Disney Resturant Questions

Trying to make a list before we have to book reservations in a few weeks. I see so much written about the popular restaurants being snatched up quick but im not seeing the reason for them being so popular.

Chef Mickeys - what makes this better than any of the other character meals? Is it the foods better?

Cinderellas and Be Our Guest are the 2 most popular but again im not sure why? my kids arent into princess stuff so maybe that's why its not looking special to us?

T-rex looks cool and my son likes dinosaurs so I can see why we should try for that.

Would love to hear about other favorite places but please include why you love it - wondering if its just the food or something else

Thanks

ETA: I know with the Crystal palace breakfast you can get into MK early - are there any options like this for the other parks? (ie can you do Tusker house breakfast early to get into AK?)

Also if your using Disney transportation how to you get to the parks early for character breakfasts that start at 8am .. The site says buses etc start 45 min prior to park opening

Message edited 1/10/2016 8:11:36 PM.

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

Here's my opinions.

Chef Mickey's- I haven't been in a while, but I know my family likes the breakfast b/c of the variety of foods, plus you get to see the fab 5. There aren't many character meals with them. Also, the proximity to MK makes it a nice choice.

Cinderella's- I can't comment on the food, but most people book b/c it's the only way to get inside the castle. Plus, what little girl wouldn't love dining in a castle!?

Be Our Guest- I've only done the lunch, but I love this place. The food is great and the other lunch options in MK are sorely lacking, imo. The ambiance is very nice too especially in the main ballroom.

T-Rex- my DS loved this place last year and we've booked again this year. If you can't get a res through the disney site call the restaurant directly.

Some other favorites of mine are Tusker House in AK (the food choices are not what you get in every other place and the characters are Donald, Daisy, Minnie, Goofy and Mickey too? I think). Ohana at the Polynesian for dinner is delicious and again different food choices. I also liked Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge. And the Brown Derby at HS is delicious, though kind of upscale.

Disney Resturant Questions

Chef mickeys is fun-- we did dinner there in February 2014. food is good for a buffet--- its easy to get to/from MK. characters come around pretty often--- but its a big place, so you don't get a ton of time with the characters. is pretty loud, too.... buts its kind of "classic Disney"- i feel like you have to do it at least once.

Cinderalla- never ate there, but i know its $$$-- i think the biggest draw is getting to go inside the castle, so it might be worth it if you think your kids would like that.

Be our Guest- we did dinner and lunch there this past August. Lunch is quick service--- but you can preorder you meal before you leave for your trip if you want to. then when you get there and check in, they give you a locator thing LOL that you take to whatever table you find- and then the servers find you with your food. if you don't preorder before your trip, they have comptuer kiosks you go to.
Dinner there was a regular sit-down meal. and you can get your picture with the beast afterward, too.
we liked it- food was decent, and again i think it was something you should do once, just to see the inside of it- its pretty cool how the made it look so much like the movie! BUT we weren't blown away by it...

we liked Garden Grill in EPCOT for a character dinner--- its family style, so they bring a bunch of different food to you and you don't have to walk back and forth to the buffet. Also, ohana dinner was awesome, too!! no characters there at dinner--- but food was good, again family style so they just bring you a bunch of different food. we also LOVE kona cafe for breakfast--- pineapple macademia pancakes!!!!

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

First, the places you asked about:

Chef Mickey's: food is not spectacular. The buffet menu is virtually the same as Crystal Palace where you meet Pooh and Friends. The draw for this is meeting Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto outfitted in chef's clothing. It is LOUD and boisterous. For breakfast I would choose O'hana (family style breakfast with Lilo & Stich), Tusker House (buffet with traditional American fare and traditional African selections with Donald, Mickey, Daisy, Goofy in safari gear), or 1900 Park Fair (buffet with Mary Poppins & characters from Alice in Wonderland). For a non-character breakfast choice Kona Cafe is awesome.

Cinderella's Castle: IMHO the food selections here are not optimal for lunch or dinner. The draw is eating inside the castle. It is a princess meet and greet opportunity. The only princess guaranteed to be there is Cinderella. The others rotate in and out, but usually there are 4.

Be Our Guest: Better food selection than the Castle. The ambiance and attention to detail in this restaurant is IMHO by far the best in Magic Kingdom (maybe all of WDW). The magic of Beast castle from the movie is expertly recreated. Since the opening of BOG, this is the only place you can meet Beast (at dinner).

The only way to see the inside of BOG or the Castle is by securing a reservation and eating there.

I haven't been to T-Rex so I can't comment.

I mentioned my breakfast choices above, so I won't repeat. I also love O'hana for dinner (no characters). It has become a family favorite that we try to include on each trip. I like Garden Grill in Epcot. Meal is served family style. The veggies and salad are grown on property and you can taste the difference. Chip & Dale are tons of fun. The place rotates. They recently started doing breakfast here. I'm planning on trying that my next trip. I also like Teppon Edo in Epcot. The hubby likes Tutto Italia, but my thought is I can get Italian everywhere, so I like to try other stuff. This past year we tried Le Chellier, which was fab, but IMHO too expensive to do with kids that won't appreciate the food, and Marrakesh, which was amazing.

In the Magic Kingdom I like Liberty Tree Tavern. Again, served family style without characters (I'm seeing a theme here ). The thing I like about the food is that Disney doesn't try to do anything fancy with it. After eating buffets, and amusement park offerings, it's nice to sit down and have some turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and veggies.

In Animal Kingdom we love Yak & Yeti. The food is wonderful. At Animal Kingdom Lodge we love Boma.

Message edited 1/10/2016 10:10:40 AM.

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

We did early entry breakfasts at Hollywood studios - Disney jr characters at Hollywood and vine - food was good - standard breakfast buffet- best character interaction

also early entry for animal kingdom at Tusker house - more interesting buffet and good character meat

early entry at magic kingdom with the Pooh and friends at crystal palace - standard buffet - did for early entry but my kids are not huge pooh fans - but I have all boys so did not do castle

Disney Resturant Questions

For character meals I think Chef Mickey's is one of the better ones. In that it has the most characters to meet. The food IMO is my least favorite. I preferred the O'hana breakfast. Not as loud as Chef Mickey's either but the food is served family style, the Hawaiian bread is delicious.

We did not do Cinderella's Royal table because like you our children are not into Princesses - DD will be eventually but she is still too young. We opted for Be Our Guest and it was one of our favorite places we ate. The food is really good and much better than the other restaurants in MK IMO. We still say this was one of our favorite meals - if you go don't forget to order the 'grey stuff' cupcake - OMG yum!!!

In HS - we really loved 50's Prime Diner. We could not get into Hollywood and Vine for the Disney Jr. character meal, so we opted for this one. The menu is small but the food is true americana and really good. Plus, we love the ambiance of it - it feels like you walked right into the Leave it to Beaver home.

We have not done T-Rex but will try it next time.

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

We didn't spend much time at restaurants, but we did go to T-Rex and all loved it. DS is a big dino fan, so it was a must. I recommend sitting in the jungle area. It had the most dinosaurs! Plus, you can walk around the restaurant to view the other sections.

I would also recommend the Disney Jr. character dining at Hollywood & Vine. It was such a great experience. DS is a DJr. fan so I knew this was one reservation I had to make. We did breakfast - the food was actually really good too!

We also went to Animal Kingdom Lodge one night and ate at Sanaa. Food was incredible and the view was one of a kind! We were lucky enough to score seating right at the window.

Seriously priceless memories are made at Disney. We're all counting down the time we can go again.

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

Thanks so much for the replies!

For those that did early entry breakfast - how worth it was it to get in early to MK? Crystal palace doesn't particularly appeal to us and Be Our Guest is $$ - so if we went there for breakfast it would mainly be to get in early. Just not sure if its worth it (otherwise we'd probably just have a quick breakfast in our room before the parks).

My other questions for those who went with little ones (mine will be 5.5 & 2.5) - how did you know where to book dinner. I can predict where we will be each day for breakfast and lunch but not sure about dinner? I am wondering if my kids will last all day in the parks - or if we leave the park early will we want to return to the park for dinner or just relax the rest of the day by the resort and eat there instead of running back and forth? Is it better to be stuck with reservations that you don't want to have to stick with or have no reservations and limited options if everything is booked (early Oct)??

Disney Resturant Questions

We are going again in April. We made reservations for Crystal Palace for pre park opening. It doesnt really appeal to me either but I believe it is worth it to get in the park early at least one day. we did it last year and we were able to get 3 rides done with very little to no wait in the morning. I thought that was really worth it.

My kids were the same ages last year when we went and we scheduled dinner every night. They always wanted to go back to the parks lol. Kids have so much excitment and energy in disney. We thought they would be too tired or not want to go back after relaxing at the hotel for a little bit... nope! and we figured we are here, paying A LOT of money for park passes - we might as well get the most out of it. Plus, disney transportation is so easy - it was a breeze to get park to the park anyway

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

We went last year when my kids were 1.5 and almost 4 and we are going again in a few weeks.

We don't book any dinners. We have breakfast in the room, book a sit down lunch and play it by ear for dinner. We only booked a dinner at T-Rex the day we arrive.

I find this easier b/c you just don't know how the day is going to go. Not having a dinner ressie gives you flexibility to go wherever you want depending on moods and energy level. Plus I didn't like risking the $10 pp late cancellation/no show charge. Also, sit-down meals are time consuming and expensive. More than one a day can be difficult with littles. There's plenty of counter service options in the parks that are good and there's always the food court at your hotel.

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

Posted by Cindyrella


My other questions for those who went with little ones (mine will be 5.5 & 2.5) - how did you know where to book dinner. I can predict where we will be each day for breakfast and lunch but not sure about dinner? I am wondering if my kids will last all day in the parks - or if we leave the park early will we want to return to the park for dinner or just relax the rest of the day by the resort and eat there instead of running back and forth? Is it better to be stuck with reservations that you don't want to have to stick with or have no reservations and limited options if everything is booked (early Oct)??

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

Posted by Cindyrella

Thanks so much for the replies!

For those that did early entry breakfast - how worth it was it to get in early to MK? Crystal palace doesn't particularly appeal to us and Be Our Guest is $$ - so if we went there for breakfast it would mainly be to get in early. Just not sure if its worth it (otherwise we'd probably just have a quick breakfast in our room before the parks).

My other questions for those who went with little ones (mine will be 5.5 & 2.5) - how did you know where to book dinner. I can predict where we will be each day for breakfast and lunch but not sure about dinner? I am wondering if my kids will last all day in the parks - or if we leave the park early will we want to return to the park for dinner or just relax the rest of the day by the resort and eat there instead of running back and forth? Is it better to be stuck with reservations that you don't want to have to stick with or have no reservations and limited options if everything is booked (early Oct)??

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

Posted by Cindyrella

Thanks so much for the replies!

For those that did early entry breakfast - how worth it was it to get in early to MK? Crystal palace doesn't particularly appeal to us and Be Our Guest is $$ - so if we went there for breakfast it would mainly be to get in early. Just not sure if its worth it (otherwise we'd probably just have a quick breakfast in our room before the parks).

My other questions for those who went with little ones (mine will be 5.5 & 2.5) - how did you know where to book dinner. I can predict where we will be each day for breakfast and lunch but not sure about dinner? I am wondering if my kids will last all day in the parks - or if we leave the park early will we want to return to the park for dinner or just relax the rest of the day by the resort and eat there instead of running back and forth? Is it better to be stuck with reservations that you don't want to have to stick with or have no reservations and limited options if everything is booked (early Oct)??

Re: Disney Resturant Questions

Posted by DancinBarefoot

Posted by Cindyrella

Thanks so much for the replies!

For those that did early entry breakfast - how worth it was it to get in early to MK? Crystal palace doesn't particularly appeal to us and Be Our Guest is $$ - so if we went there for breakfast it would mainly be to get in early. Just not sure if its worth it (otherwise we'd probably just have a quick breakfast in our room before the parks).

My other questions for those who went with little ones (mine will be 5.5 & 2.5) - how did you know where to book dinner. I can predict where we will be each day for breakfast and lunch but not sure about dinner? I am wondering if my kids will last all day in the parks - or if we leave the park early will we want to return to the park for dinner or just relax the rest of the day by the resort and eat there instead of running back and forth? Is it better to be stuck with reservations that you don't want to have to stick with or have no reservations and limited options if everything is booked (early Oct)??

We have only booked before park opening for breakfast once. It was fun. We have pictures up and down Main Street without the huge crowds of people all around us. We have some fun magic shots as well. We were able to ride every single ride we wanted to after breakfast and leave the park to be back at the hotel for lunch.

We have stopped doing the parks commando style (from rope drop to park close). We now arrive at rope drop, leave by 1:30, and return around 6pm. This allows us to book our fast passes for the late afternoon/early evening. Often we get to ride our favorites twice that way. We are not fans of the dinner options in Magic Kingdom, but we have made dinner reservations for Be Our Guest and Tony's. Very often we will go to MK during the morning, break for lunch and the pool at the hotel, and go to Epcot or a hotel (O'hana) for dinner. DH is not happy if he doesn't have a full meal for dinner. Because I am not a hamburger a day type of eater, I make dinner reservations rather than relying on quick service.