Possible to spend a Disney trip economically on food?

[MeghanEmily]

I agree with everything that's already been posted: eat breakfast in the room (we did cereal, oatmeal, clif bars, etc.), order bottled water from Amazon (we do this every trip) or just keep refilling your bottle (we use britta bottles to get rid of the Florida swamp water taste) with free cups of water from QS restaurants, pack lunches (we did PB sandwiches, packed snacks, fruit, granola bars, etc.), and eat more QS than TS. Cut character meals, but if you specifically want to do them then do them for breakfast. TS meals are usually cheaper for breakfast and sometimes lunch than for dinner. Split meals with large portions, like the chicken/rib meal at Flame Tree, the chicken and fish or land and sea at Columbia Harbour House, or split a pizza, etc. (We split QS meals but would sometimes add an extra side, like an extra order of fries.) Buy kid's meals instead of adult ones. Often they're enough to tide you over. The one thing that I didn't see mentioned on here at a glance was that at QS places you don't have to order the whole meal with sides. If all you want is the chicken strips without the fries or a drink or anything, ask to just order the entree and typically they can do that and it will be cheaper.

Of course this is if your priority is the budget, and not keeping the same experience. On our last "budget" trip, we did most of these things and occasionally ate QS and had two TS ADRs, and it felt really balanced and not like we missed out. And for our honeymoon where we're splurging we're planning to eat quite a lot of TS meals.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

The easiest best budget helper is, as almost everyone has noted, eating breakfast in your room. It is a money saver and, most importantly to me, a time saver. Much easier and soooo much faster to have a stash of heat-n-eat or just eat breakfasts in the fridge to eat while you're getting dressed than to get dressed, schlep down to the QS, order, wait, sit down, eat, police one's table, schlep back to the room (for whatever was forgotten and to deposit mugs) then head out. And you're spending about 80% LESS per person per breakfast for the time saved and the frustrations reduced.

We used to get the mugs, but it got stale and schelpping down to the lobby for drinks gets really really old really really fast. It costs very little to get a couple of twelve packs and voila! Drinks at any hour with no extra walking.

We like to eat two to three TS meals in the parks, but one of those is always Sci-Fi, which isn't expensive. Sure the food's not amazing, but seriously. You're at Disney. Foodie adventures are a whole different vacation. I can get meals similar to the best Disney has to offer for half the Disney price elsewhere. You're paying for the experience, not the food.

We love to go to the various Disney bars and have a small plate and a specialty drink for dinner. The small plates are usually just enough food when coupled with all the calories in those drinks. It's great fun (at least for grown ups) and cheaper than most of the TS.

We have always had a car as well. (We're contemplating not having a car on our next trip and just using Lyft and Uber. If we do, I'll let everyone know how the week went.) We don't eat expensively, we just have a good time. There's Chuy's, Cafe Tu Tu Tango, Brasileirissimo Express, Bahama Breeze, Padrino's etc. Basically, if you want really good food, it pays to go off property AND it is cheaper.

 

[kymom99]

One trip we went to ohana for dinner. We usually just eat about 2 TS per trip. We had to wait for a table so my son was looking at the drink menu. They had this big apple flavored non alchoholiv frozen drink. He rarely asks for anything so I got him one. It was all he talked about! So the dinner wasn't a big deal though it cost over $100 for 3 of us. We could have gotten an app and drinks and he would have thought it was the coolest thing ever

 

[crisi]

Some brands now are packed in plastic. I'd still triple bag it anyway.

But you sound like us. We don't bring food into the park, but tend to do the park, rest, park, so perhaps lunch at the room. A few table, a handful of CS.

I'd be tempted to pack a can of sauce if I were going to do it - and a zip lock back to doctor it. Hunt's cans of spaghetti sauce are ok - and there is much much less chance that the baggage gorillas will break a can.

 

[jaminmd]

I'd be tempted to pack a can of sauce if I were going to do it - and a zip lock back to doctor it. Hunt's cans of spaghetti sauce are ok - and there is much much less chance that the baggage gorillas will break a can.

Baggage gorillas - LOL! Never heard that term before and it gave me a chuckle.

 

[MEM]

Some brands now are packed in plastic. I'd still triple bag it anyway.

But you sound like us. We don't bring food into the park, but tend to do the park, rest, park, so perhaps lunch at the room. A few table, a handful of CS.

DH is a retired manufacturing engineer and he is excellent at packing anything for travel, long-distances especially. Yes, we double-bag things and cushion them well but we don't care for the sauces and jams that come in plastic.

 

[crisi]

Baggage gorillas - LOL! Never heard that term before and it gave me a chuckle.

I may be old....

 

[fairy8i8]

At $100/meal, you should do the Disney Deluxe Dining Plan! 3 meals at full service restaurants with appetizer, entree, non alcoholic drink, and dessert and 2 snacks each for about the same price. Look at where you spent the money. Did you spend a lot on alcohol? Are you a big tipper? There is more to this story.

Disney dining plans are not considered good deals on property, so if you are spending more than their dining plans, then there is something going on. You can get 2 counter service meals with non alcoholic drinks and 2 snacks for $48.19 per day per person. That would cut your spending in half! Regular Dining gives you a counter service meal and drink, sit down full service meal with entree, dessert, and non alcoholic drink, and 2 snacks for $69.35 each. Tips would be extra, probably about $16, assuming your bill would have been $80 for the 2 of you at a full service dinner. Maybe we will be generous and say you spend $20 on tips (tax included in dining plan). That's still less.

My conclusion: You are either eating at signature restaurants. If so, there are plenty of good non signature ones. Or you are buying expensive alcohol or a lot of it. Can't help you there. Maybe keep the good stuff in your room instead of buying it by the glass around the World? I don't drink, so don't have great suggestions for savings here.

Just saw the Biergarten and Akershus. Character meals and all you care to eat will be costly as well. The regular dining plan might be a good bet for you. It will fill you up, and the non alcoholic drink is included, so could take the place of a drink, but you could still buy one glass of something you like.

If you live close to a Krogers based chain, or a Giant or Giant Eagle, then you could buy Disney Gift Cards and get fuelperks, which could save you as much as 14% or more if you get some of their deals. My Giant Eagle had a sale on gift cards where they gave a $10 coupon towards groceries for every $50 in gift cards. I bought Gift Cards for our meals that way and saved 20%. You could use that savings towards any meals and drinks on property.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I don't like to pack food while on vacation. Cooking, cleaning and packing are what I do on a regular basis at home. I really hate packing lunches now!

I'm not a big sugary breakfast person but while on vacation sometimes we will just pick up a pastry or muffin. But I can't do that everyday. I start to feel like crap.

I like real eggs in the morning and saw that garden grocer sells hard boiled eggs. I've thought about ordering/bringing the stuff to make overnight oats and doing those at night and having a decent breakfast in the morning. I've also thought about bringing my ninja and ordering stuff to make smoothies.

For eating out.....you need to stay away from buffets and AYCE places. We paid OOP for our family of 4 last trip and we did Beaches and Cream, Via Napoli, Kona, etc. All of those places were under $100 a meal (or just around $100) for our family of 4. You can definitely make it work.

 

[crisi]

I'm not a big sugary breakfast person but while on vacation sometimes we will just pick up a pastry or muffin. But I can't do that everyday. I start to feel like crap.

There are non sugary breakfast options that are things you can have in your room - precooked bacon, smoked salmon, premade hardboiled eggs, fruit, oatmeal, avocado toast, cheese, overnight oats - you may need to stretch your idea of breakfast and do a little redefining (toast may have to be wasa bread or something) in order to do it in a room without any kitchen, but there are options other than sugary cereal and pop tarts.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

There are non sugary breakfast options that are things you can have in your room - precooked bacon, smoked salmon, premade hardboiled eggs, fruit, oatmeal, avocado toast, cheese, overnight oats - you may need to stretch your idea of breakfast and do a little redefining (toast may have to be wasa bread or something) in order to do it in a room without any kitchen, but there are options other than sugary cereal and pop tarts.

Yup. That's why I mentioned the hard boiled eggs, overnight oats and a smoothie.

I love the avocado toast idea!!!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Yup. That's why I mentioned the hard boiled eggs, overnight oats and a smoothie.

I love the avocado toast idea!!!

Be careful with that avocado toast. It might mean the difference between owning a house and being a renter forever, especially if you are a millennial like me.

 

[twoolle]

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!

Great idea on the Papa Johns delivery!

 

[scrapquitler]

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?

It's absolutely possible. My family of three (me, DH and DS14) spend an average of $150-$160 a day while we are on our trips, and that includes food, drinks (both alcoholic and non alcoholic), snacks and souvenirs. I bring some snacks with us, which we mostly eat for breakfast and in the room. We use the refillable resort mugs when we are at the resort. In the parks we mostly drink cups of water from quick serve locations, and we usually only eat 1-2 table service meals during the week, the rest of the time we eat quick serve. I eat a lot of kids meals because they are usually plenty for me. DS splits between kids meals and adult ones, depending on how hungry he is and what he is in the mood for. And sometimes two of us will split one QS meal and get an extra side along with it. We do eat a lot of snacks (sometimes instead of a meal!) and we like to have a wide variety of snacks, so we will usually share the snacks. We might eat a pretzel and share it, then share a mickey bar a couple hours later, etc.