Non-disney dining

[nezy]

We are on a very limited budget next trip and may like to try some off premises dining that will hopefully be more affordable than many of the WDW restaurants. Any suggestions or experiences with both fast food and sit down meals?
I am not sure where to post--is there a -Non-Disney Dining Forum?

 

[fitznorton]

Last summer my daughters took me to Season's 52 for dinner and it was terrific. Good food, reasonable prices, sit down restaurant...resort casual dress, if you go to opentable.com you can make a ressie and check out the menu. Located between Disney and Universal. Sweet Tomatoes is fast food, sort of cafeteria style. It is located at the Crossroads and for around $10 you get unlimited soup, salad, pizza, dessert, ice cream. Food is O.K., my girls thought it was great as they are big salad eaters. hope this helps.

 

[beroh2253]

Just jump in your car and head to that strip thru Kissimmee there are so many places to eat.

 

[planplan]

Just jump in your car and head to that strip thru Kissimmee there are so many places to eat.

how far from disney do you need to drive to hit up the strip?

 

[francie57]

If you drive past DTD and the Hotels for DTD you will come to a road that has lots of options. Also if you go out the main entrance to Disney Rt 192?) there are numerous places in either direction. You shouldn't have a problem finding places that are reasonable.

 

[beroh2253]

how far from disney do you need to drive to hit up the strip?

Its at main gate West route 192, I'll attach a link to maps along the route that show different resturants and shopping

http://www.kissimmee-us192.com/map/ushwy192mapindex.htm

 

[Teresa Pitman]

My family absolutely loves Sweet Tomatoes. There is one quite close to Downtown Disney. It has a long salad bar with lots of fresh veggies and some prepared salad items as well, plus your choice of several kinds of soup and some muffins and bread, plus a dessert bar.

Teresa

 

[nezy]

Its at main gate West route 192, I'll attach a link to maps along the route that show different resturants and shopping

http://www.kissimmee-us192.com/map/ushwy192mapindex.htm

Love this map!

I know there are so many places that we pass along the way and I don't really pay attention to them!
Thanks.

 

[beroh2253]

Love this map!

I know there are so many places that we pass along the way and I don't really pay attention to them!
Thanks.

If you take the enterance/exit that is by the All Star resorts this take you to 192, here is a map that show you where that is.


http://www.solarius.com/assets/pdfs/new_property_map.pdf

 

[nottingham]

Can reccomend the Orlando ale house just outside Disney gates past DTD. Massive portions and cheap

 

[Ericandjenng]

We've not eaten off property in years--too much time and effort plus we usually fly--but one way we save $ on food is to bring a box of cereal with us. All we have to buy is milk. The trip we drove we also had sandwich makings. This is great when you have a fridge in your room--request for extra $ at value, complimentary in all other resort levels.

This is also helpful when part of your party is up and ready to before others especially young kids who get cranky when they have to wait to eat

 

[justgeorgi]

Not sure what you mean low budget but I've done MANY low budget trips.

Regarding meals-this is what we have done

We bring breakfast from home. Boxes of cereal, bagels, cereal bars and usually fruit.

We ALWAYS pack a lunch-sandwiches and fruit, juice boxes and splurge on mickey bars for dessert

We bring a crock pot, crock pot liners (no clean up, just throw away the liner) and make a few meals in the crock pot. We prepare items for the crock pot in advance and then freeze the ingredients and put them in the special bags and remove the air with our little machine we purchased at walmart.

We pack the cooler with the items for our crock pot meals and with lunch meat, mayo, etc. When we get to our hotel we buy milk

Usually we have a suitcase with just our snacks and food, bread, etc and we check the cooler. We don't put ice in it because we freeze the ingredients for our crock pot and we freeze 2-2 liter soda bottles with water to keep them cold. Then we just add ice every day

This has saved us hundred of dollars or more! That way we can pick some special places to dine for sit down! We always go back to the hotel for the afternoon for rest/swimming and just eat our crock pot dinner after a swim!

 

[chs27]

I have done that too! This is my first splurge on eating out the whole vacation and I have been married for 17 years. I have even brought money with me on vacation and came home with almost all of it. The first restaurant bill does me in! I march down to Publix and make everything else. The only way I can controll this sickness is to buy the dining plan.

 

[justgeorgi]

Publix is right near the Crossroads but if you take a right out of the exit for Downtown Disney and stay right on that road there is a Super Wal-Mart on the right hand side. Its much cheaper than Publix, 1/2 the price of Goodings and has EVERYTHING.

Another super saver for us (we are big coffee drinkers) is to bring your coffee with you to the room. Value Resorts do not have coffeemakers (what is UP with that) and to be honest we don't like brewed coffee anyway. We bring a

Rival Hot Pot-$12.99 at Bed bath and Beyond
and an unbreakable French Press Coffee Pot $19.99 at Bed Bath and Beyond ...that along with ground coffee from home, sugar and creamer and we are GOOD TO GO! I kept the box for both items and they easily pack in a suitcase without taking up too much room.

The suitcase I use for food, snacks, coffee/french press and Rival Hot Pot is the bag I fill with our "souveniers" on the way home! It is empty of food!

If you don't want to invest in a food sealing machine you could always buy a couple of the frozen Crock Pot Classics meals they sell in grocery stores ( I know the Wal-Mart near downtown Disney sells them!) I personally don't care for them but have used them numerous times for my family. They are only $5.99 and with a nice loaf of bread or rolls and a salad they make a very inexpensive meal that doesn't break the bank!

My family knows that we have special trips where we splurge on meals at the parks and that we have budget trips that allow us a fun, fabulous vacation on a shoestring!

 

[marciemouse]

Not sure just how low your budget is, but as an on-property option, we like Earl of Sandwich in DTD. The sandwiches are pretty large and a good value. We also get a case of water sent to the resort room (free shipping from Costco) which saves us a lot. For my DH, we take the little mix-in packets of Propel, as he gets sick of plain old water. We usually stick to granola bars for breakfast.

 

[michelle1]

Another vote for Sweet Tomatoes..very good value for the money.

 

[sue and co]

Sweet tomatoes is great. For a good table service meal which is still reasonable (and huge portions) try Olive Garden. They do pasta and a pizza option - meat, seafood and vegetarian - with free salad and garlic rolls,and if you have kids they are happy to bring an extra plate so that meals can be shared. We have eaten here often and even with three kids all with different food fads we have never been disappointed.