Do you do TS at every park or mainly QS?

[Disneygrl71]

I have a sit down reservations at every park this time.

But, to help keep our budget to $100-150 a day for myself and son, I'm reconsidering only doing Prime Time and The Crystal Palace and canceling the San Angel Inn since there are so many QS food options in Epcot. I also have Rainforest for lunch at AK (this is the only full day in the parks we will do, since it closes earlier and the day before our early morning flight).

We will eat breakfast in the room and just do pool days, etc until around 4 pm than head over to the parks. We might go to HS early, if we get ROTR.

 

[VineHeart]

Our upcoming trip is honestly the first time my husband and I will be doing TS. We are normally QS people because we are more ride focused and just want to grab a bite and go. However now that we have kids we probably won't be rushing around as much, and I think it will probably be a good idea to let them get a break and decompress for a longer while in some AC while we eat.

I'm excited to try a few TS spots but definitely feeling the hit to the wallet lol! I think your plan sounds good!

 

[EACarlson]

I wouldn't need TS in any of the parks, although we did almost all of them on our last trip. We also had the Dining plan, without that we would have done QS in the park and left for dinner outside the bubble.

 

[disny_luvr]

We do mainly QS on our trips. For our 14-day trip in August, I have booked five TS meals - only one of which is in a park. We like flexibility and not having to worry about being at a restaurant at a certain time. We find QS to have some good options, pretty filling, and a lot less expensive, which is always a good thing.

 

[lovin'fl]

We rarely do QS. Maybe once per trip, if that. We used to have TIW and found meal cost to be pretty similar at many TS with the TIW discount to doing QS. And the lines to order/pick up food and then the search for a table with QS was something we'd rather avoid.

But at Epcot there are tons of TS options. At AK we like Tiffins or Yak and Yeti or we head to AKL for Boma, Sanaa or Jiko. At HS we do Brown Derby patio lounge or Baseline Tap House. At MK we can do LTT or Skipper Canteen or even leave the park for monorail resort TS like the Wave or Ohana or Kona or Grand FL Cafe.....

For value...HS has Sci-Fi, MK has the Plaza, Epcot has Via Napoli or Nine Dragons and AK has RFC. Those with some sort of discount is probably similar in cost to QS.

 

[Malfie Cent]

We mainly do QS. I never liked making having to decide months in advance of where I was going to eat so I didn't bother making ADRs. I like the flexibility of eating when I want.
I do make some reservations but maybe just a couple during our trip.

 

[lovin'fl]

I will also add that now that we're empty nest and are often there just the 2 of us, we do a lot of lounge eating now. No need to make ADR. Just pop in a lounge. Really like that.

 

[Statefan17]

We mainly do QS. I never liked making having to decide months in advance of where I was going to eat so I didn't bother making ADRs. I like the flexibility of eating when I want.
I do make some reservations but maybe just a couple during our trip.

This is the same plan our family follows. We like the flexibility of eating when we want. We usually make one ADR then make another reservation while at the park if we want another TS.

 

[jschlaud]

We like to do one TS a day (either lunch or dinner, depending on park hours/availability). I like the idea of a guaranteed break and forcing us to relax for a bit.

 

[Avery&Todd]

We like having a TS as a sit down dinner each night, whether that's in the park, at a hotel or at DS.....we are rope droppers, and do a QS breakfast usually in the room, from either leftover from the night before or from the QS @ the resort. We then do a QS for lunch in the park and leave the park by 3 or 4 to go back to the room to rest, shower, change and head back out to dinner!

We also don't have kids with us anymore (they're grown, we didnt get rid of them.. ) so that gives us more flexibility in our schedule.

I will say that when our boys were with us, we still did this schedule except back in the day we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan and had 3 TS meals a day which was A LOT of food - but with just DH and I, we eat less which is fine with us!

 

[mkb3]

We normally just do QS. On our last trip since it was so hot we did TS in the hottest part of the day to cool off and take a break. It was awesome.

 

[StaceyHSD]

I have one TS per day scheduled per day and none for HS. But I’m going to be at WDW for 8 days so that gives me a chance to eat at several TS without it being too much on a given day.

Having said that, there are tons of solid QS options so it’s not a necessity to do TS.

 

[Brob2132]

I think it depends on how you view food, as well. My wife is a person that eats for sustenance, whereas I enjoy eating and trying new things. For me, a majority of the quick service is mediocre, and nearly all of it is extremely unhealthy. Therefore, we go table service for our trips.

 

[peabody58]

DW and I really enjoy the TS variety and a break from hectic park. Except for AK, we do TS in every park we visit. TS is an experience unto itself that we enjoy together. We're retired with enough funds to really enjoy ourselves in our Happy Place.

 

[quoo]

We tend to do TS. We have 2 boys (3 and 6, nearly 7 last trip) (6 and 9, nearly 10 for this upcoming trip). We tend to go in August which might influence that, but even the kids enjoy the break to sit down and get out of the heat/sun for a bit. We are too lazy to deal with having to find a QS spot to sit and order food

Right now we have TS reservation for every day of our trip for lunch/dinner. I may cancel a few depending - the epcot lunch (San Angel Inn, and one of our evening dinners at Kona Cafe) are likely targets. We have 2 dinner reservations at Kona Cafe just because we're staying at the Polynesian and I'm not quite sure we're keeping both.

 

[Kae]

Are must do's-the Hollywood Brown Derby and Chef de France for TS. QS Flame Tree BBQ, Cosmic Rays, Booths at Festivals in Epcot(if one is going on). Other ones we really enjoy are GF Cafe, Whispering Canyon Cafe for Breakfast

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I have a sit down reservations at every park this time.

But, to help keep our budget to $100-150 a day for myself and son, I'm reconsidering only doing Prime Time and The Crystal Palace and canceling the San Angel Inn since there are so many QS food options in Epcot. I also have Rainforest for lunch at AK (this is the only full day in the parks we will do, since it closes earlier and the day before our early morning flight).

We will eat breakfast in the room and just do pool days, etc until around 4 pm than head over to the parks. We might go to HS early, if we get ROTR.

We usually only do a few ADRs over a week's stay and if we stay for only a few days, then I may do 1 TS restaurant. Honestly, I feel like TS dining while it can be very nice and relaxing especially in park on hot, long days, a lot of times it's time consuming, more expensive than other in park options and not necessarily any better. I try to pick the options that make the most sense based on our park plans, time of day/temps, etc. We usually try to do a TS we've not done before or go back to a favorite but now not having to book FP+, not having a ton of ADRs is liberating. It gives us so much more flexibility.

Now just my two cents, the idea of sitting at the resort pool all day and then going to the parks at 4pm then to just sit down for dinner sounds like a complete waste of park time when I've sat around all day already. But I realize everyone vacations differently and has a different idea of what works for them. As long as that's your game plan, I say stick with it. We've done trips with no ADRs and loved it and vice versa.

 

[Sue M]

We’ve had DDP, & TIW. Done most of the TS. Now we mostly do QS with some fav TS sprinkled in. I find we enjoy not being tied down to ADRs. And in Florida summers we don’t want big meals.

 

[NYCgrrl]

We eat breakfast before we leave the hotel and then have a late lunch or early dinner; it’s rare for us to eat three meals a day. Generally we opt for a TS over a QS.

 

[NY Pirate Princess]

We tend to book 4 or 5 TS dinners for a 7 night trip and end up cancelling the one or two at the back end. Too tired, too hot, and too full to spend more money on food we can't finish! If we need a break we watch an air conditioned show or go back to the resort.

Since OP is starting parks at 4 pm instead of rope drop and retreat like we do, TS might make more sense? Can always make reservations and cancel them if it doesn't work, but might not be able to walk up if you don't make reservations and want TS on the fly.

OP doesn't state what time of year they are going, but if it is summer it is hot, hot, hot. I couldn't sit down and enjoy a full dinner no matter how cold the ac was at WDW in July or August more than a time or two.

I would not eat at Rainforest if I could help it. AK would be Satuli's or Flame Tree for lunch, depending on diet.