Disney World - The Online Guide

Passporter WDW 2003
(UK customers)

Vegetarian Walt Disney World and Greater Orlando
UK customers

Dining Tips

Dress at many restaurants is informal, particularly in the theme parks. T-shirts, shorts and sneakers are acceptable. Dressing up a bit is more common in the hotel restaurants and certain locations like Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian jackets are required.

11am - 2pm and 6pm - 8pm are mealtime rush hours, particularly in the parks. To be seated quicker and have a more comfortable dining experience try and avoid these times.

If budget is a concern and you still want to enjoy some of the full-service restaurant, try and have your main meal at lunch. Many restaurants offer much the same dishes at lunch as at dinner but with a significant price difference.

If you have a small appetite & find that the main meals are too much, try just having an appetiser & dessert, or share a main meal between two people.

Full-service restaurants offering both lunch and dinner will generally be less crowded at lunchtimes than dinner.

When a fast food outlet or cafeteria has more than one counter, wander in and inspect the queues. You may well find that the queues further from the doors will be shorter.

You may feel rushed in some restaurants, simply ignore this feeling and enjoy your meal in as leisurely a fashion as you choose, don't be afraid to delay ordering each course until you actually want them.

Almost all restaurants can accommodate special dietary requests like kosher, low fat if they are given at least 24 hours notice. Call (407) 939 3463 (WDW-DINE) with details, or preferably inform them when you make the reservation.

Check out the Priority Seating calculator, input the date you want to book priority seating for, & it tells you the earliest day you can phone.

Comments

"In terms of dining, 1900 Park Fare was good (this is where the Villain character dinner was held). It was also a good opportunity just to check out the Floridian. My husband and I both thought that Restaurant Akeshaus in Norway (Epcot) was excellent. Definitely insist on being seated in the main dining room. House of Blues has an interesting ambiance, but definitely isn't Disney. The food here was also pretty good. However, we were both disappointed with the food at Crystal Palace."

"My wife and I are DVC members and piece of advice I would give, is if you have a MKC card then use it. Disney would not provide the service if they did not want you to use it. If you inted to visit a charecter meal, be sure to make reservations well ahead of time. Normally, there are no walk up's, and if they do you will have a very very long wait. As long as you make reservations, your Disney dinning experience should be a good one."

"Beaches & Cream at the Beach Club has the best hamburgers in the "World". Also, the bakery in France is not to be missed."

"Having eaten at almost all of the restuarants in WDW I like to eat at the Artist Point Breakfast with Pooh. Not only did our waitress make sure we had mocha drinks,and yogurt shakes, but since we were in a bit of a hurry the one day she also gave us each a bottle of cold water for the park that day. It was fantastic!!"

"The Sci-Fi Dine In Theater was a blast! The hamburgers and shakes were very high quality and it was a kick to watch all that 60s Sci-Fi while seated in a car. We really enjoyed it. The Liberty Tree Tavern Character Dinner was one of the best meals we had at Disney. Definitely worth the price. All the Thanksgiving fixings you could possibly eat and plenty of fun Characters. The Polynesian Luau was fun, but not worth the expense. The dancing and entertainment was excellent, but the meal was disappointing and the drinks were horrible. We went away slightly disappointed but having enjoyed our evening overall."

"Three Disney dining comments: We had dinner at the House of Blues. A major disappointment. Much of the food was mediocre (wilted salads, blackened chicken that was no more seasoned than a BBQ potato chip, etc.) The service was not horrible, but certainly below par, and yet there was a built-in 18% tip. We also dined at Bongos. This was the best meal of the week and a half the food was fresh, interesting, and tasty. And the service was responsive and friendly. Go to Bongos! We had the character breakfast at Restaurantosaurus in Animal Kingdom. Get the latest seating you can so you can get better views of the animals on the safari early before breakfast. Don't let them seat you in the one section that doesn't look like a big woodsy lodge. Instead it's decorated in cheap 1960s formica kitsch, and they keep it freezing in there. The breakfast is an extensive but predictable buffet. Pricey but fun with the characters wandering around." (charley.cross@EastmanSoftware.com)

"There wasn't too much we didn't like. What I didn't like was the wait at the Crystal Palace and Cinderella's Royal Table. We waited about an hour at both before we were called to be seated. Other than that everything was excellent." TRESEO3@AOL.COM

"hoop de do revue is by the best value for the money at disney. love the show so much that we go back with each visit. we go to disney 3 or 4 times a year, so that's quite a few visits. also, a must do meal is at the whispering canyon at the wilderness lodge great food, and the staff is the entertainment."

"Two things that are on my must do list at WDW are to have the wonderful Rice Cream at Restaurant Akershus at the Norwegian Pavillion at Epcot and the fantastic Tonga French Toast (stuffed with bananas) at the Kona Cafe in the Polynesian Resort. If you've never eaten these delicious treats be sure to try them on your next trip and you can get the recipes by just asking for them. Both are a definate "Not To Be Missed" food attraction." bajoseph@aol.com

"On our last day a WDW my family descided to eat at Cap'n Jack's Oyster Bar and ended up with food poisoning. It was the worst flight home ever!"

"After years of the $6 hot dog due to long lines, we got smart after Bob S's unofficial guide. Ate lunch at 11:30, dinner at 5:30 & absolutely LOVED Whispering Canyon, Flying Fish, Liberty Tree, Restuarant Askerhaus, & Chefs de France. Took us 4 tries in 10yrs to wise up & get it right!! Never so happy w/food at WDW. Can't wait to return for C'mas 2000 & stay at W'ness Lodge."

"My wife and I highly recomend the two restaurants that we ate at in Epcot, San Angel Inn and La Cellier Steakhouse. Not only was the food great, but the atmosphere was awesome! Our most favorite dining spot was San Angel! We also dined at Planet Hollywood and ESPN Club. These were fun, but the food wasn't the greatest in the world. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't warmed over slop, but I have deffinately had better meals. Another downside to ESPN Club was the very limited menu. But like I said, they were fun because my wife and I love entertainment and sports."

"Make your reservations well in advance. (The hoop-de-doo and polynesian luau especially). You won't have a prayer to get in if you don't make reservations at least 3 months in advance.

For dining in Epcot make your reservations first thing in the morning before taking in any rides. This will enable you to get the meal slot that you want. Otherwise, you might be eating dinner at 4:00 or 9:30. Plan ahead!!!!"

"The summer of 98 we went th the Backyard Bar-B-Q one of the best shows I have seen lots of country music."

"Most fun meal - definitely Prime Time Cafe. Had an riot, it was great. Never been impressed with the better Disney restaurants. Offsite restaurants are cheaper, better and more choice."

"I am really impressed with the waiting staff at ALL the restaurants. All of them are friendly. About 95% of them do a fantastic job. The thing that impresses me is they don't hesitate to say they've messed up. Here are two examples:

1) At Animal Kingdom's Rainforest Cafe. Our waiter messed up our order. He immediately apologized and gave us free dessert.

2) At Tony's, our waiter made sure that we got our food, but his service was a bit lousy. He came up to us and admitted that he had neglected us, apologized, and took 20% off our bill.

Now that's service."

"If you are a vegetarian, there is an awesome vegie burger at cosmic rays starlight cafe in tomorrowland. Also there are a lot of other choices throughout the whole world, like the land at epcot, dinoland mcdonald's has a cool vegie salad, and pasta around every corner it seems!"

"I believe that the restaurants that I rated a 3 were all character breakfasts. I don't know if it was the food that was so good or just the thrill of seeing my children's faces light up whenever another character came their way. Le Cellier had a rather limited menu which I should have noted before making my priority seating arrangements. O'Hana's was good fun except the drink prices really sent our bill over the top. (Oh well, we were on vacation!) Having lived in England for a number of years, we enjoyed the atmosphere at the Rose and Crown and the food was actually quite good. The problem was our waitress. Her service put a damper on our meal I'm afraid. The Liberty Tree Tavern was a let down. I think that also could have been due to the overnight flight we took from Seattle and the fact that we had been awake for over 24 hours. That can ruin most meals. The Crystal Place, The Garden Grill, and Park Fare 1900 were all fabulous due in part to the reasons mentioned above but the food selection and quality considering they were all buffets was really first rate. This was my first trip in WDW in over 20 years and the first one ever with my two children. We were at WDW from 21 March until 28 March. It was a perfect beautiful time to go."

"The Magic Kingdom needs some work in their options for fine dining. EPCOT has the all around best options for dining."

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