What's your evening meal TS or CS?

[ppan77]

I need to make ressies tomorrow for dinner. I am torn between planning a TS or CS meal on our evenings with our little ones. Mine are 4 and 18 months and eat out often. We are staying at CR. We are planning on touring, break in the afternnon, go back in the evening when we go to MK. Would you TS on the monorail then go to MK or CS in the park??

[SnowWhitee]

I have to say it depends. Most of the time our dinner is TS, but sometimes I know we'll want to get seats for a parade, be on our way to a party (like MNSSHP), etc., which is when I do CS because it's faster. And, if we have to, most of us can sit on a curb for the parade while one adult goes to get food for all.

Another thing to consider with smaller children is what is their mood later in the day? Do your kids prefer morning or evening? If they are "morning" people then they might not have patience and might be too tired to bear sitting still at a an evening TS meal. If that is the case, a TS breakfast or lunch might be better for you with a CS at night.

[kenny]

We do a combination of both. Some dinners are table service and some are counter service.

There are certain meals we perfer the dinner TS over breakfast/lunch and other vice versa. For example we will do Crystal Palace dinner, but Chef Mickey breakfast.

We through in some counter service dinners are well. Although they go out to dinners often, we don't expect them to be able to sit quietly every night for a meal.

This way we do a few sit down dinners (combo of character meals and some that DW and I like) and the rest quick counter service and off to more rides.

have definitely down TS on the monorail and then zoomed over to MK. Staying at BLT this time and planned it a few nights.

Good luck

[disney queen]

this trip in december it is a combination. having said that it is usually the evening meal.

[SurfinTX]

On our '07 trip they were mixed. Tough to get ADRs or really busy parks we TS for late lunch. The rest we did TS for dinner.

Next year I'm planning all TS for dinner. With young children it might be best to try for early dinners on the Monorail and head back. CS is just as good if you don't want to leave the parks. It helped us get a really good spot for Spectromagic.

[princesslover]

Originally Posted by SurfinTX

On our '07 trip they were mixed. Tough to get ADRs or really busy parks we TS for late lunch. The rest we did TS for dinner.

Next year I'm planning all TS for dinner. With young children it might be best to try for early dinners on the Monorail and head back. CS is just as good if you don't want to leave the parks. It helped us get a really good spot for Spectromagic.

I have two young kids also, 3 and 6. We started out with mostly TS for dinner, but then I started tweaking things around due to the parades and shows we want to see. This trip, we're seeing Spectro/Wishes, Fantasmic, Illuminations/Candlelight Processional, and going to MVMCP so for us, I thought trying to squeeze in a TS dinner might leave us feeling rushed to get somewhere on those nights - except for MVMCP where we do have the Plaza before the party so we can be "right there."

Add to that the fact that a relaxing sit down meal might be nice for the little ones (occaionally) after running in the park for a few hours. It sort of "forces" us to take a break. Then we can head back to the park whenever we want to and not have a timeline, except for when the parades start. We have two TS lunches for this very purpose: CP and WCC. We do have 3 breakfasts as well, because some meals I thought would be better at breakfast - Akershus, CRT, and Chef Mickeys are all Breakfast meals for us because of the reviews and/or character interaction. So now I am left with only three dinner TS! 'Ohana, 1900 Park fare, and the Plaza (for MVMCP night). So we have 3 breakfasts, 3 dinners, and two lunches, so I sort of think that's an OK mix.

[Darcy03231]

We do a combination of breakfasts and dinners. Depending on what parks we plan to be in sometimes I find its easier to do a TS breakfast that morning so we're not tied into any firm plans during the day (DHS is one of those). Other parks I know that I like to have firm dinner plans to have a nice break (Epcot).

[TennHokies]

Agree with most others that you have to do what's best for your family but here's what didn't work for mine. With DD4 and DS2 we planned rope drop every day, nap back at the hotel, and then a TS every night (mostly character meals). Naps NEVER happened, we tried a few times and realized it wasn't worth the trip back (non-monorail resort). By the time dinner came around the kids we're too tired to sit still and enjoy them.

Next trip we're planning a few TS breakfasts with mostly CS lunch and dinners (exception is Ohana's for dinner because we all LOVED it!!!). I guess WDW taugh us our kids are morning people

[ilovediznee]

We like to wrap up the day with a good sit down meal. I can't even remember when we did a quick service of any kind for dinner. We use that time to wind down, talk about the day we just had and then tomorrow's plans.