Anyone else not eat onsite?

[T16GEM]

I don't mean CS in the parks, but does anyone else never eat onsite with ADRs?

We have only ever had one meal in a Disney restauraunt, that was for DS's 3rd Birthday breakfast at Chef Mickeys, we just haven't bothered with the restaurants, even though I know that there are such good reviews for them, we tend to stay at the parks until 7 ish and then go offsite to Chilis, Cheesecake Factory or somewhere similar.

I think we would dislike being tied to plans with ADRs, we like to decide what we are doing on the day depending how we feel at the time.

Is anyone else like us?

 

[disney_princess_85]

We don't hire a car so it makes sense to us to eat onsite. I'm a compulsive planner anyway, so we don't mind being 'tied' to ADRs.

 

[barry7767]

We never eat on-site, always stay off-site and hire a car. Personally think it provides better value for money/choice/flexibility, but that's just me!

 

[2Tiggies]

I think as Lauren said, if you have a car, this has a big influence on your decision.

I don't like be tied to too many ADRs so the QSDP has worked for us the last 2 years and we are doing it again this year. I just pay OOP for any TS we feel like doing so there are ADRs, just not every day.

 

[jockey]

I always make ADRs it motivates me to stick to my plans! There are some places the kids just love and are a must - CRT, Akershus, Trex, chef mickeys, Crystal Palace,1900 park fare!! DH and I like Le Cellier, Raglan and Narcoossees.

We have lots of fav's off site tho, we love Cheesecake factory, Panera and the Outback. Why not do a mixture, at the end of the day you can always cancel your adr's! Our problem is there are too many nice places and not enough days to try them all!

 

[alibeau]

We usually book a couple of adr's/onsite meals each trip.

For Easter I have booked Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex, CG for DH's b'day and also the Fantamsmic package in a 16 night hol. We only normally do one or two 'onsite' meals but I booked these in case the parks are so busy that we give them a miss and so we will still get our 'Disney' fix.....

I really don't like the idea of having to book times and meals in advance. We like to see how we feel on the day and take it from there. Our greatest discovery for offsite dining was 'Bob Evans'. We drove past this restaurant a million times and after a few hols eventually decided to eat there. We now go there at least 2 or 3 times each visit. Great food, service and prices only thing is, they don't serve alcohol but this is not a problem for us, we don't drink a great deal while out and about and just have a few back at the villa later.

Thumbs up for offsite dining from me but everyones circumstances are different - each to their own

Ali

PS - thinking ahead to our August trip, as we are going for nearly four weeks the thought has crossed my mind that we might get fed up of eating out and not do onsite or offsite and might have to actually cook

 

[wayneg]

Lets go back to before August 2009. My thoughts then were very similar to yours, we had eaten the odd meal onsite(Boma & Trails End & Hoop) which we enjoyed but felt onsite was overpriced and we would not enjoy the ADR system, far better just eating at the great places offsite with no planning.

For Aug 2009 with the free DDP & OKW offer & the very poor exchange rate we decided to give it a go, 1st year with lack of experience wasn't easy especially with no online ressies but when we got to the meals we found we enjoyed the experience, although it does tie you to Disney more than we like.
With the same offer available August 2010 we went for it again, now with experience & online ressies available we enjoyed the whole process right from choosing where to eat 6 -7 months out.
Now waiting for 180 days out to book this years for the 3rd time, we have spent many enjoyable hours researching where to eat again, sending links, pics, reviews to our relatives who will be going with us. Really looking forward to it again.

We are enjoying it but as I say it ties us to Disney more than we like, not too bad for us as we go more than once a year so other trips we eat totally offsite.
I would not pay to do DDP, its great free in conjunction with OKW 42% deal but I think dining in Disney is too expensive.

I don't think Disney dining is for everyone but if you can try it at a reasonable rate I would say give it a go, you might just enjoy it.

 

[dixonsontour]

We'd not eaten a TS meal at disney until we did free DDP in 2009.

This trip offsite i'm planning just a few disney TS breakfasts - CRT, chef mickey, tusker and maybe sci fi lunch.

We've done DDP 2009 and 2010 so are wanting a change back to our offsite favourites.

Also budget wise if I wanted to eat onsite at disney we would have done the onsite stay and free ddp. Most evening meals for the 3 of us were $100 at disney plus tip, offsite chain restaurant $50 plus tip.

 

[nemmie]

Bit of both for us really although I would say we eat off site more yes.

Disney has some really outstanding restaurants to offer so I would never rule them out completely but I agree that ADR's can be a pain and reviewing our choices of onsite we frequent ones that are very easy to get ADR's at short notice (i.e. when we are in Orlando on the day). The only ADR's I make super far ahead of time is Ohana to me its worth it.

On the whole as onsite vs offsite, I would say offsite is cheaper and easier but I guess it boils down to whatever works best for you and your vacations

 

[skelfbsfb]

We genrally do both. As we need to pay for DDP as its not free when we visit , we have managed to spit our stay up so that we are eating onsite for first 3 days, then off site for next 5 days then back to DDP for remaining 6 days. The only advantage that I see for ourself is that we have paid for most of our food before we even arrive.

My DD2 loves Friendlys on I Drive and we need to visit this at least once so generally go there when we are staying at HRH.

 

[irisheyes123]

I never ate onsite only in the parks But Im not really a planner I just like to go with the flow

 

[cantwait!!!!!!!!!!!!]

With free dining when we went last year we only ate at Disney, I really enjoyed the planning and am enjoying it again this year I dont feel tied to ADRs as you can always change them if you want to. Found the disney transportation fab for getting around too.

 

[aaronandterri]

i tend to overbook adrs, just so we have the choice, we probably only keep half of our reservations , we tend to go with the flow and if it fits then we go if were busy/ tired, in the wrong place we just cancel.
I love a lot of offsite places and they work out cheaper,and being over 6 of us we get hit for 18% gratuity onsite making it less affordable.
(dont get me wrong i tip and do just hate being told how much to~ one time at christmas our tip was over $60 onsite~ theres a whole meal elsewhere!)

 

[jockey]

I meant to say we have the tables in wonderland card ...that gets you a discount of 20% at a lot of ts restaurants

 

[Elise79]

We do both - we enjoy some meals onsite for convenience and we like some offsite.

We don't do the DDP (have to pay as DVC) but have TIW and that works better for us.