How do you save money eating at WDW??

[JeffV71]

My wife and I found that eating our main meal(dinner) in the middle of the day would save us about $5/entree, if not more. Anybody else do this or are we just weird??

 

[helenk]

Unless we do a character meal, I like to make my mid day meal my biggest meal of the day. We usually eat a light breakfast, either in the room or at the food court and then a snack around 11:00 or so and then eat a late lunch around 2:00 or 3:00. Then for dinner we usually eat at one of the counter restaurants.
This seems to save us a few dollars each trip. We will generally do one big dinner during our stay, usually Ohana's on our first night.

 

[westjones]

We find that eating a late breakfast and an early dinner works good for us. So that way we only have 2 meals a day (but we get whatever we want at those meals). Part of why we do this is also to save time. We don't want to miss the fun at the parks! So it helps with the money and the time.
DJ

 

[daannzzz]

I really try not to worry and budget a large amount for food. But I don't spend huge amounts because of the way I end up eating. I have my larger meal at lunch and I like to avoid crowds so I eat lunch as soon as the restaurants open at 11:00 - 12:00. because of this I only eat a small breakfast of roll and coffee or milk. Sometimes I bring bowls, a spoon and cereal and eat in my room. I don't need a big breakfast because I eat lunch early. You would think that walking around a theme park all day would help work off the lunch but for some reason at WDW I am just not super hungry for dinner so I end up eating a bit at a counter service place. The budget sort of works out on its own!

 

[married@wdw]

I answered "don't worry about it" because DH and I (no kids) try to budget so that we can really enjoy ourselves. That said, I've been on Weight Watchers since last November (lost 93 lbs so far -- woohoo!) so we've changed our eating habits A LOT.

The last two trips, we've eaten a filling breakfast someplace that's sitdown, as breakfast has always seemed so much cheaper to us than lunch or dinner. Then, if we get hungry around lunch time we get a small snack -- fruit, dole whips, popcorn, ice cream, etc. On those days, we have a bigger meal later in the day -- we try not to eat all of these meals at fancy places to keep our expenses down, but we make sure we have at least 2 or 3 meals on each weeklong trip at really great restaurants. "Great" doesn't mean expensive though -- we love Nine Dragons and our meal with tip last time was around $30. But if we're not hungry at lunch time, we tend to eat the more filling meal earlier in the day, then get a snack in the evening.

I'm always on the lookout for great "deals" on food on these boards though. I'm more concerned about the money than DH as I'm usually the one paying for the trip (I have a travel saving account and do all the planning, DH is just "along for the ride" -- but he pays to keep a roof over my head the other 50 weeks of the year, so that's OK!), so I do tend to check out menus ahead of time if we're trying new places. But I always try to plan one fancy, blow-out meal each trip too! It's all about balance.

Another thing that helps with the bill -- we rarely order alcohol anymore. We both get sleepy if we drink anyway, so between saving around $10-$20 per dinner and being able to keep going longer, we really like the change.

 

[HunnyPots]

We tried doing the all-you-can-eat breakfast, with hopes that we would not be hungry again at lunch time, but that just did not work with my 12 yo ds. No matter how much he ate at breakfast, he was hungry again at noon!

Next time, we will probably do mostly counter service and maybe two or three sit-downs during the week.

 

[Nuts4Disney]

I don't think it's "weird" to eat your big meal during the day.

I voted "we don't worry about it" 'cause we pretty much eat whatever/wherever we want.

We are more comfortable eating a couple of light-medium meals throughout the day rather than 1 large meal.

We also find that when we go to WDW when it's really HOT, we just don't have the appetite to eat a heavy meal in the middle of the day.

 

[Snow Shoe]

The very first time we went to WDW, I was meal shocked at the $$$ cost! However as time and our appreciation for the quality and quanity of food that Disney serves has grown...and our waist lines as well!!! Keeping the cost of our meals down is important for us, but not that much. We eat our big meals at night, lunches at off times, or character meals whenever we want. We look at the meals to be as much a part of the Disney experence, as the parks themselves. Remember that it's a "vacation" and that means to let loose and have fun.

 

[Pryncess'mom]

I didn't vote because our answer wasn't there!! We usually do one of two things: eat 2 meals a day with a big break fast and early dinner, or bring things to eat in room for breakfast, then eat early dinner whereever we want to. Every once in a while we have a trip that is "enjoy what we want".


Deb