So how many Disers don't do much dining while at WDW

[goofydad621]

Hey

I was just wondering how many of my fellow Dis boarders don't do a lot of park/resort dinning while on vacation.

We always rent a car because I have time issues and the thought of actually having to wait for would kill me

In the past we have had free dinning and have really enjoyed it BUT can take up allot of time, I am the planer so I try to make or dinning ADRs accoring to park hours(not always possible) and when it is hot out sometimes hard to eat a big meal then go out into heat for the attractions. and the cost is getting crazey if you pay oop. Maybe it is my frugal yankee nature, maybe it is becasue I was raised in large restaurant business but man $35-40 for a buffet is nuts, we love the characaters, the food is good but still.

So this time I gave up my free dinning reservation and switched to a 1 bedroom vacation club will make most of our own meals hit a couple of our favorite places and maybe be a bit more relaxed since we have ADR's at a specific time and we had better not get in line or even ride the attraction that has next to no line because we might be late (I freak when i am running late that are those time issues again)


So is there any other folks that understand the thinking? Or not want the hassles or expense of the WDW dinning experience?

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

After a few trips with the DDP, in 2008 my kids begged us to drop the plan. They liked being able to get what they wanted and the extras, but they were tired of the time it took to sit down and eat. We had a very long wait for an ADR at 50sPT, WITH ADRS and arriving on time, we waited almost 2 hours. Why did we wait? Well, they won't tell you how far into the list yo uare. We kept thinking we must be next. At the point we were ready to just leave 2 of the kids had fallen asleep so we jsut waited. It was after that they said they wanted a break.

We did QSDP on our trip in November. I admit, I missed some of the experiences (we had booked a few but cancelled most of them cause once we got there I couldn't pay OOP for them, I too am too frugal.) Anyway, the kids I thought would miss them, they didn't that much. They loved the QSDP, I liked it and don't see us doing the DDP again till it is just me and my DH. We paid OOP for WCC cause the kids love it, I hated doing it, it was so expensive. We paid OOP for CM breakfast, a family tradition but was over $150 for breakfast. And I paid OOP for 1900 PF cause my DD8 wanted to go so bad, but I changed our ADR from 7 to 2 and just she and I went. With tip and the slipper dessert it was $100.

So while I missed the meals, the family did not and so from now on we will be doing the QSDP.

ETA- As far as off property meals, we drive to Disney so we have our car, but we only went off property once. We went to GKTW to drop off gifts, we went to the outlet (just Disney, not all of them) and then we did eat our one off property meal. We loved Don Pablos but they closed ours so we went to eat there. Otherwise we didn't eat off property at all.

 

[Ms.Mouse]

To answer your question...NO
We use the Basic dining plan. We have Wego shop bring our breakfast groceries so we can start off by a breakfast in our room. Then we all do our own thing in the parks meeting up around the table for a TS meal. We find that we like the idea of flying in and taking Magical Express to our resort and staying in until Magical Express brings us back to go home. We like that we pay for the Dining Plan ahead of time so any other money brought to WDW is for spending and the "little extras" like small snacks.
Unless they take more from the dining plan or change the menus or quality of the foods even more, we will be happy on the dining plan...

 

[ladylinda65]

While I have never used DDP I am a TiW member. I found it to be way more useful than DDP. I never know what I am going to eat or where (though Cape May and O'Hana's are almost always for sure!!) so I like the freedom that TiW gives me.

I also like the discounts as well as sometimes you can get a table when others can't as it is my understanding that they do hold some tables back for TiW.

I have seen some people complain about the autograt that comes with TiW but I would tip that much anyway and since this is the only way you can get a discount on alcohol it can come in handy when I eat at some places where I like to get a bottle of wine with dinner.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

 

[Coach81]

We are not using any dining plan this trip.. we plan on eating in the one bedroom for breakfast and perhaps supper...

 

[pgumiela]

I have to agree too. We have gone two years on the regular DDP, and then this past trip with the quick service plan. While we all really enjoyed all of our ADRs in the past, it was so much easier on the quick service plan. We were never running late for a meal, we never had to say "no we can't ride that because we have to go eat now", we never had a to drag tired hungry kids to the opposite side of a park because we didn't plan our day around being close to our ADR at the time of our ADR. Plus eating at a table service restaurant takes up ALOT more time, that right now we'd rather spend in the parks or at the pool.

Like the PP I thought that I would miss the regular dining plan, and I did wish that we had a character meal planned, and almost made an ADR and paid OOP, but I just couldn't justify spending that much money on one meal. I just couldn't. And while it's not the same as a character meal where they come to your table, we were at Cosmic Ray's during the evening magic hours one night on our trip, and all of a sudden in walks - Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, and Chip and Dale!!!!! and even a photo pass photographer, although he was only with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto, the other two groups you had to use your own camera, but still it was awesome!

Our next trip will definately be quick service, or a DVC rental.

 

[goofydad621]

Thanks for everybodies input

 

[PSUGuy]

At most we do a TS dinner 4 of 8 parks days we're there, but the popularity of the dining plans makes 'walk-ups', once a regular thing, almost impossible, so I make ADRs for every dinner and cancel the ones we're not going to use a day or two in advancce.

Bill From PA

 

[Pakey]

We've been going for many years and used to do a lot of dining in Disney restaurants. The dining plan has resulted in planning a year in advance so that we can wait to be seated in order to eat lower quality food at a higher price. We do not frequent dining plan restaurants like we used to. We have had the TIW for a few years but if we didn't eat at V&A, it wouldn't even be worth it because we just don't dine the way we used to.

We go so often that I'm still eating in them more than I'd like but we are only doing one TS every other day now and as often as I can, I try to make it at non plan restaurants.

 

[nytimez]

I usually do only two or three TS meals per trip... breakfasts in the rooms and CS the rest of the time. I also don't like making reservations and being forced to be somewhere at a certain time while on vacation.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

We've never used the dining plan and this upcoming trip will be the first time we've eaten something other than counter-service. We'll have one dinner at Cape May and perhaps one at House of Blues. Otherwise, it will be counter-service again. We'll grab lunch at the park and then dinner at the park or resort counter-service options. Disney table-service food is way too overpriced (and not great quality from what I read) to pay for a bunch of table-service meals out of pocket and I don't want to be tied down to having to stop whatever we are doing to go to a restaurant. Prefer more fluidity. Frankly, the counter-service meals are decent quality at a decent price (for the most part).

 

[disneybride96]

For me, it is the extra driving that is stressful.
We went to HHI DVC this summer, and although we had a great time, there was always that, "Were will we eat tonight", "How do we get there", "Did we miss the turn?". To much trouble to go off property for us.

We like the 'down time' of a table service. It gives us a break and rejuvinates us to hit the parks later in the evening.

Oh....and the world will come to an end before I cook anything more than a bowl of cereal while I am on vacation.

 

[Silver Queen]

Dining in the various restaurants is one of the things that we enjoy during our vacations. We have TiW and it works very well for us. The most that we will cook is an English muffin or bagel in our studio villa for breakfast. We never rent a car and have had no desire to do so. We have not found that having ADRs adds stress to our visits. We just work around them. We have encountered no problems with waits. We just returned last night from a short trip and the longest we waited for our table was about 5 minutes. I should add that we are two adults so, but even when we bring our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson with us we use this approach.

 

[missmun52]

While I understand where you are coming from this is not us, but, there were times where we were not hungry at "lunch time" but knew if we ate later we would not be hungry for our ADR later. Or we would go ahead and eat then not be hungry when we went to our TS ressie and then eat just because...

Even this trip I am making sure we have some evenings with no dining by doing Signature, so we have more flexibility with park touring.

despite all that, I dont think we could ever not do Dining. I love it! It all depends on the fam. We generally take a mid day break for a nap/swim, have dinner at a TS restaurant then go to a park for a little.

This trip is a little different since the park closes early, so for 50% of the days we plan to stay out all day, have dinner, then go back to the resort to end the day......we may take a few breaks as needed but Dining is a big part of our trip and there is no way I am cooking on vacation. Again, my family (except me) are early risers and we go to bed early so it works.

If you have free dining I would suggest doing Breakfast before park opening, if your an early riser, so your not feeling like your missing anything. You can also do just Signature restaurants every other day so 50% of your time is free.

 

[NancyIL]

I usually don't eat off-site, but I also don't spend that much on food at WDW. I have had the Tables In Wonderland card in the past, but I decided not to renew it. Having the TIW made me more likely to book a TS restaurant just to get my money's worth. I usually go to WDW solo, but I sometimes dine with friends or my brother (who drives over from Cocoa). Even though I always more than broke even on the $75 TIW fee, it was because I was eating at sit-down restaurants with others. I don't think I would've broken even if I had been dining solo. In other words, I had been paying $75/year so my friends/relatives could also save 20% when they dined with me. Instead of subsidizing my friends' discounts, I will take advantage of my included AP discounts, as well as AAA discounts at the Swan/Dolphin and Downtown Disney (Earl of Sandwich).

 

[blanq]

We make ADRs for most of our TS meals. In our 11 trips to WDW, we have never waited more than 15 minutes for a table. It would take us a lot more time to go to our car (if we rented one, which we don't do that either), especially from the parks, and drive offsite to find something to eat.

 

[JimmyV]

In a typical trip, we will be at WDW for 5 or 6 days. In any given 5 day period, it is non-negotiable that we take a "day off" from the parks. We will rent watercraft. Go to DTD. Swim at the pools. Golf. Roam the resorts. Stuff like that. On that "off" day, we will always book a nice dinner. California Grill, V&A, Citicos, bluezoo. Something along those lines. No worries about missing valuable park time and if it takes a bit longer to get seated than we expect, we aren't concerned because we aren't rushing anywhere. Also, this gives us time to shower and dress for dinner. I absolutely would never go to a nice restaurant in park attire. I know that others do, but that's just not my style. (Some day I'll have to dig up the picture of me and my brother in matching checked blazers with clip on ties that we wore to the Gulf Coast Room back in '73...probably the same year that my avatar picture was taken.)

On the day that we go to AK, we typically will book a nice dinner that night as well, as that park closes earlier than the others, and, frankly, without a kid under the age of 10, we can skip the third of the park that is designed for that age group, and be done by 5:00 easy. We can go back to our room, rest, shower, and dress for dinner. So, in a 5 or 6 day trip, we do two fancy dinners. We always buy breakfast groceries at Publix and eat breakfast in the room while we are getting ready in the morning. Other than the Minnie Morning Luau at the Poly, one Princess b'fast at Norway and one (and only one) character b'fast at CRT, I cannot recall a single Disney breakfast in the past 25 years.

Most other meals (lunches and the remaining dinners) are eaten spontaneously. For lunches, this almost always entails CS, as we do not want to interrupt a park day for 90+ minutes in the middle of the day for a mediocre, $100 TS lunch. Pecos Bill's or Flame Tree is good enough for me. Do I like it? Not particularly. But all things considered, I'd rather endure a mediocre $35 CS lunch in a flash than kill more than an hour and $100 at a TS that is only marginally better. While at the MK, we do all lunches and dinners via CS as we have never had a TS meal that was worth the time or money. At DHS, we do CS lunches always, and are often out of the park in time for dinner, at which point walking in to a decent restaurant in the Boardwalk area is usually not hard. (We are only a family of 3). If we stay in the park, we usually go to 50's PTC. Many times we walk in after about a 45 minute wait at the bar. Other times (like pm EMH when we know that we are going to stay), we make an ADR. When we go to Epcot, we do CS lunches or simply snack our way through the day and then finish with a pre-reserved table for dinner.

So in a typical 6 day trip, we will eat all breakfasts in the room. Eat all lunches at CS except on "off" days when we are at DTD or at a resort. And we eat two, maybe three dinners at nice sit-downs with ADRs. The notion of trying to pinpoint my exact location 180 days out and then make ADRs for every corresponding meal is just unrealistic for me and is a setup for failure. And my need for flexibility (which includes skipping lunches every now and then in favor of small bites), plus my preference for non-DP restaurants and "two credit" restaurants makes the DP a no-go for me.

Just one man's story. Your mileage may vary. Offer not valid in Alaska and Hawaii.

 

[MelissathePooh]

I think a lot of it depends on how often you go and how long you stay. We go about 6 times a year - often for 2 weeks at at time so eating out all the time is exhausting in general.

Dining used to be one of our favorite things about WDW, but as the years have passed that has changed. My displeasure with the DDP is no secret so suffice to say that 90% of the time we find it easier and better to eat in our villa or run off property.

The signature dining restaurants seemed to have faired better through the DDP storm and we try to make at least yearly stops at Artist Point and California Grill. Other than that I can't think of any counter service and only a handful of 1 credit TS that I'd rather have than just making my own sandwich or dinner in the villa. That isn't feasible for most WDW guests though.

We actually brought a picnic lunch in for the first time NYE and the day before. The kids LOVED it - it was a fun switch for them and I loved how much $$$ it saved. We'll be doing this more often I believe. Our stay this summer is for 23 nights - no way do I want to rely on Disney for my meal options for that length of time. Again though - we always have a car and stay in a villa or at my mom's (who's 10 miles from the AK gate).

 

[bumbershoot]

We just had our first WDW trip, and we are DVC members so we had the full kitchen. We also had a rental car. So we did a bit of everything!

Got some tasty Amy's frozen entrees from Publix, had bagels, had stuff for breakfast if we wanted to make it before we left the r.oom. Also had our usual variety of Clif brand mojo/luna/z-bars for the times that we could use a little something, but didn't want to ruin our appetites.

We had one table service on most days, and that worked out perfectly. We upgraded to APs quickly and got the TIW card, and liked the discount AND the food, so that was nice.

We went off site to Sweet Tomatoes once, and wanted to do it again but didn't make the effort to find the time.

We didn't find the meals to be difficult; the initial planning was challenging, but exciting to think of where we would be.

Also, we would review the next day's choices in the evenings, and we canceled or switched a few times during our stay. So if something just wasn't working, it wasn't a big deal.

 

[kirstenb1]

We drive and are DVC'rs. We're at WDW to do rides/shows, and don't spend a lot of time or money on food.

We eat breakfast in our villa, do counter service for lunch, and go off-site, or I cook something quick for dinner. We've done this for several years, and it works for our family.