What are you best tips for saving money on food at Disney?

[LeahA]

I'm trying to come up with some ways to save money at Disney on our food budget. We will have a kitchen, so planning on doing all breakfasts in room, and some light easy lunches. Any other ideas?

 

[v.t.]

Are you traveling with kids? If so, our kids are responsible for their own snacks. Before we left, they picked out what snacks they wanted. They were responsible for carrying their own snacks (cargo shorts!) and if they begged for something they would have to pay for it out of their money. Granted we bought snacks for them, but the "own money" reply kept down on the whinning.
Also, we found a lot of the meals were big enough to share. We always said if they were still hungry we would go back and order more, but we never had to. Go to the dining thread and it will give you an idea of where to eat.

 

[SDSorority]

We split meals. Most of the time they are HUGE. And, since we're vegetarians, most of the time we would split an appetizer and then split an entree.

 

[sarah4770]

are you staying onsite?
get the refillable mugs if you are.
a big breakfast is relatively cheap , and you only need a couple snacks or light dinner if you have a big breakfast.

 

[meloneyb21]

When we stayed at Bonnet Creek we had a kitchen so we just went to Walmart and stocked up on breakfast, snacks, and some dinner items. We maybe ate at a Disney restaurant twice total that week (and it was just for the experience because we really didn't have to), and when we did we got portions that were big enough to share. My kids are young so they never got their own meal.

This past year we didn't have a kitchen but we still kept things like cereal and poptarts for breakfast. We also kept some bottled waters and milk in the fridge. We ate out ALOT but we attribute that to receiving $700 in gift cards from Disney for staying in a deluxe resort....because of that we didn't end up spending any of our own money until we maybe had about 2 days left of the trip.

ETA: I second the refillable mugs!

 

[GinaBean]

One thing that really helped us save money last time was getting the free ice water at the parks. That is one of the best tips I have read here.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Maybe you already know this, but I just found out last year that you don't have to order the full meal at the CS places. They list the prices on the menu as a meal. You can just order the entree, and skip the sides and drink.

We could have one person order the meal, and one just order the entree and split the side and drink. Or not order the drink at all, and just get free water.

We also do what PP mentioned in letting the kids pick snacks each morning, and they carry them in their water bottle bag. (We each carry our own watter bottle bag that is big enough for a regular size water bottle plus about 2 snacks.)

Sometimes I order kids meals for myself too.

 

[magic1106]

Last trip we had a kitchen but no car to leave the World so I packed a suitcase with nonperishable food: small boxes of cereal, snack bars, juice boxes, crackers and snacks, oranges, anything I thought couldn't get destroyed by the airline. We purchashed milk and juice from the resort and were able to savfe a ton of money. At the end of the trip we had an empty suitcase for souveniers and didn't have to buy one or pay for shipping saving even more money. Just remember to weight the suitcase while you are packing it to avoid fees at the airport.

 

[Purseval]

The best tip and the one we always follow is never buy food at a WDW park. Pack snacks in a backpack and drink water. If you think you'll starve to death without a regular meal pack something, rent a locker and stash it there until you need it.

 

[2disneyboys]

I've read that you can order a double cheeseburger @ the CS places and then pay like $.89 or so for an xtra bun.. most the burger places have a fixin bar, so you just seperate out the burger onto the seperate buns, and then add your own fixins... I would imagine this would really save some people.

 

[LeahA]

Mickeypooh99-I like that idea, I didn't know you could do that!


Thanks for all the great tips!

 

[maggiew]

If you are planning on eating one meal out, I would do it for lunch instead of dinner. Prices are cheaper then. So do breakfast in condo, eat lunch in park, then quick/easy dinner at condo.

Getting water instead of soda also saves money.

Bring your own snacks. There are so many Disney theme snacks you can buy at the grocery store! Buy these at home and then carry them with you into the park. I've bought the Disney (princess and pooh) fruit chews, etc and brought them with me. The kids were fine with those and didn't want every snack in sight at the park.

I really recommend looking over the menus of the restaurants at disney. There are some meals that can be shared, you just need to know where they are. Look at some pictures on the food picture thread too. That really helped me decide what could be shared.

Maggie

 

[DawnM]

We bought one of these at Target and it has saved us hundreds in the last couple of years, maybe even thousands. We use it for local excursions as well, in fact, just used it yesterday when I went to the museum with the kids.

http://www.target.com/s?keywords=ig...deID=1038576|1287991011&ref=sr_bx_1_1&x=0&y=0

Dawn

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Depends on the reasons for trimming (i.e. avoid unnecessary spending, avoid overpriced $2 snacks, needing to cut the budget....)

So take or ignore whichever tips you like--but we have been successful with all of these:


1. Take snacks--Bringing a box of nutrigrain bars will be cheaper than anything on site...worried that you can't have your rice crispy treat? Bring a box or make your own and hand cut out the mickeys if you need to. I find snacks to be the #1 budget waster for us, so this is usually our first trim. We will budget in a Mickey bar, but as a whole--we don't want to be dollared and fived to death on snack food. We usually like to bring larabars as they are high in protein, yummy (to us) and hold up well in all kinds of weather (no melting as long as you don't get the chocolate ones). The Mickey bar, dole whip, kitchen sink kind of treats are limited to once or twice per trip (depending on length of the trip) per person. We consider that an edible souvenir.

2. Cut breakfast--I can't recall the last time we ate breakfast at Disney unless it is a big to do. I have the same issue at home--going out to spend lots of money on a breakfast when simple will do. We pretty much always do our own breakfasts. We are a family that can do simple breakfasts. Having a kitchen, you can still do the eggs, bacon and pancakes if that floats your boat. But we just hit one food court too many for a $50 breakfast a few years ago and cried uncle.

That leaves...lunch and dinner....

3. For sitdown--if you are hankering to eat at a sitdown establishment at Disney, lunchtime is THE time to do it. You will save probably several dollars per person. You can even cheat it and make it a late lunch (I think you can get seated until 3pm in most places), then it almost counts as dinner.

4. If you have kids--ditch the kids meals and have them share and adult platter at counter service. I think it comes out cheaper.

5. Drink water.

6. Now that I mention water, we usually freeze a bottle and that kind of helps the other bottles that we bring along somewhat cold for the day. If it is summer, we freeze more. It is a bit heavy, but we are still toting strollers, so into the bottom of the stroller it goals. We likely would ditch that once we no longer have strollers...b/c it gets heavy to lug all that water and ice. We aren't afraid to share bottles either, so in the times we have to buy one--we share. For those that don't, water is free in every single restaurant and counter service.

7. pack your lunch...we did this for quite a bit with our young ones. It requires a sturdy portable cooler that is lightweight but won't cause things to get squished.

8. The last tip--have dinner in your room that you cook. Now it can be something simple or something extraordinary--but whatever it is, it will be much less expensive than what you can buy on site.

That being said, it is a vacation. We do not use all these tips all of the time (except breakfast and snacks pretty much). Who wants to cook all the time? You take the tips that work for you and ditch the others.

If you don't want to slave over a hot stove, then don't. Sharing meals and drinking only water can help stretch the pennies for the meals you do dine out with.

If we have a buffet scheduled on a day--we pretty much do not have a second meal out, unless it is breakfast and then we might have a late dinner. By "we", I mean the adults. While we do not gorge ourselves, we do eat a reasonable amount of food that keeps us stuffed. Our kids stop eating once their tummies tell them to, so we will usually buy them a snack type dinner. In July, we had CRT for lunch...so for dinner, we had snacks from Casey's for dinner while waiting for the parade (nachos is what I remember).


That is what we do and it works for us. YMMV.

Have fun planning!

(ps we did DDP once and while that was lovely--we realized that we don't like eating out all of the time every single day of the trip. It is nice to be able to choose not to eat out.)

 

[leadfootlevi]

The pizza's at counter service restaurants. I think they're like $11 and are the same size as a "normal" pizza place's large size. One pizza easily fed 2 hungry adults and one child.

 

[SandrA9810]

Buy a refillable mug and eat meals at the resorts. It'll shave 3$ off per person's meal. I have no qualms about sharing a mug, but it's up to your descretion if you want one for each person or have the kids/adults share a drink.

If you all are in the mood for burgers. Have every one get a kids meal, it's cheaper than sharing a double cheeseburger. Plus the kids meal comes with two sides, we usually got fries and fries or fries and grapes. And there's a small drink.

When we ate at Seasons at Epcot. I'd get mashed potatoes and chicken kids meal, with my side as extra potatoes. Kari would get mac and cheese with two sides of corn bread. Then we shared it. And we both got our own drinks.

Some meals that are easily shared
Cosmic Rays - 1/2 chicken and rib meal is huge
Peco's - the Taco Salad, I can eat one and be set for the whole day (nor do I ever want to know the calorie count of it...)
Flame Tree BBQ has a few platter entrees
Seasons - A lot of their entrees are big platters too

If you head to the resorts some of them serve a large family pizza for about 13$, it's plenty big to feed 4 people. I know Fort Wilderness, Pop Century, and All Stars serve the pizza. It's one of my favorites.

I find hoping to the closest resort is always much easier and faster than leaving property or going to your room (unless your resort is next to the park). And as well, from spending way too much time on property for various reasons, there's microwaves and toasters at the resorts, which can also help in making a decent quick meal.

Allears.net offers a full menu listing and prices.

 

[At World's End]

We usually eat at least one meal (usually lunch) in the park. Snacks are our downfall. We bring in treats like taffy, chocolates, licorice, etc for when we get tempted. My kids always want popcorn, so we might buy some micro popcorn and bring it in a ziplock. I think the park popcorn tastes horrible! We'll also have ice cream bars in the room for an after-park or mid-day treat. We also bring an empty water bottle and packets of lemonade. Saves a fortune on drinks.

 

[pampam]

We still don't know if the OP is staying off site or on.

I was told this by the cashier at Pop. Go to the stand that sells pizza in the Pop food court and ask for a loaf of bread.(It isn't listed on the menu.) They will ask if you want white or brown bread. It costs about 10 cents more than what Walmart charges.

I believe all of the resort foodcourts have microwaves ovens and toasters.

Our rule is 1 meal a day in the restaurant. So we usually take a side trip to Publix and stocked up on a few basic groceries, such as canned chili, beans, weiniers and hot dog buns etc. I've even bought bacon and eggs and cooked it in the microwave ovens. DD likes oatmeal so we prepare that in the foodcourt too.

Restaurant meals are far cheaper at Shades of Green. We go there for buffets.

 

[LeahA]

We are staying onsite in a DVC, and although we will cook breakfast in our room, we do enjoy going out to eat.

Thanks for all the tips!

Lisa Likes Pooh-Thank you for all your detailed tips and information!

 

[nrhenley]

Have you heard about the tables in wonderland card? That can save you a bit of money on food! This will save you 20% on food. However, you are required to pay 18% gratuity.

Thanks,

Natalie H.
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