Dining tips for first visit

[bk7700]

Hi again! We are planning our first trip (finally!), we will be there Dec 22-26. 5 day park hopper, all days reserved, staying at GCH. Family of 4 with 2 teens.

So....dining. Should I try and get reservations for sit down meals for lunch and dinner each day? I know the food is part of the experience, but it seems like that might eat up (pun intended) a lot of time and we will be there during a crowded time. Am I correct that there are also "quick service" places to eat? Do you just stand in line for those? What is a good strategy of sit down vs quick service?

(Also want to note that there are some dietary restrictions - no pork or shellfish, so some of the sit down restaurants that will greatly limit the ordering options)

Thanks!!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Everyone has their own dining style and Disneyland quick service has gone back and forth since the reopening of being hard to get vs easy to get. What I mean by that is there has been times where you have to order several hours in advance or risk not having options when you want to eat and other times you can order for right now and everything is easy.

Quick service is mostly done via the phone with mobile order on the Disneyland app. When it works, it's great,you can be standing in line for a ride with your family and ordering so your meal will be ready when you are off the ride, just hit the I'm here button when you're walking over and it should be ready when you get there.

Table service restaurants are really great though. There's so many great restaurants to choose from. Food is top notch. You can sit down and take a break from the excitement of the park and relax at a guaranteed table.

When we went in August, we did table service for nearly every meal, but we only did 3 park days. To save on cost, it's probably more beneficial to do one quick and one table service restaurant in the park each day, if you're wanting to do table service at all. You won't regret trying out all the restaurants though. Check out Blue Bayou and Cafe Orleans in Disneyland and Lamp Light Lounge in California Adventure. There's others that are really good too.

Good luck on trying to get reservations! And enjoy your trip!

 

[Ladyslug]

Quick service is mostly done via the phone with mobile order on the Disneyland app. When it works, it's great,you can be standing in line for a ride with your family and ordering so your meal will be ready when you are off the ride, just hit the I'm here button when you're walking over and it should be ready when you get there.

We loved the mobile ordering when we were there in late September! There was only one time when we didn't plan enough in advance and had to wait about a half-hour for our return window to open for lunch. Also enjoyed ordering Dole Whips from the exit of Buzz Lightyear and having them ready by the time we got to Adventureland for our ride on the Jungle Cruise.

But to answer your question, we mostly do counter service in order to not lose too much park time to ordering and eating meals, but we usually have at least one sit-down meal per (two- or three-day) trip, and it's pretty much always Blue Bayou since that's my husband's favorite! There is a lot of variety in the counter service options (the ones in Galaxy's Edge are excellent), so it's easy to mix it up every day.

 

[JavaDuck]

When we visit Disneyland for 5 days, we usually do table service twice and the other times we do quick serivce. As others have mentioned a lot of the quick service places are doing mobile ordering. At some places the next available pick-up time can be an hour or more later. Other places it is within the next 15 minutes. Some of our favorite table service places are Tortilla Joes in Downtown Disney, Blue Bayou in DL, and the Lamplight Lounge in DCA. The corn dogs from the Little Red Wagon in DL, and the corn dogs from Corn Dog Castle in DCA are delicious. Our favorite treats are the candy bar from Pym's Kitchen. It can easily be shared by 4 people. Our overall favorite treat is the raspberry macaron from the Jolly Holiday Bakery. Have a great trip! We are arriving shortly after you leave for my birthday trip, Dec, 29-Jan 1.

 

[JMommyof3]

Hi again! We are planning our first trip (finally!), we will be there Dec 22-26. 5 day park hopper, all days reserved, staying at GCH. Family of 4 with 2 teens.

So....dining. Should I try and get reservations for sit down meals for lunch and dinner each day? I know the food is part of the experience, but it seems like that might eat up (pun intended) a lot of time and we will be there during a crowded time. Am I correct that there are also "quick service" places to eat? Do you just stand in line for those? What is a good strategy of sit down vs quick service?

(Also want to note that there are some dietary restrictions - no pork or shellfish, so some of the sit down restaurants that will greatly limit the ordering options)

Thanks!!

For your amount of days, I would suggest 2 maybe 3 sit down, at either breakfast or dinner. There are some pretty fun sit down restaurants but it does eat into park time and since this is your first trip at a very busy time, I'm not sure how much time you want to devote to sitting at a restaurant. Is your family big into breakfast or more late eaters. You could try doing a late breakfast then snacking throughout the day and then ordering a quick service dinner. Or light breakfast, snack, then sit down early (5 or so). I believe you can choose your time for mobile order, like if you want it later than the soonest available. Just remember that you ordered or set an alarm as a reminder.

However, you will be there for one of my families favorite food times, the festival of the holidays. They offer a sip and savor pass which can save a bit of money on items at booth locations. We usually just snack around CA on those days since there is so much delicious food around. Disney has not put out there menus yet but here is a list from 2019. We are going Dec 31-Jan 3 and are so excited about the food. Have a great time.

https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/disneyland-festival-of-holidays-booths-menus-and-food-photos/

 

[cruisehopeful]

I would schedule some sit down meals because it's a good time to relax and get a little bit of quiet time. There have been times when I have had quick service and couldn't find a place to sit without having to walk to another area, for example. When you are at DCA park, it's very easy to pop over to the Grand and eat if you aren't able to get something easily in the park.

I mostly eat quick service because sit down meals do take a lot of time. Some are still actual quick service where you wait in line and order, others are mobile order only. When you mobile order, you choose an arrival time window and they don't start making your order until you are in that time and click "I'm here." I did find a couple times where mobile ordering was quicker than standing in the regular line, but usually mobile order is something that I book about an hour ahead of time, hit a ride or do some shopping on the way over and always click "I'm here" before I am there.

Dining reservations have been very difficult to book. You could always book one for each day and cancel the day before if you are finding that you don't want to take that much time out of the following day. At that time of year, you'll probably appreciate having a chance to sit down and be waited on, though.

 

[Pluto468]

I like to have at least one character meal and then something like the Blue Bayou. I booked more meals than usual this year since counter service seems a bit trickier with mobile ordering. (Although I hear this is improving.)

I love to have breakfasts at the park but it does take alot of time so we eat in the hotel most days, or do something quick like a breakfast sandwich at Jolly Holiday bakery.

 

[bk7700]

Thanks everyone! This is super helpful. I'm sure I'll be back for more questions. I can't WAIT to post my trip report as a "thank you"!

 

[Gamegrl1]

Wanted to mention something re: the dietary restrictions - I just went to the OBB on 10/7 with a gluten-free friend and we found the DL app was helpful in finding things for her to eat. It had more info than what was posted on the menus, seemed like. You can look up restaurants, hit "menu" and scroll down to see things with no gluten, no eggs, no meat, etc. etc.
I'd suggest studying the app and getting familiar with what lands have what restaurants, especially with your dining limitations. That is what I'm urging my party to do for our November trip. We have a gluten-free gal and two "littles". That way what I'm *hoping* is that if we pick a few places that sound good, we can plan to gravitate toward those around meal time. It would stink if you wanted to (or had to) eat at a certain place and by meal time found you were far from it and had to trudge waaay over there, tired and hungry.
There are lots of food reviews online too, with photos - I found those helpful. Will add that we LOVE the Plaza Inn at DLR for the chicken or roast beef dinners, also Rancho del Zocalo at DLR is a good value. DEFINITELY Mobile Order snacks...I swear the line for Dole Floats is ridiculous.

 

[bk7700]

Wanted to mention something re: the dietary restrictions - I just went to the OBB on 10/7 with a gluten-free friend and we found the DL app was helpful in finding things for her to eat. It had more info than what was posted on the menus, seemed like. You can look up restaurants, hit "menu" and scroll down to see things with no gluten, no eggs, no meat, etc. etc.
I'd suggest studying the app and getting familiar with what lands have what restaurants, especially with your dining limitations. That is what I'm urging my party to do for our November trip. We have a gluten-free gal and two "littles". That way what I'm *hoping* is that if we pick a few places that sound good, we can plan to gravitate toward those around meal time. It would stink if you wanted to (or had to) eat at a certain place and by meal time found you were far from it and had to trudge waaay over there, tired and hungry.
There are lots of food reviews online too, with photos - I found those helpful. Will add that we LOVE the Plaza Inn at DLR for the chicken or roast beef dinners, also Rancho del Zocalo at DLR is a good value. DEFINITELY Mobile Order snacks...I swear the line for Dole Floats is ridiculous.

Thank you!!