Practical Plan?

[girls]

We're staying in a villa in Bay Lake Tower. We're not doing a meal plan. I'm thinking I can easily make something small to bring with us into the parks (my understanding is they allow food just not in a cooler or picnic basket) and we'll eat out 1x / day @ a sit down restaurant. Looking at reviews & menus, it seems like most of the good ones are at the resorts! We'll be heading home mid-day for naps (we have small kids.) Is is practical to plan to eat most of our meals not at the parks?

Thanks

 

[LaurenT]

Yes..and I do believe you can bring a picnic basket, or a coller for that matter, just not glass containers and nothing on wheels. The better restaurants are at the resorts, and ome of them are right there at the contemporary! We don't do the dining plan because we are not really dessert people, but we love appetizers...so we'd lose money buying apps oop and then leaving over most of or included dessert! We're also DVC and with the exception of the days when we have a character breakfast, we have breakfast bright and early in the room and then head out for rope drop.

 

[tara98]

Another idea for you would be the DDP Quick service. We also are staying at BLT with 2 children (1 being 2 years old). We have done the regular DDP and have loved it, but with a 2 year old we want to avoid having to make reservations and keeping a schedule. With the quick service, you get 2 counter service meals and two snacks per day! (Child's price is only $8.99!) There are some pretty good counter service restaurants around, you just have to be a little selective. We will most likely do breakfast in our room, then use the DDP for the rest of the day.

Just another idea for you. Good luck!

 

[bangzoom6877]

Sounds like a good plan...yes, the resorts have some really good restaurants. If you are bringing food to eat in the park, just make sure you have a small cooler that is manageable for you to tote around. We did this with water bottles and juice for the kids on our last trip, and we had a stroller so we stored it in the bottom of the stroller.

We eat breakfast in the room...we even did this at Pop Century on our last trip. We rented a fridge to keep milk, brought along a hot pot and Folgers Singles for coffee, and had cereal and cereal bars in the room, on days we didn't do a character breakfast. We are doing the same thing on this trip, except now that we're DVC members the 1-bedroom villa will be much more comfortable to eat breakfast in than the smaller room was at Pop! We'll probably keep cereal and frozen waffles to have for breakfast because my kids like those.

 

[Mrs D]

You may bring a soft sided cooler with you into the parks. That's perfect for bringing lunches, drinks and snacks.

There are many wonderful sit down restaurants in the resorts, but also some good one's in the parks, especially Epcot.

At MK we really like Crystal Palace. I thought the food was wonderful and we enjoyed meeting Pooh & Friends.
You almost can't go wrong with any sit down restaurant at Epcot, but some of my favorites are The Biergarten and Chef de France. We also did Akershus and the food was good and it was great to meet the Princesses.
AT HS the food at 50's PTC was great and the atmosphere was fun. I did Sci Fi drive in 14 years ago and remember liking it. We did the Hollywood & Vine breakfast and won't be going back to food or characters.
I've never done a sit down at AK.

Some of my favorite resort sit downs are: 1900 Park Fare @Grand Floridian, O'Hana @ Poly, The Wave @ Contemporary. The Whispering canyon Cafe @ Wilderness Lodge was good, and Narcossee @ Grand Floridian was great (but pricey).

HTH!

 

[TDC Nala]

Small, soft-sided coolers are permitted in the theme parks. Hard-sided coolers and wheeled coolers are not supposed to be. Glass beverage containers and alcoholic beverages will be removed at the checkpoints.

 

[sharonabe]

Just plan your dinners at the resorts that are near the park you want to go to in the evening. That way you don't waste too much time traveling from resort to resort to park. If you are using Disney buses, there are no buses from resort to resort. You will have to go to a park and then get a bus to the resort or use a taxi.