Dining

 

While most people don’t go to Disney World for the food, your meals certainly can be an enjoyable part

of your vacation. Here’s how to make the most of them.

 

Breakfast can be a simple affair. As a cost saving, if you're traveling by car, bring breakfast supplies with you or shop in a supermarket after you check into your hotel. Many hotel rooms have refrigerators, so all you need is milk, juice, yogurt, fruit, dry cereal, paper bowls, and plastic utensils. If you eat in your room, breakfast is out of the way before you get to the park. So you're ready to start sightseeing instead of hunting for a place to eat. And kids can eat in their pajamas.

 

Consider getting room service for breakfast. You and your family will be comfortable in your hotel room so maybe the little ones will eat more. Plus they will have fewer distractions. Also, it makes you get up out of bed if you know they're coming with breakfast!

 

Make it very clear when you make priority seating arrangements if you need a high-chair (or a place near the table to park a stroller for an infant). When you check in at the restaurant for your seating, tell the host or hostess that you need a high-chair (sometimes those details get lost in the computerized priority seating system) or room for the stroller.

 

Milk and other healthy meal options are available in most Walt Disney World Resort restaurants.

 

All Walt Disney World Resort restaurants—with the exception of food carts and counter-service dining—have high chairs and booster seats.

 

Most Disney restaurants offer children's menus, plus crayons and coloring books to keep kids entertained.

 

Character dining—where a cast of characters visits your table while you eat—is a great way to introduce little ones to Disney characters. Here are some character dining options.

 

Play ’n Dine at Hollywood and Vine: At Disney-MGM Studios, sing, dance and play along with your Disney Playhouse pals. Join JoJo and Goliath from JoJo's Circus and June and Leo from Disney's Little Einsteins for a magical, musical meal for kids and kids at heart. Enjoy a delicious breakfast or lunch buffet, including Mickey waffles and house-made pastries in the morning, and kid-friendly and grown-up fare in the afternoon.

 

Princess Storybook Dining at Restaurant Akershus: At EPCOT, mix and mingle with some of your favorite Disney princesses as you dine inside an authentic medieval castle.

 

‘Ohana: At the Polynesian Resort, meet Minnie and her friends while you enjoy a breakfast with you in a grand open room overlooking the Seven Seas Lagoon.

 

Donald’s Breakfastosaurus: At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Donald Duck and friends join you for a buffet breakfast at this indoor campsite.

 

At least in the World Showcase at EPCOT, the restaurant hosts are able to see on their computers which seats are available in all of the restaurants, not just their own. So if no seats are available at your restaurant of choice, ask them to find you seats elsewhere.

 

Portions are generally huge and who wants to carry a to-go bag around. Consider sharing entrees.

 

Does it take forever for your kids to pick out what they want to eat? Save your sanity by printing out the menus from the restaurants that you know you're going to eat at and have your kids circle what they want to eat. You could do this at home, or it would give them something to do on the bus headed to the park or while standing in a particularly long line!