I have a ds4 and dd 22 months. We are leaving on Wed for a four night trip. Any tips on how to save on food with little ones? I am packing snacks and breakfast stuff for in the room? I was thinking I could have the kids share adult meals with us or maybe just get one kids meal at CS. WWYD?
I would definately have them share with each other or off your plate. You really do get lots of food in the meals. Even my dd19 shares food with me. You can also get a kids meal and an extra side (like yogurt, grapes, etc- my dd2 loves yogurt and eats it everyday- she at lots on our last trip). I would also say taking your own snacks or prepackaged things (like granola bars, fruit cups, etc) can add to a meal they share.
I usually "under order" knowing that you can always get something else if someone is still hungry. A couple tips. You can get carrots/grapes etc instead of the fries and vise versa. Most of the menus at the quick serve places show the entire meals, you can almost always purcase single items or leave off the fries - just ask. I usually order 2 meals for the three of us with an extra drink and and extra sandwich or burger. I get a different side with each of the meals and we always have enough fries/ carrot sitcks/ fruit etc for all three of us.
Another tip is that the apples, grapes, carrots aand cookies that you can use as sides for most kids meals come in single serve packages--so if the kids are not hungry enough to eat everything you can easily carry them along later for snacks. I used to grab one of each package off of the tray and out it away before the tray made it to teh table (and kids). Then I would split a package of each item among the plates. They could snack on the second packages later on in line. When mine were very small we would get two kids meals (saving half the side dishes for later as above) with milk or chocolate milk and one adult meal. DH is a big eater but still cannot finish all of one of the big meals. We'd share half and half and he would eat what the kids did not want of theirs. I second kids' meal was not a whole lot more than just a milk and I like them to get taht calcium and stay hydrated. As the PP stated, if it turned out they (or we) were still hungry afterwards it was easy enough to get a snack a bit later or just order another meal then.
Make sure you look at the menus before you go to disney! We go just about every year and I still look at the menus because they are always changing. My dd15 and Ds13 have been know to eat off the kids menu and be plenty as well as myself! Sometimes we share an adult meal. We alays save the fruit ot carrots, etc. that come with kids meal for snack later. We do this and always have food left over. I also have a dd2 who shares too. The only things that is hard to shard is the peanut butter sandwiches they are the uncrustables and there is never enough to share. So look at the menus ahead of time see what there is to eat that way you kinda know where and what tou will want to eat before you grt there it will also save time on deciding where to eat. Pick a few restaurants at each park so when the time comes you will most likely be near one of your choices and know what to get. This also helps so you don't repeat eat as I call it, sometimes you can be stuck eating hambugers and pizza over and over just because you to the first place you see to eat because your hungry. We have never spent more than $70-$80 a day when we go on food a day. With the exception of one nice seat down dinner. Some of the same foods are offered at the counter service that are offered at sit down but are more expensive!
