Eating Cheaply

[Hippychickali]

My DBF and I are on a budget and won't be eating anywhere too fancy more than once or twice on the trip. We plan to eat at counter service restaurants as they seem to be cheapest. What are the prices like at these resataurants? For example, how much would it cost for a burger, fries, and soda?

Ali

 

[Rippington'sFan]

You can start by looking here. Lot's of good information.
http://www.mousesavers.com/meals.html

 

[Ellester]

All the menus and prices are posted on www.allearsnet.com . Hope that helps!

 

[Rippington'sFan]

Check this out too.
http://allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

 

[pammy1027]

We really enjoyed Pecos Bill's in the MK. There portions are huge on the Chicken Wrap and the Salads and plenty to split. I believe that we ate there for about $13. They have a huge fixens bar to load up on and the prices really seemed like a value to me.

 

[CheapMom]

OK- I know I am going to get flamed but...
The portions are huge almost everywhere- I do order a child's meal for myself sometimes. Disney, IMO, is pretty fair when it comes to pricing their menus, especially at the value resorts. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality, quantity, price of food at ASMO. PopTarts, danish, donuts, and cereal in the room each morning also help defray the cost of food on trips PLUS it saves valuable time and lets you get to the parks earlier.

 

[Debbie]

See, I don't think that there is anything wrong with an adult choosing to eat a child's meal. Sometimes, that's all I have room for, so why would I order a meal to just throw it out? I do it at McDonalds (love the toys for my classroom ), and counter service at Disney is no different.

We've also shared meals. When it was just DH and myself, I would order an appetizer, he'd order the entreé, and we'd share. You are right CheapMom, the portions are huge. Also, when it was all 7 of us at ESPN, the server recommended that the kids split a burger. Since the burger came with fries, we ordered an extra order of fries for the bunch to share. No one came away hungry!

 

[maggiew]

One thing we did in EPCOT is order a kids meal at the various restaurants so we could get a "taste" of all the different countries. We had nacho chips and a beef taco with drink in Mexico. We had yakitorri chicken and rice in Japan. We ordered egg rolls in China (ok. that's not a kids meal). We had a funnel cake in USA. etc. and worked our way around. We got to eat a little from each country. It didn't cost too much and we didn't get too full at any one place.

Maggie

 

[disneysteve]

I agree with the previous posters. Portions at Disney (as everywhere in US) are huge. Plenty to share so you don't need to order one meal per person. My wife and I have done the one entree and one appetizer deal and still had too much food.

On our last trip in November, 3 adults and 1 child (8), our total food spending including all meals, snacks and drinks for 9 days of travel (including the drive to and from Florida) came to under $17/person/day. There is really no need to spend a fortune to eat at Disney unless you really want to.

Steve

 

[always quiet]

When we were there in Dec 2002, we had planned to eat at Epcot in France (got rained out - hurricane style rain in Dec!! geez!)...Anyway, they sell ham and cheese croissants for $3.99!! This year, it HAD better not rain!!!!

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Couple of more suggestions: Anywhere that they have double cheese burgers, order one and an extra bun (.79) put one patty on each bun and load up an the fixins bar.One meal has plenty of fries to share. Share drinks everywhere. Eat those couple nice meals for lunch, much cheaper. Check out trails end buffet at FW. A wonder buffet meal served all three meals and the cheepest sit down buffet meal on site. Breakfast in the room, as well as snacks for breaks and nights in the room. Hope you can use a few of these.


Jordans'mom

 

[minniemoms]

Can you just order from the kids menus? Coming with 4 senior citizens, and all others over 45, do they care if you order only kids meals, we can't eat much??

 

[tar heel]

minniesmom -- You can order kids meals, but you might have to live on pbj and chicken fingers your whole trip. Instead, have two people to share an adult meal and maybe an appetizer or dessert.

 

[MyDisneySig]

I don't know if it's changed, but we've ordered several times from the Electric Umbrella at EPCOT.

They had burgers, bigger hot dogs, deli sandwiches, etc. that included fries and fixins bar for somewhere between $5.50 and $6.50 each. They also had a personal sized pizza that wasn't too expensive. The regular meals did not include beverage, but we always had our water bottles with us. The kids meals, at the time, were regular sized hot dogs or chicken nuggets, both of which came with fries and a small soda - I think they were less than $4 each.

Have fun on your trip!

 

[Tink&PrincessMom]

<b>During our trip in October to MK, we realized that none of us (kids included) had our ususal appetities. It must be from activity or something, but we couldn't eat all of our lunch at the Columbia Harbor House in Adventure Land. The portions at all restaurants are huge. We ate a late dinner and (DH and I) actually split a burger at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. They have a wonderful topping bar and it was more than enough after a long day in the park. Hope this helps!!! Oh--- don't forget to take bottled water in with you. They'll charge you $2.50 a bottle and you'll drink more that you usually do. The restaurants will give you a free cup of ice though. You can always fill one at a fountain, if you don't mind Florida water!!!</b>

 

[Jockaroo]

Maggie and Jordan's Mom--thanks for these tips!!! We will use them for our upcoming trip.

To save some money get the Brita filtered sports bottles and you can drink the water. Sodas are expensive and not allowed on rides. You buy a drink then have to chug it or toss it to do an attraction. We have saved so much money with our Brita bottles. Also, when thirsty at Epcot, visit Ice Station Cool and sample international colas courtesy of Coke.

Also to think of...at some counter service places you can get individual, sealed servings of carrots. These can make a good snack later in the day if you have too much food at lunch. Places with the toppings bars are great. They usually have a cheese sauce for burgers and fries--so skip paying for cheese on the burger. One order of topping loaded fries can feed two people. I don't mind splitting food orders with my husband; this allows us to try more things! One of the best values for food in the World is Tusker House at AK. You can get large portions of real food here.

Have a magical trip!
-Jockaroo

 

[arminnie]

I order kid's meals all of the time but this only works at the counter service places. I wouldn't try to order a child's meal at a sit down or buffet restaurant.

I agree with Jockaroo about Tusker's. I had roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans - it was enough to share.

I almost always eat breakfast in the room (or in the car on the way to the park) as I usually only have tea and a pastry or scone.

 

[daisyduck007]

I LOVE sitting down at the nice restaurants in their cumfy chairs and air conditioning. Last time we went to Disney my boyfriend and I ordered one appetizer and one main course and drank water with lemon and saved a TON on each meal. If we were still hungry (usually we werent) we'd split dessert. By doing this you can still hit up some pricey restaurants and not feel crappy about spending too much $$

 

[jann1033]

hubby and I used one vkl vouchers for each of our sit down lunch meals and split the food, added an extra tip to compensate for the low tab and had a great sit down meal with more than enough food for $35.00. no one seemed to care. trails end and the sample around epcot worked good also for us for a good variety of food with out a giant price tag. we really found we could easily split any meal at wdw( except buffets of course) and have enough as it seems like the only place with smaller portions we went to was yakitori house ( got the mickey kids meal there, not impressed with the food). I would guesstimate most counter meals would be in the neighborhood of $10-12 per adult by the time you pay tax. most sandwiches come with fries or at least chips.as an eg. Sommerset in epcot had a large bratwurst, a mound of sauerkraut and a crusty roll for around 7, drink about 2.50. we also used some q/c vouchers for some lunches and split those since you also got a dessert for a total of $11.25

 

[WIcruizer]

Very simple rule that has served me well. Eat and drink as little as possible inside WDW. We bring in water bottles and a few snacks, and will occasionally buy food here and there. But we eat a good breakfast (for free) at our hotel, eat a little something for lunch inside the parks...then have a real nice dinner outside WDW. The restaurants are better and less expensive, so I wouldn't consider doing it any other way.