Hi all-we will be going to Disney in May. I am trying to get my reservations put together as our Agent wants to book our events when the 180-day mark, which is in November so, I have been working hard. We are a family of 4. We LOVE to eat. We are doing the deluxe dining plan and I know it is A LOT of eating but it’s the only time I will get my girls to slow down, eat, and be in air conditioning and we are good with that. We will not be waiting in many character lines because our girls do not love characters just the princesses and do not want to do character meals with the exception of 1900 Park fare and CRT so we have many options! Hubs and I have not been there in about 15 years and my girls ever. Hubs and I LOVE all kinds of food. We love Indian, authentic and good quality food but are on a very tight budget so this trip we would like to LIVE it up and eat well. As long as there is a kids menu that has pizza, marinara dish, chicken strips or mac and n cheese my girls will be fine ANYWHERE. They are picky but will eat anywhere as long as they have a choice of the above foods ;) They are well behaved and love restaurants. Please leave suggestions below that you think would be great for us to do. I am fine with signature restaurants and regular; just do not want to oop so it has to be on the plan Thanks for all and any input!
They do princesses meals at Akerhus (Norway) in Epcot and they are not as crowded or as difficult to get a reservation as they are in Magic Kingdom.
If they love the princesses then do dinner at The Cinderella Castle. Wonderful menu- the kids menu had everything you mentioned above and all of the princesses come right to your table! When you 1st go in you get your pic taken with Cinderella and then you are escorted to your table.
Some of our favorites include Artist Point (at the Wilderness Lodge), the California Grill (at the top of the Contemporary Resort - Great for fireworks viewing!), Ohana (Polynesian Resort), and Boma (Animal Kingdom Resort). Happy dining, and have a great trip!
Narcoosee's is nice. It's two credits. If you go have her schedule it late so you can see the fireworks over the castle. One of our favorite desserts was at t-Rex cafe and it IS on the dining plan. Our agent didn't know that. Have fun.
Ohana (Polynesian)
Boma (Animal Kingdom)
Le Cellier (Epcot)
We also like the sit down restaurant at all the moderate and delux resorts
Go to Allears.net. Everything you want to know about Disney. All the menus for all restaurants
I would pick one or two places in Epcots world showcase. You can pick up chicken nuggets or something at one of the stands for you kids and bring it in with you. I always pack something for my daughter (even at 6) if she doesn’t like the food at one of the restaurants. Our favorite is Germany, but you might like Morocco. They all should offer something for the kids, but mine can be very picky.
There's a restaurant in The Magic Kingdom that is a buffet and has characters who come around to the tables. The food is good. I'd make sure you go to it. I can't remember what it's called.
Here's a warning, in hopes it helps you. You have to put up a deposit to go to these popular fine dining establishments. They will charge you this if you don't come. I changed the night I went to one in Epcot and they charged me the $50 fee ANYWAY, after promising me that they would delete the charge. I spent over an hour on the phone trying to straighten this out, and every single person I talked to was useless in getting it fixed. So that dinner cost me $50 I shouldn't have had to pay.
You will also need to pay a tip every night on top what you've paid for the meal plan. The Disney unions were able to change the previous way of the tip being part of the meal plan, and now all that food that your kids don't eat, like appetizers and desserts and drinks are part of the jacked-up total at the end of which the 15% tip is calculated from. And OH YEAH, the server will PUSH you to take that food that the kids won't eat because this is how they get a bigger tip out of you.
I'd say NO to the extra food to keep the total lower, even though you aren't paying the total. Argue with the server if they keep pushing.
Have a good time on your vacation!
Dawn
We went when my kids were 5 and 9 and found the food plan to be terrific. We also enjoyed all the food and if your family likes Chinese food, we enjoyed that restaurant in Epcot. My advice for the character/princess dinners. Double check at the place where you want to dine that the princesses will be there at the meal you want. At the time of year we went (January), the princesses are only at breakfast and lunch at the Royal Castle and we were quite disappointed to find that dinner did not have the princesses--just the fairy godmother and mice. We had skipped lines in the park to get signatures because we thought we'd get more personal visits at the dinner. This was a couple of years ago and may be seasonal but definitely double check!
I don't know about in May, but if you love to eat, try to make plans in the future to go to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival which takes place in October/November every year. So. Good. And you can use dining credits on it.
