cheapest or weirdest thing you have ever seen in disney restaurant or food court.

[MelanieC]

Hey we share snacks on our vacation to Disney all the time. We aren't cheap by any means either. We end up spending between $1500-2000 for a two week vacation on food for our family of 4, even after using the DDE card.

We do a sit down lunch and dinner at a TS most days and do very few CS meals.

We do eat breakfast in the room (breakfast bars, pop tarts etc.). It doesn't mean we are cheap, we just prefer to eat while getting ready and save our money on the meals we prefer. We are not big breakfast eaters.

Because we do have lunch and dinner most days at TS restaurants, we are usually too stuffed to have snacks. We don't eat many appetizers and we don't order desserts when we eat. It's just too much food.

But - We do like an occasional snack, and our Disney vacation wouldn't be complete without a Dole Whip, School bread, etc. There is no way we could eat one each! For us, getting one Dole Whip float or one school bread and splitting it four ways is not a big deal. It gives us that taste, without making us sick because we aren't hungry. Or it tides us over because dinner or lunch is in a an hour or so.

We also do this with the yogurt smoothies they serve in the park. 2 is enough for us, so we get two and share. Why spend double so everyone can have one when 2 is enough. We also have no trouble in sharing 2 mickey bars or a mickey bar and a chocolate dipped bannana. For us, it's not about us each having our own - it's about having a taste and enjoying it and not stuffing ourselves till we are sick.



Also - The one about the two women switching spots at the Boma buffet is beyond amazing??????? WOW!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Once in Tomorrowland I smelled an interesting food smell that was not like the snack place we were sitting by. Looked around and saw a guy heating up a foil like container, actually they had a couple of them. I think it was like the military mre food things. Everyone was looking at them because actually it smelled pretty good.
Once we were getting ready to go to our adr for lunch at crystal palace. It was a hot day so we were anxious to get going and check in etc. and wait on the benches in the shade on the porch there. Well low and behold a mom and her 2 children were sitting on one of the shaded waiting benches on the porch. She had pulled out her whole lunch for her and the kids from her backpack and was eating away etc. She didnt realize all the waiting, paying customers for that restraunt were waiting to sit down in the shade etc. Needless to say, she packed up her stuff in a hurry and went down to some sunny bench somewhere else.
I dont want to judge others too. I guess something that would bother me would be the smell of something on a hot day etc. Like a tuna sandwhich out in the sun etc.
On our last trip last month while we were walking into coral reef we saw 2 familys both with their own coolers of food. One was on the shaded bench closest to the restraunt, one was on the sunny bench. I felt guilty walking into the restraunt, like I was going to have a great meal etc. and all they could have was sandwhiches etc., but the kids looked like they were having a great time just being there.
Also I have seen a very considerate family who just did not plop down in one of the closest seats etc at mgm at the food court type place. They chose a table that was the farthest away since they had broughten their own cooler of food. They didnt use any of disneys stuff, condiments, napkins etc.
I have broughten food into the parks, but only snacks when the kids were younger. We have also taken food from the buffet, but only food we have touched with they would throw away, like a banana or cookie etc.

 

[dalt01]

when i started this thread my only thought was, isnt this odd???. and it is odd to see someone bring PB into the food court and make their lunch. it is perfectly normal to bring PB to WDW to save some money but whats wrong with the table in your room??? odd, thats all. but guess what? the what i call the "whats your problem" people came out of the woodwork and started snipeing. the next thing you know its all about why are we making fun of people who share. or making fun of people on a strict budget. that was
never the purpose. having said that i will offer this. i costs about a grand per week per head from the time you lock your house door till the minute you walk back in to go on this particular trip so i seriously doubt that many folks who cant afford lunch are out there planning these trips. i think the folks that we see doing these "odd" things can well afford not to do them they are just "odd".

 

[gigi1313]

The only thing is that if we bring food in again, we'll have to do something besides peanut butter. Looking back, that might have not been the best idea in case anyone near us was allergic.

thank you for being nut allergy thoughtful! as i read thru all the peanut butter sandwich in odd place threads my heart was in my throat! ds is peanut allergic and while we are super-careful to wipe down tables/chairs that might have had a peanut butter eater in it before us, it would never occur to me to tell him not to touch the railing while waiting on line for IASW, kwim?

my own story... many moons ago (before dh/kids) i used to travel w/my bro/sil/family... and i worked in the city and frequented coffee shops... sil would BEG me to pick up a few jelly packets every day at breakfast or lunch so she could bring her big ol' loaf of wonder bread and jar of pb so she could make sandwiches for the kids... not 'cause they couldn't afford food, but it was all her kids lived on (and it was before smuckers made those frozen pbj sandwiches)... and the rooms didn't have fridges to keep the jelly jar cold once opened, so she needed the packets... and the funny thing is: I COMPLIED! LOL!

 

[Scornelius]

Cold canned corn? Hey--I bet that would taste great with cold weiners dipped in mayonnaise! The perfect combo meal. Add a refillable mug full of Beverly and you're all set.

Now see, here's what you do: stick the hotdog in the mayo, then stick that into the can of corn. Pre-processed corn dogs. MmmmMmmmm.

 

[Paul in CT]

Last February while passing the pizza window at Spoodles I witnessed one of the boldest gull attacks ever. A man who had just bought a slice of pizza was walking toward me when a gull swooped in from behind him, hit the paper plate and dumped the pizza on the ground. Immediately a bunch of other gulls swarmed in to devour the slice. I hope he went back to the pizza window to explain the "theft" and get a replacement.

 

[Paul in CT]

This thread reminded me of a fond memory of my childhood. I used to spent summers with my grandparents and every Friday my grandmother and I would take the bus into town to shop. For lunch we would get a small pizza from Joe and Nemo's then take it to the BPM lunch counter and buy coffee to drink with the pizza. ( Yea, I used to like that better than beer & pizza. ). The nice woman at the counter used to gives us plates and utensils to eat the pizza along with the coffees.

I was too young to be embarassed, but once when my mother joined us, she started to tell my grandmother that this wasn't right. The woman at the counter told her to "hush up". There was no problem here. We were "regulars".

Thanks for reminding me of the good old days, even if those were not at WDW.

 

[bavaria]

I've been biting my tongue because I can't believe that people pay so much attention to strangers... but here is an example of how I myself may have made it onto this thread.

I was waiting at Sunshine Terrace for a treat; the wait was very long, and I ended up chatting with the people behind me. When I placed my order, they asked about the item. So I asked the server for three spoons, and gave the strangers each a 'taste' of my treat. They decided to order one for themselves, based on the taste

Nothing unhygenic, odd, or cheap about it - simply sharing a moment with some pleasant people...

 

[mefordis]

I was in MK, my wife and I got a Dole whip Float each, and a family of 4 sat down next to us. A father, mother, and two daughters around 10 and 12 years old, they split a small soft serve dole ice cream, and almost shot dole juice out of my nose when the father says mommy gets first taste, hell the soft serve was so small, there wasn't much after her taste. Then when they were down, the father hmmm that sure hit the spot, he must had a small stomach.

Good for them! With portion sizes and girth sizes being as they are today, I think it's great when someone shows some restraint and actually splits something. I think a huge dole whip IS too big for one person.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=798151&highlight=corn

Hope this shows up, one of the corn threads from back then.

 

[Kruuzin]

We saw a family on the monorail pop a pack a wieners out of a back pack and eat them by dipping them into a container of mayo they brought. It just seemed like an odd snack... dipping these uncooked weiners into mayo like they were fries and ketchup.


My husband keeps trying to convince me that hotdogs are just bologna in a different shape. I'm a little skeptical about this. But I could see hime doing that.

 

[BonnieA]

i costs about a grand per week per head from the time you lock your house door till the minute you walk back in to go on this particular trip so i seriously doubt that many folks who cant afford lunch are out there planning these trips.

I think it is 'because" it costs so much that you see some people acting "odd" as you say. Perhaps they have saved long and hard and still may be short a little so the only way is to save some money on food. They want to take the kids while they are at an age to really enjoy it so they economize.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

The weirdest cheap thing I have seen was a group of 20ish boys (4 of them) looking for reciepts in the trash and went in and said they dropped their food and got free replacement food for free. That was really just rude and ticked me off.

On a happy note, a bird stole my 2 year olds soft pretzel 30 seconds after we bought it and the vendor CM rushed over with another one to replace the one the bird ate. I thought that was very nice of him.

 

[dementia412]

I guess I'll be watching out for these bird thieves!

btw I don't think anyone said there was anything wrong about the sharing and bringing food... they said it was odd, strange, wierd, or just plain cheap. There is nothing wrong with being cheap, but it can make you very ammusing to others.

I have a non-Disney strange food event... when I was a kid we went to see Gremlins. Now we always snuck our food and drinks in, but we're talking a can of soda and a candy bar or something like that. Well that night there were a couple guys behind us who had a full KFC meal... chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob.
I still sneak my candy in!

 

[LisaBi]

I like another PP need caffine-sugar free drinks and that is hard to find. I often get water with lemmon and add the non-sweetner on the table. Looks really cheap but really just me tired of water or not fond of the taste of the water!!!!!

I thought I was the only one that did that! During the day I'll order a diet coke, but by 5:00 I have to go decaf. And can't do the sugar. And just don't like to drink plain water. Especially in WDW, the water tastes so nasty. Love those places that have caf-free diet coke, diet sprite, or light lemonade.

 

[verchad]

A Disney related story. On our 2004 trip we drove and stayed one night in Ga. at a plain, non chain hotel. It was okay and they had continental breakfast. We went down about 1 hour before the breakfast ended and started to get our food, cereal, milk, juice, toast, bagels muffins, etc/... to choose from.

Around 30 minutes before breakfast time is to end, an elderly lady starts filling up containers with dry cereal, juice, bread, milk. We're like, "I guess she's just starting cleanup a little early."

About ten minutes of this goes by, she then picks up the containers and leaves the room, again no big deal, we figure she's putting them away somewhere.

Well she was. We then see her get into a car, with out of state plates and an elderly gentleman behind the wheel, and they leave.

Wow! I know it was an elderly woman but she must have had a set of steel ones. As others mentioned, it's one thing to leave with a piece of fruit or a cookie or something you are going to eat right away. It just amazed us to see this. Definitely gave us a laugh for the rest of our trip.

 

[dbmarie]

She said, "Honey, I told you, we share everything." "Why aren't you eating then?" She replied.."I'm waiting on the teeth!!!"

 

[FancyBrat]

We've done Disneyland on a very tight budget, I bought a box of snickers and Microwave Popcorn at Costco before going and we lived on that stuff along with the Continental breakfast at our hotel and a meal split between 2 of us. Thats how tight it turned out to be but we were all happy to be there.

When the now 13 yr old found out about goign to WDW for the first time after jumping for joy the first thing out of her mouth was we won't have to eat just popcorn and snickers will we. LOL I got the DDP for our stay and they will have more food then they can imagine. But that trip on a budget made them appreciate not always having things come easy to them. Was a good lesson.

 

[rockstargeisha]

The weirdest cheap thing I have seen was a group of 20ish boys (4 of them) looking for reciepts in the trash and went in and said they dropped their food and got free replacement food for free. That was really just rude and ticked me off.

That is awful. That's not just cheap but dishonest as well.

 

[sotoalf]

I've been biting my tongue because I can't believe that people pay so much attention to strangers...

I can't imagine life without passing judgment on others (or them on me)!