We did 6 days at WDW eating ONLY counter servce!

[HappyMommy2]

Just a few words on our recent WDW trip, during which we ate only counter service food (plus some Pop Tarts and apples in our room). Why did we plan it this way?

1. We have two very small children (3 and 1) who are a bit
tough to schedule a PS around; plus we weren't sure how
they'd behave in a sit-down restaurant, being tired and
overexcited from the parks. Thought it would be easier
to just walk up and eat as we went along.

2. We wanted to save some money. This wasn't a huge
concern, but it's always nice to have extra $$ to spend
on souvenirs.

Would we do it this way again?

NOOOOO! Counter service at WDW can be great. We loved Cosmic Ray's--so nice and cool inside, decent prices for decent food. The food court at our resort was pretty good. Kids loved the mac n cheese. Some other places were okay too. But by the time we left WDW we were saying, "I will NEVER eat another French fry as long as I live!" Even with the variety the counter service places offer, you end up eating a lot of very expensive French fries (or carrots, if you choose the carrots vs. fries option). Everything started to tast the same. And we regret not doing a character meal for DS3, who would have enjoyed it very much.
Next time we will definitely plan and budget for some sit-down meals! And I'll be sure to check this board for the best places to try!

 

[Mrs. Snowgod]

It certainly sounded like a logical plan, too bad it was a dissappointment. I hope the rest of your trip was great! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Disneyolic]

Nice to know...

I actually thought the opposite. I have 2 boys (2½ & 4) and think that mostly sit-down restaurants will be better for us just to give us a "break" from the standing and excitement, etc. Now just hoping I chose the right times for PSs. Plan on just grabbing danishes to go in the morning (kids oughta love that...good mom, eh?), earliest possible lunch, and somewhat early dinner. If they get hungry in between, then we can get some type of snack.

Did you go to the Columbia Harbour House in MK? That one and Flame Tree BBQ are our only counter service places we're doing.

 

[crisi]

We did something very similar with our last trip.

The kids were two and three. We were there seven days. We booked a character breakfast, a nice dinner out for the two of us at Marrakesh, and a dinner for us and the grandparents at San Angel Inn - so it wasn't like we didn't have some "real" food. But we didn't want to do much sit down because we didn't think the kids would handle it and I didn't want to worry about when.

But the days were we ate something with a side of fries for two meals a day were exhausting!

Next trip we have one PS for sit down every day. If I have to eat fries once a day, I'll be ok.

 

[madge]

My husband and I had this exact same conversation the other day--don't want to take too much time eating sit-down meals, but dont want to be stuck with the same old chicken strips and fries for each meal.

our breakfasts aren't at all "fast food" like. we eat cereal, muffins, fruit, etc. nothing fried or heavy (except oour one morning at Cinderella's Castle ). We make a grocery stop, so I make a point of getting veggies and dip, cheese & crackers, etc. for snacks. Even pizza is better than all those fries

I keep skimming the menus, looking for better choices.....

glad to hear your report

 

[BadgerBruce]

We don't like how every meal seems to come with fries, either. You don't have to order the fries or even substitute the fruit or carrots. At 3 different places I ordered the sandwich only on what was supposed to be a "sandwich/fries combo" and was able to do so. It was approx. $1.80 less w/o the fries.

 

[Alice28]

Thanks for sharing your insight. We kinda had that issue when we went- our kids were 5 and 20 months. We did end up having a PS almost every day, but there were some days where I wanted to cry cause my 20 month old would not sit still at all, or was screaming and acting like a 20 month old in a nicer restaurant. Mainly at our meal at 'Ohana- he was a complete pill and it was such a nice restaurant and we had a perfect view, and there was my 20 month old, pitching a royal fit. Ughhh.....Hopefully next time you go your kids will be a bit older and you will feel good about eating in a sit down restaurant.

 

[HappyMommy2]

Thanks for the responses! This is such a great board.

That was a good tip about getting the entree a la carte, BadgerBruce; thanks! Will definitely do that next time.

Don't get me wrong; I'd love WDW even if they ONLY thing they had to eat there was French fries! We had a fabulous trip and look forward to an even more magical--and maybe a tad less greasy--one next time!

 

[Pryncess'mom]

We ate so many french fries last summer I couldn't cook them at home for montsh!

I started seeing french fries everywhere!

Deb

 

[Cindy B]

We dont have small childrne but very active children,and they don't do well in fancy environment.

We are set for eating all counter for our next trip. (in two weeks, yeah!)

ON most of our trips it has all been counter. And yes, we get sick of frenchfries as well.

 

[DrTomorrow]

This may sound odd, but the biggest problem DW and I is dining. We're empty nesters, so no kids with us, and we're not picky; it isn't even the money (much). We just find ourselves in one of two situations: after a long day (no break) we don't want to trek all over everywhere for a long sit-down meal; or after a day with a break, we're ready to go and don't want to waste the time. Plus, when you've spent all day together, eating out together just isn't that much of a thrill . So we end up starting our trip with counter-service; once we get sick of chicken strips and burgers (with the ever-present fries!) we start to try sit-downs.

 

[jordgubben]

Here a tip that worked for us. You know when you're down there for awhile and you've been eating restruant food for every meal for a good 4 or 5 days and how you get to the point where you really don't want restraunt food anymore? Well this is the point at which I suggest that you go to 50's Prime Time Cafe. When I was down there for 7 days with 4 friends we hit this restruant by fluke on day 4 and it was the best meal ever because it was really like home cooking. After all the restraunt food it was great to have something "normal".

 

[CindyAnn]

HappyMommy2 - I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your trip in any case. Sometimes it does seem like a stretch to say "Oh yeah, 83 days, 3 hours and 14 minutes from now the 4 of us are all going to have a meal of Moroccan food". Even though it sounds a bit over-planned, I have to admit that we usually manage to make most of our PSes as scheduled. For us, sticking to 1 PS per day and winging the other two meals is usually the key.

We've also managed to find several counter service restaurants where you don't feel that you've started Dr. Atkins french fry diet. If it's ever a consideration on another trip:

MK - The chicken wrap sandwiches at Pecos Bills are good
AK - The peanut crusted chicken dinner (if it's on the menu) at Tusker House is good
Epcot - Sunshine Season Food Fair has more choices than most counter service places. We (that is the adults) also love to snack our way around World Showcase, but we pick up McD's chicken nuggets near Canada for the children before we begin our tour.
MGM - counter service food here just doesn't impress me much.

Cheers,

 

[cboudre1]

When my DC was younger and he couldn't sit throught a PS we would try to eat at the Land 3 or 4 times. It is like a giant food court and you can choose things other than chicken strips and fries.

 

[JVL1018]

My husband and I were JUST talking about this very subject lastnight. I have 4 character meals booked(2 breakfast 2 dinner) and we plan on eating at the Sci Fi and ESPN once but otherwise we wanted to do mostly counter service due to the fact that my son is a BRAT in restaurants. Won't sit still etc. Grrrr.
We were talking about all the places we could go that is not the usual chicken fingers/ hot dogs/burgers & fries.
So far we've come up with Cosmic Rays and Pirates Y Piratico<sp> in MK; Yakitori House(Japan), the Cantina(Mexico) and maybe France(quiche for me?) in Epcot; Flame Tree BBQ in AK..and nowhere in MGM that I could recall.
Anyone have anything to add?

 

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by JVL1018
My husband and I were JUST talking about this very subject lastnight. I have 4 character meals booked(2 breakfast 2 dinner) and we plan on eating at the Sci Fi and ESPN once but otherwise we wanted to do mostly counter service due to the fact that my son is a BRAT in restaurants. Won't sit still etc. Grrrr.
We were talking about all the places we could go that is not the usual chicken fingers/ hot dogs/burgers & fries.
So far we've come up with Cosmic Rays and Pirates Y Piratico<sp> in MK; Yakitori House(Japan), the Cantina(Mexico) and maybe France(quiche for me?) in Epcot; Flame Tree BBQ in AK..and nowhere in MGM that I could recall.
Anyone have anything to add?

Columbia Harbour House in MK is also not a chicken fingers/ hot dogs/burgers & fries type of place. Then there's the Norwegian and French bakeries in Epcot and Tusker House in AK. MGM is harder IMO.