How often do you eat table service meals?

[rainbowdog]

How often do you eat table service meals and how old are your kids (if you have kids)? I'm assuming families with younger kids eat at counter service places more. Do you think table-service restaurants are worth it considering they cost more and take longer?

 

[dmdelight]

we don't do ts meals at all.
tried a few years ago, but didn't like booking in advance and found ourselves restricted by adrs.
much prefer cs,quicker,easier,more relaxed (for us)and more park time.
we are in our forties, with dd 19 and ds15.

it's interesting,because others(probably the majority) will answer they love ts, and list their positives for ts- just different strokes for different folks.

 

[CalSea12]

I have a one year old and we go out all the time at home and do 2-3 ts a day at wdw. Yes def worth it bc we love eating at wdw bc it adds another element to our vacation.

 

[ksu93]

We do 1-2 table services a day at WDW. We have 8 kids and usually bring a few extra nieces and nephews. There are lots of choices for ts, many of which are buffets or have characters so it's all geared to keep kids entertained. It's a good way to break up the day.

 

[kaybird]

We usually do 1 TS a day, always even when the kids were small, and now with their kids. Gets us in out of the heat (or rain) and hubbub, most of the TS are attractions in their own right, and it makes a great rest stop for the whole group.

 

[Strawberry's mom&dad]

We do at least 1 TS a day. In the hotter times of year 1 hour in AC and sitting is a nice break. We also have dietary restrictions, so it is easier to talk to a chef and get food I know will be safe. We are in our 50's.

 

[Axel]

We've been doing TS for a while, but I'm an only child. We didn't start doing the whole meal thing seriously until I decided to eat at every restaurant on property (OVER HALF WAY THERE!). Now, we eat at 5-6 TS restaurants per seven day trip.

I'm 21 now, but we started back when I was about 13/14.

 

[glammadiva]

With young kids TS breakfast or lunch everyday. Helps prevent meltdowns. No kids, TS sometimes mostly quick service

 

[TinkandGoofy'sMom]

We usually eat one table service meal per day while at WDW. We really look forward to eating at our favourite restaurants, and planning for the dining we will do is just as important to us as planning for the parks. We have our favourite restaurants that we go to on each trip and try to add a couple of new ones each time. We enjoy the break, and DO NOT cook while on vacation. My younger daughter hates fast food, so eating in a restaurant is a good way to ensure that she will eat a good meal. My kids have always been very well behaved in restaurants and are good eaters, otherwise we wouldn't eat out with them. When they were younger we liked to book the character meals so we wouldn't have to wait in line at the parks to meet some of the characters.

 

[mslhb]

We just got back last week. We ended up eating at least 1 TS meal a day and twice we ate 2. In those cases we had either a late breakfast/early lunch and then a later dinner. We have one DD who is 4. To me eating is part of the vacation and we really enjoyed our time sitting down to eat. Loved that there is so much variety. Also liked that the meals took us to visit some different resorts. I didn't feel like they took up much time at all. And for us we enjoyed the opportunity to sit and relax from so much walking.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

We have 1 child - 8 years old. We rarely eat CS meals so we eat table service meals 2 or 3 times a day. We like the break from the parks and relaxing.

 

[BanditsMommy]

It's just me and my fiancé, but we are actually planning on doing more CS meals this trip. For our 6 night/7 day stay I only have 3 TS meals booked. We started to realize that it's not worth it for me to pay for adult sized entrees at the TS restaurants. I do much better, and waste less food, when I can eat a kids meal portion. Also, it's way cheaper and usually comes with dessert and a drink.

 

[nightshaderose]

No kids. Approximately 1 TS meal per day on average, usually lunch or dinner, but occasionally breakfast.

 

[North of Mouse]

How often do you eat table service meals and how old are your kids (if you have kids)? I'm assuming families with younger kids eat at counter service places more. Do you think table-service restaurants are worth it considering they cost more and take longer?

We just got back from a 10 night trip and ate 6 TS. We normally only eat 3-4. We like to wing it with as few scheduled meals as possible. We usually only make 3-4 ADR's for our *must do* meals. We love to try various snacks/desserts and because we are relatively light eaters, we have to skip a few *formal* mealtimes to do it.

It's just dh & I now, but really on vacation we have always had a more relaxed, laid back schedule even with the children (hey, it was vacation - no rules, just right)

We felt like the TS restaurants we ate at were worth it (as much as anything at Disney, or anywhere, where over priced is the norm). We did really enjoy them.

 

[disneydreamkate]

I have one TS planned for each day we will be at WDW except for one. My upcoming trip I am only taking one of my three children and he is seven. We like the break from the parks.

 

[~Tonga Wingo~]

I'm in the very small minority, but I do three each and every day unless we are in DHS (don't like any of the TS there). I do the deluxe meal plan. I went in June with my nieces and nephews (5, 8, 12). Two years ago, I went with my cousin who was 10 at the time. It really wasn't bad for them nor did it keep us from doing anything we wanted. We were in the park from open to close most days so it provided the kids a chance to sit and rest and get away from the park. Always booked lunch around 1 or 1:30 to escape the heat and we normally had breakfast (usually a character meal) before the park opened. Scheduled dinner around 7:30 so that we were out to see any fireworks etc. I read a lot of posts that state TS takes 1.5 to 2 hours a meal, but in three trips in three years, I have never had a meal take more than an hour even with waiting to be seated. However, we don't go back to the hotel in the afternoons either so there is no lost time other than meals and for me it's part of vacation.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

We do adults only trips. We prefer to have one table service per day but sometimes do a full day worth of counter service. We don't like lunch adr's. We often don't get into the parks until 10am - 11am and once we get into the parks, we just want to get going. In past trips we did a lunch and a dinner reservation and it was just too much food for us and we felt we were watching the time too much.

If we do two reservations per day it will be an early breakfast (before park opening) and a dinner ADR not before 6pm - 7pm. We're adults but we love doing character breakfasts. We're not big eaters but we prefer proper meals so while a burger and fries are alright some of the time, we much prefer a better selection. Also we have several allergies between us so while counter service locations are amazing, there are so many other options at table service. For us, one big meal per day is enough, with smaller meals for breakfast and lunch.

For us, we don't mind the time "out" of the parks, just to sit, relax, eat and chat before we head back into the parks. Often the hour we take to "rest" and have dinner means we can keep going for another few hours in the parks.

 

[MegN529]

We also do 1 TS a day. We do an ADR for lunch or dinner. On our first day we do breakfast to start the morning off bright and early For our family, I feel anything more than 1 TS would be too much food for us. We plan on eating breakfast in the room and then snacking or grabbing a QS for the meal that is not a TS. 1 TS definitely gives my kids a chance to unwind and recharge. I think it really depends on what works for you.

 

[AlohaAnnie]

We like to switch it up a bit.

We usually have 2 days during our stay that we only do CS, we enjoy those days because we are not committed to an ADR.

The other days of our stay, we do at least one TS meal per day. We do breakfast, lunch, & Dinner TS.

We enjoy TS meals and feel they are worth it & a part of our vacation. We have also had a vacation in October during Food & Wine that we only did CS because we ate Food & Wine most of the time and we did not want to be tied to TS meals when we were eating so much around the world. That was a good decision for is that trip.

My Kids are currently 11 & 16 but we have been going to TS meals since they were 4 & 9.

 

[Princess on the Run]

We do at least one TS per day (usually dinner) and we also typically have breakfast in our room (we stay in the 2 bd villas with kitchen) except on CMC breakfast day. We are 3 meal a day people so even QS is a sit down and eat situation. My boys are 7,5 and 3 and we like the structure of mealtime and bedtimes and all that.

DH and I are doing our first adults only WDW trip in May and we plan for one day to be an eat/drink around Epcot day with very little structure to see how "the other half" lives. We're looking forward to it but with the kids, it's easier for us to structure our meal times and TS is a good way to do that for us.