Have I been doing Disney all wrong?

I noticed a huge difference in lines for booths and tables available at 11am when the booths open and after 2pm when park hopping begins. My suggestion is to do the food booths at 11am and not after 2pm from my recent experiences.

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This is a pretty perfect summation of how I feel. When we do an adult trip for a festival we’ll have a sit down breakfast, and then we graze. We might have a sit down dinner, but if we do then we share meals. Then again, when I’ve gone in July and August we made the most of the DDP by doing an early (usually character) breakfast and then lunch before going back for a swim and/or nap, and then heading back into the parks for a ride or two and then dinner and fireworks. Judicious use of 2-credit meals helped ease the burden on the gut.

Now that we don’t have any kids who would eat off of an adult menu the DDP isn’t a great value (especially since we have DVC and Visa discounts at some of the more expensive TS places), so I think we’ll just dine OOP even when they bring back the dining plans, even though we do tend to order apps and desserts.

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This is hilarious!:rofl::rofl::rofl: Has he started to eat you out of house and home yet?:wink:

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Only in cereal. He eats so much cereal. He won’t eat what we cook unless it’s very basic; and instead, he’ll just eat cereal. He has been this way from birth. He was picky with baby foods too. The other one eats pretty much everything though so it balances right?

Edit: It was pretty funny. Goofy kept coming back and trying to get things to stick in the fro.

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My family wilts and gets super grumpy in the FL sun and humidity, late spring through mid-fall.

At the same time, we hate committing ourselves to too many ADRs because we lose flexibility. We worry about being in the right park, at the right time, on the right day!

And if we have an ADR, my family stops snacking! They won’t even share a snack between the 4 of us. They want to save their stomachs for the yummy ADR food! Also, DD23 and DS20 never could eat sweets for a meal. They have to have something savory during “meal times”. Even pancakes and waffles have to be served with eggs, bacon, and or sausage! On our last trip to WDW in 2019, we had grazed EP all day. I was full. But before Epcot Forever, each kid wanted a savory entree! We did a QS, staked out a spot for Epcot Forever, and they ate their savory meal.:roll_eyes:

My solutions? We stopped going to WDW during the wilting times. ADRs every other day so that we can graze the yummy snacks on non ADR days. We have never done a DDP. We lose flexibility. And we have the “We need to get our money’s worth.” mentality. We have always spent way less money OOP, primarily because we don’t drink alcohol. And we would never order so much food OOP compared to DDP because we can’t eat it all!

To each their own!

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Cereal is fortified, right?

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My youngest niece (who’s going on her first solo trip with me next month) is 7 and is such a hit or miss eater that I’m really not sorry that there aren’t a ton of TS options available. We’re booked at Liberty Tree for lunch and Coral Reef for lunch and that’s it for the whole week, and I keep feeling panicked about that until I think about hw much money (and wasted food) I’m going to save by just getting her chicken nuggets or pizza when she actually wants it. Yes, I love eating lovely meals and I did that with her older sister and brother, but that’s just not her jam at all. We’ll have a different kind of trip.

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You are a awesome auntie!

My kids were not adventurous eaters growing up. When they started high school, they developed very gourmet and adventurous taste buds. Since high school, their aunts and uncles always took them out to eat for their birthdays to enjoy new foods.

You won’t regret your decision. We did the fewest number of TS meals that we’ve ever done on this most recent trip. And there were still a couple of TS meals where she barely ate. Even VN, I couldn’t get her to just have a slice of our pizza. She insisted on the kids spaghetti and then ate a couple of bites. Of course, after the lecture of…you are sure that you really want this and will eat it. :roll_eyes:

FWIW, we have eaten at Coral Reef before and my DD actually ate there!

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We also tend to book only one TS these days - my family personally goes for a “brunch” at a lot of restaurants partially because we are hard core rope droppers and partially because I am much more likely to find something my six-year old will consume on a breakfast menu than a dinner menu.

Snacking works well for us for multiple reasons because, and someone earlier in the thread said, if you don’t like a snack (especially when you are dealing with a picky eater!) you’re not potentially throwing away $50 if the food goes uneaten. (Plus, it’s a lot easier to find an alternative family member to consume a rejected snack than an entire meal.)

We have never been fans of the Disney Dining Plan because it just doesn’t line up with the way we eat (sharing meals, I don’t really drink, adults will sometimes eat kids CS meals etc.) And I totally agree with the "we have to get our money’s worth catch-22 with the DDP - I want to order based on what I feel like at the time and not worry about maximizing my savings.

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I choose my battles with him wisely. Getting school work done and having morals is about all I can handle with that one. I have very stubborn and strong-willed kiddos and I’m not sure how that happened! :wink:

My mom used to give me a lot of flack for his diet but the sister loves broccoli, etc. Then one time I found my mom feeding the toddler version of this picky eater, animal crackers on the stairs even though he didn’t eat his dinner. She was whispering to him when I rounded the corner audibly “Don’t tell your mom”

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My touring is primarily at DLR and there we are very much grazers. We actually are not huge on eating when on vacation. We want to do all the stuff! In a couple of weeks I get to go to “Touch of Disney” and focus on the food without feeling like I am missing out since all the rides and attractions will be shut down. I Am am kind of excited to try several items I have been curious about, but never made the time for.

My one and only trip to WDW was in May 2019. The humidity was overwhelming for me, but I don’t remember feeling overly refreshed by our sit down meals. I remember feeling more annoyed that often preceding one, we wouldn’t have time to do anything, but also being too early to check in, which was super frustrating b/c it created a lot of down time. My favorite food day was at Epcot b/c we just grazed our way through f & g. More like “home.”

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I LOVE the food in DLR. It’s so much better than WDW overall. I’m glad you are getting to experience that.

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Yep. Some meals, we may want to order a couple of appetizers. Then, we order 3 entrees instead of 4 entrees. Some entrees are huge and we don’t need 4 entrees. And sometimes, we are just not that hungry. In this case, I moved the ADRs and cancelled. But if we had DDP, we would eat it all! I don’t know about others, but the miles of walking everyday at WDW doesn’t help the huge intake of sugar and starch calories!

My family has “gourmet” taste buds. All you can eat ADRs prepandemic just didn’t work for us. So, we did character meals sparingly. We loved Storybook Dining but Garden Grill was just okay. (I can hear the gasps coming regarding our opinion on Garden Grill!)

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:clap: As parents, we have to pick our battles! We don’t have the energy to fight every battle.

:roll_eyes: That is what happens when people become grandparents!

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I am too! I love the food there too. When I go with my family, we just aren’t interested in spending a lot of time on it. In recent years I have created a bucket list of must do’s that we tackle one or two each visit. My last visit I FINALLY rode on a Main Street vehicle and tried the gumbo! Now I am obsessed with the gumbo!

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Funny. We live in CA and DLR has always been about the attractions!

We will be going to Touch of Disney next week. It will be refreshing to graze leisurely and enjoy the ambience.

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If you’re a foodie you’ll love Napa Rose. Sooo good. And I really enjoy all the NOS food from French Market to Blue Bayou. (To be fair cajun food is my favorite). On my to try list for next trip is Carthay Circle but I like Wine Country Trattoria a lot too. The only meh dining I think I’ve eaten here is The Plaza but we keep doing the brunch because the smorgasbord of characters is insane and you get really different ones that are harder to find elsewhere like Fairy Godmother, Hook, Max and there are like 10 of 'em.

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We will put up with “meh” food for characters in a climate controlled restaurant! It was totally worth every penny when the kids were into character meet and greets.

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The Storyteller’s Cafe on the other hand has yummy food and characters. Used to have the Brother Bears which was rare but I think it’s more generic now. But you only get 4 characters there. DD13 (12 at the time) and I enjoyed the Napa Rose princess brunch last trip too. The food is much better than the WDW versions of princess dining.

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