Question about dining for all you offsiters!

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I cannot believe there are no Olive Gardens in your area (Toronto, right?). I'm from Winnipeg had we've had two of them as long as I can remember! (at least from the early 90's). So strange! Maybe it's available in western Canada??? The lines here are always ridiculously long too.

We are about 2 - 2.5 hours east of Toronto. Sadly, there are no Ontario Olive Gardens that still remain. Alberta has 3, Manitoba has two, and BC has one. The closest location to us is in Niagara Falls, NY....a four hour drive, at least, from home.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

I found it, if you're interested.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=498998&highlight=restaurant.

You'll probably want to go to the end and work your way back. It was started in 2004, so some of the places mentioned in the earlier posts may not exist anymore.

 

[tinkerbell1967]

We do the same as alot of the previous posters. Breakfast in the timeshare, we pick up something for a quick sandwhich if we are in the timeshare at lunch time and do dinners out. I don't mind cooking a quick breakfast, eggs, sausage, bacon but that is about it. We will eat two or three TS in the parks and the other dinners are Steak and Shake, Bahama Breeze, Giordannos pizza. I always try to find a new place or two also to add to the list for dinner!

 

[jeff968]

So as you know I am joining the ranks of the offsite crew. Im actually looking forward to all the extra room I will have!

I am extremely bummed about giving up my free dining though. So what do you all do about food without the dining plan?

Of course you know that dinning plan was not free

I totally understand your thoughts. For us we hit the Publix (Grocery store) the day we check in and stock up. We get breakfast stuff, english muffins, donuts, cereal, eggs, bacon, juice, fresh fruit, lunch stuff, cold cuts, rolls, chips, snacks, drinks, soda, milk, and some treats like ice cream. Then we'll do most of our meals out of our unit. The amount of money you'll save is incredible. We'll eat breakfast in the unit, lunch and snacks pool side, and go out for dinner every night. We'll do one non-park disney meal like Chef mickey's or Ohanna's. Works out great.

 

[squirrel4569]

Yes, probably true, but I go to Disney because I want to be at Disney. I don't want to spend my time out in the "real world" in traffic (I live in massive traffic) looking for a good restaurant. I can go to other vacation destinations if that's what I'm looking for. Destinations that are known for fine dining like New York or Boston or California or DC or something.

Until Disney prices me out and/or the food becomes really bad, then I'm still going.

We're looking at staying off site for the first time and not doing the DDP but still planning on eating most of our meals on-site due to the atmosphere and character experiences. I know it's overpriced and all of that but my kids love the characters and we skip a lot of lines to meet characters when we do meals that way. I also live in the restaurant capital of the country, where we have more restaurants per capita than anywhere else, so almost every chain and/or type of restaurant is well represented here. We've got the Rainforest Cafe, Cheesecake Factory, Brazillian steakhouses, etc all around and accessible. When we're at Disney the only off-site meal we might have would be at the Oblivion Taproom in Orlando and only because it's owned by a friend of mine.

We'll probably have a couple of breakfasts in the condo, but that's about it. We're pretty much commando tourers and try to get the pre-RD ADRs then have a CS meal mid-afternoon which will usually keep us full for the day. We'll usually grab a snack at some point too. I try to avoid the evening or lunch ADRs because it takes away from park time and we don't want to stop what we're doing just to go have a meal.

To minimize some costs we're going to look at having our kids share a couple of meals vs getting a full meal themselves. They aren't picky eaters and do try a variety of things but for some reason they get weird about food when they travel. One minute they'll eat two plates full at Chef Mickeys and the next day you can't get them to eat a french fry. We've wasted a few meals on the kids at times. We'll also purchase Disney gift cards at a discount through Target to shave off some of the costs unless we decide to make the leap to APs and get TiW.

Certainly no judgement on those that wish to eat off-site or in their room for whatever reason, it's just not my cup of tea when on vacation.

 

[TwoAtDisney]

1. About week before you leave home, go to off-site restaurants of choice & sign up with your email for a coupon - be sure to put in zip code for the restaurant, not your zip code. Can't signup too soon because coupon has expiration date. Maggianos gives $10 off. They also have the buy one/take one home Classic Pasta entrees. The take home ones would be great for a free dinner in the condo.

2. restaurant.com

3. Miller's Ale House on I-Drive (http://www.millersalehouse.com/specials-events) & Orlando Ale House not far from Downtown Disney (http://www.millersalehouse.com/media/specials/LunchSpecialsFLORIDA_week2and4.pdf). Inexpensive & really good food - nightly specials - i.e., 1¼ Pound Full Rack of Baby Back Ribs, served with Cole Slaw & Fries. $10.99. Also has Prime Rib & Lobster nightly specials ranging from about $13 to $16.

4. If your family likes seafood & doesn't mind the trip to St. Cloud, you might try CATFISH HOUSE in St. Cloud; 2324 13th St.; 407-892-5771; 34769.

5. BUBBALOU’S BODACIOUS BBQ - 5818 Conroy Rd, Orlando 32835. http://www.bubbalouscatering.com/

6. Local home cooking place - Village Inn; Sea World area; 6275 Westwood Blvd, Orlando, FL 32821 (407) 352-1997. Free Pie Wednesdays 10am-10pm; free slice of pie with every entree. http://www.villageinnbyseaworld.com/

7. TOOJAYS DELI - The Marketplace at Dr. Phillips; 7600 Dr. Phillips Boulevard; NW corner of Sand Lake Rd. & Dr. Phillips Blvd; 355-0340. http://www.toojays.com/

Enjoy your trip!

 

[scrappinannie]

We buy and eat most of our meals at Disney. Expensive, yes, but our kids are young and we enjoy the character meals. We usually just do two meals per day(could be table service or quick service) and bring in our own snacks. I don't necessarily rave about the food, but we've never had a truly terrible meal while in Disney and it's just way easier than spending all that time shuttling to and from the parks and dealing with traffic and parking.

 

[Woodmnky]

Our dinner plan for the week:
Sat - lunch: Earl of Sandwich Dinner: Chef Mickey's
Sun - Outback Steakhouse (we have a gift card & this is one of our favorites)
Mon - Garden Grill (considering cancelling just due to schedule). If we cancel we will probably eat at an Epcot QS.
Tues - Carabbas (again a favorite of ours that we don't get often)
Wed - Columbia Harbour House or some other Magic Kingdom QS
Thurs - Giordano's Pizza
Fri - late lunch at Tusker House & we will probably finish up any leftovers that we have at the townhouse.

We will eat breakfast at our townhouse & will likely make lunch to bring with us to the parks. I would much rather bring in a sandwich and splurge on more treats than spend $10 on a Disney hamburger in the parks. Also having a 2 yo with us means that I need to have lunch available when he is hungry and that will be easier if we bring our own food.