Hi Kathryn,
Welcome to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! I am delighted to hear that you are planning to use the
Disney Dining Plan. When our girls were younger, this was our favorite dining plan!
When we have dined at table-service restaurants in the past, we have certainly been able to take our food to-go once we were ready to leave. On one occasion, we had to finish dinner in an hour. The cast member who served us was gracious - he managed to get our food out to us quickly. Although it was not technically "to-go," we ate what we could and then packed it up to-go. As a general rule, we do not ask to take food to-go from buffet style restaurants. Since we often use our table-service entitlements for character meals, we stay for the entire experience. We never leave before all of the characters come to visit our table.
Keep in mind that you can make your
advanced dining reservations for the times that work best for your family. We now do pre-park opening dining reservations in the morning so that we can enter the parks early and these meals typically require a table-service entitlement on the dining plan. Instead of doing dinner as your table-service meal, you could do a late breakfast and then use your quick-service meal for an early dinner. Or, you could simply make your dinner reservations a little earlier. You could also eat dinner at the resort. We have ordered our food to-go from quick-service restaurants at our resort.
Kathryn, when our girls were younger, we returned to the resort for a nap in the early afternoon. When we headed back to the park for dinner, everyone was refreshed and ready to conquer the evening!
Magic, memories and Minnie Mouse hugs,
Donyell