Your Favorite Disney Value Dining

[shendley]

I'm sending my daughter and a couple of her friends to Disney World this June for their high school graduation/senior trip and, since I love planning Disney World vacations almost as much as going on them, I'm planning her trip for her (and yes, she's okay with this - she knows how much fun we have down there when we follow my plans).

But she's going to be on a pretty tight budget down there. I'm paying for the room and her park tickets, but she's going to handle most of the rest of it. So I thought I'd try to make a list of really good, but affordable places to eat dinner (she's thinking right now of eating breakfast in the room and carrying a sandwich or something like that for lunch) so she could eat well, but not bust whatever budget she has. For instance, the last time my family was there (last July) we discovered this little counter service restaurant in Epcot WS, Morrocco - I forget what it's called - that had a great falafel plate and a really nice vegetarian plate (hummus, taboule, olives, something else), both for something under $10. We took our food out from there one evening and had dinner in the little area behind the UK shop and caught a set of the British Invasion. It was great!

So, I'm looking for any suggestions others might have for really good, affordable food that my daughter and her friends might be able to make dinners out of at the World. Your help is appreciated!

 

[PictureJumpr]

If they are willing to share, things like the half-chicken plate at Sunshine Seasons or the half-chicken/ribs plate at Cosmic Ray's can easily feed two for about $15. They're served with mashed potatoes and vegetables, etc.

Also, if they are paying cash for everything, they can order kids meals at CS restaurants, which are typically less than $5, as long as they are not averse to eating chicken nuggets or pb&js sometimes. I eat kids meals myself sometimes.

If they want to hit a character buffet, suggest that they try breakfast or lunch, since they are typically $5-10 less than the dinner ones. When we're paying cash/on a budget for a trip we book late lunches at character buffets, and it is our 'main meal' of the day with sandwiches or cereal in the hotel room as dinner.

We also carry resort mugs (could use any water bottle or whatever from home) into the parks and fill them with fountain water. Since Orlando water can be kinda funky, we carry those little packs of koolaid/crystal light mix and turn it into lemonade or whatever. Then the $3 each time that we save on sodas can be put to use on other things.

 

[alldiz]

I agree with the Chicken n ribs to split...it's really good and there is a ton there. You could kind of make yourself..ahem....a nice "salad" at the fixins bar

You can easily share a double burger....just share the bun...and make your self a burger salad with the fixins

I believe in some CS they have peanut butter and jelly by the condiments. buy some bread...and you have some PB&J's.

I also think they should bring some snacks down....send a box to there room. With some snacks, cereal,some water.etc.....it will cost you not a lot. about 20 and it will save you a lot more.
Happy planning
kerri

 

[Hootch]

pizzas are also quite large. I think my wife, two kids and I had pizza one night last trip and there was still some left over.

If they're driving have them take water. I think we took 36 bottles last trip and went through them all before the week was done. At Costco they were $0.15 - $0.18/bottle versus what Disney charges.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Another vote for the chicken and ribs at Cosmic Rays. This was my husband's favourite counter service meal of the whole trip just because the portions were so HUGE and the quality of the food that good. Two regular sized eaters could definitely share this meal.

My hubby, however, was happy to clean his plate on his own!

 

[Tricia1972]

The Plaza and Beaches and Cream are both good value sit downs in/near the parks. They will get the experience of sitting down and enjoy being served for about the same cost of a combo platter from a CS restaurant. Also, how much fun would splitting a Kitchen Sink be for a group of high school seniors! If you take the cost of the kitchen sink $22/6 - it's not that expensive per person, and is a great memory.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I agree Beaches and Cream and the Plaza are great, reasonable ts meals. Even Sci-Fi (if you stick to burgers) and 50's PTC (you could easily split a fried chicken platter among two) are relatively inexpensive. We found Cosmic Ray's chicken platters easily able to split.

 

[shendley]

Thanks for the suggestions! My daughter's mentioned to me that she wants to take breakfasts and lunch sandwiches, but I hadn't thought about taking snacks as well. Given the cost of most Disney snacks, that could definitely save a few bucks. I'm curious, though, about the perception of Orlando water. We've always just filled up water bottles in the room and chilled them in the fridge (they'll have a small, electric 'travel' fridge in the room) the night before hitting a park and thought the water was decent. Though sometimes in the summer it's really hard to resist the really cold bottles they're selling in the park.

One question, though: I'm not sure what's up with splitting a kitchen sink? Is this an option you can pay extra for at the hotel, having a sink/kitchenette area? I thought they were reserved for Studios and Suites.

 

[Tricia1972]

The kitchen sink is a massive ice cream sundae at Beaches and Cream. It's $22 and perfect for splitting. I was suggesting after their meal there (they wouldn't all need entrees if they were getting the kitchen sink for dessert) that they get that for dessert as a fun ending to their meal.

 

[encinc]

I like Earl of Sandwich for an inexpensive meal if she's going to be in Downtown Disney for an evening.

 

[shendley]

Thanks for the clarification. Man, was I really off on this one!

The kitchen sink is a massive ice cream sundae at Beaches and Cream. It's $22 and perfect for splitting. I was suggesting after their meal there (they wouldn't all need entrees if they were getting the kitchen sink for dessert) that they get that for dessert as a fun ending to their meal.

 

[LovinPooh]

How about Pecos Bill?

 

[fmed845]

Try the double burgers in the parks and request a second bun for around 90 cents. share the fries and split the burgers and take them to the fixin's bar.

ESPN Club and share one of the sandwich platters. pretty reasonable.

Earl of Sandwich in downtown Disney. good sandwiches $5.75 and I think they take AAA cards.

 

[buckirj1]

A one-time dinner buffet splurge at Ft. Wilderness might be nice, if it doesn't break their budget. It's very nice of you to help out; I hope your DD has a great time!

 

[lbdpw1285]

go for whatever your tastes prefer, but one we use, and can be used anywhere, dont bring lunch, bring a snack to eat for dinner.
buy/split breakfast or lunch. much less expensive than dinner to start with.
go from there.

 

[buckirj1]

Oh, and I meant to add that Disney tap water has never bothered me, so I never bother with bottled water. I usually buy a resort mug and take it with me to the parks (a gizmo that hooks onto my belt loop) and fill up from the water fountains. Most places are good about giving out cups of ice, too. Everybody's tastes are different, though.

 

[Hootch]

are presented as combos. These don't have to be combos. Sides and drinks can be eliminated and the cost lowered.

 

[ciera321]

At Downtown Disney our favorite place is Wolfgang Puck Express. They have great pizzas that are VERY shareable and everything else is generous and delicious, too.

 

[SunnieRN]

We only ate counter service on our first wdw trip as it was VERY spur of the moment. After about a day and 1/2 we realized we needed to split meals and then if we happend to still be hungry order more food. (we were throwing too much away at first).
Our favorites:
Cosmic Rays rib and chicken platter. It's huge and both of us couldn't even finish it.
Animal Kingdom Pizzafari, three of us split a pizza an order of breadsticks and ended up getting a second order of breadsticks, since my 3 yr old grandson LOVED the pizza and ate 1/2 of it!
Earl of Sandwhich: Any sandwhich is cheap and large! If they bring snacks along they could probably split one!
Goofys candy kitchen: Not really a meal, but for under $4 you can get a HUGE rice krispy mickey dipped in chocolate and covered with a multitude of candies to choose from. If it were me at that age it would definately been a good meal. Now I worked on it for a few days and had about all of it left for my daughter to eat. lol
Artists Pallette at Saratoga Springs: Huge and very yummy flatbreads! I couldn't even eat 1/2 of one! The sandwhiches are great also!
Schoolbread: Makes a great breakfast if you eat 1/2 of one of those!
Columbia Harbour House: We split a chicken/fish basket, wanted more, so we got a kids serving size of chicken and that seemed like a better buy!
Sunshine seasons: We got a chicken combo meal that was very large, but if I go back here I will probably get a childs meal as it came with a chicken leg.

Congratulations to your daughter and her friends! Where are they staying? On the food porn thread they showed pictures of some of the meals at the food courts at the value resorts and some of them look huge! Easily splittable!