The Rose and Crown is a pub, not a restaurant. That's an important distinction. You have a pint, maybe a black and tan, and if you want to eat the most you get is fish and chips. Those were pretty good last time we had them. For anyone going down, about the reservations, folks staying on grounds used to be able to make reservations a day ahead for the restaurants. Also, at Epcot, if you have a pass that lets you go in and out of the parks, you can exit the park at the back between England and France. You've got some excellent restaurants at the Yacht & Beach Club and at the Boardwalk hotel. If you're at the Magic Kingdom you can take the monorail to one of the hotels there. They've all got restaurants that tend to be relatively empty during the day.
The bakery at France is world class and the pastries sold on carts at Canada are also quite good. And don't forget the Churros at the Mexico pavilion. My favorite restaurants at Epcot are the 9 Dragons at China and the seafood place at The Living Seas, The Coral Reef (you watch the fish through huge plate qlass windows right next to you). And the restaurant in the German pavilion was a fun experience. The rotating restaurant at The Land pavilion was also reliable. At Magic Kingdom Tony's Town Square at the front of Main Street served reliable American Italian food and Cinderella's Royal Table inside the castle was a lot of fun. At MGM Mama Melrose's and 50's Prime Time Cafe were reliable and, for a "secret" retreat, there was the Catwalk bar. An out of the way bar that you could unwind in without a lot of "those nasty tourists" all over you.
Here's a web page with menus for all of the restaurants at the WDW parks and hotels.
The exhibits in the international portion of Epcot were set up like Worlds Fair national presentations. The 360 films at China and Canada are beautiful. And I dearly love the animatronic show in the American pavilion. They had PCed it the last time we were there, about 6 years ago, but some of the really good stuff was still in it. Today, more people know who Will Rogers was from that show than from almost any other source. That's worth a lot.
Magic Kingdom Parade and Fireworks – Wow! Make sure you are in front of the castle to see the show.
Staking out a good spot for the parade and the fireworks is a real trick. If you find one it's well worth the time you have to spend waiting. We had a ritual when we'd go down. We'd go to the big "department store" at the front of Main Street. In the back of that, closest to the castle, is a working barber shop done up as it would have been in the 1890s. My sons and I would each get our haircuts there. It turned out that the barber shop quartet who works Main Street would hang out there between gigs. We got to be friends with 8 or 9 of the guys who were in the rotation for the Dapper Dan's. Most were retired guys, but one was younger. Turns out his aunt and uncle lived in our town back in Tennessee. One day I was working in my yard and this car stopped out front. This guy got out who I knew I recognized but for the life of me I couldn't place the face. When he started to sing, however...... It's one thing to see someone you've come to know in the Disney cast down there. It's quite another when they come visit YOU!!!! Those guys would help us get a good spot down near their area on a regular basis, which was fun.
Rides – Some of the rides are dated but overall, all of them were enjoyable.
The rides that mattered to us were:
Magic Kingdom - Pirates of the Carribean (PCed the last time we were there, probably updated for Johnny Depp's version), Haunted Mansion, Country Bears Jamboree, Peter Pan Adventure, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (I think that's gone), Small World (reserved for hot days - it's the coolest place in the parks), Carousel of Progress (only open on really busy days), Jungle Cruise (nostalgia... plus I met Joe Montana and his family on that ride... want to see the video... there's my kid, there's the snake, there's Joe Montanna, there's the elephant...)
Epcot - Energy, Geosphere, Living Seas, The Land, Imagination, CommuniCore, Mexico (coolest place at Epcot on a hot day), American Pavilion. If you have the time see if you can arrange for the back stage walking tour at the land (if they still do it). It's free and you get to see all of the real stuff going on in those green houses and hydroponics gardens. Beautiful. Also find out what other group tours they have. They used to be free.
MGM - back stage tour (walking) / back lot tour (riding) (they used to be one thing, we were on the 6th tram on opening day), Animation (probably closed now), Star Tours, Muppet 4D (you have to wait, after the show is over, to watch the "arrows" disappear back in the wall)
Animal Kingdom - Safari, Bugs Life, Dinosaurs (whatever the name is) - we were also at this park opening day and spent the least time there of all of the "main gates." Most of what is there now wasn't there before we stopped going, such as the brand new Himalaya roller coaster ("Yeti Adventure," or some such).
You also didn't mention our favorite part of WDW: Pleasure Island. To be more precise, The Adventurer's Club at Pleasure Island. My kids practically grew up there (yes, at a bar at DisneyWorld). We became quite good friends with several of the regular cast members. We spent 7 consecutive Christmas Eve's with those folks. They were part of the family... a very funny part of the family, but a part, none the less.
Can you guess that we had annual passes for almost 10 years? And, no, we have never lived in Florida. We could make the drive from Memphis to Orlando in one straight shot, if we put our minds to it.
Towards the end of our "Disney Era" we actually spent more time over at SeaWorld, where we also made some good friends, primarily the trainers at the Killer Whale and Dolphin areas. We also ended up treating all of the parks as parks. We'd go, let the kids roam free and do what they want, and we'd sit and read or talk. It was lovely. My favorite thing to do on vacation was to sit in the Shamu Stadium between shows, reading my current "vacation book" and watching the trainers work with the whales. We actually developed relationships with the whales during this time. When we'd come down each time the first time the whales saw us they'd react. The trainers told us that was how they reacted to trainers and other park workers who had been a part of their lives. That was special. They recognized us.
Thanks for your input.