Has Anyone Tried This Approach?

[hosler427]

The last few trips have been larger family trips for us and we have done the dining plan. While we enjoyed this immensely, it is just too much food. So this entire trip is different...it will be just my wife and I and we are staying at Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village. Because of this we are getting groceries delivered. We will have breakfast in the room, bring snacks (granola bars, etc) for mid morning, and have snacks there for the evening.

I was considering making a daily dining reservation but do it for 2-3pm most days. We will have our breakfast and a snack before that which is plenty. We can snack in the park or even back at our room later on. Has anyone else tried this? thoughts?

 

[disneyvoice]

Yes! We typically end up eating one meal and maybe a snack each day. We aren't breakfast eaters so typically we forego breakfast and then do a TS meal around 11:00-12:00, typically we are still pretty full until dinner time but we never feel like another big meal so we might just get a snack. If we have a TS dinner planned we just have a small snack earlier in the day so we will be hungry for dinner. Another thing we do a lot is sit at the bar in the restaurants and split a few appetizers and have drinks as our meal - you don't need an ADR for that. I have never been unhappy opting for LESS food while on a WDW vacation but there have been a few times when I have been miserable wondering through the park feeling like I am going to burst because I over-ate.

 

[hosler427]

Yes! We typically end up eating one meal and maybe a snack each day. We aren't breakfast eaters so typically we forego breakfast and then do a TS meal around 11:00-12:00, typically we are still pretty full until dinner time but we never feel like another big meal so we might just get a snack. If we have a TS dinner planned we just have a small snack earlier in the day so we will be hungry for dinner. Another thing we do a lot is sit at the bar in the restaurants and split a few appetizers and have drinks as our meal - you don't need an ADR for that. I have never been unhappy opting for LESS food while on a WDW vacation but there have been a few times when I have been miserable wondering through the park feeling like I am going to burst because I over-ate.

I like the idea of splitting appetizers at a bars as well. Thanks for the response!

 

[beccasmom]

We have done this more often than not. I make 2-3 ADRs for our "sentimental" favorites, but otherwise breakfast is mostly "at home". We are at WDW in the summer on many trips and I just can't eat that much food anymore....and certainly don't feel like it in hot weather anyway. Basically we have one big meal a day.....varies by day. It has worked well for us and there are always munchies I order from Garden Grocer .......snack foods, yogurt, peanut butter, etc.

 

[HopperFan]

ALL THE TIME!!!

Breakfast in room, late lunch/early dinner ADR, snacks or other spontaneous in evening.

Like the bigger mid-day meal so we can walk it off.

Leaves our evening food open to ice cream,
a few drinks in a lounge with an appetizer,
even a "we are on vacation" burger
and most of all no evening commitments.

 

[Micca]

We like to stock our villa with breakfast items, snacks, deli meat & cheese, beer/wine/spirits, bottled water, etc. Our primary goal isn't so much to save money (though it helps a lot) but to have convenient eats and to cut down on the waste of ordering for small children who might only take a couple of bites of something bought in the parks. Saves time too! We plan a bigger meal once per day, sometimes dinner, sometimes lunch. Nobody ever goes hungry for long in our group.

 

[Shanti]

The last few trips have been larger family trips for us and we have done the dining plan. While we enjoyed this immensely, it is just too much food. So this entire trip is different...it will be just my wife and I and we are staying at Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village. Because of this we are getting groceries delivered. We will have breakfast in the room, bring snacks (granola bars, etc) for mid morning, and have snacks there for the evening.

I was considering making a daily dining reservation but do it for 2-3pm most days. We will have our breakfast and a snack before that which is plenty. We can snack in the park or even back at our room later on. Has anyone else tried this? thoughts?

Having a big breakfast, skipping lunch, then having an early dinner is our modus operandi on theme park days at WDW. It works very well, especially in the summer when it feels great to get out of the late-afternoon heat or rain for a table service dinner.

 

[JZCubed]

The last few trips have been larger family trips for us and we have done the dining plan. While we enjoyed this immensely, it is just too much food. So this entire trip is different...it will be just my wife and I and we are staying at Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village. Because of this we are getting groceries delivered. We will have breakfast in the room, bring snacks (granola bars, etc) for mid morning, and have snacks there for the evening.

I was considering making a daily dining reservation but do it for 2-3pm most days. We will have our breakfast and a snack before that which is plenty. We can snack in the park or even back at our room later on. Has anyone else tried this? thoughts?

We frequently eat our largest meal midday - at the end or immediately following morning Park time.

But we do this mostly when staying at Swan & Dolphin, where it often possible to eat good food at the restaurant or its lounge.

As for breakfast ADR's - gets in the way of Park time with our young child (8 y.o.). We only do this on non-Park days or the morning after a nighttime show.

 

[AngiTN]

I was considering making a daily dining reservation but do it for 2-3pm most days. We will have our breakfast and a snack before that which is plenty. We can snack in the park or even back at our room later on. Has anyone else tried this? thoughts?

This is our norm

 

[bumbershoot]

Because of this we are getting groceries delivered. We will have breakfast in the room, bring snacks (granola bars, etc) for mid morning, and have snacks there for the evening.

I was considering making a daily dining reservation but do it for 2-3pm most days. We will have our breakfast and a snack before that which is plenty. We can snack in the park or even back at our room later on. Has anyone else tried this? thoughts?

Sounds perfect to me.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

This is the plan I have for our next trip as well. All my ADRs are between 1-3pm. We'll have a light breakfast and a snack in the evening, or even appetizers at a bar. This wasn't actually my plan going in, but due to making reservations for a large group, these were the only times I could get at most places. At first I was bummed, but now I actually think this will work out perfectly!

 

[Hopefully]

Mid - late afternoon and dinner reservations are in oxymoron in our house. Dinner is in the evening for us.

 

[rwdavis2]

Yes, we did it last November. We were there 8 nights and would start at one park and eat lunch at one of the hotels or the next park. Lunch was our main meal at least half the time.

 

[AngiTN]

Mid - late afternoon and dinner reservations are in oxymoron in our house. Dinner is in the evening for us.

Maybe society should devise a term like Brunch, but to mix lunch and dinner. Lunner?
Anyway, it's just a meal eaten later afternoon. Call it whatever you wish
It works really well at Disney if you go light for breakfast. We like to pack a box of Clif bars to tide us over till we eat a big late lunch, early dinner, lunner, whatever word applies. It's a meal. No name needed I suppose.
First, it falls at the hottest part of the day so you can get in and out of the sun
Second, it is a less popular time to eat so you typically find it less crowded
Third, you don't head to bed with a full meal on your stomach.

 

[Hopefully]

Maybe society should devise a term like Brunch, but to mix lunch and dinner. Lunner?
Anyway, it's just a meal eaten later afternoon. Call it whatever you wish
It works really well at Disney if you go light for breakfast. We like to pack a box of Clif bars to tide us over till we eat a big late lunch, early dinner, lunner, whatever word applies. It's a meal. No name needed I suppose.
First, it falls at the hottest part of the day so you can get in and out of the sun
Second, it is a less popular time to eat so you typically find it less crowded
Third, you don't head to bed with a full meal on your stomach.

I agree. Call it whatever. If it works for you, good for you.
But we like our main meal in the evening. We are not really breakfast folks at all. We eat an early, light lunch and schedule our main meal around 7:30. Not so late that we go to bed with a full stomach. It is how we eat at home. I enjoy ending the day with a relaxing TS meal and a nice "adult" beverage.
Just another example of "Different strokes for different folks". Neither is all right nor all wrong.

 

[disnut8]

I would do what works for you. My husband and I like a "cheaper" meal and one that doesn't have a lot of people needed to also eat at the time and 2-3 works best for us as well. Two places that work for us are Sci Fi Dine in for their lunch and movies and the Biergarten around 2:00 so there's enough time to be seated before the 2:15 show.

 

[shoney]

sounds perfect to me. I don't like breakfast and do not eat breakfast out. We really like a larger meal mid-day at the theme parks. Gives us a chance to relax, eat and have a few cocktails.
Then we can just snack or split something later in the night.
Enjoy!!!

 

[scrapquitler]

The last few trips have been larger family trips for us and we have done the dining plan. While we enjoyed this immensely, it is just too much food. So this entire trip is different...it will be just my wife and I and we are staying at Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village. Because of this we are getting groceries delivered. We will have breakfast in the room, bring snacks (granola bars, etc) for mid morning, and have snacks there for the evening.

I was considering making a daily dining reservation but do it for 2-3pm most days. We will have our breakfast and a snack before that which is plenty. We can snack in the park or even back at our room later on. Has anyone else tried this? thoughts?

That's pretty much how we eat when we are at WDW, and that one meal that we eat is almost always QS. We don't like to spend a lot of time sitting in a restaurant when we could be enjoying the rest of the park, and frankly, we aren't too hungry for a big meal when it's hot. Besides that, there are so many good snacks to have, we prefer to snack (and share them) throughout the day a bit here and there.

 

[North of Mouse]

Yes, that is mostly what we do. We never eat more than one large meal during the day, and often it's in the 3:30-5:00PM range. Not always a TS either, just a plate lunch from CS (not burgers). Dh, nor I, can handle large meals any later than that - have to have time to walk it off before nighttime. The DDP has never been for us - way too much food and desserts/snacks.

 

[KimBean]

I agree. Call it whatever. If it works for you, good for you.
But we like our main meal in the evening. We are not really breakfast folks at all. We eat an early, light lunch and schedule our main meal around 7:30. Not so late that we go to bed with a full stomach. It is how we eat at home. I enjoy ending the day with a relaxing TS meal and a nice "adult" beverage.
Just another example of "Different strokes for different folks". Neither is all right nor all wrong.

I'm with you. I think I could do this quite nicely but not DH and the kids. But we only do 2 meals a day. Usually QS at 11:30 and TS at 7.

But I think the OPs idea is great. I see utilizing it once the kids are grown. I'm already not able to eat as much and have some food restrictions this trip I never had before.