Saving Money on Food???

[rentayenta]

Share. Our family of 5 can share 4 chicken meals from the Plaza Inn easy; get double mash on two of them so everyone ends up with their own side of potato. Thats 12 pieces of chicken, 4 biscuits, 6 sides of mashed potatoes, and 2 sides of green beans. Plaza Inn uses real utensils and big plastics cups and has filtered water from the fountain.

Napolini in DTD has their largest pizza which easily feeds the 5 of us.

The Monte Cristo is rich and heavy and definitely sharable; its cut into 3rds. Order 2-3 of those. Add a couple orders of pomme frites and you'll be good to go.

Basically share.

 

[Boku41]

We always eat before we go. We take snacks including trail mix, jerky, fruit snacks, etc. My favorite lately is a Costco muffin. It is smashed flat in a couple of hours but it sure tastes good and fillls me up while standing in line. By doing this, we get away with one meal a day. If you were to take sandwiches you could make it the whole day. A loaf of Mickey sourdough bread costs around $8-9 and will fill everyone up for a while. If you just had to buy a meal, the chicken fusilli at Pizza Planet is about the only meal we can share with teenagers.

 

[palmtreelover08]

When my sister, daughter and I were there, we walked down to the 7-11 on Harbor blvd. They had pizzas (large size) for $5. We purchased two and a bag of chips (we thought we were extra hungry). We ended up giving a full pizza to a homeless man near our hotel. I don’t know if they still have the $5 pizza but you may want to call.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

Slightly off topic, but we are a family of 5, too, and we only spend about $50-$60 per meal eating in the parks, less for breakfast (around $20-$30), so it can be done if you can't find a way to bring every meal with you. I recommend eating breakfast on your way to the parks, whether it's free breakfast from your hotel or McDonalds or Panera across Harbor. Lunch you could easily bring in a backpack. Dinner will be trickier though.

If you're interested in options for dining in the parks that are cheaper, we have had luck at almost any CS restaurant. Several have quite large portions for the price and can be shared.

 

[DLfan4]

when we were there in 2012 we brought in water bottles, goldfish, veggies, apple slices and granola bars.

how old are your kids? they have the kids power pack, which is things like milk, apple slices, yogurt, banana , crackers etc. for $5.99. we ordered this for the kids 2 or 3 times on our trip. ( galatic grill sells these, as well as a few other places) Then DH and I shared a salad and slice of pizza from Pizza port /Alien pizza planet. a family of 4 $30 lunch.

 

[smartlabelprint]

when we were there in 2012 we brought in water bottles, goldfish, veggies, apple slices and granola bars.

how old are your kids? they have the kids power pack, which is things like milk, apple slices, yogurt, banana , crackers etc. for $5.99. we ordered this for the kids 2 or 3 times on our trip. ( galatic grill sells these, as well as a few other places) Then DH and I shared a salad and slice of pizza from Pizza port /Alien pizza planet. a family of 4 $30 lunch.

Food prices have increased quite a bit since you were there. I was even shocked the difference from February 2016 and March 2018.( I think those were the dates of our last 2 trips. )

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... I was even shocked the difference from February 2016 and March 2018.( I think those were the dates of our last 2 trips. )

And there was another price increase on food and beverages recently. There have been threads on other fan boards about the prices of food and drinks creeping up around DLR. Get ready to be surprised/shocked again on your next visit.

 

[smartlabelprint]

And there was another price increase on food and beverages recently. There have been threads on other fan boards about the prices of food and drinks creeping up around DLR. Get ready to be surprised/shocked again on your next visit.

Yes. I’m expecting it! And I have a whole lot of must have foods on my list. Haha!

 

[CallieMar]

Pizza Press on Harbor, one of their pizzas can feed two if you're not super hungry. Even when I'm starving I can't eat more than 3/4 of one. So maybe 3-4 pizzas to feed 5 people at $10 each. Build your own and load up on the toppings - DH is one of those guys that likes EVERYTHING on his pizza, literally, and they fit it on there! He just warns them when he orders so they can plan how to build it lol, they put a little less of each topping so it's manageable.

Bring your own water bottle, CS places provide free water and there are also several fountains. Bring Crystal Light packets if you don't like the taste of Anaheim's tap water. You can also ask for hot water and bring Sbux Via packets or similar if you're coffee drinkers.

 

[mich311e]

We always take PB&Js, some veggies in a bag, an apple, and a granola bar for each person. We keep them in the backpack and eat while in line.

We love Disneyland food so we do like to eat in the park but planning ahead with healthy, filling snacks will help keep the costs down.

 

[Amanda8619]

I agree that a meal will cost around $50 if you get water or bring in your own soda. Depending on appetites things can be shared; rendering the cost even less.

I would eat one meal in the parks, stay at a close hotel that has breakfast included and bring in sandwiches and snacks for your other foods.

I agree to completely avoid the cotton candy, popcorn, ice cream and junky snacks. They’re pretty standard everywhere. The restaurants on the other hand are some of my favorite things to do in the parks!

I recommend plaza inn & French Market in Disneyland as there are some shareable meals.

In dca I like boardwalk pizza & pasta.

See the menus with prices at allears website.

We made the mistake of ihop and McDonald on an early trip. It’s cheaper to eat in the parks!

ETA we usually stay at homewood suites convention center. Monday through Thursday nights they have a free full dinner also.

I had looked at all the menus and it seemed to be that most meals like burger and fries ran about 11-13 per meal. With 5 of us that's more then 50 especially if you add drinks which I thought I saw were about 4 bucks a piece. My kids are teenagers so they would never want to share a meal, I can hear them complaining now about that LOL. We may just bring subway sandwiches for lunch, and then maybe PB and J to have around dinner time and then grab dinner away from the parks after we leave. Ill just pack tons of side snacks in addition to all the sandwiches.

 

[rentayenta]

Mine are early 20's and late teens and have been sharing as long as they've been in existence. They don't know any different when we are all together.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I had looked at all the menus and it seemed to be that most meals like burger and fries ran about 11-13 per meal. With 5 of us that's more then 50 especially if you add drinks which I thought I saw were about 4 bucks a piece. My kids are teenagers so they would never want to share a meal, I can hear them complaining now about that LOL. We may just bring subway sandwiches for lunch, and then maybe PB and J to have around dinner time and then grab dinner away from the parks after we leave. Ill just pack tons of side snacks in addition to all the sandwiches.

A lot of meals in the parks are $10ish. Bring your own drinks. Isn’t that what you’ll do if you bring sandwiches?

Some of the dl foods (not the burgers) are so great and fun that I can’t imagine not eating an occasional meal in the parks. I’d drop to one park a day tickets or less than 5 days in the parks rather than sacrifice some fun foods.

If you get subway you’ll really only be saving like $15 a day? And theyll be nasty and mushy by the time you eat them.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Earl of Sandwich used to offer a AAA discount. If they still do, that might work out better than Subway -- closer and more fun since it's still in DTD. Sometimes there are live bands playing on the stage out front at night. One way to save tons of money is to drink ice water with meals. A regular soda in the parks is now around $4 with no refill. We told our kids to stick with water so they'd stay hydrated (Disneyland hangover is no fun and no joke!). For one day, they could survive.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Earl of Sandwich used to offer a AAA discount. If they still do, that might work out better than Subway -- closer and more fun since it's still in DTD. Sometimes there are live bands playing on the stage out front at night. One way to save tons of money is to drink ice water with meals. A regular soda in the parks is now around $4 with no refill. We told our kids to stick with water so they'd stay hydrated (Disneyland hangover is no fun and no joke!). For one day, they could survive.

Yes! I really enjoyed EOS. And it would be fresh!!!!!!

$6-8 each if I recall.

 

[lindyv321]

Earl of Sandwich used to offer a BOGO coupon for signing up for their emails. You need to do it a few weeks before your trip though!

 

[azdisneylover]

Starbucks in both parks and DTD have more than just drinks. (Sandwiches, yogurt, veggies and dip, sandwiches, salads, etc). If you have Starbucks gift cards, you can use them there too. I suggest check out the menus on the Disney app and website. They have the price listed so you can get a better idea of the cost. Most of the food sizes in the parks are big enough to share.

 

[lcp9]

We're not on a budget but might as well be b/c my husband feels like paying for theme park food is giving into "the man." hahaha. We have 4 kids under 7 and take a double stroller, and pack it to the gills with food coming into the park. We either stop at a grocery store or have Vons deliver to the hotel - fruit, vegetables, crackers, goldfish, fruit leathers, beef jerky, trail mix, string cheese, fruit snacks, water bottles. We usually stay at the RI with free full breakfast, but most recently we stayed at the courtyard and kept yogurt in there for breakfast plus bought a couple pancake/egg breakfasts from mcdonalds right there for the kids to share. That plus the stroller food - we didn't buy any meals in park I don't think.

 

[Malcon10t]

We're not on a budget but might as well be b/c my husband feels like paying for theme park food is giving into "the man."

Isn't buying tickets to the park "giving into the man"? I enjoy a lot of the food at the park. I had 4 kids under 7(mine would have been 6, 5, 4, and 2, they are now 33, 32, 31, and 29, and have a 7 and 3yo that now tag along too!), and do understand the costs. We did RI most trips, but as the kids told me as they got older "Pick a place to stay where we can afford food in the park too." We did do 1 meal a day in the park, and we often shared meals to keep the costs down. But part of vacation for us is the food.

As for costs, the park food is definitely cheaper than movie theaters (I haven't gone in a while and was amazed at the cost yesterday! $10 for popcorn, $6.50 for a soda, $8 for nachos (ie 1 ounce corn chips with cheese))

 

[NannyBeBe]

There are so many foods at DLR that I never get to have anywhere else -- flavored churros, beignets, shrimp and grits, good corn dogs, Dole Whips, Mickey waffles, etc. They are part of our trip and I save especially so I can enjoy all the good foods.