Where to Eat - The Easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit 2015 - page 192

reservations.) Quick service is usually cheaper and faster than table service. Menus, food
quality, and atmosphere vary wildly among the various options, making your choices more
important than you might expect.
TABLE SERVICE These venues are typical restaurant experiences, where a host will seat your
party and a server will take your order and deliver the food to the table. Most require reser-
vations, particularly for dinner. Prices range from $12 sandwiches at The Plaza Restaurant
in Magic Kingdom to $150+ for a seven-course meal at Victoria & Albert's. Buffets are
generally lumped into this category, even when guests typically serve themselves.
DINNER SHOWS Spirit of Aloha at the Polynesian and Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue at Fort Wil-
derness offer all-you-care-to-enjoy family-style dining accompanied by two-hour shows.
Mickey's Backyard Barbecue, also located at Ft. Wilderness, is an all-you-care-to-enjoy
buffet amidst fun line dancing and live music.

Favorite Family Dining
In addition to the food, the most fun and best-loved family dining contains some or all of
the following:
• A fun setting
• Some kind of show and/or interactive play-along elements
• Visits by Disney characters like Mickey, Tigger, or the Disney Princesses.
On almost every family's list of the best among these are:
• The Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue, a silly, energetic dinner show with interactive

elements and plenty of audience participation at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort.

• The Princess meals: Cinderella's Royal Table in the Magic Kingdom and Akershus

Royal Banquet Hall in Epcot. The first has the better setting, the second is much
less expensive.

• Dining with Tigger, Pooh, and friends at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom.

• Dining with Mickey and friends at Chef Mickey's at Disney's Contemporary Re-

sort and 'Ohana breakfast at Disney's Polynesian Resort.

• Dining in the Beast's Castle at Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom.

• Various degrees of wait-staff induced silliness at 50's Prime Time Café in Disney's

Hollywood Studios and Whispering Canyon Café at Disney's Wilderness Lodge.

• Exotic settings in the local versions of national chain restaurants like the Rainforest

Café, in both Disney's Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney, and T-REX in
Downtown Disney.

Selecting Character Meals
Character meals are table service meals or dinner shows where the group has the oppor-
tunity to interact and take pictures with the characters during the dining experience. There
are several benefits to these meals. First, they replace the lengthy waits to meet the charac-
ters inside the theme parks. At Magic Kingdom, meeting Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald,