Table service in same park?

If you do not have Park Hoppers, you will either have to book a Table Service in the park where you start your day or book a restaurant in one of the resorts or Downtown Disney.

You cannot use more than one entry "ticket" in a single day.

If you are only purchasing 1 park per day tickets, you can not enter another park for that day. If you want to do that, you will need to purchase the hopper option.

To sum up the previous posters:
The base ticket at Disney allows for entry to one park each day. If this is your ticket, you will have to choose a meal at the same park that you're visiting for the day. With this ticket, you can leave and return to the SAME park, but you can't visit another park. You can't use "extra" days from this ticket to visit a second park on the same day.

If you select the "park hopper" option, you can visit as many parks as you'd like on the same day. For example, you can spend the day at MK, and then head to Epcot for dinner.

We always get the park hopper, since we like a number of the place in Epcot for dinner, and don't want to be limited. Others find that park hopping takes too much time, so they always spend the entire day (meals included) in the same park.

ibelieveindisneymagic;2467188 wrote: you can leave and return to the SAME park, but you can't visit another park.

It does make planning for Table Service tricky, as you must know in advance which park you are planning for each day and plan your meals with that in mind, whereas if you purchase the park-hoper option, your park ticket does not limit your dining options.

Earlier you had mentioned MK, so I will use that as an example. If I had a base ticket and I wanted to eat table service, I would not only consider table service options in MK, but also all the table service restaurants conveniently located on the monorail resort loop at the Contemporary, the Polynesian or the Grand Floridian or a nice ferry ride to Wilderness Lodge or Fort Wilderness or anywhere really, but no restaurant located inside Epcot, AK or DHS because my base ticket will not allow me to enter those parks once I go into MK.

Good luck!

As pp have said the resorts are a wonderful place to dine. You are then not locked into a certain park. Plus, it gives you a short break from the park and the chance to explore some amazing hotel lobbies.

We have park hoppers but we still approached dining TS this by

1. Make a spreadsheet of the days at WDW
2. Check calendars for details like EMH and shows/fireworks
3. Plan which park you will visit that day and what PART of the day like "EPCOT 4pm to Illuminations"
4. THEN with that grid made, you'll be ready for 6am 180 days out
5. So I'm on the phone with my son who is a 'co-planner' and we're both logged in to Disney and the conversation was like
6. "OK. Tuesday we need a 5pm dinner in EPCOT" and we have our first and second choices ready.

   This approach may sound way crazy but

   1. 6:20am 180 days out we had ALL the meals we wanted on the date and time we wanted them booked and they're all during Christmas week.
   2. Each day at WDW, I can simply look at my phone and say, "Today, we're going to EPCOT and having dinner with the princesses at Akershus at 5pm."
      
       

and YES, we schedule meals outside of the parks. Here are things to consider:

1. How far away is that restaurant REALLY? - From BTMRR to Whispering Canyon is a journey that includes transport and security re-entering the MK if you're going back there
2. Boma makes sense for an AK day like Flying Fish makes sense for an EPCOT day.
   
    

Thank you for all your suggestions and comments. Being a first timer at all this really helps in my planning. One follow up I have is I see on the dining plan for a sit down meal the child has to order off the child's menu if available. Our daughter can only take so many chicken nuggets and mac and cheese meals. If she wanted to choose something off the main menus and us not use the dining credit I would just need to pay out of pocket for her meal correct? Thanks. John

johnw;2467349 wrote: Thank you for all your suggestions and comments. Being a first timer at all this really helps in my planning. One follow up I have is I see on the dining plan for a sit down meal the child has to order off the child's menu if available. Our daughter can only take so many chicken nuggets and mac and cheese meals. If she wanted to choose something off the main menus and us not use the dining credit I would just need to pay out of pocket for her meal correct? Thanks. John

That is correct. Many of the TS locations have added Kids' Mickey Check Meals to their menus in response to kids' health. These offer some diversity to the old menus.