Mini Mickey, Part 2: The Cheapest Eats in Disney's Four Theme Parks
Yesterday, we gave you some of our hard-won tips for dining on a budget within the confines of Walt Disney World.
Today, we expand on the theme by giving you park-by-park tips for eating at the lowest costs.
Within each park, here are our best shoestring dining tips.
Magic Kingdom:
As we said yesterday, the cheapest (and healthiest) food in the Disney theme parks can be found at a few small fruit stands. Prices are pretty much the same at each: apples, pears, single bananas, and oranges go for 85 cents. Some stands also sell 3-ounce packs of baby carrots for 85 cents and slices of watermelon, cantaloupe, or pineapple for $1.50. Five-ounce bundles of grapes are $1.65, pre-packaged fruit salad is $2, and sometimes you can find packets of strawberries for $2. There's a second fruit stand along Main Street, but it closes at around 4 p.m. each day.
The best bargain eateries at the Magic Kingdom are located in the lakeside stretch between Liberty Square and Frontierland. The action starts under the Liberty Tree with the aforementioned fruit stand, which is next to a sublimely priced stand selling big baked potatoes ($2.25; add bacon bits, cheese, and/or sour cream for 50 cents each). It would be easy to make a high-carb meal of one of these spuds.
Of the all-you-can-eat locales, the Liberty Tree Tavern, on Liberty Square, is the best priced for lunch. It's $14.25 for grown-ups and $9.25 for kids and includes typical "American" fare like turkey breast, beef, Virginia ham, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Some of the lowest-cost counter service in the park is nearby at the Pecos Bill Café, which gives you a half-pound double cheeseburger, with fries or carrots, for $5.80. Kids can have a hot dog, character cookies, and a soft drink for $3.25.
But the best bargain, by far, has got to be the smoked turkey legs, which are sold from an anonymous-looking cart across from the Country Bear Jamboree. For $4.50, you'll get a gargantuan hunk of bird that must weigh at least two pounds. Carrying one will make you feel a lot like Fred Flintstone and will probably elicit gasps from startled onlookers. The meat is sweet and moist, and there's a lot of it--chances are you won't be able to finish it.
Epcot:
In general, the better-priced food options are along the left side of the park. Among counter-service spots, the lowest-priced serve the usual artery-cloggers. The Electric Umbrella, in Innoventions East, and Liberty Inn, in the World Showcase's United States area, serve the same menu, which includes a cheeseburger and fries for $5.59, veggie wraps for $5.50, and kids meals of a hot dog or chicken strips, fries, and a drink for $3.25.
We already mentioned the fruit stands at The Land and at the Outpost (between China and Germany), but more healthy food is ready at the Wonders of Live pavilion in Future World. Pure and Simple serves soups and vegetarian chili for just $2.80, fruit cups for $2.25 (plus 50 cents for frozen yogurt), and $2 for cereal with milk. Salads, though, cost an offensive $6.25, which will save you nothing off the typical prices.
Baked potatoes are on hand at Epcot, too: Head to The Land, where they cost $3.60 with broccoli and cheese.
Also don't think that you'll save dough by ducking out Epcot's "International Gateway," the back door that leads to the BoardWalk area. Prices in Disney World are fixed across the board, and so they aren't any better outside the confines of a theme park. In fact, a crepe that would cost you $3.50 in the France area of World Showcase will cost you $3.75 from a cart on the boardwalk. You will find a better selection out there, though, including corn dogs and cheese dogs for $3.50 (from the lakeside carts) and fresh-baked muffins (at the Boardwalk Bakery) for $2.
Back in Epcot, there are several all-you-can-eat options. A longtime favorite, the Biergarten in Germany, is $13 adults/$6 kids for lunch, which isn't bad by Disney standards, but $19 adults/$8 kids for dinner, which is ridiculous by anyone's. It's also crowded and noisy. For authentic European fare, we suggest the cheaper Restaurant Akershus, in Norway, where toothsome waiters and waitresses will direct you to an endless supply of real Norse food. There's smoked salmon and mackerel, mashed rutabaga, sour herring, and marinated Edam cheese, plus stuff like mac and cheese for picky kids. At lunch (11:30 to 4:15), it's $12 adults and $5.25 kids--that's the best-priced lunchtime banquet that we know about--which is just a little more than what you'd pay for a full-course meal at one of the burger-shoveling counters. And here's another free tip: Make your dinner reservation at 4 p.m.; you'll pay the lunchtime price, which is $6.50/$2.75 less, and be on hand just as the more expansive dinner menu is being trotted to the tables.
Epcot also houses one of the coolest budget secrets in all of Walt Disney World. At Innoventions West you'll find Ice Station Cool, where the Coca-Cola company has installed self-service stations for eight free soft drinks from its international product list. For absolutely no charge, you can sample such carbonated concoctions as Krest ginger ale from southern Africa, the sickly sweet Smart Watermelon from China, and VegitaBeta from Japan, and the heinously bitter Beverly from Italy, plus four others. Cups are teeny but you can serve yourself until you burst--and save yourself $2 or more whenever you get thirsty.
MGM Studios:
Here, the cheapest options cluster along Sunset Boulevard, which is the road that leads to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The Toluca Legs Turkey Co. sells that amazing power poultry for a quarter less than in the Magic Kingdom, or $4.25 for each biceps-building leg. At the same stand, baked potatoes cost $3.50 and come with sour cream, bacon, and/or onions.
Next to that, Rosie's All American Cafè (yes, Disney got the accent backwards for some reason), cheeseburgers or veggie burgers with cheese are just $3.50, chicken strips with fries and a drink are $3.25, soup is $2.50, and apple pie is $2.25--all uncommon values at Walt Disney World.
Also along Sunset is Anaheim Produce, the park's resident fruit stand. The oranges are indeed from California, as they are throughout the resort campus. Why on earth a resort based in Central Florida, one of America's great citrus capitals, would import all its oranges from 3,000 miles away is yet another great mystery of the corporate logic behind the Mouse.
Among counter service spots, we liked the ABC Commissary, next to the Great Movie Ride, where breakfast includes a $4.95 scrambled egg platter that comes with bacon or sausage, hash browns, and a biscuit. At 10:30 a.m., the menu is less manageable, when it changes to big portions of vegetable noodle stir fry ($5.95) and chicken yakitori ($6.50).
Turning to MGM's all-you-can-eat digs, the best you can do is Hollywood & Vine, next to Echo Lake. Lunch is an exorbitant $17 adults/$9.25 kids, but curiously, at dinner, the price doesn't change, which makes it one of the best deals in the resort (most places charge over $20/$10 for dinner buffets).
At the very least, MGM is the easiest park from which to scoot over to the real-world bargain places along Route 192. Give yourselves 10 minutes each way to reach them from the parking lot.
Animal Kingdom:
Affordable dining options are weaker here. At most food outlets, expect to pay $8 for simple entrees. Counter service is slightly better, particularly at Pizzafari (near the Camp Minnie-Mickey entrance at Discovery Island), which cooks penne with meat sauce, caesar salad, and breadsticks, for $6. Your brightest hopes line the walkway between Africa and Asia.
When it came to animal appreciation at Disney World, the venerable gobbler didn't make the cut. The Turkey Legs Cart is at the entrance to Asia from Discovery Island, and those humongous (and sort of gory) legs sell for $4.50.
Chickens are cheap, too. Chakranadi Chicken Shop, in Asia, offers $3.95 pot stickers with spicy broth, $3.95 chicken satay with peanut sauce. If Animal Kingdom has renewed your affection for all of God's creatures, stick to the $2.25 ears of corn.
The other carts plying the path sell bargain delights such as veggie egg rolls ($2.50), and that longtime Disney specialty, the chocolate covered frozen banana ($2.50), and ice cream floats for $2.89.
Animal Kingdom's fruit cart, Harambe Fruit Market, is in Africa. Other than that, the pickin's are slim.
Walt Disney World is a massive place, and it can take several visits to get a handle on all its idiosyncrasies. But over the past few days, we've served up a heaping helping of most of the ways that we've learned to scrimp in one of the world's most famously expensive middle-class resorts.
