I got excited when I saw your e-mail. I thought you had the answers to my questions. Hopefully someone will come along soon with answers for both of us.
Your trip sounds a little like ours. We are going to be in FLA for 8 nights. Then we are taking a 7-day
DCL cruise. The 8 land nights will be split up between two hotels. The first, Fairfield Inn at the Marriott Village will be free, thanks to giftcertificates from rewards programs. I have been doing them for the last two years and they helped with our trip in 2000 too. This time we will be getting more from them. Tiffany Town Car will be picking us up at the airport and we will be going to Publix. The Fairfield Inn has a mini-fridge and free cont. breakfast in the am. At the supermarket we are going to get poptarts, chips, potato sticks, boxes of cereal, juice boxes, Coka-Cola, gingerale, Sprite, water, wine and wine coolers, bagles, Miracle Whip, canned tuna, canned chicken, peanut butter, jelly, microwave popcorn and cookies, spray cheese, crackers and paper towels. If I bring a hot pot with me We'll get some canned soup or Chef Boyardee too. I'm going to bring paperware, plasticware and sugar from home along with quart and gallon size Ziplocks with the large zippers, a small can opener, (in our checked luggage), foil, and a couple of small Tupperware or Gladware containers.
As far as regular meals go. My goal is for us to have one large sit-down meal a day. I'll tell you what I've scheduled:
Day 1: Breakfast: Airport - Lunch Red Lobster (with GC's) - Dinner McDonalds at PL (with GC's)
Day 2: Breakfast: Free At Hotel - Lunch Crystal Palace - Dinner Packed From Room
Day 3: Breakfast: Free At Hotel - Lunch Hard Rock Cafe (with GC's) - Dinner At IOA (AAA Discount)
Day 4: Breakfast: RainForest Cafe (with GC's)- Lunch At AK (with Connections coupons) - Dinner Pizza Hut (with GC's)
Day 5: Breakfast: Chef Mickey's (with Connections coupons) - Lunch In Room at CSR - Dinner Hoop-Dee-Doo (full price
)
Day 6: Breakfast: Food Ct at CSR - Lunch Packed From Room - Dinner Fish & Chips at Epcot UK (with Connections coupons)
Day 7: Breakfast: In Room at CSR - Lunch Food Stand at MGM Studios - Dinner Hollywood & Vine (Fanstamic Dinner Package)
Day 8: Breakfast: In Room at CSR - Lunch In Epcot With Connections coupons - Dinner Pizza Hut (with GC's)
Day 9: Breakfast: Food Ct at CSR then onto the ship, where the food is pre-paid and we don'thave to carry it around with us!
The night we order Pizza Hut, I want to pack up some extras and use them for our packed meals with the potato sticks and the sodas we bring with us. We also will have a soft-sided cooler for our stay at CSR. We change the ice every morning and night. We keep DH's milk for cereal, a couple of sodas and juice boxes, the small jar of Miracle Whip, and anything that we have opened, like the canned meats. DH needs to have a snack two hours after breakfast, for health reasons. We bring Poptarts in the backpack he carries and he goes to a stand and gets some fresh milk. Sometimes he gets a fruit cup that we share. He eats the watermelon and grapes. I eat the honeydew and cantalope melon.
We will be bringing the sodas, water, wine and wine coolers on the ship with us. That way cuts down on shipboard costs. DH got some heavy plastic souviner bags at Epcot in 2000. We just put everything in there and carried it on board. The crew thought that we were big shoppers! LOL Little did the know. Buy the end of that 3-day cruise the waiters knew not to asked if we wanted drinks because we had our own. LOL
I have to use a
scooter in the parks. On land I bought a souviner cup, and carried sodas into the park, in the basket, along with a few small snacks. When we got thirsty I just went to a counter stand and asked for a cup of ice, split the ice between the two cups and we both got a drink. We saved the souviner cup, plastic souviner bags and the drink strings that you wear from the last trip. They will be packed again for this trip. We also have Britta water bottles that we didn't use last time. I'm still going to bring one of them, just in case, Along with Kool-Aid and Crystal Light mixes, to go with the water we get.
Like I said. The trip is highly budgeted. I'm doing the same thing with shipboard expenses too. Choosing spa treatments and excursions now, so we will know how much they will cost and deciding what types of souviners we will buy for ourselves and family so there won't be any tempations to overspend.
Wow, this is a lot. Sorry it is so long. Maybe it will give others some ideas.
Daisimae