Can you really eat that much in the august heat?

[ADisneyQueen]

As I sit here in my comfortable air conditioned house, I'm thinking about going next Aug. if they offer free dining again. But, can you really eat that much in such hot weather? Even if I went into the air cond. restaurant, it would take me a while to want to eat a big meal. We have 5 days leftover on our tickets, so we would have to buy one day tickets to get the ddp for the week. Would it be worth $200 to get the free dining and another one day ticket?

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm one of those people that eats one big meal a day in WDW, no matter what the temp. I find that here, at home, with no a/c other than in our bedrooms, we tend to not eat as much, but aren't doing as much physically either. So, when we get to WDW, in August, I try to have a table service meal each day. It allows me to sit down, kick back, cool off and replenish my energy stores, so to speak. Otherwise, and this has happened to me, with all the walking around, I get depleted and then dizzy, faint, and weak. So, while I don't eat a huge meal, I do try to have a decent size meal...just don't do one of those whirling, dropping attractions right after eating!!

 

[PrincessTrisha]

We were there in May (when it high 96/98/100 degrees). Yes it was hot and sticky etc. but I found by the time you get the restaurant, wait in the air conditioning for your table, sit down, get your drink, chug back your first fill of non alcholic beverage you have cooled down quite a bit.

We just took lots of breaks and tried not to plan any meals for mid day when it was unbearably hot and there was no chance of wanting to eat (we ate early and then late and it worked very well).

 

[Praying Colonel]

Maybe I can't, but my 17 y/o and 15 y/o certainly can!

 

[bluejasmine]

We had free dining last Aug and we did eat all of our meals even in the heat. Now brealfast was always very light, bagel, pastry or something like that then an early lunch and our TS dinner. We did leave with some snack credits left tho. This time I know to go by the foodcourt of our resort and redeem them for the car ride home tho..

 

[HaleyB]

I would guess that even if you did not use all the credits it would save more than a room only discount at a value, might be a close call at a mod, and at a Deluxe a room only discount might be a better deal.

That all assumes a room only discount is offered. If not then, can you feed your family for less than $200? I doubt it. You do not have to eat everything, you can not order dessert or whatever or even leave some credits unused.

 

[rinkwide]

Eat what you want and then send the rest of the food to Africa. The leftovers alone could feed a Somali family for a month.

 

[laceemouse]

As I sit here in my comfortable air conditioned house, I'm thinking about going next Aug. if they offer free dining again. But, can you really eat that much in such hot weather? Even if I went into the air cond. restaurant, it would take me a while to want to eat a big meal. We have 5 days leftover on our tickets, so we would have to buy one day tickets to get the ddp for the week. Would it be worth $200 to get the free dining and another one day ticket?

If it's free who cares??? If we can go next year during free dining we will take it and enjoy it (not share or play the system or whatever.) We plan to take a trip there sometime in the meanwhile and are trying to decide if it is worth it to us to pay for it. Three of our kids are "adults" and no way could that eat that much, hot weather or not...

 

[bicker]

In the end, you're going to have two meals and a snack each day anyway. The question is whether or not you'd be perfectly happy eating fast food the whole week. For many people, that's unacceptable. Even if we're eating light, we're going to be eating a nice meal at least once per day. We may not eat much food, but it'll still be a sit-down thing, and since we're on vacation, served by someone, etc. Given that, the Dining Plan makes sense (cents?) even if it weren't free. Just figuring on the minimum amount we could possibly order, we'll still save over $150 using the Dining Plan over paying OOP.

 

[indigoxtreme]

Plus what many people are overlooking is the fact that while many people exercise every day at home you are much more active and doing alot more than you would at home. So you will become hungry as you are burning up your calories. We have been on the plan twice now (1 free and 1 paid) and have come home with less weight than when we went. Everything in moderation. Eat what you want and don't worry about maximizing. It is still cheaper even when paying for the plan.

 

[ReneeA]

We didn't have any problem with it. We only ate what we wanted, didn't over-eat (for the most part) and still came out way ahead.

Typically, we ate a granola bar in the room for breakfast, had a early CS lunch, then a TS dinner. It worked out GREAT for us.

 

[Pedler]

As I sit here in my comfortable air conditioned house, I'm thinking about going next Aug. if they offer free dining again. But, can you really eat that much in such hot weather? Even if I went into the air cond. restaurant, it would take me a while to want to eat a big meal. We have 5 days leftover on our tickets, so we would have to buy one day tickets to get the ddp for the week. Would it be worth $200 to get the free dining and another one day ticket?

What we found was that as other posters have said the TS places were not a problem. By the time you get sitting down in the AC after a long day eating wasn't an issue. We also had one Character breakfast and that was fine as well.

CS places on the other hand were a bit different. The first thing was that they CS combo meals are large, at least to us. The second thing was that we had those typically in the park after tromping around in the morning heat. The first time we got the full CS meals, soon we were splitting them between us because due to the heat and the size and having eaten a TS meal the night before it just was a bit too much food.

One other thought is that while most people don't plan out their CS meals that much do consider it when you to to Epcot. In the WS I think only the American Pavilion has AC in the CS place.

 

[ElizabethB]

We HAVE to eat all that food, whether we want it or not!! That's where the free dining value is. Otherwise, we should have just gone with the AP room discount available for late August. If we're paying rack rate, and our discount is directly proportional to how much food we consume (or at least order and throw away), we have no choice but to gorge! Isn't that what Disney has in mind with this package -- force people to pay real bucks for their full priced room, then let them try to maximize their discount by consuming cheap (for Disney) food until they are so full they can't waddle. Seems quite American, somehow.

Oh well, we'll bite, so to speak.