Disney Dining on the Cheap

[disney1990]

We are headed for a surprise Christmas Vacation to Disney from Dec. 26 - Dec. 31. We are staying at Coronado Springs for the first time. We have our park tickets with the hopper. We have reservations at 1900 Park Fare for the dinner buffet and at Hollywood and Vine so we can see Fantasmic. My question is...we have no other dinner reservations. We are thinking of bringing breakfast foods and snacks and eating bits here and there the rest of the time. (DH loves the turkey legs and I love the Mexican food at Epcot). We are a family of four. How much cash would you bring for food? Where are some Disney treasures to eat at that you can't ge on the DDP? We have always done the DDP, but booked this trip through Travelocity and want to save some money. Any help would be appeciated!

Check out Cosmic Rays at the Magic Kingdom. They have a huge chicken dinner that can feed several people.

 

[TinknBellesMom]

One of our favorite places to eat is Earl of Sandwich. We have yet to have something there we didn't like. All the sandwiches/salads are $5.75 and the kids sandwiches are $3.95. We can feed our family of 4 for under $20. Not too bad for Disney.

 

[cindycastle30]

If you are going to Animal Kingdom, they have one of the best deals in the parks for a meal, the picnic in the park. We had this in August and it was so good, we had the ham one and also ordered the sandwich one for two of us. You get tons of food, we had enough left over to take back to our cabin and snack on later. It comes to approx $10 a person, includes your main dish either sandwich, chicken, or ham, then depending on how many people you order for you get different amounts of side dishes and then everyone gets a dessert and a small bottle of water. Everything comes packed in a reusable grocery bag.

 

[dd50]

i did the character dining at 1900 Park Fare and that really was the biggest rip off. our DD took 3 bites and that was it. The characters were rushed and the food wasn't that great...

However, we HAD to do it once.. now that we did it, no more.

Same thing happened to me and mine are 15 and 11 and all they ate was dessert.

 

[dd50]

I find that I don't eat much so I will share something with one of my girls at times. What I do to save money is bring small dixie type cups and order a large soda and we will split it in the afternoon. That way every one had a drink and we don't have to each carry around a large drink.

For snacks at times we will share a funnel cake and different snacks at Epcot.

 

[tinkattude6]

We are headed for a surprise Christmas Vacation to Disney from Dec. 26 - Dec. 31. We are staying at Coronado Springs for the first time. We have our park tickets with the hopper. We have reservations at 1900 Park Fare for the dinner buffet and at Hollywood and Vine so we can see Fantasmic. My question is...we have no other dinner reservations. We are thinking of bringing breakfast foods and snacks and eating bits here and there the rest of the time. (DH loves the turkey legs and I love the Mexican food at Epcot). We are a family of four. How much cash would you bring for food? Where are some Disney treasures to eat at that you can't ge on the DDP? We have always done the DDP, but booked this trip through Travelocity and want to save some money. Any help would be appeciated!

You can go as cheap as $9.00 per person if you do fast food and up to $30. for sit down and or buffets. All depends what you wanna spend. I would advise against doing the Brown Derby for Fantasmic. We thought it was over priced and not nearly enough food. You can get to fantasmic about 45 min. early get great seats and buy food up their for way less. The preshow is usually good also. We have never been turned away and every seat is good. This includes going at Christmas time.
My family of fives favorite buffet is @Boma AK lodge and you can go outside and see the animals with night vision goggles. We also enjoy the Scifi diner in MGM Studio. food is good but a little pricey. If you have any ? let me know. Also bring water bottles this helps alot,i freeze them partially.Don't miss the Santa story telling in Epcot most magical feeling ever! Enjoy and take your time it will be Magical fun filled holliday. Crystal~

 

[CMMarkins]

try Happy Trails ( I think that's the name) it's a fairly inexpensive all you can eat option for a relaxing lunch at the Wilderness campgrounds - My kids loved it!!!

 

[WDWisTheBest]

one tip to save on meals is to order ice water as your beverage. It is free and for our family of 5 it save us at least $12 per meal. That really adds up and if you don't like the taste of plain water you can bring those little kool aid or crystal light packets to mix in.

This is a really useful tip.

 

[RockAndRollBallerina]

Pack breakfast! Get things like pop tarts, granola bars, nutri grain bars, cereal bowls (the pre package cereal that comes in the form of a bowl with the peel off top).