When to eat?

[BelleLovesTheBeast]

I know how to plan WDW dining but not DL so I'm looking for a little bit of help. I want to make sure I get the most out of my first visit to DL. We're going Aug 30-Sept 3. This is what I'm thinking...

8/30 Ralph Brennan's (brunch)

8/31 Goofy's (breakfast 10am - thanks to recommendations here)

9/1 Blue Bayou (dinner)

9/2 Wine Country (lunch)

9/3 Napa Rose (dinner)

Also going to try Cafe Orleans (DH wants the Monte Cristo). I'm planning on calling for PS so my question is what time? What time do you usually schedule your PS in order to get the most out of your days at the park?

Thanks!

P.S. Are there any QS places you recommend?

 

[bumbershoot]

Dining is so personal, it's hard to suggest stuff like that!

If hubby wants the MC, Blue Bayou serves it at lunchtime...so if you wanted to swap times, the 11:30am slot for lunch is always nice. If you want waterside seating, that time, along with checking in 20+ minutes early, can get it for you.


We do mainly counter service now... we love PLaza Inn (we love their pasta with marinara and garden salad...most love their chicken platter). We enjoy Wine Country Trattoria, though I hear their service is falling apart recently.

We try to always get a veggie gumbo in a breadbowl from Royal Street Veranda, but I hear their steak gumbo or clam chowder in a breadbowl is good too, for those who like steak and clams. Salty, though, fyi.

Tried the breakfast at Pacific Wharf Cafe in May, and the croissant egg sandwiches (without meat for us) were SO good! We were amazed. Breakfast at Tomorrowland Terrace is good and a value, since most of their breakfasts include a beverage.

People love White Water Snacks in Grand Cal...we enjoy their french toast sticks (same as at Tomorrowland Terrace) and breakfast burrito (without the bacon).


I've only had the ratatouille from Cafe Orleans, but it was scrumptious. Well, we had breakfast once there too, but that's a seasonal thing and I don't know what season it's offered now. Their Mickey head shaped beignets are incredible. (the fritters at Royal Street Veranda are good too)

 

[teatime]

I have mine sceduled around things, the only one that is for 6:30 is cafe orleans, the rest is all different. I got wine country tratoria as we will be sitting out side while electrical parade is going past. ( someone here told me about it) so the gal on the phone has us on an out side table
We will do dinner out side the parks, around 4:30 or so after our break in the pool, then head into the parks for the night.

 

[kandyk]

What time did you make your ressies for Wine Country? I am thinking about doing the same thing but I am not sure what time would be best.

Thanks!

 

[blackjackdelta]

We try to eat away from the traditional times. Even with PS there seems to be a bit of a wait when everyone is heading to the feeding trough unless you are the first ones there.

Jack

 

[amyamya]

I agree with Molly that eating is so personal and everyone has a different style to their meal planning. Here's what we do: Skip the heavy sit-down breakfast on park days. We do Goofy's for brunch usually the last day before we leave. It's too good to miss. Light brekkies get you to the park early and not dragging around carbs and/or grease (plus breakfast is expensive a lot of places!)

We then do an big early lunch, either BB at 11:30 or somewhere else, RDZ, but WELL before 12 noon. Not having a huge breakfast makes this easier. Dinner we leave open but usually do one of the great places in DTD or WWS at the GCH. If we snack heavily during the late afternoon we might skip dinner all together.

My favorite dinner from our last trip was when my in-laws watched the kidlets and DH and I had drinks and small plates at the UVA Bar under the lights.

 

[Eeee-va]

I was one of those who had what I consider to be slow service at Wine Country Trattoria, though our server seemed to be brand new, and left to take her lunch in the middle of our meal, handing us off to another waiter, which doesn't always work well, of course. A third waitress gave us the dessert one of us ordered, and then my birthday ice cream came like 10 minutes after that. So it might have been a fluke.

The whole dining experience from being seated to leaving after paying the bill was probably about 100 minutes. (I was not feeling well and it was kind of hot, so it felt longer to me!) We were seated no later than 1:20 PM (I think more like 1:10 PM).

 

[teatime]

What time did you make your ressies for Wine Country? I am thinking about doing the same thing but I am not sure what time would be best.

Thanks!

Thursday the 20th ....Cafe Orleans........... 6;30 pm
Friday.... carnation cafe ..... 6:00
saturday....... Cafe Orleans...... 2:00
Wednesday goofys kitchen ( 7:00 Am )
Sunday night ... wine country tratoria 7:40 out side ( to watch the electrical parade
Monday........... rain forest cafe 5:30
Tuesday . ESPN Zone.. 6:00

Of course this could all go by the way side and I could head out to mimi's

 

[HydroGuy]

LOL, but if you want to do DLR like a DLR vet you need to understand that dining does not matter. "Dining? DINING? We don't need no stinkin' dining!" I am exaggerating to make a point, but there is a lot of truth that DLR vets just do not care much about dining. I think whatever growth DLR has had in dining has been driven by the WDW vets who demand it.

Having been to WDW a couple times I have a much better understanding now how dining can play an extra role in the overall experience. And we really do lots of dining at WDW. Nowadays at DLR I try to pay more attention to dining (because of WDW visits) but old habits die hard.

Good luck in planning your dining. I know what you are trying to do. I just wanted to give you a DLR vet perspective for your general info.

Before everyone here jumps on me I know that many of you care about dining. But in truth I do not think DIS DLR represents DLR vets very evenly. So many here are out-of-state types or internationals which is a smaller percentage of DLR visitors. Go to a place like MiceChat dominated by SoCal locals and see how many dining threads there are! Heck, DIS has a whole forum dedicated to WDW dining!

Again have fun with dining. Just do not be surprised by some apathy from DLR vets.

 

[Sherry E]

Based on what HydroGuy said, I think I must be in the minority in that I am a dyed-in-the-wool, 37-year DLR vet, a 'local' for the most part (if you count Los Angeles/Beverly Hills as local to Anaheim) and have never lived outside of SoCal nor am I an international in any way....and dining is important on my trips to DLR now for a few different reasons. It might be an age thing...the older we get, the more we like to sit and grab a bite and catch up on the latest. Plus, I have to get my protein in early in the day, so a big, wonderful Goofy's breakfast hits the spot, and I don't need to eat again for the entire day. Plus, I get some nifty character interaction in the process. Good meals just enhance the overall Disney experience my friends and me in the same way as staying onsite at a DLR hotel enhances it for me. We got for the whole package - the rides, the shows, the Disney details, the dining, the hotels, the merchandise, all of it.

But I will admit - prior to, say, 1992-ish, I did not care about dining as much - other than just needing to eat something for sustenance. That was for two reasons: 1) The food was bad throughout most of DL, with the exception of a couple of places, and 2) I was younger and had different Disney priorities, but the older people I knew (meaning like 40 and up) who went to DL always talked about their eating experiences as though it was a really enjoyable part of their trips. In the last 17 years or so, the food quality has improved enormously and we are older and we LOVE our dining time. I LOVE my Goofy's Kitchen time, and I will be working even more character meals in to future trips!

So, again, as I always say, each person's requirements for what makes a great DLR trip for them are different. What may be necessary for me is not necessary for the next person. But that is one thing that is so great about DLR - there are so many ways to shape and personalize your own trip to DLR, and there are so many things to do for people with all different priorities, that everyone can feel satisfied and have a great time!

 

[teatime]

Dining?? Heck yeah!! I want to sit down, not have to stand in line at counter service and fight crowds, I just want to sit enjoy and eat what I look forward to eating! it gives me time to settle the little ones down, reflect on the day and figure out whats next in our plans. I also love to try different foods !

hummmmmmmmm Im now rethinking all this :lol: Im going to look into doi ng more off times, and maybe not so many sit downs .

 

[HydroGuy]

Dining?? Heck yeah!! I want to sit down, not have ot stand in line at counter service and fight crowds, I just want to sit enjoy and eat what I look forward to eating! it gives me time to settle the little ones down, reflect on the day and figure out whats next in our plans. I also love to try different foods !

Based on what HydroGuy said, I think I must be in the minority in that I am a dyed-in-the-wool, 37-year DLR vet, a 'local' for the most part (if you count Los Angeles/Beverly Hills as local to Anaheim) and have never lived outside of SoCal nor am I an international in any way....and dining is important on my trips to DLR now for a few different reasons. It might be an age thing...the older we get, the more we like to sit and grab a bite and catch up on the latest. Plus, I have to get my protein in early in the day, so a big, wonderful Goofy's breakfast hits the spot, and I don't need to eat again for the entire day. Plus, I get some nifty character interaction in the process. Good meals just enhance the overall Disney experience my friends and me in the same way as staying onsite at a DLR hotel enhances it for me. We got for the whole package - the rides, the shows, the Disney details, the dining, the hotels, the merchandise, all of it.

But I will admit - prior to, say, 1992-ish, I did not care about dining as much - other than just needing to eat something for sustenance. That was for two reasons: 1) The food was bad throughout most of DL, with the exception of a couple of places, and 2) I was younger and had different Disney priorities, but the older people I knew (meaning like 40 and up) who went to DL always talked about their eating experiences as though it was a really enjoyable part of their trips. In the last 17 years or so, the food quality has improved enormously and we are older and we LOVE our dining time. I LOVE my Goofy's Kitchen time, and I will be working even more character meals in to future trips!

So, again, as I always say, each person's requirements for what makes a great DLR trip for them are different. What may be necessary for me is not necessary for the next person. But that is one thing that is so great about DLR - there are so many ways to shape and personalize your own trip to DLR, and there are so many things to do for people with all different priorities, that everyone can feel satisfied and have a great time!

Thanks for some balance to my post! I knew I would get some alternate points of view on this and I did say I was exaggerating to make a point. I do think it is fair to say that WDW vets should understand that DLR is way behind WDW in the area of dining. The demand is just not there. IMO many of the folks on day trips just do not want to sit down for a nice meal. So they do counter service and hot dog carts, etc. Most of the folks at WDW are there on multi-day vacations and so one has to think more about dining. WDW has done a great job with their themed restaurants making the dining experience work its way into the overal WDW experience. As I said I now try harder to work in some cool dining at DLR. But before WDW I viewed dining as wasted time and tried to figure out how to do it is as cheaply and quickly as possible. I think that attitude is much more prevalent at DLR than WDW because of the history of the resorts and makeup of the visitors. That's all I meant!

 

[teatime]

you know your right, I was worried about getting into this or that, but really why? I always have hated setting down times for things and I went thru my list of resturants and thought ..... hummm why ? I did keep several of my reservations like the wine country so I can see the electrical parade, I also kept the rain forest cafe, just moved the times way up to 9:00 pm. The park closes at 10:00 so why not a nice late dinner

Of course the cafe orleans one, but not at dinner time, I read where people eat then and the rides are easier to get on, so I decided to do that one at lunch time around 2:00 instead and forgo the 6:30 one.
Goofys kitchen I am bumping up to 11:00 am so we can have both lunch and breakfast.
my goal was to try all the small things I never get to try, turket legs, chicken fusulini,loaded bake potatoe soup, a mickey pretzel ( where can i get one that tastes like a pretzel? ) I got one at wentzels and it was awful !!

WDW was a frantic time for me, trying to get a sit down, running all over the place trying to get on this bus or what ever to get to that park where that meal was. OYE
Though I love WDW trying for sit downs was just ot hard for me. I think if Im not going comando at disneyland I need to relax on the times for sit downs to. after all I can get a nice dinner any time at mimi's, milli's etc.

 

[Dizneydaz]

We only go for a day at a time so "dining" isn't that big of an issue. However, on my birthday recently, I made PS at WCT at about 7:40 so we could see the Electical Parade. It was great! We didn't get a table next to the wall but our server let us move after someone vacated a table there just before the parade. (thanks Tammy!)

I've also made PS at Cafe Orleans and that worked well too. It was March 27th, and I could only get 4:00. It was a perfect time (spring) weather wise-we sat outside.

QS-we like Water Water at GC. Usually not too busy and a nice quiet break in the day.

We also like Pizaa Port-my DD9 would eat there everytime if she could. We share the Chicken Fusilli.

Have fun!

 

[blackjackdelta]

I wonder what the definition is of a DLR/WDW vet is? How many times qualifies? I spent just about 3 years in Viet Nam, so I think I can call myself a Nam vet...sorry off the subject.
We are so busy day by day in home home lives we really never eat out, so we like to take the opportunity to dine when we are in SoCal. We also come from a small area(under 250K pop) so the pickins are slim, I also like to optimize the experience so times are very important to miss the masses but give us a break from the heat at the same time. Being a diabetic(comes with age sometimes) I need the protein kick in the AM.
After reading the above posts, it comes down to what is important for us and to enjoy the food since it is not the most bang for the buck you can get. I try not to over intellectulize(sp) my eating plan but I still make PS's just to make sure I have a place to go.
It is going to be 100 degree's today so I am going to mow the lawn and sit in the pool the rest of the day. Have a great weekend.

Jack

 

[HydroGuy]

I wonder what the definition is of a DLR/WDW vet is? How many times qualifies?

Uhhh, 6.5 times?

My perspective comes from someone who grew up there and went a lot in high school, college, etc. with other folks and family. And then interaction with all my friends growing, etc. You just grasp the priorities of everyone you know. All I can say is after all that it surprised me to see how the WDW vets (or regulars) placed such a high priority on dining because I did not know anyone at DLR who did.

Now that I am on DIS I am exposed to a wider spectrum of people and I know such people exist who get into dining at DLR.

I do think it is fair to suggest people look on MiceChat and see how many posts there are on dining. Not very many I think. IMO MiceChat caters more directly to the bread and butter of DLR - SoCal locals - while DIS caters more to non-locals and non-regulars.

Does anyone know of any Internet forums specifically on dining at DLR? WDW has one here on DIS. I also have seen them for DLR Paris. But never for DLR.

Do people get into dining at DLR? Well of course. My point is that the average DLR visitor holds in much lower priority than the average WDW visitor.

OK, this is making me hungry! Off to find some food!

 

[Sherry E]

I am a bit miffed by some of the restaurants that are gone - I think Jack agrees with me in that the old Monorail Cafe at the DLH was great (I remember we both posted about it and gave it a ), and it was a good place to eat better food than what much of they were serving in the park was at that time, pre-1991 or 1992. And I am kind of annoyed that the Carnation menu was downsized considerably in the '90s, whereas it used to have many more options.

In an odd way, I would say I am almost (for lack of a better word) glad that DLR does not have the space to add all the dining choices that WDW offers. My head would explode, what with all the restaurants and different character meals and all the hotels to roam around in - especially during the holiday season. I wouldn't know where to look first! I have a hard enough time scheduling our PSs for the DLR restaurants, and trying to make sure everyone is happy with my choices and that they are timed out in a reasonable way. I don't know what I would do if I had to deal with WDW!

 

[blackjackdelta]

Uhhh, 6.5 times?

My perspective comes from someone who grew up there and went a lot in high school, college, etc. with other folks and family. And then interaction with all my friends growing, etc. You just grasp the priorities of everyone you know. All I can say is after all that it surprised me to see how the WDW vets (or regulars) placed such a high priority on dining because I did not know anyone at DLR who did.

Now that I am on DIS I am exposed to a wider spectrum of people and I know such people exist who get into dining at DLR.

I do think it is fair to suggest people look on MiceChat and see how many posts there are on dining. Not very many I think. IMO MiceChat caters more directly to the bread and butter of DLR - SoCal locals - while DIS caters more to non-locals and non-regulars.

Does anyone know of any Internet forums specifically on dining at DLR? WDW has one here on DIS. I also have seen them for DLR Paris. But never for DLR.

Do people get into dining at DLR? Well of course. My point is that the average DLR visitor holds in much lower priority than the average WDW visitor.

OK, this is making me hungry! Off to find some food!

I always respect what your opinion is. I use it to tailor my plans and REALLY do enjoy your in depth analysis of the goings on at the parks. You have been a major asset to the boards. I was being a bit silly which does not really go along with my personality.
I am a USC alum and enjoy many visits since opening day, just wish I could go more in my latter years, just not possible with 3 kids in college.

Jack
Jack

 

[BelleLovesTheBeast]

Thanks for all the great insight!!!

Based on the make up of the DL vistors it makes sense why dining isn't as big of a deal. If I was going for only one day I don't think I'd want a TS meal either. Both my DH and I enjoy dining out however we don't do a lot of it at home because Nashville has so many chain restaurants and that's just kinda boring. So when we vacation we like to try new places to eat. Neither of us is really set on a time to eat. At home we eat late dinners but we are flexible to whatever is condusive to getting the most out of our vacation.

Teatime - I love your idea of eating at WCT and seeing the electric parade! I think I'm going to have to do that too. So should I make a PS for around 7:30? What time is the parade?

Blackjackdelta - I'm with you about optimizing the experience. What times do you usually schedule your PS?

At WDW it's easy. We do lunch at 11 am when they first start serving so few people and food comes quicker and dinner 8 pm or later because people are finishing up and most people don't want those times (unless it's free dining...ARG and you have to get what you can).

 

[blackjackdelta]

I am a bit miffed by some of the restaurants that are gone - I think Jack agrees with me in that the old Monorail Cafe at the DLH was great (I remember we both posted about it and gave it a ), and it was a good place to eat better food than what much of they were serving in the park at that time, pre-1991 or 1992. And I am kid of annoyed that the Carnation menu was downsized considerably in the '90s, whereas it used to have many more options.

In an odd way, I would say I am almost (for lack of a better word) glad that DLR does not have the space to add all the dining choices that WDW offers. My head would explode, what with all the restaurants and different character meals and all the hotels to roam around in - especially during the holiday season. I wouldn't know where to look first! I have a hard enough time scheduling our PSs for the DLR restaurants, and trying to make sure everyone is happy with my choices and that they are timed out in a reasonable way. I don't know what I would do if I had to deal with WDW!

Absolutely loved the monorail cafe. I thought it had more of a diner atmosphere with diner type food. Large portions at a reasonable price.

Jack