Consider Tusker House for a good buffet. It is at AK though.
Also, I thought the character interaction at Ohana at Poly was great. I enjoyed the food as well (breakfast).
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So, based on your feedback I have created four rules:
Rule # 1: Don’t mess with prime touring time; no ADRs before 10:00, unless they are PPO.
Rule # 2: No ADRs scheduled less than 8 hours apart unless you are willing to forgo snacks.
Rule # 3: Don’t eat at Hollywood and Vine, unless you are okay with food that might not be great.
Rule # 4: Don’t eat at the same restaurant twice during the same trip unless there is a good reason (i.e. RD Soarin’). Please refer to my top five list on @sanstitre_has_left_the_building’s thread.
I made the following changes to my ADRs based on the rules:
Day 1:
• Crystal Palace 10:20 (never been; love Pooh characters)
• Skipper Canteen 5:00 (never been) – changed from 4:30 – I want this to be an early night so we can be up for 6:00am HS opening. We shall not eat snacks!
Day 4:
• Be Our Guest 10:10 (never been) – changed from 9:20
• Coral Reef 6:25 (been before, I know it doesn’t get great love here, but it’s sentimental, because my son took me here for Mother’s Day brunch using his gift cards when he was in 4th grade, and I’m afraid if I don’t go this trip, it will be torn down before I get back) – moved it later too, to address rule #2.
Day 5:
• Garden Grill PPO (never been; want to RD Soarin’)
• Restaurant Marrakesh 4:15 (never been) – moved it later to address rule # 2.
Day 11:
• Liberty Tree Tavern 11:05 (never been; want to try the salad) – moved this to as early as I could get to address rule #2. I will eat a salad, since I wasn’t 100% successful in addressing this rule. DS17 can eat a lot. All day! Every day!!!
• Be Our Guest 5:25 (MNSSHP night, so will walk out during the party)
The only option to change day 2 is to move the Hollywood and Vine to earlier, which breaks rule #1, which I have determined to be more important than rule #2.
Still open to more suggestions if you have any more!
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We’ve done both before and are trying to do new things this trip. We have three repeats all for good reasons. I was not a fan of Tusker House. I found the character interactions to be very rushed, and most didn’t even come to our table (we were seated in a different section than the other early arrivals, for some reason). We found the food to be fine, but not so great that we can’t miss it. We enjoyed Ohana, but want to try different resorts for resort restaurants, because we like exploring the resorts too (hence Grand Floridian Café).
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I’m with ya on trying different places. Sorry to hear about TH when you went. We did brunch and had a ton to choose from. We had the opposite experience on the characters… We had great interaction and my ds (5) had a blast with all of them.
That is what makes restaurants so hard… Experiences can vary so much form person to person and individual tastes play a big part in it.
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I’m loving your rules!!
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Thanks for capturing these rules. I bet it will help many in their planning.
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Well, I just summarized what I’ve been told, so they’re not my rules. But thank you!
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It’s a great summary!
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your trip, so do what makrs you happy. But the big thing I would avoid is 2 TS restaurants without at least 6 hours in between
As @sanstitre_has_left_the_building said…most wdw restaurants serve a ton of food. if you are not on dining plan, perhaps consider sharing an entree.
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Good thought about sharing an entrée. We may just do that on the days when I couldn’t change things without too much disruption to my other plans.
Just to give you more hope about H&V. It made this top 5 list.
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/best-character-meals-disney-world/
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Just to confuse everything, I had breakfast at H&V and thought it was perfectly fine. Big selection of tasty food, and some kind of make-your-own-sundae bar. Great service. I waved away the Disney Jr character, but got a nice photo with Goofy.
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Hollywood and Vine was my son’s favorite meal for years. He was a chicken and mashed potatoes kid and he loved it there.
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I re-read Rule #3, and I think the wording is still fine, even with these new reviews. Thanks for the additional input.
I made a tweak to my plans based on a discussion with my son. We are going to do the four park challenge on day 10 (day 8 will include a long rest between RD and HEA and day 9 will be a relatively easy Epcot day that ends early), so we dropped both ADRs that day (50s Prime Time and Hollywood and Vine). Then I changed my Fantasmic! package reservation to Hollywood and Vine (I really want to see the seasonal characters) from Hollywood Brown Derby, and dropped my Hollywood and Vine breakfast (we’ll just find someplace to eat breakfast quick service and sit for a while to rest, since it will be a long day.
On the day of the four park challenge, we will start at HS (6:00am RD, then take the boat and RD Epcot, then we will monorail to MK (I made a late lunch ADR at The Plaza), and finish the day at AK.
I feel really good about all of my ADRs now, and I think I’m mostly following the rules. Thanks for all the great input. I’m still open to hearing more if you have more.
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So, in case you’re interested, this is the “final” line-up. Based on my latest change, I dropped from 19 ADRs to 17 ADRs for a 12 day trip. One of those is quick service, and two are dinner packages for shows. And in the final change, I eliminated one duplicate and one repeat, so I’m totally fine with that too. Now, I just need time to speed up a bit until my FPP day…
Day 1:
- Crystal Palace 10:20 (never been; love Pooh characters)
- Skipper Canteen 5:00 (never been)
Day 2:
- Hollywood and Vine Seasonal Characters 4:05 (never been, great opportunity for characters in costume pictures)
Day 3:
- Tiffins 11:50 ROL Package (never been)
Day 4:
- Be Our Guest 10:10 (never been)
- Coral Reef 6:25 (been before, I know it doesn’t get great love here, but it’s sentimental, because my son took me here for Mother’s Day brunch using his gift cards when he was in 4th grade, and I’m afraid if I don’t go this trip, it will be torn down before I get back)
Day 5:
- Garden Grill PPO (never been; want to RD Soarin’)
- Restaurant Marrakesh 4:15 (never been)
Day 6 (no park/water park in am):
- Raglan Road 6:00 (never been)
Day 7 (no park except MNSSHP):
- Grand Floridian Café 1:55 (never been)
Day 8:
- Yak & Yeti 2:15 (favorite restaurant from first trip)
Day 9:
- Garden Grill PPO (second time this trip to RD Soarin’)
- Teppan Edo 4:30 (never been, but love this type of restaurant)
Day 10:
- The Plaza Restaurant 1:45 (never been; four park challenge day – HS 6-8:30, EP 9-11:30, MK 12:30-4:00; AK 5:30-8:00)
Day 11:
- Liberty Tree Tavern 11:05 (never been; want to try the salad)
- Be Our Guest 5:25 (MNSSHP night, so will walk out during the party)
Day 12:
- Rose and Crown 12:30 (never been)
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You really worked your way through this! I know you will have a great time. Let us know what FPP you are doing,when it gets closer. (the waiting is sweet misery). I am really curious, since this post SWGE world is brand new to us. I also think planning a four day challenge would be fun!
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