tips on saving on food

[teller80]

Look at the thread about gift cards, you can usually buy them for 80% of the face value. So you'd save 20% on the meals you do purchase.

 

[newestkg06]

Splitting meals at quick service or ordering kid's meals (and it's not all chicken nuggets if you do your research!) are great options. At table service, splitting an entree and appetizer can be a great way to save without feeling like you're scrimping too much.

 

[tzolkin]

Drinks are a big expense. If you are happy to drink water, you can get free ice water at an CS restaurant. We always just drink water in the parks, but will have other drinks in the room (soda, juice, beer, etc). Some people bring those flavor packets to add to the water.

Not sure where you are staying and what your plans are, but my family likes to go back to the room for several hours each afternoon. We have lots of groceries in the room so we can have something for breakfast, something in the afternoon, and something at night. When the kids were little, we also brought snacks into the parks. With all the groceries, we usually just wind up eating one meal out per day. We like to snack around and try new things, so we may stop and purchase food in a park a few times each day, but we will share. So it winds up being about the equivalent of one full CS meal per person, but we are eating throughout the day. (For example: maybe the five of us share 2 or 3 baskets of fish'n'chips, then later DH & DS split a sandwich, then the girls and I get a meal in Morocco to try)

 

[ibelieveinmagic]

thanks everyone! So many great tips, I really appreciate the advice!

 

[kymom99]

Some kids meals are a little bit too "kiddish" but some are pretty good. One time at CBR we had pizza but I ordered a kids spaghetti and meatballs. It was as much as I would eat at home and really pretty good. It came with drink and side so I got milk and applesauce which my son ate

 

[LovesTimone]

There are a lot of ways to save money on food... you just have to think outside of the box.

Join Landry's club, they have a lot of restaurant all over the country, and you can use your dollars to spend at the world, plus the 25 dollar birthday gift they give you during your birthday month. Have other family to sign up to. T-Rex Disney Springs, Rain Forest there are two - one at Disney Springs and the other is right outside of AK, and at Yak & Yeti. The portions are huge here so sharing is really easy just ask for extra plates. They serve breakfast at Rainforest just outside of AK, DH and I have enjoyed it a couple of times, we really like having lunch here and share a meal or a couple of appetizer and we are good to go.

Start buying gift cards now, Disney, Landry's, Starbucks, ask for them for birthdays, anniversary and such. DH and I are building a new home and are asking for Home depot gift cards and we already have 525.00 worth just since January. Check out your warehouse store for a bit of a break on gift cards. Also target will have some deals, with red card and such.

You can order from garden grocer for food deliver, staples for water, use Uber to head to Wal-Mart or a grocery store there are several Publix's close by, and you can see their AD on line, you can use digital coupons, simple just sign up and enter your phone number in at check out, or bring paper ones with you, you also can make a list for the store your shopping in by aisle so you can cut down on the time. Just make sure your not wasting money don't over buy.

You can order pizza and have it delivered

Not sure if you are using ME or private car if a private car you can set up for one stop for groceries.

Breakfast in the room is easiest for us, you can pack these things in your luggage a box of cereal or individual cereal and get milk at the resort. Breakfast bars, granola bars, Pringles, pop tarts, oatmeal packages, individual mac & cheese cups. Those individual cracker packages, also single serve cookies. make sure to have baggies to keep left overs in. You might want to bring a carry on will all this in it, and this way you have room for souvenirs for on the way home.

There is a convenience store ( gas station convenience store) across the street from Disney Spring, if you want to pick up some chips, drinks and adult beverages.

Make sure you bring all your medicine, OTC med's, sun screen, bug spray with you this stuff is super expensive at the world.

Lets talk about the dinning plans -

Also have you run the number for QS dining plan (QSDP) it's 2 QS meals including drinks, 2 snacks, and a drink mug for the resort per person per day. You can easily share meals. When at the resort use your drink mug for serve yourself drinks, then for your meal drink get a bottle of juice for later in the day or the next morning or bottled water. leaving the park for meals takes quite a bit of time, even if you are just going right outside of the bubble. Some friends love Olive Garden they don't have one where they live, so they always eat there at least twice when visiting, she said that it takes about 3 hours more or less... from when they place the request for Uber, till they get back to the resort. If they go for dinner it is usually longer. So you can only make the decision on which is more important = time in the parks -vs- leaving the parks. Make sure to include cost of this when running the number to see if it would work better for you.

Also with a big group, with several rooms. You can do different dinning plans for different rooms as they are all different reservations. So say 2 adults are in 1 room and 3 people in another room with one being a adult .
The 2 adult could do DDXDP which is 3 TS meals, 2 snacks, and 1 drink mug per person per day, which equals out to for a 7 night stay = 21 TS meals, 14 snacks, 1 drink mug person times that by 2 is 42 TS meal, 28 snacks, 2 drinks mugs - You could use your DDXDP for character meals and other table service meals. This does take a lot of planning, looking at the menus, running and rerunning the numbers and seeing if it will work out for your family. I helped one of my DH co-workers wife with this type of dinning plan, for there family reunion it was a lot of planning but it worked out great for them. Its not for everyone just putting it out there as a suggestion.

Have a magical time

 

[aprilchem]

My husband and I found we could split a single meal and still have leftovers! A lot of the quick serve restaurants come with an obscene amount of food!! So consider splitting an entree rather than pay for two and have to toss the leftovers.

This is what we do as well. One adult meal + 1 kids meal feeds my family of 5 (2 adults and kids 7, 9, and 11). The portion sizes are way too large for 1 person.

 

[mom+3girls]

If you have a kitchen and are driving, take a crock pot along with you. You can cook up a big meal while spending time in the park, throw a roast in with the fixins before you leave for the parks and you will come home to a nice affordable meal. Also if you are driving, prepare things like ground beef at home and put in Ziploc bags and freeze it and bring it with you in a cooler , you can use this to make a quick batch of spaghetti or tacos and it won't take long.

Carry trail mix, nuts or some type of protein snack with you in the park. I buy large bags at Walmart or Sams before I go and make snack bags with those small snack bags that zip. It's a great pick me up and you don't have to buy a snack in the park.

I buy bottled water and take a bottle with me to the park and just fill it up from the water fountains through out the day. Big savings here.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Get groceries, even if you have no room kitchen. You can always have drinks, snacks, and shelf-stable produce even if you have no fridge/oven.
Avoid all Disney buffets - with 9 adults and 2 kids, you'll be paying $500+ for pretty much any buffet meals (except breakfast, where you might swing $400+).
If you have no ability to cook, get takeout from offsite restaurant areas, like Crossroads. Even without a car, a quick Uber trip will likely cost $10-$15 and you can grab food for under $65 (if fast food) and under $125 (if fast casual) for dinners.
If you eat onsite, limit yourself to one in park meal per day. Preferably CS. Avoid sodas and ask for free water with meals.

This is great advice. There are also several delivery services operating in Orlando. (I am not sure about which one is the one you would want - I've used one at a Universal resort and was going to use one my last trip to WDW, but we ended up going out instead. I would find the restaurant I want to use for take-out and find which service(s) they use.) If you don't yet have this in your area, basically, you download the delivery company's app. The restaurants are shown. You can peruse menus and choose one to order from plus a surcharge, usually about $5. The delivery company picks up the food from the restaurant and delivers it to you.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

My husband and I found we could split a single meal and still have leftovers! A lot of the quick serve restaurants come with an obscene amount of food!! So consider splitting an entree rather than pay for two and have to toss the leftovers.

Seven words. Two restaurants. Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe. Flame Tree Barbecue. Oh my stars. The amount of good food you get at those places. . .

 

[kandb]

If you have a kitchen and are driving, take a crock pot along with you. You can cook up a big meal while spending time in the park, throw a roast in with the fixins before you leave for the parks and you will come home to a nice affordable meal. Also if you are driving, prepare things like ground beef at home and put in Ziploc bags and freeze it and bring it with you in a cooler , you can use this to make a quick batch of spaghetti or tacos and it won't take long.

Carry trail mix, nuts or some type of protein snack with you in the park. I buy large bags at Walmart or Sams before I go and make snack bags with those small snack bags that zip. It's a great pick me up and you don't have to buy a snack in the park.

I buy bottled water and take a bottle with me to the park and just fill it up from the water fountains through out the day. Big savings here.

Just an FYI. The fountain water at Disney is not filtered and doesn't taste good to most people. We always go to CS and just ask for 3 or 4 large ice waters and they give you them and the water is always filtered and tastes great. You don't have to wait in line at the CS places

 

[DanInMN]

For a big group... stay off site at a condo, townhome, or house. Eat breakfast at the house, bring some snacks, lunch at Disney quick serve, and dinner at an off site restaurant. Off site food prices are "normal", off site lodging is downright cheap. Check out Bahama Bay Resort - super cheap, very nice!

If you have Annual Passes parking is "free", making an off site stay ideal.

 

[Moreexcitedthanthekids]

Hi everyone, I've got a question about the Amazon prime suggestion made in this thread. Has anybody done it because I was wondering if you get it your package delivered to the WDW resort reception or the room? I heard other suggestions on the DIS podcast advising that it is a good idea to get items such as bottled water delivered, as it can save $$$'s. We are flying in from the UK via a few days in Washington and last time I tried to get amazon to deliver to my hotel in the US the delivery was 3-4 days, so i was wanting to order the water before we arrive, so obviously i won't have a room number. Thanks

 

[jsmla]

If your group would like a table service meal the Mezzo Metro pizza at Via Napoli (Epcot's World Showcase) can be a decent deal. Unless you have major big eaters two pies might be able to feed everyone.

P. J.'s Southern Takeout at Ft. Wilderness can be a good value for an evening out, especially with the younger ones. The family sized fried chicken meal feeds at least four and for dessert you can participate in the free campfire/singalong with Chip and Dale afterward. They sell s'mores fixings at the campfire but you're welcome to bring your own.

Many of the campers decorate for Christmas and it's fun to take a tour. You can watch the MZk fireworks from the beach there as well.

Have fun!

 

[newestkg06]

Hi everyone, I've got a question about the Amazon prime suggestion made in this thread. Has anybody done it because I was wondering if you get it your package delivered to the WDW resort reception or the room? I heard other suggestions on the DIS podcast advising that it is a good idea to get items such as bottled water delivered, as it can save $$$'s. We are flying in from the UK via a few days in Washington and last time I tried to get amazon to deliver to my hotel in the US the delivery was 3-4 days, so i was wanting to order the water before we arrive, so obviously i won't have a room number. Thanks

We used Amazon Prime Pantry at Art of Animation (some resorts treat packages differently than others and charge a fee). It was delivered to the front desk (I just used the AoA address with my name and "hold until check-in" on it). After we checked in, they brought it to the room, but you need to be present in your room. We ended up buying way too much stuff (too many snacks), didn't have room in the bags on the way home, so it felt wasteful. We won't be doing it next time and plan to just use snack credits more often. It was great for water and juice boxes, but think about how much you really will eat, especially if you are going when it's hot. The meals are very large!

 

[maxiesmom]

Beware though if you stay at the Swan and Dolphin they no longer accept grocery deliveries. Saw a poster earlier today who said even their Amazon Prime delivery was turned away, because they were not at the resort when it arrived.

My tip is to ask for a quick service meal to come, minus the fries. It only saves a dollar or two, but it beats throwing fries away. If I go with my nephew we only get one meal with fries, and share. I'm happy with only a few so it works for us.

Also, if you bring a cooler to the parks, you cannot drag it. You have to carry it with you, or store it in a locker.

 

[Moreexcitedthanthekids]

newestkg06, thanks for the advice.

We opted to for the Carribean Beach with the counter service meal plan this year but with 2 teenagers who are always snacking and appear to have hollow legs, (thats my conclusion as a don't understand were else they put it) Amazon Prime might be they key to keeping it real. $3 for a water is expensive we will be there for 7 days without a car. Family of 4 x 3 bottles a day x 7 days, 84 bottles x $3...... $252 just in water. Thats not including all the free iced water we 'glug' around the park. We made the mistake last time booking the Swan and Dolphin without a dining plan, my bank account winces when I think about that stay.

We booked the CBR before they anounced that the food hall is closed for upgrades, WDR kindly gave us $300 Disney credit, result. I doubt we would have used the CBR food hall anyway with so many other great places to eat.

Our second week is at the Hard Rock at Universal, so if you have any tips on dining out on a budget in Universal area or can recommend a quintessential American Diner to take the hollow legged teanagers, it would be appreciated.

 

[kymom99]

newestkg06, thanks for the advice.

We opted to for the Carribean Beach with the counter service meal plan this year but with 2 teenagers who are always snacking and appear to have hollow legs, (thats my conclusion as a don't understand were else they put it) Amazon Prime might be they key to keeping it real. $3 for a water is expensive we will be there for 7 days without a car. Family of 4 x 3 bottles a day x 7 days, 84 bottles x $3...... $252 just in water. Thats not including all the free iced water we 'glug' around the park. We made the mistake last time booking the Swan and Dolphin without a dining plan, my bank account winces when I think about that stay.

We booked the CBR before they anounced that the food hall is closed for upgrades, WDR kindly gave us $300 Disney credit, result. I doubt we would have used the CBR food hall anyway with so many other great places to eat.

Our second week is at the Hard Rock at Universal, so if you have any tips on dining out on a budget in Universal area or can recommend a quintessential American Diner to take the hollow legged teanagers, it would be appreciated.

I LOVE CBR! My favorite resort so far. You would be wise with teens to have some food at their fingertips. My husband is the same way really. While on vacation, money is no object to him.

Regarding the water, you just never know when you will need it. Yesterday we were at a track meet and the heat was brutal. This year they changed the rule and said no coolers so my husband took it back to the car. In that 6 hours we probably spent $12 on drinks. It adds up really fast. And even with free water at the counters you never know when you might be in a place where you are just thirsty and need a drink. Best to have some drinks for the room.

 

[Southernmiss]

newestkg06, thanks for the advice.

We opted to for the Carribean Beach with the counter service meal plan this year but with 2 teenagers who are always snacking and appear to have hollow legs, (thats my conclusion as a don't understand were else they put it) Amazon Prime might be they key to keeping it real. $3 for a water is expensive we will be there for 7 days without a car. Family of 4 x 3 bottles a day x 7 days, 84 bottles x $3...... $252 just in water. Thats not including all the free iced water we 'glug' around the park. We made the mistake last time booking the Swan and Dolphin without a dining plan, my bank account winces when I think about that stay.

We booked the CBR before they anounced that the food hall is closed for upgrades, WDR kindly gave us $300 Disney credit, result. I doubt we would have used the CBR food hall anyway with so many other great places to eat.

Our second week is at the Hard Rock at Universal, so if you have any tips on dining out on a budget in Universal area or can recommend a quintessential American Diner to take the hollow legged teanagers, it would be appreciated.

Are you locked in to Hard Rock at Universal? We were in Disney then Universal exactly one year ago today with our family of 6. Our 4 kids are 22, 19, 18 and 15-so they can put some food away!

We stayed at Cabana Beach Resort. Loved the resort and the room layout for our family of 6. There is a mini kitchen in the rooms. It has a mini fridge and microwave. We were able to save $$ by bringing refrigerated foods and microwavable foods for breakfast and lunch. We ate out once a day. At city walk there are fast food type places that are decent and affordable. We went to an Orlando City Soccer Game that they won one night. At the game, they announced that the local Papa John's pizza places would have half off the next day with the code to say that you knew the local team won the soccer game. There's a Papa John's very close to the park/hotels. So we ordered and picked up pizzas for half off the next night. Ordered enough for another meal and heated it in the microwave. Perhaps you can check to see if this is still a thing and if Papa Johns will deliver.

At Disney, we stay at Fort Wilderness Cabins for the kitchen. Breakfast in the cabin and then we use the crockpot and make our midday meal the main meal. Then snack in the evening at the parks.

 

[Moreexcitedthanthekids]

Hi Southernmiss

Yep, we are locked in to the HRH. The kids insisted on it, we have stopped there a number of times, they love being so close to the park and the FP that comes along with it. Volcano Bay is must see attraction for us this year.

Cabana Beach sounds good, bit like a Marriott Residence Inn then with the kitchen.

With a username like Southernmiss, it sounds like you guys might be used to the heat, hailing from the UK in a little village I find that when I travel to the southern states (I often do for work) TX, LA, AL and MS, I drink more water that Dumbo's mum.

I've checked Google maps and can see that there is a Golden Corral buffet style diner near the HRH. I am looking for a quintessential American Diner for the kids, is this brand a good one?