How important is food to your Disney experience?

[bytheblood]

I do like to enjoy a few good meals, but honestly, it does not play a major part in my planning/ My planning is more about the resort, time of visit and where to go on what days. But, I do use the dining plan and get way more than my money's worth!!

 

[Step]

Another question from me

I am planning a trip in early December - my family and my sisters.

I haven't made any ADR. We are going to have a special dinner at Sea World in the shark Restaurant, and I will make a reservation at Rain Forest Cafe in AK for a son's birthday (hopefully I can still get one - I was planning to eat around 2:00 in the afternoon, so it's not such a busy time).

Other than that, I just am not sure I will care that much about the food. I *love* to eat and we eat out a lot, but I am assuming that the good restaurants in my town probably rival Disney's, and probably for less money. The only thing is, I never eat fast food, so I am counting on a few counter service places that actually serve salads, fruit, etc.

Do you think I will really regret this? It seems like everyone here is really into the food, and actually, I posted here rather than the restuarant board because I figured people who sacrifice food for a more "attractions" oriented trip or for more flexibility probably don't go to that board as much.

Anyway, just wondering ..... This trip planning thing is making me really nervous

I just came back from my first trip, and I have to say, the disney restaurants I went to rivaled my local ones for sure! Take a stab at the more exotic restaurants. Kona was my favorite, followed by Spoodles and California Grill.

I think you'd get the less appealing "burger and fries fare" at Sci Fi dinner theatre and the more "theme oriented" restaurants.

 

[MelanieC]

For my family the food is as much a part of our vacation and we spend more on food for two weeks as we do on our AP's.

I'd get really tired of counter service if I had to eat more than a few meals there. We usually have fast food at AK, but then we eat sit down for lunch and dinner daily for the rest of our trip. We usually end up eating 2-3 times at the hotel, one of them being the first day we arrive. By the second day of eating at the hotel's Counter Service I"m done with Counter Service.

 

[Kim1964]

When we were there in August, I was pretty disappointed with most of the table service meals we had. (We were not on the free dining plan as I had never heard of it!) It seemed like the menus were a lot more limited than I remembered them being in 2004. The best meals we had were off site, and the plan for next year is to eat more of our meals off site. We're going to eat breakfast at the hotel, and lunch will likely be counter service wherever we happen to be, but dinner will be off site. We always get a rental car, so transportation isn't an issue.

The kids love the character meals, so I intend to have at least one of those, and maybe two. If they happen to offer free dining again next year during our trip, I would make the most of it and eat at Disney. For the prices, though, I'd rather spend half as much off site and enjoy the food a bit more.

 

[julsmom]

Food is a big part of our planning. It ends up getting more time than the other details, such as which parks on which days, etc.. I chalk it up to just being a big part of enjoying life. We are both actually small people but we love food. Eating at Disney is like its own little adventure (I mean that in a good way).

 

[magicforever]

Food is why we do the Dining Plan, free or not. If we didn't we would never spend the money on the restaurants. I have to say, two days of any counter service and I am begging for something different, even if it is a turkey leg.

 

[Bangerang]

For us dining is as big a part of our vacation as the rides are so we usually plan one TS meal per day. TS does take more time than CS, but it is a great way to slow down and regroup during a busy day...and the themeing of most of the restaurants tops just about anything found elsewhere. If you do your homework beforehand (Unofficial Guide, Passporter, Disboards, etc.) you can usually avoid the "bad" TS places. As far a CS, there may be a lot of variety listed but it is not always available. On our last trip, only three of the CS spots listed in MK were open for dinner (past 6:00 pm). The rest were closed seasonally.

 

[Micca]

food =

 

[LukenDC]

Fine dining is an integral part of my Disney experience and I put a lot of thought into where I want to eat. My travel agent makes my dinoing reservations on the 180 day mark.

 

[marivaid]

When I first started planning our trip I didnt give a flip about food. Parks were way more important. Then,when I saw that the parks would be at level 10 crowd (the highest) and that in order to enjoy them we'd have to wake up at 6am on most days, well it became important to have a rather quiet, sit-down break at least once a day. Neither of us drives so it's either eat on site or pay $40 roundtrip to go to Wally World or an offsite restaurant. Our resort doesnt rent microwaves. So, even though we've got more than 2 months left before we go, all my ADRs are set.

It's not for the food.While DM may find some more interesting things she'll love, I already know I'll be living off cesar salad,chicken and mac'n'cheese.
We mostly picked fun places like Sci Fi and character places, and 2 more "grown up" meals for NYE and DM's birthday.

We'll be waiting in line all day to ride or see shows,the last thing I want is to have to wait in line to eat too.

 

[resol37]

I love food, but it's not a priority for me at WDW. We've never made any ADRs for our trips and I think the only TS restaurants we've ever eaten at are the Hollywood Brown Derby (Studios), the restaurant in Mexico at Epcot (can't for the life of me remember it's name right now) and the House of Blues (DTD).

We usually eat at CS restaurants because of the lower pricing. We've never had a problem with the quality.

Like I said, I love to eat, but when it comes to WDW, I usually concentrate my eating habits on things that I can't get outside of WDW - like Dole Whips.

 

[Eeyore2003]

What ... there is something beyond the food?

Ditto!!! There's probably a reason why our favorite event is the FOOD and Wine Festival!!!

 

[snowwhite17]

Food is not super important in our WDW planning. We like to eat spur of the moment and don't want to be tied down to a reservation. We are also DVC members and tend to us the kitchen for some of our meals.