Dining on a Budget for family of 6.

[disneygma11]

I hope I have posted this in the right place, I am new her, so if it needs to be moved please feel free to do so. I am planning our first trip to Disney World ever for my husband and I and our two adult sons (ages 20 and 18) and our two granddaughters, ages 2 and 3 in December 2011. We will be staying offsite with full kitchen amenities. However, I am wondering what would be the best option to feed all of us while we are there. We will be staying December 1-6th. I thought of putting money on Disney Gift Cards and saving them for our food, then I thought about Grocery Shopping and cooking for us all and taking food in a cooler for Lunch while we are at the park. I would like some advice from seasoned Disney Veterans. If we decide to purchase meals at the park, how much money should I allow for a family this size? We would probably want to eat something similar to Fast Food for Lunch and maybe a Buffet type meal for Supper and eat Breakfast in our room. Any thoughts?

 

[GinnyEmma]

I wouldn't buy gift cards. Set the cash back week by week. Then when the time comes you will have your budget and maybe do a bit of each.

 

[disneygma11]

I wouldn't buy gift cards. Set the cash back week by week. Then when the time comes you will have your budget and maybe do a bit of each.

Thanks! The only reason I like the idea of the Gift Cards is it is much easier to stick back money and not be tempted to spend it anywhere else, because it can only be spent at Disney. Just a little way I have of making sure I stick to my budget. lol

 

[catne]

You can bring a small cooler in to the parks, but not great big ones. And you probably won't want to be hauling a cooler around (they don't allow the ones on wheels) so you'd have to rent a locker & stow it there. Kind of a hassle. That said, Disney fast-food is not cheap! Your typical fast-food lunches in the parks will run you about $10 per adult, and around $5 per child's meal, so with your group, that'd be about $50 for lunch. Now that is not the highest priced counter service meals (you can spend as much as $14 or $15 for a combo platter & coke...more if you want dessert too.) Prices (and foods available) are the same at lunch and dinner at Disney counter service places.

Disney buffets for dinner vary a little from one place to the next, but count on at least $36 per adult and $18 per child. If you want to save a few bucks, plan your Disney buffet meal for lunch (but note: not all buffets are open for lunch!) Those that are open for lunch though, well that lunch will be about $10 cheaper per adult than dinner at the same buffet. Then you can do your fast-food meal in the evening (could even do that "outside" Disney to make it more economical.) For kids that age, I'd suggest Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom for a lunch buffet (Winnie the Pooh & friends visit the tables, you can get pictures with the kids & characters without waiting in line in the park)

 

[umieesa]

Yay! I get so excited for people going to WDW for their first time...be warned though, it's highly addictive

The best thing to do is to look at some dining reviews here on the dis and check out allears for reviews and menus to get an idea of what types of food would interest your group. That being said, there are however, many tried and true counter service restaurants that not only have good food, but large portions and decent prices (considering you're at a theme park). Here are my faves by park (and pretty much the unanimous faves all around):


MK- Cosmic Ray's (large portions which can be shared and healthier options; i.e., half chicken dinners with mashed potatoes and green beans)

EP-Sunshine Seasons (large variety with something to suit everyone, and yummy desserts too!)

DHS-Not many good options in this park, but I have to say my fave (and I use the term loosely here) is Backlot Express. They have a delicious vegetable sandwich with a black bean salad that is surprisingly really good. If you can skip lunch in this park though, I probably would recommend that.

AK- Flame Tree (quite large portions again, similar offering to Cosmic Ray's, but chicken dinners come with baked beans and coleslaw)

DTD-If you could go to downtwon disney easily than definitely Wolfgang Puck Express would get my vote hands down. Some of the best food in Disney! Large portions and realllllyyyy tasty!

Haven't been yet, but planning to try the new Pollo Campero in DTD for our upcoming January trip. They have a family meal priced at 16.99 that seems extremely reasonable and sounds tasty...maybe some others on the board who have been recently can give their thoughts on it.

As for buffet's I think I would actually recommend avoiding them if you're trying to dine on a budget. Disney has raised its prices and you'll be paying about 40 bucks for an adult dinner buffet! Ouch! Without the dining plan I don't think I could ever justify paying for this out of pocket since the food at the buffets tends to generally be mediocre.


Enjoy!

 

[GinnyEmma]

Thanks! The only reason I like the idea of the Gift Cards is it is much easier to stick back money and not be tempted to spend it anywhere else, because it can only be spent at Disney. Just a little way I have of making sure I stick to my budget. lol

I do a bit of that, too. It is just early, and lots can happen in a year.

 

[Kay1]

When we have a kitchen, we mix eating in with eating out. You can also save by calling for pizza and picking up Chinese. I think the buffets are expensive. Check out the menus on this site and on all ears to see if you can find more affordable options.

 

[twooley2]

I hope I have posted this in the right place, I am new her, so if it needs to be moved please feel free to do so. I am planning our first trip to Disney World ever for my husband and I and our two adult sons (ages 20 and 18) and our two granddaughters, ages 2 and 3 in December 2011. We will be staying offsite with full kitchen amenities. However, I am wondering what would be the best option to feed all of us while we are there. We will be staying December 1-6th. I thought of putting money on Disney Gift Cards and saving them for our food, then I thought about Grocery Shopping and cooking for us all and taking food in a cooler for Lunch while we are at the park. I would like some advice from seasoned Disney Veterans. If we decide to purchase meals at the park, how much money should I allow for a family this size? We would probably want to eat something similar to Fast Food for Lunch and maybe a Buffet type meal for Supper and eat Breakfast in our room. Any thoughts?

We did just that last year and every month bought some disney Gift cards. Saved quite a bit doing this. We too have two teens but not any small children. We may be a bit spoiled because it would be hard for us to do sandwiches while in a disney Park with all the other options there. I would feel guilty while my kids see others in the parks eatting goodies. We also bought rainforest cafe gift cards for the T rex restaurant for 200.00 and only spent about 150.00 of the 200 there. There are menu prices on allears.net but it seemed to cost us more than we figured with their menus. We are buying the DLX dining plan not to have to worry about it this time. I can never guess exactly but I think Disney has it down with what it cost based on their menu prices and feel we could have saved with the meal plan

 

[Hibernians]

The Allears website has a list of menu prices for counter service and table service restaurants - this should give you a good idea on what your meals will cost:

http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm


+

 

[scdak]

I hope I have posted this in the right place, I am new her, so if it needs to be moved please feel free to do so. I am planning our first trip to Disney World ever for my husband and I and our two adult sons (ages 20 and 18) and our two granddaughters, ages 2 and 3 in December 2011. We will be staying offsite with full kitchen amenities. However, I am wondering what would be the best option to feed all of us while we are there. We will be staying December 1-6th. I thought of putting money on Disney Gift Cards and saving them for our food, then I thought about Grocery Shopping and cooking for us all and taking food in a cooler for Lunch while we are at the park. I would like some advice from seasoned Disney Veterans. If we decide to purchase meals at the park, how much money should I allow for a family this size? We would probably want to eat something similar to Fast Food for Lunch and maybe a Buffet type meal for Supper and eat Breakfast in our room. Any thoughts?

Another suggestion would be to look into Restaurant.com, there are a number of nice dining options available to buy certificates for dining in Downtown Disney and the surrounding area plus at the Swan (or Dolphin, I can't remember which one) . With discount codes you could save up to 80% on certificates to use for nice meals. I am sure that there is a whole thread on Dis Boards about this site. I was skeptical, thought it was too good to be true, but was easily convinced when I started using them without a any trouble, I have used about 6 of them in the past few months! Nice Dis'ers often post the current discount code info online, making it easy to order them and then you just print them at home. Just read each restaurant rules for redemption. You can also see menus online for each location.

 

[Zeebs]

We were staying offsite too so we combined a few meals at the condo, offsite eateries and I read the reviews and picked 4 places that we wanted to try onsite.


We did two character meals, Chef Mickeys for dinner and Crystal Palace for breakfast. I would suggest though if you want to do a character meal book it for later in your trip and introduce your grandchildren to the characters at the park. If they scream and are terrified CANCEL the booking. My youngest hated the characters. We still went though as my eldest loved them but we just kept the characters away from Seth. But if he was our only child it certainly wouldn't have been that enjoyable and you are paying a premium for the characters to be there while you eat.

Our other two sit down meals were Coral Reef and California Grill which aren't budget but I really wanted to try them. The California Grill was a meal without kids so we didn't mind splashing out.

Unless you are really big eaters you can share counter meals, we always did and if we were hungry afterwards which was rare we would have a snack somewhere else, meant we got to try a few more places.

We find the kids always are wanting a drink and they add up so bring them a bottle of something each so they can have that and save a bought drink for lunch.

We are going again in May for 2 weeks and I am doing the same this time so am currently trying to pick some palces to book. We come from overseas so half the excitement for us is also going to the supermarket and trying out different stuff to what we have at home.

Have a fab time.

Kirsten

 

[footballmouse]

The last time we were there (family of 5) we stayed off-site. On park days I packed each person a nylon drawstring backpack and in there I put ziplock bags of dried cereal & breakfast bars, individual bags of snacks, and they had their own bottle of frozen water & a bottle of cold water. Once they started eating things the bags would get smaller to the point we combined everything into the bigger backpack my husband or myself carried. In there we had a box of frozen Uncrustable sandwhiches, box of cookies, flavor packets for their water, wipes, pretzel rods. We would eat this during the day and for dinner we ate in the park.

On nonpark days, we had a character breakfast planned or reservations for dinner somewhere and we would eat at our condo the rest of the day.

It was easier to save money that way and we were still able to eat out.

 

[Bell30012]

Go to the link below to get a coupon good for 12/19/2010 - 1/1/2011, I know that only covers one day of your vacation but it's 30% off! One of our penny pinching trips (I am known as a miser.) we ate breakfast at Golden Corral and several midday meals at CiCi's pizza buffet, both off property. I found if the kids were full, I spent less.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/12/download-voucher-dine-during-off-hours-save-30-percent/

 

[Chellymouse]

There are quite a few options you have. As others have mentioned, I would not waste $$ on the buffets, especially given the age of your grandchildren, although the 2 y/o is free. Plan to eat breakfast in your condo, pack the majority of your snack items and drinks and check out the various dining options for meals in the parks. Not eating at a buffet will allow you to split one children's meal or, if the children are not good eaters at all, eat off an adult plate.

 

[dis-happy]

Are you planning to be at the parks from open to close or will you return to your rental during the day? I like to bring my crock pot and get something going in the morning. Then when we return later in the day we have a hearty meal (whether it be lunch or dinner). That just leaves a counter service meal at the parks (and maybe one or two table service for the week).

Like PP's have mentined, we also pick some snacks to carry each day. And bring the drink packets to put into free ice water at CS.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Do the grandchildren need naps? Are you going to have them nap in their strollers or are you going to go back to the room?

If you are going back to the room, this is what we use to do when our kids were younger. We would eat a BIG breakfast in the room: eggs, pancakes & bacon with fruit and juice. Almost over stuff ourselves. Then, you could bring a stroller with the cooler down below so, you don't have to rent a locker. Now, the tricky part is finding foods that can go in a cooler that your toddlers will like. But I would pack lunch in the cooler have them eat as you are leaving. Then, once you get back to the room and kids are napping then, I would make lunch for the adults. Then, after nap time. I would repack the cooler with more toddler like foods. Then, at the park eat at a counter service. YOu could definitely share with the toddlers without ordering a meal and same would apply if you did a sitdown.

Now, the only problem I see are the 18 and 20 year old going to want to go back to the room for nap time. The other issue is sometimes people don't feel they get their money's worth unless they stay all day.

Another option would be to eat a HUGE breakfast. Then, eat snacks or counter service lunch and then, stay as long as possible and go back to the condo for a dinner.

There are tons of options and ideas just depends on your priorities.

The above I would do on our other timeshare vacations. But when we are at disney we eat out most of the time. But I usually budget about $175 per day for all of us. That's 2 adults and 2 kids (10 and 13). That includes the grocery stop for waters and breakfast foods, snacks at the parks, counter service lunch and sitdown dinner.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We have done a few budget trips and here's what we did...

Get groceries to have at your hotel that will cover snacks,beverages, light meals.

We eat only 2 meals per day and then have snacks in between if needed. Go to a buffet for a late..ish breakfast, maybe around 10:30am. The breakfast prices are the lowest and you can fill up. Then plan to have either a CS dinner if in the park or eat dinner back at your hotel(from grocery supply). Carry a few snacks and bottles of water with you to avoid buying them.

We eat off site on days that we want to have dinner out. It will save approx 40% over the WDW TS prices. If we eat dinner out we will have had breakfast in our hotel and possibly lunch as well.....this is prepared in our room from the groceries that we bought.


The last time we paid for food we stayed for 14 nights and spent $817, family of 4, on food which included 2 WDW TS dinners and at least one purchased meal per day. We prepared breakfast in our room approx 10 days and prepared lunches 6 or 7 days. We found that on that trip because we were having light breakfasts in our room we needed lunch on several days.

 

[mrzrich]

Look at what the park hours were for this year to get an idea of what they will be next Dec 1-6

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/dec10.cfm?requesttimeout=1000

On nights that your park of choice closes early I would definitely consider eating off site or back at your resort.

I also recommend restaurant.com . Register with them and they will e-mail you codes that allow you to buy $25 gift certificates for as little as $2 or $3. (I've even gotten some for $1)

We were in WDW last week and went off site to eat at Giordanos with a restaurant.com certificate. Our $42 Dinner bill was $19 with the tip!

Also if you do any online shopping, sign up with a rewards program like mypoints.com or others like it. You earn points based on a percentage of what you spend that you cash in for gift cards. You can use these for restaurants. Some even carry Disney gift cards!

THe cheapest buffet at WDW is trails end at Fort Wilderness. Its a quick boat ride from the Magic Kingdom. They serve fried chicken and ribs. They have a to go meal of fried chicken that you can take and eat by the water. (There are little tables at the FW Marina) Last I checked it was around $25 for the to go meal.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We carried in our own snacks in fanny packs and backpacks-those prepackaged peanut butter crackers, pretzels, gummy snacks. They have plenty of water fountains everywhere, so bottled water is really not necessary although many prefer it. And the "kids meals" are in some cases enough for an adult and come with fruit and a small beverage.

But be prepared-food in the parks is expensive!! We did the counter service dining in the parks and some was better than others, but in general the entrees at the counter service were around $10 per entree, plus beverage.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We carried in our own snacks in fanny packs and backpacks-those prepackaged peanut butter crackers, pretzels, gummy snacks. They have plenty of water fountains everywhere, so bottled water is really not necessary although many prefer it. And the "kids meals" are in some cases enough for an adult and come with fruit and a small beverage.

But be prepared-food in the parks is expensive!! We did the counter service dining in the parks and some was better than others, but in general the entrees at the counter service were around $10 per entree, plus beverage.

I have also often just ordered a kids meal for myself. You can get a free cup of ice water from any place that has fountain drinks. That saves a lot as the sodas are around $2.50 each.

You can also share some combo meals between 2 people that don't need a big meal. One of the first ones that comes to mind is the chicken and rib meal at Cosmic Rays. I think it's around $14. Another good one is the half chicken meal at Sunshine Seasons. Per meal you are not saving a lot but over the duration of a trip you can save a fair bit.

A super cheap place to eat is at Earl of Sandwich in DTD. The sandwiches are approx $6 and they are really good. This a huge favourite of ours.