Not-to-Miss Restaurants? Family of 4, 2 six year olds.

[MaskedRose86]

This will be our first visit with our twin girls, who will be 6 years old when we go (Sept 2018). We probably won't be making another trip to DW until they are in middle school or high school. We will be there for 8 days.

Which restaurants/meals are not to be missed?

So we are probably only going to be doing 1 table service meal per day. Possibly 2 if we do a character breakfast/brunch.

I don't want to do more than 2 character meals. I would prefer places with a better food experience (aka: we will probably pass on chef Mickey's ).

 

[stickeymouse]

Tusker House for your character meal! Don't waste your time with Chef Mickey's or Hollywood and Vine.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We did 1900 Park Fare at Grand Floridian, food was good and characters at dinner were great. It's Cinderella, Prince Charming, Cinderella's step sisters and her step mom. Anastasia and Drizella, the step sisters are a riot and all the characters are very entertaining. We enjoyed the meal. Nice variety, all the food is very fresh, hot and tasty. The only bad item was the kids pizza, it had tasted like it sat out for hours and was flavorless. Our only real complaint at this meal was our reservation was delayed. But I suppose a buffet and waiting on characters to circle the whole room can slow it up. We also did Ohana's breakfast at the Polynesian and saw Stitch, Lilo, Mickey and Pluto. We loved this meal. Breakfast is all you care to enjoy and they serve it family style so no getting up from your table. Food is great and service was wonderful. My girls are 8 & 10 and they had a blast. They got to meet everyone and dance around too. We also did Le Cellier at Epcot (would not recommend this meal with young kids), no real atmosphere here. Just a straight up nice steakhouse. Food is good, some nice beer samplers but really it's not for kids. I feel like it would be better suited for adults only since it's not themed. Although don't miss the grounds up to Le Cellier in Canada, very pretty landscaping and worth a photo stop. We did Be Our Guest @ MK for breakfast and we liked that. Would have preferred lunch or dinner but that was the only ADR we could get. Food was great and we LOVED the castle!! And lastly we did lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern @ MK for lunch, we all liked that too. We did the a la carte ordering and the food was very tasty. We ate a late lunch here at 2:30pm and when we were wrapping up, the parade was right in front of the tavern. Good food and good service.

 

[princessofcs]

Raglan Road in Downtown Disney is a great choice! The food is awesome, and they have Irish dancers that often invite the kids in the audience up on stage with them. I'd also recommend Be Our Guest and 50s Prime Time Diner.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

For characters meals, I would pick 2 of the following: CRT or Akershus (we prefer Akershus, but if you want the "castle" experience, do CRT), Tusker House (best character meal, IMHO), 1900 Park Fare breakfast (good food, great variety of characters).

For great experiences, I would do O'hana (good food, fun interactive games for the kids), Sci-Fi (ok, not great food, but the theming is incredible). Perhaps consider a dinner show, we prefer HDDR, but SOA is fun, too.

 

[shellyj]

Even one table service a day might still feel like a lot so don't feel like you have to squeeze in more than you really want. That got to be too much for my group. Now we do a special meal on our arrival night, TS like every other day, only 1 or 2 of those are character meals. The kids really have to be on their best behavior at a TS, there is often a wait, and we all start feeling like we'd rather spend more of that time in the park. Many of the QS places have really nice food, it's not fast food, lots of great choices without needing a reservation to plan around.

AK has the best food, imo. Another vote for Tusker House! Great food and the BEST character interactions.
Not TS, but we also love the Yak and Yeti QS and Restaurantsaurus

Sci-Fi is so fun, we order apps and shakes because we don't love their entrees. We are a big group and we tip our server well so they don't lose out so many seats taken up with a lower bill

Liberty Tree Tavern is probably the only MK TS we've repeated. BOG is a cool experience, but the food doesn't blow me away. I would recommend doing QS lunch instead of TS dinner unless you really want to meet the Beast.

Epcot is 2nd best for food. Garden Grill is good and probably 2nd best character interactions.
We really enjoyed breakfast at Akershus, but only worth the price if the kids really love princesses.

We LOVE Boma at AKL and it's well worth visiting to see the resort. TH is pretty similar so if you want to visit both, I'd suggest breakfast at TH, dinner at Boma.

 

[Minniemoo15]

Our favourites with kids:

MK:
Be Our Guest (breakfast for early park entry, or dinner)

Epcot:
Biergarten (my girls love dancing on the stage and the atmosphere is so pretty)

Hollywood Studios:
Sci-Fi Diner

Animal Kingdom:
Tusker House

Disney Springs:
Raglan Road (so much fun and really yummy food. Ask for a view of the stage)

Others..
-Ohana
-Sanaa lunch (love watching the animals as we eat)
-Cape May Cafe Breakfast

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

My parents have been taking my twin sister and I to Disney since we were 6! I'm almost 23 now

These are some of the places I actually remember enjoying as a child:

The Crystal Palace. Pooh and friends spent a lot of time with us and we have a video of me trying to put my Mickey ears on Tigger

Cinderella's Royal Table.. so many good pictures of us with the princesses and I remember just being amazed by them and getting them to sign my autograph book

Akershus: we only did this one a couple of times for breakfast, but I remember the princesses here too

Tusker House: has always been a family favorite to see Mickey and friends in Safari gear

Sci-Fi: Used to be my favorite restaurant as a kid. I LOVED eating in the cars

Be sure to take lots of pictures I treasure the pictures of me and my sister at Disney when we were little.. plus I'm having a wedding at Disney World in April so I plan on using a lot of my old pictures of me at Disney.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I see a lot of places I would pick mentioned like 1900 Park Fare, Ohana and Sci Fi. Let me add Whisper Canyon Cafe. Your girls are the right age for stick pony races.

 

[Disneypapa]

Hoop De Do at Wilderness campground and O'Hana at the Polynesian Resort would be great choices for six year olds.

 

[robl45]

This will be our first visit with our twin girls, who will be 6 years old when we go (Sept 2018). We probably won't be making another trip to DW until they are in middle school or high school. We will be there for 8 days.

Which restaurants/meals are not to be missed?

So we are probably only going to be doing 1 table service meal per day. Possibly 2 if we do a character breakfast/brunch.

I don't want to do more than 2 character meals. I would prefer places with a better food experience (aka: we will probably pass on chef Mickey's ).

Chef Mickeys has the most characters, its a great deal on the dining plan, food sucks though. If they like the princess, you could do CRT, its pricey for what you get though and if your kids like french fries they are out of luck.

I would schedule whispering Canyon at wilderness lodge. Kids love that place.

 

[Allie B]

When my daughter was 5 we did chef mickeys and CRT. She still talks about chef mickeys and wants to go back. I didn't the think the food was too horrible but we were paying for the experience with the characters.

This time we are trying ohanas breakfast and 1900 park fare.

If your daughters watch Disney jr. then Hollywood and vine breakfast is a must! They will meet Sophia, doc, and Jake. The children are also invited to get up and dance. Great experience!

 

[Tigger's ally]

I second breakfast at the CP with Pooh, Piglet, Eyore and of course my ally Tigger. We just got back and the food was so much better at CP than Tusker. Love the ability to have the chef make your own omelet and the fresh fruit was real good. And, something about Tigger jumping around gets you pumped to go out and have a bouncing day in the MK.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Tusker House for your character meal! Don't waste your time with Chef Mickey's or Hollywood and Vine.

Totally agree with this! Tusker House is great! CM, H&V....and 1900, not so great food-wise.

I will say that Crystal Palace breakfast is also a fave of mine. LOVE the food, the decore, location, and characters!

 

[schaefercal]

I know not everyone loves Chef Mickeys. Overpriced, atmosphere, sometimes so-so food quality and I agree. But you can't get a better character dining experience with the fab 5 as you can here. I think the 6 year olds would love it and would care less if the chicken nuggets were good or great.

That being said, Ohana is such a great experience that I think it would be my first choice. I'm a Poly homer tho....

 

[Fantasia79]

So many choices!!

My #1 must do is O'Hana. After that we try to get different stuff in.

We were pleasantly surprised with Garden Grill as a character meal. Felt good was good, characters were great for my daughter (2). We ate at Liberty Tree later in the trip, and after waiting for a long time to get seated, and a long time between servings, decided we liked Garden Grill much better (selections very similar). Plus, Liberty Tree not a character meal.

 

[focusondisney]

With 6 year old girls, I'd suggest:

Sci Fi at Disney Studios. The atmosphere is like nothing you'll experience anywhere else.

1900 Park Faire at Grand Floridian. Really, what little girl wouldn't love floating down that grand staircase on her way to meet a princess? I have found this to be pretty decent for buffet food. However I have never done the princess meal in Norway so can't compare.

Be Our Guest for dinner ONLY if they must meet the Beast. Otherwise, quick service for lunch is great. Not a real character meal, you just go to meet him after your meal.

We love Liberty Tree tavern for lunch. A more varied menu in a very quaint atmosphere. Lots for kids to look at.

 

[JerseyJanice]

If you go to Chef Mickey's dinner and choose your food carefully, it's pretty good. The carved meat is usually good, and the Parmesan mashed potatoes are delicious. I always enjoy the soup and salad bar, and from recent photos, it looks like they've stepped up their game on desserts.

 

[robl45]

I don't recommend Hibachi at Disney as I feel teppan edo is not that great, but kids do love hibachi. My kids love Trex too in downtown disney but its a haul and wastes park time.

And let me say again, take them to Whispering Canyon. My 6 and 8 year old love that place. More than the character meals.

 

[SwanVT2]

How saavy are your kiddos about costumes? DD, age 5, isn't into the "cutesie" costumes and has figured out they are not "real" but the princesses are "real" to her. Something to consider before shelling out big money on character meals. CRT and Akershus have both impressed us. I felt like the mood at Akershus was more laid back,, we had more time to eat, and the princesses seemed less rushed. However, at CRT you have the solo picture with Cinderella vs. Belle at Akershus (if that matters to your kids).