Eating on $100 a day?

[Oneanne]

As several other PP's have mentioned, I would also recommend having breakfast in your resort room. When I had my Nephew with me I ordered fruit, snacks and water to be delivered from Green Grocer... he was at that eating constantly stage, so it saved quite a bit and kept him happy.

 

[Texans_loyal]

It's definitely doable if you have breakfast in the room. On our last trip I purchased 2 bags of bagels and cream cheese from the gift shop. That saved us TONS.

 

[scrapquitler]

So we are heading to WDW in April, me and my son. 5 days, trying to stay under $500 total for food, including 3 meals a day and snacks. Thinking quick service dining is probably the way to go realistically though we do have 2 ADR's scheduled, one for Tusker House for lunch and another for Sci Fi for lunch. My son is a teen and eats a decent amount but mostly lives on burgers and pizza, though he will eat other items. He isnt super adventurous but isnt super picky either. I like good food so pretty much anywhere the food is good, I am game. Also doing 3 days at Universal and could use some help with budgeting for food there too. All suggestions are appreciated. TIA

DH, myself and our 14 yo son average $150/day for food, snacks, alcohol and a couple souveniers. I think that one adult and a teen could definitely eat on $100/day.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Cutting out the sodas will go a long way towards keeping to your budget. My traveling kid companions are only allowed 1 soda per day which is for nutrition concerns but works fine monetarily too.
We eat continental style breakfasts whether on a dining plan, oop or at home for the most part. Saves a ton of money since the average full hot breakfast @ WDW costs between 15.00 and 20.00, I suspect. I'd bring my own cold cuts and hard cheese (a Sopressata salami is a form of heaven on this end) and buy cut up fresh fruit from the food courts/QS or just order food from places like Fresh Food Direct/Green Grocer and store in my room fridge. You can also get frozen goods like Jimmy Dean's breakfast sandwiches and pop them in the resort's QS microwave for a change of pace.

I'd probably make a muffaletta or Italian hero at home, drench it with olive oil, wrap in lots of plastic wrap, and munch on that for a day or two for lunch or midnight snacks. Buy a green salad to refresh the sandwich and be good to go saving me more for dinner choices.

 

[HopperFan]

There is a thread on the Universal Studios Forum under the Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure that has lots of great information about dining in those parks. There are some fun sit down restaurants like Mythos and Finnegans but the best values will be at counter services. The Bumblebeeman Taco truck has decent food and Lard Lads Doughnuts has a delicious giant pink donut. Also, don’t forget a frozen butter beer, it is terrific.

LOVE THESE.... last trip even went by our last night before leaving and got three to take with us. 2 people can share one of these and be full.

 

[tinkerhon]

It's definitely doable if you have breakfast in the room. On our last trip I purchased 2 bags of bagels and cream cheese from the gift shop. That saved us TONS.

We did the same but ordered from Garden Grocer before we left for Fla - saved so much money !

 

[rockinmom]

We definitely have the option to eat breakfast in the room. We are staying at Pop and my best friend lives about 40 min from WDW and offered to do a grocery run for us and deliver if we wanted. Tusker House was one I wanted to try, my son really couldnt care less so I could probably save money by dining elsewhere or doing QS there. I prefer ts to qs but my son is very cool with the idea of mostly QS meals. In fact, he only had two restaurants he requested, Sci Fi or Beaches and Cream. We ended up with Sci Fi because it left him more time in the parks. He really had no other dining requests. He would be happy with pizza at Pop every night and leftover pizza for breakfast lol. I am the one who would like to have some decent meals, but yet stay affordable or well as affordable as disney will allow.

 

[NYCgrrl]

We definitely have the option to eat breakfast in the room. We are staying at Pop and my best friend lives about 40 min from WDW and offered to do a grocery run for us and deliver if we wanted. Tusker House was one I wanted to try, my son really couldnt care less so I could probably save money by dining elsewhere or doing QS there. I prefer ts to qs but my son is very cool with the idea of mostly QS meals. In fact, he only had two restaurants he requested, Sci Fi or Beaches and Cream. We ended up with Sci Fi because it left him more time in the parks. He really had no other dining requests. He would be happy with pizza at Pop every night and leftover pizza for breakfast lol. I am the one who would like to have some decent meals, but yet stay affordable or well as affordable as disney will allow.

Sounds like Tusker House and Sci Fi plus some other TS choices can be made following some of the above postings.

 

[absolutmey]

We've found the best way to save is to eat breakfast in our room and bring our own snacks, only allowing one or two special items during the trip.

Maybe see if you can adjust your Tusker House reservation for either a late breakfast/early lunch or late lunch/early dinner so the large meal can pull double duty.

You could make spreadsheet of where you're planning to eat, look at menus and figure out what you think everyone may eat so you get a ballpark total. Allears.net has menus and pricing.

 

[cel_disney]

Tusker House is a fantastic meal - I would definitely suggest considering it as a mid-afternoon meal (or very late morning - so you get the breakfast and lunch menu combined) so you can enjoy a Disney snack in the evening!

 

[jo-jo]

Do you plan on spending any time in the room or eat out all the time? Almost every trip with the grandkids, we order Dominos pizza. Grandkids are happy with it.


Another thought, as pp have mention, save money and drink water with meals, but to me a week with no soda would be tough. I'd ask your friend to pick up a pack of cans or bottles. You can drink them with any meals you get at your resort or even bring one with you to the park. Not so much to carry all day, but at least you won't be thirsty first thing.

 

[dachsie]

Do you plan on spending any time in the room or eat out all the time? Almost every trip with the grandkids, we order Dominos pizza. Grandkids are happy with it.


Another thought, as pp have mention, save money and drink water with meals, but to me a week with no soda would be tough. I'd ask your friend to pick up a pack of cans or bottles. You can drink them with any meals you get at your resort or even bring one with you to the park. Not so much to carry all day, but at least you won't be thirsty first thing.

If you are a huge soda drinker, invest in the refillable mug at your resort and you can have them whenever you are at the resort.

 

[rosiebean]

As others have mentioned, having groceries in the room for breakfast (and snacks) is a great money saver.

When we're at WDW, we don't eat three meals a day plus a few snacks. It's just too much food. And we are a family of big eaters! We usually have one TS meal a day and *maybe* a QS. For example, if we have a big TS lunch, we just snack in the morning and at night (breakfast in room, share a snack in the room or have a QS meal at night). If we go to a character breakfast, we might have fruit and cheese late in the afternoon in our rooms and share a QS meal at night. If we have a TS meal at night, we'll eat breakfast in our room and split a QS lunch. We just find portions at WDW to be huge. Plus, outside of one dedicated sit down meal a day, we're too busy to eat. Most snacks are bought into the parks (jerky, fruit, chips). We don't eat a lot of WDW snacks.

We also will bring bottle of water each into the parks and use water fountains to fill them up when needed. I know you can get free water at QS places, etc., but to save time, we go the fountain route (and the water is usually ice cold).

 

[loves to dive]

Do a search on the forums, there used to be a thread about eating for under $20 per meal and it had loads of suggestions on it. Lots of the TS restaurants have appetizers that are a full meal for some, might be for you then your son could get a regular meal. Two I can think of off the top of my head is the Cobb Salad at HBD and the French Onion Soup at Chefs de France. I agree with the water suggestion, I don't drink soft drinks even at home I only drink water (and refreshing adult beverages) and coffee. Pop now has coffee makers in the room so you would have free coffee every day. It's doable if you look at menus and you won't have to eat breakfast in your room and you won't have to eat QS every day. We aren't huge snack between meals people but there are snacks that can be shared, I'm thinking the pretzel in Germany is huge and one of them.

 

[loves to dive]

Here is an old thread I found. The prices are outdated but it should give you some ideas. https://www.disboards.com/threads/40-a-day-for-dining-at-disney.2684936/page-2

 

[DISNEY1975]

Disney portions are enormous. You can definitely skip some meals, only eating 2 per day. I actually prefer breakfast and dinner with a snack in between, but since you already have 2 lunches planned, just grab something quick at your resort in the morning...muffin/juice and youll be more than fine having quick service for dinner, if your still hungry at all.

$100/day is very doable. Have a buffet breakfast and quick service dinner. The heat and walking make you very tired and you wont be as hungry as usual. My teen boys filled up on breakfast and could barely eat at dinner, with only having an ice cream mid afternoon.

Not sure if you are renting a car, but maybe you could order delivery to your resort if youre not, to buy a case of water outside of Disney. The $4 waters add up! We always stop at Winn Dixie on the way from the airport to the resort and get a couple of cases of water. $4 for 24 bottles!!! (I also grab some to go flavor packets..lemonade etc.. for my picky drinkers who dont love a lot of plain water. Store brand flavor packs are $1.79 for 10 packets).

 

[Thing 1]

I think it will be tight if you do two Table Service meals. You CAN probably do it but it’s going to be really watching every snack and drink. I too would bring breakfast items for the room. Easy, quick and we prefer it even if we are not trying to be budget minded. Maybe be willing to carry a few snacks and drink the free cups of water in the parks.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Order only ice water at the quick service places. It’s free, and I actually prefer it to soda.

There are many great meals you can split at Disney QS. The fajita platter at Pecos Bill is huge and easily feeds two people. Ditto, the chicken and rib combo meals at ABC Commissary, Cosmic Ray’s, and Flametree BBQ.