Tired of paying $100+ for meals

[westjones]

....When you wish upon a star. Makes no difference who you are...........dreams come true!


It could happen!

 

[HopperFan]

We stayed here for a week !

WHY ?

1) Got a great rate
2) My sis family was going and needed space (next cabin over)
3) Save money on food so we could stay longer !!

Our family of 5 did not spend over $40 a day on food.

All breakfasts in cabin, including a huge cooked meal with sis on a day off from parks.

At parks - ate one meal. Looked for hot counter service.

Cabin - honeybaked ham/turkey/cheese/rolls/salads/fruit.....
They have charcoal grills if that is your thing.

EX: Animal Kingdom till 1 - went to cabin for lunch
Changed clothes - went to MK
Ate later dinner at Columbia Harbor (Fish/Chips)
Watched parade

On no park days we ate in cabin.

Only suggestion - BRING IN ALL YOUR OWN FOOD.
Minimal offering there and outrageous expensive.

ps We drive to parks, so we always put a cooler with drinks and snacks in car for when we get out of park.

Loved the cabins, decorated great and enjoyed them.
Was New Years week, so did not utilize the rest of the camp ground or pools.
Sis has been back and we would again in right situation.

 

[PamNC]

You really addressed my idea of staying at the FW cabins. May I ask what rate you got?

BobNC - you're right about the theming. Obviously theming is important to me or I wouldn't be a big Disney fan. My husband and I have really been discussing this topic and we're going to try to save $$ on food so we can do other things and not feel guilty. Like Cirque - never done it. Want to - but we feel like our $150+ a day for food budget is quite enough for expenses. I'd also like to take a day and go to Universal. If the summer codes come out and we can get the FW cabins at a good price - I'm hoping to talk him into trying it. Problem is he loves the Poly - and so do I. So my solution is a shorter trip to the cabins to see how we like it. If I had some trust in me - I'd rent DVC points.

Thanks to everyone for their opinions - you too Madalex. LOL. That doesn't have to be your last post on the subject. I welcome all opinions even if they don't mirror my own.

PamNC

 

[Bob NC]

PamNC...

We tried the FW cabins once and loved them, especially because we had our car with us to drive to the parks. Poly used to be my favorite resort also....Have stayed there 4 times including our honeymoon. Of course part of the reason we liked the cabins is that we could bed-slam the kids in the bedroom and close the door....lol.

We like to eat good food at good sit down restaurants. It was just by accident that we made a trip with A LOT less of the better restaurants in our plans. Timing just worked out that it was always more convenient to eat at more of the mid-range or counter service places. I don't think a lot of folks realize just how much time is involved with having so many PS's at the nicer places. Dang, you actually have to start thinking of transportation issues hours before you even leave to eat. Then you 'usually' have to count on an hour of transportation time before your PS if using Disney transportation. You get to your PS 15 minutes early and frequently have to wait. THEN you have transportation issues AGAIN after you eat. We found that planning a PS at a popular restaurant could take 3 hours or more out of your day. Compare that with just eating anywhere you happen to be around lunch or supper time......We used to plan 2 PS's per day....lol....Our entire vacation seemed to revolve around our eating plans.

 

[RalphMouth]

Just ask yourself this-

If Walt Disney was still alive today would prices for food at the Disney Parks still be so expensive ??
I highly doubt it - I think he would be ashamed. It was always about being able to take your family to a high quality & affordable park.
Does anybody remember what prices at DL were like when Walt was still with us ??

 

[HopperFan]

...we went Jan 2002 and paid $139 a night, via Expedia.

My sis just went last November and paid @ the same, with an AP. She bought an AP just for her, no one else.

We just booked room only at AKL with codes and got 45% off.

 

[TDC Nala]

I could handle the big-bucks Disney restaurants very economically by drinking water and eating only an appetizer.

What fun is that?

I spent $50 on my own dinner at Jiko last month, but I had two things off the appetizer menu, a dessert, and two glasses of wine. By narrowing my choices down to one appetizer (which is all that really was necessary, I had the tower of tuna and it was plenty large enough for me) and leaving out the wine, I would have cut the bill considerably. But it wouldn't have been as much fun.

I do not eat out at home and consider the Disney restaurants to be a splurge.

 

[Amy&Dan]

As someone who is also a little wide eyed about $100 for a meal I agree with you. We have only been to Disneyland thus far which has far less nice dining options than WDW and have plunked down plenty there. I think the problem is that our first trip to DL we did it all first class. Stayed on site (very expensive at DL), did all the fine dining we could squeeze in and spent a fortune. Now we don't know how to do DL any other way. When we do WDW for the first time in October we are going to budget more! Maybe if we never do the expensive places there we won't know what we are missing. It never hurts to hope! Also, our kids ages 7 & 9 could not care less what they eat so we should take advantage of that while we can.