Please Help Me With A budget Trip (mostly the food part!)

[rebster]

Hello friends!

My hubby and I are planning our last trip to Disney for a pretty long time (for us...at least 2 years and probably more). We are going for 9 nights and we got 40% off our room at the Pop, our annual passes expire the day we leave, we have the TIW card, and we got our plane tickets for 150 bucks round trip. We also have 500 bucks on our disney rewards.

However, we have never gone to Disney without some sort of dining plan. And we are not doing the dining plan this time. We want to bring our own food for breakfast and lunch and do some sit down dinners (We are booked every evening, but I need to decide whether we actually want to/should do a sit down dinner every evening as we like pretty pricey places). What do you bring for healthy food that keeps well in the heat in your backpack? We do have some MRE's we plan on bringing and chowing down on, but we do not have enough for the entire trip. Any suggestions?!? Thanks!

 

[Justsyd2]

Wow - that's a tough one. There just isn't much lunch material that will hold up in the heat in a backpack at WDW, and I'm sure you both don't want to end up with food poisoning on your trip. I would suggest getting into a fridge swap at Pop and ordering groceries to be delivered so that you can return to your room for lunch, or figure out a way to make extra money so that you both can eat lunch in the parks. I'm sure that you can share lunches, which would only cost around $10-15 per day for both of you.

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

You might try the tuna salad kits. The ones that have the tuna in pouches with mayo packets. The mayo won't go bad since it is sealed. Toss in an apple or orange and a small canister of pringles or granola bar and you'll hold off the hunger till your dinner.

 

[Lisa_M]

You might try the tuna salad kits. The ones that have the tuna in pouches with mayo packets. The mayo won't go bad since it is sealed. Toss in an apple or orange and a small canister of pringles or granola bar and you'll hold off the hunger till your dinner.

the tuna kits are a good idea. We are also fans of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Pack a bunch of snacks and bring in your water.

 

[MSSANDRA]

If you are doubting all your dinner ADRs, you might want to manipulate your dinning budget to enclude less expensive dinners and to include a light lunch in the parks.

I am all for breakfast in the room, and a few snacks in the park are fine but to us it is just a pain to have to carry stuff with us!!

Just leaving off one sitdown would save like 50-60 and enough for several days lunch in the park, Maybe sub a sitdown lunch for a dinner and grap something at the food court late in the day. Try sharing meals, saves money and often enough food for two.

Our very first ever trip (DS was little) we carried a cooler backpack. It was a true pain BUT we were able to carry cheese and ham to eat with crackers, yougert, cold drinks etc. We however are carry NOTHING people so this might work for you.

 

[shellyfive]

Mostly we would book adr's for lunch (at the latest time) and then snack/pack light dinner(esp for buffets.....didn't need much after when you ate to excess at 2pm!!)i believe it's still cheaper at lunch than dinner.....

 

[bartleby1]

Mostly we would book adr's for lunch (at the latest time) and then snack/pack light dinner(esp for buffets.....didn't need much after when you ate to excess at 2pm!!)i believe it's still cheaper at lunch than dinner.....

I think this is your best option. Lunch prices tend to be less than dinner prices. If you absolutely must do a table service meal, I'd do it for a lunch around 2 or 3:00 and stuff yourselves silly, lol! That way, you could do breakfast in the room, maybe a snack to tide you offer until lunch but you might not even need that, a BIG meal around 2 or 3, and then a light snack later.

Also, if you are really doing a budget trip, don't rule out doing counter service and skipping a few days of table service. There are some very good counter service places if you search the menus before your trip.

 

[QVCshopper]

Don't forget to use the TIW card at Animal Kingdom--you can use it at the fast food counters, which is great.

Also (I know you can't get it b/c you already have tix), I have found the QSDP to be a great value. We usually come out at least $200 ahead and never spend any more cash on food.

 

[CowboyCO]

We bought a very small soft cooler (10"x8"x10") and we stick a couple of frozen water bottles in with perishables and they stay cool until lunch or mid-afternoon. It has a shoulder strap and is very easy to carry over your shoulder.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I think planning your snacks would cut down on food expense. Nuts, Fiber One bars store well, are filling, healthy and don't take up a lot of room.

 

[dfchelbay]

We go to the Dollar Tree and get a bunch of snacks for WDW. Some for warm weather are beef jerkey, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, pretzels, peanut buttter stuffed pretzels, granola bars, breakfast bars, Pringles, Doritos, etc. Bring your own water. You can buy powder vials of Snapple, Crystal Light, Zip Fizz, etc. to pour and shake into your water bottle, if plain water is too boring.

I also recommend getting in on the refrigerator swap. You can freeze ice wraps every night for the park the next day. You can also take one frozen and one refrigerated bottle of water for each of you daily. The frozen water will thaw within a couple hours of being at the park. You can also refill it while that little iceberg is in the middle of the bottle.

I would also maybe do a late lunch around 2ish a few times and go lighter for dinner. Lunches generally cost less than dinners, and you will get more than enough food. Pop Century has some good, home cooked, stick to your ribs, comfort food in their food court that you can take advantage of. DH and I like to eat at Pecos Bills in the Magic Kingdom. We get the chicken wrap, and get tomatoes, pickles, hot mushrooms and onions from the fixings bar and split the meal. The two of us can eat there for $9.00.

 

[Mickey527]

I would think that what you spend on snacks and food for your other meal would cost about what the food plan would cost.
I think the 2 CS plan is $29 a day pp and the 1 CS and 1 TS is $39 a day pp.
I would use the $500 toward that and not worry about bringing food that might spoil etc...
When I go on budget I get the 2 CS plan and eat at the Market in Coronado Springs. That place is like having a sit down meal and the food is good. Not sure if they cut out the Prime rib from the plan but that was always my favorite.
As someone else said, Pop Century has filling meals and is considered CS. I also take some time to resort hop and check out the other CS restaurants. I have had some great meals at Port Orleans too. I also like the Plato de Combinacion at the Mexico fast food place but they are under construction and not sure if they are open now.

 

[blanq]

I like the idea of those tuna salad kits! I also think you can buy ham salad kits. Cheese will stand up to heat well, so maybe cheese sandwiches, or cheese with crackers. Also, string cheese makes a great snack.

 

[rebster]

Wow! Thanks for all your input! We are considering the CS dining plan, but we are hoping to just purchase food as we go (we are not huge dessert and soda people). We are trying to save money on breakfast and lunch because we LOVE late dinners at Disney World...they are just romantic to us for some silly reason, but it makes a difference to us. Anyway, we have decided to do 4 late sit down dinners (so we will be cutting out 5 reservations...now I just have to pick which ones!). We are also going to definitely just bring our own water and refill water bottles at water fountains. I think it will be a lot of fun to not have the pressure of so many reservations, but just have a few here and there. Someone also gave my husband a 100 dollar disney gift card for his birthday, so we now have 600 bucks to spend, so I think we will have plenty for 4 dinners, a few counter service meals here and there and a few souvenirs.

We are definitely going to do tuna packets and pb&j...we are thinking of freezing one water bottle and using it to keep stuff chilled until lunch. Thanks so much for all your ideas!

 

[Justsyd2]

Please be very careful with the Tuna packets/kits in the heat. They're not made for hot temperatures, and they spoil easily. I know someone who got sick from eating these because they got too hot.

 

[gillenkl]

I'd forego the expensive sit down meals and get 2 counter service meals per day.

Many meals are large enough to share. We bring our own water/drink mixes so we don't have to buy a beverage and share the following meals:

AK - Flame Tree
Smoked 1/2 Chicken - Served with baked beans and corn on the cob. - $9.49

MK - Cosmic Ray - Half Chicken & BBQ Rib Combo - Served with mashed potatoes and a seasonal vegetable. - $13.99

We can that any sandwich is large enough for us to split also. For use that easier than trying to drag a backpack with snacks around in the heat - and we don't want to risk food spoiling.