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

[queenbetsey]

the last few times we went we did the quick service plan. we got our mugs and two snacks. when it came to food we had more than enough and in order to try different foods (especially epcot) we would share a combo plate (morocco for ex) and them move on to the next country when we got hungry like japan. that way we could try stuff and not be bummed if we did not like it as three of us shared one meal. we did this a couple of times while there. do the math. there are some great counter services with great quality and quantity. it may be worth it to do the qs dining plan. as far as snack credits go you can always take snacks home with you if you have any of those at the end. and the refillable mugs are great when you get home. (use mine everyday)

 

[SunnieRN]

I have young 'grandmunchkins', so we may do a character buffet and a TS meal, but we havoc found that the QS meal plan is quite a bargain. We usually just get two breakfasts and use a snack credit for breakfast for 5. I just like a side of oatmeal and my daughter and son in law share with the munchkins. Lunch is usually three meals and if we need it, a snack. The boys don't eat too much at a time, so in the afternoon we get them ice cream or frozen cokes, etc.

Dinner will be a bigger meal as we are usually at the resort and eat a meal each. We always have our mugs, so with breakfast, the QS plan comes with two beverages. One person uses their mug. At lunch, we get drinks and ice water that we flavor, for dinner we usually get drinks for later in our room and use our mugs.

We often have extra meal credits left. At the end of the trip, each meal credit can be used for three snacks at the QS restaurant and usually the gift shop. We get food for our trip home and souvenir suckers or rice crispy treats. The snack credits, if we use those, are usually shared, a couple of ice cream cookie sandwiches, cinnamon rolls starring rolls cafe cupcakes etc. They are all too big for one person!

If you are on QS, some great sharing meals are, main street bakery, for breakfast, cosmic rays, for lunch, if you are vegetarian, like me, the hummas veggie sandwich at Columbia harbor house is awesome!

Look at the menus on all ears . Net. Amazing choices! The BEST value on QS is Wolfgang Puck Cafe! . There food, even the kids meals are fantastic!! It is a CS dining experience but seems like a sit down restaurant, once you place your order! A great QS value! If oop, try Earls Sandwhiches, YUM!

Too many choices, so little time!. Have a most wonderful vacation! Which resort are you visiting? You can see my favorite below!

 

[DisneyKobi]

We always bring our own sandwiches and sodas. When we travel on the plane, one person always packs their cloths in a small, softsided cooler with a retractable handle -- it's about 18 inches cubed with zippered top. After we check into the resort, we go to the grocery store and buy bread, deli meats, cheese and sodas. After refrigerating, we make and pack sandwiches and sodas, then take these into the park with us. It tastes better than buying expensive meals and we store the soft-sided cooler in a locker until needed at the park. Voila!

 

[Marleen2]

We freeze bottles of water as well, as I've seen mentioned before. We never buy drinks at the park (except with lunch/dinner) We freeze a few bottles of water, which keep the soda's we take cool as well. We drink the soda's first and after that the water... they stay cool for quite a few hours
(tip: don't freeze soda's... try it once and you'll know why )

We always have breakfast at the resort, usually we have lunch at the resort as well. Either we have a light lunch at the resort and have dinner at a restaurant at the parks, or we have a snack for lunch at the resort (pizza, spaghetti, salad) and take sandwiches to the park.
We eat at a restaurant about every other day.

We sometimes have a pretty heavy backpack to carry. Usually I carry it when it's heavy (I'm travelling alone with my two kids) and when we've used some of the drinks, the kids take over.

 

[jen22984]

Our only tips are:
1.) bring snacks from home, if we had to buy a snack every time our girls were hungry, we'd have spent all of our money inthe first day or 2!!!

2.) eat breakfast in your room with stuff you've brought/bought off property. We did this most days, but somedays we used snack credits from our DDP to get muffins and stuff from the resort food court, and a couple of times we did character breakfasts.

3.) share meals, especially at CS locations! Most meals we ended up getting 2 meals and sharing them between 2 adults and 2 kids! We were always full and on the DDP it freed up some meals for other days, since the regular DDP only has 1 CS and one TS per day.

 

[stacy347]

On the last trip, we packed some lunches and alternated that with buying QS meals. At the QS restaurants, we all got kid's meals. The CMs are perfectly fine with it (at least in my experience), and for the most part, it was more than enough food. Pecos Bills was my personal favorite ~ a burger, fries, cookie, drink ~ we were stuffed and for only $5 each.

Pizza Planet (the only place in DHS I will eat at all) also has a good kid's meal ~ cheese pizza, 2 sides and a drink, and again only about $5 each.

I will say though that not all of the QS kid's meals are worth it. One time I got the sweet and sour chicken kid's plate at Sunshine Seasons and they only put about 3 tablespoons of food on there. It may have just been that particular CM, but it seriously wasn't even enough to fill up a 5 year old.

Anyway, just something to maybe try out! Other than that, pack some snacks that travel well. And like most other PPs have said, definitely take advantage of the free ice water!! I am bringing along Country Time lemonade packets to mask the taste of the FL water ~ you get a box of 10 for the same price as ONE bottle of water in the parks ~ that's a no-brainer to me!

This trip I'm also bringing along a bunch of Disney Pez dispensers that I found at the dollar store. I'll grab a big thing of Pez refills before we go ~ I think these will be a fun treat while we wait in lines.

 

[beansmom]

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.
meetthemagic.com

unless I am mistaken, you can only purchase the TIW card if you are an AP holder. And you can use it at resort food courts where there is no table service and get your 20% off...

you also get 10% at TRex and Yak and Yeti with the AP.

 

[SOnotLayuh]

DH usually split a large soda with no ice if we need something other than water.

Also, Pinocchio's Village Haus has a great pizza-and-salad meal. We split that, too.

DH is one of those stereotypical tall skinny guys who eats everything in sight, but we can normally get away with 40$ a day or less for both of us.

 

[jgates]

In Epcot the S/S Chicken at the Chinese counter service was also VERY small. I do not recommend that one for either an adult or child - unless it has changed. Otherwise they have been enough to feed me.

I told the kids (at that time 24, 23 & 15) last time that each one had to pick a meal a day where they drank water if they wanted me to pay. (I won't give up coffee for breakfast so I have to have at least one paid beverage). We figure this saved a minimum of $10 a day.

I have a fairly sturdy cardboard box. I have put styro bowls & plastic spoons in it. We will be packing cereal (for DD's boyfriend) & will pick up milk at the food court. I also plan on tucking in at least 2 types of snack bars. If you need some small stury boxes, either get some rubbermaid type shoe boxes or check with your local bank or credit union. If they order from Quill for office supplies, they get their items shipped in a large variety of box sizes & we often get ones in a nice 10 x 12 x 3 inch size - very heavy duty & work well for protecting things in the suitcases.

 

[DawnM]

We take a backpack Igloo Cooler (sold only at Target) into the parks with us. It is large enough to hold snacks, drinks, and lunch for 5 for the day.

Honestly, we don't care for a lot of the food in the parks, so this allows us to have our own food with us.

We do eat some in the parks.....the kids want an ice cream at least once per visit, and we allow that. We also will eat one or two meals per week in the parks. It runs about $50 for the 5 of us min. at a counterservice place, so we don't do it daily. I have three BOYS and two of them can eat an adult sized meal!

Dawn

 

[beth5762]

Here's a couple of things we do to save money. There are 4 in our family.

1. For lunch at a CS restaurant when we want/need a soda fix: Order a large soda with no ice and ask for 4 cups with ice. They don't charge for the cups of ice and will give you smaller size cups. We just split the soda between the 4 individual cups. That way you can still have some soda, but not a lot and you're only paying for 1 soda instead of 4.

2. We drive down and I bring cereal, poptarts, etc. and eat breakfast in the room before we go to the park. We have learned that you can buy a half gallon of milk in the stores at the hotels. It's way cheaper than buying it at the food court. Sometimes you have to look for it. It's usually tucked away in the back of the store in a small cooler with individual bottles of soda. I go down and buy it at night and put it in our cooler or refrigerator in our room. The next morning the kids can eat breakfast and watch tv in the room while everyone is getting ready. It really saves a lot of time.

There's some great tips here...keep them coming!!

 

[englishteacha]

DH and I will often share a lunch if we're not overly hungry. We stay offsite and usually have a kitchen, so after a couple days of eating breakfast out, I just want my cereal and OJ!

If there are special snacks you don't usually buy at home, bringing them/getting them for your vacation snacks is a nice treat. We didn't usually have chips or soda very often when I was growing up, so having chips and a soda with a sandwich on vacation (packed from our resort) sure was a nice treat!