Tag Archives: counter service

Thank Disney it’s Friday – June 29!

Posted on by
11

It’s that time again…time to start making plans for the weekend and hoping that they include lots of Disney activities and thoughts.

There seems to have been yet more food news coming out of Walt Disney World this week with more details being released about the Be Our Guest restaurant coming to Magic Kingdom….so this week’s question has once again got a foodie theme…..

 

If you could eat at only ONE dining location for the duration of your next trip where would you choose and why???

 

Think carefully now….this could be a counter service, a signature restaurant or even a food court at a resort….you will be eating ALL your meals there…so choose wisely!!!!

 

:) :) :)

 

Thank Disney it’s Friday – June 22!

Posted on by
13

 

Well hello Friday!! It feels like it’s been a fairly calm week with everyone recovering from their DCA excitement…. ;)

As I sit here in the dull and rainy UK staring at my soup and sandwich which I have in front of me for my lunch a simple yet effective Friday question springs to mind…….

 

If you were on WDW property right now where would you go for lunch…and of course…why???!

 

:) :) :)

DDP…easy as one, two, free!

Posted on by
Reply

The Disney Dining Plan (DDP) has always fascinated me…or should that be that the people using the DDP have always fascinated me? Despite the plan providing a daily allocation of meals and snacks for your vacation there always seems to be this issue with managing the use of your table service credits and using the numerous unspent snack credits on enough snacks to take home for all your friends and relatives.

Search any number of Disney fan forums and you will find numerous threads on how to ‘efficiently’ use the DDP. Getting your money’s worth….that’s the key…the issue…the deal breaker…

So what happens when you get the Disney Plan for free? Surely that should be where the fun begins; it’s free food after all. But because it’s free does that mean you need to use the plan even more effectively? Don’t waste those credits…get the most out of it…this has cost you NOTHING!!!

Now I have never used a Disney Dining Plan. I have never felt the need. When we go to Walt Disney World we’ll plan a couple of ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) but certainly not one a day for the full fourteen days. We’ll book specific restaurants that we know we want to visit because of their food, atmosphere or how an early ADR will get us into a park before opening.

We love American style breakfasts so we tend to eat A LOT first thing. We love cakes so we’ll usually have at least one of those to keep us going during the day. We love hanging out at our resort in the evening so we’ll usually grab something from the food court if we haven’t already eaten at a counter service during the day. And that’s it; no regular meals, no regular meal times, no rules.

For us when looking at the cost of the DDP it hasn’t added up. Yes, you get a lot of food on the plan for the duration of your vacation. But we don’t actually spend as much on food as we would on buying the dining plan. So until now we’ve ignored all those forum threads, we’ve ignored the little notes on the food counter advising how many credits it will cost to buy this burger and cupcake, and we’ve laughed and shrugged it off when our server looks horrified when we say ‘no, we’re not paying with the dining plan’.

But that is all about to change…..for we shall be using the Disney Dining Plan on our next trip. And it will be free. When booking our latest trip we just couldn’t ignore the offers that were available if we travelled at a certain time of the year so we went for it. And now we are getting free food.

I’m really looking forward to the experience. I’ve tried to play it cool and go along with the ‘well it’s free’ philosophy, but every now and again you find yourself planning a day’s events around that ADR you want to book or how many table service points you’ll have used by that day.

Will we have an abundance of snack credits? Will we feel like we are eating all day long? Will we look for the most expensive thing on the menu…because it’s free? I can’t wait for this new Disney experience.

So what about you? Do you have any tales from using a Disney Dining Plan for the very first time? Or any traditions that you have when eating ‘free food’ in WDW?

Food glorious food!

Posted on by
4

I love American food….and I love planning and researching my WDW trips…imagine my delight when I came across a website that connected the two!

It was December 2010 and we were at the WDW Radio 200th episode party. Despite feeling overwhelmed (in a good way) I was trying to mingle and chat to as many people as I had the courage to approach. Whilst waiting to say goodbye to Lou we got chatting to a girl called AJ. We were talking about the UK, about the States, and of course the subject got onto food! Until AJ gave us her business card I didn’t know that we had been speaking to THE expert on ‘Disney’ food!!

When we returned to the UK at the end of our holiday I picked up AJ’s card and went to seek out her website www.disneyfoodblog.com and that was where my WDW food journey began!

Don’t get me wrong; I’m aware of the vast array of food choices at WDW. I’m aware of many counter service and restaurant style facilities in each of the parks. I’m aware of the Disney Dining Plan and refillable mugs. But I never really understood many of the details until becoming a regular user of The Disney Food Blog.

This website covers everything you need to know about food at WDW and Disneyland; it has food news, reviews, photographs, menus, details on discounts, food related merchandise, dietary requirements and more!

I personally enjoy the dining reviews posted on the website. AJ has a very open and honest style of writing; if she likes something she’ll say it, if she thinks something could have been done better she’ll say it. This gives me the option of forming my own opinion and deciding whether to try that restaurant, meal, or snack for myself. And there’s a simple thing that makes this website fun; if you leave a comment on a post AJ will do her very best to respond to what you’ve written, it makes you feel like every comment is appreciated :)

In the last few months AJ has also launched a series of Disney Food Blog e-books. Not only are they downloadable, so that you can have them to hand on your digital reader or phone, but they have links to various pages on the website so the information will always be up to date. A must for every serious WDW planner like myself!

Reading the information and reviews on this website has made me enthusiastic and intrigued about the variety of food available at WDW. So much so that I’ve opted for the Disney Dining Plan for my trip next year and will be using The Disney Food Blog for a lot of planning and advanced dining reservations (ADR’s). It will also be our first visit to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, but no need to panic as AJ has that covered as well!

And on a more serious note, I’ve been training for ‘The Disney Food Blog WDW Cupcake Crawl’….yes, you read that right…earlier this year AJ produced a map of WDW and ten different cupcakes to eat at various locations on property…now that’s my kind of exercise!!!! ;)