Eat Lunch at Park or RV?

[melpoppen]

We have been to Disney World on many occasion but this is our first time at FW with our new Travel Trailer. We will be there 11/17 to 11/24. Do most of you eat at the parks for lunch or do you travel back to FW for lunch? Also are you allowed to take snacks/food in a pack into the parks? The children were to young to remember the last time we were at Disney in 2000. Want to make it special but with 4 children (DS-9, DD-8, DD-6 and Ds-1 who turns 2 on Thanksgiving Day while at FW) we are on a budget. Any suggestions would be great!

 

[ILoveDisney&Cruising]

We usually eat in the parks ...... I don't even want to cook at home, definitely not happening on vacation. I love trying all the restaurants.

Yes, you can bring food & drinks in ...... when our kids were younger, we would stop at the local Publix or Walmart and take those frozen PB&J's (Uncrustables?) and some other snacks for them in a Disney lunchbox (bought on property as a souvenir). DH and I would grab a CS meal or eat at LTT. Started doing that after my kids ordered the PBJ at WDW and it was an Uncrustable!! I thought "Hey! I could do that on my own for way cheaper!"

Have a great trip!!

 

[mecamper]

We usually go back to the campground for lunch. It is fun to spend some time in the camper. We go to Walmart or Publix and stalk up on food and beverages (that saves a bundle).
Have you tried Trail's End? It is also worth the trip back to Fort Wilderness just to eat there.

 

[bxtx]

is it worth buying the MYW dining plan so you get to eat out and 'prepay' your meals?

BX

 

[bama_ed]

We usually pack a lunch into the parks and rent a locker to hold it until it's time to eat. I do it to save money since there are 5 of us and we eat 1 or 2 meals out while at WDW (lunch or dinner in a park or TE or HDDR). It's nice having a fridge/stove in the pop-up so we do breakfast every morn at the campsite. Disney security is okay with packed lunches in parks but don't bring glass bottles or alchohol. Plus by packing a lunch we save travel time back-n-forth to FW.

bxtx, the Disney Dining Plan (DDP) added to packages was a great deal a few years ago when it started out. Disney has raised costs and cut back on features to where it's not so great anymore. So many restaurants on property cut down menus and meals became more common/less distinct where DDP was heavily used. More changes are planned for 2008 including, if I recall, gratuities will no longer be included. If you get it you have to pay for it EVERY day of your package. Knowing my family and their eating habits, we don't need a table service every day. If your family eats LOTS of food EVERY day on vacation and does so eating out, then it's probably worth it.

Look, if you are posting on this board you are either in a tent, a camper/rv, or a cabin. I can understand a tenter might do this (no coleman stove/fuel to hassle with). Campers/rv's have fridges, stoves, and you can even bring the crockpot or electric roaster (Colson's picture of a turkey in the roaster comes to mind). The cabins have the full kitchens with Mouseservice, fer cryin' out loud! Head to Winn Dixie, buy some groceries, and enjoy. Treat yourself to a HDDR or a TE buffet (breakfast and lunch are good bargains). Relax! You'll come out ahead that way.

Okay, I'll get off my high horse now....

Bama ED

 

[LarryJ]

We have been to Disney World on many occasion but this is our first time at FW with our new Travel Trailer. We will be there 11/17 to 11/24. Do most of you eat at the parks for lunch or do you travel back to FW for lunch? Also are you allowed to take snacks/food in a pack into the parks? The children were to young to remember the last time we were at Disney in 2000. Want to make it special but with 4 children (DS-9, DD-8, DD-6 and Ds-1 who turns 2 on Thanksgiving Day while at FW) we are on a budget. Any suggestions would be great!

When the sons were pre teen during a trip we would say for a 14 day stay try and do 2 character breakfasts for them. One maybe two TS Dinners and then the rest late lunches in the 3 toi 4 p.m. time frame. When we did the late lunches we would cook a large breakfast, do an Extra Hours opening and come back around 10 a.m. and have a lite lunch, the the park late lunch and then when back at FW have a late snack.

Now that the sons are grown and just join us as a "family event usually at Xmas" the routine hasn't changed much except there are no more breakfasts and we try and do maybe one or two nice TS dinners for all of us and like a couple of lunches and the rest of the time they and we are on our own. FWIW one is married and stays at WL and they like to eat every meal ... something we simply can't do anymore and the single 28 year old just "wings it". To complicate things both are Naval Aviators and they can't tell what their schedule is 4 to 6 months out so this 180 ADR thing is really a crimp in our planning, but we just make the best guess we can. The wife was doing just that this A.M. having to change CRT from 3 to 2 and some other mods due to one son's schedule change.

Larry

 

[DaddyDon]

We eat brkf at our camper and have the crock pot going for dinner....Yummy what you can do in a crock pot.... lunch is allway's in the park.......Crystal palalce or epcot....sometimes at Ak at rainforest.......now im getting thirsty.....Honey grab me a beer looks like company......

 

[JAM'S MOM]

We have been to Disney World on many occasion but this is our first time at FW with our new Travel Trailer. We will be there 11/17 to 11/24. Do most of you eat at the parks for lunch or do you travel back to FW for lunch? Also are you allowed to take snacks/food in a pack into the parks? The children were to young to remember the last time we were at Disney in 2000. Want to make it special but with 4 children (DS-9, DD-8, DD-6 and Ds-1 who turns 2 on Thanksgiving Day while at FW) we are on a budget. Any suggestions would be great!

We have breakfast before we head out to the parks. Now that we no longer have a stroller to lug a tote bag of drinks and snacks, we have limited our bring alongs to lite weight items. No more drinks are brought in. We bring something sweet and something salty for each of us. Individual bags of chips, m&ms, pretzels. However, we really like to nosh at the park so we will share ice cream, popcorn, dole whips, bakery goods during the day. The portions are usually big enough to share between young kids. By around 6pm , we decide whether to go back to the rv, have a sit down dinner, or just grab a sandwich. Most of the time, our ""grazing" keeps us going until we leave the park for the day and we eat at the rv. This upcoming trip, we are doing something a little different in that I have booked an ADR at Crystal Palace so that we can plan our treats around the reservation time. I found that I can save money by not bringing as much stuff into the park and just budgeting for each day in the park.

 

[AlyLynn]

Hi! We're going to be at the Fort the same time as you, with our 4 kids, and new travel trailer, too! We go to Disney so often, from PA, that it was one of the main reasons we bought the trailer. As for meals, we have been testing out "quickie" meals at home, and figure we'll have breakfast, and 1 other meal in the camper. It beats having all 3 meals out!

 

[lisa8200]

We always plan for a little bit of both.We bring food with us in case we want it but eat at the parks alot as well. I better add something that actually has some info . We always plan on eating at the camper more than we do. If we come back to the camper for a break we try to eat lunch there but, sometimes we are just having to much fun to leave and go ahead and grab something at the park. The same thing goes for dinner. most of the time we end up getting something at the park because neither one of us wants to cook when we get back to our site.

 

[OK GRUMPY]

We usally eat a big breakfast at the campground. Howerver this last rip we realized breakfast was cheaper then lunch or dinner. It doen't work for me to not eat before I go to the park in the morning because I tend to snak a whole lot more. But usally we eat a least one meal a day at the parks.