dining during stay

[denman007]

Now that free dining doesn't seem to be available, am I the only one who doesn't want to make a lot of dinner reservations? We haven't been in a while and have no idea where we might be on any giving evening and don't really want to be tied down to a dinner reservation.

I only have 2 for the entire week and might make one at our resort.

With the new park reservations and park hopping limitations and replacement of FP, it just seems difficult to have to plan a little more precisely.

Are we the outliers?

 

[sponica]

Our first couple trips, we just made reservations on the fly but we never used the dining plan. If you're a party of two, I'd just open up the app when you're hungry and find something either with a wait list OR taking ADRs at that time.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

We usually give the ADRs our best projected 'guess' so we have them. If plans change, we cancel or modify outside of the cancellation window.

 

[lorimay]

We only make one sit-down reservation a day and see how it goes for the rest of the day.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Now that free dining doesn't seem to be available, am I the only one who doesn't want to make a lot of dinner reservations? We haven't been in a while and have no idea where we might be on any giving evening and don't really want to be tied down to a dinner reservation.

I only have 2 for the entire week and might make one at our resort.

With the new park reservations and park hopping limitations and replacement of FP, it just seems difficult to have to plan a little more precisely.

Are we the outliers?

I've never bothered with much TS dining. Our family wakes up early, takes a break in the afternoon, and goes to bed early, with about four hours of park time before the break and four hours after. TS dining just simply takes too long, and we like a lot of the QS restaurants. We cook our own breakfasts in the room if we have a villa or a cabin, otherwise we'll just grab breakfast sandwiches and bananas on the go. Lunch is always QS in our morning park. Dinner is about 50/50 QS in our evening park or TS. We never travel out of our way for a meal at a resort that we're not staying at, unless it's super convenient to that day's park, e.g. we might do Ohana for dinner on an evening when we're in Magic Kingdom anyways.

 

[PaladinButters]

The dining is part of the experience for us. One per day as our guaranteed place to sit down somewhere and not deal with mobile order windows not being available, long food lines, or not finding somewhere to sit.

 

[Marthasor]

We've traveled twice since WDW re-opened and, prior to the trips, I made precisely one ADR per trip. I found day-of ADRs and the walk-up lists to be very handy and, though we could, obviously, only choose what was available at any given time, I liked the freedom it gave us to make plans on-the-go. We actually ended up with some really good ADRs and walk-ups by waiting day-of or the night before.

 

[snikki]

We did free dining a few times when the kids were younger (2008-2011) and they were just throwing deals at you. Back then I feel like every deal had some kind of free dining tossed in.

The last few trips we have paid for dining OOP since we didn't go during a free dining time, rented points (I won't buy the dining plan) or we found better deals that didn't include free dining. The first trip we did a lot of ADRs but every subsequent trip I realized the value just isn't there. I don't mind paying a pretty penny for GOOD food but I feel like I'm paying good money for mediocre food.

Last trip I made about 3 ADRs and ended up making a few same day ones. We instead did lounges and QS. Like a PP mentioned, we are also midday break people so ADRs cut into our PM park time. Next trip there are so many QS and lounges we want to try. We may do 2-3 ADRs and they will be lunch ADRs if we make them. It's cheaper and it fits better into our schedule. Some places that are a bit better on the wallet are Beaches and Cream, Plaza, Kona Cafe, Nomad lounge.

 

[jennyq87]

We've really gotten away from ADRs the last few years. I've enjoyed the freedom of not always having to be somewhere at a certain time on vacation. We have our few "musts" -- one or two per trip -- but other than that we have found that we have more fun with open schedules! And we try more new and unique places.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

One per day as our guaranteed place to sit down somewhere and not deal with mobile order windows not being available, long food lines, or not finding somewhere to sit.

Have you actually experienced those things? In three COVID trips totalling about 16 nights, I've never encountered difficulty with a mobile ordering window, and the only place we had a hard time finding a table was at Docking Bay 7, and even then only because we were a large party that needed a high chair.

Since they started gatekeeping the restaurants to only people eating there, tables haven't been a problem.

 

[PaladinButters]

Since they started gatekeeping the restaurants to only people eating there, tables haven't been a problem.

Admittedly not at a QS during our one C-19 restriction era trip so far, but that trip was also during F&W (well, a taste of what was F&W anyway) so there was a lot of standing off to the side not really having a place to set this tiny plate down going on instead. But it's happened in the before times at WDW and DLR so it's just part of the overall vacation strategy now to plan ahead and avoid the possibility.
(It's also a great excuse to snack around the park instead of getting actual lunch because you know a "real food" dinner is coming later so you're gonna get some protein in that day).

Second to the cavalcades being way more fun than a 3:00 parade, I would choose a bouncer at the QS to be the other thing they keep from these times.

 

[J-Dog]

Have you actually experienced those things? In three COVID trips totalling about 16 nights, I've never encountered difficulty with a mobile ordering window, and the only place we had a hard time finding a table was at Docking Bay 7, and even then only because we were a large party that needed a stroller.

Since they started gatekeeping the restaurants to only people eating there, tables haven't been a problem.

Maybe I just have bad luck, but during our trip 2 weeks ago, I attempted mobile ordering 4 times - 2 times is was unavailable for some unknown reason, once it wouldn't allow me onto the order page (CM said it was doing that all day), and once it allowed me to completely order, finalize everything, and then it said it had an error and couldn't complete the transaction.

After 4 times, shame on me. Not mobile ordering again.

 

[HopperFan]

I haven't done the DDP in about 5-6 years. I loved it when an appetizer & gratuity were included! I was even fine paying the gratuity. But it slowly lost it's luster for us. It became hard to make it break even and forced us to eat in a way we normally don't eat and too much food.

With AP we would buy the Tables in Wonderland, eat how we like and get 20% off food and alcohol. Eating our way saved so much money and we were happier.

But now TiW isn't back, my AP discount is only 10% on food only and honestly .... after decades of eating at Disney World, I'm tired of paying ridiculous amounts of money for mediocre food.

My DS loves Sci Fi (I haven't been able to get) and Tony's Town Square (I have). I also got Oga's Cantina as he thought it was very cool. Other than those two ADR I have nothing else for next week. A whole week and I have no desire to book anything that is available. We'll eat before arrival or grab a donut, we'll do a few QS, I'm taking sandwich making stuff, and we do want to try some of the 50th snack items. Keeping the food budget low because I always feel so ripped off after.

Park Reservations, the new struggle with Genie+ and lines .... I don't want to be worrying about getting to an ADR too.

 

[tguz]

The dining is part of the experience for us. One per day as our guaranteed place to sit down somewhere and not deal with mobile order windows not being available, long food lines, or not finding somewhere to sit.

Dining is part of the experience for us also. We have 5 sit downs booked for our December trip. Three of them we have wanted to try for a while now, one is where we got engaged, and the last is because my wife likes it.