How we ate cheap & random thoughts from our trip

[thewritegirl]

We just got back this morning from our trip to DL - had a great time, of course!

I often see threads on here about saving money on the trip, or eating cheap, and I thought I'd share what we did, which worked wonderfully. We are a family of four and spent less than $50/day on food, except the day we ate at Ariel's Grotto. One day, we only spent $20! And all without leaving the park once we were in or feeling deprived at all.

The first important thing we did was stay at a hotel that offered a free breakfast. We chose the Park Vue Inn (which I was thrilled with, btw). They had a really good breakfast to choose from - plenty of hot items (eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, bacon, waffles, etc) and cold items (yogurt, fresh fruit, cold cereal). They had oatmeal, bagels and cream cheese, donuts, pretty much something for anyone. So, I encouraged the kiddos to eat a fairly hearty breakfast so no one was hungry early in the day.

Then, we brought lots of individually packaged snacks from home. I brought jerky, pretzels, granola bars, fruit snacks, power bars, fresh fruit, etc. Each day, I tossed plenty of them into our backpack. When the kids got hungry around midday, we snacked on items from the backpack. Then, we had a late lunch/early dinner around 4pm or so. This way, we were only buying one meal in the park. Several of the days, we also purchased a treat, like a Dole Whip, but since we were only buying the one meal in the park, the cost stayed low.

I also brought juice boxes for the kids, and even brought those Starbucks Via packets that you mix with water for coffee, though I never actually used those.

A couple of other random thoughts...

The kids meals at the Pizza Port in Tomorrowland were a JOKE! I was so glad the CM showed me how big they were before we ordered them. The mini pizzas were about 3" across. Instead, the four of us shared 3 entrees - a big salad, and two kinds of pasta. Worked great.

I thought we'd be going during a slow time, but it was sort of a strange thing. There weren't enough people to have all the queues open on the rides, so they were at about half capacity most of the time, which actually meant there were longer lines than there would have been if there were more people. Does that make sense?

The bunkbeds at the Park Vue Inn were a life saver. We stayed one night at the Anaheim Plaza (got into town a day earlier than expected), and my kids had to share a queen bed. Arg! They complained all night, it seemed - someone was always kicking or hogging the bed or the blankets or whatever. Loved that they each had their own space at the Park Vue and they slept soo much better.

We spent more than half our time at CA, I think. There are so many fun rides on that side!

We had a 6 day park hopper. We were there to open the park every morning and closed it every night, except the one night it was open till midnight. There were STILL things we hadn't done on the 5th day! It was great. No one got sick of it, and my son cried in the car on the way home that he missed Disneyland.

 

[raftislander]

Great job on keeping food costs reasonable! I soooo agree with you that having a good free breakfast included in your lodging is key to keeping food costs down. You know, it's odd, I think the food at the Pizza Port is quite good, IF you stay away from the pizza.

 

[Gisele]

Thank you for sharing your foodie ideas and plans. It sounds like you did an awesome job with keeping expenses down. And at the same time, not feeling deprived one bit nor becoming hungry twenty minutes later.

 

[lulubelle]

Thanks for the tips and for sharing your experiences with us WriteGirl.

I agree that one "big and good" meal is enough if you plan the others accorindingly. We just ate at Ariel's last week and the food was soooo good. Spendy, but very good.

 

[thewritegirl]

I agree about Ariel's. We were there 2.5 years ago, and the food was "fine," I'd say. This time it seemed much better to me. Maybe we were just hungrier. j/k. I liked how they do the shared appetizers and the shared dessert plate now. You get more variety. Everything was just really tasty, too.

The food at the Pizza Port wasn't bad. We had a really good salad there, with blue cheese and walnuts and all kinds of good stuff on it, and the pasta with chicken and white sauce was good, too. The spaghetti and meatballs were so-so. Prices and portions there seemed pretty reasonable to me, except for the ridiculous kids meal.

We also ate at Rancho del Zocalo, and I really enjoyed that. I had fish tacos, which were yummy, and the kids liked their kids meals from there. I liked the atmosphere - it was a little slower pace back in that part of the park and just felt more relaxing than some of the other places (like the Pizza Port).

Our super cheap meal was at the wharf in DCA - those sourdough loaves full of soup. They were about $9/each, I believe. Dh and I each shared one with a kiddo, and it was plenty of food.

One evening we went into DTD and ate at Rainforest Cafe, and really, I thought the prices there were ok, too. I used a coupon for a free appetizer, picked up in our hotel lobby.

 

[Eeee-va]

I'm glad you had a great (and a cheap food) trip!

I thought we'd be going during a slow time, but it was sort of a strange thing. There weren't enough people to have all the queues open on the rides, so they were at about half capacity most of the time, which actually meant there were longer lines than there would have been if there were more people. Does that make sense?

Unfortunately, that is fairly normal. If 20,000 people are in the park, instead of 40,000, Disney is making considerably less money from admission, food and merchandise sales, etc. It wouldn't shock me if it was 50% less (since there are 50% as many people).

Some of their costs, like electricity, will remain about the same regardless of crowds (except when the parks close earlier). Other costs, like the raw cost of merchandise and food that they sell, some cosmetic maintenance (janitorial, wear-and-tear on surface paint, etc.) will go down. Labor is one of those variable costs that Disney can control by scheduling fewer cast members to work during times of fewer guests.

Meanwhile, I hear that Disney's done surveys and the average guest will be happy if they do X number of rides a day. (I forget the number but I believe it's somewhere between 9 and 12.) So rather than fully staff popular rides, they can half-staff. Since fewer people are in the park, wait time remains acceptable to management. Guest experience is still generally OK, and Disney makes more money than they would have made if they'd been fully staffed.

Some of the best days for crowds are days that are scheduled to be busy but, for whatever reason, aren't. Some of the only days anymore that have this are rainy days and I've heard good things about some blockout days as well. (Although, on some more recent rainy days, Disneyland has taken to closing early, likely for the economic reasons cited above. )

And besides days when the park is at capacity, some of the worst days for crowds are off-season days that are predicted to have low crowds but have higher crowds. Rides are loading slower, more rides are under refurbishment (and not absorbing guests), and there are fewer cast members to deal with everyone.

 

[heatherleigh]

Thanks so much for sharing. This puts into perspective how much money can actually be saved by doing some of the things you mentioned. We decided to buy snacks and drinks for our room on this next trip, and we may even do sandwiches. Did you guys ever bring sandwiches or other meal-type items other than snacks into the park?

 

[NVDisMom]

We also frequently take advantage of the Subway on Harbor(within walking distance) for lunch or dinner when we have a "hungry" day or in place of an in park meal. $10 gives our family of four a full sandwich each, add in room sodas/beer and chips and we are good to go. We too keep snacks and drinks in a backpack for in the parks (we've brought in lunch before too). We never buy drinks in the parks accept at sit down meals, even then we usually order water. You can also find some decent and low cost delivery pizza and Chinese in the area. Another thought, if you do not have free bfast at your hotel, in room bfast is super cheap and easy as long as you have a fridge. A microwave makes it even easier. We've even brought a toaster. Great for bagels with cream cheese and lox! And that can be eaten as you walk to the parks and stand in line for entrance.

 

[Karebear]

Thanks so much for sharing. This puts into perspective how much money can actually be saved by doing some of the things you mentioned. We decided to buy snacks and drinks for our room on this next trip, and we may even do sandwiches. Did you guys ever bring sandwiches or other meal-type items other than snacks into the park?

My son is a super picky eater and I did not want to eat chicken nuggets for our whole trip last Sept. So, I packed a pb & j for him and the rest of us ate at Rancho del Zocolo, etc. This worked out really well.

 

[Kayla's Mom]

My son is a super picky eater and I did not want to eat chicken nuggets for our whole trip last Sept. So, I packed a pb & j for him and the rest of us ate at Rancho del Zocolo, etc. This worked out really well.

My DD3 won't eat nuggets either - we always bring her an uncrustable and apple sauce.

 

[thewritegirl]

We didn't bring sandwiches into the park, but I think as long as it's easy to transport and doesn't need to be cold, it would work great. I would do pb&j, but nothing with mayo, you know? The other thing to think about is the space it takes up. We were just using a backpack, so we didn't want bulky things like a lunch bag or cooler in there. If you are traveling with a stroller, you have a little more built-in storage.

Oh, and we had the snacks right in plain view at the top of the backpack, and no CM ever had any problem with us bringing food in or said anything at all.

 

[kailuagirl]

I agree with the chicken nuggets, my daughter doesn't like them and we found very little that she would eat except for at Cafe Orleans where she grinded her mac n cheese. It was so good!
Great trip report!!