Is it worth it to go back to an off-site resort for lunch?

[lowlander]

Hello,

We are staying at the Grande Vista and Orange Lake Country Club in May. I am just wondering if it is feasible to go back to the resorts for lunch and still be able to fit everything in. They are within 10 miles of WDW. Are there reasonable restaurants close by?

Lori

[disneysteve]

We've often taken a break mid-day and gone back to our room. We'll have lunch offsite, maybe relax a bit, maybe take a swim, then go back to the park for the evening. You can certainly do it. Its not the commando-style trip, but I never cared for that much.

[MrsPete]

I would not go off-site for lunch, then plan to return. It's just not practical.

[Mom to Will and Finn]

I wouldn't.

Are you worried about the cost? A lot of the counter service restaurants are a lot more reasonable than I thought they'd be. They're not much (if any) more than what you'd find at a fast food restaurant, but the food is much better.

[WillCAD]

If you're only doing it to save money, it's not a good idea. The time and trouble are one thing, but with the price of gas these days you'd burn up more in your rental car than the amount you'd save by getting a cheaper lunch outside.

If you are doing it to take a break in the middle of the day, maybe have a nap and a swim as well as lunch to recharge before going back for the rest of the day, then it's certainly feasible and a great idea, especially if you have littles who need nappy time.

[crisi]

To some extent it depends on how much of "everything" you want to fit in, how many days you have to do it in, and how early you are going to get up and late you will stay up to fit it in.

If the is your only trip, you'll want to fit in lots (many people on this board go fairly often, we don't need to see "everything"). If you are only there for four days, you can go opening to closing in May and not manage "everything" - going for two weeks you can take leisurely afternoon breaks. If you are at the parks at opening and leave at closing, you may be able to take a break, but if you want to be back and your hotel by 8:00 or 9:00, you will run out of time.

The MK in particular is hard to leave and come back to. If you are in the back of the park its a five minute walk to the front. Ten minutes to the TTC via ferry or monorail. Five minutes via tram to your car. Now fifteen minutes to get that ten miles back to your room - thirty five minutes one way in travel time.

But get out of your head that you will do everything - even if you have two weeks and unlimited funds. WDW is huge. Outside the parks: Five golf courses, fishing, horseback riding and parasailing. Lots of restuarants. Even inside the parks there are enough attractions and shows to make "seeing it all" in a week very difficult. Some people dash from attraction to attraction, others make time to get character autographs and photos.

[frannn]

We park hop and go back to the room about once a day, but we stay on site. I don't think we would ever have left WDW property midday, then came back in past trips. But, now the EMH have changed, allowing people to spend more time after normal closing hours at a certain park each day. This may change things, because you can always stay at the parks a bit later to make up the time. I often ask DH to drive offsite at lunch or dinner time (mostly dinner) to get a less expensive meal. Crossroads has many options, and doesn't take much time out of your day. So, if you are looking to save a few $, you have many options, including counter service, sharing meals, driving slightly offsite, or bringing a small cooler. DH and I used to have a decent sized breakfast at our hotel (AS) food court, then skip lunch and have a large dinner (either counter service, character meal, or offsite). We take snacks to curb our hunger, and Brita filtered sports bottles. Breakfast bars, pb&j, gummis, pretzels, etc, do not take up a lot of space, and can be snacked on while waiting in line. If you need a break, why not go to an air conditioned inexpensive restaraunt? You can go to DTD and eat at McD or Earl of Sandwhich. You could take a calming boat ride and eat at Beaches & Cream, or just take the boat rode to relax. My fear is that if we left the parks to relax, my DH would not be so quick to run back, and it may be more crowded later on.

[swilshire]

We often do this, particularly in very hot weather, just to have a chance to relax and cool off a bit. As an earlier poster said, sometimes it's hard to get DH moving to go back once he settles in. Other times we thought the weather might improve if we took a break, but it didn't.

We found this particularly effective if we had finished up at one park for the day and planned to return to a different one.

Sheila

[snappy]

We find it mandatory to take a break. However, if we get to the parks really early, we will eat a light early lunch at counter service in the park we are in, do a few more attractions, and then leave for a rest/swim and an early supper.

Going back in the early evening you feel refreshed, almost like waking up in the morning.

We do not make it very late at night though. Makes it too hard to wake up the next morning.