Jolly Holiday: Do You Choose The Same Restaurants As Your Partner?

Husband and wife team Caitie and Jason Flum take a look at just how different their dining choices are and consider the art of compromise in restaurant planning at Disney World!

CAITIE SAYS:
One of our favorite things about Disney World is the food. Where else can you go and get such a wide variety of high quality dining options? We love to plan our trips around restaurants and spend hours figuring out our Advanced Dining Reservations before we are 180 days away from our vacation.

We thought it would be fun to each list what dining we'd plan for a 6-day trip (getting there in time for lunch and dinner the first day)...while not even considering the other person's likes and dislikes. So many of us go to restaurants we don't necessarily like because our other half loves it, so what would it look like if there was no compromise and we both chose our favorites?

The Rules

1. Location doesn't matter, as we park hop all the time anyway.
2. Must name lunch and dinner for each day; breakfast is optional.
3. Price is not a factor.

CAITIE'S CHOICES
Day 1
Lunch -- Pecos Bills
Dinner -- The Wave

Day 2
Breakfast -- Boma
Lunch -- 50s Prime Time Cafe
Dinner -- Brown Derby

Day 3
Lunch -- Biergarten
Dinner -- Chefs de France

Day 4
Breakfast -- Grand Floridian Cafe
Lunch -- Kona Cafe
Dinner -- Kouzzina

Day 5
Lunch -- Flame Tree Barbeque
Dinner -- Jiko

Day 6
Lunch -- Tangerine Cafe
Dinner -- San Angel Inn
Dessert -- Beaches and Cream

JASON SAYS:
I'm writing my half of this column without reading Caitie's choices. I do know that my choices will likely be quite different from hers. I didn't really take location into consideration, just the restaurants I would most want to visit.

Most likely, choices in days would be based on events (such as Fantasmic or when we wanted to see Illuminations for example), but for the sake of argument I'm not taking that into account here, either.

With the exception of the two mentioned, breakfast would usually be something quick in the hotel or picked up in the parks (such as the bakery on Main Street in Magic Kingdom). I have a mix of favorites (Boma, Chefs de Paris, Biergarten, and Crystal Palace) and places I'd like to try (Yak and Yeti and Jiko).

Just making this list made me hungry. Caitie, is it dinner time yet?

JASON'S CHOICES
Day One
Lunch -- Cosmic Rays
Dinner -- Boma

Day Two
Lunch -- Biergarten
Dinner -- Crystal Palace

Day Three
Breakfast -- Chef Mickeys
Lunch -- Pecos Bills
Dinner -- Le Cellier

Day Four
Breakfast -- Boma
Lunch -- Cantina de San Angel
Dinner -- Jiko

Day Five
Lunch -- Yak and Yeti
Dinner -- Chefs de France

Day Six
Lunch -- Kona Cafe
Dinner -- Brown Derby

JASON SAYS:
Looking now at Caitie's list, it seems we have an...um...interesting mix of both matches and restaurants the other didn't consider. It's kind of amazing we ever eat together at the same table, in the same restaurant, at the same time, isn't it?

Amazingly, the two trips we took together, we actually didn't have much conflict in terms of where we'd go for meals. Then again, maybe that's because we were still in the dating/honeymoon phase of our relationship. Now that we've been married for over a year, I think the gloves may be off when it comes time to plan our next set of ADRs. All I know is, if I don't get some Boma, it's going to be one miserable trip for Caitie!

In future columns we'll discuss some restaurants, the meal plans, or other food related items in more detail. Let us know YOUR favorite restaurant choices in the comments below, or in the dining forums here on WDWFG!