Your ideas please

The Real Cinderella

Saving hard for our next trip
Joined
Jun 17, 2009
Messages
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We are going to the world from 3-17th May 2010 with my 18 month old daughter, my husband and both my parents.

Money is tight- so we can't afford many adr's.

So list your top 5 (can be breakfast, lunch or dinner etc)
 
Have a great time choosing!

1. Crystal Palace lunch or dinner
2. Chef Mickeys dinner
3. Arkershus lunch or dinner
4. Garden Grill dinner
5. Play n dine lunch.

I would recommend CRT for lunch but if money is tight Arkershus is a good alternative.

As you can see I am a big fan of character meals but not breakfasts!!
 
1. Le Cellier
2. 'Ohana
3. Narcoosee's
4. California Grill
5. Blue Zoo
 
meal that is later in the serving period is a good way of having a good meal and saving money. A late breakfast buffet can act as something as a breakfast and lunch. Same with a late lunch. Don't worry about the food or characters (if any) because of the timing. Food is refreshed up to the end and the characters still have a little spunk in them. The places that have another meal following may even be puting out new items towards the end. Breakfast is the cheapest at buffets follwed by lunch then dinner.

Tusker House in Animal Kingdom has good food and character interaction if you will be going to the park. Cape May in the Beach Club (outside the back of Epcot) has another good breakfast buffet and would work with an Epcot day. Both have some of the major Disney characters. One would do.

Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom is my personal favorite buffet. It serves all three meals so if yo want to a lunch this is a good place. The interior is very pretty and it has Pooh characters to boot.

A sort of out of the way place is Trails End at Ft Wilderness. The food is pretty basic, ribs and fried chicken for example but very tasty. It is out of the way. One way to make it an experience is to to the Chip and Dale sing along and movie nearby.

At Epcot Biergarten is another good buffet. (I like buffets if the food is good. Plus your 18 month old can eat off of your plates for free without diminishing your serving size.) Lunch is just as good as dinner unless you're huge fan of Saurbraten. Rose and Crown in the UK pavilion would be another good choice.

If you're going to DHS take a look at the 50s Prime Time menu. Heraty meals and a 50s feel both in decor and attitude.
 

My top 5 for value and fun

1. Boma dinner
2. Plaza lunch
3. Sci-Fi lunch
4. Akershus
5. Play 'n Dine breakfast (your 18 month old will love the characters! and the food is really good at breakfast!)
 
I agree that buffets may be the best bang for your buck so to speak!

1 - 'Ohana breakfast (especially if your 18 mo old likes characters)
2 - Crystal Palace any meal (ditto above)
3- Sci Fi for lunch
4 - Biergarten dinner - lots of fun and a variety of food for everyone
5 - Chef Mickey's - we prefer breakfast over dinner

Have never eaten at Play n Dine but agree that your DD would probably love the characters.

Have fun planning!
 
I recommend the Trail's End Buffet at the Ft. Wilderness Campground. Same food as at the Hoop Dee Do Show and 1/3 the price.
I also think that you should consider more counterservice meals if money is tight. They are often good and are huge and easy to share. Favorites (similar to being at a sit down with a waiter but you place your oder at a counter) is Wolfgang Puck's Express in Downtown Disney. And Cosmic Ray's at the Magic Kingdom has Chicken and Rib combo meals that are more than enough to share. Also, most of the value and moderate resorts have food courts that have carving station meals. So you get a quality meal at a sit-down price.
Allears.net has a complete list of menus and prices for all parks and resorts so you can easily compare.
Buffets are going to be your best value for sit downs because desserts and drinks are included and often characters are there too.
Really consider splitting entrees at non-buffet sit-downs. You will have plenty of food. If you tell them you are sharing, often they will bring out your meal on separate dishes already split and we have even each gotten full size sides on each of our dishes when we have requested a split entree. Sharing is very acceptable at Disney! (if not on the dining plan).
 
meal that is later in the serving period is a good way of having a good meal and saving money. A late breakfast buffet can act as something as a breakfast and lunch. Same with a late lunch.

This is really good advice. Thanks!
 
Askerhus breakfast
Crystal Palace
Biergarten
Cape May Cafe breakfast
Tusker House breakfast

I too am a fan of late breakfast serving as breakfast and lunch.
 
We do our ADRs for lunch to same some money... here are my favorite:

Mama Melrose
Biergarten
Sand Trap
Olivia's
Prime Time
 
Have you thought about the DDP? Your 18 month old would be free to share your meal. It's $39.99 per person per day. So it is $79.98 for you and your husband per day and $79.98 for your parents per day. Not sure if this is out of your budget but we love "prepaying" our meals. We feel like we get more than our moneys worth. You would know your meal costs up front and would have time to save $$ for the trip. You get a snack (which we use for breakfast), a counter service and a table service per person per day. Just a thought......
 


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