Help eating at Disney

[NorthernON_MOM]

Just wondering how everyone plans their meals while @ Disney. Do you eat in the parks? at hotels? yours? others? Downtown Disney? What about outside Disney? I've decided on a few places to eat while we are there, but really have no idea if it makes sense to the leave a park to go eat? or what. Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

We probably do Disney dining differently than others but we drive with a car fridge. We usually do breakfast in the room and then pack sandwiches, snacks for lunch and eat out at dinner.

For the last couple of trips we have picked a couple of restaurants that we want to eat at and book PS for those. Last trip we ate at Liberty Tree Tavern before MNSSHP -- although we loved LTT we won't do this again as it cut into our MNSSHP time. We also ate at Le Cellier -- I liked it, Jim was so-so on it. We ate at O'Hana at the Polynesian and loved it and are planning to go back next time. We also did the Hoop De Doo Revue which was great. For the rest we either have counter service or just snack our way through the day.

If you want an idea about prices go to allearsnet.com and Deb has the menus for most places on her website. It's a great resource and also gives you an idea of where to eat.

If we are in a park we don't tend to leave to eat unless we are going somewhere else.

Hope this helps.

 

[hockey mom]

For us we always have brekky in the room other than the free one we get with our passes.
Lunch always in the parks-some of our fav's are cosmic rays, pecos bills, world showcase, flame tree barbeque.
Dinner is 2 favorites-this year 50's prime time and chef mickeys. We always eat at chilis one or 2 meals and pizza in our room, and all the rest back in the parks.
Snacks I used to bring a few in but reality is my kids want the ice cream, pop corn, bakey items and what not so I don't even bother any more.

 

[grover]

We also eat breakfast in our room ( we just take cereal,fruit muffins) and lunch and dinner is where ever we happen to be! We do usually plan on hitting a couple places in particular-in the past these have included : Rainforest Cafe-DTD, Wolfgang Pucks, SciFi Drive In, Hollywood and Vine, Cinderella's Character Breakkie,Flame Tree BBQ, Mexico, and Morroco!!! This time we are for sure doing SciFi & Morocco again, and will try and hit a few new places
Grover in Winnipeg

 

[bunnyfoo]

We have at least one PS planned for each day, either breakfast or dinner... usually dinner. Some of the PS we make before we leave (ie. Chef Mickey's, 'Ohana) and some we make when we get there (ie. Boma). We eat all of our meals on site because we don't have a car to go offsite. Check out Deb's site, she's got menus for most WDW eateries..

http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

Some of our favourites are Jiko, California Grill, Chef Mickey's, 'Ohana's, San Angel Inn, Kona Cafe, Flame Tree, Pecos Bill and Brown Derby

 

[Mortlives]

We normally stay in the parks to eat if we're in a park, and otherwise try to fit things in. If we want to go to another resort's restaurant, we try to do it on a day we're at the nearest park. For example, last trip we made an 'Ohana PS for our first MK day -- day after EMH 'cause we didn't get up early enough the day before -- , and did HOB on our rest day (TL and DTD). We also did granola bars for breakfast, which freed up a lot of morning time, and saved a lot of $$$. Counter service is generally fine in any of the parks for us, so we don't worry about things like that, and aside from the important (must-do for us) restaurants, we play it by ears and eat when we're hungry. A couple of days that meant dinner back at POR, but that's fine too. If we were going to do Boma again, we'd do that on the day we were doing AKL.

Have a great trip,
Mort.

 

[bgula]

Depends on how "cheap" you want to be. If you're staying offsite, bring sandwiches, etc. in a cooler and leave them in your car. When it's time for lunch, just go out to the parking lot and dig in. We did that for a couple of vacations and it worked great. Saved a lot of money that way. We try not to eat in the parks except for a treat as it costs so much.

You can try Ponderosa as well. For $8-9 you get a meal plus a buffet. Don't do this too often otherwise you'll end up gaining 10 pounds over your vacation! Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney is interesting. We like to try to eat on the 2nd or 3rd floor for a better view.