Does anyone eat 3 TS meals a day?

[itchin2go]

It's family's who include the princess/photo waiting lines and kid's needing naps or breaks back at the resort who generally feel pressed for time.

I appreciated your whole post and thought you had a lot of good things to say, until the end.

Others in this post (not me, but others) have said they do feel pressed for time with multiple ADRs. You clearly don't. Neither perception is wrong. It's whatever suits you.

We have never spent a full day at the parks, from rope drop to close. We take a long break every single day. I don't feel pressed for time. When my daughter was little, we met lots of characters. We didn't feel pressed for time. I would like to know what you're basing the above statement on.

Bottom line: everyone's different. I tried 3 ADRs a day. Didn't work for me. Clearly, it works for some.

We now do one ADR every day for dinner. A few days we'll do a breakfast ADR. Maybe once in a trip, we'll do a lunch ADR. No dining plan. Been there, done that, don't like it. No judgment whatsoever for people who feel differently.

 

[supersnoop]

When we were there for new years, we booked three meals on 12/30 and 12/31. We figured we'd have to be in the park all day without a break, so the meals were an opportunity to escape the crowd and rest. It was too much food! We were paying out of pocket, we ordered light and still, it was too much food. On NYE, I cancelled two of our three reservations. We simply couldn't eat any more.

 

[Chloesmom]

We generally eat 3 TS a day but we go during the summer and my daughter is T1 diabetic so the break is a must for her . We have found we enjoy the day much more if we can go sit and be served in air conditioning than if we fight over seats at a crowded CS. We do breakfast around 8, lunch around 1 and dinner late at like 8. There are days where we eat a CS breakfast and we never do buffets so we aren't stuffing ourselves .

 

[lwc]

We do deluxe dining.

Some days we sleep in and do a late breakfast/early lunch and dinner.

Some days we get up early, do a pre-rope drop breakfast followed by lunch and dinner.

We like the air conditioned breaks.

Sometimes my husband and I will share -- an app entree and dessert split between us is usually plenty. Sometimes we both want what we want and don't share....

We have many 3 TS days, AND signatures/dinner shows!

 

[ladybugJ]

We have one day that has 3 TS meals - Chef Mickey at 9:30 am, Tuskers at 3:45 and La Hacienda at 9 pm. Pretty sure we will all be hungry at each meal (if we are mindful of snacking in between!) and with littles (who do well in sit-down restaurants), we will welcome the break to sit and rest and eat.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

I was wondering if anyone does three TS meals in one day.

1) Absolutely.
2) But, those I have seen that do it usually experience severe weight gain at WDW.

 

[Nancyg56]

The time wasted would drive me crazy. My wife, son, and I want to be in the parks as much as possible. We do the standard dining plan, and even then, sometimes we get aggravated with the time involved in a sitdown meal. I cannot imagine taking the time away from other things in the park in lieu of taking the time to eat three seperate TS meals in a day. I'd say that conservatively, we're talking about 4-5 hours of the day spent eating and waiting to eat.

That said...to each their own. Everyone is different.

We like to eat, and we like to take breaks in between, but not for 3 TS meals. The time invested in that thrird meal would drive me crazy, and it is not because we are trying to get so much accomplished in the parks. but becasue there is so much more to do than eat. LOL! We rarely book lunch ADR's because not that timeframe is like an appointment for us, and it is way too restrictive once we get started. We stop for a quick CS break whenwe are hungry or just hot, and then skip back out to whatever is next.

I appreciated your whole post and thought you had a lot of good things to say, until the end.

Others in this post (not me, but others) have said they do feel pressed for time with multiple ADRs. You clearly don't. Neither perception is wrong. It's whatever suits you.

We have never spent a full day at the parks, from rope drop to close. We take a long break every single day. I don't feel pressed for time. When my daughter was little, we met lots of characters. We didn't feel pressed for time. I would like to know what you're basing the above statement on.

Bottom line: everyone's different. I tried 3 ADRs a day. Didn't work for me. Clearly, it works for some.

We now do one ADR every day for dinner. A few days we'll do a breakfast ADR. Maybe once in a trip, we'll do a lunch ADR. No dining plan. Been there, done that, don't like it. No judgment whatsoever for people who feel differently.

This! My family is "that" family. When my DGD was young we stood in just about ever character line so she could meet her "friends" and get their autographs. We wandered from attraction to attraction, stopping whenever something "special" popped up, not just for her, but for anyone on the group. We never spent an entire day in any park, and always managed time relaxing at our resort. We were never ever pressed for time.

The reason we do not plan 3 ADR's a day is that we simply don't like spend three meals in TS restaurants, and cannot eat that much food. We can eat! WE love food! But holy moly!!!!!! The snacks we would miss out on are just not worth it to us. We only book one or maybe two TS breakfast on a trip, but will hit our resort CS to split a quick meal. We hit the parks and stop for lunch when we are hungry, but again, lunch is usually light. Now our dinner is not. We love to spend plenty of time at a latish dinner because we then can go over the highlights of our day. vacations for us are not meant to be Time Pressing and so they are not.

This is the first trip I booke TS lunches for the family. It is going to be HOT in August amd I know my DSIL cannot handle the heat so DD and I decided to see how this works in Epcot and DHS. Wish us luck!

 

[SouthJersey]

I appreciated your whole post and thought you had a lot of good things to say, until the end.

Others in this post (not me, but others) have said they do feel pressed for time with multiple ADRs. You clearly don't. Neither perception is wrong. It's whatever suits you.

We have never spent a full day at the parks, from rope drop to close. We take a long break every single day. I don't feel pressed for time. When my daughter was little, we met lots of characters. We didn't feel pressed for time. I would like to know what you're basing the above statement on.

Bottom line: everyone's different. I tried 3 ADRs a day. Didn't work for me. Clearly, it works for some.

We now do one ADR every day for dinner. A few days we'll do a breakfast ADR. Maybe once in a trip, we'll do a lunch ADR. No dining plan. Been there, done that, don't like it. No judgment whatsoever for people who feel differently.

I wasn't judging anyone. Just from vacationing with all adult trips to family trips and feedback from friends, it appeared that those with young children requiring naps and hotel breaks in addition to long character waits, had the least free time. I was simply eating with adult/teen trips, unless there's a substantial break/pool time at the resort, a family should be able to smoothly cover everything unless they're on a short 3-4 day trip. I was just wording it that way because many opponents to the plan claim to have "no time" for the parks or were "running crazily" and while everyone is different, if it's to that extent it's more of a time management/planning issue like making all various resort ADR's while relying on the busses and camping out every character, then claiming it's the ADR's . I'm not talking about families who don't want that many meals or eat lightly, plus in Disney 3TS is super expensive if you want to pack or snack through parks for substantially lower costs. I was simply talking to the time aspect.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I haven't done three in a day myself, but I think you'll be fine because the times are so spaced out. If I ate breakfast at 7:30, I would definitely be hungry by 1:00! We tend toward earlier dinners, so I don't have experience with 8:00pm ADRs, but again, I think if you haven't eaten since 1:00, you'll certainly be hungry. (At home, the only time I go seven hours without eating is at night. - If I don't have an afternoon snack, I get cranky.)

It also doesn't sound to me like it will cut into your park time too much. Breakfast is before opening, lunch is a much-needed air conditioning break, and most nights we're out of the park by your dinner time anyway.

 

[Kimosabe]

I think it's simply a matter of where you want to put your priorities in a vacation and, to some extent, the "value" that you want or expect to get out of the dining plan. If you want to get maximum dollar value from the plan (especially the deluxe plan), then three TS meals is a lot of food to eat. However, if you're thinking that you're on vacation and want to take time out to sit down and relax a bit more without necessarily eating absolutely everything that "I've already paid for", then three TS meals might be a good way to spend that relaxed time with the family. There is a lot of value that can be placed on the family experience rather than the actual food itself. (To be fair, you can get that experience without using the dining plan, but lots of people see the dining plan as a planning tool that avoids additional stress during the actual trip, and that's fine.) We have had WDW trips where we were wanting to maximize park time and focus on rides and other trips when we were significantly more relaxed about our pace and were much more willing to spend more time in good restaurants. No right or wrong answer here. If you want to do three TS meals in one day, then go for it. If it turns out to be a bad idea for your family, then at least you'll know better next time. If it turns out OK, then maybe you decide to spend at least one day on future trips doing the same thing.

 

[gtpoohbear]

I know we are in the minority, but we almost always do 3 TS meals a day. We are used to eating 3 full meals everyday at home, and if we try to deviate from that schedule on vacation, we just end up with hungry and grumpy people. And we have found from past experience that CS doesn't really do it for us. Especially DH, he finds both the quantity and quality of food lacking at pretty much every one we've been to.

We usually do the earliest breakfast offered, around 7:30am. So that we can still make RD. Sometimes I can get away with a CS breakfast if we are trying to make amEMH, but we are going to need an earlier lunch if we do this.

I like to plan lunch around noon, though without fail, DH will already be "starving" by 10am, even if we just left a breakfast buffet two hours ago. I always laugh when I read the "nobody's going to feel like eating again in 4 hours after a big breakfast" comments, clearly they don't know my DH, lol!

And then we usually have dinner around 7pm, which is still an hour earlier than we eat at home, but I've never not been hungry already.

We don't tend to snack much throughout the day - maybe one small snack in the afternoon but not always. So being hungry for meals has just never been an issue. It's more of a problem convincing DH and the kids that they really aren't going to die of starvation in the next hour until our ADR.

And the time has never bothered me. I mean, you have to eat anyway, right?? With only a few exceptions, TS meals have rarely taken much more time than eating at CS would have, and it is a much more relaxing break. If we didn't take the break there, we'd have to take it somewhere else because we need it. Might as well be eating while we rest!

We used to do the DxDDP, but on the last few trips have found that we save money by just paying OOP, even if we eat the same way. For the life of me, I don't see how people make it on the regular plan, that wouldn't be even close to enough food for us.

 

[mom2travel]

too much food for us. the only time we even do 2 TS in one day is a breakfast and then a dinner.
we do like the A/C breaks from TS meals though.

if the time away from the parks doesn't bother you, and otherwise fits into the grand scheme of your entire trip, go for it. what works for me might not work for you, and vice versa

 

[Summertinkerbell]

We have always used the regular dining plan. On a couple of days, we have 2 TS booked because some ADR's were hard to get, so I just took those restaurant ADR's when I could get them. On the days we are using 2 TS, my DD and I are sharing a meal, and we are using our snack for the 3rd meal. It is just too much food. The thought of it makes me sick to my stomach.

 

[itchin2go]

I wasn't judging anyone. Just from vacationing with all adult trips to family trips and feedback from friends, it appeared that those with young children requiring naps and hotel breaks in addition to long character waits, had the least free time. I was simply eating with adult/teen trips, unless there's a substantial break/pool time at the resort, a family should be able to smoothly cover everything unless they're on a short 3-4 day trip. I was just wording it that way because many opponents to the plan claim to have "no time" for the parks or were "running crazily" and while everyone is different, if it's to that extent it's more of a time management/planning issue like making all various resort ADR's while relying on the busses and camping out every character, then claiming it's the ADR's . I'm not talking about families who don't want that many meals or eat lightly, plus in Disney 3TS is super expensive if you want to pack or snack through parks for substantially lower costs. I was simply talking to the time aspect.

Yeah - the time aspect never got me either. It was just too much food for us. And it became un-fun.

 

[itchin2go]

This! My family is "that" family. When my DGD was young we stood in just about ever character line so she could meet her "friends" and get their autographs. We wandered from attraction to attraction, stopping whenever something "special" popped up, not just for her, but for anyone on the group. We never spent an entire day in any park, and always managed time relaxing at our resort. We were never ever pressed for time.

The reason we do not plan 3 ADR's a day is that we simply don't like spend three meals in TS restaurants, and cannot eat that much food. We can eat! WE love food! But holy moly!!!!!! The snacks we would miss out on are just not worth it to us. We only book one or maybe two TS breakfast on a trip, but will hit our resort CS to split a quick meal. We hit the parks and stop for lunch when we are hungry, but again, lunch is usually light. Now our dinner is not. We love to spend plenty of time at a latish dinner because we then can go over the highlights of our day. vacations for us are not meant to be Time Pressing and so they are not.

This is the first trip I booke TS lunches for the family. It is going to be HOT in August amd I know my DSIL cannot handle the heat so DD and I decided to see how this works in Epcot and DHS. Wish us luck!

I know, right? Boy, we thought Deluxe Dining was going to be THE ticket for us. People on these boards said it would be too much food, and we just thought NO WAY. We are going to love this.

We were miserable. And it sounds so stupid, because the thought is, Just don't eat it all dummy! It should be that simple, but it just wasn't. We would look at a menu and just not want to order anything. And then feel guilty for not eating ... even a decent amount of the food that was brought. It was a weird trip. After that, we didn't do the dining plan at all again.

 

[Julylady]

Wow! I guest every family has to figure this out for themselves. The last time we did the dining plan we decided that was the last time. We also found ourselves dreading the upcoming meals. We were over just over full. We ended up cancelling two TS meals the last two days and just eating snacks. We learned our lesson. For the past few years we only eat out one TS meal per day. Most of the other meals are just a snack or we eat food in the room that we have ordered from Garden Grocer. We eat all breakfasts in the room - usually cereal, pop tarts, or bagels. My whole family does much better on this plan! We look forward to the meals we are eating out and overall, don't overeat. The kids also prefer eating foods they feel comfortable with. A PBJ sandwich with chips and an apple is a great lunch to them!

 

[vettegirl]

We can only eat maybe 2 meals a day, with the snack credits we use those for breakfast and sometimes even meals.

 

[nco91590]

I think it might depend upon where you eat. I mean, I'm in the process of planning our DxDP and I think if we eat the lighter menu items I won't feel stuffed to the gills.

Now, if you were to eat 3 plates on the breakfast buffet, the Pilgrim's Feast for lunch and Tony's for dinner you might die. But the signature portions are typically smaller with a lot of salads, vegetable sides, fresh fish, etc.

Ultimately, I think it's all about being aware of what you're eating. Ribeyes smothered in butter and truffle mac and cheese every night is going to make you feel sick. But salads, fresh fish and sorbet for dessert might not be so bad?

 

[ErinsMommy]

even though we do the dxdp and only sit at 2 TS, we do it so we can have the lunch TS for a signature dinner.

 

[jeepwreck]

For our honeymoon we did the deluxe dinning plan and we took full advantage of it but we found that 3 table services a day was a bit much

This trip coming up we are just doing the regular dining plan so we will see if that works out better for use.


We just found for the TS an app, entree and dessert sometimes was a bit much,


Plus there is the time that goes in to a TS meal. Waiting for the table, waiting for the meal and ect.. I would say the average we spent at a TS meal was about 45-1hr and times that by 2 or 3 that’s a lot of time not enjoying the parks