First time in Disney without dining plan some tips

[sg07]

Hi
I'm going to WDW for the first time with my hubby and 23 months and a five yr old.I could not do the Dining plan.Can somebody tell me how to save money on food and other things.
Thanks

 

[CherylA]

Mostly you should eat counter service, under order and share, portions are large. If you have a few sit down meals you'd like to do, do them for lunch, it's cheaper. Don't buy alcoholic beverages at restaurants, if you want a drink bring some nips from home! Stop and buy if you have a car, otherwise bring from home items like granola bars or pop tarts for breakfast. If you want to do a character meal try doing it for breakfast, cheaper. Thats it for me!

 

[MagiKitty]

CherylA gave all the really great tips! I was going to say the same thing...share all meals. Eat more at lunch--its cheaper. We usually stay offsite, so we stop somewhere our first day and load up on snacks and bottled water. I bring those powder drink packs and add them to the water. !

I also go to restaurant.com before we go and get some GC for offsite restaurants--usually $25 off $50, which is really good!

Oh, you also have little ones--budget for souvenirs! Go to the local Walmart or Dollar Store and bring Disney themed items with you. You'll be amazed what you can find there

 

[budbeerlady]

Look at the menus http://allears.net/din/dining.htm to help you deciede.

I pick the Plaza often in Mk. Its a really nice place to eat and very reasonable as far as Disney goes.

We pack Poptarts or get an order from Garden Grocer delivered to our room. We share lunches, get 2 cs meals and split it between the 3 of us.

 

[Kendallkat2]

My husband and I always share a large soda. We get it with no ice then you get more. The price between and regular and large is very minimal.

Like the other posters said, share. The portions are huge.

Beth

 

[Halle]

Eat some meals offsite.

 

[vicb]

We are a family of four and have never done the dining plan. However we do like to eat in the nicer places so here's what we usually do.

Most mornings we do a quick grab (bagel, muffin or our own granola bars). We bring a snack into the park with us (pretzels, cracker packs, pnut m&ms etc).

If we are dining at a nice restaurant for dinner we will do a counter service for lunch. But frequently we do the nicer places for lunch (le cellier, garden grill etc...)

I agree with a pp who suggested dining at the Plaza in MK, as a matter of fact it is the only sit down we will now do at MK, don't think the others are worth it.

At Studios we always buy fresh fruit bowls from that produce stand to share along with a hot dog, cheaper but somewhat healthier lunch.

I also carry disposable plastic cups in my back pack so we can share water bottles. Good for kids who rarely ever drink a whole bottle.

 

[mountdew1]

You can order counter service kids meals, usually a few bucks less than the adult meal and plenty of food for the kids, probably enough for you to have a few bites. Consider doing a later lunch buffet sitting, lunch buffets are cheaper (at least last time I remember) and if you eat enough you can skip dinner. Def bring snacks, refillable water bottles to save a few more.

 

[thomas998]

Mostly you should eat counter service, under order and share, portions are large. If you have a few sit down meals you'd like to do, do them for lunch, it's cheaper. Don't buy alcoholic beverages at restaurants, if you want a drink bring some nips from home! Stop and buy if you have a car, otherwise bring from home items like granola bars or pop tarts for breakfast. If you want to do a character meal try doing it for breakfast, cheaper. Thats it for me!

I would agree with most everything... except if you are going to do a character meal do a buffet type meal... for breakfast do chef mickey. But frankly I would do a character lunch like crystal palace late in the day around 2:00pm... then you could skip dinner if you stuffed yourselves at lunch.

Also... get yourself some bottled water or if you need be little minute maid juice boxes... you would be surprised how quickly the drink here or there adds up to serious money.

 

[ibela]

Don't buy bottled water, any stand that has fountain soda can give you a cup of ice water free (no purchase necessary and no one ever batted an eye when asked, which we did repeatedly every day).

Picked this one up at the Dining Board - at a counter service place if you order a double cheeseburger (about $8 vs $6 for a single), you can buy an extra bun for $1 and have 2 full sized burgers.

Actually, you should go to the Dining Forum and do a search, I've seen a few threads with some awesome ideas about where platters are big enough to share for 2 (chicken and ribs platter at Cosmic ray's and someplace in AK, combo platters in Morocco@ Epcot, etc. no way I can remember them all).

If you have a car, definitely eat offsite. Our favorite place was CiCi's <5 minutes from DTD. A family of 3 eats dinner for ~$20: all you can eat salad, soup, pizza, and dessert.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Eat well and eat healthy. Its cheaper over the long run because you won't be hungry and you wont get any side effects from junky eating.

For breakfast I find cheerios, walnuts and blue berries lasts a long time. You can bring milk in shelf stable containers if you don't have a fridge. Keep it cold using a soft sided cooler and large ziploc plastic bags after opening (and ice of course). The nuts are key. Otherwise eat something protein loaded for breakfast.

If you have to eat in the parks make it a late lunch. Choose meals you can split if eating table service. Otherwise look for the healthiest counter service you can find. You can go for junk for snacks. By looking for healthy lower salt choices you'll just naturally buy fewer drinks.

Car free? Visit www.allearsnet.com to look at their menus so you can plan where to eat affordably inside WDW.

 

[MommaSnowwhite]

We brought our own cereal with us from home and used a cooler to keep our milk cold (we purchased the milk in the gift shop). It was a great way to have a cheap breakfast and it saved time because the kids ate while Dh and I get showered.

We also make a trail mix to bring into the parks with us. You can mix cereal, raisins, nuts, M&Ms and anything else you like and carry in ziplocks for easy snacks!

The free ice water at fountain drink places worked out great for us. I brought my own refillable water bottles and filled them with mostly ice before we left the resort and then refilled then during the day from free fountain water! I washed them with dish soap every night!

We also love Chef Mickey's and like to eat a late breakfast (the latest they have) it easily carries us until dinner.

 

[ahecht]

Here are my tips for eating cheap. The first two are really the most important -- so many people don't know that they can save money by leaving off the sides and end up just throwing them out anyway, and sodas are a huge waste of money.

• Skip the sides. Many of the sandwiches and entrees from the CS places are enough for a meal if you don't want to share. If you ask them to leave off the apples, carrots, grapes, or fries it will usually knock $2 or so off the price. All CS places will do this even though it isn't on the menu.
• Skip the sodas -- they add up quickly and every food service location will give you water for free. You can also order a case of bottled water from Costco for $7 shipped (you don't have to be a member) and have it sent to your resort. Caffeine can also lead to dehydration and isn't the best idea in the parks, but if you really need it to get you through the day bring Excedrin.
• Skip the snacks and desserts. Portions are large enough at meals to get you through the day, and if you'll really need a boost you can bring granola bars with you from home.
• Bring your own breakfast, and don't skip it. Eating a good breakfast will make you less hungry for expensive park meals. If your room will have a fridge you can bring cereal and milk, yogurt, cream cheese, and other breakfast foods (freeze it before leaving home and pack it with ice in a soft cooler in your luggage). Otherwise, you can buy bagels or english muffins, peanut butter, jelly, granola bars, etc from a grocery store at home and bring it with you. This also has the advantage of giving you more time in the parks in the morning when crowds are still low.
• Scout out the menues in advance so that you don't have to settle for something expensive because it's all that you can find. Think outside the box -- DTD and resort food service can be cheaper than those in the parks.
• Don't be ashamed to order a kid's meal if nothing on the adult menu appeals to you. Unless you're a heavy eater most kids meals have enough food for an adult. I wouldn't make a habit out of it (I only did it once on my recent trip), but it can help occasionally.
• If you want to eat a sit-down meal, do so at lunch. Reservations are easier to get and the food can be 2/3 the price it is at dinner.

On my recent 10-day trip we ate breakfast in our hotel room most days (bagels, cream cheese, and lox that we brought with us), had 7 TS meals, 16 CS meals, and about 6 snacks. We never purchased sodas, although we did buy alcoholic drinks on 3 occasions. Including the price of the breakfast food and granola bars we purchased in advance we spent under $30/person each day including tips.

 

[SCQ86]

My cheap eats for breakfast if you need to buy something....slice of bread toasted and top with a little butter and sugar. The burger with the side bar of toppings can really fill you up....who needs fries. And my favorite meal was sharing with my cousin, an order a fries, an order of corn dog nuggets and we would each get a side of chili.....couldn't believe how filling it was and it would run us about $5 each.

 

[TnTWalter]

We're staying off-site so can't do dining plan, plus my oldest and pickiest will be 10 so the value isn't there. Some of the tricks offered while smart money savers just are not my cup of tea.

We will bring easy breakfast items and snacks as we've done in past. Plus beer & wine for us grown-ups.

I'm hoping to do meals that I couldn't justify on the dining plan like Brown Derby which is normall 2 TS per person and since I'm dying for the Cobb salad [only $14], it wouldn't be a good value on the DDP.

We have to do at least one character meal, probably Chef Mickey's for breakfast. We've done dinner before and loved it.

Also we're going to do House of Blues which I might not have been able to justify on the DDP.

Love the idea for the restaurant.com deals plus isn't there a dining experience card or something like that where you can get other discounts?

I think you can save money off plan without having to go super thrifty.



Trish

 

[newholidayx2]

breakfast in room (or take to the parks)
lunch counter service
drinks for dinner
bring snacks

 

[The Hendies]

We stuck individual apple sauce and yogurt in the freezer and brought them with us the next day. By lunch they were just the right temp. We also froze water and kept refilliing all day.

 

[MEM]

Here's another fan of The Plaza Restaurant in the MK. We were just there on Labor Day and the four of us shared two sandwiches - they plated each half neatly and because the sandwiches are huge, three of us felt we had plenty to eat. DS14 is always hungry, no matter how much food is on his plate.

Because we have issues with caffeine and artificial sweeteners, we tend to order ice water and bring along the individual Kool-aid or Countrytime lemonade packets.

 

[missj1975]

For a snack, We bought a bucket of popcorn everyday. I think the bucket cost $3.50 and has a plastic lid. We snacked on half of it at the park and then ate the rest later that night at the hotel room. It is a cheap snack and tastes so good, plus it comes with a reusable bucket.

Last trip, we split counter service meals for a late lunch and was usually too busy to even worry about dinner so just snacked on popcorn.

Next week we are going for free dining which will be a completely different experience that i am looking forward to.

 

[mama2girls]

We each got a CamelBak. Filled it with ice to the top (free at the hotel) and tap water from the sink (free as well) That way we didnt have to carry water bottles around with us all day and we were all very well hydrated! The water stayed icy cold for about 5 hours or so. Saved us from having to splurge on drinks for crying kids or standing in line for cups of ice water that we couldnt bring on rides anyway! hope this helps!