Favorite first restaurant to eat when you arrive

[Goldfish Are Feral]

Hello all!

I'm starting to plan our Disney vacation for May. In the past we have driven down and after getting checked in we would head over to Chef Mickey's as a traditional 'lets get this Disney vacation started!' Unfortunately CM is only open for breakfast at this time so I'm trying to find a restaurant that is similar in food and fun to kind of kick off our vacation. So what is your favorite place to eat at begin your magical trip.

Bonus points, where is your favorite place for breakfast? We love Garden Grill....however its closed for breakfast.

 

[gharter]

Our first restaurant is usually lunch at DS. Often Polite Pig or Raglan Road.
If you are only considering dinner, that would be California Grill.

 

[jenjersnap]

Our go to first night tradition has become Beaches and Cream. We get a kitchen sink and it is always a great start. We have also done Raglan Road on arrival which is also fun.

Totally miss Garden Grill breakfast too! We loved Toppolino’s breakfast, if you want a character meal. Homecomin’ has a great brunch on weekends. We enjoy Trattoria al Forno too even without characters.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

We always start with WBG. Everyone can enjoy a glass of wine and order some small plates, before returning to the hotel and snoring soundly after a transatlantic flight.

 

[Alicefan]

We usually go to Boma but I think that's still closed too

 

[TexanMinnie]

We usually go to Boma but I think that's still closed too

We usually do Boma too and are so sad it's not open yet.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

Hello all!

I'm starting to plan our Disney vacation for May. In the past we have driven down and after getting checked in we would head over to Chef Mickey's as a traditional 'lets get this Disney vacation started!' Unfortunately CM is only open for breakfast at this time so I'm trying to find a restaurant that is similar in food and fun to kind of kick off our vacation. So what is your favorite place to eat at begin your magical trip.

Bonus points, where is your favorite place for breakfast? We love Garden Grill....however its closed for breakfast.

Our decision is based on 2 things:
What time we arrive and where we're spending the first day/evening.
Usually we arrive early and hit a park (MK) as soon as we can. I don't think we've ever done an ADR in MK on day one. The year we stayed at AKL, we did AK day one and then had an ADR for Boma in the evening.
We have arrived late afternoon and made our ADR for KONA, then walked around the resort and saw the lagoon parade. We were not staying at Poly so all the travel took time but it was worth it for day one.

 

[Pixie Dusted Snow]

Controversial but... Earl of Sandwich.

 

[Goldfish Are Feral]

Our go to first night tradition has become Beaches and Cream. We get a kitchen sink and it is always a great start. We have also done Raglan Road on arrival which is also fun.

Totally miss Garden Grill breakfast too! We loved Toppolino’s breakfast, if you want a character meal. Homecomin’ has a great brunch on weekends. We enjoy Trattoria al Forno too even without characters.

I always forger about Beaches! I think we will try that, thanks for the suggestion

 

[revdon64]

Our decision is based on 2 things:
What time we arrive and where we're spending the first day/evening.

^ THIS^
We always decide about first day dinners based on when we're going to arrive and if we plan to use a park day on arrival. Most often we've gone to DS (Raglan Road, T-Rex) but will never rule out AK and QS at Satuli.

 

[calismic]

Our day of ritual is always "O'Hana". Unfortunately with it still being closed, we will be starting our February trip off at the California Grill! Not a bad switch I don't think. =)

 

[loves to dive]

Depends on if Epcot is having a festival or not. We drive down and just snack in the car so we usually are pretty hungry. We get there around 2 or 3, go unload everything in our room if it's ready and head off to a park. If there is a festival, we head to Epcot and graze at booths for the rest of the day. If there isn't a festival, we hop on the first bus to arrive and just grab something to eat at whatever park that is. We never make ADRs in advance so we just decide on the fly while we are walking around and have never had a problem finding a TS to eat at.

We aren't huge breakfast eaters so we just end to grab something at the resort QS or at one of the parks. If we are staying at Swan/Dolphin we always eat at Med. Fresh Market for breakfast on the day we are leaving.

 

[Alicefan]

Now if we're just talking about good food, Trattoria al Forno has the best breakfast on property if you ask me. Absolutely INSANE pricetag but it WAS a character breakfast. My friend and I laid down a cool 100 dollar bill for the 2 of us FOR BREAKFAST! I don't know how true this is or not, but I heard that you can eat there a la cart in a different room with no character interaction which is becoming more and more attractive to me. The older I get the more stupid I feel trying to think of things to say to the characters when they come by. Seldom do I have my niece with me who is 6 to do all of the talking and it gets reeeally awkward when they come by twice. I'm not much of a picture taker because I prefer to go without my phone when I'm on vacation as much as I can get away with. I can't STAND that you almost HAVE to deal with tech on a Disney vacay these days. I totally should have grown up with The Waltons. Back to Trattoria...it's not just your standard breakfast. There's different stuff on the menu that isn't quite as dumbed down as Disney menu's can be. Very fresh and very flavorful!

 

[Tink9721]

Our first TS meal is always Liberty Tree Tavern. I don't even remember how that got started, but it's tradition now! We usually arrive late morning and our first QS used to always be Casey's, but we changed that a few trips ago when we ended up going to Epcot first and hopping to MK that night. Now we usually eat at Roaring Fork (we always stay at WL) before heading to our first park. Last trip I think we just grabbed a snack because we were meeting friends at Epcot, and then we ate at Sunshine Seasons with them. So we don't really have a traditional "first restaurant" anymore, it's just whatever fits our plans better, but definitely a traditional first TS

 

[aboveH20]

We always start with WBG. Everyone can enjoy a glass of wine and order some small plates, before returning to the hotel and snoring soundly after a transatlantic flight.

Trying to figure out what WBG is before cheating and lookin it up.

 

[lotsohugginbear]

Trying to figure out what WBG is before cheating and lookin it up.

Wine Bar George!

 

[Goldfish Are Feral]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We get stuck in our routine and when the routine happens to be closed we got to adapt!

Just for clarification we drive down (through the night) and arrive at Disney around 9am. We then hit a waterpark to get the kids energy out and the adults can relax a bit (3 adults, thanks mom and two kids so one adult can chill while the other two play). We then head back to our room change and go to Chef Mickeys, since that is closed I think Beaches and Cream will work the best for my kids' palattes and a good 'Woo hoo Disney lets go' dinner.

I'm definitely going to look up the rest of the restaurants to see how I can fit them into our plans!

 

[aboveH20]

Wine Bar George!

Thanks. I lay in bed last night trying to get it — sure beats other things I occasionally think about when trying to fall asleep. I never would have figured it out. Now I’ll have to try it.

 

[DisneyGrammyT]

We don't have a favourite first restaurant, but we always eat dinner at Beast's Castle. Be Our Guest is a must do for me. I love the food, love the atmosphere and love the Beast. A must do for me. We like to try at least one new restaurant every trip. Haven't found one I really dislike yet! I miss you Disney!!

 

[Blondie58]

After eating at the airport prior to our flight and snacks on the plane we do not do a sit down on our first day. It is tradition to head to MK. So we love Pecos Bill's nachos or Cosmic Ray's foot long hotdog. (We split both.) We used to go to Casey's but they no longer offer the footlong dogs.