inexpensive food

[mrzrich]

Check restaurant.com and sign up for their emails. They will send you codes that allow you to buy $25 gift certificates for $2. Then go on their site and search for restaurants in the WDW area.

Also, since you have a car, I would consider eating off site a few meals.

Steak and Shake has a menu of meals under $5.

Sweet Tomatoes send e-mail coupons when you join "Club Veg" for free. Every Thursday they send me coupons including one for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids under 12) to eat dinner for $19.99. They send about 5 different coupons, so if your family doesn't fit that mold thats ok.

Orlando Ale House, AKA Miller's Ale House serves big portions for not a lot of money, and if the adults in your family like an occasional alcoholic beverage, they usually have specials running in that department too.

Giordano's serves Chicago Style Pizza. They participate with the restaurant.com promotion I mentioned above. In December 5 of us at there for $19 including drinks and tip because of the $25 certificate which I bought for $2.

My DH and I rack up our subway card points all year and then use the cards for free sandwiches when we go on vacation. Even without the card, its a cheap meal for our family. DH and I split a $5 foot long, and my 2 kids split a $5 foot long as well.

 

[mrzrich]

We really don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on food for the week but after looking at the menu's I'm starting to have doubts.

I went back and re read this. Yes, you will spend "hundreds of dollars on food for the week" Regardless of where you eat.

 

[obxlover]

Pecos Bills in MK is a great value for what you get. I fed my family of 4 for $21.00. We all got the kids cheeseburgers, FF, a cookie, and a drink came with the meal. My DH and I went to the fixings bar to make it an "adult" sandwich. It was plenty of food. No since in buying a $8.30 burger!!

I second the Cosmic Rays suggestion. Good food and plenty of it. Be warned, if your child wants a burger they do not have children's burgers there.

Take lots of snacks,, water, and drinks into the park. We just came back, we only ate one meal a day in the park, and very few snacks. Disney is an expensive trip, but there are ways to save money!!

Check on allears for the menus and have a plan as to where you want to eat.

 

[chartle]

I went back and re read this. Yes, you will spend "hundreds of dollars on food for the week" Regardless of where you eat.

Yes I hope you have budgeted enough for food.

My family of 4 adults spent between $40 and $48 for every CS meal no matter where. So we spent around $100 a day for meals and a few snacks. Even Ci Ci's pizza cost us around $30.

The best part of our trip, food wise, was that our off site hotel had a real american breakfast buffet with hot foods.

 

[plutolovr]

the other way is call pizza hut for delivery or hit the mcdonalds by dtd.

The McDonalds in DTD is no longer there, replaced by Pollo Camperos. There is still a McDonalds by the All-Stars though.

 

[chartle]

I never suggested drinking out of a water fountain. I live in Florida, and I still don't drink the fountain water. People do some crazy things in those fountains...

ETA: The free tap water that is given out at all counter service and TS restaurants is the same water used to make ice, tea, coffee, fountain soda, etc. That's what I had said previously.

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make but my point is that many people find unfiltered FL water, the kind that comes out of the fountains, undrinkable and that the water they use for ice, mixing drinks and just cups of water is filtered.

We brought Brita filter bottles and didn't buy a single bottle of water. If you go doing the hot and humid season like summer, you will need at least 1 to 2 liters of water per person per day. Thats about $10-15 per person per day at Disney if you buy bottled water.

 

[chartle]

I wanted to add some thing in a new post.

OP please be aware of how your plans to eat cheaply may impact your enjoyment of the parks.

Some people post touring plans that include going back to the resort or condo to eat in the room, or off site McD's to save money.

You have to realize that this can take away valuable park time.

Lets say on your MK day your plans are to leave the park and eat at the McD's on property. So its noon and you are getting off Dumbo, well it will take you min 10 minutes to get to the boat dock or monorail station. Another 20-25 minutes of waiting and getting to the TTC. Now you you have to get on the parking lot tram and then walk to your car. It can easily take 30 to 45 minutes to be in your car and moving. OK up to an hour to get to McD's eat and drive back and then repeat the above transportation to get back into the park.

You have now spent 2 and a half hours of park time to save maybe $15-20 dollars. You have to balance thats savings to how much your tickets cost and time lost in the parks.

 

[parrothoo]

Thank you all very much. I guess what I was hoping for was that there were many other options than sit down expensive meals...I know I am going to spend money on food and we have budgeted for it I was just glancing through some of the menus and things seemed so high but after getting ideas from you all plus more research there are other quick meal options. I don't want to spend my entire trip in restaurants. We have planned for several nice places to eat and we are super excited about that. We are planning breakfast in our room as we are not huge breakfast people anyway and then a quick bite for lunch or something that we've packed. My kids are probably not going to want to stop to eat anyway so I'm thinking lots of fruit also. Again you all have been so helpful on everything I have posted and you are all a wealth of knowledge.

 

[dandave]

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make but my point is that many people find unfiltered FL water, the kind that comes out of the fountains, undrinkable and that the water they use for ice, mixing drinks and just cups of water is filtered.

My point...is that the FREE TAP WATER available at all CS and TS restaurants will not make anyone ill, as was implied on page 1 of this thread. It was such a simple point, too. I'm confounded by the confusion.

 

[tina.tina]

OP, We went for our first family visit in April. Here are some ideas I had for saving money on our next trip. (We thought this would be our only trip & we splurged a little- but we ARE going back!) I think the following things will help us save money next time:

-We did eat breakfast in our room a couple of days. We took cereal and bought a 1/2 gallon of milk in the Pop food court on mornings when we decided to eat in the room. This was a great time saver, too.

-Kids meals are cheap. On most mornings when we did not eat in the room we ate at the Pop food court. Kids' mickey waffle meals are $5 and come with 2 waffles, a piece of bacon, a piece of sausage, applesauce, and milk. I ate the waffles, gave the bacon & sausage to my kids who love it, and kept the applesauce for a snack for them later.

-A cinnamon roll or other treat and drink from the Main Street bakery in MK is a pretty good breakfast, too- or a late night snack.

- We didn't really snack between meals except for a couple of Mickey ice creams. We could substute a couple of snacks for a meal and some of us would probably be happier- like DS who kept wanting popcorn. This would good for snacking around World Showcase, too.

-Portions are huge!!! DH and I split a turkey sandwich from Sunshine Seasons in Epcot and it was plenty of food. I got a steak sandwich at Cosmic Ray's (sort of like philly cheese steak) and it would have fed both of us, too.

-Trails End buffet at Fort Wilderness is one of the cheaper buffets on site and the Campground is a neat place to explore. For free entertainment you could follow this up with the movie and campfire singalong which Chip & Dale attend.

-We loved being on Disney property. We only drove out once when I had my dr call in an rx at a nearby Walgreens. I wouldn't want to leave to search out offsite places to eat. We got a pepperoni pizza for $15 from the Pop food court one evening and ate by the pool. We had brought chips and canned drinks with us so this was a relatively cheap meal.

If I were you, I would look at menus on wdwinfo.com or allears.net and get a general idea of where I would want to eat. Then, you can total up the prices to help you get an idea of your budget needs.

I will also say that I like the Disney Dining Plan because most of the food is pre-paid and you don't have to worry when you're there. However, I do think that it is pretty much break even with maybe the snacks ending up being free.

We ate at our resort (Pop) a lot more than I planned to. I thought the food was good and we relaxed a lot on our trip.

 

[robinb]

I went back and re read this. Yes, you will spend "hundreds of dollars on food for the week" Regardless of where you eat.

Sorry OP, I have to agree. It's better to budget for the worst and come home with extra cash than not to have enough while you are there. Sadly, even the cheapest CS meals are approximately $10 each. I also want to add that my appetite is such that I can't share adult meals or eat the smaller kids meals. I would guess that you would pay at least $35 per meal for two adult meals and 3 kids meals so yeah ... you're looking at about $100 per day for a family of 5.

 

[skp]

adults split meals or eat kids meals and bring your own water bottle and snacks to the parks.

 

[mrzrich]

OP, We went for our first family visit in April. Here are some ideas I had for saving money on our next trip. (We thought this would be our only trip & we splurged a little- but we ARE going back!) I think the following things will help us save money next time:

Since you are definately returning to WDW let me give you some advice.

First sign up for a rewards site like mypoints. Then whenever you make an online purchase for anything, start your purchase at the rewards site. You'll earn points based on a percentage of your purchase which you can redeem for Disney gift cards.

Speaking of Disney gift cards, I use them to save for my trips. Keep my Disney savings in a jar. When the jar gets up to $25, I buy a Disney gift card. That way I won't spend the money on something else. I started saving to $50, but I would always find myself dipping into the pot before it reached $50, so I started buying $25 instead.

 

[smidgy]

as far as returning to the resort room to eat in order to save money, we almost always return midday anyway for pool/sun time, and cocktail hour!

all those using retaurant.com certificates (ar any restaurant coupon), please remember to tip the server on the PRE-Discounted amount! thank you!''

another easy thing to split at Sunshine Seasons is at the Asian booth. there is a CS meal that includes 2 entrees and 2 sides. hubby picked one entree and side, as did I (be forewarned... I finally gave up trying to ask them to put one entree and side on one plate, and the other of each on a 2nd plate. they just didn't seem to understand english well enough to understand, and put both entrees on one plate, both sides on the 2nd plate. oh well.)

I always keep a few individually wrapped Slim Jims in my fanny pack (yes, you heard me, dorky fanny pack). they take up little space, and ward off hunger amazingly well.

we're not cheap, we're frugal! and we do spend money on nice TS meals, or the dining plan now and then. but why spend more money if you don't have to? more money for a segway tour! or a frozen Margarita of grand Marnier slushie!

 

[mrzrich]

all those using retaurant.com certificates (ar any restaurant coupon), please remember to tip the server on the PRE-Discounted amount! thank you!''

Actually, most of the certificates add the 18% gratuity to the bill. They must have had an issue with people tipping per the discounted total, so now they are applying the gratuity to the bill automatically.

When I went to Giordanos in December the 5 of us ate for $19 including sodas and the tip!

 

[dandave]

Actually, most of the certificates add the 18% gratuity to the bill. They must have had an issue with people tipping per the discounted total, so now they are applying the gratuity to the bill automatically.

When I went to Giordanos in December the 5 of us ate for $19 including sodas and the tip!

Yep! I used a Restaurant.com certificate locally last night. I almost double tipped, because I didn't realize at first that they had already added in the 18%. Look closely at the bill.

 

[smidgy]

yeah, the server should point that out (even tho it is written plainly on the certificate.) also read the fine print, sometimes you can only use them on weekdays. OR you have to purchase a ridiculous amount of food .. like $50 worth, which is a lot for 2 people at some places
one time at a mexican rest. in our town, we were a whole dollar short. rather than just let us pay the extra dollar, we had to order a dessert we didn't want to use the certificate.

if the service is good, I will still add to it, since I usually tip 20%.

another tip for the OP. the moderate resorts have microwaves in the food courts (and fridges in the rooms), so don't throw away those leftovers!!

 

[marlower]

OP, you may like this post as well....lots of great meal combinations for less money! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2684936

 

[goofyintoronto]

I didnt read all the posts...sorry if this is repeated. someone mentioned mcd's by DTD....just so you know, there's no mcd's at DTD anymore. But there is one by the all star resorts. Its closest to all star sports. 5 min walk from there.

 

[WantToGoNow]

You didn't say how old your children were - if they are toddlers/preschoolers you might be ok with the kids meals. The kids meals come with 4 nuggets, a small burger, a pizza the size of a DVD, a pre-made packaged Uncrustable or a small cup of mac n' cheese and about 10 fries or a small bag of grapes or carrots and a standard cup of applesauce. They are not enough for my dd7 anymore let alone ds10. I'm not sure how adults can use them as their meals and not end up having to buy more snacks to supplement. I usually buy an adult meal to split with dd7 and we both have enough to eat - ds will eat an adult meal himself.