Happy Thanksgiving!
My family is considering having Thanksgiving in Disney World next year, and I wanted to hear some opinions about that! So we asked our Facebook Page Fans:
Would you rather have Thanksgiving Dinner at home, or at a Disney restaurant?.
Our readers chimed in with their holiday preferences! While dining at home was a strong contender due to family traditions, leftovers, cost-savings, aversion to holiday crowds, and a palate for a real home-cooked meal, ordering Thanksgiving dinner at a Disney restaurant was the clear winner!
And these voters didn’t care where they ate at Disney — they just wanted to be in the middle of the magic for the holiday. In fact, we think some of you might be happy with one of these!:
Disney Turkey Leg
Here are some of the other suggestions we received!:
Make The Meal Yourself…In Disney World
Interestingly, two readers suggested how to have your Thanksgiving home-cooked dinner (with leftovers) AND a Disney vacation. Both Chantel B. and Barb O. have the answer! Make your own feast in a Disney Vacation Club villa!
Beach Club one-bedroom villa kitchen and dining area
Go To Liberty Tree Tavern
Not surprisingly, the restaurant most mentioned was the Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom.
Themed after a Colonial American home, Liberty Tree serves up a Thanksgiving meal every night of the year.
And each room is decorated to honor someone who was instrumental in the creation of The United States of America! Will you be seated in the room designed for Betsy Ross, George & Martha Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Paul Jones, or Paul Revere?
One of my favorite window tables
Roast Pork, Turkey and Beef with Cornbread Stuffing and Chutney
Many readers were enthusiastic about this location! If you have an ADR there, we wish you a delicious dinner!
Dine At Other Disney Locations
There were some other Disney restaurants that were enjoyed during past Thanksgivings. Tom H. enjoyed a holiday meal at the Grand Floridian Cafe. Boma received a shout-out from Debra H. for the familiar and not-so traditional offerings.
Other past Thanksgiving meals have been savored at Wolfgang Puck Cafe and 50’s Prime Time Cafe! For information on the prix fixe meal at Wolfgang’s, click here!
Grand Floridian Cafe Entrance
And this year, Kathleen L. is headed to Artist Point in the Wilderness Lodge on the East Coast, while Mariah S. is dining at Storyteller’s Cafe at Disneyland’s Grand Californian!
Other Advance Dining Reservations made by our readers for this holiday include 1900 Park Fare, and the Thanksgiving Feast at the Disneyland Hotel. See a review of the Feast here.
Turkey Breast at the Feast
On our reader wish list: Victoria & Albert’s at the Grand Floridian, Olivia’s Cafe at Old Key West, and ‘Ohana at the Polynesian Resort.
'Ohana Turkey Skewer
Stay Home
Dawn T. voted for home. Her reasoning — “I make a mean turkey and I’ll spend time with people that I wouldn’t necessarily want with me at Disney.” Great point!
Facebook Friend Gina W. has another good rationale for spending the holiday at home: “We can talk as loudly as we’d like and not feel like the need to hurry our meal to make room for another family!” It sounds like a fun time at your house!
How About You?
We can’t wait to hear about your Thanksgiving meals. Did you dine at Downtown Disney? There were lots of feasts being offered at restaurants at this entertainment complex this year.
Stop by and read the rest of our Best Disney World Restaurants series for more reader favorites!
What’s YOUR favorite place for a holiday meal — home or at a Disney locale? Let us know in the comments section below.
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
I love eating Thanksgiving dinner at home mainly for the leftovers! But, this year we are at Disney’s Aulani Resort and will be dining at AMA AMA for Thanksgiving lunch! So excited to be in Hawaii and feel very blessed. We actually had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner before coming on vacation so I get the best of both worlds this year:)
I almost always have to work on Thanksgiving Day, as I’m working in a hotel restaurant. Last year I managed to get almost the whole week of Thanksgiving off so I went to WDW. I had to fly home on Thanksgiving Day, so I treated myself to Thanksgiving Dinner at LTT and it was wonderful. That one dinner has made LTT a must do for as many trips as I can manage to talk my travel partner into. If I was going to spend another Thanksgiving at WDW this would be my first choice for dinner!
I love making a Thanksgiving meal and am about to go downstairs to start this year’s. But I can do a turkey meal any day but a chance to be at WDW trumps just about anything else.
Back when I was in grade school, I used to get an entire week off for Thanksgiving. We used this time to take multiple Thanksgiving family vacations to Disney. Our first time we tried to go the traditional route and had Thanksgiving dinner at the Garden Grill. After a disappointing turkey dinner (I’m sure it was fine, but it just wasn’t “our” turkey dinner) we went for non-traditional meals in subsequent years and enjoyed those much better. We ate in Mexico in Epcot one year and Italy another, always following dinner with Illuiminations, and I remember having a blast both of these nights.
Happy Thanksgiving, AJ, and thanks for writing one of my favorite blogs 🙂
Still think fondly of the Thanksgiving vacation my husband and I enjoyed several years ago at Disney. We had our holiday dinner at the Brown Derby and I remember I ordered one of their wonderful signature champagne cocktails, yum. It was a festive meal and topped off our getaway vacation. (It was quiet on the actual holiday and we got a lot done at the parks!) It’s not something you can do every year but that made it all the more meaningful. I think it was the next night that the holiday lights went on for the first time, now that was something!
For the past four years (except this year, instead going in January) we either left on Thanksgiving or were preparing to go to Disney World. We felt that our first meal in Disney at the Pop Century was our Thanksgiving meal as stops at Wawa or another gas station wasnt really dinner on the way lol I would go in a minute if I could but school prevents that 🙁 Nothing though beats leftovers at home
Heidi — I can’t wait to hear about it!
Heather — I agree! We love LTT for dinner (and lunch!).
Alan — We’re coming to your house for dinner!
Betsy — Love the idea of non-traditional dinners! And thanks for the kind words!!
Paula B. — Wow! That sounds like a truly magical vacation!!!
Kathleen — So sorry to hear about no Pop Century T-giving meal this year 🙁 Still, I hope you have a great holiday!! 🙂
AJ: I did!!! Im in school and its near finals so no go but my goal is to go on my break next year! I love your site I swear I plan my trip around the food lol 🙂
We dined at a restaurant once for Thanksgiving dinner and I won’t do it again. It is just not the same. If I was going to be in WDW for Thanksgiving, I would cook in the DVC villa.