So where do we want to eat at WDW?

[crl]

We are tentatively planning a Thanksgiving trip and as you all have pointed out, we can go ahead and make our meal reservations. DS has food allergies (milk, apple, strawberry and mango).

ILs are going so our group will likely be five adults, one seven year old and an infant. It is possible BIL's family will come to, which would add two more adults and two teenagers. I think we would only try to do a few meals with the whole group, most just with our little family--2 adults, 2 kids.

What are favorites? And where would you try to book Thanksgiving dinner?

Thanks!
Catherine

[clc053103]

Are you already past the 180 day mark? I'm thinking no- which is good, because to get some of the most popular restaurants, going on line at 6 am or calling in at 7 am at the 180 mark is really a must!

I'll give you some of my favorites and some ideas for fun in a larger group- as a side note, we don't really do character meals except Chef Mickeys (not the best buffet but it does have the Fab Five).

For a group:
Hoop De Doo Revue - it's really a must do once in your life, with a crowd it would be fun.
'Ohana-at the poly
Cape May Buffet- at the beach club, one of the only buffets I would recommend. It's casual too- with paper on the table and crayons

Other favorites for any size group:
The Plaza in MK- cute little ice cream parlor with great sandwiches, very casual
The WAve- at Contemporary
Kona Cafe- at teh poly- for breakfast in particular
Yak and Yeti- at animal Kingdom
California Grill - at contemporary- it's a signature restaurant, so dress code. Would be nice if the in laws would watch the kids for a date night!!!

for thanksgiving, I would ask the dining reservations line if anyone does anything special. Otherwise, my first thought would be Liberty Tree Tavern in MK for traditional thanksgiving feast.

[crl]

I'm pretty sure we are within the 180 days, my count Is 160 some days at this point. Too bad dh didn't jump on this when I first brought it up a month ago. Oh well. Thanks for the ideas!

Catherine

[fivi2]

The Tusker House breakfast with Donald at Animal Kingdom is our favorite.

If you are desperate, the Grand Floridian Cafe seems to always have spots left for adrs. We ate there a couple years ago and the food was fine. (better than many other Disney meals we had). There isn't a fun theme or anything special, but you could check out the xmas decorations at the Grand Floridian.

[clc053103]

I would go ahead and make them now, as they may be harder to get- and you can always go on line and continue to look for different places, or better times.

the WAve seems to be less in demand the food quality is excellent. And an easy boatride from Wilderness Lodge. In Epcot, certain countries are less popular, like Morocco, but the food gets great reviews!

[alien_host]

It's worth looking at the general menus on www.allears.net to get a sense of what food is served. I'm not sure if you are concerned more with certain foods being on a buffet etc.

For example, the 1900 Park Fare Dinner (Cinderella Story Book) at the Grand Floridian, had a strawberry soup on the buffet and fresh strawberries.

Crystal Palace had cut up fresh apple on the buffet when we were there.

You can always request that your DS' meal be plated in the back to avoid cross-contamination, but I'm not sure what your comfort level is etc. Most buffets probably have a lot of dairy (cheese pizza, mac and cheese, cheese on the salads) but Disney is VERY good at accomodating. They do serve Toffuti and Rice Dream desserts, if your DS eats those. Someone else (I think egoldber might be able to speak to soy milk being available or not as I remember her mentioning it).

For buffets we really liked the 1900 Park Fare Dinner. We also did Crystal Palace dinner and Chef Mickey Breakfast. All were good for character interaction. I didn't love the food at these but I guess we weren't really there for the food. CP was our least favorite food and character wise since it took a long time for each character to visit us (and we skipped piglet after being there for 1 hour and 20 minutes).

We really enjoyed the Wave and the California Grill at the Contemporary. There are no characters there, but it was nice to have a more relaxing meal. I feel very on-edge at character meals, wanting to make sure we don't miss one etc. ;) I can sit and relax at other restaurants more!

Keep in mind, we stayed at the BLT so most of our meals were centered around the resort for our own convenience (Chef Mickey, Wave and Cali Grill). I didn't venture out too much out of MK or MK resorts b/c it was our first time. I was unsure what day we would be at Epcot/DHS etc.

Good luck!

[crl]

Thank you!

Fortunately, ds milk allergy is mild. And his strawberry, mango and apple allergies are actually oral allergy syndrome. So I'm not very concerned about cross contamination.

I really appreciate the suggestions and help! We are going to try to finalize dates and resort today and make reservations this week.

Catherine

[alien_host]

DH has oral allergy syndrome for apple. You should do fine at WDW, I just made it a practice to note allergies on the ADR, mention it to the person checking us in (they always said, "I see that here" and then to the waitstaff as well. Honestly it was a great experience, I wish we lived closer as I'd be eating at WDW all the time.

PS I also answered your PM, probably more info than you want/need.;)

[hillview]

Our favorite places (we did 8 days with deluxe dining). Honesty most meals were find wrt food but nothing great so my reviews are more based on the atmosphere:

Coral Reef -- in Epcot
Garden Grill -- in Epcot -- good character interaction
Wave -- Contemporary
Tusker House -- AKL -- good characters @ the breakfast food is a buffet and so so
Chef Mickey's -- fun characters (see we like the characters) food is a buffet
Hoop de doo is a must do IMO. Food is good but the performance is very fun.
Ohana' Breakfast -- DSs loved Stitch and the Pluto there rocks
Agree the GF Cafe was better than average food and nice
Also the castle breakfast was a fun experience
/hillary