Disney Dining To sit or not

[lifesgr8]

I am planning our first wdw trip. We have never been the kind of park goers (DL) to sit and eat. We mostly do counter service at dl. My kids are not in to the characters much. I was doing some brief reading about character meals. If my kids are only into the toy story movie (woody & buzz) characters.....is there a character meal that would be good for them?

I was also reading about dining with shows? I have not seen this at dl. So teach me....if we normally do not do sit down meals.... will I want to plan some at wdw with these shows?

We are not doing the dining plan. At least I so far am not planning on purchasing it. I suppose I can change my mind later but, for now, I am just using my Disney visa rewards for food in park & on resort.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

We aren't big sit down meal people at DLR either, but decided to try a few sit down places in WDW. One reason was I couldn't imagine eating CS meals for 2 weeks.

There are no character meals with Toy Story characters. If the kids aren't into characters much I don't see the point in doing character meals. Don't feel like you need to do TS meals in WDW, many people don't.

 

[kelldawn]

Well I would do Tusker Breakfast in Ak. It is so good, but Mickey Minnie Daisy Donald Goofy are there all in safari clothing. They are just normal acting characters and a of us adults really enjoyed the atmosphere and the Character interaction with kids and adults. Its nice to walk in the gates early in the morning and walk thru Ak toward Tusker and feel like you are in Africa.. This park has lots to offer and is only open 9-5 spend the day there and really look it all over. It will become a favorite park for you.

 

[jrtoastyman]

I've found the some of the CS places to be at least as good if not better than some of the TS places, and can't think of a single TS place from my most recent trip that I would have missed had I not done it. If you're normally inclined to skip TS places in favor of CS for whatever reason, I can't think of anything in the normal TS realm that would change that.

There are those that, inexplicably in my view, love the food at some of the TS places. If that's you, mozel tov, keep doing what you're doing. Sounds like you're lukewarm on the whole TS thing anyway, though, and with that being the case, I say skip it and devote your time to touring and other things that you might affirmatively enjoy.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

I have found that after a long day in the park, a TS meal was so needed!!!

 

[minnie mum]

Everyone has different preferences when it comes to dining the Disney way. Some can't exist without 3 TS meals a day. Some prefer not to even eat at all on site!

Sounds like you have a CS kind of family and that's just fine. Lots of people are happy with the variety of food that can be found at the various CS places at WDW. As for the dining plan: not sure that it would be a good fit for your family, and you may find it cheaper to just pay OOP. Look at the menus and figure out if it's worth it for you or not.

As for the dinner shows: I don't believe these are offered anywhere at DLR. There are 3: The Luau at Poly, Mickeys BBQ at FW, and the Hoop Dee Doo Review, also at FW. Of the 3, HDDR is by far the most popular. You say that you don't do sit down dinners. But do you go to shows? So maybe think of it as going to a great family friendly show where you also get to eat! To decide if you want to go or not, just read up on each and see if it's something you like. HDDR is a personal favourite of mine that we try to see every couple of trips, and one that I highly recommend that everyone try at least once. ADRs for this show (which will require a credit card and has a no show penalty) go really fast, so try to decide yay or nay before your 180 day.

 

[Uno Mas]

I rarely have a TS at WDW - prefer to just share snacks throughout the day. The Epcot World Showcase is great for that - grab a ham and cheese croissant in France, pot stickers in China, a prezel in Germany - that's much better for our family than larger meals. If we do want to have a TS meal, we just try our luck as walk ups. Many will tell you that's impossible at WDW but it's not. You just have to be smart about it - going at off times, such as doing a late lunch that counts as an early dinner, expecting to wait for a table, and not picking the top signature restaurants at the busiest times of course, not expecting to get into a character meal, etc. There are so many options to choose from to eat. We have great luck finding bar seats at various places too - the Yak and Yeti bar at 11:30 AM at AK is a great spot for an early snack and beer.

 

[*QueenB*]

We've never been the type to do very many TS at least not with our kids so young but this next trip we have the DDP and I am very much looking forward to it. DH nor myself likes to GO GO GO at disney and I find TS very relaxing. We haven't tried that many TS really but if you haven't already check out allears.net and look at menus/reviews, ect. So helpful!

 

[mpetti]

I second the HDDR!! Your family is going to love this dinner show. Plus it's nice and cool inside and you will get a much needed break. The show is corny, but so very funny. We including my two sons laughed so hard. The food was also a big hit with my family. You have fried chicken, ribs salad and even a strawberry shortcake. It is a lot of fun. Good luck and enjoy.

Maryann

 

[lifesgr8]

I don't know all the acronyms yet, what is fw(or where the hddr show is)??

QUOTE=minnie mum;41918120]Everyone has different preferences when it comes to dining the Disney way. Some can't exist without 3 TS meals a day. Some prefer not to even eat at all on site!

Sounds like you have a CS kind of family and that's just fine. Lots of people are happy with the variety of food that can be found at the various CS places at WDW. As for the dining plan: not sure that it would be a good fit for your family, and you may find it cheaper to just pay OOP. Look at the menus and figure out if it's worth it for you or not.

As for the dinner shows: I don't believe these are offered anywhere at DLR. There are 3: The Luau at Poly, Mickeys BBQ at FW, and the Hoop Dee Doo Review, also at FW. Of the 3, HDDR is by far the most popular. You say that you don't do sit down dinners. But do you go to shows? So maybe think of it as going to a great family friendly show where you also get to eat! To decide if you want to go or not, just read up on each and see if it's something you like. HDDR is a personal favourite of mine that we try to see every couple of trips, and one that I highly recommend that everyone try at least once. ADRs for this show (which will require a credit card and has a no show penalty) go really fast, so try to decide yay or nay before your 180 day.[/QUOTE]

 

[minnie mum]

I'm sorry. After a while the abbreviations just become second nature and I forget that those new to the Disboards aren't familiar with them. On the first page, is a Welcome to the Dis subforum: it has a whole thread that lists all of the most common abbreviations.

Let me decipher some of the ones I've used:
FW: Fort Wilderness Resort (the campground). Not to be confused with WLR. the Wilderness Lodge Resort.

TS: Table Service Restaurant
CS or QS: Counter Service or Quick Service Restaurant
ADR: Advance Dining Reservation
OOP: out of pocket. Paying by means other than the Dining Plan (cash, credit card, KTTW)
KTTW: Key to the World. Your room key from your Disney Resort. You can have charging privileges added to it.

I hoped that helped a little?

 

[Disneygal27]

if your family is happy with counter service, then i say stick with what you want. there are delicious CS places across the parks and resorts, and i love eating snacks in world showcase. However, there are a few highlight TS we love, like Rose and Crown in Epcot, one of the mexican restaurants, and our must-visit Sci-Fi dine in theater (just for the atmosphere and the old movie clips. so cool!) I think looking at some menus and reviews would be helpful to see what matches your family's style (and budget). TS is not necessary, but we find it nice. Although we find it hard to eat more than one sit-down meal a day, we just get too full to enjoy the parks. As for shows, you don't need to do them, but a lot of people enjoy them. we just find them a bit expensive for us as we'd rather go to other restaurants we know we love too much to miss