Fearing too much food!!

[violakat03]

This trip in April with my best friend is starting to turn into dining hell for me. She wants to eat EVERYWHERE! lol. We spent a few days in the area last week and we ate really well. She certainly likes to feed me, and anyone else that happens to be around at meal time.

What I'm fearing however, is spending so much time eating that we don't enjoy the parks. Right now we've got enough ADRs booked to have outgrown the regular dining plan, but aren't quite to the point where Deluxe is worth it. Should I just put my foot down and say no more ADRs, or just roll with it (since she's paying for the whole trip!) and gain 20 lbs in a week?

Is it feasible to have two, or even 3 (which she's got planned for at least one of the days) TS meals most days? Or are we just going to be stuffed and miserable and not get to do anything besides eat?

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

For us 3 would be too many in a day (figure 1.5 hours x 3, that's 4.5 hours of eating)...we've done 2 in a day and enjoyed it, we just make the first one earlier and the 2nd one later so there's enough time in between. Generally we're good with one TS per day though.

If she's paying for it, though, I'd have a hard time saying anything, so would probably just go along with it

 

[violakat03]

I figure I'd add in what our current reservations are:
Night 1, arriving at resort around 6 pm: T-Rex on a very late ADR
Day 2: Dapper Day, lunch at Grand Floridian Cafe
Day 3: Coral Reef lunch, Jiko dinner
Day 4: BOG breakfast (8:30), Plaza lunch, BOG dinner
Day 5: California Grill dinner
Day 6: CRT breakfast, Fantasmic/Mama Melrose late lunch (3:30)
Day 7: Akershus late breakfast, Le Cellier early dinner
Day 8: No ADRs yet, thinking either IllumiNations or Wishes dessert party, or Spirit of Aloha
Day 9: No ADRs yet, leaving around noon.

According to the dining plan calculator, we need like 3 more TS to make it worth upgrading to deluxe. I haven't presented this to BFF yet because she will see that as a challenge.

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

That doesn't look too bad - although I wouldn't want BOG twice in the same day.

 

[violakat03]

That doesn't look too bad - although I wouldn't want BOG twice in the same day.

I'm hoping to move breakfast to another day, honestly. But it's such a pain in the butt reservation to get that if we end up with it twice in one day, so be it.

 

[sharonabe]

Considering you need meals on Days 8 and 9, it will be very easy to get those other 3 meals in. However, doing the DxDDP means MORE time in the restaurants because you would be eating apps, entrees, and desserts which just takes more time. I think you'd do better just to pay OOP and enjoy what you really want to eat instead of what the plan dictates.
For example, your BoG day. Breakfast doesn't have to be completely filling, you can do just a sandwich or salad at The Plaza, then enjoy your favorite entree at BoG again for dinner (or my preference of just the french onion soup and the grey stuff cupcake). Cutting back on the number of courses will cut back on the time needed in each restaurant.

 

[Lisa F]

I feel both sides. I am doing my plan right now hoping to make ADRs at the 180 day mark and also planning what QS to do under the regular DDP and the thought of eating those bigger QS meals and also those TS meals is making me feel full. Yet i also have this sense of sadness at things I wish I could do but won't be able to fit in this trip. The struggle is REAL.

I think if you are just about to break even I would not do the DxDDP because now you have the option to order less to fit it all in. just a soup and appetizer or soup and dessert or a couple of apps etc. If you get the DxDDP you will feel the urge to maximize your credits and THAT is a lot of food. If you consider that you may not order app/entree/dessert every single time it should take a lot longer for it to be worth it. Maybe talk to her about agreeing to have lighter meals at certain restaurants so you can try them out but shorten the time there and not stuff yourself silly. Tell her you're as excited as she is to try that stuff out but maybe figure out a way to mutually dial back the time and expense while trying them all out.

 

[Nancyg56]

I think your plan looks fine. You have to eat. I would toss the plaza and add a quick serve. You only have bog breakfast scheduled as QS. I would also get rid of the gf cafe for the same reason. Tell your friend that you will lose a lot of time traveling and that the QS restaurants in MK are good.

 

[Regan117]

I don't think it looks like too much. We don't necessarily always make lunch reservations, because I like to have the freedom to do QS if I want, but we still do three meals a day. Then again, I go for the food and could care less if I ride anything lol.

You only have two meals most days, and some only one. You have to eat. Parks aren't enjoyable if you're starving either!

 

[rwdavis2]

Yes, waaaaay too much food. With 3 TS meals a day you potentially spend 4-5 hours just eating. Besides, IMHO, WDW food is not that good to get all worked up about. We never plan more than 1 TS a day. I would try to limit it to no more than 2 TS a day. It's your vacation too, so speak up.

 

[msjprincess]

Yes, waaaaay too much food. With 3 TS meals a day you potentially spend 4-5 hours just eating. Besides, IMHO, WDW food is not that good to get all worked up about. We never plan more than 1 TS a day. I would try to limit it to no more than 2 TS a day. It's your vacation too, so speak up.

ITA

I can only do 2 TS meals if one is an early breakfast and a late dinner. And then we usually skip lunch and just get a snack. I couldn't do a TS breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner on the same day.

I could never do 3 TS meals.

 

[loves to dive]

Way back in the beginning of time when the dining plan first came out it included 3 TS and one or two snacks ( don't remember) the meals included appys (I don't remember if dessert was included) and the tip was included. My son was young at the time and could and would eat everything that wasn't tied down. We got it one time and one time only. Way too much food, we then switched to the plan that had two TS and a QS, found that was too much food as well. Tried once when they got the current plan with a QS and a TS with 2 snacks. Still too much food and while my son is not huge, he's not a small man. If you weren't on the dining plan I'd be tempted to say go for it and just order an appy and a salad every once in awhile and then you won't be too full. Nowdays, I tend to eat a kid's QS for breakfast and lunch and often have to put the fruit aside for later it's still too much, then about 4 out of 6 nights we will do a TS and I'll do the appy/salad/dessert and adult drink route while my son will eat part of my appy, get an entre and usually share my dessert. We rarely, if ever do snacks between meals, we are just too full. We have even been known to just snack around the world at Epcot all day and not even have a "meal" that day.

 

[Vernie822]

3 TS meals a day is too much for us. 2 is usually fine but I can't do 2 every day for a week. We did 1-2 per day on our trip in November and by day 7 I was just done eating lol.

Try to space them out so that on days where you have lunch and dinner, your lunch is early and dinner is somewhat late. If you don't have breakfast plans (say you grab a quick pastry or something), have lunch at noon, and have dinner at 7:30, that's plenty of time to digest.

The only days on your trip where I'd be like "omg, I can't eat, I just ate, I'm not even hungry" is probably Akershus to Le Cellier - Akershus being an all you can eat, I probably wouldn't be hungry for a steak dinner, unless I ate at Akershus somewhat early and Le Cellier a little later.

Also, can you split breakfast at BOG? You can do this, pay $21.99, get the pastry plate, split the entree. That way you're hungry for the Plaza.

Maybe don't do the dining plan - I know you said you were between Deluxe and regular, but if you don't commit to a dining plan then you won't be worried about too many credits. And if you're not super hungry, can just get an app or split an entree.

I honestly don't think it looks like too much food, but I would do maybe a little tweaking with the times!

 

[RedskinFan]

It doesn't look like too much food to me and I can see where a couple more meals could be added but for me dining is part of my vacation and it's nice to have the down time between running around like a fool to see and do everything. I also think that if I had a friend willing to pay my way, I'd just go with the her/his flow.

 

[xlxo]

Just remember you are fighting anorexia and world hunger one mouthful at a time.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=anorexia+I+beat&tbm=isch

 

[SnackCredit]

Book a 1-credit and a signature for each night you're staying. Use the snacks to fill in the gaps.

 

[Minniesgal]

That would be way too much food for me, we never manage more than 1 TS and a light meal per day (say a hot dog or a slice of pizza). In fact we don't have a TS every day as it gets too much food.

you could always only have an appetizer for dinner if you find you are eating too much.

 

[jon18uk]

If you aren't using the Dining Plan at every meal it may not be too much food. You could just order an appetiser (that would therefore be less food than if you ate counter service) or the entree with no dessert if paying out of pocket.

 

[Regan117]

Book a 1-credit and a signature for each night you're staying. Use the snacks to fill in the gaps.

I agree with this. When we do adults-only trips, we do a table service breakfast, use snacks throughout the day, and then do a signature for a late dinner.

 

[violakat03]

I agree with this. When we do adults-only trips, we do a table service breakfast, use snacks throughout the day, and then do a signature for a late dinner.

That actually seems like a really good plan. I was thinking of making better use of the signatures as right now we only have 2 in our plans. We also have an extra day's worth of credits because we are flying in late in the day on our first "night" and won't be making full use of the credits available for that day.

As for timing, yes most of them are really spread out. If we've got 3 planned in one day it's an early breakfast, a late lunch and a really late (like post fireworks) dinner. The only ADRs she's made I think I'm going to change a bit because she's only got 3 hours in between breakfast and lunch on one of the days and I'm like ... ugh, too much food.

But again, as many people have pointed out .. she's paying. I guess I don't have to feel incredibly guilty if I don't eat my entire meal. She almost never eats her full meal, which is why she can eat more frequently than I can and doesn't think this is too much food, but then again I was raised with the clean plate club mentality, especially when it's an expensive meal, and it's hard to break out of that habit.

I showed her the distripplanner website and pointed out that we might be better going OOP but she really likes the idea of having everything paid for up front, so it's not a cost savings matter to her so much as convenience.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I think I'm going to play around with my spreadsheet and some ADRs some more to try to go for the 1 TS and 1 signature per day route.