I apologize in advance for all of the randomness this post will hold, but I needed somewhere other than notes and calendars on my phone to help myself remember all.this.stuff!
Places we ate (time of day and rating)
*We made reservations for all of our seated meals.
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, Epcot (Norway), Character dining
We ate here for dinner, and it was my favorite princess venue. I actually liked it better than Cinderella’s Royal Table as far as actual interaction with the princesses, and it’s my understanding that it’s easier to get reservations here, at least it was for us! Food was just so so. It’s Norwegian food, so it’s not your everyday fare. It did have a nice salad bar and a large basket of bread that could hold your kids (or you) over if you didn’t just love the menu items.
Upon arrival, we were able to have our picture made with Belle (I’m not sure if they change this princess up or if it’s always Belle), and they give you copies of the picture before you leave. Each princess also stops by your table for picture taking and autograph signing. At the end, the princesses gather up the children and parade around the room. We saw the following princesses: Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella, and Jasmine.
Liberty Tree Tavern, Magic Kingdom, Liberty Square
We ate here for lunch. The food was good, and according to this blogger they have the best hamburgers at any Disney property.
Spirit of Aloha, Polynesian Resort
We ate here for dinner. This venue is dinner and a show, so it takes up two meals on your meal plan. Matt and I enjoyed the food (typical luau food) and performances, the kids not so much. The show lasted almost 2 hours, which was part of the reason the kids didn’t love it. I think we will place this on the “been there, done that’” list. Although, if you are going sans the kiddos, or you think your child would like that sort of thing, it might be worth it.
Hollywood & Vine, Hollywood Studios, Character dining
Oddly enough, this was probably my favorite character meal. We ate here for breakfast, and breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, so that might partially explain it! The food was buffet style and had all of your standard breakfast foods, including Mickey-shaped waffles!
This was a very active breakfast. The characters were taken straight from your favorite Disney Channel shows (As a side note, I specifically booked this character meal to balance out the plethora of princess viewings for Walker, and it certainly fit the bill!!!), and the entire breakfast featured interactive songs and such in which the kids could participate.
The characters all came by the table for pictures and autographs. We saw Oso the bear, Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, June from Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny.
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, Hollywood StudiosI booked this venue for myself. How’s that for selfish! It just sounded like fun, and honestly I really enjoyed it! We ate here for lunch. The tables are “cars” in a drive in movie style. The room is large and dark. The atmosphere is quiet (just like at the movies), and well, it was just a nice departure from all of the activity that is Disney World. I also thought the food was pretty good, probably one of the best meals I had (remember Disney World food as a whole, in my opinion, is average, so that’s not saying much). The only thing I was disappointed with is I read the drinks have glow in the dark ice. I thought, how cool (for the kids, of course), but alas, a la Disney, glow in the dark ice was only included in “specialty drinks.” Although, in hind sight, it would have been worth the extra money!
Cinderella’s Royal Table, Magic Kingdom, Character dining
I was only able to get reservations for two during our time in Disney, so Kathryn and I made a girls’ outing of it. We ate here for lunch, and the food was enjoyable but nothing to write home about. It was French inspired, if that tells you anything? I enjoyed the one on one time with Kathryn, but in my opinion, I liked the princess dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall better.
This was very similar in that you have your picture taken with Cinderella upon arrival, and you get to take a picture home with you. They also hand out wands to the girls and swords to the boys (they even let us take a sword for Walker), and they give each child a wishing star (everyone stops and makes a wish at the same time, and this happened to be Kathryn’s favorite part).
At this meal, we saw Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Ariel.
Garden Grille, Epcot, Character dining
We ate here for dinner. The platform that you are sitting on subtly rotates during the entire meal, and the food is served family style. The kiddos really enjoyed meeting Farmer Mickey, Chip and Dale and Pluto. I thought the food was good, but this was our last meal at Disney, and by this point we were stuffed. We even passed on dessert here! It was actually a pretty healthy meal—salad, grilled/roasted meats and vegetables.
I have to admit, most of these restaurants offered your standard American foods (well except for the Norwegian and French food) that are mild in flavor. By the end of our visit, I was desperate for some Mexican food or even Italian. So, next time, I think we will spice it up a bit with one of these restaurants: Tony’s Town Square Restaurant (Main Street, Magic Kingdom), San Angel Inn (Epcot, Mexico) or Teppan Edo (Epcot, Japan).
As for our favorite counter service restaurants, Casey’s Corner (Main Street, Magic Kingdom) is definitely the winner! Matt also enjoyed Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe (Frontierland, Magic Kingdom). We will probably do more counter service dining on our next trip!
Character Viewing
The kid in me had to include this because when I went to WDW for the first time as a 10 year old, seeing the characters was my most memorable part of the trip!
I thought the character meals were perfect venues for this because you are assured that each character at the meal will stop at your table plus you don’t have to stop and take time to stand in line throughout the parks , if you don’t want to.
In addition to the character meals, here are a few other great ways to capture lots of characters at one time…
- Town Square Theater…Meet ‘n Greet experiences with Mickey and Minnie and the Disney Princesses. This allows you one on one time with the characters and best of all there are Fast Passes!!! Also, Tinkerbell and the other fairies have a nook in Adventureland and Rapunzel has her on Fairytale Garden in Fantasyland.
- Of course, in each of the “lands” there were characters stationed throughout…Peter Pan was right outside The Crystal Palace (Main Street) on several occasions. Alice and the White Rabbit were beside the teacups (Fantasyland). Buzz Lightyear was outside of his Space Ranger Spin (Tomorrowland). Woody and Jessie were standing at the exit of Splash Mountain (Frontierland). We even spotted Ariel and Eric at Tinkerbell’s Magic Nook (Adventureland). As you can see, the list could go on and on!
- Above mentioned are all at Magic Kingdom. Epcot also features its own Character Spot. Everytime we passed by the traditional characters were there: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald.
There is also a TIMES GUIDE that can be picked up as you enter the park. It will list character greetings, dining, show and attraction times.
I will end it with these last two thoughts (although I could go on and on and on…I’m sure you get the picture:)
FASTPASS--Ahhhh…the fastpass. Disney in the world of fastpasses truly is magical!!! In short, these passes allow you to enter a separate (and MUCH SHORTER) wait line than those without fastpasses. This truly makes waiting in line so much more enjoyable, especially with kiddos!
Undercover Tourist----A FREE app for your iphone that allows you to see the wait times at all of the parks’ attractions. Invaluable! You will soon start speaking the lingo…green, yellow, red. IT’s addicting. Matt and I still find ourselves checking out ride times just for the fun of it. Yea, we are nerdy like that!
