Best cheap food ideas or places to eat?

[Goofy22]

Family of 5 staying at ssr for 2 days and bcv 7 days! What are the cheapest but best ways to eat? and is there a grocery store in cab distance or bus distance from ssr or bcv? I rather do it my self instead of using wegoshop etc... how far is goodings or publix from these 2 resorts? anyone have any idea?

 

[bicker]

Goodings is just off the edge of WDW property, but if your intent is to save money, it's not the right direction. Publix is about five or six miles south. You can take a cab, for sure, but no busses go that way.

 

[ksumn1]

Not sure about the grocery store locations, but I can give a couole of ideas of saving $ and food costs. One small thing is bring cereal, milk etc and eat the the resort .Looks like you're doing this. Also eat a late lunch for your sit down meal. Same food, less expensive. When you eat in the parks, spilt entrees ir meal.Or order appitizers and no entree. Many appitizers are a meal by themselves. Maybe bring a soft sided cooler to the parks and pack pb&j. ships etc for lunch one day, breakfast in the room and dinner at the resort yu've cooked (spaghetti etc) and you have a full day's meals for practiccly nothing. BYOW (water) to the parks along with the crystal light packs and make your own lemonde etc form the water fountains in the parks. For DH, a vacation isn't a vacation without the food. So for out trip in May, we're doing the dining plan and trying to take advantage by eating at Artist Point, PSB, etc and trying to maximize the cost adantage to the fullest. Hope that helps ya'll some!

 

[elaine and the boys]

Another little tip....if you're buying milk at your resort for breakfast in your room, buy it at the gift shop rather than in the food court. Much cheaper.

 

[spotdog]

The "gift shop" at WDW resorts has a small selection of food, which is much cheaper than the Food Court.

I like to put goldfish crackers, pretzels, peanuts (or peanut butter), dried fruit, cereal, TANG (I put it in tap water), beef jerky and instant oatmeal in my suitcase for in room meals. Sometimes I bring cheese, it keeps well in the ice bucket.

For a reasonable meal at Magic Kingdom, I like the hot dog place on Main Street. I can't remember the name... Casey's?

 

[lordhavemercy]

Sometimes I bring a small electric hot-pot, and stuff it with ziploc bags of instant coffee...tea...instant oatmeal, hot-cocoa, instant soup mix. Small bags of crackers cookies are easy to pack ahead of time...use them while you're on vacation...and then you have an empty bag to pack vacation keepsakes in. There's lots of things in the grocery stores now that all you have to do is add hot water...you can have a good breakfast...lite lunch to tide you over to dinner....or a snack at nite before bed.....

 

[720L]

Don't eat any sit down meals. Most of the food portions are big enough to share between 2 kids.

 

[ellyn2000]

If you're on site, the food courts are pretty reliable for a variety of reasonable food items when you're not in the mood for any more instant oatmeal.....I have also ordered a child's meal at cs places and it was plenty of food for me. DD and I also share a cs meal often and feel like it's plenty of food. You can request a complimentary cup of water at cs places for free if you're not in the mood to pay for or want soda.

 

[Safari Queen]

If you want a restaurant experience instead of eating in the room, the Earl of Sandwich, right across the water in Downtown Disney, is reasonable and very good. Sandwiches can certainly be split between small children.

 

[jmminarik]

Goodings is just off the edge of WDW property, but if your intent is to save money, it's not the right direction. Publix is about five or six miles south. You can take a cab, for sure, but no busses go that way.

Even paying the higher mark-up at Goodings, it is usually cheaper than eating meals in the parks.

-Joe

 

[xraydave]

If you want a restaurant experience instead of eating in the room, the Earl of Sandwich, right across the water in Downtown Disney, is reasonable and very good. Sandwiches can certainly be split between small children.

This was a great tip I found for our last trip. The sandwiches are great and very reasonable.

Another tip already given but worth repeating: Share an meal. We (me DW DD DS) would only order two double cheeseburger "combo" meals. Then we'd ask for an extra bun for each. Sometimes we were charged less than a dollar for the bun. Sometimes they just gave it to us. Then we would split the double burger into singles. They were big enough to make a meal.

I also like the idea of taking the crystal light or instant ice tea packets. Cups of water or ice are free or you can always find a water fountain.

Good luck.

 

[The Sweetness]

If you arent renting a car, Id definitely pack non perishables (snacky sacks of crackers or individual boxes of froot loops etc), and plan on sharing meals at counter service. TS as well if you are spending more. Also, if your fam would enjoy loading up at the beggining or end of the day at a buffet, you can certainly get your $$ worth! (not so much for peckish eaters who are hungry more often)

 

[magiroux]

Well, first off, since you are splitting your stay you will be looking at two trips to the market. Check out/check in times are pretty far apart. Perhaps just the basics (bread, cereal, bagels , PB&J and such) for your 2 day stay and a trip to market with a more extensive list for the 7 days. If transportaion is an issue I think Albertson's lets you fax a list with pick up date/time and you are in & out in less than 5 minutes. That would work well if you need to take a cab.

Since you have 5 people I assume you have at least a partial kitchen at BCV. Breakfast at the resort is a no-brainer. Saves time AND money. You are on vaca so the meals you make should quick and easy. Box mac 'n cheese, hot dogs, sandwich meats, pasta/sauce & throw in a pound of hamburg..you get the pitcure. I stay in Timeshares w/full kitchens when I go to WDW and I basically make my menus and shopping list before I go. Any meal I make takes no more than 20 minutes to prepare and although we eat about 1/2 our meals TS at the park/resorts, we save a TONS of money by preparing meals at the resort. Also, people often mention they have packages of non-perishables sent to the resort before arrival. That could be an excellent option for you too.

As far as on-site meal deals go, I think the cheapest buffets you can find are the way to go.