Eating in the parks

jessc79

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 1, 2008
Messages
182
Last trip we went for the first time without the dining plan. We had a DVC room with a kitchen so we ate breakfast in the room and that helped us save money. However, although my plan was to eat more CS meals to save money, I just didn't like the food that much so we ended up eating more TS than I had planned and spending more money that we had budgeted.
We are going again in June and I really don't want to spend as much on food. I thought about sandwiches and stuff for one meal and eating breakfast in the room again. I'm not sure if we'll be able to do much because our room will only have a mini-fridge. We can eat the CS but the value just isn't there for me. Any tips?

We may end up doing the dining plan again so I don't stress about it while we're there but I don't love that idea.
 
I'm planning on saving money by doing something similar... Sandwiches or at the very least snacks in the park with dinner being cooked back at the campsite.

Snacks in the park will make the kids fuller longer, I presume, so you won't have to give into their salty/sweet tooth between meals. I say, go for it! :thumbsup2
 
I should also mention that keeping the kids well-hydrated will keep them full. Many cravings for food are a result of dehydration or fluid imbalance. A well-balanced breakfast with snacks you bring from home that are healthy yet encourage hydration and you can keep the kids full until the end-of-the-day table service.

To encourage more water drinking in my party, we each have our own Brita-filter waterbottles that we keep in the backpack. We save $2.75 plus tax when we choose to drink water over soda. And it adds up...
 
Thanks for the comment re: hydration! So true!

It probably makes sense then to eat a good healthy breakfast, healthy snacks then a TS dinner slightly earlier than normal.

Admittedly we eat more in Disney and our normally fruits a veggies rich meals switch over to fried and quick meals. We always leave feeling like we've shocked the digestive system.
 

Maybe head over to the dining boards and read some dining reports? Do some research on counter service that provide different options than the regular burgers and fries fare. My favorite is getting sandwiches from the bakery in Norway at EPCOT.

Also when I've found that you can save money by getting a kids meal instead of the full adult meal, especially at lunch and if you go at a time when it is hot and you don't want to walk around feeling stuffed.

As others suggested bringing some snacks with you like granola bars or trail mix is a great way to save money and you can get ice water for free at most stands/CS locations.
 
jessc79 said:
Thanks for the comment re: hydration! So true!

It probably makes sense then to eat a good healthy breakfast, healthy snacks then a TS dinner slightly earlier than normal.

Admittedly we eat more in Disney and our normally fruits a veggies rich meals switch over to fried and quick meals. We always leave feeling like we've shocked the digestive system.

We have felt the same way our past 2 trips when we left due in part I think to having had the dinning plan. Both times we have done has been because I had a free dining pin and my husband and I both decided free or not we are not interested. It took me a week to feel normal again after our last trip and well Disney food just isn't worth it to me to feel so yucky!
 
donaldlovesdaisy said:
We have felt the same way our past 2 trips when we left due in part I think to having had the dinning plan. Both times we have done has been because I had a free dining pin and my husband and I both decided free or not we are not interested. It took me a week to feel normal again after our last trip and well Disney food just isn't worth it to me to feel so yucky!

I agree with you but also we don't eat out much so when we do at Disney we tend to overdue it or make choices that appear to add more value (I.e. bigger not necessarily more tasteful).

I think we will end up skipping the dining plan though I do hate stressing about how much things cost.
 
We just booked a trip for summers and are not using the dining plan this time either. We are going when it is brutally hot and like the breaks that TS provides for lunch and dinner, but this trip is a shorter, more economical one since we are doing Universal, possibly Sea World and La Nouba too. (if you can even use the term "economical" with those things, lol). Just by paying OOP, I think we will be able to do better...I have terrible problems with GERD and just can't eat most CS but I can eat just an appetizer for dinner no problem some places. And I can't drink soda anymore because of it, so that will save some money too. The big thing is we plan to eat breakfast in the room (except for one day at Kona Cafe--I love breakfast out and in our past trips we have never done a TS breakfast) and to do some more off the beaten path places like Captains Grille....sounds like a nice place but not as pricey as Yachtsman Steakhouse. I think we are also thinking about Via Napoli, where I can get a white pizza that won't bother me too much.
 
We will be going without the dining plan for our first time in August. We got a great room only rate where we couldn't add the ddp and we don't like to pay for it because it's not really how we eat. For example, I might eat one or two desserts the whole week, certainly not every night. I am usually full after I eat my entree.
So I am looking at less pricey options for some of my meals. The Plaza has a decent menu. It's a burger/sandwiches/milkshakes type of place but we enjoy the food and the atmosphere. We also love Wolfgang Express in Downtown Disney and it feels more like a TS restaurant than QS. You can get discounted Wolfgang Puck gift cards from Costco that can be used there as well. I believe they are $80 for a $100 gift card.
Earl of Sandwich is another great CS, and we enjoy the Pepper Market at Coronado Springs resort for variety.
Via Napoli is another good one. You can get the largest pizza and a salad and easily feed 4 people.
All of these options are on the less expensive side, and we aren't sharing meals or feeling deprived.
We haven't tried Beaches and Cream yet but plan to eat there this summer.

So with the above options for dinner and breakfast in the room I am sure there will be days we'll snack our way through lunch.
 
We are going the first time without the dining plan. We have decided to on two TS Crystal Palace breakfast and O'Hana dinner. Any other DVC members out there? Hoe much can we save by using our DVC card? Are there any other discounts out there that we can use??
 
pigletto said:
We will be going without the dining plan for our first time in August. We got a great room only rate where we couldn't add the ddp and we don't like to pay for it because it's not really how we eat. For example, I might eat one or two desserts the whole week, certainly not every night. I am usually full after I eat my entree.
So I am looking at less pricey options for some of my meals. The Plaza has a decent menu. It's a burger/sandwiches/milkshakes type of place but we enjoy the food and the atmosphere. We also love Wolfgang Express in Downtown Disney and it feels more like a TS restaurant than QS. You can get discounted Wolfgang Puck gift cards from Costco that can be used there as well. I believe they are $80 for a $100 gift card.
Earl of Sandwich is another great CS, and we enjoy the Pepper Market at Coronado Springs resort for variety.
Via Napoli is another good one. You can get the largest pizza and a salad and easily feed 4 people.
All of these options are on the less expensive side, and we aren't sharing meals or feeling deprived.
We haven't tried Beaches and Cream yet but plan to eat there this summer.

So with the above options for dinner and breakfast in the room I am sure there will be days we'll snack our way through lunch.

I did not know about the gift cards for WPE at Costco. Thanks!

I like the downtown Disney CS. They're just so far out of the way. Although we are driving this time so maybe it won't feel like such a pain!
 
It probably makes sense then to eat a good healthy breakfast, healthy snacks then a TS dinner slightly earlier than normal.

Admittedly we eat more in Disney and our normally fruits a veggies rich meals switch over to fried and quick meals. We always leave feeling like we've shocked the digestive system.

Yes~ :thumbsup2
Even in some of the non-fried meals I think that WDW cooks use a lot more oil than we are used to. (even a veggie omelet breakfast at POP was more oil than one person in our family could handle)

When we stayed onsite, one of the strategies we used to minimize that yucky feeling was to split breakfasts in half and share. (We did this for lunches as well and were able to better utilize our dining plan without skipping any meals, going hungry or feeling like over stuffed beached whales :rotfl:)
We were satisfied but not overstuffed and the oiliness was not so much that it led to a bout of "I-can't-leave-the-bathroom-right-now-itis" :worried:.

Now that we stay offsite (half the money per trip means twice as many trips :cloud9: )
we eat breakfast in our room, and pack and take our "lunch" with us in a small soft sided cooler bag.

We take carrot sticks, broccoli, pepper strips and cucumber slices in small zip bags with small dip packets/cups,
nuts like raw almonds (we like them) and cashews, refreshing fruits like apples, grapes, oranges, Sweets and Beets chips, cheese sticks
and a cookie or two along with frozen juice boxes to keep things cold and chilled water for drinking

The first time we tried this we packed sandwiches too, but discovered that a sandwich was too much for us.
We also learned that we prefer to snack throughout the day instead of doing a "meal".
We plan our snacks like mini-meals and that works for us.:goodvibes

Our last vacay we focused on the water parks and DQ, but we noticed that some of the people around us at TL and BB
were casting wishful glances at our yummy snacks even while they were busy eating what they had just purchased. :)

Eating breakfast in and packing our snack/lunch allows us to enjoy a table service restaurant for dinner- guilt free-
because we have been eating healthy all day and saving money, so eating out at night is a real treat.

When we do eat out at night we have a few favorites:
Sweet Tomatoes & Bonefish Grill (off site but pretty close),
and thanks for the tip about Costco and Wolfgang Puck Express Marketplace-
WPE is one of our favorites too.:goodvibes
Texas de Brazil was a fun exploration of a new cuisine- a really unique dining experience, and with a birthday coupon, it was less expensive than our dinner at Boma. :upsidedow

If you choose to forgo the dining plan then eating off site is a great option :thumbsup2
The dinners I have had at Bonefish Grill are just as good as the Flying Fish but cost a whole lot less. :woohoo:
Have a great trip!
 
We are going the first time without the dining plan. We have decided to on two TS Crystal Palace breakfast and O'Hana dinner. Any other DVC members out there? Hoe much can we save by using our DVC card? Are there any other discounts out there that we can use??

Those are two of our favorites but there is no DVC discount for them. If you go to the DVC member website you can see all the discounts offered under member benefits.
 
If you have a car, why not just go off property for some of your meals? I know this can feel like it takes away some of the "magic" but it will easily save you a ton of money. Plus you can eat at restaurants that have the types of food you enjoy, not just whatever restaurant you can get a reservation at. I agree with you on the CS at Disney, it just doesn't do it for me.

The other thing we do is make our lunch reservation for the latest time possible, usually this is around 3. We'll eat a light breakfast in the room (we like to make rope drop so even a heavy breakfast is not going to carry us over till 3), then we'll usually split something CS or get snacks around 11:30. Or we'll just bring in a couple peanut butter sandwiches or snacks, anything to just hold us over. If you have a 3pm ressie you're usually eating around 3:30-4. That usually fills us for the night, with maybe just a small snack in the hotel room before bedtime. This saves us a lot of money because at most restaurants, especially the buffets, lunch is a lot cheaper than dinner.
 
katie111 said:
If you have a car, why not just go off property for some of your meals? I know this can feel like it takes away some of the "magic" but it will easily save you a ton of money. Plus you can eat at restaurants that have the types of food you enjoy, not just whatever restaurant you can get a reservation at. I agree with you on the CS at Disney, it just doesn't do it for me.

The other thing we do is make our lunch reservation for the latest time possible, usually this is around 3. We'll eat a light breakfast in the room (we like to make rope drop so even a heavy breakfast is not going to carry us over till 3), then we'll usually split something CS or get snacks around 11:30. Or we'll just bring in a couple peanut butter sandwiches or snacks, anything to just hold us over. If you have a 3pm ressie you're usually eating around 3:30-4. That usually fills us for the night, with maybe just a small snack in the hotel room before bedtime. This saves us a lot of money because at most restaurants, especially the buffets, lunch is a lot cheaper than dinner.

We haven't left before because we didn't have a car. But this time we probably will. I thought it might be too time consuming to leave the parks but it probably won't be too bad.
 
I too am looking for ideas for food for snacks and meals. A few tips that I have include:
1. Lunches and breakfasts are usually cheaper than dinners.
2. There is nothing wrong with eating breakfast food for lunch and dinner (cereal, pop tarts)
3. If you have a car, the restaurants off property are much cheaper.
4. From what I have heard, you can get a microwave if you request one when you check in. If so anything that can be microwaved can be eaten. That would mean microwavable meals, popcorn, things like that.
5. Share large meals instead of getting one for everyone. Order water instead of sodas at the restaurants. This could save $2.00 per person per meal and then if you need a soda fix just have some in your room.
 
Earl of Sandwich is affordable. So are the Wetzel pretzel hotdogs wrapped in dough $2.50. YOu could order pizza from Flippers and have it delivered to the resort. You would have to meet the delivery person in the lobby. YUM

We do breakfast buffet at 10:45 and it served as breakfast and lunch.
 





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