Portion Size - am I the only one...

[TeresaWen]

I keep reading about folks sharing entries because the Disney portion sizes are huge. Am I the only one who does not think so?

I am not a huge eater and I am in great shape. My husband and I usually eat breakfast in the room to avoid the high calorie options for breakfast (whole grain bread and peanut butter sometimes with a side of fresh fruit that I get from the hotel). For lunch we are usually by the pool at the hotel so we usually eat counter service from the pool bar.

When we go to a TS restaurant we order an app and we each get our own dinner. Almost never desert (we may get ice cream later). I have never found the portions to be huge. If we are at a Signature we sometimes get two apps or an app and a salad and soup in addition to dinner.

We rarely snack unless we are at F&W and then we sub that for a meal. We may snack around the world for dinner a few (OK lots of) nights of our trip.

Am I alone?

 

[gilesmt]

I often wonder that myself. We are like you, breakfast in the room, Cheerios, fruit and maybe some cheese sticks for protein. Then a pool side lunch, turkey wrap with an apple. Then out to dinner, and although we skip appetizers and just order the meals, I never feel they are huge, and I certainly would not be able to share with someone and be full. I don't do desert either. I am not a big eater and I never felt disneys meals were huge. I often wonder how many snacks and appetizers the people who share are buying.

 

[OKW Lover]

I'm sure you are not alone. People have different levels of appetites and what is huge to one person might just be a snack to another. My wife and I are in the category where we can sometimes split meals. It just depends on what it is and how long between meals.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Same here. We never share. I really cant imagine actually. Sure there are times when we dont finish our meals. But for the most part, we're pretty good eaters.

 

[dreamscometrue101]

The only places where we've been able to share

 

[dreamscometrue101]

The only places where we've been able to share

The only places we've been able to share a meal has been 50s Prime Time and the RiverMill at POR. The male your own pasta at POR is huge.

Beyond that I didn't find the portions that large at all.

 

[natfrac]

Sometimes DH and I might share a CS meal during the day, but that's only because we know we'll be snacking later on. Other than that, we always order our own dinner plates and rarely have trouble finishing them.

 

[brymolmom]

The times I most often hear about sharing meals is with people on the Dining Plan. So that, IMO, changes things and is very different than saying that the portions at this particular place are large enough to share.

On the DP - you get dessert and soda with every meal (if you want to eat them - they're paid for). And many people, like myself, do not have dessert and soda with every meal when I'm paying OOP for it. So that adds a LOT of calories right there and fills me up a lot more quickly than when I'm just paying OOP.

Also, that said, when we're using the DP we do tend to split CS meals. However, we have 4 people in our family and I think that in many places 3 meals can feed 4 people (especially when considering the dessert in there). I consider it more difficult for 1 meal to cover 2 people (thus both eating a half). Also, with the DP there is snacking happening, which is different than your situation OP. If you were snacking during the day you might find one meal a bit too much as well.

 

[Random Ninja]

A lot of the time when people mention splitting meals, they are talking about the counter service combo meals. There are some that are pretty big, like the half chicken at Cosmic Rays. The portion sizes are different at table service restaurants. The apps are designed to be eaten by one or two people and entrees are kinda on the small side at sigs.

 

[disney1990]

Definitely depends on the restaurant. There are some places we can share and some we can't. We particularly enjoy the Les Chefs de France Fixed Price lunch. French Onion Soup, French toasted ham & cheese sandwich (which is 3 layers tall, and choice of dessert for $23.99. The sandwich is huge & added with the other two items, half is about all I can eat.

 

[mommyrosa2]

You're not alone. We save our TS meals for our dinners with many at signature restaurants and we have never thought the portions were big enough to share and we do like dessert at dinner. Now, I will say that I find the portions at "some" of the QS to be pretty big and myself and my oldest DD will at times split a QS meal and save the other QS for a breakfast on another day. WPE in DTD is a perfect example. My oldest DD really likes the BBQ chix flatbread pizza but it's pretty big and is too much for her to eat so I tend to save my credit and split it with her. I also don't like to have dessert with every QS meal so I tend to ask them for either some fruit or a bottle of water instead and take it back to the room.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I'm with you. I'm also in pretty good shape and work out 5 times a week.

We eat something light in the room for breakfast. Cereal, granola bars, fresh fruit, bread with peanut butter.

We then do QS for lunch and TS for dinner most nights.

After walking all day I'm starving! I also don't drink soda at every meal and I often don't get dessert. If I drink soda I eat less but being out there in the heat I'm drinking water like crazy and soda just makes me feel icky in the heat.

 

[PrincessKida]

Depends on the place. CS very rarely so, sometimes we get an adult item and then a kids meal and split both which works great.

TS wise depends what I get. I'm not a big pasta eater so often those entrees are so big and I can't imagine how anyone eats all of it but here I am with my little slab of salmon or tilapia that's gone in 45 seconds. The place where I( not a big eater at all) thought the portions were small= Coral Reef. Literally our appetizer was 2 bites.

 

[Hopefully]

Another in your court. It amazes me how many people say they share.
I always get water as my beverage and use it during the day.
We eat a sit down dinner in the evening and a QS meal at lunch. I do think some of the lunches are large (Cosmic Rays chicken) but others are not (my favorite tuna sandwich at Columbia Harbour House). As far as the TS entrees I think they are just the right size, certainly not large enough to share.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

We don't usually share entrées, but we don't clean our plates, either. It's less often lately that we even order entrées, though. We've found that sharing a couple appetizers is more like the "right" amount of food for us.

 

[bennifer]

I'm with you! The only time I will ever share is on our next trip and we'll be eating at Kona for breakfast. My mom and I both want to try the tonga toast and the macadamia nut pancakes so we're splitting them. That's not exactly sharing a meal, tho!

 

[indycindy]

I suspect that many of the people who say this are on the Deluxe Dining Plan. With two adults, two appetizers, two entrees, and two desserts is a LOT of food, I would think.

 

[ttintagel]

No,you're not the only one! The portion snobs drive me crazy! The worst part is that most of them won't admit to the possibility that maybe THEY are the unusual ones. It's never, "I'm a very light eater," it's always "OMG what kind of a trough-gobbling hog would you have to be to choke down a whole Disney portion?!?" Or, "The DDP makes no sense - how could a human being who east that much even exist?" Or,"The DDP doesn't make financial sense for us because we're not disgusting gluttons."

 

[AquaDame]

Depends on the person... We split at TS - rarely CS - and split maybe a snack & a Mickey bar a day. No huge breakfast either and we are normal sized (hubby has a few extra pounds but not pooh sized by any means). We'll get an app and entree to split and if they have an interesting dessert like pie, or cobbler we might have one and split that too. We will order a large beer & split that at a lot of places... we by no means do it all the time but we like it better than feeling so full - especially when it is hot out. We drink tons of water too.

Edited to add: we are not on the meal plan when we split! If we were we'd each order our own since we have credits to use up!

 

[robinb]

Nope, we don't split entrees. Not at Disney and not at home. We also very rarely eat an appetizer, entree and dessert each in one sitting and when we do it's at a place like California Grill where the entrees are quite small.