Dining suggestions

[Bunch24]

Hey Dads!

Well, we're making our first trip to WDW since 2009 and it'll be our first as Florida resident and annual passholders! The plan is to try to make at least two, hopefully three trips, in a calendar year to make the APs worth the price.

Anyway, we're going June 9-16 and this will be the first time we've gone without the dining plan. We plan on buying the TIW card when we get our APs.

So, I'm coming here looking for some dining suggestions, because we want to try something new, something different than what we've done on every trip. The plan is to avoid the tourist trap places (IE most character meal buffets). We will also try to limit ourselves to one table-service per day, mainly to keep costs down and maximize park time.

We pretty much mapped out what park we want to do each day using touringplans.com, and here's our schedule:

June 10 -- Hollywood Studios
June 11 -- Epcot
June 12 -- MK
June 13 -- Blizzard Beach/Epcot
June 14 -- Animal Kingdom
June 15 -- Magic Kingdom

Right now, we have scheduled Sci-Fi for dinner at the Studios, Via Napoli for dinner at Epcot, Tusker House for breakfast at AK, Trail's End for breakfast our second MK day. Sci-Fi is to give it a second chance, and to allow our boys to experience it. Tusker House is our only character meal, mainly because we like being in AK prior to park opening.

So, what would you suggest for our first MK day, our second Epcot day? We'll be driving, so we'll have a vehicle if we need to go to a resort. We thought about Ohana for the first MK day, because we enjoyed that breakfast, but that's $100 for breakfast that you can get everywhere in the world.

We'd prefer to eat at TIW restaurants, but I'm not thoroughly convinced that TIW is worth it yet either.

Oh, and I should mention our boys are, well, boys. They're a little active, so fancy shmancy restaurants probably won't work. They've enjoyed 50s Prime-Time, Chef Mickey's, Hollywood & Vine, Whispering Canyon, etc.

Thanks in advance!

[AJRitz]

I'll take a stab:

For the first MK day, go early and when you park, take the resort monorail back to the Poly, rather than the park monorail. Have breakfast at Captain Cook's Quick Serve. It's a great Quick Service for breakfast, because you can even get Tonga Toast there (and for less than it costs upstairs at Kona). For dinner, either stay in the MK at The Plaza (mostly sandwiches) or walk across to the Contemporary for dinner at The Wave (I heartily recommend the short ribs and the organic beer flight).

For your second Epcot day, I see three good, different, options. Option 1 - Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club, then enter Epcot through the International Gateway. (All-you-can-eat seafood seems a fitting topper to a day at a Blizzard Beach). Option 2 - Garden Grill. (Sure, it's a character meal. But it's a different kind of character meal. And it's a TiW character meal). Option 3 - Tangierine Cafe (Moroccan Quick Service - different, but tasty).

It's important to remember that, in Animal Kingdom, both Flame Tree BBQ and Pizzafari take TiW - and since it's Quick Service with no tip, it's a true 20% discount.

[Bunch24]

Thanks for the suggestions Aaron. I love a couple of the ideas and will add them immediately. We were really thinking about breakfast as the Poly our MK day, so Captain Cooks is perfect. And we were also thinking about something in Boardwalk area for our Epcot day so we can enter into World Showcase later.

I appreciate the response!

[BigTex71]

We always like to get an 8am ADR at Crystal Palace for breakfast in MK. It is great because the park doesn't open until 9am, so while you are walking to your ADR, you have great photo opportunities with almost no one else in the park. Once seated, be sure to request your ticket when your server takes your drink order. This allows you to take care of the bill early and walk out to the park for rope drop at the 'hub' just before 9am.

[Bunch24]

Originally Posted by BigTex71

We always like to get an 8am ADR at Crystal Palace for breakfast in MK. It is great because the park doesn't open until 9am, so while you are walking to your ADR, you have great photo opportunities with almost no one else in the park. Once seated, be sure to request your ticket when your server takes your drink order. This allows you to take care of the bill early and walk out to the park for rope drop at the 'hub' just before 9am.

We like to do that also, but I think we're going to skip Crystal Palace on this trip. We also usually do Hollywood & Vine for breakfast, but we're trying to stay away from the $100 breakfasts. It sucks not being on the dining plan in that regard because it feels easier to sacrifice one credit for breakfast than it does to sacrifice $100.

[CarsFanatic]

On our last trip at the end of October we had one day where we were trying to find reservations somewhere and one of the places that was available was Olivia's Cafe in Old Key West. Now, I know you are probably looking for something in the park, but we had a wonderful meal at Olivia's. The Boniata was WONDERFUL!

[Cinderella's Fella]

I thought that this would be a good thread for this.

Reservations for Be Our Guest Restaurant in New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom Park Open at 7 am August 20.