There are certain things at Walt Disney World that we love the idea of more than we actually enjoy the thing in the regular course of a vacation. For example, Old Key West is a special place with a great vibe, nostalgic restaurant and other amenities we enjoy; but it’s an absolute non-starter for us at this stage of our lives, especially without a rental car.
Restaurants, resorts, and even rides like this exist all around Walt Disney World. If you ask me whether I like them, the answer is yes. If you ask whether I want to do one in the moment while we’re actually visiting Walt Disney World, the response might be a bit more tepid: “eh, maybe next time.” And such is the story of how we go a few years between experiencing things we allegedly enjoy.
This recently happened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, when I realized it had been a couple of years since we’d last revisited a few of the restaurants. We usually Park Hop between DHS and EPCOT, and eat at the latter most of the time. On the increasingly rare occasions when I’m doing all-day field testing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, I’m eating the exact same meal at ABC Commissary.
In my defense, there hasn’t been a “need” to research most other restaurants–not much has changed. Apologies if you’ve been sitting on pins and needles anxiously awaiting a re-review of the Chili-Cheese All-Beef Foot-long Hot Dog at Rosie’s All-American Café. It still tastes like a hot dog, same as a decade ago.
A couple of exceptions to this are the restaurants that are supposedly our #1 and #3 counter service recommendations at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We revisited the top-ranked Docking Bay 7 earlier this year (see Review: Is Walt Disney World’s #2 In-Park Counter Service Restaurant Still Worth It?).
Today’s review has us back at the third-rated (or should that be third-rate?!) Woody’s Lunch Box to see how it holds up. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. At least, not in the sense of being a holistic dining experience.
As basic background, Woody’s Lunch Box is a quick-service restaurant in Toy Story Land in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. This dining location serves American comfort food–basically a few sandwiches and potato barrel bowls–and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with largely overlapping menus.
Woody’s Lunch Box is similar to many other DHS counter service restaurants in the sense that it’s just outdoor ordering windows with tables outside. Meaning that on a summer day, you get no reprieve from the heat or humidity when eating here. Unfortunately, there are no open-access indoor air-conditioned spots in Toy Story Land (unless you count the restrooms), so the covers above tables at Woody’s Lunch Box are about as good as it gets.
This has been a known problem since Toy Story Land opened, and is one of the reasons why they added Roundup Rodeo BBQ on the other side of the land. That’s a nice addition, but doesn’t really change the equation on the land as a whole unless you dine there. There have been other minor projects since then to enhance Toy Story Land, but they haven’t really moved the needle a whole lot.
One such example has been work on the seating area at Woody’s Lunch Box. Our original expectation when this project began back in Winter 2022 was that it was a much-needed expansion of the seating area. That’s part of the reason we hit pause on re-reviewing Woody’s Lunch Box, as the seating area (or lack thereof) is such a big component of the overall experience.
I’m not going to recap the whole 3+ year Woody’s Lunch Box seating saga, which contained more ups and downs than nearby Slinky Dog Dash. Suffice to say, the project wrapped up a few months ago and did not materially expand the seating area, but did add permanent shade structures.
It’s a definite upgrade and we don’t want to diminish that, but we expected a bit more. Projects like this have become a punchline at this point, especially since Universal built Epic Universe in only a bit longer. (Thankfully, Walt Disney World clearly has a greater sense of urgency with its current expansion plans, and seems to have turned a corner from the glacially-slow “what did they even do in all that time?!” pace observed from 2022 to 2024.)
Cutting to the chase, the main reason we don’t dine at Woody’s Lunch Box is the seating area. It is woefully undersized for demand, and even if that 3+ year construction project doubled the seating area in size, it probably still wouldn’t be sufficient.
Again, this has been a problem from the beginning. Walt Disney World does (usually) station Cast Members at the access points to the seating area, and they often prevent guests without food from grabbing tables. But this doesn’t always work, as people slip through the cracks amidst chaos and crowds, claim their family is getting food, or whatever.
It’s also common for guests to just linger at Woody’s Lunch Box after eating. Not because the vibes are immaculate and they want to savor this experience for as long as possible, but because Toy Story Land is draining and there’s nowhere else to sit or stand in shade, save for the restrooms. And I probably wouldn’t recommend sitting in there.
It cannot be overemphasized just how unpleasant the actual experience is at Woody’s Lunch Box. Even if you Mobile Order, which is what we always recommend doing since the line for the cash registers is routinely the second-longest wait in the land, you’re in for a wait coupled with confusion and Cast Member checkpoints (again, these are needed to preserve access to the seating area for guests of the actual restaurant).
Once you get your food, good luck with that! Regardless of whether you eat an extra-early lunch at 10 am or in mid-afternoon, there’s about a 90% chance you will not immediately find a table.
There’s an even higher probability that you’ll be one of a half-dozen (or more) parties hovering around, waiting for one of the families that has clearly been done eating for 30 minutes and whose kids are now playing Pokemon on the Switch to leave.
But you really can’t blame them for loitering, because DHS is hot every line is long, and Toy Story Land doesn’t have any other shade. What are you going to tell them to do, go sit on the floor in the bathroom and play Pokemon there? Good luck with that!
So what you will end up doing is eventually finding a bar-style table that does not have chairs and is maybe in use by the party of guests slouched up against a nearby pieces of K’nex fence (here’s hoping that has better structural integrity than what I used to build as a kid), and ask them if they mind if you use a spot at that table. Without looking up from their Switches and phones, one of them makes a noise and gesture in response that’s maybe meant to be yes. Hey, you get it–Pokemon is an engrossing game.
You may not have had their attention before, but you very much do when you bust out your large camera and telephoto lens to start taking dozens of glamour shots of a sandwich. Suddenly, that small seating area feels just a little smaller. You feel the most awkward you’ve felt since earlier that morning when the dad from the one family in a quiet pool at the crack of dawn made eye contact with you while you snapping photos there.
I hope for your sake that all of this very specific example doesn’t apply to you, but the salient point is that the process at Woody’s Lunch Box before you’ve even taken your first bite can be unpleasant to uncomfortable. And this is something that I feel is not fully captured or conveyed in reviews, as theme park veterans often rope drop restaurants to avoid the crowds, even though they’re part and parcel of the overall experience.
Don’t let some of the photos here fool you, which were taken right around rope drop for the sake of capturing the seating area while it was still empty. As awkward as it was to take food photos with my telephoto lens, it was even worse trying to capture the seating area. Understandably so. Who wants a camera pointed in their direction after enduring a hot day in Toy Story Land and finally finding a table at Woody’s Lunch Box?!
When it comes to Woody’s Lunch Box, unpleasant and uncomfortable isn’t just a possible outcome. It’s the baseline if you’re dining here on a moderately busy day during daylight hours. It does get better at night when the sunset adds natural shade all over Toy Story Land. But prior to that, there’s a very good chance–a likelihood–that Woody’s Lunch Box is just more hassle than it’s worth.
To each their own on that, though. Whenever I make restaurant recommendations and exclude Woody’s Lunch Box, there are always Walt Disney World fans who comment on it being snubbed. It’s clearly popular and some fans love and enjoy it, and there’s a reason for that–the food is good, addictively so!
Speaking of the food, not a whole lot has changed since Woody’s Lunch Box opened.
There have been some slight tweaks to the menu, such as going from sliced smoked brisket to shredded smoked brisket on the BBQ Brisket Melt. I still enjoy this sandwich well enough, but it does feel like a quality downgrade–exemplifying Disney’s stated decision to substitute ingredients or suppliers to reduce food costs.
The original version of the BBQ Brisket Melt was top-tier, one of my favorite entrees in all of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The newer incarnation is a rung below my beloved Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich at ABC Commissary. Between the quality difference and the more laid back experience at ABC Commissary, it’s now pretty rare that I go out of my way to order the BBQ Brisket Melt.
They’ve also replaced the Monte Cristo with the more basic Smoked Turkey Sandwich. This could be perceived as a dumbing-down of the menu, but we can’t fault Disney for making this change.
We liked the idea of the Monte Cristo, but the execution left something to be desired. It could’ve been–and should’ve been–awesome. Walt Disney World fans would’ve gone crazy for something like the Monte Cristo served in New Orleans Square at Disneyland, but this was far from that. Given that, can’t blame them for switching to a regular turkey sandwich.
Another thing we enjoy is the Lunch Box Tarts. These are basically fancified Pop-Tart, with higher quality pastry, filling, and fondant coating. It’s not a world-class dessert, nor is it the best that Disney’s Hollywood Studios has to offer, but we’ve never had a bad Lunch Box Tart. They’re reliably tasty.
Conversely, we’ve stopped ordering the Totcho Bowl after a couple underwhelming experiences. It also doesn’t help that it’s such a heavy dish, and you’re eating it in an unpleasant environment that’s hot and lacking in air-conditioning. I’ve also had disappointments with the regular ole Potato Barrels, which are a very basic dish that is seldom as good as what I could make at home–and I’m far from a master chef.
Ultimately, the question we find ourselves asking when debating whether to eat at Woody’s Lunch Box is whether anything on the menu is worth the hassle of ordering, pick-up, and trying to find seating. For us, the answer is no.
We’ll stick to ABC Commissary, which remains the actual #1 counter service restaurant at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Yes, it’s boring and bland on the inside. It’s not as exciting as the options in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or Toy Story Land. But the food is better, bang for buck is great, and the overall experience is superior. ABC Commissary is a strong sleeper pick for a reason.
With that said, it’s not that the food at Woody’s Lunch Box is bad. It’s that it’s not good enough to overcome everything else about the overall experience. And at a time when the dining scene at Disney’s Hollywood Studios has gotten sneakily good, with a variety of delicious counter service entrees and snacks, we see no need to put up with the unpleasantness that comes with lunch at the Lunch Box.
Hopefully this will change at some point in the future. As noted above, Walt Disney World has worked on addressing some of the seating shortcomings of Woody’s Lunch Box, and that work appears to be continuing. There’s a new popcorn stand across from Alien Swirling Saucers that should open any day now; hopefully that pulls some demand away from Woody’s Lunch Box.
It also appears that Walt Disney World is constructing an overflow seating area between Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land, which could help with seating. Unfortunately, it also appears that this area is rather small, and still won’t offer enough capacity to meet guest demand.
Honestly, this sentiment about unpleasantness more or less extends to Toy Story Land as a whole. It’s such a great concept for a land, and I’d love for it to be a place where we want to linger and spend time playing, especially as our daughter has become a huge Toy Story fan.
In reality, it’s one of the least pleasant lands in all of Walt Disney World, and there’s a reason why we either recommend getting in and out during Early Entry, or saving Toy Story Land until the very end of the evening. It’s not just Woody’s Lunch Box–the land as a whole is unpleasant between the hours of 11 am and 4 pm.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about Woody’s Lunch Box? Do you find the experience here to be unpleasant, or do you just need to know how to work around the crowds? Think Woody’s Lunch Box is worth the hassle for the comfort food or not? Agree or disagree with our assessment of Toy Story Land as a whole? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!