DH and I are meeting our niece and young children at Disney in February. We will not be going into the park but staying outside near Disney Springs. That is still too crowded I know but our niece really wants us there and we have become experts at social distancing. My question is about our meals. I was told I would have to make all dining reservations 60 days in advance. They are limiting the number of people in a restaurant at a given time which makes sense. I have no problem with dinner reservations but what about quick breakfasts and lunches or a cool drink to calm the littles? Do we need reservations at the snack bar places also? I am not sure the 5 year old understands that she will need to be hungry on a schedule. Does anyone know how they are handling this? Right now I am looking for excuses not to go at all. TIA

I'm no expert on Disney, but my son and DIL have passes and take me every year in December to see the lights. I think the reservations are for the table service places, which even before the pandemic in February you needed to make reservations. In Disney Springs they have lots of quick eating places, like Chicken Guy, my favorite and great menu for kids. As far as I know wearing a mask in only required in indoor places, of course you can remove it when eating.
Here is a link to the quick eating establishments...
https://www.disneysprings.com/...

Thanks Sherri, we stay well masked all the time everywhere and will be pretty much just staying around the family. I don't care for the crowds there anytime, covid or not. LOL
We'll have to check out Chicken Guy, when we were there 2 years ago we mostly ate the small meals at an the food court beside the hotel. I just checked and the food courts are "temporarily closed." Will have to discuss that with my niece, maybe she knows what is going on.

I split the Loaded Mac Daddy Mac 'N' Cheese with my DIL, OMG, not healthy but sooooo delish. They have good fries too.

LOL, sounds over the top yummy. I am going to have to try that,

My son came by last night and I asked him about the reservations. According to him February isn't real busy unless it is a holiday weekend, which would only be Valentines/President weekend. Still, he said if you plan on a sit down dinner it is best to make a reservation ahead, you may be able to get one even the day your there, they sometimes luck out. Right now all the restaurants for quick serve are open and have no restrictions of social distancing, you stand in line, order your food and sit wherever you want to, he said the Polite pig place and a pizza place is really good too.

We are going to be there the 28 of Feb through the 2nd of March and the 30th of December is the last day we can make any reservations for dining. That is what our confirmation says, 60 days in advance! Sheesh, I have no idea what time the little ones will get hungry, it really makes it difficult for families but I am glad they are being cautious. The food courts where we have eaten before are closed so I guess it will be mostly fast foods. I am looking forward to that Chicken guy, LOL Looks like our rooms will have mini fridges, guess we'll load up on fruit and yogurts for the kids.

I went to Disneyworld for the first time in October 2021. I just got married and we decided to take our honeymoon in Disney.

I HIGHLY recommend looking up The Disney Food Blog. They have a great website and also YouTube videos detailing how to handle a Disney trip. Of course it is focused on food in Disney and Disney Springs but it also includes other great info. I went from knowing nothing about Disney cause I've never been or really looked into it, to feeling confident about the trip.

My husband downloaded the My Disney app which is pretty important to have for keeping track of bookings and making them, seeing menus and what places still have an opening, etc. It is best to just have the most tech savvy person handle the app. It is highly recommended to book food places 60 days out, however we booked a few we really knew we wanted early and then later closer to our trip or sometimes in the park we would make a few more final bookings. Day 1 was super overwhelming for me so we decided it would be too hard to make our reservation for dinner which was outside the park we were in and it was in one of the restaurants within The Polynesian Resort. When we called to cancel our reservation, the call wait time was 2 hours so we just gave up and didn't show up. They say they will charge you if you don't cancel your reservation with enough notice, but I don't think we were charged. Probably because they were too backed up.

The 60 day booking tip is mainly for the super busy fancier or newer dining. Things like Cinderella's Castle, Be Our Guest, etc. There are plenty of quick service dining options that don't need a reservation! One of the coolest options was for some they have a board out front that you can scan to place your order, then you place your order on your phone and it will tell you your approx. wait time. It will also say when your food is ready so you can continue to walk the park until your food is done.

Since it was just my Husband and Me, we ate all kinds of stuff. Shrimp and Grits, Pad Thai, Chicken Curry, Ramen, Sheppard's Pie, etc.

Here is the lunch I got at the quick service restaurant in the Avatar area of Animal Kingdom.


It was amazing food. They have burgers, chicken fingers, hot dogs, sandwiches too but I recommend trying to get at least one thing different.

I wouldn't have known all this existed there if it weren't for watching Disney Food Blog videos on YouTube.

Thanks, that is really good info for the future, I can tell you had a good time. I can remember the year Epcot opened and the food from the different countries was excellent. We also took our son who was just 4 years old to Disney World just 4 weeks after it opened. He is 54 now! Once our sons got older we just never went back until now as my nieces children came along.

As it turns out I cancelled our hotel reservations yesterday (and yes, it took well over an hour on hold.) The family was concerned not only about food but crowds. The youngsters are vaccinated but not boosted and my niece did not want them exposed to too many people. We have rented a big 6 bedroom house in Windsor Hills which is supposed to be only 2 minutes from the park and 12 minutes from Universal - if they decide to go. This way we will have a kitchen for snacks and meals and a private pool. Everybody but DH and I are coming from NJ so warm weather and being able to play outside will be plenty. I am sure they will take the kids to the park on a weekday when it will be less crowded. I wish we could use our FL discount to buy tickets for them but I understand they check ID's. They love going to Disney Springs and might try that one night.