Got the WDW Food-Fixin Blahs

[Puffy2]

Hows this for an answer to the food "blahs" - a personal chef that will deliver meals to your villa (all to your specifications) or cook the meal right there for you and serve and clean up - read about what they can do at the link below:
Personal Chefs in Orlando

 

[DaddyDon]

Just daddydons humble thought for the day!I /we my wife and i love to save money!I perfer to camp at fort wilderness,But lately i have been able to stay in hotels cheaper than disney thanks to priceline,Jees let me think camp in my popup or a king size bed for less $$$.Okay what does this have to do with the disney cooking BLUES ?Yes i too bring my own food for some meals.And i have to say some,we often take sandwiches and chips to the park,ihave even taken and cooked hotdogs in the parking lots of theme parks,I hate to pay $5.0 for a hot dog or 3.0 for a coke.Thats not being cheap,i have better uses for family funds than being overcharged for some basically bland tasteing foods! Okay i hear the sneers and geers comeing now,And the boo birds are showing there ugly face!Do i feel like my family takes it for granted? No way jose !We are able to go to wonderfull places like disney several times a year because we do save a ton of money on food,And yes we do eat out at nite! one of my favorite places to eat at is Boston Lobster Fest in orlando off of i-drive.I must say that maybe iam missing some of my so called vacation,by cooking meals,well you are right!But when i look at my dd face lite up because i can afford to pay cash for something she wants that makes my little effort well worth it,Did you catch that magic word i just used? Cash not credit,But that is what makes america great every body has their own way of doing things.This is Daddydon .....Goodday!!!

 

[Belle5]

Another dining bargain I haven't heard mentioned in a while is splitting the double burger meal at Pecos Bill. One person takes their bottom layer of the double burger to the toppings bar and their food partner takes the top layer to the toppings bar. You share the fries and Coke. Someone mentioned you could actually pay for an extra bun. I've never tried it. There is also the option of everyone ordering a kid's meal at the counter service joints. We have done this once when I was too full for an adult meal.
Our family's finances took at dramatic change for the worse last year, as well, and after 15 trips to WDW for the 7 of us we are trying to figure out new and creative ways of making a trip to our favorite destination. No more California Grill, Boma, Flying Fish, Artist Point and so on for us for a while... It's time for Chef Boy Ardee in the room for us if we can even afford the 6 adult tickets (1 child), hotel(big enough for all of us) and travel expenses, that is.

 

[travelitis]

The ham and cheese croissant is supposed to be a normal size which would be suitable for a meal. I can't remember where I read about it being one of the best deals at Disney, but I checked the menu at www.wdwig.com to see if was still listed, and it was.

 

[travelitis]

No jeers coming from me, DaddyDon. While we are dishing out the money for character dining, the other meals are going to be much more budget minded. I will not buy a soda from Disney. I'll carry my own, thank you. We'll save so much money on drinks for our family of 5, that will fund one of our character meals at the very least. We like to drive ourselves when we hop parks, and that's an excellent time to have a picnic.

 

[Local_Girl]

Thanks for the info about the croissants, Travelitis. And Daddy Don, I think we may be doing some "parking lot picnics" on our upcoming trip too!

 

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

This is a tough one for me. Our family always travels to WDW every year and we ALWAYS eat out for breakfast and dinner and share a burger for lunch.

This time it is going to be different - of the 6 days we have planned at WDW we are doing 2 dinners and 2 breakfasts - the rest of our meals are going to be eaten in our room. I really didn't like the idea (it was DH idea) but I think it is going to be better and healthier and definitely more cost effective.

I will take these suggestions and let DH know and he will be very impressed!!

Thanks for the tips.

Lisa

 

[travelitis]

Local_Girl, have you made a menu yet? I'm a ridiculous planner who puts together a notebook with each page of our trip in the order that I will need it all in plastic protectors. One of my pages is the menu. That way I see how much I really need to cook. Much to my surprise, when I made my menu a couple of days ago I found I need to pre-cook and freeze only 1 meal. We aren't huge eaters, so when we have a late character lunch, we snack for supper. One big meal a day is enough. When we get back to the room, we might want something light, but a bowl of cereal, half sandwich, or banana will do it. Also, we like to spend time in the parks, so if we're there until 8 p.m., we're not eating supper I've cooked. For us it means counter service or small picnics. My point being that maybe you don't need to cook much to save $$ on food.

 

[Local_Girl]

Travelitis, I too am a ridiculous planner! My notebook is spiral bound without page protectors, though, LOL!! I have it in my mind to do about 3 dinner meals in the room, and believe me they will be easy (mostly precooked and reheated). We'll also do some picnic lunches (primarily sandwiches, fruit, chips, etc.). And other than that (and 2 special PS dinners), I plan to choose our counter service stops very carefully according to the great ideas posted here. My DH and kids are very "meal oriented"--by that I mean that regardless of whether or not they are hungry, they think they need a meal if it's that time. Perhaps being in the parks and on the go will help us all to think less about eating full meals...or perhaps I could convince them that a Mickey ice cream bar is a meal!

 

[tink2dw]

No one has mentioned the belly back of snacks carried by each member of the family,with 5 of your families favorite snacks,ie

granoila bar,= healthy snack for energy

bag of almonds,= protein snack for energy

fruit snacks packette,= a munchy

juice box,= healthy drink
and
a tube of mini M&M's= a treat

You can use any combo of items that fit your families tastes.
And we let the kids pick 5 items from 8 different chooses each day. All these were purchase in bulk at costco.

This helped so much!! When any child started to get grouchy,that was snack time!! When they were hungery while in line,just grab a snack! Thristy grab your juice box!!

 

[travelitis]

We do the fanny packs of snacks! I secretly shop for snacks, and they don't find out what the menu is until we get to WDW. I divide the booty into 3 drawers, so there's no fighting over who got the most fruit roll-ups. Trading is perfectly fine. Each day they fill their fanny packs and snack at will. The only time I restrict it is when we have a PS coming up, and I want them to be able to eat a real meal. My kids are the ones trying to convince me that a Mickey ice cream bar is a meal. lol

Local_Girl, not only do I have page protectors, but I color code types of information. I have a huge chart (18"x24") of my PS's and basic park plans besides having it on a spreadsheat on my computer and filling my dry erase boards with notes. I make notes to myself by e-mailing the tidbits of info, then I edit it before printing for my notebook. I also have a small notebook of Disney notes. I make plans to plan! Don't people take medication for this kind of behavior?

I went through the menus for counter service at www.wdwig.com to find the best values - foods my family will eat at the best prices. I'll have a quick reference of cheap eats in my notebook, but by the time we go I'll have practically everything but PS#s memorized.

 

[Local_Girl]

Travelitis,

You are truly an organized planner! Lately I have been rummaging through the pile of info I jotted down on the backs of envelopes (while sitting at the computer and coming across something important), trying to compile all of it into my notebook!

Thanks, too, for the snack ideas. Definitely like the idea of keeping it a secret--and I'll plan to buy special treats the kids don't usually get--and especially of dividing everything up evenly at the outset and letting them choose from their booty daily. Heaven knows we don't need to provide them with yet another thing to bicker about LOL!!

 

[travelitis]

Is the word organized or obsessed? My dh votes for the latter.

Bickering avoidance is one of my prime survival tactics as an at-home mom of 3.

 

[disneymom3]

Travel_Girl: Take their watches away! That way they won't know it's time to eat!! On our last trip my DH's watch was broken. We were leaving the park at what we thought was about lunch time and our two year old just started to lose it. Geez we thought, what is up with him? Well, when we got to the car, we discovered that it was 1:45 ands the poor kid needed a meal and a snack!

I love the fanny pack idea--we will be utilizing it this trip for the first time. I plan to bring extras, though and only put two or three things in each kid's pack. (They are two and six, when they get older, they will be on their own.) Even found a little bitty one for the two year old to wear!

The "official" resopnse I got from Disney regarding bringing food into the park was that plastic bottles and special dietary needs were allowed and that they understood the need for children to have age appropriate snacks available to them. (I wrote in awhile back 'cause someone raised a stink about people bringing food in.) I figure that means plastic bottles of pop/soda are okay, so DH can bring his Pepsi--he just doesn't understand that Coke is sooo much better!

travelitis--I like the emailing yourself ideas idea I open a word document when I come on the board and copy and paste info as I come across it. A few weeks before our trip, I am going to go through it and make it more readable and print it out. I have ones for various topics like--budget eating, things to do and see, show info, things to pack, etc. the planning is half the fun, right?

PS--My dh thinks I am obsessed too! Humph!

 

[travelitis]

Disneymom3, you're more dedicated to good nutrition than I am on vacation. At 6 I let my ds snack without interruption unless we had a character meal coming up. I make sure they walk into those hungry. Our 4 yr old dd will still have parental control over her snacks, so I'm not completely irresponsible.

 

[momx2]

This may sound yucky to some, but my two DDs love tuna helper. It can be cooked in the microwave. I also take a small hotpot for oatmeal, soup, veggies, etc. Not as big a fan, but hamburger helper can also be made in the micro along with sloppy joes. Hope this helps. Have a great trip.

 

[travelitis]

You could also substitute the canned chicken if you dislike tuna like us.

 

[Local_Girl]

momx2,
If you think your tuna helper might be "yucky" to some...this ought to make you feel better! When I need something really fast and cheap, I make regular mac & cheese and then throw in a can of tuna! It's not something I do often, but my kids actually like this. And even though it's not his favorite, my DH will eat it too...I've become pretty disenchanted with the regular canned tuna lately, though, so I'll probably splurge on the better quality stuff next time.

But as to what we would make to eat in the hotel, I doubt that I'd do the "tuna mac" as we call it. I'm leaning toward bringing meals already prepared and frozen so all I'll have to do is thaw and heat in the micro. Anything more complicated than that will be too much after a day in the parks!

 

[Belle5]

Local_Girl,
I'm all for fixing food in the room when you need to but, boy oh boy--I sure hope I don't get the room after you have it. I hate the smell of tuna from a can more than almost anything. It seems like that smell just lasts forever!

 

[mcm]

Okay Local_Girl, I must ask, how do you intend to get frozen food from Michigan to Orlando?