Latest opinions re: ROL dining package

[bfamily5]

Heading to the world early September and it will be our first experience with Pandora. So Excited! I have seen the mixed reviews for ROL but we will be making a point of seeing it for ourselves. At my 160 I booked a Tusker House lunch ROL package. This will also be our first time without free dining! We are cutting the umbilical cord and doing OOP. My thoughts were we would have lunch and likely not need more than a snack later in the day and we would save park time not waiting for ROL since we would have 'tickets'. Now I am second guessing it all. We love Flame Tree, we love Yak and Yeti, we want to try Satuli....arrggg! Is ROL a walk up now? Is Tusker lunch 'worth it' or would we be better off grazing throughout the park? TIA!

 

[goofyintoronto]

Heading to the world early September and it will be our first experience with Pandora. So Excited! I have seen the mixed reviews for ROL but we will be making a point of seeing it for ourselves. At my 160 I booked a Tusker House lunch ROL package. This will also be our first time without free dining! We are cutting the umbilical cord and doing OOP. My thoughts were we would have lunch and likely not need more than a snack later in the day and we would save park time not waiting for ROL since we would have 'tickets'. Now I am second guessing it all. We love Flame Tree, we love Yak and Yeti, we want to try Satuli....arrggg! Is ROL a walk up now? Is Tusker lunch 'worth it' or would we be better off grazing throughout the park? TIA!

Honestly, i'd ditch Tusker and eat at Satuli Canteen. Their food quality blew my mind. It was the highlight meal of my trip. The food is so fresh, healthy, and incredibly delicious. I had the chicken potato/sweet potato hash with herb dressing. its phenomenal and my fave QS in all of disney. The bonus is that you'd save a ton of money by dining here.

I had a FP for ROL in Nov and the lineup for that (even with a FP) was HUGE! Its a big theater with lots of seating. So even though you may think its hopeless, trust me you should be fine and get a seat. The line was massive and we were still seated towards the front.

 

[hawaiilife]

Last May we went and did the ROL package at Tusker House. TH was awesome. If you have kids, TH is definitely the best place. My kids loved meeting "safari mickey", but the ROL package was a big disappointment for us. We had guaranteed space because of our dining, yet we did NOT get a seat. My DH, 7 and 2 year olds (at the time) had to stand. I had a small spot at the end of a bench but I only got that because I was pregnant and someone was nice enough to move a little closer to their wife. I was not happy at all with this. Hopefully it has improved since then in that regard, or my experience was a one off.

ROL is something I have no interest in doing again. It doesn't come near to comparing to Fantasmic. It's a one and done thing for me. I recommend you do it and make your own opinion on it. Since it is newer to WDW I would imagine crowds are still relatively high and getting the dining package is likely a smart way to do this.

My DH loves Flame Tree, but we don't really see it's value unless you're on the DDP. I say if you've never done TH before give it a try. It sounds like you've done Yak and Yeti before. If you are wanting to do ROL, the ROL DP at TH is definitely the smartest thing to do.

Happy planning!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

You could move your Tusker House ADR to a little earlier (10:55). That way you'd pay the breakfast price but still get lunch food on the buffet too. Then you'd be hungry enough to share early evening snacks or small meals at some of the other restaurants you want to try. DH and I like to share small entrees and snacks when we "eat around the world" at EPCOT. You could get an entree at Yak and Yeti - share it, then get an entree at Satuli Canteen and share that too. Eat around Africa!

We did the ROL package at TH in April 2017. I wanted a seat for ROL, didn't want to wait in line for a chance at stand by seating, and didn't want to use a FP for it. The ROL package was only a few dollars more than the regular buffet price, so it made the most sense.