Disney Dining... Part One

Ok, as promised here is your Disney Dining Post!  Actually, I'm going to split this up into three different posts because I thought yesterday's was a little long and kind of all over the place and there is a lot of information to go in here.  So, today I will tell you a little about the Disney Dining Plan and why we love it so much and then I will review the restaurants we've eaten in that are in the parks.  Tomorrow I will review the resort restaurants and there are many more of them than ones we've tried in the parks!  And lastly I will go over some of the not-so-ordinary quick service meals that are available, especially if you are deciding not to do the dining plan.

So on with it...

First off, we just discovered the dining plan and how amazing it is on our Christmas trip.  It is not something new and those of you who have been to Disney a bunch of times already know about it and how to use it.  For those of you who have not used it or don't have any idea how it works, then listen up!  If you book a Magic Your Way Package (room and tickets for each night of your stay at Disney), you can add the Disney Dining Plan.  There are different tiers of the dining plan, but we just use the standard one and it works great!

For about $40/person per day of your trip, you get one quickservice meal, one table service meal and one snack.  Trust me, that is all the food you will need in a day!  When we used this over Christmas, I think we brough home about 4 mickey rice krispy treats that counted as "Snacks" because we had to get rid of them before we left! 

Ok, getting into the basics.  Some of you are probably like "what in the world is a quickservice/table service?"  I like to refer to quick service as "kennywood food."  Standard burger, hot dog, chicken nuggets and fries and pizza.  Although, there are other options that I will go over in the third blog of disney dining.  Table service are basically sit-down resteraunts, located across Disney property and there is honestly some restaurant that every single person would love!  They are so diverse and all of them wonderful.  In this category, however, you have to be careful because a handful of table service restaurants are "signature dining" experiences.  For these restaurants, you will need to use 2 table service points.  The other cool thing about the dining plan is that you can use as many points as you want on any day, you just will have to borrow from other days.  So, if you want to do a signature dining, you will just not be able to do a table service another night.  If you're coming for the wedding, this works out perfectly because you could do a signature dining and just use the points that you would have used from the wedding night, since we will be feeding you!  This is definately what we are doing!

One big thing is that reservations for restaurants can be made 180 days in advance, so if you have your heart set on dining in Cinderella's Castle, those reservations need to be made at the 180 day mark!  We're not quite there yet, but I'm just putting it on your radar!  Even though we are getting married in value season where the crowds will be small, it is marathon weekend, so there will be a little more activity than normal so you are going to want to make reservations in advance.  They can be made by calling 407-wdw-dine or online.  Of course you can always call me and I will help too!

Now that you understand how dining works, or at least have the basics, here are some reviews and suggestions!

We'll start with the Magic Kingdom.  The only restaurant that we have eaten in there is the Plaza.  It overlooks the castle and is a diner-style setting that serves mostly burgers.  We ate there when we lived down there and liked that it overlooked the Castle and Main Street while the parade was going on.  In all honesty, not worth it.  The food was a half-step up at best from quick service and the atmosphere is not that great.  We both agree that we would never eat there again.  Sorry to start off on such a negative note!  We are hoping for much better MK dining when we are there in July!

Epcot

San Angel Inn (Mexico) -- We have eaten here on every trip we've taken!  We love this restaurant.  It has a really cool "outside" feel, even though it is in a building.  It is extremely romantic and the food is great and the margaritas are amazing!  They serve chips and dip as you are waiting for your meal and it is overall a great experience and one we will continue to enjoy on every trip.  It's also the kind of restaurant you don't really need a reservation for.  In fact, we have never had a reservation to eat there, especially for lunch.  And since they serve chips and dip, you can get away with splitting two appitizers as your lunch!  Overall, one of our favorites!

Coral Reef -- This is the restaurant probably most showcased on every show you've ever watched that went to Disney World.  Most notably in Full House, this is where Jesse and Joey do their underwater radio broadcast and Danny attempts to propose to Vicki.  I have been here three times.  On my very first trip to Disney World in 6th grade, on a trip my mom and I took while I was in college for a few days and this is where Kevin and I shared our Christmas dinner this past year.  Another winner.  The atmosphere is amazing with the floor-to-ceiling aquarium and the food is just as great.  Of course we had seafood and it was wonderful.  A definate recommendation.

Hollywood Studios

50's Prime Time Cafe -- Amy and I went here on one of my solo trips and it is ok.  The portions are large and the food is good and the decor is amazing.  The only thing I didn't like was that the "atmosphere" is supposed to represent life in the 50's and you get yelled at by your "mother/waitress" for not eating your green beans, have to stand up and be embarassed and get told you aren't allowed to order dessert.  That's just not the kind of thing I prefer to pay for.  Now, my experience was great (i.e. neither one of us got yelled at!) but we did witness another table getting scolded!  If that's your thing or you think it's funny, the food is worth it, very homestyle!

Hollywood and Vine -- This was another one of our favorites from our Christmas trip.  It's a buffet located right next to 50's Prime Time Cafe.  The food is great and we really enjoyed ourselves.  They serve a little bit of everything, so it was nice to eat some fresh fruit and salad in addition to our prime rib!  All of the food was fresh and hot and they were constantly swapping food out so it never sat around long, which is a common problem with buffets.  This is one we will be returning to in the future for sure!

That wraps up our parks restaurant tour.  As you can see, we don't eat in the parks all that much.  The resort restaurants are much better and most of them are more fun!  Tomorrow I will review the eight resort restaurants that we've tried!