Does anyone else take food with them?

[cdnmickeylover]

I've been reading up on the restaurant board about the different restaurants and was wondering if anyone else took their own food like we do. We drive so it's easy to take food with us. We have a car fridge that has the adaptor to use in the room. We do breakfast in the room and take a lunch with us to the parks. Dinner is sometimes in the park and sometimes back in the room. Does anyone else do this? It's not that we don't like to eat out but it gets expensive and this really saves us a lot of money and allows us to go more often.

It seems from reading the boards though that most people eat out all 3 meals every day.

Just wondering if anyone saves $ this way or if we are the only ones.

Cdnmickeylover

 

[DMRick]

We bring food items and bring them to the food court and eat there (we don't eat in our room). I'll often have hot cereal (they have hot wter for tea), my own toast or bagels w/butter or cream cheese, items to make sandwiches, and once in a while we'll pick up canned goods and soup to supliment what we buy at the food courts, or bag salad. We bring the heavier paper bowls and plates that can be microwaved, as well as the throw out glad dishes to micro in. We usually are at the parks for dinner time and pick up our meal there, rather than come back to the hotel, but we pack sncks.

 

[SeaWitch]

I agree with you cdnmickeylover. We would rather save a bit of money in the food area to pay for our next trip!

As DVC'ers we have a fridge in our room, so we always buy groceries for our stay. We tend to mostly carry snack-stuff in our fanny packs as it seems as soon as we hit the parks we have a SNACK ATTACK! We bring bottled water in with us (hanging from our straps)... and occasionally will bring sandwiches into the parks... but nothing elaborate.

We do like to eat while we are visiting the counties in Epcot... Yummmm! Morrocco! but tend to bypass the mostly fast-food offerings everywhere else.

Last year, however, we bought a few of the Q&C vouchers from Connections and used them all over to 'check them out'. We found they weren't that much of a savings in the parks, really... and this year will be going back to our food-miserly ways!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

At least I know that we aren't alone on this. I was beginning to wonder because I've seen posts where people list the restaurants they've eaten in and it's like 15 a visit. We usually only do one or two sit down restaurant dinners in a week long visit. We buy the occassional popcorn but mostly because I want the souvenir container. We bring a case of bottled water with us and cool it in the fridge -- we do not pay $3 for a bottle of water in the parks.

Cdnmickeylover

 

[dvc guy]

I agree with SEAWITCH We are also DVC members and have the luxury of a full kitchen. We have breakfast in the room and bring sandwiches and water with us for lunch. We go out for dinner.

I figure we save about 50 dollars a day, and the lunch we pack is a lot better than what you can get in the parks.

 

[SusanD]

We are also DVC members and having a fridge is a big plus. However, I did not travel all this way to make all our meals for our entire vacation. We do breakfast in our room, take snacks to munch on, do one sit down meal and one counter service meal each day.

This seems to be a workable balance between what we can afford and what we enjoy.

 

[summerrluvv]

I usually ship a box of snacks and breakfast items down before we go. In the past, I have packed way too much! This year I'm going to limit it to nutri grain bars, quaker express oatmeal cups, chips and some bottled water and juice. I am more of an eggs or bagel kinda person for breakfast so it's just easier to purchase them at the food court.

 

[Janell Ebert]

We make a run to Costco and a grocery store. We eat cold cereal in the morning and bagel and peanut butter for lunch. Saves time waiting for food lines and of course money. We carry snacks and Capri Sun drinks. Everyone carries their own back pack or fanny pack to keep goodies in. We also have jerky, crackers and granola bars and red licorise(however you spell it). We do counter service some and food court some and eat at some of the other resorts when we visit. We like baked potatoes, fish and chips, pizza and of course Mickey bars and a trip with out a turkey leg is unheard of. We share they are awful salty. We like Flame Tree Barbaque in AK and Columbia House in MK and Peco Bills. Fish and Chips or baked potatoes at MGM and have to have Dole Whip at MK and chocolate chip cookie with ice cream from bakery in MK and pasteries from France in Epcot. Like shaved ice in Epcot and the Japanese takeout place in Epcot while waiting for fireworks. As you can see we eat real healthy while on vacation.

 

[susan137]

We usually make a stop for a cheapo cooler and some sodas, water and a few adult beverages. When we check out, we just put the cooler in the trash. It is a big savings over what you pay for these things at the resort.....Susan

 

[SeaWitch]

With a nod to SusanD -

However, I did not travel all this way to make all our meals for our entire vacation.

I agree with that - it's my vacation, too! So I don't like to cook EVERY meal in our condo... we will typically eat our dinner out and about. Sometimes in the parks, a resort or even 'outside the world'!
But, as I mentioned before, as soon as our family hits the parks... it's SNACK ATTACK time! If we didn't bring our own snacks and had to pay for Disney's food the entire time

 

[SIDEWALK]

We are only three and we have one of those soft sided coolers that's about 14" square - it is the perfect size. We carry it right on the plane with our tupperware loaded with sandwiches and snacks for the ride and then we keep refilling the tupperwares and zip locks every day with sandwiches and water bottles. Our first stop is the SUPER WAL MART to do the grocery shopping and we're set for the week.

We keep the cooler in the car while we are in the parks and load each persons fannypack with one sandwich and one water bottle which tides us over until the noon time escape back to the house (we rent a villa) for a nap and real lunch. Usually DD dives into the cooler when we get back to the car because she can't seem to go 15 minutes without eating something.

We have one meal a day "out" (after all we are on vacation) but it's around 4 ish (no crowds and we've had our nap and pool0 it's the perfect time and it extends the day- and then back to the parks for our evening excursion.

We have it down to a science by now. Sick huh?

 

[HunnyPots]

Here I am just a few days away from our trip and I've almost decided to just bite the bullet and eat all our meals out. About a month ago, I was really obsessing over the food budget and trying to figure ways to save a few dollars, but right now I'm so tired I just don't think it's worth it!

We are driving, so we will take a cooler with drinks and snacks for the road and for our hotel room. That alone will save quite a bit. We could spend over $40 for the resort mugs or spend $6 for a case of soda. The mugs are cute, but please!

We will probably do counter service and food courts and try to do one sit-down meal a day.

Not a cheap vacation, but not a budget-buster either.

 

[funhouse8]

Are you kidding you would have to be rich to eat all your meals in the park. Well maybe not rich but we can't afford it. I would love to do a dinner show but at $50 a head I can't bring myself to make the ressies. Usually we just eat lunch in the parks (cheaper then dinner.) I pack my suitcase with food. Snacks, drinks, lunchmeat, bagels, and just about anything else that will fit. We will bring in water bottles and snacks.

 

[SIDEWALK]

You would be surprised at how much you save if you and your family stop drinking soda and sugary drinks! We drink water most of the time and have soda on very rare occasions and think of it as liquid candy - really that's what it is. I went down 2 sizes just by cutting out soda and iced tea - they are all sugar! So you would save $$$ and lbs!

 

[patsal]

Part of the fun of vacation is going out to eat for us. What we do to make this more doable is balance things. Usually when we are at WDW we are using our DVC points so we have the luxury of at least a fridge and microwave. We usually have breakfast in the room. We have all of our snack foods with us and carry at least two snacks per person with us. I pay for one snack per day in the parks. We have either a sit down lunch or dinner, usually not both. We do a dinner show every now and again, but I look at them like $25 for dinner and $25 for the show. We supplement with sandwiches or easy mac, etc. One way that we have the ability to spend on food in the parks is because we only eat in a restaurant once per month at home and only order out once every other week. We have saved so much money doing this that eating out at Disney really doesn't break the budget. I like the balance and I am not doing a ton of food prep work while I am on vacation! lol

 

[Local_Girl]

Cdnmickeylover, you're not alone! If we had to eat all 3 meals in the parks, we could afford...maybe a 3 day trip instead of 13 days, LOL!! I would rather have a longer vacation and have to cook or otherwise prepare a few meals than have a really short trip.

That said, here's how we do it. We drive and bring a box of food with us. We stay in an offsite condo with a full kitchen and have all breakfasts there. We do some picnic-type lunches and some counter service lunches, depending on what fits into our schedule. I don't want to carry around a cooler (or stow one in lockers) with sandwiches and the like, so we just carry small snacks in our fanny packs into the parks. If we don't do counter service lunch in the park, we'll have a picnic in the car (or elsewhere) as we park-hop. We travel in the winter when it's cooler...I know we'd be miserable trying to do this in the heat of summer.

We each have a water bottle holder and we purchase water by the case at Sam's Club. DH carries a few extra bottles of water in his pack--he says he doesn't mind and we can't stand the water in the parks' drinking fountains.

Dinners are a mixed bag...several at the condo, a few fast food nights, and 2 or 3 special meals (such as 'Ohana or Chef Mickey) that I try to spread out over the course of the trip. We really don't feel "cheated"...just lucky to be able to visit WDW!!

 

[skiwee1]

Originally posted by funhouse8
Are you kidding you would have to be rich to eat all your meals in the park. Well maybe not rich but we can't afford it. I would love to do a dinner show but at $50 a head I can't bring myself to make the ressies. Usually we just eat lunch in the parks (cheaper then dinner.) I pack my suitcase with food. Snacks, drinks, lunchmeat, bagels, and just about anything else that will fit. We will bring in water bottles and snacks.

You don't have to be rich but it certainly isn't cheap! We eat out every meal and never leave WDW. I don't want to go on vacation and have to worry about what I am going to have on this day or that meal. I make sure to get a PS for one nice sit down meal a day, either a character meal or someplace really nice. Then the other two meals are either a quick breakfast either at Captain Cooks at the Poly, and the other meal, usually lunch, is counter service at the park. Between those meals and many snacks during the day we probably spend $150-175 a day for 2 adults and a 4 y/o. It must be rough on those taking more kids! It seems to have gotten that high due to having to pay for the no longer under 3 y/o. I guess I'm in the minority but the last thing I want to do is fix anything while on vacation. The most we bring with us is snacks for the kid, water for my mother, and diet Pepsi for myself. I have never added up how much all this eating out costs us as we spend 11 days at WDW and go 3 times a year but I don't want to know!

 

[funhouse8]

I try to eat out in the restaurants for lunch because it is cheaper and yes I would love to eat all my meals in the parks but I have four children who are no longer considered child in Disney's eyes so just getting into the parks is an expense for us. I have eaten in quite a few nice restaurants in the parks over the years but really can't do it more then three or four times on one trip. We also enjoy eating around the countries in Epcot. This year we were thinking of doing the poly luau but we aren't sure if it is worth $300.00. I think we might put the money towards the LOS boat rentals instead. Whatever we do, eat in the restaurants, pack a sandwich in a bag or just eat ice cream for dinner, We are still in Disney and enjoying the magic!

 

[shovelhd]

We would alternate between full service and counter service for lunch and dinner. The alternate meal would be the opposite, or a hauled-in snack. One place where we saved was breakfast. They are expensive for the kind of food you get. Good, but for that kind of money I'd rather have a meal. And my DD and I really enjoyed eating our Cheerios overlooking the Boardwalk in the morning.

The fixed price meals are expensive but the show is often worth it. Plus, I don't know about all of you but I like to have a few beers after a long hot day traveling in the parks and the fixed price meals have bottomless beer and wine. A decent glass of wine at Mama Melrose, for example, is $7.50. Have two or three of these and $28.95 for the Fantasmic dinner package with a filet mignon is an outright bargain.

 

[MaMudduck]

Originally posted by shovelhd

The fixed price meals are expensive but the show is often worth it. Plus, I don't know about all of you but I like to have a few beers after a long hot day traveling in the parks and the fixed price meals have bottomless beer and wine. A decent glass of wine at Mama Melrose, for example, is $7.50. Have two or three of these and $28.95 for the Fantasmic dinner package with a filet mignon is an outright bargain.

For REAL!!!!!- I didn't know that, I don't drink but my SIL who is coming with me in Oct. would make good use of the info.