When do you eat your largest meal of the day and why?

[hello starshine]

A mix of breakfast & dinners depending on the plans for the day. This upcoming trip we have 2 TS breakfasts & 5 TS dinners, which I think is probably our normal breakdown. The only thing we never do are planned lunches because I really prefer to leave the entire day open and just snack when I see something good. We don't worry too much about being too full for dinner - I don't think it's ever happened there. But we usually go when it's cold out and while we don't just order a bunch of food to only take a bite, we also don't stress about clearing our dinner plates if we aren't hungry anymore.

 

[Rach3975]

On our first trip, we booked about 4 months out and found that we could only get the restaurants we wanted at lunch time. Turns out that having our big meal of the day at lunch worked perfectly for us, so that's what we've stuck to. We rope drop, so by lunch time we're ready for a rest. Ride lines tend to be long then, so it's a nice time to have a leisurely lunch. It also leaves our options more open for the end of the day. We can play it by ear what time we go back to the hotel, without being stuck in a park waiting for an ADR. Some of us go back for evening entertainment and some of us don't, so doing a QS dinner lets us eat together at the hotel without having to commit 6 months ahead of time who will be going back to the park on any given day. Finally, although it's a non-issue now that our kids are older, it used to work better for dinner to be fast since they were tired and less able to sit patiently and wait then.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Our big meal tends to be a late lunch or early dinner.
Why?
That's when we are hungriest and still have an opportunity to walk it off, LOL.
I really don't like eating a big meal before we go to sleep.

During our last adult trip we ate later than normal but tended towards lighter proteins. Ate an awful lot of fish between Christmas and the New Year.

 

[rwdavis2]

It varies. Depends on what park that day, what we want to eat, if we feel like leaving a park, etc. We don't plan meals to that level. Most of the food is just not worth the trouble.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We eat breakfast at home around 7 or 7:30. If we aren't at home, we'll usually have a bigger breakfast like eggs, bacon, fruit, cereal, etc. Since we are both retired, we skip lunch and eat our one other meal around 3 or 4PM.

 

[WIDad]

We've done both but if you ask my preference, I prefer late breakfast/early lunch. We have had the regular dining plan in our previous trips so usually a snack for breakfast. I liked the TS for lunch because we always took a mid-day break back to the resort for naps. So we normally made rope-drop and then lunch is a good time for a break...then nap. I find that the mid-day break allows us to easily choose a different park in the evening and, with no ADR tying us to a specific park, we can go to whichever park we want. I feel like there is a different energy in the parks in the evenings too (maybe because of the nap?)...I don't know how to explain it, but a QS dinner keeps us in the midst of that.

It also depends on which park we've started at. When we last went...ugh, more than 6 years ago now, HS was a half-day park for us. Those were good days to schedule a TS dinner somewhere else. AK was a half-day park too but that is a case where a late breakfast at Tusker House was always nice.

 

[ellbell]

We usually eat our largest meal for a late lunch. Mostly because this is when we happen to be getting ready to leave the park for a break. I don't want to walk around the parks really full. We also just tend to bring breakfast bars for breakfast and grab a quick service to bring back to the room after the park for dinner.

 

[kaybird]

We also typically book our TS for the mid afternoon. Nice break in the middle of the hottest and most crowded part of the day. The exception of course is if we do a breakfast buffet, which we usually try to do after mid morning so to still take advantage of prime early hours.

 

[ilovebassets]

TS at lunch. We rope drop (because kids are up early anyway) and with three children, we are getting tired and bit cranky by lunch time. We enjoy a full 60-90 minutes in the air conditioning sitting down eating a big meal. Then we spend the afternoon doing any time attractions and scooping up 4th (and 5th fast passes). Then an early CS dinner at our leisure (and CS places tend to be a little less hectic for dinner than for lunch we find) and off to bed around 8pm which is home bedtime.

 

[MainMom]

Lunch
1. We are summer rope droppers
2. We like the ac break and being served after a busy morning
3. We take mid afternoon breaks
4. We never know what our evening plans will be

 

[KNovacovschi]

I prefer breakfast because I tend to not have an appetite when I'm there due to the heat and need to get food in me but my DH prefers dinner so we usually do a couple breakfasts and the rest dinner. I usually just snack the rest of the day. I'm a horrible person to take to a restaurant especially when I'm not hungry.

 

[Amunet]

Breakfast. Need the protein to do rope drop and last til the afternoon. Then snacks!
We will do dinners as well but I always make sure we have a full breakfast with proteins (QS or TS).

 

[North of Mouse]

Our largest meal is the earliest dinner we can get ressies
for - always want lots of walking time after. We never eat
large meals for breakfast unless it's mid morning.

 

[HopperFan]

Goal is lunch table service.

We do light breakfast in room or grab donut/coffee in park,
heavy lunch, long park hours we try to do it late lunch.
Fills us up, nice rest time mid day, and able to walk it off.

Lighter dinner IF hungry like quick service or do a snack.

 

[pattyw]

We like to have a late lunch as our big meal. Light breakfast and light dinner. Works best for our schedule. If we do a TS breakfast, then we usually skip lunch and have a light dinner.

 

[PSUGuy]

Our last half dozen trips were during and for Food&Wine. We'd have a bagel and coffee for breakfast, hit some park at RD then hop to WS where we'd Graze Around the World. In short, we have no large meals at all. The last 2 trips we did dinner at Cape May once during a 9 - 10 day stay but we're dropping that this year.

Bill From PA

 

[brent02139]

Lunch. We're a family with young kids, so at dinner time the kids could be melting down or just ready of the end of day. It's a bit of rolling the dice, there's been times where my wife takes the kids away from the restaurant while I pay the bill in embarrassment while stuffing last few bites of food in my mouth.

 

[gorkt]

We tend to eat light or no breakfast, an early TS or QS lunch (10:30-11am) then an early TS or QS dinner (3:30-4pm) with a large snack at 8pm or later. You avoid the crowds and it is easier to get ADRs.

 

[Captain Kittens]

Probably breakfast (load up at a buffet before hitting the parks) but it could also be lunch to help power through the rest of the day because we know we arent going to be eating until 8 ish.

 

[Scrappygrrl]

We love a late breakfast! But we love breakfast foods at Disney more than some of the other foods we've tried. Examples of a typical day for us:

MK: Up at 7 and yogurt or granola while folks are showering. Rope drop MK, then monorail to Poly for Ohana breakfast at 1045 or 11. Then back to MK to use FP. Snack in afternoon - maybe split some QS if we are hungry at dinner (usually not) - Ice cream while waiting for fireworks. Similar use at AK - breakfast around 1045 or so at Tusker House. Snacking the rest of they day - Maybe a Teylu dog at Pandora (yumm).

EP/HS we do differently because at EP we like trying all the food in the different countries,so we'll snack all day and our big meal will be dinner, Same with HS - we can't go to Disney without lunch or dinner at Sci-Fi!