Walt Disney World With Kids (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [82]
Other Hollywood restaurants offer big doses of fun for kids. The ’50s Prime Time Café plunks you down in the middle of a television sitcom and serves comfort food like meat loaf, milk shakes, and mac and cheese. TVs play nonstop, you’re seated in replicas of baby-boomer kitchens, and the waitress pretends to be your mom. Before the meal is over, everyone gets into the act, and “Mom” is likely to inspect your hands for cleanliness before she’ll feed you or she may force the kids to finish their green beans using the dreaded airplane technique.
Equally campy is the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant, where you eat in cars as if you were at a drive-in movie. Your waiters are carhops, the film clips are cheesy, and the waiters add to the fun by presenting your bill as a speeding ticket. Drinks even come with glow-in-the-dark ice cubes. The one drawback to the Sci-Fi is that the monster clips which are shown on the drive-in screen are so graphic and so huge that they alarm some children and the creepiness is accentuated by the fact that the restaurant is extremely dark.
The stars of Disney Junior appear for breakfast and lunch at the Hollywood & Vine buffeteria. Reservations are definitely a good idea for this one.
Due to its out-of-the-way location near Muppet*Vision 3-D, Mama Melrose’s is definitely the least crowded and the fastest of the sit-down places. The veal saltimbocca and penne alla vodka are excellent.
If you just want a quick nosh, the Backlot Express lives up to its name and serves burgers and salads fast. Pizza Planet gets consistently high marks from our readers for both its Toy Story ambience and kid-friendly plain cheese pizza. If your party can’t agree on what to eat, head for the open-air food court called the Sunset Ranch Market on Sunset Boulevard. You can each go in different directions for pizza, hot dogs, turkey legs, ice cream, and fruit, then all meet back at your table.
Tips for Your Last Hour at Hollywood
To guarantee yourself a seat for Fantasmic!, you’ll need to enter the stadium at least an hour in advance, 90 minutes during the on-season. That’s quite a wait, so you may want to eat dinner while you hold your seat. The stadium sells hot dogs and such, but if you want a more elaborate meal, you can buy fast food from anywhere in the park and carry it in.
If you’re not watching Fantasmic!, the last hour before closing is a great time to hit any attraction you missed early in the day or to revisit favorites. Just be sure to be out of the park before the show wraps up. The big fireworks salvo at the end is your cue to get moving toward the exits.
Although a terrific show that more than justifies any inconvenience, Fantasmic! draws virtually everyone in the park to one spot at closing. Ergo, exiting afterward is a nightmare. Try to sit near the back of the Mickey section so you’ll not only have the best view but also the best shot at getting out fast and beating the crowds to the buses, trams, or water taxis. But be forewarned—this is prime real estate and fills up early. If you end up near the water or in one of the sections to the extreme right or extreme left of the stadium, you’ve got no choice but to deal with the crowd. One option is to sit tight and wait for the stadium to at least partially empty then eat or shop your way through the park, allowing most of the people to exit ahead of you.
List of Maps
Africa
13 Kilimanjaro Safaris | 12 Pangani Forest Exploration Trail | 11 Rafiki's Planet Watch
Asia
7 Expedition Everest | 9 Flights of Wonder | 8 Kali River Rapids | 10 Maharajah Jungle Trek
Camp Minnie-Mickey
14 Festival of the Lion King
Dinoland
2 The Boneyard | 3 Dinosaur | 6 Finding Nemo—The Musical | 5 Primeval Whirl | 4 TriceraTop Spin
Discovery Island
1 Tree of Life—It's Tough to be a Bug!
Getting to the Animal Kingdom
The Animal Kingdom parking lot is relatively