Any tips on saving money at COUNTER SERVICE

[bop28]

I would like to save money wherever I can for our family's trip to Disney, and I think there are probably many ways to save on dining in particular. Does anyone have any tips on saving at counter service places or restaurants? I understand some allow adults to purchase child size meals for instance.

 

[disneysteve]

Biggest savings tip - drink water! You can spend a fortune on Coke in the course of a week's vacation.

2nd biggest savings tip - you can often order things that aren't on the menu. For example, the menu may only list a combo meal with fries and a drink. You can order just the sandwich and not have to pay for the other stuff if you don't want it.

What we often do is get one combo meal and 2 of us just get sandwiches. Then the 3 of us share the one soda and order of fries.

Make good use of the places with great toppings bar like Cosmic Ray's and Peco's Bill's.

Steve

 

[bop28]

I like both of those tips! There will be three of us also, and the one combo meal plus 2 sandwiches make a lot of sense.

 

[Liz]

Steve, did you remember the difference in price between the combo meal and the sandwich alone? I asked about doing this at a fast food restaurant at Disneyland this summer and the price difference was really small, something like just 40 cents cheaper, so I just got the combo. But I suppose even 40 cents adds up if you did it often enough!

Great tips!

 

[Kendallkat2]

<<Biggest savings tip - drink water! You can spend a fortune on Coke in the course of a week's vacation.>>


Make sure you specify a CUP of water. I tried this and they gave me a bottle of water!!! My mistake.

A money saver we always do is my husband and I share a large soda. The cost difference between small and large is I think around 20 cents?? A large is huge!! And, ask for no ice, then you get even more soda for your buck.

Beth

 

[dgaston]

DH and I found we could split meals and be well satisfied. At Cosmic Ray's the half chicken was nice for us, and in MGM at Rosies we would have been easily satified with splitting one of their double cheeseburgers.

 

[ALostBoy]

Hi,

My wife and I started splitting the double
cheeseburger meal. We would cut the
burger in half and share the fries and drink.

It worked out well and we saved at least
$ 6.50 to $ 8.00/meal. Good Luck

 

[Robmom]

I also ordered the kid's meal for myself. It was enough food for me anyway. One time my DD and I shared a pasta dish and we were quite satisfied.

 

[married@wdw]

I do kid's meals at the counter service restaurants -- especially the chicken tenders -- for myself. Love those chicken tenders!

If you'll have a car, another thing you can do is take some snacks into the parks to help stretch a meal. I've taken carrot sticks and chips with us, then we get one meal and share it between the two of us. With the snacks, this is more than enough. We've even gotten away with sharing a kids meal on days we're not very hungry.

I also take one bottle of water with me on the trip and just keep refilling it at fountains and in the room. I drink water like a fish anyway, so this saves a LOT of money on sodas (and when DH is thirsty, he now drinks my water instead of buying a bottle of soda, saving us even more).

I know these aren't counter service, but maybe they'll help too:

Another savings I just read about, at sit down meals, is some places will do half servings for you. Someone on another thread mentioned this as they are dieting (I am too -- Weight Watchers since November) and this is a perfect solution for me. I'm not as concerned about the money as I am about the amount of food I end up eating or throwing away. But they usually charge you less as well so that's certainly an extra bonus!

Something else I've taken to doing at sit downs is order an appetizer and a side salad instead of meal. I can have some of the side dish DH gets if I want it and this is more than enough food for me and is much less expensive (looking at Yachtsman's Steakhouse, the steak dinner I would order is $31, but the steak appetizer is $11, salad is $8 -- savings $12 and about 1500 calories!). And then I have room for dessert (there goes the 1500 calories)!

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by Liz
Steve, did you remember the difference in price between the combo meal and the sandwich alone? I asked about doing this at a fast food restaurant at Disneyland this summer and the price difference was really small, something like just 40 cents cheaper, so I just got the combo. But I suppose even 40 cents adds up if you did it often enough!

Liz - Its true that sometimes the combo is a really good value, but we just don't need all that food. Servings of fries (which we hardly ever eat except on vacation) are huge at Disney. All 3 of us are quite happy with one order. And we also try not to drink that much soda, mostly tap water, so again one soda is plenty. I do think that the difference in price is greater than 40 cents most places in WDW though. And yes, it does add up if you spend that extra money for 2 combos once or twice a day for 7 days.

We have also ordered kids meals for adults. Again, plenty of food and lower prices.

Steve

 

[EthansMom]

I agree with the other replies that ordering a children's meal, skipping soda, and splitting meals is a great way to save money at the Counter Service meals.

Also, if you plan to have any sit-down meals or character meals, it can be quite a bit less expensive to have those for lunch and then do counter service for dinner. Basically, making lunch your big meal of the day can save about $4-$5 per person.

If you are ordering at a sit down restaurant and notice the portions are large, don't be afraid to ask to split a plate -- we do this all the time with our son and no one bats an eyelash. Also, avoiding soda and alcohol can save a lot of dough at the sit down places -- we usually ask for ice water with lemon.

For our upcoming trip, we'll eat at the hotel breakfast buffet ($7.95 per adult), then have a good sized lunch (maybe at a sit down location), afternoon snack, and a lighter dinner (mostly counter service.

EthansMom

 

[rams408]

Another good tip for counter service ----- For our two children, we order 1 double cheese burger combo meal, and ask for an extra bun. We take one of the hamburger patties off the double burger, and put it on the extra bun. The bun cost 80 cents. Some of the cm don't understand at first, but there is a key on their cash register for a bun. This has been a good solution for us, because that way each child gets a "full" sandwich and not a "cut" one. They split the fries and drink, and everyone is happy. Especially my husband, because he just saved $7.00 !!!!!

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

I do not know if this will help but the Flame Tree in Ak has a huge fruit salad for 7 and change. You could order a sandwich with out the combo and share the fruit among 4 people. Of course since it was so good a value it will probably not be there for long.

 

[DISFANS3]

BOP28-Hello, we live in NIXA. Just wanted to know if you fly or drive to WDW? WE drove last June, did this in two days. The next trip for us will be in March when Nixa has there spring break. We will be flying out of KCI on Southwest. Cost too much to fly out of SPFD......

 

[crazymomof4]

Originally posted by rams408
Another good tip for counter service ----- For our two children, we order 1 double cheese burger combo meal, and ask for an extra bun. We take one of the hamburger patties off the double burger, and put it on the extra bun. The bun cost 80 cents. Some of the cm don't understand at first, but there is a key on their cash register for a bun. This has been a good solution for us, because that way each child gets a "full" sandwich and not a "cut" one. They split the fries and drink, and everyone is happy. Especially my husband, because he just saved $7.00 !!!!!

Oh you beat me to it!

I read this idea a few months ago here and we will try it when we are there for our 2 youngest kids. My DH rolled his eyes when I told him about this. He suggested we take an empty bun with us from "home" (renting a house down there) to save him the embarrassment of ordering just a bun. I may even split a burger this way with one of my older kids. I've heard the fixins bar at Pecos Bills is really stocked full of great stuff so you could dress up that plain burger and not even feel like you were economizing!

 

[ceecee]

That's funny.....one bun please!!! They probably get all kinds of weird requests. My vegetarian girlfriend used to order cheeseburgers with everything but the meat, it was funny to see the faces of the people taking the orders.

 

[Liz]

That extra bun idea is awesome! Especially at the places with the great toppings bar. Doesn't Pinocchios Village Haus have a really good topping bar too?

Crazymomof4, if you brought a bun with you to the park by the time you got to lunch it would probably be crumbs!!! Tell your DH you'll order it to save him from being embarrassed!! LOL!

 

[missypie]

My problem - with 3 kids - is that I can't get anyone to agree on what to order. The two younger girls don't eat much at all, and could easily share - but they can't seem to agree. Of course, some of that is the pressure of the moment - you're in line, etc. I guess we could get menus in advance and let them negotiate in advance, but although I'm a planner, I don't plan down to which counter service place to stop at.

But I am glad to hear that you can order w/o the fries, even if you only save a little $$$. Our kids order kids meals, and each meal has enough fries to feed three adults, so of course they can't finish the fries - and I don't make them because they're French Fries, for goodness sake - then DH proclaims that once again we've ordered too much food! (Okay, now I'm just venting. Sorry.)

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by crazymomof4
I've heard the fixins bar at Pecos Bills is really stocked full of great stuff so you could dress up that plain burger and not even feel like you were economizing!

Cosmic Ray's between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland also has a great toppings bar.

Are there any like that in the other parks?

Steve

 

[bop28]

DISFANS3
Hi neighbor! We actually planned on driving this time, and figured about 2 days to get there, but Southwest Airlines had some fares that were too good to pass up....$143 RT nonstop from St.Louis to Orlando. We are going at the end of the month. Flying seemed cheaper than driving this time!