Dining Plan

[Traacy]

We have always purchased the middle dining plan and have this time around as well. Question, does anyone ever feel all the sit down dining taking up too much time? I like that our meals are all paid for and we always get more then enough food. Plus the food has always been delicious. But by the time you travel to the restaurant, wait for seating, order if not buffet and eat. Does it feel like this takes away your time from the parks? Just wondering what other people thoughts are.

 

[bigbabyblues]

That is one of the reasons we've gone to only 1 or 2 TS meals over an entire trip. The last time we did more than that, my kids (teenagers) complained because we had to stop what we were doing and go eat. We had always done a TS meal every day until that trip. We don't use the DDP at all anymore.

 

[DCLPrincess]

I like one sit down each day. Yes it cuts into ride time but I need that break to sit down and get out of the heat. It makes the day better plus you don't have to try and find a seat, they seat you.

 

[knieves711]

I prefer a sit down meal each day. It breaks up the day and I find that we last longer rather than keep going til we drop.

 

[Hopefully]

We have always purchased the middle dining plan and have this time around as well. Question, does anyone ever feel all the sit down dining taking up too much time? I like that our meals are all paid for and we always get more then enough food. Plus the food has always been delicious. But by the time you travel to the restaurant, wait for seating, order if not buffet and eat. Does it feel like this takes away your time from the parks? Just wondering what other people thoughts are.

No
We enjoy an evening ADR to relax.

 

[gharter]

2 TS a day are too much food for us generally. We like a QS for lunch and a nice TS for a relaxing evening.

 

[e mcduck]

the slowing down is what i like about them. if i had small kids and a lot of energy i might feel different.

 

[Shelleyfs]

I think we are past the go, go, go and have a mix of relaxation and parks. We used to be a rope drop and stay almost all day family. Now we try and do one or two sit downs a day. We usually do breakfast and dinner.

 

[3gr8boys]

We don't buy the dining plan, but we usually do one TS a day. I enjoy the stop-and-breathe together time....especially since we often don't all stay together in the parks.

 

[Haley R]

We try to have 1 TS meal per day with or without the dining plan. I like having the time to sit down and have a full meal.

 

[Mr & Mrs DD]

I agree with many of the above posts. One table service per day is plenty enough for us. We do enjoy the down time to stop and sit down, take a break and enjoy a meal. We still manage to get plenty of time in the parks.

 

[jerseygal]

LOVE our TS dinner in the evenings to relax and enjoy!. On our F&W trip this October, 5 nights, doing TS dinner 4 nights, F&W booths 1 night. Looking forward to Narcoosees(haven't been in quite a while)to celebrate my BDay, hopefully a romantic dinner, DH and me! Last night of our vaca, will view Hallowishes from TOW!

 

[Nancyg56]

LOVE our TS dinner in the evenings to relax and enjoy!. On our F&W trip this October, 5 nights, doing TS dinner 4 nights, F&W booths 1 night. Looking forward to Narcoosees(haven't been in quite a while)to celebrate my BDay, hopefully a romantic dinner, DH and me! Last night of our vaca, will view Hallowishes from TOW!

Happy Birthday Jerseygal! Narcoossee is one of our favorites. I booked it for my nieces special dinner together.

 

[jerseygal]

Happy Birthday Jerseygal! Narcoossee is one of our favorites. I booked it for my nieces special dinner together.

THANK YOU very much!

 

[Nancyg56]

My family uses our TS meals as a means to relax and regroup. Someone asked how to slow down on a WDW trip, and this is one of the ways we use to slow our pace down and take time to enjoy the vacation itself, rather than just the parks aspect of the trip. So for us, they do nto take too much time.

 

[verleniahall]

We try to have 1 sit down a day - it helps to relax and actually enjoy vacation

 

[happymommy]

We don't typically do more than a couple TS meals per trip, but that's because my DH isn't normally along on trips! He like to sit down for a meal, so next trip (heading down today), we have 3 booked for our 5 nights, including brunch at California Grill. That's more for a nice date! The others I booked at parks where we will be that day, so no travel time to and fro. And, they're for lunches, as to me it's nice to get a break from the crowds for an hour or so for a sit down lunch at the park where we are. I booked our FP's around the meals then.

I don't see any value in purchasing the dining plan, and when we did have it for free, it's still too many meals (last time we had the QSDP my youngest and I brought home 14 bags of treats with the leftover credits!). Even on that plan, we found portions to be large, and often we either couldn't finish half our food or we shared.

I prefer to eat where we are, or if at MK take a monorail to a resort, or at Epcot maybe walk to an Epcot resort, but it's not worth it to me to travel longer than a few minutes for a meal. There are plenty of choices at the parks (we have lunch at Skipper's Canteen one day, 50's Prime Time one day, plus plan on walking into Yak & Yeti with the Landry's Select card possibly). Dinners will mostly be snacking at Food & Wine or something quick.

 

[mickeynut1]

We have always purchased the middle dining plan and have this time around as well. Question, does anyone ever feel all the sit down dining taking up too much time? I like that our meals are all paid for and we always get more then enough food. Plus the food has always been delicious. But by the time you travel to the restaurant, wait for seating, order if not buffet and eat. Does it feel like this takes away your time from the parks? Just wondering what other people thoughts are.

We always have a sit down dinner every night of our trips and have never found it to be too time consuming as we are usually done within an hour to an hour and a half. Like others have posted, we find a sit down dinner as a nice way to relax and wind down from the day.

 

[kiford]

We never do DDP but we do TS twice a day: breakfast and dinner. I don't like to snarf down my food, I like to take my time and relax. That's much easier at TS. I also want the time in the evening to wind down before going back to the resort or to rest before going back out to the parks. Also, as far as I'm concerned, spending a couple of hours a couple of times a day not only doesn't take away from my vacation, it's a big part of my vacation. I enjoy eating at different places when I'm away from home and I'm not cooking. My touring is generally planned around my dining not the other way around.

 

[twoolle]

We did not have the Dining plan our last trip and only did 3 table service meals. We loved it and I had more energy because I wasn't stuffed to the max all the time. My kids were 8,6,4 and 2 and they preferred it that way as well.

When we do a TS we prefer to do lunch because by then we are ready to sit for a break.