Dining our way around Disney

Everyone in the Carroll family is looking forward to the usual joys of Christmas, but this year we are especially excited because after all of our presents are opened we will be hopping a plane for our annual visit to Disney. Last year we went to Disneyland so it has been two years since our last trip to Disney World. We leave knowing that the park will be more crowded during the holidays, but we are well prepared to employ our proven crowd avoidance techniques.

One of the things that I look forward to with every Disney trip is all of the great food and fun restaurants. This year I got up at 4:00 a.m., 90 days prior to our visit, to make all of our reservations and to ensure that we got the times and places we wanted. We reserved some of our old favorites but also selected a few new places.

Our first day will be spent at Hollywood Studios where we will have dinner at Mama Melrose. As part of our reservation we purchased the Fantasmic dinner package. Fantasmic is our favorite show at Disney World and the dinner package gives you access to special reserved seating and means you don’t have to fight the crowds. To us this is always worth the extra expense.

The next day will take us to Animal Kingdom, where we will enjoy lunch at Tusker House. We have not eaten at Tusker House since it was converted to table service. We are not sure what to expect here.

Day 3 will be spent at Epcot where we will have my favorite counter service meal, Fish and Chips (and beer) at the Rose and Crown Pub. It requires no reservation and it is perfect for a picnic lunch in the small park located at rear of the England pavilion. If we are lucky we will be able to listen to British Invasion while we eat.

Day 4 we finally make it to Magic Kingdom. Here we will dine on a traditional turkey dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. This is always one of our favorites.

Day 5 we will return to Epcot and eat at the Biergarten Restaurant in the Germany pavilion. We have been to the Biergarten in the past but it has been quite a few years. The German music and dancing along with some pretty good food always makes this an enjoyable experience.

Day 6 is New Years Eve, and we have decided to make it a flexible day. This means that we will float around to different parks and resorts in order to avoid the most crowded spots. We might try to check out the holiday food selections at some of the resort hotels.

New Years Day is also scheduled as a flexible day, but we plan to start with breakfast at the Cape May Cafe at our home resort, the Beach Club.

We will kick off our last day with breakfast at Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort. While the kids are a little beyond the target age group here we are just not ready to give up this traditional stop. We also enjoy taking the monorail to the Magic Kingdom after breakfast.

By the time we return to the real world I am sure we will have put on a few extra pounds, but I am also sure we will have smiles on our faces.