Restaurants

The wonderful thing about WDW is you can any and every kind of cuisine imaginable! And most restaurants are covered under the Disney Dining Plan. Tip: Before making a reservation, always check the latest Disney Dining Plan guide to make sure the restaurant you have chosen is covered under the Dining Plan. Also, reservations can be made 180 days in advance.

The other beauty of having such variety of cuisine and a Disney Dining Plan is that you can eat at restaurants that you may not have thought of.

Any themed restaurant has the décor and uniforms that go with that theme.

Here are some quick descriptions/reviews of table service restaurants that I have dined at over the years. All of the restaurants I have dined at have been good.

Magic Kingdom:

·         Liberty Tree Tavern (Liberty Square) – Old Colonial food such as pot roast and turkey.

·         Crystal Palace – Character Dining with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. Buffet style

·         Cinderella’s Royal Table – Character Dining with Cinderella and the princesses (and occasionally a prince). Seated meal – you get a choice of about 4 options for your meal

EPCOT:

·         Coral Reef (Future World – Living Seas) – The atmosphere alone is worth it! As you sit in the dining room, you can gaze into the huge tank containing fish, turtles and rays. There is a card on the table to help you identify the different animals.

·         Le Cellier Steakhouse (Canada Pavillon) – Reservations are a must! I had a $65 steak, which was absolutely delicious!

·         Nine Dragons Restaurant (China Pavillon) – Upscale Chinese food.

Hollywood Studios:

·         50’s Prime Time Café – When you walk into this restaurant you feel like you are walking into your grandmother’s house! Everything is decorated in 50’s style and they have clips of old black & white 50’s sit coms playing on old TVs in each dining area. The waiter/waitress will make you set your place at the table, makes sure you washed your hands and makes you keep your elbows off the table!! And the dessert menu is on a View Finder!

·         Hollywood and Vine – Buffet with the Disney Jr characters. During Star Wars weekends, character dinner with Mickey as Luke Skywalker, Minnie as Princess Leia, Donald as a storm trooper and Goofy as Vader

·         Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano – Wonderful Italian food!

·         Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre – You walk into the dining area and it is set up like an old school drive in. The tables are cars and are pointed towards a drive in screen playing scenes from cheesy Science Fiction movies. This is also where they have a Star Wars breakfast with Darth Vader and Boba Fett during Star Wars weekends in May and June

 Animal Kingdom:

·         Tusker House – Wonderful buffet that includes American classics as well as African inspired dishes. Both breakfast and lunch are character dining with Mickey and Friends

Downtown Disney:

·         Planet Hollywood – After you eat, you can enjoy walking around and viewing different movie props and costumes from different movies

·         Raglan Road Irish Pub and restaurant – Irish food and Irish beer. Occasionally they have live Irish music as well

·         Rainforest Café – Feel like you are eating in the jungle with animatronic animals in every section. Every 20 minutes there is a rain storm, but don’t worry, you won’t get wet. You will hear the thunder and see the lights flashing as if it were lightening

·         T-REX – Similar to Rainforest Café except with dinosaurs! If you are or you have a dinosaur lover, you must eat here!! Animatronic dinosaurs with cards that have a brief description of that dinosaur. Every 20 minutes there is a meteor shower (like Rainforest Café with their rain storm) Definitely make reservations! If not, the wait times are ridiculous!

 

Also, menus are always available online so you can see if the food options are something that you would like. If you go to https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/ and select a restaurant link, there is a link to the right that says "Show Menu". At the top of the menu page, you can select which meal menu you would like to view (breakfast, lunch or dinner)

Character Dining

If you’re like me and you love seeing the characters and getting pictures with them, then character dining is for you!

Character dining is having a meal and the character make the rounds around the room and stop at each table for photo and signature ops. Disney has all kinds of character dining! My favorites are any meal with Mickey Mouse or the princesses.

I have two preferences for dining with Mickey. The first one is Chef Mickey’s which is in the Contemporary. Mickey and friends are dressed in chef and waiter/waitress uniforms. You need to make reservations well in advance as reservations book up fast!!

The other is the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. Mickey and friends are dressed in their safari best. This is an excellent second option if you can’t get reservations to Chef Mickey’s. There is also the Cape May Café in the Beach Club Resort where Mickey and friends are in their beachwear. These are the ones I have dined at. All are buffets. Tip: If you see the characters getting close to your table, you may want to wait for that next trip to the buffet or the bathroom because there is a chance they will pass by your table if no one is there. You can speak to the cast member that is with Mickey or the other characters to make sure that your table is not missed.

When it comes to dining with the princesses, Cinderella’s Royal Table in the castle at Magic Kingdom is the best! And also the hardest to get a reservation for! I have had the privilege of dining inside the castle for breakfast on a few different occasions. If you have the Disney Dining plan it will cost you 2 table services, but I would recommend doing it at least once just for the experience! The experience comes with a Photo of you and Cinderella. You actually meet her before you head up to the dining area to be seated.  (this photo will be included in the Memory Maker package if you choose to purchase the memory maker)

Once seated you have a few different breakfast food options to choose from. It is a seated meal. As you eat your breakfast, each princess is formally announced as they enter the dining area and begin making their rounds. Princesses I have met have been Cinderella of course, Belle, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Jasmine and Snow White

There is another dining experience for the princesses. In EPCOT’s Norway pavilion the Akershus Royal Banquet is a buffet in which you can meet the princesses.

There is also the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom for Winnie the Pooh and his 100 Acre Woods friends. This is also a buffet.

There are other character experiences as well, such as breakfast with Mary Poppins or tea time with Alice in Wonderland at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian; breakfast with Lilo and Stitch at Ohana in the Polynesian resort; Disney Jr. characters in Hollywood & Vine in Hollywood Studios; among others.

Regardless on which character dining experience you want, I would highly recommend calling for reservations! You can try online reservations first and if unsuccessful, don’t give up…Call!

 

Also, menus are always available online so you can see if the food options are something that you would like. If you go to https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/ and select a restaurant link, there is a link to the right that says "Show Menu". At the top of the menu page, you can select which meal menu you would like to view (breakfast, lunch or dinner)

Magic Bands Part 2

If you have not been to Disney in some time, they have done away with "Key to the World" and are now replaced by Magicbands. It still contains the same information as your Key to the World except it is a band around your wrist. 

Prior to your visit, you can customize your Magicband by choosing your color and having your name printed on the inside of your band. Once you get to Disney you can purchase accessories for your band. They have charms, slider charms and slip covers. 

Your Magicband is your room key, park pass, Dining Plan, Photo Pass (Memory Maker) and you can link a credit card to make purchases in the park to charge against your room.

I loved the Magicband! No fear that I was going to lose a card and no more fumbling through your things to find a card. It's on your wrist. It was so easy! And no worries that someone could just use yours. You set up a PIN that is associated with your band and must use the PIN if you are using it for anything monetary. And to get into the parks, on the first day you use your finger print and have to use the same finger each time you enter a park.

Also the band is waterproof.

And the off chance that you have an allergic reaction, you can get a card instead. 

With the Magicband you can make Fastpass selections prior to even getting to Disney! You are allowed 3 per day. And after you use those 3 you can go to a kiosk and make another selection, which is a rolling selection. What this means is once you utilize the rolling selection then you can make another and so on. 

You will want to download the app My Disney Experience**. You can make changes on the go to your Fastpass selections. If you are unable to download the app, you can go to a kiosk to change your selections.

I found it very easy to make changes to selections. 

**My Disney Experience is a very helpful app to have while you are in Disney. It provides up-to-date wait times for rides, show times, park hours, etc.