If you are looking for a good place to find a delicious variety of food and drinks, Epcot’s World Showcase would be at the top of the list. There is such a wide selection to choose from that there is something for everyone.
There are lots of dining options all over Disney property. You will find quick service, fast casual, table service, all-you-care-to-enjoy style, and signature dining. If you are looking for a nice night out, a signature dining restaurant would be a good choice.
Disney restaurants can be expensive, but there are ways to keep the cost down and still be able to enjoy a meal out at a nice table service restaurant. Whether you have a dining budget for your Disney trip or not, most people like to save money where they can. It feels good to know you saved some money, especially since Disney vacations are far from cheap!
When people think of Disney World their first thought is usually the theme parks. That’s understandable, but there is so much to do outside of the parks.
Planet Hollywood closed in January to go through an extensive refurb and redesign. We are still waiting for a reopening date, but there has been some information released about the new lounge.
Disney Springs has some great dining experiences and they range from signature dining, to quick service, to food trucks and now there is a new pizza place in town. Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza is open for guests to enjoy.
What do I mean by an “elusive restaurant?” I mean a place that you want to try and you make reservations on multiple different occasions, but can never seem to actually make it there.
Chef Mickey’s is a pretty popular restaurant for guests. Having the Fab 5 there helps to draw in the crowds. So it can be hard to find a table during your vacation, but it might be a little easier now.
Starting on May 31 Chef Mickey’s, at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, will offer brunch. Mickey and friends will make their way around to each table, just like they do at breakfast and dinner.
The brunch menu will consist of breakfast favorites (including the ever popular Mickey waffle) and will include additions like soup, salads (including Caesar), seafood, fresh broccoli, antipasto, chicken and Caprese, and hot dishes like barbecued ribs, seafood etouffee, and baked salmon. Also expect to see the ice cream bar and Contemporary bakery sweets as part of this expansive buffet.
The brunch will happen daily from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and you can start making reservations on May 22. This will be a one-table service- entitlement on the Disney Dining Plan.
You have your resort hotel booked for the days that you want to go to Disney World, now what? Time to plan for that 180 day mark!
If you have never been to Disney World, or looked into planning a trip to Disney World, you are probably wondering what happens at the 180 day mark. It may sound a little absurd, but at 180 days out from your first vacation day you can start to make dining reservations. That’s not a typo, you read that right. You can make dining plans 6 months in advance. The dining plan has made it necessary for people to make reservations so early (to make sure they use their dining credits) and due to that, the rest of us (who don’t use the dining plan) need to plan in advance as well.
For some restaurants it’s necessary to secure your spot, like Be Our Guest and Cinderella’s Royal Table, but for others you can try for reservations when you get closer to your trip (or just walk up). Since you can make reservations so far in advance, some extra planning is necessary.
This is the point we are with our planning for the next trip. We have our 180 day mark coming up, so our traveling party decided to get together to plan. What we did was to look at some crowd calendars (not that they are 100%, but it’s helpful) and go from there. We looked at which park had the lowest number for each day and that helped us make some decisions.
So I would suggest making a list of the days that you are going to be in Disney World. Then you can look at the crowd calendars and assign a park (or day off) to each of the days. Once you have the parks assigned to days, then you can start assigning restaurants to the days, as well. I will put a step-by-step list at the end of this post for you, so you can see what we did.
Also, if you are planning on attending a special hard ticket event, like Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, the crowd calendars can help with that too. This way if you would like to eat at a certain restaurant for an early dinner, before the event, you will have an idea of which day you have a better chance of getting a reservation.
We still have to complete the list, but we have time. Since we are going with friends, we are going to try to have alternating date nights. Which is another reason we need to plan the restaurants, because we have to make sure we have the right date night restaurants down for each couple.
I love when the 180 day mark hits, because planning mode really kicks in. It’s great when you book your hotel, but once you start making dining reservations, you know the trip is getting closer. I’m a big planner when it comes to Disney trips, I guess that’s why being a vacation planner that specializes in Disney destinations is so perfect 🙂
If you know you are going to want to have some sit down meals in Disney, then I highly recommend putting a list together of the days that you will be there and following the steps listed below.
Planning for the 180 day mark:
I hope this helps you with your restaurant planning! To help with planning and see some dining tips, download the full version of the Countdown to Disney app.
Thanks for reading!
*Liz*
