Can I do a trip with no sit down meals?

[LeahA]

In ways to try to save money, I was wondering about doing a whole week of no sit down meals? We have a kitchen, staying in a DVC, and we plan to cook all our breakfasts in room. We usually eat one sit down meal a day, and was thinking if there was enough "good" options for a weeks worth of 1 counter service per day. Any thoughts?

 

[Nadjalu]

Can you do it...yes, will you enjoy that...only you know that.

You have a better shot of enjoying it with a kitchen, but I couldn't do it, just being honest.

Part of the fun I have is eating at WDW. So on my vacation it is important for me to enjoy it all. And TS is a big part of that.

I would say that there is plenty of variety of CS foods around the world, and you could do 1 or 2 TS meals during your stay. Maybe that would help.

But truly only you know how that will impact your vacation.

 

[JimmyV]

...if there was enough "good" options for a weeks worth of 1 counter service per day. Any thoughts?

Can you clarify? You say that you are going to eat breakfast in your room, and you are asking if one can eat well (or survive) on counter service for the rest of the meals. But then you ask if there are enough options to eat 1 counter service per day. Are you asking about having 1 counter service per day with the expectation that you are going to do sit down for the third meal that day (either in the parks, resorts, or back in the room)? Or are you asking if you can eat ALL of your non-breakfast meals via counter service, which, by my calculation, would be more than one a day? Or maybe you are contemplating a sit-down breakfast in the room, and then eating just one more meal for the rest of the day, making that meal a counter service meal. It's a bit confusing.

 

[GeorgeG]

If you have a good breakfast you can get by quite well with counter service or snacks for lunch and leave dinner open for counter service, one of the more affordable table service, or even top off the day back at your room. You might take a look at the Budget Board for ideas.

 

[LeahA]

We will only eat one meal out per day. We don't need to eat 3 meals per day. We plan on eating 1 big breakfast and then 1 meal out per day. I know there is alot of good counter service, but, for an 8 day trip, I didn't know if we get a little bored with our counter service options.

 

[theworkdogs]

I think it is definately doable. I would do at least one sit down character meal though.

There are plenty of neat CS options, especialy at EPCOT. The only difficult park IMO is HS. There are no good options. Maybe DTD for that day Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck or Dublin.

 

[Pakey]

I think it would be easy. Have you considered eating other meals besides breakfast in your room. On my last DVC vacation, we did breakfast and lunch at our DVC unit (we made great sandwiches and had a variety of chips/dips). We have also done easy dinners (frozen pizza, hamburgers, etc). We order groceries through Garden Grocer and it's been great.

There are some decent counter service options out there so that you don't have to eat burgers every meal. Tangierine Cafe in Morrocco has some great choices. Sunshine Seasons is a huge food court with plenty of options. Wolfgang Puck at DTD is better than a lot of TS. Flame Tree BBQ at AK has very satifying meals.

We used to never eat CS but since the TS menus have become so standardized, we have found that we are just as happy with a CS as we are with most of the 1TS restaurants.

 

[dmoore718]

YES!! Last time we had QSDP and we did do one character meal but we enjoyed our other meals, very much. If you eat breakfast in your room, just choose a variety of places for lunch and dinner so you won't get bored. Epcot has MANY awesome QS dining options!!

 

[LeahA]

Thanks for all the tips!

 

[JimmyV]

We will only eat one meal out per day. We don't need to eat 3 meals per day. We plan on eating 1 big breakfast and then 1 meal out per day. I know there is alot of good counter service, but, for an 8 day trip, I didn't know if we get a little bored with our counter service options.

One a day should be no problem whatsoever. Just stay away from the usual burger counters at least every other day and you won't get bored. To do so, I wuld suggest a curry bowl at the ABC Commisary (DHS), ribs at Flame Tree (AK), the food court at The Land (Epcot). Toss in a burger one day and a chicken sandwich another day at the MK, and you have five days accounted for, and only one burger.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Wofgang Puck Express
Earl of Sandwich
Sunshine Seasons
POR foodcourt (for the pasta station)
Tangierine Cafe
Flametree Barbeque
Backlot Express (for the veggie sandwich)
Columbia Harbor House


Well, I could do it and be perfectly content!

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Athough not on the menu's you can order meals w/o fries if you looking to hold down the bill some. Even with 2/4 meals with fries we still had plenty for 4.

 

[namblazejewskiv28]

yes, you can

 

[minushka72]

We have used the QSDP for our last 2 trips and we did not do any TS this past year. Did 2 OOP the year before though. I really enjoyed my options at the CS locations. I had chicken parm over orzo at Pinocchios in MK, ribs w/ mashed potatoes and a veggie (hubby had pot roast) at the food court at POFQ (our resort), a steak and cheese sub at the same food court, a burger at cosmic rays in MK, honey chicken over rice at yak and yeti counter service in AK, a ham and cheese croissant and chocolate mousse at the bakery in france in WS at Epcot, rotisserie chicken dinner at sunshine seasons in epcot. Everything was really good and huge portions. We also ate at Columbia Harbour House in MK but I do not remomber what I had there, maybe chicken tenders? Check the menus on allears or here. For a 7 day trip, I only ate 1 cheeseburger.

 

[canopynut66]

In ways to try to save money, I was wondering about doing a whole week of no sit down meals? We have a kitchen, staying in a DVC, and we plan to cook all our breakfasts in room. We usually eat one sit down meal a day, and was thinking if there was enough "good" options for a weeks worth of 1 counter service per day. Any thoughts?

WD has a lot of good CS places besides burgers/hot dogs. We just prefer not to cook or eat in our room as that is part of our total vacation and we like the TS and trying new places.

 

[Dizneydaz]

We did QSDP for the first time in Sept. and didn't have one TS. That's the first time we haven't had a TS meal since since they started offering free DDP! (and even before that-the first time we did DDP we paid for in in Jan. 05).

We usually had a quick breakfast in the room (without a kitchen) and had CS for breakfast and dinner. We had some okay meals, good meals, and a few great meals.

If you'll have your own vehicle, in my opinion, it makes it easier to do any dining. (TS or CS) That way you can go to a different resort or DTD, pretty quick.

Enjoy and now that it's definitely doable! Oh, and I really enjoyed not having to make one single ADR or have to keep to a sort of schedule to make an ADR. Though I did miss a few of our favs-Kona, Raglan Road, and Wolfgang Puck Cafe, to name 3.

 

[fla4fun]

Yes, you can certainly make do with counter service only - otherwise they wouldn't have the quick service dining plan!

When I stay in a DVC villa, I don't usually make any ADR's. I eat breakfast every day in the villa, and then many days a late lunch or early dinner there as well. It's also especially easy if you're at BCV or BWV, because you've got all the CS at Epcot WS sitting right next to you. I can go through a 10 day trip and not have the same counter service food twice. It's not all burgers and fries anymore!

 

[tndisneyfan]

We will only eat one meal out per day. We don't need to eat 3 meals per day. We plan on eating 1 big breakfast and then 1 meal out per day. I know there is alot of good counter service, but, for an 8 day trip, I didn't know if we get a little bored with our counter service options.

I think there are a lot of option out there so you won't get bored with CS meals. Try hitting some of the resort food courts. The Contempo at the Comtemporary Resort is just a quick monorail ride away. We really enjoyed the food there. Also instead of eating at DHS we took the bus to POP and ate at the food court. POP is close to DHS, so if you are lucky with the busses it doesn't take too long. Plus it's a nice break from the parks.

We used to do the DDP and have an ADR every day. Now on a 10 day trip we do two, maybe three, TS restaurants. I enjoy eating mostly CS. I prefer not to be tied down to an ADR, eating when we feel like it, and eating whatever we feel like eating.

 

[LeahA]

Thank you all for the information and tips. We need to look at some menus and pick some new counter service restaurants.