No DDP need ideas to cut food costs down

[tinksgilrs251520]

Help i need soem ideas i am trying to cut the food cost down (right) I am trying I have a microwave and fridge in the room ... HELP!!!!!!

 

[glitterkittyy]

What we sometimes do is to share entrees. It's not really due to cost but portion. The portions can be huge, and my daughter (who is an adult by WDW standards) won't eat a whole portion. So we split one. That would help cut down costs too, though!

 

[tjmw2727]

We eat breakfast in the room, pack a few snacks for the parks and some crystal light singles and a water bottle.

Our big meal or sit down meal is usually a late lunch, you can get some great meals at lunch prices and we find we need the break by 2ish anyway.

Dinner is usually counterservice and since we usually end our days at Epcot there are some great choices. The meals are usually a decent portion so we often split, this way we can have a little something from a few different countries.

TJ

 

[selina4disney]

We have been known to get a pretzel for lunch rather than a meal, and the ones in Germany are HUGE...we split one. Also been known (many times actually!) to have a Mickey bar for lunch. Now I know that's not nutritious but hey, we're on VACATION!

When I go with my mom or daughter we also split meals....when DH and I go he usually eats his and half of mine, so no splitting there!

 

[dancin Disney style]

Last July we stayed at POP for 14 nights and only spent $700 on food. That includes 3 adults and a 9yo. We did this with only a fridge and toaster in our room.

We had breakfast in our room everyday but one. On that one, we went to Ponderosa and had the $2.99 buffet. We had half of our lunches in our room as well. Just sandwiches and fruit or cheese and crackers with veggies and dip. The other lunches were at CS places. We had dinner out every night. We went twice to CiCi's pizza ($5.49 pizza buffet), a few dinners in the POP food court and a few at Earl of Sandwich. We went to Olive Garden one night and Whispering Canyon one night. Those 2 were the only expensive meals we had, one was $60 and the other $85.

The key to saving money on food is to have a groceries in your room. We saved a lot on drinks by bringing drinks from our room when we were going to a CS. We had cases of water, soda and juice boxes. Also, we shared meals when possible. In some cases the portions at WDW are rather large. It work great with kids and small appetites. We have found that if eating all meals out it is less expensive to have a late breakfast and then an early dinner. If you need to you can add a snack in between.

If you want a grocery list I can give you a few ideas.

 

[tinksgilrs251520]

Last July we stayed at POP for 14 nights and only spent $700 on food. That includes 3 adults and a 9yo. We did this with only a fridge and toaster in our room.

We had breakfast in our room everyday but one. On that one, we went to Ponderosa and had the $2.99 buffet. We had half of our lunches in our room as well. Just sandwiches and fruit or cheese and crackers with veggies and dip. The other lunches were at CS places. We had dinner out every night. We went twice to CiCi's pizza ($5.49 pizza buffet), a few dinners in the POP food court and a few at Earl of Sandwich. We went to Olive Garden one night and Whispering Canyon one night. Those 2 were the only expensive meals we had, one was $60 and the other $85.

The key to saving money on food is to have a groceries in your room. We saved a lot on drinks by bringing drinks from our room when we were going to a CS. We had cases of water, soda and juice boxes. Also, we shared meals when possible. In some cases the portions at WDW are rather large. It work great with kids and small appetites. We have found that if eating all meals out it is less expensive to have a late breakfast and then an early dinner. If you need to you can add a snack in between.

If you want a grocery list I can give you a few ideas.

That would be great

 

[summermac]

If you must do a character meal or two, go with breakfast. It's the cheapest.
Share meals whenever you can.
Order appetizer as entree.
For TS, consider an early dinner (4:00) b/c it's often the lunch menu and cheaper.
Bring granola bars, etc for quick breakfasts. Maybe even a variety pack of cereal and buy milk at hotel CS.
Get water instead of pop - it's free & you can even get it at any CS for no charge without ordering
Pack a small cooler with cold drinks & snacks.
Bring a water bottle and refill it frequently at water fountains.
If you have a car, go offsite for late dinner when you've had your fill of the parks. Pizza Hut baby.

 

[Praying Colonel]

We go to Publix before we check in so we can have breakfast and drinks in the room.

A few years ago we bought water filter bottles from Pure Water 2 Go and they have long since paid for themselves. We just refill at the park water fountains as we go.

Everybody gets their own snack in the park, but we split lunch meals and dinner entrees, and have water with our meals.

 

[DaveStroem]

Breakfast in the room. Instant oatmeal takes up no space in your luggage and even with out a microwave, you can use the coffee maker to heat water. If you want to do counter service breakfast, you can order kids breakfast which is just over $4. For in park meals, Cosmic Rays, Flame Tree BBQ have a 1/2 chicken and ribs meal which could easily be split. There is also the Dbl Burger and buy an extra bun trick. Free water (not bottled) from any CS place.

Just some ideas. Also look on the restaurant section.

 

[Trixie15]

Here's what we are planning:

Most things on the kids menus are chicken nuggets and hotdogs, etc. Instead, we are going to pack lunches for the kids on days we want to eat lunch in the park. Dh and I will share meals that have large portion sizes (Cosmic Rays anyone?) and the kids don't have to eat chicken nuggets for every meal (yuck!)

 

[dancin Disney style]

At minimum you need a fridge but a micro and toaster are a bonus. If you are staying onsite they have micros in the food courts. You can buy a cheap toaster for about $10 that you can leave behind when you go home.

Interpret the list for your own likes and dislikes.
Groceries:
bagels...english muffins
muffins....doughnuts
instant oatmeal packets
single size cereal packets
milk
coffee cream
pop tarts
cheese
crackers
cream cheese
yogurt
fruit
chips...pretzels
cold cuts (I like the Hillshire farms because of the container)
hoagie rolls
cases or water, soda, juice
beer...wine
granola bars.....nutrigrain bars
cookies
coffee....tea
crystal light singles

You can get condiments from the food court ie: plastic cuttlery, mustard, mayo, jam, peanut butter, sugar packets.

Also, bring from home a few dollar store items. A large sharp knife, cutting mat and some ziploc bags of various sizes. Some small bowls for cereal.

I have a travel size kettle that I make coffee and tea with as well as hot water for oatmeal or hot chocolate.


Our 2 week trip only had 4 park days and 4 waterpark days so we had a lot of days that we spent at the pool or out shopping for a few hours. It was planned as a relaxing trip. That makes it a lot easier to be a the resort for lunch. If you are going to be at a park everyday you will need a small soft cooler to pack your lunch or plan to return to the resort everyday.

 

[dlaushey]

Order the double burger and an extra bun on the side - can easily make two burgers that way. I think the bun is only an extra 80 cents or so.

Also, we bring lunch into the park quite often and carry it in our backpack. PBJ's and chips with water bottles is an easy lunch to make in the room and carry in a back pack. We also bring celery and carrots to snack on with our lunch.

We try to only eat 1 meal a day at the parks that we pay for to help keep costs down.

 

[allisonw]

we're having all breakfasts's in the room, except for one, which is one of our two charcter dining buffets. we're having some lunches in the room, but we'll have a microwave that would be harder if you didn't have one. and i'm taking a bunch of snacks into the parks w/ me and drinks and will plan to get free cups of ice. i'm thinking of the refillable mug just b/c i want one. the key is to bring in groceries.



another idea instead of eating at the parks would be to order pizza from a place like papajohns it'll be cheaper and better than the room service pizza w/out all the extra fees.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Order the double burger and an extra bun on the side - can easily make two burgers that way. I think the bun is only an extra 80 cents or so.

They've caught on to this little trick. The charge now for the bun is over $2...about $2.25. Still a little savings. It is a better deal to order 2 kids burger combos. You get a drink included. At a CS an adult can order a kids meal. They don't know, or care who it's for. I do it all the time. Anyway, it's a better portion size for me and I would rather have the carrots and grapes than the fries(I can pretend that the burger is healthy that way).

 

[dlaushey]

They've caught on to this little trick. The charge now for the bun is over $2...about $2.25.

Thanks for the update. We haven't ordered the 2nd bun in a while. We still order the double but just cut in half to share. We always ask for extra "boats" so that we can split and fix the burger the way we want at the fixin's bar.

 

[d1gitman]

i'd just be careful about toasters. i think they are not allowed in the rooms for safety reasons. i have read that WDW will leave a message warning of a fine.

 

[AlternateEgo]

I will tell you, we had the FDDP when I last went. I literally never got to be hungry cause we were always eating. The day we went to MK, we had one Character lunch planned. Didn't have breakfast and by the time we got back to the room, I was in no mood for dinner. The children ate small snacks throughout the day, but never complained they were hungry

 

[golden6911]

Split restaurant meals. Most entrees at WDW are fine to split.
Do a grocery delivery or go grocery shopping. Eat breakfasts in the room and bring your own drinks and snacks to the parks. If things are really tight, make sandwiches and bring them also.
You could probably get by on two meals a day and a snack as well. Eat a late breakfast at around 10, then an early dinner at 4. That way you can get ADRs easier too. I know a lot of times when I tried to eat 3 full meals at WDW I would be stuffed.

 

[ahecht]

One tip I haven't seen yet is ordering a couple of cases of water bottles from Costco for $7 including shipping (you don't have to be a member) and having them delivered to the hotel. It saved a bunch of money compared to buying water in the parks. You can get the water from here -- just order three days in advance of your arrival and have it shipped to the following address:

Have it sent to the following address (replace the stuff in blue with your actual info):

Your Name (Guest)
Disney's All-Star Music Resort
1801 W BUENA VISTA DRIVE
HOLD FOR GUEST ARRIVAL 09/01/09
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL 32830

It should be waiting for you when you arrive.

Other than that, these are my tips for eating cheap. The first two are really the most important -- so many people don't know that they can save money by leaving off the sides and end up just throwing them out anyway, and sodas are a huge waste of money.

• Skip the sides. Many of the sandwiches and entrees from the CS places are enough for a meal if you don't want to share. If you ask them to leave off the apples, carrots, grapes, or fries it will usually knock $2 or so off the price. All CS places will do this even though it isn't on the menu.
• Skip the sodas. They add up in cost quickly and every food service location will give you water for free. You can also order a case of bottled water from Costco as shown above. Caffeine can also lead to dehydration and isn't the best idea in the parks, but if you really need it to get you through the day bring Excedrin.
• Skip the snacks and desserts. Portions are large enough at meals to get you through the day, and if you'll really need a boost you can bring granola bars with you from home.
• Bring your own breakfast, and don't skip it. Eating a good breakfast will make you less hungry for expensive park meals. If your room will have a fridge you can bring cereal and milk, yogurt, cream cheese, and other breakfast foods (freeze it before leaving home and pack it with ice in a soft cooler in your luggage). Otherwise, you can buy bagels or english muffins, peanut butter, jelly, granola bars, etc from a grocery store at home and bring it with you. This also has the advantage of giving you more time in the parks in the morning when crowds are still low.
• Scout out the menues in advance. This way you don't have to settle for something expensive because it's all that you can find. Think outside the box -- DTD and resort food service can be cheaper than those in the parks.
• Order the kid's meal. Don't be ashamed to order a kid's meal if nothing on the adult menu appeals to you. Unless you're a heavy eater most kids meals have enough food for an adult. I wouldn't make a habit out of it (I only did it once on my recent trip), but it can help occasionally.
• Do Table Service at Lunch only. If you want to eat a sit-down meal, do so at lunch. Reservations are easier to get and the food can be 2/3 the price it is at dinner.

On my recent 10-day trip we ate breakfast in our hotel room most days (bagels, cream cheese, and lox that we brought with us), had 7 TS meals, 16 CS meals, and about 6 snacks. We never purchased sodas, although we did buy alcoholic drinks on 3 occasions. Including the price of the breakfast food and granola bars we purchased in advance we spent under $30/person each day including tips -- much less than the dining plan!

P.S. There was another thread on this with lots of great ideas at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1947248

 

[pooh2001]

We even did tuna 2 nights in our room with some crackers and fruit.
Saved us $200 for the price of 2 dinners

We bought a very small jar of mayo (used the refrig in the room) - 4 cans of tuna (2 per night) - crackers - apples - small paring knife - paper plates - disposable large plastic containers (used to mix up the tuna and mayo) - plastic utensils.

Breakfast in our room every morning.
We have done a CP breakfast - but did the 10:30 AM ADR - you sit down at a table by 10:45 AM - have some CP breakfast and then a bit of CP lunch and out of CP by 11:45 AM - so it is lunch really, not breakfast.

Lunch at the Plaza Restaurant in MK is reasonable - if you skip dessert (and the calories). It's still TS and has A/C - but not expensive.

Flame Tree also has nice size lunch items at a reasonable price.