Does anyone else take food with them?

[geffric]

We drive so we bring a cooler and stop at the Super Wal-Mart center on 192. We are DVC so we have a full kitchen. Breakfast is at the resort, we bring lots of water to the parks( at $2.50 each, the family and I can carry a lot of water) nutrigrain bars, apples, carrots, PB & J sandwiches, crackers etc. We stock up on frozen pizza, tuna, pasta and other dinner stuff, plus I do some cooking. I always make a turkey early on in the vacation, so we can have leftovers for sandwiches and dinner on other night. On another board one of the people suggested bringing your slow cooker, so a wonderful dinner is ready when you get back, We buy Ice cream sandwiches and treats, so the kids can wait until we get back to get their ice cream, instead of spending $10 for the family to each have a scoop. Also, we buy our beverages at WalMart and then we enjoy it in our leisure in the resort. We can pay for a whole case of beer/bottle of wine what a restuarant charges for 2 beers/wine.

Counter service for us is very expensive IMHO
$7 per person plus mik adds up fast for my family . My kids are great milk drinkers and they will drink 2 each. So it gets very pricey at $1 per milk. I would rather bring food and save that $$$ and then have a character lunch or nice dinner for a treat.

 

[shovelhd]

Re:MaMudduck:

I'm not a WDW veteran at all as it was our first trip there. However this was our experience with any fixed price meal that we had to get a PS for and secure with a credit card. Consistently. Have fun.

 

[Penny2]

We always stop to get sodas, snacks, adult beverages, etc. NO MATTER WHERE WE GO, including Disney. We have a fold up cooler that we either check (with snacks) or we fold it up and put it in our luggage. We do this because DH has a tapeworm and eats ALL the time (and still weighs about 150) with a 28 inch waist at 50!

In earlier years, we ate many meals outside of the parks to save money. I went with a girlfriend and her daughter (single mom) who had couponed, bought 2 for 1's, etc. to afford her trip. She stocked our frig at Fort Wilderness and had hot dogs, ham, bread, buns, juice boxes...all kinds of stuff. She couldn't have gone without doing this.

I love DW, but it ain't cheap! I look around at the parks and wonder how people with families even begin to afford it. I say, do whatever works for you so you can be there!

 

[crazelion]

This I have save money at Walt Disney World. I only eat two meals in the park or some offsite place. I have lunch with a snack I bought from home. I stock up on water, powerade, and cokes before i get there. Mom can't go two hours without caffine.

Sometimes I don't eat luch period because I am not hungry. Who can eat in hundred degree heat anyway. I go in the summertime.

I try eat a buffet breakfeast at Shoney's Golden Corral, Pondersa or my favorite at the Kyrstal.


Then eat a light dinner.

That's how I save money.

 

[Jordan's MOM]

We really do not like to carry food into the park other than a non crushable snack or two in DS's fanny pack and on rare occasion our own bottles of water if it get warm during the trip. (We go winter). We have found other ways outside of the park food to save money however. We always take breakfast foods, canned drinks and bottles of water from home. We eat one character buffet and the rest of the time, ceral, fruit, poptart etc from the room. It saves time, money and high fat breakfast foods. We also sometimes pack a picnic lunch for the trip down to save food cost there, and we always take chips and cookies for the room. If we are back at the resort for dinner, we will sometimes get just a sandwich from the food court and then use our chips and cookies and drinks for home to round out the meal. Sometimes we eat this in the food court, sometimes by the pool and sometimes in the room.

When you do eat in resturants, save money by having lunch as the big meal of the day, share meals, (even counter service combo's can be big enough), and drink water.

At a nice sit down place, , DS and I often share a meal, and DH and I almost always share desert or we forgo the dessert altogether.
Pick and choose from all the different ideas what will work for you. You want to stay in your budget, without feeling deprived on vacation.

Jordan's mom

 

[barbeml]

We drive and spend one night on the road. We pack a cooler for the car (those foam ones that come with Omaha Steaks orders work perfectly and add very little weight) with drink boxes. water, lunch and supper to nuke in our room on our travel night. (We are too tired to look for a restaurant by the time we get to Georgia. I refreeze my ice packs in the in-room freezer.

I also pack wine, beer and munchies--so our cooler becomes our "mini bar" in our room. We just keep it stocked with ice. Although saving money is always good, we just really like the option of kicking back and having drinks in our room in our jammies!

Disney dining is a big part of our trips. However, next trip I plan to bring breakfast chow to eat in our room--yogurt, muffins--since we are not huge breakfast eaters and three restaurant meals a day is tough on the diet.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Does anyone else take food with them? Well we did when we drove- and plan on buying some when we get there on the next trip since we are flying.
But it all depends on the family (or solo or couple) and their financial situation/etc. If I was rich, then yes maybe I'd eat every meal at the parks prices for my family..... but honestly I don't think I'll EVER possibly be rich enough for me to want to do that. LOL I can think of so many other places/ways to spend that money!
When I went on my solo trip- flew and didn't rent a vehicle- totally dependent on WDW transportation- I ate at WDW the entire time. HOWEVER, I ate cheaply sometimes, sometimes not and sometimes I only ate 2 meals a day or whatever. I can't do that with the kids- who are "grazers". In other words they'd rather eat little things a bazillion times a day and it's almost impossible to get them to eat much in one sitting. What a waste of money that would be to buy them meals -especially at the pricier places to eat with PS's, etc. So we'll have to take along snacks so we don't pay a fortune for them (times 3 children) all day every day. And we'll only do PS's at a few places, most of which will be character meals so they'll atleast enjoy the characters even though they are totally not even coming CLOSE to eating enough food to be worth the cost of the meal. I have major "nibblers" here. LOL I mean they can easily share meals- but you can't do that when it's a price "per person" type of meals and buffets are a total waste of money on them.. myself too actually! DH is the only one that ever comes close to getting his money's worth on buffets. LOL

So we'll probably have nonperishable things for breakfast (and maybe buy milk there to go with cereal also) and snack type foods for during the day in the diaper bag (the types that don't have to be kept cool). We'll also drink a lot of water- my husband and I don't drink soda (on Atkins) anymore and I really don't enjoy the hyperness that would result with my 3 kids having soda and juice all day long. So we'll drink mostly water- bringing water bottles with us each day. It not only will save us a lot of money but make the trip more enjoyable for us also. With young children it's not "fun" having to stop and find a place to grab a snack and stand in lines/etc. When they are hungry- they are hungry RIGHT THEN.... not 30 minutes later. LOL

 

[bobcat]

I always bring food to WDW. I love to eat out but there is no way I can do it 7+ days in a row. Like others I take snack foods, breakfast items, juice boxes, soda, and also fruit and sandwich fixings. It is much easier to eat a quick lunch in the room on a pool day or have a snack without having to go buy it. I would rather spend my time doing other things instead of waiting to eat in a restaurant.

We do have a few special meals planned for each trip, a couple of character breakfasts and favorite restaurants.

 

[claudia]

I guess I am in the minority as well. There is no way I am cooking on my vacation....50/51 weeks out of the year is plenty for me!!! Fortunately none of us are soda drinkers, we love to have water. I do bring the Brita water bottles so I never worry about filling up at the fountains. We make a reservation for dinner at the parks or resorts every evening and will do counter service for breakfast and lunch. Our last few visits we stayed at concierge, so we didn't need to bring any snacks....but I have been fortunate to get an AP rate each visit. Maybe because we live on Long Island I don't find Disney to be so expensive. When we go into Manhattan to visit with our son, the hotels can be $300-$400 a nite....the restaurants are very expensive, and if you tag on a show or other entertainment, Disney turns out to be a bargain for us.

 

[tax58]

We have an electric cooler that we bring food in. This year we are going to be there for the 4th of July, so I smoked a pork shoulder and sealed it with my vacuum sealer and froze it, we'll have real bbq for the 4th. We are also DVC members and enjoy the use of the full kitchen. We usually eat one meal a day out and have the rest in the room.

 

[WillAndFinn'sMom]

"Rich" is relative, I guess. Spending $150-175 a day on meals sounds outrageous to me. Yes, it's my vacation, too, but if we had to pay for all our meals inside the park, we simply couldn't go.

I'm happy for those that can do it, though!

I plan on having poptarts, bagels, and fruit for breakfast. We'll probably have lunch a few days in the park, but mostly we'll probably be packing granola bars, raw veggies, etc for quick lunches.

Not sure about supper yet. We'll definitely be taking advantage of that $12.99 16 inch pizza I heard about on here! I'm sure we'll share a few meals, too.

 

[MaMudduck]

Originally posted by WillAndFinn'sMom
" We'll definitely be taking advantage of that $12.99 16 inch pizza I heard about on here! I'm sure we'll share a few meals, too.

Where's is a 16'' pizza for $12.99? Fill me in!

 

[beccasmom]

I'm a DVC member, too and I bring food with me! A few years back when I noticed that a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola was $2.89 at WDW, you better believe I put it back on the shelf! When I'm paying .99 (on a BAD day for the same item at home)....... And I've been bringing a canister of lemonade and ice tea mix with me ever since.

I also bring Britta water bottles, so the water fountain water works just fine for us. I also bring some bacon (freeze it ahead of time, wrap tight), some coffee, little packs of condiments I've saved, frozen hot dogs, some breakfast items (Pop Tarts travel well!), etc. I'm fortunate in that my flight time to Orlando is just over 2 hours and once I get to DVC, I can ask them to refrigerate my items until my room is ready. I don't mind doing some cooking when on vacation. I've been enjoying Disney for so long that I've sampled all of the restaurants I've wanted to. We do treat ourselves to a few slurge-type meals, but that day we make it our big meal - usually lunch. It all depends where we are and what works on that particular day, but having snack-type food available at "home" works for us, as does not eating breakfast out, which is very expensive, in my opinion.

I love Disney, but food there is expensive. And I'm a big fan of doggy bags, too.....food portions are often huge and I can always nuke the leftovers later!

 

[WillAndFinn'sMom]

Originally posted by MaMudduck
Where's is a 16'' pizza for $12.99? Fill me in!

Oh dear....I saw it on here in some forum. Oh! I think it was in the sticky "tips" thread. I printed it out and it's at home, but I THINK it said (and forgive me, I'm a newbie here, who hasn't been to DW in twenty years) Fort Wilderness at Trailend?? Does that sound right? I remember they said to just take the boat over from MK.

 

[Jordan's MOM]

That sounds like the price of the large pizza at the ASMo food court too. It was huge and was really good. Our family of three did not come close to eating it all and we were so hungry. We walked to the food court and waited on it so it was a little cheaper, but you can also get it delivered to your room.



jordan's mom

 

[stephaniebatesjones]

We have a family of 3. DH, DD(5), and myself. We usually eat a big all you can eat character breakfast at like chef mickey , have a small snack for lunch (a turkey leg or something), then a small dinner. My dd does not eat much at all so this works great. My dh likes to get the package with meal options so that we already know that our food is paid for. That way we know that the money that we take along is just for fun stuff and souvies. We try and get our monies worth by doing all character meals, dinner shows, and going to see cirque du sole. When we use or option for something like cirque du sole or boating, we may just go off site for a pizza or eat in the food court. Since my dd doesn't eat much we just give her food from our plates or order her something small and save her option for something big (if we don't go to all you can eat). We don't cook at all outside of oatmeal or toast. We also never buy bottles of water. We fill our things up with ice, and by the time we get in the parks good it has turned into cold water. Florida's water doesn't bother us. We never eat three big meals. We couldn't if we wanted to.

Good luck,

steph

 

[cdnmickeylover]

It's nice to see that we are not alone. We always take a case of water with us and keep it in the fridge which means it's cold when we take it out in the morning. We've also filled the empty bottle with ice cubes and let them melt so that it stays colder longer. The water bottle attaches to the lunch bags that we have so it's not a bother to carry it around. We've also ever had a problem taking the snack foods/lunch into the park with us.

I wouldn't say that we "cook" on vacation but then again I can't complain because I don't do a lot of the cooking at home. DH does most of it as he works out of home. He also packs my lunch every day for work so I'm really spoiled. Brown bagging a lunch has certainly helped towards the Disney budget too.

 

[crazymomof4]

I'm glad to see that there are no flameing posts here! Some people have strong feelings about this. I am relieved to see that so many are bringing food into parks. I never did when I went to WDW in the past. But that was 9 years, 2 kids, & several job changes ago. This trip we will have to be more budget conscious and will be bringing in, at the very least, snacks and water. This is one way that I plan on shaving off quite a bit of expense and I'm just glad that I'm not alone in feeling this way.

 

[BounceyOne]

Am I the only one that gets tired of eating out? I loose my mind after eating a out for a week straight.
That being said, if we stay DVC I cook a few meals. When we stay regular hotel, the children have breakfast int he room every morning. I bring a box of cereal and some juice box size parmalat milk. It doesn't need to be refrigerated so there is nothing to worry about there. My children like to eat as soon as they get up, no waitning for everyone to get dressed and get to someplace to eat and wait for your order. They would go crazy by then.

 

[peachgirl]

Am I the only one that gets tired of eating out?

No, you're not the only one!


I almost hesitate to say this, but to be perfectly honest....We don't like the food at WDW for the most part! You know, I don't think I've ever seen anyone on these boards say that!

I don't know what it is, maybe we just have very simple tastes, but I can't think of a single food we've ever had that I would go out of my way to eat again. We've eaten at places ranging from counter service to $100+ meals and for us, it's just a huge waste.


With the exception of one place....Disney Quest! The cheesecake is to die for!

So, we're staying at OKW this trip in a 2 br villa and we plan on eating almost all our meals in. We're driving so we can pack whatever we want and buy last minute things once we get there.