I asked my daughter which she preferred and it was Coral Reef, hands down.
I know what you mean about dairy - I’m allergic to shellfish so coral reef is somewhat limiting for me too!
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My kids did great at TS meals last fall. It was actually a nice break from the busyness of the park for all of us. I recommend keeping them fueled with snacks & following their lead if you need to slow down. It goes a long way to keeping everyone happy, including Mom!
I would do character meals with the whole family. It definitely helps keep the kids’ attention & occupies them. If you want to see the Fab5, then I would do Chef Mickeys. The characters were great & the food was fine. Not spectacular, but not awful by any means. The dessert bar was a huge hit with my oldest! Another option would be to do Hollywood & Vine for lunch or dinner. Mickey & Minnie would be in their Christmas attire in December which could be fun. Food quality is about the same as Chef Mickey’s IMO.
We enjoyed Akershus breakfast last year & the princesses are different than at Bon Voyage. We also really loved Crystal Palace in MK last trip as well.
We loved doing late breakfast character meals. Spend 2-3 hours touring the parks, take a break at a character meal to refuel, then back out for a few more hours of touring before taking a break. Also, breakfast is cheaper 
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I haven’t done either but from what I have read I chose 1900 PF for us.
I understand the desire to make the right choices but really you aren’t going to know if something else would have been better. There were a couple of places DH and I were less thrilled with last trip but DD loved them all.
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Similar to, but better than, how they did at restaurants at home at the time in just about every respect. We did often have Grandpa or Opa take the 1yo out bc both were done but that worked well. No shrieking from 1yo which was his bad habit we were working on prior to the trip.
I know this doesn’t help with your requirements as such
BUT
We went to the place inside of wilderness lodge called the Whispering Canyon Cafe with my little one. It was loud, messy, raucous and a whole lot of fun.
They had the kids riding around on pretend horses, singing, shouting and having a great time when someone asked for Ketchup… Everyone was generally having a fun time there and it doesn’t take itself seriously. The servers are amazingly chilled out and will do everything they can to make it fun
Watch some youtube videos and see what they get up to 
I’d suggest it at least once with the little ones!
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I’d love to make it out there! I just don’t think it’s in the cards for this trip…
Yeah, it’s basically only a real option if you are visiting MK on that day and can catch the boat over. Or you are staying at the lodge
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WCC is changing, it’s not clear yet if everything will stop but it seems pretty sure that there will be no more yelling, and a CM there told a liner that the ketchup thing wouldn’t be done anymore.
I saw this. So sad!
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To be honest we avoid anything like that - we’ve never done 50s either. DS would hate it.
I wouldn’t do something like this now…my youngest two would not have fun. But maybe in five or so years…maybe then. But not now for sure. I want them to enjoy their meal, not be traumatized by it!
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We did several TS meals on our recent trip with kids 4, 7, and 9. We did TS lunches, so they were ready to sit and rest for awhile and were pretty well behaved, especially at the character meals. I was concerned those would take at least 90 minutes or more, but I was happily surprised that we were in, saw characters quickly and early on, and were out in about 60-70 minutes at CRT, H&V, TH, and Bon Voyage. I liked the food at TH and Bon Voyage the best. We did Coral Reef on our 1st day, and my kids were kind of whiny and not into it at that point ( the reality of disney vs the commercials seemed to have kicked in at that point - having to wait for things!). We were not sitting where they could see the tank, so that was disappointing. I’d probably choose somewhere else next time. They also didn’t love the kids meal options there. They do give you a paper kids menu and crayons to color at each restaurant.
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Thanks for this! So helpful since our kids are practically the same ages (mine will be 4.5, turning 7 on the trip, and almost 9).
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It’s not frightening at all. my little one was 4 when she went and there were a tonne of younger little ones there. It really was a great time.
It’s a shame they are getting rid of the atmosphere, we really enjoyed it and found that it got the kids up and interested and got to have fun in an area where families would normally tell them to sit and be quiet.
I just have two kids that don’t really like strangers, being teased, etc. One of my kids would love it but the other two would just snuggle close to me and look at their food. Hopefully they’ll grow out of it a little but for now I did decide that 50s Prime Time, for example, wasn’t even an option for us this trip. WCC is too far out of the way to make an effort to get there when I think two of my kids wouldn’t enjoy it, you know? Hopefully one day we’ll get to try it, with or without antics!
That’s a fair call. Sorry if it sounded like I was being pushy, each person knows their own kids better than anyone else
My little one was quite similar (not so much any more but back when we went she was pretty reserved and timid) so that’s why I wanted to re-iterate it was more like a playgroup activity to her rather than a bunch of shouting adults BUT as I said, you are the best person to know about your kids
We also went into the TS place outside of Animal Kingdom (Rainforest Cafe) and that was AMAZING. just walking around the toy store and looking at the fish etc had my little one in wonder
I think we’re going to just do dessert at Rainforest Cafe on our way out of AK on our RD day there. I want them to see it…not sure I want to have a whole TS meal there! I figure that dessert is a good compromise!
I didn’t think you were being pushy, no worries! There are so many dining options and so many are good. It’s hard to find the best and I think when we have a good experience we want others to have the same. WCC sounds awesome if they still do the antics…I really hope to try it out one day!