quick dinner from MK?

[mollyseven]

We are travelling May 21-28 and have booked the dining package.
We don't arrive at Orlando till 530pm so I hadn't thought about dinner that night...any suggestions ?
Our first day planned is Monday at Epcot and I have reserved the Italian Alfredo ristorante in Epcot for dinner at 630pm.
Day 2 Tuesday I planned MK and have booked CRT tentatively but not sure about it....don't think it's worth the 2 ts credits pp. My son hates people in costumes and my dd is almost 12 and I am thinking of booking something else for dinner that doesn't require 2 ts tickets.
Day 3 we have a car rental booked and plan on heading off property for the day to Cocoa beach maybe.
Day 4 I don't know what parks we're doing but I have the Hoop dee doo Musical Revue booked for 715pm thinking the revues sound like its definitely worth it.
Next day no ideas yet.
Saturday definitely doing MGM for the Star Wars days as my gang is star wars crazy. I have booked 50's prime time care for 625pm.
Haven't even thought about lunches yet.
I was thinking about either day 2 at MK or Day 5 (?) going to Contemporary to Chef Mickeys but wasn't sure about getting there. Any other ideas.
This is our absolute first time to Disney and we are staying at Pop Century.
DS 8 DD 11

 

[kcashner]

A couple of thoughts.....we like Chef Mickey's for dinner on our first night--gives the Disney character experience without using a park day.

Another idea--go to Beaches & Cream at Beach Club for great burgers and ice cream. It counts as a table service on the plan, but it looks like you will be doing things that count as 2 TS. Beaches & Cream is a good one to pay for with real $ because it costs less than most table service places. Burgers/ chix sandwiches, etc with fries or fruit are about $8-9, drinks $2, ice cream $5. This is significantly less than most TS places.

The contemporary is easy to get to....from MK, you hop on the monorail.

At MK, you might want to consider Liberty Tree (for character dinner, family style...not princess stuff), or the Plaza. Tony's has mixed reviews--my sis has had bad experience there, but she's a little stuffy about restaurants. We haven't eaten there. All of the above are 1 TS rather than the 2 at Cindy's.

 

[jeannief]

Epcot and MK are on the Monorail, so if you want to leave either park for dinner (not saying you'd want to cancel Alredo's, just wanted to let you know what is where) then the monorail hotels are good choices. We are doing Concourse steakhouse (contempory hotel) and Kona (poly) on our MK days since we can just hop on the monorail. You can also get to the HDD show from MK by boat.
From MGM and AK you need to bus it. On our AK day we are going to downtown dis afterards since it close early.
If you have the plus options I would do downtown on your first night. You won't use a day of your park tickets, your kids can do Disney quest and you can either get sandwiches at Earls, takeout at wolfgang puck express or a sit down at the Hard Rock.
I would definitely not use 2 TS on CRT based on what you say. If you DD wants to see the princesses, consider 1900 Park at the Grand Floridian or Akershus at Epcot. If you have hopping then you can spend the day at MK then go to Epcot for dinner. We're doing that our last day, the menus at Epcot all appealed to us and nothing at MK did.
Have fun!!!!!!!!

 

[mollyseven]

actully those are all good ideas.
I have already cancelled Alfredo's actually and changed to Coral Reef because of it's location in the park. We plan on going back to the hotel for an afternoon break and going back to epcot/mk at about dinner time and spending the evening. I have heard mixed reviews about Coral Reef but the kids will like the atmosphere. I have also booked Chef Mikeys at Contemporary for our second day at mk...I was wondering if the steakhouse was a better option though. The menu looks good. Have you tried both? The only thing I liked about Chef Mickeys was the sundae bar for the kids.
I was thinking about doing Downtown Disney on the Thursday that we have a reservation at Hoop dee doo for 715.
Are there shuttles from each property to each spot . For example We are going to be at Pop Century and wonder how we will get to Hoop dee doo dinner???
Do we have to shuttle to a park and then on to downtown disney or is there a direct way?
SOOOOOOOOOOOO many questions. Our second trip will undoubtedly be easier.
Thanks again.

 

[rlovew]

You have to go through a park or DTD to get from one resort to another on property but it generally doesn't matter which one unless some of the parks are closed. I would choose the park that is closest to the resort you are going to be dining at. Once you stand in line at the bus queue the bus for the resort you are going to is put into the rotation and you should have a bus within 10 to 15 minutes at the most.

Getting to DTD is a bus or boat ride away from any resort. Pop Century provides a bus.

While I like the 50's Prime Time you might try the Sci Fi Diner if your family is into Star Wars. Also a hint on Star Wars weekends, when everyone is trying to get autographs, head back to the area of Millionare, we did this last year and got pictures with no waits for tons of characters from 9-10 am. Also if you want to see a great opening show get to the parks 30 minutes before opening and listen to the bounty hunters on the roofs, they are hilarious.

 

[jeannief]

Molly, we've only been once before. Last year we ate at Chef Mickey's for breakfast and it was fine, but to be honest my kids didn't eat and speding $70 for breakfast was not worth it. But the characters were great. We decided this year to not do too many character meals (cause my kids are too excited to eat) and picked the Donald one at AK (I'm a big donald fan) and the Garden Grill. All our other ressies were made based on menus from all ears, I wanted my kids to eat more than chicken fingers and mac and cheese for a week and figured that the CS meals would be lots of that.
We debated between CM and Concourse and decided on the steak place since they have a petite steak on the kids' menu. We *may* switch to CM but the dinner meal there didn't appeal to me as much. Plus they are seeing Chip/Dale and Pluto at Garden Grill, so it's kind of a repeat of some characters.
We're at AK on our HDD night. We'll go to AK for the day, take the bus back to ASMu, get refreshed and then take the bus to MK, walk through the park and take the boat to the lodge. I should have booked it for a day we'd be at MK or Epcot but got mixed up where WL was, I got it confused with AKL. oops.
The transportation board is gread for questions on how to get from one place to another. I think from downtown you'll need to take a bus to the central transport spot or a a park to get to HDD, although you may be able to take a bus to WL from there, but I don't think so. Regardless, I hear buses from DDD are slow, so plan ahead.
If we get too wrapped up in AK and are late back to ASMu we'll grab a cab to HDD, it's supposed to be under $10 and worth it if I don't have to be rushing!

 

[mollyseven]

wow more good info.
I hadn't really thought about what day to book HDD I just thought I would book it a day we had already done MK and Epcot and we aren't doing mgm until our last day (I was thinking if we do any park for more than one day it would be MK) We could make the HDD day another day at MK but regardless of which park or DDD we do we will still be going to HDD from Pop Century cause we plan an afternoon siesta/swim each day and then back out.
If we can get a cab from Pop Century to HDD we will probably do that instead of going to MK and walking through the park etc (like you said) and maybe after the HDD 715pm dinner we can take that route back home. Did you say you take a boat from HDD (is that wilderness lodge?) to MK ? That would work well as then we could slowly work our way back to the front of mk and catch a bus back to pop. hmm I obviously haven't planned this enough yet. Who knew it was this much research in advance.

 

[jeannief]

Molly, trust me. The research you do now will pay you back when you arrive. We went for the first time last year at a slow time and missed TONS of stuff. Entire sections of parks!!!!!
This year I have the Unofficial Guide to WDW (dog-eared!), and spent hours here and on all ears. I'm MUCH more comfortable and know that this time we'll see more and be able to relax more.
If you plan to go to HDD from POP then I wouldn't change your ressie. Remember that the closer you make the ressie, the farther the table from the show. So keep what you have.
You can probably take the boat back to MK (that is what we plan on doing). The only reason I say "probably" is if the park is closed, you may not be able to take the boat over, but hopefully someone else will chime in. regardless, if the boat isn't running there will be buses back to each resort from the show, so you won't be stranded.