slo’s MONDAY 4/22 poll - Disney Parks Dining 🍽️

[Schneewittchen37]

Table service once a day for dinner is important to us. I really want to sit down for a decent meal at least once a day when we're on vacation.

We will still do a character meal, but we've really eased up on that now that the kids are older. And DH and I like to go out together for a signature meal once during a trip if it's possible. And we do have our favorite quick service places that we go to over and over again for lunch.

 

[leebee]

We usually have breakfast in the room, do lunch in the parks (lounge, QS, or grazing) and a TS for dinner.

 

[jo-jo]

Another back in the day comment.....so 10 or so years ago...we maybe 5 TS in a week, at least one QS a day. Now maybe 2 TS in two weeks and 5 or 6 QS. The costs have gone up and food value gone down, double whammy. Last few trips we spent more and more time in resort, so just make something there.

We are not foodies. We can be happy sitting on balcony eating a grilled cheese sandwich. We add ham to make it fancy.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

Since we started taking our girls, table service dining has been a big part of our trips. We average two TS meals a day...typically breakfast and dinner, but we have been known to do three if something opens up and it's a must try/hard to get spot. We consider dining just as much of a trip defining experience as the ride based attractions.

DD17 was diagnosed with life threatening food allergies at age 4... about 5 months after her first trip and 3 months before her second. While things have greatly improved, all of the advice I received was that TS meals are far safer for the severely allergic. So, we went heavy on TS dining. We do a blend character, non-signature, and signature, so it's hard to pick what's our top priority. I get just as excited about a meal at Sanaa as I do California Grill or Crystal Palace. We haven't been in over 3 years and while we may go to Disneyland after a CA softball tournament in July, I'm not sure what we're going to do since I generally feel that there's been a steep decline in food quality with a steep rise in costs.

 

[BrianL]

I eat wherever I want and it can depend on the trip. If it's just me, then I tend to focus on quick service, but I will do table service too. I don't do a lot of signature places, but mostly because of the time or location. I tend to have shorter trips that are quite packed, so I want to maximize time.

 

[Dan Murphy]

QS mostly, some character, a little TS, a rare signature.

 

[disneychrista]

Mostly quick service. My upcoming 2 year delayed 50th birthday trip I will be dining at Cafe Orleans and having a Monte Cristo for the very first time.

Quick Service
Table Service

No real interest in Character or Signature.

 

[CynBeth]

We are 3 adults but 2 have food allergies so mostly eat at TS including a few character breakfasts.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We do 1 QS (usually lunch), 1TS per day in the parks. We do breakfast in room. For character meals in parks we usually do Tusker House, CRT and Garden Grill. And sometimes Crystal Palace. We don’t like to wait in line for characters so we do a lot of character meals. For the restaurants that have “evening ambiance” theming (like San Angel, Sci Fi) we do our Ts at lunch for those restaurants to get more out of the night time theming. We put a lot of thought into our Disney dining lol

 

[lovin'fl]

Selected other. We live local but still eat on Disney property upon occasion. Mostly do Epcot festival booths but also do lounges/pool bars. But we will do a table service once in a while (like when family and friends visit or when at DS, we like Splitsville and City Works). We eat out local more and will even leave Disney and head to cheaper local places since Disney is sooooo pricey and no longer does Tables in Wonderland (man, we miss that). We almost never do quick service places at Disney as it's chaotic plus costs similar to lounges and pool bars as well as cheaper options at TS places too. We also rarely do signature. Maybe for a special occasion but not even once a year. We've tried most of them and haven't been in love with any to repeat. If we want to spend the big bucks there are better off property places like Bull and Bear that we prefer.

When we didn't live local and would come for a vacation, we'd do a TS every day. Early on, with the DDP, we'd do 1 TS and 1 QS a day and maybe pay OOP for one of the cheaper TS so we could use the 2 TS credits on one signature. But then when we no longer did the DDP, we'd do 1 or 2 TS a day and skip the signatures.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Table service and Signature for dinners.
Table service for lunches.
If not staying CL, quick service for breakfast.

 

[RedAngie]

I bring cans of corn to the parks with me.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I bring cans of corn to the parks with me.

Creamed or niblets?

 

[fla4fun]

I mostly visit the parks solo, and almost exclusively dine at QS to keep my schedule flexible. The only time I dine TS is when I have other people with me who prefer it.

 

[VandVsmama]

Short answer: It depends on if you're talking about DL or WDW.

If it's a DL (Disneyland) trip:

• we prioritize rides over TS meals
• QS at DL is better than QS at WDW
• there's only 1 character meal I've ever bothered w/at DL and that's the breakfast at the Plaza Inn. It's the only in-park character meal. And I'm not willing to venture over to PPH or GCH for a character meal. I love the character breakfast at Plaza Inn, though!
• favorite place to sit and eat a QS meal at DL: on 2nd level of the Hungry Bear, preferably closest to the Rivers of America, so you can watch the boats go by and listen to all of the awesome Rivers of America sounds.

If it's a WDW trip:

• I usually will try to do 1 TS meal per day, preferably midday and we use it as a way to rest and get out of the heat.
• almost all of the QS at MK is pretty bad
• the food festivals at Epcot always sound appealing and DH & I were there for 1 of them a few years ago, but I'm also impatient and I'm not willing to wait in a 30 min line in order to get a small item of food that only has basically 2-3 bites of food in it for $10. And I don't want to eat standing up next to a trash can.

 

[pixie3]

For me, none of them is "most" important. They are all important at the same time. I like a mix of quick, table, and signature. When the kids were younger add character into that mix.

 

[lovin'fl]

Selected other. We live local but still eat on Disney property upon occasion. Mostly do Epcot festival booths but also do lounges/pool bars. But we will do a table service once in a while (like when family and friends visit or when at DS, we like Splitsville and City Works). We eat out local more and will even leave Disney and head to cheaper local places since Disney is sooooo pricey and no longer does Tables in Wonderland (man, we miss that). We almost never do quick service places at Disney as it's chaotic plus costs similar to lounges and pool bars as well as cheaper options at TS places too. We also rarely do signature. Maybe for a special occasion but not even once a year. We've tried most of them and haven't been in love with any to repeat. If we want to spend the big bucks there are better off property places like Bull and Bear that we prefer.

When we didn't live local and would come for a vacation, we'd do a TS every day. Early on, with the DDP, we'd do 1 TS and 1 QS a day and maybe pay OOP for one of the cheaper TS so we could use the 2 TS credits on one signature. But then when we no longer did the DDP, we'd do 1 or 2 TS a day and skip the signatures.

Will add to this:
We don't do characters anymore (Kids all adults now).
I prefer to pass on buffets (since covid and because cost is high) but DH likes them.
I miss TIW...did I already say that, LOL!!!

 

[LuvOrlando]

Last trip was all about the quality so I could get reduced sodium, as a result, we really leaned into Signature without knowing I was doing it. When planning we strictly went by the menu items & so because of this thread I just Googled WDW Signature and now realize this was the majority of on property meals.

When our kids were little we did one character a day, they were a lot of fun.

We only ever bought water at quick service, but this was always true of our family.

For breakfast we were going off property for fresh clean omelettes and having healthy clean sandwiches made to go and eating them in the car in between hopping. Would have preferred staying on property but they didn't offer the clean fresh options I wanted.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We do both quick service and table service, but I guess we prefer table. I say 'I guess' because we usually have the dining plan, but our last trip in 2022 it of course wasn't available so we ate almost exclusively quick service with only a couple of table service meals that week. We tried lots of new foods eating quick service that we hadn't before and really enjoyed it.

Edited to add: We never do character meals. Both of us squirm in embarrassment and feel that maybe we're taking time away from families with kids.

 

[Babs Johnson]

A mixture of table service and quick service, mostly QS. I’ve never been to a Character meal and I’m too cheap to pay the outrageous prices at a Signature.