Dueling Restaurants - I can’t decide!

Walt Disney World Dining
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I’ve been playing with my itinerary for months, but now that my FP+ day is in 6 days, I want to lock in my plans. Can you help me decide between a few restaurant choices?

It’s me, DS7, DD2 and my sister for 8 nights at WL at the end of August. My parents will be joining us for the last 4 nights.

  1. Mid-trip Resort Day/Grandparents’ Arrival Day: Monorail tour with dinner at ‘Ohana OR Disney Springs with dinner at Homecomin’ OR Raglan Road?

  2. AK Day: Late lunch at Sanaa OR early dinner at Boma? (Either way, plan is to spend morning in the park and then enjoy the activities at AKL for a few hours).

  3. Departure Day: Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno OR Breakfast at Kona (or maybe Grand Floridian Cafe)?

All options are new to me and the kids except dinner at ‘Ohana. Everything is new to parents and sister.

I welcome any recommendations because I just can’t decide!

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  1. I can’t help with the monorail dining tour. I can’t say enough good things about Raglan Road. The food, drink, entertainment, and atmosphere are all top notch. And I’m hard pressed to think of any similar venue that is as entertaining and satisfying to both kids and adults at the same time. As for Homecomin’, I’m probably one of the few who will publicly tell you to avoid it like the plague. It’s overpriced, overhyped, and overrated. Of course I happen to be a farm-raised southern cook who was raised by some very good southern cooks. Your frame of reference may allow for a different experience.

  2. Sanaa and Boma are both great. If you’re kicking off an AKL afternoon, a late savanna-view lunch at Sanaa would be my recommendation.

  3. We’ve eaten breakfast at Trattoria al Forno several times (it’s the closest sit-down option to BWI). I believe they added the characters to compensate for the bad, and at times awful, food and service. If you’re going to just to see the characters then there’s not much room for debate. If you’re looking for a tasty breakfast try any other place that serves breakfast.

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Totally agree about Raglan Road, but I’ve only heard glowing reviews of the Bon Voyage breakfast.

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I agree with Raglan Road! I’ve not tried the others.

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We haven’t been back to Trattoria al Forno since they added the characters. We did notice that it appeared to be a good bit busier when we were there in April, but there were a lot of little girls in princess outfits standing in line. I certainly hope that the food and service have improved for the parents’ sake, but I understand that a bad meal may be a small price to pay for happy kids.

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I’d never even heard of it before they added the characters! But liners seem to love the food now.

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I’ve only eaten at 2 of the places listed. O’hana and Bon Voyage. O’hana was just so so for my family and if you have eaten there before, try something new. Bon Voyage is good. I wouldn’t say the food was spectacular. It’s just good. The strawberry smoothie was yummy. The characters were great and service was ok for us. We have 3 boys, who are Flynn Rider fans, and I saw families of all sorts at the meal.

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Thanks for all the input!

@paulleewatkins, very helpful comments. We are in a similar position being from families with great Southern cooking. But, I live abroad at the moment and will take what I can get when it comes to southern food. If it’s shrimp and grits, I’m usually sold, but I don’t think anyone will top my dad’s fried chicken! And my parents will be less than entertained if it’s run of the mill Southern food. Sunday morning at their house is probably better. :blush:

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So helpful! I’m leaning towards:

  1. Ragland Road
  2. Sanaa
  3. ???
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How old are the grandparents? Any mobility issues?

What mode of transportation are you likely to use?

These will factor in to my recommendations.

1 Like
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All good questions!

They are in the 70s, but generally healthy. My dad has hip issues so walks slowly (and we’ll probably do an EVH for him). But they are incredibly social and love to hang out and chat with people. They spend more time in bats than I do! That’s why I think the monorail tour could be fun.

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  1. I would recommend monorail tour over Disney Springs. The Springs are fantastic but enormous.

  2. If planning AKL activities you should do Lunch at Sanaa - check the activity schedule here to get a sense of timing of things: http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/resorts/wdw/pdf/AKLCalendar.pdf This is for June, but it’s updated pretty regularly and also doesn’t change much.

  3. Bon Voyage Breakfast for the kiddies

2 Likes
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  1. With no kids, I’m not an authority, but I think RR would be the most entertaining. The menu is relatively “main stream” and the music/dancing are excellent. It’s one of my top favorites in WDW. I haven’t been to Homecomin’, but it a more traditional TS with “Southern” cooking; it gets very good reviews.

  2. Boma is a buffet with lots of choices, but some families with kids prefer not to deal with the logistics of buffet dining. Personally, I like the food at Sanaa better, and if it’s daylight, watching the animals on the savanna is a great plus. Keep in mind that the main menu is Indian-inspired, so make sure everyone is good with that.

  3. I was not all that impressed with Kona for breakfast. The Tonga Toast is pretty tasty, but the whole experience kind of reminded me of Denny’s with bamboo. I haven’t been to the other two, but the Bon Voyage is a CM, which the kids might enjoy - and the food gets good reviews.

2 Likes
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This is all in the current plan. It feels right. #1 is my biggest question mark, but you’re right. Disney Springs is big and may be hard for you parents to navigate.

Ohana being a tough ADR makes me feel like I SHOULD do it. But I also think that a stop at Mizners (sp?) in GF will be perfect for my parents.

But then Raglan Road for the kids…

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Thanks! Indian has is no issue. My husband is Indian and I lived there for many years, so the flavors are familiar and very welcome.

DD2 will LOVE the animals, so Sanaa is probably the right choice.

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I understand your predicament well. I’ve long believed that the best way to immerse yourself in another culture is to learn their language and eat their food. But no matter how good the food is you still miss your native diet more than you thought you would. I should probably clarify that Homecomin’ wasn’t terrible. The service was great and the food was ok. Just ok. But in my estimation it came nowhere near the hype and praise that has been heaped on it. The price is, of course, based on the hype. For us it was one and done, but I’m glad that other people seem to get more out of it.

BTW, if you’re jonesin’ for some shrimp and grits they do a pretty good job with it at Coral Reef in EPCOT. You’ve probably had better, but theirs is not bad. And the aquarium view is cool.