Counter Service Meals at the Parks

[Bell30012]

My daughter and I have just returned from 6 days at Disney during which time we visited the Magic Kingdom (Sat - Mon), Hollywood Studios (Tue), EPCOT (Wed) and Animal Kingdom (Thur). During all of these days, at all four parks we noticed the same thing... The Counter Service lines were extremely long.

Every counter service meal had a line, not one or two. Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe had no seating available at any time that we passed by early lunchtime until dinner it was packed.

[bangzoom6877]

We went in July and ate CS lunches at the parks. 4 of the 5 days we spent at the parks, we had a CS lunch there. We always ate lunch between 11 and 11:30, with the exception of Epcot which was a little after 12 Noon. We ate at:

-MK: Cosmic Ray's
-DHS: Toy Story Pizza Planet
-AK: Flame Tree BBQ
-Epcot: Tangierine Cafe in Morocco

No lines at any of the above, probably because we went shortly after they opened. As far as the one in Epcot a little later on (around noon), the WS opens at 11AM in July, and it was not an EMH day when we were there. MK was an EMH morning day, and we walked right into Cosmic Ray's, hardly any line, easy to get a table. By the time we were done eating, there were huge lines all over and not an empty table in sight. Pizza Planet had the longest line to get food, but easy to get a table (not inside though, outside). Tangierine Cafe in Morocco was easy to get an inside table, and was moderately crowded when we left there. Flame Tree BBQ was empty when we got there and crowded by the time we left.

I think that the closer to opening you go, the less crowded they are. Many open at 11AM for lunch. For dinner, I have no experience as all our dinners were TS and will continue to be on future trips...we like sitting down to a nice dinner (even if it IS a character buffet!!) after a long day at the parks!