Possible to spend a Disney trip economically on food?

[michael85]

On our recent trip, I saw that we spent hundreds of dollars on food. Just two of us, but each breakfast/dinner was over 100 each time. Is it possible to spend less on a trip?

 

[Disneylover99]

On our recent trip, I saw that we spent hundreds of dollars on food. Just two of us, but each breakfast/dinner was over 100 each time. Is it possible to spend less on a trip?

Geez. What did you order for breakfast?

There are lots of ways to save money....share meals, order kids meals, drink water, choose counter service over table service meals, skip the buffets, bring on the go breakfast foods from home, etc...

 

[Amelia :)]

You can view most menus and prices online so if you're on a budget it's easy to look it up before hand and plan ahead.

 

[Klayfish]

If you have the ability (not sure where you stay, etc...) bring your own food in. For a trip that's over two weeks long, we'll spend roughly $500-$600 total to feed a family of 5. That's something like $6/person/day. I know most people won't go to the lengths we do, but bringing your own food in will cut your budget dramatically.

 

[LSUfan4444]

On our recent trip, I saw that we spent hundreds of dollars on food. Just two of us, but each breakfast/dinner was over 100 each time. Is it possible to spend less on a trip?

#1 - stop eating breakfasts on Disney property. Without question it is the most overpriced meal offered any time throughout the day and is the easiest to eat in your room or on the go without "missing anything".

Fly or drive with cereal and buy milk. Buy a loaf of bread from a nearby Speedway or DVC resort market and top with peanut butter. Fresh fruit, yogurt, etc.

When lunch or dinner hits and you want some AC or to get off your feet, then sit down and enjoy a table service meal if you've got the funds...if not, pick your counter service options by the menus that seem to offer the best values.

 

[mdelano4]

I guess the answer is it depends. It depends on what you want to eat and how much you are willing to give up. If you want to go, sit down and eat, you are pretty much stuck with paying a lot for meals (although like PP I can't see how two of you got to $100 for breakfast). DW and I have a tendency to split QS meals. Not really to save money, but sometimes we like to sample different things and sometimes it's just too much food for one (i.e. chicken/rib meal at Flame Tree).

There are several things to do to save money, like eat breakfast and/or lunch in your room, but if you are on vacation, do you really want to do that? I don't particularly like getting a late start or having to go back to the room just to eat. The one thing we do regularly is eat a late breakfast, then just an afternoon snack which holds us until dinner.

 

[BigredNole]

By all means can you spend less!!!! You just have to decide if it is worth it. If staying onsite, Uber to a grocery store to pick up items for the week. You can get breakfast items for the room or take to the QS place to toast. You can get cold cuts to make your own sandwiches. You can get your own snacks. You can go offsite to eat better for much less.

It all depends on what you are looking to do to save money. WDW operates as all other theme parks...captive audience. People stop caring about a $15-$20 lunch per person. They just spend it and don't care. Me on the other hand consider what I am getting for that much. We eat breakfast in the room from groceries. We either buy 1 QS meal and share it or go back to the resort room for lunch at the room. If we stay offsite, most places we stay have nice grills. Throw on some great cuts of beef and a family eats for 50% of the price of 1 Disney meal.

 

[Cinderella94]

It's 100% possible to spend less. You just have to decide what you want. Were those all character breakfasts? To be $100 or more for a party of 2, I'm guessing yes. You can easily not go to a character breakfast, but then you'll be giving up eating with the characters at that meal. Eating some breakfast bars or even just a quick service for breakfast/lunch will cut your total bill in half.

 

[brooke789]

Definitely doing breakfast on your own. DH and I prefer something like a Clif bar or Emeralds breakfast on the go pouches. The kids like Pop tarts or Belvita cookies.

You can also save a fortune not buying snacks. We prefer Clif bars trail mix/mixed nuts for ourselves. Kids like Cheese it's, apple sauce and muffins.

We carry a water bottle and just fill it up with the free iced water cups.

We typically only eat one meal with Disney per day. For one we just don't usually feel like eating a lot when we're so hot and just running. If we're back at our resort for lunch or dinner we'll make a sandwich oreven order pizza. We spend about $20 on two pizzas from Papa John's last trip and that made two meals for us!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

#1 - stop eating breakfasts on Disney property. Without question it is the most overpriced meal offered any time throughout the day and is the easiest to eat in your room or on the go without "missing anything".

Fly or drive with cereal and buy milk. Buy a loaf of bread from a nearby Speedway or DVC resort market and top with peanut butter. Fresh fruit, yogurt, etc.

When lunch or dinner hits and you want some AC or to get off your feet, then sit down and enjoy a table service meal if you've got the funds...if not, pick your counter service options by the menus that seem to offer the best values.

Though, the counter to #1 is if you want to do character meals, breakfast is the cheaper option - so Akershus, etc at breakfast and then queue CM service for lunch and dinner can be cheaper than doing Akershus for dinner

 

[CAS239]

We avoid eating within Disney due to how high they price their stuff.

Go and eat offsite. If you don't have your car you can always Uber. Tons of spots to eat at in the near area.

Or we go to target and get stuff there to eat in the hotel. If you have a microwave you can heat up food or you can buy lunch meat.

No way I'd pay $100 every time we ate. When the wife and I do happen to eat within the parks, we eat in Epcot at Via Napoli and split a pizza. Pay about $40 including drinks and have pizza left over

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Definitely bring snacks with you (granola bars, etc) - find that saves a lot of money vs buying snacks when you get hungry

But kids meals - portions are often plenty and come with sides (often in pre-packages so you can take for a snack later) and a drink

Get free water with meals

If you want a specific location likely lunch or breakfast can be cheaper than dinner

Share meals or just do appetizers

Just have a bit of pre-planning can help a lot

 

[johnsonet]

Yes, the food is exorbitantly expensive. We used to do a lot of character meals and dinners at signature restaurants but frankly got sick of it. Too much food, and too much time and money spent on dining. Now, I book maybe one character meal and a nice lunch per trip and bring some groceries for the room (cereal, cereal bars, fruit, coffee, water, milk)- and for the rest we eat quick service when we're hungry - rather than when we have an ADR Much more relaxing - and much less expensive.
Just my opinion-

 

[TheMaxRebo]

One last one - book the latest possible breakfast ADR at buffets that also do lunch and they will switch out to lunch while you are there so you can sort of do 2 meals in one (or at least one really big meal to save on food costs the rest of that day)

 

[AllieBoo]

We always pack a big bag with granola bars, cereal , crackers, etc We also bring peanut butter and lunch meat to make sandwiches. We will eat breakfast in the room before heading out for the day, and eat lunch in the room when we come back for our midday break, or take it into the parks with us and eat somewhere like Tom Sawyer's Island in MK. For dinner, we eat counter service at whatever park we are in. On our last trip, we did one BOG lunch, and a dinner at Sci Fi, so our food costs stayed pretty low. If you aren't driving, I would uber over to a grocery store (there is a Publix and a Target fairly close by) and get what you need. Disney food is way overpriced for what you get imho, so there is no way I would eat every meal in the parks.

 

[sharonabe]

On our recent trip, I saw that we spent hundreds of dollars on food. Just two of us, but each breakfast/dinner was over 100 each time. Is it possible to spend less on a trip?

Did you eat in the castle for every meal???

I'm sorry, but it sounds like you needed to do a little planning/research before you went. I can EASILY feed my family of four (including two teenage boys) for $100/day (not $100/meal), but that's because I've perused the menus and know what is available. I plan where we are going to eat.

Disclaimer for those who will wonder at my math: We don't do signatures and we prefer water to drink with our meals. But I can include some character and TS meals on that $100/day.

 

[rwdavis2]

We always buy breakfast food on the way to the resort from the airport. So it's always breakfast and coffee in the room.

 

[TwinkleKS]

It is totally possible to do it for a ton less as others have said. However, the post trip OMG how did we spend that on food is one of the big reasons why we normally just buy the dining plan. It doesn't necessarily "save" us money, but we know right then what we are spending so there is no surprise at the end.

 

[loves to dive]

As other's have mentioned it's entirely possible, we do it and don't eat a thing in our rooms or bring snacks from home (except for what we use as car food because we drive down). All our meals are eaten on property. My son (grown) is not a big breakfast fan so more often than not he will skip it but I have to eat at least 3 times a day. What we do: I normally get a kid's bounty platter or whatever the name of it is at the resort, it comes with a drink and for me that is normally a bottle of water. I drink coffee in my room since we stay in moderate or deluxe resorts. My son will sometimes get a breakfast sandwich and we have even been known to share one. Our favorite breakfast place is France in Epcot, even ole grumpy will eat there. If we are eating at QS, I normally get a kid's meal,has nothing to do with saving money, I just don't eat large meals and unless I'm having a refreshing adult beverage, only drink water with my meals, that's not to save money, I do it at home too. If we eat at a TS, which we usually do at least once a day, I tend to get two appetizers instead of an entre, something like a salad and crab cakes and we might share a dessert, depends on how full we get. Again, it's not to save money, I'm just not a big meal eater and neither of us are huge dessert eaters. We rarely snack in between meals but if we do it will be something like a pretzel that we share or some fruit that we share. I get cups of free water all day long while in the parks from the QS locations, that is just because I don't see any reason to pay for a bottle to have to drag around because it will take me all day to drink a bottle.

 

[Dean1953]

We are in the middle of a 6 week stay, offsite with car. It was myself, daughter and 9 ear old son for the first two weeks, now just myself and my som. We spend about $70 on groceries a week and plan on eating at one counter service restaurant for that week, preferably one that offers 20% discounts to AP holders. I've long since cancelled the few ADR's that we had, except for July 3 and 4th, at MK and Epcot respectively. I have an 8:50 reservation at Rose and Crown which might be useful for a good seat for the fireworks. Otherwise, I'd cancel those, too. What we save will allow us to come back December 20-January 4 for another trip.