Feeding Teenage Boys..with NO dining plan. UGH!!

[irishfanx4]

We finally agreed on our next DW Vacation last night. we know we will be staying at Shades of Green. ur last trip with our boys they were very little. This trip they are both hungry teenager boys. They both are football players with HUGE appetites> We are coming without a dining plan. I'm trying to start budgetting and putting money aside for meals. Any ideas on how much money my husband and I should figure for lunch/dinner and snacks? We will be feeding them breakfast at Shades of Green at the buffet before we hit the parks. Hopefully that will give us a head start on keeping them full for a couple of hours. We hopefully are planning this next vacation enough in advance that I can feed them now at home and afford to feed them at DW!~ LOL!! Thanks for any help and tips!!

 

[sarahlovesmickey]

You can bring food into the parks to help with lunch costs. We have been known to have a loaf of bread, deli meat, and cheese in our bag/cooler--this is great for lunch. We also bring our own snacks into the parks. This isn't to say we never snack or eat meals in the parks because that's not true. We love the character buffets. We always eat our breakfast in our condo or on the way to the park, then midmorning we will have a snack and sometimes we won't do lunch until around 2 and it will be a big enough and late enough lunch where we don't have to eat a large dinner. I'm not sure if your boys are okay with eating a late lunch and possibly a small dinner or snack. We aren't huge eaters and our kids aren't either---YET! LOL

 

[Disneychix]

If you're thinking about whole meals-entree and drink- at most counter service places you'll pay about $10-$12 per person for lunch/dinner.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

For my teenager, he likes a basic lunch which will run about 12.00 maybe even 15 if the prices have gone up since the last time we were there.

The snacking can get you. In Disney, he is always stopping at the various snack carts because "I'm hungry Mom". Those usually run about 4.00 - 6.00 depending on if he's getting a drink with his snack.

If you are eating at TS restaurants and your boys are big eaters, I'd hit a late breakfast buffet to hopefully fill them up and cover breakfast and lunch.

If you look on allears.net, it has the prices listed for those and many other TS restaurants which might help you plan.

Good luck. Keeping teens especially boys full of food can get expensive even at home!

 

[brymolmom]

In a situation like this I would DEFINITELY be bringing a backpack-full of stuff into the parks with me. And maybe even giving each of the boys a small pack of their own. In it I would put:
Granola bars
pretzels
cheese sticks
something sweet
and a reusable sports water bottle to fill up with free ice water at CS places.

That said - I would say that if you're planning all CS places, I would research the spots with the largest portions (rib and chicken combo at Fairfax Fare, for example). Estimate would be about $16 or so for each meal at CS places (can be as low as $10 though).

I would also get creative...Will you have a vehicle? I would drive offsite a couple of times OR just get pizza delivered one night.

If you're going to do any sit-downs, I would stick to buffets. Yes, they will be pricey but it sounds like usual portions might not work for your boys - and this way they can indulge.

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Here is my plan for feeding my teens. Our last trips have all been in the summer so the heat cuts the appetite a little. We prefer smaller meals when it is so hot.

We fly so I pack a bag of breakfast/junk food. Things like breakfast bars, crackers, microwave popcorn, small bags of chips (pack in a shoe box) Anything they will snack on that won't melt or cause any harm on the plane. I make them come to the store with me so I know I am taking what they will eat! I also bring flavor packets to add to the counter service water. I use this bag to bring home any stuff we buy. Then we have WEGOSHOP deliver water, cans of soda, tea, and DH some beer. They also bring some lunch meat and bread. Maybe some fruit. What ever sounds good for lunch.

Breakfast: In room before rope drop. What ever we have in the room is fair game. They can make a sandwich or fruit or a breakfast bar. But they must eat something.

AM Snack: Each person brings a little snack to eat in line (chips, special K bar whatever they want.

11:30 Sit down to a "real" snack: We order a kids meal for everyone at this time. Kids meal run about $5 each but include a drink. They are big enough for a snack. More filling than just pop corn or ice cream.

1 - 2 ish: Leave park for hotel. We swim/nap and have a picnic by the pool with our delivered food.

6:00 ish: Dinner at the park usually counter service. Everyone orders a regular counter service meal. Figure about $10 each for this meal. But the portions are pretty good size.

PM snack: Again each person carries in something from the room stash of food. We will get ice cream or something if we want it. Figure about $3 - $4 for a cart type snack.

We ask for water all day long and add the flavor packets to the tap water. If you ask they will fill a cup with ice and water - so much better than the drinking fountain or carrying the heavy water bottles.

I have used this plan on 4 trips now. All with 3 teens. It works really well!

 

[HayGan]

Take some snacks with you that are high in protein. That will help satisfy them somewhat. Get meals at places that have good sized portions. For instance, int he MK eat at Cosmic Ray's or Pecos Bill's. At Cosmic Rays, they have the platters that are really big and have lots of protein. Pecos Bill's get the double burgers also with a good portion size and lots of protein. Plus the cost for both is reasonable for what you get. If you are doing a late night in the parks, consider a buffet for dinner to fill them up.

 

[Mommee]

We gave the two teen boys $30/day to spend how they wanted, breakfast was covered at the resort, plus we had some snack foods for late at night. Some days they spent more; others they spent less (and took granola bars/chips type snacks with them. They did fine keeping track of their total.

 

[ktlm]

Buffets! If you can get them to stuff themselves there, it will keep your snack costs down. My DH is a skinny bottomless pit. I don't know where he puts it. He is always hungry and he can eat a ton. Take the guy to Biergarten at Epcot for lunch and he stuffs himself so much that by dinner he still isn't really hungry and isn't ready for a full meal. Usually he just gets some sort of snack for dinner. CS at WDW does not fill him up. Half the time, the food is so so, so he may not even eat his whole meal-- and this is the boy who as restaurants eats his whole meal and then whatever I have left on my plate. Get on allears.net which has dining menus and you can figure out some buffets to take them to. Maybe the breakfast buffet at Shades of Green and then the lunch buffet at some other places for a late lunch (more of a linner)- and maybe you can even get away with just 2 meals a day.

 

[NotUrsula]

We've decided that since the purchase requirement for park tickets went up to 2 days, the dining plan isn't working out so well for us any more, except for our teen DS, who does eat like a horse. We found that the rest of us were overeating just to get our money's worth, and that stank -- I count on my WDW visits to have the added benefit of letting me lose a few pounds.

So ... we decided to feed him at meal-plan levels and let the rest of us eat normally for less. We got him a gift card and loaded it with as much money as one person's meal plan would cost for the stay, and he can use that to supplement whatever we would normally consider our food budget. We pay for light-portion meals for the entire family, but he is free to use the value on that card to add as many snack foods and extra items as he can buy.

The other thing to encourage is ice water. Remind them that if they drink water with meals, that frees up cash for more actual food.

 

[MichiganKris]

I have a question for those of you who gave your kids a dollar amount for food. What do you do if they made good choices on what to spend the money on, and were still hungry? Some of the amounts you give your children to spend on food seems pretty low to me, and I didn't feel we were overeating or were extravagent with our choices when we were there last December.

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

I find we save a ton of money not buying drinks when getting counter service meals or snacks. I bought Rubbermaid chug bottles and bring the crystal light sticks or your boys may prefer the Gatorade ones. All counter service restaurants will give you free ice water.

Bottles (I have found them at Target, BJ's and Big Lots)
http://reviews.rubbermaid.com/7419/RP091201/chug-bottles-reviews/reviews.htm

I also found at Target bottle covers to keep them cold. The brand is BYO.

 

[Natalie's Mommy]

are they just big eaters in general or big snackers?? either way you need to either bring snacks with you from home (we fly jet blue so we get 4 bags for free, the 4th is all food) or order from garden grocer or plan an off site trip to wal-mart/target for some snacks. stuff that is filling like granola bars, mixed nuts, muffins, stuff like that. we bring a cooler bag filled with baggies of ice (double bagged) and put all the snacks in there so nothing melts or gets mushy in the flordia heat.

 

[WeLuvDCL]

Turkey legs! Huge, high in protein to keep them full longer and cheaper than CS (at least they used to be). They sell them at a cart in Frontierland in the MK, not sure if they are at the other parks.

I'd definitely take at least a backpack full of snack. Again, things high in protein. Peanuts, peanut butter crackers, frozen uncrustables pb&j sandwiches, beef jerky, etc. Or just their favorite snacks to keep them from asking for park snacks.

Luckily, my DD loves pb& j so we take those for her and snacks for us. We only buy one meal a day, around 2pm or 3pm and snack the rest of the time when we are hungry.

 

[Vivianne]

Well, I don't know much about hungry boys other than the need to eat.

However, my advice other than the normal "feed them pizza or snack food to fill their stomachs" is to give them some kind of veggie/s to give them nutrition. Even adults don't realize.... it's not about feeling full but having food that will sustain their bodies. So try to give them some raw green veggies & even fruit with some of those 'filling foods'. Taking along some vitamin, mineral supplements can help. In the long run...their bodies will sorely need it to keep on functioning.

 

[crisi]

With my potential bottomless pit, we set the expectation for reasonable amounts of food on an everyday basis. He will still eat a lot more than anyone else in the family, but he doesn't get to eat everything he wants.

When traveling, he adapts to fewer snacks and smaller meals. We've travel led with him to Europe where portions are MUCH smaller and he's adjusted. (And surprisingly, teenage boys in Europe survive on the smaller portions, too). We'll also supplement with fairly filling energy bars (like Clif bars) that we bring with us, but surprisingly, not many are actually required.

 

[eliza61]

We finally agreed on our next DW Vacation last night. we know we will be staying at Shades of Green. ur last trip with our boys they were very little. This trip they are both hungry teenager boys. They both are football players with HUGE appetites> We are coming without a dining plan. I'm trying to start budgetting and putting money aside for meals. Any ideas on how much money my husband and I should figure for lunch/dinner and snacks? We will be feeding them breakfast at Shades of Green at the buffet before we hit the parks. Hopefully that will give us a head start on keeping them full for a couple of hours. We hopefully are planning this next vacation enough in advance that I can feed them now at home and afford to feed them at DW!~ LOL!! Thanks for any help and tips!!

So for our family the dining plan really only saved us money when we got the apps and the tips were included.

My sons also are football players that eat non stop (or at least it seemed to me). The hard part for my family is that my family doesn't really like Disney's buffets so those are the meals that give you the most "bang for the buck" at disney.

I'll echo what you already have. When we eat a nice full breakfast (eggs, pancakes, etc) we generally spend a lot less on snacks in between. Luckily the men in my family love water (way more than their coke addicted mom. ). since we have access to a full fridge, we freeze our water bottles and then have nice cold water to drink while we are in the parks.

We also like fruit so that usually goes great for a afternoon snack.

No way can we split meals, we've tried every restaurant suggestion but have yet to find one where we can split a meal and both parties come out satisfied so we don't do it.

We go generally during hte summer so we really don't like heavy lunches, burgers / fries combined with the 99 degree temperatures really zap our energy so we didn't spend a lot on lunches. usually we just wanted cold snacks.

 

[dclfun]

We also like adding the flavor packets to water that you can get for free at CS locations. We transfer the water to a container first just to keep it cold and to keep it from spilling but of course that means each person needs to bring in their own water bottle. Caribiner clips work well for this.

I'd rather buy a food snack for the kids than a soda or bottled water and besides it's fun for them to choose a tasty snack they wouldn't have at home.

I remember the days of travelling with teen boys and their insatiable appetite. They ( and my two teen daughters) were required to carry their own food snacks but I brought in a few things too:

They packed:
cheese and/or peanut butter crackers
cheese sticks or cheese cubes and crackers
granola bars
ziplocs with homemade trail mix or granola mix
fruit
fruit roll ups or fruit gummies ( these are not very filling)
beef jerky
pretzels
pb or hummus packets to use with the pretzels
raisin boxes
cereal in a plastic container that they like to eat "dry" or we could buy a carton of milk
Cookies or brownies that don't crumble, or graham crackers

I packed in a small softsided cooler with ice packs, for example:
tortillas ( better than bread as they don't rip or get soggy and are less bulky)
ziplocs with cold shredded lettuce
plastic container with shredded cheese
cold cuts
we got mustard packets from the CS locations
voila...instant wraps that still tasted fresh

We tried to have our "evening meal" a few times at a TS restaurant around 4 pm or the last lunch seating. Usually the menu was very similar and less costly than the dinner one. Other than that it was CS meals. The girls could easily split a meal at Cosmic Rays or one of the burger meals at Pecos Bill- those burgers are HUGE and once you add cheese to the fries and mushrooms to the burgers, they are a filling meal. Stay back a bit and watch people go by with trays who have ordered one of these meals. We didn't and wasted a lot of food because we didn't know better.

Good luck. I'm sure the boys will help you to be creative and you'll do just fine.

 

[XYSRUS]

Don't do it!!! Lol. We just got back frOm a SW/Discovery Cove vacay. We totally missed the dining plan! We all know boys eat a lot but when they don't stop it's crazy and expensive!

 

[Evi]

I believe you have a kitchenette in Shades. I would hit the super market or have a delivery made. Have them eat a hearty breakfast before you leave the resort. If you know you'll be back midday you could make lunch or choose to do lunch in the parks and go back to the resort and prepare dinner. I'd also make sure you have quick items they can make in the resort if they are hungry like cold cuts etc. Honestly though I haven't stayed at shades when we bought our tickets we saw some flyers they have good dining deals on site. But again since we didn't stay there I can't speak on how the food is.

I won't lie we always eat in the parks or at the resort but I do think its doable as well as there are more budget friendly options when you dine around the world.

Make them carry some snacks into the park with them and a water bottle each. When we did Disney with df nieces we brought snacks with us. Do to food allergies and limited availability of allergy friendly snacks in the park. I also brought each of the girls a water bottle into the park. Though we purchased beverages later in the day I know we would have bought water bottles early on so they are an easy and obvious item for me to carry in. If everyone carries there own water bottle its not a hassle. I also always carry a small snack because though Disney sit down restaurants are great with food allergies their fast food options are seriously lacking.