Eating cheap

[Gracomom]

DS (4YO) and I are heading to Disneyland for 4 days in early December. We've got flights and hotel pretty much figured out. DH and our 2YO won't be joining us, so I'm hoping to keep expenses frugal, to make myself feel less guilty. Besides eating breakfast in the room, any other tips on eating out frugal in and around disneyland?

 

[DharmaLou]

Pack your own lunch/dinner for the parks.

 

[jennameowse]

Packing food is a great way but if you don't want to do that Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney is pretty cheap (I believe $6.99 a sandwich). I've heard the chicken dinner at Plaza Inn is a great deal and enough to share. Also, Mimi's on Harbor is about the same price as any other I've been to. There are plenty of "cheap" eats in and around Disney so be sure to do some research on menus.

 

[mmlover74]

I plan on splitting meals with my son or I will order from the kids menu too.

 

[Carolwoodpr]

White Water Snacks in the Grand Californian Hotel has cheap meals and they are big enough to share for most people.

 

[jennameowse]

I plan on splitting meals with my son or I will order from the kids menu too.

Depending on how much he typically eats, you could easily share many quick service food items. Another option is to get a pasta dish at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta in DCA. You can get a plate of spaghetti with meatballs for less than $10. When I ate there in August I felt the serving size for the pasta was pretty big.

 

[Cagirl767]

At 4 y.o., my kids were worn slap out by dinner time, so we'd head back to the room and eat dinner at the hotel. You could always do dinner in your room, there's lots of microwaveable dinners you can quickly fix.

We take baggies into the park to split snacks like popcorn, candies, cotton candy. You can split a lot of adult meals and there will be plenty for you both. At Rancho Del Zocalo's, their entrees are huge and you can add a side like tortilla chips to make it even bigger. The Plaza Inn chicken entree is large enough to split also. If you ask at any counter service, you may be able to add on a side dish. If you're not all that hungry, there's Mickey pretzels and hot dogs are cheaper than an entree, too. You can get a free cup of water at any counter service.

 

[SarafinaPink]

I will highly suggest bringing your own snacks and sharing counter service meals. You can really save a lot by doing that and you can bring much healthier snacks than you can find at the park.

 

[wiigirl]

Pack your own lunch/dinner for the parks.

Always a good idea....or just lots of snacks!

 

[Gracomom]

Thanks for th great ideas everyone. DS and I are not big eaters, so we will probably share a lot of meals. If packing breakfast to eat in line when the park opens, what are you brining? Our hotel room has a fridge, but no microwave. We will probably do a run to the Walmart instead of ordering groceries, so son can pick out some snacks, but we are flying, so won't have a cooler or anything.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

There is a new WalMart supermarket near DLR (Ball Rd. and Anaheim?) for getting snacks and drinks. If you put bottles of water in the fridge (on high) overnight, you can use them as cold packs in your bag/backpack during the day which can act as a cooler.

For breakfast on the run, we bring protein bars, trail mix bags, bananas, yogurt sippers, cold poptarts, etc. Basically whatever can easily be grabbed and eaten with one hand.

And one of our biggest money savers is not buying soda or water in the parks. We bring in a refillable water bottle and fill up as needed at First Aid or most CS restaurants with a soda fountain. (Rancho del Zocalo in DL has an outdoor water spigot with cold, filtered water).

 

[monkey30]

We used the free ice water when down in September, we saved a ton doing that, plus left calories for the good stuff.

We found that Flos had the best bang for the buck. it was 10-13 for a entree but they were large and filled us all. I shared with one child and so did my DH, then my oldest got a kids meal which was HUGE! Worth it!