. It was great and we would do it again. We also dined at Artist Point and Ohana—both new to us. They were great as well.
 
We fly so I never want to schedule an ADR due to never knowing what might happen and not wanting to be charged a “no show” fee if our flight is delayed or someone is just cranky after waking up early to head to the airport. I usually book Boathouse or something at Disney Springs through Opentable since I can cancel without penalty the day of.
 

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