Not Worrying About Eating

[mainelyj]

Now I certainly love a good meal and trying new things. But my myself (47 yrs old female) and my mom (68 years old) are visiting the end of June. We are spending 3 days at WDW, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We have decided to eat when we want and not worry about dining reservations. Yes, it is ok to call us crazy. We did not want to worry about making are dining times. So, we are winging it. We promised each other to not get upset if we can not get into a restaurant by just showing up at the podium.

We decided it would be ok to just do counter service, if that is all we can get. I know at Epcot, you can eat at the counter service place outside of Mexico and still get something different to eat.

Am I making a huge mistake? Any suggestions for trying something different.

I remember a night several years ago when we arrived at MK about 6pm ish. We must have had a late lunch, because when we arrived, we visited the bakery and had huge cup cakes (call it a craving). We did not realize until 11pm that night as we were leaving how hungry we were. And, then realized we forgot to eat dinner, because we ate those cup cakes. BTW, it took us so long to leave the park, we just went back to our hotel and crashed - never got any real food. We just remember this night as a happy memory- because we had a great snack for our dinner vs "real dinner" food- and do not regret a thing!!

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[The Hendies]

For me, I'd be fine with counter service at EPCOT (Tangerine Cafe is my favorite!) and MK (several to choose from), but I haven't been very happy with CS at DHS. Just today I made late lunch reservations for Sci Fi. We'll eat a big breakfast at the condo, then lunch at 2:50. That will be our big meal of the day. Enjoy your trip!

 

[lizzi6692]

I like to plan my trip, including meals, it's half the fun for me. And I hate to be hungry and then scrambling to find somewhere to eat and I imagine it would be a lot worse after a long day touring the parks. Plus we are planning on doing the Deluxe Dining Plan next trip, so there would be absolutely no value in eating counter service for every meal. We enjoy our two sit down meals a day, the break to eat and relax allows us to go commando the rest of the day and get pretty much everything we want to do done. This is just how it is for me and my family, for you it might be different, I don't know you so I can't tell you if it's a mistake. All I can tell you is for me, yes it would be a big mistake.

 

[Tallent]

I'll be there June into July with dd11 and her friend also 11, and ds 8---we only have one reservation for breakfast and other than that we're planning on being flexible. Plus, in the heat, I'm really not a heavy eater.

 

[akaler2010]

This is what we do when we go with my parents. For me, sometimes it's stressful, but it also gives me a great chance to try a lot of the delicious counter service and snack options.

You have a great attitude for your plan. There are lots of delicious counter service options!

 

[kandb]

Gosh, I don't think I ever missed a dinner in my lifetime. You "could" always make a few adr's and just cancel them if you didn't want to use them. If dining is not that important to you both, don't worry about it.

 

[CaptainKat]

I think you could get away with it pretty easily. EPCOT is probably easiest, lots of great options around WS, we tend to just snack our way from country to country, haha. My personal favorite is the little CS place tucked up the little hill in the Japan pavilion.

MK also has some pretty good variety if you know where to look. Sleepy Hollow has great waffle sandwiches, and Be Our Guest may have some crowds, but it offers some great options.

DHS is the tricky one; I haven't found much satisfying CS food there. We did have some good luck with the large group of stands on Sunset Boulevard last time we were there. My dad liked the chicken Caesar salad at Catalina Eddie's, and I liked the barbecue at Fairfax Fare. I've also heard good things about the sandwiches at Starring Rolls.

Hope this is helpful in some way. It's definitely possible to find interesting and edible CS options in each park, you just have to poke around a bit! Allears.net has most, if not all, of the menus of places in WDW; they're a good place to look to see if you can find options that suit your tastes before you go! Good luck, and have lots of fun on your trip!

 

[bumbershoot]

I remember a night several years ago when we arrived at MK about 6pm ish. We must have had a late lunch, because when we arrived, we visited the bakery and had huge cup cakes (call it a craving). We did not realize until 11pm that night as we were leaving how hungry we were. And, then realized we forgot to eat dinner, because we ate those cup cakes. BTW, it took us so long to leave the park, we just went back to our hotel and crashed - never got any real food. We just remember this night as a happy memory- because we had a great snack for our dinner vs "real dinner" food- and do not regret a thing!!

that's where knowing your group is SO important. I haven't yet traveled with a group who could do that. Who could actually go to bed without dinner because they had a large cupcake earlier. Just won't work. Well, people might pass out from no food at some point, but they would have massive headaches from it, and the last 3 hours would NOT be pleasant for anyone, not even those around us, as the bickering would be going on.

Not even my extended family can do it, though honestly I think they can. I love them dearly, but on our first trip with them somehow mealtimes got delayed until everyone was just ravenous and terribly peevish, and it was simply not fun.


But if your group can do it, then you can do it!


I love Columbia Harbour House, I love the veggie egg roll at the cart nearish/in? Adventureland. Cosmic Rays was good for what we got (veggie burgers).

We've enjoyed Sunshine Seasons and desserts at Kringla.

Haven't had CS at DHS yet; enjoyed breakfast at H&V and lunch at the Brown Derby instead.

The little pizza at Pizzafari was salty but decent; but we far preferred Tusker House, so that's what we focus on now at AK.


We like our planned lunches at Table Service restaurants, basically.


Best of luck to you with your group that isn't us!

 

[Hootch]

from a heavy dose of TS meals to a low dose to no dose this trip.

Pre-kids and with very young kids, a table service meal was a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of the parks. As the kids got a little older, we cut down on TS meals. The kids wanted to use that time in the parks. This trip we're reducing nights at WDW and adding a couple at Universal so we cut out TS altogether.

We will head to the beach after the parks and will eat a great deal of seafood. Besides we have sufficient variety in Disney CS locations and eat out a lot at home.

 

[disnut8]

Now I certainly love a good meal and trying new things. But my myself (47 yrs old female) and my mom (68 years old) are visiting the end of June. We are spending 3 days at WDW, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We have decided to eat when we want and not worry about dining reservations. Yes, it is ok to call us crazy. We did not want to worry about making are dining times. So, we are winging it. We promised each other to not get upset if we can not get into a restaurant by just showing up at the podium.

We decided it would be ok to just do counter service, if that is all we can get. I know at Epcot, you can eat at the counter service place outside of Mexico and still get something different to eat.

Am I making a huge mistake? Any suggestions for trying something different.

It's just my husband and me and we almost never make a dining reservation at Disney World. And surprisingly, we don't starve. There are PLENTY of counter service places with decent if not good food.

You are not crazy at all - do something different for three days of your life. It's not going to kill you.

 

[nanni]

I don't think it's a mistake at all. Personally, I like to have a meal a day planned out. Then I don't have to make decisions while on vacation. But as long as you are fine with counter service or flexible with which table service restaurants you eat at, I think it's a brilliant plan.

Epcot I really like Sunshine Seasons, Tangeriene Cafe, and the bakery in Norway. But there are other places I want to try as well, and I think some of the table service places that are less popular sometimes have walk ins available

Magic Kingdom has Columbia Harbor House for lunch, or the waffle sandwich things at Sleepy Hollow look good. And Cosmic Rays is good.

DHS ihas fewer good options, but I like the sandwiches at Starring Rolls, except I believe they close at 4 and sometimes run out of sandwiches earlier than that, so it's better for lunch.

Also, some of the boardwalk restaurants might not fill up as much as the park ones. Kouzzina had walkins available the last time I was there for an earlyish dinner.

 

[Princess Vespa]

We have done trips with no dining reservation. We were OK with just getting QS instead of TS. It was easier since at the time it was just 2 traveling.

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

We have one Breakfast ADR and tickets to the Hoop Dee Doo Review. We may try and go to Biergarten on our day at Epcot. Other than those we will have counter service. There are plenty of great counter service restaurants in the parks and resorts. And then there is Earl of Sandwich and Wolfgang Puck Express at DTD.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[AndreaDM]

DD and I are taking a long Labor Day weekend trip and I'm not making any ADRs this time. We won't starve, that I know. She wants to eat in Germany at Epcot but I'm pretty sure we can get a walk-up for 2 during that time. We'd also like to have lunch at BoG, so we'll try but we won't waste an hour waiting in line if it's really busy. No stressing at all this trip trying to make it from MK to Epcot for a meal!

Have fun!

 

[Enjoying Life]

We never make reservations. I'd hate to have to be somewhere at a certain time while on vacation. Plenty to eat all over the parks whenever you get hungry.

 

[JessM]

You can always search for a dining reservation in the morning. Just call in or see what's avaliable online.

 

[jhryb]

As long as you are not on the dining plan where you are worried about losing money because you can't get into a TS restaurant then I think that you are fine. It sounds like you are very easy going. I am sure that this trip will provide you with many more happy memories.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We're doing almost the same thing. I made three ADRs for a 10-day trip. We're staying offsite and will have a kitchen so breakfast won't be a problem. I'm making a list of CS places that have something everyone in our party will like. That will make it easier than walking around and looking at menus. On nights when we don't stay late at the parks, we can get take-out or eat something quick and easy at our resort. Our party is DH, myself, our two teenaged boys, and my sister. The boys like to snack along the way. I'm not worried about them staying full!

 

[amyy]

As I read your post I thought you don't sound crazy at all and that is how we like to vacation. Read you are from Maine too and I liked your post even more The more we go the fewer if any reservations we make. We just call in the morning or show up. Some of our favorites have been Germany (sit down), Trail's End for breakfast (what a deal), Olivia's, Captain's Grille, Kouzinna (breakfast) and Boma. You can hit Trail's End for a filling breakfast before hitting the MK, we don't mind the walk (even in the summer) from HS to the Boardwalk or you could take the boat etc. We aren't die hard ride people so it isn't a big deal to slip away to eat.

 

[mainelyj]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I am certainly going to make a note of the CS ones mentioned here, some of which we have never tried. I think the best luck we will have is at EPCOT, then MK. I can see where HS will be the toughest for choices - I might rethink that day. Special thanks to fellow Mainer amyy

And, I am glad to hear I am not crazy

However, I do have a plan of action for touring each park - I can not imagine any other way.