Mostly counter service?

[Juliegirl1]

I am going to use all of my TS meals on the dining plan - but we are using the majority of ours for character breakfasts with early ADR's so we will be done in time for park openings. That way we have the rest of the day to be spontaneous. We do have two dinner ressie's - Fantasmic dinner package and CRT's the very first night we are there. I also managed to schedule CRT so we will be eating during Wishes - what a way to start out our trip!

 

[mom2my3kids]

I just emailed the owner of the DVC we are staying at in october. I had asked her way back in March to add the dining plan on. But after much discussion with my hubby, we decided we did not want it. Not that its not a good value. But for us I think we will save money and time by now doing all of the TS meals. I have one planned at the end of our stay at O'hanas and may add just one more. We are mostly going to eat cs and try to eat as healthy as possible. I just didn't want to worry about where we had to be at what time. We are the fly by the night kinda people

 

[Brian Noble]

We have at most 2TS restaurants every 3 days, and generally they are not signature restaurants.

I live in a town with a lot of really nice reasturants, including several really top-notch ethnic places. However, there is no Splash Mountain.

 

[KirstenB]

I have to confess, I'm not a restaurant person at all. Not even here at home. To me, food is generally just something you eat for energy. Okay, except fried Cheetos--they're nectar of the gods, LOL!
The one exception I've always made is the character breakfast at 1900 Park Faire. DD1 loves this, and hopefully dd2 will also, when she gets older. Counter service works great for us--we just eat when we're hungry, and go.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

I feel exactly the same as the OP...in over ten visits to WDW (always for a week or more) we have only eaten at Chef Mickey's and Sci-Fi. Everything else was always counter service. We always felt our time was so limited that we didn't want to spend it sitting around in restaurants waiting to be served. We will be trying the DDP for the first time in October and there's a big part of me that really hopes we *don't* like it. I know that probably seems crazy to some people, but I want to be motivated by rides -- not food!

 

[buffalogirl]

Thanks so much for starting this thread. I was beginning to think I was the only one who didn't want to be tied to a meal schedule. I would prefer to eat when we're hungry and to enjoy all the other great things at Disney. My kids aren't big eaters and I can't see wasting the time and money on big meals. During our 8 day stay, I'm planning just one character meal.

 

[Mrsduck101]

We were able to do the free dining last year and are doing it again this year
When we don't have the dining plan, we eat CS almost all the time. We may pick one or two TS meals, but that's it.
I doubt we will ever buy the dining plan, but when it is free we really enjoy trying all the different TS places. When we don't have the dining plan we are just as happy with CS most of the time.
Maybe my family is easy to please?

 

[MassMom94]

Another vote for CS here. If I had free dining maybe I'd feel differently (booked too late for that - this was kind of a spur of the moment trip brought on by really low SWA airfares), but my family are not big eaters, nor do they prefer lingering in TS establishments when there are rides/attractions to enjoy. I have booked a Chef Mickey breakfast for this trip and we might do one other TS (maybe Whispering Canyon, as we are staying at the WL) but that's probably it. It would be different if it were only DH and me...I'd really like to try Boma, for example, but I don't want to pay $26 for my DD14 to eat a few chicken tenders.

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

we do not plan any dinners before either. we just like to eat whereever we are at ,or in the mood for. we usually just do cs. sometimes we do go to the other hotels for lunch or dinner, . we just like to play it day by day....

 

[Family Fun Mom]

Thanks for all of the replies everyone! It makes me feel good knowing I am not alone in my thinking. It looks like our next trip is going to be CS all the way. We will probably do 3 TS meals, most likely we'll do Chef Mickey's, the Hoop Dee Do, and Whispering Canyon. They were our favorites from our free dining trip. Maybe we'll do CRT, too (a big maybe). When we went last year it was the hottest ticket in town and impossible to book. I'd like to dine in the castle at least once.

 

[Junebugwv]

In our 20 trips, we have done 4 character breakfasts and one Hoop-Dee-Doo. The rest have been CS. TS doesn't appeal to us as much as CS because we don't want to be tied down to a meal schedule.

We are familiar with the CS offered in each park and that helps. I think it is essential to know the hours of the CS because it can be frustrating to get hungry in the evening and not have a CS open in your vicinity.