Save money on food

[pershing]

I laughingly admire the ground beef people! Those taco kits are only like two bucks! So they had dinner for less than $10. Face it the beer is optional.

There have been some years where we didn't have a pot to you know what in, But we always wanted to go to Walt Disney World.

So those years yeah bring food in. Very little bought.

Other years, we would save for a dining plan to add.

If it's the difference between going to Walt Disney World are not going to Walt Disney World then somethings got to give. Do you know, the month before you leave for vacation that refrigerator breaks down the car breaks down the washing machine stops washing… Etc. are you going to cancel your vacation because of it? Or are you going to make it work.

We usually have some kind of Disney cruise at the end of our Walt Disney World vacations. During the tough years I would say we're scrimping in the parks and then you can feast on the ship.

We've also done the breakfast in your room, just snacks in the park, and then a big meal in your room or at an all-you-can-eat offsite buffet for dinner .

 

[MrsPete]

Good question. We all have to spend on food, and what one person considers excessive, another thinks of as a good idea. My thoughts:

- I would never bother to haul a meal to the park -- not in a cooler, not in a locker, no way. It's work to pack it up, and I don't enjoy sitting on a bench in the middle of the parks eating a sandwich; it's just not satisfying, and I'm not carrying anything bigger than a small cross-body purse -- nothing to cut down on mobility.

- We have typically stayed on site, so we have flexibility to go back to the room mid-day. I have no problem with making sandwiches in our own space and eating a meal in the room. My girls used to like those Uncrustable sandwiches, which I wouldn't buy on a regular basis (because they're outrageously expensive), but I did buy them for vacations. Going back to the room mid-day also allows us to rest and get out of the sun a while in our own space.

- I do often pack pre-packaged snacks -- granola bars, peanuts, whatever -- in my purse; however -- again -- I'm not carrying anything that won't fit in a small cross-body purse.

- I do not carry drinks. They are heavy, and who enjoys a warm drink? The counter service restaurants and kiosks will give you (FREE) ice water, even without a purchase. It takes only minutes to ask for a cup of ice water, and it's more refreshing than a warm bottle.

- We don't tend to eat three full meals at Disney. We typically eat a big breakfast (sometimes in the room, sometimes "out"), then we snack during the day, and we eat dinner a little late. We tend to go in June, so the heat has to do with this. We don't eat this way to save money; it's just what's comfortable for us.

- My kids are grown, but when they were smaller (and when our budget was smaller), I always checked the menus ahead of time to be sure the prices were reasonable -- and I tried to find options that were unique to Disney yet still moderate in price. When we did splurge, I wanted to be sure it was something memorable: like a character meal, for example. Something we cannot do at home.

- We have no problem splitting plates. For example, we'll order a double or triple burger, and my husband and I'll split it ... few adults need lots of carbs anyway. My girls and I frequently order an appetizer as our meal (a quesadilla or wings make a fine meal). We would not, however, cheat and split a buffet.

 

[Colleen27]

Other than my filter bottle for water because I'm picky about the taste of water and sometimes a bag of jerky or a couple breakfast bars to appease DD9 when she wants a snack and we don't want to take time out to stop, we don't pack anything into the parks. I scrimp and save at home in order to splurge on vacation, not the other way around. At Disney, we like the DxDDP for the all-inclusive feel and that's so much food that there's really no point to bringing anything of our own.

The only trips where I really pack a lot of food is if we're camping, in which case cooking over the fire is part of the fun, or if we're road tripping and I want to avoid the time-suck and expense of fast food stops for every meal. Otherwise my vacation philosophy is that I cook every night at home, so eating out in fun, unusual, or just plain good restaurants is part of the travel experience.

 

[BLAZEY]

We bring our own water Brita water bottles and get water from counter service. We bring cereal , muffins and pop tarts (vacation treat) for breakfast in the room, buy milk at the gift shop. Pack granola bars as snack in the Backpack. We share meals as Disney portion are huge compared to what we are used to and it it usually too hot to eat a full meal. 2 meals for 3 people. I also save up airmiles and other points for Starbucks cards. Treats and drinks for free!

 

[Klayfish]

- I would never bother to haul a meal to the park -- not in a cooler, not in a locker, no way. It's work to pack it up, and I don't enjoy sitting on a bench in the middle of the parks eating a sandwich; it's just not satisfying, and I'm not carrying anything bigger than a small cross-body purse -- nothing to cut down on mobility.

- I do not carry drinks. They are heavy, and who enjoys a warm drink? The counter service restaurants and kiosks will give you (FREE) ice water, even without a purchase. It takes only minutes to ask for a cup of ice water, and it's more refreshing than a warm bottle.

We don't sit on a bench somewhere when we eat, we sit in the QS places. We wouldn't want to sit on a bench either. It's extremely rare that the QS places are all packed to capacity where we're taking a table that someone else who bought food would need...and on those rare times there are so many empty outdoor and shaded full tables that it's not a problem.

I agree with you on the ice water thing. We used to carry our own water (well, transport it in the stroller to be precise), but we stopped doing that a while ago. If we're eating lunch in the parks, we just use QS for ice water. It's awesome.

 

[tzolkin]

We do this for a lot of reasons. One is nutrition. DW and I couldn't and wouldn't eat WDW food all day, every day. We'd get sick. Second is money. I didn't keep all the receipts, but for our recent 17 day long trip, our food bill was right around $700-$750, including the treats we bought. That's to feed our entire family of 5. I hear of people spending $75/person/day...which for us would be $375 per day. For a 17 day trip, that would be $6375 just for food. Even if you spend "just" $50/person/day that's $4250 for food. I can't even fathom spending that, no way, no how. Each to their own and I don't have anything against anyone who does it, but no way would we do it.

We are similar. DH gets sick every single time we go to Disney from the food. He refers to it as "the Disney (poops)." He has the same issues whenever we visit his family because they just don't eat the same way we do. The food may taste good, but it's just not what he's used to eating.

We also have always gone for a minimum of 10 days (usually two weeks). We like to indulge in some of the junk foods since it's vacation (ex. We have a tradition of sharing some corn dog nuggets at Casey's every trip), but there's no way we could do that for all the meals for two weeks without being miserable.

There are plenty of healthy options in Disney. I also have never spent an entire week there. I would be bored out of my mind. There are a lot of great options in the general Disney area where you can eat.

I think people have different criteria for "healthy". Most people will automatically respond with "salad" as the healthy option, but sometimes they actually have more calories than a fast-food meal. And, some people are sensitive to the pre-washed lettuce and get sick. Some people avoid salt or any types of oils or have some other restrictions.

I'm not that strict so I'm fine with the healthy-ish options, but I can't really think of anything at Disney that would fit the type of diet Klayfish is talking about.

Bored spending a week at Disney? Seems impossible

I'm also one of those who can only eat so much QS. After a couple of days of it I just don't enjoy it enough to justify the price/nutrition costs. I'm a fairly light eater who doesn't do burgers/pizza/nuggets and I definitely don't need a hot meal on a 95 degree day. I do consume what I imagine to be a higher than average number of adult beverages.

This is why we can never do the dining plan. (We went once during free dining because we took my parents and they were very insistent on it. Huge waste for my family. Especially the character buffets.). We like to do more snacking (especially when it's hot), so even if we were to purchase all our food in the parks, we don't eat a full meal in one sitting. We will get multiple items and share them throughout the day. (So looking forward to F&W this fall!)

We never brought full meals to the parks, but we would always bring lots of snacks when our kids were younger. (Mostly vegetables, fruit, and nuts) We would eat breakfast in the room. We would also have extra snacks in the room that we didn't carry into the parks (like cheese and some drinks) so we would eat more snacks when we took an afternoon break and in the evening when we returned from the parks.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Wow- that's way more than I would do!

We bring our own water bottles and get cups at QS to refill them. We bring granola bars and trail mix to keep us from snacking just because we're between meals rather than because we really want to enjoy a special snack. Other than that, we eat in the parks. I enjoy Disney food (especially TS, but I have some QS faves as well), and it's a lot of the reason I look forward to our trips. The last thing I want to do is be smelling my favorite treats wafting from a food stand only to turn around and pull out my granola bar or applesauce pouch instead!

That being said, food's where a lot of my budget goes at Disney. I don't buy (a lot) of souvenirs and I don't spend a lot elsewhere in the parks right now since we don't have kids yet (like on BBB or something like that). In a few years, that might change, and if I didn't really care about the food but was, like, an avid pin collector for example, I could see myself skimping on meals to be able to buy more pins. I guess to each his own, but I personally feel like packing my own taco kit and trying to squeeze beer past security would be further than I'd go.

 

[aprilchem]

We always stay offsite when we visit Disney, and we are also pretty light eaters. Usually we'll eat breakfast in the parks and not eat a full meal again until we leave the parks in the evening, when I'll either cook dinner or we'll have dinner offsite. Sometimes we'll have a light snack (maybe share an ice cream between the 5 of us) in the middle of the day.

The few times we have eaten in the parks, we usually get 1 adult meal and 1 kids meal and split it between the 5 of us (DH and I, and our 3 kids, who were 8, 7, and 5 the last time we came). We find the portions to be huge, so that's plenty to feed all of us.

The one thing I will buy at Disney is drinks. We carry in some bottled water, but I cannot stand the taste of the water in Florida so no free cups of water for us. We will buy non-water drinks in the park if we run out.