Just checked the currency exchange today crystal palace for lunch out of the question

[cottontail]

Hi for our upcoming trip in april we decided to pick two table service meals because of the low Canadian dollar. One for our daughter crystal palace at lunch and ohana dinner.
After checking todays currency exchange rate it will cost us $168.00 Canadian before tip for a lunch at crystal palace. The US cost is $121.00 before tip. I think we will do only counterservice meals to keep prices down.
Are other Canadians still paying out of pocket for any table service meals with this low dollar?

Deb

 

[minnie mum]

We did. And we will continue to. But we have a US$ account that we have been adding to for the last few years, whenever the exchange rates were decent. Plus, very few of our TS ADRs are for fixed price meals, like buffets or AYCTE places. They are ridiculously overpriced. You can still have a decently priced (for Disney) meal at many a la carte restaurants. But we certainly don't mind doing CS either.

 

[samsteele]

I have a go to list of TS for when I either have fall free dining or am paying OOP. And because of our currency, the twain shall never meet. Like minnie mum, I have a US$ account that I topped up over the past number of years. However, when paying OOP, I look for more decently priced TS meals. My go to OOP list: Trails End (dinner), Marrakesh (lunch), Beaches and Cream (either), Sanaa (lunch) & Yak & Yeti (lunch - appies). I also enjoy items at the Territory Lounge in Wilderness Lounge for a light dinner. As the OP mentioned, this is a good opportunity to check out some of the better quality CS. I love Tangerine Cafe, Kringla Og Kafe, Sunshine Seasons, FlameTree BBQ, Columbia Harbour House and BOG (lunch). A new CS fav since last fall is Pecos Bill and its revamped menu. The steak and chicken fajitas are very good. But nothing to look at when you pick up your bare order at the counter. It is the fixins' bar that makes the incredible, huge difference. One of these bad boys could easily feed 2 adults at lunch once you add all the fresh toppings.

 

[mshanson3121]

We don't go back until 2017, so I'm hoping the dollar has improved some, but if it's still hanging in pretty low, then we likely will not do any meals within Disney parks, and will just pack snacks for within the park. But we also stay off site, so we have that option.

That said, if you really want some ADRs/character meals, try and book them for breakfast instead, those are the cheapest meals.

 

[MamaLema]

We've actually decided to not even go this year. It would cost us around $2000 more. I don't feel it's worth it, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

We are doing OOP this time (leave in 10 days), as I found the dining plan was too much food for us and we had meals left over at the end. It was on free dining so didn't matter to me, but since I would be paying for it, I find that the 2 of us can often share a larger counter service meal (cut the double burger in half). We have ressies for Tepan Edo, Wishes Dessert Party, GF Tea and BOG lunch. Other than that we are just going to wing it and eat whatever we come across when we feel hungry. I think we will spend a lot less than the dining plan in the end. I also have to say I am enjoying planning the trip without having to worry about where we must be every day at a certain time. We spent so much time wasted on making sure we were at dining, and also didn't try snacks and stuff we wanted because of the big dinner ahead - and honestly found most of the dining to be not that great quality!
I am going to keep receipts and see what we end up spending - I have a $1000 budget but bet we don't even come near it!

 

[Disneylover99]

Yup. We're still paying. We had lunch at the Biergarten today.

 

[Susie63]

This will be our first trip to WDW and we have a house rented off site. We have no ADR's. Is there a list of the best CS restaurants in each park.

 

[Donald - my hero]

This will be our first trip to WDW and we have a house rented off site. We have no ADR's. Is there a list of the best CS restaurants in each park.

WOW that's a rather loaded question that will give you more answers than you want! If you give a few details most of us would love to help!
Ages of those going? Types of food you like --or hate for that matter -- any idea of which park you'll spend more time in? I would suggest doing your best to get an ADR for lunch at BOG ... CS but you need a reservation to get in .. they bring the food to you so you have a quassi TS meal.
There are many places out there that you can see detailed menus to help you in your decisions .. on my Kindle or i could provide some links

 

[mshanson3121]

This will be our first trip to WDW and we have a house rented off site. We have no ADR's. Is there a list of the best CS restaurants in each park.

Haha, everyone will say something different. I will say that with two children, we really enjoyed Pinocchio's Village Haus and Pecco Bill's, both in MK. Meals for a family of 4 were about $40 US including slushies, with great portions and we found the food great! We had no problem getting a table either time - BUT, my tip is, go before or after the main lunch rush. We typically took our lunch around 11 or 11:30. By 12:00 Pecco Bill's was definitely getting busy and you'd have a harder time finding a seat.

 

[alc571]

We enjoy Pecos Bills (at least until they changed the menu) and Cosmic Rays in MK; Pizzafari in AK; American Pavilion at EP; and Pizza Planet at HS.

 

[cottontail]

Thanks everyone. We did go down a couple of years ago when the dollar was at par. We managed to eat for $60.00 a day US for three of us excluding going lunch crystal palace and ohana two special meals. We ate at counterservice and dinner at our resort Port Orleans Riverside, I felt we ate very nice meals. At the hotel my daughter and I shared meals. I just couldn't get over how much extra the low dollar costs. I will probably drop the crystal palace and ohana and do the hotel for dinners and counterservice, we do have BOG booked.

 

[DougEMG]

I love the slow cooked pork at BOG for lunch. At around $15 it is an excellent deal.

 

[LemonNeko]

We are going to Universal this upcoming trip and doing one non-park day at Disney. I booked a character breakfast at Cape May. The price is going to be ridiculous but it's still cheaper than paying for a 1-day park ticket.

 

[isabellea]

Yes I will. Everything is paid for already except for meals as we decided to pay OOP this year (with the deal I got on Orbitz it's much cheaper for us to get room only and pay for meals OOP than a package). I planned one or two TS meal a day:50's Prime Time lunch and the dessert party on our DHS day, Crystal Palace breakfast and O'hana for dinner on our MK day, Tusker House dinner on our AK day and Cape May breakfast on departure day. For us eating at character meals are part of the Disney experience and with young kids we are budgeting for them. Also, this WDW will probably be the last one for a few years so no way I am being cheap for this one. The two meals/events we might cancel are the SW dessert party if the reviews come back that the view is not great and Cape May if we want to get to the outlets earlier before heading to Ft Lauderdale.

 

[Terapin]

We are going in February with our big family (17, 16, 9, 9, 8 and baby) plus my mom and we have to decide what we are doing around food. We have a split stay so I am thinking of doing the deluxe dining for the first four nights which will carry us into the fifth day, and then cooking in our two bedroom villa. With 3 of the kids 9 and under I think it's still good value.

 

[Tinkershelly]

There are lots of good cs places these days, but whatever you decide to do, my best piece of advice is to eat every meal early. We have done the dining plan for many years now (usually free dining) and our routine is to have a protein bar in the room for breakfast, eat counter service for lunch when the restaurant opens at 11-11:30am, eat full service or buffet at 5-6pm. We avoid the crowds by eating early and avoid getting cranky from hunger, and having the whole evening in a park to walk off the supper is definitely welcome. Throw in a couple of snacks and there you have it. We also pack some 100-calorie snack packs because one of us likes to have a little something right before bed and Disney snacks are waaaaaaay too big for that.

 

[Susie63]

There are 4 adults and a 14 year old in our party. My sister and her husband are not buying tickets until they get to the parks so no ADR's. We have 7 day non hoppers. HS 1 day....AK...1 day.... Epcot... maybe 2 days and 3 or 4 in MK. We are just going to take the day as it comes so CS meals work best. Are there TS restaurants that you don't need reservations for?

 

[minnie mum]

There are 4 adults and a 14 year old in our party. My sister and her husband are not buying tickets until they get to the parks so no ADR's. We have 7 day non hoppers. HS 1 day....AK...1 day.... Epcot... maybe 2 days and 3 or 4 in MK. We are just going to take the day as it comes so CS meals work best. Are there TS restaurants that you don't need reservations for?

??? You don't need to have purchased tickets to make an ADR. You must need to have tickets in order to get into any park your ADR is in, on the day your ADR is for. If you know your plans, and which parks you will be in each day, there's no reason not to make ADRs if you want them.

I definitely don't recommend winging a WDW vacation. You need to at least know which parks you will be in each day so you can prebook your FPs. I don't recommend counting on walkups at any in park restaurant or any of the popular resort restaurants. Make them in advance, or at the very least that morning.

 

[Susie63]

Doesn't everyone need to have park tickets to book fp+?