How crowded are counter service restaurants when park is crowded (NYE)?

[anomamatt]

We decided to make a last-minute change to our Christmas/NYE Disney trip to include a first-ever trip to UO (for WWoHP for the kids). We are doing a VIP tour in which dinner is included and we can eat wherever we want.

Originally I wanted to eat at 3 broomsticks, but the VIP planner said it might be too crowded and really wanted us to have reservations at a table service.

Should we really avoid counter service on NYE (at ~5pm)? Or will we be OK?

Thanks!

 

[Metro West]

All of the restaurants in the park and in CityWalk will be extremely busy throughout the day. I would suggest trying to eat at off peak times to keep the wait at a minimum but it's still going to be slammed.

 

[bchbetha]

5pm will be crowded but not impossible.

 

[anomamatt]

All of the restaurants in the park and in CityWalk will be extremely busy throughout the day. I would suggest trying to eat at off peak times to keep the wait at a minimum but it's still going to be slammed.

Thanks! Maybe that is the best idea, but I want to try to take advantage of the included dinner (with the tour) as it's "free" -- and still eat outside the tour hours (it ends at 5). However, I know better than to try to eat counter service (or anywhere without a reservation) in the magic kingdom on 12/31 and it seems like Universal isn't too different (which isn't a big surprise)...

Thanks for the thoughts... Hmm, maybe I'll plan on 3 broomsticks and if that is too crowded, we'll eat something quick off site on our way back to WDW.

 

[Jeremy Nolen]

We were just there and it seemed like the counter service restaurants got busy around 12-1PM and stayed that way for most of the rest of the day. The lines are compounded by the fact that people take an insanely long time to order, even though at most of the counter-service restaurants, the menus have about 5 items on them. The HP themed places were by far the busiest, while some of the other ones, like Thunder Terrace in IOA, didn't seem too bad (at least, the lines weren't out the doors.)

We got reservations at Mythos for lunch one of the days we were there, and the prices were actually cheaper than a lot of the counter service food, which doesn't make any sense, but was a nice surprise. The food at Mythos was good-but-not-great, service was excellent. We didn't really eat any counter service food, apart from a couple of plates of chicken tenders to keep the kids from starving to death.