Opinion on dining selections

[lovemy2girls4eva]

Hi all! Going to Disney for the first time with my daughter, who will be 2.5 at the time of travel. I want to fit in as many character dining as I can but also want to include one for hubby and I to actually enjoy. We are staying at The Contemporary and have the Dining Plan. Here are my thoughts.
Arrival night - Chef Mickey's
Day 1 -MK Day - Crystal Palace lunch (she loves Pooh), back to hotel to nap/swim, Columbia Harbour House dinner
Day 2- Epcot/HS Day - Akershus breakfast, Via Napoli lunch, QS somewhere at Hollywood Studios
Day 3- AK/MK Day - Tusker House breakfast, lunch at Satuli Canteen, Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner (a must for me)
Departure breakfast - Steakhouse 71

Any meals I should add in to this? Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Skippyboo]

How many nights are you staying because you have 7 table service restaurants listed? You only get one TS and 1 QS per night of stay.

 

[Halle]

I would do Cape May Character breakfast on your Epcot day.

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

How many nights are you staying because you have 7 table service restaurants listed? You only get one TS and 1 QS per night of stay.

4 nights. I am going to pay for Via Napoli, LTT and Steakhouse 71 OOP

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

I would do Cape May Character breakfast on your Epcot day.

Ok, thanks! I have never been so I can give it a try!

 

[WinterSolider]

Honestly I think that's way way way too much TS dining for such a short trip. You're not going to have any time to actually DO anything. The actual selections though I won't complain about, they're some of my favorites.

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

Honestly I think that's way way way too much TS dining for such a short trip. You're not going to have any time to actually DO anything. The actual selections though I won't complain about, they're some of my favorites.

True. Which would you eliminate? Also going in August so I thought breaks would be good in the AC lol

 

[Skippyboo]

Ok, thanks! I have never been so I can give it a try!

Cape May is going to have similar characters to chef Mickey’s minus Mickey. You are going to get Princesses if you do Akershus. I would do Docking Bay 7 as your QS in HS . It has a pretty high price point so it’s a good value on dining plan.

I would skip the lunches when you already have breakfast and dinner. You could move Chef Mickey’s to departure day and use QS on arrival day.

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

Cape May is going to have similar characters to chef Mickey’s minus Mickey. You are going to get Princesses if you do Akershus. I would do Docking Bay 7 as your QS in HS . It has a pretty high price point so it’s a good value on dining plan.

Thanks! I will look at the menu for Docking Bay 7.

 

[pixiedust33]

Mostly looks like great choices to me! We just got back from a 5 night stay at the Poly with our 2.5 year old son and we also did at least 1 TS meal a day. We all loved Chef Mickeys and thought it was great! If you haven't been recently, or with a kid, a heads up that when the announcement comes that the characters have to go back to the kitchen (presumably to swap out), they play music and do a little dance party for the kids to participate in, which our son LOVED. Our waiter gave us a heads up on that so he was the first one out there, but some tables seemed confused about what was going and their kids were slow to get to the dance party.

For Columbia Harbour House, if you don't know, definitely head upstairs to eat! It's a hidden quiet gem where most people stay downstairs. We had the place to ourselves, interacted with a lovely cast member and had a great view out the window. Food was fantastic too.

For QS at HS, we loved Docking Bay 7.

I must share though that we had a terrible experience last week with a 10:45 brunch at Crystal Palace in MK though and would never go back. We also went because my son loves Pooh and the other characters and I thought I could handle mediocre food. But the food was outright bad/nearly inedible, the service was incredible slow and inattentive and (most importantly to me) the characters were SO SLOW that we gave up after an hour and 15 minutes when Pooh was still nowhere near us (and we had been sitting there, done with our terrible food and sitting amidst dirty plates for at least half an hour with our increasingly agitated toddler), and left without even seeing Pooh. If you daughter is better than my son at waiting for something for an 1.5 hours, maybe give it a try, but I wished we has just waited to see him at MK or HS.

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

Mostly looks like great choices to me! We just got back from a 5 night stay at the Poly with our 2.5 year old son and we also did at least 1 TS meal a day. We all loved Chef Mickeys and thought it was great! If you haven't been recently, or with a kid, a heads up that when the announcement comes that the characters have to go back to the kitchen (presumably to swap out), they play music and do a little dance party for the kids to participate in, which our son LOVED. Our waiter gave us a heads up on that so he was the first one out there, but some tables seemed confused about what was going and their kids were slow to get to the dance party.

For Columbia Harbour House, if you don't know, definitely head upstairs to eat! It's a hidden quiet gem where most people stay downstairs. We had the place to ourselves, interacted with a lovely cast member and had a great view out the window. Food was fantastic too.

For QS at HS, we loved Docking Bay 7.

I must share though that we had a terrible experience last week with a 10:45 brunch at Crystal Palace in MK though and would never go back. We also went because my son loves Pooh and the other characters and I thought I could handle mediocre food. But the food was outright bad/nearly inedible, the service was incredible slow and inattentive and (most importantly to me) the characters were SO SLOW that we gave up after an hour and 15 minutes when Pooh was still nowhere near us (and we had been sitting there, done with our terrible food and sitting amidst dirty plates for at least half an hour with our increasingly agitated toddler), and left without even seeing Pooh. If you daughter is better than my son at waiting for something for an 1.5 hours, maybe give it a try, but I wished we has just waited to see him at MK or HS.

Thanks for the tips!! Ugh that is so disappointing about not seeing Pooh, that's terrible!

 

[sponica]

I do a lot of TS and with an under 3, it works well. I think your choices are fine and it's a good mix of characters for character dining.

 

[pixiedust33]

Thanks for the tips!! Ugh that is so disappointing about not seeing Pooh, that's terrible!

Of course! It wasn't all bad - he did get to hug and have some sweet interactions with Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger and was happy to at least SEE Pooh across the room. But this restaurant seemed the least organized in terms of spacing out the characters. Chef Mickey's had them spaced out so you got to see one about every 10-15 minutes (plus two little mini dance parties!) and we were done there in just over an hour and he was entertained the whole time. At Crystal Palace, the other three characters were all bunched up and we saw them all back to back almost as soon as we sat down. So then it was basically just an hour of waiting (in vain!) for Pooh. I actually noticed after the fact that, on the Disney website, Crystal Palace actually had a note that you should be prepared to be there for 90 minutes, but that same warning is not on Chef Mickeys or other character dining we did. I don't think Pooh would have even gotten to us in that 90 minutes though. He was still far away when we left, and he was on the other side of the room when we got there, so it wasn't even like he had just missed us. There were a lot of other agitated guests complaining when we left.

 

[migirl]

I agree it’s a lot of TS meals but since your daughter’s meal is free you’ll save a lot of money on your food -unless my understanding is wrong and some restaurants charge if a toddler has her own plate.

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

I do a lot of TS and with an under 3, it works well. I think your choices are fine and it's a good mix of characters for character dining.

Thank you!!

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

Of course! It wasn't all bad - he did get to hug and have some sweet interactions with Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger and was happy to at least SEE Pooh across the room. But this restaurant seemed the least organized in terms of spacing out the characters. Chef Mickey's had them spaced out so you got to see one about every 10-15 minutes (plus two little mini dance parties!) and we were done there in just over an hour and he was entertained the whole time. At Crystal Palace, the other three characters were all bunched up and we saw them all back to back almost as soon as we sat down. So then it was basically just an hour of waiting (in vain!) for Pooh. I actually noticed after the fact that, on the Disney website, Crystal Palace actually had a note that you should be prepared to be there for 90 minutes, but that same warning is not on Chef Mickeys or other character dining we did. I don't think Pooh would have even gotten to us in that 90 minutes though. He was still far away when we left, and he was on the other side of the room when we got there, so it wasn't even like he had just missed us. There were a lot of other agitated guests complaining when we left.

We have Chef Mickey's on our arrival night so I am excited about that!

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

I agree it’s a lot of TS meals but since your daughter’s meal is free you’ll save a lot of money on your food -unless my understanding is wrong and some restaurants charge if a toddler has her own plate.

I believe and I can be wrong that since she is 2 she can eat off of our plate at buffets with no charge.

 

[pixiedust33]

True. Which would you eliminate? Also going in August so I thought breaks would be good in the AC lol

I don't think you have THAT much food planned in here and I agree the AC breaks are key, but if it were me, I would drop Crystal Palace, move Liberty Tree to that day, and save Columbia Harbour House for your QS dinner on your second MK afternoon. I am pro eating all the food, but I do think a Tusker House Breakfast and a Satuli canteen lunch all before nap time on that day may actually be more food than you want to eat, especially if it's really hot. So I would keep Tusker house and then do a QS dinner at MK. Just my two cents.

If there's a festival going on, you might want to drop Via Napoli to free up snacking space around Epcot, too. But also doesn't hurt to book all the TS options now and then see how it's going - you only have to cancel two hours in advance now.

 

[pixiedust33]

I believe and I can be wrong that since she is 2 she can eat off of our plate at buffets with no charge.

Correct! This was our experience. My son also got his own plate and the servers would typically also bring him his own drink for free. For buffets and other "all you care to enjoy" family style meals. It's only if you order a specific kids meal at an a la carte restaurant that you would have to pay something.

 

[lovemy2girls4eva]

Correct! This was our experience. My son also got his own plate and the servers would typically also bring him his own drink for free. For buffets and other "all you care to enjoy" family style meals. It's only if you order a specific kids meal at an a la carte restaurant that you would have to pay something.

Thank you!