Eating in the parks on a budget

[crystal1313]

I would recommend trying to try to buy or bring some food for breakfast. Sometimes we bring muffins or a jimmy dean breakfast sandwich. I’m not sure if you are flying or driving. We drive. When my kids were smaller and we took breaks back at the room, We would eat dinner in the room. Before we left on the trip, I would make a big batch of spaghetti and freeze it. Saved a lot of money. Of course, we would have a room with a fridge and microwave. We also brought the instant Mac n cheese and cans of soup too

At the parks, we have shared the pasta meal and fried chicken at the Plaza Inn and also the pasta at Pizza Planet. We have also gotten a pizza at Naples that was reasonably priced.

This last trip we didn’t have a fridge or microwave and it killed our food budget having to buy breakfast for 4 at the parks. It was around $30 for two drinks and 4 breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks. Which is a pretty good deal but I would have preferred to spend that money in something else.

If your kids are picky, bring a lot of snacks!! It’s a pain to carry them around, but worth it so they don’t get hangry. And they can help supplement meals too. My kids would never want to take the time to eat when they were little, so I would buy snacks they had never had before or snacks they hadn’t had in a long time. New stuff enticed them to eat.

Have a great trip.

 

[VandVsmama]

We've done the following in order to save $$ on our DL food budget:

1. bring some snacks into the park. My kids & DH still want to buy a snack there, but it reduces the quantity of purchased snacks by a lot.
2. Don't drink soda in the parks or at DTD. Only water. Get free ice water from the quick service restaurants. You can ask for as many cups as you want. It tastes WAY better than the tap water at WDW. I mean, it's light years better. Bring some water flavor stuff w/you if you want.
3. Plaza Inn - my DH always gets 1 meal to himself because he's a hungry guy. But my 2 kids usually share 1 adult meal and then I'll get a kid's meal for myself. Plaza Inn is the one place that I'd consider doing soda because it's refillable drinks.
4. Eat breakfast at your hotel if you can. You'll have to get creative if your hotel doesn't include free breakfast. If you have a fridge & a microwave in the room, this gives you a lot of flexibility.
5. Bring a water bottle w/you into the parks. So you can then refill it with the free ice water at QS restaurants.
6. At pretty much every QS restaurant, I try to figure it out so we purchase 3 meals instead of 4. 1 for DH to himself and 2 for the kids & I to share...whether it's 1 adult meal + 1 kids meal or 2 adult meals that we share. That extra ~$15 in savings for not purchasing a 4th meal adds up. If I'm hungry later, I supplement with snacks that I've brought with me in my park bag.
7. You could tell your kids, for example, that they can pick 1 or 2 snacks each day in the parks. This could help reduce the "I want's" all day long. You know, "Mom, can I have a Mickey bar?" Or "Mom, I want a cupcake." Or "Mom, I want a churro." Or "Mom, I want some popcorn." If you tell your kids ahead of time what the snack limit per kid per day is, then THEY get to decide what is the most important to them and they get to learn the value of having to make some tough choices. Then once their snack limit has been reached, if they're hungry, they have to stick to the snacks you brought with you.

 

[SeattleTink]

Lots of great suggestions have already been made. When my kids were little (and very picky) we used to bring in lots of snacks. Protein Bars, Grapes, Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Gummy fruit snacks, trail mix, nuts...etc. Also, the tip about bringing a water bottle and refilling it is still something I do. Also, my kids could spend $$$ just eating snacks in the park. We used to give them a budget of $50 each - they could use that money for a souvenir, or churros...whatever they want. This only applied to snacks outside of the family eating it together. If we all got ice cream, it didn't come out of their budget. It was a great way for them to be more thoughtful with their spending.

 

[vharris2828]

We have some little camel back backpacks we fill with lots of ice and water at the hotel and then we pack like uncrustables and lots of snacks around the ice In the backpack to keep it all cold. We do breakfast at the hotel, snacks and light lunch through the day. And then usually share a bigger meal later in the day (we skip kids meals and drinks) and splurge on some treats and things through the day. Breakfast we do at the hotel. Dinner sometimes we will eat out but our kids are pretty young still so we will grab some Dinner items to have on hand at the hotel and usually eat there for dinner. I have found the prices are not super drastic in the park vs right outside it and over the years have much preferred eating there and saving my legs a bit then leaving and coming back

 

[Lumpy1106]

4 pages in and nobody has recommended the picnic area? There are picnic benches and lockers in the esplanade between the parks under the monorail beam. Pack all the food and drinks you want and leave them there. It's inside security now so its even more convenient.

Honestly though, and maybe it's because I live in So Cal, Disney food prices aren't that bad. On our last trip we found that anything "quick service" inside the park was cheaper than anything you could find in DtD. I like the Boudin Bakery in DCA, and the corn dogs at Corn Dog Castle are actually very good. If you want a sit-down place, there are quite a few restaurants in Garden Walk that will give you some additional options. It's a bit of a trek but lots of people walk down there - so totally doable.

 

[Paigesmom2013]

OP here...we didn't want to bring a whole picnic but are interested in bringing in snacks. We are flying, not driving. And we won't have our usual whole suitcase full of snacks since we aren't flying Southwest. Coming from the midwest, prices do seem high, but on par with amusement parks, indoor water parks, etc. There are lots of good suggestions on this thread!