Why do people eat at the food courts?

[angierae]

When we were at POP last spring we ate at the food court a handful of times.

-- On our arrival day. Our family flew in on two different flights and we figured scheduling an ADR would be difficult because of the odds of someone's flight being late. We all got dinner at the POP food court once the last group arrived and then spent an hour walking around the resort looking at it.

-- A couple of times some of us would get breakfast there if they were the first ones ready in the morning. Other times we just grabbed a muffin or a pastry with a snack credit. (I was a big fan of the apples and caramel dip as breakfast. Heh.)

-- There was one day when some of us were exhausted at lunch time and the group split up - four people got a walk-in at 50's Prime Time but DH and I just went back to the hotel and grabbed CS at the food court and took it back to the room and ate it before napping.

We didn't eat there a LOT, but I can see if you had DDP and were planning on spending the afternoons at the room stopping in to the food court on yoru way back to your room and just eating your CS lunch there.

 

[RayJay]

Right, I know not everyone is on the dining plan but I am wondering why people choose food court over restaurants in the parks and why people feel it is important to be close to a food court? Is the food less expensive or is it better than the quick service meals in the parks? More convenient than eating in the parks?

When I take my family of four to a restaurant it's usually $80 to $100
When we go to food court I can usually get out for around $40

It's Ok when we are on dining plan but we don't always do that.

RayJay

 

[RayJay]

When I take my family of four to a restaurant it's usually $80 to $100
When we go to food court I can usually get out for around $40

It's Ok when we are on dining plan but we don't always do that.

RayJay

The other thing to consider is if Disney didn't have food courts I'm sure the attendance would be way down. Disney is expensive enough, not everyone can eat in the restaurants all week.

Later
RayJay

 

[disneychic2]

DH and I enjoy the food courts. We usually stay at POFQ and find its food court to be very nice. We like to eat before getting to the parks so we don't waste time and also to digest before rides. When we stayed at OKW, we were very disappointed that there was no food court (to speak of) for a quick bite. We are staying at WL in Sept. and already know that Roaring Forks is quite a bit smaller than at the mods, but it's bigger than at OKW, so we think it will be fine. I don't think we've ever eaten lunch or dinner at a foot court since we're always in the parks during that time. We haven 't found them to be overly busy or crowded in the early hours for breakfast.

 

[EPCOT is a verb]

We enjoy a snack there at the end of the evening.

 

[Happy Mom2]

Definitely more convenient than the parks. I was very happy with the food at the ASMo food court. They had a good variety for every meal, more so than any one CS in a park. I would not say the food is better than in the parks but I would rather have breakfast at the resort than in a park and waste park time if I am going to eat CS anyways. Plus do any of the CS places in the parks serve B-fast? I mean a CS meal like in the food courts, Mickey waffles, eggs, etc. A muffin or granola bar in the morning is just not enough for most people. I would be cranky before I walked through the turnstiles!

This.

 

[rznhal]

We just love snacks=) We love coming back from the parks and stopping by to fill our mug and get a little snack to share while we wind down....

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Each of the All-Stars Resorts have over 1,900 rooms.

Pop Century Has almost 2,900 rooms

Caribbean Beach has over 2,100 rooms

That is almost 11,000 rooms; with an average of 3 people per room that is a lot of people.

 

[EvilQueenT]

i only stayed one night at a value resort and we didn't get up early enough for breakfast/peak times that day but the moderate we stay most often at is pofq and we always get to the parks by rope drop. i haven't seen crowds so big that i felt like i was waiting forever for. we don't, however, do a big breakfast. we usually have what most people would think of as a side item with a drink and maybe a piece of fruit. i would think people waiting for items off a grill would wait the longest at any of the resorts.

 

[fairestoneofall]

we tend to eat at the food court at least once every trip. we are not commando in our touring style though. on our last trip, we had QSDP (kids play/eat free) and opted not to upgrade because it was a summer trip (we just can't eat a lot of food when it's hot). we actually ate several meals at Pop because we'd take a break during the hottest part of the afternoon. it was convenient and had a great selection.

plus, it's nice to be close if you have a refillable mugs. often, we'll get one mug and i'll get coffee (for me) in the mornings and DH will get soda (for him) in the evenings. so, having the foot court close is convenient for that as well.

 

[cymbaldiva]

I keep reading about how all the food courts are always packed, especially at the values, or how someone didn't like their room because it was too far from the food court. I think I might be missing something here. We have the basic dining plan and we are planning to eat maybe a light breakfast (muffin, bagel, protein bar, etc.) and then eat an early counter service lunch in whatever park we are in and a table service dinner in that same park with a snack in between the meals. I had assumed that most people do the same thing but then why all the comments about the food courts being packed and crazy busy all day? I am thinking if we step in them at all, it would just be to get a drink.

Just wondering

Short answer? Food's decent and the folks not following your particular touring style need to eat too!

 

[westonkamom]

The only food court I can comment on is Pop's. First of all, the food was actually pretty good and there was a lot of selection. Sure, sometimes it got really busy, but the lines at checkout move quickly and so do the counter lines. Also, with hungry kids it's very convenient. The refillable mugs are awesome! A lot of times we would eat a late breakfast in the food court using our CS meal, skip lunch or have a snack in the parks, and then eat dinner at a TS restaurant. We were there for 10 days in December so there was no reason to rush to the parks for rope-drop. I found that the busiest time besides breakfast was around 10pm when everyone was coming in from the parks and were wanting a snack.

 

[eddiemcgarrigle]

Dining Plan mug refill and my missus and son love to share a stack of pancakes for breakfast.

 

[hambirg]

I know for us, when we stayed at CSR we ate at Pepper Market almost every night. We were there during early Dec. and park hours were shorter. We would have something from the room for a quick breakfast (we are rope drop people) and then usually an early big lunch (like a character meal) and then a late dinner back at the resort after some swimming time.

Now when we stayed at POFQ, we didn't eat at the food court as much because park hours were longer, but we still grabbed a meal sometimes between hopping. HTH

 

[goofy4tink]

Right, I know not everyone is on the dining plan but I am wondering why people choose food court over restaurants in the parks and why people feel it is important to be close to a food court? Is the food less expensive or is it better than the quick service meals in the parks? More convenient than eating in the parks?

It is much more convenient for some meals. My family likes to eat breakfast every morning. I am usually the first to be ready to leave each day, so I head to the food court, get our breakfasts to go and then head back to the room. I eat while others are getting ready, others eat as they can. Saves a huge amount of time.
Sometimes, especially during the hot months, we head back to our resort just after lunchtime. We get off the bus and go right to the food court and grab a bite to eat.

Not having a food court at BWV is a huge negative for a lot of us. We wish they would put in some kind of small food court there. I own at BWV and it would be so nice to just head downstairs, grab a decent breakfast and back to my room. Yes, I realize the Bakery is there, but I have had some very nasty breakfast sandwiches there...won't take the chance again. And I like a bit more than a pastry for breakfast.

For those of us that have been to WDW many times, it isn't all about the parks. We tend to be more laid back and take things a bit more slowly than those who are intent on getting to the parks and getting it all done. So, it isn't all that imperative that we be at a park for rope drop, grabbing a quick bite in the park in the morning.

 

[kathy884]

We did a summer stay at POR (DH had a seminar at the Contemporay -- he didn't sign up in time and overflow people stayed here as Contemporary was full.) There was one and only one reason we ate at the food courts -- We didn't have ADRs for all our meals and couldn't get in anywhere else. We were not on the dining plan. I was not impressed with the food at all, but felt trapped like that was my only option. And I didn't want to drive all the way out of the world just to eat -- maybe I should have, though.

It was sooo disappointing. One night at about 5 p.m. we took the little boat to downtown Disney to eat there. We checked all the resturants and the only one who would take us for the night was Rainforest Cafe -- not my favorite and they could only get us in at 9:30 p.m. We didn't have park tickets for that day, so eating in the park wasn't an option unless we wanted to fork out about $80 pp (We were only doing one Disney Park day, so adding a second day is really high), The table service resturant at POR wasn't taking any more reservations for the night either.

Thank goodness for two of our four nights I had made ADRs, but that still meant two food court dinners -- definately two more than I would have preferred. Loved finally getting offsite and having more dining options. Loved the good old days in Disney before dining plan and free dining offers where you could go to any great resturant in all of WDW even high season and wait less than 20 minutes for a great dinner. Now high seaon it's plan ahead or be stuck in the food court.

The food court, though, was not crowded at all at POR. Having tasted the food, though, and paid for the food (not a great value), I can understand why.

 

[stackyallred]

Last year, DH and I took our 10 month old to WDW and stayed at POP. We would have loved to eaten every meal at the parks/resorts/DTD, but we are very big on following DS' cues regarding naps/bedtime and hunger. So I would say we ate about half of our dinners in the food courts. There were times that we didn't want to risk a meltdown by keeping him out too late or waiting too long to eat so we just had to eat there. Usually, we eat a lunch or a dinner at the food court happily, but we did get pretty sick of it this time. However, it was just part of going with a baby and was still worth it.

 

[discorsner]

Didn't read the whole thread so this may have already been mentioned several times but our #1 reason is to get a quick breakfast or snack and be done eating before we get in the parks.

Also, on a resort day hanging at the pool it would probably be our choice for a lunch.

What I find interesting and annoying is that we stay at a value when we are going to be in the parks more and then go up to deluxe at times when we really want to relax and spend more time at the resorts. This tends to work opposite of the food courts in that the values have the best food courts and we are only there to use them once in awhile because we are in the parks the whole time and then the deluxes like Beach Club have limited CS and that is where we are most likely to have one or two days where we don't even want to leave the resort!

We just can't win with the food courts sometimes!

Our best overall experience was a stay at Poly cuz we at least had Captain Cooks.

 

[dragonfly08]

While we did bring stuff to have breakfast in the room, I always hit the POP food court for coffee. I also usually got something to go with the kids' breakfast, either cream cheese for their bagels, a carton of milk, etc. Sometimes for a change of pace they'd bring their breakfast with them and we'd eat outside instead of staying in the room.

On the way to the bus I stopped again and filled my mug with lemonade or iced tea.

We don't go commando, so we were back at the resort each night by 4/5PM. I usually got another drink on the way to the room. Maybe a snack for the kids to eat by the pool (where we headed right after going to the room to change).

Evenings were spent at the resorts; we didn't go back to the parks. So if we weren't going to DTD or another resort for dinner we ate in the food court.

As part of our before-bed snack I got myself a drink, and often got the girls some hot chocolate or lemonade.

So we spent a lot of time at the food court.

 

[ugadog99]

Because
. . . it is relatively cheap, even for Disney standards
. . . good tasting, even compared to some Signature eateries
. . . usually convenient to the bus stops
. . . normally pretty quick to get in and out
. . . large enough that even big crowds can fit

This. And because we just like them!