More For The Money

[wimom02]

My son and I ate for $20 day or less on a trip to Disneyland a couple of years ago. My husband was staying at the Disneyland Hotel for a convention, and we tagged along for a budget 5 night stay. I brought quite a bit from home and did not have a car. We never left Disney property. I did not know that we had a fridge in the room until we got there. We had instant oatmeal and Mickey Mouse juice pouches for breakfast, tuna lunch-to-go kits + pringles+apple sauce or PP&J for lunches and Pasta Anytimes for a couple of dinners. I bought milk from the resort store. We had our own little snacks in our fannie bags. I brought Disney fruit snacks, M+M's, pretzels, etc ready in snack bags. I looked for items on sale and coupons while shopping for a few weeks prior to the trip. My son noticed the price of a single Disney Juice pouch in the resort store was $1.75, and we bought our whole box for $1.50. We had a blast!!! We did eat at one Character meal at Goofy's Kitchen (with my husband's meal being covered by work). My husband was wined and dined at the convention, and we played in the parks and pool

We have gone to WDW with much bigger budgets and spent more on food. You can have fun and enjoy your trip while on a tight food budget. Just plan ahead and enjoy what you do have - a week of fun!

 

[MrsPete]

Sure, you CAN eat for $20 per day. But you'll have to bring groceries for the room and plan your other meals very carefully. Here are my best tips:

1. Drink lots of water, which is free. Sodas will eat up your budget quicker than anything else, and they provide no nutritional value. Water is also much healthier. Any counter service place will give you a free cup of ice water (even if you're not buying a meal).
2. Do not be tempted to buy the overpriced resort soda mug. Instead bring your own canned sodas. Look at it this way: One mug will cost you about $10. For that same $10 you can get four 12-packs of soda on sale at Eckerds. Can you drink 48 sodas in a week? I can't.
3. Carry your own snacks at all times. A few of the Lunchables aren't bad -- nachos, for example -- and they're easy to tote in a fanny pack. A budget of $20 will not cover Mickey ice cream bars.
4. One buffet per day is probably a good idea. You need one "good meal" each day, and a buffet will fill you up so that you can "skimp" on meals throughout the rest of the day. You can also predict the exact price of a buffet meal.
5. Kids meals are the best value, and there's plenty of food for me there. Be forewarned though: they'll be repetative and they won't give you any vegetables. Some of the Epcot kids' meals offer a bit more than the standard chicken nugget meal.
6. Consider ordering an appetizer for a meal.
7. Split a double burger for two people. Pecos Bill's, Cosmic Ray's, and Beaches & Cream are good bets.
8. You can get free meal vouchers by listening to the speel about buying into DVC.
9. A well-planned meal voucher can easily feed two people (or it can be a total waste of money if it's not planned).
10. You can order pizza to your room. That's the cheapest possible meal on Disney property.

That's all that comes to mind right away. Could I feed two people for $20 per day at Disney? Sure I could. I wouldn't like it, but I could do it.