What a BLESSING for us & HELP! :)

[Whistle]

Okay, my family (my two boys and I) have received a wonderful blessing! We have been invited to fly down (private jet) with another family and stay in the Yacht Club Beach resort (my boys and I will have our own room). We leave the early evening of Thanksgiving and return on Sunday.

All I have to pay for is food for us and our tickets. However, with it being close to Christmas, and me being a single mom on a budget, it is tight. I counted up the change we have and pulled some money over from savings and think I can do this (sure hope so cuz we are GOING!)--

I would love any ideas/tips you can think of to help us eat frugally. What can we pack ahead of time for snacks/things to eat there? We have been before and had the quick service dining plan (LOVED it!)-- I'd love to feed them frugally at a couple of counter-services. What can I expect at the Yacht Club (do they have a cheaper counter service)? Do they sell milk where we could have cereal in the mornings?

Thanks for any and all advice! Looks like we're headed to Disney! I'm freaking! I normally have MONTHS notice to plan and get ready-- not three days! I am certainly NOT complaining but would love packing tips as well! Woo Hoo!

God is good! I feel so blessed to be able to do this!

 

[3boymthr]

You are going to love the YC. We had a blast when we stayed there.

The Yacht Club has very limited counter service and only in the mornings as it is in the bar in the main lobby (which only sells breakfast at that time of day). But they do offer some great things for those on a budget. You can get cereal that includes milk, toast is less than $1 (two slices), they also offer a limited fruit selection, cinnamon rolls, muffins, bagels & cream cheese or PB and a couple of other pastry options. All these items are less than $3 each. Nothing hot but the toasted items. Prices are posted on the wall and all items qualified as a snack selection when we were on the meal plan but I bought the toast and bananas out of pocket because they were sooo cheap. (ETA - well relatively speaking )

While the selection is limited there are also very few people there and there is little or no wait. For more expanded selections including hot food you have to go to the Beach Club (about a 5 minute walk) where there is a bit more of a wait (about double that at the YC) but hot food and they also offer lunch and dinner. For lunch & dinner there is a QS in the pool area which offers hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. The kids meals here come in a pail with a shovel attached so the kids can use them in the pool so I recommend doing this as it makes for a fun souvenir. If you choose not to there are plenty of pails that get left behind by previous guests which are available for kids to play with.

 

[Whistle]

I wish we were able to have the dining plan this trip, but we are unable to. I tried to call yesterday and add it but we couldn't b/c it wasn't booked through Disney.

Is the Yacht Club close to Downtown Disney? Are there any frugal places we can eat there?

Is it reasonable to plan $300.00 for our food for while we are there?

 

[MEM]

I wish we were able to have the dining plan this trip, but we are unable to. I tried to call yesterday and add it but we couldn't b/c it wasn't booked through Disney.

Is the Yacht Club close to Downtown Disney? Are there any frugal places we can eat there?

Is it reasonable to plan $300.00 for our food for while we are there?

Downtown Disney is an easy bus ride from the Yacht Club - Earl of Sandwich is an excellent value - about $6 per sandwich - you will be there during the period of the "Holiday Turkey Sandwich" - like Thanksgiving on a bun!

Are you really only going to be there for 3 days - you said you will be getting there Thanksgiving and leaving on Sunday? If so, $300 should be plenty for 3people and it does not have to include hotdogs. Try doing a search for dining at Disney on $40 a day (per person).

 

[Andreas Mom]

Would the YC have friges? You could get a gallon of milk and some sandwhich fixings and be able to do breakfast and lunch. I always get cereal, chips, bread, sandwhich bags, etc to have breakfastand lunch than our dinners and snacks are bought. My son has allergies so for us this makes it way easier and helpe on the budget!

 

[tlenzendorf]

Downtown Disney is an easy bus ride from the Yacht Club - Earl of Sandwich is an excellent value - about $6 per sandwich - you will be there during the period of the "Holiday Turkey Sandwich" - like Thanksgiving on a bun!

They also have AAA discount at Earl of Sandwich if you have AAA.
Also do you have enough time or can you get park tickets delivered to the resort from UT?

 

[Whistle]

They do have a fridge.

 

[disprincessatheart]

I would pack cereal bars or granola bars to bring as breakfast, pack some pretzels, nuts, dried fruit or some other easily portable snack for in the parks. Since you'll be near Epcot there are tons of qs locations within walking distance in the park. If you like fish and chips, the booth in the UK pavilion is just inside the IG and not too far from the france bakery which has good cheese plates and gigantic ham and cheese sandwich things. The new outdoor mexico qs is very good and good portions too. For lunch there's also QS at the pool at the Yacht and Beach Club. I think $300 will be plenty, especially since with just 2 full days, and being a holiday weekend, you won't be doing much or any TS dining.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Since the Beach Club is a DVC resort they have an expanded food offering there. Go there for the milk etc....

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

on the boardwalk there used to be a store called screendoor general store or something. is it still there?

 

[espana94]

You can also hop a boat and go across the lagoon to the Boardwalk for some QS meals. There are also walking paths around the lagoon to the Boardwalk.

They have a bakery and pizza "to go" on the Boardwalk.

 

[Julylady]

There is also a kiosk on the Boardwalk side that has very reasonably priced basket meals like grilled chicken/fries and burgers/fries. What I really liked was that you could get just the sandwich alone at a reduced price. My two nieces aren't all that fond of fries so we left them out. We substituted a bag of Doritos purchased at the Screen Door store. Very inexpensive lunch.

If you are taking a private jet, you should also be able to pack some food in your luggage? Here is a sample of what I took along in October. Sometimes I pack everything in small snack size bags before we leave. Other times I pack the full size packages and take the baggies along and do it in the room.

*Small baggies of cereal. I just measure 1/2 cup out of the box and put them in the snack size bags.
*Small baggies of trail mix.
*Snack bag with 2 oreo cookies each
*String cheese (It was NOT refrigerated for a total of about 6 hours and was perfectly fine).
*I also let the kids each pick out a different "treat" food that they don't normally get to eat.

Most of these foods can be purchased in snack sized portions but they are really expensive compared to doing it yourself!

I find that bread, donuts, milk, and chips are available in the Beach Club store and aren't too overpriced.

We did one spur of the moment trip one year and I remember it very fondly!

 

[NewCrew42]

I always bring breakfast bars for us to eat while at WDW. We usually eat them while waiting for the bus or while waiting for the park to open. I also pack snacks for us.

The gift shop should have milk, bread, etc. that you can purchase for a reasonable price.

Have fun!

God bless!

 

[elf]

I've found it amazing how much money we could save in a day, by eating breaksfast in room (kids are cereal eaters anyway), bringing my own snacks, and buying or bringing acase water. I always have a loaf of bread, with P & J, and someother quick lunches. My kids love pool days so we stay in pool in morning, lunch in room then go to parks in the evening.

I found family dinner at the Dolphin's Picabu's pretty reasonable chicken and a couple of sides for $25 not sure if they still have it. It was pretty good and filled the four of us and we even saved some chicken for chicken salad the next day (they had mayo packs at Picabu's.

What a wonderful gift for you enjoy!

 

[The Princess]

Not much to add since I have never stayed at the YC. I just wanted to tell you to have fun!!!

 

[dfchelbay]

Run to the Dollar Tree and pick up some breakfast bars, granola bars (non-chocolate), jerkey, nuts, fruits, etc. from their snack aisle. Put a few bags in each of your suitcases, thermal soft lunch bag with ice pack and sandwich bags. Maybe pack some peanut butter. Or, raid your own pantry for these things. Pick up a cereal, milk, water, jelly and bread at the resort. Pack sandwiches in the lunchbag with lce pack and take it with you when you go off to the parks. Maybe take a backpack with you to the parks with your lunchbag and snacks and water. If money is super tight this trip, hang on to your water bottles and refill them at the water fountains in the parks and put them with your icepacks inside the backpack. If you don't mind carrying a bag/or backpack around the park, you should be able to save on lunch and snacks. Have cereal/oatmeal in the room for breakfast. So, you'd only have to really spend for dinners.

 

[elainesj]

If you want to be super frugal about it, here's what I would do -

Breakfast options:

- pack a loaf of bread/bag of bagels in your luggage. Pack a small jar of peanut butter/jelly.

- packages of instant oatmeal

- breakfast bars

- bottles of chocolate milk (the kind that does not have to be kept cold)

- easy to pack fruit like oranges, apples, etc

Lunch

- instant cup noodles (just fill with hot water - which should be available free from most places - I got a cup of hot water from Pop's food court when I did this)

- sandwiches

Snacks

- pp had a great suggestion and I do this all the time. Bring baggies of cheerios, chips, cookies, crackers and it's a lot more affordable to snack.

- for in the park snacks, my frugal fave is popcorn. My family is happy even with limited amounts so we'll split a bag of popcorn between the 4 of us. For my kids, it was just the fun of ordering from something there instead of just eating the multiple snacks I brought along.

That should stretch your food budget and you could have a nice QS meal once or twice a day. Try for the QS meals that you can share. what we did before too was just order kids QS meals for each of us. Or 4 of us would split 3 adult QS meals. For the 4 of us, that was $20 - $30 per meal total.

You basically have 3 actual days there so if you eat in your room for breakfast and eat out for lunch and dinner, you could break it down to:

Lunch - 3 meals at $10 x 3 days = $90
Dinner - 3 meals at $10 x 3 days = $90

That's only $180 - and wouldn't be eating frugally as meals should be between $8 - $10 each.

The frugal version:
Lunch - 2 meals at $10 x 3 days = $60
Dinner - 2 meals at $10 x 3 days = $60

$120

The super frugal version (bring your own breakfast AND lunch) (add a bag of deli meat to your packing and store in your fridge)

Dinner - 2 meals at $10 x 3 days = $60

$60