Affordable Dining at Disney?

[Miako]

I'm planning our first trip to Disney World on a somewhat tight budget. We will be staying off site and therefore not eligible for the DPs Can anyone tell me if there are any places to eat within the parks that aren't that expensive? I appreciate any help in advance!

[bbangel]

If you go to allears.net you can find the menus for the different restaurants. What I found was that many of the items had very large portions so we did a lot of sharing. So sharing the chicken and rib meal at Cosmic Rays was enough for 3 people and made the cost more reasonable.

Other budget tips are to use the water fountains (or the counter service outlets) to refill your water bottles instead of buying a new bottle each time. Bring snacks and or breakfast in the room food with you to really help stretch your budget.

[Miako]

Thank you! Going thru the menus will be extremely helpful.

[SunshineGirl]

I don't know how many hours you plan on being in the park a day, but we tend to try to eat on really big meal in the park and then one meal in the room and one snack. That saves a lot of money compared to eating 2-3 meals a day in the park.

Going through the menus in advance is HUGE! You would be surprised where some of the better deals are. Plus, just planning in advance which restaurants you will eat at can help cut down on headaches later.

[m 'n c]

I totally agree about sharing because a burger there is pretty huge. Also, when I stayed off site my family and I brought some things from home like PB and Jelly and made sandwiches and brought granola bars so it was a pretty good lunch - not too heavy and easy to make in the morning and carry around with you.

[mmm611]

You can go to any of the counter service restaurants that have a soda dispenser and get a cup of free ice tap water.

[fourfoxesinpa]

And I carry the individual powder to make lemonade or iced tea, and dump them into the free water. At $2 a drink, that can really add up over a week.

If you're interested in eating at any of the resorts, I hear there is a take-out meal deal at the Fort Wilderness Campground where you get 10 pieces of fried chicken, two sides, for $19.99. Apparently, it's the same food they serve at the Hoop De Doo Revue and is supposedly very tasty. Hard to feed four people in the World for less than $20.


We always carry snacks in with us - it really helps to save.

And welcome to the forums - you've found a great place to save/make some money for Disney!

[SunshineGirl]

Huge fan of the lemonade packets!! They are always stuffed in my purses and backpacks. They save money and calories both. I hate drinking pop in the parks because then I have to pee all of the time. But I also don't like water with meals (weird). So those packets solve lots of problems for me.

Saving up for Disney Gift Cards also helps considerably with the food budget.

[askomsky]

We stayed off site last Nov (07) and I did check allears for deals. There are 5 of us so the free happy meal coupons from Mcd's helped a lot. chick fil a was on the way home also.

What I did was stop at the grocery store and spent about $100 on groceries. I bought 2 cases of water, a big box of uncrustables, breakfast foods and some more snacks. (I packed some in our suitcases to take with us)
In the morning (other then Chef Mickey for breakfast) everyone would eat at home, we loaded the backpacks with water (we all drink a ton of water) and I threw some uncrustables in the backpack with a bunch of snacks. The younger two were fine with the pb&j my older one, DH and myself made by with snacks and big pretzels from the snack stands. When we were in DHS we did eat a counter service meal. In epcot we tasted some desserts in France etc. we started early bc my girls were 5 & 4 and by 7pm they were close to being wiped out so by the time we left and got in the car we would stop at McD's or chick fil a to get dinner. I did have over $350 from SR that I took with me that help paid for Chef Mickey, Princess Lunch, all snacks and souviners which helped a ton!

[Miako]

Thanks for the welcome! And the ideas! I forgot about those little packets and I loooove lemonade. We are going the first week of June so I definitely looking into all quenching your thrist ideas.

I was thinking we would probably only do one meal a day in the park and then bring our own snacks and such so I'm glad that's along the right track.

It seems most of my searches pull up DP folks and since we won't be able to do that I was getting a bit worried we would have to leave the park and come back a lot more than I planned.

Is sharing food not a problem at most places? I'd hate to do something frowned upon. I bought the Unofficial Guide to Disney yesterday and altho I haven't gotten started on it yet, the pictures in the beginning show a Disney burger vs. a McD burger and I was thinking my girls could definitely split that happily (they are 6 and 8).

Thanks everyone for all the tips! I'm new to the boards and the whole SR program so hopefully I can make the most out of it before my trip and have a bit of extra money, too! (that would be so great, lol.)