Nothing can ruin a day at Disney World faster than realizing that you are not able to get a table in one of the Disney World restaurants for dinner.  Although making reservations for dining ahead of time used to only be needed for the busiest times of the year, it has really become a necessity whenever you want to dine at one of Disney World's Table Service Restaurants.

Effective immediately, you may make your Advanced Dining Reservations (sometimes referred to as ADR) for a Disney World Restaurant up to 180 days prior to your resort check-in date.

This reverses the 90 day window that was in place for several months. If you voiced your dissatisfaction over the smaller window, your opinion does count and Disney has changed back to the longer reservation window.

To make Dining reservations for any Disney World Table Service meal you can either call Disney World Dining Reservations at (407) WDW-DINE (407-939-3463) or by using Disney World's online system at: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/

The on-line system is very easy to use. Just make sure that you have your resort confirmation number handy and the system will link the Dining Reservations to your room reservation.

You can get more information on how to use the on-line reservation system here: http://www.onlywdworld.com/2009/06/you-can-now-make-disney-world-dining.html

Kouzzina by Cat Cora is now open for business at Disney's Boardwalk in the location that was formerly called Spoodles.


Cat is the first and only female to appear on Food Network's “Iron Chef America”. She graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York and has gone on to be an executive chef for Bon Appétit magazine.

Cat has also hosted instructional cooking demonstrations for Disney Video on Demand,and been a featured chef at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.


The Kouzzina is a Mediterranean inspired restaurant serving breakfast from 7:30 - 11:00 am and dinner from 5:00 - 10:00 pm.
























From the menus shown in the pictures here are some of the entrees:

Breakfast:

• Turkey Sweet Potato Hash with two eggs and arugula salad
• Vegetable Flatbread - Scrambled Eggs, Roasted Peppers, Spinach, and Feta.
• Stacked Kouzzina Breakfast - 2 Poached Eggs, Kalamata Olive Toast, Artichoke Spread, and Sweet Potato Hash
• Spinach, Tomato, and Feta Scrambled Eggs

Dinner

• Oak Fired Pork T-Bone with Farmhouse Greens and Citrus-Fennel Marmalade
• Cinnamon Stewed Chicken with Tomatoes, Herbed Orzo, and Marithra Cheese.
• Traditional Whole Fish - Pan Roasted with Braised Greens, Greek Olives, Fennel, and Smoked Chili.
• Slow Cooked Lamb Shank - Served with oven baked Gigantes Beans and Pepper Sauce.
• Fisherman's Stew - Scallops, Seasonal Fish, Shellfish, Fennel, Grilled Bread, and Ouzo Butter.
• Wood Grilled Flank Steak - with Fresh Herb Saitsa and Kouzzina Potatoes.
• Pastitsio - Greek Style Lasagna with Bucatini Pasta, Cinnamon Stewed Meat Sauce, and Bechamel.
• Char-Grilled Lamb Burger with Olives, Feta, and crisp Sweet Potato Fries.
• Spiced Briami - Oven Roasted Vegetables, Oregano, Marithra Cheese served with Herbed Orzo.

• From the Children's Menu you will find:
• Breakfast:
• Fresh Fruit Plate
• Mickey Waffle
• Pancakes
• French Toast

Dinner:

• Grilled Chicken Breast
• Grilled Fish of the Day
• Cheese Pizza
• Meaty Macaroni

Kouzzina will be a welcomed addition to Disney's Boardwalk, providing yet another wonderful Dining option for those who want something different to eat something beyond the ordinary while on their Disney World Vacation.

The Disney Dining Plan continues to increase in popularity for people who are vacationing at the Walt Disney World Resort. Whether you are paying full price for the Dining Plan or you are taking advantage of the current Free Dining Package promotion, you want to maximize the value of what you get. This article will tell you how to do just that.

For those of you not as familiar with the Disney Dining Plan ( DDP ) let’s start with a brief explanation. The basic DDP includes one table service meal ( entrée, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage), one counter service meal ( one entrée or combo meal, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage), and one snack ( wide variety of food items available all over Disney World that cost $4.00 or less). The adult (ages 10+ ) cost of the Dining Plan is $39.99 per day. The child (ages 3-9) cost of the plan is $10.99. During the meals you may order anything you want off of the normal menus at the Table Service and Counter Service restaurants, with very few exceptions.

The key to getting your money’s worth is to maximize the value of the restaurants that you visit and the items that you choose to eat. Your choices will determine whether the Dining Plan is a good deal or not.

By choosing the right Table Service Restaurants on your trips, you can pretty much guarantee that you will get a great deal. ( Note: we will only list restaurants that require just 1 dining credit per meal for this ranking.)

Without further ado:

Only WDWorld’s Top 7 Disney Dining Plan Table Service Restaurants (in reverse order)

7. Tony’s Town Square – This full menu sit down restaurant that is located within the Magic Kingdom is patterned after the Italian restaurant that you see in the classic animated film Lady and the Tramp. If you are lucky, you may be able to watch part of the Spectromagic Parade while you eat. It made the list due to its menu choices and location within the Magic Kingdom.

6. Chef Mickey’s – Only 2 buffets make the Top 7 and both include Disney Characters. This family favorite located at the Contemporary Resort ranks especially high on the must do list if you have young children, as Mickey Mouse himself is present along with several of his friends. Not only do you get an above average buffet meal, but you get personal interaction with each of the characters as they make their rounds to each table. Excellent photo opportunities and character meeting time.

5. 1900 Park Fare – This buffet meal includes a visit from Cinderella and Prince Charming. Although this isn’t quite the same as eating in Cinderella’s Castle, the Grand Floridian is a gorgeous resort and eating here gives you an excuse to check it out. The buffet is better than average, but the real reason to come here is to see and meet Cinderella.

4. Tutto Italia – This Italian restaurant located within the World Showcase of Epcot has wonderful homemade pastas and entrée selections. It is very pricey if you are not on the Dining Plan. While on the Dining Plan you are able to ignore the menu prices and eat whatever you wish to try. This allows you to relax and truly enjoy the meal.

3. Coral Reef – A unique restaurant situated in the Living Seas Pavilion in Epcot. An entire wall of the restaurant is glass and allows you to see into the main tank of the Living Seas. The feeling is upscale and the menu includes steak and seafood choices. Again forget the prices and eat whatever you are in the mood to try. Excellent dessert choices top off this must do dining experience.

2. Les Chefs de France – You feel like you are transported to Paris to enjoy this dining experience within the France portion of Epcot. A varied menu gives you many choices including: Beef, Seafood, Chicken, Lamb, Duck, and Vegetarian dishes. This restaurant suits families or romantic meals for two. Another wonderful meal will be had if you choose to eat here.

1. Le Cellier – Within the Canada section of Epcot you will find the crown jewel of theme park restaurants. This cozy restaurant will not disappoint. Its specialties include steaks, but you could also get plank grilled salmon or one of several other entrees. The desserts are also something to look forward to. Unfortunately the secret is out and reservations are hard to come by. You definitely need to make reservations well ahead of time if you want to eat here. This is my family’s favorite and I highly recommend it.

Get the most out of the Dining Plan
Utilize these Only WDWorld Top 7 restaurants to help you get the most out of your Dining Plan Experience.

If you need tips on choosing counter service restaurants: Disney Dining Plan – Maximizing Counter Service Credits

For Dining Plan Snack tips: Disney Dining Dilemma – Maximizing the Snack Credits

Get the most out of the Dining Plan, but also use it to take some of the stress out of dining at Disney World by allowing you to ignore the menu prices and let your family eat whatever they want!

1. Planning ahead is your best defense.
2. Choose your sit down restaurants well in advance a make reservations as close to the 90 day prior mark that you can.
3. For the counter service locations, avoid the busiest time of day, especially the places that are in high traffic areas. Find a place a little off the main path and the crowds diminish greatly.

When you visit Walt Disney World, dining can be one of the best or one of the worst parts of your trip. I hoping with the tips that I am providing today and through other posts, I can help make it one of the best.

I have written earlier about the Disney Dining Plan and the benefits it has. For a first time visitor, the pre-paid dining definitely helps keep your trip on budget and their are times of the year, where Disney will include the Dining Plan for free as part of a package.

The topic I wanted to discuss today is determining whether a certain restaurant is right for your family. Besides the recommendations of others, some times it is just nice to know what is on the menu and what the prices are for a particular restaurant.

While today I am going to help you do even better than that! I am going to provide two links that each give you a list of each of the on-property Disney Dining locations, including counter service and snack carts. They also have full listing of menu items and prices for each location.

They are:

• AllEars.net
• Pete Werner's DIS site

Both sites have basically the same menu information, and get updated fairly regularly.

By having this information available to you when you are trying to plan where you may eat is a tremendous benefit. This is especially helpful if you have a picky eater in the family.

So give it a try! Pick a location that you have been thinking about eating at and look up it's menu. Hopefully the menu will have something that appeals to you and your family.

The research will not make the food prices any lower, but you will know what to expect and what to budget for if you do choose to eat there.

This is another case where planning ahead can definitely make your Disney World experience go much smoother. It will also make you a hero to your family for choosing the perfect place to eat every time!

A T-REX has invaded Walt Disney World's Downtown Disney marketplace. A T-REX Cafe that is.

On Tuesday October 14th the restaurant opened and I must say it rates high on the cool factor. The restaurant is operated by Landry's Restaurants Inc, which also operates the Rain Forest Cafe.

The outside of the buidling is very impressive and it gets your attention right away with the giant dinosaur skeleton and the mountain facade.

Although I didn't get a chance to go inside I could see the animatronic T-Rex among other Dinosaurs inside. The retail shopping area also includes a Build-A-Dinosaur shop from Build-A-Bear.

The menu has a good selection, but I think the entertainment factor alone is enough to want to be able to visit this new restaurant. I am sure that this will soon be one of the most popular destinations in Downtown Disney.

Enjoy the pictures!

One of the age old dilemmas for those of you like myself that have used or are thinking of using the Disney Dining Plan is getting the most value for your money.

Today I will give some helpful hints in maximizing the use of those snack credits. Often the snack credits are overlooked in the list of Dining Plan features, but successful use of the snack credits can make the difference between a getting a “good” deal with the Dining Plan to getting a “great” deal.

There are a couple of different strategies that can be taken to maximize value:
1. The first strategy is to use the snack credits to help eliminate any OOP (out of pocket) food expenditures during your trip.
2. The second strategy is to buy the best snack options the each park has to offer that can be obtained with a snack credit. Best can be defined as highest quality or quantity as the case may be.

Strategy 1 – Minimize Food Expenses
Strategy 1 is pretty straight forward. Any time that you were going to purchase a food item OOP you would see if you could use a Snack Credit for it (like a bottle of water or Diet Coke). This method allows you to avoid overeating and keep you expenses down by using the prepaid credits instead of spending additional money. With this method you are maximizing the value by reducing the total amount of expenditures for food on your trip. This strategy also prevents those who pile up unused snack credits at the end of their trip because they were afraid to use the snack credits on something that wasn’t worth it and end up buying the first items that they see in order to use them up.

This strategy also suggests that you look for breakfast items that you can use snack credits towards instead of paying OOP. All in all this can be a very effective use of the snack credits and reduce your total food expense.

Strategy 2 – Maximize Snack Value
While the first strategy is pretty strait forward and just takes the discipline to buy what you would normally buy, but pay with snack credits where ever possible. The second strategy takes some research and planning to accomplish successfully. Here the idea is to absolutely get the maximum value out of each and every snack credit.

Here are some of my favorite “maximum snack” uses for each of the parks:
Animal Kingdom: Dino Bite Snacks in Dinoland: Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich – these are 6” + diameter fresh baked cookies with 3 scoops of ice cream smashed in between. This is my ultimate snack credit item!

Magic Kingdom: Aloha Isle – Adventureland: The Famous Dole Whip or the Dole Whip Float. These are both excellent snacks for a hot day and a favorite use of the snack credit. Auntie Gravity’s – Tomorrowland: Fruit Smoothies with non-fat yogurt. Main Street Bakery – Main Street: Numerous desserts and bakery items.

Epcot: Boulangerie Patisserie – France: There are a number of Pastry Items in this French bakery that make wonderful dessert and or breakfast items. You can’t go wrong, just make sure that the item you choose has the snack symbol. Also in France you will find the Crepes des Chefs de France where you can get Chocolate or Strawberry Crepes with your snack credit. On the other side of the World Showcase is the Norwegian Bakery: Kringla Bakeri og café- which also has many great fresh baked items that can be obtained with your snack credits.

Hollywood Studios: KRNR – Near Rock-n-Roller Coaster: A variety of smoothies made with non-fat yogurt can be had here.

Disney Resorts: you will also find that in the General Store section of each resort gift shop there are a number of items price at $4.00 and under that can be obtained with your snack credits.

Summary:
So whether you choose Strategy 1 or 2 or a combination of both, have fun using your snack credits. There is no excuse to have a bunch of them left over at the end of your trip. Go out, use them, and enjoy!

Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite snack “find” is.