Dining Ideas

[shelbysmom]

My husband and I are bringing our daughter to disney April 29 - may 5th. We are looking into dining opportunities now. I have found 3 different places we would like to book (if possible - I have heard its kinda late for this). Can anyone offer any information about these character dining experiences?

Norway in Epcot (Askerhus?) for breakfast
Restauranosauris in Animal Kingdom for breakfast
and Play N Dine in MGM for breakfast or lunch

My birthday is that week - would it be better to not go to the dining on my birthday?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Dwarful]

I think you should still be able to get into those places. Perhaps not your first time choices, but it should be possible. We managed to grab a spot at Norway about a month before we went and that was for Christmas week.
I don't think you should skip dining on your birthday. Stop by guest relations and get a birthday button and you may get a special surprise! Have fun!

 

[slappy magoo]

My husband and I are bringing our daughter to disney April 29 - may 5th. We are looking into dining opportunities now. I have found 3 different places we would like to book (if possible - I have heard its kinda late for this). Can anyone offer any information about these character dining experiences?

Norway in Epcot (Askerhus?) for breakfast
Restauranosauris in Animal Kingdom for breakfast
and Play N Dine in MGM for breakfast or lunch

My birthday is that week - would it be better to not go to the dining on my birthday?

Thanks for any advice.

I've never eaten in any of them, but I've heard good things about Akershus & Restaurantasaurus (sp?). In fact, I've heard some people say the Akershus Princess Breakfast is even better than the Princess Breakfast at the Castle.

As far as being "kinda late" it never hurts to call and try to get the reservations. They book tables in 5-minute or 10-minute increments, so ask for slightly odd times. 8:20 instead of 8 or 8:30, that sort of thing. It tends to help matters.

And finally, I'm not 100% sure what you mean by your last question. "not to go to the dining..." Are you asking if you should NOT make reservations on your birthday? Because IMHO, you should make reservations for almost every meal, for every place you'd like to eat. And when it's your birthday, tell 'em it's your birthday, and let them make a little fuss over you.

 

[lilclerk]

As far as being "kinda late" it never hurts to call and try to get the reservations. They book tables in 5-minute or 10-minute increments, so ask for slightly odd times. 8:20 instead of 8 or 8:30, that sort of thing. It tends to help matters.

I definitely agree with this. I didn't even add the dining plan to our package til 2.5 weeks before the trip and I've spent those past two weeks frantically trying to make reservations (and trying to get my travel companions to pick restaurants ) But when they asked for a time, I would say things like "Do you have anything open between 4 and 5?" and they came up with something every time.

 

[Cinderella1976]

We ate at both Play N Dine (for lunch) and Akerhus (for breakfast) on our last trip and we enjoyed them both. Play N Dine was alot of fun. They sing and dance to songs from Playhouse Disney with the kids. The buffet is good, but nothing special. Akerhus for breakfast was nice too. The princesses came around to the tables and the food is served family style and it was pretty good. We plan on doing the lunch on our next trip in December. Just like others have said, call and try to make your reservations you might get lucky and be sure to mention it is your birthday. Have Fun!

 

[DisneyMarg]

One other tip... if you can't get the time you want take whatever you can get, and then keep trying to see if you can change it. People change their reservations and things will open up from time to time. It pays to be persistent.

 

[coltow]

My son and nephew loved the play and dine meal. They were both 2 at the time. It was fun for the adults too to watch the kids sing and dance along with the characters. We ate breakfast there and the food was very good. It was one of the better breakfasts we ate in all our trips.

We also ate at Donald's breakfast and we were a little disappointed in the characters. They only came to each table once instead of the multiple times at all the other restaurants. The food was fairly good though.

 

[Lightyear]

Although I love character meals, I would not book too many of them. They are costly and we always feel rushed or that we are not focused on our meal at all There is great dining to be had at Walt Disney that does not include characters.
(Ohana or Whispering Canyon are great meals!)

Have fun where ever you eat!

 

[TwoTigersMom]

We're doing Play & DIne and Restrauntasaurus this trip too. Whenever we make adr's we say 8ish or somewhere around 11:30. That way they know it doesn't have to be that exact time and they'll look in front and back of that time to try to get you in.
On another note, we're going April 27th -May 6th and we're celebrating birthday's on this trip as well. DH's birthday and our 12th anniversary is April 30th and my birthday is May 2nd. When's yours?

 

[CinderellaStory]

i had reservations for the breakfastosorous but heard mostly bad things about it so i changed it to the crystal place (pooh and friends) at the MK. when i called for the ressies the woman on the phone said it was her favorite character breakfast. If you can get up early, i suggest earliest reservations i have 8am at the MK i can walk down main st with it mostly empty and feel like its our own, also get great pictures (im a scrapbooking fanatic )

 

[shelbysmom]

My birthday is the 2nd. My daughter's bday is the 27th of May, and my anniversary is May 27th. We are combining everything

We love WDW.

Last trip we did the Royal Table Breakfast at the castle before park opening it was wonderful. Kinda wierd though to not have a lot of poeple there...

I was asking about going on my birthday b/c DH thinks they will make a deal aibout it - and he will be disappointed if someone doesn't. To me if they make a big deal - great if not - thats fine too!

Sorry I put the original post on the wrong forum.

 

[Lucky]

We've done Breakfastasaurus twice and had very good exepriences both times. Good food and service, and lots of interaction with characters. We did the Princess breakfast at Akershus once. It was nice, but I wouldn't rate it as equal to Cinderella's Royal Table breakfast (which we've done three times). Of course, CRT is much more expensive. Among those less expensive than CRT, our favorite is character breakfast is Chef Mickey's.