We leave tomorrow - YAY! Here are all my restaurants. I definitely need to cancel some. My kids are 4 & 6 years old…let me know any suggestions or thoughts - we are NOT on the dining plan and staying at the Contemporary:
2/16 - MK
CRT Breakfast
2/17 - Free Day
During the day will be at Disney Springs for Bibbiti Bobbiti Boutique
1900 Park Fare Dinner
2/18 - HS
Disney & Vine Lunch (debating on canceling)
2/19 - EPCOT
Biergarten lunch
Coral Reef dinner
2/20 - AK
Chef Mickey’s Breakfast
2/21 - EPCOT
Via Napoli - Lunch
Whispering Canyon Dinner
2/22 - MK
Be our Guest Lunch
California Grill Dinner
Disney & Vine lunch is likely the weak link food wise. It’s a very average buffet. IIRC they just announced that lunches are going to the Minnie & Friends seasonal like they have been doing at dinner - I don’t recall for certain if that was starting immediately or on a certain date. That change may be good or bad depending on if your kids are into the DIS Jr. characters or not.
My only other comment would be on days you have an ADR lunch & dinner is to make sure there is sufficient time in between as it will be a lot of food. I wouldn’t recommend a 1PM Biergarten buffet followed by a 5PM Coral Reef dinner - 11:30 & 7:00 might work perfectly though…
You’ve got some great reservations there. Are you kids willing/able to do more than 1 TS meal a day? My younger two are 5 and 7 and we tend to stick to one a day most days, as I typically allow 1.5-1.75 hours for TS at Disney including check-in, eating, paying the bill, bathroom on way out, and departure. Of course my youngest son is a super-active kid and just wants to go go go (he eats only to live) so yours may be different.
No, I’m with you. I’d like to end up with 1 per day as well both from a cost standpoint as well as a sitting for that long standpoint. My kids are also picky eaters so mainly will only eat chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, pasta with butter - REPEAT!!
I’m thinking I’ll likely cancel 1900 Park Fare and eat something at Disney Springs plus we are doing CRT already so no need to repeat that but it was more of “oh let’s do this after you do Bibbiti Bobbity you will look cute” But probably not worth the money!
Interesting, I didn’t know that about D&V, I’ll see if I can look it up and see who is there now. My kids could definitely do 11:30 am for lunch but are 5pm eaters - 7pm they are almost ready for bed and DISASTER kids!! Well at home they are
Looks like the transition is May 14th so you’ll still have the DIS Jr. characters - good if your kids are into DIS Jr. Not so good if they have no idea who Handy Manny and the rest are, which was my son on our last visit, although it was amusing as he tried to dodge the characters with well timed buffet visits.
Here’s the blog entry on it from TP on 2/1 this year:
I would recommend skipping the Coral Reef dinner and the Whispering Canyon dinner. Coral reef because you have a big buffet for lunch and there are so many good snacks/light dinner options in Epcot. Whispering Canyon because you mention your kids like to eat earlier and this seems like a trek to get there and then back to the Contemporary for bedtime. From going with my DS1, I learned that flexibility for dinner is key. I bet you could have a fantastic night eating some chicken nuggets from the pool bar!
Only saying this because you were considering dropping it. Went to 1900PF in Nov and was very disappointed. Food was just okay and the character interaction was not the best. The step sisters were a no show as well. We did not have any young kids though so you may think different. Good luck! Have a wonderful trip!
You have a great line up here. What time is your CRT and Chef Mickey breakfast? Are they cutting into Rope Drop or early morning touring hours? Consider transportation time to and from Whispering Canyon.
I love 1900 Park fare - the food is great, the characters awesome! We had a great experience with the step sisters and Lady tremaine. The prince really IS quite charming!
Think about your touring plan - will you go out of your way to go to Via napoli? Will you already be in world showcase, or will you still be in future world at that time? I would not go out of my way for food in epcot, personally.
Via Napoli is generally considered the best pizza on property and offers some good Italian options if you like Italian. It’s good, but there are lots of good options at Epcot. I’d likely keep it, although if you’re looking to drop to 1 ADR a day, I’d guess the kid’s may like Whispering Canyon better although I haven’t personally eaten at Whispering myself, but I’d expect the adults would likely enjoy the food at Via Napoli more.
I would say it is worth keeping. It is good pizza and a pretty good value and a table service lunch is probably a nice break for you.
That being said, if you’re feeding 2 little birds regardless then there are tons of other places at Epcot for counter service with different types of food that Mom/Dad might like better as well! My husband loves the open faced sandwiches at Kringla in Norway and France has some to die for sandwiches too. Maybe also think of where your TP has you located in Epcot around lunchtime.
CRT is before rope drop, I’m actually in the park myself that day because my husband has a business conference there so I wanted CRT early (7:45am) and a nice way to start off our trip. We have a nice day of FP’s set up after just the 3 of us. Chef Mickey’s we have at 7:45 am also and then we will head to AK and start our first FP at 10:30am so a slower start that day which I like.
I’m from NYC so pizza to me is the best here!! My one daughter LOVES pizza and the other hates it lol! But yes, we will be finishing Frozen Ever After and then Via Napoli right after.
QS food at DHS is typically the worst in any of the parks. Pizzarizzo is about the best, and it’s on a par with Pizza Hut Express that you find in airports. If you cancel H&V, I recommend picking up one of the other TSs.
Cancel Coral Reef. BG is a HUGE buffet (and the best in WDW) and there are very good QS options in EP for dinner if you are actually hungry.
Consider dropping Wispering Canyon dinner. With so many excellent dining choices in EP, I wouldn’t be leaving the park to go to a fairly remote location just for dinner. But if your plans were to leave EP early afternoon for a resort break, then taking the boat from CR to WL is pretty easy.
Good point on QS at Hollywood Studios, I forgot how there isn’t much in terms of options there. I’ll keep that for now. I got rid of Coral Reef and Wispering Canyon. We have an early finish to the day on that day at Epcot (it’s our 2nd day there) and I was hoping to head back to Contemporary for an afternoon at the pool and movies under the stars. The kids can eat at the pool or hotel.
