Budget tips on dining at WDW

[Pluto777]

Thought I would start a thread for how to save a few bucks while dining at WDW (including Disney Springs). Any great ideas could go in this thread. I know my son likes T Rex, so I was considering getting a Landry's gift card (if I can find at a discount maybe we can save on a family of 5). Any other ideas?

 

[pigletto]

Thought I would start a thread for how to save a few bucks while dining at WDW (including Disney Springs). Any great ideas could go in this thread. I know my son likes T Rex, so I was considering getting a Landry's gift card (if I can find at a discount maybe we can save on a family of 5). Any other ideas?

Great thread! Costco and Sam’s Club sell the Landrys cards at a discount ( though I haven’t checked recently ) and they work at Yak and Yeti in Animal Kingdom too.

ETA) I just checked and there’s an extra $5 off the $100 gift cards at Costco this week . So it’s $75 for $100 ( comes in two $50 e-gift cards.)

 

[Pluto777]

Great thread! Costco and Sam’s Club sell the Landrys cards at a discount ( though I haven’t checked recently ) and they work at Yak and Yeti in Animal Kingdom too.

ETA) I just checked and there’s an extra $5 off the $100 gift cards at Costco this week . So it’s $75 for $100 ( comes in two $50 e-gift cards.)

Yes, we haven't been at WDW for few years and I was shocked by how much more expensive the menu's have become. My DVC only costs dues, so the room is covered, but it seems the price of food is much higher from a few years ago and we need to stretch the budget on meals somehow. We even considered take-out places offsite around WDW, but even their prices have seen a big jump higher..

If we don't find a solution, it could be Mac and cheese or 'granola bar and PB & J' dinners a few nights!

 

[dpswift]

Landriy’s club. You get preferred seating and a $25 credit for your birthday.

The last I knew Groupon had a Chicken Guy gift card. Millers an offsite restaurant is currently giving a bonus card with purchase of a $50 gift card. Just check the dates that the bonus cards are good for.

A lot of the quick service sides can be a meal.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Yes, we haven't been at WDW for few years and I was shocked by how much more expensive the menu's have become. My DVC only costs dues, so the room is covered, but it seems the price of food is much higher from a few years ago and we need to stretch the budget on meals somehow. We even considered take-out places offsite around WDW, but even their prices have seen a big jump higher..

If we don't find a solution, it could be Mac and cheese or 'granola bar and PB & J' dinners a few nights!

Do you have a kitchen in your unit? If so, I’d be doing breakfast & dinners there & maybe packing pb&j’s for lunches in the parks.
Splurge on the occasional park treat.

ETA - the food costs at WDW used to be pricey, but are now totally insane! And we feel the quality has gone down & portion sizes seem smaller.

 

[Ryoukoe]

You can always find amazing deals on Disney GC's in general, check out the forums. I use them for every type of park dining, even snacks, just by just charging it to the room and then going to the front desk at end of day and using my GC to pay off the charges. While the Landry's GC's are great, you are limited to just eating there, but all restaurants at the parks, hotels and in Disney Springs accept Disney GC's and you can squeeze in some savings that way.

 

[georgina]

ABC Commissary at DHS has a mediterranean salad with chicken for $12.79. Large and filling, and we just drink water with it.

 

[jo-jo]

Do you have a kitchen in your unit? If so, I’d be doing breakfast & dinners there & maybe packing pb&j’s for lunches in the parks.
Splurge on the occasional park treat.

ETA - the food costs at WDW used to be pricey, but are now totally insane! And we feel the quality has gone down & portion sizes seem smaller.

If you decide to do the PB&J, bring a cheap rubbermaid container with you to protect sandwiches in backpack. In your suitcase, fill it with socks or something. Sandwiches taste better not squished and oozing.

With my grandkids, I brought homemade uncrustables, string cheese, and grapes and juice boxes. Threw the cheese and sandwiches in the freezer (if you have one). Disney food is painfull for 6 kids, even more when they eat 4 bites and then they are full.

Something else with my grandkids. We bought waterbottles in park. First day , every one got one. Three drinks, then spilling, flipping, leaving on railing. water fights. Next day. I brought about eight or so 3 oz paper cups. Who wants a drink? Give the cups to the youngest three, pour ,pour, give 1 /2 bottle to older kid, and repeat. Everyone got a drink of cold water. Save the other bottles for later.

edit, spelling

 

[#1hoosierfan]

We have found quick service meals at Flame Tree in AK, Yorkshire in Epcot, and CHH in MK big enough to split between two people.

 

[Anthony1971]

The Kids Breakfast at a CS is mostly fine - I will say this is very resort dependent with GF being on the top of this list and Beach club way at the bottom for the same Mickey Waffles-GF are fresh and will sub Bacon, BC tasted as good as the napkin- when they sit that is exactly the taste. In general there are a lot of CS meals that are a decent price for what you are getting like Flame tree, Mexican in EPOCOT (I will add many of the countries), The meatball sub at Pizza Rizzo is decent, Earl of Sandwich and Polite Pig in DS. Water is free. TS yes are bit pricey but I truly do not find many overly expensive with the exception of Character meals and most Buffets. Water is free at all............
Being DVC as well we mostly have breakfast in the room especially on park days or get a muffin.
Over the years I will say Disney has made huge improvements to CS. Excluding a toaster bagel, muffin or like mostly one CS lunch is enough for us with a kids meal later or sometimes just a snack. TS will be one meal and done for the day with a snack later. You may differ but we are not light eaters in general it is just a lot of food at most places for us.
Another DVC idea is to book one night add the CS DP to get the mug - Yes it is not as good of a deal as in the past so plan the CS- Book the remaining nights and ask for a continuing reservation as a request and at check in. You may have to switch rooms.......But very cheap soda all week to get you fill on non park days and before, after park days.
I will unfortunately add T-Rex has been added to my list of TS to not go back to. We did eat there many years in a row but the food has become not so good and overly expensive last year was the last.... Advice is to stick with the over-priced burger. In the past they had some decent things on the menu but those days are gone that were decent. Chicken guy was great but last year tasted exactly what Freezer chicken tastes like including the slight taste of the freezer. I hope this was a fluke but another family member said the same on a different day.
While I do not frequent outside places at Disney we have a Millers near us... that was a once and done and not to be retried. I will refrain from the details but it was the food. Maybe the one in Florida is better.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Splitting QS is the best way to save IMO. Many meals are way too big for one person anyway and it is a better deal than the child's menu, though DH and I sometimes order from that.

Look for half chicken dinners, tortilla chips with chicken or beef toppings, chicken tender meals etc. You can order a side of most anything from a menu even if it doesn't show (lettuce, cheese, a bun, etc) and be creative. Make sure you ask for a few extra paper plates. You can order large drinks and pour off into a paper cup vs separate drinks or bring a few drinks each in plastic bottles (prepared coffee, ice tea, juice, water etc).

Disney Springs has the best QS IMO at Chicken Guy and Earl of Sandwich. Knowledge is power, so search QS menus on allears.net for the best entrees and have a few places around each park to target depending on when your gang gets hungry. Sometimes there is a huge price difference for essentially the same meal at a restaurant two doors down.

Enjoy!

 

[kwdw]

• Set the expectation everyone is drinking water with their meal (unless something else is included).
• Have groceries in your resort room for breakfast, snacks, even a lunch or dinner.
• Split meals. The one QS chicken fingers and fries meal I got had enough fries for 2-3 people. If you have big eaters, maybe order a side or a dessert and split the entree to add up to enough food.
• Refillable water bottles - everyone carries their own.

I'm a big support of "room meals." For my last solo trip - for the 4 days trip - I spent $100 in groceries and had one QS meal (maybe $18). I did buy two drinks at Starbucks, one Dole Whip float, and one bottle of water, too. I LOVED my experience - I bought yummy stuff for the room that I wanted to eat and I didn't feel like I was missing out. So - probably $40 per day and there were leftover items I could have brought home (crackers, bread, cereal, type stuff). My mom started the "bring food with you" on vacation when I was little and while my choices of "travel foods" have changed over time, that budget approach has helped me spread my vacation money further. Sure - sometimes there is food you must try and food is more central to the experience on some trips - but there is little food at Disney that is super special.

 

[comicguy]

We usually have a few cases of bottles water delivered to our hotel and some breakfast foods (cheerios, yougurt, OJ and milk (half gallon fits in the hotel fridge) and snacks on th go type stuff (beef jerky, popcorn, chips, etc..)

I find Earl of Sandwich one of the better values at WDW (if you like sandwiches), chicken guy is not bad, Blaze pizza is also a good value (2 people can eat one of their pizza and be completely full!!

 

[migirl]

Sign up at Earl of Sandwich to get discounts and a free birthday treat. I also like the Starbucks rewards and app. The DS Starbucks allows you to pay with star rewards.

 

[kathy884]

I'm not sure if this is what you are talking about, but if you are really budgeting minimize the amount of WDW food you eat.

One particular vacation we just had one day at at WDW theme park (Magic Kingdom), but here is what, for example, we did for that day. It was a trip with an extended family group (10 people). We stayed at an offsite condo (two condos actually) and started the day with a big breakfast (made from groceries we purchased at the Piggly Wiggly) there (early breakfast as we did rope drop -- This is before all the new Genie plus stuff when you could still do this offsite by avoiding days with extra magic hours). We also had a soft sided cooler and cooler backpack and made 15 sandwiches for 10 people that we brought into the park. We also in those coolers brought juice boxes, cracker/cheese/peanut butter snacks, and fresh fruit (blueberries and strawberries). WDW lets you bring your own food in.

It was a busy time at the parks, so we for lunch didn't stop, but whoever was hungry when we were walking from ride to ride grabbed something from the cooler. Grandpa had a scooter, and we'd leave the soft sided cooler with his scooter when going on attractions. The food kept most in our gang satisfied all day. Three of us, did stop for some table service burgers around dinner time. The other seven held off until after fireworks. Two of us got Mickey Bars during the fireworks. Then after fireworks were done, we went thru Wendy's drive thru, got some things from there on their bargain menu and went back to the condo and the seven that didn't do the dinner at the Table Service place ate Wendy's food with salad and fruit we had bought at the grocery store back at the condo.

We had the whole group helping with food preparation etc. and it was fun. We were actually trying to see how economically we could do food. Your own food is both cheaper and healthier. And so sorry lol -- I am one of the two people who splurged on a Mickey Bar. It's my special treat to myself when I go to the MK and I got one for my son too.

We were really into budgeting on this trip. Our other two theme parks for the week were SeaWorld and at that time they had a second day free deal. And we all love that park. And our other three days were resort days -- lots of pool time, hot tub time, tennis, game room stuff that the condo, some family games, and some family movies that we watched at the condo too. Great hang out time with the cousins, grandma, grandpa etc. I think our kids enjoyed those days as much or maybe even more than the theme park days, but having both was a fun combination (we do love the theme parks), and overall made for a pretty budget friendly Orlando trip.

 

[Genie+]

ABC Commissary at DHS has a mediterranean salad with chicken for $12.79. Large and filling, and we just drink water with it.

The last few trips we’ve shared this twice each visit. Great price for ‘real’ food. Depending who’s got the bigger appetite, sometimes we’ll add farro salad side for me or French fries for him. I love how quick mobile order usually is too.

 

[gottalovepluto]

• Refillable water bottles - everyone carries their own.

This part is key. One trip I saw a tiny lady with a bag pack that had FOUR large metal water bottles hanging from it and the 3 other people in her crew didn’t have any bottles. They used her as a pack mule and the poor woman looked beat. Don’t be a pack mule. If a kid is too tiny to carry their own bottle yet out of a stroller, share. WDW is hard enough between the heat and walking and filled with water these bottles are noticeable weight.

 

[Oldie13]

We are big eaters but find an adult QS meal is easy to split or a kids meal is enough.

I’m also not ashamed to say I pack a variety of sizes of ziplock and take stuff to go—not chicken though. Leftover fries? They’ll snack later!

 

[DawnM]

We are not big eaters. We only have one big eater who is a body builder but he is very picky about what he eats. That said, we don't do the sit down all you can eat places for this reason. We loved BOG when it wasn't a pre-fix menu. Now we won't go.

We eat one meal and sometimes one snack in the park. We have b-fast before we go, take lots of snacks with us, buy a hot meal for late lunch, and then leave when we are ready for dinner, usually around 8pm. DH and I usually get a meal to share and then our 6 year old gets a kids meal he won't finish, so DH will finish that if he is still hungry.

Sometimes we get an ice cream or pretzel during the day. It just depends. But honestly, our stomachs can't handle eating out 3 times per day! We make dinner in the condo typically.

 

[hsmamato2]

Breakfast in room -always! It's cheap and easy to have quick oatmeal or a bowl of cereal or a muffin with coffee before we leave. QS all the way, many are shareable but if not, look at menus and choose well- there are lots of great qs places on property with decent choices,like salads, soup, variety of items (not just burgers and fries stuff) We like to eat lunch and dinner out somewhere qs daily, but frequently we have leftovers,so we have that for a late dinner in room when we get back too. I personally like places with salads, and I've found unique salad choices that are different at each location.