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Disney vacation - meal plan questions

ellisat2

ellisat2

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Going in January

Restaurant recommendations? Also, wrestling with the idea of the meal plan - has anyone analyzed this before and decided whether its worth it?

Thanks,

ellis
 
Disney

ellisat2 said:
Going in January

Restaurant recommendations? Also, wrestling with the idea of the meal plan - has anyone analyzed this before and decided whether its worth it?

Thanks,

ellis
Click to expand...

O'hana is my favorite place to eat at Disney. Meal Plan is not worth it, except for your peace of mind. They give you a lot of food at most Disney meals, so that they can charge astronomical prices for everything. But in the grand scheme of things you will get about what you pay for. It was much less stressful not having to pay $50 for 4 people at lunch, when you can just slide your card. But when I calculated what it cost for what we got, it didn't save us much, if any, money. And we threw away a lot of food because a 6 and 3 year old just don't eat a kid's share. If you have an 8 and 10 year old, then it might be different.
 
My wife did a pretty extensive review of it when we went earlier this year. If you are planning on doing a number of Character meals, you should get the premium plan. You do get a ton of food with it (more than you will likely eat), but you can spent all the extra snack credits on things like candy and Rice Krispie treats to take back home on the last day. The down side is that you will spend a decent amount of time at restaurants. If you are planning on doing more of the grab it and go type of eating, skip the meal plan. The basic plan is not cost effective in most cases. We did a ton of character/princess meals with my 5 year old and going to the restaurants also gave us some breaks during the day for her to rest since she was walking the whole time. I can go into more detail if you need it. I can also give you a good recommendation for where to eat in each park/resort if you need some of that info also. You should also call and get reservations for meals soon. We had a basic schedule hashed out ahead of time, and it made things go very smoothly. Having reservations for some of the more popular restaurants made it so we never had to wait more than 15 minutes or so to get seated, which is important with a 5 year old.
 
We have no kids, just me and the wife - probably planning to eat more quick stuff for lunch and sit-down for dinner. We're likely staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter (if you know where that is), but still having trouble getting my bearings as far as how far stuff is, etc.
 
Usually in January and February you can get a free meal plan if you stay in one of the resort properties.
 
There have been a few good Disney threads here with some good info.

The Disney "experts" typically agree that the meal plan isn't worth it except for a very narrow set of circumstances.

I go pretty regularly. Let me know of you have specific questions. I'll post some good web resources when I get a chance.
 
Yeah... for just the two of you, you should skip the meal plan. If you are looking for a high end place for dinner one night, I highly recommend Narcossee over at the Grand Floridian. You are going to have to take buses everywhere from French Quarter anyway (except Downtown Disney), so I'd recommend not hopping between parks if you can keep from it, since that will eat up even more time travelling. Make sure you get a Dole Whip at some point... that was probably the best snack in the park.
 
Don't take the buses on property except to Magic Kingdom. It's easy to drive, park, and walk at the other parks and you'll have a pass from staying on property. The wait for buses can be annoying.
 
Just went to Disney in September with my wife and 4 year old daughter. We stayed at the Contemporary (which was great), and did a meal plan because we had three seperate character meals--we went heavy on the Princess stuff overall.

As for non-themed meals, we all liked Whispering Canyons at the Wilderness Lodge. I was also really fond of the Biergarten at Germany in Epcot (but I love German food, and the beer was pretty good too).
 
We're going in February. Can't wait to hit up the Rose and Crown in Epcot and try some Moroccan food, not sure what the restaurant is called.
 
iodeac said:
We're going in February. Can't wait to hit up the Rose and Crown in Epcot and try some Moroccan food, not sure what the restaurant is called.
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When are you going? We're thinking about Jan/Feb as well!
 
I second the Biergarten. That was really good.
 
awakeandready said:
When are you going? We're thinking about Jan/Feb as well!
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I think mid-February. Mrs I/O's dad worked for ABC, so we get all kinds of free passes to Disney and discounts on hotels and food
 
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I've been each of the last two Februarys (and going again this coming February) and we've gotten a meal plan each time. You should talk to a travel agent that specializes in Disney trips. There are tons of great deals to be had in February. I know that at least one of the trips we got a special room/food plan/park pass that saved us a good bit.
 
Biergarten is definitely good. Just thinking now that it's been about 3 1/2 years since I ate there. They have a counter service with brats and some great desserts.
 
I really like Jiko's at the Animal Kimgdom Lodge and California Grill at the Contemporary. Definitely two of the better places at the park and try and got to the latter when they do Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom. Also, you have a great spot to view the nightly fireworks there.
 
You should start looking at making reservations now. Even though January is one of the "slow" months, the restaurants still book up so go on and decide what you want to eat and make the reservations.

Biergarten is great. Another great restaurant in EPCOT is La Hacienda de San Angel. This is more traditional Mexican, not what you are going to get at your local mexican restaurant (which is more along the lines of what the San Angel Inn is in EPCOT).

Restaurant Marrakesh is the Moroccan restaurant. My wife and I love it. To be honest, there aren't many restaurants we have eaten at we haven't liked and we have tried most of them.
 
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