Saving on Meals

[figaromeetsmarie]

I found this on a website:

MEAL PLANNING

Eating at Disney World can get very expensive. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks can really add and deplete your funds quickly. Here are some suggestions on saving some money.

1. Bring food from home. Have a suitcase just for your food items. You can bring pop tarts, cereal, bread, granola bars, breakfast bars, bagels, peanut butter, jelly, juice boxes, water bottles, and any other non perishable items that you can have for breakfast, lunch and snacks.

2. Eat breakfast in your room before heading to the parks. Also everyone in your party should bring a small pack to carry a snack. A fanny pack is big enough and does not get to be a burden to carry.

3. If you stay at a Disney Resort be sure to use their refillable mug system. Pay approximately $10.00 for a Disney Resort mug and refill it with coffee and soda for the entire time of your stay for free. If your there for 7 days and you have just 2 cups of coffee a day that would cost you approximately $35.00 for the week. Well worth the $10.00. Remember this also applies to soda.

4. Instead of having lunch at a Disney park purchase a TURKEY LEG there. What is a TURKEY LEG?? Well, just that but it is a BIG turkey leg that is delicious and is big enough to feed a couple people. The cost $4.50. Buy some chips or fries and have a great low cost lunch. Believe me you will not be disappointed.

5. Bring your own water bottle to the park. Freeze it the night before. (Rent a refrigerator in the hotel room approximate cost $10.00 per day or you can bring a cooler or buy a cheap Styrofoam one that you can throw away before you leave if your flying, and fill it with ice that you can get free at the resort.) Each water bottle costs $2.50 per bottle so just use your water bottle and refill it at the water fountains in the parks.

6. Book a reservation and eat dinner early 4:00-4:30. Many restaurants allow you to select a meal from the dinner menu and pay lunch prices. This also is a better time to eat as it is not crowded and when the majority of people do eat then you will have less wait time in the attraction line.

7. Stick to your Meal Plan. Actually write it out day by day and follow it. It really adds up when you go off the plan. I calculated that my family spent $140.00 for ice cream bars in a 7 day period. At $2.50 a pop it sure adds up. This money could of bought us 1 1/2 to 2 nights of dinners.

 

[ransom]

Good advice, but I think the most important advice is to budget your snacks and breakfast money beforehand and stick to that budget. On the dining plan (which was paid up before we left, of course), we had no other meal expenses while we were there other than one signature dining experience we paid for out of pocket. The rest of the money went to breakfast and a water here, a popcorn there, etc. It still wasn't that much beyond the dining plan's allowed one snack per person per day, but it's where we spent most of our food dollars while there.

 

[jann1033]

I found this on a website:

MEAL PLANNING

Eating at Disney World can get very expensive. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks can really add and deplete your funds quickly. Here are some suggestions on saving some money.

1. Bring food from home. Have a suitcase just for your food items. You can bring pop tarts, cereal, bread, granola bars, breakfast bars, bagels, peanut butter, jelly, juice boxes, water bottles, and any other non perishable items that you can have for breakfast, lunch and snacks.

2. Eat breakfast in your room before heading to the parks. Also everyone in your party should bring a small pack to carry a snack. A fanny pack is big enough and does not get to be a burden to carry.

3. If you stay at a Disney Resort be sure to use their refillable mug system. Pay approximately $10.00 for a Disney Resort mug and refill it with coffee and soda for the entire time of your stay for free. If your there for 7 days and you have just 2 cups of coffee a day that would cost you approximately $35.00 for the week. Well worth the $10.00. Remember this also applies to soda.

4. Instead of having lunch at a Disney park purchase a TURKEY LEG there. What is a TURKEY LEG?? Well, just that but it is a BIG turkey leg that is delicious and is big enough to feed a couple people. The cost $4.50. Buy some chips or fries and have a great low cost lunch. Believe me you will not be disappointed.

5. Bring your own water bottle to the park. Freeze it the night before. (Rent a refrigerator in the hotel room approximate cost $10.00 per day or you can bring a cooler or buy a cheap Styrofoam one that you can throw away before you leave if your flying, and fill it with ice that you can get free at the resort.) Each water bottle costs $2.50 per bottle so just use your water bottle and refill it at the water fountains in the parks.

6. Book a reservation and eat dinner early 4:00-4:30. Many restaurants allow you to select a meal from the dinner menu and pay lunch prices. This also is a better time to eat as it is not crowded and when the majority of people do eat then you will have less wait time in the attraction line.

7. Stick to your Meal Plan. Actually write it out day by day and follow it. It really adds up when you go off the plan. I calculated that my family spent $140.00 for ice cream bars in a 7 day period. At $2.50 a pop it sure adds up. This money could of bought us 1 1/2 to 2 nights of dinners.

imo the refillable mugs make the most sense if you 1) spend lots of time at your resort 2) stay in a resort that doesn't have a coffee maker.
we bought them last time and found them to be a hassle, we usually drink our coffee waiting for the bus to arrive so that meant lugging empty mugs all day or taking the mugs to food court, asking for a disposable cup , filling the mug, transferring to disposable, take mug to room , drink coffee waiting for bus. we usually don't eat dinner at the home resort so don't really need it for any other time...
imo if you are driving, take a carton of soda/juice with you or buy it when you get therefor the kids and forget the mugs unless you drink your coffee before heading out for the day( which means getting up earlier..we get up to early already be it that we are always at park at rope drop or before. )

last time we went they had changed a lot of the lunch menus to include dinner items but at the same cost as dinner...we always, for the 20+ yrs we have been going to wdw, ate a big meal at lunch for a cheaper price per same item but not anymore.. haven't checked the menus in a while but unless they changed back, it's not as much a savings anymore.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Moderate and deluxe resorts all have refrigerators in the rooms, but most of them do not have freezer sections. A few do, though, and they are small.

Refillable mugs now cost more like $12-13 each. That must have been an old post.

Many restaurants start serving dinner at 4PM and you can't get it for the lunch price.