You can do Carnation for breakfast one day and then another day go back for lunch or dinner. The lunch/dinner menu is the same. but the breakfast is different. Same for Cafe Orleans.
I like to have reservations for sit down meals at least once a day so I plan meals out for each day we are there. I don't like waiting!! Plus we don't really like many of the foods from the walk-up places in tomorrowland or fantasyland. If we do a walk in, we like Pizza Port and especially the Riverbelle Terrace for breakfast. That restaurant is just on the other side of the bengal bbq and next to the stage door cafe so everyone can get something different for lunch or dinner too and still eat together overlooking the river. The servings of chicken tenders at the stage door are really big so kids can easily share and my dh is addicted to the bbq at bengals while I like the nice salads at the Riverbelle.
If we are there for a while, I will have it set up something like this: 1st day-Carnation Cafe breakfast, dinner at Goofy's. 2nd day-breakfast at Cafe Orleans, dinner at BB. 3rd day-plaza inn character breakfast late after EE day, late dinner at RFC. 4th day-lunch at Carnation, dinner at Tratoria...
Just to give you an idea that even though there are few full service places, you can always set it up and the best part is that you can still be flexible since there is no penalty for not keeping a reservation. Once we walked by bb and it was pouring rain and they had a table! We were thrilled to get in out of the rain and they even called and cancelled our later reservation at another restaurant for us. For us, running the parks all day long is tiring and it is nice to take time to sit down and be waited on and have a decent meal. Usually, when we go the parks are open from 7am(ee) to midnight so that is a long long day and we can afford to take the time to eat. If we go and the park closes early, we plan a later dinner in DTD.
I like to extend the "magic" so usually on our check-out day before our long way home, we try to do Goofy's for breakfast after ee build a bear. By the time we get on the road, everyone is full and happy!
To me, there is nothing worse than having 2 hungry kids and the wait for carnation (for example) is over an hour! I refuse to stand in those lines, the ride lines yes, but not the food lines. All it takes is a simple phone call to disney dining and you can set up a tentative schedule. They are really nice too and will let you know if you are picking a bad time like the end of the character breakfast.
