Quick-Service Dining

[DisneyElite4]

We will be staying at GCV from March 11-16. We have four-day park tickets. This is our first trip to Disneyland with our three children (10, 8, 8). My DH and I went once back in June 2011, so a lot has changed.

We spent Spring Break 2022 at Disney World, and that trip included two table service meals a day. This trip is going to be primarily quick-service dining and eating in our room (we have a one-bedroom villa), with only a couple of table service meals.

My experience with quick-service dining is all based of WDW, so I'm curious if things are the same at DL. For example, do we need to choose where we want to eat, select our food choices and a pick-up time at rope drop each morning? Are tables hard to find? Do you have to wait a long time after selecting "I am here" when you get to the restaurant? What time would I need to choose food options and a pick-up time for dinner?

One of my 8-year olds is autistic, and waiting for food for a long time is hard for him, and consequently hard for all of us. I want to try to avoid long waits for food or a table. Of course I will always have snacks in a bag for him, but just trying to understand the best way to make sure we can get our food quickly and find a place to sit down. Thank you!

 

[miksicnarf]

I'm a frequent DL guest and have not experienced wait times beyond a few minutes for QS in recent months. That was a case when the parks first reopened after the Covid closure, but things are back to normal now. And, FYI, one of the best QS spots is in the GC--Craftsman Grill.

 

[magsnwonderland]

You'll be there at the beginning of the spring break window, so pick up times may be slightly further out when ordering, but you won't need to do it at rope drop. We were there last spring break and we never had to mobile order more than 30-60 minutes before we wanted to actually eat and many times we could choose a pickup time within 15 minutes. I don't think we ever had to wait more than 5 minutes for our food after hitting, I am here. We were only a party of two, so potentially will vary based on what and how much you ordered. Finding a table depends on where you're ordering and what time. Jolly Holiday for example was crowded during peak meal times, but doable. Slightly off peak, you can easily find a table. We tended to eat off peak times to minimize wait times for rides (and also because of the many delicious snacks).

QS at DL is so so much better than at WDW. Definitely the right choice to limit sit down meals.

 

[cmph]

We were there 12/27-12/30, obviously quite a busy time. I used mobile ordering many times (b/c one kid wanted to try a million different snacks and drinks), and the only time I did NOT get an instant return time was for beignets at Mint Julep, and that was only 30min out (and at like 12:30pm, busy time). Unless something changes drastically, I don't know why you'd need to order first thing in the morning. Honestly, that would frustrate me more than anything, b/c it's a little hard to predict where exactly you will be in the parks if rides go down and/or you are using Genie+ to book LLs. However, you can cancel or change an order, so you aren't locked in, so that is a plus.

After clicking the "i am here" button - it was either already waiting for me at the counter, with no line, or relatively quick. Maybe 10min at most was my worst wait? (That was for Lucky Fortune in DCA.) It's pretty easy to find the mobile order pickup line everywhere. You might have one or two people ahead of you, but it's fast moving. Have your phone on with the screen showing your order number for fastest service b/c some of them can be a little loud (easier to just hold it up for them than to repeat my name over a crowd of people).

For seating, yeah, that was an issue for us. Obvious caveat that conditions maybe vary. Some particular suggestions:
In DCA
- the Pacific Wharf area was pretty easy for us, even during prime time; it has a big seating area between a handful of QS places.
- seating at Pym's is just god-awful, people sit there without eating or drinking anything b/c it's easy to see characters and things. You can take your food over toward the Hyperion theater though, which frankly should have had more seating b/c it's such an empty space, but there were a couple tables open even when Pym's was slammed.
In DL
- NOS is a hot mess. I'd avoid that area during prime times.
- Tomorrowland was pretty easy even at prime lunch time. No one wanted to eat inside Pizza Planet on a nice day, and Galactic Grill had open tables throughout mid-day.
- GE was the only place that had a CM policing entry for seating, which they stopped late in the evening when it was emptied out. I don't know if that actually guaranteed available seating though, TBH.

Most of the others didn't even have a CM around to help direct traffic. The only one I can even recall was at Pizza Planet; they had a CM at the door into the building to divert people to the right line.

Hope that helps!

 

[ClaraOswald]

We will be staying at GCV from March 11-16. We have four-day park tickets. This is our first trip to Disneyland with our three children (10, 8, 8). My DH and I went once back in June 2011, so a lot has changed.

We spent Spring Break 2022 at Disney World, and that trip included two table service meals a day. This trip is going to be primarily quick-service dining and eating in our room (we have a one-bedroom villa), with only a couple of table service meals.

My experience with quick-service dining is all based of WDW, so I'm curious if things are the same at DL. For example, do we need to choose where we want to eat, select our food choices and a pick-up time at rope drop each morning? Are tables hard to find? Do you have to wait a long time after selecting "I am here" when you get to the restaurant? What time would I need to choose food options and a pick-up time for dinner?

One of my 8-year olds is autistic, and waiting for food for a long time is hard for him, and consequently hard for all of us. I want to try to avoid long waits for food or a table. Of course I will always have snacks in a bag for him, but just trying to understand the best way to make sure we can get our food quickly and find a place to sit down. Thank you!

We were there last June and used mobile ordering for most quick service meals. When we knew it would be close to lunch/dinner for us...we'd just check the app for a return time. Then when our time was up, we'd go find a table. My son is autistic as well and struggles with lines. So I would stay at the table with him while my husband grabbed our food. Of course, you have more people/trays so that might be more difficult for you.

Finding tables at some places was tricky, especially because we wanted to be in the shade. Just bring a lot of patience. But finding a table BEFORE clicking "we are here" for our food was good because we weren't stuck wandering with our trays looking for seats.