food and disney

[lovemycc916]

We are going to disney in dec for christmas. i have looked at the prices of food and water and with a family of 7 going i dont think i can afford to eat there much. is there any place in disney that the food is more affordable? can we pack snacks and water in our back packs to save a few dollars? and lastly, out accomidations are 2 miles from disney...will it be worth while to leave in the middle of the day to go eat and then come back? i would appreciate any helpful advice on this.

god bless,
m butterfield and family

 

[campingcorgi]

Yes, you can pack snacks, drinks, sandwiches, cans of corn (sorry, flash from the past!).

To save money a lot of people will take small coolers (the squashable 6-pack kind) with food and drinks and use their money for snacks. You can also let everyone pack a fanny pack full of snacks and let them graze through Disneyworld.

Now, accomodations 2 miles from Disney can mean almost anything. You could plan on going back your first day and then scratch that plan if it proves to be too far or too time consuming. Will you have your own car? If you are counting on a hotel shuttle then you probably won't want to go back.

 

[powellrj]

sure you can bring your own snack into the park as long as you don't bring glass or a rolling backback/cooler.

I wouldn't try to leave if you are just going back to eat. If you wanted to go back and spend a few hours swimming or napping its not a bad idea, but I wouldn't do it just to eat lunch. If your family doesn't mind sandwiches, you can pack a small lunch that would fit in a small soft sided cooler and bring those with you.

There are several places that tend to be a little cheaper than other places to eat. Trails end buffet is one and there is a Mc Donalds at DTD.

 

[LubsPoohBear]

are trip was last min. so we had very lil spending money we had kids meals and brought are own sandwitches other days... one say whe they where checking are bags on the way in the man called 2 others over too look in are bag he was laughing told us we had though of everything we had less then $200 for 8 days for 4ppl it was great...

 

[Hannathy]

one thing to consider is the counter service meals are huge you can easily share especially if any of those 7 are kids. two examples at Cosmic Rays you can get a rib/chicken combo that is a large serving of ribs plus a half a chicken and a side for $11.99 you could easily feed 3 people lunch from that, or at Pecos Bill? My barbeque pork sandwich was so huge it could easily have made 3 or even 4 regular sandwiches, just buy a few extra buns. Refill water bottles from free water at meals,eat breakfast in room. If you share and stick to counter service I don't think the food is that expensive because they give you way too much.

 

[hoosiergirl7]

Good to know we can pack water and snacks. We're staying off-property as well (Last minute trip) and will have a rental car. After we leave the airport we're driving to the nearest Target or grocery store to stock up on sodas, water and snacks for the room and for the parks. I was assuming that we could take stuff into the parks with us, but wasn't 100% certain.

 

[wdwpjs]

We are a family of 6 so i can "feel" your pain!! haha. First of all we always stay at a hotel that has a free breakfast. We fill up real well and also snag a couple of pieces of fresh fruit and put in our food backpack. We snack all during the day on our backpack snacks...... these include:
beef jerky
cheese crackers
goldfish
gardettos
rice krispie treats
frozen gogurts
frozen pb&j uncrustables
We usually then eat a c.s. dinner around 3 or 4. When we get back to our room that night we will have a sandwich or ramen noodles while we are unwinding from the day. If you freeze some waters or capri suns and put them in your backpack they will thaw during the day plus keep some snacks cool.
We dont do this every trip or every day. But when we are on a budget it works!!!! anything will do as long as we are in disney!!!!!

 

[eeyoregon]

A HUGE money saver for our family is ordering snacks/soda/water/breakfast foods from gardengrocer.com. They deliver the items right to your hotel and carry an extensive variety of items ranging from fresh fruit to diapers at resonable prices!

At $2.50 per bottled water/soda in the parks, you can go broke fast in the heat! But by ordering water/soda through gardengrocer you can get 24 bottles of water and 24 cans soda for under $20! Fill your mini-fridge and take some with you in your day bag, rolling cooler or backpack. You can refill the water bottles at the drinking fountains.

As far as food, we visit DT Disney for "cheaper" grub. McDonald's is always a favorite and there is a sandwich place (can't think of the name??) with great sandwiches at affordable prices. In Magic Kingdom we love Pecos' Bills because of the great condiment bar for the burgers! We tend to eat cereal/snack bars in the room before we head for the parks thus eliminating 1 spendy meal.

 

[misshilda1]

Since everyone has already touched on the topic that yes you can bring appropriate coolers into the part I thought I might add so there are no surprises make sure you pack it so that the items inside are viewable without dumping the contents out. They do check inside your purse ,fanny pack and especially coolers when you enter thru the turnstilles. Just thought I would pre-warn you so your not standing in line dumping out your cooler with everyone staring at you and the people behind you getting upset wanting to get in. Don't worry they don't invade you they do however need to look in everything they usally just shine a flash light in. However with the cooler they will need to view the contents so watch how you pack it for your convience. You can always rearrange it on the inside and you can alsom rent a locker for it if you don't want to carry it all day long Have a great trip........Keep your eyes open there are deals to be had on food and snacks in the parks if your willing to look and not be an impulse buyer....

 

[Reginak]

I understand. Last year we added three children and became a family of six. Boy! was that a blow to our budget. We went on two trips to WDW. (They were already planned and mostly paid for.)
We bought a lot of breadfast bars at the salvage grocery store to use for breakfast; for lunch, we would split two counter service meals (not enough to fill us up, but enough to hold us until dinner; then we would eat what we wanted at dinner. Sometimes we would skip lunch; eat some popcorn; and then have an early dinner followed by snacks in the room.
You can also purchase or upgrade one of your tickets to an annual pass and buy a Disney Dining Experience card for $60 and receive 20% off all food and beverage at the table service restaurants. This pays for itself really fast. In our case, one meal at the Crystal Palace with my parents.
At dinner, I often check out the prices of adult meals vs. kids meals. Sometimes I can get one adult meal or an appetizer for two or three kids to share since the portions are so big for less money than it would cost for each child to get a childrens plate. They usually get more food and if they are still hungry, they nibble off our plate or we just order more. A lot of times they are happy with one appetizer of calamari (they love it) for them all to share and ice cream when we get back to the room.

I hope that this helps.



Regina

 

[Rapoza]

You should look into Magic Your Way Plus Dining? Dec might be high season. If not, MYWPD means lower food prices and you dont have to worry about wipping out cash all the time.

 

[we3disneygo]

we stayed off site and had a rental car and after the first day of overpriced yucky food we went to Crossroads and ate and also downtown disney, we also swam and then went back to the parks in the evening.