Looking to save money while at WDW

[undertheseas]

I'm looking for any tips you may have but especially meal planning. We plan on bringing instant oatmeal and granola bars for breakfast, peanut butter and bread, snack stuff, refilling water bottles. Any other ideas?

 

[MacFam4]

Sounds like you're off to a great start already. I like to check out www.allearsnet.com and look at the menus. They keep them pretty up to date. That way you can plan some park meals and have an idea of what you would spend. The counter service places will give you free ice water. We used this quite a bit during our May trip.

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

I'm looking for any tips you may have but especially meal planning. We plan on bringing instant oatmeal and granola bars for breakfast, peanut butter and bread, snack stuff, refilling water bottles. Any other ideas?

1. Crystal lights to flavor the water.
2. Mini cereal boxes and disposable bowls.
3. Tuna packages that come with crackers. Instant light lunch.
4. Dried fruit, juice boxes for kids, micro. popcorn bags, crackers, trail mix
5. Instant noodle soups
6. If you have access to a fridge and are driving cold cuts, cheese, fresh fruit, bagged salad, rotisserie chicken with canned veggies.

 

[jgates]

The one I have seen several times is to order a double cheeseburger vs. a single at CS restaurants, then order an extra bun on the side. It is evidently cheaper than ordering 2 cheeseburgers. Don't know if the extra bun is still available for order or not. It never worked for us as I always wanted cheese & kids wanted plain LOL.

 

[IDoDis]

Order from the kids' menu when you eat CS meals, or share an adult meal with your DH. Some places have large portion sizes. One place with HUGE portions is the Flame Tree BBQ in Animal Kingdom. AK also has a CS dessert place called Dino Bites. Order the ice cream cookie sandwich. It's monstrous in size. We can split it four ways and all feel satisfied with a sweet treat.

Another good place to share is Pinocchio Village Haus at MK (or any other place that has the individual sized pizzas). Our family of 4 can fill up on three pizzas instead of four. They are pretty good-sized.

Have you considered eating any meals off-site? There are plenty of places and many of them have those coupon books that you see on little wire racks when you exit the restaurant. Just grab a book when you go in. You can often save 20% off of a meal or find a B1G1F coupon in the book. I figured this out AFTER we had eaten at Golden Corral. When we left, I grabbed a restaurant coupon book where there was a coupon inside for B1G1F for the Golden Corral . I could have saved some money there!

 

[TnTWalter]

I posted our food costs on this thread. Hope it helps.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2698954

 

[karliebug]

One big tip is to not order soft drinks with your meals. Ice water is free and if you don't like the taste you can add a crystal light packet that you bring with you. YOu will save $10-12 per meal by drinking water instead of soda.

 

[Kay1]

Tuna kits are nice for the room and I swear by Power Bars. Also, I think Trails End is a good value.

Have lots of fun.

 

[Pembo]

I'm looking for any tips you may have but especially meal planning. We plan on bringing instant oatmeal and granola bars for breakfast, peanut butter and bread, snack stuff, refilling water bottles. Any other ideas?

Order off the children's menu if possible. WDW gives you a lot of food. I'm not a big eater and many times the child's meal is enough...plus it comes with a small drink.

 

[DZNEE4US]

I'd say the number one way we save money for our family is to stay off site. We also believe in renting a car, and not being held "hostage to the food court" that's in many of the Disney hotels. If the kids want an ice cream cone, you can always swing through the McD's drive through for $1, they don't care- it's ice cream! Disney food prices are very high, and we are a family of 5. It's not economical at all.
We usually only eat 1 meal at the parks a day (usually it is lunch, and almost always quick service). My kids are extremely picky eaters, so we always have food in the backpack for them. We have been only doing one character meal, or reservation meal a trip. We ate at a character meal on our last trip, and they didn't have anything that they would eat on the buffet, (it is not like we didn't try- we did!!). My son had his heart set on eating cottage cheese at lunch, and was not happy they didn't have it, so luckily for him I had an extra PB sandwich in our bag. We had a very nice waitress who saw he did not eat, and took off his meal on the bill.
I always bring frozen bottles of water to the parks. By lunchtime, they are melted and I add a package of Crystal Light. You'd be surprised how much that saves over the course of a week. I also never leave home without a stash of goldfish and small Dixie cups to dispense them!
We never stay anywhere without a kitchen or at the very least a refridgerator. We can make anything that's quick for breakfast and snacks. We found we also saved money by ordering carry out at a nearby restaurant for dinner and bringing it home. That way the picky eaters can get what they want, and I can still "eat out"!
To save money for your family, decide what's most important to you, (don't cut that out) and find ways to creatively cut back on other things.

 

[semo233]

A lot of it will depend upon how your family eats. My daughter and I can get away with one meal per day, plus snacks as we walk through the parks. We split most snacks and don't drink soda anyway, so we ask for ice water (free). When we are hungrier for a meal, a kids meal is plenty. It usually comes with an entree, side, fruit and drink. I eat the whole meal, but it is just the right amount.
By not eating more than one of the sit down meals, we save a lot of money!

 

[maggiew]

When my kids were little, I used to buy Disney shirts at the Disney store when they had them on sale (like $4). I would get them a new one for each day at the park. When they wore their brand new Disney shirt each day, they didn't seem to want much in the way of souvenirs?? They felt they got something each day. I never called it a souvenir, but since they got something new, they were happy. I did let them pick one toy or something each trip. Something like a Disney princess doll or a mr. potato head. But if you give the kids a budget up front - like $30, it helps with the "gimmes". I usually made them wait a few days before buying anything. Also, Walgreens has some Disney light up wands that you can bring with you. My kids never were tempted to get the light spinners at Disney because they had their own light up wand. I also brought the light up bracelets/necklaces that I got from Michaels for $1 per pack. I still bring these and my kids are 19 and 15! We often share with little kids around who are getting restless waiting for the show.

Other people have given great ideas about food. You can order kids meals at counter service places. Although I'm not sure how great that is anymore since they changed most of the kids meals to the same boring, yuck. But usually the hotel counter service places have better kids meals.

When we go to table service places, sometimes me or the kids order an appetizer as our meal. Like DD might get the potstickers at Yak and Yeti as her meal. I like to get the Pita Quesadilla appetizer at Rainforest Cafe as my meal. At TRex, I got the add on ribs as my meal (added on to DH's meal) and then shared fries off my DDs plate since she doesn't really eat fries.

I also bring snacks like nutri-grain bars or packs of nuts to have as snack if we got hungry between meals. We still got a mickey bar or dole whip once in awhile, but having the packaged snacks helped.

It might not save money, but I found that getting those little activity books from walgreens (3/$1 sometimes with sale coupon) and having them in the backpack helped keep them occupied while waiting for Fantasmic or the parade, etc. They have Disney themed ones available. I would bring a pack of crayons too.

I see you might be staying at Swan/Dolphin. You might want to check into the Restaurant.com website because there are several coupons there for the restaurants at Swan/Dolphin. Don't pay full price for them. They have coupon codes each month where you can get these for $2 each. Also, the Swan/Dolphin has a character meal, I think. Its smaller than the other Disney ones (I think only 2 characters), but it is cheaper and might satisfy the kids enough.

Maggie

 

[peterpanlover96]

Bring some yogurt covered bars as a desert after a meal, nutri-grain and granola bars between meals, some gum actually helps to make you less hungry so pack some tasty gum. Also, this might not sound too great but if you're absolutely desperate it works. Bring some peanut butter with you to the parks and little single serving jelly cups and go to a CS restaurant and ask for some saltine crackers, and you can make a tiny PB&J sandwich thing to hold you off for a little bit. If you have a younger child they may not like Crystal Light, so get some kool aid or lemonade mix in's for your water, I typically brought 2 water bottles with me a day, one frozen & one not. By the time I've finished the first one the second one is half melted and you will use it sparingly because it isn't melted all the way yet LOL. If you absolutely need to buy a meal, buy off of the kids menu and buy something that you know is going to be filling. You can share one meal between 2 people, and if you're still hungry you can always get your trusty granola bars. One place I know where they have a HUGE taco salad that 3 people could share if they wanted is Peco's Bill in Magic Kingdom. The possibilities are really endless, so start stocking up about 2 months before your trip. Good Luck!

 

[undertheseas]

Wow, thanks for all the good ideas! I'm making a list right now. Dis'ers are the best

 

[Mickey1Fan]

My Mom and I bring pre portioned cereal and get milk each morning for our cereal. This is not really for cost savings but a personal preference. We each get a refillable mug as well, in the long run it costs about the same as buying drinks and is a nice souvenir. We carry refillable water bottles in insulated covers in the parks. I read a good idea on these boards to bring along a plastic container for left over grapes or carrots. This means I'm not going to have squashed snacks in the bottom of the bag this year

I usually have snacks I've brought from home.

Lunch we usually each get a kids meal and then dinner we often share a counter service meal.

If we are not in a park for dinner we'll order an appetizer and main course and share. Most restaurants have no problem with this.

I am a weight watcher so that is mostly where our eating plan comes from.

 

[Halle]

The one I have seen several times is to order a double cheeseburger vs. a single at CS restaurants, then order an extra bun on the side. It is evidently cheaper than ordering 2 cheeseburgers. Don't know if the extra bun is still available for order or not. It never worked for us as I always wanted cheese & kids wanted plain LOL.

I think they now charge you for the extra bun.

 

[Marionnette]

There's an online store called minimus.biz that sells sample sizes and travel size products. They have little grape jelly packets for 9 cents and peanut butter packets for around 20 cents. Saltines are 4 cents per packet. You can buy them and bring them with you instead of asking for them at the CS locations.

Minimus also sells little packets of dried fruit, nuts, snack crackers and granola bars. Free shipping for orders over $20. You might want to look into what they have. It might help if you plan to bring foods into the parks but don't want to buy a case of 1000 jelly packets in order to do it! Check their "gourmet foods" section for individual hummus and cheese packs.