How long were your meals?

[M-J's Mommy]

On average, how much time did you spend at each Disney World restaurant? I've heard some people talking about spending 2 hours and that just seems like a lot to me. Do you think that it will take less time to eat for just one person?

 

[KatMark]

On average, how much time did you spend at each Disney World restaurant? I've heard some people talking about spending 2 hours and that just seems like a lot to me. Do you think that it will take less time to eat for just one person?

DH and I average 60 - 75 minutes per sit down meal. However, we don't have young kids with us anymore and we enjoy the break and the time to relax. The only two times that it was longer than that and ran over two hours was at two of the three restaurants we will not be going back to because the food and the service was awful (and that is why we were there over two hours)-- Boatwrights & Whispering Canyon Cafe.

 

[Hopefully]

We feel most TS meals average about 60 - 90 minutes. But we enjoy sitting and enjoying each other while we eat. You could probably speed that up, but I don't want to feel rushed.
Enjoy

 

[Stitch2244314]

I think it all depends on which restaurant you are eating at.

For instance, our meal at the Brown Derby lasted 2 hours +. And yes, it felt like a WHILE to me. (Don't recommend it by the way, it's way too expensive for the amount of food you get).

The buffets don't usually take more than 60-70 minutes because the food is ready. Some buffets only took us about 45 minutes because the food was nothing we were very excited about (Hollywood & Vine). We were at Chef Mickey's a while though because we couldn't stop eating. We thought the dinner buffet was fantastic-- probably the best, if not the best, meal I've had in all of my trips to WDW. Chef Mickey's was a blast.

 

[a1tinkfans]

From my experience I say 60-90 minutes, from seating to leaving. I have never been able to do a sit down under an hour, one of the reasons we do not do DELUXE dine, it is even MORE time overall as we felt compelled to eat 2 sit downs a day.....way to much eating time rather than fun time IMHO.

Have a great trip by the way!.

 

[RMulieri]

We budget 75-90mins..It depends on how fast you are seated, is it buffet or a la carte, how fast the service is and how fast you eat.If it is a character meal it takes longer too. Rarely has it taken over 90 mins and we have a 5 yr old.

 

[disneynut67]

just got back on Monday and for the most part it was 60 to 80 minutes for sit downs

 

[WDW1st-timers]

I also can say from pass experience that you will be looking at 60 to 90 minutes for a sit down meal.

 

[MGNA]

It seemed like most of our TS meals were finished within 60-80 minutes except for the California Grill. We could have finished there earlier but tried to spread out the time so that DSs could watch the fireworks. We were done before 9:30 so they were begging to leave. Instead of watching them from the observation deck we went to Magic Kingdom.

We had 8pm reservations at Tutto Italia and had a wonderful meal & service. It surprised us that we were finished by 9 and outside in time to watch Illuminations. Never once did we feel rushed during our meal.

Our most disappointing meal & longest dining time was Le Cellier. Our reservations were at 8 but they were running about 15+ minutes behind. It wasn't a big deal for us to wait. From the time we were seated until we were pleading to finish the check so that we could leave, the entire meal felt "off". Servers looked rushed & frazzled, were not only serving diners but also the ones bussing and setting tables. After our appetizers, it took an hour for our entrees to be served. Half of my entree was cold. Diners who were seated after us were finishing dessert before our entrees were served. Our DS were literally falling asleep at the table so we requested our desserts to go and asked for the check. The check was wrong so we waited again for it to be corrected. Lastly a server standing next to DH dropped a wine glass between him & his chair, shattering it everywhere. Thankfully he wasn't cut and it was clean so no harm done.

I'm sure that isn't the typical dinner at Le Cellier.

We always arrived early for our reservations. Pretty much we were seated on time or early. The service was prompt & efficient without feeling rushed.

 

[Dominus]

If you pushed it, you could get out in under an hour. But I'm not sure how much you'd enjoy your meal. The other posters are right, budget about 75mins to 2 hours.

 

[Debbie-TN]

Crystal Palace takes us between 1 1/2 to 2 hours if you want to see all the characters. We're all adults, but we still want pictures with the characters. Never less than an hour at any of them. Be sure to add an hour for travel if you go to one of the resorts by bus.

 

[mommycrawford]

I think it really depends....Some places just run more efficiently than others!

Kona takes a long time, Tokyo dining does not.

As another poster said, buffets where you get your food can be done quickly, but sometimes you have to wait if you want to se characters...Family style may take longer!

That said, Disney trips often allow you to savor sitting in air conditioning for long periods of time so your feet can recoup!

If you choose buffet for expediency, let your server know, otherwise it's sometimes hard to track down your check when you want to go. but don't close it out til you want to leave, or they may try to rush you.

 

[disneyjanet]

Most meals were 1 1/2 to 2 hours for us with the higher end being for Signatures. This was also on the older version of the dining plan with the appies. I would suspect that no appies would reduce the time a bit.