Eating on a budget

[Guest]

I will be honest here, £1500 would never be enough for our family of 4 for 2 weeks, not even close

look at it this way, a meal at Chef Mickey's close to $200, a QS meal at MK of a few burgers and fries and drinks, $50

then a snack / ice cream / drink round at MK, $20

thats $270 done in one day, and that doesnt include the odd souvenir / t-shirt / etc etc

of course you can not do the TS meals, though they are part of the deal for us, choose maybe 5 for your stay, you could get uber / taxi to walmart and get snacks and drinks, as its the snacks and drinks that soon add up

[Guest]

So many great responses thanks everyone! Definitely feeling less stressed about this right now, I think just breakfast in the room alone will make a huge difference

[vowels]

Hi,
You may wish to consider adding the Quick Service Dining Plan to your booking. It would cost you £1385 and you would not have to worry about food.

Loves2plan has posted her recently experience on this plan with her family of four so may help you decide if this is an option for you.

Also, Robinson's Squashum mini juice concentrate are great to pack.

I am sure you will have a wonderful holiday

[OB1LukeLucas]

We are a family of 4 and we stayed onsite in Oct we did have a meal at T-Rex and a Rainforest cafe which is not included in the $715 it cost us for food & drinks for a week. We generally ate breakfast in the room or grabbed snacks to share in the park. We bought one refillable mug in the hotel to use if any of us wanted to drink we didn't really use it that much as we were rarely there, it wasn't that much of a pain to share it! We often ordered 3 kids meals to share between us as they came with a drink and fruit/cookies and we always asked for iced water to keep us going around the park. We mainly ate flatbread pizzas, chicken nuggets, burgers and pasta. In MK we liked Pinocchio, AK the chicken fried rice for Yak & Yeti was lovely. There are lots of ideas of what to eat and where to eat them in the food reports-Loves2plan has a good unexpected trip report with great qs meal ideas as do many others.

[novocastrian]

agree about uber out to crossroads

sign up for sweet tomatoes club veg a family of 4 can eat with drinks for under $30 with a voucher just need it on your phone

millers kids meal is $4.75 and is easily enough for a under 12 tbh wasnt a lot smaller than an adult

EDIT re millers^^ go on a tuesday kids eat FREE

ci ci pizza is cheap as chips as well

being honest @£100 a day at disney wont go far...

[Lightyear]

Honestly, don't worry about it, you can eat as cheap or expensive as you want.

We're staying at CBR this year and we're taking cereal, cereal bars, biscuits, tea bags and those little squash bottles. We're also going to take an uber to walmart on the first day to stock up on water, milk, yoghurts and snacks for the park. I think it should only be about $8 to get there.

It also depends on your appetite but we're never hungry in the heat. We can get away with a QS and a snack each all day or often share QS meals, remember adults can order kids QS meals that have plenty of food. Portions there are huge, we like to share QS and it's even better in places like Cosmic Rays or Pecos Bills where they have a toppings bar you can load up on. For example, a bacon cheeseburger with fries at Cosmic Rays and 2 ice waters for $12.99 is plenty to share for the two of us and they're happy to give you extra plates to split things and get things from the toppings bar, so load up the burger with veg or make a side salad. Or, the kids meal of Mac & Cheese with carrot sticks, yoghurt and bottle of water for $6.59 is plenty for an adult lunch.

To be honest, this year is our 10th trip and it was only the last time we did a table service meal. It was OK but I don't think we've been missing out on anything as we've been other places on shopping days or universal days. There's plenty of variety with QS.

[Nic18076]

Originally Posted by dannythomas13

Hi everyone,

As embarrassing as it is to admit I am a little worried about the cost of eating out at Disney and am looking for some tips. I have paid for 14 days at art of animation and my two daughters (11 and 8) are really looking forward to it and I don't want to ruin the holiday by letting them go hungry

I have read tips such as making the most of breakfast as it's cheaper, eating at QS rather than table service and asking for iced water for drinks, is this the best advice for us? Also if it's the case that we may need to eat all meals at QS does that mean that I don't need to worry about making any reservations at restaurants (just had an email saying I can now book as it is 60 days before we go)?

If it helps I was looking to take £1500 for 14 days for 2 adults and 2 children which would normally be enough for us for most holidays but I was looking at some food prices last night and it has scared me!

See more...

Try not to get too stressed out - £1,500 for 14 days is actually $134 or so and although you won't be able to go mad, you shouldn't go hungry. There are a few budget food reports over in the trip reports section which should give you some help. In your favour are the facts that your daughters are fairly young and are willing to share meals, plus we find that all that heat means that we just don't feel particularly hungry a lot of the time - we tend to just eat breakfast and then a snack and one other meal, and I think you mentioned that you wouldn't need to buy alcohol - which is a really good thing because onsite at Disney alcohol is particularly expensive - beer and wine is a lot - and cocktails are prohibitively priced.

There have been some good tips on this thread - breakfast in the room, share meals, buy bottled water at Walmart, ask for water and add your own juice, sign up for coupons etc. You will probably find it cheaper to pay for a taxi or Uber to go to a value offsite restaurant than you would to have a proper table service meal at Disney. Don't get suckered into buying the souvenir version of soft drinks cups or popcorn containers etc.

If you don't have the dining plan you may find it will save you money to still buy the refillable mugs for the hotel - I think they are $17.99 each which will set you back $72 on your first evening, but that would be your drinks sorted at the hotel for the rest of the holiday for a little over $5 a day - which is a bargain (as long as you like the drinks available of course - and you can check that out at the drinks area before you buy).

We always find it useful to set the "rules" up for DS ahead of time - one ice cream a day, or just one small souvenir for example. It's very easy to get swayed by pester power - especially if you are in a good mood and you half want the things yourself .

If you want groceries for the room then there a few services that will bring you a delivery - Garden Grocer for example. It will almost certainly be cheaper than setting foot in Walmart as the delivery charge is nothing like the cost of finding out that you absolutely cannot live without buying 30 different random flavours of Pop Tart!

[Guest]

The comment about the pop tarts at walmart had me laughing so hard!

Regarding the following statement:
You can use the "free breakfast" for lunch or dinner at a QS eating place either in the parks or resorts leaving one meal a day to be paid out of your budget.

What is this "free breakfast"? I have heard no mention of this when booking?

[Disney Posse]

Thats why we are having an apartment for the first time this year and there are 6 x adults.

We indeed going to Walmart on the first evening and stocking up on snacks, breakfast items, drinks and bottled water.
I dont mind the water out of the water fountains in Disney so shall refill my bottle to keep hydrated

Shall also buy silver foil/pastic bags so we can take rolls to eat at lunchtime - the crusty ones hold their shape better in a rucksack

[Nic18076]

Originally Posted by dannythomas13

The comment about the pop tarts at walmart had me laughing so hard!

Regarding the following statement:
You can use the "free breakfast" for lunch or dinner at a QS eating place either in the parks or resorts leaving one meal a day to be paid out of your budget.

What is this "free breakfast"? I have heard no mention of this when booking?

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Listen - that Walmart Pop Tart selection will send you right over to the spending dark side . If you must go to Walmart don't go down that aisle - don't say I haven't warned you!

The "free breakfast" is/was one of the offers available when booking - you get free breakfast at the value resorts, free QSDP at the moderate resorts and free DDP at the deluxe resorts. It possibly didn't apply when you booked to go.