Food question

[nancybotwin]

Our dining reservations open up on the 13th so I’m trying to plan and determine what we want. This is our first time (and maybe only time) doing DW so I feel a little lost with some of it.

Do people generally reserve all 3 meals each day? Or one meal a day and wing the other two? And if you do a character breakfast does it mean you miss rope drop that day?

Please tell me your tips, tricks and strategies!

[Pilsy]

We're going in April, and I haven't done anything about food, so I hope we can still eat!

Following!

[Patsy Baloney]

We reserve 1 sit-down meal per day, usually, and then just snack/quick service/food court the rest of the meals.

We try to utilize mobile ordering as much as we can for the meals we don’t reserve.

We’re not rope-drop people, so I don’t have any knowledge of that.

I think a lot of the resorts have better restaurants than the parks. Disney Springs, too.

[mrsslocombe]

I don't love many of the sit down places, so we very rarely make reservations unless it's a character meal. Personally I don't think 3 sit down meals is at all worth it, you might not be hungry at the appointed time, or you might want to take a break, go to a different section of the park, etc. And many reservations have a cancellation fee unless you cancel at least 24 hours in advance.

With mobile ordering for counter service it's actually gotten a lot more efficient/easier to eat at those places, we normally place our order while on line for a ride for pick up as soon as we get off.

The way mobile ordering works, you choose your time slot. When you are ready to pick up the food, you click "I am here, prepare my order"-if you happen to be running late for your chosen slot, it is very simple to just move the time later. Once you hit "prepare my order" it can take anywhere from 1 minute to 15 minutes for your food to come out, FYI. Some locations are worse than others (Dole Whips in particular take a long time).

For character breakfasts-I actually love booking the earliest slot INSIDE the park which is before the park opens. So if you book Crystal Palace, you can actually take photos of the castle with basically no one around. It is possible to finish your meal at the buffets before rope drop, it just depends on how fast you want to be.

FYI when you have a table reservation, once you show up, you often don't get seated right away. You might wait 15+ minutes sometimes, it's annoying.

[estrellita]

We do quick service 99% of the time. We booked one sit down meal this last trip which was nice, but honestly I didn't like spending all that time in the restaurant. It was amazing food, but I really prefer spending more time on rides and walking the countries (this was EPCOT day, we ate dinner in the Mexico pavilion).

[aprilsails]

On our one day trip we did lunch and dinner in quick service restaurants with the mobile order. Compared to our last trip to Disney 10 years ago this easily saved us over an hour spent waiting in line. It was amazing. If we’d had another day, we would have done a character meal, but I don’t know that I would bother doing multiple sit down meals during a single day. It would be too much food for me and my kids. The cost of the buffet versus how little they are likely going to eat would not be worth it.

[mrsslocombe]

Also, we instacart snacks/water/etc to the room, and get food to eat for breakfast (except for one character breakfast per trip). It makes it easier to get going in the morning and to get to the parks before rope drop. Also we don't usually eat much at breakfast anyway, and then we get bulkier snack items in the park or have an earlyish lunch.

[CurlyQ284]

We had a stash of muffins and bagels etc for breakfast (we stayed off site in November) and then quick service for the rest.

I'm planning another trip and I think I might schedule table service for one meal, we never have and I feel like I'm missing out. DS said he wants to see the inside of the castle even though he is going to be almost 12 he said he will put up with the princesses for that 🤣

[midwestmama]

We like to have one sit-down/table service meal a day. More so because it gives us a time to have a break and also enjoy the food, and even get to check out other resorts if we happen to get a reservation at a different resort than the one we are staying at.

We typically will bring some breakfast foods and snacks with us (e.g., cereal cups, granola bars, crackers, etc.), and then buy perishables from Instacart or even from the resort store.

Mobile ordering is a great way to avoid waiting in another line!

[samanthamkm]

Feb 1, 2023 11:15:18 GMT -5 Pilsy said:

We're going in April, and I haven't done anything about food, so I hope we can still eat!

Following!

We are checking in on April 1st and out on the 8th and our food just opened yesterday. 

[estrellita]

I think this is time/season dependent, but we didn't really have issues with quick service lines 2 weeks ago. We only used the mobile ordering one night at the hotel honestly. Most of our group would get a table while a couple of us ordered and grabbed the food. We were usually eating around typical meal times too, so I was surprised.

[nancybotwin]

Feb 1, 2023 11:15:18 GMT -5 Pilsy said:

We're going in April, and I haven't done anything about food, so I hope we can still eat!

Following!

We go April 14th so you should be ok!

[maudefindlay]

We don't reserve every day, but when we do it's only one for that day. My kids aren't big eaters enough to justify that much. The other meals are breakfast we grab something at the resort as we head out and then also a quick serve. We love ordering ahead and having the food ready when we arrive, big time saver.

[chilerellanos]

Just do one sit down a day, if that.

They’re expensive and time consuming.

It can be nice to get in and out if The heat and crowds. But they use up a lot of time!

[purplepenguin7]

How many days are you there for? Dining reservations at Disney are the worst. We ended up booking breakfasts and winging the rest of the day because the thought of having to drop everything we were doing to make a lunch or dinner reservation wasn't appealing to us. We aren't huge early birds so rope-dropping was never going to be a huge part of our plan.

How old are your kids? Would they be into the character meals? My daughter was 3 at the time so that was huge for her.

If you are there for a short amount of time I would book only a character dining (if applicable) and any restaurants you really want to try. If you have a week or so, then I would book some dinner reservations a few days based on how you are planning the rest of your parks.

[picksthemusic]

If you haven't already, I'd sit down and watch some YouTube videos about being in the parks and eating and stuff. I really like Disney Food Blog as a resource - they've got lots of good information. That way you can determine what you want each day at whatever park you'll be in and how much time you want to spend eating. Usually quick service is good for days you won't want to waste 2 hours at a sit-down place. Don't forget, you an always pack snacks to take with you into the parks (just make sure no glass, no loose ice, and nothing that needs refrigeration or heating).

[MDmomof2]

I don't think that the sit down meals take a long time - most are buffets and you eat quickly or take your time. Characters usually come around in 30 or 45 minute time slots so you don't have to spend a long time. We preferred to do them for lunch so we could take a break and sit down in air conditioning. When my kids were smaller they loved meeting the characters so we planned around that.

[Patsy Baloney]

I also don’t feel like sit-down meals take a long time. Thinking back to our recent trip in December, we were out of the restaurants in an hour, give or take.

Heading out to a resort for a meal may take a little longer out of your day, but if you’re staying in the park, you’re not going to be losing hours upon hours to meals.

[imimahoney]

We reserved one sit down meal a day. Breakfast was always at the hotel. The 3rd meal was either snacks at the park or at the hotel.

[maudefindlay]

None of our meal reservations have been buffets and we are in and out in 45 min usually.

[Wines Not Whines]

We usually do one sit-down meal per day. Either lunch or dinner. Breakfast is usually something quick at the hotel before we go to the park. My kid has never cared about characters, so we don’t do character meals. I’m not sure why someone said most restaurants are buffets. I think character meals are often buffets, but most other restaurants aren’t.

[redheadk]

IME, the typical table service restaurants get you in and out in about 45 minutes. You may have to wait to be seated, though, so allow an hour.

We like to do one a day; we just enjoy having a full meal for one of our meals. We have become rope drop people and by lunch we really are all ready for the break that a TS restaurant provides.

Our last trip was over Thanksgiving week so pretty busy; many QS places were only mobile order. If they were, you could not enter the QS restaurant or area until your app showed that your order was ready to be picked up. This worked so well; we had no trouble at all finding a table to eat at.

For MK, we had a PPO (pre park opening) breakfast reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table for 8am. Park opened at 9am, so resort guests got in at 8:30. In reality, resort guests were in by about 7:50 but they hold them on Main Street. We were leaving CRT by 9am when the park opened up to all guests.

[redheadk]

For strategies, it really depends on your kids ages, your goals, your resort, if you have a car, how long you plan to be in the parks, etc. Everyone is different!

When DD was a preschooler, we focused more on classic disney character meals and the disney junior character meal. At 6, we did all the princess meals. This last time, our only character meal was Cinderella's Royal Table which we mainly did for my niece (6) and for the novelty of it.

Some of the resorts have some really great dining options but can be inconvenient if you aren't staying at the resort or in its immediate area. I would not pick many of these types of restaurants (some popular ones are Artist's Point, Topolino's Terrace, or Boma).

Onsite guests can book their dining reservations for their entire stay starting at 60 days from the day they check-in so if you have your eye on an ADR that is hard to get like Space 220 at Epcot, try for the furthest day out of your trip since that will give you the greatest chance of snagging a reservation.

Even during busy weeks, you can normally snag reservations or a walkup to something.

[sent]

Character meals were great for DD when she was 3 and 5. I booked them a lot on those trips so we could see them at meals and not have to find them in the parks. My husband didn't enjoy the character meals so we often went without him to save on the cost, like only DD and I had lunch in Cinderella's castle when she was 5. DS was terrified of the characters at almost 2 and again at 4 so it would not have been a good use of money or time if I booked them with the intent of him enjoying it. 

Unless there is something you MUST have, I don't stress ADRs. I try to get the ones people say are super popular that we want to eat at (California Grill is among our faves) but if it doesn't happen we will try something else. My "strategy" is to check around the time when people have to start canceling their reservations. We usually find something acceptable to us. It does help to be familiar with the restaurants ahead of time if you're doing this.

There were definitely 1 or 2 nights during our trip last year over Spring Break where we ended up just ordering room service when we got back to the hotel because it was just the easiest thing to do and was probably less than what a sit-down meal would have cost us. One of those nights was when we had gotten a last minute reservation to Topolino's Terrace for dinner. But it ended up pouring so hard while we were at Epcot that evening. Rain means they closed the Skyliner and we couldn't make it back over to the restaurant in time for dinner so we just went back to our hotel. I had tried to reserve brunch at Topolino's Terrace when our ADRs opened and kept checking for it while we were on site, but I never got it so oh well.

ETA - I saw your dietary restrictions on the other thread. Check the menus ahead of time. Some are not so great at having other options besides whatever is popular in that restaurant. 

[huskymom]

We like to book dinners only, plus a few other random reservations (Oga’s, Beaches & Cream). Our strategy is to rope drop, head back to the resort around lunch, eat by the pool, and then park hop and eat dinner at that park.

We only did Topolino’s breakfast this time for a character meal and it was great, but we did it on our checkout day (we were switching over to Universal). We had good meals at Skippers Canteen (MK), Sci Fi Diner (HS), Sanaa (AKL - ate here on arrival day). Also ate at Teppan Edo and Le Cellier at Epcot but neither were amazing that I’d recommend.

[goldengirlz]

Sounds like a bunch of us will be there in April. 😀

My dining window just opened and we’re only booking dinners. That’s what we usually do when we travel most places anyway, and what we’ve done at Disneyland (except for one character breakfast.) Our DC has aged out of character dining at this point though.

We’ll probably grab breakfast at the hotel because I need coffee to get going in the morning. And we’re not super particular about lunch. But H and I always look forward to having a nice dinner in the evening (with an adult beverage!) and since we typically want to eat at the popular places, it makes sense to book.

[was5]

Feb 1, 2023 12:52:52 GMT -5 mrsslocombe said:

For character breakfasts-I actually love booking the earliest slot INSIDE the park which is before the park opens. So if you book Crystal Palace, you can actually take photos of the castle with basically no one around. It is possible to finish your meal at the buffets before rope drop, it just depends on how fast you want to be.

I wanted to call this out because I think it's a great tip. If my family were early risers, we might have actually taken advantage of it. We're lucky if we can get to the parks by 10am. I think you can also get a pre-park opening breakfast at Belle's castle which would give you access to some of the popular rides in Fantasyland (Peter Pan, Small World). Maybe someone here knows for sure if that still gives you an advantage to these rides. 

We generally did one sit down/reservation meal per day. Both times we went to DW, we were on the meal plan (which isn't offered any more). We did QS breakfast at our hotel, usually a sit down lunch, and then for dinner another QS meal or snacks. We also got some food for our room (PBJ, yogurt, pop tarts) for breakfast. We would have used more of that without a meal plan. 

If your kids are young, I definitely recommend character meals. We liked doing them at lunch because we are not the type of family to leave the park mid-day and return. Lunch was our chance to get out of the heat and recover a little bit without actually leaving the park.

[Pilsy]

All this time, I've been thinking I can only make reservations on two days, because we only have park tickets for two days (good for any two days in a four-day window).

Am I actually able to make reservations for any point in that four-day window? Or park days + days we're checked into a hotel? Our window is 4/18 - 4/21; we check in on 4/18 and have park reservations on 4/19 and 4/20.

My kids aren't all that into characters, but I'd like to do at least one ADR, and we're staying at Disney Springs. Any recs? I assume the restaurants there are part of the res system, but please correct me if I'm wrong.


Thank you!

[redheadk]

Feb 15, 2023 15:43:59 GMT -5 Pilsy said:

All this time, I've been thinking I can only make reservations on two days, because we only have park tickets for two days (good for any two days in a four-day window).

Am I actually able to make reservations for any point in that four-day window? Or park days + days we're checked into a hotel? Our window is 4/18 - 4/21; we check in on 4/18 and have park reservations on 4/19 and 4/20.

My kids aren't all that into characters, but I'd like to do at least one ADR, and we're staying at Disney Springs. Any recs? I assume the restaurants there are part of the res system, but please correct me if I'm wrong.


Thank you!

You can make reservations for the length of your Disney hotel stay starting the first day you are eligible to make reservations (60 days before 4/18). If you are not staying on property, it's 60 days before each of the days, so you'd have to do them a day at a time. Park tickets have nothing to do with it other than you need park tickets to get to the restaurants inside the parks.

[Pilsy]

Feb 15, 2023 20:51:19 GMT -5 redheadk said:

Feb 15, 2023 15:43:59 GMT -5 Pilsy said:

All this time, I've been thinking I can only make reservations on two days, because we only have park tickets for two days (good for any two days in a four-day window).

Am I actually able to make reservations for any point in that four-day window? Or park days + days we're checked into a hotel? Our window is 4/18 - 4/21; we check in on 4/18 and have park reservations on 4/19 and 4/20.

My kids aren't all that into characters, but I'd like to do at least one ADR, and we're staying at Disney Springs. Any recs? I assume the restaurants there are part of the res system, but please correct me if I'm wrong.


Thank you!

You can make reservations for the length of your Disney hotel stay starting the first day you are eligible to make reservations (60 days before 4/18). If you are not staying on property, it's 60 days before each of the days, so you'd have to do them a day at a time. Park tickets have nothing to do with it other than you need park tickets to get to the restaurants inside the parks.

Thank you!!